All Kinds of Happy

Weekend recap

Published on July 20, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

It was a fun weekend and really, really hot! We spent some more time playing outside with the hose and in the kiddie pool. The Thunderbirds we’re in town this weekend for the Niagara Falls Airshow. We debated going because it was so hot and traffic can be really bad in and out of the airbase, but we decided to risk it and try to go. My sister is 7 months pregnant so I was worried about her, and of course a toddler in any uncomfortable situation is a nightmare. We went and had a lot of fun though!

We had brunch with Dan’s family Sunday and for breakfast we had ostrich egg that his cousin brought. I’ve never seen an egg so big before. We poked a hole in the bottom and drained all the egg out so that we could preserve the shell. da thought it was pretty cool.

And before we knew it, it was Monday again and we are back to work. Summer is going by too fast but we sure are enjoying it!

4th of July

Published on July 6, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

Another fun summer weekend on the books! This is my absolute favorite of the year! I just love the 4th of July, it just makes me feel like summer. This one was a bit different, but still packed full of activities!

We started out by going to the baseball game Friday night, which was partially a bad idea since a 19 month old and a 2 ½ year old can hardly be expected to sit still for a game. I can hardly sit through one! We ended up spending a lot of time walking around! At 10pm they shot off fireworks and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra played music to the show! It was great and they did a phenomenal tribute to our soldiers and American history, by far the most patriotic thing I’ve ever done for independance day!

Saturday the 4th, we took the kids to the beach, and they loved it! Ada has gotten over her fear of sand and she was all about it!

That night, my sister and her husband Dan came over and we drove downtown to go watch the fireworks at canalside with like 15,000 people. It was a bit crazy but we made some good parking decisions and walked which was a life savor! It was another really great weekend!

Also Happy Birthday to my Sister-in-law Becky!!

Summer fun!

Published on June 30, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

We have really been enjoying our summer lately. This is my favorite time of year leading right up to 4th of July! There is just so much going on and so much outside fun and sun time! This past week we’ve been taking full advantage of all the fun activities going on. There was a food truck rodeo happening last Thursday and everyone from my office decided to meet out and bring our families.

Last night we went downtown where the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra was playing in the park, It was packed with people, food trucks, ice cream and more!

We spent most of the weekend just eating popsicles and playing with the hose in the back yard! We also brought out the kiddie pool and sat poolside for awhile. Just a super fun summer livin’ kinda weekend. I wish everyday could be like this!

A shower and a 30th birthday

Published on June 18, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

This weekend we celebrated a lot! My best friend is getting married in 4 short months. She lives in Colorado and I don’t get to see her nearly enough. But her mother hosted the most beautiful outdoor shower along the Niagara River Saturday morning. The weather was perfect and there is really no better thing at a shower then to see the most magnificent mimosa and bloody mary bar.

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We also celebrated the first one of our friends to turn 30 with a surprise party! SoHo Burger Bar is a great little joint with a rooftop bar overlooking downtown Buffalo, it was open bar, great food and great company. Afterwards we went down to Skybar which is known for being the late night party spot with ridiculous cover charges and sleezy girls and guys. I’m not sure how or why we got in but we did and we stayed out way too late and I paid for it the next day. It was a lot of fun to be out acting 21 again although it does not appear that I can recover like I am 21 still!

Morgans30th Morgans30th(2)

A road trip to PA

Published on June 2, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

We just got back from visiting Dan’s dad in Pennsylvania, not far from Philly. We decided to leave Friday evening after work, it’s about a 6 hour drive from us, so I of course was worried about Ada in the car for that long. We left just after 7 pm, and she played and sat quietly for the first hour, we stopped to grab some dinner for Dan and I around 8 and I put Ada in her jammies and once we got back in the car I gave her milk and put Mickey on, trying to stick with the bedtime routine as much as I could in the car. She passed out right away and we were happy sailing all the way there. It was great! She woke up shortly before we got there around 1am. I was hoping to quietly carry her in and put her down, but all the excitement of our arrival woke her right up and she was wide awake. Going back to bed in an unfamiliar place didn’t go well and I think we were up until close to 4am. The rest of the nights got better as she got more comfortable being there. The first night is always the worst!

We had a lot of family time. We haven’t been down to visit them in a few years so it was overdue and we made our rounds to visit everyone. It was so hot outside so we had to modify some of our activities. On Sunday we took Ada to the Crayola Factory Museum that was about an hour from where they live. She had a blast and the museum was really great for kids of all ages. She tends to be a bit young for most things at places like that, but they really did have something for every age!

She also loved racing the boats and making her own crayons! She also really liked the climbing area, although it was for kids a little bit older, she was getting pretty brave, but eventually got scared of all the big kids and gave up. Here she is with Daddy and Grandpa!

She gets pretty spoiled by Grandpa and she got this jumbo coloring book (above), which she absolutely loved since coloring is pretty much her favorite thing to do. So she spent the rest of the evening laying on the floor making pictures for everyone!

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The Crayola Factory Museum was definitely a highlight, we all had a really great time, and there was lots to do around the area as well that you could walk to. We’ll definitely make it a point to go back again when she gets older!

A Baseball Game

Published on May 18, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

This weekend we took Ada to her first baseball game! There were supposed to be fireworks after the game, so we planned to keep her up late, but we got caught in some torrential down pours. so the fireworks were cancelled. She still ended up staying out late because we were trying to dodge the rain. I hadn’t been to a game in years either and was looking forward to the fireworks but we all had fun though despite the weather and we had really great seats!

Making time to run

Published on May 15, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemags4 Comments

I recently started running again after taking quite a bit of time off. Fitting in a workout between working full time and being a mom can be really tough. Running is something I pretend to like but it can be really hard. There is nothing better than the feeling of finishing a run, completing a race or beating your last time, but honestly the hardest part of running can be lacing up and going out in the first place. I’ve been trying to set race goals for myself this summer and in the past that has always worked, but for some reason none of my friends were doing any races this year and so I didn’t want to do it alone, what’s the fun in that?

The best motivation I’ve had this summer has been my little A who happens to LOVE the jogging stroller. I can’t take her on long runs since her attention span is short, but so far she has been a great running buddy and has gotten me out there several times.Rrunning with her is still hard, but at least I have my little buddy with me!

My second Mother’s Day and an exciting announcement!!

Published on May 12, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

I love Mother’s Day! The weather is finally breaking in Buffalo and it’s usually a fun day of flowers, mimosa’s and family. Now that I’m a mom though, I kinda hate that I have to share the day! Plus I want to celebrate my mom and mother in law, but I want to be spoiled a little too, so I told my husband this year I wanted to spend Saturday with our little family and then I wouldn’t mind sharing Sunday with everyone else. (I know I sound like a child). He of course agreed and said we could do whatever I wanted. The weather was so perfect on Saturday, so we ordered lunch and brought some wine and took it to the park and had a little picnic. Little A loved eating lunch on a blanket on the ground and did surprisingly well! Afterwards we walked around and headed over to the Cherry Blossom festival that was in the park. It was a perfect way to spend time with the little one who made me a mother!

On to the most exciting part of this post!! I’m going to be an Aunt!! I’ve known this for awhile, but didn’t want to share anything publicly! We just found out it’s going to be a little girl! I’m so excited Ada will have a girl cousin only 2 years younger!

She had us all over for dinner a couple months back and gave Ada a t-shirt to wear that said “I love my cousin” I of course got it right away, but we put it on her and it took my parents a good half hour, and even then we finally had to start telling them to read Ada’s shirt! FINALLY they got it, it was so exciting!

About 2 weeks ago they had a gender reveal party! I was in charge of filling a black balloon with the right color confetti. I took the envelope my sister gave me from her doctor to Party City and asked them to read the envelope and fill it, I was so proud of myself for not peeking on the envelope!

I had a feeling it was going to be a girl (only because the black balloon was a little bit see thru – ok only if you held up to the light, which I may have done)! I am just so excited that we’ll both have little girls that we can spoil together!

The Move, the new house & Renovations

Published on March 26, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

We finally closed on the new house! Moving is NOT fun, and its even worse with a toddler in tow. Every time I packed stuff into boxes there would be Ada two steps behind me unpacking boxes! We had the worst time trying to get a closing date on the old house and the new house to line up, which made it impossible to schedule movers. We had to be out of our old house by Monday and we couldn’t get into the new house until Monday, despite no one living in our new house for the past two years. We tried to get access to the garage so we could start moving stuff in, but they said no. It was complete hell trying to get this coordinated, but we finally decided on just renting a large moving truck and doing it all our self.

We had a crew of friends and family come over on Saturday to help us load the truck up, then there it sat until Monday, when we finally went to city hall to sign our life away. We then flew back to old house before the new people got there and drove our enormous truck over to the new place, where we had another crew of friends and family over to help us unload the truck at 5pm until like 10:30 at night. Exhausting! Ada slept at my parents that night so we didn’t shock her with a new life she didn’t know she was walking into!

The past few days have been very hectic and disorganized. Our kitchen is being renovated right away, so we aren’t unpacking anything, which is making feeding the family really tough. Its also leaving tons of boxes stacked in every corner of our already small house making it feel so cramped. Nothing is child proofed, which is really the worst part. I used to be able to leave her unattended for a few minutes and feel okay she wouldn’t destroy something or kill herself and now its like a free for all playground for her, with stuff she shouldn’t have at her fingertips and oh what fun she is having exploring it all!

As far as renos go, we are gutting the kitchen and tearing a wall down in between the kitchen and living room so it feels more open. We also have to replace some flooring and the toilet upstairs and Dan wants crown molding in the living room, so that’s what’s on the agenda first. Phase two hopefully will be the exterior, with new siding (we have the worst mint green color), new landscaping, since the bushes are going to eat this house alive in the summer, a new front door and hopefully a new patio out back since that is going to be the one thing I miss more than anything this summer! All in good time, for now I just want to get life put back together a little inside!

Always do what’s best for you!

Published on March 1, 2015March 31, 2017 by stephaniemagsLeave a comment

January and February have been pretty uneventful lately, we haven’t been up to much. Oh, we sold our house! Yes, we sold our dream house, but we are excited to be moving on to a new adventure. We have many reasons for why we did it, but mainly it’s for the financial freedom. So many people stay in situations where they can’t ever get their heads above water and we just didn’t want to ever find ourselves in that boat, so we made some tough decisions and took the first step. We took advantage of a hot market in our neighborhood and sold the house for more than we paid, including all the upgrades we did. We will miss this house for sure, but I always promise myself never to look back and regret any decisions made. You do what you need to do at that moment in time and just trust yourself!

We close on the new house at the end of March. We’re really looking forward to the location of our new place. We have two families that we are really close with that live walking distance to our new home. We all had our first baby the same year, and we’re excited to live so close and let the kids grow up together. While I don’t think this new house will be our forever house, I think it will be super fun to have our friends right down the street, especially while the kids are so young. I don’t think Dan and I will ever have a forever house! I think we are content with change and how life is forever changing, and we are open to accepting that and always doing what is best for our family!

Here are a few pictures of the new house, as is from the real estate listing! Its pretty terrible I’m warning you! We have a lot of work to do to make it our own, but we’re up to the challenge and have some big plans once we’re in!

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