Pay it Forward: Holiday Cards {Minted}

Megan shared an AWESOME deal on holiday cards through Minted and I just HAD to share as well! (Pay it forward, if you will!) I LOVE sending out holiday cards, but since Jeremy has a HUGE family, it can get expensive not excluding anyone! ;)

Here's a deal to save $50 on your holiday order at Minted. 

1) Create an account by clicking here and get a $25 credit on your next purchase just for signing up! 

2) Go here and get a discount code for $25 off holiday orders (must be used by 11/4/12). 

How it works: You have to add at least $50 worth of holiday merchandise to your cart. The $25 credit (#1 above) will be automatically applied to your cart and you enter the $25 discount code (#2 above) into the promotion code box during checkout. And bam...$50 worth of products for free. 
Who doesn't love FREE Holiday cards?! 

(Again, this only works for holiday products and you have to add at least $50 to your cart.)

Here's a few of my favorite holiday card designs:

I am a SUCKER for a good deal ESPECIALLY when it is something I was going to order in the first place! Thanks for sharing such a great deal, Megan!

All images via Minted.com

I was not compensated for this post. All thoughts/opinions are my own. A referral/affiliate link was used in this post.

Pumpkin Patch 2012

Yesterday we FINALLY visited the pumpkin patch! It was chilly so we had to bundle up, but how cute was Olivia's outfit?! :)

Headband: Jameson Monroe/ Onesie: Old Navy (last year) / Pants: Carters / Boots: Target

Once Olivia went to bed, we carved our pumpkins!

Jeremy carved a face and mine is a ghost saying "Welcome."

At night we had Jeremy's employee halloween party. We went to supervise. Jeremy dressed up as a cowboy and I went as a housewife. (I know, original! ha) I am sure we will probably repeat these costumes on Halloween too. At least Olivia's costume is creative! :)

I am SO SO excited for Olivia to celebrate Halloween this year! Her costume is SO SO cute!! :)

Weekend Wrap-up

FRIDAY

I caught Liv's bug on Thursday so this was was my BFF this weekend!

While Olivia napped in the afternoon, I enjoyed some coffee and caught up on emails, the dvr and RELAXED!

Jeremy and I had an AWESOME mail day! His new MAC desktop came and my MAC makeup came! :)

When Olivia woke up we spent the rest of the night relaxing and playing!

SATURDAY

Saturday we had our rescheduled, rescheduled, rescheduled 2nd session of family photos. Olivia wasn't feeling great but put on quite the show for our pictures! haha 

Since Olivia wasn't feeling good we stayed home most of the day. We ventured out in the late afternoon to grab a couple things for Olivias costume and to visit Jer at work.

After Olivia went to bed I baked brownies and enjoyed some wine :)

SUNDAY

Another LAZZZZZY day. Olivia was feeling a little better so we ran the rest of our errands. 

She also tried bbq sauce for the first time and loved it!

(as seen here)

We watched SO SO SO much baby einstein this weekend I could probaby perform evert episode and song! haha

I also picked up these ADORABLE pjs for Liv for under $5 at Walmart!! 

Over all, a pretty laid back weekend. Olivia is feeling better now, thank goodness. I HATE seeing my princess not feeling well! :(

How was your weekend?

***Linking Up!***

Show and Tell: How I met your Father

1. Tell us about how and when you met your love and what attracted you most to him.

Jeremy and I "met" twice.

The first time Jeremy and I met was Homecoming week 2004, my freshman year of college. The girls and I on my floor in the dorms decided we were going to join our buildings powderpuff football team and Jeremy was one of the coachs. He missed the first practice where I was named one of the co-captains. The 2nd practice he was there and tried to bench me. (when he met me I was like 100lbs so even though I was small I could kick butt!;) ) Well when he tried to bench me I let him know how I felt about that and apparently that was a turn on for him because no girl had ever told him off. At our game I ended up scoring a touchdown and our team won. Jeremy had been holding onto all of our things during the game but had to leave to go to a meeting after we won. He asked me to bring everything back to him after the game, but another girl from my building told me she would take it back so I let her. I didn't realize that Jeremy had liked me and that was his way of seeing me again, the girl who volunteered had a major crush on Jeremy and was kind of a stalker. Ooops. haha I ran into Jeremy in the cafeteria that night and told him not to be a stranger. ;)

A couple weeks later I got a knock at my door and it was Jeremy. He came over to see if I wanted to come play basketball at the gym with him, some of his friends and a couple girls from my floor. I agreed and our group went to play. We ended up getting kicked out of the gym because we snuck into the actual CMU basketball arena so we all went back to Jeremys room to eat pizza and watch movies. Jeremy and I stayed up ALL night talking until I had to leave because I had 8am class. We started with a small group of people, and slowly one by one they all left. We hadn't even noticed. When I was walking to class I called my mom and told her I was in love and met the man I would marry. Surprisingly she didn't think I was crazy. Jeremy and I have been "talking" and inseparable ever since. 

On November 1st (Thursday) we will celebrate being together 8 years. 

2. Show us the very first {or one of the first} pictures you guys ever took together. {Feel free to show us more than one}

3. Tell us some of your favorite memories that you two had together.

Wow! SO many!!

There is a legend on campus that

 when one kisses his or her significant other in front of the Central Michigan University seal near Warriner Hall, the couple will enjoy a fruitful relationship. On our 6 month anniversary after a romantic date night, Jeremy took me to the seal at midnight and told me the story and we kissed in front of the seal. The same seal we took our graduation pictures, and this month took our family photos in front of! :)

I'll NEVER forget when we went to the Jay-Z/Eminem concert at Comerica Park, we STILL talk about that concert.

We have gone to MANY weddings and they have all been so fun to go to together!

Vacations- Canada, Bahamas, South Carolina, FL, Chicago Bahamas, Vegas, all over MI, we love to travel!!

SO many fun times in college, getting engaged, moving into our first place, getting married, owning our first home, finding out we were pregnant, raising our daughter together...the list goes on and on...

4. Tell us your favorite qualities about this man, what makes him "the one."

Jeremy is THE hardest working person I have ever met! He would do ANYTHING for me and Olivia. I love how motivating he is, charming, funny, smart, positive, funny, and loving. When he is romantic, he is SO romantic! He also makes HANDS DOWN the best chicken marsala, it is seriously my FAVORITE!!!

5. Tell us what your "date nights" typically look like.

We live in a downtown area so our favorite thing is to walk downtown and get apps and drinks at different bars and restaurants. We LOVE getting dressed up and don't get to do that often, but when we do it is SO fun!! We love going out and getting sushi and when we go home to visit we love going to our favorite restaurants and just enjoying time together us two.

We also love doing date nights in. When Olivia is asleep we will either make dinner together or get take out and enjoy it with some wine. However we can spend time just us two, we LOVE! =)

Friday Letters

Dear Friday what took you so long? Dear Olivia's virus (which is now my virus) please leave my little family alone, ESPECIALLY my little Olivia. She is miserable which makes me miserable. Dear Lisa thank you for being the most understanding person, mama and photographer in the world. There is a reason we keep coming back to you to capture our family's moments! Dear MI weather please cooperate on saturday for our 2nd session of photos, I want to be able to dress for fall and NOT winter or summer, thanks... Dear Email I am slowly making a dent, hopefully ONE day I will get the hang of being better at answering emails! Dear Readers thank you for all your sweet comments and emails on this post. I was so embarrassed and not sure if I should share but I am so glad I did. You all made me feel "normal" and it felt good to talk about it! Dear Jeremy good luck with your grand opening weekend. Olivia and I are BEYOND proud of you. I know life has been stressful and we hardly spend time together but I know all of your hard work will pay off.  You are in for a surprise! :) I hope you will like it! 

Happy Friday everyone!!

My first Panic Attack

This week I had my first panic attack. 

I used to have a lot of flash backs from when Olivia was born and in the NICU. I would get the flash backs while driving, running errands and even at work. The flash backs were awful and I would sometimes even FEEL like I was having a panic attack. I would also have nightmares as well.

After Olivia's 1st birthday, the flash backs just stopped. IDK if I finally felt at ease or what but I stopped having nightmares and the flashbacks.

This week I started having the flashbacks again. Olivia has a really bad cold right now and has been absolutely miserable. I feel so helpless as Olivia's mama since there isn't much I can do for her. 

The other night Jeremy and I were trying to put Olivia to bed and she was just screaming and screaming and all of the sudden I had a flash back. The flashback was when Olivia was in the NICU and she was getting a blood transfusion. She was in her incubator and had even more machines around her then usual. I remember we had to leave so Jeremy could go to work and Olivia was just screaming and crying with her itty bitty vocal cords. I remember walking out of the NICU SOBBING, feeling SO horrible that she was going through all of this and there was nothing we could do. I remember praying, hoping she wasn't in pain. 

(I HATED leaving Olivia but especially when she was awake. It was SO hard to leave her sleeping or awake, but much harder when she was awake)

The flashback brought on a real life panic attack. My heart started racing, I began to shake, and sweat and felt weak. At one point I got chills and felt short of breath and was just sobbing, feeling so out of control. I screamed for Jeremy to bring Olivia to me. I haven't ever felt this way.

I am happy to report that while Olivia is still sick, she is feeling better but ever since that night, I just can't shake the feelings of this event. I have been under a little bit of stress the past couple of weeks, so I don't know if that had something to do with this as well? 

Has this happened to anyone else? I fear that this will happen again to me. I wonder if the flashbacks I was having prior were actually panic attacks too but I just didn't realize it? I am hoping the flash backs will stop. The nightmares are worse but still, I was hoping I was over these...

17 months

10. 23. 12

Olivia is now 22ish lbs, 34ish" tall and in 18-24m clothes (SOME 18m clothes), size 4 diapers and size 5 shoes. Has 8 teeth but more are coming in since she is teething.

Sleeping has been hit or miss this month. Most of the time goes to bed around 6:30-7p and sleeps until 615-630a. Lately has been waking up screaming in middle of the night and we have to cuddle to console and Olivia usually comes back to bed with us. (NOT complaining ONE bit!) Also, currently has a cold so we have had LOTS of middle of the night wakeups and lots of cuddling! :)

VERY chatty. "Hi" is still Olivia's favorite word. Olivia will say "hi" to everything and everyone, unless you ask her to say it, then she won't say a word! haha

Climbing, climbing, climbing!! Everything is an obstacle and you don't let ANYTHING get in your way! STILL tries to stand in stroller and carts (especially while moving). You LOVE to walk and have discovered you can now RUN! You LOVE stairs, doors/door knobs, opening drawers and cabinents, playing with the blinds, banging on EVERYTHING, taking things off shelves pulling down the baby gates, the list goes on and on...

Olivia still LOVES chicken, cheese and bread! Also LOVES pickles, lemons, limes, grapes, apple slices, broccoli, pasta, chickpeas, cinnamon raisin bread. and can take bites from sandwiches (grilled cheese is one of her faves) and cheese quesadillas. Also, loves kids meals. The grilled chicken meal at bdubs and red robin is a fave of Olivia! Loves drinking out of glasses (supervised) and is drinking soy milk 2-3 times a day. Also, still throwing food at meal time. 

Olivia LOVES kids!! When she sees other babies and kids Olivia gets SO excited!! Also plays well with other kids and independently. LOVES baby einstein and disney junior. Played in ball pit for first time this month at Brynns house but was just interested in just chewing on balls. Loves playing with my purse, keys, and phone. LOVEs chewing on velcro.  Loves carrying around all "treasures" at same time even if cant stand/ walk lol. Takes backs off remotes and loves to show us this daily!

Loves biting feet, I know weird.  Loves being thrown in air and spinning with mama. Loves my purse and will open it and go through it. (ALWAYS in public! ha) Loves mags, catalogs paper. Loves to rip and chew it. Doesnt like wearing hats and mittens.

Overall, SUPER happy girl! Couldn't ask for ANYTHING more!! :)

Events to Remember:

*2nd CMU Homecoming*

*1st Parade*

*10/23/12 ate at table for first time without tray on highchair*

***Sorry for the blurry pics, Olivia is on. the. move!***

Weekend Wrap-up

This weekend we celebrated CMU's Homecoming, which was filled with fun, friends and LOTS of yummy food! :)

FRIDAY

Friday night Olivia and I went to a CMU alumni event. Jeremy was supposed to join us but got stuck at work, boo!! We still had fun and of course Olivia stole the show!

Olivia woke up around 10pm and needed consoling so I brought her to bed with me where we cuddled and I loved every second! :)

SATURDAY

Saturday Olivia woke Jer and I up at 6:15! She must have been excited to tailgate! haha

We hung out at home, then all of the sudden it was 9am and we RUSHED to get ourselves ready to go to the alumni breakfast at 9:30a where met some of our friends!

After breakfast, we went and took pics next to the CMU seal.

After Breakfast. we met the rest of our friends at our house and walked down to the parade! (Olivia's 1st parade!)

After the parade we came back to our house, let the kids run around and play.

 Then headed over to the tailgate!

At tailgate we hung out on the alumni side where there was TONS of free food, so we hung out, ate and drank. When Olivia fell asleep we decided we wouldn't be going to the game and headed back to our house. Brynn ended up falling asleep too so while the babies napped, we hung out and had a few drinks! :)

Once the babies woke up, they snacked and played. They were SO happy to be together!! :)

We had dinner at 989 at Riverwood and it was AMAZING as always!!

Olivia and Brynn also had a little lovefest. These 2 girls are SO cute together!!

#Futureroomies #classof2033

After dinner, our friends headed home and I had a WILD saturday night! haha

SUNDAY

Sunday we had our family pictures so I got our stuff together and got us ready. We got lucky and it was a BEAUTIFUL day! I was so happy since these pictures kept getting postponed because of the stupid MI weather! I am SO excited to see how they turned out!!

Olivia was POOPED after pics that she took a THREE hour nap! You know what that means?! Mama got a 2.5 hour nap! YAY!

I wish I could say we had a productive day but we didn't. We did end up making a trip to Target but it was ALL necessities! ;)

The night was spent at home doing NOTHING! (Happily!)  :)

How was your weekend?