Daily Leah #1

This year I decided I wanted to find one thing each day that made me happy and document it. I’ve tried challenges before where you have certain things to post about but I never seem to commit and finish them and I think it's because you are prompted to post a certain picture. That brings me to #dailyleah. I don’t have any certain pictures to post, just as long as I post something every day, on Instagram, I might add. I want to group them all together here every other week, think of it as a bi-monthly Instagram round up! Haha! Anywho, I bring you Daily Leah 2016.

January 1, 2016 to January 9

Day 1

Happy New Year from San Antonio!

Day 2
Alamo Bowl. This game was insanely intense! 

Day 3
 Operation: Take Down Christmas Which made everybody in the house quite sad. Brylee even cried.

Day 4
Bachelor Monday - It's raining Ben! Talked about my favorite girls here.

Day 5
Tate went to the grocery store for ice and milk, came back with cake mix. This girl loves baking.

Day 6
 Cucumbers. We went grocery shopping (more than ice and milk this time) and split up to go quicker. 4 zucchinis were on Tate's list and I trusted him to get them seeing as how we eat zucchini multiple times a week. Once we got home I realized he got cucumbers. His response "they're both green".

Day 7
Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti. One goal this year is to eat healthier for the entire family. I usually eat pretty good but Tate doesn't. This is one of our favorites! It's even Tate and Brylee approved. This picture was from the Tone It Up website because ours went too fast to get a pic.. yes, that good!

Day 8
Being with a coach we almost always have something to do. This particular day we went scouting a football game. Brylee usually does really good at games but we always bring a little reinforcement. :) 

Day 9
After an unsuccessful (almost) day of dress shopping, we met my cousins and aunt for lunch. Brylee was so excited to finally get to hold baby Westen. All the heart eyes! 

 Now, my goal is to post #dailyleah every other Sunday. I can stick with this.
Repeat, I can stick with this!
For those of you that have to work tomorrow, I'm sorry. For those of us off, enjoy your day!

Happy Sunday!
Leah

Weekending | The Absolute Best Day

But seriously! Saturday was the absolute best day! This entire weekend was great. Backtrack to  Friday. Tate had an early release day so he came home for lunch then had to go back for a track meet. Brylee and I watched movies and ate popcorn. It was a perfect night with B. Saturday. That quote pretty much sums it up. We didn't do anything extravagant, yet it was simply perfect! Maybe because it was Valentine's Day, or maybe just because we had one day to ourselves with zero plans. We had breakfast and I gave my loves their little gifts from me. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant that I've been dying to try, Costa Messa. It was delicious! Hearts, flowers and balloons everywhere; Brylee loved it! We ran a couple errands and came back home for Brylee to take her nap. Tate ended up also taking advantage of a nap and I enjoyed some me time with my love of reality TV. :) After their nap we took a walk to the park down the street. Brylee had a hay day and he'd be lying if Tate said he didn't like sliding. The pictures may be blurry, but that smile is perfectly clear!

Tate may have taught her some bad things by climbing up the slide and sliding down backwards! 

Miss Independent.

We came back home, cooked burgers on the grill at Tate's request. We laughed, danced, talked, played and laughed some more.

While I put B to bed Tate went off to get us 'something'. I picked out my favorite movie, Sweet Home Alabama, and Tate showed up with this: 

Yum! I mentioned earlier in the week that I reallllly wanted a pickle juice snowcone and he went to get us one. They are my favorite! I like the sweet stuff, like Tate's blue coconut back there near that lovely mixed bouquet of pink roses, but I never venture away from my signature one. It was the icing on top of a perfect day! 

Sunday was full of a little lunch,  grocery shopping, more park fun and a whole lot of laziness in between. I made chicken fried steaks for dinner and we settled down to watch the Bachelor. Andi showed real raw emotion and I believe she is still in love with Josh. I've fully lost interest in Britt. Whitney is the one for Chris, I hope. Carly for Bachelorette. We'll see how tonight plays out. Have a wonderful week blog friends!

Meghan | Biana

-Leah

Day 7 and a Little Monday Motivation

Monday, once again. How was your weekend? We had a great one! The weather was perfect all weekend long so we did a lot of playing outside and enjoying life. Yesterday we went on a 'little' walk that ended up being around 4 miles because the streets we turned down were dead ends. Made for a nice family walk though. I had Layla (which I think was a double workout) and Tate pushed Brylee and Dustee in the stroller. I wish I would have had my phone to take some pictures. Although it was a good weekend, I went through a little slump of eating clean. I tried on a pair of jeans that I thought would fit by now and nope. So my response to that was Chinese food, a BBQ burger from Red Robin with fries (those little things are the devil) and a blizzard. Good job, Leah. I got on Pinterest that night and these were the first two images I saw:

Now, to get back on track and get ready for my next weigh in day! If you needed a little motivation also, I hope those helped. :)

Onto cleaning. I didn't do any part of my challenge all weekend and I'm totally okay with that. Here what I did on Friday though.

Day 7

Clean- Office. This is one room that usually doesn't stay clean, but should. First steps:

• declutter office desk
• empty bins
• dust/wipe over all surfaces
• clean computer
• clean window
• pick up things from the floor
•  vacuum/sweep

Declutter- Desk. Today's task is just to declutter the desk, nothing else. We don't want to be here all day. Here are some steps to help:

• grab two bins; one for trash and one for recycling
• divide paperwork on your desk into these piles: to-do, file, read, receipts
• test the pens, highlighters, etc., on your desk to make sure they work
• tidy memo/cork board
• remove anything else that doesn't belong

Organize - Now that you have decluttered your desk it will be easier to organize.

New Habit- Keep a clutter free desk.

5 Minutes Only - Unsubscribe from all emails you don't want to receive anymore.

Before: Okay, so I've talked about this room before. It's our office/storage room/craft room. It, at one time, was a patio coming off the master bedroom but was apparently needed as an office instead (?). I wish it was still a patio, but I wasn't included in that decision. ha. There's the desk that I've mentioned many times before (poor desk, remember?). Everything in here was a mess. I tried to only do the desk like she mentions but I had to at least do the tops of my bookshelf and craft bin. There were piles of paper on the floor and still some boxes that needed to be unpacked.

After: I'm very pleased with the after look. I had a pile of trash, recycle, and shred and then another box of things that Tate needed to go through (coaches catalogs, play sheets, etc). The craft bin and  the 'keepsakes' on top of the bookshelf I know are another day so I didn't even touch on those.

As with every other day in this challenge, I made a list of things I needed to get to help with my organizing and decluttering. I figure I'll make one big haul at the end to get everything I need; At Home, Home Goods, Target, Container Store, etc. I'll share my organizing once I'm completely done with that. :)

5 Minutes: Unsubscribing from junk emails is still going on. Ha! I've been needing to do it and thanks to the challenge, I finally made myself sit down and do it. With every new email I get on my iPad, I justify reasons to keep or leave it. For some reason, though, I'm not convinced it actually works. I'm still getting emails from places I've unsubscribed from. Hopefully it just takes a few days to kick into their system. Hmm. ;)

Bachelor Monday! I was hoping Kelsey went home, she kinda went crazy! From the looks of the previews though, she gets a nice little 2 on 1 date with Ashley Kardashian. Can't wait.

Until next time, be blessed!
-Leah :)

5 on Friday and a Confessional

Happy Friday y'all! If you watch the Bachelor you totally need to follow Sharleen's (from Juan Pablo's season) Blog. I just got her Episode 5 recap and found it necessary to share. :) She's funny, honest and give you some inside info to the show. On another note, along with my 5 on Friday, I'm also doing a confessional with A Blonde Ambition. Let's get started, shall we?

{One}

 Brylee got her first Valentine's Day package today from her MooMoo and Grandaddy (Tate's parents). She got some heart gel window clings (our favorite), heart necklaces, some cute spring clothes and Fun Dip! She loved all of it, especially that fruit punch flavored sugar! I tried to take some pictures of her goodies but she was too interested in her candy to pay attention to anything else.

{Two}

Coconut Oil! Y'all I saw this on Pinterest and I've been doing it for about a month now, once a week. I just put it on and let it sit for about 5 minutes then just wash your hair like normal in the shower. It fixed my split and dead ends and made my hair super shiny! I refuse to get a trim. I chopped my hair off (like 12") about 6 years ago and it's finally almost as long as it was when I cut it.  I had to have that Victoria Beckham bob, which was super cute, but I hated it after about a month.

{Three}

 I think all day everyday. I think too much. I wonder and question and imagine all the possibilities and then obsess over everything that I thought of. Are we moving? Are we staying? For how long? Do I need to get a job to save my sanity? Is it worth it? Maybe a new hobby? Everything! This is my mind all. day. long! Then I think about things back home and my relationships with friends and family. I miss them sooooo much and there are some people I'd love to spend an entire day with no interruptions. I'd love to sit and talk with my dad over everything under the moon and sort things out. Then I see something like this. I have to remind my self that God has a plan and he simply just thinks my plan is funny. :) I plan and plan and plan and I hate when things don't go as planned. God's plan is bigger and greater and I just have to keep reminding myself of that. Everything will work out for the best!

{Four}

And now, I confess that Spring Break is already on my mind! I'm such a planner! We are going to San Antonio (because it'll only be for a few days and its not far away) and I'm trying to plan what to do. We've been to SA many times but never with a toddler. What's there to do? We'll do the typical River Walk and I'm sure the Alamo, but I need to find something that would interest Brylee. I'm thinking maybe Sea World. Ideas? Anyone? Bueller?

{Five}

I confess that even though 'headband' braids are on the RIP list for Cosmo's 21 Beauty Trends That Need To Die In 2015 I will probably still do it at least 2 days of the week. I love it. Looks like I have the natural waves down in this pic. With that being said, I still love my "forced waves" or just day to day curls as I prefer to call them.

5 on Friday with Natasha, April, Christina and Darci and my first Confessional with Leslie.

I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend! :)
-Leah

Day 4 - Laundry Room & Tuesday Randoms

It's Tuesday! Do y'all watch The Bachelor? Talk about a crazy episode. The whole scene with Carly was just awkward, I'm not too crazy about Britt anymore, and Jordan has some guts! I did like Kelsey up until last week and I really don't like how she was crazy excited about her husbands death and how it's her story and how everybody can see her love story unveil since she is who Chris is going to marry.  I hope she goes home. I hate 'to be continued...' episodes. Whitney is still my favorite. She just seems so genuine and you never see her involved in drama.

Brylee and I did some baking this morning. We made Peanut Butter Banana bars.. they are so good.

She snacked on some bananas while she was supposed to be mashing them.
Now, onto yesterday's challenge.

Day 4 

Clean- Laundry Room. Today's tasks are:

• clean all counter tops and surfaces
• dust or vacuum out the dust and lint from the dryer
• dust laundry walls
• clean windows
• clean floor
• wipe over outsides of washer and dryer

Remember, only do those tasks,we will be coming back to the laundry room during the challenge to organize and clean other areas.

Declutter- Garage. This can be a full cleaning task for some but today only get rid of what you don't need.

Organize- Laundry Routine. Washing clothes can be much like ground-hog day.

New Habit- Start a load of laundry every night before bed.

5 Minutes Only- Polish or dust 2 pieces of furniture.

Before Clean -My laundry room usually isn't even this dirty. That snowman just needs to be put in the attic and there's my comforter that I need to go wash. It really just needed to be picked up and wiped down.

After Clean - I put the comforter in my car so I wont leave without it, took everything off the hooks that didn't need to be there, and wiped over my counter. The only box that's there is a box of old toys that I'm still filling up.

Before Declutter - This is the only area in my garage that is messy, and even at that, Tate keeps it pretty well picked up.

After Declutter - I put the stroller and 3rd row seats back in my car and made everything else look more together.

Organize Before/After - I really don't have a need to have a laundry routine. This lady talked about how she washes a different color every night and then towels once a week but I just don't have enough "categories" to do that. I usually just wash once a week.

New Habit - Once again, I already have a laundry habit.

5 Minutes Only - I did 2 pieces in my living room because that's my next area.