Faux Leather Jacket

One of my best blogger buds, Lisa from Daily Style Finds,  also a fellow The Blended Blogger, gave me this jacket. Like what? How did I get so lucky? Such an amazing friend and so generous. Anyway, it's from Forever 21, and it's sort of edgy/awesome/warm/awesome...did I mention awesome? Thank you Lisa for the jacket.

Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. By purchasing through Foxy's Domestic Side, you're helping me to continue creating fun things for this space.

Exact is not available but here are some similar here and here (in blue, cream and black).

I love the side detailing of the jacket.

There are so many ways that you can zip up the jacket, can change the whole look just how you zip it up.

A little half zip for you. Those buckles at the bottom, so darn cute.

If you are wondering, which you're probably not, but...my fake eyelashes are these and my lip color is the Kylie Cosmetic Lip Kit in Leo.

I tried on several necklaces, but because of all of the zipper details, I thought I would go with some great earrings.

This is definitely something outside of my comfort zone, so thank you Lisa for pushing me to try something new, and hey guess what? I like it!  What have you tried outside of your comfort zone lately?

An InLinkz Link-up

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Show And Tell: Your Loves

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you are all with the ones that you love today. Speaking of Love...it's another year of Show and Tell and more topics for us to talk about with Andrea at Momfessionals. This time we're talking about our loves. I'm dishing today about the people in my life.

Mr.

Of course I had to start with Mr. You think you can't love anyone more, and then you have children with them, and your heart wants to explode. He is the best husband and father. He loves his morning coffee and/or tea, and was the one who wanted the soaker tub in our bathroom. Also loves watching football, playing catch with Baby Fox, playing house with Mini Fox and is probably one of the best Dad's I have ever known. He hates bugs and insects and that is pretty much the only thing he hates.  He is silly when he needs to be, serious at times, funny most of the time and I couldn't imagine raising my kids with anyone better.

He makes everyday with these kids the best day ever.

Baby Fox

He has the most kind and gentle soul.  Is the most patient, devoted and understanding big brother. I mean he pretty much melts into a big puddle anytime his sister asks him for anything. He loves night time snuggles, even though in public he refuses to hug me, sucks his pointer and middle finger on his left hand since he was 5 months old, loves anything to do with Legos, swords, and Nerf guns. Loves math and solving puzzles, telling jokes and wresting with his daddy. Can be somewhat of a picky eater (hates pizza, who hates pizza?), but loves broccoli and peas, go figure. He is who made me a Mama, and I am forever grateful.

Mini Fox

Her personality matches her birth story, unexpected and fast. She wants what she wants, and she wants it now. She adores her older brother and wants to be just like him. When Mr. and Baby Fox are wreslting, she is the first to jump on Mr. yelling, I save you Coco (what she calls her brother)! Loves everything princess but can also be a tomboy. It's not unusual to find her in a princess dress, with a sword in one hand, Nerf gun in the other doing karate kicks, taking down dragons. She went from sucking on a pacifier and when that went away, she started sucking her thumb, upside down, strange I know. Loves all her stuffed animals, which she has named, and then asks you what she's named them, loves all blankies, which helps us, so we don't really need to keep track of just one. When going to bed, likes us to play her Elsa doll (which sings Let it Go) and wants us to wind up Minnie who plays a different song, at the same time, for every nap and bed time, and will not go to sleep until we do it. She is going to give us a run for our money when she's older, bring it on Mini Fox, we're ready for you!

My Extended Family

I have the best family ever. Being adopted, I can actually say that they chose me, and I am so lucky. I have the best In-Laws and couldn't not imagine having better ones, just wished the lived closer! My parents are the best grandparents and bend over backwards for our kids. The kids love having their grandparents close by who can take them to Karate and dance class when Mom and Dad can't. My brother and SIL, I wish we could all get together more often, but I'll take the few times a year that we can.

My Cousins

Growing up we were super close, every holiday and day off of school we got together. Now that we are all grown up and have our own kids and houses, we can host cousin get togethers so that all of our kids will have the same childhood that we got. I love that we make a point to get together 4-5 times a year, and we're so happy that all of us live within a 100 mile radius of each other (we're the furthest away).

Being silly with cousins is the best right?

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3 Tips To Picking Your Wedding Registry

Hello Foxy Friends! I thought since wedding season is just around the corner and Mr. and I are celebrating 12 years of marriage, I would give you the things I learned when registering for our wedding. I know it seems easy, but really registering for your wedding takes some thought and time. So here are my top 3 tips to think about when picking your wedding registry.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. By purchasing through Foxy's Domestic Side, you're helping me to continue creating fun things for this space.

| ONE |

You are going to have an array of people attending your wedding, people at different stages in their life, when picking out your registry you should keep in mind different price points. Do some that are higher end for your Grandparents and Aunt and Uncles and then do a slightly lower price points for your friends who are just staring out in their careers. Think of what you would want to buy your friend getting married. I know going around the store hitting all of the most expensive things sounds fun, but in reality are you really going to use that $500 vase on the regular?


| TWO |

I know this seems SUPER silly but if you can, register for China. I know you think I'm never going to use it, but you will. Right now your parents, grandparents or some other older person in your life is hosting all of the holidays, but one day it's going to be you. You're going to be the one hosting and it's really nice to have some china. That being said, make it easy on yourself and get something dishwasher safe! If it's not, you are NEVER going to use it. This is ours:

We registered for it 12 years ago, and it's still being sold at Macy's, and even Bed Bath and Beyond is selling it, this is something that's going to be around for awhile.  It's dishwasher safe and I think pretty simple, so you can dress up the rest of your table.

| Three |

Enjoy the process. I know it seems daunting, and when I was registering, I was starting from scratch, I had no house items at all. So just start one room at a time, think of what you need and start from there. You, always want to register for WAY more then you're ever going to need. You want to give your guest choices, there is nothing worse than going to a registry only to find out that they put 10 things on it, and all 10 of those things are gone. People want to get you what you want, so pick out a LOT. That's what we did, we gave them a bunch of choices, and it turned out that NO ONE got us any of our every day plates. So what did we do? We returned what we didn't really need, got the store credit and then bought what we did actually need. Might take more time, but people will feel good that they got you what you needed, and no one needs to know that you returned it. Shhhhh, it will be our little secret.


Anything else to add? I'm sure those future brides want to know, sound off below.

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Valentine's Day Outfit

Happy Wednesday Foxy friends! Hope everyone is having a good week so far. I just found out on Monday that I have to travel for work next week, during Valentine's Day, does work have no heart? Boo! Anyway, I'm still going to show you what I would have worn on Valentine's Day...although we don't usually go out on that day anyway, and currently we did an early celebration and are away for the week sans kids...I'll let that sink in...no kids! It's never happened, okay maybe once, but usually it doesn't.

I'm wearing the same top from this outfit. In case you are wondering, I'm wearing this adhesive* bra. I love it way more than a regular strapless bra, mostly because I'm not having to tug it up all night long, me and regular strapless bras do not get along! If you are bigger chested then this one* will work better for you.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. By purchasing through Foxy's Domestic Side, you're helping me to continue creating fun things for this space.

A casual, side swept ponytail with a twist. Cause just a regular ponytail would be boring right?

Adding twists makes it more fun right?

Really starting to see those gray hairs...going to have to eventually start dying my hair...please say it isn't so, no one has time for that!

In case you are wondering the lip color is Wolfie by ColourPop, have you heard of them, super affordable make up, this lipstick was only $6. I may or may not have bought 6 lipsticks on my first order.

It's a skirt with pockets, what's better than pockets? Pretty much nothing.

And because I'm weird and was doing funny pictures to see if any of them came out (seriously you should see how many I take and how many I never use, and just delete...this one is pretty good I think. Happy Valentine's Day friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Keeping My Marriage Strong

Linking up with Shay and Erica for Workin' It Wednesday, today's topic is Keeping your Marriage Strong. I love this topic and talking relationships, so much so that I've done a whole series on it, not entirely sure if I'm done with the series, but for now I am, anyone have any topics they want me to cover?

Anyway, I also did a post over on The Blended Blog on 5 Ways To Be a Better Spouse.

A quick recap of that post:

One: Chose To Love
Two: It Takes Two To Spend Money
Three: Fight Fair
Four: Blessings
Five: 100/100

I really liked that post, it was about the things that Mr. and I do to make us a better spouse, which in turns makes our marriage stronger. Those things that I mentioned are more long term things, so I thought today I would share some of our daily things that makes our marriage stronger.

| ONE |

I know this won't work for some, but for us our time is after the kids go to bed. We need at least an hour after they go to bed to unwind and relax and talk about our day together. We have our shows that we watch together, and that's what we do, we talk during commercial breaks, although mostly we skip through those, so we actually pause the show and say hey you know what...fill in with random thought here. 

This picture has nothing to do with watching tv, I just thought it was cute and it was taken just before bed

| TWO |

We do things as a family. I know this sounds weird for keeping our marriage strong, but really our kids are so important to us, and when we really think about it, we would much rather spend time with them then anything else. That's why after they go to bed is so important because that's our time.

| THREE |

This seems so weird to keeping your marriage strong, but really this works for us. We have our own time. He likes to play video games and having time to himself. When I met Mr. he had been living on his own for 7 years, so he valued his alone time. Usually it's during the kids nap time. He goes to his office, I stay down stairs and we really just do our own thing. Now that Baby Fox doesn't do nap time, we still send him to his room for some down time, no electronics, just him time, to play think, rest do what he wants in his room. I think everyone sort of needs to reset their brain and not talk to anyone.

What's better than blogging and watching Vampire Diaries? I know, I still watch it, I'm too invested to not watch it.

So that is 3 things that we do to make our marriage stronger. I'm looking forward to see what everyone else does to keep their marriage strong.

 

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Kids Behind the Blog: February Edition

It's that time again, Kids Behind the Blog with Crystal, Beth, Meghan, Jessica, and Stephanie.  I just love this link up and look forward to seeing all of the other kids answers. I feel like I'm watching all these kids grow up right before my eyes! Click here for all of the other KBTB posts.

Baby Fox: Age 6 Years 1 Month
 Mini Fox Age: 3 Years 4 Months

Baby Fox

1. What does the word love mean to you?

Him: Help one another
Me: Anything else?
Him: No

2. Kids choice! How do you want to spend Valentine's Day?

Spend time with family

3. Do you have a Valentine? If so, who?

Him: A valentine you say? We already did that one...
Me: no I said, do you have a valentine.
Him: Yes
Me: Who is it?
Him: hmm...my whole family.

4. How many days are in the month of February?

Him: ummm...20? Is that true?
Me: Do you think it's true?
Him: Yes

5. How do you show someone you love them?

Him: Mini Fox
Me: But how do you show her you love her
Him: Helping her get things down she can't reach
Me: Anything else?
Him: Catching Mini Fox if she falls
Me: Anything else?
Him: No

Mini Fox

 

1. What does the word love mean to you?

Her: I don't know
Me: When I say I love you what does that mean
Her: I love you
Me: what do you think it means?
Her: I don't know, I don't know

2. Kids choice! How do you want to spend Valentine's Day?

uhhhh....I forget, I forget....

3. Do you have a Valentine? If so, who?

Mommy's my Valentine

4. How many days are in the month of February?

I don't know

5. How do you show someone you love them?

Her: I love Mama...

Me: but how do you show me you love me

(she looks at me and gives me a cute smile)

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Month In Numbers: January Edition

Today I'm linking up with Deena for my month in numbers. I love looking back at each month like this, you should try it too! The link up isn't technically until tomorrow. If you want to see my previous months, click here.

970 - The number of text messages I sent (according to AT&T)

1935 - The number of miles I drove, that doesn't include all of the miles to and from the grocery store, just the ones to work and to random things on the weekend.

20 - The number of selfies I took

1 - Mom's Night Out, so much fun seeing these ladies, need another one on the calendar STAT!

27 - The number of hours I got away to spend with my bestie in Palm Springs. The drive was gorgeous with all of the green hills and snow peaking mountains behind.

6 - the number of hours we spent at the hotel Spa

Sunglasses are borrowed from Mr...but I'm thinking they probably look better on me than him, so I should take them right?

Lipstick is Kylie Jenner Lip Kit in Spice

4 - The number of allergy shots I got

4 - The number of ballet classes that Mini Fox had and LOVED

1 - The number of Birthday parties we went to.

96 - How old my grandmother was before she passed away. I am happy that she has moved on and is now with my grandpa who died 30+ years ago. She is in a better place then she was here and is no longer in pain and is no longer suffering.

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