Oh Christmas Tree

I grew up putting up our Christmas tree piece by piece in the warmth of our home. Every color-coded branch slipped into it's spot until the tree was whole. Then we'd spend a good chunk of time fluffing it out before putting up the ornaments. I have fond memories of getting the tree decorated just so!

Our first home together was a tiny apartment in married student housing in college. Even if we could have found room to cram a tree in our living room, real trees weren't allowed. When we moved to our second apartment a few months before Maverick was born, it was just a few weeks before Christmas. I barely decorated that year, just putting up a few lights and our tiny artificial tree. Maverick's first Christmas we decided it was time to cut down our first real tree! We froze our buns off and Mark cut that thing down by hand. It was so fun to start a new family tradition!

The next year we got smarter and brought an electric saw with. Mav had fun running through the rows of trees while Mark chopped it down. Last year was Jaxon's first Christmas and our first year in Minnesota so we had to track down a new tree farm. Jax slept the whole time and Maverick helped finish cutting the tree down.

This year I convinced Mark we should grab our tree before Thanksgiving because we had a string of warmer days earlier this month. He agreed to go, left work early, only for me to realize we were 3 days too early for the farm to open. I was so disappointed! After the long Thanksgiving weekend we trekked out to the farm to snag one. We went at the warmest point in the day but it was still only mid-twenties. Brr! The kids were in full winter gear minus we couldn't find Jaxon's gloves and only one of Mav's. Needless to say they were not happy to be so cold!

We walked out to find that most of the good lookin trees were already claimed. It took going to four different sections and a wagon ride to finally find one that would fit in our house! By this point both boys had been wailing for awhile so we snapped a few pictures and walked back as quickly as we could.  We got plenty of looks because both kids were losing it and all we could do was laugh! I love this tradition but this year had me reconsidering for a few minutes. Here's to next year, maybe only one of us will have a meltdown!

Are you team artificial tree or do you chop your own down?

Current Jams - Fall 2018

In our house about 90 percent of the day is spent with some kind of music blasting from the TV. If you've ever been to our house, chances are you've experienced this first hand as I often have to turn down the volume after you come in. Our boys love dance parties and will dance to pretty much anything! Maverick will even belt out his own songs if there's nothing playing. We spend a good chunk of time in our car dancing too! Good music playlists have become a must for us.

Jax mid dance party

I used to have an extensive Itunes library until my laptop crapped out on me one day. And then I plugged my phone into our other computer and accidentally wiped all the music off it! Oops. So these days we rely on our free Pandora and Spotify accounts. I've debated paying the monthly fee to ditch the ads since we use them so often but we're on a debt-free journey and that just doesn't fall into the category of necessary. We usually rotate through the same few playlists during each season. Once we get sick of them then I try to add a few more in! With the exception of my favorite Christmas stations which get played year round haha. A lot of these stations are safe for little ears but not all of them are PG, just to give a heads up.

Pandora:

Bing Crosby Radio -- Christmas classics!

Disney Children's Radio -- I started listening to this station when I was a nanny years ago. It's still a favorite!

Toddler Radio -- Good for dance parties!

Thomas Rhett Radio -- My favorite country station. Such a good mix of old and new!

Christian Contemporary Radio -- I've been listening to Christian music more over the last year and this is the best station I've found for it.

Relaxation Radio -- Mostly instrumentals, good for when I'm reading or taking a bath.

Dance Cardio Radio -- Our favorite witching hour station since Mav was a baby. Also good for working out!

Today's Country Radio -- Classic country station.

Paperweight Radio -- My favorite mellow station for rainy days!

Boyce Avenue Radio -- Oldie but goodie. Check them out if you've never heard of them!

Spotify:

Dance Party -- The boys' favorite station! We listen to this one multiple times a day, every day!

Throwback Jams -- This station reminds me of middle school and high school!

Rise 2018 -- Rachel Hollis made this station. There's a lot of stuff I had never heard before!

Songs to Sing In the Car -- I mostly listen to this one when I'm showering so I can sing stuff I know haha.

Country Coffeehouse -- Good for laid back days.

A Capella Christmas -- Pentatonix has quickly become a favorite around the holidays so this station is a must for me!

Now that I've shared my favorite playlists, would you share yours with me? I wouldn't mind adding a few new ones to my rotation!

Fall at the Hanson House

We look forward to Fall all year long and then it passes way too quickly! The way the leaves explode in color gets me every year. This is the time of year I always want to do all the things. I try to cram the few free weekends we have full of fun outings as a family. As great as it is, it can get exhausting quickly! 

We took a day trip to Duluth on a whim and the boys loved it! They could have sat watching the bridge go up and down all day long. We've also gone to an apple orchard and pumpkin patch which are always a blast! But to be honest, Fall tends to get pretty expensive with all the extra outings. We only have two kids and it's already pricey, I can't imagine how it will add up as our family grows. What I'm starting to realize is that the boys have an equal amount of fun playing in a leaf pile in the front yard. Smacking sticks against the ground. Walking a trail in the woods. All things that are free and don't require anything but getting outdoors.

I think there's all this pressure to keep up with everyone else and do every single Fall outing you can think of every year. Who has the money and time for all that? So next year our Fall "bucket list" will include more things like exploring in the woods, playing in the leaves at home, and hiking places we've never been before. It's so easy to get caught up in all the hype but my boys just want to hands on explore without being hounded with rules. So my new goal is to do more of that and less of what I feel like everyone else is doing.

Capsuling For the First Time

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I know the concept of capsule wardrobes has been around for a long time. I'm late to that ball game apparently! I'm a creature of habit who continually wears my favorites while ignoring the rest of my closet. Usually digging through the clean laundry basket and not touching whats already hanging up! It can be nice to look at a closet full of clothes and see all the options you have but most days it just feels overwhelming. I feel like I have nothing to wear or I just don't know how to put it together well. Its about time I did something about that!

Last month I did a closet purge and pulled out everything. There were so many items in great shape that I just never wore because I didn't like how they made me feel or I bought on a whim but realized later they weren't really my style. Some of the items are just flat out not functional for a stay at home mom with two very active little boys. I need to be more honest with myself when shopping for new items because that last one is the number one reason I end up not wearing something I've got in my closet. I pulled out what I wasn't going to keep and then sorted things into seasons which I've never done before. 

After I'd sorted everything, I started filling out a capsule wardrobe worksheet I pulled off of Pinterest. I picked my three categories that my style and needs fall into first. Next I found my favorite Fall pieces that I knew I wanted to include. I wanted to focus on using mustard and maroon pieces to accent my neutral basics. I rounded out the rest of the sheet with a few gaps that needed to be filled or items that needed to be replaced because they were worn out. I love that the goal of a capsule is to work mostly with items already in your closet but also to replace the cheap quality clothing that wears out quickly with pieces that will last over time. Because most of your wardrobe is coming from what you have, it's much more affordable to fill in the missing pieces! I'm still missing a few key pieces that I'd really like to have as a part of this capsule but I'm holding out for an item I truly love at a good price.

Photo by Samantha Cater Photography

I've been wearing the capsule pieces for a few weeks now and other than the unseasonably warm week or two we had that I wasn't prepared for, I'm loving the ease of picking out my clothes each morning. It feels good to put on an outfit and have it fit well instead of switching outfits 10x to find something I don't hate. I also love that I don't feel the pressure to wear a different outfit just because it's hanging there when I really want to wear my favorites. The one thing I struggle with is learning how to step out of my comfort zone and mix pieces I wouldn't normally put together. I'm hoping that's an area I will grow in over the next few months of trying this. 

Do you know anyone who follows this concept? I'd love to follow along anyone who does this on a regular basis!

Lend A Hand

Last month Mark was away due to Army work so I spent the month solo-parenting. I kept that information off the internet as much as I could for safety reasons but I'm sure it wasn't exactly hard to figure out he was gone either! I'm thankful that I was surrounded by family and friends to lean on for support and adult contact but it was still a long month! I'm happy that I have a partner for support on a daily basis because I don't know how single parents do it long term. I was wiped out by the end! It opened my eyes to how I can be helping out other friends when they're going through trying times or when they are parenting on their own for any length of time. I reached out to a few friends who were in different situations than me to see what other ideas we could come up with. One of those friends is a single parent full-time and I bow down to her ability to handle all the chaos of parenting by herself. The other friend has 11 kids so I value her opinion as a parent in every single way! This would be a great list to come back to if you have friends who are single parents or friends who are solo-parenting for a chunk of time.

• Offer to take their kids to school, daycare, or sports practices so that way they don't have to for the day!
• Bring them their favorite drink. Coffee, tea, ice cold soda, maybe even a bottle of wine would always be accepted! Even chocolate is a great gift to help them through the day.
• Give them a chance to have a night out or even a few hours kid-free so they can refresh their nerves!
• Give them all the understanding and love you can muster up. Being a parent takes so much grace so feeling that extra love from friends is exactly what we could all use. I'm often late and forgetful or show up acting like a hot mess which takes understanding. I also can act very unloveable when my whole life feels like chaos so that's when I need to be covered in extra love.
• Offer to bring them a meal or even just dessert! It could be picking up their favorite food or just making a double batch of whatever you cooked for supper so you can drop it off when you're done. On any given day I'd love to avoid figuring out what to cook for supper but it's especially true when I'm alone with the boys because it almost feels like a waste to cook a full meal. They eat a ton but they would eat PB&J's all day long if they could so the effort doesn't always feel worth it.
• Take them out for some pampering. Get your nails done or go to a spa if you can afford it! Or in my case, an at-home spa is much more up my budget alley. Doing facials or mani/pedis together would give some much needed friend interaction!
• Invite the kids over to play and let it be known that your friend can stay if they want or head home to get things done. So many times I just needed an hour kid-free to get the house back in order! Sometimes I need to get out of my own house and just not look at the mess one second longer.
• Wine or beer night when their significant other gets home! It's good bonding time with the kiddos for their significant other and it gives them time to decompress. Give them a few days to reconnect and then invite them out! If they're a single parent then find a babysitter for all the kiddos so they don't have to worry about finding someone to watch their kid just to have some time away.
• Show up and ask them what you can help with. Don't take no for an answer! There is always something we could use help with as parents but often times we are too stubborn to ask for help. Some people may be buried in laundry or dishes. Some people may need help tackling more deep cleaning that they haven't had a chance to touch in way too long. Some people just need someone to play with their kids while they binge on Netflix and social media for an hour or two. Put your foot down until you get at least one task from them!

 I'm so blessed to have had many of these things done for me while he was away for a month or on drill weekends! It showed me who cared enough to reach out and give extra help when I was stretched thin. Hopefully I can repay the kindness to my loved ones in the future!

What would you add to this list?

Five on Friday - Instagram Accounts

I love that Instagram stories have become a place to see the more real, open side of people instead of just the curated photos many of the "big" accounts share. There are a few accounts that really caught my eye this past week that I thought I'd share!

Lises Pieces Jewelry
Her jewelry is beautiful! I'd love to have one of her hand stamped necklaces. But what really drew me in this week is how hilarious she is on her stories! I love people who aren't afraid to be silly and I'm always looking for more laughter in my life! Check our her "laughs" highlight on her profile to see what I mean!

Jessie Martin
I love the photo tips she shares! Mamas who help other mamas are my favorite because it creates a stronger community, which is something we all need. Her photos are amazing and I think it's awesome that she has recently shared how to edit phone photos like other big Instagram accounts!

Lauren McCoon
This sweet woman has been sharing her journey as a foster mom. Because I hope we are able to become foster parents someday, I love following the story of current foster parents to help me mentally prepare in case we ever go down that road! I love how she shares her emotions because I think it helps people get a real view of what fostering can be like.

Whimsy + Wellness
This shop has the most beautiful essential oil products. I'm obsessed with how pretty the Fall Collection is! I get so frustrated sometimes trying to keep all my rollers and bottles labeled sometimes. This shop is the perfect solution to that! Especially for something that I use on a daily basis, I love all the pretty labels to keep them separated!

Lexi Ryan
Lexi is a sweet friend of mine that I met in college. She also lives in the Twin Cities! She shares her photography work on her page and it's stunning! I have loved following along as she grows as a photographer. She captured our maternity photos in our backyard just before Jax was born! I love seeing how she excels as a photographer in so many categories.

Who are your favorite Instagram accounts you follow?

Deep Cleaning Trick

Now that Jaxon is coming up on his first birthday, I feel like there's finally a bit of time for more than surface level cleaning. I'm thinking maybe a years worth of dust and deep cleaning needs to be figured out.

I'm a list maker because my memory is awful. I get satisfaction from crossing things off a physical list, not just one on my phone or in my head. As much as I love making lists on paper it felt a little wasteful to be writing the same daily list out. So I grabbed some markers and printer paper to make a master list. I also thought a list of weekly and monthly tasks was smart to help keep track of the things I may forget about in the long run. Once I had them all filled out I laminated the sheets so I could use a dry erase marker on them.

Every now and then I wipe them clean with a baby wipe to get all the ink off but usually a paper towel will do the job! I have my old lists from when we moved in but they need to be updated so I'll work on that this weekend. This is such a simple trick but it really helped me keep on top of cleaning before Jax was born. If you're a list maker like me, try it out. If you don't end up using these then you're only out few sheets of printer paper anyway!

How do you keep track of cleaning? Do you have a cleaning schedule or a list to keep track of what you've done?

China Cabinet Makeover

I've always loved the way a hutch looks! I searched everywhere I could think of to find an affordable one that was in good, solid shape. Everything I found was in rough shape or very expensive. I knew I wanted to redo a hutch and put in the work so I didn't mind cosmetic issues as long as it was solid. Mark found a handful on Facebook marketplace that he sent to me but this one caught my eye, especially for only $50! It was stained a pretty dark brown but it wouldn't have worked with the rest of the furniture in our house. Once we got it to our house I realized how splotchy the stain was so I set out to find my supplies.

I chose Rustoleum Chalked in linen white to help brighten up our dining room. I also used a sander deglosser product to remove the top coat from the original stain. Most of the hutch took two coats of the chalk paint but a few places needed a third coat to be fully covered. Once the chalk paint dried for a few hours I used a sanding block to distress the hutch as much as I could muster. That was quite the workout honestly, I made a few passes to get the look I wanted. I added one layer of Rustoleum Chalked matte clear and it was done! The hutch had wooden knobs and handles but I chose to replace them with metal ones from Hobby Lobby. I love the pop of brown that they add!

 Overall it took me about three days to finish. The entire thing was much easier than I anticipated! It was relatively easy to refinish and took very little supplies, just a few cans of paint and a paint brush. We've always had this giant bare space in our dining room that needed a big piece of furniture to fill. I think this piece is exactly what we needed! I tossed a few pieces of decor up there so it wasn't bare but I cant wait to learn how to style it. I think it will be especially fun to decorate over the holidays!

Have you ever used chalk paint to refinish a piece of furniture? How did it work out?

Five on Friday

I've always loved the "Five on Friday" posts that have been floating around the blog world for as long as I can remember. They are definitely something I want to do on a regular basis around here! This week I decided to focus on Amazon finds since I've recently been on an Amazon Prime-ing spree. Anyone else like that? Go weeks or months without using it and then when you start again it feels like a Prime box is showing up on your doorstep daily!

First up is this carry-on bag that I bought for our trip to Florida. I didn't have any bags that were the appropriate size for carry-on that fit under the seat but was big enough to hold all the stuff we needed. I read the reviews which seemed a bit iffy but figured I could always run to Target if this bag didn't work out. I love this bag! It had plenty of space for what I needed, was easy to zip up one handed, and the quality was good. It did have a bit of a funky smell so I threw some Purification oil on a cotton ball inside the bag for a few hours. Good as new! If you're in need of a weekender bag or a carry-on, I highly recommend this one.

I just ordered this cookbook by Rachel Hollis today! I love to try new cookbooks but I get discouraged when they're full of stuff we don't normally keep on hand or they take hours to make. I had honestly never heard of Rachel until recently when everyone started talking about her book Girl, Wash Your Face. I started reading that book while on vacation and found out she also has cookbooks. This one intrigued me and the reviews were good so I decided to try it out. I'll share some of the recipes I try on Instagram once it gets here!

I collect blankets. Not really intentionally, I'm just always really cold so I'm drawn to blankets when I'm out shopping. I have one throw blanket hung up on the ladder in our living room but it's more of a Fall color scheme so I'm on the hunt for a more neutral one. I thought this was super pretty (the fringe is always a plus) and the price is great! It's going on my shopping list for sure. I never really thought to check Amazon for blankets but I'd bet I'll be scouting out other options on there in the near future.

All of the bedrooms in our house are mostly finished. I'm not quite done finding all the little pieces of decor I want but I've almost got it. One thing I've been wanting is some kind of storage for our pillows and blankets that we pull off the bed before we sleep. Currently they just get tossed on the floor in a pile on my side of the bed. I'd love to have a trunk at the foot of the bed for these but our bedroom is just not big enough for that. I think a basket like this would be good for the size of our room. It would look nice next to the mirror and rocking chair we already have in there. I'm going to checkout Goodwill to see if I can thrift a big wicker basket otherwise this one is what I'll probably end up buying.

Throw pillows are the bane of my husband's existence. Okay, that's a bit dramatic but he hates throw pillows because he doesn't understand having a pillow that's just for looks. I on the other hand LOVE throw pillows. Would buy a million of them to switch out frequently if they weren't so freaking expensive. A lot of the ones we own are fairly old and really starting to look crappy. Most of them are stuffed with some kind of polyester filler that doesn't fluff very well. They're smooshed beyond repair at this point. I have found a ton of great throw pillow covers lately so I need to slowly replace our old pillows with these pillow inserts so I can just buy new covers to swap out. Hopefully since these are feather-filled they will fluff better!

Do you have an Amazon Prime membership? What have you purchased lately through Amazon? I believe Prime day is coming up soon so I'll be checking things out to see if I find any good deals to pass along!

Traveling With Little Ones

Last week we got back from our first family vacation to Florida. Now, we travel back and forth to Iowa quite a bit in the car but this is the first time we've gone so far from home. This is also the first time either of the boys have been on an airplane! I did tons of scouring the internet and asking friends for their best tips for enjoying vacation with little ones.

I would say my two biggest tips now that we're back are to make wherever you're staying feel like home and start off with low expectations for your kids. When we travel anywhere that we're staying overnight, I always bring small comforts to help my kids feel more at home. A sound machine to help them sleep, small loveys, and some essential oils that we use to help them feel more comfortable. I usually try to follow their normal routine as closely as I can so they know what to expect. Although we took the "it's vacation!" attitude this trip and we're paying for it over a week later. The boys got so far off their schedule and it hasn't been fun trying to get them back to it. We stayed in a condo instead of a hotel and I think that made a big difference in them settling in too!

The other thing I highly recommend is to lower your expectations. Of course you want to have a good time on your well-earned vacation! Hey, it's been 5 years since we took one so I totally get that! You have to remember that kids are still kids and when they are out of their normal element, they're going to act up. For example: I packed loads of toys and snacks in our carry-ons for the boys. We had two flights lasting a total of about 3 hours each way. We knew Maverick would be fine with movies and snacks, he took the long day in stride. I thought surely because our first flight was so early that Jax would sleep on the plane and then we'd pacify him with snacks and distractions. NOPE! We made it through the first flight alright but the second flight ended with me crying in the airport. Yikes. I had way too many expectations which made it so much harder on me when things went wrong. Honestly, that rough flight set my expectations much lower for how the rest of the week would go and I needed that! The boys had normal meltdowns for their ages but were champs all week so we took everything else in stride and laughed as much as we could.

We were lucky to be traveling with family so we got to spend alone time with each of the boys! That rarely happens at home where both of us get to spend time with just Mav or Jax. Those memories alone are worth their weight in gold! The few sour spots were far outweighed by all the fun we had. Traveling with kids surely comes with its difficulties but don't let that stop you from taking them along for the ride! And travel with extra help whenever you can because it saved our sanity haha.

Master Bath Plans

Our first major renovation in our house is going to be the master bath. It's one of two bathrooms and the only full bath in the house. So far we've only slapped some paint on the walls and added a few small pieces of decor. We actually planned to do this bathroom right away last Fall but having a newborn changed that plan pretty quickly!

I wanted to do the whole bathroom in one shot, collecting everything we needed beforehand. Since we are doing the renovation ourselves and we have no other shower/tub, I think it will be better if we go piece-by-piece as we have time. We are replacing the floor but haven't decided which route we want to go yet. I'm most excited about ripping out the wall paneling to replace it with shiplap! We originally painted the walls a cool gray but because the original paint color was blue, they ended up looking very blue-gray. We plan to use the same gray paint we used in most of the house to warm it up a bit. I'm also going to paint the trim white.

We are keeping the vanity. I plan to update it by painting the base and doors white, then replacing all the knobs and handles with something more up-to-date. My husband is going to replace the sink countertop area with a new wooden countertop. We've found a few above counter sinks that we like but are still debating if that's a good choice with small kids who may overflow the sink easily. The medicine cabinet mirror is coming down as it's too large for the space and dates the room. I want to find a large mirror that's a similar size to replace it. We will have to find some sort of light fixtures to hang above the mirror since our current lighting is attached to the medicine cabinet. We plan to put some kind of shelving above the toilet to give us back some of the storage we will be losing under the mirror.

The bathtub-shower area is actually pretty nice so we aren't doing much in there. I would like to swap the faucet and shower pipe area to match the sink faucet but I'm unsure if that's something we can do ourselves. Behind the door is a towlel hook and long set of linen closets. The area is quite confined so I may remove the doors from the closets to see if that opens up the space some. I also plan to remove the current shower hook in place of a few more, some at a lower height for the kids. We also have an issue with dirty laundry piling up behind the door so I'm scouring stores for an appropriately shaped laundry basket to hide away back there.

I can't wait start this project and find all the new decor! Would you rather I share about my decor shopping trips, my inspiration, or the actual renovations themselves?