Friday Favorites

Happy Friday everyone, and Happy (early) Valentine's Day too! I hope everyone has plans to spend Valentine's day with the people that they love most! Since it's Friday I am linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci again for some Friday Favorites!

ONE

 

I'm not gonna deny it...I would probably dress Hadley Kate in Matilda Jane clothing for the rest of my life if I could!  Whimsical...check. Girly...check. Tasteful...check. All around adorable...double check. I should thank/blame Andrea from Momfessionals for introducing me to this clothing line, which has lead to me finding some adorable outfits for Hadley and spending way too much time and money online shopping! ;) Oops. Their new Spring 2016 line came out at the beginning of the month, and I seriously cannot pick a favorite item from the line! Matilda Jane is definitely more expensive, but I can attest that the clothes are a really good quality that will last your little one for a long time. Plus, if you decide to resell them once they're too small you can get a really good price for them! Bonus! I know I said I couldn't choose, but here are some of my favorites from the new Happy and Free, Spring 2016 line!

EEEEKKK! The cuteness...

 

TWO

Pottery Barn Kids Easter basket that I'm eyeballing for Hadley

Confession time. I didn't get Hadley an Easter basket last year. I know...mom fail. But also, I'm not really sorry because I was knee deep in raising a two month old with reflux, so I was basically in survival mode. Plus...what is a two month old going to do with an Easter basket?! Someone we know got her a pink bunny rattle and we called it good. However, because of my mom failings last year I do feel that this year has now become Easter Redemption 2016. (See what I did there?! I feel like that title works on a number of different Easter/religious levels...) I've been eye balling the Easter baskets from Pottery Barn Kids and fell in love with the one pictured above! I also won't be making the same mistake as I did with the PB Kids Halloween costumes and wait until three weeks from the holiday to order the costume, only to find that PB shoppers plan WAY AHEAD OF TIME, and nothing was left. Getting smarter here people. 

Now I just have to decide what to fill it with. Hadley loves stuffed animals so I'm sure there will be a bunny or duck of some kind, but I want to focus on the real reason we celebrate Easter, and get Hadley some sort of Children's Storybook Bible as well. I love my Jesus Calling devotional, and I saw that they wrote this one for toddlers and preschoolers...

This Storybook Bible also had a lot of good reviews on Amazon...
 

I would love any suggestions though of good Bible story books that your little ones love!

THREE

Clearly, as evidenced above...I'm still in the middle of planning Easter, but it's never to early to think about Cinco de Mayo, right?! I came across this matching mother/baby shirt and onsie and I knew immediately that Hadley and I needed these:

I feel like there is a very small window of time where Hadley and I can dress alike before she starts telling me how uncool it is, so I plan on taking full advantage of it. And if we can match while eating our weight in guacamole...so be it. If Cinco de Mayo isn't your holiday, the shop SaSea, has a ton of other cute women's and kids t-shirts for everyday and holiday wear!

FOUR

Yesterday, I blogged about a really wonderful charity in my hometown of Austin, TX called Mobile Loaves & Fishes. It is a community outreach program that serves the homeless community of Austin through a mobile food truck, and has recently expanded by building a 27-acre residential community to help the homeless get back on their feet again. You can read my full blog post about the program here. They are doing such Godly work, and I really appreciate all the people who shared the blog on Facebook to help get the word out about Mobile Loaves & Fishes and their Community First Project! And in case you just want the highlights, here is the video MLF posted about their community first project:

If you want to learn more about Mobile Loaves & Fishes, how you can help, or how to bring this outreach program to your community, click here.

FIVE

And finally, since Valentine's Day is this weekend, I thought I would reminisce about our first Valentine's Day on Kwaj. Neither Johnathon nor I are big Valentine's Day people. I think we both prefer to do little things for each other throughout the year instead of going all out on one day. We always celebrate with cards and candy or dinner, but we never feel the need to do anything over the top. 

With that said, for our first Valentine's on Kwaj, Johnathon was going to get me flowers from the store, but there is no florist on Kwaj and, as you can imagine, the state of the flowers they had flown in was a rough one. There used to be a really pretty public garden at the far end of the island that hasn't been up kept for a while now, and is all overgrown. Johnathon took his chances though and biked all the way down there, and hand picked me some of the wild flowers that were still growing underneath all the weeds. Something about Johnathon searching through all the overgrown weeds to find me something that he thought was pretty and would make me smile has always meant a lot to me, and is still one of my most favorite Valentine's I've ever received!  

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day weekend, and that you spend it celebrating all the love in your life!! xoxo