IT'S A......

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James and I are thrilled to announce that we are having a baby boy!!!
We can't wait to meet our little wild thing ♥︎.

Oh sweet baby boy, you have such a destiny before you.

We got lucky at the ultrasound by having a student doing it. First of all, it was extra long because she was a student and he was moving around like crazy!!! And secondly, she accidentally said "he" three times...lols...and James and I both saw his little man parts!!! I wanted to be 100% before announcing, so I called my doctor's office and the receptionist said they had the results but my doctor hadn't seen them yet, so she couldn't tell me. She did say, she thought I was right..ha! Twenty minutes later my doctor's assistant called and told me the receptionist cornered her to look it over and not keep me waiting, ha! So yes, she confirmed that WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!!!!

To be honest, I think I knew since the very beginning. I still can't wait to tell you our conception story but part of it (ok the main part), was God told me I was pregnant five days before I tested. And in those five days, I couldn't stop calling my baby, "little guy". 

I'm so excited to be having a little man although part of me is extremely scared because I am girly to a t BUT I know God is opening up such a special part of my heart to be a mama to a sweet, baby boy. He has so much to teach me and I'm so thrilled. 

Now off to plan a boy's nursery and start registering for all the grey and blue (no green please..lol) !!!!!!!!!!

XO!!!
-laura

CARIBBEAN TRIP PART ONE

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So remember that time James and I went on a vacation in late October and then it took me months to share because #babyliira sucked all my energy and work was crazy? ha. The day has come and I'm finally showing you more pictures from our vacation!

We started out our fall vaycay by visiting Austin, Texas (read the post here!) where we spent some quality time with Joy & Ryan (and oh my gosh their baby Seby made his grand appearance and he is such a dreamboat!) and then we had the whole ordeal where stupid Texas storms caused our flight to Florida to be delayed causing us to miss our cruise!

But PTL for trip cancellation insurance (I highly recommend only booking trips on credit cards that have this magical life saver!) We ended up staying a night in Miami, then caught a flight the next day to Turks & Caicos followed by a flight in a teeny plane to Grand Turk!

I definitely want to go back to Turks & Caicos. I don't think I'd go to Grand Turk again because it was so teeny but I definitely would go to one of the bigger islands...that water is to die for.

We stayed at this cute little hotel called The Osprey and then caught up with our cruise the next day.

When we finally arrived at the hotel (which felt absolutely marvellous after travelling for so long) James immediately jumped in the ocean. A storm was brewing so I was a little less hesitant but he finally coaxed me in. We then watched the sunset from the beach then moved to our balcony. For dinner, we grabbed some Caribbean BBQ at that cute poolside restaurant and then the next morning we hightailed it to our cruise boat!!!

Now that was the best thing...strolling to the cruise and finally getting our room where we would sleep for the next five nights..ahhhhhhh. We first hit up the breakfast buffet then headed out to swim in that crystal blue ocean! 

The beach was crazy busy with the guests from two massive cruise boats but we didn't even care at all. I was not going to let that boat out of my sight.

I was 8 weeks pregnant then and couldn't help telling the world in the white sand. Wow, seems like a world away as now I'm in my 18th week!

Seeing these photos kills me because I know it will probably be a while until we enjoy a tropical vacation...ahhhh I will cherish these memories. 

I'll be back soon with part 2!

Xo,
laura

20 GOALS // MAKING A PIE FROM SCRATCH

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Hello from the other side.....of the stinking flu! Wow, this flu thang had wiped me out since last Saturday but I am happy to report, I'm now in the clear! But the flu while pregnant = the worst!

 So remember when I made 20 goals to accomplish in my last year as a twenty-something? Well three months have gone by and I am proud to say I finally baked a pie from scratch! I've also accomplished a few others, but we'll get to those in a different post. 

My mum gifted my sister and I with a pie baking class for our birthdays and we attended it in November. It was taught by Chef Heidi Fink and I would definitely recommend classes by her!

We started out with a baking demonstration where she showed us how to make crust. Now the big debate is whether you want an all butter crust or butter and lard or butter and shortening. We did a taste test at the end and I preferred the all butter crust, which apparently most people under 50 do and most people over 50 prefer shortening! She also revealed how putting vodka (1/4 cup) in the dough helps keep it moist and more supple.

After the demonstration, we were off to do our own bidding. Ohhh another secret she revealed was when choosing your apples, you don't just want to go to the ol' granny smith route but you also don't want to go with strictly sweet apples either! The trick is to get a mix of tart AND sweet apples because tart apples go mushy and sweet apples stay hard when cooked so you need both to have your bricks and mortar! Brilliant hey?

While our pies were cooking away, we got to try the pies that Heidi made and oh my goodness, they were amazing. 

Now my pie wasn't that pretty because honestly, baking a pie is pretty stressful but I'm excited to experiment in the kitchen and work on that lattice crust thang now that I know how to make pie (lols).

Well hope you have a great Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow with another Christmas gift guide :)

XO,
laura

WE'RE HAVING A BABY! + HOLIDAY PHOTOS

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So the cat's outta the bag....last night we announced on instagram/fb that WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!!!! It still feels like the craziest thing and I have so many thoughts/emotions to share (which I will soon!) but now you know the reason for my lack of posting and all that "under the weather" garbage..lol! I'm almost out of my first trimester and I'm starting to feel more like myself..(PTL) 

Last week we had our first ultrasound and seeing that tiny little baby jump around and move its arms up and down was one of the most precious moments of my life. That's our baby who God knit together in me....mind blown.

I really wanted to announce the pregnancy with a sweet photo shoot announcement. So the day after James got back from tour, I gently persuaded him to wake up at 7:30am so we could shoot at 8am. We hired my amazingly talented friend Rachael Alexandra Photography to take the photos. Her work is incredible and she has the personality to make you laugh and feel comfortable which is such an important thing for a photog! I highly recommend her!!!

I still can't believe I'm going to be a mom. Part of me CANNOT WAIT UNTIL JUNE and the other part of me is thinking..who let us have a baby? But my goodness, I am already so in love with this teeny peanut!!!!

Thank you for all your encouraging comments on instagram/fb. It melts my heart knowing how loved this baby already is. I'm so thankful for you all.

XO,
laura

WHEN THINGS DON'T GO ACCORDING TO PLAN

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I like to think that I am an expert traveller. My mum is a travel agent for goodness sake. I was raised to travel. And that I've done. England, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Ukraine, Belgium, India, Hong Kong, Trinidad, Mexico. I love airplanes and everything about them. This has always been my mindset.

Until things don't go according to plan.....

I am a planner. I like neat trip itineraries. I memorize all my flight times. I always know where my passport is. We planned our most recent vacation very well. Three nights in Austin, a short flight to Fort Lauderdale and then 7 nights on a Caribbean cruise...YES. The plans were good and doable.

Our time in Austin was wonderful. We sooo enjoyed our time with Ryan & Joy. We even enjoyed their crazy stormy weather....until it messed up our travel plans. Now I'm not going to go into a travel plans gone horrible rant here but I will say our travel plans got heavily messed up due to weather and we ended up missing our cruise by two hours. Bummer. Thankfully, I have a wonderful mum who quickly booked us a flight to Turks & Caicos the next day so we could meet up with our cruise the following morning. 

Through it all, I kept asking God..."WHY!!!"....we prayed for things to work out and they were not working out and I wish I could tell you He told me some amazing reason for why it didn't work out for us but the honest truth is "I don't know?" but what I do know is sometimes things don't always go according to plan and that's okay. You cannot control everything and that is okay...that is more than okay. Life can sometimes be very unpredictable and it can be very annoying but all you can do is continue to trust God and know that He is good and He is faithful. In the end, things will work out.

And they did end up working for us. We arrived on the island of Grand Turk, we stayed in a cute little hotel, witnessed a beautiful sunset and met up with our cruise the next morning and enjoyed five nights of Caribbean bliss.

And how good is that sunset?

xo,
laura