BOHO BABY GIRL SHOWER

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A couple weeks ago my dear friends threw me the sweetest baby shower! Baby girl and I got mad blessed by our amazing village. Seriously, I have the bestest friends, family and church family!! 

How stunning is that cake!!!!??? Rachel Cakes made it to replica that invite and she absolutely nailed it! It also was waaaay too delicious! If you live in Victoria, I HIGHLY recommend hiring her!
I ordered the shortbread cookies for favours from Cookie For Occasions and they were SO good.
My dress is from Pink Blush. I've gotten so much use out of it and I know I will post baby too as it's set up to be a nursing dress as well! 
I also designed the invite...if you want to order, please contact me!

Huge, huge, huge thanks to Courtney and Rachel for planning such a killer shower. Thanks to my mother in law for hosting!! And all of my girl gang who loved on baby girl and I...she's going to be so blessed to be surrounded by amazing women like yourselves!

XO,
Laura

5 TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL DAY ROAD TRIP WITH A BABY

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Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CanadianTire #QuakerState #CollectiveBias

We happen to live in the most beautiful part of the world (ok, I may be a little bit biased!) But for reals, the West Coast of Canada is crazy beautiful and we're lucky to live a few hours drive from some amazing summer destinations. 

Before we had Luca, we road tripped all the time. We've driven to California a couple times and always loved escaping north to Tofino. A five hour drive was nothing to us. Having a baby complicated things. Especially when you're an A-type/schedule based mama like myself, ha!

But sometimes you need to go off your baby's schedule and create some family memories...am I right!!! The other week we did just that...I suggested to my hubby that we load up our SUV and hit a cute beach town a few hours north of us and he was so game.

Even though everything didn't go as planned (locked keys in the car, baby lost his hat, multiple blowouts, etc, etc) it turned out to be SUCH a fun day and a successful road trip!

Here are 5 tips to plan that successful day road trip with a baby:

1. Be prepared to go off schedule.

Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you probably won't stick to your baby's schedule. If baby doesn't have amazing naps, it's going to be okay. This was a hard one for me as I'm so OCD but honestly, just mentally preparing myself that naps weren't going to be regular, totally chilled me out and made me enjoy the day!

2. Change your car oil with Quaker State® Ultimate Durability™ Full Synthetic Motor Oil.

Having a current oil change is SO important. Quaker State® Ultimate Durability™ Full Synthetic Motor Oil is available at Canadian Tire for such a great price too!

It is so important to make sure your vehicle is good to go...seriously no one wants to waste precious adventure time broken down on the side of the row. Ensure that you buy the correct oil for your vehicle. You can always ask an employee at Canadian Tire to help you out!

3. Load your vehicle with healthy snacks.

A wise mama once told me to always have snacks on hand. And honestly I took her advice to heart. Snacks were given numerous times to avoid meltdowns. Make sure they're healthy and you're good to go!

4. Pack more equipment than you need...because you'll probably need it.

We were heading to the beach so we made sure we packed our shade tent for Luca. Sadly we forgot to pack beach chairs for ourselves! Speaking of beach chairs, Canadian Tire has some seriously cute and practical beach equipment. They totally live up to their tagline: Made for Life in Canada.

Also remember to pack changes of clothes for (baby AND you), more diapers and wipes than you think you'll need, and lots of water. I'm so thankful we had a flat of water bottles in the back because we may have had to use some to wash our hands after changing a blow out in the trunk, ha.

5. Break up the drive with stops.

Little Luca was getting pretty fussy after about an hour on the road. Instead of driving onward with a cranky baby, we stopped at a train museum that was on the way. It turned out to be such a good idea. He was able to run off some energy, ride a choo choo train and then quickly fell asleep as soon as we got back on the road.  

Hope you can use these tips to make some family memories! Happy road trip adventures! You got this mamas!!!

XO,
laura

PRINTABLE NURSERY CLOSET DIVIDERS

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We're starting to get baby girl's nursery together and things are feeling REAL! I'm over 34 weeks now, which means she could be making an appearance in the next 6 weeks or so!!!!

I had an old friend donate a TON of gorgeous little girl clothes (thanks Justine!!) so baby girl's closet is getting quite full! With Luca, I hung a lot of stuff in his closet BUT because things weren't super organized he ended up wearing a few outfits only a couple times before he outgrew them! 

I don't want to make the same mistake with sweet baby girl so I made some printable closet dividers for her nursery! I don't want to miss out on any of her sweet outfits, ha!

They look quite purple in the above photo, but they print pretty true to the image below.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD DOORHANGERS PT 1.
CLICK HER TO DOWNLOAD DOORHANGERS PT 2.
(PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY)

Please let me know if you end up using these! Tag me on insta (@lauraliira) or comment below!! 

XO,
Laura

5 YEARS

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Today marks five years of being married to my best friend and love, James. Through five years we've had amazing milestones- missions trip to India, vacations, buying a house, having a baby, getting pregnant with #2 and so so so much more.

Five years of so many moments. Moments of pure joy. Moments of craziness. Moments of pain. Moments of love. So so many moments. I can't reflect on our marriage without acknowledging God's faithfulness. A few weeks back in church we were singing this song and I couldn't hold back the tears as I thought about the past five years...

I will sing of all You've done
I'll remember how far You carried me
From beginning until the end
You are faithful, faithful to the end

There wasn't a day
That You weren't by my side
There wasn't a day
That You let me fall
All of my life
Your love has been true

Through every single moment, God was there. Through the incredibly beautiful ones, through the excruciating painful ones..He was there, holding us together, carrying us through. 

I'd love to give some practical advice on marriage but the main thing that has held us together has been JESUS. It's not every story, but it's our story and all that I know to make a marriage work! Other practical things that have been good for us have been:

  • being friends...actually enjoying each other's company..with the phone put away (so hard for me!),
  • remembering you're on the same team when you disagree...the issue is not between you...you are together and your job is to work through the issue not let it tear you a part 
  • clearly communicating...always have to remind myself, James cannot read my mind, ha.
  • don't be so serious all the time
  • kiss a lot...hug and hold...hug for at least 1 minute and think nice thoughts about your spouse!
  • invite people into your life...we're really trying to get better at this as life has been so nutso entering parenthood but it's one we value so much when we make the time to be with others!!

I look back on the past five years with such thankfulness. I'm so thankful that God gave me you, James Peter Liira. And I look forward to our future with such hope and anticipation because I'm believing our best days are still yet to come. Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.

all photos by AMERIS 

SUMMER DRESSES // WARDROBE

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The thing about being pregnant in the summer is you want to live in dresses every dang day. We've been having a mad heatwave over here and I'm so over it...ha, sorry summer ppl! But thank goodness I've been able to wear these summer dresses to keep me as cool as I can get!

I'm loving this gorgeous off the shoulder dress from Tobi. It even fits over my 7 month bump! The great thing about it is I'll be able to wear it when I'm not pregnant! Most maternity clothes feature the bump but post baby that is NOT what you want, ha.

This t-shirt dress is ridiculously comfy and it even has pockets!! I've worn it non-stop since I got it!

How gorgeous is the detail on this dress! Unfortunately, my belly was too big to rock it on it's own but come fall, I'll add some tights and boots and be good to go!!

Check out Tobi for some amazing deals on summer dresses!

Outfit details...

Blue off the shoulder dress c/o Tobi, Brown Sandals- Ardenes, Blue t-shirt dress c/o Tobi, Hat- Joe Fresh, Sunnies- Joe Fresh, Light Purple Dress c/o Tobi

XO!
laura