Print Those Pictures

Do your photos ever make it off of your camera roll?  

I'm coming to you today to say - Print those photos!

The school pictures you purchased, the fall break pictures, Halloween pictures or favorites from Summer.  It's time to showcase those memories with the people you love.

I'm trying to be better about printing my favorite pictures from every day, from trips and then display them around the house.  I pick up cute frames at TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods when I see them.  I love the fact that they are unique, have some bold options and they are really affordable.  I use them for myself and gift them to family.  The frames also seem to be much better quality than big box store frames.

I have the Walgreens app on my phone for easy printing.  I upload my photos, google the best photo printing code and pick the pictures up about an hour later.

We came home from Wisconsin and I promptly printed some of our favorite pictures from the trip.  It makes me so happy to see it in my kitchen.

I have a photo goal of printing some albums of our trips from 2026.  No captions.  No scrapbooking.  Just photos and tons of memories that the kids can flip through.  I'd love to put one in everyone's stocking this year or maybe have our elves bring the kids photo albums from 2026, but we shall see what I pull together between now and Christmas.  If you print photo albums, what is your go to place for that?  I did Snapfish books a million years ago.  I have done some at Walgreens and didn't love the cropping/quality.  Give me your tips!

I would also like to print Halloween photos from all the past Halloweens and have them in a container for us to flip through every October.  Do you know of a good spot to print them in an old polaroid style that would be durable for flipping through and not cost a million dollars??

Happy Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween weekend!  I vote for Halloween to always be the last Saturday of October.  We had fun assembling each of the kid's Halloween costumes and doing a dress rehearsal, made Halloween treats and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  The kids were so excited about their costumes this year.  I love a good family theme, but I really love finding costumes tht the kids love.

We lined our patio with pumpkin lanterns.

We put Peanut in a pumpkin.

The kids picked out the biggest pumpkins they could find and each had very specific plans for their pumpkins.

I upgraded our cutting tools for the first time in years and their pumpkins turned out so cute!

Peanut wasn't sure what to think of pumpkins on his first Halloween.

Peanut snuggles.

Peanut in a pumpkin sweater.

I baked treats for a Halloween party.

Olive as Simon the chipmunk.

Fletcher as CJ Carr Notre Dame's QB.

Leo as Michael Jackson.  He's been obsessed with Michael Jackson's music since Summer and was set on being MJ for Halloween for months.

Read to trick or treat.

Olive stayed back with her friends to pass out candy.  We headed to a neighborhood party with the boys for dinner before we trick or treated.  

We bumped into the chipmunks - Alvin, Simon & Theodore!  They looked so cute!

The biggest candy haul yet!

The end of the night candy trading is always a highlight of Halloween for me!

Halloween 2026 was a good one!  I hope yours was, too!

Building A Custom Gas Firepit

Not long after we moved into our house in 2021, we were looking for ways to enhance and improve our blank slate of a backyard.  That's the fun and intimidating thing about new construction.  You start from scratch a lot of times on your yard.  We had sod in our backyard and that was it.  We added a metal fence, a line of trees and then we started dreaming up plans for a fire pit.  We interviewed a few different companies.  Visited showrooms and decided on one.

We went back and forth with measurements, materials, locations for the fire pit, gas lines, etc. We went with a local company - UniquEscapes and were really happy with them. Decisions were finalized and Leo and I had a front row seat to the project being built.  It was 2022 and we were home together.  Enjoy the little Leo photos and let's celebrate me finally finishing this post 4 years later.  We can really give you an honest review now.

Today: 2026 Our firepit is a really fun corner of our yard and everything is completely settled.  We use it often for after dinner s'mores, a dessert with friends, date night under the stars after the kids go to bed and family parties.  It's been a great addition to our yard.  Our trees have grown so much in four years.

Rewind back to the winter of 2022 and things got messy!  We picked a different area of the yard initially for the fire place and then realized the huge expensive of running the gas line so far.  We opted for the more affordable corner of the yard and are so thankful it's tucked in this quiet corner.  It worked out better than our original plan that would have require an extensive amount of landscaping to feel cozy.

I got nervous for our newly laid sod as the heavy machinery started rolling in.  The promised to be as careful as possible with our new line of trees and our new grass.

Gas lines were trenched.  And might have been retrenched when an issue came up.  Kevin really wanted a gas fire pit becuase we do not have access to fire wood and it would be a long time before the trees on our lots were every big enough to be dropping branches.  We also liked the fact that we could turn on the gas fire pit, enjoy it and not come in smelling like bonfire.

The kids kept close tabs on the construction.

Rain delays.  We had to trust the process because at times the backyard looked worse before it got better.

So much measuring, leveling, layering.  I'm not sure what I expected, but their process was super thorough.  They had a whole team coming an going at our house for a week.

After nap + snack in hand inspection.

Things were starting to look like our rendering.  16ft wide, 5 ft fire pit and a variety of stone material.

We had the options to go with grays or more browns.  I'm so glad we went the brown route.  They told us the browns would blend in better outside, be more timeless and not as dated s a gray fire pit down the road.  That's proving to be true!  It still looks really professional and pretty in the corner of our yard.

Kevin was checking out the project we'd been dreaming of. 

We went with lava rock instead of shiny glass for the fire pit filler.  We needed double the amount they quoted because the fire pit is huge.

Grass seed was planted.  Straw was laid.  White birch logs were added because we liked the look.

The fire pit has been a fun hang out spot for us ever since.

I try to keep s'mores ingredients on hand year round.

Silly Fletch.

The perfect spot for rainbow viewing.

I'd love to add some pretty stepping stones to connect our patio to the fire pit or maybe some twinkle lights to that corner of the yard.  One day!