Hannah Morrison

What Makes Me Smile

Merry Christmas! Today I have teamed up with an amazing service called Smile Generation to share what makes me smile this holiday season.

 

To me, enjoying the holidays means slowing down to actually enjoy it. Gone are the days of saying “yes” to everything and flying by the seat of my pants, barely making it through the holiday season with so much as a single night home to enjoy my tree. I don’t want to live like that, and I hope you don’t either. Life is too short to live by other people’s expectations and obligations! 

What makes me smile are slow nights in my home with cocoa, a fire, and Christmas pajamas watching Knox play with his choo choo by the Christmas tree. It’s watching my favorite Christmas movies with my husband. It’s dancing to Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas album in the living room. It’s making my favorite family dishes and forgetting to count the calories. It’s driving through neighborhoods and pointing out our favorite Christmas light displays. It’s saying “hello” to the stranger at the mall or buying them their cup of coffee. It’s eating our traditional Christmas Eve meal around the table on my great grandma’s China. It’s setting up Santa Claus after Knox has gone to bed. It’s baking cookies and eating that third one just because it’s Christmas and you can. It’s calling your family Christmas morning that you don’t get to be with. It’s watching their face light up when you see them open the gift you knew they wanted the most.

So many things make me smile at Christmas time, and you can find me grinning ear to ear all season long. I feel like a little girl all over again during the holidays, and especially so now with a son to celebrate the magic with. I am proud to partner with Smile Generation, because they take the burden off your shoulders of trying to find the very best for your family. Every mom wants the best for their kids, and now you can find it without the pesky (and sometimes pricey) trial and error. We’ve had our fair share of bad doctors and dentists, and I certainly never want others to have to go through the “sifting through” process like we’ve had to do. Smile Generation has done it all for you, finding the best dental and oral cosmetic offices for you so you don’t have to worry about it. Whether you need just routine care for your family (those twice a year appointments!!), whitening, braces… you name it, they can help you find the best! And with less worry, you can focus more time and attention on the people you love most. And that is something you can always smile about (with pearly whites, might I add)!

 

The Best Gift to Give YOU

I get it. We’ve been there before, too. When people ask if you’re enjoying your holidays you think to yourself, “No, because I haven’t even been able to.” Rushing from one party to the next, trying to make everybody happy, and putting your own hopes and desires or your Christmas season on the back burner. And before you know it… It’s December 26th, you’re exhausted, and a little over it all.

Can I encourage you? Stop. Like, for real, stop. This is your year to take the reins on your Christmas season and saying intentional “yeses” ONLY for things you actually want to go to with your own family. It’s tough to say “no” to things, and especially things that are seemingly fun. But, if it keeps you and your family from accomplishing your personal list of hopes and expectations for Christmas, say no. Creating a Christmas you actually love is the BEST gift you can give yourself.

How do you do this? Glad you asked. 😉 MAKE A LIST, CHECK IT TWICE! You have 25 days, or now just 9(!!!), to make the Christmas season of your dreams happen. One that isn’t marked by franticness or chaos, but rather intentionality and joy. We have a list of 11 things that are non-negotiables for us this season. 7 bucket list items for my family, Knox’s birthday party, and extended family traditions. These are things we want to do and wouldn’t miss for the world. If you do the math… that means our weekends are basically claimed along with a couple week nights a week. Put these on the calendar, budget them in, and stick to the plan. Then, if fun opportunities come up that don’t interfere with your list of non-negotiables and it won’t be stressful to say “yes”, then go ahead and add something to your calendar!

A Couple Other Suggestions for Gifts to YOU (In addition to the list):

  1. Spend 20 minutes going through your “Follow” list on IG/Facebook. Unfollow anybody who doesn’t make you a better you. Whether their account can boil up insecurity or jealousy in you, or they just maybe aren’t part of your life anymore… Scroll through and see how you can declutter your IG feed. If I see an IG handle I don’t recognize, I unfollow.
  2. Plan a special lunch with a few gals at a fancy restaurant and wear your favorite dresses for the heck of it. I suggest Toulouse if you live in DFW. It feels like stepping into France.
  3. Clean out your closet. Again… declutter. Decluttering your life is the best gift to you, in my opinion.
  4. Pick one thing you’ve said you have wanted to do for ages but just never have. I am making a Gingerbread House tonight with my family, because I never have and always say I want to!
  5. Go get holiday nails done! There’s just something about having a fresh set of festive nails that makes me feel on top of the world.

You can be in charge of your Christmas, your family, and everything you do over this season. Own it! Be in charge of your schedule and set the boundaries you need to be able to enjoy this Christmas.

Love you guys. Merry Christmas!

xoxo, Han

Formal Christmas Card Photos 2019

EEEEP! They’re here, they’re here! I am so excited to share our formal Christmas photos for this year. Planning our Christmas cards is one of my favorite things I do every single year, even though my hubby always takes some convincing to do it. Ladies, you’re not alone! Even my husband hates doing family photos. But, it’s always worth it. I absolutely love seeing how my sweet family has grown over time and I actually REALLY want to get prints made from all of our shoots to hang up at Christmas every year. That’s my current project!

This year’s shoot was… an almost disaster. See just a glimpse below… lol. If it weren’t for our incredible photographer, Cottonwood Road Photography, we would have had a total flop of a shoot. Knox, who usually LOVES getting his picture taken, just wanted to explore. I mean, he is a toddler boy. I should have known! But, somehow, Hannah H. captured the milliseconds we got of Knox not asking to “get down” or yelling “stop it” as we would chase him down to keep from falling into the barbwire fences around us as he searched for the horses he swore were around, but absolutely did not exist. L O L.

Quick tips for shooting with a toddler:

  1. Just roll with it. If they want to run around, that is how your shoot needs to be. Our photographer, Hannah, set the tone for this so well and we just followed her lead. Rather than getting frustrated with him, which would have upset him and made the shoot a lost cause, we tried to be adventurous with him. It kept him smiling, even though he was frustrated with us for not letting him run into the open field by us.
  2. We would play in the leaves with him (which ended up being some of my FAVORITE shots Hannah got!) or tossing him in the air to get giggles. Whatever you got to do, do it. It’s not about you or about getting the “picture perfect” shot. It’s about capturing your family, as it is. And, if you have an amazing photographer, then you get the picture perfect shots mixed in WITH the real shots. I love them both, honestly! This is also why it’s so worth paying a great photographer, if you’re able, once a year for your Christmas photos. They can capture things you just wouldn’t be able to on your own or with a non-professional.
  3. We left saying “Well, even if we have to send out a funny picture, we are going to be happy!” Having images, no matter how your shoot goes, is so worth it and you’ll never regret it.

Thanks to Dillard’s for sponsoring all of our looks! Everything except for Knox’s jacket and Paul’s shoes are entirely from Dillard’s. I have them all linked for you below.

It feels impossible to narrow down our hundreds of photos to a graspable amount… so I tried my very best to pick the best, the funniest, and the cutest!

3 Things That Changed Our Budget & Created Margin

Heya babes! Today I am sharing about that dreaded “B Word”… Budget. WHOA WHOA, what word did you think I meant!? Ok, just kidding. BUT, for real. How many of us hate the word “budget?” I used to hate talking about the budget, money, or anything of the sort because I just didn’t want to know. This was, of course, no help to my husband who was trying to keep us on track.

For 2019, the word that Paul felt on his heart for our family was “margin.” We felt this was for our time, family, and money. I am sharing today 3 things we use that has brought margin for our family’s finances with the hopes it will do the same for you.

  1. I took over the budget. We decided to do this for a couple reasons- one of them being to make me feel the weight of our money. And now that I have… I ain’t going to lie… I freaking love it. Like, neither of us want to go back to Paul doing it. It’s become a GAME to me. I love running our budget. I love knowing how much value even $5 spent here and there is, and how quickly it adds up and cuts into our margin. I literally look at my budget spreadsheet every.single.day. I legit asked Paul today as I left the house, “Hey babe, can you make sure lights are off when you leave? The electricity bill was high last month.” LOL. WHO AM I?! I encourage you, if you don’t know your family’s budget or are like how I used to be (“I just don’t wanna know”), then I would seriously consider running your budget even just a one month commitment with your spouse. This will help you both!
  2. Twine App. Paul started using Twine as our external savings account. We found it way too easy to “steal” from our savings when it was in our bank account. If we really wanted to establish margin, we needed to remove that savings account from our grasp altogether. We send money over every month and it is accruing interest like a true Savings Account. It helps you set goals, too! It’s so great.
  3. Robin Hood/Stocks. You guys, this one has been a game changer for us. Like, life-changing. As part of his mission to create margin for our family, Paul began educating himself on stocks. We have some big goals to pay off everything but our mortgage as quickly as possible (cars, school, etc.), and this has been HUGE for us. We are talking a side income for our family FROM STOCKS. Robin Hood helps manage your stock investments easily and is linked to your bank. We have a healthy number in there we keep for daily investments, and Paul sends the surplus he’s made that week to our bank. He has really figured out a system that’s almost fool-proof. However, we don’t budget this profit into our monthly budget just in case there’s a low week or month. I assess what we made and allocate the earnings accordingly toward debt. As of now, Robin Hood is our debt payer and it’s been such a blessing!

Whether you do these exact steps, or you figure out something else that works for you, I hope you know you CAN create margin with your budget. It takes getting everybody (yes YOU!) on board with unified goals. You can do this, y’all!! You can spend and save wisely, and steward your money well. We are cheering you on!

How I Saved My Eyes + My Bathroom Refresh!

You guys, okay. I am excited for today’s post for two reasons:

  1. I finally am sharing a peek at our fresh bathroom! It’s nowhere near done, but I am so excited about where it’s headed.
  2. Today is a prime example of working with a brand I LOVE and use already.

Here’s the thing you guys… I am blind. Like, so blind. I must be in contacts or my glasses at all times other than sleep or I will be useless. I have had glasses since the 4th grade and have worn contacts since 7th grade. The first 13 years of wearing contacts, I only wore monthly contacts. I would order a 6 month supply and switch them out roughly every month (but was really bad about keeping up). About two years ago, for some reason, my eyes basically just were rejecting contacts. Didn’t matter the brand or how on top of switching them out I was. My eyes were fuzzy, itchy, and red all the time. I thought I would never be able to wear contacts anymore and have to get Lasik if I ever wanted to see again sans glasses.

Then, it was actually my best friend who suggested trying dailies (which I didn’t even know existed!) and it changed the entire contacts game for me. I will never do anything other than dailies now that I know how much it helped me and saved my eyeballs. I have been using Cooper Vision’s Clariti Daily Contacts for two years! So, when they randomly reached out to me asking if I happened to use them… I was like WHAT?! YES. YES, I DO!

I order mine through Costco. DUH. And it’s so much cheaper than anywhere else! This is one of those things I know is so niche, but I really do care and these really did change my eyeballs and saved their life. *I am not being dramatic.* Things got so bad it would feel like I got sunscreen in my eyes if I looked at the sun. This all went away almost immediately when I changed contacts!

OKAY, so next up: MY BATHROOM!!!!!

We have these colors all throughout my house now, and I am here for it. My walls are SW Alabaster, vanity is SW Inkwell, and my doors are a fun mixture of 1/2 Stardew and 1/2 Uncertain Grey. You just come in and ask for a half gallon of each and then to mix it together! It’s so pretty.

We are slowly painting all the doors in our home this mixture, and are restoring some furniture with the Inkwell. I also have some dreams of an Inkwell accent wall in my dining room with gold frames! A key to freshening up your home is picking a pallet and sticking to it in all your main spaces. It helps your resell value and is just aesthetically pleasing.

I linked below some of the additions to our bathroom I have in my cart, waiting for my budget to say “go!” 😉

 

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