52 Weeks of Small Style!

Today we're celebrating one year of Small Style! Thank you so much for each one of you who have visited, commented, and, of course, all of you who have linked up. You have made this year so.much.fun!!

Here are my kiddos one year ago in their very first Small Style photos:





And, here they are now:








Don't forget the super fun prizes that some fabulous ladies and I are giving away today! You can check them out and read all of the details here. To be entered all you have to do is link up. I'll be choosing winners using random.org on Saturday, so make sure you link up by tomorrow!

I'd love to know....what is your favorite thing about Small Style?

Link up here:

Rue La La + Busy Phillips = Live Out Loud

Have you heard of Rue La La, a members only shopping site? They have a lot of great sales and designer brands (I'm super excited about the 7 For All Mankind Jeans I bought off of Rue yesterday!).

Rue La La is partnering up with celebrity mom Busy Phillips to create a boutique called LIVE OUT LOUD! The boutique is filled with Busy’s favorites from Tibi, Tutu Couture, Alex Toys, Twirls & Twigs and more. In turn, Rue La La is donating to the Step Up Women’s Foundation in Busy’s name.

LIVE OUT LOUD! will be filled with super cute items and I'm especially loving this red tutu. I know Finley would love it, too! I put together a little inspiration board for how I would style the adorable tutu.


Tutu- Rue La La, Top- Gap Classic T, Shoes- Natalia by See Kai Run, Bow- Adornme Girl
I'm also loving these cute dresses, which are perfect for Spring.


The Busy Philipps “Doing A Little Good” boutique opens on March 1st (tomorrow!) at 11 am EST. Visit Rue La La and become a member, if you aren't already, to shop the LIVE OUT LOUD boutique and see all of the adorable items hand picked by Busy Phillips.

This is a compensated post by Rue La La. All opinions are mine.

Small Style Anniversary Prizes!

Thank you so much to each one of you who linked up with me for the Small Style one year anniversary! If you are a winner, please email me at mamalovespapablog@gmail.com
so that I can get you your prize.

Prize One: A beautiful Pashima from Mi Pancita and Bowbec's

**The winner of the beautiful Pashima is Annie from Love.Laugh.Live**


I, "Mi Pancita" am giving away this large pashmina and silk shawl from Bowbec's. A $52.00 value

Bowbec's is a women's fashion and accessory boutique that has recently opened an online store! Carrying uniquely elegant, fine fashion items for the discerning woman.

This is a picture of me wearing the actual scarf to be given away. It can be worn as a scarf, shawl or wrap. I have even seen it used as a table runner. It is 70% pashmina and 30% silk.

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Prize Two: A headband and hair clips from Made for Lilybelle

**The winner of the headband and hair clips is Jess from Mommyhood, by Jess**




My blog started off as a daily journal for my family and friends. I soon discovered a whole world full of mommy bloggers sharing anything and everything about their lives. So, I pretty much started doing the same and have made super sweet bloggy friends along the way.

I graduated from Fashion Design school and was an intern for the crazy Zandra Rhodes. Blogging has helped fill that creative void that we busy mommies might have. I used to have an Etsy store named Sweet Lilybelle, but between homeschooling Lily, blogging, and trying to be a little creative..my store was sadly forgotten. But my goal this year is to reopen my store...Yay! If anyone is interested in purchasing any of my hair accessories you can email me at sweet_lilybelle@yahoo.com until I reopen my store.

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Prize Three: Four bows (of your choice) by Adornme Girl

**The winner of the bows is Claudia from Lil Muse Lily**


Kendra's shop is filled with beautiful items for girls of all ages. The beautiful bows are regularly featured on Small Style on Finley.

Adornme Girl's lovely items will be featured on Zulily on March 3rd. Don't miss that sale!

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Prize Four: A Klean Kanteen Kids Sport (in the color of your choice) from Judah, Samuel, Silas, and Finley to thank you for following along on their Small Style journey over the past year!

**The winner of the Klean Kanteen is Shannon from The Scribble Pad**

Marriage, Week 1: Expectations

Well, here we are, week one of the relationship series. Today we're discussing Expectations in Marriage and we'd love to have you join us! Feel free to post your own thoughts and link up below or just join in the discussion in the comment section. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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Expectations have been the single, most difficult obstacle, for me, in marriage. I got married at twenty and was a naive, romantic, idealist. (My lucky husband, right?) I didn't have any great examples of a strong marriage, but I was confident that with God and our love it would always be easy. No, really, I really thought that.

My expectations have ruined many a special times and have caused me to feel unhappy and unfulfilled in my marriage. When Eric didn't get me more than one present at Christmas I would be disappointed, when he took me to the wrong restaurant on Valentine's Day it wasn't good enough, and it wasn't just special occasions, even the overall tone of our marriage was one of, "not enough." I looked to Eric to fulfill a need in me- to be loved and cherished and "special'- and when it didn't look like how I expected it to look like I felt hurt and rejected. It even got to the point where Eric was afraid to do something for me. He'd say, "Well, when I try, it's never good enough. Why even try?" Of course, this made me feel even more hurt and rejected, so it would be a continuous cycle.

When I've allowed my husband to be himself, imperfections and all, I've found that I have so much more peace and joy and I'm able to more freely love and appreciate my husband. When I'm focusing on what is- not on what could be or what I want to be- I'm able to more fully enjoy the moment or season or situation. Is he the perfect husband? Of course not, but that's a good thing, because I'm definitely not the perfect wife.

I found I needed to let go of all of my expectations. Even realistic ones. Do I think every wife should be provided for, romanced, dated, pursued, cherished, and always feel loved? Of course! Is every woman, at every moment, going to feel these things? No. Even if you feel your expectations are not only realistic, but completely justified, let them go, anyway. We can't ever look to a man, even our husbands, or any other person, to make us feel loved and complete. (Of course, if you're in an abusive situation, then get the heck out right away.)

Marriage (and all of life) is filled with the unexpected. When we enter into something- any new relationship or situation, we never know what is going to happen. Instead of focusing on what you hoped it to be, focus on what is. Love what is. If there are things you want to improve or areas you need to grow in, that's great, but don't forget to rejoice in the many things that are. There's always things to be thankful for and the more you focus on them the less important the other things may seem.

I haven't let go of all of my expectations and I haven't figured it all out. It's a continual process, but I finally feel like I'm learning to just enjoy my marriage and not idealize it. I read once that the people that go after happiness, the ones that will do anything for happiness, are usually the most unhappy. I choose to be content in what I have.

Have you dealt with unfulfilled expectations? What did it look like for you?

Don't forget to visit Courtney and Gina to read what they said about Expectations.

(I stole this cute collage from Gina's blog. Thanks, Gina!)


Read about Expectations in Marriage.

Week 3: Comparisons (Or, Keeping The Passion Alive- you pick)
Week 4: Loving Through (when the unexpected happens)
Week 5: A Strong Marriage While Parenting

Link up here:

Out on the Town

On Mama: Dress- Forever 21, Heels: Target, Blazer- Vintage, Thrifted
On Papa: Shirt- Vintage, Thrifted, Jeans- K Slims, Local shop , Shoes- Vans
As I was showing Eric these little photo collages, he just shook his head and silently laughed at me. I'm a dork, ok? It made me think blogging and being a blogger. So many things that I think are normal and are totally natural for me and other bloggers are probably pretty weird for the general public.

I thought of my friends, out with their husbands, taking individual pictures of each other and collaging them together or of them staging mini-photoshoots and taking photos of everything or not just making a project or recipe, but taking step-by-step photos of every little thing. No, it would never happen. I guess that's what makes us bloggers so "special." Weird or normal? Your call.

Anyway, the other night my mom came over and watched the kids, so and Eric and I could go out to dinner and to hear an acoustic show by the Los Lonely Boys (my mom gave us the tickets, too!). It was such a fun night and I love any excuse to dress up.

Black and White

I'm joining in with The Paper Mama's photo challenge again this week. The theme is black and white, so I took this photo (which I adore!) and turned it black and white.

I'm super excited for next week's challenge, Favorite Photo of February. Can you guess which one I'm going to choose? You've already seen it.

This and That for the Weekend

So, remember how I entered the photo contest at The Paper Mama? Well, I WON last week's challenge. I can't even tell you how excited I am! I'll post my entry for this week's challenge, Black and White, later today!



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The winner of the Large Ad Space for March is #15, Keshet! YAY! Email me so we can get you all set up!

There is still time for you sponsor Mama Loves Papa for March. I would love to promote your blog, business, or shop and, remember, advertise in March and get April free! Email me for more information.

On Marriage

So, remember awhile back I said I was going to do a marriage series? Well, I know it's taken longer than planned, but I promise, it's going to be worth the wait. I'm teaming up with these two fabulous ladies:


Gina of Contemplating Beauty


Courtney of Vintch

This is going to be a five week series covering topics like Expectations (Tuesday's topic!), Loving Through (dealing with big or chronic issues- sickness, depression, etc...), Communication, and more. Each week the three of us will be blogging our different perspectives on each topic. We'll also have a linky up each week and we'd love to have you blog about the same topics and link up with us. We want this to be a place for women of all walks of life- married, single, divorced, widowed- to share your perspective on that week's topics. So, remember, this Tuesday we'll be talking about expectations. Such a great topic!

I'm so excited about this series, but I must admit, I'm a little bit nervous. Marriage struggles aren't something that are openly talked about, aside from therapists offices, but most people are probably hesitant to even share there. It's ok to admit you're struggling with your children or your weight or most anything else, but it seems it's socially unacceptable to talk about marriage problems and issues. I know so many women (and I was one!) that felt isolated and alone during hard times in my marriage. It wasn't until I started reaching out to friends and other women that I realized that every single marriage has their own issues.

Naturally, I'm a very open person, I love sharing my experiences and am excited when they help someone. My husband has never had a problem with me sharing anything on this blog or in real life, but I know that many times the way that we relate in marriage starts way before our I Dos. It starts in our family of origin, our first model of marriage. This isn't an anonymous blog and many of our family and friends read this, so I want to be sensitive to those relationships. It can be a difficult line to walk between being vulnerable and open and over-sharing. Honestly, I'd rather err on the side of over sharing, if it ministers to even one person.

So, this is a journey of telling our stories, sharing about marriage, and our prayer is that each person that reads these and writes their own stories would be encouraged and ministered to.



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Last day to enter the Large Ad Space Giveaway!

Small Style #51

Next week is Week #52- One full year of Small Style! I can't even believe it! Next year, in addition to showing you some of my favorite Small Style photos (mine and yours) we'll be having a little giveaway. All you'll need to do to enter is just link up your Small Style post. If you're a once in awhile poster or if you've never linked up, but have been wanting to, next week is the perfect week to start!

Here's a little sneak peek of what I'll be giving away. I'll post all the details and full descriptions of the items next Wednesday.


Both a headband and hair clip from Sweet Lilybelle


Silk Shawl from Mi Pancita


Set of four bows from Adornme Girl

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Top- Gap, Shorts- Old Navy, Tights- Hand me down from a friend, Bow- Adornme Girl, Shoes- See Kai Run via Zulily

Finley is proudly showing off the rock that she got from Samuel. Samuel lovingly gave each one of us a rock from his rock collection (a homeschool project that he's having so much fun with!). As you can see, Finley is quite enamored with her gift from big brother- and with him!

Link up here:

Papa and His Girl

There are few things more beautiful to me than watching their relationship. This morning we took the little ones to a coffee shop. After we were done, as we were getting ready to leave, I went to throw away the trash. As I walked back over to the table Eric was leaning over towards Finley and she was wiping off his face with a napkin. Oh, it made my heart melt.

One of the most important aspects in a little girl's life is her relationship with her father. I am so thankful that Eric is a physically affectionate, involved, loving, and available (emotionally and physically) dad to our sweet girl (and our boys).



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-I am loving reading your responses to the survey. Thank you so much to those of you who have filled it out. If you haven't, will you please take a few minutes and fill it out for me?

-Don't forget to enter to win a large ad space for your shop, blog, or business. You have until Thursday to enter.

-See you tomorrow for Small Style!

Reader Survey

Hello friends! I have a little survey that I would LOVE to have you fill out. While I call my blog a "lifestyle blog," I really mean I blog about a little bit of everything.

I'd love to narrow down my topics and focus on more of a "niche" (or a few niches) and I'd love to know why you come here, what you love to read about, and what you want more of.

Thank you SO much for giving me a few minutes of your time!



(I'm closing comments, so you can fill out the survey instead. Thanks!!)

Park Time!

Back when Judah was just a little baby I read that kids nap better and sleep better at night when they're outside during the day. Every since then I've tried to get the kids outside every single day, rain or shine. We're fortunate to live in a place that even when it's raining it never gets too cold to spend a little time outdoors.

When Eric and I were dating and engaged most of our time was spent outside. We loved to go hiking, bike riding, swimming, and on picnics. With four little kids it's a little more challenging to go hiking, but I love when we do. These days our hikes are little slower and a little shorter, but still fun.

We love the fact that we have a huge city park right here in town. It's divided into two parts- Upper Park is hilly and Lower Park is flat with a creek running through both. Yesterday we went hiking in Upper Park and a few days ago we spent time in lower park, which is only a few minute jog or bike ride from our front door.

Blog Love: 365 Lucky Days

You're probably already familiar with this blog, but just in case you're not, let me introduce you to 365 Lucky Days. Lucky is creating one beautiful piece of art every day for a year. I love all of them, but this little girl in a tutu with a Darth Vader mask jumped out at me. A few days before I saw this, Finley walked out into the living room, where Eric and I were, wearing a cute little pink dress and Judah's Darth Vader mask. If I didn't know better I would say this little girl was Finley.

A few other favorites: Dwight Schrute, my gorgeous friend, Desiree, a VW Bug, a dress and cowboy boots, and Amy Poehler.

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Happy President's Day! Eric is taking the day off, so we'll be spending some time out in this beautiful weather! Do you have any fun plans!

-Don't forget to enter to win a large ad space for your blog or shop!

Sponsor Mama Loves Papa for March, get April free! (EDITED TO ADD: GIVEAWAY!)

March will be a busy, fun month here at Mama Loves Papa and a great month for you to advertise your shop or blog! March 1st will be the one year Small Style anniversary and I've created a new weekly schedule that should be fun!

I'm continuing the buy one month of ad space, get one free sale! This means that for only $9 (that's $4.50 per month!) you'll get a small ad space or $16 for a large ad (only $8 per month!). There is also an extra large, featured ad available. Email me for more information on advertising in March and April at mamalovespapablog@gmail.com

Oh yes, I'm also going to do another large sponsor spot giveaway for March! Just leave a comment and tell me what you'd want your ad space for. If you pay for an ad space and then win I'll either refund your money or give you a free third month.

For extra entries (please leave a separate comment for each entry):
Be (or become) a follower of the blog
Follow me on twitter (@mamalovespapa)
Like the Mama Loves Papa Facebook page

You have until Friday, March 23rd to enter. Winner will be chosen via random.org on the 24th.

My Family

I'm linking up for The Paper Mama's photo challenge. I'll post the rest of the photos from our park visit later in the week. There's some more cute ones!

Featured Small Style {Naomi from The Longs}

This week's Small Styler (Or, is it stylist? Or, something else? I can't figure it out.) is precious Naomi from The Longs. I love the Valentine's theme for these adorable photos! Isn't she just a doll?

Baby Liam and the R Family

Oh, wow. I can't believe I almost forgot Small Style yesterday. Thanks so much to Stephanie for pointing to me that yesterday was, in fact. Thursday. In less than two weeks it will be the Small Style one year anniversary. I'm super excited about the giveaway and there's still time to participate. I'll be highlighting your shop several times in the next couple of weeks, so if you'd like to give something away just let me know!

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I did my first newborn shoot a few weeks ago with baby Liam and family. It is always so fun being around a sweet new baby and his two older sisters were adorable with him. He is definitely loved and doted on. Thank you SO much R family for letting me photograph you!