Life Update #1: Redecorating & My New Kitten!

     Ahhh, it feels so good to be writing another personal blog! A lot has been going on in my life recently that I wanted to share with you...

     First off, I have acquired my very own bathroom that I have been redecorating over the last two weeks. It has been taking up a lot of my time but has been so worth it. I have repainted and just began picking out some other elements trying to tie the whole room together. It still has a long way to go as far as organizing goes so please leave me any helpful tips down below!

    Secondly, we have added a new family member to our household and I couldn't be more excited! In this video I introduce you to Lily, the sweetest little furball in the entire world! She has been doing nothing but running around our entire house playing with her toys- I get such a kick out of it!

     This video also includes a giveaway for surpassing 100 subscribers on my YouTube beauty channel (here)! Feel free to enter for a chance to win a $20 Sephora gift card!

Have you recently had anything fun or exciting going on in your life?

Love, Lacey

Courtney's Wedding April 20, 2013

     I was so excited for this day, even a little nervous! Out of my whole group of friends through out high school, Courtney is the first one to begin this wonderful new chapter of her life. I attended her bridal shower a few weeks ago and then her wedding this past Saturday. Everything was gorgeous from the weather to her lace dress. I saw people that I hadn't seen since graduation and it was a great feeling to all share this memory together.

     The wedding was at 4 o'clock at a Baptist church in Kentucky. Unfortunately, I had a whole different dress picked out to wear and as I was putting it on the zipper broke! I have never had that happen but luckily had this back up to throw on. Jerome and I got there around 3:30 and were the first ones there out of our group of friends- we had to save a lot of seats!

     This is Krista, Becky, and Emily some of the greatest girls! I hadn't seen Becky or Emily since graduation (almost 3 years ago) so it was great catching up. Krista and I have been able to meet for lunch and catch up recently- I'm even her maid of honor for her wedding in 2014! 

     Courtney's wedding was beautiful. Her colors must have been yellow and gray and all of the girls carried daisies. The ceremony was pretty straight forward with passages being read and the exchanging of the rings. It was over within an hour, but it's definitely an hour that she will remember forever!

This needs no caption... isn't it just the cutest thing in the entire world!

     After the wedding we all had to take some pictures! I already introduced you to the three girls in the middle but on your far left is Taylor. She was also in my graduating class and we grew up playing softball together. I look up to her because she actually did all of the hair and makeup for the bride and bridal party! I would love to be able to do something like that in the future.

Of course we had Krista take this picture of Jerome and I. We are hardly ever dressed up like this so we have to document it when we can! Didn't he look so handsome? I believe he bought that shirt for one of our high school homecomings- I still love that color!

     Reception time! It was held in a middle school gym right up the road and had a live band which I thought was really neat! Notice the presence of a lot of cowgirl boots and hats, you can definitely tell that we are some small town girls! On your far right is Brooke, my childhood best friend. She was Courtney's maid of honor and looked gorgeous in her yellow dress and boots. I love this picture of all of us. Even though we haven't seen each other for some time, we still talk like we haven't missed a beat. We literally just sat around the table and reminisced about our high school experience- we all miss it so much!

     I just want to say congratulations from the bottom of my heart Courtney. You are such a beautiful person inside and out and I cannot wait to see your beautiful, new life with James unfold. You two make the cutest couple and I wish you the absolute best.

Love, Lacey

Cincinnati Reds Opening Day

     Another major league baseball season is upon us and I couldn't be happier! Being that I haven't been to opening day at our wonderful Great American Ball Park for years, I was super excited for this game. We found out that my dad (who is in a season ticket group) got selected to choose this set of 4 opening day tickets and he jumped on the chance! Unfortunately, he had to watch the game from the hospital but if he could have been there he would have been without a doubt! There is just something special about the atmosphere on opening day at GABP. The crowd is on fire, everyone is waving their rally towels, and people are cheering for each strike thrown. Cincinnati fans are always fired up at each game, but nothing like the electricity that runs through Great American Ball Park during the season opener.

     My morning began at an early (well for me anyway) 9:30am. I got ready then headed out to give the car a little more pizazz! Of course it rained the night before so I spent about 10 minutes drying off the windows the best I could so my masterpiece wouldn't just drip away. It ended up turning out really well and the sun came out before I had to leave. We even got a few honks on the way down- Delilah thought it was hilarious!

     I scooped up Delilah (10) who is Jerome's cousin from her grandma's house and our next stop was to meet Jerome at work. Every year there is a huge 2 hour opening day parade that I would've loved to attend. Unfortunately, Jerome had work until noon so we had to miss the parade. Just more reason to go next year though, right?! Once we had everyone ready to go we headed to 5 Guys Burger and Fries to fill our growling bellies. YUM!

     Next up was heading downtown but we had to make a pit stop first. Jerome recently got accepted into the Early Childhood Education undergraduate program at UC and needed to drop off a paper. After that we headed for Newport to park for the game. Jerome had the idea of parking there and walking across the bridge to avoid all of the closed roads and traffic from the parade. It worked out perfectly and Lilah was so excited to walk across even though she is very afraid of heights. The walk took about 15 minutes and there were tons of steps- we got in a great workout though!



     Next up was finally arriving at the game! We got there around 3:00 and the game started at 4:10. If you grew up in my family you would be used to getting to games early. My dad loves getting there 1-2 hours early to watch batting practice and to be settled and in our seats by game time. I used to think this was silly and a waste of time but I really enjoy it now! Our seats were great, we had never sat there before! It was actually a small section right above the press boxes that was only about 7 rows wide. Our row had less than 10 seats in it and we were in the 1st row! It was so cool and luckily we have those seats for the entire season!

     We dressed in layers because there was only a high of 45 degrees but once we got to our seats we were burning up. I actually stripped down to my Heisey t-shirt for awhile! As soon as the sun went behind a cloud though we were cuddling up in our blanket.

     There ended up being over 43,000 fans there! Standing room only tickets were even up to $60, crazy! I have never seen the ball park so full. You could just feel the excitement!

     Of course since it was April 1st (April Fools' Day) GABP couldn't get away without pulling a prank. This flashed up on the jumbotron during the 1st inning. Luckily, it didn't fool me and I called it as soon as I saw it! It was pretty funny though!

     They gave us these rally towels on the way in. I don't think I stopped waving mine the entire game! It was cool seeing so many fans waving theirs when the game got tough!

     Here is Todd Frazier right before the first hit of the season! Ludwick actually dislocated his right shoulder early in the game stealing 3rd base (he even had surgery today) which meant Heisey got to come in. Heisey has been my favorite player for a few seasons now so this made my day! With that being said, I hate that Ludwick got hurt, he's a great player. Hopefully this opportunity lets Heisey shine though!

     This is Lilah (sporting Jerome's hat of course) and her new Brandon Phillips jersey. Jerome took her to the gift shop before the game and this is what they came back with! She was so excited and says he's her favorite player because he's the cutest.

     We eventually had to bundle up when it got dark. Thankfully I through this hat and some gloves in the car right before I left the house- they sure came in handy! Not to mention the Reds tie blanket I made Saturday for the game. I even got on the jumbotron late in the game wearing this hat and waving my towel! It made for the perfect opening day experience.

     Overall, it was a wonderful day that I wouldn't trade for the world. The Reds ended up losing to the Los Angeles Angels 3-1 after 13 whole innings. We braved the elements for the entire game then made the trek back to the car. It was a long and tiring day but I would do it again in a heartbeat for my Cincinnati Reds!

As I am typing this we are watching the opening night game and are winning 4-0 in the top of the 5th inning! Come on Redlegs!

Love, Lacey

Easter Sunday & My 21st Birthday!

     I am so excited to be starting this new branch of Love Lacey blogs! I got the idea to do this after wanting to include some personal pictures and comments about the day on my beauty blog. I figured why not make a separate place to share some of this stuff with you guys! This page's content will be photos from holidays, vacations, special days, etc. You'll get to know my family and friends and hopefully me a little better! To start this blog off with a bang here is everything that went down on this Easter Sunday.

Easter and my 21st Birthday!

     Jerome, my mom Lori, and I all dyed about three dozen eggs Saturday night in preparation for today. If my dad could have been there you would definitely see him in this photo! He has actually been in and out of the hospital for the past few days but is doing better with each passing day. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

     Today was such a fun day. In our family we celebrate every single persons birthday by either going to my Nana's or my Aunt Brenda's house for lunch, presents and dessert. We normally combine some together so we aren't meeting every week though. Take today for example- my actually birthday is this Thursday the 4th so it was perfect to have with Easter! The birthday boy/girl even gets their choice of a homemade cake if they want! I love all of the little family traditions we have and can't wait to pass them on someday.

If you look hard enough you can see my Nana's famous german chocolate cake in the lower left hand corner. I started getting it for my birthday years ago and still look forward to it every single year. It's so delicious and contains everything that I love: chocolate, coconut, and nuts! I also loved the decorations and roses she put on the table. How sweet is she?! She even set a lit Sweet Pea candle in front of my cake because that is what my mom used to call me when I was little.

Balloons, balloons, and more balloons! I loved the colors in this picture.

It couldn't be a successful birthday without a Sephora bag! I armed my mom with a list of makeup goodies that I had my eye on last week and I must say that she did an awesome job! I will be doing a haul soon of what I received over on the beauty side of Love Lacey so don't worry about that!

My new obsession, MAC! I got some awesome lipsticks, my first paint pot, and an eyeshadow!

Now for my family!

This is my Grandpa (Jim) and Nana (Velva). I literally couldn't ask for better grandparents! Talk about the most sweet, thoughtful, and loving people you will ever meet. Grandpa could talk/watch sports with all of the men in the family for hours and Nana is the one responsible for that dangerous cake pictured above. As I have gotten older I have realized how lucky I am to have them in my life and that's something I will never forget!

I'm sure you have all seen this face before. This is Jerome, my boyfriend of 5+ years. He usually is doing family stuff on Easter as well so I was so happy when he got to come over today! He is hands down my best friend and partner in crime. Don't worry, I won't get too lovey dovey on you... he's just a great guy!

These are my beautiful cousins, sisters Mallory (3) and Lydia (2). They had such a fun day today and were at just the right age to get really excited for the egg hunt! Our family hides both plastic money eggs and tons of hard boiled ones. This each each kid got to find 9 plastic eggs and as many hard boiled ones as they could find! I think all in all we hid about 5 or 6 dozen for 4 seekers! Believe it or not, today was Mallory's actual 3rd birthday but we celebrated it back on the 17th. Lydia turned 2 March 4th so it worked out perfectly celebrating it right in the middle.

This precious little face is such a blessing to our family! This is Adalynn and my cousins actually adopted her from Russia just within the past year. She is the happiest kid I have ever seen and with that smile and those blue eyes she just melts your heart! I am so proud of my cousins for hanging in there during the rough times and pushing to give this little girl a wonderful life. Our family wouldn't be the same without her!

Say hello to Tyler, the big 17 year old! He and I grew up the closest in age in our family and practically were brother and sister. His mom Lynn is my mom's sister and they live only a few minutes up the street from us. This has made it so easy to meet on short notice for dinner during the week and I love that! He is the friendliest person you will ever meet and makes friends wherever he goes. My life wouldn't be the same with out him! He has made me a better person without a doubt, thanks Ty!

So there you have it! My Easter Sunday, 21st birthday party and family introductions all incorporated in my first ever Day in the Life post. I hope you like reading these as much as I like typing them! I am headed to Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds tomorrow afternoon so maybe you'll see a post on that in the near future!

Love, Lacey