snow cones, check.

every year, snow cones make the summer list.
i love them.
i always called them hawaiian shave ice...but it's the same thing.
around may every year, half a dozen of these little shaved ice/snow cone stands pop up around town.

they have a bazillion flavors and they are so yummy!

finley got caramel.

i got my long time fave, wedding cake with cream.
avery got peppermint patty . . . which sounds disgusting, but was actually really good.

love those sweet summer freckles.

sawyer got an empty cup that we all contributed to.  ;)

i think i'm going to branch out and try blueberries and cream next time. . . i've heard it's delish.

yay for summer!
i am loving. it. Pin It

a dye job

aj and i love our tom's shoes. 

i've professed my love for them on this blog a time or two. 

i have the wedges.

i so wish i was confident enough in my 5 foot stature to wear the flats....maybe someday.

i wish there was an in-between tom from the flat to the wedge.

blake, could ya get right on that? 

kthanks.

anyhow, aj has the classic, ash gray pair. 

he loves them.
he wears them all the time.
they're especially hot when he wears them with shorts.
just sayin'. ;)

well . . . after a while of wearing them they start to look like this:

yikes.
i banned him from wearing them until i could find a remedy.

then my friend callie did a tutorial on dying toms. 
woo hoo a cheap box of rit dye was going to give these bad boys a new life.

basically you just paint black rit dye on with a paint brush.
they look like this when they're still wet:

already an improvement.

we let them dry overnight in front of the fridge vent.

are we the only ones who dry shoes this way?
yes? mkay.

and here they are now....

aaahhhh, much better.
so there you go....a super cheap fix for your worn out toms.

:) Pin It

a room for boys

last weekend we moved sawyer into the big boys' room in preparation for a girly nursery.
this rental is bigger than our last house but it only has 3 bedrooms.
so we have to be creative with our stuff  and our sleeping arrangements.

we are keeping sawyer in a crib because. . .
well why the heck not?
he stays put until he's retrieved.
i am in no hurry to put him in a big boy bed.
i did that with avery and paid dearly for it.
lesson learned.
fin stayed in his crib until he was over three and it was perfect.

so here is the boys' room now:

we have two different wood finishes which would normally bother me, but this isn't a forever set up, so i'm happy with it for now.
it works. :)
it's a cozy and happy place for our three boys.

it has gone amazingly well having them all 3 together.
sawyer loves it.

they have a lot of books....this is less than half of them.
we like books around here. :)

i like their room picked up, but i'm not super particular about it looking "perfect."
they are boys and they have lots of random doo-dads that they like to display.
i am fine with that.
it's their room.

i covered an old bulletin board with some denim turned wrong side out.
a bunting made from my grandma's old scarves adds a little cheer. :)

i love these vintage pennants.
aj's uncle bruce, collected them on his travels and we inherited them a few years ago.

i hope the boys make wonderful, lifelong memories in this little room.
there's a lot of love in there, that's for sure. :) Pin It

monday with cell phone pics

holy cow i haven't blogged in a whole week.
i spent a good portion of last week cleaning.
it feels so good to have a clean house.
but getting a clean house means something's gotta give.
and sadly, that something was blogging.

so let me tell you about my fun weekend.
we got to have a little adult trip with our besties, the kennedy's.

it was so fun to get away without the kids for a night.
we've talked about doing it for years.
i think the upcoming arrival of our little miss kicked us into gear to just go for it.

we went to branson for the night.
we ate great food, shopped, watched this movie {so good}, and laughed til i almost hyperventilated {seriously}.

 we ate at the best restaurant that i can't remember the name of.
but it had a ginormo chicken in front of it.
so if you're ever in branson, you must go.
find the chicken and go.

it was a whole menu full of southern goodness.
i had chicken & dumplins, fried okra, & baked sweet potato.
y.u.m.

plus a girl walks around with a bucket of  "hen house handouts" which is fried pickles & chips.

seriously.
aj has talked about that place for the past two days.
that's how good it was.

it feels like i have been traveling a bunch this summer.
we have one more trip coming up and then we're home until we pack for the hospital.

i love summer so much.
the end. Pin It

weekend wrap up

it was so nice to have a weekend at home.

on friday, aj got tickets to a naturals' baseball game.
it was a fun family outing. . . mostly.

the boys were very excited.

sawyer lasted for about 4 minutes.
then we took a little trip to the concession stand to get cotton candy & sprite.

that bought us about 10 more minutes with sawyer.
he just wasn't in any mood to be contained.
so sawyer and i walked around while aj and the big boys watched the game. 

we walked until my swollen feet could take it no longer.

he went under the misters a few times.
he played on the playground for a few minutes.
but mostly he wanted to go wave at all of the costumed people walking around...aka, the koolaide man, the cheeto tiger, a big walking subway sandwich {sawyer was not a fan}, strike {the naturals' mascot}, a cardinal guy, etc.
he got a baseball signed and also met ronald donald who was actually really creepy if you ask me.

all in all, it was a good family night.
tiring, but fun.
and there are no photos of me because in every photo i either look fat or like i have a lazy eye or a double chin.
delete. :)

on saturday we went for donuts and then drove around talking while the boys watched a movie in the back. :)
aj humored me and stopped at some yard sales.
i bought 3 glue guns for a quarter each.

at lunch time my mom, niece, nephew & little sister came over to eat & swim.
it was a really fun afternoon.
i mostly laid on a raft while children & my husband splashed around me. :)

later that afternoon we worked on moving sawyer into the big boys' room.
now they are all 3 sharing a room.
we only have 3 bedrooms and baby sister just has to have her own girly nursery.

saturday night we went out to eat mexican with my dad, step mom, uncle & little sister for father's day.
after we got the boys in bed that night, aj and i watched you again.
it was so good!
it was funny and very clean, which is amazing and makes me happy.

on sunday/father's day we spent the day with just our little family of five.
i love any chance to celebrate my aj.
he is the rock star of this family, for real.
we are all enamored with him. :)

oh man i love those four boys!!

Pin It

stuff

1. this is from Jesus Calling yesterday:
"I have called each of My children to a different path, distinctly designed for that one.  Do not let anyone convince you that his path is the only right way.  And be careful not to extol your path as superior to another's way.  What I require of you is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Me- wherever I lead."

isn't that so good?
let's marinate on that shall we?

2.  i love how in the summer my face is tan so the only makeup i wear are these three items:

 

cover girl simply powder foundation. 

i carry it in my purse and put it on when we're on the way to wherever.

NYC lippin large lip plumper in plum tart. 
love this stuff.

cover girl lash blast mascara ~ regular, not waterproof
this is the best mascara.
higher oz. than most and just works really well.

you can see i am a walmart/target makeup kind of gal.
i haven't found any department store makeup that i like more, so this is what i stick with. :)

3.  i have 9 weeks of pregnancy left!! holy cow, that's exciting!

4.  we're moving sawyer into the "big boys" room this weekend.
that should be an adventure.
i'm super excited to have a blank slate for baby sister's room.
i can't wait to watch it come together.

5.  question: where do you save all your pictures & files?
online?
external harddrive?
both?
i need some good/easy suggestions.


**have a wonderful weekend, friends!** Pin It

storage bench makeover

this was really fun.

so, i love love love craig's list.
we are b.f.f.'s.
i found this cool bench last week and snagged it up.
especially since the woman selling it was offering me less than half price because i was purchasing something else from her {more on that later . . .  i know the suspense is killing you}.

you may be making the raised eyebrow look that aj gave me when he saw it.
but i had a plan.
and this baby had potential.

i had been looking for a trunk for like, ever.
i have wanted something by our back door for the boys shoes so they can toss them in there as soon as they walk through the door and shoes aren't strung all over the house.
it also makes it convenient for when we're heading out the door in a rush. . . which we always are.

i wanted something with a little character and haven't been able to find the right thing for the right price.

until this bad boy showed up.

let's look at the lovely vinyl padded top.

so here's my process of turning this beast into a beauty. . .

i took all of the screws out that were holding the lid on.
then i hauled the bottom outside to give it a fresh coat of white spray paint.

it took several coats to get into all those nooks & crannies.

then i tackled the lid.

i had to fight with the handle for quite a while but i really wanted to save it.

then i stapled burlap around the top.
i put it right over the vinyl & braiding.
i love covering things with fabric and staples...it pleases my need for immediate gratification. :)

i would have put more staples in because i love to use one million staples, but i ran out.
then i put the handle back on & screwed the lid back to the base.

i love that rusty old handle.

now we have the perfect place for storing the boys' shoes and some extra seating to boot.

once again, burlap has made my day. :) Pin It

my one dollar necklace

 

last week, on a whim, i grabbed some metal disks from hob lob for a dollar {they were half off}.

i thought it'd be fun to whip up a little necklace set on the cheap since i already had the other materials i needed. 

i got the steel stamping set at habor freight last year when i made a similar project for mother's day.
i also used a little hammer from finley's tool kit.
ignore the ball chain...i returned it after i had taken this photo and realized an 18 inch chain was way too long for this girl's scrawny neck.

if you want to try this, it's really easy.
you just lay one of your disks on a really hard surface {like my concrete patio} with a towel between the two to protect the back of your disk.
then you set your stamp on top of the disk and don't move it while you pound on it with your hammer.
you might want to buy some extras for your first time to allow for mistakes. ;)

then your disk looks like this:

i did an A and a S for aj and sara. :)

then you grab a sharpee and color in all the cracks of where you stamped your letter.

then you use some alcohol on a cotton ball to wipe away the excess ink that got all over your disk.

then it looks like this:

i wanted to add a little somethin' so i grabbed a pearl bead, head pin & pliers that i had in my craft box.

pearl beads & head pins are also really cheap at hobby lobby in the jewelry aisle.
i just put the bead on the pin, twisted the wire around with the pliers and then wrapped the excess wire around itself.

super easy & super cheap....just the way i like it. :)

i put the stamped disks and pearl on a necklace that aj gave me when we were first dating, so it makes the necklace extra special. :)

it's tuesday so i think i'll link to today's creative blog get your craft on!

let me know if you try it or if you've done something similar... i love a cheap & quick craft idea! Pin It