Instafriday

the last two weeks via instagram {i'm itsgoodtobequeen} . . .

left to right...

1. sweetie girl looks so cute pulling up all the time.  LOVE her in leggings.
aaahhh, girl clothes. i die.

2. homeschool space all ready for our first day of homeschool.

3. our friend zach told us that his mom always made chocolate chip cookies on the first day of school and now they carry on that tradition with their kids.
i thought that was so sweet so we are copying and starting that tradition as well.

4. oh my goodness....aren't they so sweet when they're sleeping?
angel baby.

5. ruby's first peanut butter sandwich.
okay she didn't actually eat any of it because she is miss picky pants.
silly girl.

6. a sucker keeps a little fourth child happy while she watches big brothers ride creepy carnival rides.

7. avery was dying to ride the biggest, scariest, ricketiest looking ride at the festival.
we settled on this one and we were both happy.
did you know i'm not a fan of parking lot carnival rides? i'm not.

8. love her that sweet little hand.

9. and that smile.

1. trying to be a good mom and sit down and play a game with my boy who asked me.
trying to ignore the laundry and cleaning and to-do's.
somedays it's easier than others.
i have to remind myself to chose what's most important.

2. sweet back to school basket from a very thoughtful friend.

3. holding onto summer and taking advantage of warm days.
{glad we did . . . it's been pouring rain all morning}

4. now that the weather has cooled off our garden is finally taking off.
we've started getting some zucchini.
our basil is still going to town and our pumpkin & watermelon vines are rockin' and rollin'.
reeeeallly hoping we get some pumpkins this fall.

5. sweet fuzzy, white hair.

6.  our little fam went out last night for a pre-birthday dinner.
it was so fun and the kids behaved so well.
that was a gift in and of itself.
we don't eat out a lot so generally our kids act really well when we do eat out.
it's a treat for us all!

7. the hibachi grill is fun for the whole family.
and so dang yummy.

8.  my last night of being 33 and i'm happier than ever.
life is better than i ever dreamed it and i am so very blessed.

9. chocolate. mocha. torte.
yeah. it's amazing.
{thank you betsy!!}


happy weekend, y'all!






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five minute craft

a little crafting in the middle of normal mom/wife/grownup duties goes a long way for my personal happiness. :)

i'm really trying to make more time to be creative.
it's good for my soul.
and honestly i just love it.

the big boys are at school today so i ignored the massive moutain o' laundry and whipped up a little bit o' happy for our front room {much easier than to call it that than the homeschool/guest/office/playroom}.

i picked up these embroidery hoops a few months ago while thrifting in kansas.

i always keep my eyes out for crafting materials when i'm thrifting {yarn, embroidery hoops, wreath forms, large trays, etc.}

embroidery hoops are generally pretty cheap, but if i can grab them for a quarter, why not?
although, if i had known that little snowman was secured with the super glue to end all super glues, i would have probably passed.
i've purchased these kind of dolled up hoops before {imagine geese flying on brown fabric} and had no problem.
this one probably took me twenty minutes of hard effort and slightly bending a steak knife to get apart.

so i guessed i lied about the five minute part.
but it would have been five minutes if i hadn't had to fight the snowman.
lesson learned...check it in the store to see if the fabric will budge.

anyhoo, it all went pretty quickly from there.
i dug around in my fabric stash and popped some fabric in each of the hoops.
i didn't glue the back or anything.

i probably should have ironed the fabric.
but oh well, i have a need for speed.

i really love that black polka dotty fabric but all those dots in that big hoop was a little off.
so i quick grabbed a doily from a table in the living room and hot glued it on.

ahh, that's more like it.

the blue is not quite that electric in real life.
the picture below is the closest match to the real life color . . . a more muted blue with charcoal gray background.

so there you have it.
a quick little project that i could whip up during ruby's nap and give some life to an empty corner.

happy. :)




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wednesday thoughts

so  .  . . we're on week two of homeschooling.
if you remember, our boys are going back to providence this year, a university model school where they attend school two days a week and are home schooled the other three days.
it's a great fit for our family and we are all really happy about them being back there.

that being said...getting back into the groove of schooling after a year off plus a summer of doing whatever we wanted is taking some adjusting.

i'm doing lots and lots of praying.
and saying i'm sorry.
and starting over and trying to do better.
that's the honest truth.
but i know we're gonna get the hang of it again.
and we're gonna thrive.

on a good note, our homeschool room is looking great!
i can't wait to share pics but it's not quite done yet.

i turned the "front room" that has been our play room for the last year and a half into a playroom / home school room / office / guest room.
that sounds crazy but it is actually so much more functional that it has ever been.
it is such a big room and seemed like such a waste of space to only use as a playroom.

since we've had the bed in there, we've had several different guests stay with us.
so fun!

i also love having my desk downstairs.
it's so much more functional.
it takes me a while to settle into a house and to figure out how to make rooms function best for our family.
homes just take some living in sometimes.

i'll take some pictures soon so you can see the progress. :)

happy wednesday, friends!











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ruby's first birthday party {lots of pictures}

wow. our baby girl turned one on thursday.

i have been looking back through photos of her first year and remembering what a surprise it was to find out we were having a girl. 
on her birthday i read through her birth story and am so thankful once again for God's graciousness in bringing her safely to us.

we celebrated her birthday with a very pink backyard party.

of course we needed some pink snacks for our girly girl.
strawberry wafer cookies & pink marshmallows on the gift table are a fun treat that guests could help themselves to.

i put all those baby food jars to good use as birthday favors.
i spray painted the lids ballet slipper pink, decorated them with ribbon & hot glue, and filled them with red and pink starbursts.

i used the pompom garland that i learned to make at the handmade craft day. 
i think it will find a place at every party she has from now on . . . and will probably hang in her room until then. :)

as a back drop for her high chair, i hung torn strips of fabric, some new and some vintage.

i love the torn fabric garland so much so i quickly made another little one for the front of the table . . . about five minutes before guests arrived. 

we grilled out so we had another couple of tables for all the not as pretty food stuffs. 

i draped pink fabric {cheap from hobby lobby} over all of the tables. 

i printed out one picture from each of her one month photo shoots and hung them with little clothespins on pink yarn above the food table.
i thought it turned out really sweet. :)

i needed something cute to put the plastic cutlery in so i dug around in the recycle bin to find a tin can to use.
yes, i washed it. ;)
i thought that would be better than jars in case a child accidentally knocked it over.
i only had one can so i dumped out another can of perfectly fine canned goods.
i figured the 67 cents i spent on it was worth it for a cute display. :)

kid drinks went in a big plastic bin {with ice in the bottom}.
i found the tub in the walmart garden center on clearance, fyi.

for a keepsake from her first birthday {and hopefully many birthdays to come if i can remember ;)} i had a journal out for guest to write a message for our girl.

it was so great to have all of our friends and family who have loved us and ruby so well here to celebrate her life with us.

ruby got lots of grandaddy and grandmama cuddle time during the party.

ruby started getting tired so she was not really in the mood to be put in a high chair when it was time for cake.

thankfully everyone singing happy birthday perked her up and she started smiling and looking around at everyone. :)

sweet girl, who has no teeth, prefers baby food to anything else, and has never eaten sweets, was pretty dainty with her first ever cake.

she actually never got into the cake at all.
she ate some of the icing and spread it in her hair, but that was about it.
she was over it pretty quickly . . . sister doesn't know what she's missing.

while ruby dealt with icing, everyone else had the best ever cupcakes made by my awesome friend jenny.
she is the cupcake whisperer.

even though ruby was most definitely ready for bed, we pushed through and helped her open a few presents.
okay, i opened and she played with a wet wipe.

it was such a sweet night that went way too fast.

happy first ever birthday little ruby girl. :)

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first day of school 2012

 and just like that . . . summer is over.
and i'm okay with it.

i am always so sad to see summer go....it's my favorite time of year.
but i tell you what, having a quiet afternoon yesterday sure did ease the pain. ;)
i almost forgot what that was like.

the boys started school on tuesday so monday night was our back to school celebration.
and by celebration i mean, we grilled out, ate outside & had rice krispie treats.

i wanted to do something special to mark the end of summer and to get them excited about school starting.
maybe i was just trying to get myself excited?
they are actually way super excited about school.

we also spent some time before bed praying over the boys and over their school year.
it was all way more rushed and crazy that i would have liked but you know, that's life.

things the boys are excited about:

*going back to providence {two days at school, three days of homeschool}
*their new kicks {which i made them wait until the first day of school to wear}
*being in musical theatre
*being in second and fourth grade.

i'm glad i have a few more years with my sawyer and ruby home. 

we had a great morning getting them off to their first day.
thankfully, AJ has been able to walk them in with us to their first day of school every year since they started.
i love our little family traditions.

nice face, sawyer.
yes we are all wearing school colors.
we're dorks like that.
well i am, and AJ obliges me.  :)

there's going to be a bit of an adjustment period for us....letting go of the lazy days of summer and now homeschooling again, but we're gonna hang in there and make it fun.



what about y'all? are you back to school? or are you still livin' it up summer style?

got any fun back to school traditions you want to share?






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instafriday

once again i only have a few phone snap shots this week.
this week has been completely nutso.

in an effort to hold onto summer and make memories despite our crazy week, we took to a nearby trail after dinner one night this week.
it was so good to get out of the house and walk with my family.

the hum of cicadas is music to my ears.

the boys found a caterpillar.
it's fun to see all three of them interested in the same thing.

yesterday we had a park/creek play date with the boys' school classes.
my boys spent the entire time in the creek.
it was so great to see them in their element.
"swim in a creek" was one of the last things on our summer list that we hadn't checked off.
since sawyer waded up to his arm pits, we're calling that good.
they found a water snake and ginormo snapping turtle so that was exciting for them.
ha.  having three boys is definitely helping me deal with my fear issues. ;)

also yesterday this happened:

all over ruby.
i was making a bottle so i set her down for a minute so i could have two hands.
i opened the cab to get out my measuring cup and she pulled my big 6 cup glass one down on top of her head.
it had two smaller glass measuring cups inside in.
shattered all over her.
by God's mercy, she only had one tiny cut on her arm.
scary moment.

it was one of those times that i thought, "of course that just happened."
i was so exhausted and having to clean up all these tiny shards of glass and make sure ruby didn't have any little specks on her {she did} and clean up this whole mess when i was already so tired was a bit of a bear.
it was one of those moments that you just have to put on your big girl pants and get it done.
heavens to betsy, i tell you, being a mama is not for wimps.

in other exciting news, we finally converted sawyer's bed to a big boy bed.
yes he is three and half.
we keep our kids in cribs for a way long time.
after moving our oldest into a big boy bed at just over 2, we learned our lesson and the next two boys stayed in until over 3.
best decision ever.

ruby doesn't even know how stinkin' cute she's gonna be this fall.
i found her a whole stack of the most darling clothes at rhea lana's this week.
can't wait to see her in them.....i love having a girl to dress up. :)


happy friday, y'all!





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