instagrams

you know instagram is my favorite app, right?
i love photos and i love capturing little moments throughout our days.
also, it's pretty much the only app i have because i have sooooo many photos on my phone taking up all the space.
it's so hard to delete them!

whenever people ask me "what's new with you guys?" i never really have anything glamorous to say.
we're just doing life.
one day at a time.
a happy life with our little peeps.
we like it. :)

i also like these vintage thermoses.
perfect for hot chocolate on a cool fall day.
i kept the coleman and sent the thermos to the booth.

we went to visit my mom & david's house a couple of weekends ago.
ruby had fun exploring outside and looking at my mom's pretty flowers.
they live way out in the country on the prettiest land.
we always love a visit out there.

i walked by his room the other day and saw him and thought, "man i love homeschooling."
also, i was a teensiest bit jealous and wished i could curl up in my bed with a book. ;)
but mostly just really happy that this is his life.

on the 16th we had the joy of celebrating AJ's birthday.
the kids get so excited about birthdays and they each made him a sweet card.
ruby kept saying, "birtday! birtday!"

AJ and i got to have a lunch date on his birthday.
so. fun. seriously best idea ever.

i made the best cheesecake in the history of ever and we had fun celebrating as a family that night.

i like to send AJ pictures throughout our day and he loves receiving them.
they can't all be just adorbs photos of the kiddos.
sometimes i gotta send the ones of our kids being total goobers.
like ruby wearing ginormo plastic ears and being super proud of herself. :)

to his future wife: you're welcome.
finley loves to vacuum and i love to let him. :)
also, saturday morning cleaning makes me super happy.

AJ took work off this whole week and the boys are on fall break.
we are having the best time.
we went to mt. kessler and it is my new fav-o-rite place.
seriously, i fell in love.
it is gorgeous. 
our family loves to go hiking together.
many of our best family times and memories are of being out in the woods together.
love. it. 

that is my child flying over my head at silver dollar city.
avery has NO fear. none.
deep breaths, mama. deep breaths.

ruby rode her first kiddie ride.
i was so proud of her.
little miss is getting brave. :)

we even got to meet up with my friend christy and her sweet girls for a few hours yesterday.
such a treat.
{nice face, ruby}

so that's us lately. what are y'all up to?




{if you instagram, i'm itsgoodtobequeen :)}


Pin It

backyard birthday breakfast party

say that five times fast. :)

oh mercy.
little sis is growing right up.
somehow, my little baby girl is two years old.

we celebrated with a really low-key backyard breakfast party.
i used some of the decorations from her first birthday party so it was super simple to put together a sweet little party for our girly girl.

we had chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, pigs in a blanket, donuts, pink fruit snacks, juice, milk, coffee....and about half way through the party i realized that i had forgotten to put out the fruit.
typical.
i had planned to serve strawberries, cantaloupe, peaches, & blueberries but i totally forgot to put them out!!
we put the strawberries out about half way through.
oh well, i guess it's fitting since ruby won't eat any of those things anyway.
she's a carb and protein girl through and through.

AJ bought her flowers for her birthday so those went on the table as well. :)

of course we had to have cutsie paper straws and chocoloate milk straws. :)

fruit loop bracelet making station to go with the breakfast theme. :)

trix krispie treats for favors.

we put her tea set out in the yard for another activity option.
she loved it. :)

kids ate on quilts on the lawn.

hazy picture but had to document the three of us. :)

strawberry cupcakes with homemade frosting....i learned all my cupcake skillz from my friend, jenny.
i will just humbly say, they were super yummy. ;)

she was not sure about those flames coming towards her face.

nothing a little frosting couldn't fix.

we had such a sweet morning celebrating our ruby jane.
she was adorable opening presents and kept saying, "birtday! birtday"and "yay! yay! yay!" and waving her arms.
such joy. :)

happy birthday, my ruby jane.
looking forward to celebrating you always. :)


Pin It

ten years . . . somehow.

my precious first born baby boy is ten years old today.
ten.
somehow i've been a mama for a decade.
wow.

our avery is a such a gift.

he is full of joy,  he loves to laugh, he loves to learn, he is deeply compassionate and crazy creative.
he makes every day fun.

i am beyond thankful for him. 

so thankful i get to be his mama. 

so thankful to celebrate this day with him. 

happy birthday, sweet boy...i love you forever.  :)

Pin It

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. :)

Pin It