instafriday ~ christmas edition

look at me doing instafriday!
i guess all this being cooped up inside with eleventy billion snow/ice days is good for something. :)

actually i have been amazed at how much i am getting done around the house lately with it being so crummy outside.

i have soooo many instagram pics, i just decided to go with the ones from Christmas.....in collage form.
because there are a lot. you're welcome. :)

okay, i guess these were right before christmas.

left to right, top to bottom:

1. a little mama carmen's coffee date with my big boys. making the most of our 3rd snow day in december..... which was a lot considering they only attend school twice a week.
2.  hot date with my main squeeze for our 13th anniversary.
3. having a big time with my saw buddy at potter's house christmas party.
4. christmas gifts for the wonderful teachers in our life. i had so much fun making these!
5. gorgeous anniversary flowers from pigmint...the best flowers. good job, baby. A+++
6. christmas parties for dayyyzzzzz.
7. my mom treated me to go see The Nutcracker by the russian ballet. amazzing. and male dancers have suuuper tight pants. just have to say it. i know i should be more mature about that, but seriously.
i did love it though, so festive and fun and we got to dress up. :)
8. family movie/picnic night watching the grinch. i love our cozy family nights.
9. same night...cozied up with my man in our super hawt sweatshirts.

1.  sweet smile...on our way to our first christmas get together. this 45 minute car drive felt like such a sigh of relief.  after an insane month, it felt so good to finally have the celebrations of christmas starting.  i felt like i had made it. 
2.  my little sister got ruby a crown. it was a hit. :) good job, hannah!
3. i have always loved this sweet vintage light up tree of my step mom's. such a sweet christmas memory.
4. my dad and step mom had the house looking so festive and fun for our get together. it was such a sweet night. i love spending time with family.
5. she let the boys drink red punch out of christmas mugs. so special and fun. :)
6. the night before christmas. AJ and i had everything ready to go by eleven. i felt super pumped about that!  it's always so fun to set everything out with him. we're both so excited. :)
7. christmas day was so fun with my sweet little family. they have precious happy hearts and were thrilled with everything.
8. sissy girl slept in so she opened her stocking after everyone else. we all had a bawl watching her open every little thing.
9. AJ and i have always just gotten each other stocking gifts. we usually both stretch the rules on what will actually fit inside a stocking, but this year he totally cheated! i am one blessed girl.

1. the day after christmas we headed out to kansas to AJ's parents. we always love going there. i was honestly so looking forward to the 5 1/2 hour car trip to just have some time to relax. i'm telling you, december was a marathon.
2. we immediately got to work relaxing.....in our matching tube socks. #hot
3. & 4.  the boys had a blast going on several four wheeler rides in the snow as well as getting to go snow-tubing!
5. we played so. many. dominoes. this was my favorite thing. playing games with grownups. eating yummy desserts and laughing and talking. our kids are all finally old enough to stay pretty entertained so we actually had more adult time than we've had in a few years. it was so nice.
6. ruby. because, ruby. :)
7. love birds. it took 5 shots to get this one of us looking semi-normal.
8. pam's made-from-scratch cherry pie. oh my word. it is amazzzzing.  with a hot cup of coffee. yes, please. i was living a dream and i didn't want it to end.
9. pam is so great about getting the kids involved with baking. the little ones were helping her make pizza. they love it and she is so patient with them.


and lastly i want to leave you with a little video of what we heard every single time we drove at night for all of the holiday season.
lucky for you, you can turn your volume down. ;)

"look mommy, lights! boys!"




happy weekend, y'all!

p.s. i'm itsgoodtobequeen if you want to find me on insta. :)





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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 :)}


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yay it's instaFRIDAY! :)

well let's talk about the elephant in the room.
let's talk about this poor, lonely blog and how i've neglected it lately.
i am sorry, i really am.
i love writing and i so appreciate you hanging in there with me.
i miss the days when i posted five days a week and had time to read other blogs as well.

i am in a stage in life right now that is hard.
it's so, so good but also really hard.
i told AJ last night that i'll probably look back on this time in my life as the sweetest and also the hardest.
i wake up around 5:30, pour coffee down my throat and try to get my brain going to spend time with the Lord {currently going through a chronological reading plan, fyi}, i quickly get ready and then head to the kitchen by 7 at the latest to get breakfast going and start our day.
i work hard and long days and hit the pillow hard at night.
i was remembering last night how i used to have a break time every afternoon when avery and finley were little.
they would nap and i would eat a snack and recharge.
i would read blogs and work on my blog.
these days, there is just not time.
i am moving all the day long.
homeschool is intense because i'm managing all four at once.
in the afternoons when the littles are in bed we try to do some of the homeschool that requires my help or is more hands-on.
when we're done with that or on tuesdays and thursdays when the bigs are gone, i am usually cleaning, laundering or some other task.
so it seems lately, i've been able to sit down and write out my thoughts about once a week.
anyhow, all that to say, i'm still here.
i am not going anywhere.
i have tons of blog post ideas milling around in my head, it's just taking me longer than it used to......
so thank you for continuing to check in and read. :)

okay onto instafriday.... a.k.a., a smattering of cell phone pics from the last month or so. :

1. sawyer's first day of preschool. tear.
2. sissy's first day of mother's day out. i die of cuteness.
3. labor day bike ride.  we loved this and made such a sweet memory with our little family.
4. three handsome boys heading to church. we love our church!
5. avery and ruby. he is delighted by her & she's pretty happy about the attention. :)
6. silver dollar city day with friends!
7. it takes a village, people. :) {this is how we convince people to come to our moms of providence meetings....somehow it worked}.
8. oh girl.
9. homeschool. some days are longer than others.....

1. amazing fall sky. our Creator God showing off for us. :)
2. long live the slip n' slide! fall in the south still gives us some warm days here and there.
3. sissy "washes" bubba's hair.
4. how we get through target
5. ninjas! {with our neighbor-friend hudson}
6. last saturday was a rain boots and cabella's kind of day.
7. this boy. so much passion in one little body.  love sweet alone time with him.
8. girls night OUT. so thankful for these homeschool mama friends.
9. greek olympics day for fin's class.  toilet plunger javelin throwing, tricycle chariot races & more. fun!

sweet night celebrating grandmother's birthday.
i love hearing her stories and we all love spending time with her. :)

potter's house sundays.
blessed to serve.
learning to be more servant-like....such a process.

this is how i make dinner most days.
it's insane.
that little boy better be a chef for how many meals he's "helped" me make.

fall = boots and that makes me happy.
{i'm trying not to think about what comes after fall.}
we are loving the cool mornings and evenings.
i love having my windows open and a candle burning.
the days are still sun-shiny and warm so that is just perfect to me! :)

have a happy weekend, y'all!




p.s. i update very regularly on instagram. if you're on insta, i'm itsgoodtobequeen, if you want to 
follow along. :)
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snap shots of summer

hello friday.

we are living it up, summer style.
feeling that angst that comes with the end of summer drawing near.
trying to soak up every moment.

every week has seemed full and not full at the same time.
always something going on but also lots of hanging around the house with nothing on the schedule.
lovely. :)

trying to gear my kids up but it's hard when i'm not ready either.

sorry, i don't have many words today.
just letting the pictures speak for themselves.

for more words & details...follow me on instagram.... i'm itsgoodtobequeen. :)

happy friday, friends.
soak up your day. :)

link up your instapics with me here....






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friday recap

oh hello friday.

i am SO ready for you. 

we have had a mostly laid back, super summery week around here. 

lots of slip n-slide, playing outside, and just general hanging out. :)

finley has had swim lessons in the afternoons this week.

he is loving it and the others have done really well with watching him every day.....which amazes me because it's blazing hot and they're staring at a pool but i guess they're just used to it. thankful. 

on tuesday we went for sno-cone treats as a reward for memorizing verses. 

we were surprised with it being $1 sno-cone day! well hooty hoo to that. 

sno-cones are my favorite summer treat. 

it's definitely a treat for our family and not an every day occurrence so it's super exciting to them when we go. i love it. :)

this boy has been practicing lots of basketball this week. 

so fun to watch him shoot but he sure does get hot and sweaty!

sister was on a mission. 

marching down the street in her sassy shoes. 

oh heavens. 

we wrote letters to our sweet nora this week. 

we love sponsoring through compassion. 

i made the boys purple cows for a treat today. 

they were SO excited! 

i love their excitement over every little thing....it makes life so fun! :)

okay, better hurry up and get going to sit at another swim lesson with this crazy cat. :)

do you instagram? i'm itsgoodtobequeen. :)

link up your weekly cell phone pics with me over at life rearranged. :)



also high five for friday :)


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