hope you had a Happy Fourth!

front page of Golf Week Amateur Tour...

guess who is in first place in golf weeks amateur tour for his flight :) so proud and excited for him..

he will be headed to Hilton Head for the big tournament in October and guess who gets to tag along.. 

1..2..3.. mini boden knock off

mini boden has this spotty dotty tshirt in their catalog for $28..
hailiegirl saw it and fell in love..

mommy knew she could make her one for oh so much cheaper..
quick trip to Walmart.. $1 pom poms and $1 fabric glue..

super easy... and as you can see happy hailiegirl :)

lola blue is getting big.. 89 pounds big exactly...

 hard to believe she is not even a year yet...


also hailiegirl got a big girl haircut at a fancy salon.. she is a big girl now and it is scaring me she looks so old!

greatest show on earth...

                                                  our clowns at their very first circus!

Happy Birthday Dominic (smallest boy.. he just turned 8!) 

some news..

J and I were engaged the beginning of March.. he did good with a beautiful platinum and 2 carat ring from Tiffany's... I was shocked.. it looks very vintage.. it is perfect...
we are very excited and happy..
going to be low key but still very personal and fun.. I will be sharing details here and there on the blog..

he has four boys.. and with luke and hailie = 6 kids :)  we are very blessed.. and very lucky everyone gets along amazingly.. all the boys are very sweet to hailie.. I feel very sorry for her when she starts dating though..lol..

catchup and an invite...

man that flu took our house down for awhile..
but we are all better now..thank goodness..
anyways I will post my boden diy tomorrow, just need to edit the photos tonight..
I also have been busy planning hailies 7th bday party..
Here is a sneak peek of what we have planned..

these cute invites are from Beth Kruse Custom Creations  .. she was super easy to work with and gave me exactly what I was looking for...  (I just found her on my own via Etsy.. I am not getting any compensation for this)

I can't believe my baby is turning seven! I am excited though because my mom is coming from CA and we have some super fun party decorations and crafts planned.. :)

our weekend..

looks like this :(

our house got hit by the flu bad..

next week I am going to post about something that hailie and I did when we were inspired by Boden..



another upcycle

hailie came out in this dress and she was upset that one of her favorite dresses didnt fit her anymore...

so I told her we could make it a skirt.. she was game..

literally took 5 minutes.. chopped off the top.. made an elastic casing and sewed the elastic in...

one happy customer later....

upcycled leggings..

I finally got around to a project I have been wanting to do..
I used Make It and Love It's super simple leggings tutorial
I made it even more simple by upcycling a tshirt...

don't judge me..here is a pile of clothes that we are donating.. so I just shopped from the pile and found some of J's old t-shirts..

using a paper bag I followed her instructions... but using the t-shirt I made sure I lined the pattern up with the side and bottom seams which completely omitted that step... saving so much time...

the final results....

adorable if I do say so myself....

last day of school..

2nd and 4th grade here they come..
mommy cried..

this is not my pantry...

I did however get inspired to clean out mine...

sometimes surfing blogs is enough motivation for me to get my butt in gear for projects.. but to aspire to be just like some of those that their lives seem absolutely staged to a tee..not for me..

the theme lately on blogs seems to be about bloggers showing just one side of their life.."the perfect side"

I say your blog is your blog and who cares what you share and don't share.. if people are silly enough to think that every aspect of someones life is perfect and complain about it..then that is on them..

not for bloggers to make sure they are "keeping it real"

I go to blogs to get inspiration, ideas, and to make fun projects and to relate to women in ways that fit my life style.. all things that are posted and pinned are awesome out there, but do I try to be just like them..nope.. do I get depressed because my life is not like theirs or I don't have what they have..nope..
If your pantry looks like this, then that is fantastic.. and thank you for posting it because it kicked my butt in gear to pull everything out of mine..wipe all the shelves down... throw away gross stuff and put it back much more organized.. now when I open it, I sigh a happy sigh that it is clean.. not perfect but clean..

wishing...

I had this on my nightstand (actually.. I just ordered it from here...shhhh)

mothers...

my mothers day was filled with spending time with my family..my sister even flew in from Chicago with my nephew b... such a good time.. 



9...

what's better than a truck rolling up and surprising a nine year old birthday boy with two hours of unlimited video games.... 

according to this birthday boy..nothing!

Luke: Best Surprise Ever Mom!...

mission accomplished

love my queso dip

made this homemade chili con queso dip from scratch using this recipe

it was delicious but man it was alot of work for cheese dip.. next time I am just going to pop open a jar of Tostitos con queso dip, because I am lazy like that...

the Islands...

this dress

 with this belt

these sandals

yes please.. Thank you Anthropologie...

a celebration

J took me to the Schnef farms dinner in the orchard for my celebratory dinner after I graduated with my Masters from ASU..

the night began with a hay ride out to the orchards to pick the first peaches of the season...
so fun..

A James Beard Award winning chef then cooked a four course meal, which we enjoyed in the middle of the  orchard... truly a unique and delicious experience...



JCrew

Jcrew is having a good sale right now.. ends tomorrow though..
all their discounted stuff is an extra 30% off..
not bad Jcrew..not bad..

scored some cute stuff for hailiegirl..
and I had a gift card... high five to me :)

the cuteness that is my nephew is too much..

my sis did these amazing invitations for his 1st birthday!
still can't believe she had her first son on the same day I had Luke.. 8 years later.. :)

proud of myself..

hope everyone had a nice Easter..
We had a fantastic one..
We did cornis game hens on the grill..homemade mac and cheese, roasted carrots, deviled eggs, and I made carrot cake from scratch and for the first time ever Italian Easter bread..
I was pretty proud of the carrot cake and bread..
Luke said an amazing blessing which inculded thanking Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins...
Then the kids had fun painting easter eggs and we did a glow in the dark easter egg hunt that ended up being the big event of the evening, the kids had a blast..

have a good Monday!

in love

ADORE my new iphone case!

get yours here

SERIOUSLY.. go now... her cases are AMAZING!

that is all

preparing...

turns out I am having an impromptu easter egg hunt Sat night..

and I couldn't be happier...so excited to spend time with family and friends...

so I am scrambling to get a menu and everything together.. I have found some fantastic ideas on different blogs... on one pretty thing she linked to a fantastic garland.. can't remember the blog name.. (I will site if anyone knows,, please leave in the comments)

She used a hole punch but I used fun scissors I had already.... and twine instead of string..

literally took 1/2 hour and I had everything already... I think it turned out super cute...
sorry about the instagram photos.. I am so lazy now..I didnt grab my good camera..
stay tuned for more party decorating pics!

fieldtrip..

Hailie had a field trip today to the desert botanical gardens.. I packed her a sack lunch to bring and out of the corner of my eye I see Luke grab it and write a message to her on it..  my heart melted when I saw what he wrote..

then I here him say.."ha ha hailie now everyone will see what I wrote and you will be embarrassed.. I am getting you back for all the times you embarrass me..
boys.. geez.. just when you think they have that soft side.. sigh..

peacock..

I was looking for a new iphone case on Etsy and I stumbled upon this shop..

man her cases and photographs are cool..  I decided I needed a peacock for spring..

but dang if I can't decide which one...

Help.....

*Update*
Guess what?
Shannon Clark of SSC Photography loved this post and has graciously offered all my blog followers 10% off your order with the coupon code TEN10!!
How can you not go and purchase something now!
Thank you Shannon!
ps.. she is not a sponsor and I am not reciving anything free for this post.. just fell in love with her shop..