Dear Sweet Ollie

First, sorry I have been gone so long. My life has been very busy and finding time to sit and write a blog has been difficult.  But today it is important for me to sit down and write a blog. Yesterday was a pretty emotional day for my sister and brother-in-law and for our family too.  Please take the time to read Annie's Blog and pray for baby Ollie, Annie, Jade, their children Aubrie and Everett, and for their extended family.

Sister,
You are an amazing woman with tremendous strength.  I have looked up to you my entire life and I know that if anyone can get through this, it's you.  You have amazing faith in God and a marriage that sets great examples for any couple.  I love you, Jade, and all three of your sweets. 

woo stinking HOO!

long time no post, but i've been busy...so i'm back today to share wonderful news!

my beautiful sister ANNIE is PREGNANT!

i was the first to know and i had to keep it a secret ALL day!  it nearly killed me!  i'm so excited to have a new niece or nephew or maybe BOTH!  i love annie's kids like my own and i know this one will be the same.  i already can see aub, ev, and carlie running through the paths in the woods while annie's little one and my future little one are running behind with sippy cups screaming for their older siblings to wait for them.  i can't wait!  i told her i'll be super jealous when i'm only two months prego and she' about to pop....that's my plan anyway, God probably has His own plan that's way better.  

congrats sister and brother!  i love you both!

hazel the short haired rip

well you've all heard about my dog hazel.  she's super sweet to me and kylie and most of our family.  however she really dislikes strangers and anyone that will possibly steal her food or crush her tiny body.  even though she's a rip a majority of the time, i love her.  she's a 5 pound, long haired chihuahua. she's beautiful.

 and grungy...

so, on sunday morning, we decided to shave her.  man i was super nervous, but i snapped on a 1/2" guard and just went to town.  she was surprisingly calm.  here she is now. 

she looks like a little jack russell now.  she really looks like she did when she's a puppy.  i still can't believe we shaved her, but i'm thankful she's still cute!  June 8th was her birthday, she's two now.  But she's still as cute as when we first got her.

she was so tiny, she was the size of a soda can!  i also thought she'd never be able to jump on the couch, boy was i wrong! 

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday, Happy birthday, BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Happy 28th Birthday to my oldest sister Annie! 

Sister, you are one of my very best friends.  You've been everything a big sister should be and more.  You've taught me stupid things NOT to do and things TO DO!  You've given me a fabulous brother who I love dearly.  And two beautiful children that I love as my own.  

You are a great mom and have taught me how to be a great mom too.  You make me laugh til I'm in tears or peeing down my leg.  I'm often told you look my twin sister, and I just thank God you're my twin and not Abbie! haha, just kidding Abbie, you so pretty(in our weird voices) too!

Happy Birthday Sis, I love you so much and I'm so thankful for you and you're beautiful family.  Have a wonderful day and wipe your tears! xoxo!  Your favorite sister, Maggie

you might need to sit down for this...

on memorial day, abbie surprised me with something fabulous!  i asked for this specifically, but had no idea when i would get it and how AMAZING it would be.  but feast your eyes on this!

is it not the best family portrait you could ask for?!  i about died.  i cracked up over each of us, especially hazel.  haha.   meet kylie up close and personal...

spot on abbie, spot on!   and me...

i didn't realize i had such crazy eyes in the picture on the left, but i waited forever for it to upload, so you get the point.  and caroline...

hair-check, eye-check, earrings-check,  awesome-check!   and hazel pup..

it's awesome!  thanks so much abbie.  i love it and laugh every time.  i love you!

Carlie's first dip

Memorial Day we had a pretty busy day.  We started at Kylie's parents' house.  We had a delicious lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, and little steaks.  Potato salad and some green bean salad, which looked pretty nasty, but I tried it and liked it! Anyway, his parents opened their pool up on Saturday, by Monday it was still pretty cloudy and cold.  They have a solar cover, but it wasn't doing so hot that day.  But Caroline HAD to swim.  So I got her all greased up with SPF 50, put on her swim diaper and hot suit and her hat. 

Notice the sunscreen on her face. Ha ha, luckily her screaming face looks the same as laughter!   

Here she is waiting on Daddy.

Check out those thighs!   Oh goodness I love her.  

Here she is, first dip.

She likes it!  

Daddy tried to lay her back...

uh, I don't think so DAD!

In the float

She really like this!

Mommy splashed her! 

She had a great time.  She really only swam for like five minutes because it was cold and it started thundering!  I can't wait to take her again when it's warmer!

I almost forgot!

I promised more pictures from my redo weekend!  Whoops!  So, here we go...

This shelf I bought three years ago at bloomington, it was cute but i didn't love it so I added the blue.  And I've hated it since I hung it on the wall three years ago.  Oh and the gold D, I have like no gold anywhere, so they both got a coat of spray paint!

The shelf got a coat of Krylon Ivy Leaf...like five coats...two cans.  And the D got Krylon Watermelon or something like that.  I love them both now!

And I already had all these green and pink frames in the shelf, so i just worked out to have that color combo.  I had to rough of the paint and make the "old" blue come through.  It made it even better!  My sis-in-law thought I brushed painted it, but i tricked her with spray!

Then because I snagged the blue curtains from the living room for the bedroom I had to hang my favorite leaf curtains from IKEA.  I LOVE THESE!

 Here they are behind my coffee table turned end table. 

Oh and I painted my frame, used to be white and i don't know why I never did anything to it.  It was plain and boring now it's FABULOUS!

Oh and because I think you want to see it too.  Here's my big glove form.  It's for latex gloves.  I got it at a flea market and love it.  And my fat stack of decor books.  Every home needs a stack!

 

Tomorrow, Caroline's first swim!

Paint slinger

Or sprayer, in my case. This weekend I got fed up with a few items in my house. They just weren't cutting it anymore. So Aunt Abbie came and snagged Bean and gave me a couple hours to get some serious work done. My first project was my bedroom. I did this  in January.  I had gotten a Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic book for Christmas and I loved it!  So I was really diggin it for awhile, but I realized I'm not 100% shabby, so I needed a change for summer.  So I pulled out a comforter from last summer, hung new curtains, changed lampshades, new headboard, and a new chair at my vanity.  Enjoy!

Ethel Edith did a client staging of a photography studio and we did frames on the wall as art. I thought this would be a great way to add color to my hideous walls.  Oddly enough, I had ALL these frames in my closet.  With a few cans of spray paint I got busy.  Also, while painting in my yard a lovely bird decided one of my frames was a much better place to drop bombs than the large areas of grass around the frames.  My family got a chuckle out of it.  Even after a bird shat on my frames I still think they turned out great.

My bedding came from an outlet store, but it's actually Target.  Then i sewed a button on this plain green pillow and the striped green pillow is from IKEA.   My vanity was already the perfect blue so I stole a chair from Ethel Edith and that was that.  PERFECTION!

Also, here's my mercury glass canisters.  Annie got them for me for my birthday two years ago and I love them.  Thanks Sis!

Oh she also got me this little silver keeper topped with a pink gem.  I love it too!  Then my brush holder is from Big Lots $2!  I know I know, amazing! 

I love my new room and Kylie even loved it too.  Stay tuned tomorrow for my living room redo!

have a hay day

literally!  kylie has been bailing hay going on day FOUR!  it's terrible.  it's not like let's bail hay for a couple hours, it's like let's bail hay for twelve hours and not get home til midnight.  if you are not familiar with hay bailing i'll fill you in.  you can't start bailing when there is rain in the forecast because it's a several day process. first you cut the hay and let it dry for a day.  then you rake(flips the hay to dry the under side) then you can bail it.  this is the rig, sorry it's blurry.

yup, tractor, baler, wagon, with people!  but our boys don't have a nice cab tractor, they're just sweatin it.  so you have to have guys on the wagon to catch the bails and start stacking them.  then you get done with a field and have this.

which is usually like four wagons from a field.  then when you get done with it all you can sell it now, or do what the boys do and store it and sell it in the winter.  so they have to store it in a big barn...also, if the hay is too wet because it got rained on or didn't dry out all the way you can't store it in stacks because it gets hot and causes fires.  then usually burns down barns, i've seen it happen twice!   the worst part for kylie is that it's like 90 out the sun is beaming on him and he's workin his tail off!  worst part for me is that i'm a single mom for awhile and i have a washer full of hay.  so in four days, how many bails? it looks a lot like this.

i'm not 100% sure, but yesterday from one field they bailed more than the 2 days before.  so i'm guess close to 1000 if not more!  it's super crazy.  super long, HOT HOT HOT days.

i'm super proud of him though.  he never did any sort of physical labor til he met me and now he's bailing like a champ.  he does it for me and caroline, so we can have the things we love.  he does it because he loves us and wants to make sure that we are financially stable no matter what happens.  he is amazing husband and a terrific dad.  he misses caroline so much he sorta teared up in bed last night, don't tell him i said that.  he is the best!  he's a very handsome man already, but when it's hay season he gets even better looking.  tan and guns!

p.s. i'm a terrible speller, so yes, it should be bale...not bail.  english and spelling were my worst subjects.  sorry mom.

habit, shmabit

i like soda.  i do, who doesn't? i used to drink tons of the stuff in high school, but then some how i limited myself to one a day, usually at lunch. then sometimes i'd break my rule and have another with dinner (pizza) or popcorn.  then, my brother-in-law (i should just say brother, i mean he's been around more than not) started working in the back office.  he stocked our fridge with coke, vanilla coke, sprite, and MOUNTAIN DEW!  i never was a dew drinker, but once the smooth, really smooth citrus ran down my throat...i was hooked!  i would be in such a hurry i would never eat breakfast, but that's ok because i had the champion of breakfasts at work.  DEW and POWDERED DOUGHNUTS (from Jade's desk)!  It was dreamy.  Then I would follow up with a coke at lunch and possibly another DEW or vanilla coke in the afternoon.  It was NOT good.  My skin is crap and i just felt bad, but oh so good at the same time.  When my face broke out the worst it ever has, I knew I had to do something.  So I ordered Proactiv and cut out SODA!  Yeah, i did it.  No more of this sweet candy!

So far so good.  It's been almost a week.  I've had Sprite once and a coke once, but I'm blaming kylie.  We shared a drink at Wendy's and he didn't know I was cutting out soda.  So I must always drink when I eat so I drank it.  Surprisingly, I've not had headaches or withdraws.  I still get a craving for an ice cold vanilla coke, but i'm standing strong.  I've seen vast improvements in my skin and I don't feel tired.  I don't think I'll ever be an absolutely no soda person, but i'm not going to be a soda/day person again.  I will always drink it with pizza and popcorn, no one will take that away from me!  It's a habit change. i seriously have to stop and  think about ordering water or tea vs. rolling "with a coke"  off my tongue when i'm ordering out. So instead of soda, i've been drinking this.

 
and LOTS of it.  i feel so clean now! haha, so ridiculous, haha.  but really i can tell a huge difference!  so i challenge you, if soda is your friend, try to replace at least one if not more a day with a big glass of water.  it's best served cold on ice!

one tree at a time!

Guess what?! This blog is CARBON NEUTRAL!

It's simple, 1 blog, 1 tree....

One tree will be planted to neutralize the carbon emissions this blog is putting off. Do the same, and plant a tree. It's SO easy! Follow this link to see how it's done.