Fantastic Weekend

We had such a fantastic weekend. Friday we spent the evening having BBQ at my parents & then on the boat all evening for a ride. My cousins were in town visiting our family so we enjoyed taking them & their little girls out on the boat to enjoy the water. It was the most beautiful evening.















Saturday morning we got up early to run around town. We made our way to our favorite little cake place that I call a "hidden secret". You can find this little place in a SMALL town in Noel Missouri.



I first discovered this amazing place because of my cousin, Gretchen. She had my baby shower cake made & boy was it beautiful, but most importantly- tasty! These people make their cakes so fresh & always do a fabulous job. I love how cute & quaint this little place is! Before long they will know me like Sonic does!



This is the cake they made for my baby shower...



This was Avery's 1st Birthday cake...



And this is the one they made for my girlfriend Melissa's 31st Birthday this weekend...



. . .GEEZ, WHY must I have a zebra fetish?

Which leads me to Saturday night. We spent the evening with one of our favorite couples, the Stafford's. We enjoyed a a nice dinner with several friends at Red Robin celebrating her 31st Birthday. She loved her cake!

This was little miss Ave with HER bag before we left. She has been carrying a purse around everywhere these days. It's so stinkin' cute!




Melissa looks amazing after having a baby! She is just glowing & loves being a Mommy. It was so fun being there with her & sort of kind of embaressing her when they sang Happy Birthday to her. Sorry Melissa! (HEHE)












After a nice dinner, Chad & I enjoyed taking yet another drive with Avery & then spending the evening with her in the backyard & at the pool. She had a blast, & stayed up late with us. Life seriously couldn't be more perfect. She is growing before our eyes!













Tomorrow Avery will be 14 months old...

Thank you God for blessing me with another wonderful month with my baby girl.

I.am.in.love.

Laundry room FUN!

We had such a good weekend! I will blog our fun pictures tomorrow but for now here is one of me & my sweet (almost 14 month old) baby girl!



Tonight I was cruising around the net looking at some pictures for laundry room ideas. We have a tiny laundry room that is nothing special, but that is what excites me. I want to MAKE it something special. It's where I spend alot of time these days, it's the first room you see when you enter from the garage, AND you can always see it from the Kitchen which is the 2nd most important place that I spend a lot of my time. Even when we have company we seem to always migrate to the Kitchen & hang out.

I think it's time to do something fun, new, & exciting. I love the classy warm look & feel but I want to kind of spice this room up. I was thinking about doing black & white diamonds on the walls with a splash of zebra in the middle like below. I am really into this diamond look & have splashes of it throughout my house! And of course I love crowns, so I thought about doing something on the ceiling that had something to do with these... maybe a decal? I want to paint the ceiling a fun color, like a bright red!



And then... a fun funky chandelier, it would look so fun & make this little tiny room a bold statement! If I can find a cheap cute chandelier, maybe add some spray paint to make it the color I want, add some lamp shades, and some fringe, maybe.. I could do this for CHEAP!



I think Avery's chandelier made her room complete!



All of this decorating made me want to change a few things around the house so I did that over the weekend to give a few things a new look! It always makes me feel better doing that every couple of weeks. I just take things from different rooms, & add it to a different area.





This is what I call my "wall of fun". Total randomness but I love it! The more the better to me... Notice all of the different crowns? LOVE!



I have been drinking a lot of coffee lately. I decided to put a stop to the Starbucks drinks... a- I was drinking too many calories, and b- they are ridiculously expensive & this stay at home mommy can't afford that everyday. So I made a cute area in my Kitchen for me in the morning's to start my day off. I added this little area next to my coffee pot that holds my coffee & sugar!

I think it's very important to make things cozy as YOU like them. After all this is where I spend a HUGE percentage of my time, so I want my home to feel like, well... ME!



Happy Monday everyone!

3 important things

This morning, (early, I might add), I sat down to drink my coffee & started thinking about all of the wonderful blessings that the Lord has given to me in my life. I never have much of a moment of silence to myself these days so I got up before everyone else did to breathe. Sometimes in the comfort of SILENCE you can find so many answers. I made a list of all the good things in my life & WOW... blessed is right.



I think sometimes too many of us fight the "bad verses good" in our lives. We tend to only see the worry, the negative, the evil... Have you ever stopped to just sit & write all the GOOD things going on?

...My husband & I have had the great opportunity of taking 2 nice long drives this week, alone. It NEVER happens but I think God knew my heart & that I needed a good word. My husband asked me what the 3 most important things were to me in my life when we were driving around. I said, "God, family, & health." He challenged me & said, "I thought you would say that." Now let me ask you, do you APPLY these things 1st in your life?"

I had to stop & think about it because yes, I do on family & health, but where has God been in the picture? Where have my quiet times gone? He has seen the worry in my heart & at times my frustration after a long day of being home with Avery & it tends to be a cycle. I mean, I have made time for the gym 2 hours a day, where is my 10 minutes with God?

"Instead of letting it be that way, why don't you just give it to God, & MAKE the time" he said. I have been so out there lately I haven't even been able to see how WONDERFUL my husband is... WOW!

. . . .

I opened my Bible this morning to enjoy a quiet time that I was way overdo on. It is so easy to slip 5 minutes of your day with the Lord because other things pop up, like taking care of your baby! Here lately I have felt away from God in a sense. Not completely but in the sense of the business of life. I haven't taken the time to slow down & just listen to what He wants for my life. I have felt attacked by the sinful world at times & sucked into things I don't need to "clog" up my life. I am the happiest I have ever been & want to enjoy these moments without clutter.

I opened my Bible to Proverbs & started reading about "Trusting the Lord". Most all of us know this verse but, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all of your ways. It's so powerful to me because like I stated above, I tend to let worldly sinful nature creep into my mind & take away from my focus of trusting God in everything.

I am a happy person. It takes a lot to get me down, ALOT! Not a lot bothers me; especially these days. I am just going with the flow of life, and embracing EVERY moment of these young years with my first child. I also read about how wisdom brings happiness. So true! I loved in Proverbs 3 how it says, "Her ways are pleasant, & all her paths, peaceful. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her & those who hold on to her are HAPPY."

It made me feel so complete to read this verse. I read it over & over again 10 times. I found content in the fact that I truly feel this way. Im not always peaceful but that should be all of our goals. We only have 1 life & I don't want to live it frustrated all the time & not pleased. God calls us to be pleased in this verse & so should we in our lives.

I hope I was able to plant a seed in your heart today. Slow down, breathe & enjoy life this weekend. Open your Bible for a few minutes & thank God who gave you your weekend for all He has blessed you with.

Melissa's BDAY & Date Night

Happy Thursday!!!

Avery looked so adorable before we left the house today! We started off the day with a few errands.



When we got home I let her play in my bucket of ribbon.. oh my do I have a mess to clean up! What was I thinking?



Today was my girlfriend Melissa's Birthday! She turned 31! We went over to Melissa's to see her & Grayson this afternoon. This is what we got Melissa for the first part of her Birthday present. The rest comes when we all go out to dinner to celebrate!

(Don't laugh at this bag... it was seriously the only one I had that didn't have baby stuff all over it, HA! We made it work!)




She loved her new ring!



We enjoyed hanging out catching up on things & playing with the babies! We took a few pictures of them together... they were so sweet! We always joke that Avery & Grayson are going to get married & I found it funny that Avery was holding her future husband... hehe!







Avery enjoyed playing in Grayson's chair! We are going to order one for Avery soon. She kept jumping into it! It's from Pottery Barn.



And doesn't my girl Melissa know how to style a room? This room could not be more perfect. LOVE IT. The picture doesn't do it justice!



Every Thursday night my Mother & Father in law take Avery for the evening from 5 until 9. It is so nice because it allows me & Chad to have some time together. Tonight he decided to take me on a nice little date. We enjoyed a drive afterwards & saw some pretty deer.

Knobs & Light Switches

Ave absolutely loved her new tree- thank you for the sweet comments! She looked at it a billion times today & would talk to it through the window. It melted my heart. I loved this picture...



This morning was the perfect morning. I love getting up to Avery and seeing her play. We started off with COFFEE! Well, I did! HA!



We made our way into her room & read some fun books & played in her house.






After we had breakfast, I got a shower & got Ave dressed. While I was getting ready in the bathroom she enjoyed playing with my bracelets. She has been so cute lately playing with them & putting them on her arms! She mimics everything I do!




We enjoyed some MESSY lunch & then she helped Mommy do the laundry!




I get bored easily with my stuff. To keep things interesting on a tight budget, you have to know how to change some things up! I was tired of looking at the same old black knobs that I had on this pretty little piece of furniture. I love crowns & have them everywhere throughout my house. So, I decided to change the knobs out to crowns. I love this new look! It looks completely different than before!




I have also been really bored with my light switch covers. I don't want to get too crazy with them but I think it would be fun to add to a few rooms to spice it up! So I added one in my breakfast room...




Both of these little projects cost me $11.00 total! What a deal, & a fun new look!

Avery's fun window tree!

My Mom had this old tree years ago that she was going to throw out. I have been telling myself forever that I wanted to do something fun with it & never have. It has sat on our back porch for about 4 years. Ridiculous!

Avery loves looking out the window. Her favorite thing to do each morning is for me to raise our blinds so she can see outside. This old tree has always sat in front of the window; so boring & no fun to look at.

I decided to get crafty & decorate it with a ton of ribbon & lots of bright colors. I was trying to think of something that I had, that would blow with the wind & excite her when she looked at it.





Now she has this to look at when she looks out "her window". . .