Spring Break

Last week was our spring break.  We were all ready for a week where we didn't have to rush out of the house every morning and could take things a little slower.  

I feel like nearly everyone in NWA went on some fabulous trip during Spring break but we stayed home and just tried to have a little fun every day! 

Monday we had to run some errands and then we went to Target so Hollis could spend her birthday gift cards.  She was so excited to pick out a few things!   We had our last speech therapy appointment with our therapist that afternoon for a while - she is having a baby any day.  We are going to be seeing a new one starting this week! 

When we got home, Laurie brought Sarah Kate over so she could have a sleepover.  She and Harper have really become BFF lately and they have been so excited! 

This was their first ever text message exchange a few weeks ago when they planned the sleepover.  Harper is FOND of emoticons.  

Sarah Kate spent all day Tuesday with us as well.  We went to the mall and hit up Claire's and a few other stores and then ate lunch at Olive Garden.  I was a little nervous taking four kids out but they were all very well behaved and we had so much fun! 

Harper ended up spending the night at Sarah Kate's on Tuesday night.  Emily had three of her friends over so SK wanted a friend too.  

After two slumber parties in a row, I had tired girls on my hands so Wednesday was a lazy stay at home day.  It was cold so the girls spent a lot of time watching movies or playing in their room.  

 

We had planned on doing something with Hollis' BFF during spring break but he was sick most of the week.  By Thursday he felt better so we met him and his mom for lunch.  These two were so happy to see each other.  

Good Friday was also Scott's 40th birthday.  He works about 30 minutes away from where we live so we thought we would take him to lunch and then go to the drive through zoo in that town.  We ended eating at this fun dairyette that I used to eat at weekly when I worked at a church camp in that town during college.  I hadn't eaten there in 20 years.  It had changed but it was still as good as I remember.  The kids loved it.

We have this neat drive through/petting zoo near us that we hadn't been to in about 4 years.  I wasn't really thinking about it being spring break and Good Friday because there were about 10,000 other people there that day.  It was WAY too crowded but we tried to have fun anyway.  

Will kind of lost it on the drive thru part and the girls were very disappointed they didn't get to hold any baby monkeys (I MIGHT have given them the impression they would get to).  But overall it was still fun. 

Of course, we saw monkeys, lions, tigers, giraffes, kangaroos and a ton of other animals and the highlight for Harper were these baby cats.

Because of course.

And by Saturday, I was kind of "fun'ed" out.  The fighting started to get full force and we were ready for school to start back today.  But it was still a nice break!

Easter 2016

Happy Easter!!!!!

This is a day we celebrate every day because we are thankful for Jesus and that He died for us and rose again! It's a little overwhelming when I realize Jesus loves me SO much that He died for me. 

And You! 

This was Will Holden's first Easter.  It was such a sweet blessing to see THREE baskets sitting out this morning.  

Our Easter Sundays are always busy because we are usually greeting or helping with baptisms or the nursery or somehow AND it was 70 and gorgeous yesterday and (of course) today was 40 degrees and raining so we dressed up the kids yesterday and took them out to take pictures.  I didn't want to stress over pictures this morning BUT I wanted pictures because this is the only FIRST Easter Will Holden will ever have and I just want to capture the moment.  

 Scott got some sweet shots of these girls! 

We took probably 127 pictures to get two that were decent. ha! Getting three kids to sit and pose is like Mission Impossible.  

We were out of the house by 7:30 and went to the early service.  It was a wonderful service and I love worshipping and remembering just what God has done for us!

We hosted lunch after.  Every Easter for the last 10 years, we have celebrated with Laurie and Steve.

We were very beige this year.  I usually love pastels but I found these little dresses and decided we would just be neutral this spring.  

Hollis' BFF and his parents (our dear friends) came for lunch too.  It was fun having them join us! 

 It was too cold to be outside so after we did an egg hunt in the house.  The kids had a good time! 

I love watching our girls grow up together.  Harper and Sarah Kate are especially close.  I feel like they are my second daughters.  

The last few Easters together.  

And this is my favorite picture of them.  Where did my baby Harper go? 

We had a wonderful day and my favorite thing is scrolling through social media and looking at all the pretty families.  I think I have written the words "beautiful, precious, and darling" a million times.

But if you are struggling - thinking everyone else has a perfect life and you are barely treading water - please know that these are highlight reels.  There may be shiny, happy faces in the pictures but you don't always know the imperfections that lie behind.  And you may be lonely and it's hard to look at pictures because you don't have that family yet or you are desperate for a child that hasn't come.  Or you have lost a husband or child.  I just pray that today you will know that you are loved.  And that you will have hope that you are not alone or forgotten.  Jesus has promised to never leave you.  He is holding you even when you think you are falling. 

Show Us your Life - favorite DIY

Today is all about Sharing your favorite DIY projects.

I'm not much of a DIY'er but I've tried to do a few things in the last couple of years. 

One thing I did a couple of years ago was paint our brown wood bedroom furniture.  I used just a regular paint.  I wish I would have used a chalk paint because I have found that's easier and we have a lot of scratches already and it needs to be re-done.  But I still love how it turned out.  I have since changed out the bedding and curtains but I like the wood a lighter color.

I found the girls two wooden beds that matched at a junk store and on craig's list.  Then I used Annie Sloan paint to paint them the same color.  That was such an easy project and turned out SO well. 

I keep adding things to their room but one thing I did was to paint the frames above their beds and then later I went back and added glitter!  The next thing I'm going to do is to paint that little table between the beds pink.  I found cute gold knobs for the chest once I get it painted - stay tuned!

http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2015/12/adding-little-sparkle.html

Can't wait to get ideas from your DIY projects!

An InLinkz Link-up

Dining Room Makeover

Tomorrow's SUYL is Show us your favorite DIY project!!!! Plan to link up! 

We have lived in our house for 11 years and everything has been pretty much the same since.  I'm trying to make a few changes slowly.  I decorated with a lot of red and green when we moved in and I'm trying to lighten up things and make it more neutral.  

This is how our dining room has looked for a while.  My in-laws gave us this table and chairs for a wedding present.  I love the table and I LOVED the chairs but they have gotten worn over the years and I wasn't in love with the rooster pattern anymore.  

Another view looking in.  These are old and dark pictures.  

I had framed a set of botanical prints on the wall.  

So right at New Years, I found chairs I had been eyeing on sale at World Market so I bought four.  

I had been wanting a settee and the ones I loved were all $600-$800 or up and then recently I found one on zulily for half that and ordered it and I LOVE it!!!

I bought new light gold colored frames and white mats at Hobby Lobby and re-framed the botanical prints.  It really lightened them up! 

We have to have work done on our dining room window at some point so I don't want to invest in anything on the windows just yet so I found some cheap curtains at T J Maxx that are working for now.  

I'm loving my much lighter dining room! 

Here are some similar chairs and settees I found.

Random announcements

We are having fun on spring break but here are a few things you might want to know!

So a lot of you have discovered the fun of Stitch Fix and having someone shop for you!!! Well, now they have SHOES!!! I know a lot of you are shoe fans and even if you didn't like getting clothes - you might be interested in getting shoes!

They have 200 styles from brands you know and love like Toms, Dolce Vita, Franco Sarto and more! If you are already registered, update your style profile with your shoe size, schedule a fix and request shoes!!! You can tell your stylist what you are looking for (booties, sandals, etc).

And if you aren't signed up for Stitch Fix, it's a great day to try it out - for clothes OR shoes!

I also want to tell you about a local conference we have coming up on MOTHERING!! And this is for EVERYONE! We have breakouts on topics from young moms to foster/adoption to single moms to step parenting to mothering your parents (and tons more).  There is more information and you can buy tickets at tangibletruthministries.com.  We would love to see you there!

Five and Forty

My amazing Hollis turned five this past week.  I can hardly believe she is five.  

She is SO incredibly smart.  So sweet.  So funny.  She's quiet but she talks my EAR off.  She is an amazing big sister and a wonderful helper to me.  She is very organized and detailed.  She is SUPER loyal.  She has grown up so much in the last few months.  She pops out of bed most mornings and comes out of her room with her bed made and a smile on her face.  I've watched her mature and grow into such a precious girl.  She is so ready to start kindergarten this fall! She loves to play Barbies and play games.  She's not real into TV but she does love Paw Patrol and Barbie Movies.  She is her big sister's biggest fans and is usually wherever she is.  

She is my snuggle bug.  She likes to be right by my side at all times and I eat that up! I'm so blessed to be her mom!  Her actual birthday was Wednesday and she was feeling good so she got to go to school.  They were having an Easter Egg hunt and she had been so excited! She took donuts to her class and was so happy! I let her pick what she wanted for dinner and she chose chick fil a! Because of course!

 Hollis on her last five birthdays and a few days after she was born.  She was the cutest little curly headed toddler and now she's a beautiful girl!


We had a party at jump zone planned for Saturday but because we all had a fever virus that wouldn't go away, we ended up having to cancel it.   I think it was the right decision because nearly every friend that was coming was also sick.  Thankfully Hollis didn't act too disappointed.  We tried to make it a special day anyway.  Her grandparents all came to town and we celebrated with presents and cupcakes and this week is spring break so we have plans to do a few fun things to hopefully make up for no party.

I think Harper was more excited about Hollis' presents than Hollis was.  

Sweet sisters

 My girls consider any day with all their grandparents a good day! 

My sweet family (Will Holden was napping during all these pictures in case you think we have dropped him from our family. ha!) 

Scott turns 40 on Good Friday but since I had his family coming this weekend for Hollis - I decided we would celebrate him too! So I gave him a small dinner Saturday night.  Scott and I are opposites in many ways.  I would like to invite 100 friends to a birthday party and Scott would like one.  He's not a party guy so I kept it to just his family.  I really wanted to surprise him with a trip but being 40 with a baby makes things a little complicated.  I didn't feel like it was a good time to leave so maybe I can surprise him when he's 43. ha! 

Friends and cousins - we always have to have a group shot.

We had mexican food and Cake.  What else? :-) 

We finally got Will Holden in a picture! I can't believe that we only have five more weeks and we will be celebrating HIS first birthday.  So that's basically been the fastest year in all the world. 

Scott and his parents 

The rest of our family.  

We had a great time celebrating Scott and Hollis.  Here's to forty more years of birthdays!