happy friday!

happy friday friends! i'm so glad that you're here for instafriday. 

i hope you've had a lovely week. we certainly have. 

on friday morning we packed the kids up and drove to the mountains, to my hometown of Wrightwood. 

i miss that place like crazy. isn't it beautiful? memorial day weekend is THE big "garage sale" weekend in wrightwood, so we made a day of it. my dad and my grandma came along too.

we had a great breakfast at the grizzly cafe and then set off to find some treasures. and that, we did! 

i didn't come home with nearly as much as i'd hoped, but what i did find were most definitely treasures. see those 3 frames? $2 each and they're all beautiful. the 3 shutters will soon be art on my wall and the 2 HUGE brown frames will be in our dining room. i'll be posting about them in the next few weeks. i also got a perfect little mustard yellow pyrex dish for 50 cents! 

helping daddy install a new ceiling fan and he insisted on wearing these silly glasses. 

brookelyn's desk is finally painted and in her room. we surprised her while she was at grandmas and totally rearranged her room & put the desk in there. i still have lots of work to do, like take down the pbk flowers hanging, etc.. but soon her room will be fabulous and i'll post about it here! 

{yes, the handles on the desk are totally not lined up. not our fault, but we need to fix that soon}

i had a long "to do" list for memorial day weekend and an even longer "june" list. we got ALL of the "to do" list done and have less than half to go on the "june" list.. and it's not even june yet! woot!

this boy. he's got my heart and i had his attention. matt and i were explaining to the kids why we celebrate memorial day, before they prayed at dinner. love that they listen so intently. {sometimes}

kind of addicted to my youversion bible app. reading through so many plans, including #souldetox 

( #shereadstruth ) has been such an amazing and eye opening experience for me. 

one of the things on our list this weekend was to finish that simple little bit of pallet art up there. and, to get the ikea frame hung level and write something new on it. each week we're writing a new bible verse and the kids (matt and i too) are memorizing it. i'm loving how it turned out! 

brookelyn and i are obsessed with the blood red oranges we picked up at last weeks farmers market. and, i'm loving filling my BIG mason jars with fruit, water and mint!

early this week i was sick of my mason jar sweating all over everything, so i made a little wrap for it!

and then, another...

and then a couple of days later, yet, another.

today my big boy asked if he could make our lunch himself. and so, i let him. he did a great job and didn't even make a mess! (did you know he'll be 4 in TWO weeks? HOW did time fly so fast?)

this has been a busy week for us, getting lots done around the house and such. these two were fighting like cats & dogs this afternoon, so we had an impromptu naptime on the couch. they both passed out and i got some peace & quiet. 

what are your plans for the weekend? 

we're going to Oceanside to see my sister, brother in law, niece and nephew and I can't wait!! 

saturday, my sister and i are taking our girls to shop at the Queen Bee Market! If you're in So Cal, you should too. it's amazing and so, so much fun! 

Meet my friends..

i don't share with you my fantastic sponsors nearly often enough. in fact, i've got a couple of new friends who i've never shared about. for that, i feel terrible. so, today i want to show a couple of these sweet ladies some love and would SO appreciate it if you would too!

   

are these not adorable? i haven't sewn brookelyn clothes in a very LONG time, but i'm definitely going to be making her both of these this summer. if that maxi dress doesn't scream GIRLY, i don't know what does! and the little romper.. yes, brookelyn LOVES rompers and so another she will have. be sure to check out Sew Sweet Patterns. their prices by the way, are totally affordable!

blog * shop

...and

   

say hello to these pretty little pieces of clay. tracy is AMAZING and so incredibly talented. the detail and love that goes into each & every item that she makes is so evident in the finished product. we own a few pieces of jewelry, hair accessories and baked pins from tracy and plan to buy lots more! AND, she'll be selling these little lovelies at the Queen Bee Market next weekend in Carlsbad. I'll be shopping will you?

blog * shop

 

Life Lately

today i'm linking up with Alli from Life on Leroy & Hayley from the Weekend File for Life Lately. 


our Life Lately,
one word busy.


like, crazy busy.


a busy that i don't always do well with. 
a busy that has taken me out of my comfort zone. 


and when i say comfort zone, 
i mean that there are dishes in my sink, 
my floors haven't been vacuumed since wednesday, 
the laundry is really piling up,
and my to do list is getting longer before it gets any shorter.


now, i realize that that may sound ridiculous to some people. but, for me those things are a big deal. 
i don't like dirty dishes, i vacuum constantly, actually enjoy doing laundry and my anxiety levels drop immensely when i can see on my to do list, that things are getting done. 
little things like the stuff i mentioned make me anxious. 
and when my anxiety rears it's ugly head, things aren't always pleasant. 

this week though, i've taken more time out to spend with my kids, and more time to sit and relax and read the bible. 
a book that i can honestly say i've never completely read through. 


after a few crazy weeks of non-stop fairly fab party planning, i was burnt out and my home was a bit neglected. 


all last week it was so hard for me to not get a million things done. but, i knew that not only had i been absent from my house, but i'd also been a bit absent from my kids and hubby. 

i'm just thankful that they're so awesome and were completely supportive of me spending so much time away from them. 


so this past week, my goal was to snuggle them, read to them, play with them and just BE with them. 


and that, i did. we had an awesome week.


so, my plan for next is to get things done! this weekend matt & i have been working hard on some projects in the house. i plan to continue throughout the week. my to do list needs to start shrinking, fast! 


i'm definitely going to make a point though of spending quality time with Brookelyn, Cohen and Matt. 
they all deserve that and i need it. 


there is nothing quite like spending quality time reading to Cohen, laying on Brookelyn's bed & chatting with her or having some much needed adult conversation with my sweet husband. 


how do you spend your quality time with your kids & hubby?
how's your Life Lately?

It's Friday!

it's been 2 weeks since i've posted an InstaFriday post, so bear with me.. this is a major photo dump. and that's AFTER i weeded through the pics that i didn't feel like i HAD to post! hope you've all had a lovely 2 weeks.

anchor hocking ombre mugs. really? as if my love & obsession with vintage needed to go any deeper. this set did not come home with me, but i'm thinking it needs to. if it's still there.

sitting. relaxing. enjoying some quiet time, all alone. not something i've been able to do much in the past few weeks. while they were great and FUN weeks, i'm so thankful for this past week and not having to run, run, run 24/7. 

(and no, that's not a man in the tv, it's a shadow from the ceiling fan. creepy though, ha?)

does it get any more precious than 2 sweet little 3 year old praying before they enjoy their yogurt? i think not.

see that coffee? yup, lived on that good stuff for days while meagan & i crafted up a storm, creating decorations for the fairly fabulous crafting slumber party!

such a spoiled mama i am. 

and so very thankful for my sweet hubby & kids. 

my lovely friend Jenelle, from RellasBellas was kind enough to have my sister & Ali guest post on her blog. feel free to go read their post, here! 

one of the VERY few reasons that i love living in the desert. 

and finally, there was this! the fairly fabulous crafting slumber party went off w/out a hitch. everyone had a fantastic time, including meagan and me.

we also celebrated an amazing friends birthday! happy birthday, AGAIN, Meagan! 

{it's still your birthday week you know!}

on saturday, during a phone call to matt he told me not to go into our bedroom when i stopped by the house (to pick up meagans birthday cake & presents), after shopping at the antique store with some of the slumber party girls. when i got home on sunday, i was surprised with a newly painted master bathroom. i couldn't have been happier! i wish now that i had a before (hideous shade of poopy green) picture. but, i can't wait to share with you soon the entire bathroom redo!

yes, he's a boy. a boy who only has a sister. 

a boy who's mama has friends that mostly have little girls. 

attempted 2 days coffee free due to a migraine. 

dumb idea. i sure missed it.

did you see?? (it's going on NOW, more items being added all weekend)

the jacket is only $22 shipped and the coffee cuffs are $7 shipped! 

lots more on instagram though.

for the past couple of months i've really been enjoying the YouVersion app on my iPhone. so when i saw on instagram and twitter that lots of ladies were following the "soul detox" plan, i decided to join in. i can't tell you how glad i am that i did. it's amazing what reading a bit of scripture can do for you days! i've already finished the "relationships" and "parenting" plans. i highly recommend both of those as well. the bible 365 plan is great too. that's another that i'm following along with. #shereadstruth

and this would be one of the many reasons that i HATE living in the desert. no, that's not clouds (well, the very top white layer is), nor is it smog (thankfully). it's DIRT. yup, just dirt. it's been SO incredibly windy here all week. wednesday was just insane though. from where we live, looking north this is what you could see. looking south it was so much clearer, only because there are tons of houses and concrete. to the north, it's mostly desert and a few scattered houses. nothing to block the dirt though. dis.gust.ing. 

cohen is loving working in his workbook. 

watching him learn makes my heart so happy & full.

my sister had quite the scare a couple of weeks ago when her doctor uttered the words *melanoma* when checking out 3 spots on my sisters torso. praise the LORD, after 2 LONG weeks, tons of prayer and a biopsy we found out today that she does NOT have cancer. the doctor wants to remove all of the cells though because they don't look *good* at all. if you were praying with us, Thank You!!! i can't even imagine if the news had been different. 

there are so many things that i want to get done around here. today i sat down to make my "June" list. do you write lists? do you love them like me? 

i can't function without them, seriously i can't!

this afternoon cohen and i spent some time playing out back and decided to cut some roses to bring into the house so that we could enjoy them. i'm glad they're so pretty, because i had the watery, itchy eyes and hives on my arms to prove that i'd been out back actually "touching" nature! haha. 

after matt came home from work, we headed out to our local farmer's market. the kids had a blast and loved sampling so many of the delicious fruits, veggies and hummus! our farmer's market is surprisingly nice and had quite a few organic vendors, which made this mama happy! this is just a portion of what we brought home. i can't wait to enjoy it all this week!

happy friday friends! i hope you all enjoy your long weekend. we're headed up {bright & early} to my hometown with my dad in the morning to do some garage sale shopping. i canNOT wait!

also, we've extended the 3 giveaways until Monday evening. that means you've got all weekend to check them out and enter! 

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