Ali - OUT.

HAPPY happy Friday everyone!!! The time has FINALLY come!!!! Tomorrow morning bright and early, I hop on a plane and head to Maryland! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to stay with Cassie, hang with Andi, and go to The Luckett's Spring Market - a dream come true!!!!!

Oh - AND I just found out that I won the contest on Miss Mustard Seed's blog for "who is traveling the farthest" to Luckett's!! $50 credit to her booth - oh yeah baby!!!! Awesomeness!

I will be posting a bit about my trip throughout the week (one of the benefits of vacationing with a fellow blogger) and I know I will have a zillion pictures and stories to share when I get back! Seriously!!! SO SO excited!!!!!

And - because a post isn't a post without pictures, I thought I would share some random ones with you.

Last weekend we went to a b-day party and there were pony rides!! SO cool!!!

(look at those braids - haha)

Both of my kids loved it and they kept getting back in line to ride again. Here's a shot of the adorable birthday girl :)

Happy First B-day Keala!!!! Too stinkin' cute!

I also wanted to share a couple pics from Mother's Day.
Lunch at.....Taco Bell. Ha ha! It was Mother's Day, so I sat by myself :)

Don't judge people...Taco Bell is YUMMY!

Next we went to our big outdoor mall and played in the fountain (well, Noah did)

Hayden got like 2 drops of water on her and was like this....

...and this....

for the rest of the time. Ha ha!

Last but certainly not least - a random pic of some random kid. Look at this poor baby's diaper. ha ha!!! I couldn't help but laugh :)

Seriously hilarious!

So, that's it folks! I am off for some East Coast FUN! Seeing as how I am traveling by plane, I can really only buy "smalls" at Luckett's. Hopefully the treasure hunting Gods are on my side :) I will definitely report back!!

Happy weekend to youuuuu!

A craft.

3 days!!!! 3 days until I get on a plane and head for MD!!!! Cassie will be waiting for me at the airport, and we may or may not sob while hugging each other! I am sooooooo excited to be able to spend a week with Cassie and her family, visit with Andi, and meet some of the other awesome ladies from Blog Land that Cassie is already real life friends with. Oh - AND - I get to go to LUCKETT'S!!!!!!!! Seriously people - I am sososososososososososo excited! I've been dreaming of going there for the last few years and I get to go this Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

Ok - the craft. right.
I wanted to make something for Cassie and Andi to give them when I got there. Hmmm. What to make?

On a routine trip to the local Dollar Tree, I stumbled on these awesomely hideous Spring banners. Never mind about making them something....I'll just bring them these!! Done and done.

Ha ha - NOT! No way! Never gonna happen!
BUT - I am going to strip them for parts. Wanna see??

I know they dell dowels at all the craft stores. Even WalMart has them.
Cut the dowels to size, glue on the end caps, tie the string....ha ha...nope. This is easier. And for $1 each, totally worth it!

After cutting the ugly banner off, I used it as a template to cut my replacement fabric. I used my go-to vintage sheets for this project and I'm happy I did. I wanted to make them personal and special, but I also wanted them to be sturdy and small enough to pack easily in my suitcase.

I used my standard technique of printing out letters on the computer and tracing them onto the fabric. Then filled them in with craft paint. This one below is the beginning of Cassie's.

Here's the start of Andi's (a secret code that only her and I know...and maybe a select few others)

After I finished painting the lettering, I knew I wanted to add hearts to each of them. I used this tutorial from Sew Chatty to make the heart for Cassie's. Time consuming, but cute I think :)

I kept it a bit more simple on Andi's so they wouldn't be the same. I think they both came out super cute and I really hope they like them (scratch that - I couldn't wait so I texted them pictures of them, ha ha. They like 'em).

Wanna see the finished products???
Cassie's:

(she and I have been texting and e-mailing each other "Yay May" for like the last 6 months!! ha ha!)

And Andi's:

(ok - is it totally bugging you that you don't know what it means?! I'll tell you. It stands for "Aqua Sisters For Life." We both love the color aqua and any time anyone asks us for a color opinion, aqua is always our choice. We're dorks. I know.)

So, that's it. A little happy craft. I can't wait to get there and give them to my friends!
YAY MAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yo - Yosemite {Part 2-1}

Happy Monday everyone :)  I had a wonderful Mother's day with my kids, sister, nephew, mom, and brother. Excellent company, yummy food, & shopping. What more do we need!?

Welcome to the second edition of my Yosemite post. SO many fun pictures to share from this awesome trip. Here goes :)

Day 2 (part 1):
That little speck of brown hair is Noah sleeping all warm and cozy in the tent.

WAKE UP!!!! Ha ha, he always woke up excited for the new day...

It is cold at camp first thing in the morning...brrrrrrr.

Here's the girl with her stick :)

Hard at work!

The agenda for the day....Lower Yosemite Falls, a ride on the valley shuttle, Lunch at Yosemite Lodge, and Happy Isles nature walk. Busy busy! These pictures will all be from The shuttle and Lower Falls. There are too many to feature the whole day in just one post. Sorry for picture over load.

First up - piggy back ride from daddy :)

The shuttle is Noah's all time favorite Yosemite experience (which is admittedly a bit strange). He LOVED riding on the shuttle.

Here we are at the base of the trail.

(and yes, Josh is like 8' taller than me)

A quick hike in and.....

(below: disregard strange lady on boulder - yikes)

SO beautiful! The sound of the water rushing down and the light mist falling on our heads was magical.

Silly Uncle James :)

Cuties...

Half Dome

Yosemite Falls from afar

Group shot (I can't believe everyone was looking at the camera and smiling - n-e-v-e-r happens)

And of course, some more Pacific Dogwood blooms :)

Have you been to Yosemite?? If not, do you feel like you have now after all of my pictures?! Stay tuned for more. Put Yosemite on your bucket list people!! You MUST see this magical place with your own 2 eyes :)
Have a great week!!

 

My Cup Runneth Over

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!
Well, I've already had to say, "It's Mother's Day - no yelling today." and "It's Mother's Day- no fighting today." Ha ha. Let's see how many more I can get through before the day is done.

My sweet hubby is at work today so it's just me and the kiddos (and at the moment the silly little wandering neighbor boy who apparently owes his mom some alone time this morning). I have no idea what the day will hold, but I will be spending it with my precious (screaming) littles and I'm sure it will be a fun filled day.

(Special thanks to my hubby for the Nordies gift card - you definitely know the way to my heart).

And to my mom - you are the most amazing woman in the world. You taught me everything I know (good and bad - ha ha) and I am the luckiest daughter on the planet!!

Sister - Happy FIRST Mother's Day! Little Oliver is one lucky kid to have you as his sweet mama!

And to my loving Mother in law and Sister in law, you two are both amazing mothers!! I am seriously lucky to have strong, wonderful women like you in my life :)

XOXO

(See what I mean - my cup runneth over)

Yo - Yosemite {Part One}

Back to the grind! Back to the grind!
We-had-a-BLAST on our first ever family camping trip to Yosemite (arguably the most beautiful place on planet Earth). Here are a few pictures for ya (and I'm not going to lie, you will most likely be seeing Yosemite pics on here for about a week...I took like 300. ha ha)

Seriously?! Can you believe a place that looks like this exists?

SO so beautiful! I have been here sooooo many times, but each time it takes my breath away.
We did a bit of exploring, and then it was time to set up camp :)

We got a new tent that takes only one minute to set up. No joke. It is awesome! That's my in-laws in the background still setting up their regular old tent - ha ha!

My sis-in-law and her fam had an RV....Wimps (totally kidding of course...and kind of jealous).

And of course, we had to make camp fancy :)

Buntings make everything feel like a party! We even had people stop by to say how cute our campsite looked. ha ha! Mission accomplished :)

Hayden got right to work playing in the stream with her stick (this was a daily occurrence for her).

Noah and his cousins spent a good chunk of time relaxing here:

There were tons of these gorgeous dogwood blooms all around Yosemite Valley. Josh made fun of me because I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.

Mother Nature, you rule!!!

We spent 3 nights total at camp, so we each took turns being in charge of dinner. Darcy's dinner was up first - NACHOS!!! Mmmmm!

Check out these babies!

Oh yeah baby - Mmmmmmm!
Josh made a MAN sized portion for himself and ate every bit of it. Mmmmmm!

Darcy's Dessert did not disappoint either. Campfire bananas :)

First: Slice your banana through the peel and stuff it with deliciousness (marshmallows, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips etc).

Then you wrap it in foil and put it over the campfire.

After about 10 minutes or so, open it up and eat it with a spoon. YUM!

Melty chocolatey peanut buttery deliciousness! Mmmmmmm!!! SO good!!

Then we spent some time relaxing by the fire and using our super cool light-up cups that Uncle James got for everyone. Jealous!?! You know you are!

After that, it was time to go to sleep in the tent :)
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.

(haha - the terrible 3's tantrums came pretty often on this trip but she did have a great time in between the freak outs. silly girl).

Stay tuned for more Yosemite posts - Lots more to share :)