sweet friends

Our days left in Lubbock are becoming fewer and fewer. It is so sad to think about everyone that we will be saying goodbye to when we leave. I actually try not to think about it too much. I get all weird and awkward with goodbyes so I try to avoid them. But really. It's gonna happen whether I like it or not.  Sad day.  

We have been keeping very busy around here trying to get everything packed up and ready to move. We moved to Lubbock with no kids and are now leaving Lubbock with two little ones. So to say that we have accumulated much more stuff since we have moved here might be an understatement. Packing has been keeping us busy but we have also been doing some really fun things during our last few weeks here. 

Last Thursday a group of our dear friends threw us a little going away dinner. We have been doing Thursday night dinners since the summer of 09 and it is so sad to think we just had our last one. It was such a great last one though! Everyone showed up dressed like either Bob, Ella, McKenna or I. It was pretty funny! 

My look was pretty easy to pull off. T-shirt, jeans and a ponytail.  Lindi and Jordan pulled me off very nicely.

Bob was either t-shirt and jeans or a pair of scrubs.

Two braids and a skirt made for the perfect Ella Reese! 

And way to go Amy, Brad and sweet little Cooper (my fav!) for representing McKenna!

It was such a special and thoughtful night spent with wonderful friends that we will deeply miss. Love you guys so much!

Speaking of sweet friends...you will be my new best friend if you send someone our way to buy our house in Lubbock. We are having an open house tomorrow (Sunday May 1st) from 2-4. Click here for more info on house.

Last Week in Pictures

Gosh yall, we are sorry.
We have been kinda crazy on both sides of tx and are not doing many blog worthy things...I am working a little something for this weekend but its super small and not exciting.
In the meantime, I will show yall the amazement that was last week.  You will probably die of amazement over everything we have been doing.  I mean, awesomeness and unpredictability is our mojo.

 Ok.  We are boring.  Whatever.  Ill show you guys anyway.
First, someone we dont know tagged our car with hot pink shoe polish.  While we were not in it. We felt like high school girls all over again.

then we went to the zoo with Julie, Shaun and Katelyn and the kids got to feed the birds.  A definite highlight of the zoo.

it got pretty hot.

Then I accidentally spent 30 (yes, 30!) dollars on balloons.  I didnt realize how much they were and they didnt have a tag. The balloon lady brought over the tag after I had given the kids each a balloon.  Such a dumb mom move. Aaaaaand they have already deflated.  I am such an idiot.  But, fun was had by all for about 15 seconds.

Then (not pictured unfortunately) we ran around in the rain,
hid from a tornado in our bathroom with our entire family for wayyyyy too long and won a mini price is right sesh at wal mart.
 Party week. 

Hope yall are having almost as much fun as us.
Oh, I take it all back- Sass pot has been in big girl panties for the last three days (except nights) and we are beyond thrilled.  One step at a time away from baby hood (and I am crying shamelessly every step).

Pin it Tuesday

How was yalls Easter??? Our's was great.  Nothing too exciting- many egg hunts (where sass and aves grabbed any and all eggs that they could and ben took one at a time and ended up with, like 4 total), a little swimming and a lot of family time.  We loved it.

I wish that I had exciting pics of our weekend...alas, I do not.  I think we took some somewhere...I will be back with those...

Just thought I would round up a few of my fave things this week on pinterest since my own life is lacking in much excitement cause I thought yall might like it.

LOVE these oreo choc chip cookies.  This is making me hungry...

and this inside out carrot cake muffin.  gosh.

Hek yes. LOVE these shoe laces! ghostland or bust.

We all love despicable me.  these cupcakes are fantastic. (why can I only post food on here...why dont I like real life things instead of just food...)

I wish I would have done this.  Or anything, really, to document my kids growing up.  This way is so cute too.

speaking of babies.  Did you guys see Linds' awesome gender reveal party???  It was SO cute and her mom and Ben's moms faces are absolutely the best! So so excited for them!!!

Have yall seen these amazing invites??? I know-yall have.  I live under a rock. But they are so cool so I am telling you again. They are all little paper record players that play a song written by the couple getting married!! They are sooo neat.

Ben would love this way to read the alphabet.

So, I pretty much just spend my time thinking about food, things that glow and babies.  There you go.  The mind of a genius.  Hope yall have a great tuesday.

silk dyed eggs

During McKenna's 3am feeding the other night I was reading one of my fav blogs ourbestbites.  I mean these girls have it all. Amazing recipes and crafts. I have made so many of their recipes and never been disappointed and they just came out with their very own cookbook! I sure do wish I owned one of those. (hint, hint husband. Mother's day approaching) 

Anyways, back to the 3am part. I usually have no trouble going back to sleep after feeding McKenna but after reading about this fantastic silk dyed egg craft the other night I just laid in bed thinking about it. We went straight to Goodwill the next day to buy some silk ties. You have to have 100% silk ties for this to work.

Cut the seams of the tie and take out the lining. Lucky for me I had a princess who was very helpful.

Then wrap the tie around an egg with the right side of the tie touching the egg. I used pipe cleaner to close the top. Try to get the tie as close and flat as possible to the egg. The more direct contact with the egg, the clearer print you will get. Then wrap a light weight fabric around the egg.

Boil the eggs in water and 1/4 cup of vinegar for about 20 minutes. Then let them cool for about 10.

It really is so cool when you unwrap them! I couldn't believe it really worked. So cool! Some turned out better than others and our goodwill didn't have a lot of silk ties to choose from.

Brittany and took the kids to see the Easter bunny at the mall the other day. This picture makes me smile. I am cracking up that Ella has her legs crossed, McKenna is so alert and sweet little Coop is just chillin. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Paper Mache Eggs on Goooood Friday

On wednesday we made paper mache eggs and they were so much fun.  I havent done paper mache in so long, and it really lived up to the hype of my childhood memories.  It was a blast.  The neighbors came over and played with us and we partied the afternoon away with liquid starch and tissue paper.

and we hung them to dry in the garage so we can stuff them with candy for later on this week.

clearly some turned out better than others...
We followed the gorgeous instructions from notmartha.  That lady rocks.  I really dont even want to show you guys her eggs because they are the most awesome paper mache eggs I have ever seen and I feel like she practiced a lot more than me in her youth.  Clearly she has a leg up in the egg beautifying biz.  plus she is famous.  So try not to compare.  Ours def have a lot of love in them.
And speaking of love, just wanted to say that we are so grateful this weekend that we can not only celebrate easter with eggs and a bunny, but with new life because of what Christ did for us.  We are so grateful for the life that He laid down so that we could have eternal life; a sacrifice He made for us that was not easy.  We praise Him this weekend with everything we have.  This weekend is the reason for our joy, peace, hope and purpose.  Praise the Lord for all He has done and for Jesus' resurrection from the grave!!
Hope you all have a fantastic Easter weekend!!!

Egg hunt

Ella had an egg hunt at school today and she loved it! As I am typing this post she is sitting next to me opening all the eggs she got. Her excitement with each egg is so cute and McKenna and I are both covered in Easter stickers right now. 

I made Ella an egg sandwich for her lunch today. Ever since I have been painting her bread she really does eat her sandwich! Whatever works.

Ella wore the adorable Easter shirt that Kristen made for her! 

Granny

We have spent a lot of time in Odessa this last week and weekend. My Granny passed away last Wednesday. She had been sick for a long time and it is so good knowing that she is now with God and well again.

 During the funeral my Aunt told the story of when I was 5 years old and rode on a plane all by myself to Granny's house to visit during the summer. When I got back home from that visit I asked my mom if Granny was ever going to die.  My mom told me that yes someday Granny would die and my response was "that is going to be the saddest day of my life."  

Granny was always my favorite. She was everyone's favorite.

I never really told Ella what was going on with Granny because I didn't think she would understand. At the grave sight service I gave Ella a flower to go place on Granny's casket and I decided to explain to her what happened to Granny and that she was in heaven with God now. Ella listened very intently and her response was a very slow and sweet "ohhhh mannn." I do think that Ella understands that we will not see Granny in Odessa again but she has already asked twice if we can go back to Granny's house. I think it might have something to do with how much fun she had with her cousins all weekend. All the kids played together non stop and it was so much fun seeing them all together. Of course I didn't think to start taking pics until the last day so some of the cousins had already gone home. 

Seeing these 3 try to squeeze in one chair together makes me laugh. It reminds me of this story.

After the funeral we spent the weekend going through all of Granny's stuff in her house. I have never known someone as organized as Granny was. She had a booklet where she wrote down every single thing she owned. I'm not kidding. Every painting, china dish, and knick knack were written down and she  would say when she bought them and for how much she paid. She had a folder for every child, grandchild and great grandchild. In each folder was every drawing and letter we ever wrote to her. It made for lots of reminiscing and laughs over the weekend.

 Bob and I are very excited about some new furniture pieces that we are taking with us from Granny's house. We are headed back to Odessa next week to load a U haul up with a dresser, end tables, coffee table, dining room table, buffet serving piece and china cabinet. How great is that?! We don't have any of these so we are thrilled to be given such wonderful pieces and with them being Granny's makes them that much more special. I think each piece is so great but some may need a little refinishing to look more like my style. But the big question is what in the world is my style and how do I change the look of these pieces? New paint? New hardware? Please let me know if you have any ideas or tips!

Granny will be greatly missed and thought about very often. She was such an amazing woman and I am very blessed to have had her as my Granny.

good news, bad news

Good news is we bought a house! Bad news is that our house here in Lubbock is still for sale. Owning two houses is not an ideal situation and we are just praying it won't last for long. I know I sound like a broken record, but if you know anyone that is looking for a great house in Lubbock tell them to buy this one!

We have had a lot going on lately so I am a little behind on blogging. This is going to be a very random post with a few highlights of what we have been up to.

Ella got feathers in her hair and she loves them. She got them at Sweet & Sassy a couple of weeks ago. I figured they would be a fun thing for her to have for a week or so and then I would take them out. Nope. I have asked her if I can take them out and she is very clear in letting me know that she does not want them out. So I guess they will just have to fall out on their own which they say is up to 6-8 weeks. Gotta love the feather trend.

I think Ella is going to be into sports. Which is surprising considering she is my child. She has always loved to sit on the couch and watch sports with Bob and ever since I have told her that Aves is playing soccer she of course wants to as well. (lets just hope that aves and ella are nothing like kristen and I were when it comes to soccer skills) We went to my little cousins baseball game a few weeks ago and Ella loved it!



I made shirts for Ella and I to wear that said TEAM KYLER. My cousin Kyler was so excited to see Ella at his game, he couldn't wipe the grin off his face. It was so cute. Ella would stand as close as she could when Kyler would bat and he even hit a home run! I bought a pink baseball for Ella to take with her to Kyler's game and when it was over she had him autograph it for her. She is so proud of that baseball and I'm pretty sure Kyler felt like a pro signing it for her. It was such a fun night!

And guess who grew out of the swaddle stage last week?!


Look at how big my baby already is! I can't believe it! She doesn't like to be all wrapped up in a blanket anymore, she wants to sleep like a big kid. (and I don't mean sleep through the night like a big kid, I'm still waiting for that) 

Friday Fat Kid addition

Oh Friday, I am so glad you are here.  Here are some things that the fat kid in me really wants to make this weekend...

how cool is this rainbow jello??? I love it!!


and these homemade heart donuts!! This lady is fantastic!!
while we are on donuts, how cute are these??


I feel like these are kinda my dream meal.

these look so summerperfect!

how delicious are these??? and I mean, you could put so many things in a bread bowl.
Hopefully that will satisfy a few of your food cravings this weekend...

Practicing for Easter

We are eggcited about Easter, that is for sure.  Ben thinks every egg has a little dinosaur inside and avery and sass want to color everything they can find, pink, so it works out.  Yesterday, we decided to do it outside, since the last few times we have turned everything in our house a different color.  This time it stayed pretty much just on the eggs.  whew.

I have tried to tell them that markers dont stay after you dye them- they wont listen...

why wont my kids wear ponytails??? it kills me.  sass cant let go of the lloyd christmas haircut for the life of her.

while we waited we painted our fingernails, naturally. we were in a coloring mood.



Then ben found a roly poly and his life was complete.  (Isnt that picture so creepy with bens blue fingers! hahha! It cracks me up!)

Then, they, immediately, wanted to crack them after they had been dyed to see what was inside and, maybe, eat them.  That kind of makes me gag because I am not a big hard boiled egg fan, but they like them enough to try them and then throw them away.
Overall, it was good practice.  I am sure we will have many more practice sessions to make sure we are doing it eggsactly right...