7/24/13

Happily Ever After

This is the summer of weddings for my family. All of us were in one at the end of June, Bob was just in one a couple weeks ago and the girls and I are in my cousins at the end of August. Then for the grand finale, my little sister gets married in February! My girls are going to be pros at being flower girls by that time.
Chris and Amy's was the first wedding. This was one of those weddings that lots of people had been praying and hoping for. Long story short, Chris and Amy have been in the same friend group and are both everyone's favorite people. To the rest of the world it only made sense that two wonderful people who were both single get together. With God's perfect timing, it really happened and it was such a joyful wedding to be apart of.
McKenna throwing down her classic look for the rehearsal.
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Both my girls love Cooper and can't stay away from him. I don't blame them though.
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During the rehearsal dinner they had an open mic for speeches. I'm not the one to jump up at the chance for public speaking so Bob and I had already planned ahead and he spoke for the both of us. Little did I know that my fear was not passed onto my girls. They both jumped up there with him and Ella kept tugging on his leg to say something. She said "I love Chris and Amy" and then McKenna followed with one of her sweet and mumbled prayers. It was so sweet.
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The wedding colors were gray and coral and everything looked so pretty.
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This was the first time for Ella and McKenna to be flower girls. I knew Ella would do it like a pro and not miss a beat. McKenna was a wild card though. I honestly had no idea what she would do. I pulled up some YouTube videos of flower girls and watched them with the girls about a week leading up to the wedding. McKenna loved it so much she would want to watch them every day. 
Once the real deal happened, they both did awesome! I will never forget getting to watch their glowing faces as they walked down the aisle dropping petals. They smiled the entire time and Ella still talks about it being one of her favorite things. 
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My parents were at the wedding too and we honestly couldn't have done it without them. They were such a huge help the whole weekend. We took pictures before the wedding so there was a few hours of hanging out for the girls. I packed a Mary Poppin's bag of tricks and my mom and dad worked their magic. 
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Amy asked me to make her some mini bunting for her cake topper with their names on it. I wish I would have done the names in white so they would have popped more but I think it turned out so cute.
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Who doesn't love a photo wall?!
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A wedding dance party might be one of my favorite things in life. I think the same goes for my whole family. My girls never left the dance floor.
We even practiced some cool new moves on our road trip to Lubbock.

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I think McKenna wanted Cooper to dance with her.
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Breakfast burritos were served towards the end of the night and were a big hit!
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Even when McKenna was so tired, she refused to stop dancing. Paci and blanket in hand and she was ready to Party in the USA.
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Do you guys remember THE bear? Go here for a little behind the scenes story. Brittany and I had been scheming this up for a while and I am so happy it actually happened. The bear was a surprise to Chris and Amy as they got in the get away car. Bahahaha! I love it so much and can't wait to see where it appears next. 
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The wedding couldn't have been more perfect! Such a wonderful night celebrating an amazing couple!
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Andy's wedding was a few weekends ago and it was also one of those weddings I have been hoping and praying for. Kristen and I met Andy in college at ACU. Then when Bob became a residence director, Andy was one as well. Once they realized their mutual love for the movie Bottle Rocket, they were best friends instantly. I have tried to set Andy up more than once because I knew what a catch he was. We were so excited when Andy told us he met the one! Her name is Jackie and she is fantastic and perfect for Andy. Their wedding was so much fun! It was in Austin and had such a cool vibe to it. Popcorn bars, Donut bar in place of grooms cake and so many outside games that my girls loved playing. 
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Happy Summer Weddings!

Summer of Ella! (week 4)

We started off week 4 with some baking. Ella requested pink, purple and white rainbow cupcakes. 
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After we filled up on cupcakes, we did a little shaving cream art. Ella loved smearing it all over the table and writing her name in it. 
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She also loved covering her arms with it.
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We put some on a cookie sheet and then put a few drops of food coloring in it. Swirled it around and laid a piece of paper on top. I scraped the shaving cream off with a spatula and the food coloring made for a pretty cool design.
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On Thursday we had a special visitor during the summer of Ella. Brittany and Cooper! They were passing through town so we got to spend a couple of hours with them. It was so fun! We had a water day planned so we spent most of the time outside. 
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I had made a water blob that morning which is always a summer favorite for my girls. I saw this brilliant idea on pinterest last summer and it really is so fun. I was such a rookie last summer and it was kinda a fail. This time was so much better. Instead of buying two plastic tarps and taping them together I bought a 3.5 mil plastic tarp that was 10ft by 25ft. I then folded it in half and then duck taped all the edges together. I also did all the taping inside this summer which was much easier than trying to do it in the wind outside. Duh. Nice to see that I get smarter each summer.
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I then folded it in half again and duck taped the edges together. Folding it in half twice made it much thicker so it never ripped a hole and doing the double duck taped helped not get so many leaks.
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Then stick the hose in a little opening in the corner and fill it up. So much fun! 
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Before picking up McKenna we got a snow cone to finish off another fun Summer of Ella day.
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I was excited for McKenna to get home and see the water blob too. I wasn't sure how she would like it because sometimes she is weird with textures. She loved it though! She was giddy.
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Happy Summer everyone!

7/19/13

Breakfast nook

So, a little at a time.
Thats what I am trying to tell myself, but I just want it to feel like home right away.  I dont want to rush and use cheap stuff to fill the space, but in some situations the wal mart steel shelving set from college just works.  We have a lot of windows, so we dont have to hang very much stuff on the walls-which is great.  I am so bad at hanging stuff.  I get so overwhelmed and dont know what to put, so limited space is right up my alley.  So, basically, its just going slowly but things are becoming more homey and we are feeling more and more like we actually live here....
Ok. The breakfast nook used to look like this-
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You cant see the birds, but the floor is yellow and there are primary colored birds and flowers painted on the floor.  It was just not really my taste... She used it as a sitting/living area with a TV and I wanted to put our breakfast table in it (that jan and bob got for their wedding that they gave to us and we have used since we got married. random fun fact).  I had been pinning different painted tile and knew I wanted to paint the tile a black and white checkered look.  So, we used big squares and, of course, jan's friend is a professional painter and she did it for free for jan.  Unreal.  
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We put the table in it and found some chairs at a consignment store down the street to put around the table bc our yellow chairs scratched the floor and the paint came right off.  I was then faced with my first big wall space dilemma.  I had so many frames from college to tyler that I figured I could do something with those.  I googled picture wall and gallery wall and everything that could involve frames.  I ended up just winging it and not really using any of the formulas they provided and it worked out ok.  It is probably uneven and crazy, but it looks ok in my lack of detail brain, so I am leaving it. I feel like it will never be done, and I will always add more frames around the edges, but I am ok with it for now.
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I added polariods, photobooth pics, old notes instagrams, cookie cutters, and the avett brother's quote, "always remember there is nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name".
It's pretty plain with random fourth of july bunting left over.
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One room down, a few more to go...
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