july photos from the phone

1. beach day

2. beach day - the water was as hot as the outside air temperature like 90 something.

3. state farm park day.

4. state farm park day - the park is literally the nicest ever. 

 5. girls night out to the normal cornbelters game with haley, sarah, & christin. christin actually wrote about that trip to the game here on her blog.

6. my parents were in a car accident on their 35th wedding anniversary. thankfully, they are ok.

7. got new phones at work. and some jackass thought it would be funny to move my still functioning old phone behind my computer. i couldn't find it.

8. a new to us very old tractor - jar's summer project

 9. liv learing to ride the motorcycle

10. rachel learning to ride the motorcycle

11. rachel speeding away from jarrett, she had it gunned.

12. olivia putting around. she wouldn't go fast.

13. school supply shopping has commenced

14. holding my nephew britton for 1.5 hours. love it.

15. normal

16. also normal

 

lastly, some pics of pics. the professional pics from the recital have come in.

see, i think you people underestimated the cuteness of rachel's group.

olivia & isabelle - so much sass in this picture

and the individuals. i die. seriously. i can't handle it.

Pinterest Inspirations Complete

Pinterest, where have you been all my life?

 

I have seen mason jars all over the place lately. I have quite a few at home already. I finally decided to complete some of my Pinterest pins. I'm quite pleased.

 

I bought mason jars at Farm & Fleet because they were on sale. 2 dozen for $4. I wanted them all to match.

 

My new mason jar soap dispenser.

 

 

This one was easy. I am planning on making a few more & maybe giving them as gifts. I will probably make one for my kitchen from one of the bigger ones I have on hand already.

 

And my next project, turned out to be harder than it should have been because I bought the wrong kind of wood. I bought maple. If you do this, don't buy maple. It's seriously as hard as concrete. I should have bought pine like I always do, but I had a brain fart at Lowes.

 

This piece is a 1x6 cut to 18 inches.

 

I spray painted it brown against Jarrett's better judgement - he likes stained wood. I love this Valspar spray paint. It is very good quality and the nozzle doesn't make your hand feel like it is going to break.

 

He had to drill the holes for me since I bought maple. No pictures of that because I kept saying "do this" "do that" and he had a disgusted look on his face. I would have just done it myself but he said "it's a new drill bit, you will break it."

 

And to complicate matters, he had to drill a little hole in the back of each of the clamps too. He says "I friggin love Pinterest". I believe the original pin said to glue the clamps onto the board. I think that's dumb. I don't want them falling off. Hello, they are holding up a glass jar in a room where we are primarily sans shoes. Come on.

 

I pondered the placement/spacing for a bit, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I spaced them at 3, 7, 11, & 15 inches. So they are even.

 

Once we got that all figured out & brought it inside, I was fully prepared to just take it from there. But I ended up having the screw driver slip off the clamp & cut my finger. He said "just let me do it". See how happy he looks.

 

And the finished product.

 

That was a rough 20 minutes for Jarrett to help me with a project. In the end, he likes it. Well, I think he likes it. He says "this is what you wanted?" - Yes, yes it is.

 

That bathroom is coming along.

how???

school starts on august 19th. olivia will go into 4th grade. rachel will start kindergarten. and i'm a mess. i will repeat, i'm a mess. crying here & now. last night to jarrett. and this morning to jarrett. it's all gone so fast.

liv 2 years old

 

rachey 2 years old

 

today i scheduled all of the necessary appointments for rachel to be ready to begin her career as a student, and it is becoming quite real. this is really happening. my baby is starting kindergarten. after all, she isn't a baby really. she will be 6 years old in october. but she is my baby.

rachey 9 months old

i've been slowly preparing rachel for kindergarten. she says the teacher will know she's a new kid in school because she's never been there before. and she loved when i told her all of the kids in kindergarten are going to be new kids. kindergarten is everyone's very first year of school.

olivia 3 years old



rachel 3 years old

we've talked about the bus. rachel is excited. olivia isn't. plain & simple, this mama can't drop both kids off at school and get to work on time. the bus is the solution. maybe it won't be forever. but it will be for now.

liv 2 years old

rachel 3 years old



liv 4 & rachel 18 months

i also printed the school supply lists. and completed olivia's registration for 4th grade online.

4th grade. i distinctly remember things that happened during 4th grade. olivia is not excited at the thought of the school year starting in less than a month. then again, i'm not exactly thrilled either. it will definitely lessen the ol daycare bill each week though.

liv 4 years old

rachel 18 months

i can handle 4th grade. after all, i've already lived through baby to kindergarten with her. and we both survived - albeit a few tears were shed by both of us.

olivia 9 months old

olivia 1st day of kindergarten

i've had the joy of watching these 2 beautiful girls grow. i've been there every day. so can someone please tell me how it happened so fast. and someone tell me how it can hurt so much but bring me so much joy at the same time.

i better prepare myself for this happening in 7 short years...

summer update

nothing in particular going on that is super exciting for us. just enjoying the summer.

 

it's been exhausting really...even liv thinks so. she dozes off in the car all the time.

 

and enjoying the simple pleasures in life - such as wendy's frosty waffle cones

 

i got to FaceTime with my favorite girls the other day while I was at work. that certainly brightened my day.

 

we've all been spending time loving on this devilishly handsome man.

 

quiet nights at home on our lonely not often traveled country road. enjoying the sounds of silence - or crickets chirping & coyotes howling.

 

we had a sleepover with the biggest cousin

 

we have eaten delicious pumpkin blossoms

 

and we have been enjoying man's best friend, or in this case girl's best friend.

 

hard to believe school starts 1 month from friday.

4th of July Festivities - 1 week late

oh my the 4th of july seems like it was forever ago, not just the 1 week or so ago.

 

we had an awesome long weekend. lots of time relaxing by the pool. lots of strawberitas. lots of laughs.

 

enjoy some pictures from the ol iPhone...

 

of course we soaked up every second of baby Britton we could.

 

 

i went on a bike ride. my mom has a sweet bike.

trouble.

 

there he is again...grandpa & britton

 

watermelon, lots of watermelon too.

 

rachey shot the bb gun & loved it.

 

we watched fireworks - mark that one off the bucket list too.

 

man, she's beautiful.

friday we spent more time at grandma & grandpa's.

 

ellis came with us & i made him jump in. i'm a mean aunt like that. he loved it though.

my mom has all these lights strung around her little canopy. this parrot doesn't work so brad duck-taped his neck so he can be just like petey on dumb & dumber. i laughed so hard.

 

more baby britton time on saturday.

 

rachel thought a trip to prompt care would be an awesome ending to the long weekend. viral infection so nothin but ibuprofen for my girl.

 

liv was exhausted on monday. her sunburn was peeling a little and she was very frowny.

 

it was an awesome 4 day weekend. but man did we all come down hard after that.