Add me!

Hey guys, if you have my blog linked on your blog, will you please update the link to www.mandystansberry.com. This site now houses both my photography website and my blog, featuring interiors, images, inspirations and ideas! I woud love you to stop by and add me to your blog list. Thanks so much! Let me know what you think of the new website!

New website

I know all of you are on the edge of your seats wondering where I've been the past couple of months! Well, here's the deal, my blog ran out of photo space! I tried doing a blog shortly after my last one and it told me I had no photo space left!

So, I didn't know what to do. I left my blog for a while and finally talked my hubs into building me a new website that will feature my photography, cooking, home decor, and of course my family! He showed me how it's looking this afternoon and I am loving it! We're hoping to have it go live in a couple of weeks.

There are some exciting things happening and I can't wait to blog about them! And no, I'm not having a baby. Anyway, I"ll make an announcement when the website is ready! I hope you'll visit it from time to time!

Just hangin with my bestie

 Otherwise known as P-Dub. She was in town a few days ago to do a book signing for her new children's book, Charlie the Ranch Dog. It's adorable by the way! Anyway, the signing was announced at the last minute on Facebook and I of course had to be there!

As soon as I walked up, she said, "Mandy!" and then reached out to hug me. Yes, I died. Then I introduced her to the girls, she remembered them from the Sisters photo challenge. Violet was kind of obsessed with her big sparkly flower ring. And Vivian said, "Glad to meet ya Ree!" and shook her hand. It was so much fun!

Me and Vi

Like my last post, I'm going to do one now of just me and Violet.

This is one is one of the very first pics of us together. I couldn't stop kissing her cheeks! 

Just chillin in the hammock in the back yard. I think she was about 2 weeks old.

Ah, now's she calm and so am I! Wow, I really look pregnant in this picture. That's what I'm talking bout folks, post the pictures you have of you and your kids even if you look bad!

 Here's a pic of us recreating the pic of me and Vivian from my last post!

 Love the gummy smile, don't you??

 And us at her first birthday party. She had a great time! Look how gross my old fireplace looks. On second thought, let's not remember it that way!

So what i'm saying is, get in the pictures with your kids, even if you have to force them to! They'll thank you for it later!

Get into the picture!

I saw this link today on Facebook, posted by a friend of mine. It stressed the importance of not just taking pictures of your children, but to be sure that you jump in a few photos yourself. Click on this link to see the story: http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/10/22/she-left-proof-aleidas-challenge/. I decided to find a few pics of me and Vivian and here are just a few, I'll do another post with Violet. I want to challenge you guys to do the same!

Viv's first Sunday at church.

 Us in our matching nightgowns. If you post a nasty hair and no makeup pic, you get bonus points!

 This was right around Easter so she was about 4-5 months old.

 Out to eat together!

 She's tiny here! And I still have that new mom cleavage apparently. Sorry about that.

Eating a chili's. It was easy to take kids to restaurants when they were this young!

 This was taken at Aiden's first birthday party. I like how our eyes are the same color here, now hers are green!

 I love this one because she looks so cute in the dress! I love how she's holding it out, posing.

Viv's first trip to the bowling alley.

This was when we announced at her birthday party that I was pregnant.

At Grandma Lucy's house.

Jumping on the trampoline at the farm.

I want to encourage you to do a post with photos of you! Leave me a comment if you participate!

Stinky but pretty

The other day we passed by a field by our house that was completely filled with Bradford Pear trees. They're the really pretty trees with the white blooming flowers in the spring that really smell bad. I decided to take the girls out for their spring pics in that field and it ended up being great. Their legs got a little scraped up, but the pics were lots of fun! Here are some of my faves:

Thankfully Vivian's Easter dress came with an attached baby doll dress, so baby Tess came along for the shoot.

This is my favorite shot of the girls. I ordered an 11x17 of this bad boy yesterday. Can't wait till it comes in the mail! It's going to look so cute in their new pink room!

 They never want to just sit and pose so I just go with the flow and follow them around like I'm the papparazzi.

 Love this one of my baby Vi.

 And this one too!

 I brought the chair out into the field too, but they didn't sit long!

 Finally one of Violet in full smile mode! Love that smile so much!

 And heading back to the car, I love this one too.

 Here's an up close shot of the stinky but beautiful Bradford Pear that helped us out.

New old stuff

The other day I drove to an area of OKC that I never go to. I was picking up some cupcakes from a friend and saw some old doors lying on the sidewalk across the street. There were several things on the sidewalks so it must have been big trash day the next day or something. Anyway, as soon as I saw them, I knew I had to have them. I couldnt tell what they were exactly, I just loved the blue color of paint and how they were already all perfectly distressed. So, I drove back home and told Matt we had to get his bigger SUV and go back immediately to snag the old doors. Here's kind of how they looked when they were lying all stacked up.

I loved the details on them, and each one of them was different. When Matt was loading them into the car, we realized they were old garage door panels. We somehow got all four gigantic doors into the car and drove off, me as happy as could be!

 I decided to hang two of them on the wall where I do all my photo work, aka my wall office. I needed it to look more creative and inspiring. Here's how it turned out. The doors on the back are white, but I loved the blue too much!

One of the panels has glass in it, so we put that one up next to the fireplace. I love it! Here's my new spring mantel also. Layla at The Lettered Cottage inspired me to change my mantel up with the seasons and I really look forward to it. I started last summer and it's like a treasure hunt around the house each time trying to figure out what I'm going to use. I very rarely buy things for the mantel decor, I just switch things around the house.

I want to challenge you to change your mantel today or this week and use only things from around your house to do it! Leave me a comment with your link if you put it up on your blog!

Pink Paint, Not Blue

A few days ago I asked Vivian what she wanted to do the next day. She said, "Let's paint my room! Pink, not blue." She had me at paint! The girl knows that I love a good home makeover! And painting is the easiest and cheapest way to do it! Here's how their room looked before:

Bye bye sheep, you were great for a while! Matty was sad to see them go. He painted the entire room and mural while I was pregnant with Vivian. But it was time for a change.

I never got around to putting Vivian's name over her bed, instead it was over by Violet's bed. Made no sense.

Here's the after, with a nice soft shade of pink called Rose Buff. I have to like the name of the paint to actually use it.

I liked this little picture arrangement and included my peach orchard pic since it matched the paint.

I made the banner and their names also. The banner was very easy to do!

They love it!

Yogurt

Tonight after dinner Vivian decided that Violet needed a little yogurt, so she went to the fridge, opened it up, found the yogurt, grabbed some spoons and proceeded to smear it all over her. I was a little bit mad to say the very least. By the time it gets to be around dinnertime I've just about had all I can take and this did me in! You like how my dogs are trying to help clean up back there? Thanks guys!

Oh and Violet didn't mind getting smeared, she went ahead and dug in.

But, Mandy, you say, it doesn't look like Vivi was involved at all. Violet is the one holding the spoon after all...

Well who do you think put it all over baby sissy's back? It sure wasn't the dogs!

So then Violet spilled the dog water all over the floor and I thought I was going to die! So, early baths, early bedtime and one tired mama.

Grammy's

So last weekend Matty got to go to the Grammy's. I didn't go. I went to Porter instead. I think it's just as glamorous and exciting there, so that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Anyway, I didn't get to go, but I did get some of the after party swag! This was waiting for me when I got home from the gym today, what a fun surprise!

This is a magic potion that makes you ten pounds thinner and your face turns into Cindy Crawford's. It's also a hot oil treatment.

 This is a magic styling cream that makes you have x-ray vision and you can fly on demand. It also makes your hair silky smooth!

 This is a tiny vial of liquid luck! It also doubles as a fancy oil treatment.

 This is shampoo and conditioner. That's all. But I was glad to see it since I ran out of shampoo yesterday. Those who saw me at Sonshine School this morning can attest to that!

 And the fun bag that it came with is just like Mary Poppins'. You can fit an entire lamp in there and never run out of room!

So here's my before picture of what my hair usually looks like on a daily basis before I started using Moroccan Oil.

And this is what I look like now! I don't know what the big deal is about this stuff, I look exactly the same! Don't you think?