Happy Birthday, Hope!

For those of you who have been reading this ol' blog for a while, get ready to feel like we're living in an alternate universe. I'm a week late here, but Hope is officially 16. What??? It's true. We celebrated her 16th birthday last week and my mind is trying to figure out how time has gone so quickly. I guess it's true that the older you get the faster time goes. Or maybe we just keep ourselves so busy that life blows by? I don't know, but my "forever 7 in my mind" little girl is ready to start driving. Legally. On her own. 😳


We had an all-day celebration last Wednesday. We started the day with donuts and photos, the bookstore, and Mexican food. When Poesy got out of school, we headed an hourish south to Branson to jam in all the family fun we could handle.


We hit the sledding hill, went shopping, found a mirror maze, rode a rollercoaster, drove go-karts, and ate our weight in spaghetti. I'm serious when I say we crammed in as many things as humanly possible.





We spent 7:46, the time Hope was officially born, at the top of the ferris wheel. There are magical moments in life for sure, and this was definitely one of them. Happy birthday, Hope. We love you!

Introducing A Little More Structure In Our Day-To-Day

I was looking around my house after a weekend of traveling for work, and I felt this sense of defeat wash over me. The table was covered in clutter. There were shoes in literally every room. The entryway looked like someone's messy closet. It's a bad feeling to live in such a lovely home and not want to be there because you don't feel like nagging at your kids for the billionth time. Sure it's summer so they're home more and using our spaces more, but this house was just spotless 2 weeks ago.

So. I let myself acknowledge exhaustion and I wallowed for what felt like an appropriate amount of time, and then I did what I always do: assess how I can address the problem and RALLY. So here we are. We are a family with daily checklists, and I'm pretty excited about it.


This was my first time ever trying out Adobe InDesign, so one day I may look back on these and cringe, but for my first attempt I feel pretty good about these checklists. I jotted down the things that I'm constantly reminding the girls to do (I'm not exaggerating by using the word "constantly") and then added a few things they could pitch in on. I put them in frames so they could be used daily with a dry-erase marker, that way I don't have to print out a batch every week!

I know some people may balk at the "bonus" boxes on their checklists, but we don't do weekly allowances and I thought it may be good motivation for them to earn some money and pitch in on things they usually groan about.


Hope has actually been doing a stellar job of keeping up with her own personal space, so her list was more about helping her maintain all the hard work she put into getting it there. Seriously, it was a month-long process to unearth her bedroom from all the junk she had let pile up and I've been really proud of her for keeping up with it.

When you peep her list you'll see 2 boxes for "clear table spot". That's because she often eats 3 meals a day at home and I want her table space clean at least by lunch and then after dinner. If you couldn't tell, keeping our dining table cleaned off is a huge struggle in our house.


These photos of Poesy's bedroom aren't current, but I think she can get back to this... AND do it on her own. I really want my girls to take ownership in their spaces and treat them with pride. We'll see how it goes. So far, Poesy has taken out the trash, recycling, and is waiting for a load of laundry to fold while I'm typing this. If nothing else, at least I know money talks with this girl. 😂

Hope Turns 51... Or Something Like That

I figure if I'm properly getting back into blogging, I should probably catch you up on our big summer events.  On August 22nd, Hope turned 15.  Like, WHAT?!  Basically, Facebook Timehop and I are enemies at the moment.  "Hey.  Remember when Hope was tiny?  Let me show you a picture of that so you can cry in your coffee this morning."  Thanks, Timehop.  Does it really need to be an everyday occurrence?  Anyway, this was probably the most low-key birthday celebration for Hope that I can remember... and it was really nice.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good themed party, but it was special to just enjoy the day and take her out for some photos.


Since Hope has been in that anti-photo phase for a while, getting her situated for our mini session was pretty hilarious.  I was so happy when she asked if we could do photos, though.  Um... ABSOLUTELY ANYTIME!


We Sheltons are notorious for expecting extensive birthday celebrations, so we had her low-key party at our house the day of her actual birthday, and she also had an epic girls' sleepover and trip to Silver Dollar City the weekend before that.


Of course, Hope hung out with her friends for the sleepover and while we were at SDC, so Poesy had the time of her life getting all of the attention from her mama and daddy.  We definitely didn't mind.

Halloween 2016

We had a wonderful Halloween this year.  The weather was unseasonably warm and all costumes were put together well before the parade.  It's been a while since either of those things have happened in the Shelton house.  Poesy decided months and MONTHS ago that she wanted to be Santa Claus.  I was certain she would change her mind after hitting up some of the Halloween stores, but she stuck with it!  I bought the outfit pieces from Amazon, but you know I had to throw a little DIY in there-- I hand stitched the beard and it was so much cuter on her than anything else we had found.


Hope decided to be a Hufflepuff student and was totally convincing, as always.  She couldn't decide what to be this year and, man... the Halloween stores had nothing to offer in the way of teenagers.  Four days before Halloween she decided to commit to this, so Johnny and I went frantically internet and department store searching for all the pieces.  The sweater vest was the only thing we couldn't find, so I found an athletic shirt on clearance for $3 and chopped it into a vest.  I'm so glad it worked out!

Here are some pictures from our evening.  Wouldn't you know it, my camera battery died as soon as we started to the parade.  Thank God for iPhones.


We ran into Rachel's crew and finished our night eating pizza and swapping candy.  Halloween 2016 was a success!  Oh, and I'm so happy Poesy didn't change her mind about being Santa Claus.  She was the cutest Santa ever.

Memories From A Lifetime Ago

(Hope standing in front of my old Volvo.  I sure loved that car.)

Most of Hope's photos from when she was younger were taken before the digital age.  I have boxes of photos of her in our attic that I rarely look through because it's just so overwhelming.  My intention was to put all of them in photo albums, but I still haven't gotten around to it.  When I heard about the Legacybox service, I was extremely interested.  Legacybox takes your old photos, film, and videos, and converts them to digital files.  You send your memories off in a prepaid, crush-proof box that comes with barcodes for every videotape, film reel, or pack of 25 photos you send in.  Not only can you track your order, but they send you email updates throughout the process so you know where everything is.  Ah... peace of mind.


When my Legacybox came back in the mail, it included all of the photos and videos I sent their way on a thumb drive (an optional upgrade), and DVD hard copies of the videos!  Are you interested in seeing some memories from our younger years?  Here's a peek:


That little laugh.  We spent many, many hours in this room reading books and playing with toys. Hope was an only child for 8 years and the only grandchild, so you can imagine how many toys that kid had.


Hope's 3rd birthday.  I asked her what kind of party she wanted and she responded with, "Yellow." So, I threw her a yellow themed party with lots of daisies and yellow decorations.


This photo was taken around the time we found out Hope is a lefty!  The girl has a solid swing.


The Magic House!  We used to take lots of trips to St. Louis just to go here and eat at our favorite pizza place.


Oh, the days of running a youth center.  Hope just hung out at work with us while we did our thing.  I mostly worked behind the bar and Johnny managed bands and the skate park.


Precious little one.  Hope was probably about 5 here.


Tiny Hope at the fair!  She looked forward to the giant slide every year.  She's always been a cautious child, so this was one of her brave moments.


This was my dark hair phase.  Isn't it fun to look back on the evolution of your style?  I had very long hair and I remember coming back from the hair stylist and one my friends literally asked, "Why'd you do that?"  Um... because I wanted to.


This was my 20th birthday and obviously any 20 year old needs a Powerpuff Girls cake!  I'm still PPG obsessed.


Hope's first fish!  I come from a family who loves to fish, so this was pretty special.  The pictures of Johnny try to take the fish off the hook are pretty priceless, too.


Johnny in our old green room.  I remember splurging on this paint and then hating the color.  I lived with it anyway because I felt guilty about wasting the money.  Oh, boy.  ;)


Speaking of style evolving... I'm pretty sure Johnny's had every hair style imaginable.  Also, now you know where Hope gets those blue eyes from.


A girl after my own heart-- playing in the snow is the absolute best!

I love having easier access to these photos!  Hope just had her 14th birthday and it's crazy to look back on how tiny and sweet she was.  Oh, time-- why do you have to be so fast?

If you are interested in checking out Legacybox for yourself, I'd highly recommend it!  Click right here and the first 25 people to use the code SKUNK at checkout will receive 40% off their order!  Happy memory making!  xo.