Recent Family Fun - A Beach Bash Birthday Party

The other weekend we went to this AMAZING Beach Bash put together by my friend Jen They are old neighbor friends of ours and we were celebrating their sweet baby girl's 2nd Birthday Party! I remember her first birthday.. (time flies!) Her mommy always goes above and beyond to make her day special! I always look forward to this party every year because you know she is going to create something fabulous. Check out her beach cupcakes that are BEYOND CUTE.

I didn't have my camera with me this day 

(we were in the middle of a move...craziness.)

But I asked if I could share her facebook photos
 because the world needs to see her awesomeness. 
and she said yes. ;)

If you haven't checked out Jen's blog yet...you should! 
she has a great sense of humor with motherhood..
and her posts always make me laugh.

Budget friendly party - they had all the beach party supplies on hand already from a previous party in the family! she had tents up for different areas (cupcakes, presents, face painting, snacks and drinks) there was a slip n slide 'soak zone'..and everyone brought beach towels and hung out picnic style..total beach vibe! I wish we could have stayed longer but it was a busy/crazy day. Just glad I got to wish the birthday girl a happy birthday and check out the fun party! AMAZING JOB JEN. but I've told you that already.. ;)

The birthday girl was getting her face painted for the first time..

and it lasted about 45 seconds. haha.

Sophia lovedddd the face painting.. and the buckets full of goodies that she got to take home! (Jen had them hanging along the fence with each child's name on it.) On the way home we had two baby girls in the back seat wearing sunglasses haha. and ben and I were eating the fruit snacks. shh. don't tell our children.

VLOG-Summer Fun & Today Sienna turns ONE!

A year ago today.. 

our sweet, fiesty, giggle box sienna was born.

I didn't know my heart could love another baby like I love our 3 yr old Sophia....

but with each baby your heart just grows and grows I guess! 

I love her so much!

 We've had a crazy busy year..

it has zoomed by and been full of fun and adventures!

I love you Sienna...

Happy Birthday sweetie!!

I feel so blessed to be able to be your mommy.

Sienna has been walking all over the house. She is non stop wanting to be just like her big sister..and more. She is gonna be trouble haha...She is fiesty and strong and stubborn. if you can even be called stubborn when you are one! she is just soo into learning everything and wanting to try it all out herself. I think she thinks she is 3 like sophie.

She is still snuggly though..blows kisses and her favorite thing to do is point and go ssssssss..which we think came from us always pointing to Jesus on the cross and saying Jesusss! Now she just points at everyone and makes that noise. ;) She dances...shaking her head around and doing a 'cool face.' it makes us laugh so hard! She waves all the time..she thinks everyone is her adoring public. which they are. ;)

Sienna loves to give moochies..
And we love to give them back!

Sienna blogs like her mama..
here she is just catching up on e-mails.

She was so tiny at her baptism! (left photo)
We've had so many fun days with our sweet girl at the park and in the yard..snuggles on the couch..and me tiptoeing into her room to take a photo while she sleeps..
ben says i'm living risky. you HAVE to have at least one good photo of your sleeping baby!

It seems like just 
yesterday we met our sienna..sort of. ;)
I LOVE looking back at these photos.. 
it was such a fun and exciting day!! 
I loved seeing sophia meeting her little sister.. she was in awe!

I love making these videos..
They are so fun to look back on!

Here's some camera shots from this summer so far.

A little DIY Project for everyone

If you have that DIY itch this post is for you..

something for everyone!

Enjoy the Links below!

Gift DIY

Monkeys and Crocodile Finger Puppet Set

by Homemade by Jill

How adorable is this??? I think this would be such a cute gift idea for a sweet little one. 
Hop on over to her blog for the free templates to print and get giving!

House DIY

Updated Hutch

by Remoldalaholic
A lot of us have a piece in our house waiting for some loving like this!
I just pulled out a long table yesterday and started the transformation..
this before and after is so motivating!

Child Play DIY

Cardboard Box House

by Charcoal and Crayons
SOOO cute. 
She gives amazing step by steps for you to create this for your kids to play in!

Party Detail DIY

Paper Boat Place Cards

by nifty thrifty things
This would be such a cute idea for a boat baby shower theme or birthday party theme! Hop over to her blog for her tutorial!

Child Craft DIY

Shower Curtain Village Play Mat

by Filth Wizardry
Love this budget friendly idea of using an inexpensive shower curtain liner..draw out the road and houses and let them go wild coloring! She has some great shots of this fun craft project!

Style DIY

Summer Braided Bracelets

by between the lines
GORGEOUS. do this tutorial. seriously. love.
 looks like something i've seen in a lot of stores!

Hope you all are having a great thursday..

I'm off to tackle some more projects from the move. 

Things are coming a long. Excited to share with you some of the fun projects I've been doing!

A Blessing from above in my Childhood Sketch Book..

The past couple days..I feel like I've aged like 10 years..

just from the stress of moving...the heat....

having two babies in the heat and moving.

And then being so exhausted I feel like I'm extra emotional. With my grandfather being in the hospital...and missing and still healing from the killing of my best friend, shannon...I just felt drained. completely and utterly wiped out. And I felt like I could see it in my face. I was taking a moment to sit on the ground to unpack a box and of course had my little sidekick "helping" me......

And I came across this sketch I drew randomly one day when we had just moved to atlanta when I was little. I didn't know shannon yet...

I have called Shannon my Guardian Angel...

asking her to help me be to be a good Mommy..

And when I saw this old sketch, my heart was just overflowing with joy. 

There she is!!! And that is sienna or sophie in the backseat! It's Shannon's curly hair...her joyful spirit shown through her waving her halo on her finger tip. 

Thank you Jesus for this blessing from above.

It lifted my heart..and encouraged me to keep moving forward with a joyful and patient heart.

I needed this.

I'm framing this in our house on our gallery wall..

It is going to be such a great reminder of my angel watching over me!

Aren't things like this incredible? 

I was a little girl..I was just doodling..and now it is serving to help me heal so much!

Recent Family Fun - A Princess/Baseball Birthday Party

This amazing birthday party was put together by a friend of mine. I met her through the local moms group I'm a part of.
 I immediately loved her and her cute little family! 
It's always fun when you become friends with someone who is into the same stuff..
like planning fun and creative parties for your little sweeties. 
She did a great job..and I was so excited 
when she said she would love to be mentioned on my blog!

-I love how her lily refers to sophia as "the curly blonde sophie" ;)

She put together this fabulous joint birthday party for her daughter and son who are 2 years a part. She totally made the princess and baseball party work! They each had their own play section. She is pregnant with her third and was glowing the whole party! I wish I had gotten more photos of her and the birthday girl but I didn't want to be that crazy mom taking a million photos...I was only partially that mom... There was just too much cuteness!
*some of the photos are from Colleen's facebook album of the party since I didn't get shots of everything..Sorry Jackson I didn't get more of your cool baseball party shots!*

Enjoy the cuteness 
and all her DIY Details!
COLLEEN: "I went to Target after Easter to get the favors for the girls when everything in the dollar bins were 75% off. The tulle from the tutus was 1.50/yard @ JoAnns and I used a 50% off coupon around Memorial day to score super cheap yardage. I made them by folding tulle in half  to the length I wanted and doing a quick gathering stitch to bunch it up, then sewed ribbon along the top, long enough to tie in front of each girl. No measuring, just guessed on the sizing. The ribbon was left over from stuff I used to make my wedding favors.

My banner above the cakes were foam shapes in a 12 pack ($2) at JoAnns superglued to more of the wedding ribbon. (Seriously, I bought a 500 yard spool of ribbon for my wedding on ebay for really cheap and I've been using it for 6 years now on so many projects LOL)!! All the boy sports toys we just had around the house."

She had a princess themed craft table set up..and the kids jumped right into it!She had foam stickers, sparkly glue, markers and more.. 
sophia loved decorating her crown!

The runway was a hit! Sophie rocked it. a few times. she tried to get mommy to do it and so did daddy....ben I resisted my urge to do a model walk down the sidewalk. ;)

The desserts were beyond cute and the best part were the little bite marks out of each of the cookies from her little birthday boy haha......SHE MADE THOSE COOKIES!..i know.....awesome. She also made the cakes...this girl has skillz.

Loved the magic wands, stadium nachos and foul balls(meatballs..soooo yummy)

"The burger cookies were so easy! Nilla Wafers for the buns, Gingersnaps for the burger, and homemade icing (confectioners sugar and a little water to get the right consistency, mixed with red/green food coloring) I put one Nilla wafer upside down,a little icing to stick the gingersnap on, then a little red/green icing to stick the top Nilla wafer on."

Can't forget the adorable DIY invite!
After we got it in the mail...it went everywhere with sophia for a few days..
the park..the grocery store...It was a loved invite. hehe.
Colleen: "Invites-I just had the card stock laying around and got the stick on gems at Target dollar bins."

PS. SophiA has requested to be called sophia not sophie......hahah. 
That is just a little example of how we have a very oppinionated 
independednt little 3 yr old on our hands.

good thing she is so stinkin adorable and loves her snuggles and prays for mommy in church and yells from her room at bedtime "your the best mommy and daddy!!!"........das all i'm sayin
The weekend we went to this party there were a 
bunch of family/friend events we had scheduled to go to...
we were joking as we drove from one to the other that
this was our new "bar hopping"..haha.
(not that we really did that that often..)
 the only thing missing is the minivan that
we will be driving in a couple months.... ;)