my sweet neice's baby shower

We had an exceptionally beautiful day on Saturday, June 15th, celebrating a very precious little girl who will be entering our lives in just a couple short months. {I.Can.Not.Wait.To.Be.An.Aunt!} My sister's baby shower was held in my hometown of Prestonsburg, Ky in our church's fellowship hall.

The theme {and what is also the theme of her nursury} was "Classic Winnie the Pooh".

For the centerpieces, we grew wheat grass in flower pots {grown in just a week - wheat grass is amazing!} and cut "Crazy Daisies" that sat inside the grass.

 

The favors - handmade honey herbal soap cut in the shape of a honeycomb from WildHerb on Etsy.

We printed gift tags made by the very talented graphic designer, Erin, on Etsy at EThree Design Studio.

Some of my sister, Melissa's, Winne the Pooh character stuffed animals joined the party as well ;)

A picture of the food table before we had everything set out - once the food was out, it got a little too happily hectic to take pictures!

 

A "Rag Wreath" I made with Pooh fabrics - tutorial to come!

"It's a Girl" paper banner also made by E Three Design Studio and printed by moi...

Ballerina diaper cake made by yours truly with a picture of Melissa as a young ballerina beside.

The best helper we could have, Hannah.

 

So many presents!

Mimmie and her ONLY grandchild while he can still hold the title!

We are so thankful to all the people who came, some from hours and hundreds of miles away, to offer well wishes and to share in our great joy over this blessed little girl.

We're almost ready for you baby girl!!!!!!

Auntie just can't wait to kiss those baby cheeks♥♥♥

XOXO,

Stephanie



living for lovely weekends

With the last few weekends chock full of plans and to-do lists and the next few weekends looking like the same {even though all those "plans" were/are FUN plans!}, it was nice to finally have a weekend full of family time without agenda. We blew where the wind took us the last couple of days and enjoyed every minute of downtime.

After eating out on Saturday evening, we decided to go to our Joseph Beth Booksellers for some {free} child entertainment.

 

We haven't visited in a while {since Houston was just toddling around} and I knew exactly where to take this boy in the children's section... we made a bee-line for the train table and he could have spend the whole night there!

 

We made a new friend while there too! She loved played with the trains and trucks just as much as Houston.

 

 

Who needs an amusement park when you can ride an escalator 10 times with you dad?!

 

 

 

After church on Sunday, we headed out for our favorite restaurant smack dab in the middle of Lexington's gorgeous horse farms, Windy Corner Market. This place is a big crazy mix of fine gourmet country cookin' in what seems to be the middle of nowhere and is LOVED by everyone that visits... which easy to see when the line to get in is near ALWAYS out the door and spilling onto the porch with drooling customers ;)

 

I had to try to sneak in a couple pics of my handsome man with the painted mural on the side of the restaurant I love so much.

 

 

We took a couple cute videos trying out the new addition to the Instagram family, but for the life of me, I have no idea how to share them on here but to post the links. Any suggestions? I used the “share” option to put them on Facebook but there’s no “source code” option to share them like you could on YouTube.

 

This old girl needs help in the digital world…

 

the many faces of a toddler: restaurant edition

 

Houston - hittin’ the bottle

 

 

I will post them to our blog Facebook page as well – which is in need of a little TLC and updating that I intend to do today! Stop by and see us♥

 

XOXO,

 

Stephanie

random thoughts, a.k.a. sharing my attention deficit with you

I'm so happy to report that our big baby shower weekend went smooth as silk! I'll be posting pictures of our bright, cheery day of baby girl celebrating soon.

The baby shower was back in my hometown of Prestonsburg, which means we stayed the weekend with my parents. This boy ate up all the attention from the tons of friends and family, almost as much as he ate up this entire apple ;)

You might have seen this pic already on my Instagram, I just can't help but share it again. I love that little blonde boy!

Baby shower sneak peak anyone?

We actually grew grass, GRASS(!), in flower pots for each and every one of the centerpieces and to decorate the food tables. I was in love with the way it turned out!

Anybody try Jamberry nails yet? I decided to give it a go with my thin, splitting nails driving me crazy and nail polish chipping constantly. I'm diggin my colorful Chevrons today on my hot swollen sausage hands.

Not sure how "professional" they are for the pharmacy...

Did I ever mention this girl became an official brace-face a few months ago?

Brackets on the bottom, invisalign on top, both for different reasons.

I'm finally embracing them after a scary, painful {somewhat hilarious} period of time:

Last but not least, I missed the chance to wish my two favorite dad's a very happy Father's Day on the blog.

I don't care to ever think of what my life would be without these two men. They are both gentle, kind spirits who have looked over my many short comings and treated me like a princess when I am far from it.

Houston is one VERY lucky little boy to have TWO awesome grandpas and an absolutely PHENOMENAL father in his life.

 

XOXO,

Stephanie

Baby Shower Central



My absence this past week has been spent in "Baby Shower Central Station". This pic of our pool table is only 1/3 of the crafts and supplies I have in the works at my house!

I've been carrying boxes and bags of supplies to work for the past week in preparation for free moments and lunch breaks when I can knock a few more things off the to-do list. I even stayed up so late last night that while getting dressed this morning at 5 am, I put my V-neck scrub top on backwards... and inside out.

So yeah... I've been a little too tied up to blog {or workout, or pick up my house, or feed my child}.

But I am PSYCHED to be helping with my sister's baby shower this Saturday for my baby neice!!! :):):)

I should be back and fully recovered next week with lots of pics and even a few tutorials of some of the DIY I've been doing.

Happy weekend to y'all!

XOXO,

Stephanie

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day with my guys

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen a few of these!

It was hard to believe yesterday was a Monday... Nick and I agreed that our work days went too smoothly and that our evening together with our rambunctious, hilarious boy impressing us with things we didn't even know he knew was beyond perfect.

This was the first walk we've ever taken where Houston walked the entire time. He held the dog's leash most of the time, ran, jumped and laughed without end. These are the days we live for and the memories that keep us going.

Did I mention my son was hilarious?

Our dog hardly misses a chance to hike his leg on a tree or mailbox. It appears Houston has been making a mental note... he hiked his leg several times on our walk and had us rolling in surprise and laughter!

At the end of our walk, Nick noticed a couple hot air balloons - the season has started! It seems we spot them several times through the summer floating over our house. They were close enough to hear the hot air blowing and Houston was in awe.

He chased them all the way to our backyard and waved bye-bye.

The weather was absolutely perfect, but I have sunshine even on a cloudy day with my guys♥

Monday Motivation

Good morning, Monday...

Let's be friends today, K?

I was in the mood to share my Monday Motivation {a.k.a. EVERYday motivation} since I'm sure someone out there could use some as well ;)

I have never found a quote that got to me quite like this one. I go to bed with it rolling around in my brain and I wake up repeating my new mantra to get my butt moving better than ever before.

I apply it to work-outs, attitude, my to-do lists, motherhood, LIFE. Everyone needs a good mantra that speaks to them and lights that fire. This is the one that does it for me.

Nerd alert - I've also tried to commit the following long list to memory as best I could. I had a little rough patch a couple months ago with work and a sick child that these little promises helped me keep going with a positive attitude... at least the majority of the time... and at the worst, kept me from completely breaking down into complete sobs over absolutely trivial circumstances.

I printed it out, kept it with me AND saved it on my phone to be quickly accessed for a moment of need!

{I warned you with the nerd alert, right?}

This next one just *sparkles* with inspiration to do the impossible!

and I found this one day on Pinterest when I needed it the most. When I'm holding onto the past and regrets, I try to pull this one from the old memory bank...

 I don't want to leave you thinking I rely mainly on Pinterest inspiration to motivate my life. God's perfect Word is chock full of inspiration, hope, motivation, heartache healing, energy supplying verses to keep our lives perfectly centered on Him and our mind focused on the true purpose in the day to day grind and grumbles.

 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."  Isaiah 40:31

I hope you have a Monday Fun-day and a week full of appreciation and satisfaction♥

XOXO,

Stephanie