Cara-box-August

This past month was the Cara-box! The theme was "Seasons of life" so you would get to know your assigned partner and create a box of goodies for whatever stage of life they are in.  I enjoyed this one because i feel like this one was worth it!  i've been able to get to know several ladies far away from me and i enjoy getting emails from them...i feel thought of! :)

 I received this package from my new friend Tanya.

 I love the travel mug, it's very appropriate in my life: on the go, coffee in hand!! and of course, a reminder to stay calm :)

 lovely lotion!

 a lovely hand-written letter with 3 amazing recipes she gave to me---i was super impressed and am eager to try them out!

VERY colorful, and i love them!!

my daughters and i had a "nail spa" time and i wanted them to put both colors on my feet!

love it.

 cute journal! always can use one of these, for sure!!

 YES!

my favorite!! I've already worn them several times....

Thank You Tanya!!!

i also forgot to show pics of the measuring cups she sent, they Immediately went into use!! :)

Summer

 We had several beach days...no, not the ocean...Lakes! :)

 This was pretty cool, we found a new friend up by lake ontario and she made Adia into a mermaid! thus beginning the new mermaid obsession!!

 Face painting at the local Lima Days!

 oh Livie!!

Hikes in the woods with friends! 

June Cara-box!

Yes!- the official beginning of summer! woohoo!

the kids are rip-roaring-ready for it!

my new friend Bekah from

made me this package and sent it to me,

I was excited to receive it!

she did an awesome job.

take a look!
This month's Cara-box was themed Carnival's and Fairs.

What a colorful bunch of gifts!

Included was an encouraging letter from her to me :)

Awesome sunblock that I've already used half of!! 

 oh yeah! cotton candy at it's best--instant gratification baby!!

  the kids really loved these bubble gums!

 These are always super fun to wear to any carnival/fair, I'm also super excited to try these with some pinterest ideas...we will see!

 We have actually been needing straws lately....

these will do just fine!! :)

a sample pack of lotions/shampoo/conditioners.

There you have it! June's cara-box!

If you want to see the box I sent, go over to this page.

Anyone can join and do a cara-box! You don't need to have a blog to do it! Just click on the cara-box button on the right and sign up!

happy summer y'all!

Summer!

 Happy summer friends!

we have a new pet--sam the turtle.

my dad found him on the road and my children are loving him for sure!

so we are spending our time splashing, and more splashing with all this rain!! hopefully it lets up for more sunshine!! (that's our hope.)

summer!

 it's summer time!!

and we are moving out of our house!

yes, lots of packing and craziness going on here lately.

please pray for grace in the midst of this whirlwind.

i'm actually really excited to go north to visit friends and family!

the trip is overshadowing the fact that we don't have a house to move into yet!

so please pray for that! :)

thanks!

 big cheeks!!

olivia gets excited to see the geese and ducks!

wordless wednesday

hurray for summer!

 here is livi's latest trick! she had such a blast showing us that she was "all done!"

she continues to flail her arms up after each bite to watch us congratulate her on all done!!

super cute!

 She is growing into such a beautiful girl! i love her so much!

she is super sweet, almost the whole time!

 Ember is growing into such a helper!

not only does she serve her sister's their breakfast every morning,

she reads them books at bedtime too!

she was a great help to me while ryan was gone.

she would even put on brighten's shoes for him!

what  sweetie!

 this is a picture she wanted me to take and send to daddy.

she missed him so.

 livi loves the water!!

Adia,

i love her in purple!

she is pretty amazing

and almost always skins her knee when we go for a walk.

she is resilient!

curtains!

 not to be negative, but let me just help you all see how wonderfully real children are!
i've decided to show you some of the damage that children can do.
really.
this is meant to be somewhat humorous and shocking.
this is some of the damage my children have done to my kitchen wall.
as pictured above, i now have to go buy some paint and probably put 11+ coats back on
to make it look normal.
did you notice the marker below?
ha.
ha.
so funny.

on a better note! 
i just made these curtains from an old "vintage sheet" that i picked up for $2 at a thrift store!
i love them!
and i 'm super glad they bring lots of light into my kitchen!
yay for new curtains!!


i hope your summer is going well.
we are splashing in our ever-deflating pool (we've had it for 3 years now...might be time for a new one!)


happy summer!

Ryan found a caterpillar in our little garden that looked "different" from all the other big nasty green caterpillars that were eating our tomato plants, so he saved it and put it in our caterpillar house! i made a chrysalis immediately! a few weeks later this butterfly appeared! so beautiful!

Today, wasn't such a normal day.....last night a migraine headache woke me up at 4:30am....ew and ow! hurt so much i threw up...yep...very bad. so rye let me sleep in...and all day i felt "out of it" and my head felt like it had a major work-out....weird. what are migraine's anyways? what causes them and why do they happen? so weird...

but i had fun with the kiddos anyways...we made homemade playdough...ivory picked the color yellow for it, which was very appropriate...they love to make spaghetti and various foods with their playdough...too bad Brighten likes to eat it no matter what it looks like! :)

"Finding Nemo" is the movie we watch every day around here....thank God for friends who let us borrow that movie! (jenn!-life saver!) ember prefers the full screen version vs. the wide screen. ( i agree on that...who cares if i'm missing the whole picture...it's BIGGER!)

so yeah, good day....i went and got WIC vouchers and found that we now get cash vouchers for fruits and veggies! that made my day when i went to redeem them, i bought the girls a big thing of strawberries, real corn on the cob and more....we feasted tonight, it was so much fun...they all loved the corn...husking and all! :) i love july!

Spring is in the air!! this morning i took the girls outside and planted some marigold seeds around our tree in the front yard....then planted the black-eyed susan vine at the base of my mailbox...yay! it makes me soooooo incredibly happy to see things grow....i'm hoping nothing kills them, we'll see! anyways...

brighten is getting more and more active everyday, he's 10 months and just officially crawling on all 4's! he loves standing at any coffee table and bang on it and scream. it's never a quite moment around here!- oy!

here is adia outside blowing bubbles! they love making a mess and blowing the bubbles...we go through bubbles really fast!!

so, the children are getting bigger!! how time flies for sure!
and we finally got to see their cousins, who seem even bigger!! wow!

we are blessed, trying to soak up this time that scoots by all too fast!!