Thankful Thursday

What am amazing holiday weekend we had as a family. I couldn't be happier with our little family unit and the time Emilie got to spend with her daddy, he's the BEST!

Daddy's girl

Great Grandma

We got to enjoy an Independence Day parade, have a hamburger feast with fresh Michigan produce, eat homemade cheesecake, visit the splash pad and playground, go to the lake with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa, visit the zoo with family, and relax at home enjoying the beautiful Michigan weather!

Grossed out by the stinky sheep

In addition to our great weekend, I'm so thankful that my mom is recovering and feeling better. It's a long road of recovery, but it's a far cry from being on the ventilator in the ICU.

Doubya Doubya Doubya Doubya (In George Bush's voice of course)

What We Wore Wednesday! It is Wednesday, right?! Last week I posted on a Tuesday, I was just THAT excited!

Nicole:

top and shorts: Target

Sandals: Gap 

necklace: Target

Emmy:

white onesie: OshKosh

Jeans: vintage Jordache jeans circa 1985 (a la Mommy)

E is such a little ham, I propped her up on the chair and told her I was going to take her picture and she gave me that HUGE grin, love it!

Linking up with A Life From Scratch and Toronto Mama!

New News

Alright, so many things have happened in the last week and I wanted to give an update for everyone!

We refinanced our house for a lower interest rate AND to get cash to replace all the windows, roof, trim the trees and repair the fence, EEK! So exciting. Also....Jared is on the mortgage now, so we officially TOGETHER own our home! This is a big deal for us, and to top it off we'll have new roof and windows, a tax right off, and better energy efficiency all for less than the price of a one bedroom apartment! We certainly wouldn't be here without the help of family, so to all our family, especially the graciousness of my father THANK YOU!

In other, less exciting news....

1. I FINALLY finished Emilie's invitations and sent them out....minus four as I'm awaiting addresses. They are really cute, and it took me FOREVER to finalize the style, print, and add the embellishment, but what a fun project it was! Pictures to come soon!

2. I've started really working hard on losing the rest of this baby weight. I've heard that the last 10 lbs are the most difficult, for whatever reason. I ran my first, FIRST ever 1.5 miles! I know that's not a lot, but for me, someone who's never enjoyed running and has never run more than 1 mile, and that was a couple years ago, I was soooo excited! I've really gotten into the Couch to 5k program, mostly just to condition me to get into running, not really to run a 5k, but who knows!

3. I'm going to be trying a new remedy for my skin from LaurenElizabeth and see how that goes. I have a lot of trouble with my skin, and after having Emilie it's turned into combination skin...how lovely.

4. I went back to the classroom recently and put together lots of great ideas, to be posted under the "teacher" tab soon! I'm really excited about themes, and plans for the year AND for a bunch of new kids on my caseload...although I still haven't officially received my contract, which is frustrating, I am hopeful!

5. I am going to try this thing called Birch Box, which is only $10 a month (I'm paying monthly in case it doesn't turn out to be worth it) and they send a little box of goodies geared towards women, although there's a man's box too! I can't wait to get mine this month and share the contents!

H54F

High Five for Friday Post!

1. Playing outside during this beautiful weather with E's bff, Max.

2. What I'm currently reading and I'm loving it! Bringing up BeBe by Pamela Druckerman.

3. On Tuesday Jared and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary by ordering a huge amount of Arabic food.

4. Playing at a playground in a little bouncy car.

5. We felt like getting all dressed up today and visiting Daddy at work for lunch!

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth

WWWW

Eek, forgot to post a WWWW, so it's late!

I'm pretty awful at remembering where I buy my clothes. Most of them I've just acquired over the years. I can honestly say while I LOVE designer brands, I'm not a label snob. If it looks cute I buy it. If it doesn't last more than a couple weeks, whatevs! :)

My favorite brand though is Banana Republic. I have several items that I am just trying to fit into again, but I don't know that these new baby hips will allow it...I'm still keeping them in hope though!

Anyways, I was feeling vintagy last week and decided to watch tutorials on how to use scarfs in one's hair. I watched the videos while Emilie napped. The.entire.time. A full hour of watching and practicing, just to tie a scarf!

My little bug on the other hand...just easy. Top from Baby GAP, capris from ? and the little Jelly sandals I bought at Babies R Us!

Homemade KoolAid play dough!

Emilie is super picky when it comes to textures. She wasn't very impressed with this greyish purple glob in her way. It smelled like grape though! 

I did try a piece. Haven't we all tried the play dough you buy? Maybe it's just me. This stuff though, don't try it... :/

The ingredients for the play dough. Nice, because there was no cooking involved. Some other recipes require stove top boiling and cooking to form the dough.

Here's a link to the recipe and a few more. 

H54F

1. Monday was the thirteen year anniversary of my brother's death. Normally my mom and I travel together to put the wreath on the cross, but I made the trip alone this year. 

2. I usually am pretty awful at making pies, but my Grandma's Lemon Custard pie turned out delish!

3. I spent at least an hour watching Youtube videos on how to tie a head scarf, pin-up style.

4. I finally painted my toe nails: Fuzzy Dice.

5. My 10 month old hit pony tail status this week!

Linking up for H54F this week!