Gifted.

Remember Kindyl?
I just wanted to brag about her today.
She is twelve!
She paints!
She has made each one of my girls a canvas for their rooms.

White starfish.  My favorite.  It was so sweet that she did this for Joy.  
It was 100% her idea.


She painted this for Halley when she was only eight.  
They brought it to us in the hospital and I hung it up.  
All of the nurses gushed over it.


Lucy is my surfer girl and she painted this to match her bedding.  
It also is the same color as my real surfboard.  Brilliant.


She painted this yesterday for Janey to match the bedding I am making.  
She even added bling.  I can't handle it.

I vote that she opens an Etsy shop!

Thanks Kindyl!
My girls and I adore your amazing creations!

11 Comments
Posted in

thirty going on thirteen

Here's to keeping it real.

One month from today my age will have the number five in it.
A two unfortunately will not come before that five.

So what am I to do?

I still sometimes think that I am right out of high school, or at least college.
That maybe I am just the nanny of the wild kids that I cart around.
Perhaps that is what happened when I bought these sunglasses.

But I have an excuse.  I have worn huge sunglasses since before it was trendy to wear them.  The reason is two fold.  I have a GIANT face and head, and I  am basically a mole when I go outside in the daylight hours.  "It's too shiny!"  Is a phrase that I seem to say so often that even Lulu will bust it out on occasion.

So, right before we were leaving for Kauai, Favorite Sunglasses A went missing and Favorite Sunglasses B broke.  I had about 5 minutes before I had to pick Halley up from school and stopped by a local surf shop that I had bought normal sunglasses from before.

My have things changed.
My choices were:
Neon,
neon,
neon, 
neon, 
or this green-blue pair. 
 
I could have gone with the neon, but I refrained.  I thought these were normal enough.  I loved the shape at least, and could find a way to deal with the color.
So I took my mole self back to the car, strapped Lucy in and put them on my huge face.  My eyes were so happy.  I don't even know how I had driven to the store with the amount of squinting that was going on.

But then I looked in the mirror.

Realized that I was not a teenager anymore.  Felt like a dork.  Didn't even wear them to grab Halley.  Too embarrassed.  

Jason the ever encouraging husband told me that they were great.  (Could have something to do with the $10 price tag, or the fact that he works with Jr. and Sr. high schoolers.)  So, I became a bit more confident in my choice.
  
Until my friend saw me.

"Fun glasses.  Kindyl has those."
(Kindyl is twelve.  I am not.  Not even close.)

So, if I showed up in these would you still talk to me?  If Halley and Lucy were teenagers would they be embarrassed of me?

Favorite Sunglasses A just turned up.

Should I go back to them?

Then there is this.

Look closely at my ear.

I got this done a billion years ago when I was visiting friends in Berkeley.  I suppose that I am lucky that this is the worst thing that I did while I was there.  Back then it was fun and edgy.  Now it is just.... weird and lame.  But for some reason I have a hard time letting it go.  Maybe because I don't know how to take it out.  It will probably involve pliers or a trip to the nearest piercing shop.  Either way, it has to come out within the next month before my C-section.  The question is, do I put it back in?

14 Comments
Posted in ,

Comfort.

Every one needs a Richelle in their life.
She is mom to five gorgeous girls,
(including Kindyl and Kapri)
she is the best storyteller,
and everything she cooks is easy and amazing.

Pretty much every yummy thing I make I owe completely to her.

So with summer just around the corner,
there is still time for warm and cozy comfort food.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:

Two pie crusts
Two cans cream of chicken soup
Frozen veggies (use about 1/2 a bag)
 1/2 cup milk or half and half
8 or so chicken cutlets cooked and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Lay pie crust in 10 inch deep dish pie pan
Mix all ingredients together
Pour in pie pan


Top with other pie crust
Seal and flute the edges
Cut slits to let steam escape

Bake at 350 for 35 - 45 minutes.

That's it.

Scrumptious.

4 Comments
Posted in

The only good thing...

For the longest time I have been trying to think of one thing, anything, that as girls, we have better than guys.
Because lets be honest... guys have it good.
Really good.

But they don't know how to throw parties.
Happy, girlie parties.
Best friends.
Gorgeous home.
Delicious food.
Happy favors.
A private concert.

Dudes have nothing on us.
It's not so bad to be a girl after all.








Brunch for our mamas.
Held at the home of (needs a blog) Richelle.
Hosted by my Aqua Apron Sisters.
Recipes can be found here.
Coconut cake in a jar favors by Kindyl (who will take over the world with her cupcakes one day.)
Music by Chasing Paris (I am so proud of those girls.)


20 Comments
Posted in

a real sweet sixteen.

Do you remember your 16th birthday?

Because yesterday we hosted one that I will never, ever forget.
For a sweet girl who is changing the world.

Meet Kailyn.
She is the oldest of five girls in one of the most talented
families you could ever have the pleasure of meeting.

{Her mom Richelle is the creator of pretty much each recipe I post here.
Kindyl made this amazing cake.}

She plays bass and sings for our youth group worship band.
She loves her family.
She loves her friends.

But most of all she adores Jesus.
She has a huge heart.
and the most generous spirit.

She decided {completely on her own}
that instead of gifts she wanted to give water to Africa.

Who does that?

Kailyn does.
You wouldn't believe how much money she raised.
How many lives were saved.
We love you Kailyn.
We are so proud of you.
Happy Birthday!

30 Comments
Posted in

Insta-Friday.

Here is a peek in to the simple and sweet of our funny, sunny and full days.

Pool days, water park days, beach days.
That is what summer is made of.
That and no socks in the laundry.

The Target dollar spot.  Necessary evil.  One dollar junk that breaks, annoys me or I secretly throw away.
But one dollar illustrated classics?  Genius.  Best $5 this girl has spent there ever.  Especially since my little reader goes through a book a day.

I will not stop extolling the wonder of my pineapple slicer until there is one in every house.
Well not really, but seriously, how much do you want a pineapple right now?
One that you don't have to figure out how to cut?
I could marry it.

Team swagger wagon.
Love it.  Love.

If you are my mother, do not look at this picture.
But know that all eyes were accounted for.

Thinking of naming our son Al Carbon.
Because that is what I have been living on.
Soooooooooo good.

Happy trash.
Lazy cookies.

 Another Kindyl creation.
Seriously, watch for her on the Food Network in a few years.

 As long as they will let me, I will be that mom with the matching girls on holidays.
$6.95 dresses for the win.  For the fourth.

Supertones show.
Big girls on stage with their daddy.
Such a happy night.

Link up the little random moments from your week with me:
  life rearranged

12 Comments
Posted in