What's Up Wednesday

Today I am linking up with Shay at Mix and Match Mama for their What's Up Wednesday!

 



1.  What We're Eating This Week
I didn't meal plan the best as it's a goofy week with me being gone a lot.  However, I did make a tator tot hotdish that we are eating 2 nights in a row.
2.  What I'm Reminiscing About
 My babies growing up.  I got an email from Rachel's teacher that I need to send in a baby picture of her for them to use for 8th grade graduation.  Ugh, not looking forward to her being in high school, because I remember how fast that goes! It seems like yesterday they were like this...

 
3.  What I'm Loving
 Pinterest Told Me To blog.  I seriously love this lady.  I hate shopping with every fiber of my being, but I love her look/style and we are about the same size.  I have ordered so many clothes and LOVED them!
4.  What We've Been Up To
It's been a bit crazy here lately, with Brad being out of town for a few days 2 weeks in a row and I've had things going on in the evenings too.  Weekends have been all about birthday parties, I'm exhausted!
5.  What I'm Dreading
Nothing!
6.  What I'm Working On
We are working on getting our 4th level cleaned out.  We built a large shed last year and need to get things out of the basement and into the shed.
7.  What I'm Excited About
I leave tonight for a little girls getaway and I'm excited!  One of my girlfriends has planned the outing, so we have no idea where we're going!
8.  What I'm Watching/Reading
I don't really watch a lot tv, but when I do I love the Duggers!  And I LOVED the book, 
"Nobody's Cuter Than You".  It's a book about friendships throughout the years and I laughed and cried...so, so good!  I am now reading another one of her books, "Antelope in the Living Room".
9.  What I'm Listening To
Right now on Pandora I'm listening to a mix of Heart, Keith Urban and Bluegrass!  LOVE my music!
10.  What I'm Wearing
We get to dress in business casual at work which I love.  Jeans and a nice shirt!
11.  What I'm Doing This Weekend
See #7!
12.  What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month
Nicer weather and getting the boat out!  Also Brad and I are having a joint 40th birthday party May 30 and I'm SO excited for that!  We have a band and everything!
13.  What Else is New 
Nothing much, just the usual daily grind!

Emma's 12th Birthday

Emma Jo turned 12 on the 23rd, I love watching my girls on their birthdays, it's so fun to remember how exciting they are!  We didn't do a whole lot on her birthday since it was a Thursday, but we did go out for supper, and that's always fun!

This girl is SUCH a joy!  She has such a big sensitive heart, but don't let that fool you, she is very spunky and can handle her own!  She has a very funny, but sometimes dry sense of humor that sometimes takes you off guard, haha!  Her favorite thing in the whole world is reading, most of her spare time is spent in a book (so like her mother).  She also loves crafting, as you will see with her birthday decorations.  She really wants to be a doctor or physical therapist and would love to work with the elderly someday.  We are extremely proud of this girl!

She decided to invite 3 girls to spend the night, and her theme was Paris.  She found most of the ideas on Pinterest, and make a few signs.

For supper we had them make their own french bread pizzas and we also had french fries.  I bought white canvases and had them paint their own Eiffel Towers (I'm so mad I didn't get a pic of the finished paintings!).

 

Another one of Emma's signs...

We had a lot of fun decorating, I always buy my decor from Oriental Trading Company.  You can get a lot of stuff for cheap!

The girls sat in the hot tub for about an hour, loved hearing all the giggling and singing.

These girls are so sweet, they get along so well and so far, NO DRAMA!  Yay!

I think the best part of the night was at 9:30 when our power went out.  The girls freaked out, but we ended up having a blast!

What's better than eating chips and playing, "I'm going camping and I'm going to bring..."  Finally at 11:15, I was ready for bed, so we got them settled down with flashlights.  The lights came on around 2:30, so Brad got up to turn everything off haha!

For breakfast I made beignets, and oh my word were they delicious!  And very easy to make...

 

I think Ms. Emma had a wonderful birthday!

Friday Favorites

Linking up again with Erika for Friday Favorites!  I didn't get a chance to recap our weekend, so that's throw in here too....

1.  Saturday Rachel and I went dress shopping with her 3 BFF's and their moms.  The girls have 8th grade graduation coming up in June (insert big ugly cry here) and wanted to find dresses.  We love, love, loved this dress, the back was a little too open for Rachel's comfort zone, so we didn't get this one.  But the one she got is very similar to this style, but in different shades of blue.  

Is it just me, or is she gorgeous?  And old...and too grown up...and stop freaking growing please...hand me the tissues...

2.  I LOVE these girls, can't say it enough...

3.  After shopping and lunch, the families came over to watch the Minnesota Wild play, and then we played volleyball out back for about 4 hours!  This was the dads taking the girls on.  Girls won.  Just sayin.

4.  Then on Thursday, this beauty turned 12, *sigh*...

I mean seriously, wasn't this picture just taken like yesterday??

She had a fabulous birthday, and I will be doing a birthday post on Monday, as her party is tomorrow.

5.  This weekend will be busy, but fun.  Tonight we are staying home and organizing closets, whoop whoop!!  Saturday her friends are coming at 4:00 for a sleepover, her theme is "Paris".  Can't wait!  And then Sunday we are having Brad's family over to celebrate Emma and Alayna's birthdays.  Busy busy!

Friday Favorites!

It's that time again to link up with these ladies, and boy do I have a lot to share today!

I had SUCH a great week!  It started last Sunday with Rachel's last volleyball tournament...

These girls played SO hard all day and went undefeated, and placed 1st in the gold division!!!

They played an amazing season, 2 first place medals, 3 second place medals, 3 third place medals, and 1 fourth place.  We are so proud!

Tuesday was my 40th birthday, and boy did I feel the love!  I came to work to find my desk decorated and I got a basket of all my favorite things, boy does she know me well!

They also bought me a cake and I received some gorgeous flowers from good friends of ours.  We went out to eat with a bunch of our friends and then went to our local bar for a few drinks.

I had a blast, and paid for it on Thursday, haha!

Thursday evening there was a fundraiser at Barnes and Noble for our school, and Alayna was asked to read.  They had kids from each grade read in front out loud for about a minute.  The funniest thing was she didn't realize she would be reading in front of people out loud.  She got a little panicky and said, "hey that's no fair!" and laughed.  She did awesome, so proud of her!

 

Tonight Brad is going to the Twins game with a bunch of guys from work and Emma is having a friend overnight.  I am having supper with a friend, and then plan on having a super low key night.  Tomorrow we are going dress shopping with Rachel's BFF's and their moms, should be a blast!

Happy Friday!

It's My Day!

So today is my birthday.  Not just any birthday though, today I am 40.





Age has never bothered me, and 40 really doesn't bother me either.  It does freak me out to remember my parents being 40 and thinking that 40 is SO far away for me...sigh.  I had a wonderful morning with my family, I got completely spoiled with clothes and jewelry (and I'll have you note that the shoes they got me, my 14 year old wore to school today.  Crazy how they fit her perfectly!!).

I want to take a few minutes to really be in the moment though....I absolutely hate how people will say, "I'm so blessed!" all the time.  Drives me freakin nuts.  But I will say that I am sure glad that God brought me down the path he did.  I did not make very good choices in my past, and I am SO thankful to Him for where I am.  I have these, amazing, beautiful, full of personality and sass girls to call my own.




I pray every.single.day that God would direct Brad and I in how we are to raise them.  So far so good, only a lifetime left...:)







And this guy?  Seriously don't know how I got him.  He is the most loving, supportive amazing man.  I love spending time with him, he makes me laugh like no one else!  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for him.



The last year I have really learned a lot about myself.  I learned that I can push my body to a place I never thought it could, and I have learned that life doesn't need to be perfect.  My house doesn't need to look like Pinterest, my kids don't need to be involved in every activity under the sun and it's ok for me to take some time for myself.  There are definitely days when I feel like I'm not doing enough, or I should be up all night making the perfect crafts or homemade treats for school, but then I stop and remember.  Life is not about that, it's about playing volleyball outside with your kids and laughing hysterically.  It's about cranking Pitbull in the van and dancing which completely embarrasses your 14 year old.  Life is about the laughter.

I can say that I feel like I am much more in the moment these days...sitting back and watching my girls do life.  Last night we were outside and Rachel was trying to teach me to serve overhand, finally after the 50th time and still not getting it right I said, "I quit!".  Rachel looked at me and said, "giving up is not an option, you keep trying until you get it."  Whoah, she DOES listen to me!

So anyway, raise your glasses, and cheer the life God gave you!

Easter Weekend

We had an absolutely beautiful, fun, busy Easter weekend!  Friday both Brad and I were done at noon, so we were all able to go to Good Friday service which was really nice.  Friday night Brad had a Ducks Unlimited meeting and Rachel and Emma were both gone.  My sister in law and nephew were coming over, and we ended up meeting up with friends. 

Saturday was a fantastic day!  Brad and I got up early and sat in the hot tub for about an hour.  Miss mouse didn't get up until 10:30!  We ran errands, picked Rachel up, came home and made food for Easter.

Rachel and I made these pretzel chicks.

Alayna and I made her a bunny mask..

We had roast beef sandwiches for supper, while watching basketball.  My Kentucky lost...boo.  After supper we did our Easter egg hunt outside.  We wait until it's dusk, and then I put lighted tealights in the eggs and hide them.  So fun!

Easter morning we made our "resurrection rolls" and then went to church at 9:30.  It was a nice relaxing morning. 

After church we went to the farm and spent the day, lost of fun!  Brad and I were wiped though, we were both sleeping on the couch at 7, whoops!

I really, really wish I could stop time right here.  These girls are SO much fun right now.  They have amazing personalities and are so different from each other, but yet so the same.  

This will probably be my absolute favorite picture of all time.  It captures all four of us so well!

April Fools Day!

I have no pictures to show for this post, but wanted to record a couple funny things that the mouse did on April 1st!

She taped down my phone and the tv remote, she thought she was the damned funniest person on earth.  However the funniest part is you knew she was up to something because she would follow you and ask if you needed your phone, haha!!  She also placed tape on the faucets in our bathroom.  I found mine before getting prayed, but unfortunately Brad did not...

Since she was being such a scheister, I played a good one on her...we have an UGLY fake rat from Halloween that I pull out every year to scare the girls (no Donna, I promise to never do that to you!), so I grabbed that out of the box and placed it in Alayna's bed.  She came down all huffy..."mom, that was NOT funny!"  Umm, yes it was my dear!  Of course then Emma Jo thought it would be super funny to place said rat in MY bed, which made me jump when I was taking pillows off...kids.

 

It was a BEAUTIFUL day, 75 and sunny.  We went for a walk (Rachel and I, Emma's foot was hurting) and Alayna biked.  It's so funny how much your kids talk when you don't ask questions!  We came home and played volleyball in the back yard for about an hour, it was glorious!  I am so, so excited for warm weather...

 

Another exciting thing that happened this week, we saw Suzy and Marta!  If you don't know who they are, you can read about it here .  They are 2 sand hill cranes that nest out in the fields in front of our house.  Alayna named them Suzy and Marta about 4 years ago and has been obsessed with seeing them every year.  Last year was the first year we didn't see them and she was so upset.  We were coming home on Sunday and I yelled "Suzy and Marta!" and mouse rolled down her window and yelled "I LOVE YOU!!"  It was probably the cutest damn thing...

That's all I got, just wanted to record some funny Alayna-isms...