We're one week closer to Ella's tenth birthday (WHAT?!) and I'm sharing another of my favorite birthdays ever. As cute as that first one was, it really required very little advanced planning and it was extremely economical. Her second birthday was a backyard barbeque and the only party we've ever throw where Kamin didn't photograph every little detail. It wasn't really until Ella's third birthday that I realized how much I enjoyed party planning and enjoying every little detail of the day. Part of my excitement that year was that I was pregnant with Sophie and no one in the world but us even know. We'd had a rough couple of years, with two early term losses, and getting pregnant wasn't easy. I had either been pregnant, recovering from pregnancy, recovering from a miscarriage or taking ...
DIY Concrete & Pipe Fitting Coffee Table
I've been meaning to share this post with you all summer and never managed to get around to it. I'm not sure what took me so long, since this pretty girl has been sitting in my living room since Mother's Day. For those of you who don't know, Josh poured concrete to put himself through college and eventually starting his own business when we were newlyweds (didn't I say all of this last week?). When the housing market took a nosedive, he got a great job in human resources and has been working from home ever since. Several months ago, he started reading about a concrete product he had never worked with before. It's reinforced with fiberglass particles, which makes it very strong and much lighter than conventional concrete. We've always know that if we ever get into our forever house, we ...
Back to School Update
I feel like I was the only mom on the planet who was ready to send her kids back to school, but hear me out! I'm not a stay-at-home-mom, so it isn't like I get to spend huge amounts of time by myself while they're in school or anything -- although if you follow me on Snapchat you'll know that I raced home after first day drop off to watch Breaking Bad in my pajamas. Our schedule has been so upside down during July and the kids were seriously falling apart. Bedtimes have gone awry, I haven't seen a completed chore chart (or a clean load of laundry) in weeks and I don't remember the last time we ate dinner together around the dining room table. We were in desperate need of a family reset and I'm thinking a new school year was just the thing to get us all out of our funk. The girls were so ...
Five on Friday 007
I wondered if I would have enough to share in a round up post today, given that we just had a coffee date on Monday, but we managed to pack a lot into this week! 001 | July by the Numbers I guess before we move on to August, we need to talk about July, right? Although I didn't read many books last month, everything else crept into the double digits. Josh was gone almost the entire month, we watched WAY too much television and several fun adventures at some sophisticated places (insert a big fat winky face here). We had a great time serving at our church, the kids loved camp and Ella got her first major haircut in six years. SIX YEARS. She looks so grown up with short hair and we're just now starting to figure out how to fix it. July might have been exhausting, but it was full of really ...
Birthday Flashback: Ella’s First Birthday
A version of this post appeared on the blog several years ago. I thought we would resurrect it in honor of Ella's upcoming tenth birthday. I wasn't yet blogging when we celebrated Ella's first birthday and I thought it might be fun to share the photos with you here! We're creeping up on double-digits (one month from today!) and I thought it might be fun to share a few flashback posts over the next few weeks. I'll be recapping a few of my favorite parties leading up to the big day! Her first birthday invitations read "Our Little Cupcake is Turning One," so we decorated with everything sweet and pink. I started planning this party so far in advance and I couldn't imagine anything better than sweet, pink princesses. Even as an infant, she was a girly girl through and through. We had the ...
Fourteen
To my favorite boy, I'm not sure what I can say today that I haven't already said in the last fourteen years. Thank you for being persistent nineteen years ago when I was too young to know how perfect you were. Thank you for teaching me to drive on the interstate and to pump my own gas. Thank for you spending countless nights in the printmaking studio when I was panicking about advanced critique and for carrying my backpack the 10+ miles out of the Grand Canyon when I didn't think I could make it. Thank you for insisting we get married a year early, for indulging every silly wedding request I made and for taking such good care of me in those early days. Thank you for renovating the same two houses over and over again. Thank for holding my hand every time the pregnancy tests said no and ...
Back to School Interview, 2016
Back to school interviews are one of my favorite things we do each year and, believe it or not, the girls get so excited about answering all of my questions. I know you all might not care much about these silly little things, but I love picking their brains and being able to see how their answers compare each year. 25 Questions as answered by Sophie 1. What is your favorite color? pink and purple* 2. What is your favorite toy? baby dolls* 3. What is your favorite television show? Cupcake Wars and H2O 4. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? oatmeal and blueberry waffles* 5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? turkey sandwich* 6. What is your favorite fruit? bananas* 7. What is your favorite snack? Fudge Stripe Cookies 8. What is your favorite cereal? I ...
Coffee with Kristin 002
It's weird that I would be excited about a Monday, but I am. I feel like this is the real first Monday in August and I'm giving it plenty of love. If we were on a coffee date, I'd tell you that... School starts tomorrow and I'm so glad. I'm not usually that mom shoving her kids out the front door with a grin on my face, but this year it's different. Summer was hard and the lack of a schedule has done a number on me. We're all over-tired and suffering from a summer hangover and I think school is exactly what we need to kick ourselves in gear. Sophie is in first grade this year and Ella is in the fourth (what in the actual heck?) and they are both so excited about their teachers and being back at school with their friends. We've dropped off school supplies, bought a completely new wardrobe ...