Our New Favorite Thing!

So, have you seen these cute little hats around your area lately??

I'm seriously becoming obsessed with them!

Here's the thing. I'm somewhat ashamed to say that the first one I bought, that while super cute, it was way more than I'd normally spend on a hat. But, I hadn't seen them anywhere else any cheaper and loved it so much that I went ahead and splurged. (If you know me at all, you know that is not typical.)

Enter: Sarah. A couple of weeks ago, she text me a picture of a hat and the text said: "My new creation!" I was beyond excited. She made both hats pictured above! I bought one for Macie, Maddie and the Razorback hat for myself. She sells them for $15 for kids sizes and $20 for adult sizes. And any color scheme you can think of is available. You gotta check out her blog and see some of the options that she has made up and ready to go. If there's something you want (i.e., team/school colors), just email her and let her know. They are so great for summer - when you are headed to the pool or just not in the mood to fix your hair in the crazy humidity - you can just toss it on and go!

Click HERE for her business blog. Her email address is listed on there.

You'll look super cute and fashionable. Even on a bad hair day!

Thanks, Sarah, for making trendy things that are affordable so that I can own more than one! HA!

Vacation in STL

I just love summer and one of the main reasons is it's one of just a couple times a year that I get to spend some time with my sister and her family. Every summer, we go with my mom and dad and my sister's family to Destin, FL. It's our spot and we love it there. This year, though, we decided to stay closer to home and do our vacation in St. Louis. My parents live there and not only was it closer, but it was a lot cheaper and a much easier vacation with a baby. The beach is great, but it can be hard when you have a crawler. (If you've ever had a crawler, you completely understand this!) :)

We packed a ton of fun stuff into about 4 days! On Sunday, we headed to the City Museum, which was so much fun. It was not at all what I expected though. I don't know what I was expecting, but crawling on my stomach through tight holes wasn't on that list. We got there, paid, took the kids to the bathroom and my brother goes, "Are you really ready for this?". That should have been our first clue. He then points to a metal, spiral, enclosed staircase deal that lead somewhere upwards and was like - "Climb in that hole and let's go!" To say that I was nervous and to say that Macie was crying would be an understatement. So, up we all go - into the hole that lead to nowhere and found ourselves sliding backwards, head first, on our backs down another tunnel that led to nowhere. Sounds fun, right?! HAHA!!! Seriously it was a blast - we laughed SO hard at each other and especially at poor Mike who was our guinea pig on some of the scarier things. We figured that since he was the biggest one there (and NO that's not a fat joke or anything) if he could fit, then so could the rest of us. We then took an apprehensive Macie and all the other kids up 10 flights of stairs and dark caves to a 10 story dark, enclosed, spiral slide. And to make it worse - you HAD to go down one at a time. We convinced her that she would live to tell the tale and sent her down this slide where daddy was waiting at the bottom. Nothing like kicking off the vacation terrorizing one of your children, huh?! We then moved to areas that we a lot less adventurous and really had a great time. One tip though - if you do go to the City Museum, wear tennis shoes. We quickly realized that flip flops weren't the ideal shoe at a place like this. Duh!

On Monday, we took the kids to a fun pool in my mom and dad's town and played for a couple of hours. The weather was super nice and they had a ball. That afternoon, my cousin and his wife flew in and we all went to the Elephant Bar for dinner and then to the mall next door to let the kids do Build A Bear.

Tuesday was the girls shopping day. Mike took the big girls to a movie while we were gone and we went to Chesterfield Mall to see my cousin, Angie's new store. It's called Apricot Lane and she has some of the cutest clothes, jeans, shoes and jewelry! If you are in the STL area - you HAVE to check it out! She would love to meet you! That night, we headed to a quick dinner at Culver's and then downtown for the Cardinals game. We had awesome seats and had a great time, despite the terrible loss! Beat by the Phillies 10-2. BOO!

Wednesday my sister took Macie and Kara along with my cousin's wife, Rhonda back to the mall to shop for a while and then get the girl's toenails painted while my mom and I did some shopping closer to home. I dropped my mom off at her house with Mabrie and Maddie and I went to get our toenails painted. Too fun! She picked neon green and then they did a black crackle finish of her toes and she just loved it! We headed home and got everyone cleaned up for a big family dinner out that evening. It was so much fun seeing family that I hadn't seen in years. Some of them had never met any of my girls! We had a great time together.

On Thursday, we packed up and headed home, stopping in Joplin on the way to see the tornado damage. It was just awful. So sad to see a place we lived and ran around absolutely destroyed. It was a good reminder of how blessed we are and how we should hold loosely to the things of this world because they can all be gone in an instant!

Thank you, mom and dad, for such a fun vacation. We enjoyed every minute and appreciate all you did to make it fun for all of us! Looking forward to next summer already!

Water Babies

Mike and I decided that this summer we would get the girls one of those blue easy fill pools that you can get basically everywhere - Walmart, Sam's, Toys R Us, etc. For several summers, we have wanted to buy a swing set, but the problem we run in to is that 1. They are a pain to put together unless you have help, 2. You can pay a store to put them together, but it costs nearly as much for their services as it does for the swing set itself, and 3. It gets so hot here that they really wouldn't use it much during the day. So, this year we decided to spend the money and get a pool. They are very reasonable and for young kids, they are just perfect.

We bought it last Friday evening after Mike got off work, brought it home, found a place to set it and turned on the hose! The girls were beyond excited! They could hardly wait for Saturday morning so that they could swim - and to be honest, neither could I! :) Well, around 10:30 on Friday night, Mike got home from a ball game and went out to see how things were going. He came back inside and said it was kind of looking "oblong" - not a good sign. At that point it was about 1/2 way full - so approximately 2000 gallons of water. We waited a little while and went back out to see if it was looking any better. Negative. By this time (11:00 or so) one side had basically collapsed and was draining water in the yard. We knew we were going to have to drain it completely and start from scratch. Long story short - we moved the pool to a more level place in the yard (note: the first spot looked level, but obviously wasn't level enough - just wanted to make sure everyone knew we were total idiots who would place the pool on an incline or something like that!), and on Saturday morning we started filling it again. Looking forward to THAT water bill. It'll be awesome, I'm sure.

We had around 3-4 inches of water in the pool and we couldn't keep them out any longer. They begged to get their swim suits on and go play.



That afternoon, I took Macie and Maddie to a movie with my friend Melissa and her kids and when we got home, the pool was getting really close to being ready. They got back in their suits and this time, we even put Mabrie in - they all loved it!



We have only had it for 4 days and I can't keep them out of it. Every free minute they have, they want to go swim. Today they had some kids over to swim with them and spent 2 1/2 hours in it - not coming inside once! I'd say that it was money well spent! I'm so glad that they have something fun to do this summer, a way to get out of the house and stay cool in the process! We look forward to a lot of family time in there and a lot of time with our friends - so if you're looking for us, there's a good chance we are in the pool! :)

Happy summer break everyone!

A Fun Giveaway

Hey all! Head on over to Lauren Grace Boutique's blog and get yourself entered in a fun t-shirt or onesie giveaway! Lots of cute options to choose from! She also has tons of other cute products, so don't forget to scroll down and check out everything else while you are there! Good Luck!!

Click HERE to head to the blog and get entered!

9 Months

This little girl is 9 months old!



She is just the sweetest thing and is such a good baby. She is doing so much now. Crawling, pulling up, getting into things, saying a few words (mama, dada, ba-ba - which means both bottle and bye-bye to her). She loves being outside and enjoys watching her sisters run and play. She's my pickiest eater yet. She requires the Organic baby food and won't touch a vegetable. I think I birthed a diva. Her sisters didn't need organic, but she has certain things she likes and of course it's the more expensive foods. HA!!

I took her for her check-up today and she is doing great! He said she was right on schedule developmentally and growing on track as well. She weighed 17 lbs. 11 oz. and was 27 3/4" long. That's the 20th percentile for weight and 50th for length. She took a little growth spurt from her 6 month check-up when she was just a tiny mite!

We are so blessed to have her! Happy 9 months, Mabrie! We love you!