The Treat of the Trade

  My little sister, Jennifer is pregnant! We all found out in April and could not wait to find out the sex of the baby!     We started hitting up Pintrest pretty hard in the month of June! She wanted to have a gender reveal party and incorporate her favorite colors! Aqua, Dark Purple and Yellow were the colors of choice and we had to get busy! The party was July 26!   Another idea I have already found is painting the inside of mason jars. Pour enough paint in the bottom of jars and roll it around covering the sides and then on a piece of foil I turned them upside down to coat the whole jar evenly. This was a perfect and very cheap décor to add flowers in bright summer colors while also keeping her color theme in mind.   I already have a chalkboard square on my back door so that was used to hold the voting! We printed out boy silhouettes and girl silhouettes and had all the guest write their name across the front. It will be a cu...

....I will blog. I finally made time to sit at my computer and do something other than FB, Pintrest, and bank. I logged on and realized its been almost 3 months since I have updated. SHEESH!.. As I am dusting the cob webs off the blog, it made me realize that life is fast. No matter how slow we may be, its fast! The school year ended great! Everyone is well on their way to the next grade. Which another reminder as I type I need to start school supply shopping. I like doing it early and by myself. No extras get thrown in and I can beat the last minute crowd. My sister is pregnant with her first child! I am super happy and ready to meet the newest addition to the family. She wants a girl. I think its a boy. But we find out on the 26th at their gender reveal party. My husband has hardly been home this summer. He is working a lot and we have had to post pone vacation once, but we will be heading out for a 6 day vacay on the 28! And I cant wait. I just want to be out of the house o...

  The kids are in the kitchen.....   Making messes, learning new things....   Squeezin honey, and scoopn peanut butter..... Lickn batter, and heatn up the kitchen......Stay tuned.....

    Soothing Shower bars. Easy Peasy! We made Lavender and Eucalyptus   1 cup of baking soda and generous drops of oil is all you need. You can get any sent of essential oils at your local drug store. We used silicon cupcake pans. Mix the baking soda with water until you have formed a paste. We added about 2 1/2 oz of water in the beginning and found you might need more or less. You do not want the mixture to be very runny. Add to cupcake pan. Fill halfway. Add your drops of oil and then fill to the top with mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. When they have cooled add a few more drops of oil. Store in a air tight container or Zip-loc bag. The wine sipping is completely optional when making the shower bars. HAPPY FRIDAY!

  We ventured 2 1/2 hours away and went to an indoor water park. Where its nice and warm all year long! The kids were surprised when I told them how we were going to kick off Spring Break. My sister joined in on the road trip, and we all had a blast.   He loves water. He has a new love for water slides and has no fear! And I am happy about that!   Enjoying some time at the wave pool. Kinda looks like he is at a beach some where. But a beach around here is 16+ hours away!   Shes always posing like a Diva! So glad that all the kids love to swim.   More sliding! This was right after the bucket dumped water. She was glad they missed it! HAPPY SUNDAY! We are back to routines and reality tomorrow!

  Jill had a birthday party and the theme was amazing! Shes into the ever growing popular mustache craze, so I had a lot of fun getting this ready! Her invites were mustaches and the left overs were streamers ;)     The cake!   Goofy dad!   Friends and family!!   Pizza and friends! You can never go wrong with that combo!  She loves gifts!   Her older (half) sister from Oklahoma surprised her by coming into town and celebrating with her. More friends and family. Jill's birthday is actually March 9, but we had to celebrate a weekend early due to visits with her mom in OK. But I can guarantee that this is one party she will never forget!!

My husband, the hard working bread winner of the house, had to go to work 4 days earlier than normal this hitch. It seems that this household has developed a pattern. When dad is gone things go haywire. Kids try to act up. The check engine light goes off and on in the car. The dogs dig holes in the backyard.  The washer kicked the bucket (2nd time in a year) We have alot of leftovers after dinner every night. OK maybe that's not so bad. Ill take a night of heating up leftovers over a night cooking any time. It just seems that we always have alot going on when hes gone. Then I just have to remind myself that its just me for 2 weeks out of the month. I have gained a new appreciation for single moms who have to do this full time. I need to count my blessings that its just me up against 3 kids for 14 days out of the month. He's had to work over before and that didn't seem to be a big deal, I guess because he was already gone, so we weren't really phased by it. But going in ...