i {heart} my mom

yesterday i had to say good bye to my mom as she was returning home after being in the midwest with us for nearly 2 months.  big bummer (saying good bye that is, not the fact she was here for 2 months.  that was fabulous) definitely feeling lonely today without her around.

she hit a big milestone while out here and we partied.   for her 75th birthday she took us to a local lake resort for a few nights.  as many of our family that could, came along.

LOTS of fun.

time went WAY too fast. 

my kids entertained AND annoyed.

GOOD times.

entertaining a tired and cranky miss baby

she's teaching my eldest to hide from the camera

another attempt to teach my children how to hide from the camera... didn't work this time, ha ha

fancy nancy party

the last night she was here... this attempt at pictures went as well as our family picture taking experiences

this sis and nephew came all the way from the west coast and we had to say good bye to them too yesterday. 
miss all of you SO much!

thanks for great memories!  and we look forward to the next time. :D

i {heart} new haircuts

miss j got her haircut yesterday.  super sassy.  fits her personality i would say ;) 

since she doesn't have the "sit" in her for me to do her hair.  (and i don't have the patience to try and do it anyway) we chopped it. 

that's 'nuff

graduations galore

a couple weeks ago was "grad week" here in the midwest.  i ate waaaaay to much cake at the dozen + parties we attended.   due to hubs being a youth pastor we had lots and lots o parties to attend and HAD to eat yummy food and have two nights out without kids.  tough week i tell ya, tough week. ;)

i made the cards for each graduating senior, intending to find one design and mass produce it.  however, i discovered two things while making these grad cards.  1) I do not like to mass produce cards and ended up making several different ones, sometimes repeating designs i really liked and 2) I must take the time to stamp cards more often as i really REALLY enjoy it and waste entirely too much time just looking at ideas online rather than actually putting those ideas into action.

a few of the girly cards (way easier than masculine cards!):

and for the guys:

i {heart} summer

no lie. 

it is my favorite season.  i love the heat, being outside, the relaxed schedule. 

we are officially on our first week of summer vacation.   so far, so good. sleeping in, relaxing days, extra hands to put to work (though not without eye rolling and a few whiny comments).  this summer's calendar has a few fun things planned and i have lots of ideas rolling around in my head to keep us busy, though i will not speak any out loud in case they don't happen (as is the result of most of my ideas)

as much as the older girls love school, they also love summer vacation too. 

first day:

last day:

HAPPY SUMMER!