Is Summer Really Over?

It's that time again! School is starting up pretty soon, right? I only know that because a few of our youth at church are starting tomorrow. I can't believe summer is already over. It really did go by fast, didn't it? I'm sure glad school is a thing of the past for me, or at least for right now it is. Who am I kidding? I am done with school for good. Five years of nursing school was enough, thank you very much.

Tonight I have some fun little goodies to share with you! Probably a month or two ago, I stumbled upon these super cute teacher appreciation ideas and couldn't wait to share them with you! Now that school is about to start up, I thought it would be the perfect time to give you a little teacher-appreciation inspiration. I wish I could claim these ideas and say I came up with them all by myself, but once again, I cannot. Oh well. Maybe someday I'll come up with something crafty and creative that I can claim as mine.

Okay, so how about I quit blabbing and show you these super cute ideas. Sound good?

Click here for the "Treat Jar" tutorial.

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Click here for the "You Deserve Chocolate" tutorial

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Click here for the "Box of Teacher Goodies" tutorial
{If I were a teacher, I would absolutely love getting one of these. So cute!!}

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Click here for the "You are o"fish"ally the best" tutorial

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Click here for the "My Teacher is AW-esome" tutorial

So, so cute!! I will definitely have to keep these ideas in mind when Noah starts school. What perfect little gifts for teachers.

Which idea is your favorite?

p.s. New menu for this week is up!! The this week's recipe button is now under the page at the top of the blog labeled none other than "this week's recipe." Click here if you missed my post about my new pages I've recently added.

Page Gadget & Help

Who else thinks this weekend went by way too fast?

Tonight, I want to show you a little something. I've been playing around with Blogger the past couple of nights, and guess what I discovered!? A new {well, it's new to me because I had no idea it was even there} page gadget! Do you know what this means?! You can now add different pages to your blog! I am loving it! You may have noticed, I've gotten a little page crazy; I've added several pages to my blog.

Have you checked them out yet? They will slowly but surely be updated over time, so keep checking back. My email button and this week's recipe button now have their own separate pages, so you won't find them on the right side of the blog anymore. I will also be adding my favorite DIY ideas for all you crafty people out there, as well as blog tutorials so we can all keep our blogs looking fabulous! And eventually, {which means any time within the next 5 years} I will be writing on the photography page about what camera and editing program I use. I hope you enjoy these pages as much as I've enjoyed creating them!

And before I go, guess what!? I won another {yes, that makes three!} giveaway!!! I totally forgot I had entered, but bright and early this morning I got an email from Gina at hiyaluv telling me I won $25 in store credit to the Etsy shop EclecticWhatnot! That means I am the new owner of a fabulous ruffly camera strap! But, I am having trouble deciding between two of them because they are both so cute. I've narrowed it down to this one:

and this one:

Dang. How am I going to decide? I think I may be leaning towards the Chocolate Truffle. Which is your favorite?

If you want your own ruffly cuteness, click here to check out the shop.

Have a wonderful day!

p.s. Of course, we can't forget about Uncle Quentin today-- it's his birthday! Hope you have a great day Queen! We love you.

so proud

Guess who's been sleeping in his
big boy bed the past four nights?!



Noah has done so well with
the transition to his toddler bed.

I think he was ready.

As much as it saddened me to
say goodbye to his crib, it has been
an exciting new adventure watching
Noah enjoy his "big boy bed."

And so far, so good.
When he goes down
at bedtime or nap time,
he only tries to climb out
of bed maybe once or twice
and that's it!

I really can't believe how
easy it has been. I never would
have thought it could be that easy.

Noah, we are so very proud of you!
I still can't believe you are now
sleeping in your toddler bed.
You are just getting to be such a big boy!

Here is a short little video of
sweet Noah taking a nap.



Thank you to each and every one of you
who took the time to leave a comment
with advice for us. We really appreciated
your input, and it definitely helped us make
the decision to pull out the toddler bed.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

Ramblings

I am rather annoyed right now. I cannot get any of my editing programs on my computer to work tonight. What is up with that? So, now you get to hear my random thoughts. Aren't you excited?! I have a bunch on my mind, so here goes:

I am way, way behind on blogging, and I feel like I can't get caught up. Maybe I need to start posting twice a day. No, that wouldn't work. I definitely don't have time for that. Does anybody else feel this way?

Today I woke up with zero {and I mean zero} motivation to clean our apartment. It was a total wreck and in desperate need of some attention, but did I care? Nope, not one bit. Then a few hours later, I got a sudden surge of energy and decided I would turn this place around and clean the whole apartment. Yeah that didn't quite happen. But, I did make a lot of progress around here. I'm pretty proud of myself. Maybe {and that's a big, fat maybe} tomorrow I will finish it up.

How do you like our new blog layout? I'm lovin' the polka dots {so fun!}, but I'm not so sure about our blog header. It just doesn't feel like the one. Hm. What do you think?

I cannot believe I have not blogged about my trip to Jamaica yet! Hopefully things will start to settle down around here; we've been so busy. I plan on having a series of blog posts on Jamaica because there is no way I could share everything in one post. So, keep your eyes peeled. I promise I will get to it soon!

I recently won a giveaway {yes, another one!} from the Englar Family blog. I won the book "How to Bring You Children to Christ... & Keep Them There." I'm not a big book reader, but I am really excited about reading this book. My greatest desire for Noah is that he would wholeheartedly love and follow Jesus and that he would be a man after God's own heart. We as parents are responsible to teach our children about Christ; there is nothing more important. I can't wait to start this book. Who wants to borrow it after I finish it?

I can't believe we will be celebrating Noah's second birthday at the end of this month. My baby is growing up! Sniff, sniff. We really are looking forward to celebrating his big day with all of our family and friends. It will be a great day!

This is really random, but I still can't wait to see Toy Story 3. I think I need a date night with the mister. Who wants to babysit Noah for us?

It has been scorching hot here lately. My gosh. I definitely think August has been the hottest month so far this year. The cool fall weather cannot get here soon enough!

Noah has been very vocal lately; it is the cutest! I'm sure it won't be too much longer before he is talking away. Noah says {or tries to say}, "Night-Night," "NO" {to Einstein on a daily basis}, "What are you doing?" and "Well, Well, Well." This age is so much fun.

Did you see the diy tutorial I posted for fabric poms? If not, you must click here. They are so cute!

I have some exciting news to share with you about Mr. Noah, so come back tomorrow, okay?

I think that's it for now.

Thanks for listening.

DIY Fabric Poms

I just love diy projects, don't you?

The other evening while I was online, I came across a
gorgeous {and relatively simple} diy tutorial for fabric poms.

Check these beauties out:

I adore the soft fabric texture. Oh so pretty!

How cute would these poms look
at a bridal or baby shower?

Just change the colors of your fabric
and you can adapt these poms
to any celebration!

Click here for the tutorial.

Hope you are having a lovely day!

hello

Noah & I are back!
Did you miss us?

We went to Kansas City, Missouri for
my sister, Abby's, bridal shower.
It was simply perfect! It was so Abby.



My mom & sister, Megan, will probably kill me
for posting this, but I'll take the risk and post
it anyway. Their expressions were priceless.
Ya'll are crazy, crazy!



And, seriously, does my Mom look fabulous or what?!
I told her she could be one of the sisters. I mean, really, she could. Huh?

Anyway, we were in Kansas City for only a short time
before my whole family went on to Branson, Missouri
for a mini {last minute} vacay! It was woooonderful!

We stayed at a fancy schmancy hotel called
"Chateau on the Lake." It was heavenly.
I'm ready to go back.



And we spent a whole day at the lake.
Swimming.
Eating.
Sea doo{ing}.
Tubing.
Spending time together.
It was the best.

Our "littlest" Captain.



What a cutie patootie. Noah was pretty
excited he got to sit in the Captain seat.

We had a great time!

More to come...

p.s. Happy Birthday Gay Lynn/Grammy!
Hope you have a wonderful day. We love you.