Tori's Baby Shower

I had the opportunity to host my little sister's baby shower today. It was so fun to shower her and her baby with love.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures before people started arriving, and I was doing it so fast that they aren't wonderful quality photos, but here they are anyways. 

I went with a vintage theme and kept the colors neutral since Tori and Jared don't know the gender of their baby.

Tori and Jared have decided not to know the gender of their baby, so we had a little fun with it. 

I found all the of glasses at Goodwill for 30 cents a piece! woohoo!

Thanks to my mom for the yummy food!

My mom had this dresser sitting in her guestroom, so I stole it for the party. 

My dad built that cradle and all of us slept in it when we were babies. I inherited it! I LOVE it.

I have NO artistic abilities whatsoever, so I am embarrassed to say it took me 3 hours to design and draw this chalkboard. I had a lot of design inspiration from {Pinterest}. Lots of trial and error on this one!

Party favors. My mom found this cute burlap bags and we filled them with sweets. 

Lovely pregnant lady!

So fun! Glad I got to do this for my little sista!

her day & her day a day early

My beautiful sister-in-law, Emily, is celebrating her 25th birthday tomorrow! Love ya, lady! Hope it's fantastic. 

My adorable niece, Lauren, is also celebrating a birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday, Lauren!!! We love and miss you!

her day

It's my Oma's birthday today! She's got to be one of the funniest Germans I know! Love her! Happy birthday, young lady.

Love this

Saw this on {Pinterest} and had to share. How sweet!

Chores

Not a chore, but something I needed to do this week. My sister's baby shower is this weekend at my home. I've been stamping and decorating like crazy. It's been fun!

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to all of our Veterans! Thank you for all you do, and have done, for us and our country!

We enjoyed the day as a family, with cousins and grandparents, relaxing and eating yummy food. Ohio has been fun! We go home tomorrow.

Ohio Metro Parks

We are loving our time in Ohio. Yesterday was our nephew's baptism. Today, after church we headed to the Metro Parks. We played in the river and went for a really fun hike. It was a beautiful and  fun day!

Surprise garden

We have the coolest scarecrow ever watching over our garden this year. The boys planted the seeds without us knowing, so it'll be a surprise what pops up and where it all pops up. haha! Too fun!

the drive

We anticipated a quiet drive to Ohio last night. We left Chicago at 8:30pm and expected the boys to fall fast asleep and stay asleep the whole 5 hour 15 minute journey. 

Well, Benson stayed awake the whole time. Like until we arrived at 2:30am Eastern time! 

Cason dutifully fell asleep on cue at 6:30pm when I left St Charles to head to the city to pick up Josh. He was running a 5K downtown and we were to pick him up and head to Ohio from there. Cason stayed asleep the whole car ride to the city, and the extra hour it took for us to pick up Josh once we were in the city. He stayed asleep for two MORE hours into the journey. But at 10:30pm he woke up and was READY to go! 

So, the rest of the car ride looked like this.... 

Thank goodness for portable DVD players! 

The garage sale

This is the only picture that was taken of the event. This is my three car garage stuffed and overflowing with donations for our Young Women's  Garage sale. It was a fundraiser for Girl's Camp. Last Saturday we held a garage sale at my home to raise money for the girl's in our ward (our church) to attend a week long camp.  I am the Camp Director for our ward. 

It turned out wonderfully! We raised enough money for all 24 girls to attend camp for free!! There's quite a remarkable story to follow...

Bottom line, we raised $1000 from selling stuff and from the bake sale (the girls made cupcakes, bread, jam, and cookies to sell). I thought that amount was impressive!

THEN, one lady, who wanted to remain anonymous, dropped off an envelope to one of the helpers at the sale. We had seen this lady a couple of times. She bought a few things, came back with her mom and bought more. She chatted with some of the helpers and the Young Women. When we opened the envelope, after she left, we realized it had $2000 in it! WHAT?!??! She said she was really impressed by the girls and thought it was a worthy cause. What a blessing!

THEN, near the end of the sale, another lady came and bought a few dresses and then donated $500!!! 

In total, we raised $3550. All girls are totally paid for and we still have $90 left over to buy things for camp. 

AMAZING miracle! I hope happy thoughts and kindnesses follow those two women forever! They are amazing! 

the world through benson's eyes

Benson's view of Nature

a walk in the woods

We love our Spring walks in the woods behind our home

Every day is Mother's Day

Benson is a creator. He likes to make wonderful crafts. He made this for me last week in honor of Mother's Day. Coolest Mother's Day card EVER!

lovin' warm weather

Bringing inside toys out. 

s'more, please!

Not much was eaten, but it was dissected...

his day

You all better shut up tight about how I look in this picture. Instead focus on my big bro, Aaron. He's the cool lookin' dude in the middle of the photo holding my little sister. Happy birthday, Aaron! Love ya!

their day

My brother, Aaron, and is wife, Kerry, are celebrating their 16th anniversary! Congrats you guys!

King & Queen chair

We got my mom and dad a monster chair for Mother's/Father's Day this year. This way they can cuddle while out and about.

To give you an idea of just how large this chair really is...  (ps-my dad is 6'4, and his feet are dangling...haha! It's huge!)

my boys

There is no doubt in my mind that I am one lucky mommy! I love these two men to the moon and back!

Random photo shoot after church on Mother's Day. Let's see if there are ANY in this whole bunch where both boys are looking up at the camera at the same time....

showing off his obvious six-pack.