A sweet blog friend turned into an in real life friend!

Today was awesome because I got to meet one of oldest (and by oldest and mean one of my first ever) blog friends.  I've wanted to meet her for years and it was just something I hoped for, but honestly I never knew if it would happen.

We met Jenn and her two handsome boys in Colombia, South Carolina.  They are the nicest most genuine people!  They are exactly like they seem online. 

We explored at a fun place place similar to the Fort Worth museum of Science and History. (for all my TX friends...you know how cool that is.)

The kids saw butterflies fluttering around like crazy.  It was Layla's favorite part!

The kids were dental assistants....

and fire fighters!

I wish I had taken more photos in the football section of the museum.  The boys went wild and threw footballs rocket fast.  They were dodging each other and laughing so hard.  They got all hot and sweaty and it was awesome to see them get along so well.

It was a great day indeed!  Thank you Jenn, for driving a bit out of your way to meet us,  I hope we can make it happen again soon!

I got to meet Courtney!

I have followed Courtney's blog for years.  I remember reading about her family back during a time when they were possibly moving to Texas, obviously when I lived in Texas.  I've read all about her sweet kids and doing so made me feel like I'd known them for real for ever. 

Well, during our adventures traveling with Gary this week we got to meet Courtney and Lauren today.  They came to our hotel and Lauren swam in the pool with the kids while Courtney and I talked for a few hours.  It was great to sit and visit with her.

I am truly blessed by all the blog friends I have and I love when internet friends become real life friends.  The kids love it too because they see the benefits of this blog!  We have friends everywhere!

Day of Silence

Today I am not writing a blog post about our family.



Today I am honoring a day of blogging silence to honor other families who have lost loved ones.



I am honoring a family in our neighborhood who recently lost their father while he was jogging early one morning. I am honoring a special family who lost their little baby girl 1 year and 7 months ago.  I think of sweet Hadley very often.



I am honoring my grandfather and uncle.  I'm thinking about two of my high school friends who were taken from us much too soon.

Please join me in a day of blog silence to honor all those hurting and missing family and friends who have been taken from us.



Please pray for sweet Julee and Preslee.  Life is fragile, hug your loved ones. 

Ashley's birthday weekend celebration

Saturday I spent the day with Ashley and a group of fun ladies to celebrate her 30th birthday.

We started the day with Amy, Amanda, Jenn, Ashley and I getting pedicures in Burleson before we headed to Dallas for the afternoon/night.

Ashley, Jenn and me after our relaxing pedi's!

Before we headed to Hotel ZaZa for the night we had lunch at North Park mall.  I had a turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich and it was delicious!   After a little shopping we got cupcakes at Sprinkles. 

Jenn got a banana chocolate cupcake, I got salted caramel flavor and Ashley got a blueberry lemon cupcake.  The cupcakes were delicious!  Mmmmm!  I was one happy girl after that delicious sweet treat.

Once we made it to the hotel we got all settled into our hotel rooms and I met Miranda for the first time ever.  I am so excited to call her a friend.  She is really funny, really witty and super smart!  I didn't get a picture with just her.  Sad face. :(  But you'll see her pretty face in the group pictures.

We enjoyed chocolate covered strawberries and a champagne toast and then headed down to the pool.

  

The pool area was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but we still had fun.  Most of the other guests left the pool area when it stated sprinkling rain.   It never rained super hard, but we ended up having the place to ourselves!

Sarah {and sweet Maeva} Amy, Ashley, Jenn, Me, Miranda and Amanda.  I will add ... this picture was taken by our waitress.  There was a creepy photographer dude that had us all on edge.  I'm not sure what his story was, but he had a big camera and offered to take a few pictures of us.  Um no thank you!  He just sat off in the distance and every once in awhile you could feel someone staring at you and yep...it was him.  Bizarre! 

After some much needed relaxation and girl talk at the pool we headed upstairs to freshen up for a fun dinner at Dragonfly.

Here we all are at dinner!

Jenn, Jessica, Miranda, Sarah, Amanda, Amy, Ashley and Angie {me}

  I love all these ladies so much.  

I met Amanda and Amy at Judd's baby shower, so it was wonderful to see their pretty faces again.

We had the best time at dinner and the food was delicious.  The service sadly was not stellar, but these amazing ladies all at one table made up for the snobby-ness of our server.  

The poor guy started out on the wrong food by insisting that we all start our meal with a skinny watermelon margarita.  Was he dropping a hint?  haha!  As you can see I decided to take him up on his offer and the margarita was delicious!

  I am so excited to say I finally got to meet Jessica.  I've followed her blog since I first started blogging almost 6 years ago.  I feel like I've known her for years!  She is so fun and nice.  She is just as I imagined her to be and I'm thankful she is an in-real-life friend now!  And sad face once again, I didn't get a picture with just she and I.  I should have been more on top of my picture game, but we were having too much fun!

I love me some Jenn.  She is a super fun gal!

After dinner we moved from our private dining room to the pool area!  The manager escorted us to an area by the pool and brought over sparklers to celebrate Ashley!

I'm so thankful I got to spend time with all these girls.  It truly was a weekend to remember and I'm glad we were all able to meet up for a fun girls night out!

Happy Birthday Ashley!!!!!!

cucumber cream cheese sandwiches

This past weekend Sarah, Jenn, Sheila and I hosted a Little Man Baby Shower for Ashley.  

Ashley requested cucumber sandwiches and they turned out so delicious. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised!   I wasn't sure how they would taste, but at the end of the shower the entire platter of sandwiches was gone!  I think they were a HIT!

Here is how I did it:

I peeled the cucumbers and then sliced them super thin.  

I mixed 2 (8 ounce) packages of softened cream cheese with one packet of Italian seasoning mix.

I then spread the cream cheese mixture on the bread and loaded the cucumbers onto the cream cheese.  

Finally,  I sliced the sandwiches into triangles and cut off the crust.  These dainty little treats are a refreshing sandwich for any shower or luncheon.

Two drinks we served were cucumber water and sweet tea.  

The cucumber water is really simple to make.  I filled the large container with ice and water.  I tossed in one sliced/peeled cucumber and a handful of blueberries.   Sarah's idea to add the blueberries made this water a wonderful treat.  

Please visit Sarah's blog Life {Sweet} Life to see all of the adorable shower pictures including a fun picture of us hostesses, an adorable wreath {made by Jenn} and other Little Man {mustache} themed goodies.  

weekend update

This weekend was busy, fun, tiring and emotional for me.  To start off the weekend I helped host a baby shower for my friend Ashley.  Her sweet baby boy Judd will be born the end of October.  Me and a few other friends crashed Ashley's house for the weekend preparing for Saturday's shower.

Friday night we had a fun slumber party.  We worked into the wee morning hours preparing the cutest cuteness to honor Judd and Ashley.  

Saturday was very busy and fun.  I am so happy I was able to meet Ashley's family and friends.  Everyone was so sweet and nice.  Ashley, Aaron, Ava and Judd are so lucky to have so many amazing people in their lives.

Aren't these cupcakes the cutest ever?

And these cookies.  They were so good.  I couldn't stop eating them.

I am sad to say I didn't take all that many pictures of the shower.  I am happy Sarah did, and as soon as she posts them to her blog I will share the link with y'all.  You must see the cuteness.

*****

Today, Sunday ...  we rested.  We played outside, grilled steaks and tried to relax.  

We watched football and ate candy corns.  

Speaking of candy corns.  One of my sweet friends brought a bag of candy corns to my door today.  It was a total surprise and I LOVED it.  I don't know if she reads my blog, but thank you Jessica!  You are so sweet and such a great friend.

Jessica was trying to cheer me up because I was very sad today.  My mom called me this morning to tell me her sweet dog Bella was taken from their backyard by a coyote.  My parents are devastated.  This is horrible and I am so sad.  I couldn't stop crying thinking about Bella's tragic death.  

I am so mad about this. I hate that this precious dog was in her yard minding her business and a coyote jumped the fence to grab her and take off with her.   I blame the drought.  I have said it a million times lately...we are thirsty. TEXAS NEEDS RAIN.  The wildlife in Texas is thirsty.  We need water so bad and I believe this happened because of the coyotes desperation.  It is just so sad.  It hurts my heart.  

And on that note I am off to bed.

Night Night!

A fun play date with new friends

Last Wednesday the kids and I visited Erin, Mauri and Britton at their house.   

Erin and I met through twitter/blogging. We have been out to dinner several times with a group of ladies for girls night out.  I have been wanting to get our girls together to play.  Layla is about to turn 6 years old and Britton will be 5 soon.  I just knew they would get along great!

Look at these 2 cuties!

They look like Charlies Angels holding these yummy Popsicles. haha!

Cupcake break!!!

Look at sweet Mauri eating her cupcake in the pool.

Oh she is just too cute!!

She loves splashing in the water and she is so brave!!

I can still hear the happy squeals coming from these little sweeties!

They had so much fun giggling and being silly!  Britton is a great swimmer, so it was good for Layla to see her in action. It gave Layla confidence to branch out and splash around a bit more.  She acutally did great!  I was so happy to see her doing so well in the water. 

Hayden was out numbered being the only boy, but I secretly think he liked it :)

Thanks Erin for inviting us over...we can't wait to play with y'all again soon!

  

blog swap goodies

I participated in a fun summer blog swap and I am so happy I did.

Basically, I signed up to exchange summer goodies with another blogger.  We exchanged addresses and I sent her fun stuff and she sent me fun stuff.  I think it is an awesome idea, and I am so glad I participated.

Look at all this fun summer stuff!!!!!

Lacey knows me so well!  She picked out so many fun things!  I love each and every one! 

Can you tell by all the !!!!!  I am using?!!

When I opened the box out poured the smell of Pina Colada.  Oh my word.  This candle is heaven in a glass jar.  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!  AND it is yellow, so it matches my kitchen perfectly!

Look at these fun Popsicle holders....and the tea next to them.  I am SOOOOO making peach tea Popsicles.  Doesn't that sound so good?!  She knew I was loving tea right now and sent some my way!

And anyone that has been following my blog for awhile knows I LOVE bracelets.  These are perfect!  And so comfy to wear...I have already worn them.

Lacey also sent me this Jergens sunless tanner.  I have been outside with the kiddos playing in the pool, but I have been very good with applying sunscreen this year.  I'm terrified of skin cancer.  Even though we use sunscreen in our family, we still get tan.  I know I will get a tan over the summer, but the Jergens natural glow does just that...gives me a fun natural glow to jump start my tan :)

See the fun lip protection?  I can never have to many tubes of chap stick/lip sunscreen.  I'm happy to have it!  I am also very excited about taking this sun tea pitcher on our next camping trip!  I love making sun tea, and it tastes so good.

I think I hit the lotto!  I got so many fun things, but more importantly I made a sweet blog friend.  I just love Lacey.  She has an adorable family and I am so excited to follow her blog and read more about her family!  Thanks for everything Lacey!