Momma's Day

"Of all the gifts that life has to offer, a loving mother is the greatest of them all."

I felt so grateful on Sunday to be able to spend Mother's Day with my mom. Ever since I moved away, it doesn't always work out that we get to spend this holiday together. Some of my favorite memories are from Mother's Days when we would plant beautiful Spring flowers together and talk for hours about the ups and downs of life. While we weren't able to plant flowers together this year, we also didn't have to spend it apart and that meant so much to me.

My mom is my angel, my best friend, and the person I admire most in this world. She is strong, courageous, and loves me and my brother unconditionally. I am also blessed to have a mother-in-law who is equally as strong and courageous. I have never been more thankful to someone than I am to her for giving birth to a son who is unlike any other man I have ever met in this world and for raising him to be the complete gentleman that he is.

Happy Mother's Day!
xoxo

home improvement project :: {ballard inspired shelves}

In our apartment we have very limited decorating space. In fact, one of my only open shelves to decorate was the top of our entertainment center that we ended up losing when we decided to saw it in half. I have been telling Nic the last couple of years how much I wanted to build some Ballard Design inspired shelves in our kitchen and that little dream of mine finally came true.



I am normally a very patient person in most aspects of my life but during the process of this project I was so excited watching them come together so perfectly that I was dying to get them finished, up on the wall, and decorated! We still have to touch up the screw holes in the corbels but other than that, they're done and I absolutely adore how they look in our kitchen! They were so easy to build thanks to the help of my husband, father-in-law, and a tutorial from the House of Smith's blog!!

My mom was in town this last weekend for my graduation and Mother's Day and we had so much fun shopping for little things to put on them! Of course since I took these pictures the decor is constantly evolving {I wish tulips were in season allllll summer long darn it!!} but this is how they looked initially. :)

home improvement project :: {entertainment center}

When Nic and I got married almost 2 years ago {crazy}, we were blessed with getting furniture as a wedding gift from our families or inheriting hand-me-down furniture. One piece in particular was our entertainment center. My dad found it at a garage sale right before my sophomore year of college so it has apartment hopped with me for several years now. As is, it is very boxy and when Nic got his 65'' monstrosity of a t.v. for Christmas last year, it wasn't a possibility to put it in our living room. Even knocking out the center board the t.v. still wouldn't fit. So it found a home in our bedroom on the top of a little dresser {a little rickety and disconcerting}. Our bedroom quickly became a theatre room. haha

We got an idea to saw the entertainment center in half for our living room. The end of school brought more time for projects so we hauled it to my father-in-law's garage and after five minutes of sawing, we had ourselves a new entertainment center. Here is a before and after...

The before picture is actually from my college apartment that I lived in during my sophomore year. I didn't have a recent one. But, I loved how it turned out! Add a little chalkboard basket for storage and it is perfect!!

april :: according to my iphone pictures

In April, my plant that I was given from a friend slowly began to die along with my hope of ever having a green thumb! ha I really tried hard this time but I knew it was inevitable. I made those delicious looking tuxedo brownie cups with raspberries on top for a church auction. The final bid for them was $85. I was ecstatic to be able to contribute. Definitely the prettiest dessert I can make. I posted the recipe here.

I spent a lot of time writing thank you notes to some of the most wonderful people who have crossed my path in my final semester of school. People who made a huge impact on my life and helped to make me the teacher that I dreamed of becoming.

We've been sleeping like a queen and king over here ever since we bought our memory foam mattress with our tax return. Best purchase we could have made. It is heavenly and the back pain I've been experiencing for quite some time now is finally gone. You truly know you are an adult when you get excited over these kinds of things! haha

Rue spends most of her day life sleeping. haha She really lives a tough life. Then around 10:00 at night she acts like she is on crack and goes flying around the room. It is hilarious and probably my favorite time of the the day! We are in love with her if you can't tell!

Honestly, I spent most of the month of April sick. After the first 10 days of the month I finally drug myself to the doctor {hate going there} and was given antibiotics for a sinus infection. Not 2 days after finishing the round of antibiotics and finally getting my voice back I got it full force all over again. This chest cough is still hanging on for dear life. Oh the life of a being a teacher with a weak immune system. :) Even though I was sick, I spent the last week of April feeling like I could conquer the world after finally submitting my 76 page Teacher Work Sample to finish off my Bachelor's Degree. BEST.FEELING.EVER hitting that submit button. A huge weight lifted and Nic and I have finally got to start spending more time together and working on a few home improvement projects I can't wait to share! :)

dear mister graduate

Dear Mister Graduate,

We did it!!!! As of Saturday you have your Master's Degree and I have my Bachelor's. While it feels like it has been a long time coming... endless hours of homework, stress, and tests... it also feels like it went by in the blink of an eye. When we met you were just finishing up your Bachelor's Degree and considering psychology school in another state. I remember feeling desperate for you to stay and we barely knew each other then. I know it was because, in my heart I knew right away that I could never say goodbye to you. When we got married I still had 2 years left of school. I was on the 5 year plan... ya know, what happens to people when they get crazy and switch their major {a decision I am SO grateful for making by the way}. It was then that we debated whether or not you should get your Master's now. We'd planned on you getting it someday but you hadn't even been done with your Bachelor's Degree long and you were working full time so I'm sure, the thought of working on homework at night did not make it an enticing decision. But man am I sure glad we decided to do it. We finished school like we planned before starting our family and we worked hard side by side the last year and a half to do it. It feels so good to say that it is finally done!! I want you to know that I have never been more proud of someone than you. You are incredibly smart and dedicated to doing what you set your mind to and I admire that in you. We make a great team you and I and I'm ready to conquer this new adult job world with you. :)
Happy Graduation to the both of us! On to our next crazy adventure together!

Love you!

a couple of videos to make you giggle on this lovely monday

Easter!

| Nothing like a post about Easter a couple months late! |

Like I mentioned here, this has seriously been the craziest school semester of my life and I can hardly believe it is about to come to a final close in 4 days... 4 DAYS! With that said, I am hoping that I can truthfully say this time that I am back to blogging more frequently. Now lets jump back to the end of March shall we because I have a million posts to catch up on!

Easter was very low key for us this year. We spent our morning at church reflecting on the Savior and feeling so blessed to know that he has risen, lives, and loves us. Then we spent the afternoon with the bun bun and of course, had to have a little Easter photoshoot. It took a little coaxing to make it happen. haha









I mean, does it get any more adorable than that?! In the early evening we died a few Easter eggs. I love all of the pastel colors that Spring brings. I'm looking forward to the day when we have little ones to do an Easter egg hunt with and grow lollipops from jelly beans in our front yard!

But this year... this year was just perfect for us. Nothing necessarily special on the dinner menu or anything. For me, it was a day I spent reflecting on the things and people that matter most to me in my life. Hope you had a Hoppy Easter!! ;)