this little girl...

will be 6 months old in a couple weeks... and while it seems crazy that we've already had her for 4 months now, she has also felt like a part of our family for a lot longer than that.

has almost outgrown her tunnel so she resorts to licking and gnawing on it instead.

has forced us to replace the gate we put up in the hall to keep her out of non bunny-proof rooms, the first of which was an actual foot and a half pet gate that she cleared within the first few months {that girl has mad hops}, the second of which was a normal size baby gate where she could fit through the bars {did NOT see that one coming}.

spends 85.3% of her life cleaning herself.

loves being pet on the head and returns the favor with nose and forehead licks... it's the cleanest Nic and I have ever been. ;) ha

adores watermelon, romaine lettuce, and apple... her eyes get wide and nose starts sniffing like crazy the second any of the above are even in the vicinity!

runs toward the fridge the second she hears kissing noises or hears it open, cutest thing of my life!

We love you little Rue Loo.

4th of July shelf decor

As promised yesterday, here they are in their full on festive glory... our new shelves decorated for the fourth! I decided to go with a picnic inspired theme because who doesn't love a good picnic/bbq on the 4th of July! 

 Links to where I got a few things below... 

gingham buckets from Target {in the dollar section} :: chalkboard from Joanne's :: aviator shades from the dollar store :: Land that I Love Printable from here :: 4th of July Subway Printable from here ::

star banner made by me, tutorial here

Red, white, and cute!! :) I couldn't be happier with how they turned out!

fun and festive 4th of july banner

With 4th of July coming up next week I decided to get my craft on this afternoon and decorate our new shelves for their first holiday. I'm already in love with having the extra shelf space, especially when it is very limited around our apartment.

A fun and festive red, white, and blue star bunting banner... perfect for the fourth!

I bought red, white, and blue poster board at the dollar store for fifty cents each. Pocatello doesn't have many options for cute craft paper, especially of the cardstock value, so even though I had a TON of poster board left over, it would have been just as much if not more to buy scrapbook paper in these colors. I used a small star shaped cookie cutter to trace an even number of stars in each color and then cut them out.

*** Note :: My bottom shelf measures 49" across but I made the banner about 56" to allow for extra hanging room ***





Another reason why I wanted a thick cardstock type paper was for this next part. I stitched the stars together in a red, white, and blue pattern. I ran 7 stitches in between each star so that they were spaced slightly apart from each other.



All that was left to do was use double sided tape to hang the banner on the front of the shelf.
Here is a sneak peak......



Come back tomorrow! I will be sharing the rest of the shelf decor. :) I had so much fun decorating for this holiday and already have lots of ideas swimming around in my head for Fall decor.
Too soon??? ;) HA

the weekend {about 3 weeks ago} + hunter wellies

While yesterday was my birthday, I feel like I have been celebrating all month long! A few weekends ago we drove to Boise. My brother was in town from Maryland, a rare occasion, so I'm so glad we were able to go. Nic and I are both June babies so we celebrated with my mom and brother, a little late for him and a little early for me... in other words, perfect timing. What's a birthday anyway without celebrating it the whole month long. ;)

Look at this beautiful family that I belong to...

I have been wanting a pair of red hunter wellies for a really long time and squealed when I unwrapped this gift from my momma! Brendan (my brother) knew we loved going on dates and gave us a dinner and dessert gift card. Looking forward to that date night very soon. :) Thanks Brend!

The picture taking got a liiiiittle crazy. :) haha

The night ended with a backyard bonfire, gut wrenching laughter, and s'mores! So glad we got to celebrate with you two. We miss you already!

23.

Rue is slightly blurry because she can't hold still for more than 2 seconds!

The last couple weeks have been crazy busy. I thought once I graduated things would slow down but in reality, they are just beginning, and in a way, speeding up. Two weeks ago I took my first professional development course. It was on teaching math concepts to promote deeper understanding and critical thinking and call me crazy but I loved it. And last week I took eighteen 12-17 year old girls to a girls camp for my church. Needless to say, I spent the majority of this last weekend sleeping. It was just what the doctor ordered!

Today I turned 23! I slept in and decided I deserved to relax in bed a little longer than usual until an axe murder entered my bedroom and gave me a hard attack!!! That axe murderer was my husband. HA DID NOT know he was home!! He scared me half to death! I thought he left for work at his usual time but he was actually out in the kitchen doing dishes and cooking me breakfast... a bouquet of roses and lilies and the most romantic card I have ever received in the middle of the table. That sweet man. So lucky he picked me! The day was rather rainy which bummed me out at first until I realized it was the perfect opportunity to wear rain boots which are basically my favorite! We had dinner at Wingers {which if you can't tell by now is one of our favorite places} and saw Monster's University. It was a cute movie but after seeing The Croods recently, it just didn't quite compare or measure up! A heartfelt thanks to the best friends and family I could ever dream of having for all of the messages, texts, and calls that I was showered with throughout the day!

xoxo

today.

We are headed to Boise to spend the weekend with my fam 

but it hasn't been quite as easy this time 

because we have to leave our little Rue behind. 

I get teary just thinking about it.

All I want to do is scoop her up and put her right inside the front pocket of that suitcase!!

We'll miss you little Rue Loo.

may :: according to my iphone pictures {part 2}

Okay, here we go with part 2! :)

If you missed part 1, you can find it here.

On May 21st, we celebrated 2 blissful years of marriage. It was such a fun day... we went put put golfing at the same place where we went on our first date, we had a progressive dinner, and took a lot of fun pictures to remember it by. More about our anniversary here.

I also began to realize that I needed a hair cut, like yesterday. I probably haven't cut it in over a year so to say that my ends were scraggly was an understatement. New hair dresser, new haircut {several inches chopped off}, new me.

I have been loving the new trend of sparkly and colorful barrettes to swoop the front of my hair to the side. I found this tutorial and ended up making some of my own. The large bobby pins and barrettes were from Walmart and I just covered them with my favorite essie nail polish colors for spring and summer and voila!

We celebrated Memorial Day by visiting a place that Pocatello designates as the "Field of Heroes." This high school soccer field was covered with thousands and thousands of little white crosses. In the front section where two long rows of the men and women from Idaho who have died serving our country in the last 10 years. We didn't stay long because it was really emotional. One too many "I miss you daddies" and I was welling up with tears. But I walked away feeling even more grateful to every single one of them for their service and their sacrifice so that I am able to live in this beautiful country where freedom is a blessing to all.

may :: according to my iphone pictures {part 1}

May truly was a H.A.P.P.Y. and sort of life changing month!! There was SO much that happened that I am going to split it into 2 posts and I completely don't blame you if you are just here to look at the pictures. haha

First of all, I experienced my first Teacher Appreciation Week and two of my students even brought me little yellow flowers and notes. It seriously made my whole week!!! Thursday during the first week of May was also my last day of college for my undergraduate degree. It was completely bittersweet. You can read more about it here. I definitely can say I am walking away from my college experience a changed person from the day I started. I feel stronger and somehow more brave.

My last week of school was also the same week I interviewed for my very first teaching position. I can't even tell you how many hours I spent considering every possible question they could ask me, which was completely crazy because interview questions aren't always something you can anticipate. And if that doesn't tell you how much I wanted this, I put on my shiniest pair of black heels, a lace peplum top, and a blazer {which is a piece of clothing I don't even own} and went out the door as prepared and confident as one could be for a job interview. I interviewed with three panels of principals, four to five principals on each panel, and the director of elementary education at the end. When I was called into the first room, I seriously could feel my body convulsing it was shaking so hard. I'm pretty sure they were probably concerned I'd have a seizure right there on my seat. In that moment I was thinking to myself... "Oh good, what a fantastic first impression!" haha But somehow when they asked me my first question, despite my body shaking uncontrollably, my voice was surprisingly smooth and calm as I delivered my first answer. A gift that could only be described as directly from heaven above! My first two interview panels went fabulous. I could not have walked out of them more confident. At this point, I had only one left and as I sat outside the room waiting, I could feel a new kind of nerves creep in. These were no longer "I'm excited that I'm finally to this point" nerves. Instead, they were anxiety ridden nerves because inside this room were some principals I knew had openings in the grades I really desired to teach and I DID NOT want to screw it up. I can barely remember the answers I gave... all I remember is that it did not go as well as the first two. No one even cracked a smile. I simply breathed a sigh of relief that it was over when the door closed behind me and I knew that I had done the very best I could and I left it at that.

A week later, I received a phone call on a Tuesday evening. I knew from the moment she told me her name that she was a principal from the third panel I met with. My throat grew tighter as I listened for what she was about to say. And I can not even explain the amount of joy I experienced in that moment when she told me that she had called to offer me my first teaching position in the third grade at her elementary school!! Talk about a dream come true! Nic and I celebrated with cheesecake fantasy ice cream from Coldstone's the very next day and toasted to the new future we have ahead of us and man, does it feel bright!

And as if that weren't enough excitement for one month... My mom came to visit for my graduation weekend and for Mother's Day. I hadn't seen her since January so it was amazing to have her here! We got our new shelves up just in time for her arrival {mostly done}. We had a graduation dinner at Red Lobster {yum} and saw The Host which made me want to go back and read the book for a second time. There was a lot I had forgotten. I also discovered we my mom and I are watch twins. She has such great taste. ;) You can read more about Mother's Day here and our new Ballard inspired shelves here.

I have finally found time to read for fun again and devoured the Matched Trilogy in 2 days! I did a book review on it here. Rue tried watermelon for the first time and just like any other food, she was super skeptical at first {sounds like someone else I know.. ahem NIC} but then LOVED it. Now she feels the need to climb into the fridge any time someone opens the door! You never know what kind of yummy bunny treats you might find in there. ;)

Part 2 of May according to my iphone pictures coming your way tomorrow!
Hope you have a great day! :)

birthday weekend

Nic came home from work Friday afternoon with an arm full of candy and the happiest grin you ever did see. His sweet co-workers threw him a birthday party for the afternoon {I'm glad he loves the people he works with!} so instead of coming home drained from a hard days work, he came home relaxed and ready to party for the weekend. Fine by me! In fact, what's a birthday weekend without celebrating EVERY DAY!

Saturday was his real birthday. He woke up to a kiss from Rue. Cutest picture of my life, I love it!!!



 In the morning we went for a run. It turned out to be the most beautiful of days here which only added to the joy of the weekend! The run was followed by an at-home haircut. I must have been a hair dresser in another life because it takes a lot of skill to do what I do {buzz cut down to a 4}. ;) A hair cut and a shave were all it took to make him feel a little less like he was on the tail end of his 20's.

If you are anything like me, one look at my husband and you wouldn't ever guess that he was a total nerd until you got to know him. Well he wanted wireless head phones {bunny proof} that happened to glow blue in the dark. haha He spent part of the afternoon playing XBOX with his new headphones. Nerd alert! {I told ya!}



On Saturday evening we met my mother-in-law at Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner. He had mentioned to her a few weeks prior about how him and his co-workers were going to be taking up golfing as a Friday afternoon bonding activity so she equipped him with everything he would need to become an avid golfer. After dinner we went and saw The Croods for the second time in the last couple weeks. Seriously, I missed 3/4 of the funny lines the first time we saw it because I was laughing SO hard. If you haven't seen it, go right.this.second. It is hilarious!

When the movie was over, we had ice cream with one lone birthday-singing candle because let's face it, there was no way I could fit 26 in there! And because every day on a birthday weekend should be a celebration, we had left over ice cream for dessert on Sunday too! 

Hope you had the perfect birthday my love. 26 years looks good on you. :)

And a few family picture from the birthday weekend...

birthday boy

| H | A | P | P | Y |

| B | I | R | T | H | D | A | Y | 

I'm so glad that you were born.

xo love you xo