Beach Day with Family!!

While all of the Gillespie's were in town for a visit, we decided to spend the day at the beach!! 

I love the beach. 

I could spend every day there. 

My kids definitely take after me. 

They are in the water the minute we get there and we have to drag them out when it is time to leave. 

Plus we had a bonus to this visit. 

It was our sweet nephew Declan's first time ever to a beach. 

So of course he had to take a beach selfie with aunt Meg!

My beach babe. 

He loved it!

The Iowa Gillespie's

B and A

The Boys

Daddy and his beach baby. 

She loves the beach

Happy times

I LOVE THE BEACH!!

Our best attempt at a family picture. 

Two of my favorite beach buddies. 

I caught Tess mid awesome beach pose!

my honey. 

See I told you we tried. 

It is surprisingly harder the older they get! You would think it would get easier. 

Salt Dough Ornaments!

We had made plans to go to a Christmas parade but it got rained out. So we decided to make Salt dough ornaments instead. We told the kids that they could put a special tree up in their room to put their new ornaments on. I thought they did a great job!!

These last four are Garran and mine. 

You can tell his. 

He is so stinking talented. I just love it. 

He makes great ornaments when we do this each year!!

A day at the beach!

While my Dad was here visiting, we decided to spend a Saturday at the beach. 

It was perfect. 

I thought the day would be kind of chilly and it was starting out, but that did not stop my kiddos. 

They LOVE the beach!

No big surprise there. They are my kids. 

So into the ocean they went, clothes and all. 

Being the "cool" mom I am...I just sat and watched them get soaked..and then went to play to...but only about shin deep for me!

 I am never in pictures but here I am, at the beach, with my little loves. 

 My sweet Ayla. 

 My Dad on the beach!

 After a little swim and a change of outfits, we walked the board walk!

 It was so beautiful. It really turned out to be a perfect day!

 Here we all are on the boardwalk. 

 I don't know why, but I love love love this picture!

 Can't you just see the happiness in this picture??

I can not wait for our next beach trip! 

Here is to happy sunny beach trips!

a day at the beach...

I had been waiting for this day for sometime. 

Have i mentioned this...

I LOVE THE BEACH!!!!

 I love everything about it. 

I was so excited for the kids to get to experience it. 

 We had a great time playing with cousins in the ocean. We ate lunch and applied lots of sunblock....

 See how happy I look....

 and sun kissed....

 Even Garran was happy!!

 The kids....exhausted!!

The next day......AWFUL. 

Word to the wise. Do not use spray sun screen at the beach. Get the lotion guppy stuff. 

Oh my did we pay. I had to call into work 2 days in a row because it was so bad. I could barely move. 

I could not believe how little our sunscreen did....especially since we applied it multiple times. 

oh well. next time we will know.... and yes...their will DEFINITELY be a next time!!

DIY Projects.

So I have wanted to have a chalk board wall in our house for a long time. 

Finally, we just took the plunge and did it. Let me just say. Super easy project and super BIG HIT!!

Our kids love it. They still love it. I was worried the novelty of it would wear off, but that is not the case. They love to decorate it and draw all over it and then wipe it down and start all over. I think it adds some character and spunk to our house! 

deals.

i love a good deal. 

I love this dress!

$5.00 at Target!

Yes Please!!

goggles.

our local YMCA has a family swim night each week. 

the kids have come to love it and can hardly wait for it. 

they are all little fishes. 

they all asked if they could get some goggles and so we found some cheap little goggles at Walmart. 

 Cullan ready to dive in!

Ayla... I mean could she get any cuter??

She is ready for the pool!!

End of Year Gifts!!

I have been trying to come up with something fun for the teachers end of year gifts. 

I started to just pick a few things up here and there. 

All of these were under $10.00.

For Kael's teachers I did these. 

I found these jars at Walmart for like a dollar or two. 

Then I filled them with a little sunscreen, a cute cup and straw with crystal light packets in it.

 Then I threw some salt water taffy for color. 

We also put a card in saying thank you for such a fun school year. 

 Then for Cullan's teacher, I found this bag for a $1.50. 

I took a red and blue sharpie and made it look like notebook paper. 

Then I had Cullan write his teacher a note thanking her for a fun year. 

 Inside the bag, I found a beach towel on clearance. I added some trail mix, a cute cup with crystal light packets and some sunscreen.

Mrs. B has been so awesome!!

We just love her. 

Cullan will really miss her next year. 

I am excited to see my kiddos move on to new things, but I appreciate all the hard work their teachers have put in this year. 

A day at the Park!!

On Monday we decided to go to the park for FHE! It was a gorgeous day and the kids needed to get out and just run for a while. I guess Garran and I did too, since we played just as much as the kids did!

Case in point. I think the got stuck due to his shoes slowing his sliding ability.

 Garran and Ayla. 

I just love pictures like this. 

My kids are lucky, they have a great dad. 

He loves and plays with them. Such a great guy!

 Here is a collage of all my littles hanging out. In case you are looking at the bottom right corner and wondering what Kael is doing, I am going to post that picture all by itself. 

 Garran and I could not stop laughing at this picture. What is he doing?? I guess he takes ridding that hippo pretty seriously. I think he is on a mission!

I am glad warmer weather is coming and playing out side will be happening more. 

Welcome Summer!!

problem solved!

so as it is getting close to the end of the year, i have been trying to decide what to do with our bucket of artwork that the kids have brought home throughout the year. then i had an idea. i took pictures of it all. i uploaded the pictures to walmart, where they have a poster collage option. I shuffled them until i liked how they were all organized and then ordered it. they were priced really well and i also found the frames for 4.00 a piece. the kids were thrilled. they loved them. Now they have art work hanging up in the house just like Daddy. i will probably save one or two of my favorites, but the rest will sadly have to go. However we will have these nice pictures to remember them by!

toothpaste!

so i hate when toothpaste gets all over everything in the bathroom. 

it is sort of a pet peeve of mine.

i saw this idea on pinterest and i thought, why not!

so i went to Wally World and picked up this bottle thing for $1.50.

Then I wrote tooth paste on it and Garran did the art work.

 here is to hoping that putting the tooth paste in here, and having the kids squirt a little on their tooth brush will help with finding toothpaste on the toilet seat lid or on the counter, or walls!!

either way, I am only out a $1.50.

here's to hoping it works!

Milk Magic

I saw this online and thought that the kids would like it. 

I was right!

(Please excuse the way I look. I was cleaning all day. I asked Garran not to get me in the shot but he did it anyway. Sigh)

Tonight is the night!!!!

Tonight is a night that I look forward to all year. 

We have a tradition of going out to look at Christmas lights and picking the house that we feel is the best. Then we leave them a little treat in their mail box!

Not only is it fun to leave a surprise for a stranger, I think it is good to encourage people to be festive for the holidays. People seem so bah-humbug as the years go on. I always hear people say, "ah, what is the point", or "it is just to much work". Well it might be a lot of work, but for Christmas junkies like me, I really appreciate their effort. So this is a fun way to let them know!!

I will post pictures later of the winner!!

I can hardly wait for it to get dark outside!!!!

craft-tastic!!

so my friend showed me how to make these cute little Christmas tree ornaments. 

I really loved them. I thought they were simple and cute.

each year we buy or make ornaments for each person in the family, so this year I decided this would be the ornament for everyone.

 here are the ones that I made for everyone. mine was already on the tree.

 The girls have pink thread.

 The boys have blue.

They are not completely done. I still have to attach the ribbon on the top. But close enough to blog about. I also thought about adding a star. We will see. 

I had some left over felt and so i decided to do a reindeer. 

umm. ya. he turned out a little scary. 

garran and I had a good laugh.

i think it might be the green eyes. 

anyways, i really enjoy doing fun little stuff like this. I think it is one of the reasons i love Christmas so much. it brings out my crafty side!!