Fun on the 4th!

I hope that ya'll had a great 4th of July celebration! We started celebrating Saturday night at the ballpark. Here are my girls with my nephews and Juice the Moose:

Let the games begin:

Pretty soon the natives began to get restless:

So we headed for the concession stand where Poppie supplied all the sugar a kid could want:

Yum!

And then the sugar kicked in. Help us all!

In between giggling and talking and doses of sugar and caffeine, we did watch some of the game. Here's proof:

And then it was time for fireworks. I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could actually capture a few of the fireworks while keeping my camera on manual mode...and I did! I was so excited:

Yesterday morning my dad gave a powerful sermon about celebrating not only our country's "Independence" but our absolute "dependence" upon God. It was a wonderful reminder that our country is blessed by God and that as a country and as individuals, we need to get back to being more dependent on Him.

Our family celebrated together with hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill, Pioneer woman's guacamole, PW's Apple pie, and homemade vanilla ice cream. It was all delicious!

Tonight we are going to party some more because that's how we roll. Mr. Incredible's extended family is all getting together. I'm taking my camera along...it should be fun. Poppie has a fresh supply of sugar, I'm sure. Ya'll have a blessed Monday!

Rejoicing!

I just had to drop by to tell you the great news! My sister-in-law called us last night to let us know that our youngest nephew "Double-A" asked Jesus to be his Saviour last night...and we are rejoicing!!!!!

His older brother was saved and baptized this past Easter Sunday so you can imagine our absolute joy. Our family circle is complete and we are just beside ourselves with joy overflowing.

Double "A", I penned these words to your brother only a few months ago and now I want to share them with you too:

Oh, sweet nephew, this is the day we have all prayed for since the day that you were born. We are all so very proud of you and so thankful to God for your decision! This is the BEST decision of your life. Oh, there is nothing better than asking Jesus to be your Savior and your Lord! He loves you more than you can possibly imagine and He has great big things in store for you life! Thank you for sharing your exciting news with us!!!! Glory! Thank you, Jesus! We rejoice in Your great salvation (Isaiah 25:9).

A Few of My Favorite Things for Summer

I haven't done this in a while so I thought it might be fun. Here are few of my favorite things for Summer (next to Jesus and my family, of course!).

Have you tried the new Bounce Dryer Bar? Oooooh! I am loving this thing~and not just for summer. No more having to pick up those pesky dryer sheets. I have had mine for 6 weeks now and my clothes still smell incredible:

This is my scent for the summer. Do you have a summer scent? I took this lotion with us to St John last summer and everytime that I wear it this year, my girls tell me that it reminds them of our vacation. I always try to take a new scent when we go somewhere. Do you ever do that? Somehow the scent brings back memories. I am stuck on this delightful coconut lime verbena from Bath and Body Works:
And this! Oh, I heart Photoshop! I never loved it more than after the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens Photo Shoot.

I thought that I had carefully set my white balance on my camera but the shade and the clouds kept changing and did I remember to change the white balance for different areas? No! A lot of my photos looked like this one. A little too warm for my taste:

Photoshop to the rescue!

Have you tried Lash Blast Mascara? I think it is pretty awesome:

Or the new Pretzel M & M's? Our school secretary introduced us all to these. She made prescriptions bottles from Dr. Summers Coming filled with these m's and offered refills for a nickel during the last few weeks of school. They are different but delicious.

Do you like Skinny Cow ice cream? We do!

And we always look forward to watching the next Food Network star on Sunday evenings. We like Aria and Aarti. Do you have a fave?

And I am crushing on my new lens. It's light on my camera and it somehow has a wide angle...so cool!

On our trip to Ft. Worth, I stopped in Sephora for some lighter summer makeup. This tinted moisturizer by Laura Mercier does the trick. It is is oil free and feels like I am not wearing any makeup at all. Oh, and it doesn't melt off my face in the hot Texas weather...bonus!

We like to frequent happy hour at Sonic...but even at happy hour prices, it can add up. So, I picked up a can a marachino cherries at the grocery store to add to our crystal light lemonade...delight in a cup!

Whew! That's all for now. What are your favorite things for summer?

My Giggling Girls

Did you know that making dinner can be funny? Did I ever tell you about the time that I burned my .....on my double oven? No, well I'm not going to today either. Ha!

Or have I told you that I cannot make take-home-and-bake-it-pizza? I really can't...I burn it almost everytime. Yes, I am skilled! My girls laugh everytime I try to put a pizza in the oven. Without fail, a piece always breaks off and hits the bottom of my oven with a delightful burned smell. Blackened-pizza! I can make the homemade kind just fine, but there is something about a take and bake. Funny? Yes, but that's not what I'm talking about today.

Last week, while Mr. Incredible was in Chicago, the girls and I cooked dinner together. We were trying to make Hannah smile in spite of her hurt hip. Rachel was being crazy which made Hannah and I both laugh out loud...and then the giggles began. It was a blast!

My giggling girls! I am blessed!

A Summer Scarf

A few months ago, I watched the Martha Stewart show where she made spring ombre (my spell check would really like for ombre to be Hombre~ha!) scarves. I thought that they were so adorable and since my girls and I like to sport a scarf, I thought this would be so fun. Here is a link to her instructions.

I went back to Hobby Lobby for cheesecloth, tie dye, and soda ash a few months ago and once again stored them in my craft closet for a rainy day craft project. Again, I was trying to keep my baby girl happy and off of her leg so this was the perfect day. I carefully washed the cheesecloth and dried it and then soaked it in soda ash for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, I covered my kitchen island in black trash bags and used little post-it (oh, how I love Post-its!) tags to mark every 6 inches. After the soda ash soaking, it was time to wring it out and then begin the dye process. It was fun but messy.

I kept thinking as we were creating, that Martha makes everything look so easy! My beautiful white sink was now all manner of colors and I even had some dye on my tile floor and on my cabinets. So not-very-Martha! Oh, well, it was fun!

We let our little scarves dry for 24 hours and then I began rinsing them...individually of course. I looked like Smurfette when I was done. La, la, la, la, la, la (remember the smurf's?). My hands were a nice shade of blue. Note to self, put the gloves back on when rinsing dye out of the scarves! Oiy!

I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed until I looked like I had dish pan hands. I washed each scarf and then dried them on high. The colors held so well and they sort of look like Martha's Ombre Scarves, but not quite as perfect. Fun times together!

Sweet Em

I'm loving looking at everyone's talent on this fun blog hop. It happens every Tuesday at my3boybarians.com All you have to do is submit your favorite photo for the week.

Naturally, my favorite photos are always of my girls but ya'll have seen a lot of them lately so I chose this one of our friend's granddaughter:



This is "Em." Isn't she the cutest thing? She is the granddaughter of some of our dear friends from church. We have had "Em" in children's ministry since she was a little bitty. Her momma had fixed her hair in pony tails with double braids in each one. I knew when I saw them that it would be a fun shot.

I asked her if I could take a fun picture of her and she giggled. This was the first photo that I took and we both loved it! Thanks, "Em" for being my supermodel!!!

A Little Tote Bag Makeover

I saw this idea few months ago but carefully tucked the idea away in the back of my brain somewhere for a fun, summer craft project. Here is where the fabulous ideas came from: http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/11/21/diy-doily-canvas-bag/

Since the nurse told us to keep Hannah off of her leg for 2 weeks, this was the perfect time to craft. Just FYI, it turns out, the nurse was mistaken...can you believe that? After the Holy Spirit's prompting, we again called to talk to the doctor. He was a little upset when he heard what his nurse told us to do! When I explained to him that she was able to play for the rest of the basketball game after her fall, he was more than reassuring that her hip does not have a fracture and he wants Hannah to walk on it as much as she can. Yippe!!! But, during the 2 LONG days that I kept Hannah off of her leg and at home, I tried to be creative.

I bought canvas tote bags from my favorite craft store, Hobby Lobby. I bought them when they were on sale and just kept them in my pantry until the perfect craft day. I already had craft paint and doilies and a fabulous assistant.

It was really easy. I lined the inside of the bag with newspaper, sprayed elmer's spray glue on the back of the doily, placed it on the canvas bag, and then used a foam brush to stencil the doily to the bag. After we were done and while the paint was still wet, we removed the doily. Easy-peasy! I would like to paint a K or a cute saying or verse on the inside but my helper was getting tired and I like the simplicity of just the doily so we called it a day.

Here are our pictures:





Thanks, Ashley for a great idea!!!