Destin Florida

I won my first trip as inside sales rep - keep buying
Hewlett-Packard AMD servers and Microsoft!
Microsoft definitely spoiled us, everything was amazing.

Our resort

 Andrew loved the bunk beds & I think

Adrianna secretly did too!

Our View

I could wake up to the turquoise

water and white sand every day.
Most nights we slept with our balcony door

open so we could hear the waves

Our happy place

My little surfer dude

We would wake up before sunrise so we could be the first ones on the beach. Our days consisted of Starbucks coffee, swimming in the ocean, playing football on the beach & searching for seashells. Afterwards, we went to the pool and played. We ordered pizza & ice cream poolside. Nap and repeat…

She could totally be a beach bum.
Adrianna is the only person I know that always has perfect hair - even at the beach!

My favorite man kept the 

Miami Vice drinks coming!

We were out on the beach with flashlights crab hunting and all of a sudden fireworks starting going off... The resort next to us had a firework show... talk about perfect timing!

Harbor Docks restaurant has amazing seafood & great atmosphere right on the bay. Andrew loved watching the boats. No seafood for him, he ate McDonalds

happy meals everyday.

 

I LOVE these two babies!
They love to travel and never complain. They kept us entertained the whole drive. They only slept 2 hours home and were awake the rest of the time. When they woke up Jeremy and I were rocking out to 90s music... at first they wanted us to change it but then they started enjoying it! 

I hope these are the memories they carry in their hearts forever!

Love you Destin - hope to see you again!

XOXO

Nautical Style Birthday Party

Adrianna celebrated her fifteenth birthday nautical style.

We had the party at Paint with Lane's 

Adrianna & her friends are creative, fun and talented.

They are all about style and trends so this was the perfect party. They were in their element & you will be surprised what you learn painting with a group of teens. I am 

up-to-date on all the latest gossip!

Adrianna is the perfect party planner, she did all the party decorations. I love how she spray painted the ends of the forks with glittery gold paint. They looked very elegant.

She even painted her canvas

 to match the party & asked me to take a

 picture before we started cutting cake!

She and I designed the cake, the gold wasn't exactly the color we wanted but it was delicious - red velvet and chocolate! 

I purchased the topper from Etsy

 

We found these chevron pink favor bags at my favorite store, Target. Adrianna HAD to add some gold details! We filled them with gum, mints wrapped in gold paper and lip gloss.

beautiful birthday girl ♥

 

The finished masterpieces! So fun to see everyone's different style and artistic flair on the same project piece.

XOXO

Easter Gratitude

Andrew loved dying & decorating Easter eggs with his grandpa George and big sister.

I found this awesome Alien Easter egg kit @ Target

and I love how they turned out. Andrew didn't want anyone to eat them. He just wanted to play with them.

He lives! I know this with every fiber of my soul. Today I am filled with an overwhelming gratitude for my beloved Savior Jesus Christ, and what He did for me. For you. For each of us. Everything that means anything to me is because of him. How blessed we are to know of his simple, yet profound life, spent entirely in our service. His mission, to set an example for us to follow. I am infinitely grateful for His atoning sacrifice. I am grateful for His victory over death, that I may have eternal life. I am grateful for his gospel... His good news! That God our Father, lives and loves us. That he has a plan by which we can be made perfect and live with Him, and those we love, again someday. Through his beloved son, Jesus Christ, we will rise again and inherit all that He has to share. Most of all, I am grateful for His unfailing, perfect love, which sustains me in all things. I pray that I might be an instrument in His hands. A voice of reason. A force for good. Oh how very, very grateful I am.

XOXO

Spring Break {Weekend}

Tree top adventure at Loco Ropes with Adrianna

We spent the day on the high wire rope course.

I love that both my kids are adrenaline junkies!

Adrianna worked up quite an appetite on the ropes. 

I don't know how she can eat so much food & stay so tiny!

This is our new favorite place to go after church.

It's our secret spot we found by accident while exploring.

we like to have picnics, build sand castles, and just relax.

 

We create our own happiness

 

XOXO

Instagram Pictures

BITS + PIECES

Normal people want to stay home in PJs and drink hot chocolate on snow days but not these two - they want to get all dressed up and take pictures!

Never a dull moment

Love my girls

Quite possibly the cutest alarm clock ever!

First time I had breakfast in bed.

Sonic drinks after a 3 hour practice

These girls are tired and crazy!

Last Basketball game of the year...

Their last performance was AMAZING!

Life would be sooo BORING without these two!

                                                                   XOXO

Happy ♥ Day

Valentine's Day is special to me because it's mine and Jeremy's anniversary.

15 years ago I made the BEST decision of my life... I married my best friend and now we have two beautiful ginger babies that I love with all my heart! I am beyond blessed

 

I am not going to sugar coat it - it was hard getting into the holidays this year

 with all the raw emotions & everyone trying to cope. However, I knew it was my job to make things as normal as possible for the kids. They had been through enough sadness. I helped get their mind off everything with a project! We wanted to make Valentine's Day extra special for the grandparents so we made them ♥ attacks.

Adrianna and Andrew decorated small boxes with pink and red scrapbook paper.

Glued a big heart on the front, put their valentine picture inside and then filled the boxes full of hearts {all different sizes}. They used zebra print duct tape to close the top of the box. The plan was to mail the ♥ attacks but we thought it would be less expensive & more fun to drop them off outside their house.

They were a huge success and made everyone feel very loved!

Andrew attended his first Valentine's Day Ball.

They had fancy snacks and dancing.

Mrs. Barton taught the boys how to be little gentlman

and how to slow dance! He came home and asked me to dance

with him so he could show me his new moves... I just love him!

XOXO

BLOG TIME-OUT

I took a hiatus from my blog for a while because life has been a bit hectic.

I needed to step away so I could focus on my family. My father-in-law was on life support for almost 3 months {October - January} fighting for his life.

In late October, he had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. We learned he had pancreatitis, apparently he had it for months undiagnosed. He went to his primary doctor several times but was told it was just back pains & he needed more pain medication. The undiagnosed pancreatitis became so severe that it overtook him causing kidney and respiratory failure. He had to be put on a ventilator. He fought a hard fight and Jeremy was right by his side the whole time. However, after weeks of minimal improvements his dad requested to have the life support stopped.
Even now as I write this, the words seem surreal. unanticipated. I didn't realize how hard it is on a family to lose someone they love.
It was an emotional roller coaster right in the middle of the holidays - which made it hard for the children. We were spending nights and weekends at the hospital and then putting on our fake smiles for everyone at work and school. Trying to remain happy and positive for Jimmy but immediately leaving the room to cry. I couldn't imagine going through this without the support of family and friends. We are blessed to have so many. Now is the hard part, when the funeral is all over and everyone goes back to their normal routines...while we are still trying to cope.

I have to remind myself that only GOD knows the master plan.
Jimmy was blessed to have the opportunity to say good-bye to all his family and friends. I know GOD was with him because on his final day - he gave him a strong voice so he could preach one last time to his sons.

Jimmy always made me feel like part of the family and worshipped his grandbabies!
Losing him is a great reminder that life is precious and needs to be lived passionately and purposefully with LOVE for all.

 

XOXO