Independence Day & A Birthday

Today is Independence Day and my mommy's birthday.  She would have been 76.  

She has been around us a lot lately, especially last Saturday.  Cindy and I had a garage sale at her mother-in-laws house.  We were sitting in the heat waiting on our customers when Cindy says, "Look, a cardinal, momma is here"  I didn't miss a beat with my reply, "she's not going to miss out on a garage sale".  And the cardinal was a female.  She flew around us all morning.  Later that evening when Bella and I were at the fireworks, she was there again.  This time through music and fireworks.  While the fireworks were going, you could tune into a radio station and listen to music.  Lo and behold, "God Bless Texas" came on.  That was one of her favorite songs and she loved Texas and fireworks.  I love it when she makes her presence known.  I know she is with us all the time, but when little things like cardinals appear, its reassuring and comforting in a way.  

Happy 76th Momma!!  We love and miss you every single day. 

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you and  your loves have a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Cheers to amazing possibilities in 2017!!

Life Lately

So life lately has been hot, really hot.  But I don't have to tell you that because I'm sure you already know it, especially if you're here in Texas.  Have I mentioned to you before how much I dislike summer?  I am very much my mother's child.  I like the a/c and I don't like getting all hot, sweaty and stinky (I'm making an "eww" face as I type that).  I do like sitting in a pool with a beverage or floating down the river.  If water is an option to help stay cool, I'm okay.  Otherwise, just let me stay indoors.  That's just me.  Now my sister is another story.  She LOVES this time of year.  We are quite opposites when it comes to weather.  Ha!

Before I get to life lately, I need to back up and share a couple of pics with y'all.  These were taken Father's Day weekend at our cousin's house in Blessing.  They hosted the second annual Vyvial Father's Day Pool Party.  Christopher went fishing with his buddies, so Bella and I went to spend the day with family.  First thing I got to do when we arrived was meet this sweet little thing...

This is Addie.  Isn't she just precious  She belongs to my cousin Sumer and her husband Clint.  She made her debut a little early but is doing great.  After snuggling for a while with the baby, I changed clothes and sat in the pool where it was much cooler and watched this little nugget play in the water all day long.

Sadly, those were the only two pictures we took but it was an awesome day with family.

Last weekend, the kids went to their dads for a few days.  Honey was working all weekend so I made the trip north to see him after he got off work.  We were able to spend some much needed time together, especially since it had been two months since our last visit.  Life and kids have kept us both busy so we've had to stay connected through many phone calls.  But we've done it and I am happy to report that we are doing really good.  :)

Before I hit the road, I got in some sister time at the nail salon.  Cindy and I both got pedicures.  I also got a manicure.  I couldn't decide what color I wanted on my nails so the girl suggested a french tip.  I agreed but I'm still on the fence about it.  Its all polish but I'm just not sure.  I guess because I have short nails.  Its also the shellac so it will last a good while.  We shall see.  

After getting our toes purdy, we headed to Pearland to check out the Costco there.  We were like kids in a candy store y'all.  Big eyes, walking up and down every aisle and comparing prices.  There were some things that just made sense so we would snatch it up but some things we weren't sure about so we made notes for now to compare with Wal-Mart prices. After all the shopping, we headed home so I could get ready and head out to see my honey.  I took one picture of us at dinner but it was on Snapchat so its not saved.  It probably is somewhere but I don't know how to find it.  Ha!

Sunday I headed back home when honey went to work.  My kids were coming home too so I wanted to be there when they arrived.  Monday we started early by having breakfast at my sister's in-laws house to celebrate Brandon's birthday.  He turns 13 tomorrow (7th).  Kids are growing up too fast!  After that Makenna, Bella and I went to a few stores to pick up some tops and summer dresses and then it was home for naps until supper and fireworks.  

My crew...

Waiting on fireworks....

One last thing.  I find this hard to believe but I don't think I shared this wreath with y'all last year when I completed it. I looked back and didn't find anything which is so unlike me, especially since this one is extra special. 

The material I used for this came from my Grandma Berger's collection of fabric. She has been gone for 16 plus years now so that's how long I have been hanging on to this fabric waiting for a special project.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found something last year.  With the exception of the burlap strips in it, the rest of the fabric is from Grandma.  

More pics and views of it....

I made a smaller one for Daddy that doesn't include the burlap and had just enough fabric left to make and even smaller version for the Popp Family Reunion silent auction last summer.  At one time, I had more fabric from Grandma but those pieces were used to make blankets for the babies.  I love how this wreath turned out.  Nothing but love in it.  

We are 8 days away from vacation......I am so ready!

Happy 4th

I hope y'all have a spectacular 4th of July holiday!!

Special Happy Birthday wishes to my momma in heaven.  

We'll be setting off some fireworks for you later in the evening.  

I love and miss you everyday momma.  

Easter, Monday Blues & Maybe The Longest Post Ever

Happy Belated Easter!!

I am dragging this morning.  My eyes are not functioning well at all and I'm moving at an extremely slow pace.  I think the Monday following Easter should be a holiday as well.  Lol!  The kids were moving pretty slow too.  I think we'll all be in bed as soon as we get home this evening.  Fine by me.

Friday, my best girl and I were up early so after ONE cup of coffee, I jumped in the shower and got ready so we could go get ourselves the mani/pedis I had been promising my girl.  After we were done, it was still a little too chilly out for me, so I changed into my favorite destruction jeans, tee and blardigan.  I kept my flops on because I didn't want to cover up my brand new pedicure....

The kids and I then met up with my sister and her son for lunch at La Casona.  Afterwards, us girls did a little shopping in LJ.  Bella spent some money she had at Bath & Body Works on new hand sanitizer.  Big surprise. Sister and I treated ourselves to a new pair of capris from Buckle.  I also picked up a new shirt for the boy which you will see in a bit.  I found some new sandals at The Rack Room and ALLOWED my sister to take advantage of the BOGO sale.  She scored some sandals for the bargain price of $7.50.  Happy Easter sis!  

We then headed to Target to get a few things for Easter Bunny and then made our way back home where I convinced Chris to dye eggs with Bella while I went grocery shopping.  I needed to get a few more things from the E.B. so going solo was better this trip.   After that, I put my family basket together for Saturday and we all went to bed to get some shut eye.

#familybasket #isntitpurdy

Saturday was Vyvial Easter in El Campo at my cousin's house.  Oh it was filled with so much food, fun, laughs and great times.  As usual, we had an egg hunt for the kids.  My gosh there were sooooo many eggs this year.  I think each kid got 50 eggs each!

Gettin' ready to run, but first some confetti eggs!!  Brady had just smacked Bella with an egg here...

 

Sweet girl...

 And she's off.... 

 Checking out the rewards of a good hunt....

I got smacked several times.  LOVE those nephews of mine....

I asked my cousin to take a picture of me and Christopher...

Check out that hand with the egg in the bottom right hand corner coming in for the kill

That's Brandon...the little sneak...

 Followed by my brother....

Oh...Christopher is wearing the shirt I picked up at Buckle. 

So handsome, even with confetti all over him.  

Later in the day, my cousin gave us the annual garden/yard tour of her home.  We have done this every year she's had Easter at her home. Diane has so many different plants, flowers and bushes and works her butt off the weeks leading up to her family invading her home to make it all look nice.  I have always gone home with a cutting or two from her flower beds however, I didn't make it out of there this time with anything.  Guess that means I need to go back!!  Sharing some pictures with y'all that I stole borrowed from cousin Veronica on FB...

That's Diane (homeowner) in the orange shirt giving us the spill.  

We stopped to say hello to Chef Patrick (our cousin & Diane's brother) who was monitoring the chicken noodle soup pot.  Please note the size of that pot.  We mean business when it comes to our chicken noodle soup.  Y'all, it could be 90 degrees outside on Easter but we will always have chicken noodle soup for supper.  Always.

Diane gives a very enthusiastic tour and you are allowed to ask questions.  

Can't remember what Dina was asking here...

We lost our photographer shortly after this shot or maybe she didn't post any other pictures for me to steal borrow.

I do want to show you this one she took during the egg hunt.  

Pretty girls and cousins forever..

Dina, Missy, Diane, Cindy

The rest of the day was filled with more eating, visiting, chicken noodle soup and 4 games of Wahoo.  Have you ever played this game?  I had not, but my cousins roped me into playing with them and once I caught on, it was fun.  My nephew William (and Godson) made their board.   Going to try and convince him to make his Godmother one :).  I think the kids would enjoy this game too.  

We left El Campo late that night arriving home at almost 1 a.m. and plum tuckered out.  We all went to bed but had to be up early (I did anyway) to boil eggs and potatoes for the potato salad I was taking to Daddy's for lunch later.  Oh how I didn't want to get up Sunday morning to cut up tators but I did.  We had a nice lunch at Daddy's and an egg hunt for 3 of the kids. We all bailed out early since everyone had to get back to school and work today.  I did manage to get a sweet picture with my babies though...

Love these two so stinkin' much....

Hope y'all had a great Easter weekend!!

Happy Veterans Day

Big thank you to all our Veterans for their  service and sacrifices! Special shout out to my daddy, brother and nephew ❤️💙❤️💙 

Handsome fellas don't you think. They also received a shout out in the local paper today....

Full page above and blown up below :)))

Hope y'all had a great day!

Backwards Turkey

Today was "Turn Your Back On Disrespect" day at school and my girl was all over it.  You had to wear yellow or wear your clothes backwards. Bella claimed both!  She even requested to have her hair in a bun so you could really see her backwards shirt.

Funny how different your children are.  I know this to be true because there are some things my siblings and I are complete opposites about.  Take the weather for instance.  My sister loves the summer, loves the beach, loves being hot..the whole nine yards.  I, on the other hand, hate the summer.  Period. I prefer the cold.  This time of year is my absolute favorite, although Mother Nature needs to wake up and get with the program already!  This morning after Bella got dressed I told her to show off her outfit to her brother.  He just shook his head.  He was never one to participate in days like this at school.  He even voiced his disdain to it.  "More power to you sister but you'll never catch me doing that."  He just doesn't like standing out in the crowd.  Poor kid is just like his momma.    

Sunday I spent the day taking down Halloween stuff and changing up my my Fall decorations a bit.  I snapped a pic of the place mats I mentioned the other day.  So cute.

I used my lantern from Canton as my centerpiece for the table.  Loving it. I should tell you that not only is the lantern from Canton but my burlap runner and leaf runner are also from Canton.  In fact, those were some of my finds two years ago.  The leaf runner if pretty cool because you can manipulate the leaves if you want.  I would LOVE to showcase it on a mantel!  Sadly, I don't have one.  One of these days Missy, one of these days.

Right now, the table does not have the extra leaf in it so it currently seats four. However, I have been thinking about expanding for the holidays because the table decor I have in mind needs a bigger table.  Ha!  Lucky for me, this one expands.  Thanks momma ;)  

We will see how long before I can't stand it anymore and start breaking out the Christmas decor.  I'm good for now.  

Y'all have a good one.

Hello November

Happy November! Bring on everything turkey and dressing, green bean casserole, potatoes, cranberries, broccoli rice casserole and cooler weather please!! Oh and let's not forget time off from work. I'm so ready. I hope this November brings you many blessings. 

Yall have a good one!

Fireworks

So Thursday we were turned loose at work by 3:00--yay to the boss for letting us go early for the holiday.  I skipped on over to Hobby Lobby to pick up some supplies for a craft project I saw on Pinterest....straw fireworks.

I picked up the paint and 8x10 canvasses which were both on sale (lucky me) as well as gold & silver glitter.  I still can't believe I did that.  I like sparkly things but glitter just seems to get all over everything.  Anyway, I got home and Bella was super excited to start this project.  Chris decided to join the fun as well.  We taped 7 straws together to make the fireworks shape and then we had a practice run on paper plates.  

 Now for the real thing...

I helped Bella.  She was afraid she would get too much paint or not enough, so I dipped and she told me where to place it on her canvass, then she pressed the straws down to make sure the paint stayed on good.

After the blue and red paint was in place, we added the glitter.  Bella choose to add both silver and gold while Chris stuck with just silver.  I love how both of them turned out. 

Christopher's creation....

Miss Bella's artwork...

And here are my two monkeys showing off their art....

I loved this little project that took about 10-15 minutes tops and now we have something to decorate with every year.  I have one displayed on the dining table and one on a shelf.  Perfect.  I should have taken pictures of that huh.  Oh well.  

Saturday evening we went to Lake Jackson to watch fireworks.  I snapped this picture of my monkeys waiting for the show...

I didn't get any pics of the fireworks because I was too busy oohing and awwing with Bella.  It was a fun night.  Hope ya'll had a great 4th of July.

Happy Birthday Momma & Happy 4th of July

Today would have been momma's 74th birthday.  She was the best momma ever.  Even though she isn't with us anymore, she is still teaching me.  I miss this woman every single day and here lately, more than usual.  Now I'm going to sound like a little kid when I say....it just isn't fair.

Y'all have a super 4th of July!!  I hope you get to see some pretty spectacular fireworks!

Y'all have a good one!