Pinterest Bucket List

Ha! Not sure when this blog will ever be consistent...probably never...but when I do have a free moment I guess I will try to be here some :)

 In attempts to be productive with the crazy amount of time I spend Pinterest, my sister Isabella inspired me to create a Pinterest bucket list of things I'll attempt to do before the end of summer.  There are always so many recipes and fun DIY things I pin but it takes a forever for me to actually do them.  So here are a few I was thinking about....
(also I must note that I considered creating a board called FAILED. You know those strawberries that turn into candy after being in the oven only turned to charcoal, and that quote over a painting did not work....so this bucket list may only add to that Failed board....)

Real fruit roll ups 

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A Scavenger Hunt with my little one

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since I wear bobbie pins almost everyday, it could use a little more glamour

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hand painted hand towels

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Healthy Breakfast bars

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 learning curling my hair

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It is not a whole lot of things, but it is a start. Just trying to get my feet wet in the little down time there is :)  

one year

Today marks a year ago that Clay was diagnosed with Stage 4 Large Cell B Lymphoma. At this time last year, they were not able to diagnose it, so we were just left with heavy hearts knowing that he had some rare form of cancer.

He is coming up on 8 months of remission. This too is a little celebration every month! There is much much to be grateful for and I truly can't believe how far we have come. Nonetheless, I feel a bit like Eeyore today with this tiny black cloud over me not really being able to think about those things.

I think it is just a fearful day. One that I have decided to allow myself to sit in because when it was all happening there was no time and a 5 week old who needed me. Clay and I were talking, while we are both beyond thankful for everything we are realizing there is much still going on in our hearts. Clay describes it as we were in the eye of the storm. Just trying to get through chemo treatments and reactions to it, living back and forth in Houston, dragging Hazel everywhere (not getting the most supportive looks from people in the hospital), adjusting to "normalcy" then. Now, by God's grace, we are in remission, we are in a much slower life, we can assess our thoughts, our feelings and our fears. So while there is no intention to dwell, or to forget the good, there is a need to mourn. Not to mourn because things are bad but mourn that world shaking event that we will both be forever changed by. And to be still in that.

candle find

Look what I found at HomeGoods :) they are selling the Caldrea line! I have been eyeing them for what feels like forever at target, but couldn't bring my self to buy any. Clearly it is already burned, and it smells amazing!

Mansfield is growing on me, my most favorite thing is having HomeGoods about 5 minutes away

:)

Hazel's first birthday

I could not believe it was already here when the 14th came.  The day before I kept saying things like "this time last year I was at work trying to breathe through contractions...."

Our baby is 1!  I am so thankful for my creative sister's awesome idea :)  Hazel loves little lambs and my sister Camille came up with the "theme."  She even painted an adorable little lamb that will go in her room! (need to find a picture of it) My friend Lizzie was able to be in town and helped me put things together.  Which all was perfect because Clay came down with shingles a couple of days before and was out for the count. (Please pray for him, it has been quite a few painful days)  It was so fun to have our family and friends there, we all had a blast!  

She loved getting hearing the "happy birthday," we sang it several times that day. 

Still do here and there. ;)

Happy birthday to our dear little girl! Who as I write this is desperate to go outside, her absolute fav right now....So I must run :)

11 months

I can not believe how fast these last 11 months have flown by.  Our little girl is desperate to walk, a speedy crawler {especially when she hears the word "bath," she drops whatever she is doing and moves as quickly as possible to her bathroom} she doesn't really cry much besides those fussy moments right before bedtime.  Talking to herself in her crib, her "alone time," is one of her favorite past times.

Some of her other favorites are, but not limited to:

-cheerios/ yogurt for snack time

-she understands she is not supposed to touch the Christmas tree so she just waves in that direction.  She will also come to me and wave to the tree when she wants me to pick her up and show her all the ornaments.  {we do this about 45x a day}

-when she finds leaves {dragged in by her furry, puppy sister} she is proud of her findings and lifts it up for us to see.  Of course, mischievously, if we don't notice she quickly puts it her mouth.

-high fives

-clapping for herself after she has done anything

-still adores elmo

-turning off light switches

-going with us to get the mail

-singing

-dancing

What an absolute joy she has been in our lives.  We both could not love or adore her more.  

Beautiful Cause

Friends, just wanted to share with you a link to what has become such an amazing blessing to Clay and I. We were contacted by the folks at Fotolanthropy a few months back. They had heard about our story this last year and that Clay was in remission. (For 5 months and 7 days, now btw!!!) They wanted to celebrate with us and give us such an incredible and special gift. It was a photo-session, a film of our story and so much more.

There are not words to express what a timely gift this was to us. Clay's hair had all grown back, we were finally out of the haze of hospital stays and settling into our new home in Mansfield. If you are interested in seeing the video click here

They are UNbelievably gifted and for them to share their talents with us was so awesome.

We were so humbled that they would ask us to be a part of their efforts that I wanted to share with you, if you are interested, with supporting them. So that they can continue to bless others who are in need, they are selling beautiful ornaments!! You can see the information here, as well as footage from when they debuted the film at our house with our families and friends. Please check it out!!

dresser

while i prob should apologize for the not so great phone pic, i was excited to show off this dresser. it had been sitting in my parents well house for nearly 20 years, collecting many gross things. inspired by this post i used a gloss smoke gray rust-oleum, and it worked fabulously! i had to work on scraping off the varnish {which for the record, i don't think i'll do ever again! talk about back breaking!} but this paint covers a lot of wrongs. the hardware was covered in rust so i had planned on using new hardware only to discover many of the drawers had different lengths between the holes. since it is not budget friendly to special order hardware or drill all new holes...i just soaked the old hardware in vinegar for a couple of days. it worked awesome!

a little spray paint and it was complete! so happy with this outcome, as well as we finally have a clean home! i had still been keeping my things in boxes until today :/ that is almost 3 months! so now we are box free and no clothes on the floor, my patient hubby is so thankful :)

hazel lately

Our darling little girl continues to change right in front of our eyes. Meet her best friend...

At 4 months I introduced Hazel to who would become my saving grace in the middle of night terrors, teething, difficult feedings and that uncontrollable fussy time. She immediately giggled. Since then she adores Elmo. Elmo songs, elmo dolls, elmo books, and anytime we ask where is elmo? If he is not on, she looks at the tv dissappointed. I have never known a child so young be so interested in a tv character. It makes the both of us laugh a lot.

She and I have been going on what I like to affectionately call "Mother daughter dates." Which is really just an excuse for me to go to girly places with her that her father wouldn't totally appreciate it. Here her titi (auntie) V is joining us for lunch. {btw all of these pictures her titi v took} I love the way our family loves this little girl.

"How big is Hazel?"

"Soooooo BIG!"

This is her response to anytime the word "big" is used. Big bites, big dogs, big girl, etc. I love it! {I also realize she is in her christmas pjs, just wanted her to use them before she out grew them :)}
She has been standing all by herself for a couple of months now but is still a little scared to take a step forward. She will walk all day long if she has something to hold on to. Her first few sounds were "dadada," and I think that sealed the deal for this papa here. We think we may have even heard a "hi, dada." Which only made me a tad jealous. She did start saying "nanana," that I took as mamama. Hazel is learning some signs, the one she has down is "all done," and she even says a-da.

Lastly this little girl can't get enough of books. She loves to open a book, especially the touch and feel books, and touch them and turns all the pages.

kisses



A very rare moment...this little one NEVER stays still. The only time she is cuddly is a little right before she goes to bed.

take in the view

she is :)

{at my parents house, bathing, watching the dogs bath in the pool/swim}

sup

hello blog world! i know, again, not a lot of posts... sorry about that. we are just truckin' along here!! super ready for fall, pumpkins, and cooler weather to come around. in the meantime, i get to wake up to this darling little angel :)

also baylor is currently ranked #15

yes, that is right, in the country

boo-yah!!!

baylor vs tcu.....we totally ran the field

yahtzee

So its not grey brown at all its just grey, and I love it!

Still working on unpacking and decorating, but so far we adore our new place. We are also starting to find some random perks about this city.

chloe sofa

When clay and I were first married, he had just moved down from Philadelphia and I was living with my parents...ie have little to no furniture of my own. We were so fortunate to have some of his furniture to help us start our lives together. Now 3 years, a puppy, a pregnancy (where i spent almost all 9 months hanging out) and a baby later these leather sofas have seen their better days. This below is one of them in their prime.

Upon our move the hubs and I spent quite a bit of time looking for one that we both liked/were comfortable. I really wanted a velvet sofa in a color that makes sense for our dear black haired, puppy baby, sophie. He wanted something that he can lay across (so easy to please ;) ) and that was within our budget. Since this one was major on sale last weekend, I'm proud to show you our fun new sofa coming to us the first part of Sep.

in the color granite (like a brownish grey). More pictures to come soon!

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eat cake for breakfast

maybe you have already seen this, but in case you have not...

how adorable is this video???

no sleep

its 10 at night...what is your infant doing? mine has been refusing sleep for the last 3 hours :( instead she has figured how to pull herself up. so we had to lower the crib, then she discovered she can see so much if she just lowers the bumper. no sleep heeerrrreeee!

{you will also notice an elmo in the background as well as a pillow we used to keep her wedged in so she would stop rolling over in her sleep and waking herself up...its been a long night, already}

a few things

-it is too dang hot to do anything
-saved by the bell in the morning cures my hot day blues
-hazel loves and i mean LOVES to see herself in the mirror, finally she is showing signs of being like her mom ;)
-in a week we move to mansfield, have not even began getting things together, shocker
-my roomie from california, who i have not seen in almost 4 years, is back in texas...YEA!!
-screech says, "everything you need to know about girls...talking cool is key," so much wisdom
-i misspell, write things grammatically {when i wrote this i misspelled 'misspell' and grammatically'} incorrect and comma splice the heck out of this blog, thanks for reading anyway
-life is good

so pretty

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i would really like to purchase these...if only i could fins them online!

3 years

In three days, we will celebrate that we did this 3 years ago.....

My how things have changed in 3 years. I thought I loved him then....I feel so crazy blessed to have such a husband in him and a father for her. By God's grace, I get fall more in love with him each day.

new normal

We have been back in Fort Worth for over a week now, loving every minute of it. Seeing friends, eating at home (and our fav restaurants) date night(s), spending time with family with out the stress of hospitals or illness. It has been so refreshing. We are also trying to soak it all up, b/c come August 17 we will no longer be residents here. Now, I must speak loosely to that b/c we won't be far at all, only about 20 min away. Nonetheless, its a different city. If you know me at all you know how obsessed I am with Fort Worth. I love our little neighborhood, our crazy neighbors, being so close to so many fun things, it is going to be sad/exciting.

Our precious little home, despite its coziness, has many a flaw and very little space, no dishwasher, so many holes there is not chance of staying cool in the summer or warm in the winter. BUT it is where we brought our baby home, it is where I spent many evenings on the wood floors to help my back when I was pregnant, where loved ones redecorated for us when we first came back from Houston. When life was at its craziest, this was home. I am sentimental and don't like change. The first step is admitting it right?

We will be moving to a home built in the last 15 years (not 60) that has been completely updated with many a new cosmetic features. It has 3 bedrooms, a garage, closets (we have barely 1) 2 bathrooms and offers so many exciting things. There is much to look forward to, not to mention learning a new city. (I know again its only 20 minutes away, but shockingly I don't know where much is around them parts of Mansfield) Clay will finally get to practice his calling in ministry and help plant a church and study to finish his masters in divinity. (Considering that I married a man called into the ministry and could be called anywhere, Mansfield, is not too shabby, I realize this but I don't like change remember?)

So life is leveling out for us. A lot of changes in one year, but we are adapting and loving it. Despite all of my sentimentalness (if that's a word), the Lord has given me new perspective in life that I pray will remain forever. All of this, and Jesus? I'll take it!

This photo has nothing to do with anything except that Hazel is the most darling ballerina you will set your eyes on!

walks

I thought that by leaving super early this morning for a walk I would avoid that awful sun that makes its 100+ degrees in FW. (Which for the record, I must apologize to my Houston friends for always complaining about the humidity in Houston. While there is much humidity, there is also cloud cover, as well as a breeze...not the case for funky town. Here its just still- but I digress) So it wasn't super hot, but I ended up still with a problem with the sun. I was so excited to be home, in our sweet neighborhood I just went. Walked for awhile before I thought that maybe I should turn around b/c Hazel's morning nap was coming soon. As I turned around the sun was directly in my baby's eyes. Now I know most babies are shy about the sun, but I think Hazel is a little more sensitive about it. So instead of torturing her I turned around so the sun would be at my back. Only I didn't have any other options for routes home without the sun being in her eyes. So my only option was to walk backwards and that's what we did. For a mile. Pulling a stroller. Luckily we made it home with only a few weird glances....

my tired and now hot baby

and this one just cause I thought it was precious.


BTW we do have clothes for our child, this is just her its too hot for cotton look :)

aaaannnnnnnddd we are BACK!

I cant promise we will be consistent, but I will try. Praise God from whom all blessing flow! We are back in FW, we are home, we are healthy, and we are so grateful! Thank you for those who prayed, loved, encouraged, provided, hurt, helped, and all together walked through this journey alongside us. God used you all to make sure along with Him, we were never alone.

This is my now 6 month baby! (only she was 5 months in these pictures) God's provision is perfect.