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So, if you haven’t heard about Pinterest by now, I have no idea where you’ve been for the past year . But if you aren’t “on it”…I would highly suggest it. It’s a place for crafty people, or even just crafty-wannabe’s like myself, can “pin” images for a massive to-do list like no other. Basically, a huge time-sucker. But it’s awesome to get those creative juices flowing!

My problem with Pinterest? It has basically become that massive to-do list that never gets done. I’ve cooked a small handful of meals from things I’ve “pinned”, but that’s it. Not one project has been completed. Until this morning . I finally got motivated to grab an idea from Pinterest and get it done! Granted, it is probably the simplest thing I’ve come across on there, but it was fun and now I feel accomplished .

HERE is the original post that my ‘pin’ led me to. And here is my completed project:

So simple, so cute, so easy. I took me a total of about 15 minutes to get the stencil ready and have it painted. I am now ambitious enough to go attempt another pin! Watch out folks, I’m on a roll!

I had quite the drive to my session the other morning, and I had to be up mighty early. So on the way back, I was trying to stay awake and popped in Justin’s iPod. Since the hum of the road was lulling me to sleep, I thought I could rock out to his running playlist. I figured that would have some steering wheel drumming music I could stay awake to. So, when Taylor Swift started singing to me, I couldn’t help but smile . It’s okay babe, I won’t tell anyone . Anyway, this song came on and it immediately brought my mind to Hailey. I’ll admit it doesn’t take much for her to come to mind when she’s away from me, but this one hit home. It’s not exactly about a daughter, more about a boy, but we’ll just ignore that and appreciate the lyrics as they are .

You’re beautiful
Every little piece love, don’t you know
You’re really gonna be someone, ask anyone
When you find everything you looked for
I hope your life leads you back to my door
Oh but if it don’t, stay beautiful

Stay beautiful and goofy baby girl ~ xoxo

Finally getting a chance to go through some of these workshop images. Being a the camera crazy nutcase I am, there aren’t too many pictures of  me floating around this world. So I am so so greatful when one appears. And that’s the benefit of going to a workshop I guess . Lots of photogs around ready to snap away! So thank you so very much to my new dear friends Minnette and Michele.

It was a cloudy Sunday morning, and the light was perfect in the kitchen. She insisted on wearing that skirt and just looked too cute. So I grabbed my camera and we just watched her play. I cannot encourage you enough to go out and photograph those very ordinary moments.

It’s just a little backpack. Tinkerbell of course. She adores it. It terrifies me. Some day…a day right around the corner…she is going to fill that up with whatever a little kiddo needs to take to school with her and head out the door, onto the bus, and into a whole new world that I am not a part of. Ouch.

Yes…I am choosing to ignore the fact that she’s already technically in school. But I really don’t count 1 day a week of 2 year old pre-school . I’m allowed.

Tonight we had one of those moments that literally made my world stop. Right there. In the car. Driving home. We had been having fun playing peek-a-boo with the moon as it passed behind the trees, and then back out into view again, saying “hi moon!”…”bye moon!”. Now, for some strange reason, there are two bands that Hailey cannot resist. Lady Antebellum and Sugarland. Seriously, this girl has woken up from a dead sleep when Lady A came through the speakers in the car…just to rock out….then back to sleep. I’m not joking. So tonight some Sugarland comes on and Hailey says “mommy sing!” So I start singing along, meanwhile she is rocking out in the carseat in her own little way. It is now my mission in life to get this on video. When I do, I will share, and you will all be rolling on the floor laughing. It’s hysterical. So then she says “daddy sing!” So Justin starts singing. Then…during a break in the lyrics, we hear… “Hailey happy”…we looked back and she had the sweetest little smile on her face, staring out the window at the moon. She made me cry.

That’s right. I titled my post Carni’s. Whatever, it’s my blog and I can do what I want . Saturday after a proper session with Baby Brady, we headed out to check out the Illinois State Fair. I don’t know that I’m a ‘fair girl’ per say. But my mom was in town and she wanted to check out the fair. So we packed up and went. We probably walked 15 miles by the end of the day, and maybe sweated 10 pounds off. Yikes. There’s not much to do at the fair other than check out animals and eat. And eat. And eat. Which we did, I think, pretty well. On our way out we had to walk through this insane “carni-ville” and of course little miss here was oohing and aahing over every single ride. Never in a million years would I have thought she was big enough to ride one. But when she wouldn’t give it up, I stood her next to the sign that says ‘you must be this tall to ride this ride’. And wouldn’t you know, she was tall enough. 36″ exactly. I am kicking myself big time for not getting a picture of that! Sigh.

So I walked her up to the green truck and she was so excited! I very nervously buckled her in, asking her over and over again “do you want to ride in the car? just Hailey? no mommy?’ And every time she anxiously answered me ‘YES!! Hailey drive!’. So I walked away and asked the ride guy if I could stand up there with him just incase…and he just shook his head no. Punk. I walked down the stairs with visions in my head of Hailey freaking out the minute it started moving and going around in circles screaming and crying, reaching out for me, every bit of ready to knock the ride guy out if he didn’t stop the ride. I mean, she’s only two for pete’s sake!

However, we were pleasantly surprised.

 

She squealed and giggled and clapped the entire time. She had a blast. So there we have it. Hailey’s first roller coaster. Yes, I’m calling it a roller coaster. Like I said before, it’s my blog and I can do what I want.

And while we’re talking about the punk ride guy. Does anyone else notice a resemblance to the Jonas Brothers? I know it’s only a profile view, but come on. I can’t be alone in this.

Anyone?

Also wanted to mention that I have one spot left for my mini sessions on Friday! We had a great time last weekend hanging out for the mini sessions, and I’m very much looking forward to Friday!

This morning she told me she wanted to go for a walk and get pink, purple, red and yellow flowers. She grabbed a little bag and collected every little weed flower along the way. It was the cutest thing in the world! Just had to share

Don’t let those cute little pigtails fool you…

See this look right here? This look means she is up to no good…

This one right here means ‘Hey mom, I’m going to grab your camera and pretend to take a picture even though I’m soaking wet! K?’

Even when I retaliate with crazy swings in the air, she still has that sneaky little look on her face! She is definitely a little stinker, this one. But we love her anyway ;)

Can you believe it’s already the middle of July?! I can’t…its just cruel how fast summer goes by. Well, I’ve done a few things this year that I haven’t done before. The first one, which I’ve talked about before, is to block out a LOT of weekends to just be at home and enjo the ‘lazy days’ of summer. And I hvae to say I think we’re doing that one pretty well.

The next thing is to create a summer to-do list for our family. Justin thinks I’m crazy, but for real, if we want to do anything before it gets cold, we have to actuall plan to do it. So I made this nice little list (with Justin’s input of course )! I have to say I did not come up with this on my own…I’ve seen several floating around. The first one I saw was Meg Duerksen’s whatever: the summer list. I also recently came across this summer list ~ 10 little ideas for summer bliss from Melissa at The Inspired Rom, one of my very favorite home decorating blogs!

I think I am going to have to add a few from the 10 little ideas list ~
~ put fresh flowers on the table
~ have a stack of books for summer reading
~ eat breakfast outside
~ go out for ice cream instead of dinner
~ make smores!!

So tell me, what’s on *your* summer list!!

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