New Blog Design

So, I've been wanting to change my blog design up for a while now and finally got around to it. I LOVE the way it turned out. I'm really loving chevron these days and I just loved this colorful pattern!

What do you guys think?

Embrace the Camera

Before I get to Embrace the Camera today, I wanted to tell you more about our blog link up next Tuesday. 

As I mentioned yesterday, Holly and I are going to be doing a blog link up next Tuesday! We are really excited about it and I hope you will all participate! The topic is "A Day in the Life". We thought it would be fun to get to know each other a little better by posting about what each of us do in a typical week day. You can post pictures of your day to day activities to give us more of a visual look into your daily routine. It should be a really fun link up. I definitely encourage you to join in the fun and get to know some new blog friends! :-) If your unsure how a link-up works, my friend Holly has posted a tutorial on her blog today, so be sure and check that out.

Here is the button for our link up. We would love for you to add this to your post and encourage others to join in the fun.

<a href="http://luvinmylabs.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z468/suit1/linkupbutton.jpg" alt="linkup" width="295" height="295" /></a> <br />

So now onto Embrace the Camera. :-)

  
Embrace the Camera is where you'll take a picture of YOU with your kids, spouse, friends, etc. The point of embrace the camera is to get in front of the camera and to document a bit of yourself.

I set up my camera last night and took several pictures of Jackson and I. I love these pictures I have with him and I hope he'll love them too someday. :-)

I'm also linking up here:

and here:

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

♥ Today I'm loving that I finally bought a new ESV Bible! I ordered it on Amazon and am awaiting its arrival. I have an NIV version, however our church now reads out of the ESV version and I had really needed to buy a new bible to make it easier to follow along. I love the color. :-)

♥ I'm loving that I created what I think is going to be Jackson's 1st birthday party invitation. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. :-) What do you guys think?

♥ I'm loving that Holly and I have decided to host another blog link-up. We thought it would be fun to get to know all of our blog friends a little better by doing a "day in the life" post, documenting our average week day. I'm so excited. :-) Be sure to come back next Tuesday and link up with us. Her husband is going to make us a fun button for the link up so you will be able to add that to your post. Speaking of her husband, he just re-did her blog and it looks great. You should check it out. He's offering his services if any of you are interested in a new blog design.

♥ I'm loving that Fall is just around the corner. Though, I'm sad to see Summer coming to an end, I do enjoy Fall and am excited to take Jackson apple picking and to the pumpkin farm and to enjoy spending time with family.

♥ I'm loving that my sweet Libby girl is feeling better now that shes on medication. I took her to the vet a couple weeks ago because she had been limping on her back leg. Come to find out, she has arthritis at only 7 years old. The Dr. put her on Rimadyl and its made a huge difference.

Libby at the Vet a couple weeks ago.

♥ I'm loving this video of Jackson. I know I posted it yesterday, but its just so stinkin cute!!!

♥ I'm loving this new toothpaste. I haven't noticed that its made my teeth whiter, but it leaves them feeling so nice and clean.

♥ And as always, I'm loving my wonderful family. ☺

Our Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was very layed back this year. We didn't do a whole lot, which is kinda nice sometimes.

Friday evening we just hung out at home. The remains of Hurricane Isaac came through St. Louis over the weekend, (which is weird to say that we had a hurricane in St. Louis) so the whole weekend was pretty soggy. Jake fixed dinner and we just relaxed at home. 

Saturday was much of the same. We just spent the day at home, doing some cleaning and snuggling with my sweet little boy. :-) I even got to take about a 2 1/2 hour nap! Yay. Jackson started getting sleepy at around 11 that morning, so we both cuddled up in bed and took a long nap. It was the perfect day for it since it was so rainy. 

Jackson and I hanging out at home Saturday.

Sunday we went to church and then after church we had food and fellowship in the church dining hall, which is always fun. :-) Later that evening we went to my MIL's house for dinner and to get caught back up on So You Think You Can Dance. :-)

Then yesterday Jake golfed with my Dad, so my mom and I went and did some shopping!! I needed to get started on buying some things for Jackson's 1st birthday party! I was able to get all the scrapbook paper I'll need to make his banners and decorations. I also got a couple tablecloths for the kids table and some little mickey mouse clubhouse cups for the kids. I also found the red and black tissue paper I'll need to make some pom poms for over the cake table, but I was unable to find some yellow tissue paper. I wouldn't think that would be a hard color to find, but I looked at 2 different stores and neither one had it. I'll have to keep looking. :-) I also got some tulle to tie his banner together and for anything else I might need it for. So I feel pretty good about getting a head start on some things for his party. :-)

Then yesterday evening we just hung out at home. While watching an episode of Backyardigans with Jackson, he started cracking up laughing at one of the characters on the show. It was so cute that I rewound it and videoed him so you all could see how cute it was. I must have rewound it about 5 or 6 times, just because it was so cute! He would laugh so hard he would fall down on the floor. I've never seen him laugh at something on t.v. before. It was adorable.

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend! Now it's back to work. :-(

Football Season... Ugh!

I'm pretty sure I need this sign for my house! Ha.

The dreaded football season has begun. My husband eats, sleeps and breaths football from the months of August to February. Wait, who am I kidding, its really all year round. It just gets taken up about 100 notches during football season. 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy going to a good football game every now and again. But jeez! 

- We have to pay extra for NFL Sunday ticket during football season because we don't live in the city where Jake's team plays. I've mentioned before that he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan, however, we live in St. Louis. So they usually don't televise the Chiefs games here because they show the Rams games.

- He's also into fantasy football. So not only does he watch it on t.v., he also spends hours on the computer planning out his fantasy teams. He's involved in 3 fantasy leagues this year! I guess one wasn't enough. The other night he spent the entire evening on the computer because of one of his league drafts!!

- Then there's the Sunday afternoon games where I don't see him the whole day! And God forbid the Chiefs lose a game. Ha. I really need to video him one day while he's watching football. I've never seen someone get so excited! You always know if its a good game in our house because you can hear him from downstairs screaming and going crazy. On the flip side, you know its a bad game when you hear silence. LOL.

- And if all that isn't bad enough, guess what I fall asleep to most evenings?... Sports Center. Or some sort of sports show where we have to watch high lights or predictions of what the team will do the next game. So boring!!

I love my husband. He works hard, is a wonderful father and helps out around the house, so I don't get too upset about any of this, but I just wonder how many of you other wives go through this every football season?? Please tell me I'm not the only one. ☺

Friday Randoms

I thought I'd share just a few random things to round out the week. :-) 

Happy Friday Everyone!

1.) I had the privilege of shooting a few photos for my friend Holly and her sweet family this past weekend. I have to admit, I was a little nervous as I hadn't ever taken pictures for anyone other than family and I am by NO means, anywhere near close to being a professional. I practice a lot and read as often as possible and have only taken one beginner class, so I'm really just starting the learning process. However, I was really pleased with how the photos turned out and I'm glad they were happy with them as well. Here are some of my favorite shots.

2.) I got my hair cut and colored last night. I went a little blonder this time around. I love a little change every once in a while.

3.) I've been reading this blog for some time now and following along as they journey through an international adoption. Their story is so wonderful and they are actually in China right now adopting their beautiful daughter. Ashley's posts are so beautiful and her pictures are amazing! Reading her posts this week, as they adopt their daughter, have been both moving and humbling. I highly suggest heading over to her blog.

4.) I'm looking forward to the upcoming Labor Day weekend! We don't have any definite plans yet, but I'm sure we'll be spending some time with family and we're having food and fellowship after church on Sunday, which is always a good time. ☺

So thats all my randoms for today. I hope you all have a great long weekend!

A Day at The Pool

This past Saturday, my Sister-In-Law and Brother-In-Law, gave their son Ethan a birthday party at White Birch Water Park. We had been there earlier this year for a different nephew's birthday party, but I forgot to bring my camera that day. :-(

We had so much fun last time, that I made an extra effort to bring my camera this time around and I'm so glad I did. We had a great time! It was overcast all day and even rained a couple of times, but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying the water. :-)

Here are a few pictures from the party!

The birthday boy with his cake.

Guests at the party.

Ethan opening his presents.

Jackson at the party.

Jackson playing with a pool noodle. ☺

Three of my beautiful nieces eating lunch.

My niece Sophia in the pool.

My niece Bella in the pool.

At this water park, they have a big bouncy bubble, that you can bounce off of into the water. The kids (and some adults) loved this.

My niece Alexis bouncing off of the bubble.

My nephew Brandon, helping his little sister slide down the bubble. My husband Jake was down at the bottom to catch her. After only a few times, she was getting up there and sliding off all by herself.

There is a huge swimming pool with a diving board at this water park. Everyone had fun jumping/diving off.

My niece Alexis jumping off the diving board.

My nephew Brandon.

My niece Kyleigh.

My nephew Larry.

My husband Jake, LOL.

And even my Mother-In-Law jumped off once, with a little persuasion by my husband, LOL. She looks terrified. I'm so glad I had my camera for this.

They have a fun little kid swimming area at this water park that Jackson had so much fun in.

He loved watching the big bucket dump on the play area.

He just can't wait to be big like the other kids. ☺ Mommy can wait though.

And one last photo of Jackson and I to round out the day. He always loves stopping to pose for a picture with mommy. Can't you tell? ☺

We had a super fun time. Happy 7th Birthday Ethan. We had so much fun at your party.


I'm also linking up with Embrace the Camera today! Click on the picture below to find out what Embrace the Camera is all about!

I'm also linking up here today: