Canvas Factory Giveaway

I'm so excited for the opportunity to partner with Canvas Factory again! They are such a great company and I always enjoy working with them. They offered to let me review another 16x20 canvas here on my blog and to give another 16x20 canvas away as a gift to my readers.

This time around I chose to print a picture from our recent 10 year anniversary trip to Washington State. Our bedroom has been neglected ever since we moved a little over a year and a half ago. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get something to hang in our master bedroom.

I went to their very user-friendly website (www.canvasfactory.com) and chose the style, size and picture I wanted. It was all very easy and I was done in a matter of minutes. It took less than a week for me to receive my canvas and I have to say that I couldn't be happier with my beautiful new canvas. They did an amazing job and I love it so much. The quality is wonderful and it comes ready to hang, so it's so easy!

Canvas Factory is so sweet to give another 16x20 canvas away to one of my readers. Just use the Rafflecopter below and comment on this post telling me how you plan to use your canvas if you win! It's that easy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Few Ipsy Favorites!

I've been signed up for Ipsy since January of this year and I'm loving it. It's so fun to try new products and I love that little surprise gift to myself every month for only $10! So I thought I'd share a few of my favorite products that I've received through ipsy this year.

First is this fabulous Glacial Face Wash made by Skyn Iceland. They are a Vegan and Cruelty Free company and this face wash is amazing. I had a couple pimples on my chin that I could not seem to get rid of. After only a week of using this face wash they had started to go away and it wasn't too long after that, they were completely gone. Since I've been using it daily, I haven't had any more break-outs! So amazing! I love this face wash so much, that I decided to try a few of their other products and I'm loving them too.

Next, I just got this eye liner in my bag this past month and I love it! It's the Precision Tip Eyeliner in black by Steve Laurant. It goes on so easy and straight. I just love it.

Third, is this amazing 10-in-1 Hair Primer from Eva NYC Mane Magic. Its a one stop shop for so many things. This primer does it all: detangles, nourishes, strengthens, softens, cuts drying time, adds shine, reduces frizz, and protects against thermal, environmental and UV damage.

I just love this blush by theBalm! The color is Cabana Boy. It goes on easy and doesn't crumble and get all over the place like so many other blushes I've tried do. You can also get it at Kohls, which makes things easy. I'd really like to try some of their other products too.

I'm really liking this True Cream Aqua Bomb by Belif. It is so hydrating, but doesn't leave the skin feeling oily. It goes on nice and smooth and feels and smells so nice.

Last, but certainly not least is this amazing eye lash primer and mascara from Lancôme. My eyelashes immediately looked better from the first day of using it and now after over a month of using it, I can tell my eye lashes are longer and fuller than they were before. The primer is called CILS Booster XL and the mascara is called Definicils. They are both amazing, but I especially recommend the primer.

 

So these are just a few of my very favorite products that I've tried in the last few months from ipsy! I highly recommend trying ipsy. For only $10 a month you get to try 5 new items and you get a cute little cosmetic bag every month as well. It's such a great way to try and find new products that you may not even know about. Here's my referral link if you'd like to give it a try. You won't regret it. :-)

*this post contains affiliate links*



Pink Baby Shower for My Sister

This past Saturday my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my sister at my house! This is my sister's 4th baby, but first girl, so we are all so excited!!

With it being the 4th baby, we decided to keep it simple and easy. We had the shower in the morning and served a ham and a sausage breakfast casserole. (Recipe here.) My mom also picked up a tray of Danishes from Sam's and a co-worker of mine has a daughter who loves to bake, so she made us the most delicious strawberry cupcakes!

It was such a nice shower and she got so many cute and much-needed gifts.

Here are a few pictures I took of our fun morning.

 

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!!

It's been a while since I did a 5 on Friday so I thought I'd jump back on the bandwagon this week!

One

Tomorrow is National Dog Day, so don't forget to give your dogs a little extra love tomorrow. ♥

Two

Tomorrow morning my mom and I are hosting a baby sprinkle for my sister and her sweet baby girl Addison. We are hosting it at my house. This is her fourth baby, but first girl. We are all so excited and can't wait to meet baby Addison in just a couple more months!!

Three
I know everyone is so excited to have Fall right around the corner, but I'm over here like, can Summer just last forever? I love Summer and I'm sad that it won't be here much longer.

Four
This sweet boy has had a great first full week of Kindergarten! He's still loving school, his only complaint is that his day there is too long. Ha. He's used to half day at preschool, so full day kindergarten is going to take some getting use to. Otherwise, he's loving school and that makes me so happy.

Five
I will be having another Canvas Factory Giveaway either next week or the following week, so please check back as you won't want to miss it.

Have a Great Weekend!


Saturday at Six Flags

This past Saturday, Jake and I took the kids to Six Flags for a super fun back to school surprise. Jake was able to get free tickets from a customer at work. We also got free breakfast and lunch with it too so it turned to be a free day minus buying a few drinks to keep us cool and hydrated... it was really hot!!

We told the kids we were going on a surprise adventure so they had no idea where we were going. Jackson has been there a couple times before (when he was 2 and 3 years old), but Avery had never been. They both were so excited when we turned in and they realized where we were going. :-)

Jackson was tall enough to ride all but 3 rides. He could even ride the ninja, which is a roller coaster that goes upside down. He was so excited and rode many of the rides multiple times. Thankfully, the lines were short and it wasn't very crowded at all.

Avery was still too small to ride a majority of the rides, but she rode everything she could and spent a lot of time in Bugs Bunny Land where they have a lot of rides just for little kiddos. She was sad when she couldn't ride the bigger rides like Jackson could. :-(

It was a great day and I can't wait to go again. Maybe season passes are in order for next year. It's only about 20 minutes from our new house so it would be easy to just go for a few hours here and there.

Now onto the few iPhone pictures I took that day. :-)

Avery and I riding the Shazam together.

Jackson and I riding the Ninja together.

Riding the Screaming Eagle.



Total Solar Eclipse 2017

So as all of you know, yesterday was the Great American Solar Eclipse. Living in St. Louis, MO we were super close to totality so it was quite the event around here. I had been looking forward to it for months and it didn't disappoint. It was AMAZING to say the least.

Jackson's school really went all out. They had t-shirts for sale leading up to the day and they invited us parents up to watch the eclipse with our kiddos. Jake had to work, but my mom, Avery and I went up there at around 1:00. Totality was at 1:18 so that gave us plenty of time to get there and settled.

Jackson's class gearing up for the eclipse.

They had glasses for us and another mom in his class had made the glasses for the class even safer by adding a paper plate to them so that they couldn't look over their glasses by accident. Jackson loved it and just stared up at the sky for most of the time. He didn't say a lot, just soaked it all in I guess.

It was such an amazing experience and one I won't soon forget. As the moon moved closer over the sun, you could see such cool reflections of the sun if you went under a shade tree.



You can see them here too where Avery was sitting.

Avery didn't really understand what was going on, but she looked up a few times wearing the special glasses with my help and thought it was pretty cool.

I brought my camera along with my 70-300mm lens. I didn't have any special gear so I just took pictures during totality, but I'm pretty happy with the couple that I got. :-)

It was an amazing event and one I will not soon forget. It got so dark that we heard the crickets and locusts start to make their evening noises and the dusk to dawn lights all came on outside the school.



Yesterday evening Jackson's teacher sent me this cool picture of him. It was such an amazing day!

Avery's First Day of Preschool - 2017

Avery started her second year of preschool today at Lindbergh Early Childhood Education! She is in the Frog Room with Ms. Lindsey and Ms. Anita! She is going 3 days a week this year as opposed to just 2 like last year. She's going Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 9:10-12:10.

My mom and I both took her this morning. She was excited to go, but when we got to her classroom, she only wanted me to hold her. She didn't want to wash her hands and she didn't want down. At that point I thought, this isn't going to be an easy goodbye. But soon-after she decided she wanted to go play with the kitchen stuff and after a few minutes, she let us leave with no problem. I was very relieved it went so well and I can't wait to hear all about her day!

I'm sure she's going to have another great year at preschool and I'm so proud of her and excited to see how much she grows and learns.



Jackson's First Day of Kindergarten

Today is Jackson's first day of Kindergarten at Long Elementary School. It's such a bittersweet day for me. On the one had, I'm so proud of him and excited for him to start this new chapter, but on the other hand, he's not a baby anymore. He's a big boy and I just can't believe how quickly it's gone by. He's going to full day kindergarten from 8:45 a.m. - 3:25 p.m. He brought his lunch today and helped us pack it up last night. His teach is Mrs. Wenz and she's very nice!  

He has been waiting to go to kindergarten for quite some time now. Most of his friends on our street are all in elementary school and most of his cousins are as well. So he was very excited and ready for this day! He was also excited to ride the bus with his neighborhood friends!

So this morning, Jackson got right up and got ready for school. He ate his breakfast, brushed his teeth, got dressed and headed out the door. We took a couple pictures at home and then headed down to the bus stop with him (which is just down at the end of our street.)

We waited there and then the kids all loaded onto the bus! I thought I would be really emotional, but I held it together pretty well. As Jackson got in line to get on the bus, Avery ran over and gave him a big hug. It was one of the sweetest moments ever!! I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I'm writing it down so I can at least remember it happened, ha.

Little sisters waving goodbye to their big brothers! ♥

And... they're off!

Jake and I and one other mom on our street, drove up to the school to wait for the bus to get there so we could walk the kids into their class and take a few more pictures. Our bus was late getting back to school, so we had to rush a little to get them to their classes, but Jackson did great and went right in with no problems.

They had a super cute "red carpet" right outside the door that the kids could take their picture on. Jackson said the sun was in his eyes so we didn't get a great picture, but he did take a nice picture with his teacher, so that was good.

After taking a picture with his teacher, he went right in and sat on the carpet with his other classmates. I'm sure he's having a great first day and I can't wait to get home to hear all about it!