memorial day!

this year we crammed as much activity into memorial day as we possibly could.

the weather was beyond beautiful, so we kicked it off with a motorcycle ride to estes park for some breakfast. well…. grant, chris, tylar + taylor did.

hilla, abel, arrow, widdle girl sal and myself brought up the rear in the yukon :)

breakfast at the "rams horn" was deeeeeeelish! 

[ fun fact: its actually called the big horn restaurant, but somehow over the course of however long my family has been going, we started calling it something completely different and it just stuck, so rams horn it is! ]

& man oh man, estes is beautiful. a little bittersweet because it was totally my dads place. he loved it so much. every time we went, although we had our staple foods to eat and shops to visit, was like he first time he had ever gone; constantly learning new things about the town & spouting off fun facts and trivia. but he was there with us this time too, asking me how my breakfast was 'sweetie' & patiently sitting on every bench.

after breakfast, we walked around the town for a bit & headed back down the mountain for a BBQ & some swingset fun with the fam.

i hope everyone enjoyed their memorial day celebrations as much as i did! here is to summer (almost!)

oh, little arrow.

how are you almost 8 months?!

"dont blink, or you'll miss it."

i feel like dozens of people told me this & I'm over here "oh i won't (point & wink) " --- but clearly i didn't heed their warning, because here she is! an almost 8 month old. sheesh!

arrow is chewing on everything & i mean, everything. no teeth yet, but we will get there. 

rolling. and rolling and rolling. i call them flapjack rolls. front to back to front to back. she is an avid bedhead haver. it's quite possibly the cutest bedhead I've ever seen. we're into army crawling 

(no hands, all elbows & booty) 

always dressing fabulously. duh.

she's transporting food verrrrrry carefully from tray to her mouth by herself <<< she's really getting the hang of it!!

sleeping much less, partying waaaay more. 

waving hello & sharing her smiles with strangers. 

she crosses her ankles like a lady & can scream like an eight year old at a one direction concert.

she would eat yogurt bites for breakfast lunch & dinner if i allowed it. & out of all the toys in the world she loves the TV remote & crunchy water bottles the best. swinging on the swing set and saturday morning snuggles with daddy are pretty much guaranteed smile-fests. if I'm eating it, she wants to eat it too. abel is her best friend, he just doesn't know it yet. socks are the enemy & often end up in her mouth. 

her silly & sweet personality blooms more and more every day. the conversations we have, may sound like gibberish to outside ears, but they make perfect sense to the both of us. telling each other we love one another over and over again.

arrow, i love you so much you little wild child.

go be.

this post is for the graduates. but honestly, i think we can all take a little something from it.

remember in kindergarten, when your teacher asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? i am pretty sure i said 'britney spears' - but some say an astronaut, some say the president or on the opposite end of the spectrum, an artist. when we are little there are no limits. we are truly fearless. saying that we want to be the first woman president to ever ride a spotted pony on the moon, is not even the slightest bit outlandish. i wish it could stay that way forever. but as we get older, things start to change.

 we get to know reality a bit & our dreams become significantly smaller. suddenly our dreams of becoming the pony riding astronaut president become dreams of becoming a psychologist or a history professor. putting things into perspective & being realistic is a good thing, & don't get me wrong, being an accountant is probably pretty cool, but at what point do we have to stop dreaming big? i guess what I'm trying to say, what I'm trying to encourage you to do is, 

[ d r e a m B I G ] 

don't ever just dream small because it's more achievable. don't ever let someone tell you that your dreams are just too "out there." & definitely don't dream small because that is what your friend is doing. one day, maybe not in my lifetime, & maybe not in yours, but one day, there will be a pony riding astronaut president & she is gonna be able to laugh at all of us who gave up too early on what we really wanted.

 whatever you choose to be, whether its a teacher, a mentor, a florist, a writer, an inventor, an advocate, a mom, a designer, a photographer, a rapper, a psychologist or even britney spears... go BE it. be the best one there has ever been. do it differently than all the others. change the way it's been done. go and be whatever is it you're going to be SO well, that people want to do what you do when they grow up. this is a point in your life where you are once more, limitless. your options are endless. so go and be fearless.

now, i'll ask you again...

what do you want to be when you grow up?

[ congratulations to the graduating class of 2014. you did it. I'm so proud of you all! now go change the world. love you. ]

ten things you should do today.

one.

[ look up ]

whatever the weather may be where you are, appreciate it. the rain, snow & sleet are serving a purpose. let them do their job, sunny days are coming! 

two.

[ wear lipstick ]

i am a HUGE lipstick advocate. the perfect shade can turn my whole day around. i wear it around the house sometimes just to get the laundry done (& leave smooch marks all over my sweet arrow's face.)

three.

[ breathe ]

i know, you're already doing it. but really go for it. go outside & take 5 deeeeeeeep breaths. which leads me to number…

four.

[ think good thoughts ]

do number four while you're doing number three. you follow? tell yourself how beautiful you are. congratulate yourself for accomplishing something. give yourself a pat on the back for getting out of bed this morning (hey, i do it.) **graduates, guys, you did it! you have so many good thoughts to be thinking!**

    five.

    [ smell some flowers ]

wildflowers, grocery store florals, dandelions in your yard (I'm aware they are weeds, but they cheerily disguise themselves as flowers & I'm falling for it.) --- smell them. they might not even smell that good, but you did it. you took the time to take in a little bit of one of god's most beautiful creations.

halfway there...

six.

[ treat yourself ]

chocolate. at home pedicures. a new lipstick (trying to help you with number two!) cozy socks. or a starbucks are all appropriate treats. you don't even need a reason, but if your husband asks, tell him it's friday.

seven.

[ call your mom ]

because she's great. can't get ahold of her first try? hang up & call immediately back, mine is always a second try success. 

eight.

[ write a love note ]

to your person, your best friend or yourself. write down whatever you want. this one is especially important to me. it's so nice to receive love notes, but in my opinion, even better to give them. let someone know you love them or that their booty has been looking niiiice. (note to myself)

nine.

[ say thank you ]

"happiness is born from gratitude - david steindl-rast"

i tend to over-thank. there is no such thing honestly, but i usually say thank you three times before i leave my local starbucks, & the other day my barista mentioned it. the girl makes a mean green tea lemonade & now she knows how grateful i am for it. make everyone in your life know how grateful you are for them.

ten.

[ learn something ]

you are never too old to learn something new. yesterday i learned that african and asian elephants look completely different! thank you episode of bubble guppies! google something random & BOOM! you just learned something new. now go tell someone, now they accomplished number ten too! aaaaand, you look super smart!

there you go! go do all ten things & have a wonderful day!!

*** all photos from this post were found on pinterest.***

this holiday now applies to me….

i am a mom. mama. mother. whatever you wanna call it. i am one of those. i am a diaper changing, booboo kissing, stroller-strolling mama; & i finally fully understand why moms need a day of celebration all dedicated to them, to us.

here's to all the wonderful moms i know.
thank you for sacrificing your time, money, and independence to hold our families together.  thanks for all the hours you put into our lives, school projects & birthday parties. thanks for changing our diapers, i feel like this one gets left off the list a lot, but now i change a lot of diapers, so, thank you. thank you for listening to all of our childish problems & acting like they were so important, even though you had big bad adult problems on your mind.  thank you for teaching us how to love & have successful relationships.
this list of 'thank yous' could honestly go on forever, there are so many things to thank you for, so many things that us kids, your kids, will one day realize they appreciate. but most of all this year, thank you for all the love, care & knowledge you have given us, so that we may one day raise families of our own & have the slightest idea of how to do it.
we love you moms.

now, to my own mom.
thank you for being my best friend, when taylor and hillary wanted nothing to do with me :) even though they realize how cool i am now, you are still my best friend. thank you for always making me feel special. thanks for backing me up when my little white lies got me in trouble with (bi ches) at school. thank you for every hour you put behind the wheel from colorado to california & back - - or behind the wheel of hideous PT cruisers in LA, helping me chase my dream. my dreams may have changed now, but those memories are still my favorite & those experiences with you cannot be taken away. thank you, for instilling in me the confidence to be myself, especially in the face of critics. thank you for giving me a curfew, sounds weird because i hated it at the time, but thanks for that. you and daddy were right, nothing good ever happens after 10 or 11 o'clock. thank you for letting me move back in after i moved out, again, a weird thank you. but i needed to come home & you knew that. thank you for letting me have a rebellious stage, i told you i would come back, & i did. thank you for teaching me how to persevere through the rough times in relationships. thank you for teaching me about hostess gifts, i always feel so impressive when i show up with one (haha.) thank you for making my wedding day, the most wonderful, beautiful, special, memorable day of my life. i can't even fathom the amount of hot glue that was involved, not to mention the time spent. thank you for loving grant, just as he is. thank you for being a wonderful grammy to arrow & always answering my calls, no matter how late they are. & last but not least. thank you for teaching me how to be a mom, i learn from you every day. i know i can always count on you to be there when i need you. you have always put your family first, as i plan to do & if i turn out to be half as good as you are, i think i'll be just fine :) i love you mama.

h i l l a r y.

you are going to come across some pretty great people in your life. people who only stay awhile & people who will be there forever. some will become once a month acquaintances & a few will even become your best friend.

well, twenty-six years ago, God had a plan. a plan to bless the world with a brunette, daddy loving beauty. a plan to add a little bright and shiny to a family of three. but he even thought further into the future with his plan, a few years later i was born & i already had a best friend waiting for me... hillary.

h i l l a.

you are my best friend. you are one of the most beautiful people i know. i wish i could see the world as sparkly as you do. your advice keeps me sane. you make me want to be better + do better. every starbucks date, every early morning breakfast, every episode of bubble guppies is so incredibly special to me. my life is brighter, because of you. i honestly couldn't imagine my life without you, you are one of the only people who think my jokes and antics are hilarious + you never tell me to be quieter when I'm yelling, I'm just a yeller & you know that. God gave you to me because he knew i would need you to balance me out & he knew i would need your help in so many aspects of my life. he knew long before we did, that we would compliment each other so perfectly & become the best of friends. i pray each and every night that arrow & your little girl on the way will bond just the way we did & we can watch our relationship repeat itself. i love you so much. happy birthday.

hello may!

it's here! it's here! MAY is finally here!!! it may have started off super windy, bleh, but it's sunnied up & it's here! i for some reason felt like april was a 60 day month this year. probably, because I'm ready to plant my garden again & mayday // mothers day give me the go ahead. also, boating. it's so close i can almost taste the cold corona && i cannot wait to see arrow's little chunker thighs in a bikini. prepare yourself for an overload of pictures when that time comes :) anyways, happy may everyone!