Back from vacation(whether I want to be or not) ;-)

 We had an amazing time on vacation!! We had such a wonderful time that it is hard being back home.
My Mom,Dad,Sister,niece and nephew joined us on vacation to help watch our kids. We all had a fabulous time! I just adore that area and really hope to move there someday soon.

I took a bunch of pictures,but I will try and only put a few on here.

We did a ton of shopping,eating out,swimming,arcades,movies etc. Fun!

My family watched our kids for us while hubby and I went to see the Avett brothers in concert.

Ok, here is the deal, I have been a huge Avett brothers fan for awhile now. Watched tons and tons of videos of them on youtube,owned their CDs etc. so I was prepared to like their concert performance. My hubby on the other hand is a really big music fan,has gone to see hundreds of concerts. He was not overly thrilled to go see the Avett brothers(he thinks I have a big crush on them)We had listened to an Avett brother CD together in the car like twice.Ever.He said they were ok,but I could tell he wasn't a fan.  That all changed BIG time after the concert. Um,they put on a CRAZY good show. There aren't even words. No wonder people describe seeing them in concert as "awe inspiring" "blown away" "best night of my life" etc. Geez!! Totally 100% true. Wow. They are beyond talented and put on a truly amazing show. People started the concert quiet and it ended with everyone up dancing,screaming and singing along. My hubby has not stopped listening to the Avett brother's Cds since we left the concert.He is now a huge fan and can't wait to see them again.Said it was one of the very best concerts he has ever seen(HUGE praise from him) They are that good.

(You can't tell how into the concert people were in these pics. Believe me they really got into it after I took these pictures. I took these when the concert just started.)

Anyway,on Harley and Jane they wrote about Blogger rules. I don't consider myself a real blogger. I don't go and
comment other people's blogs much anymore at all,I don't post about cool things(or often for that matter) and this new blog of mine has like 8 followers. lol. Not like I care. I think those 8 people are super nice for following and I just don't stress about needing to blog all the time like I did on my old blog. Now I just enjoy life and blog whenever I feel like it. :-)
I still thought it was funny that even though I am not a real blogger I do a lot of what they say bloggers do.

You can only be a blogger if

1. you have bangs
yep :-)
2.have a husband that takes fantastical amazing photos and he doesn't even try
yeah
3.you find only cool things at thrift stores
not to brag,but I adore thrift stores and everyone is always amazed,but what I find there for practically free.
4. the cool things you find at thrift stores don't smell
I wouldn't buy anything that smelled. lol
5. you name your children hipster names
Guess So :-) Lundyn Finley,Sutton Oliver and Kensington Lola
6. you buy fake glasses and wear them. all. the. time.
I totally do this! lol. I am the only one in my family that doesn't need glasses(Mom,dad, my siblings and even my hubby wear them) but I wear fake ones for some reason. Ha ha.
7. you are SO in love with someone else that you can't even contain yourself
true
8. you do 9 giveaways everyday
nope. I did used to do giveaways on my old blog sometimes,but not on here.
9. you have successfully completed your 30 for 30
no,but I think that is a cool idea
10. you take pictures of food more often than your extended family
lol. might be true.;-)
11. you wear belts over everything. dresses. sweaters. t-shirts. coats. as headbands. basically everything.
totally wear belts all the time

Part two
1.you have recently tried or excepted the ombre fad
yeah. I love ombre hair! I just had it and loved it,but I have now dyed it red again because I love change.
2. You are a PRO thrifter that can reshape/restyle clothes that originally looked like they should be hidden in a very very VERY dark corner of the universe
true. especially for Kensington. I will buy her something for a quarter at a thrift shop and sew on ruffles etc. and people will all stop us in the stores to say how cute she looks.
3. You are pregnant...
not that I know of,but I did just have three kiddos right in a row
4. You are planning on becoming pregnant
I want to have more babies
5. You have a child under the age of 3 that likes to pose besides you in your outfit pictures
yes
6. Said child dresses better than the majority of well established adults
true. My kids dress WAY better then I do ;-)
7. Your camera is an extension of your right arm
Love my camera!!
8. Your sponsors pay you
nope. not even on my old blog.
9. You have recently opened some sort of shop and sell some sort of crafty something. Or old things. But you call them "vintage" to class it up
I have an etsy shop and sell at craft shows and love to make vintage things 
10. By this time you have completed your second 30 x 30 and are now looking forward to your 3rd time around this upcoming fall.
nope,not yet
11. You tweet tweet tweet the days away.
never tweet. I do go on facebook a lot though
12. You live in some sort of indie hipster metropolis that offers you a vast selection of organic/vegan/whole restaurants.
live near Portland and go there all the time. It is huge for organic/vegan. I am a vegan so I love it!!
13. You have a puppy. Or a cat. {this applies if 3, 4, 5, and 6 don't}
had an adorable puppy named Bella-Grayce,but we recently gave her to my parents because she was mean to the kiddos. looking into getting another puppy soon.
14. You enter giveaways on other blogs and win. Consistently. Coincidence? Hmmm...
I used to enter a lot of giveaways. I would win quite a few. I should start entering again. lol.

The next few posts I am going to do are about parties I have thrown my kids. I adore throwing parties!
(And since I throw them each a half birthday party and a real birthday party) plus lots of other little parties I am always throwing parties. I am going to start blogging more about them.

Sutton's Mickey mouse/firefighter half bday party I blogged about here was featured on this cute party blog yesterday.(edit-fixed the link :-)


xoxo!!

Enjoying every second of life(even the part doing chores)

I was going to do a post about Kensington's Hello Kitty Party(that we had for her when she turned six months old and I have never posted pictures from it.) before I do a post about her fourth of July/Ladybug 1st birthday party and her second party we threw for her on her actual first birthday.
I will do posts about them later,but I haven't had the time to track down the pics yet. We have been too busy getting ready for vacation!!! (Can you tell that I am excited?! lol)
 We leave early Friday morning. Technically, hubby has been on vacation already(off of work) but we don't leave for the hotel until Friday and then he is off for 9 days
One of the things we did today to get ready was laundry to make sure that we had lots of clean clothes to pack. Laundry is never a fun chore anyway,but has been more of a hassle because our dryer broke two weeks ago. Lately, we have bought a new oven,new air conditioner, our brakes went out so we got them fixed, bought new tires, we are fixing up our whole house(new paint inside and out, new flooring etc.)I could go on and on. Oy. It is spendy to be a grown up! ;-) We are going to get a new dryer after we get back from vacation.

At the moment we are going to a laundromat. That sounds horrible,but really I don't mind at all. I am a make lemonade out of lemons kind of a person and we are going to this laundry mat that I adore(and posted about here). It is so cute!
It is a nice little hour drive to get there.(yes, we go an hour away to go to a pretty laundromat instead of the two that are within walking distance from our house. lol)

These pics were from last week

Today, as we waited for the laundry to finish, we took a little walk and ended up in a cute little pharmacy. The kiddos got toys and we got pink lemonade and chocolate.

The boys just sit and color while we are there. (they don't really like getting their pictures taken and hardly ever look up when I ask them to say "cheese". Oh,well :-)

Lundyn is obsessed with pokemon right now for some reason so he is wearing Daddy's hat and pretending to be Ash. lol.

So besides the 20 dollars a week we are paying (I always leave a few dollars in quarters at the laundromat for the next people to find also) I am not really minding doing laundry.

Speaking of laundry/clothes I think that I am going to start selling clothes in my etsy shop or start a new big Cartel shop. I buy bunches of gorgeous clothes at vintage stores,estate sales, thrift shops etc. and never,ever wear them. Most of them are vintage, some Anthropologie etc.

I snapped a few pics of clothes in my room

As you can see, I buy things that are usually pastel,silky, unique buttons,lace, pretty patterns etc.

The funny things is, although I treasure the clothes I buy, I usually just wear black from head to toe. I pretty much always have.

I packed up most of these clothes in boxes in our storage area. I need to get them in my shop so someone can appreciate how truly gorgeous they are in person!

xoxo!!

We had a wonderful fourth of July.
My family came and we had a fourth of July/Ladybug themed party(because she is "our little lady" all the food was miniature! So fun!) for Kensington's first birthday!!
 It was awesome. I will post pics another day. Kensi's bday is on the 6th(today) but my family could only come to the party Monday so we had that party then. We had another party this morning(I will post pics of that later too) I loved the party today. Pink and super girly. Too cute!!  We asked the kiddos if they wanted to go to the zoo,beach or amusement park today and they said beach. They love seeing my family(my parents live there) so I wasn't surprised they wanted to go there. We had a fabulous time and set off more fireworks,went shopping and ate lots of yummy food.


( I am super excited to go on a vacation in a week!! We are going to one of my FAVORITE areas. I would seriously live there if I could. Maybe some day. I used to go all the time,but I haven't visited there in ages and I am sooo looking forward to it!!
We have our hotel reservations all made and paid for.
I am ready to relax, have fun, shop, eat out and see lots of beautiful scenery.



pic #2 via here pic #4 via here the others via google images

My parents(and maybe my sister and her kids) are coming down with us because they are going to watch our kiddos while hubby and I go see The Avett brothers in concert(Um...LOVE them!!! so excited to see them!!)