I want to win this contest....BAD

Go check out PPP and her interesting person of the week..........This one is FUN FUN FUN!

PPP Blog is having a super fun contest!

One of my favorite Etsy Sellers, Poor Pitiful Pearl is having a contest on her blog....GO AND SEE!!!!

Silly Paige

Homework

My little princess is growing up so fast. It seems like just yesterday she was learning to walk and talk. Daddy put together her new desk last night and she was working on her handwriting for hours tonight. She even did her own book report by writing down the title of a book on a piece of paper to show her teacher. It makes my heart swell just to watch her grow and learn:)

My Baby Started School!

So yesterday was Kayla's first day of Kindergarten. I could not be more proud of her. She has turned into such an independent, smart, talented, and fun girl. I could not believe how calm and cool she was yesterday. This is the first time she has ever attended formal school. We have been blessed having our Di Di come to our home and watch the girls everyday. I think I had more anxiety that she did. Kayla was cool as a cucumber heading out into the world all by herself. She had a smile on her face and practically ran to the bus when it pulled up. I have to share some of the belly laughs I had when she came home to tell us about her day. Her baby sister was playing with a ladybug and took it inside the house. Kayla stole the bug right out of her hand....I proceed to scold Kayla, "Do not steal your sister's bug". Kayla responds, "Mom, I have not been able to play with bugs all day!" I guess she had a point. Then when she was telling us about how many times they had to stand in a single file line the teacher would say, "Boy, girl, boy, girl" every time. Kayla says, "Why can't it ever be 'girl, boy, girl, boy" Who knew she was a feminist? Too funny. Zach and I had a real good laugh about that one! Here are the pictures of her 1st day of school I hope you enjoy them as much as I do♥

The Botanical Gardens

I just can't get over these cuties!

We are spending the weekend with the family and doing the camping thing! I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend....it's almost my Birthday too:) I am so excited to be 32! Birthday's pretty much RULE!!!!! Here are some super cute pictures of my sweeties, ENJOY:)

XOXO,

Nik

Wordless Wednesday.....

Before/After Blog Hop

It's that time again to head over to Pixel Perfect and vote for your favorite edit of the week. I love this picture of Miss Kayla Arlene having some summer fun!

SOOC:

Warmed up the colors a bit and here it is:

I use a Sony alpha 350 and Lightroom 2 editing software

Beauty Hurts & what I will be up to this summer!

Well tomorrow night I will be dropping my sweet little baby (ehem, or nearly 5-year-old) Kayla off for her first ever Dance Recital Dress Rehearsal. She will be full out dressed and makeup and I can't even stay and watch.....NO PARENTS ALLOWED! She is so excited I can not even tell you. She is required to have curls and makeup. Today I ran into Walgreen's and got some rollers to attempt curly hair. She was very patient and I felt like a pageant Mom rolling her fine little hair into the curlers. We left them in for about an hour and it came out GREAT! Ok, I did not get a picture of the actual curls....I am saving that for the full costume. I am not very happy about the no video or picture taking rule for the recital, but they will have a photographer and they are professionally video taping, for a fee of $25 to see my angel dance for 1 min 38sec. You know I will buy the stupid thing, how could I resist. Don't worry, I'm sure to get plenty of pictures of her all decked out:)

Just to give you all a little update on what I will be up to this summer: I am going to take an online class! I have never done anything like this before, and I am so excited. I can't wait to head to the craft store sometime this weekend and get all my supplies for this super cool Summer Camp

This is going to be such a fun project. I LOVE LOVE LOVE anything handmade and this will be a chance to let my own creativity flow. Learning new things is so much fun! I hope everyone is having a great summer!

XOXO, NIK

This is GROSS.

Please take the time to read this blog: Unnecessary Drama

Now, I love Urban Outfitters just a much as the next girl, but this is so disgusting. I read this blog the other day (which I enjoy reading) and this is what I see. I am horrified at this image to girls. I have two little girls and I would just die if I saw someone wearing this! Please read. GROSS-O-LA!

Wordless Wednesday.....a little early cheater?!!!!?

Wordless Wednesday...

Best Day Ever

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

Once again it is Thursday and Pixel Perfect is having the before and after blog hop:

SOOC:

My edit with Lightroom in Honor of the Sun Flare advice! Thanks PP!!

Living the Life of a Gypsy....

Or having a Garage Sale! THis is crazy. First time I ever had a garage sale, and people are weird!!!! So far I have made $40..... I just want all this stuff to go away. Slashing prices as I type.

Can't stop the Rain

We tried out the camper for the first time this weekend and it RAINED the entire time. We did not let it stop our fun though! We managed to try everything out and the camper ROCKS! The girls loved it and they slept like perfect little babies both nights. I can't wait for all the memories we will have with our "Space Wrangler" (that's the name I came up with for the camper). Here are a few of the pictures I took of the weekend.

the boots my Mom bought me: ♥

My Girls Singing in the Rain:
We took a little hike to see the waterfall while Paige napped:

These are some of the pretty pictures I captured of the hike:

I hope everyone had a great weekend and the rain did not stop you! Now I need to focus my free time to preparing for the Garage Sale this weekend. I have never had my own Garage Sale and I'm pretty excited about it. Plus, my house is getting freed of the clutter. Oprah would be so proud.....

♥Nik

I did not wake up feeling well....

I had to leave work early yesterday because my neck was suddenly sweaty and I got dizzy and foggy......I felt terrible fast! I woke up this morning with the same strange symptoms...my throat felt as if it was closing in on me. I also indulged on some Morel Mushrooms on Monday that were not properly soaked and cleaned. Note to self: watch out for the wild mushrooms! I am better today, and back to myself...but whoa that was not fun. This little picture below is by Kayla of our new camper. I am putting it into a frame and we are going to hang it in the camper. I did a little tutorial next to her and this was her version (better than mine)! What an artist:) I took a couple of pictures of them today too...

Happy Campers

Wow, I've been a bad little blogger lately. My laptop was down for awhile and I'm too lazy to go into my MESSY basement and work. Speaking of my messy basement, I will be spending the entire day tomorrow cleaning and organizing that mess. My neighborhood garage sale is May 1st and I am determined to have tables of goods to sell. With the girls and the amount of stuff we have collected it is truly time for some spring cleaning. Hopefully tomorrow I will be blogging about how clean and organized things are:) Plus, one man's trash is another mans treasure.....which brings me to the next reason I have been so absent from blogging. We sold our pop up camper this week and bought a super duper upgrade! We started looking on Craig's List and found a couple of diamonds in the rough, but this one takes the cake. Quite a story to this camper, it's actually totaled and has a salvaged title (NOT GOOD FOR LICENSING). We went after church last Sunday to take a look at it over an hour away in IL. My Dad had to go with us the next day to be sure that the camper was FIXABLE. He was so proud that we were willing to go through a little red tape to get a good deal. And a good deal is what we got. We bought this camper for nearly half the price it would sell for and we have minor repairs (thanks Dad) to make it better than new. In the last picture you can see the damage in the front corner. Other than that....IT IS PERFECT! We have room for our little family to have a vacation home on wheels! We will be going to the Farm next weekend to break her in. I can't wait to decorate and put our little touch on everything! I want to hang some photos of the girls on the walls and there are endless things I want to get that will stay in the camper, like pots and pans, plastic dinnerware, kitchen accessories, towels, little stick on the wall soap dispensers. The list is truly endless. We will have that baby full in no time at all. I can't wait to have so many adventures in our new Beauty!

This is the area the girls will be sleeping in:

This is our Master Bedroom:
This is me staning in the shower across the hall from the potty:

Here is the outside: