A lot can happen in a little over a year...

Since my last post..

I've gotten married (his name is Jason).
Had a baby (his name is Luke Oliver).
Built a house with my husband.
Moved into said house.
Inherited a stepdaughter (9 year old Sarah Elizabeth).

Things have finally slowed down for me and I'm finally ready to start blogging again. Amen! I have to say, this past year and a half has been crazy, crazy, crazy but I wouldn't change it for the world. I went from having one 5 year old to a 9 year old stepdaughter, an almost 7 year old daughter, and a 6 month old little man! I love our blended little family though. :-)

More posts to come later but here are some photos of my life as of lately..

Jason & I!

Sarah & Amelie with their wands they chose at our trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

Proud big sis.

The Lorax

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." -Dr. Seuss 

I took Amelie to the movies to see The Lorax tonight.. We left 45 minutes early and I was nervous we'd get to the theatre too early. Ha, think again! There was a "Beer, Bourbon, & Barbecue" festival going on by the movie theatre so there was a ton of traffic and it was ridiculous to find parking in the parking garage. So many people! We finally bought our tickets and got inside 10 minutes prior to the movie starting. The concession lines were so long and moving so slowly & Amelie wanted gummy bears (go figure). By the time we finished with the concession line and got into the movie we'd missed probably around 15 minutes or so of it but thats okay.. We were able to jump right into the story line. The story line was SO incredible. I love the lesson it taught. It taught you when you're greedy and not nice to people you end up being left alone to dwell and regret the things you did wrong. I love how determined the little boy was to fix the mess someone else had made. 

Dr. Seuss is such an incredible author and I love his subtle lessons to kids! I can't wait to buy the DVD for Amelie when it comes out. I also need to get her the book.. She doesn't have it and I'm not sure why I've never bought it for her or read it to her but I definitely will be now. So great!

Crafting with Amelie..

I love spending countless hours on Pinterest pinning any and everything I see that looks delicious, or gives me great ideas for decorating my apartment, or even fun crafty stuff to do with Amelie..

Tonight Amelie and I attempted homemade play dough we found on Pinterest.. It was awesome how easy it was to make and I love how cheap it is.. I had everything except cream of tartar at home already so it was great! I love that I know exactly whats in it too. You know how kids love to touch things and put their hands in their mouths without any care. Below is a picture of our first attempt at play dough!

And if you do know anything about kids then you also know how bored they get with a project. ;) We very quickly moved on from making the play dough.. Probably in part of it being too hot to play with since we'd just cooked it and all.. So we moved onto a project I'd found called "edible finger paint" which I thought was a FANTASTIC idea.. Especially when you throw marshmallow, short bread cookies, and paint brushes into the mix.. What kid wouldn't love to paint then eat marshmallows? I know I would.. Warning: The paint doesn't taste wonderful but it is edible and the kids don't notice. Also, please note: If you're like me with limited space and might be using your dining room table for kids to do projects like this. INVEST IN A CLEAR SHOWER CURTAIN LINER. Cheap, cheap, cheap table cloth in case anything gets spilled. ;) I somehow managed to get the paint on my MacBook Pro but it easily came off.. I'd probably be dead from a panic attack and unable to type all this otherwise. Anyways, without further ado.. Photos from our painting project:

Our selection of colors..

And our goodies!

And my happily painting little princess!!

— Aj Rafael

“Love and relationships are never like the movies no matter how much we want them to be. But when something beautiful ends, for whatever reason, it’s most important not to be disappointed that it’s over, but glad that it happened at all.”

Charlie, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”