Happy Sunday!

Passion for Fashion Friday - New Pants

We went to Old Navy today, and check out the super cute pants I found for $5.

What! So awesome!

Welcome home Brian!

My brother-in-law gets home from his mission tonight!!

Two years ago, Brian left for New Zealand to serve a mission for our church. He has sacrificed and worked so much for the last two years, teaching the people of New Zealand about Jesus Christ and His gospel.

Now, he's coming home! We are so excited! 

I've never picked up a missionary from the airport before, and I can't wait to see Brian again!

To learn more about Mormon missionaries and what they do, click the link!
http://mormon.org/missionaries

Check out ma hurr.

Guys, my hair has been bugging me for weeks.
It needs a trim, bad.

I have a lot of breakage, especially up front. I've been toying with the idea of chopping some bangs for a while now, but haven't decided until now.

Here's my inspiration:

http://www.bodenusa.com/en-US/Womens-Skirts/A-line-Full/WG495/Womens-Ponte-Skater-Skirt.html?NavGroupID=13

Here's my hair before:

I'm not going to show you how I cut my own bangs, because unless you're a hairstylist, you shouldn't be cutting your own hair. Don't try this at home, kids!

The after:

I cut them long and very piecy, and they can be worn either straight across or swooped to the side.

I love it!

Mermaid Party

As you know, Margot turned 2 yesterday. And to celebrate, we threw a Mermaid Party!

Margot loves The Little Mermaid, and she and Portia both were so excited! 

I found a ton of great ideas for the decor and food in Pinterest (of course) and I think I did pretty good, for someone who's not very crafty!

I used this tutorial and this tutorial for the pom-poms.

We had about 7 kids come, and we made necklaces and colored mermaid pictures.

Margot was a bit nervous when everyone first came over, so she hid behind Brandon for the first half of the party. But once the presents came out, she was suddenly very interested in what was going on!

She has not put that little mermaid doll down since she got it.

We had a blast, the kids were super happy, and it was a great party!

Happy Birthday Margot!

My mom enjoys my pain.

Lets be real here, I was much worse as a kid.

Love you Mama!

Six Things About Me

One of my fave bloggers, Lena B, recently posted an "about me" on her blog, and, like her, I love stumbling across these types of posts. So I'm jumping on the bandwagon! Here are...

Six Questions About Myself:

Is this how you thought your life would be?
Actually, yes. I always thought I'd be married to a super hunky dude (check), have beautiful babies (check), and be happy (check check)! There are things I still want, like more kids, a house, and to be done with school, but I honestly thought my life would never be this good. I know I never expected my hair to be this fabulous!
Seriously though, if given the chance to change anything, I'd have nothing to change.

If money were no question, I would purchase:
Oh man, I don't know. I don't want to say a house, cause we don't know where we'll be going to med school yet. And there's not really a lot of stuff that I'd like to buy. I'd like a new phone, and some new clothes, and I'm always game for buying hair products, but that's lame.
I would love to take a vacation to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with Carrie. And do it right. Buy all the souvenirs we want, eat in the park every day, stay in the Hogwarts castle (can you do that? I don't know, but if money is no option, I would.)

Yeah. Harry Potter.


What's your drink of choice when out with girlfriends?
Since my "girlfriends" are toddlers, and I don't drink alcohol, I'm going to have to say good ol Dr. Pepper. Man, I love that stuff.


What do you love about yourself?
I know I've told you all how much I love me. One of my favorite things about me is that I am really fun. I am silly and humorous (I like to think), and I'm fun to hang out with.

If I'm wrong, just let me live in ignorance.


Name a good deed that went unseen.
I feel like motherhood itself is a good deed that sometimes goes unseen. I constantly put others before myself, and I like doing it! There have been times that I have forgotten to pee for two hours, because I was too busy helping Portia and Margot put gowns on all their barbies. But that's part of the job description. I have to stop thinking about myself, and I get to hang out with these two:

What hobbies do you have that you don't mention here?
I don't really have any hobbies. I hang out with babies, I read Harry Potter, I watch tv, and I blog. I guess blogging is my hobby. Am I lame? Probably. But you're still reading this, so obviously I'm not that lame.



So there you go! What are your answers to these questions?

To check out Lena B's post, go here:
http://www.lenabactually.com/2013/09/six-things-you-know-about-me-now.html

birthday baby

I can't believe Margot is 2! It seems like yesterday that I was going in to the hospital looking like this:

Ouch.

I love this baby!!

Happy Birthday Margot!

Harry Potter humor

I regret nothing.

Gettin lippy!

When I wrote that title, my phone automatically changed it to "Gettin loopy". What a jerk.

Anyways.

Remember a few weeks ago, when I said that I was going to start wearing bright-colored lipstick more often? Well, I'm doing it!

I just bought a new lipstick, that I am in love with!

Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede in Trendsetter

Ok. You know how regular lipstick wears off after a few hours? And lip stains stay on, but starts to look kinda weird after a bit, like your lips are peeling?

This is kinda a mixture of the two. It has the feel of regular lipstick, smooth and not sticky, but stays on and doesn't flake. It's magic.

I put it on around 1 pm yesterday.

  Pretty huh?

And then I went about my day like normal, just to see how well it really stayed on. This is around 6:30, right after I ate dinner:

And this is around 10, right after I brushed my teeth:

 What!

And this, ladies and gents, is this morning at about 9 am. Right after I took a shower.

Guys, this stuff is not a joke. It stayed on for a long time, even through eating and drinking, and kissing lots of baby cheeks.

I will fosho be buying this brand again!

May Blogging Challenge- Memory! All alone in the moonlight!

You ready for this?

Day 31: A vivid memory

One of my most vivid memories is actually one of my oldest.

It takes place when my family lived in Indiana, so I must have been around 2 or 3 years old.

I remember my whole family, cousins, aunts and uncles, all being over at our house. We lived in an old yellow farmhouse, and the adults were all inside talking and the kids all went outside to catch fireflies. I remember that I was wearing a purple shirt, and I was standing next to my Jeannine-sister and my cousin, Ryan, in the little yard on the left side of the house..

I remember that I had to run inside to go to the bathroom, and I was trying to hurry so that I wouldn't miss any of the fun outside. What I didn't know is that while I was in the bathroom, all the kids decided to come inside. Jeannine and Daisy had just gotten new beds, and they all came inside to see them.

I finished up in the bathroom and hurried back outside. By that time it had gotten really dark, and when I realized that I was all alone, I was so scared. I remember feeling stuck, like I was frozen outside. I have no clue why I didn't just go back inside, but I was very little. And people who are very little sometimes don't think clearly. I started to cry, and I remember looking up at the moon, because it was the lightest thing out there in the dark, and I was afraid of the dark.

Eventually, someone came out and found me (I seem to think it was Jeannine), and they said "Cassy, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" I had never been so happy so see someone in my small little life. I remember feeling suddenly very safe and calming down pretty fast. And then I remember going in with whoever found me in to see the new beds.

On another note:

It's in another language, but you get the jist.

A conversation

Portia: (telling me about a show or something) ...but he doesn't have a brother or a sister. They both died.

Me: Oh, that's very sad.

Portia: It's ok, they can die whenever they want.

I had nothing to say to that.

Fantastic!

Guys. Let's talk Harry Potter.
You may or may not know that I am a super fan. I own and have read every book, including Tales of Beedle the Bard, Quidditch Through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Today I read an article, announcing that J. K. Rowling has signed on with Warner Brothers to write a new movie set in the Harry Potter universe. It's going to be Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, starring Newt Scamander! It's set 70 years before Harry's lifetime, but it's still the wizarding world. AND, it starts in New York!
American wizards! EEP!
Words can not express how excited I am.

Check it out here, here, and here.

Allen

So I have a nephew named Allen, who is super cool. He reads J. K. Rowling and J. R. R. Tolkien. He has the entire Homestar Runner website memorized. He makes Star Wars origami.

He's seriously one of my best friends.

9/11/01

I remember exactly what I was doing 12 years ago, when I learned about the September 11th attacks.

I was in the 9th grade, leaving my 2nd hour band class, when someone called our band instructor and told him to turn on the tv. He did, and a few other students and myself gathered around to watch. I remember that my teacher swore, loudly, and I remember thinking how it must be serious if he did that in front of students.

The rest of the day, we watched the news in every class. I saw the towers fall, and I cried.

I don't think I'll ever forget that day.

Babies

This is me, at age 4, and Portia today:

And this is Margot, and baby Brandon:

I guess we have to claim them huh?

I am confident in me!

Those of you who know me well, know that I love me. I really do! I like the way I look, I like my personality, I even like my singing voice. But mostly, I love that when I look in the mirror, I see a strong, capable, beautiful woman.

Now, I don't tell you this to be high-and-mighty, or brag about my awesomeness. (Though, I am pretty awesome.)

No, I tell you this to open a discussion. Why is it that so many of us, especially women, hate on ourselves so much? 

It's ok to love you! It's ok to look at yourself and see your flaws, but also see your assets! You're allowed to look in the mirror and see that you hate your hair, or that you need to lose some pounds, or even that you need some work on some deep-seeded issues. But you're also allowed to see how spectacular you are!

I didn't always love me. It's taken me my whole life to get here. In fact, several years ago, I really hated me. I constantly compared myself to others, who I deemed smarter, prettier, more talented, and more worthy of praise. I actually went to a counselor for a while to help, and she taught me something to show me how my view was flawed.

She had me make a list of everything that was good about me. Everything. From "I am usually a kind person" to "I have great shaped eyebrows."

My list wasn't very long.

She then had me go to my family and friends, and have them make the same list. They were to write down all the things that made me awesome. Their lists were huge!

I remember looking at what they said, and seeing things about myself that were absolutely true, and that I'd never thought about, or never qualified as "good." I learned a lot about me.

And in the months that followed, whenever I'd hit a rough patch and start down that dark tunnel of self-hate, I'd pull out those lists and be reminded of what I really had going for me. 

I still have to remind myself every once in a while; everyone has bad days. But those days are few and far between. Even when I am really zoning in on my stretch marks, haven't showered in days, and have a zit the size of Mount St. Helens forming in the middle of my face, I can see that I am beautiful. And when I've had a bad mommy day, am angry with myself and exhausted, I can see that I am intelligent, compassionate, and a good wife and mother.

I wish every woman, especially the women I am close to in my life, could see what I see. Yes, I am talking to you, mom and sisters! 

Start loving you!

Perfection

There’s an old Yiddish saying, “There is one perfect child in the world, and every mother has it.”  

Ain't that the truth! 

My girls are so perfect!

Don't get me wrong, they're ornery, they fight, and they love to be naughty.

But they're perfect for me.

Plus, they're probably the prettiest babies on the planet!!