holidays rule

Hope you all had a great holiday! Ours was very successful. Brian and I both took most of the day off of work Wednesday and had a fun tim getting the house clean and getting the last of our family room put together (he even vacuumed the whole house for me!! :) )

Having everyone bring a dish made it not too stressful for us. We did the turkey, which my parents taught us how to do- pretty easy actually. We had 20 people, multiple sides of the family which was good.

How was yours?!

 











my sister and our wonderful guys


My aunt, me, my cousin and my sister


All the women in my family- my mom and her 2 daughters and her sister and her 3 daughters and my cousin's 2 year old. We had lots of fun growing up together.

sitting at the adult table

Brian and I are hosting our first Thanksgiving this year now that we have a house big enough for everyone! Thank goodness for parents who help us out.  Brian and I are blessed that our families do Thanksgiving all together, including his sister's in-laws as well! My mom helped me organize all of the prep so we created a timeline:

3 weeks before// invite everyone and has them to RSVP
2.5 weeks before// gather RSVPs & inspiration
2 weeks before// create menu and share with everyone what they can bring
1.5 weeks before// grocery shop for what you can
1 weeks before// set table
week of// clean house & shop for & prepare everything else

Have you hosted Thanksgiving at your house yet? Any tips?

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from my grandma

My grandma passed away this past February after a long, full, sassy life. My grandpa has sold their house and as he was going through everything and invited all of us grandgirls over to take a few pieces that reminded us of our grandma. It was a really fun night going through the house with my cousins, talking about all of the memories we had there growing up. 4 of the 5 of us girls (plus a newer addition):

I wanted to share with you the things I grabbed:

I'm excited to find places in my new house to display them!
Do you have heirlooms?
How do you incorporate them in to your decor?

bend shots!!

We're back! We had such a fun relaxing weekend being really loud and silly together. Family is so fun and important. Brian and I feel so blessed to get to spend lots of time with our siblings and their significant others :) I love that we are building memories for the future and a foundation for our kids of a close family who genuinely enjoys each others company.

The weather ended up being really crappy, clouds, rain and thunder so our plans changed a little bit from hiking and floating the river and getting really tan. We walked around downtown Bend, walked around the Deschutes River, watched movies, played games and had a FAB dinner at 10Barrel Brewing Company and I had yummy gluten free pizza! Wanted to share with you just a few shots from our fun time!! How was your weekend? What did you all do?

teapots

2 years ago my mom's best friend passed away. She was an incredible woman. So giving, so loving. She played a really special role in my life as she did not have any kids of her own. The love of her life passed 20 some years ago and she had decided at the point that she would not ever love anyone else as much. I miss her so much. She was an incredible woman. There are so many things that I am going to remember about her. She loved to cook, craft, decorate, shop, thrift and just all around make things more fun. She added a little pazaz to everything she did. One thing Zandra always told me was important was to have a collection. While she was sick, right before her final months she picked with me what I should collect. We decided tea pots. We celebrated Christmas with Zandra every year a few days before or after Christmas. We would have a feast at her house my family and her. The Christmas before she passed she bought me 2 teapots and lots and lots of tea. When I saw this picture it reminded me so much of how I miss her and how wonderful she is. So many of my passions come from her. Her and my mom used to dream up so many things, into their 50's. They started multiple businesses together and always did what made their hearts happy, I thank her so much for that idea and for doing that.

{via under lock and key}

looove my mom

Happy Mothers day to my wonderful mom!! LOVE YOU!!!!

(5 followers away from my 1st giveaway!!!!!!)

favorite people

My husband and my sister are my best friends. They are 2 of the greatest people that I know. I love when I realize how young we are; there is so much life ahead of us, we get to have so many years together with our families and I can't wait. I am excited for her and her husband to live close to us, for our kids to get to go to Sunday school together, for Brian and her husband to be best friends and to get to grow and love and support each other for the rest of our lives.

I feel so grateful and blessed to have a sister who lives life like I like to live it as I realize how different we could be if we didn't both love the Lord and how much harder that would make our relationship and our future. It was my freshman year of college when I really realized how important having a sister was, how special and how blessed I am. She HAS to be my best friend, she has to love me no matter what, she has to be there for me, she has to help me raise my kids, she has to let me borrow her clothes.  (I realize she doesn't have to but I'm the only sister she has too so she has no other choice if she wants the same in return) . Friends will come and go (hopefully not all but some) but a sister is forever. I always tell Brian that I hope we can have 2 girls so that they understand the bond 2 sisters can have. I realize that my sister and I really get to experience all of this because of Jesus and what He has done in both of our lives to let us be on the same page, and THAT is why I am grateful.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

A few favorites from being an Irish girl myself...

1. The Secret of Roan Inish: great movie with a classic legend from Ireland

2. Irish Soda Bread: incredibly amazing..

3. Four Leaf Clover: how pretty is this?

4. The Reilly Family Crest: love the history, story and legends behind it.

5. Potatoes: a food favorite

6. The Countryside: Although I've never been to Ireland, I hope to some day, I am captivated by these images of the countryside. My dad has lots of pictures form traveling over there with relatives and their cottages looking similar to this, so enchanting.

What are some of your favorites? Irish or your family's heritage?

pictures

my sweet sister made me these back in the summer and remembered them and wanted to share. she rocks my world.

I love my

sister