46/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Peyton: made some changes regarding electronics in the house.
Lia: joking at dessert time.
Austyn: made some changes regarding electronics in the house ;)
Tayt: ready for school. 
Nash: always hot cocoa immediately upon waking.
Drew: her last play on an electronic for awhile.
Meg: all about giving me ulcers lately. she climbs.

etsy Wednesday

I'm wayyyy behind on my 52 of 2013 project and doing equally as terrible with my etsy posts. Since I've been in the shopping mood since our recent trip to Mall of America, I thought I'd play a teeny tiny bit of catch up with the etsy likes. I could spend meaningless days on etsy, but I would love every second of it!

I'm in *love* with this cutting board! This would be amazing for holiday celebrations :)

Wisconsin cutting board  $48

Just added a pair of boots to my wardrobe while on our MOA trip so I'm excited to find some cute leg warmers.

heart knit boot cuffs  $28

I don't change my jewelry often (or for long before I switch to my originals) but this would be adorable for the few pieces I do have.

oval platter  $42.50

These are just tooooo adorable!

lavender lip balm  $7.73

With Christmas fast approaching, this little guy would look adorable anywhere in the house until the tree is up.

personalized felt owl  $40

I have no idea what I would do with these, but they were too adorable not to share :)

printable matchbox labels  $15

personalized handwriting necklace  $149

so festive!!!

glitter gift tags  $6

44/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Peyton: teenager mode.
Lia: not impressed. making Meg breakfast.
Austyn: always writing something.
Tayt: working on his reading.
Nash: who knows.
Drew: four eyes.
Meg: also not impressed.

One, two, skip a few… that's the new motto for my 52 project. Only 8 weeks left of this year. Hard to believe. I'm going to try my hardest to finish the year off strong. No promises. If you're worried about missing the kids between these posts, make sure to follow us on Instagram… here  :)

one!

I don't know how it happens so quickly, but another year has gone by. Baby after baby, they still grow up. We celebrated Meg's first birthday almost a month ago now, but I thought I'd share a little of her day here as well. 

This one… she's turned/turning into quite the spit fire. No surprise there. She is number 7. Nonetheless, she is such a treat. Easy newborn, easy baby, easy toddler. Let's keep it goin ;)

everyone loves cake!

and then there were gifts :)  (thank you everyone!)

side note: my baby is still super tan… snot!

I couldn't have asked for a better way to end her birthday day. She let me rock her to sleep, and I just watched her sleep. Someday this will be extremely creepy. Until then, like the other kids, I'll continue to sneak a peak at least once a night.  :)

go ahead and reminisce on all this chub and this amazing day :)

first pickling

I'm reminiscing back to when the weather was above 40. I miss it. Regardless, we're moving right along to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Time never slows around here. But back when the weather was warmer, I pickled my first batch of pickles. ALL BY MYSELF. My crazy neighbor harvested a good load of pickles for me, but I finally did this process alone. I was pretty smitten with myself when all was said and done. Sadly, this is about all I did with regard to the garden this year. I'm failing. Sorry, crazy neighbor.  :(

Because said crazy neighbor is The Best Neighbor Eva, she brought me some goodies to help me make it through my first independent pickling session. And the best pickling kit ever. I'm so thankful to have her! If I remember correctly, the whole process took me 3 hours, not too bad.

the amazing kit

let the process begin - prepping

'helper'

ready for stuffing

{insert official name of this process}  ;)

Pickles were never so beautiful until this day. *Proud moment!* ;)

After the pickling was done, I ran some errands and came home to a lovely note from my crazy neighbor. She's too kind. After talking with her later, I found out 'we' canned 90+ pints of pickles… of which 8 were the batch I did... uhhh… good job, Courtney? Glad I could contribute ;)