Insta Friday - Week of May 19-25

Welcome to this week's Instagram photos!

Truthfully, I'm way late posting these, but who's keeping track, right?

*smiling*

May 19 - 'a favorite place'

I'm pretty much in love with our Tuscan side patio.

This photo only shows about half of it.

*awwwww, it's so comfy and cozy*

Insta Friday - Week of May 12-18

Share this week of my Instagram photos with me!

I LOVE Instagram!

A darling gift of Ralph the Bear, a few packages of cookies,

 a cute pink box, and a very sweet note 

arrived via UPS from my thoughtful daughter, 

Shelby, who's working this summer in Tennessee.

Made my Saturday!

Girl's Camp Banner and Other Camping Decor :)

Yep, I said it.  I decorate when I go camping.

Doesn't everyone???

Well, okay, if I were going camping with Cowboy 

I wouldn't decorate...very much.

He just doesn't get it.

Nor does the rest of my family.

But when I go to CHURCH camp, and it's pretty much ALL GIRLS, 

then totally yes, I'm DECORATING!

The woods are gorgeous to gaze upon, that much is true!

But when you're looking at the CABIN, well, it just needs a little sumn sumn.

Or....maybe......a LOT.

My cabin mom partner, Ronnie and I LOVED sprucing things up a bit!

Since summer is almost here and we're about to embark on another girl's camp adventure, I thought I'd share some ideas on how you can liven up your camping quarters.

You can also see HERE what gifts I gave the girls each day.

CAMP.  IS.  FUN!

First of all, I made this banner

 out of a bunch of super fun paper that I already had in my stash.

(THIS is why you need a stash, ladies!  

So that when you get around to making something with it,

 it feels like it's free......lol)

I staple-gunned it to the beam, one corner at a time.  

Yeah, it was a pain, but so worth it.  

Dontcha just love the color and joy it adds to our cabin porch?

Ronnie brought the pink sheer curtains (***BIG HEARTS*** for those!)

and the pink feather boa!

All we were missing was buckets and buckets of pink paint and an air sprayer!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was quite simple,

and yet, it was one of my favorite.

I'm just so happy with life right now,

my husband, my children, church, community, everything.

(except my weight....but there's always gotta be something, right?  lol)

Saturday Highlights:

The UPS guy delivered this

Girl's Camp Handouts and Gifts

Only one week of school left, and it's almost that time again for....

GIRL'S CAMP!

If you're like me

you're already thinking about and preparing ways

 to enrich the experience at camp this summer.

Last year I had the awesomely fabulous privilege of being a cabin mom

 (for the first time) 

over a group of 14 year old girls.  

Ohmygosh, what fun we had!

I loved girl's camp as a youth growing up in Las Vegas!!  

My young women leaders were fun, inspired, and dedicated!

But I gotta say, camp in Vegas was like REAL camping.

I like girl's camp in Arizona MUCH better!

More on that later

....watch for my upcoming post on how to

 make your camp experience more beautiful!  lol

Anyway,

Six days, six handouts

(any of these would also be great to give to your secret sister!)

Our camp theme was 

Happily Ever After

and a lot of focus was on recognizing that you are a daughter of God

which makes you royalty!

And on being prepared to be married in the temple

DAY ONE

Princess Survival Kit

This is the front of a card I made for each girl.

I actually got the 'Princess in training' graphic from my Silhouette software.

We used the same design to make t-shirts for the girls in our ward

(which is different from the girls in my cabin

...although I did have three of my ward girls in my cabin

...which was FUN!)

The inside of the card

The other cabin mom and I signed our names under 'Your Cabin Queens'

I thought this might break the ice

 and let them know right away that we were there for them.

Here is their 'survival kit' that was placed with the card onto each of their pillows.

Insta Friday - Week of May 5th-11th

I've linked up over at

Instagram is my very favorite app on my smart phone. 

 I love seeing the quick pictures and short stories of my friends

 I follow and I love the quick and easy feedback from my friends who follow me back.  

If you're not on Instagram,

 you're missing a little piece of joy and fun from your day.  ;)

Here is every Instagram picture I posted this past week:

Maddie playing with my phone...doing some self-portraits

 while being bored at her brother's basketball game last Saturday.

  She was lovin the LemeCam filter. 

 The boys/men say this looks like a jail mug shot.  

They just don't know anything about cool filters, now do they?  haha

PS: we were at Cortez High School in North Phoenix.....

this is where Alice Cooper went to high school 

and I'm sure the school he was referring to when he wrote 

SCHOOOOOOL'S.  OUT.  FOR.  SUMMER!

Welcome Colby!

We just became grandparents today...

FOR THE EIGHTH TIME!

Welcome to this beautiful wonderful world, Colby!

Can't wait to meet you in July!!!

Congratulations Tara, Kyle and new big sister Makenna!

(p.s. I never looked that good right after having a baby....sheesh, Tara!)

S.W.A.G. Something We All Get!

It's been a challenge to write about my experience 

of attending SNAP (a conference in Utah for creative bloggers)

because there is just so much to tell 

and I can't figure out where to start.

So, I'm just gonna start with

SWAG!

I had never heard the word SWAG used this way until 

I attended my first blogging conference a year ago.

I'm still trying to understand specifically where that term comes from.

Someone recently told me it stands for

Something We All Get

THIRTY FOUR

THIRTY-FOUR 

IS MY FAVORITE NUMBER TODAY!

No, it's not my age ... I'm much older

Grady (above) is much younger

I do not have 34 kids (but close)

It's warmer than 34 degrees in Arizona.  Much.

It's not my IQ

or Grady's IQ.....

Grady is 17 years old.

A Junior in high school.

Decent grades, but not perfect.

He's smart.

A lot of times I don't understand what he's talking about.

For his birthday he wanted a t-shirt that has the periodic tables on it.

I don't know what a periodic table is.

Even after staring at the shirt.

I also got him a physics tie.

He was SUPER happy about it.

I don't know physics either.

I know baker's twine, paper and ink.

Doubling and tripling the recipe is the extent of my math wizziness.

He wasn't interested in reading until about 2 weeks before he started kindergarten.

2 weeks later he could read fluently.....from the scriptures.

Turns out Hop On Pop was a turn-off for him.

In kindergarten he wrote a story about a fountain.

His teacher was impressed that he could spell fountain 

and rhyme it with mountain.

In first grade he read the first four Harry Potter books.....by himself.

By second grade his teacher was having to get creative 

with his spelling words because the 'normal' list wasn't a challenge.

So she gave him words like

DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID (aka DNA)

I still can't even pronounce that word or remember all of the syllables when I try.

He always got 100% on his spelling tests.

A few years ago, in junior high, he took first place in the regional math challenge...

while he was getting an 'F' in his math class.

I guess he can't be bothered with paperwork.

So what does all of this have to do with the number THIRTY-FOUR?