7.29.2016

Friday Favorites: Edition All the Tears

Y'all. I am a crier. Like I cry at every freaking thing under the sun. The good, the bad, the happy, the sad. The crazy. The normal. The mundane and the unbelievable. I cry. It's what I do.

So, here are some of my favorite tear jerk moments from this week...

The little things tears - I've been exploring the big sale and I honestly get so overwhelmed. I've had my eye on the "blardigan" for a while because I wear a cardigan in my house every single day. This purchase makes sense, but I wouldn't pull the trigger. And a certain guy I know knows I won't. I got this late night text from him on Sunday... 



The hysterical truth tears - If you don't follow Jen Hatmaker on any form of social media, then you are missing out on life. She was in rare form this week. And by rare form, I mean she was saying typical things in her perfect JH way that makes us all love and adore her.


And while she speaks the truth and you are now laughing and crying. The comments y'all. You gonna need to buy yoself some Depends because OH.MY.LAWD.... 


The reminiscing tears - Am I the only person that cries at movie previews? We watched the original Pete's Dragon with the kiddos last weekend in preparation for the remake. All the dang childhood tears y'all. 



The Olympic Tears -  The Olympics has been filling the space on my newsfeed between politicians and I'm so excited when a video pops up for me to watch. Because, let's face it, I'm a sucker for any type of sporting montage. This video gives me sappy eyes every single time. Radley couldn't really understand, but I think even Ryan had a glisten in his eye...




The happy tears - Y'all. I probably watched this 163 times. At least. I texted, group messaged, snap chatted and then committed to finishing the show again by November 25. In a time where America is crazy, we at least have the Gilmores... all the happy tears!


That's a Friday night dinner I surely won't miss! Hope your week was great!

Linking up with  AndreaErika, and Narci for Friday Favorites!


7.28.2016

Tiny Tales Thursday...

This tale isn't so much about something the kids did or said, rather it's my way of documenting the history that was made this week sealing for them a world of change.

Cindy and I were texting today and gabbing all about the tears we shed over this rendition of Fight Song...




Before you read another word, watch the video, pause and reflect on the greatness of  Lemon Breeland and Tami Taylor, and then wipe your eyes. Not because of it's catchy tune or A-list celebrities, not even because I think Hillary is the greatest, but because of what this really means.

As Cindy said, "Katy, our kids only know a world where America has a black president and a woman in the running."

Y'all.

Read that again.

Our kids only know a world where America has a black president and a woman in the running.

Political views aside - this is amazing. Right now, we are part of an incredible history of progression. As a woman, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a momma to two beautifully strong, fierce girls - this giant step forward in gender equality is huge. I can look them in the face and say without a doubt, "You can truly be whatever you choose to be."

And that is incredible.

Regardless of who you choose to vote for at the polls, let yourself sit in this moment. Please see it for the gift it is to this country. We are moving forward. We are moving beyond. We are moving to a bright future. Together.

It takes all of us. Hand in hand. Seeking to learn and grow from our differences. Respecting our differences. And truly loving each other in spite of our differences.

Because although we have come so far, we still have a long way to go. But we can get there. We will get there and when we do, our children will thank us.




**This post in no way is meant to cause negative remarks or comments. This is merely my way of saying that I am excited that history was made by having a woman as a presidential candidate. If you are mean, I will love you anyway. Because Jesus told me to.**

7.27.2016

Wild for Warby

I may have mentioned this before, but I am the world's worst blogger. I ordered some Warby's WEEKS ago so I could review their new summer line of specs and then I  clearly dropped the dang ball and never wrote a post. So, while this is later than intended, I'm not getting paid, I'm using all my own opinions and well, it's my blog so I'll review when I want to. 

(You are now singing that song, I hope.)

Let's start by me saying I love glasses. LOVE love LOVE glasses. I just prefer them to contacts for lots of reasons but since I don't have any prescription sunglasses and Texas is about an inch away from the sun, I'm usually in my contacts. So, since I'm in a constant search for some great sunglasses, this was the perfect opportunity. 


If you aren't familiar with Warby Parker, then allow me to introduce you. They have a great story about how and why they got started, but let's skip to my favorite part:

Almost one billion people worldwide lack access to glasses, which means that 15% of the world’s population cannot effectively learn or work. To help address this problem, Warby Parker partners with non-profits like VisionSpring to ensure that for every pair of glasses sold, a pair is distributed to someone in need.



Yep. For a RIDICULOUSLY reasonable price, you can get some awesome specs and help someone in need while doing it AND looking cute. 

#winning

I like this option because I do rotate contacts in for various reasons and my insurance only covers one or the other each year. WP allows me to see and be stylish. And this isn't even the best part.  



All those pictures you just scrolled through? Well, they were sent directly to my house FREE of charge for FIVE whole days as part of their home try-on program. They send you five frames that you select for five days and cover the shipping both ways. And if that wasn't enough - if you don't like any of them, you can choose five more.

And if that wasn't enough? They have AMAZING, top-of-the-line, incredible customer service! How incredible?? Well, you may want to sit down, but... REAL LIVE people ANSWER THEIR PHONES. 

I know. CRAZY!!! 

Okay, now to my top four picks...



1. Leighty Striped Sassafras - I should pick this on the name alone. I don't really need new eyeglasses but I do LOVE these. 

2. Banks Sea Smoke Tortoise - I think these ended up being my favorite. I'll admit that I wasn't aware the prescription sunglasses cost more than the eyeglasses. $95 is steal and $175 isn't awful, but it's a little harder to pull the trigger. 

3. Lowry Jet Black Matte - These looked much cuter online. They were light - kind of felt like all the promo glasses apartment complexes give out. Not a winner for me. 

4. Madison Rum Cherry - Total second place. I like the red, but the shape of the Banks has me all heart-eyed. 

What do you think? There are tons of others that I love but they weren't available for the home try-on. I may need to find a store, or just fly to Boston. Because that makes sense. :)

Have you tried Warby Parker? If yes, do you love them? If no, will you now? Tell me!!!


7.26.2016

Spiel the Beans: Summer Indulgence

Is it just me, or were we spieling the beans like 2 days ago? Shelly and I are loving this link-up and we are loving all of your posts but, sheesh this summer is flying by!! We went to Hobby Lobby this weekend and it was full of pumpkins and Christmas trees and I just can.not. We are going to hold on to every ounce of summer that we can, but before I start gabbing about all that I've been indulging on, I want to update you on something from my last post. If you remember my amazing insight into all things summer style, then you will recall I had to use pictures from Pinterest. This little number was one that I thought was both darling and doable...


Well, while we were in Baton Rouge, I came across a darling little striped dress at Target. 


It's a little longer, because, well... I found it in the maternity section. ::laughing while crying emoji:: But, y'all - it is so soft and so darling and since it's made for preggers, I fit in the XS. So, who's laughing now!?! I wore it to church on Saturday and I can tell it will be in heavy rotation. 

For the full effect... 


Clearly we are twins, me and Twigster. And to really pretend like I'm a total fashion blogger, I spiced it up with shoes. I kind of dig the stripes on stripes. 


But enough about that... let's get to indulgences.... now I don't want to make you completely jealous, but I have been indulging A LOT this summer. So just prepare yourself. 




Milk. Y'all. I love milk. I LOVE milk. And since my amazing experience with Whole30 in November, I have cut it dramatically from my diet. I don't really have any negative effects from milk, I just really enjoyed the results from cutting it among other things from my diet. But, y'all. I love it. Like drink it straight out of the container love it. I am going back on the wagon August 1. So until then, I will be eating all the cheese and drinking all the milk. 


So, apparently if I'm not drinking milk, I'm downing beer. (Just kidding, Mom). I've talked about this earlier this summer, but Ryan and I are loving this Prickly Pear. If you can find it, try it out - we LOVE it. 



I love reading and this summer I have taken the time to read and not just blogs! So far I've read The Bungalow, The Best Yes (not quite finished), The Royal We, and I'm currently enjoying The Knockoff. I've also gotten read a ton with the kids. Radley and I finished The Chamber of Secrets and we are almost half-way done with The Prisoner of Azkaban and Emersyn and I are enjoying The Secret Garden. Reading definitely feels like an indulgence, made even sweeter by the fact that I've been checking books out from the library - so fun!


My favorite indulgence by far is all the time I get to spend with this crew. It is not lost on me that the 9 weeks I get with the kids is a gift and I am so grateful for every moment of summer. The days filled with sunshine and swimming, puzzles and pjs, staying up late followed by sleeping in.  These really are the days and each one feels like an indulgence for sure!

Now it's your turn to dish on all of your summer treats! Please place a link back to your specific post URL and not your blog homepage and use the hashtag #spielthebeans on other social media!

Please place a link back to both hosts in either your post or on your party page so that others can link up too. It's a party, try to visit at least 2 other posts and show them some love!  This is the fun part! Be inspired, inspire someone else - don't just link and run!  

We would love, love, love for you to follow us on some form of social media!

Follow Shelly: {Instagram} {Bloglovin} {Pinterest} {Facebook
Follow Katy: {Instagram} {Bloglovin} {Pinterest} {Facebook}

ps. We are also both on Snapchat and pretty darn funny. You can find Shelly @queeninbetween1 and Katy @Katygking 

And don't forget to keep spieling the beans... 











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7.25.2016

InstaKings...

We had the most boring week of all time.

And. It. Was. GLORIOUS!!!!

After a long week away the girls were super excited to return home to their toys and are back on a Barbie kick. After my nightly "turn off every light the kids have left on" ritual, I walked in the playroom to find the biggest Barbie sleepover ever. The next morning, the girls informed me that they were all a family and this was their camping trip. 


Since Landry had been on a hiatus from a school that we still have to pay full-price for in the summer, her attendance wasn't optional this week. On Monday Holly came over to help me KonMari my closet. If you haven't been keeping up with the amazing tidying up happening in Holly's life then you are missing out. She is KILLING this process and I am super inspired. I've always been a crazy organizer (even in the 8th grade I alphabetized and filed my notes from friends) but this process is about being much more than organized. 

I decided that I was ready to tackle my closet and I could not be happier!


Holly helped me say yes to what brought me joy and toss the things that didn't. 
My bathing suits are in one of those bags on the floor so once the season is over, then they will be stored with all the beach towels and swimming supplies. 


Just a few tweaks here and there and I have so much more open space in there! Look at my scarves in that basket that we wren't using in the to room. Perfect. 


I really want to paint this back wall and put up a few smaller cork boards to hang all my sweet pics and notes from the kids and create a gallery wall that has a bit more order. 


My favorite part is that I have all the same coat hangers now - the goal was get only keep the amount of clothes as I have of huggable hangers. Isn't it purdy? 


AND - I have three empty drawers now! THREE! All of them in the dresser inside our room and not my closet. (I have two dressers and who really needs two dressers?) Y'all - check out my t-shirts... 

Thanks for hanging with me all morning, Holly!!! Tuesday the kiddos hung out with some of my students while I drove to Waco and back for a funeral. Wednesday's agenda included letting the kids rot their brains with television and electronics all day while I finally got to reading The Royal We. 




Thursday was our busiest day, we started the morning at the Food Bank helping stuff bags for senior citizens. It should be noted that this is the best box destroying crew in the Brazos Valley.



From there we headed to the dentist where everyone got great reports and kept the no cavity streak alive. No talk of braces yet so I'm holding out a false sense of hope that they will get my teeth and not need them at all. 


All that work had me exhausted, so I decided to sit down and finish my book. 452 pages in 36 hours is a new record for me and totally worth it. This book was so good; I immediately googled to see if there was any chance of a movie adaptation and there is! So excited!


We downloaded Pokemon Go this week so we stopped every now and then to catch some critters. Thursday night I took the kids to the park and met one of my sweet students there and we walked around for an hour or so playing. We definitely weren't the only ones with that idea and it was slightly humorous but also kind of awesome to see so many people outside walking around. (Even if they were playing a video game).


We celebrated with our 20+ Pokehaul (I just made that word up) with DQ. 
(And score - I had a gift card in my purse that covered the whole thing!)


Friday morning this girl woke up early so we had some fun 1:1 time building a castle. 


and playing with her favorite puzzles. Bebe got these for Emersyn for her first birthday and they have definitely gotten loved over the years. 


After we dropped Landry off at school, I felt like I needed to redeem myself and run an errand. So we went to the library and got more books. :)


I decided to see what all the Nordstrom Sale fuss was about and y'all - this is the first cardigan that caught my eye. HAHA. Of course it was. 
;)


Ryan got home that afternoon, got the car inspected, grabbed Landry and we headed up to the pool. In Texas, the greatest parking spaces are measured by shade, not closeness to the door. 


We proceeded to shut the place down. 


We wrapped up the week with pizza and Pete's Dragon. I was texting my DZ Lil Sis the entire time because we love this movie almost as much as singing the songs from it. Can't wait for the remake to hit theaters!


On Saturday we ran errands before dinner and church where we got to meet our new priest! Emersyn once again proved that she is 6 going on 16. There is a darling little craft store/antique shop next to Once Upon a Child so if you're local, check it out!


Today has been full of nothing at all except these two started to tackle this project. I'm guessing they will be done in October. 


And that's us in an instant!

Linking up with these fun ladies again... 

Biana from B Loved Boston 


and

KateAllison, and Valerie from 100 Happy Days!


Make sure to join me and Shelly tomorrow as we Spiel the Beans on our favorite summer indulgences!





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7.20.2016

MiniVacay Recap...

** The summer has gone to my head. I wrote this post over a week ago and then I never hit post. Long live summer.** 

We decided that we wanted a "simple summer" this year. No big trips - no pressure to plan the "perfect" vacation. We really just wanted time with We5Kings, so we decided on a weekend getaway to Galveston and it was maybe the best decision ever. 

We drove down to Houston last Thursday to hang with Ryan at his hotel and then headed to Galveston early on Friday. We hadn't been to Moody Gardens and we knew the kids would love it - perfect combo of outdoor/indoor fun to beat the Texas heat. On Friday we tackled the Aquarium and none of us were disappointed by the giant amount of fun that was in store. 

I couldn't have planned this picture better if I tried... 



I really tried hard not to take 1000 pictures - I took pictures when the kids requested them and only when I thought it was "worth" the stop. This kept us moving through the aquarium and allowed me to take THEM in and not some random photo-op. It's amazing what almost a decade of parenting can teach you.

What do you think? Should we be penguins for Halloween? 


We spent about a half an hour in the "tunnel" watching the fish swim over head - trying to get a glimpse of every single shark and clearly searching for Nemo and Dory. I did want a picture of us here and wifey of our cameraman didn't want to move. 


What do you think? I'm getting good at the photoshop! 


 As we were heading out Radley spotted this nurse shark and had to compare this size which clearly meant the girls did, too. 

(We were dying at all the Christmas decorations - even fish and sharks celebrate Christmas in July. HA!)


Moody Gardens turned out to be even better than we expected. There was tons to see, not too crowded and INCREDIBLY priced. Since we were staying the weekend, we didn't feel rushed to go through everything at once - we knew we could spend two days looking around. And since we are a family of 5, the annual membership was the smartest purchase by far. This gave us access to all 3 pyramids and their newly added "private beach" and water park.  


I snapped about 10 total pictures including this one to prove Ryan and I exist and we finished our Friday in the sun before heading to dinner. 


We decided Saturday would be our day at the beach. We slept in, grabbed some grub at the hotel, slathered on the sunscreen and headed out.


One family picture to prove we were all there and it was time for fun!





These two are never too far from each other. 




I know that birds creep lots of people out, but we kind of LOVE feeding the seagulls. 


The birds were big fans, too. 




We stayed at the beach all day, breaking for about a two hours to grab lunch at the hotel and swim in the pool before heading back for more. We finally left around 5oclock to wash up and go get dinner. Landry just couldn't make it which basically meant the day was perfect. 


We rounded out the weekend by returning to Moody Gardens on Sunday to explore the Rainforest - which was my favorite of the three pyramids. And as much as Radley really really REALLY loves sea life, I think even he swayed to this exhibit. 


It's hard not to when the animals are so CLOSE to you. 


I didn't even have to zoom - this guy was lounging by the door so he could enjoy a cool breeze every now and then. Monkeys are smart. 


They do a great job of keeping things eye level for the kiddos and really keep their attention by making everything so engaging. 


I loved being able to tell stories of my trip to Costa Rica and showing them everything I was able to see in a real rain forest. 





I love when the kids insist on taking a picture of us. 


Emmy was in HEAVEN - she LOVES parrots and insisted on taking tons of pictures AND sending a video to Gigi. 


And this dude followed Radley and his shoelaces around - it was the funniest thing ever but he was convinced that those things were food. 


So many beautiful creatures to see... 


and I wanted to plant each of these in my yard immediately.


So thankful for a weekend away and so happy that we chose to do something "in our own backyard". 


Can't wait to go back - Radley has already requested it for his birthday!

:)