A Day in Amish Country

Last week my oldest boy and I took off for an afternoon in Amish Country... Shipshewana, Indiana!!

They have the BEST outdoor "flea market"!

Gavin said to me "I wonder if they have Bakugan there?"

I told him I didn't think they would, its not that kind of place...

and what do you know, the first aisle we go down has a booth with misc. things and it had a huge box of... BAKUGAN! 

Boy did he prove me wrong, lol!

He had money he earned from getting A's on his report card, so he happily shopped away:)

Farther down that aisle was a booth for ME!

Look at this super cute America sign... I'm SO kicking myself for not getting it now:(

This booth had everything 50% off!

I stumbled upon these 2 things but couldn't decide which I wanted...

I looooved this beat up white chair; and have been wanting one for my front porch, to put a flower pot on it!

It was $20 marked half off for $10!!!

I told Gavin if it was there when we were done shopping, I might get it.

Then I saw this there too...

Looooved this plant stand and REALLY wanted it, and it was SUPER heavy!

It was marked down to $10 too; what a STEAL!

It even came with the flowers too!

So on our way back, I stopped and bought this flower stand... passed on the beat up chair though:(

I want to spray paint this flower stand white or yellow to make it pop on our front porch; right now it kinda blends into the red brick on our home.

Here are some other cute things of the day...

Is Mr Frog adorable?

Oh what I would have bought that day if I could have spent $100, lol!!

This booth had all these little wooden signs for $1 each...

Super cute little signs!

I picked up one for my Red White and Blue Swap partner Shawnee:)

Look at this sign... HILARIOUS!

Does anyone else ever feel like this at home?

Hehehe:)

After only 2 1/2 hours of cruising down the aisles and an elephant ear later, we had to call it quits:(

Old man Gavin (8 years old) was "too  hot" and his back HURT too bad to keep browsing!

Men, can't handle shopping I tell ya!!

So we headed to the truck and blasted the AC...

Here I am modeling my FAKE Coach sunglasses... yep cost me $5!!

Wooo-hooo!

Gavin said they looked cute on me... awww! ♥

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We were off to lunch then...

We passed the Horse and Buggy "parking lot" on the way out;

Gavin and I talked about how the Amish live their lives simply and very different from how we do.

Made me wonder how it would feel to live a day in the life of an Amish family; I bet we would have a greater appreciation for all that we have!

(Hmmmm a GREAT lesson to be learned there!)

Hello Mr Horse!

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We went to eat at my FAVE restaurant there... The Blue Gate!

Its like a giant white house with a HUGE wrap-around porch... loooove ♥

He's SO handsome and loving his new Bakugan he bought:)

Isn't this wagon full of Petunia's so pretty?

At lunch we had homemade bread with apple jelly... yum!
I had a Fresh Fruit Plate with apples, oranges, pineapples and grapes; chicken salad, cottage cheese and hard boiled eggs- so good and refreshing on a HOT summer day!

Gavin had homemade applesauce, chicken and noodles on top of mashed potatoes... yummmy!

It was a nice and quiet day together ♥

Thanks for joining us on our lil trip, have a GREAT day!

Noelle ♥

Me!!

Who knew I could pull off a flower?

Cute!!

Be back to chat later:)

Buggin' Me

They won't stop buggin' me!! :)

Hey friends!

One of these days I'll be able to get together a FABULOUS blog post, till then I will keep being "bugged" by my babies:)

Really its been tons of fun swimming with them on the days we don't have thunderstorms!

But I am SO pooped at the end of the night, I go right to bed- no blogging needed to relax.

A quick rundown of what I've been up to:

Getting my Red White and Blue swap together, planning and preparing for my BFF's oober cuter baby shower that was yesterday- she even asked me to be the babies godmother ♥,  swimming and getting super tan with my boys, job hunting (yep!), trying to clean house, mowing the grass, had a LUAU party at my house, took a day trip to Amish country with my oldest- too fun!

WHEEEEWW~~

I'm hoping to get back to visiting you all real soon:)

Noelle ♥

Come Visit later!

Please come back by later this evening to see my addition to the Wedding Blog Party!!

I am super busy getting this ready for a baby shower this weekend... whew!

Here's a sneak peek of my wedding...

Monday Happy List :)

Today I've linked up with Mamarazzi to share my Happy List, a couple days late but BETTER late than NEVER...

#1 on the Happy List...

My youngest son Gage got his SUMMER Swap package from his partner Brody last Friday!! My hubby text me when I was at work if it was ok for him to open it and I said NOOO!! (lol)

I needed to be home to witness the facial expressions as he opened his mail!!

So here's what Gage got...

A cool water squirter and a whistle along with...

A whole FUN box full of individually wrapped BOYISH goodness!!

Gage with all his loot!!

He got: popcorn, playdoh, toy cars, a Shrek coloring books, pom poms for crafting, a grown your own herb kit (way cool!), gummy sour sharks (yum!)...

Chalk, 2 soft baseballs, some powdered candy and his first pair of goggles!

He was SO excited about the goggles!

And OMGoodness, this is the GENIUS idea... its called a POPSICLE "SNUGGIE", loove it!

Its made from felt and you are to slide it onto the bottom of the popsicles shown to keep little fingers from getting too cold!! Gage's swap partners momma EM made this and embroidered Gage's name on it!!

COOLNESS I tell ya!!

Plus she included the 3 popsicles too:)

She also made Gage his own "MAN BAG" which I was bursting with laughter about because he loooves to carry bags around and calls them his "purse"!! LOL

The front side of the MAN BAG...

The back side of the MAN BAG with a Letter G on it, too cool!!

Gage has had a BLAST playing with all his goodies, play doh has been the #1 fave, then the cars...

Cute!!

Here's what WE sent to lil Brody, Gage's partner...

Brody is 1 so I had fun picking out lil' guy stuff for him!

Got him some Gerber snacks for his lil teeth to enjoy, his mom said he's loves balls so we sent him 2 water splash balls, a cute SUN t-shirt, an Elmo bowl for his snacks, some cool big boy crayons which are triangle shaped which is easy for lil hands to hold! Brody is a HUGE fan of Yo Gabba Gabba so I printed off some coloring sheets for him and made a lil coloring book.

Also made him this Yo Gabba Gabba sign for his room...

I'm pretty pleased how it turned out!

I used a $1 wooden egg shaped sign and Modge Podged it with some colorful paper, the Yo Gabba Gabba peeps faces were downloaded from www.nickjr.com; I Modge Podged those on too then added letter sticks for Brody's name and the YGG name!

Here's the back side...

Just used some fun polka dot paper, hot glued the ribbon on and some fun buttons to hide the bottom of the ribbon strings! Wa-la!!

Yo Gabba Gabba goodness!

Em, the lil boys mom said when he saw the sign he went, " GABBA!" Awww:)

#2 on my Happy List...

PICNIK!!!

Holy Moly, I'm probably the last person on earth to use picnik for photo editing and fun but I got sucked into it today and am IN LOOOOOVE ♥

Did you notice my new blog header?

I MADE IT!!!!

YES INDEED!

WITH picnik!!

Ooooh it was a pain in the butt at first but I mastered it:)

I also played around with a fave pic of my boys too...

Here's the BEFORE...

 

And here's the AFTER... "picnik-ed" style...

Ahhh I love it!

I brightened the color, softened the edges, added a border and text!!

Its turns an "ordinary" looking photo into "extraordinary"!!

#3 on my HAPPY LIST...

A MOMMY TIME OUT!

Have you ever given yourself one of these?

If so, you SHOULD!

I've been an emotional wreck lately!

Lots of tears shed over Fathers Day and not having my dad here, I've had a ROUGH time with my boys FIGHTING ALL DAY LONG!!

I'm so stressed with them, I feel like I can't handle my MOM job right now:(

I hate feeling that way but I know when I do its time for a...

MOMMY TIME OUT!

So after dinner tonite, I left for an hour and went to the cemetary to visit my dad, my nanny who's 86th birthday is today is Heaven and my poppy who passed when I was 17. I visited each of them, talked to them and cried my eyes out. I went back to my truck and sat for another 30 minutes crying and just reflecting on how much I still NEED those 3 in my life!!

Once I got myself together, I drove to McDonalds for a treat...

   

A Large Unsweetened Iced Tea and a...

Caramel sundae with NUTS!
Cost me only $2 plus tax but it helped me feel better!!

I realize that I will never be a perfect mom...
I am HIGH stress and unfortunately that rubs off on my boys at times:(
But we make the best of each day that we can and look at the GOOD that came from that day!
I think thats the only way to get by when times are tough!!

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Thanks for visiting me today and reading through this looong post!
I have Gavin's KIDS swap to show still and my SUMMER Flip Flop swap to show too, but I will save that for another day.. this tired momma needs to hit the hay!

Noelle ♥

grrrr!!!

Ok gals...

I need some help!!

Trying to change my layout to a 4th of July theme and EVERY STINKIN TIME I go to copy and paste a layout code, I get a STUPID LIL message saying "correct blanks..." and parts of my code are hi-lighted in red!!!

What does that mean?

I've had trouble since Blogger add this new STUPID Design template option- I DISLIKE IT!!

Anyone know what the heck is going on???

Noelle

To MY Dad in Heaven ♥

To my dad on Fathers Day,

Dad this is my first Fathers Day without you and its been hard.

As I shopped for Fathers Day cards for the boys to give their grandpas, I felt the hole in my heart growing wider as I thought of how I would buy cards for you from me and from the boys; how I'd search high and low to find a nice gift for you, even though you'd say you didn't need anything.

I still cannot believe you are gone from us forever.

I cannot believe that you were stuck in that miserable awful hospital for two months.

What the hell was I thinking letting you stay there?

I had a choice to bring you home but I felt that MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS would take better care of your health than I knew how to, and LOOK what happened to you.

My heart aches daily to think of how we could have fulfilled your last few weeks with daily visits from us, how you could have seen your grandsons on Halloween, how you could have walked me down the aisle on my wedding day and maybe even had one last Christmas with us.

HELL maybe you could have had more time to live if you were back home getting proper care.

I will always feel like I failed you dad, that I could have tried harder to make things better for you.

I was so scared that I'd do something wrong, that I'd hurt you or something.

I never thought once that things would have ended up the way they did for you and I am SO sorry that you were so far away.

I wish  you were here with me now, so I could tell you all these things and give you a great big hug.

I wish you could give me that "A-OK" sign with your fingers like you did after your surgery when you couldn't speak.

I wish I had more time to tell you I Love You and I'm sorry for being a brat for so many years when I was younger. I wish I still had you here as my daddy.

I love how much you loved your little grandsons and how you reassured me that they really were good lil boys and that I was doing a good job raising them.

Oh how it hurts to have so many words left unsaid when a loved one passes away.

Dad, I hope you are in peace today; that all your pain is gone and you are able to look down upon us and smile. I hope that you will look over us and keep us safe.

I miss you so much and so does Andrew, he really always needed you.

Poor little Gage still asks for you, he wants to know where sick Papa is and if you are better. I know you'd love to hug and squeeze that chubby lil boy. And you'd laugh so much listening to all the crazy things Gavin says all the time. I know how much he meant to you!

We do miss you so much and would give anything to have you back with us again.

Just know today that you are very  much on my mind dad and I will always be your little girl, I love you dad ♥

~Noelle~

Change is GOOD!

TGIF!!

Man did we get blasted with a STORM tonite!

Our poor neighbors have 2 huge trees down in their backyard; I am glad they are safe and they didn't fall on their home or OURS, yikes!

I'm super behind on getting pics posted on our bedroom makeovers:(

I changed up the wall decor in our living room though ♥

I am So IN LOVE with this frame I used for our wedding pics- well a few of my fave ones at least!

I got this GORGEOUS frame at Big Lots a couple months back for $15!!

I also moved some of my Paris inspired decor out of the bedroom and into the living room on the large wall...

Blurry sorry:(

This Paris framed art is my all time FAVE ♥

Years ago I had a HOME INTERIORS party and got it for half off; I love it!

Its always been a romantic fantasy of mine to visit Paris one day with my husband.. many years from now though!!

Since we lightened the colors of the bedroom, I took this pic out of it but there was NO way I could get rid of it, so I moved it into the living room. I am going to "run" with a Paris- inspired theme to our living room now:)

Here's a close up of the wrought iron baskets I have hanging in there; its a set of 3 diff. sizes also from that HI party that I NEVER had hanging in my home... WTH? WHY NOT? 

I LOOOVE them!!

The flowers in this basket were left over from our wedding ♥

My mom made them into a bouquet and left it at our house after the wedding.

I came across it and had no idea where it came from...LOL!!

I had to ask my mom what the heck it was from!!

She's sneaky;)

Found these LOVE-ly Paris inspired items at Hobby Lobby that I have my eye on...
need a couple good coupons to get them!!

Love this clock $14.99!!

Metal sign $9.99!!

My oldest son is taking off with me next Wednesday to a fun outdoor flea market in Amish Country for the day:) I can't wait to see some romance inspired finds from there ♥

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Oh I sit and imagine walking through the streets of France with my hubby one day ♥
To see the Eiffel Tower, OH MY!!
A girl can dream, right?!

Have a LOVE-ly weekend ♥
Noelle

Love this one ♥

Hurry and head over to Mamarazzi's blog for her

FAB-U-LOUS Red White and Blue Swap!
Click HERE to see what I got last year:)

This is my last swap for the Summer so I gotta make it ROCK!!

Noelle ♥

Keeping Busy :)

Hey friends!

As I said before, with taking the summer off from college; I planned to craft more and play more for the sake of my sanity!
 

Well I've been scrapbooking...

Mainly working to get caught up in my boys 2 albums, so I can HOPEFULLY start our wedding album in August!!! ♥

I've also been doing some crafting...

Plain wooden letter U, turned into...

Added some patriotic paper and some Modge Pode, these 2 stars were sitting around from last year so I hot glued them to the side of the U (for USA). 

You'll have to wait and see the FINISHED product;)

Also been working on baby shower cuteness for 

my best friends shower on the 27th of this month...

Popcorn Baby Shower Favors...

The mom and dad to be LOVE popcorn so we thought this would be a cute favor!

I created the label with a program I have; the yellow oval says "OUR little bundle will be popping out soon!" CUTE!

Here's the back side...

The shower is JUNGLE themed; I can't wait to see it all come together!

 

Also been busy finishing up the boys swap packages for the Kids Only Summer Swap; they are STOKED to get their goodies in the mail:)

Hope you have a good day!

I'm off to get some blonde hi-lites added back into my hair today then working on some more baby shower stuff tonite with my BFF!

Noelle ♥