Pretty FAB 4th!

Hope you all had a FAB 4th of July!

I ate WAAAY too much; but it was OH SO GOOD!

Is it possible to stick to a diet during holidays?

We went Saturday to my in-laws lake cottage for food, swimming and fireworks.. fun times!

My Gagie was such a HAM in the water- swimming away for  hours!

My oldest son was too cool to take many pics for mom as he played with the kids his age, sighhh!

I am LOVING this pic!

Way cool action shot, jazzed up the color a bit with PICNIK (have I mentioned ENOUGH how much I LOVE that site?! LOL)

The water he jumps in is probably 14-18 inches deep at max, he loves it!

The neighbors to the left, had dumped a huge mound of sand that was the #1 fave of the kids that day!

Here's my nephew, niece and a friends daughter diggin' away.

Here's my happy swimmer again...

I ♥ that happy face:)

An attempt for a cute shot of my hubs and me... ummm yea he was caught in mid-sentence, lol!

Cutest lil CHUBBERS Baby C, love them hams of hers:)

Gage sneakin' in a game of corn hole!

I played it for the 1st time that nite, pretty fun:)

Awww!

See what I mean... Gavin is TOO COOL to take pics anymore, lol!

And Gage can't get enough of the camera ♥

FIREWORKS....yeaaaaa!

I have the WORLDS SLOWEST camera:(

So it is a GOAL of mine to try to shoot a couple SWEET firework pics each year and I nabbed this one while we were out on the boat, watching the fireworks!!

We didn't get home till midnight; was so tired!
Thank goodness the kids slept till 10 am on Sunday....

On Sunday, my mom and brother Andrew came over- along with my brother from Arizona's girlfriend and her sis. 

We had tons of food and my hubby put on a pretty awesome firework show for us at dark!

Cute banner from Targets Dollar Section

My All American Cookie Pizza, got the recipe off the back of the Red White and Blue Star marshmallows!

It was so easy to make-

the crust was a package of refridgerated sugar cookie dough, baked.

Then it was 1 pack soft cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla- mixed together and spread on the cookie pizza, then topped with strawberries and blueberries and the Star marshmallows... yum!

I also dipped strawberries in white chocolate and RWB "jimmies" sprinkles..

Yummmmm!

I made my mother-in-laws sloppy joe recipe, which is cooked burger with Open Pitt BBQ, ketchup, mustard, salt n pepper, couple beef bouillion cubes, some vinegar and brown sugar. Just simmer it all in the pan, after you brown and drain the meat. YUM!

We had a club style sandwich, macaroni salad, potato salad, moms veggie pizza, chips and mom made this YUMM-a-LICIOUS dessert too...

Ooooh it had angel food cake, jello and some creamy filling with cool whip and berries!!

Family and friends chatting in the kitchen:)

This cupcake stand was $1 from Big Lots last year and its by Martha Stewart; it was such a PAIN IN THE BUTT to put together!

I just kinda used it as the centerpiece:)

Gage and my mom "Nana" playing outside ♥

My brother Andrew...

LOL!!! This pic is SO TRUE!

*This 4th of July was a sentimental one for my family...

Last 4th of July 2009 was the last holiday we had with  my dad before he passed away:(

So our lil cook-in yesterday was in loving memory of dad ♥

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Andrew and Gage; these 2 are C-R-A-Z-Y together!

Hubs getting ready to put on a show...

hehehe!

Bang, boom!

I just love fireworks, don't you?

I love even more... my cute son FINALLY letting me get a pic of him with Smores on his face:)

I love that t-shirt too, cracks me up!

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I hope you all had a wonderful 4th with your families too:)

Noelle ♥

Come VOTE for my next GIVEAWAY!

Just wanted to offer my LOVELY READERS a chance to VOTE on what my next giveaway will be!

I have a POLL on my side-bar with 4 choices, vote on the one YOU'D like a chance to win!!

I'm nearing 600 POSTS... yippee!

And would love to offer up a FAB-u-LOUS giveaway:)

Thanks for visiting today, have a great 4th of July weekend!

Love you all,

Noelle ♥

Mary Mary Quite Contrary, how does your garden grow?

There's nothing like getting down 'n dirty in the garden!

Whether you have a huge garden full of the finest flowers, or a small patch like mine; the sense of accomplishment you feel when your pretties are in bloom, is like no other:)

My grandma always had a beautiful garden in her back yard; the most beautiful rose bushes and veggies growing too. 

My mom now has such beautiful garden patches in her yard as well.

Mine is a work in progress; but I love pulling up in my driveaway and seeing my lil pretties in bloom!

This sweet garden angel came from my blogging friend Brenda, isn't she cute?

Can't believe my mums are already sprouting!!

Everything is SO green from all the rain we've had...

I think I over planted in this pot, lol!

Its HUGE!

Some nice dahlias and some goners!

Found this Welcome sign at GW, it was plain wood- I spray painted it pink...

Gage's Lemon Basil sprouts; he loves to see his "flowers"!

Here is my $10 planter from Amish Country; I LOVE it!!

My Impatients are getting "impatient" waiting for my hubby to hang them;) 

Fun Flip Flop summer garden flag!!

My lil man helps me water daily:)

And here he is...

Nothing like summer...

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What are your plans for the 4th of July weekend?

We are heading to my in-laws lake cottage for a cookout, fireworks, boat rides, etc; I can't wait!!!

Noelle ♥

My BFF's Baby Shower

My BFF Valerie is expecting her first child, a little boy in August:)

Her baby shower was last Sunday and my did it turn out cute!

We ran with a Jungle theme accented with polka dots and animal stripes ♥

The gift shown above was from my mom to the mom to be; isn't it wrapped so cute?

For the table favor, we painted terra cotta pots with polka dots and added a cute ribbon!

I planted a white dianthus inside; one person at each table got to take one home.

The candy cups on the tables were filled with "trail mix"- raisins, peanuts, M&M's and Reese's Pieces... yum!

These little flower pot cups came from Targets Dollar Section- a 4 pack for $1! I hot glued animal print ribbon to them and a paper flower... eeek, I love how they turned out!

We made these cute animals faces out of scrapbook paper for the wall; the animal faces were like the ones on the invites. The palm tree came from the Dollar Store. I LOVE that monkey:)

My mom was a HUGE help that day!

She made these fun tissue paper flowers- we saw our sweet friend JENNIE make them for a baby shower, so we ran with her idea:)

One of the games was to guess how many bibs the mom to be would get for gifts...

she got 16 of them!!

Here are some SWEET prizes we had...

These HUGE cookbooks came from Marshall's and were only $3.99 each!

What a steal!!

My super talented momma Lori made the cake/cupcakes for the shower and it was SOOOO good!

And SOOOOO cute!!!

See the animal print cupcakes liners?!

She also used these adorable jungle animal faces on the cupcakes that were made out of sugar ♥

SOOOO stinkin' cute!!!

Here she is the mom to be!

She was like "My boobs and belly are SO big!"

I told her, "Well YEA you are PREGNANT!"

LOL:)

She got tons of cute baby outfits, blankets, feeding dishes and baby food, a swing, a bouncer seat... the list goes on and on.

I totally didn't get a good pic of my gift:(

I got her 2 jungle animal onesies, a monkey rattle and a $25 gift certificate to our fave photographer for the babies first photos ♥

One of the other games we played was "Guess the Baby Food" so she also got 32 jars of baby food from me, a bib, spoons and feeding dishes- which were from my boys! 

She has babysat for them many many times over the years ♥

It was such a good day; despite the massive storm that ripped through the area!!

We had ham and turkey croissants for lunch, chips, veggies n dip, fruit salad, macaroni salad, pasta salad and cheese n crackers!!

I also made a yummy punch with Blue Hi-C, pineapple juice, Sprite and pineapple sherbert, yummmmy!!

~Thanks for visiting today!~

Noelle ♥

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:)