Reindeer and Tutus!

This holiday season was full of crafts, cookies, and my first attempt at making a gift or two myself. Im not the craftiest person around but thanks to sites like Pinterest I am slowly getting better! :) One of the crafts we did were these reindeer spoons. My sister in law saw this on the Michael's website and we got the kids together one morning and gave it a whirl!

Here is what you need:

wooden spoons- we sell a pack of 4 at BBB for $2.99.

paint- brown or a metallic brownish/gold will work.

construction paper

plastic eyes

ribbon

mini silver bells

red balls

vase and glass beads

In all we made all 3 of the reindeer for about $10 bucks. The dollar store had a lot of what we needed. Of course I didn't take a picture of the finished product which was all 3 reindeer in a clear glass vase with red gems in the vase. We gave this to the Grandparents as a little gift from all the grand kids. The spoons came in different sizes so we used 2 smaller ones for the girls and a bigger one for my Nephew Carson since he is the oldest.

TUTU'S!!!!

The girls are really getting into dress up now and I was shocked to see how spendy dress up clothes can be! $30 for one dress! No thanks! A few of my friends had made similar tutus and it seemed easy enough, so I gave it a try.

Things I used:

Satin ribbon

Tulle

THATS IT! Of course you will need a measuring tape and scissors! I followed a tutorial on you tube for quick instructions. Just type in no sew tutu and use the you tube tutorial that pops up.

I decided to make them matching ones so there would be no fighting! They only took about 45 minutes to make. Perfect project to do during naptime! I only made two but probably got enough tulle to make 3 so I spent a little more than I probably needed to.

Total cost for both tutus, tiaras, and wands=$25.00! (wands and tiara's came from $1 store!)

The girls loved them! They were a little puffier than I expected but thats ok! I liked using the ribbon rather than elastic because as they grow you can just adjust the bow to make it bigger/smaller.

Annual cookie decorating fun!

COOKIES!!! Every year my BFF, 2nd Mama, and Sister from another mister get together and decorate sugar cookies! We eat the same dinner, Mama's famous Mac and Cheese!! I love this tradition and we all get so excited for this night! That excitement quickly vanishes after decorating about 10 cookies... then we all just whine about how many cookies we have left and why we baked so many! We each use a recipe that makes 60 cookies..you do the math. It's sheer torture and we quickly become cookie slaves.

So it's been decided that next year we will still do the traditional cookie decorating but we will make it more of a cookie exchange and each bring something different. I don't know why this idea wasn't thought of earlier!
Let the decorating begin!!! When we first started doing this back in the day we only used spoons and knives to decorate the cookies. They didn't look very pretty. We have now graduated to piping bags and paint brushes. Not sure our artistic abilities have improved much...every year it gets a little better!

Someone....(her godmother) Gave her a cookie!!!! Didn't matter though, she was stealing everyone's when they weren't looking!

All she did was lick the frosting!

So the decorating may not be the greatest but they taste good and we have fun! I always bring them into work and one year I have have lied and said kids made them so I wouldn't get judged on my lack of decorating skills!

A tree, some lights and little Griswold Christmas spirit!

I can't say it enough... I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME! (Yes, the all CAPS in that last sentence means I am SHOUTING IT!) I love the smell, the feel, the lights, the music, the people (only the jolly ones of course!) Oh..there is just so much I love, I could go on for days! Not only do I love this season, Aaron loves it even more! He starts listening to Christmas music in July at work. Nuts I know but I think part of the reason he does it is to annoy co-workers. Needless to say we are a holiday loving family and you could drop the "P" from Pingul, add a "K" and call us the Kringuls this time of year....haha ok I will stop now.

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to venture out and get our tree. I was, and still am pretty sick with a nasty cold but decided to fill my pockets with tissue and head out. We drove down to Hunters Tree Farm off of Yelm HWY. hunterchristmastrees.com I love this place and have gone there for years. It was opening day so we expected it to be packed. We got there at opening and were pleased that only 5 other cars were there at the time. Getting a tree on Black Friday was in our favor I guess!


We took a quick pit stop to feed the goats... Kaelyn loves them! There were a lot of baby goats this year, so cute!



Next, a quick tractor ride out into the farm....then we were set free to find our tree!!! Not as easy as expected when you have a sick picky wife, a husband that likes every tree,and plenty of mud for your two year old to be distracted by! After about 30 minutes we found one, cut it down and ventured home!





Right when we got home, and I mean right away....the tree was still on top of the car..Aaron began hanging his lights. Shortly after our neighbor Joe and his boys came out to hang some lights on their house too! All of you that know Aaron and how much he loves Christmas would probably expect to see our house glowing from space with all the lights he wishes he could put up! Sadly, we can't do this for two reasons. One, our electric bill would be too outrageous! Second, (and probably the only REAL reason) is that we just don't have enough juice to run that many lights! Last year if the Christmas lights were on I couldn't blow dry my hair, vacuum, or use some of the lights in the house without tripping the breaker. It was a total pain but somewhat funny at the same time!


The rest of the weekend was great, we decorated the tree and the inside of the house! Kaelyn loves the Christmas village and could stare at it for hours! Something about being a parent to small kids during this time of year makes the holiday season even better!




More pics to come later of the finished products...tree, house, etc! We are currently having a 2 year old meltdown because Mickey Mouse is over....mommy must go and deal with this issue!

A year into the 30 year fixed!

Happy 1 year homeowner anniversary to us!! Wow, I can't believe we moved into our house a year ago already. I really wish time would slow down some but it seems to go by faster each year. Funny to think last year this time we were living with a friend, renting the garage of the house we were about to own. Crazy I know! Didn't make sense to move things into storage for a week while we waited for our house to close and get painted so we could just move in! Instead, we had to pay $50 a day for the first 5 days then $100 a day after that to rent the garage of a house that was ours! Seemed to be one of the longest processes!

As for our house, we haven't really done much... Painted the whole interior, changed some hardware and spent a small fortune on all new appliances. (which wasn't something we were planning to do but when they break and you own the place you have to deal with it!) For some reason we didn't take any before pictures of the house and I have no idea why we spaced on doing that. Excited to move I guess!

This was our first taste of the yard work that was in store for us after there was a small storm when we first moved in the house! Woof!! There are 18 fir trees in our backyard so keeping up with the yard has proven to be the biggest challenge for us!




Ah, a much better picture of how we are able to enjoy our backyard instead of being overwhelmed by wind destruction! :)

I wish we had more interior pictures of the house...One day I suppose. The "to-do" list seems to keep growing. Replacing the carpets, painting the outside since the house is currently peach!!! Updating bathrooms and counter tops blah blah blah.....However, the reality is we are a young married couple in our 20's, with a kid (and one on the way) So pinching pennies is the name of the game for us right now! We are just thankful to have a nice roof over our heads, and for that I am thankful everyday!

Little miss copycat

Kaelyn has been very into copying things her dad and I do and say...she repeats everything!! I mean everything! No more free speech in the Pingul house! It's all about kid appropriate words these days.I'm glad the football game is usually during her nap! Even some of the regular words she is learning have a bad twist...for example FROG and FORK. Well, it sounds like something that rhymes with duck. MONKEY sometimes sounds as if the MO has been replaced with an FU. SIT and STICKY sound more like an H has been added in there somewhere! I know what she is really trying to say, but others may not which leads to a very "mother of the year" moment when she yells one of them out in public! Needless to say, we are working on our pronunciation daily around here! She also loves to dance and will try and repeat anything she sees on TV. Good thing I don't watch MTV.

She really loves to read, which is great! This is a good thing for her to copy! Aaron got a few great pictures of her "reading" with me. Which just consisted of her yelling out everything she saw on the pages and then trying to mess up my place in the book I was reading. Oh well, at least she's cute!

I swear she's just really excited about her new book here......even though it looks like she's crying!

An update on life!

Well hello there, long time no see blog. :) Couldn't think of anything particularly exciting to write about so I thought I would give an update on whats been going on in the Pingul household. Not that anyone really cares to read about our day to day activities...I just figure I should document these things so that when I am old and can't remember anything (which sadly is already happening) I can look back and read these posts to help remember!

Let's see....back in October my Grandpa Bill (moms dad) came to visit. He stayed with us for the better portion of a week. I love getting to spend time with him and have been lucky enough to see him 4 times this year! He lives in CO and is my only living "blood" gpa. He is very special to me and I would love to have him here more often, even if that means I have to be kept awake from his snoring. (It doesn't matter where you are in the house, any house for that matter...you can hear it!) I also love seeing him spend time with Kaelyn. She adores him, and I didn't have the chance to get to know my great-grandparents much. By the time I was born my Oma was the only living great grandparent I had and she lived in Germany. I think I met her once. I really love seeing all the generations together. He also gave me the approval on Aaron (good thing since we are already married! Ha.) Actually, his exact words were "Good job with Aaron, he's pretty hands on with this being a Dad shit huh?!" Which in his language is a very nice compliment!

Aaron's Grandma Pingul turned 90 this year and the family had an awesome celebration for her! So many family members were able to come. Grandma is such a remarkable woman and they created a slide show of pictures of her and the family from throughout the years, which was nice to see since I have only known her for a few years. She was a teacher back when she lived in the Philippines (which I didn't know until the slide show!) For being 90 she moves around so well. She lives alone and still loves to travel!

Halloween! This was Kaelyn's first time out Trick or Treating. Honestly, I think she could care less about it!!! The only time she had any interest was if Mateo, (one of the neighbor boys) would take her to the door! We dressed her up as a kitty and she would just meow or as she says "MAAA!" when people opened the door. We tried to teach her trick or treat,but no luck! We had a potluck with our neighbors and some other people in the neighborhood before we ventured out. I thought that was a fantastic idea and was glad we were invited to join the group!

I also started working a bit more for the holiday season. As much as I dislike retail this time of year, the days go by so fast when you are busy! I'm anxious to see what interesting things the good Ole Lakewood Towne Center brings this season! Never a dull moment in that place!

Well that's about all I have. I'm sure I will have more to report later on. My hands are killing me, which is another reason I haven't been blogging much. It hurts so much to type, or really do anything with my hands. Yep, I'm 27 with the bones of an 80 year old I guess. I drop everything, my handwriting is starting to look like Kaelyn's, and they throb all the time. I'm going to see a Rheumatology specialist in December so we will see what he says. It could be something as small as a vitamin deficiency, or something as big as arthritis. I'm hoping for the deficiency...So on that note.....To be continued.......

YELLOW POLKA DOT BIKINI

I recently was introduced to Pinterest. If you have never heard of it please check out the website http://pinterest.com/ It's an awesome site if you enjoy home decor, cooking, crafts, and well....pretty much anything! I made this onesie for my friend Jessie's baby girl on the way, Madden. Courtesy of Pinterest. Total cost= $3.00 ($1.50 for each fabric paint color)

I cut out the shapes with construction paper and traced them onto the onesie. Then just painted on the yellow, and once that dried I painted the white dots and sewed on the buttons. I wanted to add a ruffle along the top of the bikini bottoms but ran out of time.


Very cute and inexpensive project for some of those old onesies you have!

Cousins...

I was babysitting my Nephew Carson and Niece Chloie yesterday and we decided to play dress-up.

Correction, I decided to have them play dress up since it was nearing naptime and I was trying to avoid any possible meltdowns! Sadly, they could care less about my grand plan. (but at least I got a few pictures in!)

Gift wrapping goodness!

I think it's safe to say I have a slight addiction to wrapping paper, bows and ribbons...I have a surplus of all these supplies that has lasted me for years! Even though I really haven't needed to buy any for the last few years I still do... (I always buy wrapping paper after Christmas when its 75% off)

I love wrapping presents. I usually end up wrapping other peoples gifts for them! So when I was wrapping a birthday present this week and realized that I had NO ribbons or bows I couldn't believe it! I had to get crafty.One of my biggest pet peeves is all the leftover scraps that you have after you wrap a gift. I hate wasting them so this is what I came up with!




I just cut the paper scraps into strips (of all different sizes) folded them in half then taped them together at the ends. Stacked a few rows of them on eachother and then stapled the middle together.

I know it's not the craftiest creation but I think they turned out pretty cute and now I don't have to waste my scraps!

Customer service

I have often thought about sharing all of the stories I have had working in customer service for the last 10 years... However, since that would probably most likely get me fired somehow I've chosen to not go down that road! For every horrible thing someone has said to me, for watching grown adults cry because we were sold out of something the day before Christmas and for all the puke, poop, and pee and I have cleaned up over the years (gross I know) there are a few people that have made working with others fantastic!

Some customers become friends, they give hugs, bring you coffee or just stop in to say hello. You learn about their families, what they do for work, and obviously what kind of things they like to shop for :) Others you may only meet once but you will always remember helping them. That is the couple I helped last week....

I was ringing up an elderly couple and the husband said he forgot his coupons at home. I explained our coupon policy and told him if he brought them back in we can adjust things for him. He got very grumpy and short with me after that and in my head I was thinking....great, another unfriendly person I get to deal with today. He then told me that he was told he was allowed 20% off when he shopped at our store since his home and recently burned down.

They had lived in that house for over 50 years and had less than 2 minutes to get whatever they could and get out. The house was a total loss. Both he and his wife were watery-eyed. I told him I was sorry for their loss. His wife (who hadn't spoken a word the entire conversation) looked at me and said.."You have no idea how hard it is to see over 50 years of memories being shoveled into a dumpster just like its garbage, that garbage was my life." They chose not to rebuild the home because it was too emotional. They now are starting over and living in an apartment. At the end of the conversation I told them I was glad they made it out safe. She replied "I wish we could have just gone with our home and memories."

I understand that stuff is just "stuff" but I couldn't imagine having to start over in my mid 80's. It's really made think about what things I do have that are important to me and what would I do if that were me... What would you take if you only had a few minutes?

Aside from my family and pets.... There are few things I own that are very important to me... My baby book...my mom wrote to me when I was a baby and I have all the letters in there. I have yet to read all of them. The opal ring my grandfather gave to my mom when she was 10 after he got home from a tour (Vietnam I believe.) All the old family pictures I have from both sides of the family. Aaron's and mine. I know there are many more..I am so thankful to still have all of them. Memories or actual mementos..they all hold a special place in my heart.

5 minutes with a customer...sometimes it can make me annoyed or angry other times it can make me laugh, and in this case it made me cry.

A Bridal shower, a Birthday and a pen...

This past week has been party central at the Pingul house! Had a bridal shower for the soon to be Mrs. Harrison and 6 days later it was Kaelyn's 2nd bday bash! As fun as all that was were are going to be party poopers for awhile and try to have some down time. (wishful thinking im sure!)

Here are some pictures of the recent events!

Heathers Bridal shower!

What a nice day it was and it was so good to see people I haven't seen in awhile. We had a spread of crappy food (all of Heathers favorites) Mamas Mac N cheese and Pigs N a Blanket along with some other snacks! Had some good laughs when we brought out all the old pictures from years ago!

Heather not doing too well at the bubble gum question game!

Kaelyn's 2nd Birthday!!

First off let me just say I can't believe we are parents to a 2 year old girl! Time has really flown by. We decided to go all out and have a birthday bash for her since Aaron wasn't here last year. This being the second party in less than a week I was pretty stressed out but think it went pretty well. We were so glad that we had tons of friends and family that came to celebrate with us! Last year, Kaelyn thought it would be a good idea to cry for the ENTIRE day so I was even more excited when she woke up in a good mood this year! We woke up, had breakfast, and started getting things ready for party time! My wonderful in-laws helped out big time by making a gazillion ribs! (mmm my Father in law makes THE BEST ribs!)

Kaelyn was spoiled by all her friends and family and we are so thankful for everyone who came and helped out. Can't wait to watch her grow even more this year!

Last, but definately not least...the pen!

This morning as I was getting ready to take Kaelyn to her 2 year DR appt..I walk into the living room and saw that she colored on some envelopes. No big deal, right? Well, thats what I thought until I looked down at her legs!!!

This reminded me of this blog I once saw (which is now turned into a book.) Sh*t My Kids Ruined! Luckily, she did this to herself and not my sofa!

A year ago

We have been so busy this summer it makes me think of how different things were a year ago for us....

A year ago...

We were living in our puke green little rental house in North Tacoma.

Kaelyn and I had recently spent a month and a half in Colorado and LOVED IT!

Aaron was in a war zone.

With Aaron gone I felt like a single parent.

Kaelyn was just learning to walk.

All she could say was "hi, dada"

We spent a lot of time on the island or walking the Chambers Trail.

On the few days it was hot here we spent them at Target or the 6th ave Cutters Point Coffee shop since our house was total misery when it was warm out!

I was a stay at home mom.

Kaelyn was sleeping for a million hours at night!

A year later....

We bought our first place! Can't seem to stay away from ugly colors. First puke green, now Peach!

We just got back from Colorado not long ago as a family! However, this trip was only 8 days!

Aaron is home :)

I am most definitely not a single parent anymore!

Kaelyn is RUNNING everywhere she goes!

She is talking all the time. Her favorite thing to ask is."are you ok?" and if you say no she will continue to ask until you say yes!

We hardly go to the island anymore or walk the trail..even though we only live a block away from it!

Haven't had summer yet so we haven't been kicked out of our house from the heat. We have so many trees here that its nice and relaxing when it's warm! (Anyone want the AC unit I bought last year and only used twice!haha)

I am back to work and I love it! Just don't like working weekends.

Kaelyn refuses to sleep through the night in her own bed. ugh.

Excited to see what the next year will bring???A new sibling for K? A new house color? Who knows! I do know the rest of the summer is PACKED with stuff for us to do.We have a few more weddings, a birthday party for K and a road trip to Lake Tahoe CA.

Saving a buck $$$

Well, I succeeded in lowering our monthly grocery tab even more! When I first started couponing I looked up our bank history and totaled up what we were spending at grocery stores each month. Now, we mainly shop at Freddys which means we also bought a lot of decorative things for the house after we moved in, not to mention clothes, etc. So some of the montly totals weren't accurate for just our food costs . On average from Nov-March we were spending $1000 a month!! YIKES! One month was actually $1300!!! I know that included clothes, diapers and things for K, and at times Costco gas and new stuff for the house but still...thats WAAAAYYYYYYY too much money, I don't know what we were thinking by letting ourselves spend that much! We are on a tight budget and I really needed to start saving us money. First month of couponing I saved a few hundred bucks and was so excited! And for this past month we only spent $540 and that included filling up a new chest freezer we bought on craigslist for our garage!! I can't believe I have gone all these years without couponing. All it took was a little planning, learning to buy what we need not what we are in the mood to eat, and trying new things(because it was on sale or a new dinner idea that was cheap to make.
I know some of you think im already an extremist in the coupon world but trust me, im not and I still have a LOT to learn. I'm not one of the coupon crazies that do tons of transactions at the store to maximize savings...(not that im knocking those that do!) the thought of breaking up all those transactions overwhelms me. Now I am going to try and save money in other ways..maybe no cable for the summer? (really I am just tired of it being baseball season!)

What do you do in your house to save a buck?

Father's Day

Seeing that Father's Day is tomorrow I want to take a second and thank all those great Dad's out there! And for all of you dads that aren't great, well get on it because I guarantee that you are missing out on some wonderful moments in life! I was blessed and ended up being raised by two Dads that both love my sister and I to pieces! So here's a little thanks to all my dads!

Dad (Kris)- You are probably the hardest worker I know! I swear the man never called in sick a day in his life! He could only make us breakfast when we would stay with him so we always got to go out and eat (which we loved!) He has never missed a birthday or important date. He always tells the same jokes and even though most of them aren't all that funny I laugh anyways because he is laughing harder than anyone that listens. :)

Tom- It takes a lot for a man to become a stepfather to young girls who are spoiled! Thank you for coming into the picture and providing for us the way you did. Thank you for building us a home with your own hands! My favorite memories of building that house were when you would let me go to the island with you. We would get up super early, go to Burger King and get french toast sticks and make our way to Home Depot then the ferry.To this day I love the smell of Home Depot because it makes me think of that.

Dennis- You are a pretty fantastic father-in-law! (Even though you were scary to all of us back in high school) You make holidays great because everything you cook is fantastic! You raised your boys well, which in turn have made them great husbands and fathers! Thank you for doing such a great job! Having 3 boys wasn't easy, but I was able to marry a wonderful man due to the hard work it took to raise them!

I would also like to thank my husband for being a great dad!

Aaron- Thank you for all you do for our little family! You love us so much that you went and lived in a tent in the middle of a war zone for an entire year just to make sure we were taken care of. Thank you for tucking Kaelyn in every night and being sad on the nights that you aren't able to.Thank you for getting up with her at night so I can sleep sometimes. The highlight of her day is when you come home from work. Seeing you two together melts my heart and reminds me each day that I am so blessed. I love you and love the life we have made together!

Colorado vacation!

Vacation was great! Aaron loved Colorado more than I thought he would! Here are a few pictures from our trip. CO is such a beautiful place, it's hard to capture it in a photo..

A nice view of Pikes Peak (14,110ft in elevation) and Garden of the Gods park


Spent the day at the Cheyenne Mtn Zoo. Such a beautiful place and you can feed the giraffes!


This picture makes me laugh so hard! It was very windy!


Family picture on the Royal Gorge Bridge! Such a cool place (and scary) the bridge was built in 1929 and is 955ft high!! It held the record as the worlds tallest bridge from 1929-2003!It rolls when it gets windy! Awesome views!


We spent our last day up in the mountains having a family picnic. Due to the wildfires in Arizona and some down south it was pretty hazy that day. It was so hot and Kaelyn loved playing in the river! She was soaked when she was done but had a blast!


We did so much it would take forever to load all the pictures! Aaron and I had an afternoon alone and went to visit these caves that people have been touring for 120 years. We were also able to catch an improv comedy show with my Aunt and Uncle which was a fun date night! Had dinner at the Flying W Ranch, which is a place you eat dinner off of tin plates and listen to live old school country western music! We had such a fantastic time in Colorado!! Who knows maybe we will move there one day! 300 days of sun a year, yes please!

Coupon/craft closet......

Well I guess you can consider this the "before" picture of the closet...However, this was after I cleaned out what was in it before which was EVERYTHING left over from when we moved in the house back in November! There was a storage bench and boxes of random things we don't have any use for now. Plus about 3 years worth of old magazines and junk.
I decided to use some drawer liners that I already had inside the dresser rather than paint it. Frankly, I was too lazy and impatient to paint it!

I now have a space to keep all my coupons/crafts and whatever I want to keep hidden! On the other side of the closet I have my printer and some more storage shelving. I want to add a cork board eventually and maybe find a stool. I love that this was a rainy Sunday project and the total cost was $0!!!!

Items used:
Dresser- Got awhile back at Goodwill $10.00
Green storage bins- Ikea a few years ago.
Lamp- was my Grandmothers
Pictures- Frames I had then I used wrapping paper for the one with the red flower. The green framed one is actually some of the drawer liner I framed. I also put cardboard under it so now I can use it as a mini cork board.

Still a work in progress but now my little messes around the house can be contained!

Cheese please!

Alright, I need some help from you moms out there. Kaelyn only wants to eat the same few things all of the time....Cheese, bread that is covered in cheese, noodles with cheese,string cheese...I think you get the picture. She will not eat veggies and the only meat she will eat knowingly are chicken nuggets. I have tried all sorts of ways to sneak in veggies and other foods. Out of all of the things i've tried, fried rice and spaghetti (with lots of veggies pureed in it) seems to be all she will eat. I feel bad feeding her the same things everyday and don't feel she is getting all the nutrients she needs. I need ideas...help! Is this a phase? What do you feed your kiddos? Ideas are much appreciated!

Mother's Day!

Well tomorrow is Mother's day, and even though it's my second year being a mother it feels like it is my first. Last year I didn't have Aaron here with me and lets face it, I was a zombie with a newborn doing it alone so I hardly remember anything from that year he was overseas! I love being a mom, and Kaelyn may yell "da-da" 99% of the time but when she does say "ma-ma" it totally melts my heart.

For those of you that don't know Kaelyn was our second pregnancy. We had miscarried in August of 2008, and I became pregnant with her in December of the same year. Kaelyn just happened to come into this world on the EXACT day that we lost the first baby, so instead of being a sad day it was a day filled with joy and positive emotions. I wouldn't trade parenthood for anything! I love the excitement, the challenges and all of the love it takes to be a Mom. I don't however care for all the puke and poop but hey, thats temporary right?!? I am already dreading her teenage years and Aaron is slowly adding to his firearms collection because anyone that knows him knows that he will be the father cleaning his shotguns, drinking a Budweiser on the front porch the night of her prom or first date! Parenthood doesn't come with a manual....you raise your children off of experience, wisdom and instinct. You learn something new each day as a parent, and sometimes its our kids that teach us! (Not that we would ever admit it!)

I also want to thank my mama for raising me so well... she allowed me freedom and let my sister and I be our own people. Even though I was young at the time, I will never forget when she was a single mom working two jobs to make ends meet.

So happy Mothers Day to all you moms, moms to be and women who want to become moms one day!!!!!

Colorado Bound.......

Bought our plane tickets to Colorado and we leave in just a few weeks! Totally bought them late but I had a $99 ticket voucher I had to wait until May 1st to get. Aaron and I have been married for 2 years this year, together for almost 4 and we have NEVER gone anywhere together! Can you believe that! Well, we went to Spokane once but I don't really think that counts! I am soooo ready for a vacation.....we have been very busy since Aaron got back from overseas and just need this week to unwind and do whatever we feel like doing. I grew up spending my summers in CO and was lucky enough last year to spend a month and a half there, staying with family and visiting a friend. Aaron has never been so I am very excited to show him around that gorgeous state, be with family and visit some friends.I know this isn't a super tropical destination or anything...we are going to be staying in the basement and my grandparents house but I feel like we just booked ourselves a weeks stay at a 5 star resort!

This was Kaelyn and I last May at Garden of the Gods..A park full of red rock. You can drive thru, walk, hike or take a guided horseback adventure! So pretty.


What are your summer plans?

Some friends got together Easter Sunday morning for a little egg hunt in the rain! I love the picture below...I think I am the only one looking at the camera!
Even though there was rain it was nice to see all the kiddos find those eggs! The husbands may have hid them a little too hard for the age group we had but boys will be boys I guess. :)

This is my favorite photo of the bunch! Asking the Tinsley kids to smile for me..this is what I got!

Had a hard time getting a smile out of our little one too!

All in all it was a great Easter, we had a house full of about 20 family members which is considered a small Pingul gathering! Im glad it was smaller since it was the biggest family function Aaron and I have hosted since we have been married. It was "potluck style" which made it so much easier! Although my mom made the deviled eggs and I think I ate 4 before anyone got there! It was also our niece Chloie's 2nd birthday that day so I made her some cupcakes that I saw posted on Sarah Officers blog awhile back. (Turned out to be a big hit so thanks for sharing Sarah!)