Absent.

We have Maine on the brain. 

We've been waking along the river every day...

Frequenting some beautiful lakes...

Thoroughly enjoying Mimi & Papa's Hot Tub...

And enjoying the HEAVENLY weather (yeah, highs in the mid 70's)

Blogging will resume once we're back from Maine. Until then, we're living it up!

Happy Birthday to... Me!

 My Birthday was back on the 1st of the Month. I love having a birthday in a Summer. I turned 26 this year. The cake had a lot of candles! It was a little hard to light them all!

I had the nice treat of having Morgan off of school and work on my birthday! We had a great day going to the lake for most of the morning and early afternoon. There were a few of my friends from church there too, so that was a lot of fun. We later had a lazy afternoon. My parents and sister came out to Athens to celebrate with us that evening. My mom was a sweetie and made my favorite cake: Yellow Cake with Chocolate Icing. Classic Birthday cake, paired with my fav.... Breyer's Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. We went out to dinner to Sonny's BBQ (another favorite in the McKinney family). All in all it was a great birthday!

I also received some great presents too! My favorites included a new 50mm lens for my camera from my parents, along with some other photo accessories. Morgan got me an attachment for my camera that will bounce the flash off the ceiling. I'll be doing a blog post about it soon, it's seriously amazing!

I really enjoyed my birthday this year. Also, thanks to all my friends and family that left such nice comments on facebook for me. It was a lot of fun reading all of them! Thanks!

Fleurs, mama.

We were all walking back from swimming the other morning when Andrew starting picking dandelions, came up to me and said, "fleurs, mama."

I think mother's appreciate dandelions more than most.

Traffic Jam

... in the Stinson household!

Craft Swap

I recently participated in a craft swap on a blog that I love. I had a ton of fun making goodies for the person I was swapping with.

 

I made Plush Letters, Number Bean Bags, and Pinwheel Hair Clips. Andrew has his own set of the letters and numbers.... and LOVES them! They were so simple to make too! I used the tutorials for a guide - but ended up making my letters a different font and larger, same with the bean bags. I also omitted the magnets, just seemed like a potential choking hazard to me. The pinwheel hair clips were a cinch too. I have a feeling that my newest niece will be getting some of these soon..

 The best thing about these projects - I had ALL the supplies (well, not the beans) on hand. LOVE using up my scraps!

P.S. Click on the names of the projects for links to the tutorials.

Girls Weekend

 

A few weekends ago I headed to Myrtle Beach with a bunch of girls from church. We all had such a great time! Although the drive was 5 hours each way, it went by so fast with all the great conversation that was shared.

 

Among the 7 of us, we have 12 kids. It was such a nice quick trip away to recharge the batteries.

 We spent the two days soaking up the sun and staying up late into the night. (3am! I don't do that!)

We had a blast. Can't wait til next years trip! :-)

P.S. A HUGE shout out to Morgan. The trip was the Friday and Saturday before Father's Day. He was super to encourage me to go. Thanks, babe!