Jungle Invite.

I just made another birthday invitation for sweet little Hudson, who is the precious baby boy of my friend Kendra. He turns 1 in June and I cannot believe it! The party is jungle themed, and I am in love with the wording Kendra gave me. My favorite part is "Please give us a roarrrrrrrr...." So sweet :).

And yes, I changed the address and contact information....so internet creepers, beware.

Have a great day!

Garden Update (Numero Dos)

Everything is still pretty baby-sized in our garden, but I do have a few pictures of our pots that are doing beautifully.

And just to show the general amount of growth that has occured in our baby garden, here is a March and April picture of one of our hostas.

I'm loving our garden so far!

Aaaaand here's just a little dose of Louis since he never seems to get enough attention (spoiled).

P.S. We have several big projects planned in the Roberts' household in the near future, including our dining room, master bedroom, front porch and back patio, but sadly, we will have to hold off until I can get through the event craziness at work and Bryan gets out of school. Cross your fingers that I make it through with my sanity still in tact!

Magic Pictures

I got a new lens for my birthday. A Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. It takes magic pictures.

I've done my research and decided that this was the best lens for what I wanted to spend...and I was right!

I'm still slowly figuring out how to use it, but so far I'm in love. My images are so much more clear, and I can take pictures of Louie running around without it getting too blurry.  This lens is great for portraits, and creates the perfect blurry background (or bokeh in photographer speak) that I'm obsessed with. In fact, I love it so much that I took 192 pictures in the first hour after I bought it. Yes. One hundred and ninety-two.

In other news, I also managed to get some new shoes with my leftover birthday money! I don't think I've mentioned it, but I've kinda of been on a working out/running kick lately, so a pair of fancy shoes quickly became a requirement (of course). I was so excited when I got home from the mall that I took a few pictures of them. With my work clothes still on. Yes, I'm cool like that.

They are Nike Free Run 2's. I'm still wearing them....without socks. I guess I should go put socks on!

Happy Monday!

Today was a good day.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had as great of a day as we did. Our friends Allison and Kelsey were sweet enough to invite us to Easter with their family, and I'm so glad we went! So many good people who welcomed us as if we were their own, and so much good food! We loved spending time with another family and getting to hunt Easter eggs like we were 10 again....it truly brings back the good old days and eases the touch of homesickness that I always get on holidays that we can't be with our family.

Today is a day to remember what was done for us so many years ago! I hope that I can keep this in mind and be thankful for Christ's sacrifice and the miracle of His resurrection throughout this next year.

Have a great week!

My Week In Bullets

You know when you have those crazy weeks and the only way you can organize their events in your mind is to list them in bullets? No? Okay, maybe it's just me.

Here are a few of the fun, stressful, random, and meaningful events that happened this week.

• My Birthday! It was a very crazy day at work, and afterwards my sweet friends were nice enough to take me to dinner at Abuelo's (aka very good Mexican food). They even surprised me with a cake and a gift card to Gap!

• When I got home from my Birthday dinner, I was also surprised to find my sweet husband baking me another birthday cake! (This has been cake week....I've had it for dinner pretty much every night.) He had a game that night, but he still wanted to do something special... so sweet :).
• If you can't tell, Bryan spelled out "23!" with the candles in the cake. He also ran out of icing, which is why the top is the only part that's iced. Oh, and he pointed out that candle packs only come with 24 candles, so our new definition of being old is when you need more than one pack of candles....which means that in 2 short years, I will be very depressed.
• Bryan let me pick out the movie for the night....Tristan and Isolde. Very good, but very sad.

• I also had a great time talking with my mother-in-law, mom, dad,  and aunt Kathy, and listening to the sweetest birthday message from my Nanny and Papaw. That's one of the reasons I love birthdays, you get to talk with so many people that you love!
• Tuesday was a big day because Bryan and I became an aunt and uncle! Sweet Hensley Rae was born at around 7:00 on Tuesday night. We've been recieving picture updates ever since.

• We already love her and her chunky cheeks. I can't wait to meet her when I go to Houston next week!
• Tuesday was also extremely busy because we had the Graduate Dinner for all of the seniors at LCU. We spent the whole day setting up and I got home at around 8:30 that night.

• Wednesday was yet again busy at work, but the best part of the day was going to meet with our small group at church that night. We've had such a great time getting to know our new small group and we really look forward to Sundays and Wednesdays now!
• Thursday wasn't really that busy, unless you count me spending an hour killing grass and weeds in the backyard as busy...
• But I did finish a really great book called The Lake of Dead Languages. It was kind of dark, but really, really good. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting something new to read.

• On Friday, Bryan and I enjoyed our day off and did pretty much absolutely nothing. I started a new book and we watched Tangled and The King's Speech (loved them both!!), but nothing productive was accomplished....I suppose we all need days like that though, right?
• Saturday.....Saturday was my sweet sister Laura's birthday!! She turned 19 (which is so hard for me to believe!). Laura, if you're reading this, I hope you have a very happy and blessed year! I look up to you so much and I appreciate your sweet, genuine personality everyday!! Love and miss you!!

• I also got a chance to go shopping (where I might have spent a little too much money...), and went to lunch with one of my good friends, Megan, at this new place called Manna. If you are local and haven't been, you need to go! It doesn't even feel like you're in Lubbock, and the food is great! After lunch Megan and I did some more shopping and I picked up the cutest gifts for Hensley....like so cute they make me want to cry. I can't wait to give them to her next weekend!

I hope everyone has big plans for Easter Sunday!! Enjoy the warm weather, new dresses, and time with family and friends, I know I will!

The Hair Bow

Hello, all of my blog friends! Guess what? My weekend has had an early start! Yes, there are definite perks to working at a Christian college. Good Friday, here I come.

I have been seriously lacking in creative projects recently, so I decided that in honor of my new niece I would share one of my absolute favorite crafts to make: hair bows.

So....here are the simple steps to making adorable, professional looking hair bows for all the little girls in your life (speaking of which, I'm pretty sure every pregnant person I know is having a girl). Yes, I'm spilling all of my secrets. Feel special.

The Simple Hair Bow:
Supplies:
-Scissors
-Hot Glue Gun
-Jewelry Wire
-Fray Check
-Hair Clip
-Wax Paper
-Ruler or Yardstick
-30 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon
-8 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon

Step 1: Drape the longest piece of ribbon over your hand, wrapping twice so that the ends of the ribbon face opposite directions.

Step 2: Place the folded ribbon on a flat surface.

Step 3: Gather and pinch the center of the ribbon to create a bow. (Sorry about the blurry picture....I looked after I had finished the bow.) Wrap the center of the bow with jewelry wire to hold in place. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect right away, you can pull and mess with the ribbon once the wire is in place to get it looking like a bow.

Step 4: Take the 8" piece of ribbon and fold one half over the other.

Step 5: Create a knot by pulling the top half up through the center loop.

Step 6: Place and hot glue the knot over the center wired part of the hair bow.  Wrap ribbon around the back, hot glue, and trim off the excess ribbon.

Step 7: Hot glue the top of an alligator clip or hair clip and attach the hair bow. Be sure to place wax paper in the hair clip so you don't glue it shut!

Step 8: The last and probably most important step is to fray check the ends of the bow. We don't want unraveled ribbon, people. Fray check is your new bestie.

Ta-da! A cute and simple hair bow.

The 3-Layered Hair Bow (my favorite)

If you like huge hair bows, this bow is for you!

Supplies:
-Scissors
-Hot Glue Gun
-Jewelry Wire
-Fray Check
-Hair Clip
-Wax Paper
-Ruler or Yardstick
- 3, 19 inch long pieces of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon
-8 inch long piece of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon

Step 1: Take one piece of 19" long ribbon.  Overlap as shown below.

Step 2: Pinch the center of the ribbon and hold in place by wrapping jewelry wire around the middle.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the remaining 19" pieces of ribbon. Your bows should look like this when you finish.

Step 4: Stack the 3 bows on top of each other. I usually stack them in a clockwise direction so that they don't lay directly on top of each other. Wrap jewelry wire around the center of all 3 bows.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 4-8 in the above directions to make a center knot and complete the bow.

And you should get something like this when you're done!

Love :).

Have a very Happy Friday!

Oh Baby!

On Tuesday night at around 7pm, Bryan and I became an uncle and aunt! Our sweet niece Hensley was born weighing 8lbs 14oz and measuring at 21 inches long. We are so happy and can't wait to meet her in a couple of weeks!

Babies are the best. Welcome to the world, Miss Hensley!!