insta-outfits

casual monday, turquoise skinnies from walmart,

emerald shirt dress and leopard belt, husband jeans

nerd glasses and a topknot, handmade maxi,

got spit up on immediately after, sunny toms

sewing: a handmade dress for hazel

i was trying to make myself a new shirt

but cut it too small

and had to change plans

so i made it into a dress for hazel instead

i made this giant red felt bow a few months ago

just for fun and i think i found it a home

we haven't decided if it should go on her dress or on a headband yet

what do you think?

 i had this fabric on hand

and the dress only took about 45 minutes to make

always a win in my book

plus, she looks adorable!

sesame street live

jennie hooked us up again!

we got to go see sesame street live with free parking

and our choice of a suite or 3rd row seats (we did a little of both)

 as soon as olive saw elmo she was sooo excited

 the kiddies eating popcorn from the suite

 then we moved down into the seats

because they'd come down and dance with you

and give high-fives

 the kids are dancing with the letter of the day "k"

 at the end there was confetti falling from the ceiling

the kids LOVED it 

thank you jennie and mike! 

polka dots

boots: forever 21, pants: gap, chambray: old navy, sweater: old navy

i have a secret
i'm kind of...a sucker..for trends..
there i said it
so forgive my polka dots, chambray,
denim on denim, oxblood booties, and dark lips
oh and rolled jeans
i just can't help it

pumpkin patch

there is a cute little pumpkin patch by our house 

so we stopped by yesterday

 olive was not ok with a tractor ride so we stayed and looked at the animals

olive especially liked the sheep

 noah, hazel and michael had fun on the tractor ride spotting animals

 they saw some miniature donkeys (which i kind of love) so michael took a picture for me

 the kids had fun in the corn

 michael always makes me laugh

 my handsome guy

the maze

it was really fun and we got a couple pumpkins 

then found some teriyaki

and went to target

an evening well spent

fashion find from walmart

for the last three years our only store was walmart

but now that we moved back to civilization

i have avoided walmart

despite it being closest to our home

then i saw this post

http://www.smallfryblog.com/

and was reminded that walmart has good, cheap stuff sometimes
especially for kids

so i headed there last night

to see if i could find any treasures

and guess what i found for five dollars

pretty lace skirts

so i bought one for hazel and olive

not bad walmart, not bad

olive is the busiest busy bottom in the whole wide world

oh olive, what am i going to do with you?

she wiped toothpaste on the wall

took the ring out from under the microwave plate and put it around her waist

pushed a chair up to the counter and ate a bit of noah's adoption celebration cake (pictured)

emptied the shredded parmesan all of the kitchen

emptied the feta cheese all over the inside of the refrigerator

she whines for me to hold her everytime she hears eleanor needing me

she clogged the toilet with a roll of toilet paper

and these were all within a day of each other

other than the whining, that's everyday

i was thinking i need a refrigerator lock but then i realized

i also need an oven lock, toilet lock, microwave lock

and a freezer lock

so what's the point

then i thought maybe i need baby gates all over

but lets face it, she'd climb them in a second

and this is all in addition to her being really opinionated

not caring if i say no

screaming if i try to stop her from doing anything she wants

seriously, terrible twos have never 

felt so....terrible 

like michael and i always say

good thing she is so cute!

insta-olsons

michael took the kids to the park without me (holla) *  i made noah space pajamas

ripe bananas i threw away instead of making banana bread * eleanor in pjs my mom made hazel

grocery shopping with the whole fam is the worst * wish i bought this hat at forever 21

had to take a written test to get utah licenses with all four kids * eleanor loves playing with blocks

five years ago today

michael adopted noah

and a couple weeks later we were sealed to our boy

these pictures are so special to me

just thinking of the heartache i had as i got divorced while pregnant with noah

and the devastation when i learned i wasn't sealed to noah by myself

all of the hard work that the adoption took

months and months of paperwork and phone calls 

and then one day it was finally official

not that there has ever been a question of who noah's dad is

michael saw him crawl for the first time

held him while i fed him his first food

and has been the best dad noah could ever have

Heavenly Father's plan for us is so much greater than our own

weekend wear

saturday we did some shopping
and this is what i wore

boots: steve madden skirt: h&m sweater: old navy belt: jcrew

sunday is church

this is what i wore

shoes: forever 21 dress (and tights): target, belt: old navy

i have at least 20 pounds i want to lose from pregnancies

and a lot of tightening up in the mid section to do

having eleanor really changed things since she was 

huge and late my body stretched out way more than normal

but i am on my way

and have lost over 40 lbs since having her

and i'm hoping outfit posts will be a good motivator

i painted the bathroom

right when you come in our house

there is a small bathroom near the front door

and i mean small

it doesn't even have a standard sized door, it looks like a closet

(think bathroom on an airplane)

and to make matters worse it had the worst paint job EVER

it was a lemon yellow with two forest green stripes

awful!

and didn't go with the neutral paint in the rest of the house at all

when we asked our landlord if we could paint it

she said, "yes, please! it's hardly tolerable" 

here it is before

now it is a nice bright white

 i'm sorry to hurt your eyes with another before picture

i gave this little bathroom some new life with several coats of white paint
it was a doozy to cover those dark stripes
luckily michael is super busy with school work
so i've had plenty of time in the evenings to do things like this

 i would love to paint the vanity white
but since it matches the rest of the house
and we're renting, i'll refrain

isn't this the cutest towel from target?
i love it

so much better, right?
i'll probably stencil the back wall eventually
 or change out the artwork
but for now at least it's "tolerable"
can you believe the "before" paint job?! crazy!!

since we have little kids in and out of the bathroom all day
the door stays open a lot
and it's in such a prominent location (our living room)
i'm happy to be rid of such an eyesore

thursday funday

noah doesn't have school due to fall break

so we're having lots of fun

we went to ballet, the library

and out to lunch with michael at the byu creamery

then noah lent eleanor his glasses

 i may or may not have helped the kids get eleanor in the doll stroller
and she may or may not have got stuck

but hey, they haven't been watching as much tv

so that's good, right?

eleanor's first solid food

eleanor was so excited to eat something

until she tasted the squash...

we all (not hazel) tasted it to see how bad it was

and eleanor's faces are pretty accurate

we'll have to try again