A Little Road Trip to the Nature State...

Ok, so as I've mentioned before, I have about 17 siblings. Haha! Ok, more like 5 (4 older brothers and a younger sister). We all live in Texas except for my oldest brother, R; he lives near Little Rock. DH's job requires him to travel to our surrounding states, and thought it would be nice to make a weekend out of one of his work trips so I could see my family up there. (Kuddos DH!)

Somewhere in East Texas...

Anyone who lives in Texas knows how FLAT our state is and well...yeah...it's flat...and HOT! I've always loved mountains and hills, if I could live anywhere else I would live somewhere with lots of "green" and hills. It's so relaxing and just good for the soul to be out-out (and not just at the mall or at our local park). Anyone who lives near anything like this...please invite me! :) We weren't able to escape the heat, but we did get to see a few places nearby that I absolutely fell in love with. Here are some shots from the trip:

Pugh's Mill

  If you've ever seen "Gone With the Wind", this is the mill that is featured in the opening credits. It was absolutely beautiful here, I fell in love. The whole place was so peaceful. There was pretty much no restrictions in getting around here, so you could walk all around it.


If you're interested in reading more about Pugh's Mill, click HERE.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:





Looking out of the mill



"Tree" Bridge leading out





K, Lil' Sis





She insisted on wearing a crown all day



Told ya!

 






Next to Bells, K is my favorite subject :)

   
 

I couldn't have asked for a better big brother (fortunately, I got lucky 3 more times)

I miss my him so much! He moved there for work about 5 years ago with his family (my sister in law, her parents, and my 2 nieces and nephew). He is truly everything a a big brother should be. He always set a good example for us, and has always been there when I have needed advice or simply someone to talk to. I made a promise to go back soon though, I miss my family there :) They were all so welcoming and we really enjoyed our time there.

Until next time.....

Thanks for looking!!

Where's the Pause Button on This Thing?!?

If I had one wish that I could have come true, I know what mine would be. I would have a PAUSE button. Life seriously needs to slow down! I feel like I was counting down the days until I turned 21...and now....Bella is about to start school.

A big part of why I decided to start this blog was for this very reason. Like any other mother (or person for that matter) out there knows, time is precious; it waits for no one and it never comes back. 3 years ago I was blessed with the most amazing child ever.


**Here's a bit of backstory: I met my husband 5 years ago in school. We dated for about a year until he was to be deployed to Afghanistan for a year. On October 17, 2007, we got married behind everyone's back (our plan was to tell everyone when he came back and have a wedding then). Around the same time we found out we were going to be having a baby. Two weeks later, he left for Afghanistan. He came home on R&R for 2 weeks in December, where we found out we were having a girl. He was gone before New Year's Eve. He came home the day before Memorial Day, (for another 2 weeks R&R). 2 days, and 15 1/2 hours of labor later, on May 27, 2008 we welcomed our daughter, Isabella Christine.



8lbs 7oz via c-section

I sit here more than 3 years later looking at this picture and cannot believe how fast time has passed us by. It seems like just yesterday I could measure, mix, and heat a bottle of formula with my eyes closed; in the dark, and on about 3 hours of sleep.  

This weekend I was getting her clothes ready for school. She starts on Thursday and like any other mom, I got teary eyed. My baby is growing up and I just wanna pause life for a second, teach her more things, show her more things. I can't, I know. But I have done the best job I can. Ahhhh...all this emotion over the first day of Pre-K, but it's a BIG deal!! I'm sure I'm not the only one out there to have shed a tear (or ten) over their baby's first day of school.

Ahhh my baby, how did you go from that, to this:







Hoping I don't have a nervous breakdown Thursday...

What kind of school takes kids at 3 you ask?? She will be attending one of the KIPP schools. Click on the link to read up on them.

Well well! Look what the cat dragged in!

So, the more I get used to blogging the more I find things I wanna say. Just random everyday observations. So, here I will try to share those things. I am blessed enough to be surrounded by seriously amazing people, everyone of them make me who I am.


Whether it may be my parents...which without I would not be the woman I am today. They believe in me like even I don't believe in myself. They see strengths that I half the time don't realize I have, and I hope to be half the parent to Bella that they are to me.


Or..my family...as weird as we all are, they are my family...my blood. I am blessed with 4 brothers...each different in their own way, yet we're all alike it's scary. Or my sister...which amazes me at how amazing of a young woman she's becoming. Or my husband, above all else he is my soul-mate. We bump heads 99.9999% of the time, but any one that knows us....knows we are the same person. Or...my wonderful, amazing, beautiful, smart, perfect daughter. She is truly my everything, my reason for living and the drive behind everything I do.


Or my amazing friends. I have serioulsy been blessed with the most wonderful group of sisters. They are all so genuine and accepting of how different we are. It makes for a very entertaining time watching us! (Well, at least we like to think so. I will elaborate on them soon. There's tons of stuff to say about them!


Or just having an outlet for all the ideas that go through my head. As a child, my parents always encouraged me to be creative. There was never a shortage of crafts for me to make at home. As an adult, this resulted in me having about 67859 hobbies, and about just as many projects going on at the same time. I just can't sit still for too long!


Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope whoever stumbles upon this enjoys reading about my life and getting to know more about yours truly.


So who am I? I am Laura. A mother, wife, daughter, sister (not to leave out grand-daughter, aunt, cousin, sister-in-law), friend, craft nerd, book worm, and all around nut job.

Thanks for looking!

I leave you with one of my favorite pictures, this was taken on a road trip I took with a few of my BFFs to Austin. This was after we spent about an hour looking for a souvenir shop, it was cold...and rainy, but we had an amazing time :)

I have a thing for taking "odd" pics. I like to think it captures the sentiment and reason behind why the picture is being taken in the first place. Sure, it's nice to smile in pics...but the pictures that evoke the strongest memories for me are the ones where you're capturing the moment and not the pose. Although I do cheese it up in 99% of the pics that are taken of me :D