words of wisdom to live by

a friend of mine emailed this list to me a while ago and i thought it was a great reminder, so i thought i'd share. enjoy!

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now... Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time some time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

moseying at mizner

last month after we got our culture on at the boca art museum we thought we'd mosey around mizner park right outside. (WARNING: there are lots of pictures of very cute children coming up. so if you get bored to death with that kind of stuff please step away from this post.)




this is what the sky looked like on one side. but, like it does alot here in south florida, it passed us over. i love it when the sky looks like this. especially if i can curl up with a good book indoors.so our moseying (is that even a word? sure enough it is. i checked it on dictionary.com for all of you naysayers out there.) turned into a photo shoot. the pics of sarah are only a few of the ones i took of her while she was on her "mom i'm a model" kick that afternoon.

i love this one of these two. pure delicious silliness that only little girls can exude. strike a pose.

these girls are seriously workin' in.

me and my chocolate girl.

i love the way gracie is looking at sarah in this one so i had to post it.
just a little glimpse of why she has no younger siblings.

see! the sun came back out. the girls wanted me to take a picture of these flowers. i have to agree, they are very pretty.

what a great afternoon.

lemony goodness....or what we've been pigging out on all summer

this summer our yummy treat has been something we saw here.

(photos on this post courtesy of sarah)

with a little of this (okay who are we kidding? with a lot of this!)

a little squeeze of this. ( i won't tell you what sarah said it looked like. use your imagination.)

four of theseslightly beaten mix it together (with a whole bunch of other stuff of course)add in a cute little chef strike a pose and you get this delectable treat! (notice how we couldn't wait to dig in.)
lemon squares!

and the best part: eating them. preferably several at once.
YUM-O!

enjoy the rest of your summer!

happy fourth a little late

so here we are half-way through july and i am finally posting some pics from fourth of july! enjoy! hope yours was as fab as ours. ribs, swimming, fireworks and flag cake add up to a fabulous family day!

we decided to go downtown again this year but across the intracoastal this time. it was perfect. right by our fave ficus tree by flagler museum. i thought this was a fun shot and very "florida". i love the palm trees here.

downtown west palm beach. across from where we were watching. gor-geous! next time i'll photshop out the light from the barricade at the bottom. i think it gives it some urban flair!
flagler museum by night. and for those of you not familiar with florida history this was only his winter get-away! nice.oooooooo! awwwwwwww!

seriously was the best one we could get. apparently we've added two blonde boys to the family. and who needs lawn chairs when you have tree roots to sit on?

even brady came along. these following pics will show how our children usually view the fireworks every year.

i was trying to take a picture out through the windshield and this is what i got! look it's snowing in south florida in july!
then home for our traditional flag cake after the show. nummy! this year with ice cream. even better!

afternoon at the museum

today was a fun day! we took a trip to the boca art museum. the public libraries here in palm beach county are giving out free tickets to various museums in the area and this was one of the places we chose. the girls were a bit skeptical at first, but enjoyed themselves immensely. it was a perfect sized art museum for them. not too big and a variety of art to expose them to. painted art, photography, sculptures (and a really nice sculpture garden outside), and some neat pieces from africa, mesoamerica and china.

my favorite was all the photography. and they had a great piece by my fave artist george seurat. just a small one but it was nice. they also had some picassos and an andy warhol. trying to explain to the girls how cool all this stuff is was quite the challenge, but at least they were exposed. just like some of the naked ladies portrayed in some of the pieces that they were giggling and embarrassed about!

these are outside as they don't allow cameras inside the museum.

this was a nice piece outside the entrance.

the girls "not touching" the artwork. (just noticed that if you put the two previous pics together it's almost what the sculpture looks like! i'm such an artist. ha!)

we saw this on our way out. love it!

enjoying the "artwork" on the way home.

maybe he's going to make some of his own art at home.

homemade knitting needles?

leave it to savannah to do something like this. you have to admit she is a clever one. she got this idea from a knitting video we had been watching. (see previous post) in the video this lady teaches some kids how to make their own knitting needles out of dowels. well, i guess the nice ones that i bought at the store weren't good enough for her! my first reaction was to be very upset since what she used was REALLY NICE TINKER TOYS!!! did i mention that they aren't cheap???? so i told her that it was unacceptable and she had to pay me $3 for them. i handed them to her and said "enjoy your purchase!" notice how she even put the little knobs on the ends. the points were sharpened lovingly with a pencil sharpener.
here is the culprit with her new purchase. happy knitting sista!

why i've been a slacker

here is the reason that it took so long for me to post the end of the year stuff. i have taken up a new hobby. knitting! for all of you who know how much i HATE dislike sewing this is a real feat! it is quite addicting to say the least. and to also put it into perspective - i am a lefty! that means i have to figure out how to do everything the OPPOSITE of what the instructions say. can i say how much i love youtube! 2 hours and a few knotted tries later i was on my way to my first creation. i am not the best, nor do i know how to do much right now, but i am learning and really enjoying it. so far only scarves, but after i do one for each girl then i can move on. maybe to hats. funny how most things knitted are not for our sunny south florida weather! well, all of you out there in cold places might be getting some fun things to keep you warm. (and yes, heidi you have first dibs! what's your favorite color again?)

just finished this one for savannah. her fave color. and it's sooooo soft!!! and the yarn was in the 99 cent bin!

how could you NOT want to do something with all this yummy yarn? the blue one in the middle is what i am using right now for gracie's. it is sooooo cool the way it is turning out. and yes, all of it came from the 99 cent bin at michael's. i am not ready to venture into the snotty pricey knitting store in town yet. this was the first one i did. love the color and texture. (it hides all the mistakes that i know i made.)
as you can see sarah has laid claim to it.
and now the girls are doing some of their own. i was actually surprised that gracie actually picked it up, with help. but she is able to do the stitching on her own. crazy! this one is of sarah's creation. she says that whoever's birthday comes the closest when she is finished gets it!

the reason i started this latest obsession is because of my other obsession: books! i read a fab book, that is laugh out loud funny, (here) that was lent to me by my fab friend and now i am a chick with sticks! i have helped her get back to knitting and she in turn has taught me to crochet. we may not be as great as her daughter who whipped up a totally cute hat for her baby on the way on her first try (PUKE on you katie - kidding.) but we aren't that bad. teaching the girls was not that hard using this video. (and marybeth and i actually sat and watched it to figure out how to purl) we checked it out from our local library and we were off! it is actually inspiring since it is a little boy who is like maybe 7 teaching you how to knit!