Happy, happy Friday!!! What. A. Week. As of today, we have less than two weeks until school starts and I’m trying to get pumped up. I’m seriously considering quietly whispering “pumpkins… football… pumpkin spice lattes… scarves” on repeat to myself as I’m navigating the school supply aisle this weekend to get our last list of stuff. Totally normal.

Linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea today for Friday Favorites!

one

On this week’s Workin’ It Wednesday post I shared some back to school tips that work for our family. My FAVORITE of course is our dry erase family calendar we have hanging in our kitchen. It’s the only thing that helps me keep it together especially during the school year. I sell them as digital files in my brand new Etsy shop and if you use code OPENING20 you get 20% off your order until this Sunday. PLUS, Walgreens is having a printing sale until tomorrow giving 40% off poster sized prints.

This shop has been a goal of mine for awhile but as any mommas of littles know, it takes awhile to find time to do something for yourself! So if you feel so inclined, visit my shop and favorite it to show me a little love.

two

This is a huge FAVORITE. So, so proud of this one. On advice from Caleb’s eye doctor, he wore an eye patch over one of his eyes every minute he was awake for the first month of summer and part-time every day after that (and this was after wearing it for 4 hours a day since December). Apparently poor vision can be improved until 8 years of age and one of his eyes doesn’t see as good as the other. They said that by patching his ‘good eye’, we can strengthen his ‘bad eye’ and improve his vision enough that he may not need glasses anymore.

It SUCKED but he was such a trooper. He wore his patch in the pool, on bike rides and while it has been sweaty hot with hardly any complaining. (I was probably complaining more than he did.) At his appointment this week, they said his vision is completely restored and NO MORE PATCH. We have been celebrating!!

three

This may be a controversial one. 😉 When I was working, I used to buy the popular ‘life planner’ every year and I loved it. However, *spoiler alert* when I quit my job to stay home with my four our budget was obviously tighter. It pained me to admit but I just couldn’t justify the price anymore. Four kids are expensive! Last year I bought a planner I was unimpressed with and relied on a pile of post-it notes stuck to it. I heard about the new Recollections planners at Michaels a while ago, got fed up with my post-it pile this week with back to school on the horizon and went to check them out. I bought one and I LOVE it. They are the closest I have seen to the popular brand and the price is awesome. They sell for $29.99 – I used a 40% off and walked out of there with a great planner for $19.25. Score.

They are similar in that they are spiral bound, have plenty of notes and daily space, have stickers, a folder and a zippered pocket. I miss the personalization and some of the other cutesy features BUT these are an amazing price-conscious choice. Love it! I took a few pictures of mine in case you also have a desire for an adorable budget friendly planner!

FOUR

We spent our weekend visiting my in-laws and had the best time! We mini-golfed, enjoyed dinner outside in the beautiful weather, and spent our Sunday at a family picnic for Josh’s dad’s work.

Our boys got to sit in construction vehicles, race cars, climb on a mass amount of inflatables and slept the entire way home and until 8:30 the next morning. We had a great weekend but that last part may have been my favorite. 😉

FIVE

We started our first garden this spring and planted cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, cauliflower and peppers. We’ve definitely learned A LOT for next year but most importantly we have learned to scale back our cucumber plants. We planted four this year and they took off like crazy so we’ve been trying every recipe we can find to use them!

Our hands down FAVORITE has been this amazing cucumber tzatziki sauce that we put on a chicken wrap. It makes it taste like a gyro (minus the lamb obviously) and we’ve been having it every week since we tried it.

I cut up the chicken into fajita style pieces (long and thin), seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked it in a couple tablespoons of EVOO. Make sure not to overcrowd your skillet because we found it was the best when I cooked the chicken in two batches and the chicken got a nice crust on it. We put it on flour tortilla wraps with sliced red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and the cucumber tzatziki. SO yummy. (P.S. We found that this recipe made a ton so you may want to half the recipe or use the leftovers as a veggie dip. It was great for that too!)

There are my favorites on this beautiful Friday. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend soaking in the end of summer.

I’d love to connect with you! Follow me on Instagram here

Follow me on Bloglovin here.

This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure statement.

Happy Friday (or as our boys have taken to exclusively calling it – FriYAY)! Hope everyone has had a good week. It’s hard to believe it is August already. This has been the fastest summer I can remember!

I’m linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea today for Friday Favorites!

one

I have a confession. I realize this is unpopular but until this week, I was not a fan at ALL of dry shampoo. I just couldn’t get on board with the heavy feeling of it in my hair with all the ones I have tried. At my hair appointment this week, my stylist used a new line of products on my hair she thought I would like and clearly she knows me very well. I am in love. The whole Amika line smells amazing (seriously amazing) and I have now found the first dry shampoo I have ever liked. It’s not heavy and doesn’t feel like powder on my hair. I jokingly said that she has changed my life… but I’m not entirely sure I was exaggerating. 😉

two

I’ve talked before about our boys obsession with animals lately thanks in large part to Wild Kratts on PBS. They love to check out animal books at the library and one of their very favorite places to go is the zoo. A few months ago Caleb’s animal book of choice for the week was about tigers and he started talking about how his ‘biggest dream in life was to see a tiger in real life’. We took a day trip at the beginning of the summer to a zoo with a tiger but of course on the day we were there, the tiger wasn’t out in his habitat. We went to a different zoo last weekend and they saw TWO tigers. Sweet boy’s summer was made.

They entertained us the rest of the day with random animal facts they have learned from Wild Kratts (like ‘Did you know that rhinos have poor eyesight Mom?’). We had the best day… until Reid threw up all over me and we had to drive two hours home smelling like it. The rest of it was good though. Haha! #someoneisalwayspukingwhenyouhavefourkids

three

This week’s Twin Tuesday post was all about how to include your older kids when you bring home a newborn (or two!). I wrote this from the perspective of twins joining our family but all these tips also apply to families preparing to bring one baby home too. Bringing home a new baby is an adjustment for everyone, especially younger kiddos who really had no idea of what to expect or knew what a new baby (or two!) joining the family really means. We dealt with some growing pains for sure when we brought our babies home and hopefully anyone with children who are preparing for a new baby can learn from some of our mistakes and work out your kinks faster than we did!

four

We are to the point of the summer where everyone is tired of our toys, tired of the same bike ride path and I’m all out of new ideas of things to do all day. Randomly, last week Luke was playing with our Magformers over near the front door and figured out that the magnets would stick to the steel door. He started building with them on the door and everyone’s minds were blown. I don’t know why it never occurred to us before that they can stick to more than just each other!  They have made giant towers sticking out from the door and crazy designs that they tear down and remake a million times. Magformers have always been a favorite toy but now they are completely resurrected and they have played with them for over an hour every day this week. An end of summer win.

five

Finally, we plan to finish up our summer bucket list this weekend (you can tell we took turns writing on it). We have done everything except go on a train and make popsicles. We were informed when the list was made that a zoo train doesn’t count so I guess we are off to find a real one this weekend. I can’t even believe that we only have a couple more weeks left of summer and Eli just joined his brothers and figured out the joy of sleeping in…

Those are my favorites this week! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

To keep up with us on Instagram, click here.

This post contains affiliate links. Click here to see my full disclosure statement.

Happy Friday! This week has seemed to fly for us. Josh took a vacation day in the middle of the week and we spent the day at a really cool park with some friends and the evening at swim lessons and grilling burgers. Just the refresher I needed mid-week to make it through!

I’m linking up with Erika, Andrea and Narci for Friday Favorites! Per the usual, I have a wide array of things on my favorites list this week!

one

On Saturday night when the heat index was up over 100 degrees, we made homemade ice cream with our crew old school style by rolling a coffee can up and down our driveway. Our boys LOVED it and shockingly the ice cream was actually really good. We used to do this all the time growing up with my mom but this time I switched out some of the ingredients with what we had in the house. (The recipe we used as kids called for half and half – we used 2% milk this time- and rock salt but I used just regular table salt and it worked perfectly.)

We mixed 1 cup of milk, 1/2 tsp of vanilla and 2 tbs of sugar in a quart size baggie that we sealed after removing as much air as we could. We put 3 cups of ice and 1/3 cup of salt in a gallon size baggie and mixed it up a bit. Then we put the quart size baggie inside the freezer size bag, sealed it and put it in a coffee can so we could roll it. You could absolutely just shake up the baggie but it was more fun for our kids to roll the can instead of shaking a bag.

We rolled the can for about 10 minutes for the first batch and the ice cream had gotten so cold/frozen that it was more like dip n’ dots consistency. When Josh and I made another batch for us to try, we rolled it for about 5 minutes which was a ‘just barely frozen’ consistency which is how I prefer my ice cream anyway. Both ways were delicious.Our kiddos topped it with chocolate syrup. They were so into it and have been asking to do it again since! Easy family fun is always a FAVORITE around here.

two

The time we prefer to go to Church on Sunday does not have a nursery for the littles so we all sit together every week. It has been getting harder and harder to keep our twins quiet (and contained!) as they get older and more adventurous! I’m pretty sure we keep everyone behind us very entertained with all the activity. I saw these Melissa and Doug Pop Blocs and got a set for Luke and Reid because they were so cute. All the animals are made of two pieces that come apart and can be switched with other animal pieces to make a cow-pig or a horse-sheep,etc.They are hands down their new favorite toy PLUS they are quiet toys and perfect for Church! I keep a few of the animals in our Church bag so they are excited by them every week and our pew is quiet…. for a little while at least. 😉

three

As much as I’m trying to live in denial, it is Back to School shopping time. If you are looking for a bento style lunch box for your kiddo, we love Yumbox Panino. I bought one for Caleb last year to take to kindergarten and I plan on ordering another one this year so we have two. I love this brand because their largest part is big enough to fit a sandwich. Some of the other ones I found only had room for small items and while I don’t pack it often, sometimes a sandwich is his lunch choice. I put it in his lunch box with a thin ice pack and his leftovers were always still cold when we got home in the afternoon. They are top rack dishwasher safe which I love too. (Heads up- if your child is not super good at remembering to empty their lunch when they get home every day and perhaps everyone forgets about it over the weekend, the silicone will smell like the food that is in it. That happened to us one time and I had to soak it in vinegar for awhile to get the smell out. After that, we made sure to be more on top of emptying his lunch box and didn’t have a problem with smell again.)

four

I mentioned last week that Eli was having trouble all of a sudden at swim lessons. Earlier in the summer he had passed level 1 easily and with no issues at all- all smiles! When level 2 started, he suddenly developed this intense fear of drowning and it got to the point where he was too afraid to even do the things he was doing fine the week before. I could tell he was trying but he just couldn’t get past the fear and was getting so upset about even being in the water. The instructors at lessons were so sweet to him and took turns talking to him and reassuring him (and so did we of course) but he was just really struggling with the fear that no one would save him if he went under.

We talked about it, I prayed about it, we even pretended we were floating in the water on our living room floor! After a week of struggling we decided it would be best to pull him out and try again another time. Wouldn’t you know though… Eli woke up on Monday morning with a brand new determination and wanted to go to lessons. Sweet boy got to swim lessons on Monday, jumped in the water, floated on his back with a huge smile and never looked back. Last night was the last day of summer session, he passed his level and I am SO PROUD of him. Such a FAVORITE this week.

five

I stumbled across this post by The Humbled Homemaker written by her husband about having all girls and the comments strangers (and even acquaintances) make when you are a parent of children of all the same gender. You know how sometimes things just speak to you as if they had read all the thoughts in your mind? This one did for me.

People ask us all the time if we are going to have another to ‘try for a girl’ – seriously all. the. time. Or they say “Don’t worry. My sister/aunt/friend had four boys and then a girl!”  That’s great…. but why am I worried? I love my boys! I know God knew what he was doing when he blessed me with four boys.

I just loved it. If you have all girls or all boys or get unsolicited comments from strangers about your beautiful family…read this one. FAVORITE!

Hope you all have the very best weekend. Bring it on August!

I’d love to connect on social media – Follow me on Instagram here. Comment on this post with your insta and I’ll follow you back!

If you missed my other posts from this week, find Twin Tuesday: The Best Children’s Books About Twins here and my What’s Up Wednesday link-up here!

Happy happy Friday everyone!

It’s been a hot, sticky week here with heat indexes over 100 degrees since Wednesday. Ick. The heat doesn’t get me as much as the humidity when the air makes me feel like I need to take a shower the moment I step outside. I think we are in for a hot weekend so I’m thinking some pool time is going to have to be on tap!

Today I’m linking up with Erika, Andrea and Narci for Friday Favorites!

ONE

I have to start off with the real reason my eyes are even open right now. LOVE this coffee from Harry and David. My mom is a teacher and spends her summer breaks with little day trips and outlet shopping. #goals She brought back these little treasures for me last week and I’m in love. The mocha coffee seriously makes the whole house smell like a chocolate brownie when I make it. For this time of year though, the coconut is my favorite. It just tastes like summer to me. Specialty coffees are always a FAVORITE here.

TWO

New episodes of Suits are back! We watched the first episode of season 7 this week on USA and it’s already drawing us in. This season looks to have some big changes for the show after one of the main female leads left last season and I’m excited to see what the writers do with it. If you like law shows, you should seriously check it out!

If you missed my Tuesday Talk post, I shared our favorite shows to watch as a couple and Suits was one of them! Plus, all the shows in my post are available on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. Sitting together and watching a show or two in the late evening with my husband is always a FAVORITE.

THREE

If I’m being honest, it’s been kind of a rough week around here. The heat has kept our outside activities more limited than usual which is probably partially responsible for the increase in bickering and serious crabbiness going on around here. Also, our sweet Eli (Mr. Never Been Afraid of Anything in His Entire Life)  is having a lot of trouble with this session of swim lessons and has suddenly developed an intense fear of the water which we are struggling to get through. I was moving some pictures from my phone to our picture storage and I saw this image I had saved a couple months ago from Ashley Willis. I SO needed to see that this week and needed the reminder that God has my back in everything. I’m praying for the grace and guidance to get through these tough times even when I feel like I am totally underwater. A favorite for this week- no question.

FOUR

Sunday night, Caleb and Eli went for a big boy sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s so Josh and I had a whole evening with just our twins. I can’t even remember the last time that happened! We absolutely took advantage of half our crew being gone and went to Lowe’s with just two kiddos, played outside, had a fun dinner with just our littlest and had some bonus time to ourselves once they were in bed. I know they liked the extra time together and more one-on-one time with any of our kids is always a favorite! Oh and you better believe the older boys came back with stories of Despicable Me 3, ice cream with dinner and staying up way too late. 😉

FIVE

I read Lauren Graham’s newest book Talking as Fast as I Can, and I really enjoyed it. If you liked her on Gilmore Girls, you would like this book. I think it reads just like she talks and is full of funny side comments. It wasn’t the typical autobiography that I was expecting but more of a collection of short essays that made up each chapter. I loved her in Gilmore Girls and Parenthood and there was a chapter on her experience filming each of those shows plus another on the Gilmore Girls reboot this past fall. It was an easy read and I enjoyed it, even if it wasn’t the usual memoir type book that I was expecting!

I’m reading her first book now that’s called Someday, Someday Maybe (that’s fiction) and so far I’m liking it too!

Those are my favorites today! Hope you all have a good weekend!

Follow me on Instagram here.

Follow me on Pinterest here.

Happy Friday to you! I spent all week thinking we were a day ahead so this week has seemed super long! I even sent a text to my friend praying for her daughter’s surgery a day ahead. *facepalm*  Thanks be to God it is actually Friday today! 😉  I’m linking up with Erika, Andrea and Narci for my very first Friday favorites!

ONE

I’ve talked a bit about my love of double strollers and how we were looking to find a lighter, easier to navigate stroller now that our twins are out of their infant seats. I debated for a long time but we finally bought the Joovy X2 Double and I LOVE it. I originally wanted a jogger with a single front wheel but read so many reviews about that front wheel shaking while running with it. I’ve jogged many times with our Joovy and love how it maneuvers. We’ve taken it on the baseball fields, to the zoo and to fireworks without any problems with its size. It is narrow enough to fit through a single doorway everywhere we have tried!

Also, it turns out I’m kind of a stroller hoarder because even though I love our new Joovy I can’t seem to get rid of the others.  Josh screwed some heavy duty hooks on the edge of our garage ceiling so we could get all the strollers off the floor. It’s great for space but it’s making it more obvious how much I need to get rid of them….perhaps part of his evil plan! 😉 Don’t let those tired faces fool you- Luke and Reid love it too! This stroller is a FAVORITE in our house!

TWO

This week, Josh and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary. We always order a small cake from the bakery who made our wedding cake every year to celebrate. I look forward to this week every year because of course I love to celebrate our marriage but I also have to get my hands on that cake. 😉 It’s white cake with raspberry filling and their famous buttercream icing. It did not disappoint.

Wow can 8 years fly by. I am so blessed to have this supportive, patient man as my partner to do life with. He has always inspired me every day to be better and from day 1 has always loved and accepted me in spite of my flaws. (Except my tendency to leave the windshield wipers on at full speed after it has stopped raining very hard so they squeak against the windshield. He said that had to go. Haha!) Josh was saying our wedding day feels like lifetimes ago and it sure was. Four little lifetimes ago! To many, many more happy years! My husband is always a FAVORITE around here.

THREE

Has anyone read any of Matthew Kelly’s books? If not, you should seriously consider it. My bible study read his new book Resisting Happiness over the past couple of months and I completely loved it. I’ve been a fan of Matthew Kelly for about a year now and love his mission. It made me really think about what being happy means to me and what a serious waste being unhappy is. I came away with new prayer ideas, new strategies to get through the low parts of life we all deal with and a completely new understanding of the simplest concept that he focuses on: Happiness is a choice! A new FAVORITE mantra of mine.

He offers this book and a bunch of his others free if you pay shipping and handling here.

FOUR

Now that we’re out of the infant twin stage and have some sweet toddlers that finally enjoy their rest (!!!), we’ve been trying to get some work done on our house. We’re working on our family room and exterior (front door and shutters) right now and found this painting app we love. Paint tester allows you to take a picture of your room and visually try out different paint colors on your walls. I have debated what color to use on our exterior for months and this app helped me realize that our brick on the outside gives us a limit on what colors will look good. Thank goodness we found this app or I would have wasted a lot of time repainting! Bad news is I’m back to square one on colors….

FIVE

If you were overwhelmed by all the school papers and projects that came home from school with your kids this past school year than check out my post on how we control the clutter and display our kiddos art projects. I love how the display wall came out and more than that I love that this was a solution to the paper clutter all over my house and refrigerator. The kids love to show off their chosen projects on our display wall to everyone who comes in our house. 😉 If this is a problem for you- check it out! This solution is definitely a FAVORITE for our family.

That’s it! How’d I do on my first Friday Favorites? Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Follow me on Instagram here