WEEKEND FAMILY FUN TIME

This weekend Dallas' brothers and their families all came to town. It was seriously so fun getting to have everyone here at the same time to enjoy some of that unbeatable SoCal summer fun. 

Highlight include:

-Ritas shaved ice on the daily 

-getting Leo to say Mimi (heart-melting)

-playing in the sand 

-playing in the ocean and Dallas worrying about me going too far out like my dad would

-watching Paris come out of the ocean with her Sasquatch hair and immediately run to dry sand to do snow-angels on her stomach (she was loving the beach so much I couldn't even handle it)

-watching Leo try to b-line it to the ocean before an adult could catch him 

-taking the bikes out on the boardwalk and the pier 

-laughing deliriously with Dri and Leo on the late night car ride home ("a-DUH!")

-playing smashball hard-core on the beach to sweat off our mango shaved ice 

-sandcastle and mermaid-fin making

-watching the sunset from the lifeguard tower

-Pierson: "it's from Sears..." (This was so funny and I dont even know why) 

-doing fashion island with everyone and making fountain wishes 

-playing scrabble with the kiddos

-crab hunting and sea shell collecting 

-beach-naps (the best)

-Beachhouse chats with the sisters

ANNIVERSARY

So today is our one year anniversary!

The last year has really flown by.  We definitely have had the best year of our lives. Our first year of marriage with filled with weekly Disneyland dates, sunsets at Newport Beach, lazy snuggled up Saturday's together, a ton of waffles and non stop laughs. 

I can't wait to see what this next year brings for us. :) 

STYLING THEM BERMUDA SHORTS

Can we just take a minute to talk about something pretty trivial here? Since it's my blog I'm going to say yes. Yes we can talk about Bermuda shorts.

My sister in laws and I have had a few chats about Bermuda shorts lately. I felt it was high time to take it to the blog. It's nice to have a short option available at the mall that's modest, but to be honest it's not super easy to style them and not look like a girls camp leader.

But I'm not one to sit back when my people need me. Today I had a mission. I pulled out my 4 pairs of Bermuda shorts and took on the challenge of putting together some fashion conscious looks and styling tips for taking those knee length shorts to the next level. 

1. BEACH LOOK. 

Try boyfriend beat up bermudas with a relaxed linen or cotton tunic. The key to taking bermudas (which tend to look really "basic") to the next level is styling and accessories. Add a great watch and a pair of trendy block-heel sandals instead of flip flips to keep from falling into basic-land. 

(Ps-my next fashion DIY will be making some ripped up boyfriend Bermudas) 

2.DATE LOOK

Take your slim fit dark denim bermudas and add a silky button down. I love black, so I put my trusty Club Monaco black shirt in. But the skys the limit here. It is your date after all. Add an outerwear layer for when it cools off at night (this longline trench vest is amazing, or a trench coat would be great too). Then pump up the va-va-voom factor with red lips and statement heels. HELLO GORGEOUS. 

3. THE OFFICE LOOK.

This is similar to the date night look (blousey top, heels, accessories) but for the office opt for a bermuda short of the dress pant variety. A pair of black dress-bermudas is a good staple to have in the closet. I have some Joe Fresh ones that I stand by. 

3. THE CASUAL LOOK

This look is definitely the most "Amanda". The styling is just how I like it, RELAXED but intentional. Pair and oversized boyfriend oxford with a slim fitting pair of chino bermudas. Add a feminine touch with a pointed toe ballet flat and keep it cool with simple accessories and wayfarer sunglasses. This is will likely to be my uniform for this summer. 

REFLECTION ON MY MOM

    

My Mom's name is Kelly. She the gave birth to my big head. She loved me through the high-pony phase (as pictured above), the tom-boy phase(not pictured), the wishing my name was "Natalie" phase. She tolerated the unbearable clarinet practices. She would sporadically drop off a happy meal for me at lunch making me the coolest kid at Stonehaven Elementary. She enforced journal writing, which I am so grateful for now. She told me everyday before school to make good choices and she had an after school snacks ready for me when I came home. She taught me to always have faith, to always be kind, to speak kindly, to work hard and to always have a sense of humor. 
I hope one day I can be the kind of homemaker and mom she has always been for my family. 

I love you Mom!!!! 

Happy Mothers day

DIY: CONCRETE BATH SET

Another DIY project complete!

 I was inspired by a stoneware bath set from West Elm. I wanted to do something similar, but instead of a tumbler with toothbrush slots, I wanted to make something with a special slot for the toothpaste too. 

Heres what I used:
-fast setting Quikrete (here at Home Depot)
-water
-cardboard
-tape
-sanding block

HOW I DID IT:

I used some cardboard from a pasta box and built the shape I wanted and taped it all up. I mixed the quikrete with water and mixed it until it was the consistency of melting ice cream. Then I poured it in my mold and added in my small cardboard cylinders for the toothbrush slots, and my smaller cardboard rectangle for the toothpaste slot. I taped the cylinders in place so the concrete set nicely and crossed my fingers! 

After it had dried I peeled off the cardboard and gave it a subtle sanding, I really like the natural textured look so I didn't want to smooth it over too too much. and VOILA! all done. 

I'm really happy with it! It gives our bathroom counter a little industrial touch and it just looks so sweet beside the  potted succulent we have there. 

Next project: To make a matching tumbler and soap dish. Stay tuned! 

DATENIGHT AT DISNEYLAND

Had a fun date night at the park! We were so excited to see that splash mountain is open again. SO GOOD.

ACTIVITY: PAPER BAG SCRAPBOOKS

I seriously have the best calling. I get to hang out with 5 of coolest the little girls and do fun activities. Tonight we finished off our 2-parter Mothers Day project and put together our scrapbooks!

At our previous Faith in God activity night we did all the prep for the scrap books. We did a photo shoot in a pretty little park area outside the church and  I had them each fill out a questionnaire about their Moms. (I loved reading their answers by the way....hilarious) 

So last night we actually put together the scrapbooks. For the book itself, I used brown paper bags. Once you fold them in half they make perfect little 5"x5" pages. Every alternating page has a little pocket from the top of the paper bag which can be used for thank you notes, drawings or whatever you like. We used them for some Mom-coupons.

What we used:

-brown paper bags

-scrap booking paper cut into 4.75"x4.75 squares

-twine or yarn (to bind the book)

-photos (we did a really pretty photo shoot with lots of flowers!)

-questions and answers about their Moms

-quotes from General Conference about Motherhood

-Mothers day coupons (find these here!)

-hole punch

-washi tape 

and here are some shots of of my pretty girls from our photo shoot:

Belly Girl

Just came across some photos I completely forgot about from the spring picnic we did at the end of March. This is my niece Annabell Hill and she is insanely adorable, feisty, enthusiastic and expressive as heck and downright cuddle-able . Keep it up Belly girl. 

ROADTRIP TO SF

This past weekend we did a little road trip up to San Francisco. Too much time had passed since we've gone up to see Dri, Landon and little Leo so we were way overdue for a visit. Plus we actually just love a good road trip. Not only is a road trip an excuse for picking up Costco snacks and drinking a socially unacceptable amount of gas station fountain soda, but its also a catalyst for some of the best conversations and weirdest inside jokes that we have.

One of our road trip favorite things to do: Dallas loves when I read rotten tomato movie reviews aloud. But only ones that have like 30% or less. They are always really funny and its something we just wouldn't make the time for unless we were in the car for that long.

So the traveling was awesome, and then actually visiting in SF was so fun. The first night we caught up with one of Dal's mission and college besties John John and his family and ate dinner at the Google campus where he works. The next day we went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, which is this insanely adorable little story book town in Monterey county. We walked up a down a bunch of streets to check out the crazy little cottages (its seriously like you are in a storybook), got lunch at Le St Tropez, raided the Cottage of Sweets candy store, relaxed on the beach and then did the famous 17-mile drive. That night we got some deep dish pizza and stayed up till 2am laughing hard enough to keep their downstairs neighbors up (sorry guys).

The next day we checked out Stanford and walked around all the athletic facilities, (Dallas tried to inspire Leo for a future in college soccer), got lunch at tacolicious and walked around Landon and Dri's new stomping grounds in Palo Alto. 

We had such a good time catching up and getting the lay of the land in their new neighborhood and seeing how much Leo has grown just in the last 6 months. Cant wait for them to visit us here next!