Happy Birthday, Hope!

For those of you who have been reading this ol' blog for a while, get ready to feel like we're living in an alternate universe. I'm a week late here, but Hope is officially 16. What??? It's true. We celebrated her 16th birthday last week and my mind is trying to figure out how time has gone so quickly. I guess it's true that the older you get the faster time goes. Or maybe we just keep ourselves so busy that life blows by? I don't know, but my "forever 7 in my mind" little girl is ready to start driving. Legally. On her own. 😳


We had an all-day celebration last Wednesday. We started the day with donuts and photos, the bookstore, and Mexican food. When Poesy got out of school, we headed an hourish south to Branson to jam in all the family fun we could handle.


We hit the sledding hill, went shopping, found a mirror maze, rode a rollercoaster, drove go-karts, and ate our weight in spaghetti. I'm serious when I say we crammed in as many things as humanly possible.





We spent 7:46, the time Hope was officially born, at the top of the ferris wheel. There are magical moments in life for sure, and this was definitely one of them. Happy birthday, Hope. We love you!

My Birthday Trip to Memphis

Hi, friends! I finally have a bit of time to sit down and blog about our trip to Memphis, TN. We traveled to Memphis over my birthday weekend. It was a very quick trip, but we did get to do a little bit of exploring. I fell in love with the city and I can't wait to go back. Here's a peek at some of the fun things we got to do, all squeezed into one day!

 

The first place we hit in Memphis was The Beauty Shop Restaurant. You know those places that make you grin from ear to ear as soon as you walk in? This place is SPECIAL. My eyes started tearing up when we sat down because it's just so magical. No joke.


The food and drinks were absolutely delicious. Definitely a great kick-off to my birthday!

 
After brunch, we made our way through some cute local shops, two of my favorites being Red Velvet and Stock & Belle. We didn't do a ton of shopping because it was pretty cold, but I did enjoy popping in a few local boutiques and antique shops, and then grabbing coffee before heading back to our hotel.


On the way back to our hotel the girls conned me into going to the giant Bass Pro pyramid. We come from a city with a huge Bass Pro, so I wasn't super eager to go all the way to Memphis and find myself there. It ended up being fun, though. We took the elevator to the top part of the pyramid and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset. (The first photo from this post was taken from up there as well.)


After I dropped my crew back at the hotel, I met my sweet friend, Natalie (of The Crybaby Club), at The Liquor Store for drinks and a snack. Let me tell you, the drinks and appetizers there are incredible.


How cute is their neon bathroom sign? In love.

It was wonderful getting to visit with her. We've been internet friends for quite a while now, so it was nice to finally meet up in the real world.

After I got back to our hotel, my sweet crew had birthday cake and presents waiting. They sang me "Happy Birthday" and we spent the remainder of the night just hanging out together. It was a lovely end to a special day.



(Find this pin here.)

Whew. Talk about squeezing everything we could into one day! It was a good trip and I'm so glad Hope's gymnastics competition took us there. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would have spent the day curled up under blankets, hiding from the cold. 😂

You have our hearts, Memphis! xo.

Hope Turns 51... Or Something Like That

I figure if I'm properly getting back into blogging, I should probably catch you up on our big summer events.  On August 22nd, Hope turned 15.  Like, WHAT?!  Basically, Facebook Timehop and I are enemies at the moment.  "Hey.  Remember when Hope was tiny?  Let me show you a picture of that so you can cry in your coffee this morning."  Thanks, Timehop.  Does it really need to be an everyday occurrence?  Anyway, this was probably the most low-key birthday celebration for Hope that I can remember... and it was really nice.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good themed party, but it was special to just enjoy the day and take her out for some photos.


Since Hope has been in that anti-photo phase for a while, getting her situated for our mini session was pretty hilarious.  I was so happy when she asked if we could do photos, though.  Um... ABSOLUTELY ANYTIME!


We Sheltons are notorious for expecting extensive birthday celebrations, so we had her low-key party at our house the day of her actual birthday, and she also had an epic girls' sleepover and trip to Silver Dollar City the weekend before that.


Of course, Hope hung out with her friends for the sleepover and while we were at SDC, so Poesy had the time of her life getting all of the attention from her mama and daddy.  We definitely didn't mind.

Snapshots: Winter Time

This winter has been another busy one for us!  I thought I'd give you a little round up of some of the highlights from the last couple of months.  I've still been filling our house with plants (and killing some of them), we got some wonderful snow, I've almost done organizing all the rooms in the house (why is this taking so long? Oh, yeah- four messy people), Janae shot some family photos for us, we were featured in 417 Magazine for a reception we played (shot by Elise Abigail Photo), and I finally found the floor to my workspace!  Woohoo!


I've also gotten back into thrifting, which is totally therapeutic for me.  Johnny, Poesy, and I all celebrated birthdays, we had a great NYE show with The Mixtapes, Hope is doing great at her gymnastics competitions, and we've been staying home A LOT.  Johnny and I are really into cooking at home right now, and it's been really fun exploring new recipes and flavors.  Even though January can be a little dreary, it really is one of my favorite months.  There's something very refreshing about the beginning of a new year and all of the fun things we have going on.  Here's to a great February... that will be here sooner than I'm ready for!