A Huge Thanks To You

My husband joined the Army in late 2013. When we became a military family we had to face a great deal of adjustment and sacrifices. When I wasn't able to accept a transfer with work due to his intense schedule we faced our biggest struggle. This was a huge loss to our family financially and we've been playing catch up ever since.

This year, despite our best efforts, we knew Christmas was going to be VERY limited on our part. We have amazing family that did more than their part in spoiling our children and we appreciate it so much. But, I was so ashamed and disappointed we couldn't do more for our kids.

My husband was able to sign us up for the Christmas House program and what a blessing it was. The volunteers were great while we chose gifts and stocking stuffers for all three littles. We were even able to get a bone and toy for both of our dogs. And these were VERY nice gifts. Before leaving we also put in for different drawings on bigger gifts. Since MD's bike is...I think...3 years old and missing the rubber from the handlebars and covered in rust we chose to put all 3 entries into a bike for her...AND won it!

I cannot express how much this all meant to my family. Someday when they are old enough I cannot wait to tell them about our Christmas and the wonderful people who made donations and volunteered, making it more than perfect for them. The look on their faces when seeing our tree made me melt. It was amazing and I will forever be grateful.

Much Love. Heather.

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Top Ten Things to Love About a New Do!

        AFTER VS BEFORE

I've been feeling so FRUMPY lately! I went from wearing business professional everyday to yoga pants and baby spit up! Don't get me wrong, I love me some yoga pants but I also realize I need to get myself back into a routine and start my day by actually pulling myself together! A visit to my amazing friend and stylist Andria was JUST what I needed to jump start it all! So here's the list, ya'll!

1. It's pure motivation! My new color DESERVES to be styled everyday!

2. Sitting in that chair is therapy! Even if your stylist isn't as amazing as Andria, I'm guessing you sort of enjoy her personality or you wouldn't go back!

3. A couple hours away from chores and kids, we all need that from time to time.

4. I've read over and over again how change refreshes and recharges us!

5. Talk about a confidence boost.




6. People watching. I'm not saying judge them, it's just funny to watch others ;) .

7. YOU deserve it! It's ok to treat yourself every once in a while!

8. LEARN something! Listen to your stylist and take notes, my friends. Chances are your stylist will share some tips with you on styling and taking care of your hair.

9. Who doesn't melt when a stylist or their assistant does a good Shampoo?!?! Hello Heaven!

10. Ok, I truly can't think of another BUT it all of these combined sure add a nice pep in your step! So get to it Honey!! Make yourself an appointment!

If you need a great stylist at an ABSOLUTELY adorable salon, Check out my sweet friend Andria's page HERE! Tell her Heather sent ya! ;)

Little MD in the big ATL!

So, a few weeks ago we were asked if MD would like to be a part of a photoshoot to help rescue does in ATL find their forever homes in time for Christmas! I understand the stigma that comes with the idea of giving pets as gifts, but I can also tell you there are plenty of wonderful people who may be looking to add a fur baby to their family.

Everything about the shoot was amazing! We could not have asked for a better first experience at UWM kids! Blake Ballard was the photographer and he was nothing short of amazing. He had such patience working with kids and pups! His gorg sister, Blaire Ballard was the stylist. She is so beautiful and so kind. I really think she connected with all the littles! Erikka Hart did hair and makeup on the kids and she was so incredibly sweet!

Of course, the best part of the shoot was snuggling all those beautiful dogs looking for their forever homes. MD is just as much an animal lover as I am and we are both so glad to have had her be a part of this. Praying all these beautiful animals find their forever homes! You can check out all the dogs available at the rescue we worked with at www.walkinghometogether.com.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back is Still Progress

When I was a little girl we didn't have much of a stable or happy home life. My one constant was my younger brother as I bounced back and forth from home to home with either my mom or my dad, at times even staying a day here and there in a car. Most nights we were forced to share a bed and as I grew up and our lives took drastic turns for the better, I would still sneak into his bed in the middle of the night and sleep with him. It was a safety net. He was like my "blanky".

Of course we grew up like normal brother and sister, fighting and screaming like brothers and sisters
do! But, I love my brother and am so proud of him. He has grown up to be such a great person. He is selfless and always doing things for everyone else. Last year he made a HUGE donation to my daughter, his nieces cheerleading fund. He is a hard worker. He went at a young age to work in the oil fields in North Dakota. He did amazing despite all of us being worried about him. He got engaged and started making life plans.

He had his first stroke last May. Of course, this was a huge shock and upset for our whole family.  It's just not something you ever imagine happening...especially to your baby brother in his early 20's. You can read more about his AVM and what transpired then on my post from then. Dylan has had a long journey on his way to healing including intensive rehab and brain surgery. After a series of seizure like episodes he returned to the cities to see his neurologist. It was decided he needed another surgery as part of the AVM was still present. What a huge heartbreak. Knowing he wasn't done fighting this monster.

An angiogram after surgery revealed more difficult news. Some of his residual AVM remains. They plan to do radiosurgery to treat this. Taking these precautions is what has continued to save Dylan's life and prevent another stroke, but I cannot imagine the disappointment and frustration he continues to face.

Dylan was registered to start classes this January at NorthWest Technical College-Bemidji. Whether this is going to stay the plan or not, we aren't sure but I'm praying he can stick to his plan and try to continue with life in a somewhat normal fashion.

If you could all do me a favor and check out his GoFundMe, Share it, comment on it, donate if you are able and keep him in your prayers! Wish him Happy Holidays and help us keep his spirits up!

Surviving a 2day Competition.

Whew, we had quite the weekend!

1. MD had her first competition of the Season.
I'll be honest I was a little worried going into this one as the team still has a lot of growing pains to get through. MD was so excited and SO NERVOUS. She gets a little funny right before competitions. She doesn't freak out or anything but she is anxious, doesn't talk much and loves to snuggle. We had some nice mommy/daughter time while doing her hair and makeup before each day since everyone was still asleep. I did my best to pep her up and to ease her nerves. Once she hits that floor you can't tell! I'm so proud of her! Her stunts were amazing, her tumbling was great and she had so much fun! The first day was rough and they dropped their pyramid. They ended up placing 9th but she was thrilled to call her friends and tell them about it, ha!


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2. My in-laws were in town. It was perfect timing, too!
It's hard not ever having family around. The kids don't have that group to attend any special events or functions but it worked out great that they were visiting when they were. They were able to travel to Tennessee with us for the competition, to visit MD's classroom and listen to her read to her class and we got to have lunch with her at school!

3. MD is not only student of the week but ALSO student of the month!
Hello double whammy! MD's class does a student of the week. Each student brings a poster they make with all sorts of tidbits about themselves, they bring in their favorite book to read to the class, share their favorite toy and/or stuffed animal and they bring in pictures to show the class! MD was SO excited about this. Then to top it off while I was picking MD up from school to leave for her competition on Friday the ladies in the front office told me they were actually working on her STUDENT OF THE MONTH poster! This girl is on fire! I am so proud of her and excited for her!

Ho-Ho-Holiday Deals!!!

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Holidays and the Army

As everyone would guess, one of the most difficult parts of being married to a soldier is the distance we're constantly experiencing from our families. Mine being in Minnesota and Montana while my husbands in Oklahoma makes it especially difficult to travel home for the Holidays. We don't want to upset one over the other and a lot of the times we frankly just can't afford the financial burden of traveling across the country with a family of 5 and 2 large dogs.

I feel left out when my family posts photos of their gatherings and I feel heartbroken when I see how grown our nieces and nephews have become without us realizing. It's tough. I miss the traditionally board games, catch phrase and empty wine bottles.

And yet, I still feel blessed. Two years in a row we have hosted Thanksgiving dinner and have been surrounded by great friends. We invited soldiers the first year that had no where to go as well as a few close friends. It felt good not to be alone and it felt even better to offer a celebration to the soldiers in AIT staying at the barracks. This year we celebrated with two of our good friends' families. I love having a house full of little ones and our friends swapping stories.

It's funny how quickly I find myself developing close friends in this new life of ours. I'm normally a pretty guarded individual with well justified trust issues. Most of my close friends have been life long friends and here we are in this new way of living and I feel closer to the families we've known for 3 months then I do to those who have been there from the beginning. I miss our neighbors and friends from Pensacola with all of my heart. We were there just months but we spent nearly every day together going to the beach, complaining about our pregnancies and having fires. They take the place of our families when our families are thousands of miles away. They become the aunt and uncle your kids need, they are the ones who help make sure the kids get to school when you have a sick one and can't leave, when you have family emergencies and forget to work out the details without asking they're already putting the pieces together for you.

 

So, this year... I am thankful for these new relationships and this new way of life. I'm thankful for coming full circle and learning to love the fact I have to make new friends and develop close relationships with complete strangers, ha! I'm thankful for my new
support system and all the new little ones in my life to love on.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THAT JAZZ

After doing some shopping around and taking a few holiday photos of our littles I did it. I have created our perfect 2015 Christmas Card!

This year I was hoping to create a humorous Christmas Card. One laced with funny  photos of my goofy little munchkins, photos that showed their true personalities. I wanted a card that stood out and made our loved ones giggle. In true MiniDiva form, MD refused to do silly photos ...ESPECIALLY if they were to be seen by EVERYONE, ha!


But I must admit, This little gem turned out fantastic AND it was perfect timing. Shutterfly is offering 40% off everything until Nov 23 so not only are these SUPER ADORABLE, they're also SUPER AFFORDABLE! Hurry and get your Christmas Cards ordered before the sale ends! Use code SAVE365 at checkout!

Spooktacular Trick-Or-Treating

My favorite holiday has come and gone.


Halloween. We didn't really splurge decorating this year since we had just finished putting our home together and it wasn't in the budget. I was heartbroken and my husband was thrilled. He just doesn't understand. Ha!


We still had a blast. My husband's Unit does a Trunk-Or-Treat that we attended with friends and the kids had a great time. Unfortunately my husband was out of town but he was able to come home over the weekends! Then Halloween night we went to our friends and the Dad's manned the homefront passing out candy while the fun moms took the littles trick-or-treating.

This is the first year my littles haven't had themed costumes. I let them just pick random things. We had a ninja turtle, a giraffe, and Mal from Descendants.  They still look pretty darn cute, I'd say!  Do you match your littles costumes? The MP's did a great job patrolling, handing out glow sticks and one even drove around with his light on and music over his speaker. We didn't do anything too crazy and/or special but we still had a great time.

Guess Who Is Back!?!?!?!

I wasn't ready to, but I did it....

I let MD's little brother go to visit family without me for a week and a half! He's 4 and misses his grandma, auntie and cousins and was SO excited about his trip. I was devastated the minute he left, ha!

My uncle drives truck cross country and just so happen to be in our area and asked if they could steal him for the trip back home to see family. I was so nervous about him riding in a semi for a few days but it was probably the highlight of his life so far. Seriously, he sounded more excited about this than Disney. He had so much fun and of course collected rocks for his collection along the way.

He had an amazing time at home. He was so busy playing in fact he hardly had time for me when I'd call. My family has a lot of land in Northern Minnesota so he was free to play and loved being outside so much. They carved pumpkins, rode the razor, he dressed up for hockey (ha, thanks uncle corey), jumping on the trampoline, jumped on the bed like any kid at grandma's house would do, and had a special lunch out to eat with his PaPa and Uncle Dylan. I'm so happy he had this special time with our family. And to be honest....the last week and a half was a lot easier on me. I missed him so much but for some reason 2 is just SO much easier than 3!



I was beyond ready for him to get home last night! My mom was coming for a visit and just flew him home with her. I think MD was even more excited than I was! It was so adorable to see my always fighting littles scream how much they missed each other and how happy she was to have him home!

Cheer Momma Drama

Well, it has started. The inevitable.

The picking and teasing when a group of girls spends as much time together as a competitive cheer
 team does. MD typically steers clear of it because she is a bit younger than most of the team and she really doesn't understand what the older girls are saying anyway.

Within the last few weeks she has started having a hard time with one of the older girls. MD is a very hard worker at cheer and when they have to run because someone isn't doing their part she has no problem telling them to try harder, ha. Of course I encourage her to be nice in her delivery, but she is 6 so who knows how well versed it is!

The older girl has started saying horrible things to MD. Not just typical teasing but "I'm going to kill you" and "I hope you fall and get hurt" (MD is a flyer and this girl is one of her back spots) and finally told her I'm just not going to ever catch you...and she has just let her fall on more than one occasion.

At first I told MD to talk to the girl and try and work it out. She needs to be able to tolerate situations like this and be able to stick up for herself in a good manner. That changed nothing. I made mention of the situation to her coach after the second incident, when she deliberately dropped MD. The issue continues. If it were just a teasing issue I'd almost be ok with continuing to tell MD to stick up for herself and tell the coach and hope it eventually was resolved but now that she has intentionally caused my daughter to be dropped multiple times I'm furious. Other members of MD's team have attested to what MD has told me.

I want to handle the situation the best I can and not create any tension for MD's team. I believe the next time we have an issue at a practice I will ask the coach to arrange a meeting with MD, the older girl, both girls parents and the coach so I can be sure this is fixed.

What would you do in this situation? Do you believe it is our job as parents to step in our is it better to let a coach handle these sorts of problems?

Much Love
XOXO

Diva Dining

We've been so excited about our new house. We put a lot of work into making it a home despite the fact we'll only be here a little over a year, ha.







My amazingly crafty husband finally built me a large table! It is the Fancy X Farmhouse Table plans from ana-white.com, so we can have friends and family dinners! I miss having large dinners and now that we are in our new home we have the space to do it! I can't wait to try and host a 'FRIENDS'giving at our home.

We got all of our supplies from Lowes and loved the helpful staff and the much appreciated Military Discount! This project was VERY affordable, especially when compared to the alternative of purchasing a similar table for over $1,000! We probably spent close to $100 with the materials to build, stain and polyurethane the table.


Here is what we used for the table:

4 – 2x10 @ 8 feet long 
7 – 2x4 @ 8 feet long 
1 – 1x4 @ 12 feet long 
3” screws 
2 ½” PH screws 
2” finish nails
1 - MINWAY Classic Gray Wood Finish

Find the plans HERE. We altered the bottom of ours in the slightest to avoid more difficult cuts. 

Tea For Two, Please!

I've been working with my camera quite a bit lately trying to improve my knowledge and skill. I love the creativity aspect but it's overwhelming trying to find the perfect balance in every situation.

A good friend of mine Amanda at somewhereoverthecamo.com asked if I'd be willing to take some photos of her precious little peanut, Baby G! And not just any photos...Pregnancy announcement photos!!!

I can't tell you how excited I was! G is such an adorable little thing with a ginormous personality. She's definitely one of my top 10 favorite little people ever. I was just so happy for Amanda and Rob as well. Congratulations to your beautiful family on another Baby Girl on her way!

Here is a few of my favorites from the days. We had to do a REDO shoot because my lighting the first day just wasn't the best.

 

 

New Home DIY's #1: Photo Project

Guys, I cannot tell you all how excited I am to move into our new home.

Since we PCS'd here I haven't felt "home". This house has a terrible layout, we are always tripping over each other and it's constantly falling apart. I have put zero effort into our home because..well, I've just felt what's the point.

Since we got the offer for the new house this family has been #DIY crazy :) I can't wait to show you the finished masterpiece with these images. This photo project was seriously so fun and makes my heart so happy!

For now, here's a peak of the pictures I plan to use. The kids had so much fun with this as well :)

How to be a Better You Step 1: Put Yourself Out There!

I've missed working....A LOT. That is no secret.

I have mostly missed being busy and having a creative outlet. I had to find a hobby.

                                           
I've had so much fun taking pictures of my littles; especially BabyDiva since she's the most cooperative right now, ha. I've had a few friends and friends of friends ask lately if I would be willing to do theirs.

I'm no pro but I do have a LOT of fun playing around with the images so I have agreed to a select few, free of charge! I get very self conscious about this...I feel so vulnerable trying something new. I'm always afraid someone will be disappointed and more afraid they won't tell me so I can try to make it up to them.

This weekend was probably the most fun yet. What a little character I had the pleasure of spending some time with and guess what... that little sweetie has a baby brother or sister on the way! I can't wait for the announcement to share all the images with you; but in the meantime the family has agreed this is safe to share with the interwebs! Here's to turning hobbies into dreams <3

Which image do you like better? I like the 2nd personally :) 

Baby Birthday on a Budget!

Well, it's official. Baby Diva is 1!


I'm so excited to watch her grow but I'm so devastated it's happening so fast. She is my last little and I treasure her milestones so much because of it.

We had a small party with our close friends. We let the kiddos play and had cake and ice cream. Baby Diva had so much fun crawling around after the kids and entertaining the adults...that is all she needed to keep busy. She is definitely a people person, even if she's being a sass.

An amazing friend made a beautiful cake and cupcakes and I pieced together decorations from Target for a great price. How cute is this cake topper I scored in the party section for just a few bucks?

It was small, but amazing. We have great friends to share these memories with and we appreciate it. I cannot wait to make a Photo Book on Shutterfly for Baby Diva. PS. you can get 50% off hard cover photo books right now!

Baby Diva is taking a few steps at a time. Says HI with great enthusiasm, Cheese for pictures, Mom, Dada, More, Sit, Ruff and a bunch of gibberish I can associate with what she is trying to say :) She climbs all over everything and is a sassy daredevil. She fits more personality into her compact little self than anyone could imagine. We are so blessed to have her and this last year it has been amazing to watch her grow. Now, if you will excuse me it's someones nap time.

much love
xoxo