crafty book.

i have started on this little book & i am so excited about the outcome and the process. i am no good at self control when it comes to hobby lobby. the clearance aisle is dangerous. look at the things i walked away with.

this little book made my creative mind start spinning. i thought what a fun way to incorporate my origrami order & a handmade photo album. if you have ever ordered from origrami you know how cool it is. you basically sign in to your instagram and order prints & i ordered mine to look like polaroids.

you just use the clasps to hold all the pages together.

i found this e & thought it was perfect. of course it was. 

i found some of the cutest little packs of tape with mustaches, fingers & glasses. i braided some thread and used the hot glue gun to hold it down.

this is one of the stamps i bought ($3).

cut out some little brown craft paper circles & put a little quote on it. i am still working on the book & i want to take my time to finish it, but you get the idea. you can do whatever you like with these things, no end to the creative, which makes me happy. i hope at the end it is filled with memories, quotes & little snippets in to happy moments in my life. 

here is another page- as you can see i just drew some triangles, painted them and did some cute little bubble letters. "est. 2011 estes" i have this picture of our first kiss that will go on this page too. so much you can do!

ronda was working on her project & i cannot wait for her blog post to be up about it. you can keep a look out for it here

look at her. gorgeous. i really am blessed with amazing, godly, gorgeous friends. she is the sweetest & there is no one else i would rather spend a saturday doing crafts with. love you mrs. ivey.

her pups were in on the action as well. this is rocko.

& bo.

i love this craft & one day i will be done & show you guys the complete project. don't you think its fun to take your time on something like this?

cheers,

mrs. estes

saturday night with the crawfords.

one thing you will learn about me is i am a little picky when it comes to who i spend my time with. time is special & something you can never get back so i like to choose wisely when it comes to friends. the crawfords are very special to us & i feel so blessed to call them friends, but i also consider them family. they were there for cory when he really needed someone. russ married cory & i. they did our pre-marital counseling. alison has been on the other end of some really serious phone calls from me frantic & a little lost. needless to say they have been a godsend to us.

i met "abomb" when she was pregnant with her first little girl lily rain. then lyla came along & now little will. i love watching her be a mother, i love all my conversations with her kids, taking their pictures, playing with a card board box, pushing them on the swing, reading them stories or taking all the pictures they colored for me and putting them all over my fridge. it makes me excited to have these wonderful women in my life to look up too as wives & mothers.

we feel so blessed to have such special people in my life. i know if there is something i really need or someone to really talk to that will be honest with me, pray with me & for me i would call abomb. so abomb if you are reading these i hope you know how special you are to cory & i.

this past saturday we went with the ivey's to take them some dinner since they just had a  little one. we ordered chinese in case you were wondering. we blew bubbles, ronda played chase, we colored some pictures for their new cardboard box house & sat on the porch telling stories. one of them was lyla picking all these tomatoes at her grandparents house. she picked 19 ahahhaha. they were not ready yet so now they are sunbathing on the porch.

here are some pictures i took of the day. 

abomb wouldn't smile for the camera. 

the many faces of russ.

will.

lyla.

lily.

i have learned that lyla loves the camera. she loves for me to take a ton of pictures which i love. lily is a little camera shy, but every once and a while she will say, "hey look at me", & i snap the button. 

like this one.

she is the sweetest & so motherly. she was leading zeke around & showing him where the bubbles were so he could pop them. she was trying to pick him up & it was the sweetest.

we made a little window out of their cardboard box. 

it is amazing how much fun you can have with a box, scissors & sweet kiddos.

sweet lyla & her bubbles.

ronda played chase with them.

lily had some sweet time with zeke in the eno.

one in black-n-white for good measure.

that sweet little hand around him. makes me giggle.

playing hide-n-seek.

lyla and her lightening bug.

zeke & nick 

some more for good measure.

to me this past weekend is what summer is all about. being with friends & the ones you love. the weather was incredible, so much laughter, good food, relaxing & enjoying life. i am so richly blessed with friends & family & i  never want to take any of these moments for granted. i want to cherish them all. these kiddos make me excited to be a mother. 

one day i will be posting pictures of my own children & the thought of that makes my heart leap. until that moment i will have my camera ready to capture all these sweet moments.

cheers,

mrs. estes