7 years!

(This picture on the left is the very first pic we took when he was 16 and I was 14!)

Today marks 7 full years of marriage to my jr. high, high school and college sweet heart. I can't imagine doing this crazy life without him. He keeps me sane, keeps me laughing, keeps my eyes pointed toward the cross, he makes me want to be a better mama, he provides, he keeps my eyes rolling, and makes my life a true adventure! 


Love you babe!! (I would keep going but he'd get mad if I bragged about him on here!)

Summer days

I know I'm horrible at keeping up with what all we do during the week over here. A pretty typical week around here consists of cleaning, eating, playing at some point outside the house and waiting for daddy to come home everyday around 5:00. We have had some sick days, fun playdates with babies and friends, we've gone roller skating with friends and enjoyed the pool as much as possible.

Enjoy your summer weekend, we have some fun things planned for our 7 year anniversary!! Fill ya'll in next week!

BOLD and Beautiful walls

Want to make a statement with a room? All you need is a little bravery and some wallpaper or wall stencils! I adore these examples. It takes some courage but it is a gorgeous way to make a room unique and memorable. 

I have used both stencils and wallpaper in our house and they were so doable and budget friendly. If we move anytime soon I will definitely add patterns to more walls in our home. LOVE it! 

What about ya'll.. do any of you have bold patterned walls in your home? 

All pictures refer to my pinterest page for source info. (PInterest)

9 months (1 week late)

I guess I should consider myself doing pretty good if I lasted this long keeping it together. I realized three days after the 17th that she had turned 9 months. Oh well, better late than never ;)

This month was one for the books just because Brooklyn was officially sick the majority of this month! :( 


- She had croup and pneumonia. Had 2 ER visits, three shots of steroids, one round of steroids, 2 shots of antibiotics, 2 rounds of antibiotics. She got a fever virus and this last week just got over a horrible cold that lasted for a week. Awesome ;)
Looking forward to some healthy days this month (hopefully)


- She is EVERYWHERE. I have the pack n play set up in our room b/c its the only way I can contain her. It is so fun watching her explore. She opens up cabinets, pulls things out, opens drawers, crawls at lightning speed to get to Sawyer's toys and anything else that she's not supposed to have. I feel like I already have a toddler. 


- She stands up on everything and has started shuffling her feet to cruise around the couch and coffee table. 


- She has such a big personality. She claps for patty cake, dances with her head side to side and waves her arms up and down everytime she hears a song. She tries to sing and bounce. Cutest thing. 


- She says Dada, Mama, Ba Ba for bottle, she says Dae for my mom, she said "Ja" everytime she saw Jack her cousin in LR. she for real says, "HI DADA" when she sees Andrew. She waves hi and bye to people. 


- She still loves her carseat. I still carry it in everywhere. We have put her to bed for the night in her carseat at resteraunts under the table a few times this month and she still is a fan. Waiting for that to end at any moment ;). She also takes naps in her carseat in the shade at the pool when we go in the morning to swim.


-Still takes a bottle every 4 hours. She only drinks about 5-6 ounces. She definitely is more into food now than her milk. 


- She eats three meals a day and loves every second of those meals. She loves every single thing we have given her. She prefers finger food to baby food so I try and feed her whatever we are having now. It's so much easier. 


- Goes to bed around 8:00 and sleeps until about 8:30 or 9:00. She wakes up an usually talks for a long time before every fussing so I usually just let her start fussing before I go get her. She takes 2 naps a day both about 2-3 hours each. The girl loves to sleep and loves her bed. 


- Wears size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes. She is still super tall and super heavy. She probably weighs around 20-21 pounds now.  


Brooklyn we are having SOOO much fun with you. Every day you learn something new and we love watching you figure out this world. You are a joy and a light in our family. Love you baby girl! Happy 9 months! 

Pi Phi Reunion

This past weekend I attended our pledge class reunion. We had the BEST time. We all left our kids and husbands for the weekend and pretended like we were in college again. We went out to eat, went out on Dickson and then stayed up until 4:00 in the morning talking and catching up in the rec room at the Pi Phi house. Even though we are all grown up and have jobs, husbands and some of us kids I felt like everyone was exactly the same. It was so fun seeing everyone and seeing where life has brought all of us in the past few years. I can't wait to do this again next year. We had the best pledge class and being with everyone sure made me miss our glory days. 

Ya'll have a great weekend! 

Sneak Peek and Announcement!

So remember how I've been telling ya'll I've been busy? Well reason being.. I basically designed and executed our new playroom in about 3-4 weeks. About a week after we decided to definitely turn our guest room into a playroom we found out that the kid's rooms were going to be featured in At Home magazine. The editor of the magazine told me that she would love to feature the playroom if it would be done in time. So I basically had a 3 week deadline to get it done. I managed to do it and it came off beautifully in pictures. I can't show you the finished product yet b/c it will be out in magazines in a couple days but I did want to give you all a sneak peek! 

Brooklyn and Sawyer will also be making their modeling debuts in the August issue so if you live in Arkansas keep an eye out for the magazine! 

I am also excited to announce that I will be guest blogging for the At Home Blog in August. I'll make sure and link to the blog when I blog for them.

Can't wait to show you the articles and the finished product of the playroom. 

I have loved working with At Home and can't thank them enough for this opportunity! It seriously is one of my very FAVORITE magazines and I read it every month. Be on the look out if you live in Arkansas, it will come out in a couple days! 

Flashback Party Time: Mom's 60th Birthday

I am going to start doing flashbacks of some parties and different posts that I had fun doing in the past three years. I know I have a lot of new followers on this blog and know that a lot of you have never seen some posts from the past.


So today, in honor of my gorgeous mother's birthday which was a few days ago, I thought I would repost her surprise 60th birthday party we threw her two years ago. I had so much fun planning a party for the woman who throws everyone in Little Rock a party. She deserved one of her own!

My mom has incredible taste; She has a very specific taste. You go in her home and it feels so warm, inviting, beautiful and organic. She uses all neutrals and has pops of color here and there. Coral has always been one of her favorite colors when she decides to use color. This is where the inspiration comes from with this party. I wanted it to feel like my mom, I wanted it to feel organic and warm just like she makes every party and room in her house feel. I went with all neutral colors with pops of coral and moss. Grapevine was used throughout every table scape to create an organic ambiance.

We hosted the party at Best Impressions at the Arkansas Art Center. I worked closely with the amazing Martha Best who owns and operates this restaurant and also runs  Simply the Best Catering. She was fabulous to work with. I hadn't hosted an event at a restaurant before and thankfully they let me do whatever I wanted. The food turned out amazing and the party overall could not of been better.

Here is a recap of some of the details...

Invitation ordered from Zazzle

We did pomander carnation balls set on pillars with grapevine wrapping the coral flowers. The trees were the classic manzinita branches with individual coral carnations that I wired on to the branches. 

I purchased the candle pillars at the store "OOPS", here in Northwest Arkansas. The fabric was purchased from Calico Corners.

I got the boxwood balls from Save on Crafts, the flower pots were from Michael's for 99 cents and I painted them ivory. The name tags were made by me, using paper from Hobby Lobby and Michael's. 

This was the party favor for all the women. The bags were purchased from Hobby Lobby. Tags made by me. 

I made these menu cards and tied grapevine wire at the top. The lunch spread was amazing!

We snuck around for a few weeks to find old pictures of my mom. I wanted the pictures to represent the span of her life. We had pictures ranging from when she was a baby to now with her grandkids. It was a special touch that everyone enjoyed. I arranged the flowers and used grapevine to intertwine in the hydrangeas. The backdrop was made with the same fabric throughout the table scape and dessert table. 

Dessert table

I made the "C" using a styrofoam wreath that I cut in the shape of a "C" and then used moss to cover the styrofoam. The large grapevine ball was purhcased from Save on Crafts and I wired the "C" on to the top of that. 

I loved making these moss and bamboo cupcake toppers with burlap and grapevine cupcake wrappers. 

Peach trifles 

We sent out an email to all of my mom's contact list asking for them to send in letters to my mom if they had been impacted by her in some way. I looked through some of those letters and pulled out some of the common attributes that were used throughout all of these letters. I covered the plywood with burlap and then draped this grapevine garland over the backdrop. Along with the words that I designed, I used fabric flowers and moss to accent the grapevine. 

I made the fabric flowers that I hot glued on to the grapevine garland. 

Over 75 letters weren't sent in to my mom for this book. She has impacted so many lives as she has lived a life serving others. 

I also made these questionnaires to put out at everyone's place setting. We had the ladies fill out one of the questions and then we went around and answered. It was so funny and neat to hear what they had to say about being 60. It was great advice for my mom. 

The guest of honor coming in shocked at her surprise! I think we got her :)

All of the people that mean so much to my mom. Wouldn't of been the same without each and every one of you there. 

All the "Stowers" girls! 

All in all it was a fabulous event! My mom deserved something so much more than this. She is truly a remarkable woman and it was such an honor to throw a party for her. 

Thank you to Ashley Carson Photography  for taking pictures!