22 weeks

well this week's photo is a little late

and no, you're not missing week 21, the ultrasound tech took it away from me

my due date has been once again changed, now I'm looking closer to 23 weeks than 22

so I'm thinking the entire month of November is fair game for this little lady to arrive

and I'm alright with that

who knows, maybe she'll even come on her very first due date - halloween!

this week's photo has so many things that we love

my patriotic outfit I had to help me celebrate independence day

a very awesome VW bus that is always parked around the corner from our house

[the husband and I have a tad bit of envy for it]

and finally, our little lady

I can admit she's our favorite

stars & stripes and everything in between

yesterday the husband & I celebrated our independence day

and for the first time in a while

we didn't host a b.b.q at our house

but instead, upgraded to a yard with a pool and joined in with my family

and brought our friends too

I guess you could say we had our cake & ate it too

if you are stateside I hope you also enjoyed our wednesday celebration!

oh, and the cookie cake recipe was a hit - try it out for yourself here

happy 4th

this year I celebrate our independence day with even more excitement

after coming off a year of teaching U.S. history I feel even prouder to be an American

this year I look forward to celebrating with family and friends

have an amazing day remembering 

how even when our country goes through challenging times

it is still a pretty amazing place to live

and I'll leave you with a picture from one of our first 4th of july's together

just the two of us and some boxes of sparklers

easy as pie

this year I wanted to try something new for the 4th of july

and I had pinned this ridiculously easy recipe a while back

so I figured I would give baking cake cookies a shot

 now I just hope that they taste as great as they look

here's how easy they are to make:

1 box of yellow cake mix

2 eggs beaten

5 T melted butter

2 cups M&Ms or mini chocolate chips [I went for a patriotic twist]

mix all ingredients together and bake at 350F for 25 minutes

I put mine in a pie dish so mine took a little longer to bake

the original recipe called for a 9X13 pan

so do as I did and check often!

thanks to I'm a Lazy Mom for the recipe

now officially one step closer to getting my 4th of july on tomorrow!

june in review [according to my phone]

well, this month I almost completely stuck to the photo a day challenge

and I'm glad that I did

because it turns out that june was a pretty colorful month

and because I'm feeling up to it - here's the july challenge:

follow along @lyndsaylew

girls weekend

well I must admit that I was a little hesitant before leaving for this weekend

a bachelorette party in Lake Tahoe

my only concern was not having complete control over the daily events

something that I like knowing, especially pregnant

packing almost put me over the edge, but I'm so glad that it didn't stop me from going

getting to celebrate a great friend's last weekend out as a single lady

was pretty amazing, even with the little girl along for the ride

not a bad way to end the month of june