APRIL Goals

Ok, so now that the month of April is almost over I felt like it was time to share them with you! LOL.

I wrote down my goals at the beginning of the month, and then life got crazy and I realized today I never shared them with you. So for the sake of accountability here we go! 

1. Sell Our Home- this is HUGE. We've been talking about putting our home on the market for a few months now, we have some reasons. Well at the end of March we decided to list our home. So this month our goal is get it sold. I'll share more on this later.

2. Read 1 new book- Currently reading What Keeps You Up at Night by Pete Wilson. It's so good. I'm hoping to do a lot more reading this month because of travel, and airplanes and airports are always great reading places. 

3. Catch Up and plan blog calendar- There's so much I need to catch up on. Videos I need to edit, posts that I need to finish, etc. I'm hoping to chip away at a huge chunk.

4. Save for vacation- Our vacation is paid for in full already. However, I would like to start saving for spending money to take on vacation this month from now until we head on vacation. 

5. Go on two dates with Orion

6. Continue to pay down debt- This is something we've been working on. Each month we get a little closer to being completely debt free besides our mortgage. That makes us happy campers. 

On Speaking Things Out Loud

I'm a planner by nature. Most all my life I've had a certain idea of how I was going to do things. There were things in my life that I planned the time line of events and exactly in my mind how they would play out. I'm a dreamer too. 

I write down dreams, ideas and things that I know God is speaking to me. I think there are seasons where we need to patiently seek the Lord for his wisdom, for his plans and not out own. Those seasons where you just sit and wait. Seasons where you take it all in because you know God is doing something in you and you want to be ready. 

There's a time and place for all that. But I don't think that God has called us to just sit on those things he's speaking to you on. He wants you to actively seek him. Put forth action to the things he's called you to. 

I think there is much to be said about putting action to our faith. Stepping out in faith when things are scary and speaking things out loud that the Lord is telling us. Speaking them out loud with out fear of rejection or that someone would give us the stink eye look and tell us we're crazy. 

Because here's the thing, sometimes God wants you to speak things out loud in order to confirm what he's already telling you. 

A couple weeks ago I finally blurted out to a close friend all that God has been speaking to me these last few months. Telling her some big time plans the Lord was doing in my family. And you know what she said to me after I told her everything?!?

"Of coarse you are, that's such a natural fit for you and your family."

Just like that. She wasn't surprised by what I was telling her. In fact she was confirming all that God has been telling me, all that God has been doing in my heart. To my friend for me to tell her this transition my family was about to embark upon what the most natural God called thing that we could be doing. 

We can't be afraid to speak things out loud that God is calling us to. We want to hold it all in because it's scary or can be overwhelming. Or sometimes we don't want to speak it out loud because we're afraid what if "it isn't God." I think God stirs in us the things that we need to speak out loud on, the things we need to step out in faith on and let him do the rest. 

Speaking things out loud also makes you accountable to what God's telling you. It also allows the people that are close to you, the people God's placed in your life to agree with you in prayer about. 

So ponder those things in your heart that God has laid there, but also be brave and speak them out loud and let God confirm or deny. He hasn't forgotten about your dreams, he cares about them more than you could ever know. 

NEW Wedding Stationary from Shutterfly + $100 Giveaway!

This post is sponsored by Shutterfly. 

Shutterfly has come out with a line of new wedding invitations and suites. I love all things Shutterfly, we've used them for our birth announcements, holiday cards and of coarse photo books we make each year. 

Their new line of wedding invitations has something for everyone, with beautiful designs and coordinating RSVP cards, address labels and thank you notes you can't go wrong with their beautiful collections. I've chosen four of my favorite designs to show you below. 

Forever Hearts

With beautiful trim options, tons of designs to choose from and everything can be personalized there are tons of ways to customize your invitations (you can add designs to the back) and make them your own. 

Love Never Fades

Love and Laughter Forever

If you're planning a rustic, glam or vintage inspired wedding I think this collection is just perfect for that! 

Graceful Elegance

Each invitation is sized 5x7 and includes direction enclosure cards, address labels, RSVP cards, and thank you cards for your choosing. 

Does this post have you planning your wedding all over again?! I love how easy that make it for couples to choose and plan their invitations. 

Not getting married anytime soon? No problem Shutterfly has tons of amazing things on their site to choose from! Today, Shutterfly is giving away 1 lucky blog reader a $100 shop credit to their site. Giveaway will run from today till Friday 4/24. Use the Rafflecopter below for your entries. 

Styling  | The TomKat Studio

Photography  |  Ten22 Studio 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post is sponsored by Shutterfly in exchange I received compensation and or product for my review. As always my thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. As I only promote products/services that I use and truly love and think my readers will as well. 

Ava's Modern Elsa Party

Ava turned five a few weeks ago. I can hardly believe that she's five. I'm pretty sure each birthday that goes by I say that, but it's true. This year though, I think because five is such a milestone year I was more of a mess about it. She's five now, she's so big and I feel like over night she just grew. 

This birthday she had lots of ideas and opinions of her own for what she wanted her birthday party to be. Truthfully I was thinking that we'd just not have a party this year, but then when she came to me with all her ideas I thought "how can we not have a party?"

She wanted and "Elsa" party, not a Frozen party..... just Elsa. She wanted to make crowns and decorate cupcakes as well. So we set out to throw a fabulous Elsa themed party, but a modern one. As much as my five year old loves all things Elsa and Frozen Mama does not. So I set out to do a Elsa themed party without buying everything Oriental Trading Co had to offer. 

I found the Pinwheel party collection from Minted and I knew it would be perfect for this party. I loved the icy blues and the chevron details. Also the swirls looked like snow to me and I thought it would coordinate well. All of the table confetti, Hooray flags, bunting, and food signs are from this line. Minted has some great party collections, check them out here. 

All the parties I throw start with an invitation, for me they set the tone. I found a few that I liked on Etsy and then let Ava choose the one she likes best from the ones I choose. She choose this one from Paper Tinker. I had Beca change the wording a bit since this was an "Elsa" party. She was great to work with and I love how the invite turned out. Every year I put them in her baby book as well. 

Dessert tables are always so fun to put together. This year we kept the really simple and just had a variety of desserts. I made them all myself a day before the party to keep party day stress free. I frosted my cupcakes an hour before to make sure they were fresh. The adorable donut trees are inspired by Paging Super Mom. When I saw them online I knew I wanted to make them for this party. They just scream snow! 

Frozen drink station, simple punch and water. The glass bottles with paper straws are always a favorite of mine. The paper straws are from The TomKat Studio. Drink dispensers are from Zulily. 

We set up a dress up station for all the girls that came. We asked them to come in their favorite party dress or princess dress. It was fun watching them change outfits over and over again throughout the party. 

As I said, Ava wanted to make crowns. Lucky for me crowns were apart of the Pinwheel Collection from Minted. They each had a different pattern already on them, we just jazzed them up with some glitter and gems from the craft store. The crowns also came with a string that you could add so you could keep it on. 

We also let each girl decorate their own cupcakes. Cupcake wrappers and plates from The TomKat Studio.

I kept the party favors simple this year, I found these mini Frozen coloring books in the dollar section and added a Frozen lip balm that I found in a multi pack at WalMart. They were the perfect little treat to take home. 

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl, Mommy and Daddy can't believe you're five! Please stop growing now! 

Trying to get all these girls to look and smile at the same time... good luck! It was so fun watching Ava with all her friends. I love seeing them interact together. 

Paper Straw, Cupcake Wrappers, Plates TomKat Studio

Invitation Paper Tinker

Pinwheel Party Decor c/o Minted

How We Save for Big Home Purchases

Over the last two years we've been able to make significant purchases on big ticket items from our home 100% debt free! Buying big ticket items for your home can be stressful, but I've found with a little planning, research and saving they can be done. My biggest tip for this is to remain patient. Unless you have all the money the second you want to purchase an item you're gonna have to be patient in order to save funds and then make your purchases. Trust me the wait is worth it in the end. Here's my tips.

1. Find the piece you like & save for it!

This is easy and obvious! Once you find something you like put away some money each month or week until you have the funds to pay for it in cash. We have done this several times. We've even been able to negotiate added taxes and delivery fees once we tell them we've told them we're paying with cash. 

2. Use Your Tax Refund

One year we used our tax refund and bought our new couch with cash. Using your tax refund is a great way to pay for something in cash and not go into debt for your home purchases. 

3. Sell What You Have and Use the Cash to Buy What You Want

When I wanted a new dining room table I sold the one we currently had on Craigslist and saved another week and then bought the one I really wanted. I've done this before several times to buy the pieces that I wanted for our home. This takes a bit of planning and patience but in the end I got a beautiful new table and felt great because we saved for it and paid cash.

4. If You Have Extra Income Save it for Your Home Purchases

This might not work for everyone but if you have any extra money coming in each month save it for the purchases you want to make. Intentionally set it aside for those things. For myself I make a bit of extra money from my Etsy shop and the blog. I've been saving it and recently used the money saved to buy a brand new dishwasher for our home.

Using these tips have helped us stay debt free in our home purchases in our home which we love! What are some of your favorite ways to save money and stay debt free? Tell me in the comments below.