Friday, March 31, 2017

Friday Favorites


Man, oh man... I did contemplate not doing a Friday Favorites because... well. Because of life.

But I'm in this! I'm here! And we are doing this!


Despite the very chilly temperatures happening today in Arkansas, I still felt the need to share these adorable Sole Society sandals.

They come in this blue suede, camel suede and crackled gold. I would normally gravitate towards the gold because that would go with everything. But I'm LOVING this blue... as well as the camel. Not sure which way to go on this one, but I believe that there is not a wrong way.



I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned my extreme despise of swimsuits and swimsuit season. The only time swimsuit shopping was fun for me was from the ages of 0-13. After that, bleh.

And now, I'm at the age that I have to be more careful on the type of swimsuit I wear. Can't be too young, but I'm not old, so it can't be too old. It's a fine line.

So this one from Boden came across in an email this last week and I actually clicked on it and looked at the color options. There are few with prints and a few with solid colors. I feel like this one could be good for me... or hit me in a funny spot where it would look bad on me.

Only way to find that out...

Facebook is kind of killing me because all of a sudden, these really cute, inexpensive online boutiques are popping up with way cute clothes and forcing me to click and check it out (hmm... disregard... please shop online boutiques)!

This one popped up on Sunday and I have looked at it at least 10 times since then. I'm loving the pop of color and am on the hunt for a nice Easter dress... that will probably end up being my Easter dress for the next five years).

Thoughts?

I find myself throwing on t-shirts and shorts/jeans when the weather starts warming up and to avoid throwing on a Dri-fit or another K-State shirt, I love these t-shirts from JCrew Factory! They are very comfortable as well as a good fit -- not too tight, not too lightweight. Just easy to wear.

They have tons of classic colors as well as some fun colors. This tee specifically is from their Collector Tee collection - I bought one last year that had some flamingoes on it - Sloane's favorite! ;)


If you didn't see my Instagram video about my extreme obsession with sunglasses, I have to tell you... I have a new extreme obsession with sunglasses.

I saw these on a blogger I love to follow on Instagram. She had these on in a picture I saw last week, I found they were from JCrew Factory (of course) and then I just happened to be in Wichita where they have a JCrew Mercantile (same thing as Factory). I ran in (not really), perused the store, couldn't find the glasses, was about to give up, when I looked up and low and behold, one last pair was up on a display. Ahhhhleluia! :)

I made the poor store boy climb the ladder to grab them for me (as well as the polka dot shirt above), I tried them, I loved them, I left with them.

They are still only $20 -- if you need some cute sunglasses, get these!




So instead of a lip color this week, I'm going with a ShadowSense. Because not only does SeneGence sell LipSense, they sell makeup and skincare.

I'm slowly diving into the makeup and this is one of them. BUT ... I don't use it on my eyelids. I use it to brighten up under my eyes, after I've put on my primer, but before I put on my tinted moisturizer.

Today was the first day I have put it on and felt like I had put the right amount on and that it looked good!

I'll get a live Facebook video of this sometime soon for you all!

But if you need some help under your eyes due to dark circles... this might be the trick!


Everyone have a wonderful weekend! Sloane and Reece begin their soccer careers on Saturday. I'd love to tell you I can't wait, but that would be a bit of a lie. I can't wait to watch THEM, but soccer in general has never been my thing.

So... we shall see!

XXOO,
Allyson

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Current Life State


Soooo.... yeah. 

For those of you that do not know me well, let me fill you in.

I'm a clean freak. And not just a kinda sorta clean freak when people are coming over to visit.

I'm a clean freak 120 percent of the time.

I don't clean up at the end of the day. I clean up after the mess is made. And we don't usually make messes in my house. To most, they would be described as a "few things out". To me, it's a mess.

I'm not sure at what point in my life I became obsessed with things being in their place, the carpet being vacuumed constantly, crumbs not being stepped on, handprints on the counters not being visible.

But I will tell you it is not normal. And there are not many of us out there in this world. Ironically, out of the 236 of us in the United States, my neighbor Lis is one of them. We share this bond.

But when you are moving from a house that you have kept clean since day eight of living there, its current state is hard to handle.

This past week, we were in the midst of packing up what we would need to survive for two months while we moved to our short-term housing apartment since our house sold and new owners move in the first of April.

I must preface this by saying that we are BEYOND lucky that Matt's company pays to move us. This includes packing our entire house up, loading our entire house up (in a truck), driving our stuff to a new location, unloading our stuff and unpacking our stuff.

I don't know what will happen when the day comes that I have to pack my own stuff up and move it myself.

I might just say screw it, we are getting new stuff!

But for now, this is how the process goes for us.

And when you see the pictures below, I'm telling you, it took ALOT (alotalotalotalotalotalot) for me to just deal with the look of it. I wanted to vacuum/wipe/mop/steam everything. But I knew there was no point when packers were coming.









Friends, these pictures fully represent my house at the moment, as well as my brain. A complete jumbled, crazy, needs to be lysoled mess!

And this will pass. In a few days, our house will be packed up. Cleaners will come make sure it's clean (something I'd love to do, but don't have time for it) and a new family will move in and unload their stuff.

I might leave them a note telling them there is a good chance an Amazon package might show up, our exterminator is the greatest (and cheapest), our neighbors are above-and-beyond.

And this house is the least germiest house you will ever live in.

We just won't show them these last few pictures!


XXOO,
Allyson

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Grateful

I grew up in the same small town that my parents grew up in southeast Kansas. I grew up with both sets of my grandparents living in walking distance or, if you were lucky and your dad had borrowed the John Deere riding mower from his parents, mower-riding distance.

A good chunk of my aunts and uncles and cousins lived nearby as well so seeing them at least once a week was not out of the norm.

When we were sick, my grandma Dean would watch us. We had a weekly dinner at my Grams and Papps's house (and watched a lot of "Hee Haw" and "Lawrence Welk" where my brother and I would dance to the LW band in front of the TV in the basement).

Me and my Grams! 
When we played basketball (I use the term "we" loosely, as my brother and sister played a lot, while I 'played'), my Grams and Papps had front row seats nearest to the door so my Papps could get out to the car easily, but they were always there. As some health issues arose for my Papps, he and Grams would sit in my uncles truck and watch football games from the other side of the field. I remember walking over to see them after I won Homecoming Queen (you know this whole post was based on the fact that I could say that line out loud - HA!).

Stopped to see Grams and Papps before my senior prom -- I don't know where my grin comes from. :) 

I can still hear my Grandpa Bob's voice, calling for my mom. "Mary Annie!"

I bring this all up to serve as a reminder to myself (and to my brother and sister as well) of how incredibly lucky I was (we were) to have known my grandparents when I did and to have lived my childhood with them down the street.

My grandma Dean, grandpa Bob, mom and me at my First Communion
We never knew life any differently. We knew that Grams made the best pancakes and grandma Dean made the best eggs. My Grams could make a killer milkshake. My grandma Dean brought Doris Day and Debbie Reynolds into our lives.

My Papps LOVED for us to be around. He had a stroke before I was born, so I never knew him before and there most of the time there was a good chance I didn't know WHAT he was talking about (the adults did) but knew his phrases. He was very consistent.

"So damn proud of you!"

"Love you soooooo much!" Followed by the hardest half bear hug (one arm was in a sling) you can imagine.

"Cheers!"

Me and my Papps
I texted my aunt Sally - my dad's baby sister - this morning to tell her I was singing "You Are My Sunshine" to Tess last night and teared up. My Grams used to sing this to all of us when we were little. We'd sit in her lap, she'd grab your hands and play the faux piano as she sang this song.

It was her song.

And as I was singing it to Tess last night, I knew my Grams was right there with me, smiling as we sang.  I can only imagine how much she would have loved all of these babies and how entertained she and Papps would be by Sloane and Reece!

My family spends a lot of time traveling to see my parents and siblings and Matt's parents and his brother.

As you can see, I grew up surrounded by family. They were a large part of my life so I do not know any differently. And right now, we live close enough that we can get to everyone. So we do it.

Does traveling get old? Yes.

But will I keep doing it? Yes. Because I want my kids to be around family. I want them to always be excited to see their grandparents and aunts and uncles. I want them to be with and play with their cousins. I want them to know that we are their parents, but these people will be in their lives and love them forever.

I grew up with wonderful people and I do not take that time I had with them for granted. And maybe I hope that in 30 years, my kids are able to sit around the dining room table together and laugh and cry about all of the wonderful stories they have from their childhood with their family!

Because there is nothing better for the soul than a good, hard laugh and cry about wonderful memories.

XXOO,
Allyson

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

An Apology to My Oldest Two

I wanted to take a minute and take advantage of the platform that I have here to apologize.

To my oldest two children.

Though they may never read this, I can at least feel at peace that I have said my apologies.

I have said many times over this past year that I have really tried to soak up as much of Tess and her "babyhood" as much as I could because this is it. She's the final baby - the last piece to our Clark Family puzzle.

And I feel like, for the most part, I have done a pretty good job of it. And I've enjoyed it! She's been a great third baby for our family. I can list off the things that she has done over the past year, when she has done them and what she is currently doing.


And this is where I need to apologize to my other two.

When Sloane was born, it was just her, Matt and I. And during the day, it was just her and I. Unless she was sleeping, we were together all the time. Sloane was also a pretty good baby, not an amazing napper, but other than that, we had very few complaints.


We had twelve blissful months together until we found out we were pregnant with Reece.

I feel like Sloane's "babyhood" was gone the day I took that pregnancy test. From that moment on, I was tired, in pain some days and just didn't want to do much.

I didn't want to do much and had a girl that was walking, talking, in to everything. You know... she was being a normal toddler.

And then just after she turned 20 months, her brother arrived.


So basically, I had two babies to take care of.

Tack on being even more tired, having a baby who cried all the time, and then a toddler in to everything, my patience was basically at a negative six.

Sloane could be doing nothing, but it didn't matter. I felt like I was a my wits end with her every second of the day!

I remember my friend Abby coming to visit us at the height of Reece's constant crying from severe acid reflux and Sloane just being 2. Matt was on a work trip so Abby was "in it" - she saw it all. I remember being in the car and just losing it on my kids because I couldn't take it anymore.

Was it anyone's fault? Poor Reece could not help that he was in pain and at such a young age, he couldn't verbalize so he cried! And Sloane? Sloane was being 2.

By the time Reece turned one (and most of his "babyhood" was a complete blur), Sloane was two and a half and in the middle of the Two's. I felt like by now, I had a semi-grasp on life.  I could leave the house with both of them, go to the Aquarium, the zoo, out to eat... I felt like we had somehow regained some normalcy.

But as soon as you think you've got it under control, life jumps back in! Life with little people never truly  gets easier because kids are constantly transitioning from one new life concept to the next. We moved from Minnesota to Arkansas, throwing our kids another curve ball, waiting to see how they reacted to all the change.

And then we just kept it coming.

"We are moving!"

"We are living in a hotel for a few weeks!"

"We are sending you to new schools!"

And eventually...

"We are having another baby!"

And now here are. My six and four year old's have lived a lot in their short time on this world. They have traveled all over, lived in the North and the South, have seen four feet of snow and seen no snow, have dealt with tears from their crazy mom who sometimes just feels like she has no clue what she is doing.

And I'm sorry to them for that. I feel like now, with Tess, that I have been able to enjoy so much more of her time as a baby because I wasn't raising two other babies beside her. They are now big kids who can go to the bathroom by themselves and can go to bed without getting up repeatedly for an hour while I held on to the doorknob .

Life is different now. It's easier (despite the crazy that we are currently in with moving). It seems to be going fairly smoothly for us and I do not take that for granted.

I know that God gives you the kids you have for certain reasons. All three of mine have taught me such huge life lessons in their short amount of time that it takes me aback sometimes.

Sloane is the slowest person you are ever going to meet and will test your patience because of that. But she has a heart of gold and loves to do nice things for people all the time... just because. Life lesson.

Reece has struggled a lot over the past two years, but has made huge, GIGANTIC leaps as well. He has overcome so many fears that I could hug him for days because of it. Life lesson.

Tess smiles. And is happy. And loves to laugh. Particularly at her daddy, brother and sister whom she adores. So, her life is pretty simple, which sometimes is the way to be.

Life lesson.


XXOO,
Allyson

Friday, March 10, 2017

Friday Favorites


I'll just leave this little diddy right here for you... Happy Friday!




I came across this contraption on Instagram one day and immediately sent it to all of my family members because all of us need one! They call it the OnTray Snap On Shopping Cart Snack, Toy, Coupon Holder. I don't care what you want to call it, I want it for my Tess for snacks so she can sit in the cart and be joyful!

As every one year old shopping with their mother should be! ;)


Ladies, The Loft is having a 40% off everything in stock this week. I posted a picture of a new pair of sunglasses I picked up (this picture doesn't do them justice). But I tried on quite a few pairs and loved them all! In the end, the classic style won me over. As usual (I think I have about 10 pairs of glasses with this print).


I loved these as well!


I thought these would be great summer sunglasses - for days by the pool ... I hope I find a good pool again (insert many, many tears for the leaving of our neighborhood pool/gossip session)!

Lots of fun options and at a really good deal right now!

I have raved about these sandals in a Friday Favorite before and that was when it was warm out. Well... it's beginning to warm up again and I've already been slipping back in to my Birkenstock Madrid Sandals and still love, love, love them!

So I hopped on Amazon to see if they had any new colors for this year and holy cow, do they ever.

I'm not much of a neon shoe color gal, but if you are, there are five neon colors plus white, navy, black (which is what I own), red and now olive!

I love olive.

And so now I will have to purchase the olive. For $30.

Birkenstock's for $30.

Get them and thank me later! ;)

 I've been on the hunt for new luggage for my kids. We are travelers and when they were little, I got Sloane and Reece each a SkipHop roller suitcase. Sloane's was a monkey (because she loved Curious George) and Reece's was a dog.

My Sloane has definitely outgrown her monkey bag (as well as her infatuation for George - so sad) and Reece has as well, but will NEVER admit it nor let me probably ever buy him a new piece of luggage because he wants his "doggy bag" packed. :)

So I want to find bigger luggage for them, but not HUGE luggage - we don't need it to be bigger than mama's - ya hear me?! :)

I was traveling past the luggage section at Target and spotted this cute bag for $40! It's from the designlovefest collection, which had a couple of different things I thought were cute. But this bag specifically would suit her well -- shoes can go on the bottom, upper portion can have clothes. And with these handy packing cubes, I can separate her clothes and all is well!


I ran in to Old Navy the other day, specifically to go and look for leggings for Sloane. And other kid items.

I left with kid items. As well as a few things for myself (ugh).

I came away with this Relaxed Off-the-Shoulder top and a pair of black Rockstar Skinny Jeans.

I don't really love Old Navy jeans. Because I'm super picky on the color, the style and the look. And they just don't do it for me.

But I have owned a pair of these black Rockstar Skinny Jeans before and I LOVE them! They are super comfortable, stretchy and are mid-rise so you can't see my underwear every time I bend down, which once-upon-a-time used to be cool.

Gross, now that I think about it.

Anyway, I'm excited to pair the above top with my new black Rockstar Skinny Jeans and some cute sandals when the weather warms up for it (70 degrees today, 41 on Saturday - welcome to the land of weather changing every 10 minutes)!




Girls, I got this color in and only had ordered two. For some absurd reason. And I'm so mad at myself because I kept one for myself (my bad) and so I only had one to sell! And this color is legit! It's so pretty and not at all what I thought it would look like. It's definitely been my every-day color since I got it.

And until my next new favorite comes in.... :)

I'll stock up on more next time so I can spread the love!

And one last thing in regards to LipSense.

Last week, I shared a photo of Melissa and her new super simple makeup routine with SeneGence products (who owns LipSense).


It's just four things she uses to be ready for her day and after she posted this photo, I #facepalmed and went and bought it all! :)

I had a few people message me and were interested in what she used and the cost and I wanted to pass it on in case you were wondering the same thing.

👉🏻 Snow Shadowsense (currently out of stock, but hopefully not for long): $22
          -- she used this under eyes to give her the brighter look and hide her dark circles
👉🏻 Silk Pore Minimizer & Wrinkle Reducer (in stock): $60
👉🏻 Color Correcting Tinted Moisturizer (comes in light and medium and medium is in stock): $45
👉🏻 Natural Concealer (this also comes in green -- to hide redness -- and white): $25


Then she applied mascara and pretty Aussie Rose LipSense! That's it. Like... my jealousy for how easy this was and how she looks is over the moon! :) 

If you are interested in any of these items, let me know! I've ordered two other sets for people and am just waiting on a few of those out of stock items to come back in stock so I can snag them for myself and others! 


That's it friends! Please have a wonderful weekend and enjoy some down time!

XXOO,
Allyson





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