Friday Favorites: Paparazzi Accessories

Happy Friday Ladies! I'm not really glad it's Friday. The reality is setting in that football is literally right around the corner and that going back to work and school is setting in. It's way too soon y'all. 

This week was rough. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything about it. When I found out Monday morning of Leslie's passing, my heart broke for her daughters. I've spent the week contacting many of you about the letter writing campaign I've started for her daughters Caroline and Ainsley. If you are interested in sending her sweet girls some love, please email me and I will get you the information. You can also see my original blog post here. I've had many people email me, but I'd love to have more of you involved!

If you're local to the Fayetteville area, you can shop RiffRaff today. They are donating 100% of their sales to Leslie's daughters! If you can't shop, then you can donate to their GoFundMe Account here, which was started to help pay for their college and future weddings. 

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I wanted to share with you all a new jewelry line that was introduced to me recently. My cousin, Christina is a consultant for Paparazzi Accessories. She sent me several pieces to try out, and I'm now a huge fan!

She sent me the Unchained Melody necklace, which had matching earrings. The necklace has strands of gold, silver, and gunmetal that sways from a black rope for a fun nautical flair! They've recently released a necklace similar to this with a blue rope, and I'm thinking it's a must for Tulsa football games this fall! 

Another necklace pic, just because :)

These are the matching earrings to the Unchained Melody necklace. 

She also sent me these fun bangles!  They are super lightweight, and I love the textures of the metals. 

She sent me these earrings, and honestly, I wasn't 100% sure that I loved them until I put them on! Now, they're my new favorite! They're almost a rose gold, and they are just fabulous. I think the leaf design totally works for summer, fall, and later spring.  You can see all of their earrings here.

Paparazzi has hair accessories too! Christina sent this dainty flower clip and a headband. Gretchen, my oldest is loving the headband and won't stay still long enough for a picture, but how cute is Adalyn in her pink flower clip?! Our flower clip isn't attached to a headband, but this one is. 

Their headbands aren't just for kids, and honestly, they probably aren't even meant for kids, but my girls love hair accessories (obviously) so I let them have them......

Paparazzi has super cute grown up headbands. This one is probably my most favorite! If you know a teenage girl, I really think you should check into getting a few Christmas gifts for them from Paparazzi! 

Christina sent me another necklace, that I wore this past Sunday when Gretchen was baptized. I had hoped to get a better picture, but this is the best I have! The necklace is copper with three interlocking circles, and it had matching earrings too! 

Now, I've saved the best part for last! The jewelry, the headbands, all of it is just $5.00!!!!!! SAY WHAT?! Yes, everything is just $5.00!

Now, I know what you're thinking. This is too good to be true. Something has got to be wrong with this jewelry. Right?!

Well, you're wrong. When we went to my mom's a few weeks ago, she immediately complimented  my necklace. Like, as soon as I walked in the door, it was the first thing about me she noticed. I told her that it was from Paparazzi and she was SHOCKED! Her exact words were, "I've got to go shopping!" Later on, my sister in law walked in, and she was shocked too! They both loved the jewelry!

If you're interested in Paparazzi, contact Christina and she will get you hooked up! You can email her!

Now, get out there and enjoy the weekend! School is almost here, so get out and enjoy the time you have! 

Blonde Ambition

Monday morning started out as any other day for my family. I woke up and got dressed and the girls and I headed out the door to their dentist appointments. I was sitting in between appointments in the children's play area, and the Lord brought Leslie upon my mind. 

For those of you who don't know Leslie, she was the blogger behind A Blonde Ambition. We first met at Arkansas State University, where she had pledge Alpha Gam. We were sorority sisters. Leslie was three years behind me in school and through our sorority, she became my Great-Grand Lil Sis. By that time in my life, I was really focused on school and I didn't get to know Leslie that well. 

When she began blogging, I don't even remembered how I stumbled upon her blog, but I was a reader from the beginning. I loved her fashion sense, I loved her spirit, she was witty and charming and beautiful and it was evident every day that I clicked over to read her blog. 

When she hosted her first giveaway, I entered and won a scarf. It was right around the time that scarves became more of an accessory rather than a must have for a cold winter's day. I still have that scarf.

Through her blog, I was with her when she ended a serious relationship, had single days, and met Stephen (her husband). I watched their engagement, their wedding, her pregnancies and finally the birth of their first child, Caroline. Adalyn was born just a few months before Caroline and I felt like we were pregnant together. Except, Leslie pulled it off way better than I did. She was glowing throughout. And, she was wearing heals. I was always envious that she was still able to wear heals! Ha! 

A few months after Caroline was born, maybe 6 or so. She announced that she was expecting again! I think I was horrified for her that she'd have babies so close together, but Leslie was excited! Her attitude about having another baby, so close to her first, was just mind-blowing. She was going to face it head on with tons of anticipation and love. 

She wasn't blogging as much when Caroline was a baby. Having a baby is exhausting. Having a baby and being pregnant again, well, I can't even imagine. Leslie however, was glowing. Her face, her smile, her happiness was shining bright through my computer screen. 

Her second daughter, Ainsley was born this past December. I was thrilled for her. 

Sadly, in February, Leslie reported that she was in the hospital because she was having heart issues. She shared previously that she had heart issues as a child. And now that heart was failing her again. 

As many people did, I prayed for her and finally in May, she was able to come home. 

I felt so sad that Leslie had missed so much with her babies. My heart broke for her, and honestly, I can't imagine what that must have felt like. When she got home in May, she began blogging again, and I was so excited that she was back. Again, the love for her family was exuded through her blog, through her facebook, her instagram. I felt so happy for her.

Then, the news came that she was being readmitted to the hospital. God layed her on my heart and I went over to check her blog. I was fully expecting another witty Confessional Friday, and instead I learned that she was  being flown to Cleveland and something was going to have to be done about her heart.  I headed over to her Facebook to let her know that I was praying for her, thinking about her. And, I'm so glad that I did. I really think that God put her on my heart for a reason. 

Fast forward to our dentist appointments on Monday, and Leslie was put on my heart again. I checked her blog and there was no update. The girls and I came home, and I received a message that Leslie had passed away in her sleep that night. Heart broken. 

You see, she has a husband and two babies who she has left behind. She has her parents, her friends, so many people who love her. I think if you even knew Leslie a little bit, you couldn't help but to fall in love with her. Her personality was just glowing. My heart breaks for her two girls. My heart breaks for her husband. 

My biggest fear as a mother is leaving my children behind. 

I know that Leslie is in heaven. She spoke about her faith often in her blog. I have peace knowing that so many of her loved ones will see her again. But, my heart is still breaking for her children. 

I began going about my daily routines Monday morning, after I had received the news, and through tears, I thought, what on earth can I do. How can I help these little girls know their mother. I decided to start a letter writing campaign.

See, when I was pregnant with Gretchen, my biggest fear was leaving her behind, knowing that she may not know me. I began to write her letters to have when she got older. My letters eventually turned into my blog, and I'm grateful that my girls will have my blog to look back on. I'm even more grateful that Caroline and Ainsley will have their mother's blog to look back on. 

I couldn't get the idea out of my head to write a letter to Caroline and Ainsley. Telling them how much their mother meant to me. Telling them what an amazing person she was! If you knew Leslie, I'm asking that you write a letter to the girls too. 

My hopes are that as these girls grow, and move through their life, they'll have glimpses of their mother. Sadly, she won't be their for their first kiss, she won't be their for their first date, prom dress shopping, their graduations, their engagments, or their weddings. 

Those are the times that I would want my mother. The times that these girls can pull out their letters and see your words. Maybe you want to share advice, maybe you want to share a Bible verse, a funny story- anything to give these girls glimpses of the wonderful person that their mother was. 

If you would like to participate in the Sisti Sisters Letters Campaign, please send me an email at elainewelte@gmail.com with Sisti Sisters Letters in the subject line. I will send you the information to where you can mail your letter. Once the letters have been received, I will place them in a keepsake box and forward them to Stephen where he can hold on to them for the girls.

I'm not even sure how to wrap this up, other than, asking you to please pray for her family. Pray for her husband that he will have strength to raise these two precious girls. Pray for these girls that they will know the love their mother had for life. She loved life so. I'm thankful they'll have her blog to look back on. 

If you don't know Jesus, I pray that you will come to know him. I would love to talk to you about Jesus, and Heaven and ever lasting life. 

Leslie's was a life cut too short.

As Leslie always said, "Be Blessed Lovelies"

Gretchen's Baptism

Sunday was a very important day for our family. It's a day that I prayed for since before I had children. It's a day that I will remember forever. Sunday is the day that Gretchen was baptized. 

One evening in May, as I was tucking Gretchen in to bed, I had her say her prayers. There were no conversations before, I just told her to say her "prayers from the heart". That night, I listened to the most amazing little prayer. Gretchen asked Jesus to live in her heart. She told God that she wanted to go to heaven. She said that she wanted to be forgiven.

After her prayer, I looked at her and said, "Do you know what you just did?" She shook her head and I told her that she just asked Jesus to live in her heart and that now He does! The smile on her face. The biggest smile I have ever seen! She squealed with delight, jumped up and down, and clapped her hands together. 

After she prayed her prayer and I went downstairs, I stopped thinking about what she had just done. I don't even remember if I told DJ that day or if I waited a few days. It was weeks before I actually told my mom. 

We continued to go to church on Sundays, say her prayers, and go on with our lives. She had mentioned that she wanted to be baptized and I told her that we would talk to the preacher at church. And we continued to go on. Every Sunday, I would leave thinking, I have got to remember to call the church this week, and then I'd get busy and forget. Then one Sunday, DJ and I were sitting in the service, and two children were baptized. I looked at DJ and said, I'm emailing the preacher right now. I sat in that pew and sent that email. 

A few days later, we received a phone call and we scheduled the date for Gretchen's baptism. She had the choice to be sprinkled or to be "dunked". She chose to be baptized the way that Jesus was baptized. The way John the Baptist, baptized Jesus. She wanted to be dunked in that water and raised clean and born again!

We invited our family and friends to attend and unfortunately, only my parents could attend. We also had local friends attend. 

Above is her getting ready to leave the house. She had her change of clothes in her backpack.

We took a few family photos before leaving. Megan had to take her backpack too. 

Words cannot describe how proud we are of her. I have prayed for this strong willed little girl since she was tiny. I have prayed that she would grow up to do BIG things for Christ. I pray that her strong-willed, determined personality will resist and go and do BIG things. I honestly believe that if Gretchen decides to be a missionary in a far away country, that she will set her mind, be determined, and go. If the Lord wants her to do His work closer to home, she will. Her faith. Her child like faith. It's big. 

The girls with my parents. 

My parents with Gretchen. 

We arrived early to church, which was a miracle in itself, and after taking the little girls to their classes, we headed up to the baptismal room. Gretchen put on a robe and she was walked through the steps of what would go on. We prayed and then we were able to get a photo with Pastor Jon.

Gretchen's mood Sunday morning was totally her. She was happy, excited, hyper, giddy. The girl was alive in Christ.

When it was time in the service, for Gretchen to be baptized, she entered the baptistry, and we waited on the windows to open. When they did, and Pastor Jon introduced the importance of what was about to happen, she leaned over, looked at the window, waved to everyone, and then answered 3 very important questions. Does she come willingly? Does she repent of her sins? Does she believe in Jesus? Her answers were an adamant YES! 

After she was baptized, we prayed for her, and then she swam, yes swam, out of the baptistry. 

We are so thankful that our church has a live stream of our services, and her grandparents, and aunt were able to watch from home. 

After church, we invited her friend Connor, his parents, another friend, and of course my parents over for lunch. We fixed a taco bar compete with guac, salsa, and queso. 

We tried to get pictures of the kids together, but they were too silly.

One day, we're going to reenact this photo at their wedding. 

I'm so thankful for these little friends.

(I'm also thankful that their friendship forged a friendship between their parents too!)

I ordered cookies from OK Cookie Momster. 

(They were delicious!)

Once our company left, we let Gretchen open a few presents.

My parents bought her this angel.

DJ and I bought her this cross necklace.

And DJ's parents bought her an engraved jewelry box and gave her her great-grandmother's cross necklace. 

We will never forget this day. We are so grateful that Gretchen has a love for Christ. We are thankful that she desires to know Him more. We are thankful that she is our sister in Christ.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Whew! What a fun weekend we had! It was busy, and fun, and memorable, and well, just perfect.  You know though, as our summer is winding down, and August is close by (well, this weekend in fact!) I can't help but to think that our weekends as a family are coming to an end. As soon as fall football starts next weekend (the 7th) our weekends together as a family will be few and far between. We'll be weekending with one less person- DJ- and that reality, is making me want to really enjoy and soak up the time that we do have with him while he is still home! 

Anyways, here's what we have been up to!

We started potty training Addy Pearl. I'll have to write a full post on this later, but the girl is rocking going potty while we are home! While we're out and about, that's another story, but we've started and she's doing great!

Thursday morning, the girls and I got up and headed toward Arkansas. We met my mom at our half way point and did some shopping, ate lunch, and then she took the big girls home with her and Adalyn and I set off toward home. I ended up not getting any pictures, because I was just enjoying the moments.

Thursday evening, I had a girls night. We went out to eat at Kilkenny's Irish Pub and then we headed to Pinot's Palette. 

I enjoyed a few glasses of wine and some painting. 

Here's my finished painting!

If you've never been to Pinot's Palette, I highly recommend it! We had so much fun, and I was super intimidated because I am not a painter, but I'm kind of impressed with myself!

Here's our group of coaches wives! These ladies are going to be so much fun this season!

Friday morning, Addy and I got up and went shopping. 

We hit up At Home, a furniture store, had lunch with DJ, went to a rug store, Pottery Barn, and then we finally made it home! We had just an hour or so at home before DJ got home and we went back to the furniture store to pick out a desk and new sofa (which we weren't suppose to get until Christmas time) and then we went out to eat. 

The girl was a trooper! I am 100% sure that I couldn't have gotten everything accomplished with all three girls. She was a total rockstar. 

Friday night, we went to eat here (Stone Mill BBQ & Steakhouse) and it was fabulous! Tulsa friends, you should eat here! DJ and I have said over and over again that we needed to try this restaurant, and we keep forgetting about it. We remembered Friday night and everything was very good! We even had leftovers to take home and it was just as good the next day!

Earlier in the week, I had posted this photo on my Instagram. I've been running a few times a week, and I've really enjoyed having the time with nature and with God. 

I also found out that I made STAR level with Young Living! I am loving the essential oils that we've added to our family. I'll be sharing more next week! 

Saturday was filled with lots of running errands (again). Addy and I had to go back to Pottery Barn, we came home for lunch, and then I hit up Target and the grocery store. My parents headed back with the big girls and we ordered pizza and watched a movie. 

Sunday morning we went to church where Gretchen was baptized. I'll talk more about that in tomorrow's post, but I couldn't be more proud of her!

We had a little party at the house for her and after our company left we piled up to watch movies and took naps.

This girl fell asleep with all her babies in her bean bag. Which sums up how exhausting our weekend was! Hope yours was fabulous! See you all tomorrow!

Friday Favorites: HPA Edition

It's Friday! We're having a great Friday over here! My big girls are visiting my parents in Arkansas and it's just Addy Pearl and I hanging out. I foresee our day consisting of potty training, cuddles, house cleaning, and some sewing. Maybe a date night with just the three of us tonight.... with the bigs away, the rest of us will play! 

I recently opened my shop to back to school, fall, and spirit wear orders! This week, I've been busy working on orders and I thought I'd share them with you on this Friday Favorites! After all, sewing and creating is definitely a favorite of mine!

This year, I decided to open up just a few slots rather than an endless possibility. I didn't want to overwhelm myself during the last few weeks of summer and I still want to enjoy time with my girls. I have room for just 5 more back to school orders as long as your school start date is August 17th or later! 

Back to school shirts are such a fun tradition to start with your kids! I love that my girls have had a special shirt or outfit for their first day of school. 

1st grade definitely ROCKS! My daughter loved first grade last year and I know that Anna will too!

Anna's mom also ordered her this outfit! I love the bubblegum pink and fun colors! Anna will be a 1st grade DIVA for sure!

I let Gretchen choose her own design for 2nd grade, and this is what she came up with. Squeezing in shirts for my three girls, is hard, but this year, I'm determined that I will not wait until the last minute. So, I'm working on orders in the morning, and completing an outfit for my girls during nap/rest time in the afternoons. 

Shirts are $25.00 with an option for personalization. Shorts are $18.00, and made to match bows start at just $6.00. I still have to complete the hair bow for Gretchen's outfit above- after all, she's going to need a BIG bow for the first day! And to be honest, now I'm feeling the pressure to buy her some pretty awesome shoes to go with her shirt!

Over the next few weeks, I'll be completing my back to school shirt orders and getting started on spirit wear orders! Since we practically live for college football in our house, I love, love, love getting to create spirit wear for your honey pie's to cheer on their favorite team!

I have two different shirts in the work for my girls to wear this year while watching our favorite team!

And, in the mean time, I'm taking pre-orders for these adorable bubble sweatshirts! I'm thinking they'll be your daughter's favorite for comfy school wear that is so cute! Especially when personalized with a monogram or their name. Plus, your child can totally wear these if their school requires school uniforms! To check out all of my pre-orders, you'll want to join my Facebook Group page here.

And for the moms, I'm working on getting a pre-order together for these sweatshirts! So comfy and cute at the same time! You all need one! Again, just go to my group page here.

I'll be open to Fall/Halloween orders this next week! Again, you'll want to join my group page or 'like' my page on Facebook to get your hands on your FAVORITE fall designs!

Happy Friday Friends! I hope your weekend is fabulous!

Girl Mom: Chores

It's time for another installment of Girl Mom! I tend to think that having these three girls of mine make me an expert in one thing- Girls. I may not be an expert at anything else, but raising girls, sometimes I think I'm pretty good at it. You know, for about 1 minute every single day when they're not pushing every button that I have. It's those moments that I hope to share my successes (and believe me, I have a fair share of failures and I've shared those too!) To check out all of my Girl Mom posts click here.

Today, I'm sharing how we get Gretchen to help around the house. We've tried everything in the past- allowance, bribery, begging, arguing. Chores have always been her nemesis, but we have finally found a system that works. We started this last spring, and her willingness to help around the house has been astonishing. We still hear some mumbling, but she's helping and her complaining is less and less. This works!

I first started by typing up a list of "chores" that I felt that she was capable of doing. She's 7 years old and I know that she can likely do more and I know that some things will still be a challenge, the point is that she is helping. Some of the chores are small tasks, mundane things (like feeding the dog or letting the dog outside) other things are more difficult (like sweeping the floors or vacuuming.) She doesn't have to do all of these things in one day. Some days, I assign things and some days she picks, and other days, I don't have her do anything.

Once she finishes a chore, she writes the corresponding amount of points in her notebook. At the end of the day, we add her points. Her math skills have come a long way since we've started this! She's learning how to add more than one digit (a 2nd grade math skill) and she's learning place value (SO important). She's also getting help in writing her numbers, because some of them are still written backwards.

I also have a list of rewards. Once she earns a certain number of points, she can trade in her points for a reward. We have small rewards like a movie night or getting to stay up late, but we have big rewards- like Minecraft. She's finally SO close to getting Minecraft (she's at 10,000). I let her choose many of the rewards and some I chose myself. When she wants to trade in points, we talk to her about saving them for what she really wants (Minecraft) or spending them. The choice is totally up to her, but we do remind her that she really wants minecraft and she has to save up to earn it. We're teaching her about the importance of saving without using cold hard cash. 

She traded in a few points for some computer time last week. 

Now that we've been using this system for several months, I need to update some of her chores. When we first started, we were struggling with her taking a shower and washing her hair. She still wanted me to bathe her with her sisters. So, we added a "chore" and she would earn 100 points if she did it herself. Now, she's doing it herself daily.  We added a chore for her to come inside without complaining; it's not really a chore, but it's a behavior we needed her to improve on. We also need to add things such as taking out the trash.

She can loose points as well. If she argues, we can tell her, "you'll loose x amount of points" and she stops. If she complains, she can loose points, fighting with her sisters = loss of points. 

I also want to update the rewards. I think it's important that she does have her own money, and I want to add in a reward to trade her points for a certain amount of money.

I made her point values rather large, and her rewards large. But, you can totally adjust them to what works for you. I'm wanting to start this system with Megan, but she can't count as high. She'll likely have point values of 1, 2 and 3, and her reward system will equal around 50 or 100 rather than 5,000 or 10,000. 

I'd love to know if you think this system would work for you! And don't forget, you can follow all of my #girlmom shenanigans on Instagram @ewelte_hpa