Hello 40.

In May, I reached 4-0.
It was a day filled with love, laughter, family and friendship. 
Just as perfect as how life should be.

In one word- this is how I felt...

special [ˈspɛʃəl]
adj

1. distinguished, set apart from, or excelling others of its kind

2. (prenominal) designed or reserved for a particular purpose 

3. not usual or commonplace

4. (prenominal) particular or primary 

-going golfing with Josh, just like my Dad and I used to do on my birthdays

-getting a big bucket of "40 Things I Love about You" from the man of my life

-getting a sparkly diamond stud necklace from the man of my life

-calls, texts and more texts...oh the sweet beepin and chirping all day/night

-new friends stopping by with the most thoughtful "just for Stacey" gifts

-laughter and tears
-lovely flowers delivered from a cherished bestie in Ohio

-a "girl day out" spa gift certificate from my sis-in-law

-an ocean trip booked to take this fall with the man of my life
-"handpainted and handcrafted by Hannah" canvas and glass necklace

-a surprise of a Fogo De Chao dinner downtown Denver 

-a huge basket of wonderful gifts that were labeled "All About Stacey" from my mom

-the yummiest key lime pie cake compliments of mom

-an annual October girls trip planned (we all turn 40 this year!) to a beach house in Florida 

-wearing special old jewelry on a special night out

-hearing from darling new friends and very old best friends

-meaningful and special gifts from precious far away friendships

-getting Dad's prayer about me that was secretly folded up in his wallet for 13 years. Priceless.

Yes. SPECIAL. What else does a girl want on her 40th birthday?

Not much.

I felt deeply loved.
So very blessed beyond words for the GIFT of LIFE for 40 years.

Loving it all with crazy and insane gratitude to God...

and knowing the next 40 are going to be even better than the last. really!

Wildly excited and totally embracing the beauty of the new roads ahead.

ohmyword...these pictures are bLuRrY and all over the place colors!! sorry!

aaawwww.

"A woman doesn't become interesting until she is over 40."

-Coco Chanel

Lauren's birthday: part 3

11 ways we love our Lauren

1. soft, sensitive, strong, smart, and stubborn  for good measure

2. creates something into a creative something all the time

3. she hops and skips like a fairy when she is happy (always has!)

4. her big fat heart is filled with sweet honey, and some spice for good measure

5. she can be so loud and so shy- all in one day

6. she is super tidy and rocks as a housekeeper

7. she will have platinum blonde hair and eyelashes/eyebrows until age 98

8. she is SO content knitting or crocheting, reading, etc for hours on end

9. loooove her funny-ness, laughter, giggling fits

10. she has a brave and confident mind of her own 

11. she is full of integrity:

The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

Crazy proud parent moment this year: she was overwhelmingly voted by her classmates and teacher at school with "B.I.S.O.N Student of  the Month for Integrity" award. She consistently models integrity and "does the right thing even when no one is watching her" and "she always says yes if someone asks if they can join her group."

That's our girl.

Lauren birthday: part 2

Lauren loves to giggle. On her time and her heart. 

She can open up the skies with the infectious joy.

She has my heart.

We went to a favorite park and plopped ourselves on the top of the hill for picnic time.

Beautiful day. It was raining and thundering all around us...

except for on this hill.

No kidding!

Lauren's kind of play=  rolling down the hill. 

= silly with sister.

= imagination.

=water and a best friend.

= family and the biggest and BEST waterpark in the nation.

(beautiful Waterworld in Denver)

= happy Mama and Daddy with happy Lauren.

Lauren birthday: part 1

Lauren has been wanting a bird. She spent weeks researching on parakeets. Online, books...weeks, my friends. She wanted to be prepared. So we decided that a feathery friend would be her gift from Mama and Daddy for her birthday. We made it a family affair and she picked out the most adorable and friendly birdie. She was on CLOUD 9. Pure happiness. Big watermelon smiles. Joy. Joy. 

She was in love and took such good care of Dorie.

Four days later, all of a sudden something happened overnight...and she died. We have NO idea what happened. After a call to a vet, apparently parakeets are very fragile animals. After weeks of preparation and falling madly in love with Dorie, her time was cut short.

Omygoodness, my heart broke along with Lauren's. 

She is such a sweetheart of a sensitive soul, so the tears dropped heavily along with her heart.

Watermelon birthday helped the heavy heart and heavy tears.

so did sweet gift helpers

things to create with...

big sister squeezes...

a beautiful gold necklace from grandma/grandpa...

All is going to be okay.

painting pals

There are a few of us in our Art Gypsies group that like to paint. Woo hoo!...is what I wanna say about that! We get together to "play" occasionally and have some time to create. Be free. Be merry. Here are some of our creations that we have done in Becky's large studio and my studio in our basement.

We did a fun and alternative "Flora Bowley style" painting...and were inspired by this Donna Downey painting video. 

My colorful rendition

Rachel's pop of awesome

Becky's large vibrant abstract

My fun poppies

Sting

In January, I found out that Sting was coming. My first thought: Josh. We have seen some great concerts in our days but we haven't seen this classic. I called my brother (it's becoming tradition because we saw Peter Gabriel together last year) and asked him if he wanted to join us again. Absolutely! We got the pre-sale tickets asap because the tickets went fast. Sting at Red Rocks Amphitheatre for one night. We. Are. There.

We chowed on food before we headed up.

When I mean, head up...I mean...head UP. 

This is what you have to walk over to get to the venue. 

It is breathtaking and breath-taking! 

We cheated a bit. Got there and sat in the front. 

Just saving the seats for whoever they were for, riiiighhht? Yes. 

Usually everyone is pretty relaxed at this place, but not when the crowd is our generation and up. Apparently as you get older, you get cranky. Everyone wanted their exact seat assignment.

So we ended up in our exact seat. 

Which ended up being fabulous. The mountainous views. The crowd. The company. The MUSIC. Sting rocked it at Red Rocks.

our little adorable houses

This past May project in art club was to make houses! Oh how we glee'd with delight over these creations. We all put our own stamp on them. We started with just plain wood you can get anywhere. Hardware store, your husbands leftover pile, scraps from a house being built, etc. Then just put hubby to work and have them cut into rectangles, squares, some with roofs, some not.

Spread out all the goodies.

All the goodies include: lots of modge podge and patterned paper, cardboard doors, popsicle sticks, clothes pins....

Stamps, paint, antique embellishments...

ribbon, knick knacks....

stickers, words, metal embellishments....

buttons, hot glue....you name it...anything goes!

Just endless creativity and individual styles and personality on each one! 

Love love loved doing them.... aren't they precious? 

Heaps of thanks for the idea, Becky!