Go ahead, snap.

We had a really, really good day yesterday.  I know with my rosy attitude and all you might think every single day is such fun.  Some days are just discipline after discipline, usual mama stuff.  But yesterday snuck up on us, a rare treat of a day.  We were home all day, with only the Ranger as our mode of transportation.  Secretly, these days are my fave.  We're free to wear anything we want without having to worry about looking nice, we can linger around the breakfast table, and splash in mud puddles galore.

 So that's just what we did.  I loaded up the girls in the Ranger, after which Anna Ruth immediately wanted to know if I could drive it.  We rode down to our favorite pasture and said "hello!" to the cows, noticing every single sight and sound along the way.  

 One of the cuties got too close to MY cutie and licked Betsy Grace's hand.  You might remember me describing a cow's tongue in an earlier blog post-it's like sandpaper!  She turned her lip down and just boo-hooed.  Just like her mama at this age....my oh my, how things have changed! 

 The girls and I are queens at making a whole lot of fun out of a tiny bit of nothing.  

One of my favorite ways to engage the girls in play is to stand in a place like a pasture and find as many things as possible to talk about.  We were so saddened to see this beautiful butterfly injured and laying on the rock.  

 We always discover beautiful treasures to bring back home with us.  Anna Ruth will even yell "Mom! I found a treasure!" and come running to me, hand tightly squeezed around her find.  

 We ambled down to the creek for a look and discovered the water was shallow enough we could easily walk and jump in the mud puddles.  Both girls liked this, especially after it started to sprinkle!  

We got so dirty and had such fun we decided to come home.  After a bubble bath and pretty dresses the girls were the best kind of worn out.

I caught a rare moment with them sweetly sharing....

For those of you who have asked about our pets-I present to you Bouncy the dog, and Old Bee-Bop, the cat.  They hardly make it into a picture because they fight just like cats and dogs.  Combine the girls WITH the pets outside and we're practically running a circus.  And I love it and wouldn't have it any other way.  I don't miss the quiet afternoons of one baby at all.  I love both my gals and even these silly pets.  

 My encouragement for now is to go ahead, snap.  Not emotionally I hope, but with your camera.  There are so many things someone else could consider "wrong" about several of the photos in this post.  But that's not what I see when I look.  I see the sweetest moments of childhood, stolen away on my phone or camera.  If you can't afford a fancy camera or don't even want to mess with one, use your phone!  My phone is tied for first place with my camera as far as my favorite medium for taking pictures.  It's so easy to pull it out of my back pocket and quickly capture a moment.  I encourage you to snap the sweet!  Your sweet life, children, food, memories....

(isn't Betsy Grace a living doll?!)

I like to combine my sweet moments snapped with magazine pictures, sayings, and words to create inspiration boards like this one!  They keep my mind fresh and my spirit light. 

To make this inspiration board I started with a huge yellow frame, hanging empty on the wall.  I then gathered a big stack of magazines and flipped through them to find the pictures that spoke to me the most.  I cut my favorites out and taped up the tear-outs, as well as my own Prinstagram Instagram pictures in the order of size-large, medium, and small. 

You can find me on Instagram as sunshinebysara ! 

Last, I want to say hello and thank-you.  I've "met" several of you from my friend Natalie's blog over the last day or so and I am delighted you're here!  To those of you who have ordered things from my shop, thank-you, thank-you! Hint: If you visit Natalie's blog, there's a coupon code posted for my Etsy shop!