Happily Ever Mock

Summer Bucket List Check In

The girls and I have been having a nice and busy Summer! But between their trips, dance lessons, soccer practices, piano lessons and tutoring (my smarties getting ready for their school year early) we have still been able to cross a few things off of our list! 
S’mores
Unfortunately we chose a fairly windy day, so instead of using the fire pit, my Dad was kind enough to let us use his grill!

But they were still yummy!
Hallie thoroughly enjoyed her first S’mores experience! 
But it left her wanting S’more
Celebrating Cleo’s Birthday and Ice Cream Social

 Cleo’s parent’s went ALL OUT and decorated the lawn for her birthday! So cute!

 And we celebrated by inviting the girl’s friends over for an ice cream social!

Movie Theater



We went a few weeks ago to see Max.  I figured Hallie would be good because she loves puppies so much, but she got pretty antsy! We ended up watching 75% of the movie standing in the side aisle.  Oh well. What I saw of it was pretty cute, but I am not sure I can call this Hallie’s first movie going experience.

Swimming

One thing we have done a lot is swim! Oh my it has been so hot here, and the best way to beat the heat is jumping in a cool pool! With 4 weeks of Summer left, I am sure we will get plenty more pool time, as well as checking off some more things from our list!

Hope everyone else is having a great summer and finding some fun ways to beat the heat!
<3 Kelly

Our Blank Canvas Weekend

Like I said Friday, our weekend had absolutely no plans! Sure I had to grocery shop and catch up a little on house cleaning, but no birthday parties, no dinner plans, nada! 

So Saturday morning we got up and went to the gym, because apparently I am one of “those people” now! Hallie of course was a perfect angel in the Kids club the first time we went, but made up for it on this second visit. I was in a  Piyo class (1/2 Pilates 1/2 Yoga) and every few minutes I see Christopher walking over to relieve the caretaker…sorry about your non workout honey!

The rest of the day we did a little shopping, ate little lunch with Tia Joyce and then we played and played and played some more!

These toys were given to her by her buddy Brayen from when he was little and she has yet to put them down!
P.S. NOT okay with how grown up she looks here!

I turned on Marley and Me because Hallie is OBSESSED with dogs and she curled right up with Stella to watch it! It was the CUTEST thing ever!

Sunday we spent the WHOLE day practically by the pool! It was awesome! We went to my parent’s house and Hallie splashed! Her favorite thing though by far was stealing my nephew’s water guns and playing with the pool thermometer! 

 My awesome little sister made me a yummy healthy lunch pool side (which I might have ruined with chips and dip on the way home)

Hallie was super tired and grumpy after the pool so I tried coming up with a way she would sit in her highchair while I made dinner…. 

 My plan consisted of her eating, and throwing the crayons and hugging the characters I gave her to color…at least we know goofy is well loved.. also please excuse the post swimming pre bath hair!

Somehow I was still able to knock out a yummy dinner of chicken in a white wine, mushroom cream sauce and steamed broccoli….which we might have also ruined with ice cream (Don’t tell Hallie!) 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Happy Monday!
<3 Kelly 

Oh hey, Friday!

Yay! It’s Friday! It’s a Friday with a blank canvas weekend ahead! I can’t remember the last time where I had NOTHING planned for a weekend! I think some pool time might be in order!
This week was a busy one celebrating birthdays, lots of fun with the kiddos, AND…I joined a gym you guys…I AM SOOOO SORE!

Anyway here are our cute pictures from the week!

1.

This is how everyone drinks their milk, right?

2.

Too Many Toys!!!!!

3.

Fun in the pool!

4.

We had an ice cream date with Sadie this week…I didn’t get much

5.

Clapping for the birthday girl!!! Happy Birthday Cleo!

Hope everyone had a fantastic week! Happy Friday!
<3 Kelly

Happy Birthday Cleo!

Happy 12th birthday Cleo! Mrs. Kelly has enjoyed watching you grow up from a cute funny 2 year old girl into the beautiful, sweet and yes, still funny young woman you are! You still have such a sweet heart and caring soul and Mrs. Kelly is so proud of you! I can’t believe in a short month you will be going to Middle School, but I know you will succeed there because you are smart, talented and dedicated! 
In the last few years you have just blossomed (no pun intended) into such a talented dancer and actress and I am so proud of you! 

Thank you for being such a special part of my life. I promise to always be there when you need me too! 

 You have been such a BIG help this year with Hallie and she loves you so very much! Which of course isn’t surprising since you are such a great big sister to Sadie! So many people love you sweet girl! Happy Happy Birthday! I hope all of your wishes come true!

XOXO,
Mrs Kelly

Who, What, When, Where, Why Wednesday with Kelley











Good morning and happy Wednesday my lovely friends! I have such a treat for you today! Today’s guest is Kelley from Love Like Crazy.  I just love Kelley’s blog and her updates on adorable Olivia, AKA Hallie’s kindred spirit! 



1.     Who?- Who are you? My name is Kelley. I love Target. My bank account hates it. I always win.

2.  What?- What do you Blog about? I blog about my husband, who cannot for the life of him tell the difference between a cucumber and a zucchini, my blonde haired blue eyed baby girl, who toured 10 breweries before her first birthday, and our sweet rescue dog Koda who no longer gets any attention. I don’t have my life together at all, and I’m happy to tell you all about it.

3.When?- When did you start blogging? I had to check my blog – I started exactly 3 years ago, almost to the week. (Happy Bloggerversary Kelley!)

4. Where? –Where do you live? We live in Charlotte, NC. Right near Emily Maynard. Who actually moved recently. I’d like to think it had nothing to do with that blog post.

5.  Why?- Why did you decide to blog? I love taking pictures, but do nothing with them, and I have a horrible memory. I know there were so many fun times and funny moments in college – and I can’t remember half of them. Zemkoff vodka had nothing to do with that. I thought it would be fun to have a transcript of the good memories, I would take more pictures and finally have a place to put them.
I was so lucky that Kelley let me pry further and ask her 5 Random questions:

1. What is your favorite children’s book? (Either one you read as a kid or one you love to read to Olivia)
I love reading the Olivia books to Olivia. Clearly they started just because she has the same name. But I think they are pretty funny – so I always enjoy reading those. 

2. Tell us something you love about your husband! 
I love so many things about him. I make fun of him a lot on the blog: like his texting skills and that time when he had mono, but if I had to pick one, I’d say that he is the best dad. He gets her up every morning, feeds her breakfast, and takes her to daycare, all after I have left for work. I mean sometimes I pick her up and she isn’t wearing pants (that was only once) but he is so hands on with her and it is the sweetest thing. 























3. What is your favorite thing to do with Miss Olivia? Now that it is summer, the pool. She’s a little fish. She thinks she’s a fish. She jumps in the water. Arms out. Legs out. Underwater. Eyes wide open. Giant smile. Looking up at me. And I pull her up out of the water and she claps for herself as I say “good swimming.” Clearly, we have a ways to go until she’s swimming. But she loves the pool and we always get a good nap after a few hours of being there. 























4. Tell us something surprising about yourself! 
This one is hard. I’m trying to think of something I’ve never mentioned on the blog. My back is broken. Surprising, when you see some of the antics I’m usually up to. I broke my back in gymnastic when I was little. I always thought it just hurt to do backflips. It wasn’t until tennis in highschool when I couldn’t walk after matches that I went to the doctor. After the season, of course. Because I knew he’d tell me to stop playing. A lower vertebra is broken completely through and it will never heal. (That still makes no sense to me, but I’ve been back multiple times and you can clearly see it’s still broken). My doctor told me never to play tennis again, never to run, and that I would have to have spinal fusion surgery before my 30th birthday. I joined the swim team to strengthen my core. Played tennis the following season (good thing because we won the state championship) and ran through college. I saw the Panther’s back doctor in Charlotte and told him that even though it hurt, if I could workout through the pain, I felt much better than resting – worried that he’d scold me. He believes that keeping the muscles strong around the back can almost cure the pain. Dan and I started doing P90X ab ripper a few times a week – he has 4 herniated disks – and have had 0 back pain since. If it starts acting up, its because we’ve missed a week with ab ripper. So far, no issues! That was a really long answer – but if I left it with “my back is broken” I thought there would be a lot of questions!





















5. Where is your favorite shop to buy clothes?
Baby Gap. Oh for me? I think my entire clothing budget has gone to Olivia’s closet. 
(I know that feeling!!!) 
Baby clothes are so much cuter. I’d say most of my clothes are from Banana Republic. I work in the office every day (half day) and can wear a blouse from BR with pants and a blazer, and then also wear that same top with shorts and flip flops on the weekends. 


Thank you so much Kelley for being a part of this series! If anyone is interested in joining, shoot me an email: Kelhof87@gmail.com

Don’t forget to check out Kelley’s blog! 

<3 Kelly

Hallieisms

Hallie’s personality is really starting to form! There are so many cute things she is saying and doing right now that I just never want to forget! She is silly JUST like her Daddy and she is really starting to test the limits!
Like last night at dinner for example when I saw her waving a blueberry over the side of her highchair and I said “Hallie keep it on your tray” and she looked right at me and dropped the darned thing! I said “Oh that’s so sad” and she looked down at it and said “Uh-oh”. Then as she was drinking her milk before bed. I turned away for a minute and looked back and found that she had squeezed about a fourth of her milk onto the couch! Ah!
So with all of these new funny, cute and yes sometimes sneaky things she was doing, I knew I needed to document them before I forget!
So, here are my favorite current Hallieisms:

  • Hallie has this new laugh where she cups her hand around her face and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! She has also started to laugh anytime we laugh! It’s adorable!
  • This one isn’t really that new, but definitely progressing as she gets older…I am a little scared…when she gets mad at something she has to attack it! So like she’s riding along on her hippo car and accidentally tumbles off…girl comes back for revenge.  She will start screaming and eating it’s face…lately though she’ll bump her tooth and then get’s even more upset….It started out funny…now I’m not sure what to do…
  • She has this face where she crinkles up her nose and pouts her lips! It’s pretty hilarious! If you do it to her, she will usually do it back! Cleo and Hallie could go back and forth for hours! 
  • She will tell you “up” when she wants to be picked up.  However now she knows how to get on and off the couch by herself, yet will still exclaim “up” as she is climbing onto the couch.  I guess she is just being polite and letting us know!
  • She does this new thing whenever she is on tile or hardwood floor where she will keep her hands fixed to the ground, but slide her feet or legs around and laugh hysterically.  It’s really funny to watch! I will have to try and get a video!
  • One of my favorite things she says is “Silly Silly” or sometimes “Silly Dada” or “Silly Stella” It melts my heart! Especially when conjoined with squeals and giggles!
  • Girl LOVES her animals! Any real animal, stuffed animal or an animal in a book has got to be either kissed or hugged! Oh and she won’t leave the house without her puppy or giraffe! 

She is just getting hilarious and I am enjoying watching her personality bloom! 
What are some funny/cute things your kids do or say?

Our weekend

Good morning and Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend! We had a pretty busy weekend! 

Saturday- Hallie and I ran TOO many errands, and then our little family went over to have dinner with Christopher’s family at his Dad’s house.  

Hallie helped Pop with some computer problems with Puppy’s help of course
She also played with her buddy Bach

And she read Aunt Kate some stories
She had a great time!

Sunday- 
We went to a backyard picnic to celebrate our buddy Mira’s 1st birthday! Hallie and Mira were due 2 days apart, and it has been so much fun watching them both grow up!  
Her Mommy did a FANTASTIC job with all of the decorations and everything, and Hallie of course had a blast! We also loved meeting Mira’s big family! That girl is sure surrounded with a lot of love! PS if you haven’t checked out their non-profit organization, please do!

After the party, we went to Church as a family, then Mommy enjoyed a dinner out with Joyce! So much fun!
All in all it was a wonderful weekend! 
XOXO
-Kelly

Currently July

Yikes! I have been really slacking on my “Currently Posts”, so I thought I would fill you in on what I’ve been up to around the Mock house! 
Reading: I am in between books right now! I am number 3 in line for “Down the Rabbit Hole” at our local library, so I don’t want to pick up anything new until then!

Watching: Summer TV really is the pits… except for PLL of course! Which has me on the edge of my seat each week racking my brain for clues! Ah! I was so bummed that there was no new episode this week! 

Working on: Well I need to be working on some lesson plans for Hallie! As soon as my girls go back to school Hallie and Mommy do too! We really need to start focusing on letter,shapes, colors and numbers!

Looking Forward to: Some time with Christopher! He has been working so hard, and gets some time off this weekend, which should be nice!

Loving: For Mommy: 

Crochet Shorts
Toms

For Hallie: 

It does make me a little sad that Hallie is able to fit into the pjs without feet, but the fact that these cute Carter’s ones come in ballet prints makes it so much easier to swallow! 



These “Scoop of Mint” Moccasins are just the cutest!

Neither doll I wanted to get Hallie for her birthday worked out.  Sadly one is sold out until Autumn and the other doubled in price just before I decided to place my order! These are 2 just as adorable and both reasonably priced considering! The mermaid can be found here and the girl doll can be found here.    Both shops also do custom orders and have many many more cute options…hence why I have yet to order!!!
Hope everyone has a great Thursday!
<3 Kelly 

Who, What, When, Where Why Wednesday with Courtney

It’s Wednesday again friends, and you know what that means! Another edition of Who, What, When, Where Why Wednesday! Today Courtney is here from From Here to Eternity:





























Who Are you:
Hi e’rrrrrr’ybody (as my 2 year old would say, ha ha!) I’m Courtney and I blog at From Here to Eternity. I’ve been married to Eric for over 7 years and we have our sweet daughter Mia (who is basically our whole world) and a baby boy on the way!

What do you blog about, When did you start, Why do you blog?
I started my blog a few years ago to document my life with Eric- all of our adventures, the good, the bad, the ugly… but it’s pretty much turned into Mia’s journal 🙂 I just really love documenting everything I can because so much changes on the daily!

Where do you live?
We have been living in Arizona for almost 6 months now! Utah will always feel like home, but the Phoenix Valley has been really good to us so far!

What are you most excited about for baby boy?
Goodness, I don’t know how to share one thing that I’m most excited about with baby boy on the way? I’m definitely thrilled to experience a mother/son relationship, I can’t wait for the newborn snuggles (and the smell- there’s nothing better than the smell of a newborn!) but I think I’m most excited to be giving Mia a sibling. She has been so in tune with this pregnancy that I have high hopes that she will adore baby brother once he arrives and love being a big sister!

What’s a hidden talent you have?
I don’t think I have any hidden talents? It may surprise some to hear that I am pretty musical (but I can’t sing… no siree, that is not my talent!) Unfortunately I haven’t had the time for it (or made the time for it) especially since becoming a mom. But I look forward to the day that we buy a home and finally get a piano, I will definitely make it a point to start playing every day again!

What’s the last movie you saw?
Eric and I just went to the movie theater to watch The Avengers last month which is a big deal for us! We LOVE going to the movies now that they are such a rare occasion! We miss having access to family for babysitting more often 😉

What dessert can you never get enough of? 
I’m pretty sure I could never get enough of dessert in general, ha ha! But I suppose ice cream would be first on that list! Speaking of… I’ve REALLY been craving a brownie batter blizzard (with heath chunks) for the last week. I think I’m going to cave and indulge this week!

Who’s your style icon?
This might seem really sad but I don’t really have a style icon. The saddest part is that I don’t have much style myself and I’m too intimidated to dive into that world to even find an icon for myself, ha ha!

I think you are pretty stylish Courtney! Thanks for answering my questions!
<3 Kelly 


PS. Let me know if you are interested in being a guest on a WWWWW Wednesday in the future?

Cheap Eats This Week

There are 2 things you need to know about me:

1. I am a sucker for a good deal. 
and
2. I LOVE junk food! 
So I thought I would share these deals that are popping up this week that I for one, can’t wait to take part in!
TODAY, Tuesday July 7th at IHOP:
Today IHOP is celebrating their 57th birthday by selling their famous buttermilk pancakes for pennies! That;s right, at participating IHOPs for only .57 you’ll get to enjoy 3 delicious buttermilk pancakes! My mouth is watering already! Deal runs from 7am to 7pm.

 Friday, July 10th at Krispy Kreme Donuts:

On Friday Krispy Kreme celebrates it’s 78th year with a fabulous donut deal! With the purchase of 1 dozen doughnuts, you’ll get an extra dozen of original glazed for only .78! That’s a steal! And might be cause for another doughnut party!

Saturday, July 11th at 7/11 
Everyone knows and loves free slurpee day! From 11am-7pm on Saturday enjoy a free small slurpee at any participating store! 
Which promotion are you most excited for?! I know those doughnuts are calling my name!
<3 Kelly