kristen duke summer favorite things giveaway bucket
Fudgy Vanilla Brownie
neon orange anchor
cream cheese chocolate chip cupcakes
turquoise bedroom

Walt Disney World Family Vacation: How to Plan your Trip

I recently came back from a Walt Disney World Family Vacation, and we had so much fun! Since it was the first time I’d been with my children, I had so many questions in my mind about what to do in just ONE day at each theme park, so I thought I’d put together a 5 part series with the top ten attractions and tips along with photo ops at each park we went to, in the hopes that it will help others as well.

Walt Disney World Family Vacation

Our family spent 5 days in Orlando, with a 4 day pass to Walt Disney World and a 1 day pass to the neighboring Universal Studios. We decided quite last minute to go for our kids Spring Break, and I was so confused about all of the parks, what rides were at each, what were the “not-to-miss” attractions and food and events. … Continue Reading

Kelly Moore Camera Bag {Giveaway}

KellyMooreCameraBag

I’m so excited that I get to share with you this fabulous Kelly Moore B-Hobo Camera bag today, and offer a giveaway to one lucky reader of a BAG OF YOUR CHOICE! These stylish camera bags are gorgeous, and I’m in love with mine. I needed a little extra HOT PINK (or as Kelly Moore says, Fuchsia) in my life, so I chose this one, and I love the medium size. I also love the… Continue Reading

My Weight Loss~One Year Later

weight loss one year later

Today is the one year anniversary of my weight loss triumph. I can’t believe it’s been a year…it feels like 10 years ago! I’m happy to say that I’ve kept it all off…fluctuating down a few…and up a few…but pretty much staying at about an average of 132, which is technically 2 pounds less than I was a year ago. {I tried to stand at the exact same angle as best I could!} I took… Continue Reading

What I Wore to Walt Disney World

disney neon

{If you are new to my blog, I like to share on SOME Wednesdays what I wore in the past week, joining up with The Pleated Poppy’s fashion link party, and to challenge myself to be creative with my style. To see my past What I Wore Wednesdays posts head on over HERE.} For those of you not following my facebook or instragram feeds, our family spent spring break last week in Walt Disney World.… Continue Reading

My Love Story~Chapter 15: Just Friends

BYU cougar

{If you are new to my love story, you can start from the beginning HERE.} The timing was off. Would our timing ever be ON?  Being with him I felt so much happiness, but when we were apart, that constant knot in my stomach never went away…for months. It was agony. Choosing to stay away from him for a day or two gave me a sense of power over my roller coaster of emotions. Though… Continue Reading

Quick Thoughts and local Petite Photography Sessions

Austin Photographer

Soooo, hope you don’t mind, but I have a handful of “personal stories” this week to go along with my family stories last week. I didn’t plan to have it that way….I’m a “blog by the seat of my pants” kinda girl and have about 25 blog post ideas in my head/written on my calendar at the same time, but don’t always plan out what comes next til the night before! Next week, I’ve declared… Continue Reading

ARM & HAMMER Tooth Tunes featuring One Direction

arm & hammer Tooth Tunes

If you have kids that love One Direction songs as much as mine do, you might want to pull up a chair and listen to what I have to say. ARM & HAMMER has recently launched their Tooth Tunes toothbrushes featuring 2 of One Directions hit songs: One Thing and What Makes You Beautiful and I got to review one of the brushes, along with my adorable little helper. I’ll admit, I love a little… Continue Reading

31 Things you Probably don’t know about me

kristen duke

I thought it would be fun to sum up the stories from my siblings with some tidbits about me that you probably don’t know. These are things that I’ve thought I could write up an entire blog post about, but never get around to it, or don’t see enough content to do so.  Maybe we share some quirks…I thought I’d sprinkle in a few random pics of me to break up the text. I’m not… Continue Reading

Story from Alayna, my sis in law

sister

Kristen has a lot of amazing qualities.  One of them can be that she is very direct, some might say blunt. My first experience with her, let’s call it “straight-shooting,” came very early in our relationship. Tweet

Story from my 2 younger sister in laws

dancing sisters

Hi! We’re Kim and Rachel, married to siblings #3 and #4 respectively. How fun that we get to share all the juicy details about Kristen that only a sister-in-law gets to know! We have lots of stories of fun times with Kristen, but one in particular that brought all the sisters-in-law together was going clubbin’ to celebrate Kristen’s 30th birthday. Here’s a picture of all four of us that night: {Kristen, Kim (married to Russell),… Continue Reading

My youngest brother, Kirk shares a story

littlest brother

One of my favorite memories growing up with Kristen was when she taught me how to drive.  I remember that it was around my 14th birthday and she wanted to be the cool sister to show me the ropes of driving.  Now, hopefully this fact doesn’t get her in trouble with the law as I was definitely without so much as a driving permit, but that is the way that Kristen likes to roll.  So… Continue Reading

My brother Russell, 3.5 years younger

little bro

One of my first distinct memories in my life occurred in our house in Slidell LA.  It was either before we moved in our right after we moved in and some finishing touches being done on the house.  There was a balcony above the living room from the second floor.  I was 3 years old so Kristen was about 6 or 7. Tweet

Funny Stories told by my Older brother, Ryan

older brother

Kristen has asked each of her siblings to enter her blog-o-sphere world to share some memories from her life.  Unlike Kristen, I’m not such an open book publicly, so even 20 – 30 years after some experiences I still don’t want to self-incriminate on past behavior or long-time mysteries too much.  Hopefully, she’ll leave the gaps on anything that I’m purposefully vague. {My Junior year of high school, visiting my brother at his freshman year… Continue Reading

A Week of Embarrassing Stories

brothers

I’m not afraid to lay myself out there and tell some silly stories in order to get a good laugh and in the name of authenticity. I was recently filling out a little survey about myself and one of the questions was, to share an embarrassing story. I thought and thought, but ultimately, I was stumped. I’m sure there were some, but nothing came to mind. I thought, who better to ask than my family… Continue Reading

Fabric Pennant Banner {30 Feet Long}

pennant

I am in love with this extra long Fabric Pennant Banner. When I was planning my Girls Fancy Room Makeover, I knew I would use one wall for a Giant Gallery Wall. With that said, I didn’t want to use the opposite big wall with more big pictures, but what could I do? One day it popped into my head that a super long pennant banner spanning the wall would be fabulous, fancy, and fun!… Continue Reading