lullaby lubbock

Valentine Wreath

2012-01-26T22:50:00.001-06:00

I have a confession.

I don't really like yarn wreaths.

I know.

I am a blogger, I have tons of yarn (I even like yarn ornaments), and love a glue gun-

How can I turn my back on yarn wreaths???

I know.

I can't pinpoint what it is about them. They just aren't my favorite.

Then my neighbor made one for Christmas and it was so cute.

Then I saw the red and pink one that is flying all over pinterest and I kind of warmed up to the whole idea of making my own.

Then we had a moment of free time before we picked up Avery and I gave in and we swooped into Michael's and grabbed some Styrofoam before I could find my way out of there.

Then I enlisted some help

(a little bit crazy over here when we get out the glue gun)

(don't worry, she has really steady hands. and I helped a little. against her will)

She really is my sidekick when it comes to most things. It is so fun having a daughter to craft with. Avery likes it, but not like sassy. She wants to be totally involved (ehh um- doing it completely on her own) in almost everything I am doing. Love you, sass pot.

She was pretty proud of her new creation.

and I think it turned out cute.

I don't love the twine and want a way to hang it that is cuter.

I will let you know.

Oh, and ben loved it too.

So that is a plus.

Here is orange that was on sale at michaels and actually the only orange they had...still not my favorite. I will keep you posted.
Happy Friday guys!

rainy day fun

2012-01-25T23:11:00.000-06:00

I'm not really a play dough girl. I don't really have a reason behind it, it was always just one of those things I never bought for the house. We make GAK all the time and it is ten times messier then play dough so I don't know why I have never made it before. Both of Ella's grandparents always have a fresh stock at their house and she loves playing with it there.

Well I don't know what made me do it (maybe I'm just being a little braver if you will!) but we made our very own play dough yesterday. It has been raining here so we stayed in our pj's and made homemade play dough all day. Ella loved it! I followed this recipe.

First we made a blue batch, then purple, and we couldn't stop until we had some pink play dough too.

Then I thought it might be fun to make sparkly play dough, so we added some glitter. You can't see the fun shimmer it had in the pictures but I will probably leave out this step next time. It is still shedding glitter:)

Ella had fun with cookie cutters

and then the mixing started. Pretty soon we will have a nice big tub of sparkly brown play dough.

Speaking of colors being mixed…Ella gave me a makeover tonight.

It started with just some 80's inspired eye shadow

and then she took it to a whole new level.

Aunt Anna would be proud:)

I'm just going to pretend like Ella's makeup technique accentuates the bags under my eyes and I don't really look that old and worn out!

Stamps

2012-01-24T16:59:00.000-06:00

We did eraser stamps the other night and it was so much fun!

I am pretty sure I saw these techniques on pinterest but of course I can't remember now.
I just bought regular erasers (the cheapest ones they had) and just used an exacto knife to cut whatever shapes we wanted.

(Jeff did the amazing monogram. He is the artistic and smart one. and athletic. I hope my kids get most of his genes.)

I also bought little blocks and wrapped them in string and used them as stamps. It was so fun making all kinds of shapes and I want to use them on fabric and make more of them. They were so fast and fun.

Ben and Avery also enjoyed a little painting.

What? How do I keep my house so clean without junk scattered everywhere and every kind of animal creeping in every picture???
I know. Not everyone can have their houses this spotless and clutter free. With books in the background. And snakes on the table. And paint and old milk on the floor...
oh well. Maybe in my next life I will be clean...

randomness post

2012-01-23T00:00:00.004-06:00

I have been so behind on blogging this month. I guess (actually I'm sure of it) that McKenna's party took all the energy out of me.

We have a few bee tattoos left over from the party and Ella has made sure they don't go to waste.

The girls have been whipping up stuff in their kitchen

as I cook these yummy verde turkey enchiladas.

For dessert, Ella helped me bake some snicker doodles cut into everyone's initials.

I mailed out my first set of Good Boy Jars.

I have been working on making my own labels so I can put some Good Girl/Boy Jars in our etsy shop. The labels I made for Ella's jars are images that the silhouette owns so with all the copyright mumbo jumbo that I barely understand, I am just creating my own to play it safe. I am hoping to have them ready this week!

How great was Kristen's post about her word of the year?! I loved reading it and was inspired to have a word of the year too. I have been thinking about it a lot these last couple of days and come up with BRAVE for my word of the year. Does anybody hear Pee-Wee Hermans voice screaming in your head when you hear the word of the year? Before he got creepy (or at least was confirmed creepy) I would watch Pee-Wee's playhouse and they had a different word of the day each episode. When the word would be said by someone, Pee-Wee would scream ahhhhhh. Anyways, I'm excited about my word of the year and I already have been giving myself pep talks in my head saying "just be brave Allison!" (please tell me y'all do that too) I want to be that brave person that isn't afraid to talk out loud in every social setting, go to bible study by myself when Bob is working on Sundays, and just be more confidant in who I am. I ~~always~~ sometimes think of the worst case scenario for things which then leads me to not even doing them at all. I know that I need to trust and have faith (ahhhhhh, Kristen's word of the year) in God's wonderful plan for my life and face each day with no fear. Bring it on 2012.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Hanging Instagrams

2012-01-19T11:43:00.001-06:00

Y'all know how much I love Ikea. It just has everything. Jennifer showed me these fantastic wire and clip sets and last week I saw the app Postal Pics, where you can print your instagrams, and I just knew those two had to go together.

Jeff had the fabulous idea of going all the way down with them and I just love that. We can def move the map. I mean, thats like instagrams from the last few months and not even all of them! I need more room.

We have also been playdoughing and glittering like crazy over here.

And ben has been taking his animals everywhere.
We are like our own zoo...

I guess we are our own zoo anyway.
And I totally splurged and had a diet coke

and refilled it like 3 times.
I am out of control.
Hopefully I can regain some of it today.
Wish me luck.

Word for the Year

2012-01-19T11:24:00.001-06:00

First of all, how amazing is mckenna's party??? Allison is so creative! Her parties never cease to amaze me. Everything she does can seem like a simple idea but she thinks of everything and puts it together so perfectly that you wonder how she thought of everything.

(this pic really has nothing to do with anything, I just think who wants to read a post without a picture???)

I didn't really know how much I loved when people had a "word for the year" until I found myself reading so many people's words that they chose. I am not one to really to do something that would require me to have to focus on one thing and remember that one thing, because that makes me very likely to forget about it, and just be sad when I remember (much later).

I also am the type to buckle under my own pressure to do anything (ex quitting anything that I love-TV, candy, french fries, etc. If I decide to quit something, I run as fast as I can straight to whatever it is and have a 100 of them as soon as, maybe, 10 min after I "quit" it). I really had to think about the idea of focusing on something in the hopes that I would stick with it.

When 2012 rolled around though, I found myself so excited to find out what Beth's word would be, then later saw that other people's blogs that I read like, Casey Weigand had a word and, even after I had picked my own, just yesterday, I loved reading about Shannan's word, and got inspired all over again.

After the drama with my over analyzing and self-tricking mind of merely deciding to have a word, then there is the actual word itself. Should it be an adjective that I want to be like, a verb I should do or a noun that should be apart of my life???

I prayed about it, and the word "faith" just kept showing up in everything I was studying at BSF and other areas of my life. Through different circumstances I have been reminded how incredibly blessed I am and how small my faith actually is. It really breaks my heart. The Lord has blessed me with so much in this life and for some reason I don't trust Him. I am scared to sleep at my house alone with my kids for fear something will happen; afraid of where we will move next and I will have to go through the same drama as moving the last few times; afraid that something will happen to my family members or that I will get sick or hurt; that I am not doing what I should be doing as a mom or a friend or with the talents or (lack of talents) I have been given; the list goes on and on.

It is ridiculous.

I hate that my faith is so small.

And there is no reason for it- I have a wonderful life with wonderful, healthy kids and a wonderful husband. Moving has been my hardest thing so far (and that is not real. people have real problems, I know.) and God has provided people in my life that are so incredible. I was so worried when we moved that it would be so difficult and God answered my prayer so quickly-I have friends that are more amazing than I would have ever thought (I mean, we get together to knit, crochet and workout. Pretty perfect for me.) and so do my kids. He truly guided us through every step, and everything turned out better than I imagined. I want to have faith that that will happen again when we move and that He will guide us to where we should live after this, in every area of my life.

I want my kids to grow in their faith too. I want them to believe and trust even though I struggle so much with it. I also struggle with my faith and overall belief in God. If all of this is actually real and if this is going to work out if I trust in God and Heaven and His promises. Wondering whether or not they are real. I know that it often can sound so odd and unbelievable in my head, but its also the only thing that truly makes sense. I know that is sort of an oxymoron, but in the end, believing in, trusting and seeing all that God truly has done in my life gives me peace. I always come back to Him and His promises.

So, there it is-faith. I am praying that my faith will grow, reveal itself in all areas of my life and truly change my life. If I truly have faith in God and His control of my life then I should be able to rejoice in everything and fully relax in Him. I should be able to have patience and be kind to others- if I am not worried about myself or the future it should free me up to think and love on others. Hopefully it will grow an attitude of peace and joy as a result of growth in my faith.

I know this is not your normal LL post and I totally understand if its a little bit personal and there are probably readers who don't believe exactly what I believe and thats ok. I just wanted to share my word here because so many others have inspired and encouraged me with theirs.

Here we go, faith.

Busy Bee!

2012-01-16T02:00:00.002-06:00

We celebrated our little Busy Bee McKenna Leigh this last weekend and it was so much fun! The weather was absolutely bee-autiful which made for a perfect party day! Get ready for lots of pictures that aren't even really in focus. My camera was set on the wrong setting half the time! Bummer.

Well I guess I will start off with the matching shirts. (are you surprised?) I put some white shirts in with the black and white striped fabric when I was dying it yellow and then I used my silhouette and some freezer paper to make the shirts.

On the back everyone had a different bee name. McKenna was the Birthday Bee, Ella was the Big Sister Bee, Bob was the Worker Bee and I was the Bee Keeper.

I cut out bee tracks using black poster board and taped them down to the floor with clear packing tape. I started the bee trail outside on the sidewalk and they led into the house.

Who wouldn't want to follow this adorable busy bee around all day?!

When you walked in the door the bee tracks led you to a busy bee with an arrow to the area with lots of hands on crafts for those who wanted to keep busy. I got all the bee crafts from oriental trading company.

You could make a bee-autiful edible necklace with honey-comb and cheerios,

scratch designs in the black-out bees (everyone's favorite), create a bee hive mobile, use your thumbprints to make stripes on a bee,

or just create with colors and bee stickers.

Then if you followed the tracks you would find the hungry bee.

I basically did the same treats I did for Ella's dance party. The popcorn was from Candy Corn's in Dallas, the fantastic cake was made by Megan from Legacy Cakes Bakery (it was delicious!) and my mom and I stayed up late the night before making 150 mini apples.

I made labels for the water bottles and apple juice.

And for those adults who were afraid of bees…

The third set of tracks took you to the lazy bee. I had the Bee Movie playing for anyone that just wanted to sit back and be lazy.

I made a bee hive by wrapping 20 yards of burlap around Ella's teepee. It turned out so cute and the kids loved playing in it.

When we realized how beautiful the weather was going to be my dad ordered a very last minute (night before the party) bounce house and the bouncing bee was very popular!

I poured some honey into a mason jar and had everyone guess how many calories.

the answer was 2,580 and Jen was the closest guess without going over. Way to go Jen! She won the huge jar of honey with some honey tea and burts beeswax hand cream and lip balm.

The birthday bee enjoyed some birthday cake but maybe wasn't too sure what to think about the candle.

Everyone left with a little party bag that had a few treats inside.

I ordered the bee balls and tattoos from oriental trading company.

The black and white striped bags and yellow twine are from shop sweet lulu, and the personalized bee stickers that closed each bag came from zazzle.

I ordered these honey sticks from amazon. Who knows what you use honey sticks for (maybe tea) but they were just so cute, I couldn't pass them up.

It was such a wonderful party and we are SO thankful for all the family and friends that were here to
celebrate with us. I wish I had more pictures of everyone that came!

Thank you everyone who helped make McKenna's 1st Bee-day so special!

it's been awhile...

2012-01-11T00:50:00.000-06:00

Besides just lounging around, lots of party planning has been going on over here. We are so excited for McKenna's Busy Bee party this weekend!

She has really taken to being 1 so well! At her 1 year check up the doctor told me that McKenna did not need a bottle in the middle of the night anymore and that I need to let her cry it out. Nothing I haven't heard before over and over from lots of people, websites and my husband who I guess you could also call a doctor. I don't know what it was about her actual doctor saying it to me but I got the extra strength that I needed and last night was the 6th night in a row that I never went in her room. She is still waking up and crying but puts herself back to sleep within 15 minutes or so. I am so proud of both of us!

On her real birthday (january 3rd) she opened two gifts from us. Yo Gabba Gabba is her favorite show so when I saw this huge Brobee stuffed animal in the 7 dollar bin at walmart I couldn't pass it up. Maybe Brobee isn't her favorite character on the show, she wasn't too sure what to think of him.

We also gave her a princess push and ride toy. Ella had two of these and there is a reason she doesn't have them anymore. They are loud and there is no volume or on/off switch on these things. I knew McKenna was going to love it so I decided to just go with it and maybe make it an outside toy. Before I wrapped it I took a piece of felt and folded it over the speaker then taped it on. Life changing!!! It made the sound so much softer. I now love this toy! McKenna loves it too and Ella wants to push her around everywhere.

Bob had last weekend off so I got so much done for McKenna's party coming up. I moved Ella's teepee out into the living room and I am turning it into a bee hive by covering it with burlap. Lots and lots of burlap.

Ella helped me febreze the burlap to get that out the smell of whatever they coat the fabric in.

I can't wait to see everything come together and celebrate our little busy bee this weekend!

On a super random side note, here is one of my all time favorite breakfast snacks. I might have blogged about this before, I can't remember. I made them this morning for MOPS so I took some pics. They are sausage rolls that my sister-in-law Aly showed me years ago and I never get tired of them. Just typing about them made me crave some so I just got up and grabbed a bag of them I had leftover in the fridge from this morning. I just ate the whole bag, and it's 12:30am. No self control.

Take a can of crescent rolls and divide them into four rectangles. Pinch together the triangles that form the rectangle.

Then take some sausage and spread a very thin layer across each rectangle. From one 16oz sausage you can make two cans (8 rectangles) worth of crescent rolls.

Roll them up

and slice them into 1/4 inch pieces. I got about 15-18 pieces per roll.

Then put them in the oven at 375 for about 12-15 minutes. They don't spread too much so you can put a lot on one cookie sheet.

and thats it. Delicious!

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and I can't wait to come back to share party pics!

Planted pumpkins and an adventure in trying to get pictures of my new scarf

2012-01-10T14:15:00.001-06:00

When my in laws were here they planted our pumpkins from halloween.

(I know. I still had them around. I am the laziest person in the world)

Aren't they so pretty???

I have been trying to get my girls to let me braid their hair for their entire lives. I even sport my own braids all the time, in hopes that they will want to copy me.

Not so much.

Until today, Sassy let me do one braid for an entire hour.

It was amazing.

Then I tried to document this black cowl that I saw on Jennifer and my cousin Heather (I think theirs were actually different but thats neither here nor there). They were black or charcoal and were twisted when they were connected. Maybe Jcrew?

I did it in garter stitch and then twisted it when I sewed it together.

Super easy. All you do is knit every row (no purling) and then connect it.
I used just black chunky yarn from wal mart and casted on about 25 stitches.
I bound off and then twisted to sew it together but I think you can bind off the edges to connect them too.

Then I tried to take a picture of it on me. I wanted to really let you guys see the scarf so I tried camera and phone and camera in my face or not and then tried to not look like a total idiot by smiling or like I am super depressed by not....

hahahahhaha!!
Luckily ben stole the show.

So I just instagramed it. I look better when I can blur out my wrinkles anyway.
Now ben has cut off the head of his dinosaur and 1000 tiny balls are going everywhere. So much for a nap...
Happy Tuesday!

Weekending

2012-01-09T11:54:00.001-06:00

So, this calm picture of my house was pretty much nothing like it was this weekend.
Super fun, with tons of activity and food everywhere!

Except, y'all, Saturday afternoon I had an anxiety attack.

And it was crazy.

My chest felt tight and my heart felt like it was racing and I just couldn't shake it. I didnt have anything that I was anxious about in my head (although, at any moment, I can usually make up a few things to be anxious about...) but my body felt like I was anxious. So weird.

My Dr. prescribed a beer to help me relax.

It did help me relax, eventually.

We couldn't figure out what was going on and we came to a completely unresolved conclusion that it may be the fact that I have so much less diet coke in my system and now I am having withdrawals???

Y'all.

That is terrible. Ohmygosh. I really was that addicted to something that my body is throwing its own fit of anxiety when it doesn't have it???! Even without my brain involved?? Insane. I hope that wasn't it. I hope I was just so anxious because my kids were asleep and my husband was home and I didnt have anything pressing to do. I was anxious because I was so free.
I guess that is not much better.

Whew.

Well, at least its over.

And, other than that, we had the best weekend.

We went to the park and the kids played in the woods with Jeff while I ran.

They climbed trees and got wet.

Loving their lives.

Then we went to Brooke and Wills and partied hard.
Then, I came home and let jeff continue to party and got to talk my college roommate for a much needed catch up time.
And the girls got to have their first sister sleep over.

On sunday, my amazing in laws surprised us by coming down and we made ribs (that were just amazing jeff!) and rolls and cobbler. And brooke and will came over again!

It was such a nice day.

Thank y'all so much for coming Jan and Bob! We love y'all!

I hope everyone had a great, anxiety free, weekend!

knitted hats and the most hilarious pictures you've ever seen

2012-01-05T09:26:00.000-06:00

Can you believe sweet McKenna is one!! And how awesome are those invites and al's idea for her party!! I can't wait to see what she does! she is amazing.

Through out this holiday season I have been making custom orders for different people and it has been so nice. I have also been trying to knit hats and I used the stockings I made to try and figure them out. They are not the best and are weird sizes, but oh well. Most of them end up too big, so Jeff is really lucking out :)

I also taught my aunt and cousin Lins how to knit and that was just so much fun. They took to it so fast and I really loved being able to show them something I love so much.

The first hat I ever made was this one. This lady is uh mazing. Like crazy amazing!! I can't believe what all she makes.

Then I made this one with a heart in it.

I used this video to help me figure this one out.

and Knittinghelp.com (They even have an app!)

And one with a stripe.

And this one is still on the needles.
I may have blogged these before and am blanking out. If I have, I am sorry. I do think I am having memory loss from my excessive diet coke drinking. I have, however been cutting back.
Severely.
I feel like now that I just put that in writing it will jinx me so bad and I will have to go to sonic and get a route 44.
I hope not.
I did make my first ever batch of tea yesterday and it wasn't too bad. I think it can be my new addiction. Because I desperately need a new addiction...at least it may distract me from my first love, DC.
On that note, I also dropped my phone in the toilet (UGH!!!) over the holidays but I was able to get a new one with insurance (YEA!) but it has taken forever to get the new one here. In the meantime, I have been using the old school flip phone (so light and easy to use!) I do have to push all the buttons like three times to get the right letters when I am texting. It makes me feel like I am in high school again and have a pager. I loved my pager. Sigh.
Then, they canceled our credit cards because they have been trying to issue us new ones for like 4 months but, can never get our names right on the cards. ("What? No, I didn't mean you, sir! Thats my last name! No, its not a cuss word! Super close though...") The new one, with the right name, should be on its way. We have called three times and they keep saying they will "expedite it" it asap...
right...
just like you said 6 months ago. and four months ago...
Ok, so I have accidentally given up my phone, credit card and (not accidentally) diet coke since the new year.
It has been a little bit of an adjustment into 2012 but hopefully we will be back on track as soon as they expedite my card and phone to me...
But to make up for that long and whiny post about my first world problems, here are the most hilarious pics, that I did not know I was going to get, and when I opened them I laughed out loud and forwarded them to everyone I know.

Every year the school picture people blow me away with how they get my kids to smile and appear happy.
Its probably drugs. or candy.
Whatever it is, I love it.
Happy 2012!

ONE!

2012-01-03T08:45:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that our little McKenna is ONE today!

We couldn't be more blessed and I love the amount of joy and energy she has brought into our lives. I knew from the time she started moving around in my tummy she was going to be a mover and a shaker. She keeps us on our toes and I love every minute of it. She is so so precious.

January 3rd is such a special day for us. Number one because it's the day McKenna was born (duh) but it is also Bob and I's original wedding day before my accident. I love that we now have a joyous occasion to celebrate each year on January 3rd.

I love to plan a birthday party. (another duh) I get so excited about them that I start brainstorming months in advance. Well Christmas (and life with 2 kiddos) threw me off a little bit this year. Night Owl was one of the first things that came to mind when I started thinking of a theme for Kenna's 1st birthday party. It fit her perfectly and I loved the idea of it but couldn't really get the ball rolling with it. So, as of last week I have decided to go with the theme Busy Bee for her party. Her party that is actually in 11 days! I was so late in getting things started that I had to make the invites super last minute and they just went in the mail today.

They have a slight resemblance of something winnie the pooh might have come up with, but whatever, they work.

I am excited about stripes being a big part of the party decor and my super awesome husband agreed to a late night IKEA trip the other night so I could get some black and white striped fabric. I dyed the fabric in yellow rit dye to get some bold bumble bee stripes. I did a test strip first with golden yellow and lemon yellow.

I decided to go with the lemon yellow and dyed 3 yards at a time in my washing machine. Not exactly sure what I am doing with 6 yards of black and yellow striped fabric but something fun!

How fun was the year in review post Kristen did?! I loved looking back at some highlights from 2011, such a great year! I never really got a chance to document McKenna walking on the blog so here is a little clip of our walking one year old! So crazy!

Happy Birthday sweet McKenna! We love you SO much!!!!

Year in Review

2012-01-02T09:36:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas holiday and a Happy New year!

We didn't really do much for the new year but drink and play kinect with some friends (the combo may have left me a little sore this morning :) but it was super fun.

We had a fantastic Christmas and we are so very thankful and blessed to have such incredible families, friends, love from Christ and so many others, in our lives.
And you guys. Thank you so much for reading, commenting, emailing and just being so supportive. This blog has helped us capture our lives for ourselves and try and inspire others to create things on their own, as other blogs have encouraged us. We hope that we come off as ourselves and as thankful for this opportunity as possible because we are truly so grateful for all of you guys and this blog. We know we are not the biggest blog ever, but the fact that some people read it is just the best feeling.

Just to round out 2011 I thought I would do a little year in review of some of the highlights from LL in the last 365....
(and its the longest post ever so get ready to skip ahead. I tried to tune it down but I wasn't very good at it)

We started out with a brand new perfect baby girl

Then it snowed in Tyler.

And the dora shirts that allison made while she was 9mo preggo made the rounds to their new owners.

Al threw the amazing shower for brittany with Jordan.

Ella made everyone ecstatic with her valentines.

Avery turned five, royally.

Kristen started her granny square blanket.

We made some fantastic cinnamon bread from Joy the Baker.

Ella danced her way into 3.

(with her own flash mob, of course)
Cooper ames came into this world strong and cute as can be!

Kristen made shirts for Adalyn and Lillians gymboree of a birthday.

Avery started soccer. And maybe didn't ever play...but we came to every practice and game and worked on our attitude on things that we maybe don't want to do...

Easter came around fast and we loved decorating eggs all different ways.

Easter was a huge hit

The lubbock crew threw a fantastic "booth family" going away party.

which one is allison and mckenna???

A room redo and some chargers.

A family beach vacation was relaxing-

for everyone.
A couple of graduations brought all sorts of change-

New schools,

And new homes.

Kristen sewed together most of her granny blanket.

Heres to finishing the whole thing by 2013.
Avery lost her first tooth.

Ella had some health scares, but she managed to patch everything up.

With princess bandaids of course.
Moving brought out the DIY in everything.

Summer essentials started with our favorites for summer.

The twins swam their way into three.

Morgan got married with her own personally made rope by ours truly.

Happy father's day!
You're the cookies to our milk...

Allison introduced us to the go pod.

We picked blueberries.

and made some pie.
And covered our faces on the 4th of July.

Happy birthday america!
There was golfing,

Anna went to hair school;

A new blanket for aves,

and some crazy goo like Gak.

Then Allison had the greatest idea ever.

And it changed all our lives.
Kristen celebrated Blair and went to NOLA for the first time.

Ella made some great chewy candy.

Ben and Sassy made some fruit leather.

Al and Brit showed us the sock bun.

Avery started the first day of the rest of her life-kindergarten.

If she is anything like her dad, she may never stop going to school.

And Ella was practically in Hairspray.
And she started school with Mrs Tammy.

JoJo turned sexy 60!

Ella started dance,

and avery started gymnastics.

Allison turned the big 29+1!

Lindsay had the most beautiful baby boy ever.

We love you Ty Anson!
and Kristen made him a blanket that was ok.

Kristen began the first of 8 trips to the dentist,

went to acl,

bought muted pumpkins

and made a candy corn wreath.

B is for Bob on his Birthday!

and brought back to life his bucket list.

The Booths and Pools were the cutest hunters in the wild.

And frolicked in the pumpkins.

We made headbands, a dress, hats,

and cute toys.

Then chalkboard paint invaded Kristen's life in every way.

and regular paint too, I guess.

Allison had the chocolate chip cookie situation of 2011.

and the rangers broke our hearts in a million pieces.

In October Pippi Longstocking came into your world,

along with her little elephant.

The princesses were kept safe at the Barstads by their pet triceratops.

And Allison caught the chalkboard paint bug.

and I guess regular paint, too.

Ben, Sass and Munch went to the dentist for the first time!

Some were more chill with it than others...

Allison celebrated another year of life.

Kinley and Ty brought all their lovin' to the Booth house.

and then Cooper brought his too.

A turkey was cooked til it popped,

smores became thanksgiving treats,

and a new thanksgiving tradition of matching shirts began.

Kristen made her first sleeveless sweater that rolls up a little too much,

and a few new scarves.

Snow globes were a fun teacher gift.

Advent calendars were a hit

or miss...

The Barstads were little lumberjacks again this year.

Kristen finished Jennifer's stockings just in the nick of time :)

and she turned 30!!

with lots of rainbows and surprises!

We did our first (of many, I hope) flash mobs.

Kristen just kept knitting...

and we ended the year with a visit from santa and his elves said their goodbyes.

Here's to coasting into 2012!!
I hope it holds a lot of relaxing...

homemade christmas gifts

2011-12-28T00:03:00.001-06:00

It wouldn't be the same without them.

Last Christmas I was making Dora shirts like they were going out of style. This year I didn't even pull my sewing machine out and had no intention of making any homemade gifts but then there was pinterest. Who am I kidding, I couldn't stay away from a cheesy homemade Christmas gift.

My friend Suni showed me these cute DIY drink coasters that she saw on pinterest and was making for her family. I decided to make a set of 4 for Bob's grandparents and then 20 coasters later everyone in the family was getting some. They really weren't hard to make, just took a little bit of time. I bought tiles at Home Depot and then printed my pictures on white tissue paper. My least favorite step was cutting out a piece of tissue paper the size of card stock and then taping it around the edges.

Then you paint a layer of mod podge on the tile and lay on your piece of tissue paper. Let it dry and then paint over tissue paper with mod podge. Let dry, repeat. Let dry, repeat again. Then once the mod podge is dry you paint on 3 layers of a sealer, letting each one dry in between. Lots of wait time for drying with this project. If you do this in a room with a fan it spends it up much faster. I covered the back of each tile with black felt.

I wrapped the tiles up with ribbon and placed them in a six pack of drinks. I took two of the coke bottles out for the coasters to fit and covered the cardboard case in clear packing tape just to make it a little stronger.

My dad was the lucky one who got the bud light with his coasters:)

One of the things on Ella's Christmas list this year was makeup. I love how girly she is! I wanted her to have a fun place to keep all her makeup so I bought her this caboodle from target. I used my silhouette to put her name on it.

I printed it out on black vinyl. Once it was already stuck on, it bugged me that it was off centered just a bit (sometimes I'm crazy) so using red vinyl I added a lip stick kiss in the corner. It's kinda hard to see but it turned out super cute.

Then there is my sister's new boyfriend Tyler.

He is such a nice guy and one of the first times I met him I remember him saying how much he loved chewy candy. Music to my ears. Those words stuck in my head and I even remembered some of his favorites that he listed off, swedish fish being one of them. So of course he was getting a jar full of his favorite candy from me for Christmas.

One of my favorite things about Tyler is all his cool tattoos. His arms are covered in them and they all have a cool story behind them. Well, I just so happened to have some tattoo paper on hand and thought it would be fun to create some temporary tattoos for Tyler to think about. I had way too much fun with this and was cracking myself up! I wish I had actually gotten a good picture of them. Some were pics of him and Anna, Tyler and his doll head from school, swedish fish, scissors, and using the Paul Mitchell (Tyler goes to Paul Mitchell cosmology school with Anna) font I made one that said "Paul Mitchell is my hero." They are all mirrored so it's kinda hard to read.

He loved them and immediately put one one. He put the ANNA one on his wrist and later on that night his dad just about lost it thinking he had tattooed Anna's name on him. Haha!

We hope everyone had such a wonderful Christmas!

surprise balls

2011-12-20T01:00:00.001-06:00

I saw the idea of a surprise ball on this blog a while ago and thought it was such a fun and different way to gift something. So when Kristen turned 30, Lindsay, Aly and I combined 30 reasons why we love Kristen and each made her a surprise ball. I'm sure it was fun to unravel one but by the time she got to number three she probably wanted to kill us! You take little items and wrap them in crepe paper. Each layer you add another item and so on and so on. Click here to see a video of a surprise ball being unraveled and click here to see how to make your own.

I don't have any pics of Aly's but here are a few from what Lindsay and I made ours with.

This is everything that was in my surprise ball.

I put a fanny pack (they should have never gone out of style) in the center of my ball that I had to roll up real tight and hold with a rubber band.

It was so fun to see all the similarities that Lindsay and I did in our surprise balls for Kristen. Lindsay put a zipper pouch in the center of hers.

I love how she used yarn for a layer and how cute is that owl pattern!

We each made a label and printed it off on sticker paper to put on the outside layer.

I am going to make a surprise ball for Ella and McKenna's stocking. (and maybe Bob too if he's lucky) I think it is the perfect size and shape to fill up the toe of a stocking. I guess I better get to work since Christmas is just days away!!! YAY!

holiday happenings

2011-12-19T00:03:00.002-06:00

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! Ella is at such a fun age this year and I love seeing her excitement for everything. Fancy the elf is still a huge hit each morning and it gets Ella out of bed faster than any of the tricks I have tried. (playing loud music, ripping the covers off, the smell of freshly cooked pancakes, jumping on her bed, and of course the mom yell when we have 10 minutes to be at school) Fancy might have to come back to visit when school starts again. Our elf doesn't get into any fun or trouble in the middle of the night, she is just always somewhere different each morning. So far Fancy has been in the Christmas tree, sitting on a frame, on top of the advent calendar, ceiling fan, mirror, popping out of a kitchen cabinet, and tomorrow I think she might be hanging out in dad's stocking.
As of Saturday I finished Christmas shopping for everyone. I still have a few cheesy homemade gifts that aren't finished yet but just about everything is wrapped and under the tree! This is our first year to do Christmas with just us and I am so excited about it. I grew up where Santa left an unwrapped gift under the tree and filled our stockings full of fun surprises. That is what we are doing with the girls this year and I can't wait to see them both walk (yes I said both walk, McKenna is walking everywhere!) out and see what Santa left for them under the tree. Then on Christmas day we are squeezing in two more Christmas celebrations with my family and Bob's. It will be a fun filled day! I have wrapped all of those family gifts in separate paper than ours and put them in baskets next to our tree.

Last Friday Ella's school had a Christmas program. They sang 3 songs and I loved watching her on stage. She is such a performer at home but so shy in public so I couldn't wait to see what she would be like during the program. She was a mix of both, not the most outgoing kid on stage but also not the quiet one. McKenna couldn't hold still in my lap. She wanted to be on stage with Ella so bad!

Ella had been telling me about these jingle bells that they used in the program and how she wanted some just like it. She would tell me that they were a circle and looked like a snake. Once I saw them during the program her description actually made more sense. It was just a pipe cleaner bent into a circle with jingle bells strung on it. They were super easy to make and Ella and McKenna love them.

For teacher gifts I found these cute glittered boxes from Pier One. I put an ornament in each one and added a hobby lobby gift card to her teacher's box. I also made a Merry Christmas label for mason jars and filled them with one of my favorite treats, the pretzel rolo things. I think I ate 100 of them over the weekend, and I plan on making more…

We had some friends come over the other day to make some Christmas crafts and I'm so sad I didn't get any pictures. We did the snowman paint that is on pinterest and it turned out so cute! You just mix equal parts of elmers glue and shaving cream and the paint dries puffy.
Ella spends hours at her little table each day crafting and I had been trying to think of a way to organize all of her stuff so it didn't keep rolling off the table and then going straight into McKenna's mouth. As I was walking up and down the aisles of hobby lobby (exciting, I know) I saw this cake turntable and thought it would make the perfect lazy susan for her art supplies. I hot glued 6 mason jars around the outside of the turntable to hold all of her markers, crayons and pencils. I put a bigger mason jar in the center that I didn't hot glue because she takes that one out to get the sticker pieces. It has worked out so well and she loves it!

and then there was Santa…

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and I will be back soon with a fun stocking stuffer that will fill up the toe of your stocking just perfect!

Some videos for the weekend

2011-12-17T21:57:00.000-06:00

Just a few videos I have cracked up at the last couple of weeks.
I am totally obsessed with marcel.

Guess why I smile a lot? Uh, because its worth it.

This one is going around but I think its pretty cute.

Bri Emery from Designlovefest's loft is super cute.
Rue - design loft fest from Son of Shark Pig on Vimeo.

ok. I thought there were a lot more.

I guess three is the magic number.

Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend.

Fancy the elf

2011-12-12T21:38:00.000-06:00

I was so excited when I won an Elf on the Shelf from Meredith's blog giveaway! It was waiting for us in the mailbox when we came back into town last night! This was the first time for Ella and I to ever read the story of the Elf on the Shelf and we loved it, such a cute idea. I told Ella the first thing we had to do is give our elf a name. Without any hesitation she says "Fancy." I don't know where Fancy came from, I was almost certain she was going to say Buddy the elf. So once Ella went to bed I decided to make our elf look a little more like a Fancy.

I made the elf a bow, earrings, skirt, and shoes out of felt.

I cut out hearts for her shoes and then just hot glued them around her feet to make pointy elf shoes.

Fancy was the best alarm clock this morning. Ella is a sleeper. She rarely wakes up on her own, every morning and nap I have to wake her up which takes forever sometimes. She would sleep in like a teenager if I let her. This was so nice for a couple of years because I am a sleeper too. McKenna, not so much. She is an early riser just like her dad. Anyways, this morning as I am trying to get Ella up for school, she is pretending to not hear me because she doesn't want to wake up. Then I say "I wonder where Fancy is" and she pops up so fast and jumps out of bed. I was cracking up! She started running around the house looking for Fancy. Ella found her sitting on a photo frame and she was so thrilled to see that her elf really looked like a girl.

Can't wait to see where Fancy ends up tomorrow morning.

Thank you SO much Meredith! We love our elf!

Flash mob!!

2011-12-11T15:41:00.001-06:00

This weekend we did our first flashmob!!

It was in Frisco for the lighting of the tree in Frisco Square and it was a BLAST!! We had to learn the dance that they emailed us and then we went to rehearsal on saturday for three hours to go over it. Our choreographer was so so cute and we loved the dance.

(We forced her to take a pic with us. She probably thought we were nuts)
Lindsay and Allison's sister in laws joined us and our friend ashley.
They made the day so much fun.
Lindsay and Ashley and Mendy stayed up til 1 on friday learning the dance so they were pros. Allison also had it down had went over it all week. I really did not learn it til the day of, so I would not say I was really ready for the VMA's, but, getting there.

We had to really concentrate to make sure we got all our information. I also had to distract myself from getting to antsy from excitement by taking random pics.
There was literally a time that I thought I had missed my calling for a minute and needed to call my local theatre group and share my talents.
I may have missed a few notes on the dance, though, so I feel a little unjustified in my vast amounts of confidence in rehearsal...

Then all of our friends and parents and kids came out to watch us and we were so thankful they did!
Santa also parachuted in, so that was a plus.

My kids loved the santa and seeing everyone!
(Until things went a little downhill for my kids due to hunger and tiredness and I may have spent the rest of the night reevaluating my parenting skills)

Kinley was a little bit nervous for a minute about a santa dropping from the sky...
(It was kind of a lot; I know Kinley)

This is the best video I could find. You can't really see us (which is probably a blessing because I was so off it was amazing) but we had a blast!!
Thanks flashmob america!! You may be sad we found you because we might be hooked now :)

Confession

2011-12-11T06:54:00.000-06:00

Not to get all U-S-H-E-R on y'all, but I just can't hold it in.

The advent calendar was a bust at our house.

I loved making it and we have had it before and they loved it. (Granted, avery was probably three and the twins have no recollection of it at all, but, still, there weren't any issues.)

This time around, however, there have been some issues.

They get to get something out of the envelope of the day, every morning, and it always starts out well. They get super excited getting to do it and then as soon as they figure out what it is that they got, they are either over it and want something else from another day, or just don't care that much for what they have in that envelope.

And it breaks my heart.

It just makes me so sad. It doesn't last for very long and its not like a huge thing, but it has really made me rethink so much about Christmas and what it looks like over here.
(I am sure that part of it is just that they can see the other toys, but still!)

I don't want my kids to be ungrateful or selfish.

I just don't know exactly how to go about that.

I don't think that they are, or that we buy them tons of stuff or every toy they want- thats not the case at all. They know they have to be kind, talk sweetly and mind me and Jeff or there are consequences. They know that no matter what commercial is on TV that they say they want that they probably won't be getting it. Most of the time they are pretty obedient and mostly grateful.

I have read the blog posts and articles going around, like the Christmas Conundrum and Beth and Cassie have really neat posts on her blog about how they are simplifying christmas. I love the idea of simplifying christmas and am very moved and encouraged by everyone who is doing this. I definitely, without a doubt, want everything to be about Christ and glorifying Him and celebrating His birth.

Desiring to put Christ first, the cool blogs posts, mixed with the advent calendar craziness, has really made me think about more ground rules and putting the emphasis more on Christ and selflessness in our home. I do think that we talk about Christ, His life, His selflessness, being selfless and serving and loving others all the time. We pray and say thank you to God and each other for things. I feel like we do that everyday. But, all of this helped me realize that we need to do it so much more.

And I love Christmas.

I love celebrating Christ and hearing the story of His birth. I love the nativity scene and Christmas music. I love pictures with Santa and getting Christmas cards. I love holiday parties and school programs. I love the magic and focus on giving. I love spending time with family. I love making gifts and perusing every gift guide known to man searching for the perfect gift online and in stores. I am not overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle- I love it. I love everything about it. I want to go full force, like every other mom, and buy my whole family everything, read a million christmas books and listen to tons of christmas music. I love all of it. We have the elf on the shelf, we do santa, and we most importantly want to teach gratitude and love for others above ourselves.

So, I am changing the game a little.

Next year, I am going to do a different advent calendar with family activities and scriptures, instead of toys. I think just having the count down itself will be so much fun. I am also asking my parents to just give them three gifts and telling the kids they can ask for three things (I am fully aware that this probably won't happen as both my parents and in laws are amazing gift givers, but at least its out there :) It is really helping them not constantly ask me for things and always saying "I want that!!!!" whenever they see anything pink and plastic (or dinosaurish).

So, I guess this is just my crazy over analyzing mind in all of this. I want to glorify God first and foremost and celebrate Him everyday ~~this season~~. I also love the magic of Santa and the fun of giving others gifts. I want to celebrate this time when my kids get to believe in something for a little bit, before they're too old. I am fully aware that this belief is in something that isn't real, but it is magical and I loved it as a kid. And I am just so thankful for the thought provoking posts and talks that I have been able to have because of all of this. It has just made me realize how much more emphasis I want on Christ and really drew me into prayer to try to figure out what we should do as a family. I just feel like I have grown so much in this area just in the past week.
I also want to try to buy things that are fair trade (beth and cassie both have good ideas), buy handmade like etsy, or make things. I definitely want to set an example that its not about what you get, but what you give. I just know that I want to make sure that my focus is where it should be and that my kids end up, at the end of this season, knowing more about Christ, giving and being grateful for the family, friends, God and life that they have been blessed with.

Minus an advent calendar.

Best Birthday Ever.

2011-12-09T20:52:00.000-06:00

So, I had the best birthday Ever.

Just everything about it was so amazing.

It started days prior, when Blair sent me a whole care package for my birthday full of my favorite things. Love HER!
My high school friend Nina sent the sweetest card like she does every year. Love you nin!
Then, the night before with Jeff giving me an old two seater Schwinn bike that he is going to repaint and I can't wait for it!

Celeste made me a gorgeous quilt!!!

And a whole garland with her fave thirty memories together.

It was so so kind and the quilt was so gorgeous that I just cried and cried!

And a badge for being her friend for 10+ years. I know. You guys are so jealous. With a bag and a book.

Then, the neighbors brought over the most amazing cake that just melted in your mouth (and made me gain a pound and a half!)

The next morning I woke up to 30 balloons all over my porch! They were so pretty and I thought that was so nice of my friends and couldn't get over it.

Then it went off the path a little....my other neighbors came down and we started eating the cake again and I lost track of time. we left a little late to drop avery and mazzy off. I tried to hurry and then also tried to check my birthday texts while in my car (I was stopped, not driving, but I was in a school zone) and I got pulled over.
Bummer.
Luckily I went on and on about it being my birthday and he didn't give me a ticket. But he wouldn't let me walk the kids in first so we ended up being super late. Luckily for me, sassy wouldn't put on clothes that morning, so she was in underwear and ben was in PJs and we looked like total hooligans. Luckily, we hadn't gotten a ticket. That was a plus.

Then I got to talk to lindsay on face chat where got to see baby ty, and that made my morning. I left to go have breakfast at my friend Julie's house, (with some of my friends who had done the balloons) and when I walked in they had thrown me my own personal rainbow party!!

it was so so sweet of them!! I could not get over it and I just cried and cried. I have only known these girls for such a short time but they have absolutely changed my life here in Tyler and have made it more than I ever hoped for. The Lord truly answered my prayers for friends, knew my awkwardness, and gave me friends who can see past it. I just love them so much!!

The theme was Someone over the Rainbow (instead of over the hill!) I Just loved it!!

Rainbow streamers!

They made me shirts!! They used a screen and everything!

Rainbow cake!

We did a our own dance party!

Then I put on my sequined shorts and got ready for the weekend.

A family trip to Vegas!!!

It was so much fun being with my family and getting to have such an amazing time together.
It was our first time to go together as a family and it really was a total blast. I have been sick for about two weeks and so I was a little under the weather, but overall, it was just amazing.

My parents gave me 30 gifts that all had tags on them with scriptures that went with them that my mom had looked up that she said described me. She wrapped them all the same and used brown and green to say that I was natural and good for the environment :) Two things she is pretty excited about!
It was so so kind. I can't believe she did all of that.
It ran from gummy bears to professional caps that professional hair dressers use to highlight hair to yarn to sunscreen. Pretty amazing.
I am so beyond blessed with my amazing family.

My sister in law and brother got me my kids names in Morse code on a gorgeous necklace and my other brother went shopping just for me and picked out clothes I absolutely love! So thoughtful!
Then my cousins and aunt got me some cute and comfy knits and the cutest bag! My other aunt sent me a vintage necklace too. SO MUCH THOUGHTFULNESS!

Lindsay, Al and Aly got together and each made me a crepe paper ball full of little surprises and sweet notes about what they love about me and our friendship. It was so so incredible and I really couldn't get over it. I saved all of their notes that went with their presents and I just can't tell you how much it all meant to me. I literally did not stop opening presents.
Friendship bracelets, necklaces, a fanny pack, coin purse, patterns, more yarn....amazing.
My friends and family went so far above and beyond for me this past weekend. I was just so moved and so thankful. I don't know how I got so blessed to have friends like I have, but I am just so incredibly thankful.
There were so many of people that texted, called, face booked, tweeted- that meant the absolute world to me. Every time I got a text or email I just got so excited and felt so loved. Thank you to everyone in my life that has been there since the beginning or has just come around in the last few years. You have all been such a blessing in my life. I truly don't know what I would do without the support from you through emails, texts, long talks about being too tired to be a mom or how excited I am about a haircut that Ill never do. Love you all so much and thanks to everyone for an amazing bday.
Ok, 30. Let's do this.
(disclaimer: I don't want this post to come out the wrong way like "look what people did for me!!" kind of thing. So many people did so much that I just wanted to say thank you for their thoughtfulness and effort. I had trouble writing this because I don't want it to be all about me, but about the people who put the work and kindness into their gifts. I hope it didn't come out wrong.)

mason jar love

2011-12-07T22:31:00.002-06:00

I mailed out my first set of custom made good girl jars to our thanksgiving giveaway winner Brandie! I hope her two little girls love them as much as Ella does. I have been thinking about maybe making some to sell, but would anyone really buy a set of good girl jars?
Brandie wanted a jar for eating/manners, being sweet to sister, bedtime, bath time, thumbs up and cleaning. Then for the big reward jar she asked for a present on top.

Last week we had a "favorite things" gift exchange with my bible study girls. We were to bring two of the same item, each under 5 dollars that was one of our favorite things. Of course candy was the first thing that came to my mind. I filled some mason jars (also a favorite of mine) with milk duds and swedish fish and made a label for the top. We did the first round with this very cute poem that made trading and stealing really fun and the second round we just did the traditional gift swap. Everyone went home with two different gifts. I brought home a new piece of tubberware and some magnets for my fridge.

Sticking with the mason jar theme in this post, have you guys seen this trick?! It actually does not have to be with a mason jar, it can be done in any kind of cup. (glass or plastic) My friend Suni showed it to me last night and I can't get over it! Ok here is how it works. You take your phone or ipod and play some music. Then take your phone (with your music playing) and place it in the cup. It's like a speaker! Your music will get louder when you put it in the cup! You know you want to try it right now. Do it! It's so cool!

Ok, on to other things besides mason jars.

I have been loving the cold weather lately! I finally put away all my summer clothes today and unpacked all my comfy sweatshirts. Cold wether always makes me crave soup and I made a delicious one the other night that my friend Carrie told me about from Pioneer Women. It is called Italian Chicken Soup. Have you guys seen the trick for shredding your chicken? It is a life changer if you ask me. Just throw your cooked chicken breasts (I did 4 at once) in your mixer and with your flat paddle mix your chicken and it shreds to pieces so fast! Make sure you lock your mixer first though:)

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Knit Faves

2011-12-05T22:18:00.001-06:00

So, my birthday was so outta control I cant even really write about it until I have more time to sit down. I have most of a post written out but its just so much amazingness and love that I kind of can't even comprehend it right now. I am still reeling.

So, I have a few favorite knits right now that would be fun to make for your favorite loved ones for christmas (or buy for them), and I thought I would pass those along.

Also, a few of you guys have emailed about making knitting and crochet videos and we are throwing that idea around...

Back to knits. How fun are these???

Gorgeous rainbow blanket. Garter stitch. Def a can do.

I love this hat and tried to google this bow stitch but I couldn't find it. Just love it. And all of her stuff.

Like this bow hat, too.
She is so cute and talented.

So, the closest thing I could find to the bow hat was this pattern so I made this and I love it. It was really fast and the pattern was really easy to understand.
Her whole site is pretty amazing. She makes so much stuff! Its incredible.

Like this heart hat.

I love this kids jcrew stocking so much.

and these socks.

and this knit on knit. love it.
Ok guys, back with birthday stuff in a jif.

oh happy day!

2011-12-02T06:00:00.004-06:00

Today is a big day guys!
Kristen is turning 30 years old and I wish her the best of all birthdays yet!
Kristen really is the best friend you can possibly ever ask for. She is the most loyal, kind hearted, compassionate, patient, and fun loving person I know. The second you meet Kristen you can't help but fall in love with her and she will instantly make you laugh with her random and funny comments that come out from nervousness. I call her for anything and everything and my day feels weird if I haven't talked to her on the phone for more than 3 times that day. Without even trying she will always make you feel extra special and brighten your day. She is a true joy to be around and I can't even begin to explain how much she means to me or where I would be with out her. She has taught me so much.
Here is a 30 for 30 list of things I have learned from Kristen…
1. how to not let a little mess get in the way of having fun

2. how to have an impromptu dance party

3. that an event isn't really an event without matching shirts

4. how to communicate better
5. how to white wash a fire place
6. how to manage multiple kids

7. the front braid

8. good tv shows (modern family, project runway, the new girl)
9. showing kindness to everyone around you
10. how to make a meal out of random things in your fridge
11. that mocha splash really can last longer than 48 hours and still looks fantastic a whole year later!

12. that it's ok to wear something one day, sleep in it and wear it again the next day. (I'm actually not sure who taught who this, but we are both really good at it)
13. that jalapenos or soy sauce can spice up any meal
14. how to make the best tortilla soup and chocolate chip cookies
15. to enjoy the moment

16. the true greatness of pistachios
17. generosity
18. finding the joy in simplicity

19. all the cool things like pinterest, twitter, instagram
20. how to be a good mom and wife during med school and residency
21. how to live (survive) in lubbock texas during the first years of med school with a newborn
22. the closeness of family

23. to never give up

24. that it's ok to throw the instructions aside and wing it

25. entertaining others

26. the front tuck

27. how to crochet

28. that almost anything can be a DIY project

29. how to think about things out of the box

30. true friendship

I love you so much Kristen and I can't wait to celebrate with you soon!!! Happy happy birthday!!!

advent calendars!

2011-11-30T12:42:00.001-06:00

Just in the nick of time we finished our advent calendars! A couple years ago Kristen made this super cute advent calendar by sewing bags together on fabric. We wanted a sew free one this year (out of pure laziness) so hot glue was our go to.
We are so excited to open box number 1 tomorrow but then it gets even better after that, cause do you guys know what happens on December 2nd?! Kristen turns 30!!! AHHHH!

I bought a big piece of cork board and lots of cardboard boxes from Michaels. I covered the cork board with burlap using spray adhesive to glue down the front main part and then hot glue and thumb tacks for the back edges.

I used my silhouette to cut out the numbers and letters then I mod podged them to the box lids. I hot glued the boxes to the board and then filled them with goodies.

Going with my brown boxed theme I wrapped some presents in brown craft paper I found at walmart. When Ella saw me draw Kenna's initial on her present Ella insisted on doing her own E on hers. She gets a little EEExcited (haha) when she writes her initial. Who said an E only had to have 3 lines…

Here is Kristen's advent calendar too! She glued envelopes to her cork board and also used her silhouette to cut out the numbers.

SO fun!!!

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree

2011-11-30T00:00:00.001-06:00

I am pretty sure that is probably the exact same post title I used last year. Sigh. Im so creative. Out of the box, really.
(Actually I just looked and it wasn't the same! Yea! I am such an out of the box thinker!)

SO, anyway, we got our tree!! We cut it down just like last year, so, really this is just like reading last years post exactly.
You're welcome.

We went to the same tree farm and picked out one that we could agree on the most with the least amount of crying.

blue steel.

ben was super excited.

and then he got to hold the saw! life can not get better.
but, wait for it-

there were animals. best. day. ever.
He loved mr. flops.
He did not love the cat, though. It kept wanting to come up and be petted and loved on and ben was so scared! hahahh!
back to the tree,

We cut it down, drug it inside and scrounged around for the christmas stuff that we seem to have hidden from ourselves and decorated it.

While listening to amy grant christmas.
Best start to the holidays.
and I finished Jennfer's stockings!

I know y'all have been on the edge of your seat for these.
She wanted pink and red and cream for sweet Isla Grace and gray, pink and red for her. Joe got dark gray and light gray, green and then I added a small stripe of cream in everyone's just to tie it all together.
And then we made one for her dog, abby and I used all the colors for hers.
They turned out kind of huge and luckily Jennifer has been a great sport about that! I don't know why I make everything so BIG?
oh well, they can hold a lot of stuff. At the very least they are efficient.

Thanks Jennifer for letting me do the stockings. I loved being apart of your christmas and I hope they are just what you wanted! (Even though abby's looks a little like an upside down you-know-what...)
And my sweet resident friends just opened a little etsy shop with some of their cute knitted and crocheted goodies. It is called Knot on a Whim- how cute is that??? Go check them out and grab a cute elf hat while you are there.

and the winner is...

2011-11-28T06:30:00.001-06:00

the Brown Family!

Through a random number generator comment number 28 was chosen for our Thanksgiving giveaway. Thank you all that participated, we loved reading all the wonderful things you are thankful for.

Congratulations to the Brown Family! You should have received an email from us to discuss which item you would like mailed to you.

belated thanksgiving post

2011-11-26T21:16:00.000-06:00

Bob had to work on Thanksgiving day, so family came to us this year. We had a house full and it was so wonderful! My mom pulled out cooking skills I didn't even know she had and everything turned out perfect.

The Jalapeno Popper Dip was a huge hit, I keep trying to think of a reason to make it again.

I screen printed shirts for everyone and after the 10th time of asking the men to put their shirts on, we got a family picture.

Here was the front of everyone's shirt. I don't have a picture of the back, but it said "a thankful heart is a happy heart."

Here is the kid's table with their shirts.

and here is the kid's table at the end of the night.

The wooden sign hanging above the table was my Granny's. It has been in my garage since we moved here because it was painted with flowers and didn't really go in my house. I thought it would be neat to have it hanging for Thanksgiving so I busted out my sander and cleaned it up a bit.

Once I got everything sanded off I mixed half water and half white paint to white wash it.

I had already made these shirts for Ella and McKenna before I decided to make some for the whole fam so they had two this year. Ella wore this one to her school Thanksgiving party.

Here is the back of McKenna's.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful too! We will announce the Thanksgiving giveaway winner first thing Monday.

Now I'm off to decorate the tree and finish making the advent calendar! I just love this time of year!

Snow Globes

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Happy thanksgiving!! Hope everyone had a great day yesterday and is stuffed to the brim!!

We loved the snow globes on pinterest and I could not wait to make them over here.

We followed Martha Stewarts instructions but the snow globe gift card's instructions are much easier and worked for me with the gift card so I think you can use either instructions.

The kids loved it too and went glitter crazy!!

(and maybe added every color glitter and every toy they own)

guess which one is ben's...

Then we wrapped them and labeled them and decided to give them to our family over thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T08:01:00.004-06:00

We are so thankful for every single one of you. For real guys. I don't know how we can thank yall enough. You are so encouraging, inspiring, motivating, and supportive through all your comments and emails. We really can't express how much we love that you take time out of your day to read our crazy and sometimes boring blog. It truly means so much to us and we are so so thankful for it.
So in honor of Thanksgiving, lets do a giveaway!
The winner will receive a custom made circular scarf OR a set of custom made good girl (or boy) jars! You get to pick which one you want.

All you have to do is leave us a comment with your email and something you are thankful for. We will announce the winner Monday morning.
We hope everyone is having a fabulous Thanksgiving today!

Aquarium Gift Card

2011-11-22T09:43:00.000-06:00

I had a shower to go to for a friend who is having a boy and I was trying to think of a cute thing to give her. and I had seen the snow globe gift card from pinterest and I thought I could try and make it into something cute for the baby shower.

I decided to make it into a little aquarium with a little glitter to add some fun.

Next time I think I would use a bigger jar or smaller fish (and I just loved the globe so I added it for fun).
I put a starbucks gift card for her to use when sweet Noble Parson makes his debut.

I think for a girl you could do the same thing and just add some pink fish. I need to perfect this but just thought it was a fun idea. You could do so much more with it but I just love that you can do it all year long.

My first Sweater..ish and the Best Thanksgiving Pageant Ever

2011-11-21T00:53:00.001-06:00

I don't know if you would call this a sweater or really what you would call it but I knitted it and I am done and so I am wearing it everyday until I absolutely have to wash it (because we know I have no idea how to wash handmade things even though I handmake things...).
After church, a girl came up to me at target and said "Where did you get your-" and I almost died in her arms. But, then she said "skirt" and by then I couldn't remember. sigh. It is pretty bulky.
I sort of went by this pattern on lion brand, but it was different measurements. (As I didn't really measure at all, except by constantly pulling it across my body to see if it would look like it would fit, and then I would have to go back and count my stitches every time I had to go by the pattern rules). I am going to go back through and try and make it not curl up on the neck and the bottom. Do any of you guys know how to do that? Maybe pick up some stitches and then use smaller needles to pull it tighter? I know. I you're amazed. I know that "picking up stitches" is a real phrase. I can't help how cool I am.
On Friday the twins had their Thanksgiving Program and Feast, and it is safe to say it was one of the best things that I have ever seen in my life. I know I am biased, but her little arms coming up in the huge vest is like the funniest thing. And Ben was just stone cold. Hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing/crying. I can't believe that they got them to wear vests and Indian feathers...I can't even get them in clothes most of the time.

Hope you guys had a great weekend!

teaching my kids to conquer mountains

2011-11-18T17:30:00.001-06:00

one load at a time.

Laundry is my weak spot. (obviously) It's the putting clothes away part that I just dread, which makes me not even want to start the washing process knowing what is coming. When Bob and I first got married he soon began to realize my hate for laundry. I wanted to love it and be the wife that stayed on top of the wash but I'm just not. Sweet Bob has been so patient with me through this ever going learning process and has even gotten creative with ways to help me. It's a pretty funny story actually.

During our first year of marriage I was still taking classes so I had a lot of free time during the days. In my free time I would just sit on the coach with the computer in my lap for hours. I was still recovering from my accident at this time but still no excuse to not get off my lazy bum and do the laundry. One day I woke up and of course went straight for the computer but could not find the laptop anywhere. When Bob got home from work that evening I asked him if he knew where the computer was. He just grinned and asked me if I had done any laundry that day. Well of course not Bob! I spent the day looking for the computer. He then walked me over to the laundry basket and lifted up some clothes. There it was! He hid the laptop in the laundry basket in hopes that I would do some wash if I didn't have the computer to play on. I love my husband.

Well the laundry might not be done yet but my Granny's chairs finally are!

After months of sanding, priming, painting. sanding, and glazing I am so happy to be done. I found this grey fabric at Hancocks and used a staple gun and a little help from Ella to recover the cushions. I love how they turned out.

Our neighbor was having a garage sale this afternoon so I walked over to check it out. I saw this cute little chair/ottoman thing for 5 dollars and thought the girls might like it. It had some tears in the fabric so I busted out my staple gun and ikea fabric.

The girls did love it and enjoyed some sour straws on their new chair.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Popcorn Stuffed Turkey

2011-11-17T15:35:00.001-06:00

We had our Thanksgiving playdate with my resident spouses today and it was so much fun.

I made my first turkey!

hahhahah!

I had seen this last year and again this year on pinterest and decided to tackle it. It is super easy and so much fun. And I used popcorn that I popped right before and it barely left any grease stains at all.

I also loved lindsays pilgrim hat so much and kind of copied her but did it the really really lazy way.

I used reeses peanut butter cups instead of marshmallows and twix bars as the little square thing on the hat so I didn't have to color icing and pipe it. Linds were wayyyyyy better than mine (and did you see her turkey shirts?? They are so cute!!! and her kids are just the cutest ever. kills me. I can't get over the pics of ty!) but they were still a hit!
We are trying to figure out our shirt situation still. We have done a few different ones in the past few years and we want to do something different so we will see. Keep you posted.

Chevron Scarf

2011-11-17T07:37:00.000-06:00

So, my beautiful friend kate, of kate mccoy photography fame, asked if I could make her a chevron scarf...I really did not ask her near enough details about how long or wide or colors she wanted...hmmm...sorry kate. I sent her examples along the way (which you guys are lucky enough to get the pleasure of viewing in this post. you're welcome) and she said she loved it so hopefully its exactly what you want kate!

This is what it ended up as.
It began like this

The cream is too yellow and then my friends said the gray looked purple.
So I scrapped it and started the next one

Then I was up in the air on if it should have pointy edges because I wanted the edges to be gray (so that the scarf was mostly gray. I don't know why, I just though that the mostly gray was more kate).

Its scary that this pic is out there on the world wide web but here it is with pointy edges. Kind of weird.

So I just kept the edges gray and just added some random edging. (this pic is also scary for so many reasons...no make up and look at how clean I am! Hahaha, I know y'all all want to know my secrets...ok, its letting your kids run their greasy and muddy hands all over the mirror and then forget to ever wash it off for weeks. You don't have to follow this formula exactly. Its pretty lenient)
Kate! Thanks for the awesome idea!! I hope you love it and I will make you another one if you want you decide you don't love this one. It is finally on the way to your house with your super late wedding present...

good friends and good treats

2011-11-16T12:00:00.000-06:00

Lindsay's husband Ben went hunting last weekend and my house just so happened to be on the way so it made perfect sense for him to drop her and the kids off at our house! It made for a best weekend and we loved having them here! Ella and Kinley had so much fun playing together and baby Ty was absolutely perfect.

They always ended up in the bathroom for some reason, they would sit in a circle and pass out post-it notes.

Later in the night we noticed something in Kinley's hair and when we asked her what it was, Ella told us it was ok cause it was just soap.

Kinley was SO sweet with McKenna. Every time she would hug her she would close her eyes and smile so sweet. It cracked me up!

When Kristen made the smore bars last week I had to give them a try too. Well they are amazing! I made them three different times last weekend. The first batch Lindsay and I pretty much finished off on our own. Then I made some for our small group at church and another batch for a bake sale. They really are so good! You can find the recipe here.

For the bake sale I printed off this cute Thanksgiving printable and stapled it around a ziploc bag.

I also made one of my all time favorite treats for the bake sale. Mini caramel apples! It had been a while since I made these and I forgot how fun and yummy they are. I saw this idea a couple years ago as I was planning for Ella's tiny 2 party.

You start by scooping out apple pieces with a melon scooper. Granny Smith apples seem to work best. I then take a lollipop stick (bought at Michaels) and cut it in half then stick it in the apple pieces. Take a paper towel and squeeze any extra juices out of the mini apple pieces. This helps the chocolate stick better.

Then dip each one in chocolate. You are going to put the chocolate covered apples in the fridge to hardened so you want your wax paper on a cookie sheet so it will be easy to move to fridge. Something I forgot this time.

After the chocolate has hardened (about 10 minutes) it's time to drizzle on the chocolate. The reason the apples aren't dipped in caramel first is because it wouldn't stick since there is no apple skin for it to stick to.

I printed off some labels for the apples and put them in these little plastic bags I found at Michaels.

I made these the night before the bake sale and left them in the fridge over night. They are one of Bob's favorite things in life so I knew he would be tempted when he opened the fridge in the morning. I made sure to leave him one.

Scotch, Scotch, Scotch

2011-11-14T18:51:00.001-06:00

And by that I mean hopscotch.

Princess hopscotch.

(not the kind Ron Burgandy drinks)

Blair found this on the side of the road and the babies loved it.

Let me back up.

It was Blair's 30th this weekend and I went home to help her celebrate with her fantastic group of friends.

And the babies helped.
They picked out all kind of fun stuff for the party at party city.

Oh, and I dragged my brother around with me the whole weekend. I am pretty sure he had other stuff to do but he was a great sport.
On a best friends note,

I have also been reading this book and I LOVE it!
And Allison bought the audio version and its in her voice! I just love that.
She writes just about regular stuff that everyone goes through and it makes you forget that she is super famous and talented and writes for the office. She is just so relatable and so, so funny.
This chapter was super funny.

I highly related to almost all of them with my best friends.

I went to the big joann's while I was in d-town too and I got some fun yarn.
(Im not an addict, its cool, I feel alive...What? Not everyone's favorite things about being home is craft stores that are available and super targets right around the corner???)
Just cant wait for christmas time and making presents! I am going to put a few things in the shop too, so ill let y'all know about that.

And some fun shiny gold fabric that I feel like maybe I could do one of those cool clutches with that is all the rage. That can't be too hard, right?? And maybe the flannel into a circle scarf?

I have also been on a moccasin hunt with Jennifer for a while and finally settled on this mid-tops from madewell and I really love them. They are ~~prob~~ definitely too big but they are so comfy.

On a food note, before I left, I made the most amazing snicker doodles ever. And I am not like a huge I have to eat snicker doodles every time I go to a cookie store kind of person, but these were super good. I have really only made them like one time, but these were def the best I have ever made...

I accidentally forgot to roll them in cinnamon and sugar before I baked them (I'm so smart) so I had to make another batch...in the same 30 minutes...

I also made these peanut butter bars when we got home; Again, great idea.

I mean, not a great idea for my 29 almost 30 year old body that wants to look good for her birthday in like a week, but, good for everything else.

On a serious note, my mom is doing some amazing things right now and is on a trip helping people like always, so keep her in your prayers of safety. Just love her and am so thankful for her.
And congrats to Lindsay Lancaster, my most loyal customer turned new bff via pen pals, on the birth of her second baby! Her sis in law sent me a pic of her new little boy and I just love when I make friends through this blog and then get photos of their newborn babies before they even get cleaned off! Y'all really are the best and I can't tell you how thankful al and I are for everyone who reads. I don't know what keeps y'all hooked more, my long rambling posts about food, how secretly excited I get about how many times I can use the phrase "on a ___ note" in one post, or hearing about how I wear the same rainbow shirt everyday, but, whatever it is guys, thanks.
(Don't worry guys, I know its allison and her amazing beauty + great hair + kind personality + creativity + ability to withstand large moving vehicles. Y'all are smart to stick around for her posts.)

This is the day

2011-11-10T00:00:00.001-06:00

that the Lord has made.

I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Kristen bought me this shirt a couple years ago and last november 10th I was too ~~large~~ pregnant to wear it, so I'm so excited to finally get to wear it today!

Here is a recap of the story behind the shirt...

November 10th is a day we like to call "cheat death day" in the Booth household. 8 years ago today, our lives took an unexpected turn.

At 6:30 pm on November 10, 2003 I headed to my night class I had every Monday. A car stopped to allow me to cross the street so I could get to my class building. As I was in the process of walking across the street a truck came up behind the car stopped for me. It had just gotten dark and not knowing or seeing why the car had stopped, the truck swerved around to pass. As the truck passed the car there I was right in the middle of the street. I was knocked to the ground and run over by the truck.

I was taken to Hendrick Hospital in Abilene. I will go from head to toe to explain my injuries. Fractured skull, broken nose, front tooth was knocked out, collapsed lung, fractured left hand, fractured pelvis in 6 different places, fractured right knee cap, and fractured ankle. It was a miracle I am even here today telling this story and that I had no brain injuries or internal bleeding. After a few days at Hendrick they care-flighted me to Parkland Hospital in Dallas. They immediately took me into surgery and placed three screws in my pelvis. A couple days later is the start of when I can remember things for myself. I was then moved to Zale Lipshy Hospital which is where I lived for the next month. All of a sudden I had gone from living in Abilene where I was playing and running around with my roommates to living in a hospital bed with no movement. This all happened six weeks before our wedding so I should have been walking down the aisle and going on my honeymoon but instead I had a cast on one leg, brace on the other, and pins and brace on my left hand. Basically there was something wrong/broken everywhere but my right arm. Once I got stronger with that arm I began learning how to slide myself from bed to wheelchair. I was not allowed to touch my feet to the floor for 4 months as my pelvis continued to heal. The hospital bed came home with me to my parents house in Colleyville where I stayed to recover. Over the months I spent my days going to lots of physical therapy and learning to walk again.

This whole thing was such a freak accident with two people in the wrong place at the wrong time. It took a long time for me to piece myself back together on the inside and out but I did get married to the most wonderful man and I did finish school. I have some nerve damage and chronic pain that I have learned to live with happily and I am so blessed to be where I am now.

We all know how much I love a good board game. Kristen and Jeff brought this "Fact or Crap" game to the hospital for us all to play. Funny thing is that I don't remember this at all! This was during the first week in the hospital and I was on so many meds that I have no memory of it.

I got my hair fixed by my mom everyday again.

I was in the hospital over the holidays so this was our family Christmas card that year.

I do have a pretty cool x-ray.

It's so weird to look back on this day 8 years ago. Sometimes I feel like it was just yesterday and sometimes I feel like it is still a dream. For so many years I have been waiting for that "ah-ha" moment of when I would see and understand why this happened to me. I have always known that it's not going to be an "ah-ha" moment like you see on Oprah where someone overcomes a life changing experience and ends up with a #1 selling book or a motivational speaker that reaches hundreds of people through their story. Neither one of those situations is me at all. Number one because I have only read two books in my life (marly&me and 90 minutes in heaven) so much less would I ever write one and next to flying, public speaking is my biggest fear. I know that God put that time in my life for a reason and I am thankful for who it has made me today.

Blessed Be Your Name.

Tuesday Loves

2011-11-08T17:05:00.001-06:00

Kind of fallish/holidayish and mostly just fun.

This is so fantastic. I want to start this today. Love it.

This shop on Etsy is so cute. I love the alphabet book and the pillows. The tooth pillow is so cute.

Martha makes me want to learn to cross stitch.
How cute would it be to put it on one side of your christmas card after you did it. Love it.

also loving her twig coasters. these could also be placemats. so cute for thanksgiving.

Speaking of coasters, these painted ones are so cute from design sponge. They would be cute also as hot plates and you could put christmasy stuff or thanksgivingish stuff on them. I am def trying these.

Just saw this on flickr and a friend of mine wanted me to try and make it and it turns out she has a mini pattern! It was super easy!! And its actually from ravelry.com!

and then I made one in navy for aly.

It looks blue here, but its actually super dark navy. oh well, you can see the stitches better with this alternate coloring...
I am also working on a few stockings for Jennifer. I hope they turn out good!

Here are just the tops of two of them so far...
oh, and I made the smores thing from pinterest and it was so good. I highly recommend it if you are in the mood for smores.

Ok, I guess that is all I have so far...
Hope you guys are having a great tuesday!

friends, tables and chairs...oh my!

2011-11-06T16:12:00.000-06:00

Nothing too exciting to blog about, just some random happenings and what not.

Bob used some of his vacation time at the end of October and took a week off. It was wonderful! We didn't go on vacation anywhere, we just stayed home and loved every minute of having Bob here with us. By the end of the first day Bob had told me more than once that I had too many projects. So true but I think I like it that way. Some days I do wish I had hours and hours of uninterrupted craft time so I could actually finish one, but don't we all...

I don't think I actually finished any of my ongoing projects while Bob had the week off but we did get a couple things accomplished. The table we had been using in our kitchen was way too big for the area and it drove me kinda crazy. Bob told me to start looking on Craigs list for something smaller and I stumbled upon this little table and four chairs that sounded like the perfect size. Bob went out to make the deal and bring it home. You can never really tell what you are gonna get from a craigs list picture...

Turns out the top of the table was not really wood. It was like the tables that used to be in my school cafeterias, rubber molding around the edges and all. So, I decided to paint the top white to match the chairs and legs. But of course the whites didn't match...

So then I thought WWKD (what would kristen do) and I busted out the chalk board paint! I love the way it turned out and Ella loves getting to color all over her kitchen table.

How small is this table?! We cracked up when we saw just how tiny it was but it is so great to be able to walk around in the kitchen now. It teaches good manners too, when we all eat dinner it's elbows down or else you bump elbows with your neighbor.

Here is a pic of our old table that was too big. I guess I should have started with this pic, I'm kinda going backwards. Anyways, the highchair we had been using for Kenna attached to the table because we didn't have any room for the standing one.

With the big table gone, we brought back in the wooden highchair we had used with Ella. Speaking of projects that never get finished, this highchair should top the list. I originally bought it in raw wood when I was pregnant with Ella. We have these orange and pink striped bar stools that I wanted to match the high chair to so I hauled one of the huge bar stools to a paint store when I was prego with Ella to get the paints matched. The highchair stayed raw wood until Ella was almost one, and by then I had only gotten the orange color painted on it. I never got around to the pink stripes and now those cute bar stools are in our attic at this house because there is no room for them. I guess the moral of that story is that Bob is right, I have too many projects.

Of course the second Bob brought the highchair in the house I had the immediate urge to finish this 4 year project and add the pink stripes. Only to find out that we left the pink paint in our old house in lubbock... So I mixed up about 10 different paint colors I had for screen printing and taped off a few stripes on the top of highchair.

Then I ran an electric sander over it. I think I can say I'm finally done with this project.

Other things that happen when dad doesn't have work is lots of fun outside time and super cool tea parties.

Tea party fort designed by dad himself.

In other exciting news, we had some VERY fun visitors come stay with us this weekend! Jordan, Brittany and Cooper!

I didn't get very many pictures (brittany has some very cute ones on her camera that I will have to share later) but it was just the best weekend. We cracked up at McKenna constantly attacking Cooper with kisses and Ella couldn't get enough of Jordan and Brittany.

I bought these chalk markers from Hobby Lobby that Brittany and Ella had fun with.

A little tip if you ever use these chalk markers is that they don't completely come off like normal chalk does. I had to use the magic eraser (my go to for many things) to clean the table, but it all wiped off very fast with it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend too!

Canton

2011-11-04T16:15:00.004-05:00

I had never been to Canton, so when blair called and told us that she and mel and some of my wedding friends were going, we were all in. I am not exactly sure how I feel about Canton, overall, but it was definitely a fun day. We only bought food and little toys. I didn't really need anything, so we came home empty handed, but with our stomachs very full.

Loved our lives.
(Jeff just called to tell me that it looks like sassy is having a seizure in this pic and I can't help but want my eyes to open...sigh. You get the idea.)

Blair got them fish and I could not resist the worlds best kettle corn, hello.

Avery was pretty excited about her magnetic paper dolls that we got her (like ones she has and loves) and rocked the free headband that a sweet man gave sassy.
Overall, great friday.
(I apologize for the very boring posts about my uberexciting life...We have a few exciting things coming up and you can look to al for some more excitement from her posts!)

The dentist

2011-11-04T16:00:00.001-05:00

I am mom of the year. Well, mom of a lifetime really. I have heard that you are supposed to take your kids to the dentist when they are like 1 or 2 or at the latest, 3. I procrastinated a little bit on that (we all know how I feel about the dentist) and wednesday was Avery's first time to go to the dentist ands she is 5 and a half (and the twins first time, too, but they are kind of in the age bracket so I think they are ok).

Overall it was good...

It started out bad because Ben would not even step on the scale, much less sit still while he got X-rays, so we had to forgo both of those for him. He was literally kicking and screaming most of the time. I had to call in back up.

Sass and Avery did great, though, and I think they loved it.

Everyone was so so kind at their dentist and I was just so overwhelmed with how patient they were; I wanted to run outside and leave my kids there.

They (and by they, I mean aves and sawyer) got x-rays first.

(I know, how boring is me walking you through my children's dentist appointment. I should have started this post with an apology)

Then they got their teeth cleaned and got to wear these headphones to listen to the movie above them. Too cool. And get to wear fancy shades.

Sassy was super cool in hers.
Too cool, really.

And ben never even got to the shades or headphones portion of his visit...
Then the dentist came over and said sassy had these little cavities that were formed when her enamel formed and that it happened a long time ago (aka-not my fault. thats really all I heard) and she has to come back to have them filled. and have the gas. That cracks me up!!! I can't wait to see her with the gas-she is gonna be nuts.

Doesn't she just crack you up in those glasses??! I can't get over it.
Ok. that is the end of this boring post. Ill just apologize now.

Happy Halloween (a little late)

2011-11-02T15:54:00.002-05:00

My mom was so sweet and sat with my kids over a catalogue and let them tell her what they wanted to be for halloween. I am sure they picked like 10 things. She and I narrowed it down and we ended up with the most amazing costumes. When I say amazing, I mean, like heavy, with zippers and stuffing-hilarious!

We were not really expecting anything that great but we were thoroughly impressed! She related it to the Sue Wong we got for Jeff's birthday party. We didn't know anything about Sue Wong and it turned out to be like a prom dress with like three layers of lining! Haahah. Needless to say, my mom always proves even better than we thought possible!

Ben was a triceratops. He loved his life.

Avery was a princess with this heavy and lined and fancy cape. So elegant.

And Sassy was a fairy/princess/cinderella. She had some costume changes.

We went trick or treating with our neighbors and went to a fantastic neighborhood party down the street for some crafts, fun, food and lots more candy.

We were nothing compared to Pippi and Minnie Mouse- Al and Linds were incredible! I just love both of their homemade costumes. Isn't it so fun that Ella watches Pippi Longstocking at 3?? I try to put on for my kids what ella watches and they always are so like "mom, this is wayyyy over my head...". Ella you are so stinkin cute! and Minnie! AHHH! linds just went to hobby lobby and made it all up!! Amazing. I wish lindsay would make all my clothes too...
Now you guys have to go see Lindsey, Shannon and Patrick's halloween party- like RIGHT NOW. it is incredible! It is like so professional it could win prizes on a party blog! It is amazing! Loved it guys!!
Then we were the crazy people that went to the dentist the day after halloween...more on that to come...

the adventures of pippi longstocking...

2011-10-31T22:51:00.001-05:00

and her sidekick the elephant.

Ella and McKenna dressed up in their costumes for three nights in a row and they loved every minute of it. McKenna's costume was actually one that I had bought for Ella when she was a baby but never ended up wearing. I made Ella's Pippi costume and we bent a clothes hanger into a headband shape with the two ends sticking out straight for her braids. I just braided her hair around the wire and they stayed put all night.
I honestly thought that by tonight they would just want to pass out candy but no way, tonight was THE night. We trick or treated till people were turning their porch lights off and we passed out candy till Bob cut us off. It was just the best night!

I guess I should start with Saturday night first.

We went to a Halloween festival that had bounce houses, lots of yummy carnival foods, live music and glow in the dark golf.

I pulled off a big chunk of turkey leg for Kenna and she never let it out of her hand.

On Sunday night we had a trunk or treat with our church and it was so fun! Our small group turned a trunk into Noah's ark. You might recognize the raindrops, inspired by Kristen from her twins 2 by 2 party.

They had so many fun games and activities for the kids to do.

This one cracked me up! Throwing toilet paper into a toilet, ha!

Then there was tonight, Halloween!

We set a table and chairs out front to show all the trick or treaters we were serious about passing out candy.

My sweet mom made a very last minute trip to come trick or treating with us and it was so great having her here.

We ended the night with a delicious bowl of fire roasted chipotle chicken tortilla soup and baked pumpkin spice donuts.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Weekend Wars and Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T14:40:00.003-05:00

Hope you guys had a great weekend. We didn't do that much but Jeff worked a little and we had a little family time.

Nothing crazy, but super fun.

Al had a great weekend too, full of halloweeny activities so I will let her blow y'all away with her cute fam and fantastic costumes.

We didn't do much halloweeny but we will tonight!!

Ok, back to the weekend.

On friday I woke up to the this pic that avery drew and taped beside my bed,

Then Sassy drew a pic and insisted that I send it to allison because "she is just gonna love it".

I am sure its in a special language that only sassy and allison understand and I am not even going to try to get in on that.

Then we played outside.
and ben (or sassy) had gone through his draw-all-over-himself thing

Then we tried to extend our knowledge in the ways of the world and got a globe, some books and a map at the bookstore.

Just keeping the written word alive.

Avery loved the map. And the globe, but she set up her teaching station in front of the globe and I overheard her telling sassy not to just "blurt out" and that the first color ever was purple. She is full of information that I didn't even know...

We don't have it hung with in any cute way or with anything cute above it...I am working on that.
Right now its just up and they can see where all the pins are where our friends and family live.
(And the pins can easily fall on the floor or be removed and everyone can accidentally step on them. oh well. no pain no gain.)
And now we have our vampire teeth in and we are ready for tonight..

Happy Halloween!! Hope y'all have a great and safe night!!

Biopolar link love

2011-10-27T15:08:00.002-05:00

This list of links can show you how crazy my DIY brain is going lately...

I just found this new to me blog and I like some of her DIY...

Love this vase DIY too.

How cute are these favor pyramids from Martha??

I want to try this herringbone stitch. Isn't it gorgeous?? Sigh.
I keep asking y'all questions I already know the answer to. Sigh. again.

Is this possible?? Could I actually make this???
On the complete other side of my brain I have been wondering what I can do to help with the horror going on in Africa and all parts of the world. I saw this video and just could not even wrap my brain around the horror that these people deal with.
And then I read this post about chocolate and how some of it is farmed by small children. It just broke my heart and I want to be apart of the solution. I bought chocolate-less candy this year (which is actually my candy of choice) but I am not sure if that is the safest thing either. I don't know but I do know I want to do the best I can to help...
OK, so I want to make all of the DIYs today and feel like I need to find out where they sell yellow leather...Maybe I will start on the knit one first since I have too much yarn already...

family fun

2011-10-25T23:10:00.000-05:00

I would like to start off by saying that sweet McKenna is finally over the forever long stomach bug and feeling good again! Yay!

We spent this last weekend visiting family and it was so fun! We started the weekend off at the Dallas Arboretum with Bob's parents. Kristen, Lindsay, Aly and I took all the kids last year so I was excited to see all the cool pumpkins again.

Ella had a ball and loved all the pretty flowers and pumpkins but when I asked her what her favorite part was, she told me it was the rocks.

Good thing she loaded her pockets full.

McKenna seemed to enjoy the arboretum as well.

We had a fun dinner at La Duni with Bob's two brothers (matt & jon) and their wives (alyson & allison) over the weekend and I'm so sad I didn't get a picture. It was the first time we had all been to dinner together without any of our kids. Hopefully it will happen again very soon!

We watched the Ranger game with my family on Monday night along with some hotdogs, face tattoos, some intense smore making, stick on mustaches and blue snuggies.

I don't know which part was good luck, but I'm willing to repeat all of the above for the next game.

Winning Weekend

2011-10-23T23:36:00.002-05:00

First off, I want to say thank you to my amazing cousin lins for the most thoughtful halloween package that she sent us last week-

How cute is that?! And the crochet book was so super cute and so thoughtful. We just loved it, Lindsey. Thank you for thinking of us and knowing exactly what we would love!
And are y'all on pins and needles watching Al perfect the cookies??? I just want to be there so I can try every batch!
Then, this weekend was amazing.
We got to go to the world series with my family and it was really so incredible.

(minus ben who was too overwhelmed to pose).
We got all decked out in our Rangers colors and pretty much just couldn't believe that we were there.

My gorgeous parents.

Jeff with my brother Michael who used to say all of the Rangers line up, when he was four, with the voice of the announcers and everything- "Ju-li-O Fr-an-c-O!"

Dirk threw out the first pitch.
It was pretty neat having him there cheering on the Rangers. He couldn't stop smiling and he did the claw and was just so excited.
It was definitely one of my favorite parts.
Then the real partying started.

This kid flagged down the cotton candy guy before we had even eaten anything.

They loved it.
That was followed by a hamburger, corn dog, three hot dogs, fries, two pretzels, drinks,

popcorn,

and ice cream in a hat...
(who doesn't love ice cream in a helmet?!)
We get a little carried away when it comes to food. Especially at a ballpark. Or the fair.

I may have been responsible for a lot of that eating...
Then ben got naked and sassy became the paparazzi.

Avery loved it.
She watched every minute of it, sang every song and clapped every clap. She wore her pin the whole time and wanted to listen to the game in the car when we left.
Big fan.

Then it all went down hill and we had to leave early because we could not stand the heartbreak any longer.
(And it was 10.)
My mom and I took the kids home and we were definitely sad to go.
The next day we celebrated Jeff's 31 birthday!!

With the world's biggest boston cream pie ever made!
My parents got him a gun and I set him up a hog hunt with Jennifer's husband so it was a hunt themed birthday. Pretty sure he couldn't stop smiling from the new gun.
Hopefully he will kill a lot of unwanted hogs?
Then, on our way home we stopped at chipotle to eat and the kids wanted to sit on the stools.
We told them that they could only have water to drink and Sass hurled her body in defiance of that, flung herself off of the stool and landed head first on the concrete.
We were pretty terrified and went to hospital but then Jeff called our friend who is an ER attending, did a mini exam and decided we could go on home.

Such a scare, but if you are reading this, please pray that everything is ok and that she is not bleeding internally or anything...
Just breaks my heart and makes me worry. But, Jeff is pretty thorough so I figure if he says she is gonna be ok, she will. We have definitely been to the ER a few times in our day...
And on our way home the Rangers WON!!
WOO HOO!!
Way to go Rangers. Let's do this.
Hope you guys had a great weekend and let me just say thanks Texas for pulling out a Cowboy and Ranger win today!!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

2011-10-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

For those of you that are on the edge of your seat about my latest fluffy cookies, here is an update.

First of all, thank y'all SO much for all the cookies input! We love getting comments and it was so fun to get ones with cookie tips! It is because of y'all that I have made any progress at all.

Sweet Julia commented and attached a link to a recipe that she said solved her flat cookie problem. When I read the ingredients I was very surprised to see vanilla pudding and crisco in the recipe. Those were both new to me but I was ready to give it a shot so the next morning I went straight to the store to get my pudding and crisco.

Ella has been loving this lets bake cookies every day phase I'm going through.

It really worked! Look how beautiful my cookies turned out! Thank you Julia! Click here to get recipe.

I have nothing bad to say about these cookies, they really were so good and the perfect amount of fluff. But...Kristen's cookies can not be toped. They really are the best cookie I have ever had. So now that I know I am capable of baking a fluffy cookie I am going to give Kristen's recipe a few more tries with some of y'alls great tips! On a random note, all this talk about fluffy has made me think of my favorite book called A Porcupine Named Fluffy. I read it to Ella tonight and she loved it too. It's pretty funny so if you are looking for a good children's book you should totally check it out.

Anyways, thank you guys so much again and I will keep you updated.

cabin fever

2011-10-17T22:00:00.005-05:00

We are on day 9 of McKenna's tummy bug and it has been a long 9 days...

She has finally begun to improve each day but still not 100%. My mom came in town Friday to help me out for a couple days and it was so nice to have her here. Unfortunately she now has the tummy bug. Sorry mom.

While my mom was here I started working on Ella's halloween costume. I don't have it all finished to show you yet but it involves a dress with patches sewed on, two mismatched knee high socks, brown boots, orange hair spray, two braids and a coat hanger:)

Some other inside activities that I have attempted (and failed at) over the last 9 days are perfecting my chocolate chip cookies and crocheting.

Thank y'all so much for the tips on my flat cookies! I wish I could say they worked. I think it's me, not the ingredients. I have bought all fresh ingredients and even put my dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes before baking them and still my result is always the same. flat as a board. After seeing this cookie recipe on pinterest I really thought my luck was about to change. The caption under the picture said "fluffiest, chewiest, most amazing chocolate chip cookies." The recipe called for cornstarch which was supposed to be the magical ingredient that made them so fluffy. I don't doubt the recipe at all. I am sure that 99.9% percent of people that make these cookies have full success. I am that .1%. Next time Kristen and I get together she is going to stand over my shoulder while I bake. I am not giving up on this.

Then I watched youtube videos for hours learning how to crochet bows and flowers. Once again I need Kristen standing over my shoulder. She's a pro.

Maybe next time I should make the big and chunky one for my big girl and the small and dainty one for my baby.

You guys remember my Granny's chairs that have been on my to-do list for months now?

I still have to paint them and recover the cushions but I at least got them sanded down and ready for the next step.

My plan was to paint them a very light grey (or is it gray? I never know how to spell it) but because I already own a bucket of white paint in the garage that just sounds easier so they will probably end up white just like I did the dining room table.

I have no idea what fabric to recover the cushions with. I already had this navy and white stripe fabric from ikea but it might be a little bold for the chair.

I don't know, I will have to see what it looks like when the chairs are white.

Anyways, hope everyone is having a great week and staying well!

Knit Dress

2011-10-13T22:25:00.002-05:00

I finally finished the first knitted project (that wasn't a scarf).

I saw this on the lion brand website and its pretty obvious that I don't really understand what "check your gage" means...

Ok. It was supposed to be for a six month old.

And now it is perfect for a small, fat child. Not quite an infant.

It is the absolute weirdest size.

But its finished.
I added the ruffles on the sleeves and the crochet edging.
Then I made aves try it on,

and its more of a shirt for her.

I wish sass would try it on but I am pretty sure that would kill her.

You can even be active in it :)
I know its weird.
Maybe I could bring it in on the sides?
And its kind of heavy. and bulky.
oh gosh. Learning more as I type this.

And yesterday they both got a new purse and busted out their modeling skills.

So, moral of the story, I really need to work on how I measure things when I am knitting.
Or "check my gage".
Ill go google it.

My son is crazy, I finished the chairs and I made some quick pillows

2011-10-12T17:30:00.000-05:00

How about that for a title?

This is what I woke up to this mornin'

but not just this,

His arms and hands;

His legs too.
And his back.
I asked him if he did it or if Sassy did it, and he said he did it.
hmm...
Someone is either a liar, or has an amazing stretch armstrong arm to get to his back.
I can think of so many uses for a stretch arm...
I wonder if he did everything he could reach and just not his back or if Sassy did it all.
I guess the truth will come out eventually?
Probably not.
We can never say he is not a fan of color.
Oh, and I finished the chairs.
I was really nervous at first and did not love them.

They are pretttttyyyy bright.
If you are looking at these and kind of cringing because you realize that they don't really go with the walls- its ok, just look away. And then come back. They may grow on you?
(Not at night though. They really only look their best in natural light.)
Oh well. I am definitely not painting those things again.
That took a lot of paint. And time.
(Pencil by Martha Stewart if you were wondering).
The other day I saw these pillows in Rue and immediately wanted to copy them.

I know they aren't as lush or pretty, but you get the idea.
Ok, they look a sad attempt, but they are done.
I just did a basic envelope pillow. Took just a sec. Freshly Picked has a great tutorial.
I looked back on it and realized later that the girl I was copying was just a single girl and maybe I am turning my house pink and yellow a little too fast.
Jeff, I hope you don't mind. You can totally nix the pillows ~~or the chairs.~~

Here is to a new looking house for now.
Now if I only had a rug to really tie the room together...

Chalkboard Paint Crazy

2011-10-11T13:00:00.001-05:00

And when I say crazy, I mean crazy. It just hit me and I really ran with it.

Hard.

At about 4:30 yesterday I up and decided now would be the time to paint my kitchen with chalkboard paint. I have wanted to do it for a while now, but I don't know what came over me. Maybe that I had gone like 12 hours without a new project or that my kids were actually napping or that the color in my kitchen finally grossed me out enough that I had to never see it again- I don't know.

But I did it.

And I LOVE IT!

(don't judge my clutter. I am a refrigerator decor hoarder)
and so do the kids.

Then we took that chalkboard paint and used it to paint some pumpkins.

They got pretty into that too.

Very into painting. Serious face.

They weren't the prettiest pumpkins around, but they were efficiently painted.

and terribly decorated. I know. I am not an artist. (as if that was in question)

and my mother in law got me two of these fantastic chalk boards when she went to round top

(Do y'all want lessons on how to be an amazing artist? clearly I should give them)
and now I am painting my chairs...

I may need an intervention.
at least its not chalkboard paint :)

weekend recap

2011-10-10T14:30:00.000-05:00

Bob is on anesthesia this month and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! For a while there, I was a little worried about how in the world I was going to make it through this first year of residency. I am thankful for the ups mixed in with all the downs:) It's nice to have a good month to get me renewed and ready for another tough one.

Anyways, all that to say is that we are LOVING this month and all the real face time we are getting with Bob! He had this whole last weekend off and it was so nice. So nice to see him so much and also so nice to have an extra helping hand when sweet McKenna got a tummy bug on Saturday.

Even with a sick 9 month old we still had a blast on Saturday. We took a very last minute trip to a deer lease that my dad and his buddies hunt at. My dad just got this cool hunting 4-wheeler/truck type thing and he was taking it to the deer lease while he set up some deer cameras so he called us to see if we wanted to meet them there. We said yes and he said wear your camo. He bought Ella her very own camo shirt a while back and it is one of her favorite things to wear these days so she was very excited to put it on. Bob and I needed camo so on Friday night we took a family trip to Academy to get a shirt for Bob and I to wear. Thats when I spotted the camo overalls. I couldn't pass them up.

So Saturday morning we all put on our camo and headed to the deer lease. We sure did miss Anna! Boo for school on Saturdays but yay for cosmetology school!

Ella had a blast. More than once she would randomly say "this is just so much fun." She is going to be my camper for sure. Which I wouldn't have said about her when she was a baby. She was the kid who didn't want her skin to touch the grass or dirt. McKenna on the other hand would eat dirt for every meal, so looks like both my girls are ready for the outdoors.

We drove around in the truck for hours and got rained on and covered with mud but it was so fun. Even in between McKenna throwing up she was still all smiles.

I shot a gun for the first time and hopefully my last time. It was crazy. Not at all what I had thought it would be like. It was so powerful I couldn't even hold still or keep my eyes open when I fired it. So hopefully I will never have to be in a ready, aim, fire situation because I can do none of them.

We headed home Saturday night and didn't go to church on Sunday because of McKenna being sick. She ended up getting a little bit worse and is still sick today. Poor thing. I was the crazy mom though who took her into the doctor this morning just to make sure she was ok and of course everything is fine. (just like my doctor of a husband told me) It's just a bug that is going around and should be over soon.

Yesterday was a fun rainy, watch football, fall asleep on the couch kind of day. I loved it. It's not very often that active Kenna just lays on me so I soaked up every minute of it.

During McKenna's morning nap Ella and I did a rainy day activity and made our very own ISPY game. It was so fun. We gathered small things that we sewed into a bag filled with rice. Saw this idea on pinterest which originally came from this blog.

Ella's idea of helping me sew is pushing my foot down on the pedal. Always good to have a backup pedal pusher, you know just in case you get a cramp or something...

We took a picture of all the objects we put in the bag and then laminated it with packing tape. There is a pocket in the back to hold the paper and dry erase pen. Once she finds an item she can cross it out on the paper.

We ended the weekend with a delicious dinner that all came from pinterest. Blue cheese (again) recipe here, salmon recipe here (I used second recipe) and potato skins recipe here.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and is having a wonderful Monday!

Speaking of wonderful, how fantastic was all of Kristen's crochet stuff?! Makes me want to bust out my needle and yarn. Might need a quick ichat tutorial from Kristen first. I might be a little rusty...

Crochet gifts galore

2011-10-08T09:54:00.001-05:00

There has been a plethora of needs from my friends for crochet goodies lately and I am loving it (do people really say plethora? I had to spell check it...anyway,).
I made a ball that I turned into a rattle.

Which will be impossible for the baby to hold so that was really great thinking on my part.

I made these little baby headbands with bows on them. I don't know the size of real babies heads and I should have checked with all my friends with newborns but I did not make that happen...

So here is to a random assortment of head sizes.
They are kind of like little baby sweatbands.
The 80s is back...right?

(I don't know why they are on the floor for picture taking. and why I didn't move the curtain. I don't know.)
I made some little loafers

after I saw these over here. She has some super cute stuff!
(I mean, nothing like Night Owl Designs!)
and a few hats.

And after hat day, when they had those ugly hats, I thought that maybe I should make my own kids some cuter ones.
It was my first time with the over-the-ear things and I think I made the tie things too short but overall they were pretty easy.
I looked at the free patterns on lion brand's website and that really helped.

(yes, they drew on their lips with markers like lipstick. avery kind of went for more of a goth look...)
This one is not hot pink enough so no one likes it. I had to bribe them to try it on :)

Ben's

Of course last night he would wear the girl one but this morning not the boy one? I don't know.
Sass wanted a turn too.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

B is for Bob

2011-10-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Bob turned 35 on tuesday so we celebrated him with a fun and very kid friendly family party at home tuesday night. The theme was B. (thanks to Kristen for getting me going on that one) Everything started with the letter B. The gifts, decor and food. Ella has been doing letters of the week at school so she jumped right on board with the B is for... party theme. The first thing she thought of that started with B was barbie. She was so excited for Bob to see the barbie she picked out for him. What grown man wouldn't want a tiny ballerina barbie for his birthday?
After my mom had made the number pinatas for my birthday I was excited to give it a shot. I made a B pinata and it was very easy to do and turned out so cute. I bought blue (sticking with the theme) cardboard from hobby lobby and just free handed a big B with an exacto knife, then I duck taped it all together.

I didn't really mean for it to be so life size.

Ella helped me glue squares of tissue paper all over it and then we filled it full with all things that start with B.

Once I got going on the letter B theme everything seemed to all fit into the theme so perfectly. On Monday night Ella and I stayed up till midnight watching megamind and icarly while hanging balloons across the ceiling for a fun little surprise when Bob woke up. We also made a batch of Kristen's famous chocolate chip cookies for Bob to take with him to work on his birthday. Of course they turned out flat as a board (always happens to my cookies) but they still tasted delicious. Why wouldn't they though, there are only 3 sticks of butter in them!

I decided to make sticker labels for each item that started with the letter B. I had so much fun with these and kinda got label crazy. I put a sticker on pretty much everything. Even Bob.

I made my labels using my silhouette and then printed them off on sticker paper.

I put stickers all over the pinata with the things that were inside of it and then wrapped the other gifts. My parents had sent some things in the mail for Bob and they just so happen to fit in with my B theme so it was perfect!

I made the pinata out of some pretty heavy duty cardboard so it wasn't the easiest to bust open. Ella cheered Bob on as he tried to break it open with her golf club but in the end he just ripped it apart.

My dad picked out this shirt for Bob and I thought bodacious was the perfect B word for it.

The Bucket list gift was a favorite of mine. I had been carrying this list around with me for years and was so excited to finally give it to Bob. When we moved into our Lubbock house I remember stumbling upon a box with some of Bob's college papers in it. As I was going through them I found this list that he had written during college. It's a pretty amazing list. I didn't show or tell Bob that I had found it because I thought it would be neat to give to him one day. So I put it in a ziplock bag and tucked it away in the side zipper pocket of my purse. I had hopes of taking it somewhere to get professionally framed and restored and giving it to him maybe at the end of med school or residency along with something from the list. Well that never happened so when I was thinking of things that started with B the word bucket came to mind which made me think of Bob's list that I had been carrying around with me for years. It was perfect. So I bought a frame from Target and framed Bob's bucket list for him to see. The title that he had written on his list was "Things I would like to do with my life and right now."

When I first read this list I was so moved. It is amazing to think that Bob was thinking about these things as a sophomore in college. If I had made a bucket list in college pretty sure my number one thing on the list would have been something vain like lose freshman 15 20. He has such a big heart. One of the many many reasons why I love him.

After opening presents we ate a delicious dinner that all started with B. Brisket, baked potatoes and blue cheese wedge salad. I didn't get any pics of dinner but you can go here for brisket recipe and here for blue cheese dressing recipe.

And then there was birthday cake!

Bob's favorite kind is chocolate cake with white icing. McKenna's not too sure if it's her fav.

We ended the night by playing with some of Bob's presents. Ella picked out a board game for him that they could play together. It is a cute game where an elephant shoots out butterflies and you try to catch them with a net. The other board game I got Bob was called Things and if you have never played it, you should. It is hilarious. It's a good group game for adults that will make you laugh till you cry.

Then we had some fun with balloons. I put a glow stick in some of the balloons. They didn't make for the best pics but how cool is that?

Such a fun night celebrating my bighearted, bold, brave, bright, brilliant, brunette and beautiful birthday boy Bob!
This post was brought to you by the letter B.

Candy Corn Wreath, an amazing gift & Cheese Pizza

2011-10-05T07:55:00.000-05:00

I had seen this perfect-looking cheese pizza/cheese sticks on pinterest and since avery loves cheesy bread I thought I would give it a try.

Well I put way too much cheese on it so it didn't brown on the top very well, but they were still pretty good.

This girl liked it.

and my mother in law just gave me this awesome bread bowl for my pumpkins so I have to keep showing it off.

Sass made me take her pic over and over and I hated it :)

Once we had eaten that in the middle of the day, not in any kind of meal environment,
we made a candy corn wreath.

I am a health nut. I know. Its so obvious.

Big helpers.

I got a straw wreath ( I know. I don't really know why I got straw except that it was cheap, but it was obviously a weird choice...)
and then just hot glued candy corn on it like I saw over here. I would probably follow those instructions because we were pretty, umm, what would you call it, bad, ya, bad, at it. It turned out prettttyyyyyy ghetto, but it was fun.
And we hung it up with some of the same burlap from the other wreath.

oh, and our day started out with hat day.

Too bad all we have in the hat department are ones for cold weather and they are ugly because I made them, but hat day nonetheless.
And, oh, I should have started with this, this just made my whole day- when I got home from running errands yesterday I got the most amazing gift in the mail-

My friend Lindsay (y'all remember her, she bought so many scarves that she practically kept me in business and she had never even met me!!!) sent me this gorgeous bracelet (that I had just pinned) that she made with Jennifer!! Isn't it fantastic?! Linds- you are so so so thoughtful; all of the time! I cant get over it!! Thank you so so much!
And in case you were worried that this house is only full of bad hats, too much cheese and tons of sugar, this morning ben just pulled down his pants and peed all over me. Like, I had to shower he peed so much on me.
Its like a gross wet t shirt contest over here because then he peed his pants while we were in the chipotle line and it got on the floor and there was nothing I could do because there were so many people in line behind me and I just froze. The girl behind me probably had to walk in it.
kills me.
Al, I am coming over to stress eat all of your birthday candy.

Responsible Student bribed with Dairy Queen and a fantastic weekend

2011-10-04T09:36:00.003-05:00

This weekend was a blast.

A literal blast. Non stop fun.

Last week had its ups and downs, but on Friday Avery jumped in the car and told me that one kid from her class had gotten a free sunday at DQ for being the responsible- and it was her! She was so excited!

I really have no idea how it happened, except that most other kids probably don't even know what dairy queen is because their parents are probably "healthy" and stuff, and since avery knew she was probably on her best behavior. We love us a mini blizzard.

She got a caramel sunday this time, though.

Way to go Avery!! She had to show Mazzy so we threw her in the car too and all went to celebrate, charge free.

Then we went home and got to hold baby Ty and he was just the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life!! And it was so much fun to see Lindsay (who looks like a million bucks!) and Kinley. They let us just tear up their house and let Ben go hunt with Jeff, so, all around we were thrilled.
Then my cousins had their first annual Harmon Family Picnic and it was so much fun. Their house is gorgeous and they brought in a band, horses to ride, a bounce house, made shirts- overall it was our kind of party.
And Bob and Allison and Ella and McKenna all came too!

They had the cutest bean bag throw with all kinds of prizes you could win! It was so much fun.

Ben wanted to see and pet the horses, but was wayyyyy to afraid to actually ride them.
And then we went to the cowboy game on Sunday for some exciting news.
My amazing cousin Lindsey and her boyfriend Andrew got engaged!!!!!!

Head to her blog for all the details, but I just wanted to say how incredibly happy for them I am. Lindsey is such a thoughtful, kind, smart, fun, hilarious, caring, perfect cousin and I am so thankful for her creativity, thoughtfulness, humor, always putting others firstness in my life. She is always planning some kind of fantastic event for someone else in her life and it always ends up so much fun and so so thoughtful. Andrew, is also, so so thoughtful, kind, others focused, hilarious and creative. They are SO cute together and so much fun to be around. I could not ask for a better or neater family and I am so thankful that Andrew is officially apart (even though he basically was before).
SO excited for you guys and just so excited to talk nonstop about wedding and party fun!!

Alter Egos

2011-09-30T10:39:00.002-05:00

It was a big dress up day yesterday.

Perfecting her "look off into the distance" pose for her runway days.

They also got their outfits ready for Sunday.

Sass had a little trouble finding the front of her uniform.

and being happy about it.

Played a little indoor baseball.

Overall, fun was had by all.
Someday, maybe we will hit the ball. Outside.

Muted Pumpkins are all the rage

2011-09-29T09:10:00.002-05:00

Well, at least at our house.
(and I am sure they have a real name thats not muted pumpkins, I just don't know what it is...)

(forgive my bad lighting and pics. I took them last night.)
I know these are not fall colors (avery is very concerned about that) and the banner is a little much. I just got so excited.

My lone white one on the table.
I am just obsessed with the gray, white and light orange pumpkins. I can't get over it. I don't have any real orange ones in my house!
And then Lindsay and I were talking about wreaths and she told me about her friend that had a great mossy one. I went to hobby lobby and got the Styrofoam ring and the bag of moss and just hot glued it on. I just hung it with ghetto gray fabric that I am going to change, so disregard that.
I was thinking maybe some wire or something. I will def change the pic and you guys can watch the rotation.

and a few more outside.
I know these are not exciting and my pics are so bad, but you get the idea...
Happy fall guys!!