Embrace The Camera

This past weekend we took Maddux to his first fair.
I was worried the rides would scare him..
but he LOVED them.
He never wanted to leave... he just kept wanting to go on every ride in sight.
We had a blast... It was one of those weekends... i wanted to record in my memory... and keep it forever.

215. Watching Maddux's face light up on these rides

216. A child's love for the carousel

217. late night swimming

218.  mango salsa in the summer



Happy Birthday Lil Sis!

“She is my sister, Without her… I don’t make sense” – In her Shoes

This is one of the truest sayings, I have heard in a movie. That line… is exactly the way I feel about my little sister. Holly is three years younger than me… and in so many ways we are polar opposites… yet at the same time, we are Exactly the same. Seems crazy when you read it, but if you have a sister I am pretty sure this makes perfect sense to you.


Growing up… like normal kids we were off and on. We hated each other one minute… loved each other the next. To this day we can push each others buttons in a second and at the ages of 29 and 26, we still do this to each other. But that’s what makes this relationship so amazing. I can still hate her one second… but 5 minutes later laughing about what just caused our fight.

My sister reminds me of the days back when... we had no bills, we had no jobs, we would spend our summers at the pool, argue because the other one was tying up our phone line.. she brings me back to the days of youth. laughing together until the point of tears.... our immature inside jokes.

And even though we are both Mommies now... with full time jobs... too many bills to pay... and never seem to have enough hours in the day. It's nice to have someone you can run to on a bad day... and just act like a ten year old for hours... with absolutely no judgement.


A few things about my sister


- She has the best legs in the family. Hands down. (the little snot)


- She is my biggest critic and my biggest fan all at the same time. Which is something I value beyond words.


- She is hilarious. She is one of the best story tellers… her jokes are hilarious… her stories on her kids… hilarious. This girl is just straight up funny.


- She is loyal. As loyal as they come.


- She is beautiful. Even in her sweatpants, hoodie, and messy bun. She is nothing less than beautiful

- My most cherished memory .... every Christmas Eve since I can remember. Holly would sleep in my bed.... we would stay up as late as we could waiting for Santa... giggling... then falling asleep with exhaustion. We did this beyond the years of believing in Santa... it became our little slumber party tradition...


- She has a huge heart. If she has it and you need it… she will give it to you… no matter what. If she can help… she is there. This is the quality in her that I honestly find inspiring.


- She is humble… and makes it absolutely the hardest thing ever to give her a compliment... which is frustrating!


- She is an amazing mother. She is the kind of mom that gets her kids ready before she gets ready herself, and on days this shows… she is smiling… because regardless of her sweatpants and a hoodie… those girls could not look any cuter. She puts her kids before herself… she goes without … so they do not have to. She inspires me and the smiles on her girls faces… let the world know… she is doing everything right. Happy kids = Good parenting.


- She is sentimental and emotional. She always wears her heart on her sleeve... which she may see as a weakness... but I see this as a strength.

- She has good tastes in movies… Thank you Hollers for loving action movies so we can trade back and forth.


- She is brave… and tough. When things have gone wrong… she holds her head up as she picks up the broken pieces and moves forward with optimism.


- She is an amazing aunt. Maddux adores her... I look forward to creating memories with our kids together… like our mom and Aunt Cathy.


- She is my best friend…. She is my everything. My inspiration... she knows me better than anyone.. she holds all of my secrets... Without her… my world doesn’t make sense… I don’t make sense…

Happy Birthday Holly! I love you more than words could ever say.

Checkerboard Table WIP

This week is a pretty busy week for us, so I am not sure how much I will be getting done. So I thought I would share what I have been working on. Now the chairs are not done yet... I haven't decided what exactly I am doing with them... and I have a few other things I plan on adding to this space. We have this window in our Family room... and its been sort of a dead spot in the room. Jerry and I like to play card games... (yep.. just the two of us) .. we like to play scrabble.. and yes checkers. So I thought this would be a great spot for us to add a little table and chairs. I came across this beat up table at the Goodwill and picked it up for 6 bucks.. stained it (not an amazing job) so then I painted over and distressed. I had painted the checkerboard using painters tape to create the squares... sanded them down to fade it... added stain over the top of the table.. and I like the way it turned out. I have some wooden disks I bought for memory games for Maddux's party... of course they were a lot smaller than what I was imagining.... so this table is also a good use for those.
So even though this table as the checkerboard pattern painted on... I think this will be a great small area for me and Jer to set up a game of scrabble every once in a while...
Final touches coming soon... Cant wait for this room to turn out how I am imagining...

Here's a quick preview....

To be continued....

211. Scrabble

212. Cherry Coke

213. Cropped Jeans

214. 1st summer tans of the year

Embrace The Camera!

This past weekend we went to the picnic my work put on.
They went with a wild west theme... they had cowboys on stilts, slides, pony rides, bounce houses, bingo, cowboys singing, rock climbing walls, and food. Lots of food.
Maddux was too busy to really want to eat... he loves just walking around.
But here we are enjoying his first corn on the cob!

And this is what we spent most of our day doing... Maddux just taking a stroll around.. and us following behind :)

You turn to get out your camera and get in a photo with your kids.

Link up at Emilys place!

206. Maddux putting on his cowboy hat and yelling "Yee-Haw!"

207. Fresh Highlights

208. Friends Dvds... never get old

209. lemon pie

210. Summer family get togethers

18 Months... and getting bigger by the second.

Dear Maddux,

Here are a few of my favorite things you are doing at 18 months.

You now know where your Eyes, Ears, Mouth, Nose, Hands, Feet, Belly button, and Head are when asked. When prompted … You can point at your eye.. and also say eye. You point at your nose… your ears… you tap your head. You open your mouth as wide as you can… to show us your mouth. You LOVE  lifting your shirt to find your belly button. You can bend down to show us your feet. And you raise up your hand in a “what” motion to show us your hands.

However you are such a stubborn little guy you refuse to do this when I want to show anyone. So you make momma look like a liar… which I honestly think you understand and find hilarious.

Your newest words include – Up, No, GO, Car, Three!

You now will put your hands up and yell up when you want to be held.

I only hear no when I am trying to feed you. Lately you hate 90% of food I give you.

You LOVE to yell GO GO GO at Nala!

You have a new obsession for cars!!!!!! Anytime you see them you yell CAR!

Three… anytime I throw you, swing you, twirl you. I count… one…. Two… and we both yell THREE!

Your daddy loves to read to you in voices… his favorite is to read you your Cookie Monster book in the Cookie Monsters voice. Now… when you pick up that book… you imitate that voice… and although you sound like you are growling at your book… it’s the cutest thing I have ever seen…

You now sing along to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And honestly… you do it to the right melody. Absolutely amazing.

You now also love to color. And even though you still try to eat the crayons… we have made improvement. Baby steps…. Baby steps.

And even though you are being a picky little eater yesterday. You are always willing to eat a Taco. You love them.

When asked for hugs and kisses you now willingly give them away with a huge cheesy smile… it completely melts my heart.

In the mornings… you love to follow me around and do everything I do. You want to brush your hair when I am brushing mine… you have to sit in my lap while I do my makeup…. And when I take a sip of coffee you want one too (don’t worry… I don’t tilt the cup… its just pretend coffee)

You love to talk away on the phone… you just talk and talk and talk. And when you get real excited you get your finger going… and you are scolding the phone…. Hilarious.

You are a little dare devil… no fear … always ready to go!

In the past 18 months… I have watched you turn into a toddler. You are so independent, and you want to do everything yourself. Its bittersweet watching your independence grow. I love watching you discover the world… with excitement and completely fearless. But you growing up so fast… is so hard for a mom. I see my baby boy disappearing and although I am excited about these new stages we are entering… I want to hold onto all of these little moments with you…. Lock them up and keep these feelings… these memories in my heart forever.

201. Little Moments ... bringing Huge Smiles.

202. Cowboy Picnics

203. Corn on the Cob

204. Family walks after work

205. sweaty curly hair... as seen above :)

Fathers Day Gifts!

This year... I made my dad, my step-dad, and my grandpa Fathers Day key chains.

While making them... my husband asked if I would make him one too. He thought these were a good size ( he hated the huge one they gave him in the mall with the Easter bunny)

I found these frames at Michaels (I believe they are normally used to make jewelry... )
Then bought the glass to fit inside the frame... printed off my favorite black and white photo of Maddux... and then personalized the other side...
For Jerry I put one side Maddux and one side Nala :)

Our gifts for Jer
Happy Fathers Day Jer :)

 Star Wars Rice Krispie Treats!

 Star Wars inspired Rings.... :)

 and Star Wars cookies..

Just wanted to share a quick post with you... Now off to cook some steaks on the grill.
Hope you all enjoy your day with dads... step dads... grandpas... husbands.... or whoever the great men in your life are!

The loves of my life. Fathers Day 2011



Vintage Frame Necklace Holder

So last fall I received this pretty vintage frame from Pam (Our daycare provider)... I loved it but I had a hard time deciding what to do with it... I thought maybe a magnetic chalkboard.... maybe a jewelry holder.... and kept going back and forth between the two.... and this past weekend I finally made a decision... with some help from Lauren.
And so this past weekend... it took... maybe a total of an hour all together... and we made a necklace hanger.
I painted the frame with Rustoleum Spray paint, in Jade. Took some dark stain I had on hand and put all over and lightly wiped off. Then on the took some brown crackle paint and painted the plain strip around the frame... I thought the cracked paint would add to the antique feel of it.
Overall I really like it. And I needed this badly. I don't wear much jewelry I stick to the same pieces 90% of the time... but I usually throw them in my jewelry box... then they get tangled... then never worn. So this is amazing. Plus! this might encourage Jerry to buy me a few more pieces... I have a few pinned on pinterest honey (hint, hint)
All it takes is a pretty open frame you like... and those cheap hooks... paint your frame...drill your hooks and voila.... its like accessory art :)

Linked up at Tatertots and Jellow

196. Maddux's Cookie Monster voice imitation (its amazing)

197. Queso Dip

198. Catching up with old friends via facebook (its amazing who you can find on there)

199. New sheets

200. My husbands farmer tan... l.o.v.e.

DIY Fire Pit

So this weekend was pretty fabulous...
My best friend... Maddux's GodMom came down up to stay with us for the weekend, We celebrated my grandpas birthday with some Meatloaf and Euchre at our place.... then ended the weekend with Smores :)

I desperately want to give our little cement patio a makeover... so Lauren I went downstiars to check the basement to see if Rod left any cement paint down there... He did. So we assumed JackPot! so we got some painting clothes on.... went outside dumped the paint out... and (dum.. dum... dum...) barely any in there. so we painted  a small square section for fun... and that was that... so maybe next weekend I can finish that project (fingers crossed)

But today I thought I would share our little DIY firepit.
I found someone with an old firepit they no longer wanted... so i could use the bowl... Thank goodness!!! Because I was having no luck with garage sales or Craigslist.
We went to lows and bought some cheap garden paver stone thing a ma jigs.... for about a 1.20 a piece or so. I think we ended up with ... 25 or so?
So this piece all together cost somewhere around 30 bucks....

 Update:
I have had a few people that have had a hard time finding these blocks and are running into higher priced blocks... We used THESE
They do have 12 inch ones at about 1.60 which would work... and you would use less. so its really up to you. and you could use any bricks you can find :) This is just what worked for us

So here is everything you need... to DIY a fire pit :)

Build a base of bricks... Hopefully you have two adorable guys doing it for you...

Double Check your work to make sure everything is stable and secure... Check

Meanwhile... keep your dogs away from the firepit.... Check

Hot husband making the fire.... Check.

Adorable marshmallow stealer...

 And as a result... a super cute fire pit... for 30 bucks. Yay!!!!!!!

Linked up at Tatertots and Jello!


 
Hope you all had a great weekend!!!

191. Roasted Marshmallows

192. Weekends with my Bestie.

193. Early morning runs

194. Maddux's chubby feet in sandals. cutest thing ever

195. Nala's snuggling

Embrace The Camera!

Sometimes I get into a mood... where I do not want to do anything productive.
Everything on my To-Do List is ignored...
This week has been one of them.

But luckily... when these moods strike me... I have this kid wanting to wrestle... and Laugh..
And his laugh... no matter what mood I am in...
instantly makes everything else melt away...
and all I can think about is that adorable toothy grin.

Again...Don't mind those crazy mis-matched pajamas... somehow the tops and bottoms are never clean at the same time... Anyone else have that problem?!?!?!

187. Air conditioning

188. Celebrating birthdays!

189. Watching how much kids love playing in ICE COLD water!

190. watching my nieces play softball

191. Braids.

Embrace the Camera

This week my hubby took a few pictures as I was putting Maddux to bed...

Every night as we are laying Maddux down in bed.
I get a kiss and hug..
Then he gets a huge grin....
leans back....
and falls back into bed.
It cracks us both up every night :)

The smallest moments bring such happiness...
Every night... this routine make me happy :)

183. Giggling

184. Cool Summer Mornings

185. Watermelon

186. Mismatched pajamas... who can ever find the matching ones... especially as your toddler is trying to run away from you naked... as fast as he can?!?!