Life With Lulu and Junebug...And Carter, Too!

Pinterest Love for Carter's Mickey Mouse Party

2012-01-31T10:38:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a LONG time since I've blogged. Once again life has gotten crazy (I won't bore anyone with too many details!) but I really want to start blogging more. I just need to make the time for it!

I wanted to share today how AMAZED I am that Carter's second Mickey Mouse birthday party has gotten so much attention. It has been pinned so much on Pinterest - I honestly can't believe it. I get at least five or six emails a week asking me questions about how I did various things for the party decor. When I go to my stats on my blog, though, I get the most hits to my party from Tip Junkie. I went over there today and was SHOCKED to see that our little birthday party is featured as one of the top popular parties - of all time! On Tip Junkie of all places!!!!

I am truly humbled that so many people are interested in my party. Honestly, planning that party was one of the hardest things I've ever done, because I had just had a miscarriage a month and a half earlier and I really don't remember a lot of what happened during those first awful months. I thought about not having a real party, but then I somehow pulled myself up by my bootstraps and got everything together in a matter of days. The project I get the most emails about is my Mickey topiary - you can go see that here. Next, I would say that the most popular item is the M&M cello bags - I shared where I bought those bags here. Finally, I also get a lot of questions about how I made the Mickey wreath - you can go here to check that out and get a link to a great tutorial. So - if you are one of the people who have pinned the party, clicked on my blog, emailed me with nice things to say, or commented - THANK YOU!!!! It truly makes my day to know that others would be interested in the silly stuff I do around here sometimes =)

Carter wants a Thomas party next - it's coming up soon, so I've started pinning a bunch of stuff to get some ideas. If you have any great links for me for train parties, please send them my way!

Beautiful Christmas giveaway...

2011-12-11T08:32:00.000-05:00

The amazingly talented Kristen over at Kristen's Creations is having an awesome giveaway! I don't normally post about giveaways, but this one is too good not to. She is a very talented floral decorator, and is giving away one of her gorgeous creations, along with some other treats - shown below:

Click here to enter the giveaway - but hurry, it ends soon!!!

Thankful...

2011-11-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving today! I have so much to be thankful for, but what I am most thankful for is the health and well-being of my family, and a husband who loves me despite my flaws. I love my family so very much!

(one of the pictures from our Christmas card photo shoot this week - more to come soon!)

Since my mom and mother-in-law do all of the Thanksgiving cooking, I got off easy this year - I made this turkey cheeseball (inspiration via Pinterest from Brandy's blog Gluesticks here). I think my turkey head/neck was too big, but in my defense I was making it as we were running out the door! The cheeseball recipe was YUMMY though. Emily made the most ADORABLE place cards for everyone using my scrap ribbons.

We had some DELICOUS food - including my mother in law's famous fried okra, which I could eat all day, every day, and never have enough! My mom's dressing (in the South we call it dressing, not stuffing, just so you know!) was out of this world, too! We were so stuffed.

A rare picture of four out of our five kids (Will had to work today so we went downtown and took him out to dinner). Thanks for smiling, Zach =)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Stay at Home Mom???

2011-10-11T21:56:00.000-04:00

Whoever invented the term "stay at home mom" clearly was NOT a "stay at home mom." I have so many crazy days as a mom, but I think today may have been one for the record books. I am sure this will be interesting to no one but myself (ha!) but I wanted to document all the craziness that is my life right now.

Here is my day today:

6:20 - alarm goes off
6:30 - finally roll out of bed, get Emily up
6:30 - 7:05 - fix Emily's breakfast, pack her backpack, supervise hair and teeth brushing
7:05 - wake Lindsey up
7:10 - get Emily and hubby out the door to school and work
7:10 - 7:30 - fix Lindsey's breakfast, keep her moving in getting ready, Carter wakes up so get him out of the bed and get my morning snuggle
7:30 - 8:30 - Carter dressed/changed/fed, help Lindsey straighten hair, get myself ready
8:30 - 9:00 - drive to orthodontist appointment - half way there, find out that there is a MAJOR traffic jam and have to turn around and go the opposite direction - barely make it there in time
9:00 - 9:30 - control and entertain Carter while Lindsey is getting her adjustment
9:30 - take Lindsey to get a flu shot at the grocery store pharmacy - have to walk around for 15 minutes before we can leave, per the pharmacist. Pick up a few items for dinner while we are there.
10:00 - take Lindsey to school
10:15 - 11:45 - come home, clean kitchen, laundry, deal with MAJOR Carter meltdown (I don't think he feels well - he has a stuffy nose), answer important emails, pack a lunch for Carter
11:45 - 12:15 - meet Hubby for lunch (a VERY rare treat!)
12:15 - 1:15 - get convinced by Carter to take him to the toy store to look for a new engine that he wants and has been asking for no less than 40,000 times today. Halfway there figure out there is yet another major traffic jam but this time there is no other way to go so we have to just sit there.
1:15 - 1:45 - drive all the way back to my mom's house (pass our house to get there) to drop Emily's dance clothes and shoes off (my mom takes her to dance for me on Tuesdays, thank goodness!)
1:45 - 3:30 - bring Carter home, more laundry, more cleaning up, work on shipping eight ebay packages that HAVE to go out today. Put Carter down for nap.
3:30 - 4:30 - research a company that I am applying for a part time job at, and try to contact the hiring manager but have to leave voice mail. Try to get into "professional" mode from "mommy" mode before calling. This job would be part time and from home, so I am PRAYING that it works out!
4:30 - 4:45 - Lindsey gets off bus - talk to her for a few minutes before I have to go pick Emmy up from dance. Carter still napping so leave him with Lindsey.
4:45 - 5:30 - pick Emily up, go by my mom's house to get Emily's backpack, then head to grocery store to order cupcakes for Lindsey's joint birthday party with her BFF this weekend (the party that has 60 - yes SIXTY - people coming to it, almost half of which are BOYS! Lord help me!).
5:30 - 6:45 - fix Emily a quick dinner because she has to to BACK to dance at 6:45. Help her with homework as I start the rest of the family's dinner. Wonder when third grade homework got so hard. Carter wakes up from nap (thankfully in a great mood!).
6:45 - drive Emily to her lyrical class with Carter in tow. leaving Lindsey at home to do her homework (or text and talk on the phone, ha!). Have to go in to talk to the woman at the front desk about Emily's class.
7:00 - 7:30 - get back home, finish up dinner, by this time hubby and stepson are there. Everyone eats (but Carter) and then I have to go back to the dance school to pick Emily up. Instruct hubby to bathe Carter while I am out.
7:45 - pick Emily up and realize that I still need to get diapers and Lindsey wants me to get her something "soft" to eat because her teeth hurt really badly from her braces adjustment earlier in the day. Stop by the store on the way home.
8:15 - get home and Emily wants to eat again so fix her a plate of food, do dishes, get Carter and Emily ready for bed (after dosing Emily up on Benadryl and honey for a terrible cough she has), then remember that I never got the shipping labels off the printer for the ebay packages. Go pick them up off the printer and tape them to the packages.
9:15 - 9:40 - Sit down to type this and realize that Emily's cough is getting worse. For the past half hour, I've been calling the pharmacist, getting her more medicine, making her sit in the steamy shower bathroom and filling the vaporizer to put in her room.

And with that...I'm headed to bed! Oh, after I check on Lindsey and make sure she is finishing her homework, and put one more load of laundry in, and send yet another email I forgot to send regarding room mom stuff...oh and write down about six things I need to remember to do tomorrow...

So yeah - "stay at home mom" - not so much!!! Life is so crazy these days, but I know I am doing what God wants me to do right now, and boy do I ever LOVE these kids of mine!

Shirt to Fall Artwork Refashion

2011-09-09T21:46:00.004-04:00

Over the years, my kids have had several items of clothing that I have been very sentimental about. I save so many of their clothes, but unfortunately I can't keep everything. I have gotten better about getting rid of things, so I sell a lot of their outgrown clothes on Ebay. This year as I was going through some old clothes to list, I ran across a shirt of Emily's that I just loved, mainly because it had an owl on it. This is the shirt (purchased from Gymboree several years ago):

As I was looking at the shirt, I saw that there was a stain on it that I hadn't noticed before, so I couldn't list it on Ebay. Since I liked the little owl so much, I decided to frame him! I had a frame that I purchased from Goodwill (I think) and I simply cut the shirt apart, stuck it over the glass in the frame, and I had a cute little bit of Fall decor - for free.

Five minutes, and free - can't beat that!

I am itching to get out the fall decor, but for some reason I just can't bring myself to do it. Maybe I am just needing some cooler weather to get in the mood! I have been pinning some pretty fall stuff on Pinterest - you can see my fall and Halloween board here.

Sharing this project here:

Sprucing up the top of a hutch

2011-09-01T21:10:00.000-04:00

Sort of a random post, but I always love when I see how others decorate certain areas of their homes. I have a really hard time figuring out how to decorate several things, like the tops of armoires, book shelves, and my entry chest/console. I change things all the time because I am seriously never happy with how they look. It seems so effortless to some people to make these pretty vignettes, but for me it seems to be a never ending process.

Today, I found an old urn in my mom's basement, and I brought it home with me (with her permission, of course!). I thought it might look good on top of the armoire in our newly painted office. Once I had it up there, I decided it needed more "stuff" so I shopped around my house and this is what I came up with:

I am so crazy when it comes to decorating - sometimes I love little vignettes like this one, and sometimes I take it all down because a lot of "stuff" drives me crazy and I think it looks messy. I kind of like this one - what do you think?

Other than the urn, I placed a Pottery Barn wooden tray, some picture frames, some old books and a cute iron bird cage that I bought earlier this year from Michael's. I love this bird cage.

The green photo frame is one I've had forever - the picture is of my TWELVE year old daughter, Lindsey. Can't believe she isn't still that tiny baby sometimes.

This was a kind of boring frame that I added a pretty green ribbon to. This color green is the accent color I want to use in the room. I was thinking of painting a small table this color (please don't tell my husband!) but I can't decide - anyone have any thoughts on how that might look?

You may notice that I am not showing pictures of the whole room - there's a reason for that. The main reason is that the office is a MESS right now, with Carter's Thomas train table taking up half the room! The desk is messy and disorganized - a future project that needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later. I do have a picture of a corner of the room that I like (well, that I mostly like - not sure what direction I want to go with those pillows).

That's all I am sharing for now - but hopefully soon there will be a BIG reveal of my super organized office!!! Wishful thinking, perhaps, but I can dare to dream, right?!?!?

Party planning on a budget

2011-08-24T09:36:00.000-04:00

I was SO honored when Jillian of www.catchmyparty.com asked me to write a short article on how I planned Emily's Parisian party on a budget of less than $75. I'd love it if you'd check it out and leave me a comment over there =) Here is the link: CATCH MY PARTY

Thanks for letting me share!

Random thoughts...

2011-08-22T10:22:00.000-04:00

Things have been so busy around our household for the past few weeks! I am really just trying to keep up. I have so many random thoughts - so I figured I'd just put them into one blog post =)

If you have been following "So You Think You Can Dance," you know that the AMAZING Melanie Moore won. Well, guess what? We KNOW Melanie! She graduated from my daughters' dance school just last year. There was a huge pep rally/viewing party at the high school she graduated from, and the girls and I were there to see her win. SOOOO exciting!!!!

On a (not so) funny side note, right as they were getting ready to announce the winner, like seconds before, the live feed we had went out! Literally, they said, "And the winner is...." and then the feed was gone! It was SOO stressful! Once it came back on, we saw Melanie crying, and it took a second for us to realize that she had won! Craziness!!!!

This past weekend, there was a meet and greet with Melane at our dance school. I think Carter was more excited than anyone. He has been watching Melanie all these weeks and totally knows who she is. He saw her across the room while we were waiting to talk to her, and he said, "There's Mewanie!!!!" Then he said, "She's CUTE!!!" Haha! When we got up to her, he was a little shy, but as you can see in the picture below, he was all smiles. We are just SO PROUD of Melanie - she is so humble and sweet, not to mention an amazing dancer! We are going to see the SYTYCD tour when it comes to Atlanta. Can't wait!!!

I have been listing on ebay like a madwoman!!! I have 50 auctions up. I am exhausted, but I sure do need the money so I keep plugging away! If you want to take a peek at what I have listed, you can go here.

Part of what I have listed - so much stuff!!!

I can't figure out HOW to store all of these tissue poms I made for Emmy's party. I really don't want to get rid of them, but what the heck do I do with them? Any ideas? I really need them OUT of my dining room. My poor husband.

We started school a week ago, and I sure do miss my girls - but not nearly as much as Carter misses them! I wish it was summer again. Boo.

Speaking of school, it's back to packing lunches again! Not my favorite job, I will admit. Mainly because I feel like I pack the same things over and over again. I am sure my kids are sick of sandwiches! I would love some new ideas for lunches - if you have any for me, please leave me a comment. Emily loves for me to send her notes to school. I decided to find some silly jokes to put in her lunch box, instead of the usual boring "Have a good day!" notes I had been sending. I wrote out a few today to put in her lunch this week.

I am about 80% done with Lindsey's room. We are redoing it in an aqua/pink/black color scheme. It's turning out REALLY cute! This is about the time with every project that I start slacking off. I don't know what's wrong with me - I think I get overwhelmed or something. The only things I have left to do are pretty labor-intensive, so I guess I just keep doing other things and avoiding getting it done. I am going to try REALLY hard to get some things done this week! I can't wait to share it.

My mom is a collector of all things vingtage Raggedy Ann. She has an AMAZING collection! She is trying to downsize a little bit, so she wants me to help her sell some of her stuff. I am pretty overwhelmed by this task! I am going to try to list on ebay, but do you think I'd do better on Etsy? Thoughts???

If you know anyone who collects vintage Raggedy Ann items, please send them my way!!!

Am I the only one who has laundry draped all over my house every day? I hope not. There are not enough hours in the day.

Dance starts today for both Emily and Lindsey. They are both in the Performing Company this year. Things are about to get real busy, real fast!

That's all I've got for today - if you've made it this far, thank you!!! Have a great week, everyone!

Emily's Pink Parisian Patisserie Party!

2011-08-08T22:21:00.006-04:00

Well, we survived it - all the last minute planning, running around, and late nights were worth it. Emily had an absolute BLAST at her Pink Parisian Patisserie Party! This was such a fun theme to put together. Honestly, I wish I'd had a few more ~~weeks~~ months to plan it, because I had about a zillion more ideas that I didn't have time for. This was truly the very latest I've ever planned a party. I'd been pinning ideas for a little while, but since our summer has been so crazy busy with dance for both girls, I ran out of time to do all of my usual DIY touches. Still, I think it turned out very cute, and several girls said it was the best party they'd ever been to, so that made me feel good. Of course Emily loved it and thanked me a million times - she is such a sweet girl!!!! (Side note - I apologize for some of the pictures - my photography skills are seriously lacking sometimes, and I couldn't get the lighting right for many of these. My dream is to have a professional photographer come to one of my parties so I won't have to stress out about it!).

Click on collage to make it larger

First up - my BEAUTIFUL eight year old birthday girl - Emily June!

I mentioned that we were doing things last minute - well, the day before the party, I realized that Emily had nothing to wear (I know - the horror!). We were able to find the pink sparkly skirt, but then needed a top. I didn't have high hopes as we went into GAP Kids, when all of a sudden Emily shouted, "There's a poodle!" It couldn't have been more perfect for our party!

We welcomed our guests with a pink shabby chic birdcage tied with balloons (which popped because it was almost 100 degrees here in Georgia - ugh!) and a door bucket filled with silk flowers from the Dollar Tree - total cost - $5. Not bad!

I have to back up, and start this party with the cookies - because they were truly the most labor intensive part of the WHOLE party! I had never made decorated sugar cookies like this before (of course I've made them, but not with royal icing and not this intricate), so I enlisted the help of my friend Jessica - who is the cookie QUEEN! Just check out her cookies on her blog - and she taught herself and has only been doing it for a short while! Amazing!!!!! Anyway, I wanted to throw in the towel MANY times, but Jessica talked me through it and encouraged me. They were not perfect (far from!) but I got a lot of compliments on them, and best of all Emily loved them!

This theme was made much easier to pull together at the last minute because probably 90% of what I used were things that we already had. The girls' bathroom (that I've been "working on" for about three years - no that is not a typo) has a very cute pink and black Parisian theme, so I snatched a bunch of items from the decor in there. Also, Lindsey's room has many pink and black elements, so I borrowed a few things from her room as well.

{Napkins from Sur la Table}

Some specifics about the dessert table - the table cloth was the same one I used for Emily's "Night Owl Pajama Party" birthday (click here to see pictures from that). The pink hatbox was one we have had forever, and I thought it would be perfect to display marshmallow pops designed to look like little cupcakes.

Cupcakes were mom-made, and from a mix - my trick is to pipe the icing on with a piping tip and they look much more professional ;)

In addition to the cupcakes and marshmallow pops, we had some macarons from Trader Joes. They come frozen, in a pack with half vanilla and half chocolate. Unfortunately the vanilla ones were all broken, but the chocolate ones were delicious and very "Parisian!"

We also had a little bit of candy - rock candy and Sixlets. Did you know that they sell Sixlets at Party City in a variety of solid colors, to match your party? I didn't know until I saw them last week! Perfect when you are looking for a difficult color to match your theme. The tags on the jars came from a fabulous Etsy seller, Sirius Fun (here). They were absolutely adorable! I used them several places throughout the decor.

I used the Starbucks Frappucino bottles (purchased at Target) for the drinks, with paper straws from Etsy purchased here. Emily requested Shirley Temples to drink, so my hubby obliged by mixing up individual drinks (and later that night, I caught him drinking one too - haha!!!).

I guess this is a good time to mention the printables - I purchased them on Etsy from Stockberry Studio (here) and I loved them. They made all the difference in tying everything together.

Speaking of printables, once again my mom was on banner duty - she took the printable banner I purchased and glammed it up - BIG TIME! It was GORGEOUS!!! My mom is so talented.

My mom also helped me make a bunch of tissue poms - they were gorgeous and I don't want to take them down, even now!

Talk about using what you've got - the temporary "curtains" are simply an extra shower curtain I had, that I decided to just cut in half (major props to my mom who watched me do that and didn't say a word when I plopped down on the kitchen floor and cut a perfectly good shower curtain in half - she knows I'm prone to doing crazy things for a party). I wanted to cover the ~~ugly~~ ~~outdated~~ wallpaper and make the background look more "Parisian" so the curtains did the trick!

The girls ate their cupcakes in the dining room, which I decorated to go along with our theme as well.

Favors were fabric hair flowers, which Emily helped me with - she was a master at covering buttons by the time we got done - and more marshmallow pops.

I mentioned in my first post about the party that we had a little "twist" in mind when planning this. Well, Emily absolutely loves books - and she loves writing stories. So, her original idea was to have a "dance party/cupcake party/book party" - and I had to think about how to pull that one off for quite awhile! Finally, we decided together that we would write a story, about a little girl in France who had seven sisters (there were seven girls at the party) and who wanted to open their own Patisserie. In order to do that, they had to learn to make the "best cupcakes in all of France," so they consulted an old woman in a nearby village. Long (LONG) story short, the woman had them do a series of activities to learn how to have the best cupcakes - they had to take care of an abandoned poodle (we "found" them and then decorated their beds with lots of rhinestones), they had to learn to decorate beautiful cupcakes (we had a cupcake decorating contest), they had to do something "fun" to relax a bit (they played BINGO with Parisian themed bingo cards) and when it was over they had a fun dance party to celebrate! I know this all sounds a bit random, but trust me - the story tied it all together. And best of all, Emily and I wrote it together, and planned out every detail together - what wonderful memories =) Here are a few pictures from the activities:

Of course, they also got to take home their poodle and poodle bed, along with their decorated cupcakes.

If you've made it this far, you must really like reading about parties - haha! I know this was long, but there were so many details and I wanted to document all of them. I hope Emily reads this someday and realizes how lucky I feel to be her mom, and how much fun we had planning parties together. She is definitely my partner in crime as far as parties go, and I LOVE spending time with her!

Happy birthday, sweet Emily June! I love you to the moon and back!!!

Sharing this party here:

Full on party planning mode.....

2011-08-05T16:41:00.000-04:00

We're getting ready for a very special party for a VERY special newly-turned eight year old little girl. I'm trying to pull off a "perfectly pink Parisian patisserie theme with a twist" party on a VERY limited budget and with a very short time frame. Here are a few glimpses of what it looks like in our house right now - and we have MANY more projects to go! Yikes! I must really love this craziness =)

As usual, I have my trusty sidekick party planner - Emily - but this year, we have another helper. And I use the term "helper" very loosely!!!!! Haha!

Blurry picture because he wouldn't stop moving! Love this little face!

Be back soon with LOTS of pictures - and you can find out if I managed to pull this thing off! I've only really been working on it for a few days, which is not the norm for me. Things are crazy here - but fun!!!! Wish me luck!

Pretty Pettidress for Sale!

2011-06-27T16:48:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to share that I have listed Emily's ADORABLE pink pettidress for sale on ebay! She wore it only once, to be a "Cupcake Queen" for Halloween this past year. It is simply gorgeous in person!

If you are interested, you can find the link to purchase it on ebay here. If you tell me you found it through my blog, I will ship for FREE!!!! Thanks for taking a look!

Craft Room Organization

2011-06-22T16:32:00.004-04:00

The slower paced (but not necessarily "lazy" as the saying goes) days of summer have given me some time to tackle a few projects around the house. I am sure to most of you this post might be a little boring, but if you like cheap, easy and cute organizational projects you are going to love this one!

Ever since we moved in our house eight years ago, the girls have had a playroom in our finished basement. When we moved in it was HIDEOUS!!! It had dark green carpet, white walls, and terrible lighting. My very handy husband put in hardwood (laminate) floors, beadboard, new lighting, and then he painted it a sunny yellow color. Over the years as they have gotten older, they haven't used the playroom as much, so I decided to take it over for my own crafty space. Now that Carter is here, we are going to share the space. I've been working HARD, along with my mom's help, to make this space functional and cute for all of us. Since I make hair accessories, I have an extensive stash of stuff , so I need many storage containers. Of course, I want them to be functional and cute, as well as inexpensive. As I sat there looking at all of the supplies I have, I came up with this cute idea:

I already had the metal buckets (purchased from the Dollar Spot at Target awhile back), the yo-yos, and some magnets in my craft stash. I decided to use magnets and just hand write the tags, since I am not 100% sure where I want to keep everything yet, so I can change these tags easily.

To make these, I simply glued two yo-yos together using hot glue, then glued them on a small magnet, made the tags, and stuck them to the buckets. It took all of ten minutes for the whole thing to come together.

I wish I had more of these little buckets now! I love how these turned out. My perfectionistic side REALLY wanted to type up little tags, but when I realized how insane that was, I just hand wrote them. It's hard being a perfectionist, I tell you.

While I was organizing, I was rolling up some pretty lace I have, and look what happened as I rolled it:

Isn't it beautiful?!?!?

While I am at it, I have to share this cute little sign. This was in Emily's ladybug-themed nursery, and I just love the sentiment on it! I am a VERY lucky girl, that is for sure. I decided to keep it in my craft area - such sweet memories.

Now that I am getting an organized space to work in, I've been creating a few things to start selling again. I have sold hair accessories for many years, but took some time off to have Carter. When I found out I was having a boy, I sort of lost the desire to create hair accessories, but lately I've really missed it, and honestly need the income it provided our family. Some day soon, I am going to share a few of my creations from when I used to make the elaborate stacked, layered bows. It's fun to look back on those and remember how much fun I had making them!

Here is a sneak peek of a few things you might find in my Etsy shop when it opens =)

I will be selling traditional hair bows, hair flowers, headbands, clips, and maybe even some home decor and birthday party-related items! I am very excited to be back in the world of creating. It gives me such pleasure to make pretty things.

On a final note - look what is out of the box now - EEK!!!

It only took me six months to take it out of the box, but now that it's out, I have no excuses! I even have a little table set up in my craft/play room just for my sewing machine. I will be sharing the whole room when it is completed, which should be sometime this week. I am doing it on pretty much a zero budget, so it will be fun to share when it's complete!

Sharing here:

Lil Luna

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T10:48:00.000-04:00

We are headed out for a Father's Day lunch to celebrate my husband Rodney and the amazing father he is. He is definitely not a perfect person, but he is perfect for us. He is hardworking, loving, and puts his family above everything else. I don't think either one of us EVER thought we would have five kids, but I know that Rodney loves every minute of it (well, most of the minutes - some of them are pretty crazy and stressful - haha!). I wanted to put up a post for him before our busy day gets started.

Happy Father's Day, Rodney!!!! I love you!

(PS - how handsome are my men????)

Carter Lately

2011-06-17T17:39:00.000-04:00

I have been so remiss in documenting all the things I want to document on my blog. Time is passing by SO quickly these days - it seems that every time I turn around, one of my kids is having another birthday. I love watching them grow, but it hurts to see them getting so big so fast =(

I am making myself sit down and type up this list of things that Carter is up to these days. He is absolutely the cutest, sweetest, most loving little boy that God ever made!!! I am in Heaven being his Mama.

Here he is at 27 months old - pure deliciousness!!!

Carter weighs about 36 pounds. He is one solid little boy, and so healthy! Praise God for that!
He eats the same thing for breakfast just about every day - blueberry waffles. He doesn't like to deviate from that too much. After he eats the first one, he almost always says, "Anudder 'awful' Mama!"
His favorite foods are: grapes, strawberries, green beans, fried okra (a true Southern boy!), corn, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, mac and cheese, spaghetti, pizza, and cheese. He is quite the picky eater, even though he is a good eater at times. He won't touch any kind of meat other than chicken nuggets.
Right now he is OBSESSED with Thomas the Tank Engine. We have a train table, and tons of the engines, and he plays with them all day long. He also wants to watch Thomas on TV, on the "hi-pad" (Ipad), on my phone and in the car. The girls are so sick of watching Thomas this summer, but we can't get him to watch anything else. He has lots of Thomas books, and he always chooses those first - his favorite is, "Thomas and the Big Big Bridge." He wants to wear his Thomas PJ's and his Thomas shirt every day as well. I don't remember the girls being totally obsessed with anything like Carter is. He knows every engine's name (and if you are a boy mom, you know there are a million of them!). I can't help buying him new engines when he asks for them.
Speaking of Thomas, he "quizzes" us on the engine names - it is so funny! He will hold up Percy and say, "Is this Thomas?" or he will hold up James and say, "Is this Diesel?" with this mischevious look in his eye. He is trying to catch us not knowing our engines, but this Mama knows them all (well, almost all). I have to keep up with the little man, and I can't let him down by not knowing an engine name - what kind of boy mom would I be?

He is SUCH a good little boy. He plays alone very well, and he rarely cries unless he is really tired. He loves to "help" and he is so polite, even at such a young age. I am so proud of him.
He is a great sleeper! He goes to bed around 8:30 (even though he sometimes talks for up to an hour in there, but never cries or calls us to get him) and he has started sleeping until around 8:30am this summer - yay, Carter!!! He also takes a great nap from 3:00 until 5:00 or 6:00. I couldn't ask for a better sleeper.

He loves his family more than anything. He will give everyone the most sincere, heartfelt greeting when they come in the room. He gives hugs and kisses freely. If someone is crying, he will ask, "You ok?" and pat them. The other night I was leaving the house and he said, "Be careful, Mama." He is always looking for his sisters and brothers, and asking where they are. When his Daddy comes home from work, Carter gets so excited! He also loves his grandparents and asks for them every day.

Carter loves sports, especially golf. He has a little set of golf clubs and plays with them often. He also loves to watch sports and will sit with his dad and brothers and watch any sport with them. He is such a boy!
Carter has a little thing he does when he gets scared. He puts his hands over his eyes, but really more toward the side of his head, so he can still see. He says, "Scawy!" and runs toward me. I finally figured out that he is scared of Cookie Monster! I have no idea why - he has never really been interested in Sesame Street, but he does know the characters. I felt so bad when I finally figured that out. Sometimes he will say, "Cookie comin'?" and get this worried look. Poor baby.

Carter has a VERY extensive vocabulary. I am constantly laughing about all the crazy stuff he says! He can't say "L" very well, so he says, "I yove you!" SO sweet. He can't say "R" very well, either, so he says, "Wight dere" for "Right there." He copies everything we say, and remembers things so well. I think he is really smart, and I can say that after having four older kids to compare him to! He has a great memory for things, and remembers things even months later.
Speaking of funny things he says, of course I am drawing a blank on most of the things he has said recently now that I have time to write them down (typical), but one comes to mind. The other morning, we were sitting on the floor in his room, and I was wearing my robe. The belt from my robe was sort of on the floor, and Carter looked at me with the most concerned face. He said, "Mama, you have a tail?" Haha! I told him no, that I didn't have a tail, and he, very relieved, said, "Oh GOOD!"
Needless to say, we are all just in love with this little man. He is so much fun, and makes every day an adventure. I absolutely LOVE having a little boy! Thank you God for this gift!

Party Planning - Pink Parisian Patisserie!

2011-06-08T17:59:00.000-04:00

Whew - try to say that three times =)

Emily's 8th birthday is coming up, and we are starting to plan. Emily's first idea was to have a cupcake/bakery theme, and then I suggested we incorporate a Parisian twist to it. So, we've come up with a "Pink Patisserie" theme, and I have found so many cute ideas out there in blogland. Emily has requested a very unusual "twist" to the theme, so we will see how it all comes together - it should be interesting, to say the least!

Here are a few pictures I've pinned on Pinterest. I'm loving all the pink and black!!! Also, if you have seen any cute Paris-themed ideas, please send them my way!

Source: sweetsugarbelle.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: amandaparkerandfamily.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: gordongossip.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: thetomkatstudio.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: pizzazzerie.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: marthastewart.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: frogprincepaperie.com via Heather on Pinterest

PS - thank you all who commented on my previous post. I was having a really, REALLY bad day that day, and your kind words did wonders for my soul. Please know that I appreciate each and every comment more than you could ever know.

Missing Olivia

2011-05-27T17:56:00.002-04:00

I never shared on my blog that after my miscarriage, we had some genetic testing done. I needed to know that I hadn't done anything to cause the miscarriage, and I had to know what had happened. It's so hard to make sense of a loss like this, and I felt that having some medical knowledge of what happened would help me. When the doctors find out what happened medically, they also are able to find out the sex of the baby. My doctor didn't really want me to know this - I think he knew this would be hard for me to hear - but I simply had to know.

We found out that our baby had Trisonomy 16, which is a condition that is incompatible with life. Hearing that was very, very hard, but at least I knew that this was something that happened at conception and not something that I could have caused in any way.

We also found out that our baby was a girl. When the doctor told me, it literally brought me to my knees. For some reason, hearing that she was a little girl was harder for me to hear than even the day I found out her little heart had stopped beating. It rocked me to my core. Just knowing that I was carrying another wonderful daughter, but that she would never be here with me on earth, was almost too much to bear.

Some days, I am doing ok. More than ok, really - my other kids make my life so full and happy. Other days, I feel like I am in a well of sadness that I will never get out of. Little things set me off - seeing a tiny pink dress in a store window, watching the little girls at the dance studio come running out of class with their tutus and tights on, hearing the news of yet another friend getting pregnant. Or even things that are in my own head, thoughts about what could have been - what SHOULD have been. I know that God is in control, and His plan is perfect, but I still don't understand why this happened to me, and to my family. Today, Lindsey and I were walking through Target and we passed the infant girl clothing section. I glanced at Lindsey and she had tears in her eyes. She said, "Mom, I wish we still had our baby." I wanted to cry right there, but I held it together for her and said, "I know, honey, so do I." Seeing my children hurt just kills me. Oh how I wish this story had a different ending.

Rodney and I decided to give our little girl a name. I wanted a beautiful name for my beautiful daughter in Heaven. Her name is:

Olivia Grace

I would truly appreciate your prayers for me as I continue to learn how to accept our new reality. It is not easy. Many people close to me think that I should be "over" this, but I can safely say that I will never, ever be over it. I will miss my little girl every day for the rest of my life, and will look forward to the day that I can hold her. The truth is, I don't ever want to be "over" losing Olivia. I want to think of her every day, and give honor to her short time here with me.

My sweet Olivia, I love you to the moon and back. Please know how much we wanted you, and how very much we miss you. You are the brightest star in the sky. Love, Mommy

M&M Cello Bags - An Answer For Everyone!

2011-05-22T18:16:00.000-04:00

I have had LOTS of people email me asking where I got the skinny cello bags from Carter's Mickey Mouse party (pictured below). They are 1X8 Cello Lip and Tape bags and I purchased them from here:

http://www.gtbag.com/polyproliptape.html

They are very cheap and can be used for SO many things! Sorry that I didn't email everyone directly, and that it took me so long to remember where I bought them! Hope this info helps someone =)

Oh "Two"dles! It's Carter's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party!

2011-04-01T12:02:00.005-04:00

We recently celebrated our sweet Carter's 2nd birthday with a Mickey Mouse theme. The boy LOVES Mickey (who he calls "B" - we have no idea why. He can say "Mickey Mouse" perfectly, along with every other character on the show, but for some reason when he wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he says, "Anudder [another] B!"). Silly boy.

I had alot of fun making some cute decor for the party - I posted about a couple of the projects here and here. It wasn't a huge party, but all his favorite people were there and he had a blast!

Here is my HANDSOME little boy! I can't believe he is two ::sob::

The invitation, created by my talented brother!

Some party details - first up, sweets and treats! I found these Mickey head lollipops at WalMart in the Valentine's Day section. Tied with a ribbon, they were perfect for our party!

Cookies were ordered from Yummy Delicious Cookies and were so cute!

I made the cupcakes (don't be TOO impressed, they were from a boxed mix - some chocolate and some Funfetti) and found the Mickey-themed sprinkles at WalMart. The cupcake stand was from WalMart as well, found in their Valentine section.

These adorable party printables (cupcake toppers) were from laurenloulolly on Etsy - they were adorable - I highly recommend this seller!

Emily helped me sort out three big bags of M&Ms and then put them in these little cello bags - she is a party planner in training for sure! Such a big helper, too!

I made this cute subway art using this tutorial over at Oopsey Daisy. I love how this turned out! I used some sayings that are special to us, as well as some Mickey Mouse sayings. I got so many compliments on this!

My mom made this A-MAZING banner for the party - it is truly a work of art! I don't think my picture does it justice at all.

I just did some simple decor in the dining room:

More party decor:

I made this hat, but Carter never even put it on!

Some pics of the birthday boy (Carter's shirt from Ella Grace's Closet here)!

Carter John, we are SO proud to be your parents. You are a ray of sunshine in our family, and you make us laugh EVERY day! There has never been a smarter, funnier, sweeter, more loving little two year old boy than you. We love you! Happy birthday!!!!

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Tatertots and Jello

Today's Creative Blog

Carter's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party Project #2 - Mickey Mouse Wreath

2011-03-26T12:15:00.006-04:00

For Carter's Mickey Mouse birthday party, I wanted to make something cute to hang on the front door, but I was out of ideas. I needed something easy and inexpensive. I was lucky enough to run across this tutorial on Serendipity (Cristin has such a fun blog - be sure to check it out!), and I decided to make a tissue paper wreath. I purchased the Martha Stewart fringe scissors that she recommended (on Amazon), and they made this project SO much easier. Now I'm looking for other things to use my scissors on!

Here are some pictures of my completed wreath. I embellished it with some die cuts that I purchased on Etsy (very inexpensive) but you ladies lucky enough to have a Silhouette machine or a Cricut could make your own. I also added a paper-covered letter "C" (used Mod Podge to cover it) and some coordinating ribbons. Total time spent on this project was around a couple of hours - super easy!

Now I'm thinking of so many other possibilities for these cute wreaths. I am going to make an Easter one next. Let me know if you make your own, I would LOVE to see them!

More easy and inexpensive projects to come, as well as full party details and pics. Thanks for letting me share!

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Carter's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party - Project #1

2011-03-25T11:23:00.003-04:00

We just recently celebrated our little Carter's 2nd birthday. I'll be honest here and say that I haven't quite had my normal crafting "mojo" lately. I normally go ALL OUT for every party, including lots of different DIY projects, so this is not normal for me. Right after my miscarriage, I started getting really bad headaches, and have suffered since then almost every day. I've been having some other pretty scary symptoms as well (numbness, dizziness) so I've pretty much worried myself sick. I have been to several doctors, and will be getting an MRI done on Monday. I'm honestly scared to death about this MRI, but I've been trying to distract myself as much as possible, and making things has always been therapeutic for me. So, since my little man needed some special decor for his BIG day, I made a few little goodies that are very inexpensive and easy. Just thought I'd share a few of my projects over the next couple of days, with a full party post coming soon!

My first project was this cute Mickey Mouse topiary. I found the three styrofoam pieces at the Dollar Tree ($2 total for all three pieces), used a clay pot from Michael's ($1.67), a dowel from WalMart ($ .37) and had red and black spray paint, black tissue paper, ribbons and paper shreds already on hand. So, my total cost for this project was just under $5 including tax - can't beat that!

All I did was glue the styrofoam pieces together, spray them black (note - styrofoam doesn't take spray paint very well - it starts sort of eating away at it. You should use a light coat if you are going to do this), hot glue the dowel into the bottom of the "Mickey" shape, and then stab it into the floral foam in the pot. I then cut a bunch of pieces of black tissue, added some hot glue to the back of them, and stabbed them into the floral foam using a pencil eraser. I added paper shreds to cover the floral foam in the pot, and then glued two white paper circles to the front to look like Mickey "pants." For a finishing touch, I tied on some ribbons that matched my other party colors (red, black, aqua and yellow). Easy, and very cute!

More projects to come, including an easy party wreath, some fun "subway" birthday art, and an amazing banner made by my mom!

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More Baby Gifts...Mod Podge and Chicks!

2011-03-20T08:20:00.004-04:00

So yesterday, I shared my sweet little cupcake baby gift (if you missed it, click here), and promised to share what else I was sending to my sweet friend "down under" for her baby's nursery. She chose the "Penelope" bedding from PBK, and I wanted to come up with something to match it. Unfortunately, my budget was pretty tiny, so I used some things I had on hand to make a sweet frame for her baby girl's picture. I think it turned out really pretty!

I used a frame that I purchased at a craft store (can't remember which one, but I am pretty sure it was JoAnn's - the great thing about this one was that it was already painted white - yay! Saved me a step!) I simply shopped my stash of scrapbook papers, and found one that matched perfectly with the bedding. I used my trusty Mod Podge to apply the paper, and then sanded the edges off a bit so they would look more flush with the edge of the frame. It looked sort of plain, so I made a couple of fabric flowers. If you don't know how to make these, search "fabric flower tutorials" on Google and you'll find a ton of them! I added a few feathers and some tulle (the key ingredients in all things girly, in my humble opinion) and voila! A cute frame - for under $3 or so!

See how pretty it looks with her bedding?

Next, I decided that I needed to send my friend's older daughter a little gift (after all, a soon-to-be big sister needs a little recognition!), and once I found these A-DORABLE Easter chicks at Hobby Lobby I knew I she had to have them! I previously professed my love of these darn chenille chicks here - but I'd never seen all these colors until this year! Love!!! (See Jessica - I found blue ones - yay!!!) I added a little note for the new big sister, and put them in a tiny pink lunchbox that I found in my craft stash. What's that? You don't have a tiny pink lunchbox in your craft stash? Hmmm...maybe I do have a problem! Haha!

It looked too plain for me, so I had to add another fabric flower and some little felt leaves that my mom made for me - thanks Mom!

Look at ALL that cuteness!!!!!

The finishing touch was a little "chick" onesie and another little bib, rolled up and placed in a clear cellophane bag. It's all in the presentation, don't you think?

I hope my friend loves these little goodies as much as I loved making them. And I hope she doesn't read my blog! Georgie, if you are reading this, just don't tell me - I am hoping this will be a big surprise!!!!

Sharing at some great link parties:

Thank you! And a Sweet Baby Gift...Part One

2011-03-18T22:55:00.008-04:00

Hi friends! I wanted to start off this post by thanking everyone, from the bottom of my heart , for your kind words regarding my miscarriage post. Your thoughts and prayers truly helped carry me through some of my darkest days. I am still dealing with the loss, and I definitely have some hard times, but I am slowly finding my way out of the well of sadness I found myself in when I wrote that post. Thank you for sharing your stories and for praying for me - I truly appreciate it more than you could ever know!!! I have some more thoughts to share, but I need to organize them in my head before I type them out.

Today I have a "sweet" idea to share for an inexpensive but oh so adorable baby gift. This is not my original idea, but this is just my take on it. I've seen these all over blogland and on Etsy, and I knew I could make my own! I actually shared a similar project here back in October. I guess I really like cupcakes!

I did some shopping for a friend who lives in Australia and who is having a baby girl. She wanted some bedding and decor from Pottery Barn Kids, and PBK doesn't ship to Australia. The nerve! As I was packaging up her goodies, I couldn't resist throwing in some sweet little things for her sweet little Annabel. So, since I took an insane amount of pictures of my little creations, I thought I'd share this idea with my blog friends. I am not doing a full tutorial, since this is pretty self explanatory, but I'll tell you quickly how I did this.

You will need:

Onesies/socks/burpcloths/bibs - whatever you choose. For this example, I used a onesie and a bib.
Cupcake liner
Cupcake box with insert (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby)
Hair clippie (or other item for topper - more ideas below)

What you will do:

Simply roll up the onesie (or whatever the larger item is you chose from the list above), and then roll up the bib around the onesie. You might need to adjust this a little bit, until it looks like a cupcake! I've seen these with all sorts of things in them - little socks sticking up out of the middle, washcloths, bibs, shirts, etc. The key is to get something that is not too bulky, otherwise it won't fit in your cupcake liner. Once you have a shape you like, put a rubber band around your cupcake so it will stay together. I recommend the little clear ones that are typically used for little girls' hair, but I didn't have any of those (actually, we probably own 10,000 of those, but I couldn't find any - big surprise!) so I had to use a regular old rubberband - I just hid it well (see how the bib edge is sort of folded over below?).

Next, you will need to add a cute little topper. For mine, I chose a little clip I made, and I just clipped it on to the onesie. I have seen little hair bows, even fake cherries and strawberries on these. Use your imagination for this part.

Finally, place your little cupcake in its liner, and then in the box - how easy was that?!?!? This is definitely a stand out gift at any baby shower - you are sure to get lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" over this little cutie.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing what else was in my package sent to my friend in Australia - here's a hint - it involves Mod Podge and Easter chicks - interesting, no?

Sharing at some great link parties:

Loss...

2011-01-27T17:47:00.000-05:00

I don't normally post anything "heavy" on my blog. I try to post about fun things we do, decorating projects, holidays, parties, etc. Those are the moments I want to remember, not the times when I feel overwhelmed, or stressed, or I'm dealing with some problem or concern. However, today I need to post something that is heavily weighing on me right now. I need all the support I can get, and I hope writing this out will help me in some way.

A few days before New Year's Eve, I found out that I was (very unexpectedly!) pregnant. Rodney and I were shocked, to say the least, but we were both very happy and excited to be adding a new member to our family. I immediately started dreaming of having a new little baby to love, and started planning all of the little details (things like where the baby would sleep, whether I had kept the car seat carrier, etc). I would find myself daydreaming about Carter being the big brother, and how much fun he and I would have at home with a new little baby to play with and take care of. In Target I found two little pairs of matching baby booties on clearance - one pair pink, the other blue - and I couldn't resist snatching them up! Oh, I had so many hopes and dreams for this new little baby.

I went in for my first OB appointment and had my blood drawn to confirm the pregnancy, and about that same time I started getting some major morning (all day) sickness. I was so relieved that my progesterone level and everything else looked great! I felt just like I did with every other pregnancy, and after the blood work came back I thought everything was going along smoothly. I couldn't wait to tell the kids and everyone else. I was so excited and just giddy with anticipation of all that was to come. Rodney and I laid in bed at night and whispered about how crazy our lives were about to become with six kids. We were both so excited and happy about the very unexpected turn our lives were about to take.

Rodney went with me to my first real appointment, because I knew that I would probably get an ultrasound. After a quick check by my OB, I was sent into the ultrasound room. I was a little nervous, but I had only had "happy" news in that room in the past, so I figured everything was going to be just fine. Well, unfortunately, everything was not fine. The ultrasound technician found that the baby was measuring a bit small, and had a slower than average heart rate. The biggest concern, however, was that the baby had a large yolk sac. I had never heard of a large yolk sac before, but the tech told us that it is often a sign of an impending miscarriage. I couldn't believe what she was saying. She said, in the same breath, that it was sometimes "nothing," and sent us to talk with our doctor. Rodney and I numbly sat there and waited for my doctor to talk to us. I was praying the whole time that he would say that everything was probably going to be ok. Unfortunately, he gently told us that there was only about a 15% chance that the baby would make it. He basically told me that I should go home and wait for a miscarriage to happen. Devastated doesn't begin to describe how I felt in that moment. I went home and cried for most of the day, and Rodney and I just kept looking at each other in disbelief. Surely, our baby would beat the odds and be ok, right? We had to hold onto hope, because statistics were not in our favor. I prayed continuously for the next 48 hours.

After a couple of days of crying out to God, and doing everything I could to just get through the day, I started having some serious cramping. I called the nurse and she had me come in for another ultrasound. This time, we were shocked to learn that the yolk sac had shrunk! My doctor said he had never seen this happen before. I started to believe that maybe we were, after all, getting our miracle baby. The ultrasound technician even said that she was "cautiously optimistic." I prayed even more fervently and started to believe that maybe, just maybe, everything was going to be ok. The heart rate was still low, and the baby was measuring a bit behind, but there was hope. We were scheduled for another ultrasound this past Monday, and we were hoping to see a strong heartbeat and some growth.

We had to wait in the waiting room for an agonizing hour before we were called back. I was told to get undressed as the tech left the room. Lying on that ultrasound table, I cried out to God as I never have before. I begged him, bargained with him, and pleaded with him to make this right, to heal our baby. As the ultrasound tech started the exam, she turned the screen toward me, and I knew right away that we were not getting our miracle. My hopes and dreams ended right there, with a dark ultrasound screen. The next few minutes are a blur to me - plans were made for me to have a D&C since I hadn't had a miscarriage on my own, papers were signed, hugs were given and "I'm so sorrys" were said. None of it made any sense. Could this really be happening? Surely not. We were having a baby - weren't we?

Yesterday I was given a D&C by the same doctor who delivered my other three babies. How awful it must be to be a doctor who is so accustomed to helping give life, having to see it end. As for me, I still feel pregnant. I would have been ten weeks along today. My hormones are a mess, and tears have been covering my face all day. The nurse just called to check on me, and I couldn't even choke out the words to tell her how I was feeling. She wants me to call her back tomorrow because she is worried about me. I am worried about me, too. I can't believe that this is now a part of my story. I want to believe that there will be another baby, but I am not sure if my husband wants to go down this road again. I keep praying to God to give me peace, and I hope that with time that comes. For now, I am holding my three precious babies close, and looking forward to the day that I will hold my angel baby in Heaven.

Miss you everyday

Miss you in every way

But we know there’s a

day when we will hold you

You’ll kiss our tears away

When we’re home to stay

Can’t wait for the day when we will see you

But baby let sweet Jesus hold you

‘till mom and dad can hold you…

You’ll just have heaven before we do

~"Glory Baby" by: Watermark

Christmas Memories - 2010

2010-12-27T22:42:00.000-05:00

I wish I had the time (or actually the energy) to do an individual post on our Christmas activities this year. We had a lot of fun, and did many of the things on my "wish" list - we went to ride the Pink Pig (an Atlanta tradition), we had an elf party, we went to the Christmas parade downtown, we decorated, we made treats for friends, we attended Lindsey's holiday dance show, we visited Santa Claus, we had fun with our elves, and we spent a lot of time together as a family. Unfortunately Emily got very sick a few days before Christmas (she had either the flu or a similar virus, even though she had a flu shot. At one point, her fever got above 106 degrees), so a few of our plans got thrown out the window. We tend to have bad luck in the weeks surrounding Christmas as far as illnesses go - last year our entire family (except for Carter) had rotovirus! Anyway, since I'm so behind on posting, I thought I'd just share a few pictures of our Christmas season 2010!

The Macy's Pink Pig:

Christmas Parade:

Lindsey's Holiday Show:

Snowman Treats for Emily's Classmates:

Some of the CRAZY Things Our Elves Did This Year:

Carter Enjoying His "New" Horse, Rocky - this horse was Rodney's when he was little.

Seeing Santa (poor Carter!):

Getting Into the Christmas Spirit:

Snuggly Christmas PJs

Enjoying a New Christmas Book:

Christmas Eve at Bebe and Bapop's House:

While I am sad that a few of our plans got messed up at the last minute, I am SO thankful for all of the fun memories we made this Christmas. It was truly one of the best Christmases we've ever had!

Christmas at Our House

2010-12-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

Wow - this month has FLOWN by! I have missed so many good blogging opportunities. I can't believe how busy I've been!

I just want to preserve some of the images of Christmas around our house - so that's what this post is, a bunch of pictures of some Christmas decor in our home. Thank you for looking!

Entry Way:

Looking into the office at my tree:

Dining Room:

Family Room:

These are just a few of the images I have captured this Christmas season at our home. I know I am no professional decorator, but I hope that I've made some sweet memories for my family by sprucing up our house for the holidays. I know my kids won't remember how the garland on the staircase was totally skimpy and tacky, or how I wish I'd had more mesh for our family room tree, or the fact that I could never quite figure out what I wanted to put in the middle of our kitchen table - they'll just remember that their mom wanted to make Christmas a little more fun and magical for them. I hope they always know how much I love making them happy.

A Tree for ME!

2010-12-20T21:23:00.000-05:00

Every year since I've been married, we've only had one tree. It's our family tree, and it's full of sentimental ornaments. There is no theme or real color scheme, which has always been fine with me. I love all the ornaments made with little hands for me, as well as the special ornaments for each child that I've collected over the years. However, I've always longed for a tree that was just for me, with pretty colors and matching ornaments.

Last year, after Christmas, I was rummaging around Target and it was about the time all of their Christmas items were being marked down to 90% off. I was so surprised at how much they had left! There were a bunch of ornaments left in some gorgeous colors - pink, aqua, lime green, red, and orange. They all looked very vintage-y to me, and I just had to have them as a plan was brewing in my mind. I went to several Targets over the following weeks, and got all kinds of cute things for MY tree! I even got a tree skirt for around $5 - score!

Fast forward to this year - as I was opening my boxes, it was like an early Christmas present for me! I had forgotten what all I had bought last year - it was so much fun digging into those boxes!!!

So now, I present - a tree for ME! I have to say that I love it and it makes me smile every time I see it. It is in our newly painted office (more on that later!) and it's so sparkly and shiny!

Why yes, that is an empty frame ornament, smack dab in the middle of the tree, for you detail-oriented people out there =) Oops!

A few details...

This ornament is so special to me - it was on my grandfather's tree when he was a little boy. I love it so much.

Red, aqua, and pink - my faves!

This is an ornament from my childhood tree.

Aqua + polkadots = love

Another sentimental one - this Santa was on my mom's tree when she was a little girl. I love old ornaments, especially when they belonged to someone in my family.

And here's another shot, from the dining room across the entrance hall.

I hate to take "my" tree down - I wonder if my neighbors will think I'm crazy if I leave it up for a few more ~~weeks~~ months???

Thanks for letting me share!

Elf Party

2010-12-11T20:37:00.000-05:00

I know many of you have heard of the Christmas tradition of having elves come to your house, such as The Elf on the Shelf, or the Magic Elves. Around our house, we have accumulated a whole menagerie of elves over the years. Our family just LOVES elves, and I think Santa knows that, which is why he has sent us so many! We decided this year to invite a couple of friends over for an elf party. This is the fastest party I've ever put together, as we decided to have it the morning of the party! Here are a few pics to share.

Emily made the sign to welcome our friends and their elves =)

Our elves, waiting for the party to start!

Quick tablescape, thrown together with stuff we already had.

Elves are VERY mischevious! You have to watch them every second (kind of like 21 month old boys - ha!).

This candy cane holder is very sentimental to me - my sweet grandmother Nanny made it for me. I think of her every year when I take it out for Christmas.

These ADORABLE little elf pant favor bags were purchased last year from a catalog - I can't remember which one =(

Cute little elf craft "we" made (my BFF and I pretty much made them for the kids - they were SO hard and required hot glue).

A group shot - the girls and their elves!

Someone having his first taste of M&Ms - yum!

My three little elves! They fill my life with so much joy!

Christmas Cards...Old and New!

2010-12-07T10:14:00.000-05:00

Once again, I've waited until the last minute to do our Christmas cards this year. November and December have been SO busy!!! With five kids, our Christmas card photo shoots are always interesting. Here's the cast of characters, and how it normally plays out when I try to get a group shot: Will and Zach (my teenage stepsons) are not thrilled (at ALL) with getting their picture taken, especially when I get props involved (see below - the "NOEL" year was particularly bad for them - haha!!!). I can normally get a small smile out of them, but it is NOT easy!!!

Our Very First Christmas Card Picture Together - circa 2001

Next, Lindsey and Emily - who normally have some sort of disagreement over who is sitting where, or who gets to hold the prop, etc. In the past, there were usually tears from one or both of the girls during our shoot. Once there was even behind the back pinching going on during the picture. Lord help me.

This was the only one we could get where Emily would sit down! This year was pretty stressful, too. Circa 2004.

Alot of complaining this year. Will and Zach did not like holding the letters! Emily wanted to hold the "E" for Emily, but I had already taken Lindsey's picture holding it. She wasn't thrilled.

One of the rare ones where Rodney and I are included. So easy to snap a beach picture and be done with it! No complaining this year! Circa 2006. We thought our family was complete! Little did we know...

2008's card - this was the first year we signed the card from ALL the kids - little Carter was three months away from being born!

Finally, add in little Carter, who will only sit still for approximately 2.2 seconds, and I can pretty much FORGET about a smile from him! He's way too busy to bother with all of that. So, you can imagine why I've been putting this off this year!!!

I eventually got wised up, and realized that I should do a collage-style card, with individual pictures. My go-to place for cards has always been Shutterfly. Most, if not all, of the cards we have sent out have come from Shutterfly over the years. They always have the best card designs to choose from, super fast delivery, and great photo quality. Gone are the days of the boring cards with the words at the bottom and only like ten cards to choose from! Shutterfly has TONS of options. Click here to see the amazing selection of Christmas cards. Here are a few I have my eye on for this year:

All I have to do is find cute pictures of each of my kids, and drop them in the template! Easy! And no more stressful photo shoots (although I do still make them pose in front of the tree, wear Santa hats, etc. for other Christmas pictures - can't let them get off THAT easy!!!).

Shutterfly doesn't just have photo cards - check out these cute calendars, perfect for grandparents or for dad's office!

I can't believe I didn't realize that Shuttefly also has some ADORABLE birthday invitations - and you can't beat their prices!!!! Click here to see birthday invitations.

I was so excited to find out that I could earn 50 free cards this year, just by talking about Shutterfly, a company that I already use and LOVE! You can do the same - click here for details.

Now, just wish me luck in finding cute pictures for this year's card!!!!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

2010-11-09T15:58:00.000-05:00

At least on my kitchen counter, it is! I have been working on an order for a local boutique, and just got all of these goodies packed up to take over there today. I love seeing all the Christmas colors!

There were snowmen...

Gingerbread girls...

And many more yummy Christmas sweets and treats...

As Christmas approaches, I depend on the little bit of extra money from my hair bows to help pay for all of the extra expenses that happen this time of year. It isn't easy finding time to work on my bows while I have a toddler underfoot and girls in competitive dance with homework and all sorts of running around to do. It normally makes for some very late nights for me, but I LOVE what I do. I love knowing that something I made will be worn by a sweet little girl somewhere, and that makes me happy. I have so many fond memories of dressing my girls up and their beautiful hair bows, and I am glad that I am able to make something pretty for another little girl to wear.

I have officially opened my Etsy store, but there's nothing in it yet! I have one more custom order to take care of and I will be stocking my Etsy store up with some goodies similar to the ones you see above. I'll add a link when there is actually something to look at in my store =)

Thanks for letting me share!

Outside With Mama

2010-10-19T21:47:00.000-04:00

The other day on Facebook, I announced that I had just had one of the most fun days of my life with Carter in our backyard. I wasn't exaagerating at all. It truly was one of the best afternoons of my life so far. The girls were at school, and it was just me and my little man. Carter had gotten restless so I thought we'd go outside and get some fresh air. Carter LOVES to be outside. Loves it more than anything. The minute he hits the ground outside his whole demeanor changes and he just lights up. So sweet.

We didn't do anything special - just played with each other, laughed, ran and swung on the swing. Carter spent most of his time examining pebbles (the way he says the word "pebbles" is truly the cutest thing I think I've ever heard) and acorns, and when he wasn't doing that he was running the length of our yard. I love the way he runs - all loosey-goosey, like he's going to fall any minute, but with complete joy and abandon. Carter took an armful of his "choo-choos" (the word he uses for any vehicle - car, truck, actual choo-choo - they are all "choo-choos" to Carter. Heartbreakingly cute.) outside and we drove them around in the grass. He kept getting grass on his hands and then proclaiming it "duh-ty" (dirty) and throwing handfuls of grass to the ground, only to then look for the grass he had just thrown. I swear he was trying to reattach the individual blades of grass to their rightful spots in the yard. Oh how this boy makes me laugh. The smiles on both of our faces couldn't have been bigger.

I want to remember this day forever. Me and my son. Sometimes I still can't believe that I have a boy. I was such a "girl" mom before Carter came along, and he has just completely changed my whole world. I love being with him, and I am pretty sure the feeling is mutual. Here's to many more afternoons filled with pebbles, choo-choos, digging in the dirt, belly laughs and grimy kisses. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Side note - please ignore the fat lip. Sadly, it's pretty typical. He has no fear and gets hurt ALL of the time =(

Halloween Tablescape - Lindsey's Party Part Two

2010-10-18T21:46:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all who left me such sweet comments on my last post! I am just tickled to pieces whenever someone comments on my blog. I get super excited because in my mind nobody reads this blog except for me and Emily! Ha! So really - thank you!

I thought I'd share a little more from Lindsey's Halloween birthday party. As I posted before, I had a sweets table set up in the kitchen that was sort of vintage Halloween-themed. I decided to make the dining room table a little spookier since that's what Lindsey asked for. Without too much talking, here are some pictures of what I came up with.

The view from the entrance hall:

Another view:

My easy centerpiece consisted of a glass vessel, sticks from the yard painted black stuck down into candy corn and dollar store crows.

Glittery skeleton heads were also purchased at the dollar store. The spiderweb tablecloth and black jeweled candles came from Michaels. I think all of the other stuff I already had in my Halloween stash.

I couldn't leave the hutch out, so I added a few spooky touches here and there. I am in love with the battery operated votive candles that you can find everywhere now - we had a bunch of them lit up all over the place. The little menu sign came from the Dollar Tree. Those darn spiders have scared me to death many times since I stuck them everywhere. I think I need to take them down - I have serious spider phobia (as well as most, if not all, other bugs - but that's another story altogether).

Another view (before I added my crows!). I posted a tutorial on how I made the cute napkin rings here.

My mom bought me these creepy little mice - they were really cute!

There was lots more to this party, but I'm so behind on blogging about other things I'll have to leave it at this. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my little tablescape =) Thanks for looking!

A SpOokY Treat Table!

2010-10-11T15:21:00.000-04:00

My sweet Lindsey, the one who was JUST two years old it seems, is unbelievably turning TWELVE this week. This mama can't believe her first baby is so grown up. As the years have passed, Lindsey has grown into a sweet, loving, generous, hardworking, talented young lady. I couldn't be more proud to be her mom!

This year she requested a SPOOKY birthday party, and I was happy to oblige! I created this party for very little money, using mostly things I had already, or things that were purchased at the dollar store or other discount store. I decided to create two tables - one that was decidedly SCARY and one that was more vintage and cute. Per Lindsey's request, nothing could be too "babyish!" I was really happy with how everything turned out, and even got a bunch of compliments from the "tween" crowd who came to the party. Score one for Mom! Most importantly, Lindsey loved everything.

First up - my BEAUTIFUL daughter, Lindsey Rebecca. Thank you, GOD, for this girl.

I'm going to split this up into two posts - first up, the "vintage" Halloween treat table!

Cupcakes were made from a mix, with homemade buttercream icing on some, and Wilton "striped" icing on others (it was super hard to use, but cute). I was a bit disturbed that the "bones" sprinkles I bought at Target appeared to have pretend blood on them - haha! The kids liked them, though. I'm still getting used to tween-agers! My mom made the CUTE sugar cookies, and all other treats were "semi-homemade" - Double Stuff Oreo Cakesters rolled in Halloween sprinkles, Reese's Cups with "monogrammed" L's on them, and lots and lots of CaNDy!!!!

This AdORabLe banner came from WalMart, and was only $2.50! I'm thinking of glittering it a little bit for future use, but even as it is it's just perfect!

Using things I already had - FREE!

I made these little witch books by covering books from my bookcase with plain brown paper and scrapbook paper I had on hand. I inked the edges and stuck on a few embellishments - super cute, I think. The tablecloth came from Target. My personal review of it - it STUNK! Literally, it smelled TERRIBLE! I washed it before we used it, and it faded pretty badly. My mom said it just made it look more vintage, so I just went with it. The mesh was leftover from this project.

More Halloween cones - I posted about these here - these were the favors, filled with lots of Halloween-y treats! My mom came over one afternoon and we made them - they were all different. So much fun to make.

My little Pumpkin Head man - I made him using this tutorial - easy and cute (despite the strange look my hubby gave me when he saw him. He doesn't get some things.)

This is my mom's tree that I borrowed - she was selling this stick tree (formerly a brown Christmas decoration) at a garage sale, and I told her she should spray it black and hang Halloween stuff on it. Look how CUTE she made it!!! Love this.

I got the cute little spider at the Dollar Tree, the polka dot crepe paper at Party City and had the purple tulle and orange crepe paper already in my stash. I think the Jack-o-Lantern garland came from JoAnn's.

Funny side note - we had a washer/dryer repair man here on Friday afternoon, and while he was here I was busy hanging all of this stuff above the windows and decorating the table. He walked in and gave me sort of a funny look and said, "You must REALLY like Halloween, huh?"

If only he knew - haha! Glad he doesn't read my blog, otherwise he would think I am certifiable =)

PuRpLE glitter makes EVERYTHING cute, dontcha think???

Next up, I'll be sharing more party details, including a downright eERiE-looking dining room tablescape! EEK!!!! Be sure to come back...if you DARE!!!

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Is There a Twelve Step Program For This???

2010-10-01T16:10:00.001-04:00

If so, I need one. Meet Lindsey and her friend's after school snack for today. Plain Nutter Butters just would not do - I had to add a mummy!

I.need.help!!!!

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Halloween Trick or Treat Wreath

2010-09-30T16:04:00.001-04:00

It's me again! With more Halloween! I know ya'll think I'm crazy, and I'd be inclined to agree with you. However, I can't resist sharing this cute wreath I just made. After I drug Carter to Hobby Lobby to get the wreath form (around $3.50), I had this thing made in less than an hour during naptime. It was that easy! I'm not going to do a full tutorial since I didn't take "in progress" pictures, but I'll tell you really quickly what I did.

First, you are going to need the mesh stuff - it is called "Poly Deco Mesh" and is hard to find for me locally (Hobby Lobby carries some in Christmas colors, but it is very limited). I ordered mine online from http://www.mardigrasoutlet.com/. It's around $10 a roll, so it's kind of expensive. I have some of the roll left, but I'm not sure if I have enough to make another wreath - I'm hoping I do. You will also need wire or ribbon to attach the mesh, a wreath form, and any embellishments you wish to add. I found the sparkly Trick or Treat sign at the Dollar Tree, and I made the ghost (more on him later). The wreath form I bought was wire, but in hindsight I think I would have bought a grapevine wreath and spraypainted it black. The mesh doesn't do a very good job of hiding the wreath form, so I had to first wrap my metal form with black tulle. Next, I started adding strips of the mesh. It is very forgiving, so just put it on there how you like it. I tied my pieces on with black tulle, but you could use ribbon or wire. Once I had my mesh on, I just hung the little sign in the middle by tying it underneath the back of the wreath, and then added my little ghost (wiring him on). I made him using a white styrofoam ball (side note - WHY is styrofoam so expensive!?!?!?) and some cheesecloth - I just tied some purple tulle around his neck. I hot glued some buttons on for eyes, and he was done! I won't tell you how long I was messing with him to make him look like an actual ghost, because it's an embarassing amount of time. Suffice it to say - I have issues.

Once he was attached, I was done! I would have liked to have added maybe a few more little embellishments, but with the mesh being so "busy" I didn't want to get too out of control.

If you make a wreath, I would LOVE to see a picture of it!

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Halloween Shirts

2010-09-24T11:18:00.000-04:00

I have always loved the look of "boutique" and custom clothes for my kids. In the not too distant past, I used to always purchase each of them a custom made shirt or outfit for each holiday. However, with trying to be ~~a little~~ a lot more frugal lately, I've had to resort to making them myself! My first handmade shirt was Carter's birthday shirt (you can see that here). For his shirt, I cut and attached the circle and the number 1, and then with my mom's help I sewed both on. (For a GREAT tutorial on how to do this, visit my friend Jessica's blog - she will show you step by step how to make your own custom shirt.)

We are visiting a pumpkin patch tomorrow, so I needed to make some cute shirts for Emily and Carter quickly (Lindsey is way past wearing cutesy custom shirts - so sad but true). I found some images online that I liked, cut them out, traced them onto some Heat n Bond, and then followed the instructions to attach them to the shirts (I couldn't find Carter a short sleeved shirt, and it is still super hot here, so I had to use a shirt he already had). I purchased a $4 tshirt for Emily, and I had all of the fabrics already. So, my total cost for BOTH shirts was $4! Not bad! My mom was kind enough to stitch around them using her sewing machine (thanks Mom!). I used layered buttons for their eyes. Also, for Emily's shirt, I added a few little embellishments to the bottom corner for some extra cuteness (kind of hard to see in the pictures, but there are is a little yo-yo and some cute buttons sewn on).

Here's how they turned out:

And I had to add this picture of my pretty Lindsey, even though she isn't wearing a "Mom-made" shirt - at least she wore a headband I made!

From start to finish, I think these shirts took around 2 hours to make. I did everything but the sewing part during Carter's nap! Easy and cute!

They will be wearing their shirts to the pumpkin patch tomorrow - pictures from that adventure coming soon!!!

Dining Room "Reveal"

2010-09-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

I feel kind of silly calling this a "reveal," since in actuality it's been done for awhile, but I have gotten a few emails about my dining room and I wanted to show a before and after. Here is where we started - I had started to despise the dark color in this room, and the furniture, while pretty, was just really not my taste anymore (it was a hand-me-down set from my parents that they owned in the '80s).

Here is the after - much lighter and brighter!

(I have NO idea why the wall outside this room looks aqua - it is not at all! It is a very neutral beige-y color.)

My grandmother's chandelier - LOVE it so much....

Simple window treatment - inexpensive sheers ordered online, hung with drapery clips and some hook things I found on clearance at Calico Corners. I love the way these turned out.

Here it is at night, with candles lit. So warm and calming.

I hesitate to share things like this because 1) I don't want anyone to think that I think my decorating is so spectacular, and 2) because I am never finished with any room, so there is never any "final" reveal - haha! I just thought I'd share since a few people have asked to see more of this room.

Thanks for looking!

Halloween Cones (yes...another Halloween project!)

2010-09-22T11:00:00.000-04:00

I know, you're thinking I'm crazy by now - I am the most inconsistent blogger of all time, but over the past few days I've been posting like crazy, and they're ALL Halloween projects! Well, two things - one, I'm trying to post more regularly, and two - we're crazy about Halloween! I had this idea in my head, ever since I read this post over at Skip to My Lou (SUCH a cute blog! You must check it out!). Well, once I get an idea in my head, I can't help but get get it done! I was so inspired by the cute little paper cones in this post, I just had to make some for the girls (Carter isn't really in a "things made out of paper" place right now, so he didn't get one. I know, I'm a mean mom, but really he didn't care).

Anyway - here is what I made for Lindsey and Emily - I think they turned out SUPER cute!!! The only supplies I needed for this were: scrapbook paper (already had), ribbon (already had), crepe paper (purchased at Party City for $1.50) and all the little goodies inside (less than $3 for each cone).

Hmmm...I think they liked them! Inside were some candies, Halloween Silly Bandz, pencils, and a few other little inexpensive trinkets. It's not about how much things cost, but how you present them!

I didn't do a tutorial since I didn't take step by step pictures, but if you have any questions please feel fre to post here or email me! I'd love to see any of your creations.

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Halloween Napkin Rings - Tutorial

2010-09-21T14:34:00.000-04:00

I am busy planning my older daughter Lindsey's 12th (sob!) birthday party. She chose a Halloween theme this year, and we sure do love Halloween, so this one is easy to plan! I have so many fun ideas running through my head.....wait, what? What's that? BUDGET? Our budget is almost ZERO? Hmmmm....gotta get creative here.

Inspired by a FABULOUS magazine I got last year from Better Homes and Gardens (it's their Halloween issue), I decided to make some inexpensive napkin rings. I bet you have what you need to make them RIGHT now! If not, they are very quick and cheap to make, so let's get started!

What you will need:

Thin cardboard (I used a popcorn box that was going in the recycling bin)
Fabric
Ricrac, or other embellishment of your choice
Hot glue gun

First cut your thin cardboard into strips. Mine measured 7 inches by 1.5 inches. Next, you will lay the cardboard on your fabric, and cut around the cardboard, leaving about a half inch on each side so that you can glue the fabric down.

Make sure your fabric is facing the right way! The front of your fabric should be facing out, and your cardboard should be lying on the wrong side of the fabric. My cardboard had the printed side of the popcorn box showing through the fabric at first, so I had to flip it over.

Next, carefully glue the sides of the fabric to your carboard. Hot glue hurts, so watch your fingers! I glued the two long sides, then folded the ends down like I was wrapping a present. As you can see, the inside looks pretty messy, but that didn't really matter to me. If it matters to you, you might want to cover the inside with some felt or something.

Now, flip your cardboard over so that you can add your ricrac or other embellishment of your choice. I used hot glue to attach mine, but you could also use fabric glue. I don't have patience for fabric glue, so I take my chances with finger burns.

Now, you are ready to form the napkin ring. Coat one end of your fabric-covered cardboard with glue, and bring the other end around to attach it. Easy!

Now, for the fun part - what to put inside? We found these cute little skeleton pens at Party City (.49 each), so I stuck that down inside with my plasticware.

He's pretty cute, in a sorta scary way, right?

So there you have it! A cute (and VERY inexpensive) napkin ring for your party table! I can see these being used for years to come, and I think I'm going to make some Christmas ones as well. You can make these for events year round, using different fabrics and trims. Let me know if you have any questions!

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Halloween Cupcakes (a cute way to wrap a gift!)

2010-09-19T14:52:00.000-04:00

***EDITED***These were featured on One Pretty Thing's Halloween roundup on September 22! So exciting!!!!

I have had these weird little white plastic containers for a long time - years maybe - and I never knew what to do with them. I bought them on clearance at Michael's because I thought they looked like cupcake liners (and goodness knows I love anything cupcake-related). Well, I finally figured out something to do with them. Every year I get the girls (and now Carter!) a Halloween tshirt of some kind. It used to be a cute custom boutique shirt, but budgets and girls getting older have changed that, so this year the shirts came from Target. I also got them some Halloween socks and panties. I wanted to wrap them up really cute, and then I remembered the little plastic containers. I rolled everything together, messed around with them for a little bit, and came up with this:

Lindsey's - outer layer is a tshirt, inner layers are socks (all from Target). Candy corn and flower came from my hairbow-making stash =)

Emily's - outer layer is a tshirt, middle layer is a pair of Halloween undies from Gymboree, top layer is a pair of socks from Target's dollar spot.

Here they are waiting for the girls to find them, along with Carter's little bucket of treats:

Real life confession (gotta keep it real here!): Emily was SUPER jealous of Carter's bucket (from the Target dollar spot) and barely paid the cupcake any attention (she later "negotiated" with Carter and ended up taking the bucket into her room to use as a decoration). Oh well - I LOVE these and think they are too cute! I'm now thinking that I need to do a Christmas version as well =)

PS - does anyone know what these plastic things are called? I'd like to get more, but I don't know how to search for them.

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Signs of Fall....

2010-09-18T11:07:00.000-04:00

You can't tell from the (((HOT))) weather here in Georgia, but Fall is definitely on its way! Around our house, we couldn't be more excited - we have LOTS of fun in the fall! Fall is definitely my very favorite time of year, and we have started decorating a little here and there. Here are some signs that Fall is coming in our home...

Hurry up, Fall!!!!

PS - My pictures look very grainy now that I've uploaded them to Blogger - is there some setting I need to change to allow better quality pictures? Any help would be appreciated!

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What I've Been Working On....

2010-09-11T13:52:00.000-04:00

I've been a bad blogger lately! My time has been taken up with the busy-ness of back to school, dance, and chasing Carter around all day. What little free time I've had has found me working on some cute hair bows! Some of you know that I have a hair accessory business called Lulu and Junebug. When my girls were little, I made TONS of bows for them, and then started listing some on Ebay. I eventually opened my own website and I couldn't believe how busy I got! It was a big blessing at the time, but it soon got overwhelming as I was doing lots of custom orders. I was staying up until 2 or 3am working on bows, then getting up in the morning to take the girls to school. I felt like I wasn't doing a very good job at my MOST important job (being a mom!). Needless to say, I got burnt out and eventually closed my site (actually, it is still open but very outdated!). I have sold occasionally on Ebay since then (you can find my ME page here and see some samples of bows I've done in the past), and always enjoy that since I'm in a great hair bow group (the Bowbetties). However, lately, we have really needed some extra money to help pay for dance classes, braces (coming soon) and lots of other expenses, so I have dusted off my glue gun and have been working on some fun new bows. I've decided to open an Etsy shop and offer only ready-made items since that's easiest for me to keep up with. I will still sell on Ebay as well. The most exciting thing that has happened recently is that I am now selling my bows in a local shop called Anklebiters, Inc. Here are a few pictures of the bows I took there last week - all Halloween and fall!

I also just finished up an auction donation for Lindsey's dance group. She is dancing in a charity fundraiser called Dancers Responding to AIDS next weekend. This hair bow bouquet will be auctioned off and will hopefully raise some money for this great charity. I hope it will make some little girl VERY happy!

I have to say that it has been alot of fun working with all of my pretty ribbons again! I will let everyone know when my Etsy site opens so you can check it out =)

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First day of school...sort of

2010-08-10T15:10:00.000-04:00

We start school SO early here! It's always so hot and we're just never ready for summer to be over. The girls were both nervous and excited for the first day. Unfortunately, Emily woke up feeling kind of queasy that morning (I figured it was just nerves, but it was a stomach virus) so she missed the first day of school =( Can you tell that we are a little unlucky in the stomach virus department around here?

Anyway, here are a couple of pics (this was taken before we realized that Emily was indeed sick).

Lindsey - First Day of Sixth Grade!

Emily - what was SUPPOSED to be the first day of Second Grade!

Carter, feeling a little lost without his Sissies at home all day =(

Emily and I made this little cutie to take to her teacher - she has a wonderful teacher this year, and we are both VERY excited! I think her teacher liked it.

We had SUCH a long day waiting for the Sisters to come home! I missed them so much. I want summer back (even though I LOVE Fall!).

Here's to a great year!

Featured!

2010-08-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

I was so excited to find out that Emily's pajama party has been featured at two of my favorite blogs - One Pretty Thing, and Under the Table and Dreaming. I'm so honored!!!

Click these links to visit these great sites:

It's a Pajama Party {Emily's 7th Birthday}

2010-08-03T14:46:00.000-04:00

{click to enlarge photo}

I have finally waded through all the photos from Emily's big 7th birthday bash - I took a bunch! Unfortunately many of them didn't turn out that great because of lighting issues, but I hope I captured some of the fun! Emily's first request was a sleepover party, but this tired mama (Carter still wakes up in the very early, early morning every day) didn't think that was such a great idea this year. Our compromise? A pajama party! We held it from 6-8pm. and the girls all wore their PJs. Here are all the little details of our party - get a snack, because this is gonna be a long one, folks......

Invitations:
I blogged about those here - they were pretty cute if I do say so myself! We had to use a bunny since Emily sleeps with a VERY special bunny (aptly named "Bunny") every single night. You will see more of Bunny later in this post =) Here's what the invites looked like:

Decorations:
First - the inspiration! Emily and I (if you think I am the only party planner in the family, think again! Emily loves all of the little details, just like I do!) initially thought of an aqua and pink color scheme, with touches of black. We went to Hobby Lobby (our mecca) to look for some plates, and found what turned out to be the inspiration for the whole party. The colors are gorgeous - pink, chocolate brown, and the sweetest vintage aqua - and the polka dots and paisleys are sweet but not babyish. So, this is where we started:

I knew I wanted to use the pajama/sleepover theme in the decor, and I needed to do it on a MAJOR budget. I also wanted to incorporate my love of all things sweet and vintage, yet reflect Emily's spunky personality. I hope I did that! Just about everything I used were things I had, or that I borrowed from my mom and mom in law. I also made a lot of the decor. It was a lot of work, but so much fun! Emily helped me with pretty much everything. We had some good mother-daughter bonding time getting ready for this party.

This front door bucket was a total last minute thing - I literally threw this together in about five minutes. We wanted something to welcome our guests, and this was a cute way to do it.

When creating the table, I knew I wanted it to look like a bed. My inspiration came from the very talented Melissa and her beautiful tablescape. The table was beautiful, but I don't feel like I really got any great shots of it =( I'm hoping that maybe my brother got some better pictures that he can share with me. I made the pillow (with my mom's help), the table cloth is a vintage chenille bedspread, the gorgeous pitcher was a garage sale find, and Emily and I made the party hats together. Emily's first childhood teddy bear is sitting at the head of the table, and yes, I made a hat for him (and for Emily's bunny as well). Crazy, I know, but fun! Here are a few shots of the table:

After Carter's party, I knew we had to have a candy bar at Emily's party - the kids love them! And they are so much fun to put together. My favorite part of the candy bar were the cute "candy kabobs" my mom and I made! They had little pink teddy bears at the top (in keeping with our sleepover theme) and they were just the cutest little things. I made the "Emily" banner in about five minutes by cutting triangles of scrapbook paper and attaching chipboard letters, then gluing them to a piece of ric rac. The location of the candy bar wasn't ideal, as it was in front of our fireplace/giant TV (my decorating nemesis), but I think it worked well. Here are a few pictures of the candy bar, and the cute candy kabobs:

Rather than have a cake this year, Emily wanted cupcakes, and her Mommy was happy to oblige! We had chocolate cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting and silver and pink sprinkles - yum! These absolutely ADORABLE "night owl" cookies came from Etsy seller TSCookies. They were almost too cute to eat! I borrowed the pink glass cupcake stand from my mom, and I made the cupcake toppers using her Cricut. I tried making some cute cupcake toppers and other printable party goods, but I figured out that I need to leave that to the professionals! Let's just say that they didn't work out at all. Next time, I'm ordering some from someone who knows what they are doing!

For the favors, I made (see a theme here?) each guest their own chalkboard door hanger. They were a big hit! This was a very frugal project - the unfinished wood hangers were only $ .47 at Hobby Lobby, and I only used a couple of pieces of scrapbook paper, chalkboard paint (that I already had), and some other odds and ends that I had in my craft stash. The girls loved these.

Our main activity was decorating pillow cases with fabric markers (while a certain little marker-stealer kept making trouble!)...

Big sister Lindsey and her friend Ariana did makeup and hair, and then led the girls in charades and some other fun games. If you don't have a big sister around to help with little girl parties, I recommend inviting a few older girls to help out - the little ones just love the older girls!

Here are a few more pictures from our party...

{Emily's bunny was all dressed for the party, and perched in a doll bed right in the middle of the festivities. Emily insisted!}

The best part of all? This little seven year old thanked me a million times for working so hard on her party - and she had a blast! Making her happy makes me so very happy =)

Happy 7th birthday, my sweet Emily June! No matter how big you grow, you will always, ALWAYS be my baby girl! I love you!!!!

PS - I have to say a HUGE thank you to my sweet mom, Bebe, for helping me with all of my crazy projects. She never judged my craziness, she just did what I asked her to do! Also, my mom in law Johnnie, who watched the kids the morning of the party so that I could decorate without "helpers." I couldn't have pulled this off without both of their help - thank you Bebe and Nanny!!!

Sharing at:

Emily's 7th Birthday

2010-08-02T15:03:00.000-04:00

{hat made by my friend Jessica - thanks, Jessica! Emily LOVED her hat! You can find Jessica's blog here.}

Emily's birthday this year was not like any other so far. It was going to be an awesome day - Daddy took off work (this is BIG! Daddy rarely takes off work) and we were going to do whatever Emily wanted all day long. Unfortunately, Emily woke up not feeling well. To make a VERY long story short, Emily has had some stomach troubles ever since our whole family got Rotovirus at Christmas last year, and it still plagues her to this day. So, we tried to make the best of it, but we didn't get to do as many fun things as we had planned. Here's how her day went:

She woke up to presents, and bunny pancakes (that she only took a few bites of because of her poor little tummy).

One of Emily's gifts was a crayon roll, and in true Emily form, she asked if she could rearrange the crayons into "ROYGBIV" format! She is an organizational nut! SO funny.

After presents, Emily wasn't feel well, so she rested most of the day. Around dinner time, she started perking up so we continued with our plans to go to Olive Garden with our whole family. Emily only ate a few bites, but she was definitely more of her normal self, and I was so thankful for that. Before we left, I took a few birthday pictures, including our annual ladybug picture.

Pictures from dinner:

After dinner, we went to Bebe's house for presents. To say that Emily got a little excited might be an understatement! Here she is with the little mice Bebe made for her - so cute.

She got 100 $1 bills - she thought she was a millionaire!

This is her, realizing that the computer mouse was not the only present - she got a laptop from Bebe and Bapop! She was over the moon excited about all of her gifts.

Even though Emily didn't feel great, she still had a great day with family. This is one little girl who LOVES her family more than anything. I was so relieved that she perked up at the end of the day - I spent the day worrying about her so much.

Happy 7th birthday, sweet Emily June!!! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Pajama Party Invitations {Birthday Party Project #3}

2010-07-26T10:17:00.000-04:00

For Emily's pajama-themed party, I wanted to make some unique invitations. I searched all over for cute ideas, but came up with nothing. Finally, I ran across Melissa's slumber party invitations, and I was inspired! I did mine a little differently (because I am NOT the seamstress Melissa is!). I wanted to incorporate bunnies, because Emily sleeps with a bunny every night (Bunny is really a part of our family - you will see more of Bunny in a future post!), so here's what I came up with:

Party details are inside:

Here they are all packaged up, and ready to be delivered!

Our invitations got rave reviews! I thought they were really sweet, and most importantly, Emily LOVED them! I'm working on getting a full party post ready - there are so many pictures to go through, but I can't wait to share!!!

Linking up with:

Owl Wall Art {Birthday Party Project #2}

2010-07-25T11:00:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to make a canvas picture for Emily's room for a long time, but I'm definitely NOT an artist when it comes to painting. I ran across a tutorial on Martha's website for making collages, and I figured I could tweak it for Emily's room. It just so happened that Emily's upcoming birthday party was going to be a pajama party theme, and I thought this little "night owl" canvas could do double duty as a part of the birthday decor.

This was such an easy project. I started by painting my canvas pink. It took a bunch of coats because I was painting over an old painting that was on there. Next, I gathered my scrapbook papers, and started cutting out my owl and tree shapes. I used a large scallop punch to make the leaves for the tree, and a small scallop punch for the owls' eyes. I hand drew their eyelashes (as if you couldn't tell! Ha!) and used some pink ink to distress the edges. Once I had laid everything out, I started gluing my paper onto the canvas using Mod Podge. I used my mom's Cricut to do the letters. The last thing I added were some cute yo-yos to dress up the owls' ears. Finally, I wrapped some cute ricrac around the edges. Voila - cute, cheap wall art!!!

This ended up being the perfect decoration for Emily's party! Party pictures coming very soon!

Linking up with:

A Pillow {Birthday Party Project #1}

2010-07-24T17:58:00.001-04:00

Editing: I am updating this post to enter it into the Pillow Challenge at CSI =)

What do you get when you combine some yummy new fabric, a few fun fabric flowers, and a doting grandma who is willing to help a {cough} less than stellar seamstress? This sweet pillow, perfect for Emily's pajama party themed 7th birthday party! All we did was take two fat quarters of coordinating fabric, sew them together (inside out), turn the pillow right side out, iron the seams so they were straight, and then stuff the pillow. The large fabric flowers are simply fabric strips sewn with a gathering stitch (one is frayed on the edges, the other is more finished looking) and topped with covered buttons. The rolled fabric rosettes were just glued and rolled (there are tons of tutorials out there, so unless anyone needs to know, I won't share how I did those here). After we were done, we had the cutest little pillow, if I do say so myself! Bebe sewed more than half of it, but I probably sewed two sides of the pillow - I'm so proud - haha!!!

Here's a preview of the pillow on our party table, which was all decked out to look like a bed. Full party details coming soon. It was so much fun!

Linking up with:

The gift of an ordinary day

2010-07-23T23:59:00.000-04:00

My brother Brice is amazingly creative. He is a graphic designer, an incredible artist, a wonderful photographer, and lately he has been doing some unbelievable videography for weddings. You always see him videoing (is that a word?) things, but he always does it so inobtrusively that you hardly notice he's around when he's doing it. I knew he was taking some video a few weeks ago when my family went to my parents' lake house to celebrate the 4th of July. It was just an ordinary day - fun, but filled with the usual busy-ness of life. Refilling sippy cups, breaking up fights, changing diapers, putting band-aids on scrapes and soothing feelings hurt by siblings. The day was fun for me, but nothing extraordinary.

Until.

Tonight, I saw this video that my brother created, and within minutes I felt tears stinging my eyes. He has the gift of observing the little things that so many of us miss - and capturing them in a way that takes your breath away. Watching my girls' faces, seeing little Carter drink out of his sippy cup and fall down, seeing Emily helping Bapop pick tomatoes and blackberries - all of these things are so easy to miss as I rush through each day, trying to meet the needs of all of our kids. This three minute video is a gift that makes time stand still for just a moment for me - and it's something that I can't find words to thank Brice for. If you watch it, I hope you will get a little glimpse of what it's like to be at my parents' lake house. Turn up your volume, because the music is absolutely beautiful, and adds such depth to the video. We have so many wonderful memories at my parents' lake house, and now they have been captured by the amazing eye of my sweet brother. Thank you Brice - I am amazed by your talent and creativity. I love you. And thank you God for the gift of an ordinary day.

http://vimeo.com/13114675 from Brice Beasley on Vimeo.

{seven}

2010-07-21T17:22:00.000-04:00

She is...

Smart

Compassionate

Hilarious

Strong-willed

Sure of herself

Stubborn

Organized

Beautiful

Kind

Feisty

Loyal

Shy

Seven.

A Big Boy Haircut for Carter

2010-06-15T22:38:00.000-04:00

Recently, Carter's hair had gotten really long. He had the CUTEST curls! They were so silky and sweet and I loved them. However, his hair was starting to look a little "shaggy" and I couldn't decide whether to get his hair cut or not. This is my FAVORITE shot of him with his curls!

Be.still.my.heart

After one too many well-meaning people at the grocery store complimented me on my "beautiful little girl," I decided something must be done about the long hair. {Side note rant: if my baby is wearing a BLUE shirt with a robot or a car on it, he is NOT a girl!!!}

Here is the before:

During:

Side note - how cute is his face???

And after!

Afterwards, Carter got a special treat - a visit to the bookstore! He loves books.

As much as I hated cutting his hair, I have to admit that I LOVE it now. He does look much more grown up, but he looks so handsome. We ended up going back and getting cut a little bit shorter a few days later, as it looked sort of "puffy" once it dried. Here he is after the second cut - so handsome!!!

I have one of his sweet curls saved (after giving one to each grandma!) and I will always remember how silky and soft his hair was as a baby. Even though he looks more like a big boy every day, he will always, always be my baby boy.

PS - In the background of these pictures is a preview of a big project we've been working on around here! The big reveal coming soon!

It's All About DANCE!!!

2010-06-05T21:25:00.000-04:00

At least in our house the past month or so, it's been ALL about dance! First we had Lindsey's tryouts for performing company. I have had a few people email me to ask me how Lindsey's dance tryouts went. Well, she did it again! She made the top level performing company at her dance school. I am SO proud, and Lindsey is over the moon excited! We are going to be VERY busy next year, but we can't wait!

We are also celebrating with Emily! She was asked to be in Mini Spotlight again, which is a big honor. They identify girls who show potential in dance through their technique, grace, flexibility and positive attitude. She is a natural peformer, and SO sweet on stage! Needless to say, we have had some CELEBRATING to do around here!

When I say it's been all about dance, I'm not kidding! In the last few weeks, we have had our final competition, Lindsey's Company Concert (like a recital, but only for the Performing Company), her Company banquet, dance pictures, dance recital rehearsal, and finally the recital. Whew! I am worn out! The funny thing is that the morning after the recital, the first thing Lindsey said to me was, "When does dance start again?" The girl LOVES to dance!

Here are a few pictures of our past few weeks of dance. I love seeing my girls dressed up, and I LOVE watching them on stage. I cried several times during their recitals. My heart is so full watching them up there, trying their hardest and with the biggest smiles on their sweet faces.

Lindsey before heading out to her Company banquet. She looks SO grown up here! Sob!

Emily in her jazz and ballet costumes. I will never forget how cute she was on stage this year!

Lindsey's tap costume and ballet costume - both so pretty!

Swimmin'

2010-05-27T22:05:00.000-04:00

I have been very brave this summer, and have ventured to the neighborhood pool with all three kids by myself. The first time we went, Carter was NOT impressed - the water was cold, and he was not a happy boy. However, he quickly started to enjoy it when he realized he could splash, and he loved watching his sisters go under the water. He was all smiles for about an hour, and then he decided he'd rather get out and eat some Goldfish crackers. Here are a few pictures from our first day at the pool this summer.

Carter's favorite past time at the pool - walking around, coming dangerously close to the edge of the pool, refusing to hold my hand and running away when I try to catch him.

How cute are these toes in these flip flops? The boy is edible, I tell you.

The End of an Era....

2010-05-21T21:31:00.000-04:00

I have been dealing with something lately, something that I can't quite wrap my mind around.

I am now the mom of a sixth grader.

A middle schooler. What???? How is that possible?!?!?!?

I would be remiss in my blogging if I didn't share a few things from Lindsey's fifth grade graduation week. Many of her sweet friends will be going to the same middle school she will be attending, but some won't. The last day of school was filled with tears, hugs and long goodbyes. I will really miss having both of my girls at the same school next year. In fact, they will never be at the same school again =(

I don't handle change well, especially when it involves my kids growing up too fast. {{{SIGH}}}

Here are a few images from the last few days of school. I'm going to go cry now.

Beach day - a rare pic of the sisters together, for the last time at school.

What happens when Carter comes to visit - all the girls surround him! He is a ladies man - ha!

A sweet moment I captured between Lindsey and Carter. Oh how these two adore each other.

I have to put this picture in here because it is hilarious! Carter somehow got a Goldfish on his head, and he did his scrunched up face for me. Too funny!

Lindsey with her good friend Ariana, who unfortunately won't be going to the same middle school as Lindsey.

Lindsey's 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Forbes - I think she looks this excited because she is retiring this year =)

Walking out for the final ceremony - a balloon lift off.

And here, my friends, is where I LOST it!!! It really hit me at this point - this is the end of Lindsey's elementary school era. I honestly feel like it was yesterday that I was walking my shy little five year old into this school for kindergarten, with her in pigtails and hair bows, and one year old Emily on my hip. Six years have FLOWN by.

Goodbye, Fifth Grade!!! We will miss you!

Guest Blogging {and a hair bow giveaway!!!}

2010-05-04T16:02:00.000-04:00

I am SO honored to be a guest blogger over at Kendra's blog, My Insanity. Kendra's blog has been one of my daily reads since I discovered blogging, and for me to be guest posting over there is just so exciting! She just had a sweet baby boy, and is doing a series dedicated to great baby gifts, shower ideas, decorating ideas, etc. I am giving a tutorial on how to create a hair bow bouquet, for a baby shower gift or for any special occasion. I am also doing a giveaway for a cute bow bouquet that will come with a personalized little monogrammed card for the winner. Click here to check it out.

Be sure to enter the giveaway!!!

Chasing dreams {and being a proud Mom}

2010-04-15T07:41:00.000-04:00

{beautiful photo courtesy of my brother's super talented girlfriend, Skylar Reeves}

I am often afraid to try things, for fear that I won't do well at them. Case in point - my sewing machine, which is still in the box from my birthday in December. I often let my fear of failure stop me from doing what I want to do. I could learn alot from my older daughter Lindsey. Lindsey is not afraid to chase her dreams. Two years ago, she decided that she wanted to try out for the performing company at her dance studio. When she told me that, my heart sank. She had never been asked to be in any of the special groups there (they often identify girls that they see as having potential, and ask them to be in the company) and I was worried that she would not be selected. I didn't want other people to judge my "baby" - she was only 9! I didn't want her to devastated if she didn't make it. I put on a brave face, and was encouraging to her, but inside I was a nervous wreck for the entire week of tryouts. I practiced what I would say to her if she didn't make it - "there's always next year," or "you tried your best." And try her best she did - she practiced again and again, staying out in the garage for hours at a time. I was amazed at her dedication. The day the results were posted, I was almost literally physically ill from worry. Lindsey was at school that day, so it was just me checking the website. When the results finally went up, I saw her number! Number 11, I will never forget it. She had made the company she tried out for. I have never seen her so happy, and I have never been so proud.

This year, tryouts are coming up again, and Lindsey has decided to try out for the top level performing company. This is a big step up from where she is now, and those nagging worries have started for me again. Lindsey, however, is showing her strength and confidence once again. She has set her mind to do this, and I know that even if she doesn't make it, she will be proud knowing that she wasn't afraid to try.

I am so lucky to have this little girl as my daughter. I thought I was supposed to be the one teaching her about life, but it turns out she's taught me more than I could ever imagine.

I love you, Lindsey!!! You are my shining star, and make me a better person every day.

***************************************************************************

PS -

Dear Hubby:

I simply "need" this for Mother's Day! I am entering in a giveaway to win it over at Traci's blog, Beneath My Heart, but if I don't win......here you go!