elizabethursday

This one is all for you KK!  Gotta love the face you taught her!

Taylor Tuesday

I figured you are just used to my lateness now.  Many years from now the kids will still be able to look at the books of these pictures but never know how I was consistently late sending them out.  So to make up for my lateness, it is officially funny face week for my kids.  Not sure Taylor even knew she was making this face, but I feel like she might be channeling the Fresh Prince of Bellaire and saying “Wassup?'”

elizabethursday

So here’s the deal Sadie.  You go through first and then I can tell them it was your idea and I just needed to get you back into the yard.  Then I will sneak you lots of treats from the pantry later.  So glad I found you as a partner in crime. 

Top 5 favs

Remember my love for lists?  Well I have a few things that I current love and would like to kiss the person who created some of them. 

1.  the Obol – When Chris showed me the picture of this I thought it was genius.  I love grainy cereals like Wheat Chex, Cheerios, Rice Crispies, and Honey Bunches of Oats but HATE soggy cereal.  And if you have kids then you know that as soon as you make a cup of coffee or pour milk in your cereal that it is evitable that the kids will need five different things.  Oh and the ability to put whipped cream in the top part and fresh strawberries in the bottom.  Just want to kiss this inventor!!!  My sweet husband saw how excited I was and did research to figure out what this bowl was and how to get it.  He even got it in purple.  Kissed him instead of the inventor.

2.  HEB has a marketing genius on their hands.  I was buying coffee and while putting it in my cart I noticed a whole wall of cookies right behind me.  I was doing so good trying to resist the Chips Ahoy and then I saw Dark Chocolate Almond Sandies.  They make a great replacement for lunch when you realize that you consumed 5 before you even had a chance to get out the stuff for that salad you were going to have.  So worth every single calorie.

3.  I am addicted to my Kindle and love how I can start a new book without running to the store.  Plus I now have more room on the shelves in my closet.  I really enjoy my books, but the costs can really start to add up.  I follow a few different Kindle lending sites but Book Gorilla will actually send you a daily list of free or discounted books in the genre(s) you like.  I now enjoy get to read a little more for free.  And since Chris got me a waterproof bag I can read my Kindle in the tub.  Win-win in my book.

4.  Ever since making our family rules sign I have been trying to use my Silhouette more.  I stumbled across Miss Kate Cuttables one day.  She has the cutest cuttable files and offers one free everyday.  Not just a simple shape but adorable ones that often fit the season or current holiday.  They are even downloadable into jpg files so you can use them for lots of stuff.  I bought some of her items to create Taylor’s birthday invitation(more posted about this in late April after her party) and to use for decorations.

5.  I saved the best for last.  My Beehouse teapot rocks.  I mean this thing makes me happy about brewing tea like the Keurig does for my coffee.  I mentioned here my love for loose tea, but I often want more than just a small cup.  I love my sister-in-law for solving my ‘I want to fill my large Tervis with iced strawberry tea but hate brewing multiple cups to achieve this goal’ problem and she told me about these teapots.  I love my Mom for getting me one for Christmas.  They are made in Japan and do an excellent job of allowing the tea to steep perfectly.  This is actually the exact one my mom got me and I have found that 22 oz works great for me and would allow me to make 2-3 cups in case of guests.  So come on over and have a cup of tea with me.  Maybe I’ll share some of my cookies with you too

Taylor Tuesday

Yes it’s actually Wednesday and Chris now gives me a hard time about whether or not I will get my pictures out on time anyone.  Maybe I’ll also send you elizabethursday today and that way I can say I am ahead???  No, you will just have to wait until tomorrow for that one.

As the weather is warmer we are spending more and more time outside.  Taylor is starting to try new tricks on the monkey bar and gets frustrated when she can’t get it right.  Sometimes we just have to sit it out for a few minutes before you try again kid.  Good thing she was all smiles about 5 minutes after this picture!

Home Rules

Back at the beginning of the year I set 6 craft goals for myself.  The end of February is approaching fast it took me until March to finish this post, I needed to tackle at least one on my list.  I really had done most of the work over the past few weeks, but just needed to pull all the parts together.  I knew when I saw a piece of plywood in the garage that it would be perfect for an update to our Home Rules.  And yes, we do have random pieces of wood in our garage, along with plumbing parts and enough electric wire for several houses.  I love my handyman tinkering husband!  I had him cut the wood down to 16.5” wide.  The board was already 36” long so I had to work with that for the space and that seemed big enough for what I wanted.  Plus free wood is hard to pass up.  The wood didn’t need much else done to it after Chris cut it besides a quick sanding of the edges.  I hate to touch sandpaper and fell in love when I found this fun tool.  Add it to your must list if you have a project that involves sanding by hand.

 

We sat down as a family in early January and came up with our own version of our Home Rules. We used the Home Rules that my mother-in-law gave us 10 years ago(when we bought our house) as a starting place and then changed them to fit who we are as a family now. Plus we added a few more. I love how much Taylor wanted to help with this even if her rules were closer to 10-15 words long. It was hard to explain to her to make them simpler but I loved her enthusiasm.  Lizzie even made sure we included “Love Your Guts”.  Chris’ cousin taught the girls this saying because she never understood why kids would say “hate your guts”.  It seemed so mean and she loved her friends, so she started “Love Your Guts” as a way to show love instead of hurt. 

Then I used the Silhouette Studio to create the vinyl for my board.  I love the ease of using this program.  If only I didn’t have so many fonts to choose from that made it so hard to narrow down.  I wanted to try to use a different font for each rule, but loved a few so I reused them.  Plus by the time I got down to the last few they all started to look the same.  Since I needed the vinyl 16” wide and my machine will only cut to 12” wide I had to break it into three 12”x16” pieces.  Here is what my screen looked like so you can get an idea. 

In case you want to use any of the fonts I have here they are in order from top to bottom: a red bucket, elephants in cherry trees, Digs My Heart, Folio, font moochers, Malihini, Grilled Cheese, Howser, Missed Your Exit, Sproket BT, Mister Sirloin, oh {Photo} Shoot, My Own Topher, cinnamon cake, wish I were taller, Digs My Heart, Clingy, Hiccups, Mr & Mrs Popsicle, and Boring Showers.

Then I stalled a few more weeks on this project trying to pick a color to paint it.  This will hang in an area that is part breakfast table area part living room.  I have lots of red in our house now, but plan on redecorating the kitchen soon and I’m still now sure what colors I will use.  I debated between red, chocolate brown, dark blue, or light brown.  Red won out over all the other colors since Chris reminded me that if we ever get rid of reds then I can make a new one.  Plus we might try to update this every 5 years as the girls grow and are able help us more.

Even though the paint is truly dry after an hour or so, I let it ‘air out’ in the garage for a few days.  The vinyl is already super sticky so I wanted to make sure the board didn’t add to the challenge.  (Too bad the vinyl decided it didn’t want to stick to painted plywood and still made for a challenge!)  I lined my three pieces of lettering up on the board like I wanted.  I wish I would have paid more attention to how much space was between each section better because there is almost too much space between ‘love your guts and laugh + giggle + be silly’.  You probably didn’t notice it until I pointed it out so it’s not a huge deal but I tend to be OCD like that.  Part of me is still considering pulling those two lines off and redoing them.  Like I said before, the vinyl didn’t play nice and I ended up having to do almost each letter one at a time. 

 

But all that work was so worth it because I LOVE how it turned out!  The red looks awesome and is a great pop of color on that wall.  I love seeing it as I come down the stairs and often find myself using these phrases for kid lessons to reinforce what we created as a family. 

So now that you’ve seen our family rules, what would some of yours be? 

elizabethursday

Lizzie decided that her red boots are the new perfect accessory for every outfit.  I wonder if Disney has come up with their next princess, because I vote for one wearing red boots with her ball gown.

Taylor Tuesday

I was glad it was bright enough out to require sunglasses so Taylor didn’t see the tear that slipped slipped out.  It seems like she is growing up so quickly between learning to ride her bike(with training wheels), registering for kindergarten, and attempting to read everything in sight.  I feel like it was just yesterday that I mastered swaddling her and got more than a 15 minute cat nap out of her.  As time slips by faster I was glad for this afternoon to enjoy the sunshine and watch her take on the world while I had front row seats.

elizabethursday

I love that when Lizzie gets up from her nap that often she wants to spend a few more minutes snuggling all her stuffed friends in her crib.  This is a huge improvement from when she used to SCREAM for me to come get her up.  Like I-don’t-need-the-monitor-to-hear-her type of scream.  I also love her sweet smiles and giggles as she loves on each of these stuffed friends.  Can you tell that we are Hello Kitty fans around here?

Taylor Tuesday

I know it’s already Wednesday, but I took this picture on Monday with all intentions for it being on time.  So just pretend it’s Tuesday for a few minutes.  K, thanks! 

I know Taylor will acquire traits from both Chris and I but I really hoped she got my sense of style, but Monday I decided to not battle her on what to wear and this is what I got.  She has taken on Chris’ thought that boots go with ANY outfit.  Too bad she missed his thought that his daughter should never be allowed out of the house in shorts that short.(ps they are supposed to be for under skirts and dresses, not worn by themselves)