VANILLA

Meet Vanilla!! She's Parker's class pet and we have been blessed to have her this long holiday weekend. The instructions say that we have to take her with us everywhere we go and we have been on the move this weekend already. First we got Vanilla all gussied up in her school color bows so we could take her to dinner at Chuy's. Then we did a little shopping at Target and made some sugar cookies for desert. This morning we bundled her up with the girls to go on a bike ride through the neighborhood! On the way we saw a Craft Fair so we did a little more shopping. There was even a Pumpkin patch where Vanilla got to take pictures on the tractor and hay bails with the girls! We have lots more planned and I'm sure Parker will have tons to talk about when she takes Vanilla back to school on Tuesday! Here are a few pics from the weekend already:

Now by this time I had taken a million photos and Kenna was done so she decided that she would just walk around and look at all of the pumpkins, but I couldn't help myself I had to get just one more. So here is how our pumpkin patch trip ended!!
Kenna was roaming around and as soon as she turned around and saw the camera pointed at her she yelled NO!! and began running to hide behind Daddy. She was very MAD and you can see it all over her face!! I love it.

TIP n' TRICK tuesday

I'm super excited to bring you this week's fantastic tutorial for making a super spooky super easy yard sign for Halloween! I'm totally new to MOD PODGE, but I'm already addicted. So here's the dilly!!

Stuff:

• 1 wood board (any scrap size you have will be fine)
• Mod Podge
• Cheap-o foam brush
• Black, Orange, Green, or Purple spray paint ( I just happened to have black on hand)
• Printer w/ ink (which I NEVER seem to have!!)
• Printer Paper
• Small shallow dish with water
• Scissors
• Paper towels
  

How-to:

• Spray paint the board and let it dry overnight
  

• Print out your ghoulish saying (ex:BOO!..BEWARE...TRICK OR TREAT) I did mine using the Mistral font and orange font color.


• Cut out the letters


• Place the first cut out letter in the shallow dish with water. (simply lay on top don't submerge in water)


• Put a thin layer of Mod Podge on the board will the first letter will go


• Lay the wet letter down and carefully press any bubbles out


• Take a paper towel and lay flat over the letter, press down and slowly remove the paper towel.


• Repeat for each letter and let it dry slightly


• Add a few thin layers of Mod Podge to the entire sign! (for more durability add clear varnish)

I hope you enjoy this weeks tutorial if you decide to try it out send me a link to your creation!

The MAKING of a great day!!!

BANANA FACES - check

RAINFALL - check

OLD CLOTHES - check

TWO ADORABLE GIRLS - check

PUDDLES - double check!!!!

i LOVE this one!!! her expression is PRICELESS!!!

WOOHOO!!!!!

Wow I'm so excited that I have two followers and hopefully more will come out of the wood works in the future!! Thanks so much to you sweet ladies for being a believer that I can become a great blogger to follow.

Tip n' Trick Tuesday!!

I absolutely love sewing, crafting, cooking, and cruising the Internet to find great tips, tricks, and tutorials that will inspire me to try something new!! My new feature will highlight many of the tips and tutorials that I love and can't live without as well as others that I find on a day to day basis. If there's a great tip or trick for anything around the home I'll find it and pass it on to you!!

This week I'm starting with a simple tip to help you hang all the pictures and artwork that you need to hang around the house. I'm extremely "OCD" when it comes to hanging pics in my home; I can not stand to walk past a row of pictures that are not exactly level and believe me I can tell.


So here's the TRICK of the week!!

1. Grab all your tools: Artwork, Wrapping paper w/ grid on the back, tape, level, hammer & some nails.
   


2. Lay the pictures on the floor in the layout you want to achieve on the wall!




3. Once you have the layout correct tape the paper on the back and mark the nails holes on the appropriate lines.




4. Next take the paper off of the pictures and tape it on the wall making sure your placement is correct. Keep moving the paper around till you've found the best spot and the lines on the grid are level.




5. From here you simple hammer the nails in the already marked spots.




6. After you have hammered in all of the nails tear down the paper, hang your perfectly level pictures, and stand back and enjoy!!!!

   

HAPPY HANGING!!!!!!!!

FLU FLU GO AWAY!!

I guess with the start of school comes the spreading of germs!! The flu has been running rampant in our house for the past two weeks and I'm sick of it. I want my family fully healthy again and I want to be able to go out and enjoy this wonderful weather we've been having before it's too late. The problem is that I don't have children that just want to lay around and rest when they're sick so it takes them forever to recover! My kids want to run around, jump on the trampoline and play mommy and baby where one carries the other around like a little baby. So I'm dying to know how on earth other moms get there poor sick babies to lay down and rest when they are sick?? What am I doing wrong?? I know they don't feel well so why won't they rest?!? The only trick I was able to use to keep them in one spot was by filling up the sink with water and letting them play with their polly pockets like they were swimming. Here are some pics from the fun secret rest time!

On another note!! I made a wreath this past weekend and I'm in love with it. I went to the store to buy a wreath until I realized that there was not one that was under $75 that I liked especially since I tire of decor so fast!! So like anyone in my position would do I convinced Keith that I could make one for WAY cheaper and I was right!! Here's the outcome of my $12 handmade wreath; it's still not perfect but I mess with it every time I walk out the door and soon it will be exactly how I want it!

My Top Ten!!

WARNING: I just want to make myself perfectly clear that Keith and I are not expecting as much as I would love to!! I have always thought the little blog games were so cute, but never once have I played along until now.

Finding the perfect baby name is one of the most precious events that goes into having a baby! It's all in the name and while I loved every minute of searching for the perfect one; Keith and I struggled over giving our children names that would make them an easy target for bullies, people who can't read or say names correctly, and the nicknames that come from their real names. When it came to naming Parker Nichole it was easy for me even though I did worry at first about giving her a boy name. Kenna Mae on the other hand was a bit more difficult! We love anything to do with Ireland, since it's part of the cute story of how we met, so we knew we wanted an Irish name for her, but it also couldn't be super girlie to keep the jealousy to minimum as the girls grew older. Here is a the list with our top boy and girl names and the nicknames we love to go with them:

John (family name)

Calum (Cal)

Bradley

Brenden

Thomas (family name)

Ellison (Elli)

Reagan

Riley

Piper

Ella

Okay now it's yall's turn so post your favorites ladies!!

My "MEAN MEAN" little girl!!!!

Okay it's time to VENT!!!!!! First of I just want to say that I know my sweet baby girl Kenna is not an angle by any means!! However she's 3 and like many three year olds she throws tantrums, often tells me NO in a firm voice, and isn't the best at sharing. Today we went to story time at the nearby Library and we were enjoying our time before it began playing games on the computer and reading. Kenna and another little girl were standing by the same bookshelf when Kenna brought me a book to read to her. Then out of no where I hear the GRANDMOTHER of the little girl say and I quote "I know she's a MEAN MEAN little girl!" in a very rude ton of voice. Right before Kenna brought me the book I was standing nearby talking with Sandy, a very close friend of mine, so I will admit that I did not see exactly what happened. From what I saw it seemed like the little girl picked up a book looked at the cover and then set it right back down. Then Kenna picked up the book less than a second later and brought it to me. At that point the little girl walk over to her grandma and told her that Kenna took the book from her. Which is when the lady mad her rude and very loud comment standing less than three feet away from me. I was stunned and could not believe that this woman was speaking about a three year old like that. I'm not saying that Kenna did or did not take the book from her but even if she did there is a different way of handling it. It's not like there was this big tug of war over the book and Kenna did not pushed or hit her. The fact of the matter is that she is 3 and we're still learning about how to share!!!!

I'm at it AGAIN!!!!

Well it's been over 8 months since I proclaimed myself as the worst blogger ever and I think I've proved my point! Now in that time I will say that we have been busy busy busy selling our home, buying and decorating our NEW home, celebrating tons of birthdays and prepping my big girl Parker for Kindergarten. I can not say enough about how happy I am to be in a neighborhood that offers everything I've ever wanted from schools, to friendly nieghbors, sports, parks, pools, parades, trails, and did I mention the shopping!!!! We've been here for 2 months and it's nice that we're really starting to feel like this is home.

Of course the biggest thing on my mind lately is school starting since Parker will begin her second week tomorrow morning. There are no words to describe the feeling of watching your baby walk into school for the first time! The first day was hard but thankfully I had Keith there with me and I was able to walk her into her classroom to make sure she got there safely. The second day was when it really hit me that she was no longer going to be with me all day every day. And I know some of you moms may be jumping for joy at this point, but I can not explain the devastation I felt from this. I just have to stand there at the front of the school and wave her goodbye. I feel like I've completely lost her; like I don't know what's going on in her life!! I don't know how I'm going to handle the day Kenna starts school. I'm praying that this transition will get easier and I'm hopeful it will but just incase I'm counting down the days till summer 2010!