shot day :)

today is shot day.

i promised my kids a "shot party" aka movie night with pizza and cookies

on the day that we get our flu shots.

we plan on cuddling up on the couch with blankets and food while watching a movie.

as the days got closer, i reminded them that their shots were this thursday.

my kids (who HATE getting shots like everyone else) surprised me with this response...

"YES!" i'm so excited!!!

if you guys could have seen my eyes and how big they got...

right then i knew...i deserve a raise!

happy shot day everyone!

first day of fall

as i am lying awake in my bed thinking of all the million things i need to do, 

a blond curly-headed little girl walks in.

i can hear the dragging of her feet in her house shoes and as she turns the corner around my bed, 

i see her tying her pink sock-monkey robe really tight.  

she comes towards me and leans on the bed. knowing very well that it is the first day of fall,

she asks me, "mom, can i look out the window to see if leaves are falling?"

i smile and put my hand on her face as to take a mental picture of how sweet she is at the age of 6. she then responds very seriously, "what? i love jumping in big piles of leaves!"

after telling her yes, she makes her way over to the window and peeks out the blinds. 

"nope. no leaves. but our tree is growing."

she then drags her little feet out of my room, very disappointed that the first day of fall 

didn't deliver the leaves that she had been hoping for.

side note: 

our neighborhood is fairly new and there are not many large trees around. 

the tree in the front yard, that she peeked at, doesn't even lose it's leaves.

the tree in our backyard only has 5 leaves left from the summer. 

this might be as hard as trying to get snow on Christmas day ;)

happy first day of fall everyone!

candy corn bark, yum!

i found this amazing treat and i think my girls will love it!

...as well as their teachers, my co-worker, and my sweet corny husband!

here is the blog!

lee la la

Candy Corn Bark

1 bag of candy corn

1 bag of white candy melts

parchment paper

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Pour half of your bag of candy corn onto the cookie sheet.

Melt candy melts in the microwave at 30 second intervals and then stir. Continue until melted. Pour over candy corn. Evenly spread.

Pour the remaining candy corn into the melted chocolate. 

Refrigerate for one hour. OR stick in the freezer to expedite the process. 

Break apart into 2-3 inch pieces and SERVE!

i heart owl crafts :)

i came across this today and i plan on making this with my children!

it is also easy enough to do this simple craft in their classrooms.

i heart owls...but i'm not too keen on bats ;)

here is the link if you are interested...

Woman's Day

to all you moms out there...

i feel that new moms deserve a break. lord knows they need it.

*

i remember when i was a new mom...i was always feeling that i had failed somehow. i worried way, way, way too much. i just wanted so badly to do the right thing and be a good mom. it's hard to learn what works and what doesn't. every child is different and when it comes down to it...moms do end up knowing what's best for their child. sometimes it just takes awhile to figure that out.

 *

i learned even more about life when i had my second. i found myself judging other parents with "wild" kids when i just had my one mild-tempered daughter. i remember thinking, how hard can it be? good disciple people, come on! then i gave birth to #2! that thinking quickly went out the window! i really got humbled then :)

*

i can't fully comprehend having more than two children, so all my respect goes to any family that can successfully leave the house with three or more!
*
i also have great respect for any single parent. it is hard for me to imagine the pressures of trying to raise my children all on my own. my hat goes off to you.

*

to sum it up, no worries moms! you are doing a great job! don't be hard on yourself! have a great day!

love,

a fellow mom :)

the dirty, nasty truth

one day last week, i came home to find two heaping piles of orange cat barf on my living-room carpet. now, normally i would have pretended to ignore it in hopes of my precious husband finding it and cleaning it up for me, but it was much too early in the day and way too gross to ignore. i cleaned it up right away.

and few hours later, i discovered a strange smell coming from our pantry. like a bloodhound, i sniffed around trying to pinpoint the aroma and then i discovered it coming from a bag of potatoes. as i lifted up the bag, brown juice revealed a rotten juicy mess. as i cleaned that pile up, i realized that cheeto, our cat, must have smelled the bad potatoes and then proceeded to hurl onto carpet.

thinking the nastiness was behind me, i began to organize and clean things out upstairs, which included my daughter's room. i began to help her narrow down her purse collection. she quickly picked several purses that she no longer uses, but i insisted on us cleaning out the ones she does use. 

she has this one gold bag in particular that she carries around a lot. to my surprise, it was fully loaded!!! i looked into the bag and my mind began to reveal the fact that my daughter was an actual trash lady. it was so bad! there were cracker crumbs, trash, broken pieces of metal, cracker crumbs, and other strange things. did i mention cracker crumbs? one purse actually had gum stuck to the lining where she had planned to peal off and chew later. (i'm not kidding)

needless to say, we had a long talk. while cleaning out each purse, i explained that she is my daughter and she can't be this gross, i won't let her carry around a bag of trash everywhere, and for goodness sake... no more gum!

i cleaned up some very yucky things that day, but those purses put a chill in my spine. who knew an 8-year-old girl could be such a serious hoarder! :)

funny friday foto

the girl's awwwrrrrrrrr-some dad!

he is never too proud to have fun ;)

fall on the table

fall is my favorite time of the year.

it seems to be the time where people gather around the table the most.

i love looking at beautiful place settings, especially inspired by this cozy season.

here are a few of my fav's i came across today :)

 

i absolutely love this color scheme...aqua is my favorite and it looks so great with the bright pop of orange.

 it is fun for me and my family to use nature in our seasonal decorating.

pottery barn never disappoints...i love the mixed leaf garland.

dr.'s orders

 

after taking carigan to her yearly well-check visit, the pediatrician recommended that she read a book everyday! 

i just loved the fact that she mentioned that right along side all the safety rules and healthy eating habits. 

She explained to my daughter that reading was food for the brain.

 we put a lot of emphasis on reading over the summer, but we don't want our children to stop just because school has started. 

so, bug'em came out on the first day of school with some special surprises for the girls :)

they both found him in their very clean rooms with books and a few pieces candy.

it makes me happy that they both have started reading these books before even touching the candy!

our summer reading tree results!!!

 over the summer...

camille, age 8, read 14 books averaging around 150-200 pages each.

carigan, age 5-6, read 50 books over the summer averaging around 20-30 pages each.

i am really proud of them for their love of reading and disciple to continue reading over the summer. 

we look forward to the continual growth of our reading tree :)

where were you...?

it is hard to believe that something so tragic only happened 10 years ago.

everyone always shares "where they were" when they heard the news so i decided to share mine.

i had just moved to dickinson, texas to start a new journey with my husband. we were both 21 years old and i was rushing to bible college and arrived a little late to class. to my surprise, everyone was so serious. our principal was up at the front explaining that there was an attack on the united states of america and possible threat to the president and white house. we were then released to go home. 

i remember grabbing my phone as fast as i could to call my husband who was watching the events on tv. in that moment it was great to hear his calming voice.

after school everyday, i had a part-time job as a teacher's aid in the 3rd grade classroom at the private school on the same church campus. so, instead of going home, i decided to help out in the classroom early that day and stay until everyone had left.

in seeing the footage later on at home, i was so shocked that someone would do such a thing. my heart was deeply hurting for all the men, women, children, and families that were fatally injured going about their morning. my heart swelled with pride at every american hero that went above and beyond their call of duty for someone else. i'll never forget the president's speech and how it rang true in everyone's heart!

if you feel like sharing...where were you 10 years ago?

life is a highway

 after my receiving a fun splurge a few weeks ago, 

i have been noticing some signage around the house...

 this traffic light was spotted in the door way of carigan's room...

 

and the golden arches was found on camille's door...

lets just hope no one is running any red lights and are only visiting mcdonald's once a month.

mom's day out...with the kids ;)

our last day of freedom before getting back to routine...

 

we ate out and got starbucks...

went shopping for something fun...

got pampered...

camille getting her first tween manicure 

(in high hopes of stopping her nail-biting habit)

carigan fascinated with the message chair

(she wanted her feet washed in warm water...aka a pedicure)

mine are the stubbing fat feet ;)

it is fun to spend time with little girls who make you feel young and who inspire you to enjoy life.

hope everyone has a great weekend!

funny friday foto

this was served to me by my youngest daughter this past year. 

one thoughtful morning she carefully brought me breakfast in bed. 

dry cheerios and a bottle of water. 

i love her so much ;) 

and, yes, she watched me eat some before leaving me be.

teachers are the best

like i had mentioned before, school started last week for my kiddos and during our open house we came bearing gifts.

teachers are so important and we certainly value them each year. a good teacher can make all the difference to a child and how their year will turn out. 

fortunately, we have always had wonderful teachers that teach at our school and that truly care for the students. 

it seems i gain a new friend each year that my children are in a different classroom. i do what i can to help out and support their role as important people in my children's lives.

 chocolate and coffee...two of our favorites :)

 we even had something for the teacher's aid, an apple stress ball...just in case :)

 my daughter also had gifts for her best friends, bracelets that she made them over the summer.

i am expecting this year to be great!

unique seasonal eye chart

this is pretty darn cleaver...

 visit her website to get the free printable if you like!

Tatertots & Jello

chalkboard door!

over the weekend we accomplished one thing that was on our "wish" list.. 

chalkboarding our mudroom/garage door.

we had talked about doing this for a long time and finally accomplished it over labor day weekend!

 my husband took the hardware and door off then sanded all the rough spots.

 

after putting the door back, he painted two coats of chalkboard paint on both sides using a high-density roller.

 

we let it dry for 24 hours before testing it out.

(older sister was staying with some girlfriends...lil sis was missing her)

it has turned out to be both practical and fun!

school days

my kiddos started school last monday 

and since kindergarten we have taken their picture

in front of our front door to document their first days and keep track of their growth :)

here are camille's first day photos

 

2008 - kindergarten

 2009 - first grade

 

2010 - second grade

 2011 - third grade

(notice my beautiful pots - yuck! i will be replacing those soon)

***

here are carigan's first day photos

 2010 - kindergarten

2011 - first grade

i already have the pre-cut mats for these pictures and the future pictures to come. it is hard to believe how much my oldest has grown in such a short time and i know i will be surprised with my youngest as well :)

candy-corn banner

i absolutely love this candy-corn banner and plan on making this with my kiddos soon :)

i just need to figure out how sew first, no big deal :)

how about you,

do you have any fall projects in the making?

funny friday foto

Add caption

a biodegradable dvd player created by our children with our very own "family mystery" movie :)

thankful thursdays...

i'm thankful that...

"...we are family"

 *

i am a young mom, with two children, married to her high school sweetheart. one thing about me that i think is pretty obvious...my family is very important to me!!!

*

my husband and i have chosen how we want our family to look like. we have our own traditions, our own rules, and our own discipline.

*
we both have great parents, but we don't do everything the way they did. we might have each taken a few things we really liked from our own childhood traditions, but a lot of what we do has our own flavor.
 *

individual families can look different without anyone else being right or wrong. don't be afraid to make your own rules. stick to your guns on things that are very important to you. never let anyone on the outside make you feel guilty for doing something that you feel is important for your children.
(as long as you aren't causing them any harm of course)
*
end the end, what comes around goes around. our own children will then get to decide what will work for their families. we get to impact them today and then support them tomorrow.
 *
i am so thankful for our own unique family flavor :)