3/25/13

Spring Break

Well I don't know about the rest of the world but my spring break was awesome! My job lets out for spring break, which means I had no work, no homework, and the opportunity to get absolutely nothing done! My favorite kind of vacation!

Spring break started out with Ali having a friend over who spent the night with her on Friday. They had so much fun together. Star gazing, tea parties, Monopoly... we never left the house but they kept themselves pretty busy!

They did their own makeup... 
Tea party (aka orange juice), ice cream, and fish crackers. 
Toasting.
The girls slept in the floor right next to the bed
Jordan woke up bright and early and ate breakfast
before the girls woke up. 
Toasting again at breakfast... hehe
Saturday we went to my sister's house to see the family. We got to see my nephew who lives in Houston, he's getting so big! The kids spent the entire day outside playing (it was SO nice that day!) and Jordan didn't even take a nap. He was quite the cranky kid by the end of the day.

The boys playing in Carter's closet
(that's a giant egg on J's head)
Legos
Evan!! Isn't he just so gorgeous??
He's growing too fast!
Ali with her new cookbook and
apron Aunt Shawn got her :)
Gigi
Sunday afternoon I drove down to the farm to spend a few days with mom and dad and kept the kids down there too. Fuzz was in New Mexico for work and was gone most of the week. We had a blast on the farm! We went on little adventures (those pics are on a different camera, as usual!), rode the tractor, fed baby calves, played on the swing set, had a picnic... It was awesome!

Carter and Jordan waiting for Daddy Coy 
Cousins =)
Ali being a good big sister and pushing J
Picnic time!!
Toasting with DP and a banana... 
Jordan wants to be a big boy
Panoramic view of the farm
Riding the tractor
Ali, Mommy, Jordan
Ali and Daddy Coy working (playing)
My dad took this picture.
He wanted to get an action shot of me working... HA
Blurry pic of my mamma
This cracks me up... J and Daddy Coy were
not ready for the flash apparently.
Ali and J
Getting a lot of work done, I'm sure!
Jordan was so wore out...
he fell asleep inside Peanut's dog house!
Our last day there I woke up
to Ali reading a book to Jordan <3
We came back on Wednesday and Ali had to go back to her mom's that evening. When we got home we put together this thing my dad made for us. I think it's called Redneck Golf??? The kids played for about an hour with it!



After Ali left I decided it was time to give Jordan a hair cut. I knew it had to be done while Kris was away or he wouldn't let me do it! He's convinced Jordan should have long hair. I, on the other hand, like to keep it out of his eyes. 

Thursday and Friday I decided to take Jordan to daycare so I could get some stuff done around the house. And when I say stuff I mean crafts and scrapbooking and cleaning. 

I've been wanting to do something about the gold fixtures in our bathrooms for a long time now but I could never find the right paint! I finally found some oil rubbed bronze spray paint and decided to give it a shot. That stuff is miracle in a can!


The new color looks so much more sophisticated.

I also experimented with tinting glass bottles. I had several that I'd been saving for something crafty. It worked okay, not great. I wanted them to look kinda bluish. I heated up about a tablespoon of water and dissolved some blue gel food coloring in it, then added it to about half a cup of mod podge. Then I added more blue. And then I added even more blue. 

The bottles/jars I've been saving (and my life-saving coffee maker in the background)
Mod Podge is water saluable so it washes off of everything
after a little bit of soaking. Clean up was pretty easy and nothing
got ruined, yay!
I poured the solution into my jar, coated the inside
really well, and then poured the excess back into the cup. I
turned them upside down on a paper towel and some foil
for about 5 minutes.  
Then I sat the jars upright for about 5 minutes to let whatever excess that didn't come out the first time settle at the bottom. This is REALLY important. I didn't do this with a bigger jar and ended up having streaks and big clumps all in it. It looked awful and had to be cleaned!
I then put them in the oven (set on about 200 degrees) and left them for roughly half an hour, until they were dry and looked clear-ish
Here's two of them up close! The tint is very light. If I ever do it again I might use the entire tube of gel coloring, ha! The one in the back was spray painted (way easier than tinting!)

I took some other jars I'd spray painted and stuck them all together, adding some little paper flowers I had made ages ago and a neat glass jug I found at a yard sale (which I ended up getting for free, no lie). This project was fun but probably not worth all the effort! 

After all that I decided it was time to clean out my craft box:



And then my scrapbooking box:


And then I bought Jordan a cowboy hat:


Then we did nothing! Kris came home Friday night. Saturday I ran a 5K, came home, and laid on the couch watching my beloved Gilmore Girls for 8 hours straight. I'd say it was a pretty successful spring break; can't wait till the next one! 

3/13/13

Terrible Twos?

What are these "terrible twos" you speak of?


According to everyone I know... there is no way to avoid the terrible twos. This blanket term refers to the impressive little tantrums that a two year old can throw.

Last night, as my son was throwing the 150th temper tantrum screaming for "MORE DRINK, MOMMY, MORE DRINK!" I couldn't help but wonder if maybe he was born with the terrible twos. Lets face it, my son has been mastering tantrums since he first entered the world and the doctor said, "Man this kid has some healthy lungs!" Seriously we've been dealing with this kind of stuff for a long time. I think that makes me an expert on temper tantrums!

We've been working with him for several months now on using his "calm voice" when he needs something instead of crying for it. He is such an intense baby! When he's hungry, he screams for food. When he's thirsty, he screams for his drink. When his diaper is dirty, he screams, "I POO POO! I POO POO! DIAPER!!!!!!"

I've heard that the terrible twos can be extremely stressful. Maybe, for most people, that's true. But for us? I think, at this point, we're pretty equipped to handle it!

3/12/13

Three Nanny Goats Gruff

Have I said lately how cute my kids are?

Last week Ali's class put on a play and she scored a leading role. That's my girl! My little "Annie Goat" was as prepared as a little girl could possibly be. She knew every single line throughout the entire thing!

The night before her play she couldn't go to sleep. "I'm too nervous!" she told me. We had bought her American Girl doll a new outfit and had planned on giving it to her as a gift after her big performance that night but my husband (bless his heart...) didn't realize it was a surprise and laid it out for her on her bed. She found it the day before her play and said, "Hey look what I found!!" Argh... surprise ruined! I still wanted to make her feel super special so we bought her some flowers and gave them to her that night.

I made her some felt horns and ears for her play. I would have loved to do more but didn't know I was responsible for the costume until just a couple of days before the performance. She ended up just wearing jeans and a shirt with the cute headband. Let's be clear: I don't sew. I mean... I can stick some thread into a needle and weave it in and out of stuff, but that's the extent of my talent. It literally took me two (or more?) hours to get her headband put together! I haven't seen it since. Yeah... I would like it framed, thank you very much!

I bought a cheap headband, some felt, and some ribbon so I could add some cute bows to go on it. I found a cool tutorial on how to make your own curly-cue bows and OMG they turned out so cute! Plus... the bows helped hide the imperfections :)

 Here are some awesome pictures of my baby girl's performance (stolen from my MIL's facebook since I forgot my stupid camera that night!):



"I am going to cross the bridge with my kid brother, Billie."


And of course... SHE WORE HER PERFECT LITTLE HEADBAND BACKWARDS!! I'm sure no one else noticed... but I of course did! Isn't she the cutest little nanny goat you've ever seen!?

I am just SO proud of my little STAR!!