"Josh-isms" Squared

I shared these two "Josh-isms" on facebook in real time, but I needed to record them here also so they make it into our family journal. This kid is too much. And growing up way too quickly for my taste. One day in the not too near future, these "Josh-isms" will be a thing of the past. Sigh.

On Sunday, Josh rushed over to me with a little Playmobile guy and says:

Josh: "Look, mom! It's a knight! He has a big shield, a big ass and a big helmet."

I think that is Josh-talk for axe.

Yesterday morning, Josh told me to watch out or his knights would shoot a "canyon ball" out of their "canyon" at me.

I'm gonna be so sad when he says all his quirky words right...it's tough to watch that last little one grow up!

Duck & Cover Bunker

I was up getting the kids ready for school this morning and the tornado siren went off. The weather has been strange, but it caught me a little off guard. Not the best way to start the day. All the schools went to a 2-hour late start and I explained the situation to the big kids. They were a little spooked, but they seemed fine. But when Tony was getting ready to leave for school, Anna starts to sob. Turns out, she wasn't so worried about our actual house blowing away in a tornado, but she was so sad because she would miss Bunny and Rebecca (her American Girl doll) when the house blew away. So I told her to go carefully put them in my closet (our "safe" spot) so that if we had to hide, they would be there with us. And that's exactly what she did.

And just so it is recorded for posterity, Josh slept through the entire thing. Sirens. Wind. Rain. Thunder. Lightening.

Seriously.

Boot.Socks.

I am in love with boot socks.

Exhibit A: Knee-high socks topped with trim that peek out over the tops of your boots. Here is the tutorial to do your own from Laurel at Ducks in a Row. I made a black pair and a white pair to wear with my church skirts. LOVE them.


Exhibit B: Over the knee book socks. LOVE them over skinny jeans. I hit Target earlier this week and bought 3 sweaters on clearance for about $5 each, cut the arms off right where they meet the body of the sweater and serged along the raw edge. The sweater cuff becomes the top of your boot socks. I also cut the buttons off the sweater and stitched two to the outside of both socks.

Today I wore my cream boot socks. I felt stylish AND frugal.

The end.

DIY Apothecary Jars

I LOVE those gorgeous, big apothecary jars that everyone has on their entry table or mantle filled with beautiful holiday things. But three things bring me to a screeching halt every time I ever even consider putting one in my cart.

1. Price. They are SO expensive. And even with coupons, I could easily spend $80 on jars. And I'd want a lot of them.

2. They are big. And I have 3 kids.

3. We move all the time. I almost have a panic attack just thinking about the mover dudes trying to pack them up and get them to our next home without them shattering.


So when I saw this on Pinterest, I got excited. By scouring my local junk shops, dollar stores, and even my own cupboards, I got the elements to MAKE some apothecary jars. They are smaller than average, but inexpensive so if they broke...no big deal. So I made 6 apothecary jars. For about $20. Seriously.

I can just see them all on my mantle filled with Valentine goodies. This has been my favorite project in a long time...

Felt Flower Scarf

Tony and I had to speak in church a couple of weeks ago and, as always, I was a little nervous. And what better to distract my would-be listeners than with an awesome scarf!! I found the tutorial on Pinterest and was excited to try it out (I'm all about scarves this Winter). I think I spent all of $3 on the felt...I had a coupon for Hobby Lobby. The tutorial here is easy to follow and gives great picture references. I think the scarf is even cuter with her little baby belly...

My Suicidal "M"

I have seen a ton of these yarn covered monograms lately (like Laurel's here) and since covering an "m" would obviously be a little tricky, I didn't want to spend a lot of money to give it a go. I bought a pressboard letter at Hobby Lobby (on sale for $1) and used some yarn I had on hand. It took me two nights and I ended up going all over it twice with yarn. Added some felt flowers and leaves (more to come on felt flowers tomorrow), hot glued some ribbon on the back and hung it on the front door. It turned out much better than I though it would and looked pretty dang cute for the whole 2 days it was on the front door.

It has been beautiful here. Gorgeous. Sunny and warm. So warm, in fact, that the sun remelted the hot glue holding the ribbon to the back of the "m" and the whole thing came crashing down between the front door and the screen door. And broke. My heart. It broke in two places where the "m" is the narrowest, but I'm not ready to give it up yet. I'm gonna try and salvage it with something a little more "Alabama-proof" than hot glue this time. Geesh.

Sam's Green Lantern Cake

Sam's 11th birthday was last week. He chose dinner at Bass Pro Shops and then we came home and opened presents and ate...yes...Green Lantern cake. I kid you not. Really stretched my cake-making talents, but he was happy. Such a funny kid.

Happy, happy birthday Sam. We love you to infinity and beyond.

January Reflections

My very favorite part of the Holiday Season is the walk from the mailbox to the living room couch with a little stack of Christmas cards from the people that our family loves. This year, I feel especially grateful for the wonderful people in our life...from Belgium to Japan, Alaska to Florida and everywhere in between. I love that I have gotten to actually HUG so many of you this year...

So the Christmas cards will be staying up just a little bit longer, even though the rest of Christmas has been put away. Just to remind us of all of you.

I love that the fireplace in this house has such a great mantle. It was so fun to decorate with snow and snowmen and pretty white and blue things. Jeni inspired the pitcher of twigs and crocheted snowflakes . My favorite thing is the tall glass apothecary with "snowballs" made of Styrofoam, Elmer's glue and fake snow I got on clearance at Target (on the left in front of the wooden barn star).

Happy January!

Gingerbread Houses

I hope everyone had a fabulous, safe New Year's Eve! We did "find-the-nut-and-get-a-prize" cupcakes (Anna won), sparkling cider, and thought of personal goals for 2012. It was a nice night!


I know we are playing catch-up a little bit, but I thought I lost the memory card with the photos I took while my mom was here and she made gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. But I found it...tada!

I've heard that building gingerbread houses can be a pain in the tush, but on one of our many trips to Michaels during my mom's visit, we found this Wilton's gingerbread house cookie cutter set. We used this recipe, split the dough into 3 parts, flattened it on cookie sheets and baked it. When they were done baking and still warm, my mom used the cookie cutters to cut the pieces out of the sheet...it was awesome. The pieces don't warp in the oven that way and with a little icing, those houses were solid. GREAT find.

We puts bowls of candy and icing bags all over the table and the kids just went for it. They each had their own house which made it really nice for everyone. We helped Josh a little with icing, but for the most part, these are their creations. We've had them on display all Christmas season. Special thanks to my mom for all her help pulling this off...couldn't have done it without her.

This is the front of Sam's gingerbread house. And that is gingerbread Captain America.

Have a great week!

Let It...Snow?

This has been the only snowless Christmas our kids have ever had...it doesn't seemed to have really bothered anyone but Josh. Certainly didn't bother me. But my dear friend Kristi and her family sent our kids a can of make-your-own snow for Christmas! It is made of the same stuff that is inside diapers...we just added water and instant snow! The kids made a few snowballs, a little snowman and called it good.

That's my kind of snow!

Have any of you seen the darling types of duct tape there are out there now? I found this reindeer roll at Michaels in early December and made some cards with it. LOVE the green.

Hope everyone is having a happy Christmas hangover!

Merry Christmas!

Hope your Christmas is merry & bright! Lots of love from our family to yours.


Be back after the Holidays...

Obsessed

What is it about red velvet cake?? And when it is conveniently bite-sized?? We're taking them to our friend parties this weekend.
I AM OBSESSED!