Dinosaur Valentines

Andrew LOVES dinosaurs...everything about them. He knows which ones are big and which ones eat meat and which ones have feathers or live in the water. He can pronounce weird ones like parasaurolophus and can sing the Dinosaurs A-Z song 18 times in a row. Yep.

So when it was time to get to work on our Valentines for Andrew's Pre-K class I knew we needed to go with a dinosaur theme.

And we came up with these two adorable dinosaur Valentines.

I mean? Adorable right? We needed two because dinos and hearts go so well together. :)

We couldn't decide on one so I combined them, and had them double-sided printed with the brachiosaurus on the front and just the little steggy and his 'rawr' on the back. I can't wait until Valentine's Day so he can pass them out!

We're going to attach a mini dinosaur to the back for a little treat for all his dino-loving friends.

Do you have a dinosaur lover in need of a Valentine? These are for you!

>>>>>>>DOWNLOAD THE PDF FILE HERE<<<<<<<

There is room for your kiddo to personalize them on the front or the back depending on if you attach a mini dinosaur. We're using these little vinyl dinos - it's going to be hard for Andrew to give them away! 

Please share and enjoy!

xoxo

Linking up with Mama Dish for Moonlight & Mason Jars.

New Year // New Start

I don't normally do a lot of reflecting at the end of the year - I'm too ready to look forward, get things done, make some progress already. I wandered around Target this morning, hot coffee in hand, alone, and I started thinking, planning, decorating our home in my head. (Because the new spring Threshold stuff? Awesome!)

I have many things I want to work on in 2014, but at the top of my priority list is hospitality, welcoming friends and family into our house. I naturally lean toward being a homebody, focusing on my kiddos and Brian and our time.

And these things are good, but I want to invite our friends in more often, fill our house with the sounds of kids laughing and music playing and fun times being had. Specifically, I'd like to entertain in some form or fashion once a month in 2014.

My other big focus will be on my photos. I'm going to do a better job of sharing my pictures - both in print and digitally. I have a terrible habit of uploading photos and then leaving them on my computer forever, never to be seen again. Well not anymore! I'm undecided on whether I'll try a photo project again - I've still never completed one - but if I do, then I'm going to make sure it's well displayed - ha!

There's so much more, but right now these things seem easy and fun to me, and I'm not dreading them one bit which is a good place to start for the New Year.

Do you make resolutions? Great goals and plans? What is on your list for 2014?

Christmas at Home

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year. Brian's mom was here and my parents came over after our late afternoon church service so we had five adults and our two young kiddos.

I planned the menu last week and grocery shopped Monday morning along with everyone else in town.

Caroline and I were the first to wake Christmas Eve morning and we quietly hid out in the laundry room, ironing placemats and napkins and dressing up dolls.

I spent the day polishing silver, prepping food, making place cards, setting the table so everything would be just so. We served dinner on my nana's Christmas china and dessert on her candlewick plates. My silver is the same pattern she chose all those years ago and the one my mom uses so regularly.

Brian and I bustled in the kitchen while his mom kept the kiddos entertained. I was amazed that the timing all worked out and we sat down to a delicious and cozy dinner of perfectly roasted beef tenderloin, caprese salad, roasted chick peas + pistachios, green beans, and rosemary potatoes (recipe from The Pioneer Woman's new holiday cookbook) with fabulous pies from my mother-in-law for dessert.

Brian said a beautiful Christmas Eve prayer and my mom cried so I felt like we were doing something right!

After dinner we all filed into the family room around the tree, and the kids opened their one present for the night, new coordinating pj's.

Except Andrew's were too big - they were out of his size and the size up were about six inches too long, but he didn't care one bit. He was so excited because Santa was coming! and his family was there! and it was Jesus' birthday! Christmas for a four and a half year old is so very awesome.

And it was pretty awesome for me too. It made me so happy to work hard to create a beautiful table and a tasty dinner to celebrate this holy holiday with our families. This was the first time we have successfully hosted a holiday without my mom having to come rescue my meal - I tried the first Christmas after Caroline was born and it was SO BAD.

This Christmas dinner though, this, made me feel like a real grownup. I have the very best memories of Nana and Pop's and those easy Christmases of my childhood surrounded by our extended families, but the chance to spend a relaxed Christmas at home, in our new home that feels so very us, was really special too.

And I think the kids thought it was pretty special on Christmas morning.

I will never look at this photo and not smile, right?

As per our usual, I will take down the tree and pack away all the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day. It's always a little bittersweet, but I think it may even be more so this year. We've had a really beautiful first Christmas in this house.

Halloween Lunches

I've been meaning to post these all week!

Here are a few of our recent bentos - lots of Halloween fun if you're looking for some inspiration today! :)

This lunch was packed in our Laptop Lunchbox. Andrew had a cutie with a little leaf pick so it looked like a pumpkin, ghostly strawberries, spidery ham and cheese, Scooby bones, cucumbers with ranch dressing for dipping and monster eyed popcorn. Adorable!

Andrew asked for a monster Oreo so he got a little treat this day. :) He also had stamped jack-o-lantern sandwiches highlighted with an orange food marker, an orange cup with spider webbed cheerios, BOO! berries, cucumber with dressing for dipping and yogurt raisins. I made a little pumpkin pick with a puffy sticker and a toothpick too. What a super easy way to dress up a lunch! This was all packed in the PlanetBox.

We made it to Halloween day! Whew!

I made little jack-o-lantern chips out of tortillas, a pumpkin cookie cutter and a few little pieces from this face making set. You could also just use a knife, but it was nice to have the help with the cutters. Andrew thought the monster face on the left was super spoooooooky, which he loved! Ha!

(Here's a link to a full tutorial on the jack-o-lantern chips. Caroline and I are having ghost chips for lunch! You can do a lot using this technique.)

He had ham rollups with a ghost pick, spider web carrots, yogurt with ghost sprinkles and raspberries with candy eyes.

And that's the end of our Halloween bentos for the year! I'm a little sad, but kinda ready to get back to normal lunches too. I've got some cute fall ideas and then maybe a Christmas lunch or two, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself. Ha!

Have a super fun Halloween with your little ones today! I can't wait to go trick-or-treating with my little skeleton and bumble bee tonight! :)

Welcome October

We were hopping out of the car when Caroline spotted the Halloween decor in the window at the little gift shop next door to the gym.

"Look mama!"

"Oh, I see all the Halloween decorations. What is Caroline going to be for Halloween?"

"Little monster!"

Well, that's not really what I had in mind for my beautiful little girl's third Halloween costume. A princess? Super Girl? Maybe a ballerina?

Andrew wants to be a skeleton. Ugh! Surely I can have one cute, sweetly costumed kiddo, right?

We've penciled in our trip to the pumpkin patch for the month. There's a fall fest at church on our calendar. Our new neighbors are already talking about what fun it is to trick-or-treat on our street and Andrew is so excited that Halloween falls on a school day this year.

I think October is the best month. I'm not stressed out about Christmas and its trees and presents yet. There are very few 90+ degree days and the mornings are cool and fresh. And there's candy and treats and parties.

So welcome October. I'm happy to see you, even if I end up with a little monster and a skeleton for my trick-or-treat companions.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July friends!

We're celebrating all that is wonderful about this great country of ours with some swimming and some barbecue, super cool shades and maybe a firework show or two.

I really, really wanted to make this peanut butter American flag dip (OMG!) but I ran out of time. Boo! Maybe we'll have it this weekend instead.

via Crazy for Crust

We'll just keep the celebration going.

What are you doing to celebrate today? 

Our Belated Easter Celebration

No, no. I'm not a week behind. Well, I am, but these photos are just from yesterday.

Remember how Andrew was sick as a dog last week? Well, we delayed our family Easter celebration until this past weekend.

We went to our church's new Saturday night service and then we were up early on Sunday to see what the Easter bunny dropped off. Yes, I called the Eater bunny and asked him to come a week late. No problem at all, he said. :)

Andrew thought getting an Easter basket full of goodies was way worth the wait. And Caroline was pretty happy with her new "phone" too.

And then we were off to my parents' to hunt eggs with my sister and Matt and cousin Reid. Miss Anna Kate slept through most of the egg hunt, sweet thing, but she was there too.

The kids had a blast! I knew Andrew would be a pro at egg hunting, but I wasn't sure what Caroline would think of it all. Well, she figured it out right away.

So even though our real Easter Sunday was spent on the couch, we can celebrate God's love and His promise anytime, right?

Day Four

This photo pretty much sums up our Easter weekend.

Oh poor sad Andrew. His tummy bug, which had to be some kind of super-charged mutant virus, lasted a full four days and nights. I called the pediatrician, and they assured me that this was okay, but I was beginning to get worried.

We had great plans for a day with family at my parents' on Easter Sunday, but instead we sat around in our pajamas and watched Disney Jr. Again.

Well, not Caroline. I dressed her in her Easter dress anyway because she looked so cute, and I hated to not get another wear out of it. She played in the backyard for a bit and kept up her usual toddler shenanigans.(She's so ladylike y'all).

So by Sunday - the fourth day - Andrew started to feel like he could get up and do stuff, but then after a few minutes he'd say, "I'm going to go lay back down." So sad.

But I'm happy to report that as of this morning he seems to be back to about 85%. I told him we're still going to take it easy, so he's building castles with his Magnatiles and then stomping on them like a T-Rex. Sounds about right for a Monday morning.

And I told him that even though we didn't get to go to church for Easter we still need to remember God's love and mercy everyday. And also that I called the Easter bunny and he's going to make a special trip to our house next weekend. Andrew was totally okay with that.

I hope you all had a marvelous, virus-free Easter weekend!

Valentine Banner & a Printable

Valentine's Day....

One of those funny holidays that means so much more now that I'm responsible for small children. I want to make it special for them, something they'll remember.

So we decorate our house and we make pink funfetti cupcakes and we read little stories about making Valentines for our friends.

 This sweet banner is hanging in our front hall and it makes a big statement for such a small piece.

I made the tags in Photoshop and then cut different sized hearts out of coordinating Valentine themed scrapbook papers. (I used my new Silhouette to cut the hearts because I'm obsessed, but any scissors will work.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>You can download the jpeg here<<<<<<<<<<<<<

You'll just need a hole punch and some twine for an instant Valentine banner. I also like to use these pop dots to add some dimension. 

I picked up a little book of Valentine papers at Michael's a few weeks ago, but if you're looking for digital paper, Paper Tree House Studio on Etsy has darling packs you can print.

Enjoy!

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Linking up with The 36th Avenue.

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year from our crazy family to yours! 

My only resolution for 2013 is to go to bed at a decent hour. My mantra is going to be eleven to seven, eleven to seven.

If I can get us all on a better sleep schedule I think lots of other stuff I want to accomplish this year will fall in to place.

If you have any tips I'm all ears because we all know I've tried this before. ::sigh::

This time I will do it!

P.S. Here's our family photo from January 1, 2012.

What a difference a year makes!

A Look Back

Looking back at 2012 I feel like it was a year of finding myself. How cliche is that? Maybe finding my creative self. I started out the year saying I was going to focus on living life.

I'm not really sure what that even meant, but maybe I did it? I think mostly I adjusted to being a mom to two mobile children. It's still crazy but totally fun, and most days I feel like we're doing really well around here.

I started out the year organizing, cleaning and purging. I got rid of so much stuff, but this house it still so full. An abundance of blessings and I'm thankful, but I still have lots of work to do here.

In March we went on a Disney cruise with my family and Andrew turned three. He of course thought we went on the Mickey Boat to celebrate his birthday. Either way, it was an awesome trip.

Sleeping baby in the Ergo and mini golf with Goofy.

I thought Andrew seemed so big on his third birthday. Now I think he looks like just a baby.

So cool.

I made my first cupcake toppers for Easter in April. Those little toppers were the beginning of my craftiness this year.

I'd never considered myself particularly crafty, but I learned that I really enjoy designing things in Photoshop.

I made banners for lots of holidays.



Like the Fourth of July, Halloween and even the Olympics.

But the crown jewel of my craftiness was Caroline's birthday party.

This still makes me happy.

Hehehe!

I should have just left these up all year!

Oh man, that was a pretty party.

Also, I made her cake from scratch. That was new. I bought my first ever KitchenAid mixer, and I've used it lots this year. It's pretty awesome.

Oh, I cut bangs in 2012.

That was a big, big change, but I love them. I'll admit it took me a bit to decide that though. Now I feel like they're flattering and current and also like I tried harder than I did - ha!

Brian was gone a lot this year. He worked a ton and he was in school getting his MBA, but graduated in December. ::angels singing::

I'm so very proud of him.

I started making Bento style lunches at the beginning of the school year.

These are so much fun and Andrew thinks he has the coolest lunch around.

I tried really hard to get my life all organized at the same time. It's a work in progress y'all.

We also spent a week in Florida this fall. It was fabulous.

The kids had the best time. I really loved it there and hope we go back in 2013.

The holidays were kind of a blur of finishing school and decorating and parties and Mavericks games. But we did manage to snap a family picture.

I can't explain Caroline's face. It's the best we could do. Ha!

Andrew believed in Santa's magic this year and was SO excited when he brought him a Batmobile. I totally get it, buddy. I'd like a new car too.

Overall, it was a good year. A year of adjusting and growing and learning who we are as a family of four.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you take some time to reflect back on your 2012 and find that it was a good one indeed.