Random Wednesday

This is my new idea for a weekly post.  Hopefully it will keep me in the routine of posting even when I think there might not be anything worth posting about.  There is always something to blog about, right?  So on Wednesdays anything goes for me.  We’ll see if I can keep it up. :)

I figured out my Mothers Day gifts and I am  EXCITED!!! A little blog reading yesterday and I am set.  I love blogs for that reason.  They are so helpful and inspiring and I love that we women share the goods in our life.  We all have been given talents and this is such a wonderful way to share them, whether it be through our inspiring words and thoughts, our projects and ideas, photography, recipes, our personal goals or sharing our cute families and fun things we do.  Whatever it is.  Blogging is inspiring and such a fun way to learn and grow. 

OK enough of my soap box.  Here is what I’m going to be working on this weekend.  Mothers in my life – do not click on these links.  Unless you don’t want it to be a surprise.  That’s up to you.  I will have them in the mail to you next week. 

This is what I am doing for my Mother-in-Law and This is what I’m doing for my mom.  I’m going to get my sewing machine out!  Can you believe it?  I know they are like super easy sewing projects, but I don’t sew, remember?  I’ll let you know how they turn out.  

Another piece of random…I hobbled along with Drew on his school field trip today. 

                       My foot is paying for it now but he was happy.  I sure love him!

A set back and a question…

Have you ever heard of Plantar Fasciitis?  I hadn’t until the end of last week.  I started complaining to anyone with ears about how badly the heal of my foot was hurting.  Every single one of them unanimously said, “I bet you have Plantar Fasciitis.”  Ahhhhhh…Planter what???  I still have to ask Casey, “What’s that foot thing I have,”  when I’m explaining it to someone.  Now that I have typed it up, I don’t think I will forget.  That’s how I learn. 

Anyway, early last week my foot started hurting.  That tired kind of hurt after you’ve walked on hard wood or tile barefoot all day.  I get that a lot, so I didn’t think much about it.  But then it didn’t go away, even after I put socks on or my slippers.  It gradually kept getting worse and worse.  By Thursday evening I could barely walk on it and by Friday morning I was in tears with every little step, hoping for any kind of medicine, thinking that a wheel chair and crutches sounded pretty awesome.  That’s when I heard about Plantar Fasciitis.  (Click and get the details if you want.)  The sad thing is it doesn’t go away quickly.  I could have this for years.  There is no easy treatment.  Darn it!!  Can I cry now?

 So these are my new favorite necessities in life:  

Doesn’t that look depressing?  Can I just say…aging sucks! I’m sure this doesn’t have anything to do with my age, but I feel like it does.  I am on a good rotation with Advil and Tylenol.  Tennis shoes are my shoe of choice these days (yuck, yuck, yuck!!!) I love my shoe insert and rolling my foot on ice is Heavenly.  These things have helped a lot.  I’m not in tears anymore and I have given up on my pity party, although I move like a turtle and that drives me crazy!  Slowness and me are not friends. at.all.

But I have reluctantly learned to be friends with this turtle side of me.  There is a lesson in everything.  Right now my lesson has been to see the blessings from slowing down a little.  I have had to let things in my house go (I swear, that is a never ending lesson for me).  Instead, I have enjoyed sitting on the couch more, as hard as it may be.  That has opened my lap up to my children more with some genuine get to know you talks.  I have been able to see the nurturing side of my children while  I hear my name in their prayers.  I see how much quicker they move to help me around the house.  It has also freed up a little time for me to tackle some reading that I have been wanting to do for awhile.  All in all, I think I can cope.  It could always be worse.        

On a different note, my children had a Primary Activity last Saturday.  They brought me home early Mothers Day gifts.

Aren’t they cute?  I love how the boys made me flowers.  I can just picture my boys doing a flowery craft.  Makes me smile.   Kaylee chose to write about me.  She knows me so well!  I love getting gifts like these from them. 

So here is my question…What do you give the Mothers in  your life for Mothers Day?  Do you have to put something in the mail or do they live by you?  I have to put them in the mail and my creative brain isn’t working right now.  I’m starting to run out of time.  Help!  Do you have an suggestions?

P.S.  Ady pulled herself up today.  She was sitting on the floor in front of the ottoman and all of the sudden I saw her little face pop up over the top.  She was after a piece of paper.  She stood there for a long time.  That girl is growing up way too fast!

We {Love} our Teachers!

This week is Teacher Appreciation for my kids schools.  I have been a little MIA in my their classrooms since having Ady.  I decided to help my kids make something special for them so they know how much we (I) sincerely appreciate all that they do.

I think every teacher should be proud of their name.  Their name is everything.  They hear it all day long, just like we hear “mommy” all day long.  So we celebrated that by making them a monogram.

   

I picked up the 4x6 frames at Walmart one day.  I had the burlap at home.  I printed their monograms on white cardstalk in a kid friendly font.  Stuck that on the burlap with glue dots, then hot glued ribbon around the edges of the cardstalk.  The flowers are 3 circles cut out of felt and stitched in the center and put into place with a glue dot.  The kids asked their teachers what their favorite color was.  That is how we chose the colors for the felt.  I had them make each teacher a homemade card (they each have 2 teachers).  This was our Family Home Evening on Monday.  We came up with a silly little saying for each one, like…Mrs. J (we wrote her whole name, but since this is the internet I can’t do that :) Mrs. J – you are Just plain cool!  Mrs. M – You are the Merry best!  Mrs. D – You are Dynamite!  Mrs. K – you are Kickin’!  and others like that (the last one was Jake’s btw!)

We had a lot of fun putting them together.  If I was a teacher I would love to have something cute like this in my classroom, but I’m not a teacher so I don’t really know. :)  Either way, we want them to know how special we think they are and that they should be proud of all they do.    

All wrapped up and ready to go.

I am linking up to Just a Girls Show and Share Day.

Look who’s 6 months already…

My sweet baby girl!  I can hardly believe she is halfway through her first year. :(

6 Month Stats

Weight – 12.14 – 5%

Height – 26” – 50-75%

Head – 16.5 – 25-50%

The dr. said she is tall and lean.  I think she will be built like Jake.

 

A Little Bit About Ady:

~ She is all about the food.  She can’t get enough of her baby food these days and stares at us while we eat until we share our food with her.

~ It is a joke to change her.  She rolls around all over and will. not. hold. still.  At all!!

~She loves people.  She is freely giving of her smiles and is a little charmer.  She always gets compliments on her eyes and her smile. 

~ She takes after her brother Jake.  They have very similar personalities.  I think she knows it too.  Whenever she is around him she won’t stop smiling and laughing.  Jake loves that.

~ I have to watch Drew with his toys.  He leaves them all over the floor and she is always on the move. 

She is

and

and

P.S.  Yes, I do have 3 other children.  No, they are not neglected.  They are here.  I am just having too much fun photographing our baby these days.  I love this stage!!

Ady’s mobile is done!!

This weekend I finished Ady’s mobile.  I am getting there with my list.  Wahoo!  I have been wanting to get her mobile done since she was born…uuummmm 6 months ago today. :)  I bought these little birdies at Hob Lob during Christmas for $1.00 each.  I knew I wanted to use them for her mobile in one way or another.  They have been sitting in her closet ever since, waiting for the right inspiration.  Good ‘ol Pottery Barn pulled through for me.  I was browsing the magazine one day when it hit me.  Do you want to see it???

        Krysta’s version of a mobile. (Pottery Barn Inspired)

  

I love how simple and beautiful it is. 

It really was easy to make too.  It’s a straw wreath (I don’t remember what size, but I used the smaller one of the two) with white ribbon wrapped around it to cover the straw.  (I wrapped it twice because you could still see the straw and I didn’t like that.)  Then I used the same kind of ribbon to attach to the wreath to hang it from.  They are attached with straight pins.  I cut two long lengths of ribbon.  One attached horizontally and the other attached vertically.  Then when you pull it together at the top you have two loops you can hang it from.  It is then tied together at the top in one  loopy knot and hung from a swag hook on the ceiling.  I don’t know if that makes any sense at all.  I should have taken a picture of that.  The thought crossed my mind, but it seemed kind of boring at the time.  

Then I popped the tops of the flowers off the stems and hot glued them on the middle to top part of the wreath.  Actually, Kaylee popped them off for me.  She was a little helper.   

I loved randomly arranging them and coming up with my own design. 

Then I painted  black dots on the birdies with the back of a small paint brush.  I had to give Ady something more interesting to stare at then plain white birds. 

I like how cute and whimsical they turned out.  Not a bad purchase for $1.oo each.  I’m glad I finally got to use them.  I tied each end of the sheer pink ribbon in a knot.  Then used straight pins to attach the ribbon to the top of the wreath and also to the bird. 

                Here is Ady’s view.

One of the things I really love about this mobile is that it can grow with her.  When she is done with her crib I can take the birds off of the wreath to give it a little more grown up feel and hang it above her big girl bed.  So many fun options!

And this is how we roll behind the scenes…

 

Casey found this back pack on Craig’s List this weekend for $5.00.  It’s in perfect shape.  He’s been keeping his eye out for one for over a month now.  All of my Providence friends probably remember Casey out in our yard mowing the lawn with our children on his back like this.  Well, it’s too hot to do that here, but he can get his “Honey-Do’s” done this way!  He loves doing this!  He totes her around everywhere.  I love him for being such a great dad and for supporting me with all of my crazy notions because let’s admit it…Sometimes they can be pretty crazy.  And  he still loves me!

 

I am linking up to Just a Girls Show and Share Day, DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land and the Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello.

I love this…

 

Even though Spring is short lived in Houston, I love it.  Maybe that’s why I love it so much.  We have a couple of months of perfect spring weather.  We enjoy and appreciate every second of it before the hot, humid stickiness of summer arrives.  My absolute favorite thing about spring in Houston is the wildflowers.  They are all over the place.  They are in full bloom for about a month.  It makes our normal every day trip into town a lot more enjoyable.  I had my camera in the car with me one day and decided to snap some pictures on our drive.  

 

Isn’t it beautiful?  I find myself driving home different ways  just to get glimpses of every street during spring.  The wild flowers probably only have a couple more weeks left, if we’re lucky.

Then there are the Blue Bonnets.  You can’t live in Texas and not have a picture with the Blue Bonnets.  Well, we didn’t have one.  We have almost lived here for 3 years and still no blue bonnet picture.  Not that I really cared, but I was feeling ambitous, so we got the kids dressed up on Easter Sunday and headed out.

These pictures look like we were having lots of fun, but it didn’t last very long.  You know how you take a picture and you look at it years later and think “that was a cute picture.” and then you remember the story behind the picture?  That is how it is for me with these Easter Sunday pictures.  I made every mistake in the book. 

1. It was in the middle of the day and the sun was in full force. 

2. EVERYBODY else had the same idea, so it was packed.  (It doesn’t look like it, but it was. I promise.) 

3. It was getting hot.  We were all getting grumpy.

4. Casey was with me and he hates pictures.  We’ll just leave it at that.

5. And the worst mistake of all…I lost Jake’s glasses…in the blue bonnets.

Me.  The mom.  The one that everyone comes to when things get lost.  The one that can ALWAYS find the lost item.  The one who NEVER misplaces anything.  Me. 

It was awful.  We didn’t realize it until we were almost home and Jake asked me for his glasses.  I had him take them off because they were getting a glare.  I must have set them down and forgotten them.  Casey and I looked at each other.  Let’s just say we both were not happy.  We went back to the blue bonnets in hopes of finding them.  I wasn’t hoping.  I KNEW I would find them.  That’s just how it goes.  Oh yeah, except for this time.

Do you need another look at this blue bonnet field?          

It’s huge and we were all over the place!  After searching high and low for 40 minutes I was defeated and close to tears.  I felt bad for Jake and I felt awful for making such a dumb mistake.  How careless and stupid was that?  Seriously.  Casey wasn’t ready to forgive my quite yet.  I really didn’t blame him, but then I reminded him of that time he lost our van in the parking lot at Disney World.  He didn’t have much to say after that!  That wasn’t funny then, but it sure is funny now.  Ha, ha, ha!   

Oh Ady…

 

I think it’s safe to say that Ady has outgrown her bouncy chair.

 

What do you think?

Spring and Summer Wreath

When I saw this wreath while reading blogs a couple of weeks ago, I knew I HAD to make it.  I had been keeping my eye out for a Spring/Summer wreath for over a month with no luck.  This was exactly what I was looking for with out really knowing what I was looking for. Ha, ha!  One of those, “you’ll know it when you see it”  kind of things.  Well, I knew I wanted this wreath on my front door.  So bad that it crept all the way to the top of my list!  That’s sayin’ somethin’.  I found it on Just a Girls Show and Share Day.  Uncommon linked up to her party.  She has the link to the tutorial on her blog.  Check it out if you want all nitty gritty details.

It’s made out of baby lima beans.  It took me almost 3 full bags.  I wasn’t going to do the backside and then remembered I had a glass door.  Grrrrr…dang glass door!  I hot glued on every single lima bean.  Can you believe I did that?  I think I lost my mind!  It took a looooong time to get it done.  I left it sitting out in my kitchen for a good 3 days and worked on it in 1/2 hour amounts of time, sometimes an hour.  One night I got caught up on my DVR’d shows while working on it.  My kids and husband even joined in!  It was like putting together a puzzle and felt a little therapeutic.  I wish I hadn’t been quite as messy with the hot glue and a little more precise with laying out the beans, but I still love how it turned out.  And…it only cost me about $8.00 to make! 

 

Do you love it as much as I do?  I check the mail more often these days, just cause I want to take a peak at my wreath. :)