2.28.10 - peter :)

finally! this is not the best picture...because it is a picture of a picture...taken with my cell phone. but it will give you a glimpse of my little brother. you can just barely make out some of his blond curls on top of his head. :) oh, and yes, that would be me. :)

2.27.10 - strawberry bunches :)

did you know that if you bring reusable shopping bags when you shop at target, you get 5 cents per bag when you check out? i wanted to be sure to be able to take advantage of that deal, but i did not want those little red target bags they sell (surprising, i know, since my favorite color is red...). i wanted something different. so i looked on ebay...and found these adorable bags that fold up into little strawberries!! they are too cute and come in so many fun colors!! (and there IS a red one...it's just tucked into one of those strawberries...) :) these came all the way from china and i got 10 of them for about $12! not bad since i had to order them internationally! :) i can't wait to try them out!

2.26.10 - little helpers

my girls love to help around the house. today they helped fold their own laundry. well, my oldest did. my middle child got side tracked being her usual goofy self! :) she made us all laugh...after getting a "what in the world is she doing now??" look from her sister!

2.25.10 - live, laugh, love

a picture frame my kids' grandmother gave me for christmas. i finally got it up on my wall. it has some of my favorite pictures in it. and i love how the pic of jonathan cracking up is right under the word laugh. :)

2.24.10 - reduce, reuse, recycle

ok, so i am not entirely a "green" girl, but the title just fit. :) and this is going to be a longer post on this blog than usual. it should be a post on my other blog...but i forgot my sd card for my camera today and had to wait till i came back here tonight to take a pic. oh well.

i have wanted to do this for forever! i have seen the idea on so many fun craft websites and when wendy brought home a new valentine's day muffin (?) tin (it's pretty shallow)...i knew exactly what i was going to do with it! we had bunches of little tiny leftover crayon pieces floating around. some i had saved on purpose just to do this some day.

all three kiddos and i turned on some music (a must for craft time at our house!) and peeled the bits of paper off some of the crayons. this was a good "fine motor skills" practice, especially for my toddler. :) he concentrated very hard and got excited every time he completed a crayon. :) next, we broke the crayons into small pieces - an inch or less - and put them in the muffin tin that i had sprayed well with pam. we did some by color shade and for a few we just mixed all the colors together to see what would happen.

then i put them in the oven at 275 for 7 minutes. there was many trips to the oven to turn on the oven light and "check on the crayons" during that seven minute period. :)

after i took them out i set them on the counter to cool. at this point you can take a toothpick and swirl the colors a little bit if you want. ours were pretty well swirled. the website that i found directions on said to freeze them so they could completely set before taking them out. i wasn't sure if that was totally necessary so i waited a few minutes and picked one to try getting out with a knife. it started crumbling.

so then i ran it up to my freezer (the easiest one around here to place something flat in) and waited till later tonight to take them out. i turned the tin over and most of them simply fell out! to get the rest out, i just tapped the tin on the counter a couple times. so, definitely freeze first!!

i think they turned out so cute! my kids haven't seen the final product yet and i know they'll be eager to try them out. i have another idea i found for this...maybe we'll try it next...! :) you can do it just as well in a "regular" muffin tin or a mini muffin tin too. if any of you decide to try this, take a pic and let me see!

2.23.10 - spring is coming...

spring is coming...spring is coming...spring is coming...!

just a reminder. it really will be here... eventually. :)

2.22.10 - have i mentioned color makes me happy??

well, it does! :) today i told my kiddos it was "choose your own outfit" day. my kids rarely ask to wear specific things and for now, while they don't care, i love getting to choose their outfits each day. (on the days they do ask to wear a specific item, i usually let them, providing it's not in the laundry basket.)

on days when i let them choose whatever they'd like, my girls tend to always end up with these stripey tights...they're just so happy and colorful. my mom made the kite dress that my oldest is wearing a couple years ago. i think today is the last time she will be able to fit in it. (mom, she asked me today if maybe you would make her another dress sometime. :)

my toddler LOVES his superman shirt and will often pick it...when his buzz lightyear or woody cowboy shirts are dirty... :)

with the rainy, cloudy day we had today, these outfits made us all smile with the burst of color. and i love seeing what they like to put together! :)

2.21.10 - we love to dance

this is one of our favorite activities on days when it is too freezing cold outside, or just plain rainy...dancing to music on my itouch. :)

2.20.10 - rediculous.

do you like s'mores? how about in pie form? with a homemade marshmallow topping...that was perfectly toasted just like a marshmallow on a stick in an outdoor fire.

lemme just tell you...it's crazy good.

crazy.

made for two very happy ladies tonight. :)

2.19.10 - a peek at my house

so i have wanted to try a pic like this for a while (because she's done it before...and i think she's cool :) and finally decided to do it tonight. sorry if some of the words are hard to read.

2.18.10 - snugglebug

fever over 100. favorite woody cowboy pj's. favorite stuffed green elephant (from kiki on his first bday - best $0.25 clearance item ever!!) one extra random animal cuz the elephant "needed a friend." favorite corner on the couch. perfect situation for saying, "kiki, can i just snuggle wif you on the couch?"

how could anyone say no to that?! :}

2.17.10 - bubble baby

sometimes we do bubble baths just for fun. all three of my little fish love them.

2.16.10 - color is a happy thing :)

today we had another playdough session at our house. my kids are never ready to put it away. :)

2.15.10 - jumpin' in the rain

ok, so technically this was from last week when em was here...but it's my blog so i can use this for today if i want...right? :}

2.14.10 - happy valentines day!

2.13.10 - happy flower

another new item for my etsy shop. :)

www.cre8tiveglory.etsy.com

2.12.10 - YUM.

i had a few friends over last night to watch the opening ceremony of the olympics with me. i made melissa's mexican soup (very yummy) and leah brought these cupcakes. they had some serious chocolate in them. i needed that. :) the marshmallows were homemade and the icing was soo incredible it made you just want to roll around in it! lol i told leah that any chocolate that you had to eat with your eyes closed was pretty much perfect. there was a secret ingredient in these...did you know that chocolate and hot spices go well together? i just learned that recently. there was cyan pepper in these! just a hint of it. gave it a tiny kick. perfect.

2.11.10 - the ladies love me!

yup! they sure do! :}

2.10.10 - craziness...

...it runs in the family. :)

(*photo taken on my cell...thus the lower quality clarity.)

2.9.10 - city girls

2.8.10 - goofy :)

this little girl cracks me up! today she was cleaning up the playroom, walking around on her knees, decided it wasn't very comfortable and used my crazy pink shoes to cushion her knees...making it look like she shrunk! she was rather proud of her funny idea. :)

she always says the funniest things - even when she doesn't mean them to be funny, hearing them come from her little 5 year old mouth just makes me laugh. like this morning at breakfast when my oldest asked me to explain exactly what a hero is. i was in the middle of describing it to her when this girl pipes up and says, "you mean kinda like a magnificent champion??" um. what?! i told her those were some pretty big vocabulary words for a 5 year old and asked her where in the world she had heard that phrase! she said "oh, no where, i just made it up." funny girl. :) i love her. :)

2.7.10 - company :)

emily is here staying with me for the week! :) she is michael's niece...who i have known since she was kicking her momma's belly on the inside. :} i got to "steal" her older sister last spring, so now it's em's turn. i LOVE having someone else in my house to talk to...and to talk to me!! i spend SO MUCH time alone all day every day that i get lonely. i mean, i talk to my kiddos all day and love it, but it's just not the same as an older person... :) more pics of fun times with em to follow, i'm sure!

2.6.10 - coming soon

be watching my other blog for a post about this special etsy shop item, coming soon! :)

2.5.10 - easy wall art

$6 frame from a.c. moore, 1 piece of scrapbook paper, a pen, and a Bible verse.

Praise be to you, O LORD,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power

and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;

you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you;

you are the ruler of all things.

In your hands are strength and power

to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,

and praise your glorious name.

1 chronicles 29:10-13

2.4.10 - socks

these outfit-matching socks were evidently a must today for my girlies. :) our school room is too cold to go with bare legs, so i required tights to be worn...but that didn't bother the girls - they just pulled their socks over their tights and were perfectly happy. :)

2.3.10 - extreme makeover: mini edition (where's ty when you need him??)

before: this part of my house drives me nuts!!! it's all the stuff for my etsy shop (plus the cushions for my deck chairs) and it just overflows and looks terrible all the time! i would love to do something crazy creative with it...but settled on a sale item from target that i have been eyeing for the past several months, waiting to save up for it...

after: aaaahhhh! soo much better!! i will eventually add more baskets. and no, the chair cushions don't fit there. i will find elsewhere to stash those. :) oh. and i would just like to say that this came flat in a box. in pieces. and i put it together. alone. it really was not that hard to do...just really awkward - i needed to quickly sprout a few extra hands! :) i'm sure it was amusing to watch...

2.2.10 - craft moment

thanks for this idea, rebekah! :) i also found it at the crafty crow (and i'm guessing rebekah might have too...?)... here.

2.1.10 - the wife

she always follows my cardinal friend (he needs a name...) and stays close by while he's eating. she is more nervous about noises than he is and will fly away more quickly. here she was enjoying the view and chirping about it. :)