We welcomed Baby Brother into our family last week.

So, please excuse me for a couple of weeks. I’m busy enjoying this new little one. Life couldn’t be happier.

I have a lot of fun things to share. Coming right up. Promise.

+ Chris spray painted [...]]]> Well, so much for my goal to blog regularly! Ha! Can I blame it on the fact I’m 8 months pregnant? Or maybe that I like to hang out with my boys? Or that I’m busy not doing the dishes?

I have a lot of fun things to share. Coming right up. Promise.

+ Chris spray painted our coach lights (and they look awesome!) so a tutorial is coming right up.

+ We actually designed and put together our bedroom (it only took 3.5 years). Once I finish making the pillows, I’ll post pics. But right now the room looks a little like this:

+ I made a guest book last week for an event brand new to me. I’ll share details soon.

+ I even unpacked some baby clothes – baby brother will be here before we know it.

+ Chris built me a bedside table out of the scrap wood from our headboard. Isn’t he amazing? Especially since I was the one who drew the plans for it – I love that he can read my mind.

So friends. I’ll see you soon.

Even though I didn’t really plan anything awesome for the 4th of July, I pulled out a pack of glow sticks while we watched fireworks and it made me instantly popular with the kiddos.

It’s a good idea to always have a secret stash of glow sticks.

Max wanted a race car theme with red and orange. Done.

We tied an orange balloon to each chair. I covered the table with brown kraft paper (the [...]]]> Spring time is birthday season at our house. I decided to let the kiddos have birthday parties with friends every other year. So this was our friend party year.

Max wanted a race car theme with red and orange. Done.

We tied an orange balloon to each chair. I covered the table with brown kraft paper (the kind from Home Depot that contactors use to cover the carpet – it comes in giant rolls and is super cheap). I used orange wrapping paper to cover the counter. The plates, napkins and cups were red.

I pre-poured snacks into cups – cracker, pretzels, goldfish. We had tangerines, chocolate cupcakes, and juice. About an hour before the party, I put the juice boxes in the freezer to get them cold and the froze! So most kids ate their juices with a spoon – but everyone likes slushies, right?!

The kids played “Red Light, Green Light” in the backyard. I made the flags out of felt and dowel rods from the craft store.

Target had some wooden cars and trucks for a dollar so the kids each decorated a car. Max takes his projects very seriously. He stayed at the table to color even after his buddies were long gone and playing in the playroom. He colored every inch of the car (and his face). I set up a ramp in the family room using our coffee table and some masonite board I had laying around for the kids to race their cars.

Max helped me put the party favor bags together. He chose punch balloons, race car pencils, bouncy balls, and little race cars to go inside the bags. I printed out some race car graphics. Max cut each one out and glued it on each bag. We used the extra images to make a mobile that hung from the light over the kitchen table (my mom’s idea). The kids loved that! We closed up the bag with jute twine following this tutorial.

All in all, the party was a success. No disasters. My parents were in town so they helped with all the prep and the day of the party. Max had fun with his friends. We were all happy.

We ate our first batch of green beans at dinner last night. Oh, there is nothing yummier!

Tomatoes are growing.

Something came and ate ALL of my marigolds. In one night. Really bummed about this, but every year I learn something new and this year I’ve learned to not plant marigolds. But the petunias are growing and [...]]]>

We ate our first batch of green beans at dinner last night. Oh, there is nothing yummier!

Tomatoes are growing.

Something came and ate ALL of my marigolds. In one night. Really bummed about this, but every year I learn something new and this year I’ve learned to not plant marigolds. But the petunias are growing and growing and blooming and blooming and I love them. So I replaces some of the marigolds with pink petunias. And do you see my black-eyed susans?! They will be blooming soon – can’t wait!

Here are some photos of our gardens this year. Everything is new and just starting to grow.

While my mom was here about a [...]]]> I love our gardens. Flowers and veggies. We all work together to take care of our gardens. One thing I like about living in Houston is we can have gardens all year round.

Here are some photos of our gardens this year. Everything is new and just starting to grow.

While my mom was here about a month ago, she planted tiny yellow marigolds, violet petunias, and big orange marigolds in my main flower bed. About a week later, I planted the other beds with the same marigolds and violet daisys. (What do you think, Mom?) I’m loving this color combo!

I’m so proud of our sprouting sunflower seeds! I can’t wait for these guys to be 12 feet tall. We also planted yellow lantana along here. My neighbor’s kitchen window looks at this side of our house (which is just a view of brick, our garbage can, and the AC unit!). This year should be better for you, Kimberly!

We have a small-ish deck in the backyard that used to be surrounded by this really awful, viney ground cover. Luckily is froze enough times this winter to kill it all! Hooray! So I dug out the roots to make room for a solid bed of violet impatiens. They will be so happy there! And now we have a beautiful view from our kitchen nook.

This kiddo prefers to work on the floor so he [...]]]> I have two little buddies who work along side me in the art room. They both love projects. They have their own bucket of supplies – tape, markers, crayons, scissors, glue. We like to listen to our Elizabeth Mitchell radio station on Pandora while we work.

This kiddo prefers to work on the floor so he can spread everything out.

This kiddo must be on a chair. Most of the time he wants my chair.

I love what they come up with.

After reading this discussion over at Bloom last week, I realized how easy it is to let the true meaning of Easter get lost in bunnies and eggs and flowers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love spring. I love a fresh start. But I also want [...]]]>

potted ranunculus on my back porch

After reading this discussion over at Bloom last week, I realized how easy it is to let the true meaning of Easter get lost in bunnies and eggs and flowers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love spring. I love a fresh start. But I also want my children to understand the importance of Easter.

So I thought I’d share a few of the more meaningful Easter activities we do around here:

+ A couple of years ago, my mom made us a book all about the last week of Jesus’ life. It is a collection of paintings and scriptures that teach us what happened that week. So the Monday before Easter we read about what happened on that Monday and so on through Easter. I tried searching the web for something similar and had no luck. So maybe my mom will make one for everyone? Just kidding, mom.

+ My little kiddos really love this coloring activity. And this lesson.

+ This word scramble is an easy way to teach the order of events with little ones. (for the non-pdf version, click here)

+ We are going to try out this Easter Program this Sunday.

+ This is our family’s favorite Easter song. This one is favorite too. And this one. They are all favorite.

What do you do at Easter time?

I’m having a hard time believing it’s March. Where did February go? I totally missed it! Oh well. Things have been crazy busy around here – hence the lack of blogging on my part. Sorry! I promise there will be a tutorial this Tuesday (I’m such a slacker!).  I had my first sinus infection since [...]]]>

I’m having a hard time believing it’s March. Where did February go? I totally missed it! Oh well. Things have been crazy busy around here – hence the lack of blogging on my part. Sorry! I promise there will be a tutorial this Tuesday (I’m such a slacker!).  I had my first sinus infection since high school a couple weeks ago and it wiped me out. I really hope that doesn’t happen again. Ever. (I can hope, right?!)

Anyway, I’m back on my feet and back to my usual business.

A few nights ago, I was working on some new notebook designs in my studio. The boys were all in the back yard playing some baseball so I had my window open (to listen in on the fun). I heard a really interesting bird call so I turned to look out the window. Right then, I see a bird coming full speed toward me/the window. Yep. You guessed it. He hit the window and dropped to the ground (my studio is on the second story). He hit so hard he left feathers on the glass.

I ran downstairs and outside to find the bird. Sure enough he was in the grass – alive. He flew away a few minutes later. Chris took this awesome photo of the bird before he flew away. The bird had two bright red markings on each wing and bright yellow markings on his tail feathers. Really beautiful bird! I’m glad he’s ok.

Now, I just need to find out which kind of bird he is! Any ideas?

***********

ps – Thank you, Julie, for the Book Bound Bindery feature on your blog!

Christmas week was just as I hoped it would be. I spent tons of time with my little family. We (Chris, mostly) did a few projects around the house, raked leaves, and had a party. In years past, we have delivered plates of treats to our neighbors and friends around Christmas time, but [...]]]>

Christmas week was just as I hoped it would be. I spent tons of time with my little family. We (Chris, mostly) did a few projects around the house, raked leaves, and had a party. In years past, we have delivered plates of treats to our neighbors and friends around Christmas time, but this year we decided to host a “Merry Christmas Hot Cocoa Social” instead. We invited our friends (who we knew were in town) to join us Christmas Eve afternoon. I love having a full house – and trust me, the house was full!

I kept things pretty low key. The hot cocoa & hot cranberry drinks were made from my great aunt recipes and I served them out of crock pots.

We also served chocolate crinkle cookies, banana bread, cranberry bread with walnuts, and hot chocolate mix-ins (candy canes, marshmallows, choco chips, whipped cream).

We will definitely do this again next year!