confessions on the blog - i'm freaking out!

yes, i'm freaking out!  why, you ask?  because of this...

see this little fella,  he's cute.  i would even go as far as to say adorable,  but he's a little stinker.

i love him to pieces.  he's the funniest little thing around,  but he's a pistol.  this face he is making above, that's the face he does when he doesn't want you to see him.  he thinks if he closes his eyes he's invisible to the world.

he's cute alright and he knows it.  so, what's the problem?  why am i freaking out?

 the problem is, he is a total mama's boy and that's why i am freaking out!

 baby grady will be making an appearance into this world in approximately 16 weeks and i have got to get this little fella out of diapers (which he is totally opposed to) and sleeping on his own.   i've tried.  i've bribed.  i've pleaded.  but, this one oh no, this one is stubborn.  the thing is i can usually handle stubborn.

but, not this one.  he's quite the challenge and my patience is being tried.  he's lucky he has those eyes

and that smile or else.  well, i don't know what else.  but,  you get it right?  wouldn't you be freaking out?  because i am freaking out!  or maybe i'm just a freak who is tired,  sleep deprived and totally hormonal and making a big deal out of nothing.  i guess we will find out in 16 weeks.  oh my gosh,  16 weeks!  see, i'm freaking out.

confessions on the blog - where have i been? and there's a baby on the way

yes, i know it has been a real long time since i've been to this little space of mine. i have to say that part of my absence was intentional, but part of it was just whats happens when life goes on. towards the end of last year i started to question my intentions with this blog. why was i here? what was or am i trying to get across on this little space? should it be something more than what it is? these were just some of the questions that were going through my mind. it got to a point where i started to feel like it was taking up way to much time and that every event of my life i was thinking of how i could blog about it. i also was spending way too much time checking out other blogs and feeling like my blog was inadequate. which, is probably why all of those questions kept coming into my head. so, i decided to take a break from it all. i thought i would be away for maybe a month at the most, but then i started feeling not so great, tired and just had a lack of energy. well, come to find out the reason for all of the above was, there's a little munchkin growing in my tummy that wasn't planned, but is certainly very welcomed. i did make it back here to blog about our new little addition which, you can read about here. i thought then that i would try to make it a point to get back to this space more regularly, but again those questions just kept popping into my head. why am i here? blah, blah, blah, blah. so, here we are three months later from my last post and i feel like i finally know why i am here. yeah, that's a good feeling, right?

when i first started this blog it was my intention to document the life of our family. our memories, the things we build together, make together and do together in our everyday life. and really that's all i want this blog to be. i have realized that i have missed the last few months of not blogging our memories, the things that make us who we are and the things we like to do. so, i am back, here to do what i started out to do. and i am excited! i don't know if i will be here everyday or even every week, but i will try to and the best thing is that i want to be.

so, since i have missed so much of our memories i have decided to start this little series on this little space of mine called, confessions on the blog. because i have to confess i have neglected this here, little space of mine and a lot of our precious memories.

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as you already know there's a baby on the way into our home, due august 14 ish. we were totally not expecting it, but we are super excited about it. this will be our third, precious baby. we have our girl and we have our boy, so gender really wasn't an issue with this one. yah, right! i have to say that before we found out what we were having, i was totally hoping for another girl. everyone knows how fun it is to dress a girl, and then the whole thought of the having to go through the wiener thing (circumcision) with a boy just totally freaks me out, and in all honesty my girl is way easier than my little fella, and sisters are the best, right? so, i was voting for a girl all the way. not to mention the fact that when we found out our little fella was in fact a fella, i balled (i mean like sobbed) my eyes out in the ultra sound room like as if the technician had just told me our baby had three heads. i so did not what to have that experience again, so i thought about just not finding out. after all it's our third. we have everything we need for a girl. we have everything we need for a boy. why find out? were set. ummm....no the mister wasn't going for it. "we don't have a name for either one. like nothing is coming to our minds. we need to find out. i have to find out.", he said. so we did. we found out and here's how it went, the gender reveal...

i made cupcakes. i used betty crocker's fun-da-middles. the frosting is in the middle just like a hostess cupcake, so i was able to dye the frosting according to our gender color and keep it a secret until everyone bit into them.

as our guest arrived they took a guess at what they thought the gender would be.

hmmm.... will it be a girl? (please, please, please be a girl) that was avery's thought.

or a boy?

my girl decorated this table outside to add to the festivities

the final score before the reveal. boy - 4, girl - 3.

we said, "on your marks, get set, go!"

and the gender was revealed.

it took my mom a couple of bites to finally figure out,

she finally realized,it's another boy! someone wasn't to happy about it. can you tell?

this little fella on the left really didn't care either way. he just liked to lick the frosting.

so, there you have it. it's a boy and even though i too, was rooting for a girl, i truly can't wait to meet our precious baby boy, grady everett.

we've been keeping a secret

yes, we've been keeping a secret and no, it's not that this space has been completely neglected. i think that has been very evident. even though i have lots of blog able events from december i just haven't had the chance to catch up and get around to it. i may still do it though, we'll see. but, back to the secret. it's a good one and might just surprise you as much as it did us. so, here it goes. if you caught me sporting maternity jeans this past week, it's not because i ate too much garbage over the holiday break and can't fit into my real jeans, it's because we're expecting baby #3 and i can't fit into my real jeans. that's right baby #3! who will be making an appearance sometime in august. surprised? we were! but, we are also very excited and my girl is beside herself. of course, she is hoping for a baby sister, but only time will tell. so that's it. that's our secret and i am really only telling you now because i can't suck my tummy in anymore and i'm only 10 weeks. i guess that's the way it works with the third.

here's our little peanut 2 weeks ago and since then he/she has doubled in size, has fingers with finger nails, toes and has tiny peach fuzz over his/her skin.

quick and EASY advent calendar

what's up with the holiday season? are you feeling like there just isn't enough time in the day, week, or month? man oh man, i am. and then to top it off it's the end of the year already. what? well, we are pretty busy over here with my girl being in the nutcracker, so we are just starting to get our decorate on. the tree is up, the stockings are hung and today we added an advent calendar to our decor. i have always loved the idea of having an advent calendar. i dreamed of making this one for this year, but i saw it like at the end of november. of course, i could just buy it (not really, it's sold out), but that's no fun i want to make it. there just wasn't enough time this year, so i just bought the chocolate calendar at trader joe's that we buy every year at Christmas. but, then my clever little friend maria made this and i thought i could so make this today and i did. i know it's not from the beginning of the month, but that's ok. who says you have to start the first day of december? not me. you even have time yourself to make one of these for your home right now. you should. grab some envelopes, stamps, markers, crayons, whatever you have and get to work. it was super easy, take a look...

i stamped each envelope with something Christmas related

and the number of days left until Christmas

then i wrote on index cards one specific thing to do for that day. (see below for ideas)

i took some thick green yarn, pinned it to the wall and

used tiny clothes pins to hang the envelopes

my girl was eager to open her first envelope. it said, "decorate".

we decided that we would put up a pom-pom each day to replace the envelope she opened and make a garland as we go along.

that's it! i didn't have to purchase a thing. i had all this stuff on hand from other projects, passed Christmas', you name it. it was completely free, which is totally my style right now.

hope you all are enjoying the season and getting some craft on as well. merry Christmas!

what i wrote for the inside of the envelopes:

*decorate

*draw a picture of santa

*give someone a hug and wish them a merry Christmas

*spread some Christmas cheer

*help someone in need

*explain why we celebrate Christmas

*put on some Christmas music and dance

*draw a picture of the nativity

*make a yummy treat

*read a Christmas book

*watch your favorite Christmas movie

*bake cookies

*be nice

*sing a Christmas carol

*enjoy hot cocoa by the fire

*bake a birthday cake for Jesus

*get ready to open presents

gare + heidi: a photo sequence

i am completely convinced that every party needs a photo booth or an area to take pictures of friends and family. we recently did this for my girl's 7th birthday party and i am pretty sure it will now be a tradition for every party we have. we captured some of our most precious friends and some memorable moments. if you want to view some of the fun you can go here, but for now i have to share the session i caught between these two cuties. of course, you know my little fella, but this cute little miss is his dear friend heidi. these two are truly buds. they ask for play dates with each other and they always play really well together. heidi's older sister is friends with avery and the two big kids have actually planned a wedding for these two littles. hmmmm.... i don't know if it will ever actually happen, but these photo's would definitely be a hit at there wedding. maybe someday...

i love everything about these photo's and will cherish them forever even if these two don't get married. but, it would sure be fun if they did. check back in 20 years.

easy fall garland and thanksgiving decortations

ok, so i kinda fibbed about being back around here. i really thought i was going to be able to carve out some more time for this little space i love and miss so much, but truthfully...my kiddo's are working me. and when i say kiddo's i really mean my little fella because he's a handful. whew! my girl never through me for loop like this little guy. he's just on all the time. so i've been busy friends. i know we all are busy, but those two littles are my priority and i've really been trying to keep that straight. i'm working on bed times and routines over here so i can have some free time to do this. we'll see. keep your fingers crossed for me. anyway, i've been really wanting to do this project for the last few weeks, but again just haven't had the time. i had good intentions though. we collected leaves when we went on this amazing hike. i even scoured the market for the right kind of wax, but it's not there (i think they have it at ace hardware). but, with avery rehearsing for the nutcracker and running on a few business errands with the mister we just couldn't get to it. however, today i got the leaves out and some yarn and decided to make a garland anyway without the wax. it was super easy. it took approximately 10-15 mins to tie all the leaves on and hang it up. it looks pretty good too. take a look...

the leaves hang so nicely in their natural state.

there's really no "wow" factor to this garland, but it's just a nice statement that fall has fallen.

i also did some decorating inside. a few weeks back i saw these cute thanksgiving candles at the gift shop in our library.

i fell in love with them and wanted them really bad. i just couldn't justify the purchase. which they only cost $12 a pair, but still i didn't really need them. until last week when i started thinking about a centerpiece for my thanksgiving table ( i'm hosting this year). of course, i had to go to the library immediately to get them. mind you this was last thursday. i had a feeling i was too late. when i walked in the store they had changed all the displays to christmas. my heart sank because i am obsessive (in a non-clincal way) and i needed them and nothing else would suffice. then i walked to the back of the store and saw the two pilgrims. yes! i snatched them up so quick it was probably faster than lightning. but, no indians. that's ok, i thought. maybe i could get them next year. no.... because i am obsessive i went online (i think i am secretly in love with my iphone) to see if i could find the indians. yes! i found them. ahhhh bummer, they're sold out. shoot. oh well. next year. uh, no. i searched online until midnight until i found a store that had them in stock. see, i told you i am obsessive. but really, you can't have the pilgrims without the indians. isn't that what thanksgiving is all about?

and here they stand together as my centerpiece for thanksgiving 2011 (and many more to come)

since we are on the subject of thanksgiving have you read the thanksgiving proclamation by abraham lincoln? it's amazing you can go here to read it. it's beautiful.

happy thanksgiving friends. i am truly thankful for each and every one of you and hope your day is filled with love and happiness.

my girl's 7th birthday: "crumb's sugar shack"

well hello! i haven't been here in awhile and i have to say i have missed it. you know how it is this time of year. busy, busy, busy and it seems as though the last few weeks have just been one thing after the other for us. actually my computer has been broken (my camera too). both are still not fixed, but we finally figured out a way to make it work for now. phew! i've been a little lost without the computer (and my camera too), but i am back for now. so, onto my real post...

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last month we celebrated my girl avery's 7th birthday. we did it lalaloopsy style and it turned out really cute. you can check it out here for more details. one of my favorite parts was "crumb sugar cookies' sugar shack". that's what we named it, but it was actually a vintage armoire that we used for all of the sweet birthday treats. take a look...

i lined the back and shelves with material. each one being different.

two days before the party i scored with these frames from the salvation army. they were $2.19 each and i knew that with a quick coat of spray paint they would work perfectly for the "sugar shack".

i printed the word enjoy for one and cookies+candies+cake=sweet for the other on white card stock, then hot glued them to a piece of felt and attached the frame.

we gave each treat a lalaloopsy name, which added to the fun of all of it.

sugar cookies for crumb sugar cookie.

licorice ropes for lady stillwaiting.

banana muffins for sir battlescarred.

chocolate chip cookies for pillow feather bed. (i had milk too in cute vintage milk bottles, but i forgot to put them out. oh well, it was still cute).

nutter butters for peanut big top.

pixie stix for misty mysterious.

and popcorn for pepper pots and pans. i made the bags myself instead of buying the special popcorn bags. i already had these red bags from another party and just made popcorn tags on my computer. super easy and i saved a few pennies too.

i also had lollipops for blossom flowerpot and dots for dot starlight which you can see here.

my girl let me use some of her big lalaloopsy dolls to decorate with, so i placed a few in the cabinet, but you really can't see them. there was a slim shelf under the bottom shelf that was perfect to put plates, napkins and take home bags in. the whole party turned out super cute, so if you haven't already clicked over to take a look, click here to do so now.

i have a few more favorite things about this party like these two in the photo booth so check back again. i plan on being here.

and yes, we had a photo booth and yes it was super cute and fun!

p.s. if you would like to see my inspiration for this party click here.