A Proud Mama

So I wrote a little note to Kyan's teacher today, he told me the sweetest story about releasing their butterflies yesterday that I thought she would want to hear! I also needed some paperwork from her to help with Kindergarten registration and I wanted to let her know that Kyan adores her and Mrs. Arthur as teachers! Being a teacher, sometimes when you touch a kids heart, it is nice to hear from a parent, and both of his teachers have a special place in Kyan's heart, so I thought they should know!

She wrote me the sweetest message back, here is just a part of it:
"We have SO enjoyed Kyan this year - along with our whole class. Mrs Arthur keeps saying that when she finally has a baby, she hopes its a boy like Kyan, super smart and so cute!"

I felt honored for her to say that to me. Kyan is one of the best kiddos I know and of course we think he is awesome, but to have someone else say that they want their future son to be like him, brought tears to my eyes! He is a keeper for sure!

We are going to miss Preschool and his amazing teachers (can't believe it is almost over) - all of them (he has Mrs. Revord as his main teacher, Mrs. Arthur as next in command in the classroom, Ms. Murphy, the student teacher, Ms. Kristen, his extended day teacher, and a few more from extended day) They have all had an impact in making Kyan's first year at Preschool fantastic!

Next week is teacher appreciation week - if you have a child that goes to school and they have a wonderful teacher...THANK THEM! It is hard work! We have a special treat for the special ladies in Kyan's life - massages! A few of us pooled our money to go in on a little nicer gift! I know they are going to LOVE it! Tomorrow we are decorating the door/window, so that Monday they will have a BIG surprise waiting for them (plus it is part of the door/window decorating contest that the school does for teacher appreciation week)!

Thank you Mrs. Revord and Mrs. Arthur for the part that you play in shaping my son's future in education!
WE LOVE YOU!

How To: Flower Hair Clips

Ok, so while I was teaching some of the gals to make these, I forget to take pictures (OOPS) of some of the steps, so I will try to explain the best I can!
Get your glue guns ready!

First, I created a pattern (just by hand, nothing fancy) so that I could use it to trace over and over again! The S you see on that pattern stands for small - as in the small clips go inside these leaves! When tracing, make sure to flip over the pattern (one time the S will face up, the next face it down).

Here is where I forgot to take a few pictures, but when you cut out the leaves, make sure to cut on the inside of your trace marks, otherwise when gluing together, they will be seen (and that looks yucky).

Below are the types of clips that you are going to need to put in between the two pieces of felt leaves. They had two sizes, so I made patterns of a leaf for both! Guess I like variety?!

Again, picture is missing, but you will unclip the clip (sounds weird, I know) and poke the bottom of the clip through one of the pieces of felt. Once it is through you can clip it back again. You will want to hot glue the other unused piece of felt on top of it, I try to get as close to the edge as possible (make sure to match them up before you start poking and gluing)! It is ok if glue comes out the sides of the felt, in fact, I kinda like it! I know for sure my ends of the leaves are nice and glued! You just cut off any excess glue and unevenness that your leaf pieces might have, as the glue makes it move just a little. I am a perfectionist, so I like them to be exact. Set that aside and let it dry.

Next, cut out fabric into circles at desirable size. The fabric needs to be something of a silk, polyester, satin, chiffon, etc (it has to be shiny - I knew when I felt it), so that the edges will burn. I wouldn't recommend cotton unless you would like a trip from the fire department! You can add as many layers to your flower as you want and don't worry that the circles aren't cut perfectly, they don't have to be. In fact, I would recommend eye balling it, it gives them better character!

Hold one circle at a time over a candle (I found that to be the most efficient way) and watch the edges curl. Use cation, do not get to close or it will light your material on fire!!! You just find a spot where the heat bends the fabric. It gets a little hot on your fingers, so just be careful. I haven't figured out how to hold it over the flame without using my fingers and still have control. I think that I saw on someone's blog where they used a close pin - I might have to try it (if you do, let me know how it works)!

Hot glue each later on top of each other one by one. You just need a dab of hot glue per layer, it doesn't take much to hold it. Hot glue is my new best friend!

Once you have the flower layered, you can add a middle. I chose to use little beads (but you can use whatever - buttons, rhinestones, etc.). You make a hot glue blob in the middle of the flower as big as you want the middle part to be and sprinkle the beads on top. Shake off excess beads into a bowl, that way none go to waste and you can use them again! That and you don't have a giant mess to clean up!

Finally, you want to go back to your flower leaves and glue on the petals and the leaves. More hot glue! Place the flower where you think it looks best (some like lots of leaves showing, some do not, you are the best judge)! I always make sure that the edge right at the front is hot glued down, as I want the flower part to show for Lola, not the green leaf part!

Here is my favorite flower of the day! I didn't add leaves to this one, thought it looked pretty enough to stand alone!

And there you have it ~ The Roseland Family's First Crafty Tutorial!
Hope it was helpful and I hope that I have inspired some of you to make your own!

I Got It From My Mama

Kyan gets his craftiness from his mama alright!

He LOVES to make things and has been working so hard on getting his stickers at school so that we could take a trip to JoAnn Fabric Store for some beads to make necklaces! He earned his four stickers in a row, so after I picked him up from school, we headed straight there to pick out which ever kind of beads he wanted! He went with alphabet beads and colorful underwater animal beads this time around (I steered him away from the little beads we used before, too much work for me, not enough for him)!

After dinner he sat down and made himself a necklace with his name on it and a turtle on each side! Lola was watching what he was doing, so he told her to pick out tow beads that she liked and he made her a necklace with what he had left over! He is so sweet to her and he was just as proud of her necklace as he was his!

Great Job on your necklace makin' skills Kyan! I can't wait to see what we are going to work on next week, when you get 5 stickers on your chart at school! I love you!

And the Winner Is...

When I plugged into RANDOM.ORG this morning, I couldn't get the darn thing to copy, so sorry, no pretty picture ladies, but we do have a winner!!! I didn't believe it when I counted down to who the person was, as this lady must have some fabulous luck winning on my blog because #11 is Mande over at Harrison Lane! She won the MAC Makeup too two weeks ago! Must be some of my blog luck rubbing off on her! Congratulations Mande! The turquoise (which is more of a bright blue), hot pink, and creme flower clips are headed your way! Just goes to show that it never hurts to enter to giveaways in a row, you can still win!

**If you know how to get that pretty little generator box copied from random.org, please help a sista out! It looks so much more legit when you have that to show!

***Also, for those who didn't win, but find themselves on the craftier side, I plan on TRYING to make a tutorial on how to make these bad boys! I have a few friends from school (teacher friends) coming over this Sunday so I am going to bust out the camera and we'll see what I can put together! For those who are in AZ and what to come and make them with me, a bow party is requested after the 10th of May! Stay tuned!

****Last thing, this was a fun way to get to know a few new blogger ladies, one I just want to tell about is Ana Paula over at Get Craftin. She is super crafty and offers tutorials and suggestions on how to DIY for way less money! Just one more reason why I love to blog! I am going to try one of her ruffly headbands this weekend! If you are in the mood to get creative, check her out! Plus, she has a giveaway going on right now too! Who doesn't love free?!

Flower Clips for Lola and YOU!

Lola has been in need of some new hair accessories for quite some time and I can't seem to snag any from Mia Joie lately, but I did use some of her clips that she sent me as my inspiration this weekend! I keep putting off having a bow making party because I wanted to learn how to make something new before I had people over again! This weekend, what started off as just testing out a technique, turned into a teeny, tiny obsession...
...ok, it became all I did for hours and hours this weekend. I couldn't stop at one color! I had to make them in every color that I knew Lola had clothes for (no, I didn't get through them all, so there will still be a party! When? I don't know, but soon). They were so easy to make and I can't wait to make more!

Until then, I say another giveaway! My lucky streak for winning giveaways via the blog world hasn't stopped, so I want to grace someone else's mailbox with the same love that mine has recently received (or should I say will be receiving, as both prizes are being shipped soon)!

One lucky person will win THREE clips! Winner can choose their colors from the following: hot pink, light pink, light blue, turquoise blue, dark blue, cream, or purple!

HOW TO WIN~
Pretty easy. You can do one of the following or all of them for extra chances at winning!

1. Make a comment on which colors you would choose if you won the flower hair accessories! -1 entry

2. Become a public follower of this blog using Google Friend Connect (you might need to scroll down a little bit, but it is there on the right hand side if you aren't a follower already!) -1 entry
*If you already have your pretty little picture there (or name) you get an extra entry, just let me know you are already a follower! Make sure that you leave an extra comment! (You should have two that say "already a follower" or something like that!) -*extra entry for the 19 that already follow, should you choose to enter this giveaway!

3. Mention this giveaway on your own blog and include the collage photo of the clips and a link back to this giveaway! -3 entries (Again, for this to count, make sure that you are writing blog three different times in separate comments).

For those of you who have not ever done a giveaway via the blog world and are wondering why you have to comment so many times separately, let me fill you in! It is because I will use the number of comments left and plug them into the random number generator. Whichever number it spits back out will be matched up with the person behind the comment of that number! So the more comments you leave, the better your chances! Hope that makes sense.

The giveaway will close this Friday, April 23rd at 11:59pm and the winner will be announced sometime Saturday! Good Luck!

White Out

Friday night, Chad, Kyan, and I headed to Jobbing.com Arena for a little hockey playoff action! The three of us had dinner at Johnny Rockets and then headed to the game! It was action packed, and although our Coyotes lost 6-4, the game was awesome!
Kyan was done-zo by the middle of the third period (is that what they are called in hockey?) and was ready to go home! When the Red Wings scored their 6th goal with just under two minutes left to play, we headed out! While walking past Margaritaville, Amar'e Stoudemire was standing outside the patio area with one of his friends! He happens to be Kyan's favorite player from the Suns (it has everything to do with the number he wears) so it was really cool that Kyan got to see him like 2 feet away, granted he was half asleep, but still, he recognized him and peeked his lil head up! I didn't take my camera to the game and I couldn't get my phone out of my purse fast enough (without looking like a stalker) so you will just have to take my word!

We had a great night!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Moffitt for watching Lola! She had a blast!

This Is Why!

When my brother and I were little my mom would have us play "doctor" on her legs. Little did we know that it felt so good to her - we just thought we got to bust out all of the kitchen utensils and lotion and make a big mess! We used to doctor her up for an hour at a time, I now know why she let us do this for such extended amounts of time...

...I had my kids play "doctor" on my legs the other night and it was like heaven! I didn't realize that lotion was all over the couch cushions until I saw the pictures and then turned around. When I did see the mess, I simply did not care - IT FELT TOO GOOD! They doctored me up for about 45 minutes and I think that we equally loved every minute of it!

So mama, I understand why you allowed us to make a mess and why you didn't care either! I also know why you jumped at the chance for us to play doctor on your legs whenever we asked! I love you! Something so little, but I never forgot.

Whata Weekend & a Winner!

We had a wonderful weekend.

Friday night we met up with the Garretts for some yummy pizza at Park West and even yummier ice cream afterwards! The kids ran around outside in the grass area/fountains while we visited under the big ramada! It was such a nice evening, beautiful weather and special friends!

Saturday was spent at gymnastics in the morning with Lola, as usual, but it was bring a friend week, so Jayla joined us! Then we were off to Xavier's game in the late morning. He played in north Phoenix, so we decided to go visit Brion's grave since we were so close. We haven't been there in a long time, it was nice to go see him as a family and talk about our favorite times with him. Candis and Michael live very close to the cemetery, so we headed to their place next to say hello and to drop off Michael's sunglasses! I swear anytime he is over at our house he leaves them here! Oh well, gives us a good excuse to meet up, even if it is just for a little while! After that, I met up with Chad's mama to go see a movie, The Last Song. It was just like I thought it would be, although different from the book, I did like it a lot. Without giving it away, just wanna say that it hits close to home, very close, and tears were shed. Then it was off to snuggle my kiddos at home for the rest of the night!

Sunday it was Kyan and Chad's turn to see a movie and they headed off early to watch How to Train Your Dragon on the IMAX in 3D! So cool! Chad said that Kyan kept trying to grab things it felt so real! Lola and I met up with them at West Gate after! The kids ran around in the fountains, we ate lunch, and window shopped! The kiddos went home with daddy and I headed to the grocery store! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning the kids closets (Amy and Evy we have another box coming your way!!!). I could only handle doing theirs, however, mine NEEDS a good cleaning too! Maybe next week!

And now the winner of the MAC makeup - Mande at HarrisonLane blog! Congratulations!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend! I am counting down the days until summer vacation!

I Will Remember You

I think about Brion EVERYDAY.
Today especially.
April 8, 2009 is a day that I will never, ever forget.
A memory that will stick close to my heart forever and ever.
A place that I am not ready to fully share, but someday will be able to.

Cancer is one of the the ugliest diseases that I have ever had to watch someone I love so much suffer through, and Brion suffered.
In his suffering I saw his incredible strength and will to live.
He was a fighter and fought his cancer until the very end.

Brion is forever in my heart
and the hearts of my children
and my husband, his son.
I feel like I see him and feel him everywhere.
From our family vacation to San Diego,
walking past the room he stayed in at the Beach Haven Inn and reminiscing about California times .
To watching him perform at the halftime show at this year's Superbowl,
I swear that as soon as I saw Pete Townsend I felt like I was watching Brion rock out on the guitar. I wasn't sure I was seeing straight, however, it seemed fitting, as the Superbowl was his thing, if you knew Brion, you were there.
Bottom line, Brion will not ever be forgotten.
Not today, on the one year anniversary of his death.
Not tomorrow.
Not ever.
We love you Brion.

Every time we hear Lincoln Park we turn the the volume up as loud as we can and sing at the top of our lungs, as Kyan had declared it Grandpa B's song!


We have so many wonderful memories with Brion.
If you have a favorite memory of him, please share.

Our Easter Weekend!

This weekend we met up with Chad's extended family for a hopeful new tradition - Easter Saturday at Grandma and Grandpa Shipe's place! There was food, fun, and family! Couldn't have made for a better afternoon! Ok, that is a lie, I should have brought sun screen for Chad and I, we borrowed for the kids but failed to put anything on ourselves and we are suffering the consequences! But in all seriousness, we had a blast! Thank you grandma and grandpa for hosting such a great get together!



Poor Lauren - she somehow got the job of making sure that Lola didn't snatch up all of the Easter Eggs (thanks Jess and Aunt Tammy for stuffing over 200 on the way out from Cali) before "the Hunt" even started! It was hilarious! Lola would grab an egg or three and Lauren would wait for her to search for more so that she could sneak them out of cousin Drew's cart and put them back! Thank you Lauren for keeping her busy!!! She loved playing with you!


And at the end of the day when all is said and done, both of my kids crashed out on the couch watching cartoons! They were pooped! What a great Saturday...

...that led to a great Sunday as a family together! When the kids woke up, it took them awhile, but they finally noticed their Easter baskets that the bunny left for them!
We spent some time with our house guests: Chad's cousin Josh and his girlfriend Vanessa and Josh's son, Andrew! We were so happy that they decided to stay with us and had a fun evening with them and were sad to see them go! Come back soon! Chad's parents stopped by for a visit too!

Then it was off to our favorite place in the neighborhood to hunt for Easter eggs ~ The PARK! Jayla, Susie, and Jearel came by and played with us too!



Hope that everyone had just as good of an Easter as we did and that you were able to spend it with those you love most!

It's Moments Like This...

...that define me as a mother.
And Kyan as a BIG brother.

Last night when I went upstairs to get Kyan and Lola ready for bed, I caught Kyan in a big brother moment. While his TV was on with his own movie, he was in his sister's room not really watching Gabba, but they were both sitting on her bed, reading books. She was getting books out of his room to have him read them to her. They could have cared less about Gabba at that particular moment. When I told them they could read one more and then they had to brush their teeth, I walked away, not really thinking that a five year old was going to listen. Next thing I knew when I walked into their bathroom, both of them brushing their teeth! Kyan got Lola's toothbrush all ready for her! When it came time for bed, how could I not let them snuggle?

I needed to remind them a few times to zip it, as did Kyan, for Lola could have kept him up the whole night just talking...at one point I was listening to what he was telling her - something about how their bodies needed to sleep because they need energy the next day, it was so sweet how he was trying to explain life to her! I just wanted to sit outside the door and listen forever.

I hope that they always get along as good as they do now and that Kyan continues to be the best big brother in the entire planet. I felt so good going to sleep last night and just thought to myself
How lucky are we!

Did You Feel It?

We did!

7.2 Magnitude Earthquake in Baja California, Mexico felt in Arizona!!!

Chad and I were watching The Blind Side and were pretty close to the end when we felt it. At first I thought Chad was messing with the couch and somehow moving it, after it was over he thought I was doing it somehow! I was mulit-tasking and typing away at my career ladder for school, so I thought that maybe I was just going a little crazy from staring at the screen to long and looked up and it was like we were swaying. It was the weirdest feeling - like we were on a boat rocking or something and I almost felt nauseous. Finally that is when I asked Chad if he was moving the couch...

We guessed that we had just felt an earthquake and the movie was just getting over, so I told Chad to turn on the news to see if they were saying anything about it. He said that it was too soon, CNN was covering a different story, so I went to the internet and typed it in and sure enough we saw where it was and the magnitude of it! Confirmed that we weren't crazy! Checked back in with CNN and now it is all over the news! Pretty crazy!

Anyone else feel it?