Mama for the Day!

Ok, so I know I am a mama every single day, BUT Thursday was special!  I ditched took the day off of work and hung out with Lola on her field trip to see The Nutcracker! 

 The bus ride was almost as fun as the play {which was amazing}!

We ate lunch at the theater and then enjoyed the show together.  We even found some time, I think during a bathroom break, to pose next to the polar bears!  During the show,  Lola sat on my lap for most of it, snuggling during the scary parts and dancing and giggling the rest of the time!  She loved it and is ready to go back and see School of Rock and Pinkalicious!

  

Really BIG love you Lola!  I had so much fun hanging with you for the day!

Girly Girl Time!

 On Friday night I had plans to lock myself in the craft room to start on what seems like the never ending list of things I need to make!  I was going to be in there no matter what and with threats of house crashing and crafty time by the girls for a while, I invited them to join me!  ALL of these girls at one point or another are at my house baby sitting, dog sitting, swimming or crafting...last night we just added finger nail painting to the list {and they even did Lola's for her too}!

But before we could get started, we had the traditional babysitting meal {I always leave them $$$, usually for Papa John's Pizza - it's cheap and everyone seems to love it}!

Fletcher, as usual, scared Taylor to death and she ended up jumping on the ottoman {ummmm....more than once}!

After dinner, it was time to get busy!  Celeste worked on project where you have to rip out pieces from a magazine and paste onto a canvas.  She only got that far and we have to finish it soon.  She had the rough job of playing DJ too, so she was distracted {and quite the procrastinator...kinda reminded me of when she was my student!}.  Alyssa and Bianca painted their nails and Lola's too while Taylor was busy giving back rides super fast and taking pictures on the computer with Lola {which is Lola's favorite thing to do and she asks for it every single time they are over}.  Me?  Worked on a project for co-workers and teachers at the kids' school!

Girly Girls posing/being silly with a frame that Celeste took home with her!

 

 Really BIG love ya girls {and Laken Bacon too, we missed you}.  Thanks for hanging with me and Lola on Friday night, catching up on what is going on in your lives since I don't get to see you every single day! Until next time... 

I Did It, You Can Too!

 See those tabs under my header?  The {I Did It} tab has been under construction since I put those tabs up, however, if you visit there now you will find all of the things I have made and tried to do tutorials on so that you can make it too if you see something you like!  No more searching through previous posts to see where that one project is, it is now all in one spot!  So excited!

Next tab on my to do list is a Supper Club/Food tab!  Stay tuned...and until then, go check out a project or two!

Got 'em in time!

Remember when I posted pictures of just the kiddos, just in case we wouldn't be able to get our family pictures done in time for cards this year?!  Well, we managed to get 'er done and I LOVE how they turned out!  While I wish it wouldn't have been so windy so my little Lola wouldn't have been so freezing {and such a drama queen}, I will say that Rae Lynn revealed a gold mine of a place to shoot and I can't wait to go back for family pictures every year!  I love me some junk and my family too!

Thank you Rae Lynn for taking the time to snap a few pictures for us.  We know how busy you were when we asked!

The Christmas cards have already arrived, now I just have to address them and get them sent out!  Can you guess which picture I ended up using?

On another note, I have been and will be busy creating the next couple of weeks!  I have purchased all the presents I needed to from the store this year and have now switched gears and begun to create the homemade gifts I plan on giving {which to me are so much more meaningful}.  While I am no where near finished, I feel like I am finally getting excited for the holidays!  I can't believe I have to work up to the 23rd this month, and did you know I am making a giant meal that night/next day for Christmas Eve!?  Crazy right!  You can bet I will be using every spare second I have to make a gift here or there!  Unfortunately I won't be sharing what I make until after the holidays {if I even remember to snap pictures while I am making them}, as I have come to discover that so many people that I am making things for really read my blog!  Who knew!?

No Words, Just a BIG smile!

 

Remember how I said in my last post that Kyan sewed for the first time this weekend and helped to make he and his sister those cool pillow mattresses?!  Well, this is what I found in his folder today.  I wanted to cry.  Makes me proud that even at school today he was thinking about doing something so special with me!  And after a long day of work {oh, how hard was it to go back after having 5 wonderful days off}, this was the best thing I could have seen to make my day brighter!

Looking forward to lots more projects in our future!!!

Kyan's First Sewing Project!

Let me just say that I LOVE Pinterest!  So many ideas, all in one place!  Do you pin?  Need an invite?!

A few weeks ago, I pinned a pillow mattress idea from Southern Disposition, but wasn't sure I could pull it off!?  Saturday night Kyan and I thought we would give it a try!  We started by cutting up an old duvet cover that used to be on his bed in our old house.  It is kinda faded, but thought since we were just practicing that it would work out perfect!  He has been dying to use the sewing machine, and since this one was our practice pillow mattress, I figured why not?!    He did great and was so patient in between all of the ironing and me figuring out what to do!  While I got no pictures of our process {bummer, I know...Kyan looked so cute sitting at the machine}, I did follow Southern Disposition's tutorial, as it was the easiest I have seen out there!

Here is our finished product {bad lighting, sorry}.

Testing out the new pillow mattress, so proud of his own work!

I told him he could have it, but not until Christmas and he happily said, "Ok mommy!"  So sweet I tell ya.  Then I told him that because he worked so hard, he could have this one Christmas present early and he was so, so excited!!!

He took it down to let his sister have a try at how comfy it is!  Then, we promised to make her one the next day, we just needed to go get more pillows from the store!  She thought her big brother was so cool and was so excited he was going to help make her one in the morning!

And as promised, we made Lola one today, pink of course!  For hers we used the flat sheet from her bedding that she never uses!

She loves hers as much as Kyan does his!  Both kids have been dragging them all over the house today, laying on them no matter what room they are in!

The only thing that I had to spend money on for this project were for the pillows, the duvet and the sheet we had!   Found the pillows for $3 each at Anna's Linens, but I am sure you could find them cheaper elsewhere and trust me, I'll be hunting!  But for now, they were worth every penny for how much my kids LOVE them!!!

 Partying with a few of my favorite peeps this week! 

Happy Thanksgiving

So much to be grateful for this year.  The most important thing to me is family and nothing was better than being surround by them in our home this year!

 Married for 8 years and we have never hosted the "big" meal.  Can you believe that?  We have bounced back and forth between families ever since we have been together {don't get me wrong, what I wouldn't give to have that back}.  Not this year.  Donna {Chad's mum} asked us if we would host, because we have the big house, she said, that could hold a lot of people and we were so excited!  This morning we found out Grandpa Shipe wasn't feeling very well, so he and grandma were unable to make it, along with a few cousins of Chad's we were expecting too and while we missed them, we had a wonderful dinner!

But before I talk about dinner, lemme just get the decorating part out of the way first!  For me, that is what got me so excited, as the hubs is the real chef of the house!  

The Front Door

This one was really simple to make.  I used burlap to make the flowers, using the same technique I used on my valentine's day wreath!  If you are interested to see what that is, click here and it will take you to the tutorial.  Once I had enough flowers, I hot glued them onto the grapevine wreath.  It is simple, yet so elegant!  I plan on using it for Christmas too, just will add in a few things to make it more festive!

 The Table

Mason Jars + Fresh Flowers = LOVE

 

 I gently {if that is even possible?!} hot glued Chad's great grandma's lace/doilies onto the mason jars.  This stuff is beautiful, vintage, and was handmade.  I have had it all shoved in a two mason jars in my craft room for far too long.  It really is too stunning to not display it and I thought that the mason jars would be a perfect way to showcase it.  I love it with or without the fresh flowers!  For Christmas I think I am going to add fresh greenery and holly!

Banners

Turkey Hand Banner!   Love this idea and when I spied it over at Dear Lillie's blog the other day, I knew I wanted to do this with the kids!  We traced our hands, glued on feathers and buttons for eyes, added wattles, legs, and our names and clipped up to a pieces of jute!  They had a blast making them and loved showing it off today while we ate!

Kids Artwork Banner!  Love, love, love everything they made at school this year and I was running out of room to display everything so I used the same idea from the turkey banner and clipped their artwork up to show off.  My two favorites are the two bigger photos.  Both are hand prints from each kid this year and each holds a very special and different, message.  While I am a sucker for the beautiful banners I have been seeing all over blogland and pinterest, I am so happy that I chose to use things the kids made as our banners!

Alright, so I know that Thanksgiving isn't about decorating...it's about THE FOOD {well, that and being together as a family}!  Below was our delicious menu!

 1.  Deviled eggs

2.  Cheesy Corn Puffs

3.  Funeral Potatoes

4.  Dinner Rolls

5.  Corn and Stuffing

6.  Mashed Potatoes

7.  Green Bean Casserole

8.  Cranberry Meatballs

9.  Turkey

Chad and I have NEVER made a turkey before so we were a lot nervous!  For years though, Chad has been talking about brining it, if we ever made it.  Well, our if came this year and brine the turkey we did!  We used Alton Brown's turkey brine recipe and lemme tell ya that bird was juicy and was cooked in less than two hours, as we cooked it using the convection oven!  The cheesy corn puffs were a new recipe we {mostly me} wanted to try out and they were delicious!  I also made the deviled eggs and the cranberry meatballs {a recipe from our first supper club!}.  Donna was in charge of the mashed potatoes, corn, and stuffing, while Rae Lynn made the funeral potatoes {so yummy and the best potatoes ever in my opinion}, dinner rolls, and strawberry surprise {pictured below}!  Aunt Lori was in charge of one of Chad's favorites; green bean casserole {it was his dad's favorite too} and pumpkin pie {also pictured below}. 

After dinner, the girls scoped out the ads to see if we wanted to brave black Friday, while the cousins played their little hearts out!  During and after all of this, we managed to loosen our pants just enough to enjoy desert!

 Which may or may not have led to a few naps on the couch!  HA!  Caught snoozin'.

We had a wonderful afternoon together and look forward to next year {at someone else's house...heehee, I joke, sort of}!  Love our family, both the ones we spent time with today and those that were far, far away!

 Linking up with a few peeps, here!