lately.

nothing exciting has been going on around here lately.  carter has had a double ear infection, croup, and the flu (even with a flu shot) and he has so kindly shared the flu with me!  grace, hopefully, won't get it because she had a flu shot and is on tamiflu now.  i am praying that john somehow is immune to this nasty flu; 'cause i really don't want him to get it!  it stinks!

even with all the yucky stuff his body was dealing with, carter still found energy to play.  his new favorite toy is this lovely "pearl" necklace that grace got for her birthday.  (tripp, wanna play?)

john told grace to get dressed because he was gonna take her to get some yogurt and this is what dressed looks like to her. a rockstar...'cause you gotta look perfect.  where, oh, where did this come from?  we don't use the word "rockstar" in our house.  we don't even listen to "rockstar" music!  where do kids learn such things?!?

peace out.

i'm going to bed!

bowling

Last weekend, we celebrated Andrew's 7th birthday at the bowling alley!  I love this boy so much and I can't believe that he is 7 years old now!  Crazy!

This was Grace and Carter's first time to go bowling and they both had a great time!  Grace wanted to do it all by herself and she did pretty good...she got a spare!

...waiting and watching...

Carter LOVED the bowling balls!  He actually picked up a few of the bowling balls!

He wasn't going to let the big kids have all the fun!  Carter took it upon himself to make sure he got a chance to bowl too!

We had a fun time and used up a lot of energy! Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home and it was only 7:30!!!

Valentine's Day 2012

This year, we kinda celebrated Valentine's like we did last year.  We just hung out and celebrated as a family!  John prepared a "fancy" candlelight dinner of heart shaped pizza. 

Grace got all dressed up for dinner.

And Carter was just happy!

The kids had a couple of treats at their seat.

We all opened our Valentine's cards.

Then, we played a couple of games.

Then, the kids went on a scavenger hunt...

...and found a little gift.

Grace was so very excited to get a notebook!  The rest of the night, she wanted to write notes to everyone she knew.

Carter got a new bag that he needed.  I was so tired of carrying around a huge diaper bag!

And he was thrilled hated it!

We played with the self-timer on my camera before bedtime.

XOXO

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day

valentine-sy stuff

Grace has her first Valentine party at school tomorrow.  She had to make a mailbox for her cards and this is what we came up with (and, yes, Grace helped!)

She also helped with her donut Valentine cards that she made for her friends.

She even helped make this Valentine party mix to take to her party.  We used pretzels, Valentine M&M's, Quaker Heart cereal, and the X's and O's from some alphabet crackers.

I made these bubble Valentine's for Carter to give to his "friends", but I lost them.  Oops! Maybe, he can pass them out next year if they ever show up!

silhouettes...a tutorial (kinda)

I wanted to share with you how I made these silhouettes that are in our "new" hall.  I did not come up with this idea, but I don't remember where I read it from a few years ago.  I know there are a ton of silhouette tutorials, but this is one is so simple.

Here's what you need:

a camera

a printer

card stock to print the pic on

card stock to mount the pic on

black acrylic paint

a paintbrush

scissors

adhesive 

First, take a picture of your kids or whoever from the side.  Then, print it on some card stock.

Next, carefully, cut out the picture and make sure you include all the details...curls, eyelashes, etc.  Paint the pic that you just cut out black.  When it is dry, glue it to your background card stock or any kind of paper or fabric and frame!

Tada!  Pretty simple, right?

our NEW hallway

You may remember when I was contemplating redoing the hallway here.  Well, I decided to go for it.  John was sad about his stripes being painted over and I was a little sad too, but it was time for a change.  John worked on this hall while I was pregnant with Grace and it kinda became a Grace gallery.  It was full of Grace's pictures (even her sonogram), her handprints, her baby shoes, her monogram...it was all Grace.  And, I loved it!  But, we needed to add a little Carter!

{BEFORE}

{AFTER}

A couple of weeks ago, John sadly painted over the stripes with Sherwin William's Rice Grain and I made it more "us."  I made some silhouettes of both Grace and Carter and framed them. I covered some canvases with pages from my most favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  I hung up some vintage clipboards that will make it easy to change out photos or Grace's art.  I added an anthro monogram, a couple of frames, and this awesome "happy" pennant banner that my mother in law gave me for Christmas!  I absolutely love how it all looks now!