Remember These?

Foam curlers!  Recently my Mother-in-law gave me some of her curlers and Evie was dying to try them out!  So one night after her bath we gave 'em a shot.

After we finished putting them in it was bedtime.  In the morning we took out the curlers and she was so shocked by her reflection in the mirror!

Decoupage Recipe Box

For my best friend's birthday I decided I would make her something from the heart and not waste a bunch of money on something she probably would never use.  She lived with me at my parents house for a while when we were younger, so she has gotten full exposure to my family cooking style and our recipes.  Needless to say, she LOVES our cooking (as most other people do too)!  This is the coolest way I could think of to bring a bit of "home" to her in Georgia.

I had seen an idea for a decoupaged recipe box on a blog I follow called S.B. Creatively a while back and instantly wanted to try it out for myself.  I got an unfinished recipe box at a craft store, pulled out the Mod Podge and paper and got to work!

I failed to take a "before" picture before I started painting, whoops!

Finished product

I bought the recipe cards but made the dividers from card stock and stamped the letters on.

I thought about printing out the recipes, but this seemed like a better idea for a more personalized collection.
I wrote out a TON of recipes and laminated them with my dad's laminator.  

I thought this project turned out great, and it was a lot of fun to do.  I can't wait to make myself one to keep!

Sofia's Birthday Party

As I mentioned in my previous post, we celebrated Sofia's 6th birthday party this weekend at one of Ellensburg's local parks.  It was cold and overcast out, but we had fun none-the-less!  I don't take my kids to the park that often, which is a shame because they clearly had a blast!  Here are some shots I got of the party.  Definitely thrilled to have the camera I have!

My sister Emily (Sofia and Pearl's mother)

Bea - a little overstuffed!

Andrew and Colby have Bieber Fever

The Girls patiently waiting for Papa to hang the pinata.

Chris yanked the bee out of range at the last second...

Pearl was NOT happy!

Evie having a go at it

My brother Mike and his youngest Elena (born on my birthday!)

Bea, Matt, Elena, and Mike

The Kids

Everybody wave!

The Birthday Season Has Begun!

In our family, Spring brings almost all of the birthdays.  We have several in March, and the majority are in April.  That means I'll be busy making presents for the next few months!  This last weekend we celebrated my niece Sofia's 6th birthday.  The day before the party I had remembered that Sofia really wanted a special box to put her treasures in (similar to the one I had made her younger sister Pearl a few months before).  So I brought out the paper and the Mod Podge and went to work!  This is the end result ...

I used one of my dad's old cigar boxes (which I have PLENTY of) and some of my more "childish" looking paper.  

This was really my first attempt at decoupage and I had so much fun doing it!  I definitely will be doing more projects like this in the near future.

A Nice Little Getaway!

This past weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to get out of Ellensburg for a couple of days and head up to Leavenworth.  We met up with Matt's father and his wife and some of their good family friends.  We had a blast!  Matt and I drove up a few hours early with the girls and had a few hours to ourselves which provided the perfect opportunity to get some great photos!  The weather was outstanding, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful weekend!  We had a great dinner, good drinks, and a wonderful time visiting with family and friends!  Here are some shots I got from the weekend.

Yearling Bald Eagle hanging out on our road

Testing out my new remote while Bea naps

Checking out presents from Aunt Nikki and family with Margot

Evelyn can't put this thing down, she keeps saying "Brody and Peyton got this for me!"

Pobrecita!

Morning snuggies with Papa!

Trying to open our eyes for the camera in the bright sunlight!

Matt and his Father

Gymnastics!

Tonight Evelyn had her first gymnastics class!  Matt and I have been saying we need to get her involved in some sort of outside activity for a while now, and we finally made it happen!  She had a blast, and picked everything up so quick!  She's such a strong little girl, I have no doubt in my mind that she won't be great at this!  I can't wait until Bea is also old enough to take classes, we had a hard time keeping her off of the practice area!  I hope this is something Evie really enjoys.  She teared up when the class was over tonight and we had to leave, she didn't want to stop!  We are also looking into swim lessons, which is something I probably should have had her in already...oops!

Bea's Boo Boo

Well not ten minutes after I had completed today's first post, Bea took a pretty bad spill.  There is a drawer in my kitchen full of aprons, pot holders and dish towels that Bea absolutely LOVES to tear apart.  I've never thought anything of the large drawer being open while she's walking around until today!  She loves to run around the island in my kitchen and usually does so without any problems.  However, today she tripped on the rug in front of my kitchen sink and landed on the edge of the towel drawer hitting her face.  I knew it was bad from the second she fell, but I wasn't able to assess her injuries due to the massive amounts of blood flowing from her nose, mouth and a significant gash above her eye.  I panicked, to say the least.  Do I call 911 or drive her to the ER myself?  I decided to drive her myself and grabbed Evelyn and a kitchen towel for Bea's face and ran out the back door.

We were on the highway before a minute had even passed by since her tumble.  Normally it takes us fifteen minutes to get into town, I think I made it there in nine today, Bea screaming the whole way and dripping blood all over herself and car seat.  Evelyn was very concerned for Bea and kept trying to console her.  My mother and Grammy met us at KVCH and Grammy took Evelyn to the waiting room for us.  After sitting in a holding room in the ER for 5 minutes a nurse came in and told us that there was such a long line for care in the ER at that time that we might be better off calling Bea's doctor and taking her there.  The nurse said as long as she didn't pass out when she hit the drawer or have any seizures she probably would only need stitches, or even less bothersome, glue.  So off to the doctor's office we went.

Bea's nose and eyelid stopped bleeding just before getting to the doctor's office which was a relief.  After the nurses cleaned up her face we could see some bruises forming under and above the eye and on her nose.  There was nothing wrong with her mouth, so the blood coming from there must have been a result of the bloody nose.  I was so grateful to hear she didn't knock out any teeth or bite her tongue at all!  The doctor was able to just glue up the cut which is another plus.  She did great through the whole thing.  My poor baby!

I keep having to remind myself that a head injury bleeds much more than any other.  I think I handled myself alright throughout the whole thing, although I did fall apart a little on the drive when we were momentarily stopped by road construction and also when Matt wouldn't answer his phone!

Finally we got home and Bea fell right asleep.  What a traumatic experience for us all!

Bea destroying and Evie putting it back together again

                                      

These were taken earlier today, the bruising is a bit more significant now...

Happy despite the boo boo!

New ways to see more from me!

I have always kept up to date (for the most part) with sharing my photos online for family and friends to see -- at least this was the case while I still had Facebook.  I was looking for a way to share my photos with everyone again and came across Flickr.  I created an account there last night and hope to keep uploading pictures on a frequent basis!  Please stop on by my page and check it out, be sure to let me know if the links are not working or of you cannot see any of the pictures.  I have tried to make them visible to all but I'm still new at this, so bear with me!  Just click on the link below and you should be redirected to my photos.  Thanks!

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