Tagged by Robyn

I got lucky!
I went to my 6th picture folder and chose the 6th picture.

Little Butterball Liam!

I really need to go through my folders and clean up and edit the photos. This was a great reminder of that.

So, I guess this is how it works. I now tag 6 someones.

I'm tagging Shauna, Carrie, Stephanie, Mallorie, Megan, and Christie
Now go to your pictures files and choose the 6th folder and the 6th picture in that folder.
Then tag 6 people.

Crazy sleep...

I woke up from the craziest dream....



I was in love with Zac Efron.

Does that make me a cougar?!

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

A Big Milestone!

The day has finally arrived........


Max learned to ride his two wheeler!

He has wanted to do this for a long long time, but he used to get really frustrated and have a lot of fear and trepidation. I don't know why.

But today he finally did it just like it was no big deal.

Notice the helmet on backwards. hee hee

Way to go Max! I am so proud of him!!
Look out spring and summer -- here we come!!

P.S. If you were one of my neighbors watching me run down the street to take these pictures -- stop laughing so hard and tell no one what you saw!

Lipstick Love!

That's right folks! This is not the first photo of her in my lipstick.
Our little miss has a little love affair going on with lipstick!!

Good color though, don't you think?

Cheap Fun!!!

My kids love Legos and other building toys, but today I discovered I never needed to spend lots of money for them to have fun!

Today at Max's preschool they built things out of marshmallows and toothpicks.
Max loved it so much he wanted to do it at home.



Anders decided to join him and they had a fun time comparing structures.

I was pretty impressed with their building skills.


And with how quiet and focused they were.

They were pretty proud -- {the good kind.}

Maybe they will be architects or engineers.
OR
Maybe they'll just have fun being kids!

Oh so loverly!

There is a really talented artist named Sarah Jane and I LOVE LOVE LOVE everything she does. I feel like she really captures the innocence and sweetness of childhood.

I have this one already thanks to a wonderful sister-in-law.
(But, I still need to get it framed. Why is it so rootin' tootin' hard to find great, affordable, white frames? That's a whole different post.)

Check out some of these others. There are so many beautiful ones I couldn't choose one favorite!!!

Love this one!!!

They make me feel....happy.

They make me feel at peace.

I just find her so incredibly talented. She is a local girl and sometimes has a booth at the Beehive Bazaar, but she wasn't there this last time. So, maybe she will return in the spring.

Until then, check out her Etsy shop (I love Etsy!) here.

I so wish I was an artist. If I could create things this beautiful my house would be my gallery.

And I would be filled with complete JOY!

Aren't these sweetly delicious?!

I found a few very fun cookie cutters on Amazon.

I don't usually go nuts over sugar cookies, but with fun cookie cutters, it makes me want to whip up a batch just to admire their cuteness.

How fun and springy do these look?

They make me want to sing "Spring is bustin' out all over!" {Name that musical}

Of course, they make me want spring to be bustin' out all over, EVEN MORE! (It is so cold and dreary today.)

How cute are these little lovies?!



I happen to love the little bugs and I love that they're little!!! These would be so cute added onto a cake or on top of cupcakes.

I really want to use these. Or better yet,

Someone make me some sweetly delicious cookies!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope you and yours had a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

The results...

Here are the photos of how the Valentine chocolates turned out.

They were really easy and fast. The labels printed out beautifully and the kids had a great time wrapping the chocolates and packing the boxes.

{I won't lie. I did steal a few. But, I will also tell you, the kids stole a few as well.
What good is a wrapped chocolate if you can't sneak a little taste?!}

I couldnt' find the DVD holders so I bought small boxes from XPDEX (I LOVE XPDEX.)

Then I wrapped them with cardstock. They turned out pretty cute I think.

The kids had a great time. It was a very satisifying project.
I love it when a plan comes together. {name that movie}

Ode to the Crockpot

Oh Crockpot how I love thee....

I love to look at it simmering away all day
Telling me not to worry -- dinner is taken care of.
When I am ready something warm and delicious (hopefully)
will be waiting for me to consume.

It tells me, "It's okay. Get all of your other things done.
I've got it covered."

It tells me, "Don't worry. I won't burn it."

It tells me,...."Stop acting like an idiot that talks with a Crockpot."

Okay, so it really doesn't tell me anything, but I do love to look at it cooking away all day on my countertop. It brings me a small bit of happiness and joy. Is that so wrong?! Nay, I say.

There are so many great things to cook in a Crockpot, but a new one that I tried recently comes from my friend Beautiful Brenda.

She told me how to crockpot a turkey breast. I have to say I had my doubts, but it was DELICIOUS!!! No dry turkey! If you are a person that likes crispy turkey skin, then this is not for you. But,...if you are a person that discards the skin anyway, then you ought to try it.

BASIC INSTRUCTIONS:

{Slice up one onion and layer the bottom. Salt & pepper the outside and the inside liberally. Let her rip for 6 or 8 hours. } Sorry. No photos here.

I cooked it one day and had it for dinner. Then I ate the leftovers on salad and sandwiches all week. I even froze some for soup later on. It was a great success. Thanks Brenda.

If you too love the crockpot, check out this blog here for lots of recipes.

And... Thanks Crockpot!

Great Valentine's idea!

I found this cute idea for a simple Valentine's gift.
So cute!!
I think I'll do this for teacher gifts.

So check out all of the instructions and free pdf downloads here!

This clever woman also gives you a link to download the
font for free.
(I love free fonts!)

She has several other ideas and tutorials, so take a look around.

I love creative people!

I'm smitten!!

I've fallen completely in LOVE!!

I can't help myself! He is just too delicious!

Isn't it amazing that no matter how many kids you have, you can continue to have this gut-wrenching love for each of them? When I had my first, I didn't understand how I could ever feel that way again. But I do. Over and over and over.

Happy Birthday Mallorie!!!

Who is Mallorie you ask?

She is my gloriously exceptional sister and today was her birthday!!!!!

(I know. I'm a little late putting this up here b/c it was just ....one of those days. Let me just say these few words: gone most of the day. sick child. throw up on nurse. strep throat. dirty house. You get the idea. So, now I will post about Mallorie.)

I am so lucky to have her as a sister! She is one of the greatest people in the world and if you don't know her,...you should get to know her. :)

(Here we are at her graduation from medical school this past spring. She is so beautiful.)

I can't even begin to list ALL of the things I love about her so I will stick to just a few.

She is a hopeless romantic -- this comes in very handy since she is always willing and ready to watch a good chic flick.

She cries easily -- I know that she will always be there as a sympathetic cry-er (both her and my friend Heidi) :)

She knows so many great movie quotes and uses them in the funniest way -- "Popover?" (that's for you Mal.)

She is SO FUNNY! -- she gets me laughing like none other. I even laugh when I read things she's written b/c I can hear how she would be saying them.

She is geniune.

She is smart.

She is good.

She is kind.

She is devoted.

She is one of the greatest blessings in my life (along with all of my other fantastic sisters!)

I love you Mallorie! I hope you had a great birthday and know how happy I am we are sisters!

p.s. She is single.

(Hey. You never know Mallorie. I had to put that out there.) :)

I

So much talent!!!

I have a sister (well, actually I have several sisters and they're all talented), but I have one in particular that is so talented at making cakes.

She made this one the other day for my niece's 16th birthday.Wowy Zowy!!!
How much do I lovey love love those zebra stripes!!!

She has done some very cool cakes and continues to do cakes for weddings.
Check out her cake blog here.
Isn't that cake so fun?! How much would I have loved a cake like that when I was 16?! How much would I love a cake like that anytime?!
(And yes, that bow is edible)
See how hard it is to be me?! I can't live up to such amazing-ness! :)

Steph, you amaze me! Please please please move closer so you can make my children's birthday cakes! Please!?!?!

I love Pandora!

I was actually going to do a different post, but I can't get my camera to work right -- so I will save it for another time. In the meantime... let me just say
I love Pandora!!

For those of you who don't know what this is, you ought to check it out.

Basically it is a website that allows you to listen to music without paying -- it is internet radio. I turn it on my laptop and just leave it playing while I'm working in the kitchen, or just playing in the background while I'm on my computer.

The coolest thing however is that it tries to tailor the music to your liking. It is part of something called the Music Genome Project. So, you choose an artist, a song, or a genre and it will play music that fits into those categories. As you listen you have the option to skip songs (only so many per hour though) and also you can click on the song to say you like it or you don't. It will then play a new song based on the "genes" of the song you did or didn't like that still fits into your category. If you want to read more about it it look here.I absolutely love it. It is a great way to be introduced to music I like without having to buy it and without me having to search for it.

Right now I am loving Jason Mraz and they have created for me a Jason Mraz station to listen to so I hear songs and artists that have similar musical qualities to him. I love it.

So, if you haven't heard of this check it out here. But, if you already know about this and love it, well then....never you mind. However, why didn't you tell me about this sooner?!?!