Growing up

That's what my boys are doing, growing up!  

Seriously, in the blink of an eye these boys surprise us every day.

He gets taller, and smarter, way smarter every time I look at him!  

This is him with the robot he made at school.

It's name is April.

And then there's the baby.  Umm, maybe baby's not the right word anymore :(

He's a climber, a stubborn, do it my self, kind of a kid.  He can do things at this age that the other one hadn't even thought about yet.  

My eyes are on him every second!  

He does have the cutest bed head of any 17 month old EVER!!

They're growing up faster than I knew was possible.  

I'm grateful that they're healthy and strong, but sometimes I wish they'd just stay small, snuggly, and unblemished from the world.

My heart swells with unbelievable love for these two precious boys, how lucky are we to have them!

Cookies

Damen wanted to help me make chocolate chip cookies the other day.

He was SO excited to make his own "special" cookies.  He ran to his treat/snack drawer and pulled out a variety of candy to add.  

We had starburst, sweet tarts, and some weird block candies from China added to this special batch, he was very proud!

They didn't taste awful. 

 And here's a random pic of Mason snarfing melted chocolate, I had just made some chocolate candies.  

I like making treats for my family to enjoy, and they don't seem to mind either!

Zoo!!

For President's Day we took our nephew, Lincoln and ventured to the nearby zoo.

It was COLD, but we had a good time, the boys loved this slide, it's a LIFE SIZE giraffe! and the other playground like animals around the park.

 Cutest hatchlings ever:)

Giraffe anyone??

WHY do they have this in the exhibit I do now know.  The real ones were inside, it was too cold for them.

 The lion came over to say hello, it was awesome.

Ready to go home.

Fruit snacks!!

I did it, I made these fruit snacks!

I found the recipe on Pinterest, and couldn't wait to try them.

A few things had to be altered because I ran out of plain gelatin, so I used 1 Tbs. raspberry jello from a box.  I think it helped with the flavor, but it also added lots of other things like color and preservatives:( 

 I used a small flower cookie cutter to cut them out, soo cute!

The recipe doesn't make a whole lot so be careful when letting your family "taste" them, they might just eat them all.

Click below for the direct link to the recipe, YUM!

Fruit Snacks

Signs signs, well ok just one.

While visiting an awesome home store recently, I saw these wooden signs that were SO cool!  They looked somewhat like this:

With quotes burned into the wood, they were all different sizes, from small to HUGE.  I can't remember the price, but I was pretty sure I could make my own on the cheap.

First I needed a base for the wooden slats so I found a canvas at Goodwill for .75 cents!  It had a preprinted image that I tore off, just leaving the wooden frame.

Also, I took no pictures of that part, so here's a photo of a canvas so you can imagine pulling off the canvas and just having a wooden frame:)

Next came the wooden slats.  I found these at Lowe's, they're poplar 24x1.5, I think.  I bought 5 for .98 cents each.  The frame was 10x10 (that's inches) so I measured them out and handed them off to my husband to cut.  I then nailed them to the frame.  I didn't sand them or make them pretty because I wanted it to look rustic.

Next I painted them with a whitewash.

Nice right??  I painted the sides too.

Then I looked for a quote to go in the boys bedroom, I wanted it to say something about brothers and be uplifting.

I found this one, printed it out and taped it on the sign, over copy paper, then traced the letters onto the sign.

I loved the look of the other signs that were burned into the wood, but I didn't want to perfect my wood burning skills on this project so I just painted it instead.  

I'm going with a red/white/blue theme for the boys room so I painted the words red.

 What do you think?  I love it, it's hanging in the boys room tonight!
Total cost $5.65

linking up:
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2013/02/transformation-thursday-no-192.html

So pretty!

I don't have a lot of decor for Valentines day so I bought these hearts from the dollar store, they were on picks for flower arrangements.  I ripped out the sticks and sprinkled the inside of the hutch with them.  This is my grandmothers cake plate, it's very old, I just loved how this picture came out, so simple, so pretty.



linked to this party:
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2013/01/transformation-thursday-no-188.html

December

Christmas, YAY!  

We did other stuff in December, it just wasn't as fun as going to my parents for Christmas with the whole family!!

Visiting Santa at the church Christmas party, Mason was already on his way down!

 This was our Family Christmas eve nativity, words can not express how hilarious it was!!  Mason's down in front as a sheep, the three boys were wisemen/sheperds, and Sammy and her brother Robert were the parents of the dear baby bear/Jesus.  I have lots more pictures, some of them Robert looks like he's earning a Karate belt, Sammy's no where in sight, we lost the baby a few times, it was great fun.

 We celebrated Great Papas 85th birthday, this is him with ALL the grandkids, such a sweet picture.

Christmas morning!!  This was about 6:40am, Damen couldn't wait so we got up and looked around, then woke everyone at 7, it was fun, chaos, and more fun!

 We came back to Idaho just in time for this!  Damen was excited about it for a few days, then he was over it, me too!  The snow is still here, and it's been a month!

Mason really wanted to go out in it, but then he wasn't so sure. . .