Easy Peasy Homemade Card

Well, I caved.

I swore off Pinterest a few weeks ago but we are back. Like Selena and the Biebs, we are back and stronger than ever.

I actually DID something that I found on Pinterest. Before you get too excited, there was no paint, nails, wood, sanding, etc involved. We are taking it slow.

It was a simple card crafting project that went well into the wee hours of the morning on Mothers day. Baby steps. It also was perfect timing because two of my fav bloggers Katie at Bower Power and John and Sherry at Young House Love were hosting a challenge. So, I can actually be on board and blog about it. (yay)

Nothing too hard, just a cute and thoughtful card for Mother's Day. 10 points for hand prints of the kiddos. You can win any grandma's heart with a hand print of her grandbaby. So, this looked simple enough.

Here was my pin.

I traced Ryan's hand (sorry Jack- next year kiddo). Then I brought out the arsenal of scrapbook paper and got to work cutting. There were a lot of layers involved. Of COURSE it took longer than I had anticipated. 

They were a hit. Nana, Oma, Grandma, and Great Grandma loved them!

Anyone else get crafty for Mother's Day?

Check out all the other Pinterest Challenge Projects here.

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Party weekend!

We never know how to just do one party at a time. Last year at this time we had Ryan's first birthday and a surprise party for my mom's 60th!

This past weekend Ryan turned 2. We thought we would take the opportunity to make it a party-pallooza weekend and have Jack (and my sweet niece Makenzie) baptized together on Sunday. 

Enter crazy list making, invite sending, and finishing up (long overdue) house projects late into the wee hours of the night for the past few weeks. And for the record the bathroom is re-painted and the basement steps are now tiled and re-painted as well!  Oh, and taking care of our 6 week old and now 2 year old!  It's REALLY good that i am on maternity leave to get all of this done. 

Saturday was Ryan's party and right up until the last minute we were working on the party details. We had a Car's themed party- Ryan's favorite movie up until a few weeks ago when he discovered Toy Story.

I really wanted to have the theme carried thru the whole party. My person favorite touch was the the city let us borrow caution cones to line the driveway. It's not exactly pintrest worthy, but i was happy with how it turned out. 

Ry checking out his new tool bench in the am

a rare photo of just me and my baby daddy

sisters- can you tell?

the backyard- ready for all of the kiddos to arrive

Ry's racetrack cake (in the shape of a 2)

happy little 2 year old

the spread

 

favors

party peeps

cars shirt, cars shoes, cars couch- check, check, and check!

cousin fun

 We had a great time and the birthday boy had an awesome day! The best part was the look on his face when he woke up from his nap and discovered the party in our yard!  I'm not sure he realized it was for him until we sang happy birthday to him!

Sunday was cinco de baptism. Jack, Makenzie, and my brother in law Denny (Makenzie's dad) were all baptized. A baptism hat trick if you will. We were very lucky having lots of family members and friends join us for the big day!

With Jack

Jack, Us, and his godmothers- Erin and Tessa

Sweet Kenzie with proud parents Erin and Denny

  

Our family with Pastor Dave

A very proud Nana and Papa

Oma with Jack-
she made this gown for her oldest daughter- all of her 8 children and
multiple grandkids have worn this for their baptism. 

It was a really great, busy, whirlwind of a weekend and we are all pooped!
Thanks again to all of our family and friends that were with us all weekend and helped us with the parties ;)

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Jack's announcement

Since these have finally been sent and received, thought i would share Jack's birth announcement. They turned out way cute!

A huge thanks to Thad's awesome cousin Jolene from studio217 for taking Jack's newborn pictures and putting these together for us :)

We are so in love!

pinterest break up

Its not you pintrest, its me, and i think we need some time apart

damn you and all of your amazing ideas....

I just spent an hour looking at all of my pins that i pinned for Ryan's birthday party and they all add up to making me feel like a less than adequate mom/ party host/ human.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are AMAZING party pins out there. But, i am convinced that the people behind the pins are all related to buddy the elf that require about 45 min of sleep a day. I don't want to feel guilty for not handcrafting all of his party decor and making a cars cake from scratch. I consider myself crafty, but this is a whole new level!

Even on maternity leave I don't think I have to time to throw a pintrest worthy party for Ryan! So, in signing off for this event and just winging it.

Anyone else out there feel overwhelmed by pinterst sometimes?  Maybe its still the postpartum hormones?  I promise i will love you again someday pintrest...  but for now, i think we need a break.

Organizing Spree

Talk about nesting...

I wrote and did all of this this two days before I had Jack- just never hit publish. Nothing says nesting like a pregnant lady in a tank top zipping around the house and snapping photos until 1am. I should have known better to have soaked it all in and gotten a good nights sleep. But, the pictures speak for themselves. I love a good cleaning spree.

Most Friday nights I come home, have dinner with Thad and Ry and we chill out and then I pass out early. Glamours right? Well, this week I got a second wind (nesting, i'm sure) Nothing gets me excited like a little organizing and today I got some new storage and I knew it would make a difference in a few cabinets that no one ever really sees but us. But anything to make things more organized is a good day in my book! I needed to see immediate results. 

I started in the kitchen. We don't have a ton of space and I really try to pare down what we keep in the cabinets to what we use on a pretty daily basis. The medicine cabinet is at the top of this cabinet (out of reach for little hands). In about 10 minutes I was able to throw out some old prescriptions, change out some storage and feel awesome knowing that its more functional now. 

Next up was the living room. This is such a catch all spot for Ryan's ridiculousness amount of toys. I REALLY am going to work on getting a better toy solution while I'm on maternity leave. But in the mean time, I used a few new storage bins to keep some of his favorite things in and haul the rest up to his room. I also dusted- 10 points!

On to the dining room. I have saved a whole cabinet of candles that I rarely ever use with two kitties and a toddler. I was able to clean out and get rid of a bunch of decor that I know will never see the light of day in this house again. I love purging!

This is the other dining room cabinet. There was a lot in there that we don't generally use either. I got some china plate covers so it just makes it look more neat in there. I was able to get rid of a few things that I know we won't be using. 

 Here are a few things i'll be taking to Goodwill. I love getting rid of "stuff". We have so much in this house that we just never use, its good to get rid of "stuff".