Week Forty-Nine: Christmas Card

Who decided that we have to send Christmas cards? I'm over it. I try to do so many fun things throughout the year that by the time Christmas rolls around, my focus has shifted from paying to send out a card no one keeps, to fun family activities that consume my time.

Horrible? Scrooge?

Yeah, probably. But guess what? I am ok with that! haha

The way I see it, the only people who aren't on Facebook that I'd like to send a Christmas Card to are the same people I'll be seeing on Christmas. I'll be able to print off a photo for them if they'd like, and see them in person, too!

Even with all of these Bah Humbuggy thoughts on Christmas cards running through my head, I decided that I would indeed make one. However, I'll just share it here on the blog and on social media and call it a day!

Honestly, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders once I decided to do it this way! How sad is that? Apparently stuffing, addressing, and stamping envelopes was simply too much for me at this very moment in time. Again....I'm ok with that. ;)

Some of you probably saw O's first encounter with Santa on Instagram. It was hilariously heartbreaking. He was SO sad. I didn't purchase that photo at the time, although I still might since they're available online, too. We went back for another try on a weeknight. It was so much more calm in the mall and there was no one in line behind us, so O got to slowly approach Santa with Mike and I before he sat alone.

After the redo with Santa, behold: Christmas Card 2014

Week Forty-Eight: Countdown to Christmas

A year ago, I was apparently very ambitious.

Last night as we unpacked the Christmas stuff and set up the tree, I found all sorts of cute stuff that I bought on clearance last year, tucked away, and completely forgot about. Among those things was a bag from Michael's. I grabbed it, wondering what the heck it was. 

Stockings. Twenty-five tiny little stockings. And some ambition. I think there was some ambition shoved in there too. 

It all came back to me. I remember seeing a blog post about an adorable little advent calendar that was stockings instead of a box with little doors or whatever it usually is. I decided I *needed* that stocking garland and set out to purchase it. Of course it was from Pottery Barn or somewhere like that. Of course it was on sale for $70+. Of course. That's when I decided that I would simply buy my own tiny stockings and make my own Christmas countdown! And here we are. 

It is December first. Time to start counting down to Christmas. I don't think last year me factored in the time it would take to make the garland with the stockings. Or think of cute things to tuck inside the socks. Here is a tentative list (both material things and ideas I could write on a slip of paper) of what I'll stick inside:

• Build a snowman
• Stickers
• Bake cookies
• Read a Christmas book 
• Color a picture to send to grandparents
• "Cap-ick" {chapstick}
• Visit Bentleyville
• Make glitter play doh
• Wrap presents
• Visit Santa 
• Festive window clings

In all honesty, I think we might just tuck ideas into the weekend socks this year and the days Mike and I will be home on vacation. Next year O will have a better understanding of looking in the stocking each day, so we can fill them all then. This year it just seems like more work than fun to try to fill every one and remember to check it every day. Bah Humbug?

No, but really. I love the holiday season and I love cheesy stuff like this. I'm excited that the stockings are at least hung! They look so festive! I just need to hang something above them so they aren't so lonely, and create and attach the numbers to the socks. My plan is to cut scalloped edge circles out of flannel or felt and write numbers on the circles with fabric markers, then glue the circles onto the stockings. 

Do you do a Christmas countdown with your toddler or big kid? What kinds of things do you do? 

-H

Week Forty-Seven: Thanksgiving 2014

There's nothing like the holidays to force you into taking a trip on the nostalgia express. {In a good way, of course.}

This Thanksgiving I started thinking about how far O has come in just one year and how much fun he is. 

How last year he took a nap during our thanksgiving party, and this year he was up until after 9.

How last year he was just starting to truly eat food and this year he was so distracted and excited he hardly ate anything.

How last year he was not running around chasing "doggies!!!" and this year...he was.

How last year we took nearly 100 photos and this year I took 2. Three if you count the selfie I took before we left the house. ;)

We had a lovely Thanksgiving and an excellent long weekend complete with shopping, the Children's Museum, and relaxing. Hope you all did too!

Week Forty-Six: Date Night

We don't get out much. It's not that we don't like to, just that it isn't that convenient to do. Finding someone who is free to watch O, finding time, finding motivation to do something other than lounge on the couch in sweats... date nights are hard work!

This Tuesday however, a date night fell into our laps! Our daycare lady, Katie, had an appointment for one of her own kids. She either needed to drop O off early, or bring him home around 7. Since leaving work early didn't appeal to either of us, we opted for a 7 pm drop off and went out for an early bird dinner!

Since the restaurant we chose has happy hour in the afternoon, there were not so many old people enjoying early bird dinner as there were all kinds of people enjoying craft beer for cheap. 

Ward 6 is one of my favorite places to grab dinner when I'm in the mood for something good and different. I've always had great service, and the food is yummy. You can't really say anything bad about a place that has a meatball of the day special. Mike and I had some happy hour drinks and great main courses before trying out one of their desserts. 

I wasn't overly thrilled with the apple cake we had. I think next time I'd get one of their adult milkshakes instead. Both of our meals were delicious, though! Mike had ribs and sweet potatoes fried and I had some sort of delicious messy hot sandwich. 

It was so lovely to get out just the two of us, even if it was only a couple hours. It was a good reminder that a date night doesn't have to be a big thing. Being parents brings all kinds of guilt to the table about leaving our little one to be with just each other when we could be having family time. It's hard to shake that, even when you know that your marriage is an important part of your family, too. 

Much like the end of every date night, we left the restaurant talking about how we "really need to do this more often."

Here's hoping we do!  

Week Forty-Five: Garth

This week I got to see a concert that has been a long time coming. I grew up listening to country music and with that I grew up loving Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson, Faith Hill, and so many more. I also loved Garth Brooks. 

So. Much. 

When he was last in Minnesota I saw him, but I was much too concerned with being a sassy tween to enjoy it. I remember having a screaming match with my mom because I wanted to wear wide leg jeans to the concert, and there is a picture somewhere of me holding up my souvenir autographed photo and I'm pretty sure I'm mid-eye roll. 

With age I got all sorts of wisdom and perspective and all that, and realized that I was an idiot to not enjoy the heck out of that concert. 

My friend Cali and I have been talking about seeing Garth live for 10+ years. We promised each other that when he comes out of retirement we would see him no matter where no matter how much it cost. 

Then he opened his show in Vegas. And we totally didn't go. Because we had grown to be all sorts of responsible and couldn't justify the cost. 

Fast forward a few years to Cali and I glued to computers for 45+ minutes as Garth's Minneapolis shows (all 11 of them) went on sale. Cali got out of the waiting room first and scored us what we thought were decent enough seats.

Then we walked into the Target Center, and saw our seats. And they were awesome!

We had such a wonderful time and not only did I make sure not to do any eye rolling or fit throwing about my pants, I made sure to record a bunch of my favorite moments. Please try not to get sick watching my shaky video- I was much to consumed with dancing and singing and watching it not through my phone screen to pay attention to what the videos looked like! ;)

Week Forty-Four: All the Right Junk in All the Right Places

How do we have so. much. crap. ??

I know I have a weak resolve when it comes to a good deal, and I know we buy more than we should. But, still! Spring cleaning has never really been my thing. I'm more of a spring "Oh my god it's nice out!! Let's go outside!" type versus a spring cleaning type.

Example: I've never once cleaned the outside of the windows in my house, yet the lawn chairs are right inside the garage door for easy access.

No...I'm more of a late fall cleaning type. It is cold outside, which means I'm not missing out on anything by staying inside and sobbing over a pile of baby clothes that are much too small for my baby toddler.

This week's mission was to get some of the junk we have been hoarding in random spots into some logical, permanent homes.

And it was a total and complete epic fail.

• We put away Halloween decorations: win
• We shoved them into the closet on top of Christmas decorations that will need to come out soon: fail
• We dug out hand me downs in the next couple sizes and sorted them into piles in O's room: win
• We lost ambition and left 6 piles of clothes on the floor in O's room: fail
• We took all the too small clothes out of O's drawers: win
• We left those piles on the floor too: fail

So what I'm saying... is that this organizing project requires a tad more ambition than Mike and I seem to have. We'll get there. Eventually. 

I have all kinds of big plans for a toy refresh/switcheroo soon too, so stay tuned to see what my strategy is there. Or to laugh at me when that is a mess too. Either way. ;)

Week Forty-Three: Pumpkin Painting!

Overambitious gal that I am, the original title for this blog post was going to be Pumpkin Carving! 

HA. HA. HA. 

Not so much. As soon as I watched O throw one of the mini pumpkins across the living room I decided that painting a pumpkin would be plenty fun. Carving can be an adventure for Halloween 2015. 

It was a beautiful evening, so before painting we decided to take a few fall photos. O wasn't especially cooperative, but we got a couple good ones. {Just ignore the giant goose egg on his head from earlier in the day. And the fact that his hair needs to be cut, lol.}

<3

"Ohh! Heh-bee!"

Must...throw...all the gourds.

Trying to take the camera from me.

I wanted him to jump in a pile of leaves, and he wanted to play with the paint jars that I should have kept hidden until it was time to paint. In a stroke of genius Mike tossed the paint jars into the pile of leaves so O would jump in and look for them. While it was a great idea.... the result was sad and pathetic cries. 

We snapped a couple more photos and then began some outdoor pumpkin painting. An adventure, as we imagined it would be. O entertained the idea of painting the pumpkin, but he was more interested in mixing the colors on his plate.  

The end result was a paint covered plate, paint covered table cloth, and mostly orange pumpkin. Still super cute though. :D

Signing "please" because the paint wasn't magically on his plate ready to go. 

So serious.

Week Forty-Two: Fall Toddler Art

I know lots of people don't like their kids' artwork cluttering their nicely decorated homes. They like to have it framed and only hang up pieces that kind of go with their décor, or hang them in a kids room or other place that's out of the way.

I'm not that person {most of the time}. Maybe it is because my décor lacks inspiration in the first place, but I can't get enough of O's artwork! We have been painting since he was around 6 months old and now that he is bigger we can do so much more. I do have some stuff framed and hang it up as part of my decorations for various holidays, but I just love me a good kid made project. {Yes, I realize after the 500th preschool project he brings home my tune will probably change.}

This week I decided to take advantage of all the beautiful fall leaves and make a little something for my mantle. O really likes going for walks up and down the sidewalks in our neighborhood and often finds little treasures that he gives to me. To get ready for a little leaf art I encouraged him to find all the pretty leaves.

He sort of cooperated. He also sort of just wanted to run into the street. Such is life. So I ended up picking most of the leaves he used, but he did the assembly himself!

Step by Step:
1. Tape a piece of clear contact paper to any surface {we did the window but it could be a table or a wall or easel or whatever} sticky side towards you.

2. Let the toddler go crazy sticking things onto the contact paper.{Leaves today, but tissue paper is fun too.}

3. Remove the tape and stick on a matching size sheet of clear contact paper.

4. Cut out shapes or frame the whole piece.
5. Since I cut out some ovals, I used a scrap of fabric I had left over from my tree skirt project last Christmas to hang them all together. A dab of hot glue and we were good to go. I folded the fabric over and then ripped the hanging ends so I could tie bows.

6. Hang up and enjoy that cluttered kid art feeling!

I'm a little bit surprised at how clear the contact paper looks in the sunlight, which is awesome! I'm quite sure we will be trying this again with some tissue paper for some baby stained glass as we get closer to Christmas. Partially because Christmas. Partially because I have a giant roll of contact paper now. ;)

So where do you fall on the kid art? Love it? Limited love? Briefly appreciate and then throw away? 

-H

Week Forty-One: Zoo Boo

Zoo Boo at Como Zoo was absolutely nothing like I expected it to be, but was a lot of fun!

O had a great time for the most part. He didn't like the man keeping him down, aka having to go with the flow of people and not against it, but that was really the only thing that made him sad. He loved running around, enjoyed carrying his little trick or treat bag half the time, and was very excited to get treats from costumed strangers. He even signed thank you a few times!

Pretty sure his favorite treat was a box of flashcards. No doubt he is my kid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He loves big mascot creatures! Such a cutie little guy.

 

-H

Week Forty: Achievement Unlocked: Throw Together Dinner from Scratch

No food. We have no food in the house. Ever.


I'm not entirely sure how this is possible since one of us is at target or the grocery store at least every other day. And sometimes we get groceries delivered. But still. Nothing to eat.

Cut to the other night when we were hungry for dinner. I decided to throw something together. And I actually succeeded. It was an actual meal. And actually delicious!

I'm not so sure that's ever happened before. Not that I'm bad at cooking, I just don't often throw things together with success.

I got some water boiling, tossed in some whole wheat pasta, and made a garlic cream sauce while the broccoli steamed.

For the sauce {which is obviously the only impressive thing about my meal} I put a little less than half a stick of butter in a pan and got it sizzling. Then I pressed two cloves of garlic in, although I wish I had had more than two cloves on hand. It got all sizzly and smelled amazing. Then I added a little too much flour, and once that was a paste I whisked in some whole milk. {O drinking whole cow milk with meals has really been nice for cooking.} Salt and pepper and ta-da!

I realize for most people this isn't necessarily an accomplishment. But for me it is! :D

What are your go-to throw together meals?!

Week Thirty-Nine: Paintings for Fall

I love being artsy. I wish I had more time for it. *sigh* I still have fabric on the floor in our office that was supposed to become a lovey blanket for O over 6 months ago. Among at least 6 other random projects that have yet to come to the top of my to do list.

I am going to blame some of the craft neglect on summer. I was so focused on soaking up every bit of summer that art projects were on the back burner. As the temperatures drop my motivation to stay inside grows and with it the desire to get crafty strikes.

The other day I was cutting up potatoes for a crock pot stew {YUM, by the way} and decided to make a potato stamp! So I sat at the table with a toothpick for way too long, carving a cat into a potato. It actually turned out pretty well! I tested it out with pink paint on white paper, and it worked! I was pleasantly surprised. I kind of thought it would be a fail since the potato was wet and the paint didn't stick all that well. Anyhow, next step was to grab black paper and orange paint so O could create a Halloween masterpiece. Fail. So much fail. The orange paint just wasn't opaque enough to show up on the black paper and then O wanted to paint the way he always does and I gave up.

Painting his hands.

We went with some paintbrush painting, then some finger painting, then some paintbrush painting our hands. I love watching O experiment with colors and mixing them together. His curiosity is so wonderful and I can't wait to see what he creates as he grows and develops!

I love this paint. L.O.V.E. It is super washable, and on skin is washes off easily with just water. Brushes from Michael's.

All by himself!

Brush painting with a little hand sneaking in there. 

Brushes and hands and the excitement of mixing colors!

Painting is a big fat mess but so worth it. I love hanging it up at work and at home. O has been good at not eating paint {for the most part} since the first time we tried painting when he was around 6 months old {I think. Talk about this past year being a blur!} Sometimes he puts it to his mouth but he is generally pretty good about listening when I tell him it is gross. 

Do you paint with your little? Have you tried any fun projects or techniques?! Tell me all about it! :)

-H

Week Thirty-Eight:Swimming!

Swimming class!! We started swimming class!

I know I said that I was going to stop myself from a constant account of the adventures of the week and get back to fun DIYs and recipes in the mix. 

But...but... Swimming lessons!! 

I was just so very excited about this opportunity for my little fish. And I still am. Our first class was great. The only grumpiness of the evening came when O wasn't allowed to be in the water. First, when we walked into the pool area and another class was still in the water, and again when our class was done. Everything else, including a locker in the locker room, was a big hit. He wanted "more" of just about every part of class from jumping in to the actions with the Wheels in the Bus song! 

Peekaboo!

While I wish that this class taught more than blowing bubbles and splashing hands, O loves it, and that makes Mike and I so very happy. <3

-H

Week Thirty-Seven: Apple Orchard Tradition

This weekend it was so stinking beautiful outside! We took advantage and headed to a local apple orchard. This is the same orchard we visited last year, although last year the weather was a lot more fall-like than today!

At the risk of sounding extraordinarily cheesy, this is the kind of memory making tradition that I am so excited to make with my family. Imagining O taking the hay ride out to the orchard to pick apples year after year is so fun for me, and then imagining what kind of place in his heart these happy memories will have makes my heart smile. I just love it. Raising a kid you get to decide what kinds of traditions, big and small, you'll have and I think that is so cool. We are excited to have so many apple orchards nearby to help carry on our new tradition. :)

O was so happy to ride the fake animals. The real animals at the petting zoo {especially the goat that rattled his horns on the fence} made him a tad nervous. He did however delight in telling the animals "No! Down!"

Happy to ride the "baaaaa"

Oh hi! Just scaling a tire mountain all by himself. 

Weee!

Peek-a-boo!

Apple picking.

So excited to share with Mama. 

<3

Trying to Share with Daddy

What a difference a year makes!