Happy Earth Day

Lots to do today.....I am getting a pedicure later, buying our favorite snacks for the road trip and then going home to get everyone packed and ready to head to the beach!! I am so excited about this trip, and I am desperately trying not to let my usual fears and anxieties get in the way......will the car ride be miserable? will Grant have a hard time sleeping in a new place? will I forget to pack something essential?, etc.... Instead, I am choosing to focus on how blessed we are to have this opportunity to get away from our daily grind and to relax in one of the most beautiful places on earth!!

I am also going to try and squeeze in a little Earth Day talk with Sienna. We talk a lot about turning out lights and recycling and turning the water off when we brush our teeth, etc... but today, I am going to spend just a few minutes talking about this great planet that we live on and how it is our responsibility to take care of it.

this weekend

This Weekend:

1. Took Sienna with me to take photos of Aunt Jenni's Birthday celebration

2. Worked all day at the Anatole getting the ball room ready for Mystique

3. Had a great time with the hubby and friends at Mystique

4. Stayed up until 3 am helping to load auction items into various SUVs

5. Spent the night away from the kiddos (for the second time ever) and enjoyed breakfast with my husband at the hotel

6. Created an "Art Door" with Sienna by hanging her newest art projects on her bedroom door....I LOVE walking past her door and seeing her creations!!

7. Fell asleep on the couch watching Desperate Housewives (I didn't even make it to the end!!)

Some photos from our weekend.......

She is all girl and he is ALL BOY!! She is very neat when she eats and doesn't particularly like her food to touch each other (hmmmm, I wonder where she got that???). Grant, on the other hand.....let's just say he thoroughly enjoys every single bite!!!  Especially his latest favorite.....black beans :)

Music

I have been working on a new scrapbook layout about the music that I listen to with the kiddos. I got the idea from Ali and thought it would be such a fun thing for the kids to look back on one day....wouldn't you like to have a list of all the music that your parents listened to when you were little?? Here are a few songs on our current list:

"Sweet Sweet Baby": Heather Featherstone.........if you have children, you MUST download this from itunes immediately!!!

"Imagine": Jack Johnson....LOVE this version

"Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)": Dixie Chicks

"I Hope": Dixie Chicks

"Dancing Queen": ABBA

"These are the Days": Van Morrison

On another note......my great-aunt passed away last week and at her funeral, they played the song "Friends are Friends Forever." I had forgotten about that song until it was played during the service, and it immediately brought tears to my eyes. It is just such a sweet, special song and it brought back so many memories (signing all the words to the song at church camp). I am adding that one to the playlist today!!

Easter Sunday

I LOVE Easter....next to Christmas, it is definitely my favorite holiday!! What could be better than a holiday that celebrates our Lord AND incorporates pastel colors, bunnies and lots and lots of candy!! This year, we had all the festivities at our house. Sienna and Grant got baskets from all the grandparents as well as the Easter bunny, so needless to say, we have more candy at our house than on Halloween :) 

Sienna's Easter basket from the Easter bunny: she was so excited this year to see everything in her basket (especially the pink converse!!)

Grant's basket from the Easter bunny: this year, Sienna was more excited to see what was in Grant's basket than he was, but he did love the plastic eggs, and he carried them around all day long
Grant's very first Easter egg!!
GaGa helped Grant fill his basket while the big kids ran around grabbing everything in sight!
Sienna had a BLAST this year....this will probably be the last year that she was happier with the eggs that had candy in them than she was with the eggs that had money :)
We really had a wonderful day...it turned out to be beautiful weather, the kids had fun hunting eggs and making crafts and we just enjoyed being together as a family on such a special day!!

Bluebonnets

This past Saturday, we made our annual trip to our favorite Bluebonnet patch. I LOVE this tradition.....love that it is such a "Texan" thing to do, love that I can look back over our bluebonnet photos from the past and see how we have grown as a family. Of course, I always have grand plans in my head of how the photos will turn out, and with 2 small kiddos, things rarely go as planned, BUT I am really happy that we made the effort, got the kids dressed and in the car and that we will always have these photos and these memories...........

My Mom hates using a camera (especially my big, complicated one), but while Johnny was running around with Grant, I convinced her to take a couple shots of Sienna and I.

The one shot we got of all four of us (thanks Mom!!)

Sienna LOVES her Dora umbrella, so I used it as bribery to get a couple cute shots :)

My sweetie pie in the bluebonnets....

I am ALWAYS trying to get a photo of my kids together, but somehow, it just never turns out....one of them is either crying or pulling the other one's hair or running out of the picture...but I still LOVE this photo!!

Housewarming Book

So here are some photos of the Housewarming book I have been working on (I forgot to upload the photos in backwards order, so the cover of the book is the last photo and it goes forward from there...). The girls over at House of 3 put out the challenge and the products, and I have been working on it off and on for the last few weeks. I still want to add a few more pages (a photo of our home, the kid's rooms, etc...) but I am really happy with the way it is turning out. I used a lot of the House of 3 transparencies, and a few of the pages are just 2 photos glued back to back with a ribbon attached so you can turn the page.

Hope you like it!!

monday

It is freezing cold outside again today, so I thought I would post a pretty flower photo to help me remember that warm days are on the horizon :)

We had a really great weekend despite the random weather changes:

Friday we had dinner with our neighbors and some old friends we just happened to run into at Primos......lots of fun catching up and laughing about old high school memories.

Saturday, Mom and I took Sienna to Canton for First Monday, and we had a great time looking for treasures (I bought a ton of tulle and plan on making more tutus to give as gifts).

Sunday we made it to church (although a little late) and then took the kids to lunch at Primos (twice in one weekend!!), then my sweet husband watched the little ones while I took the longest nap that I have taken in years.....so nice to just fall asleep and not worry about when you need to wake up!!

It was a great weekend and I am looking forward to a productive week!

around the house

Here is the bulletin board hanging in our kitchen with a little bit of "Spring Inspiration"

And another little corner of our home making me happy these days.....I just love birds and nests and grass and new life!!
And here are the tutus I attempted to make this weekend....I actually like how they turned out (not bad for my first time!!)


They were really a lot of fun to make and I got a serious sense of accomplishment from actually finishing a project that I started :)

full disclosure

My husband and I are definitely in the "No Spanking" camp.....we try hard to use other forms of discipline (time-outs, taking away privileges, etc...), but sometimes, restraining myself from spanking requires a little disciplining of myself!! If you are a Mama, I know you will understand when I say, sometimes it feels like the only thing that will do is a quick swat on the bottom :) So far, I have done pretty well....that is until 2 days ago. Sienna was being particularly difficult, and after working all day, I just didn't have the energy to distract her when I saw her going down the path of a major 3 year-old temper tantrum.....so she had one, and I swatted her on the bottom. I think it took us both my surprise, and the look on her face just about broke my heart!! So we proceeded to have a little discussion about how her behavior wasn't appropriate and then I said "Mommy apologizes for losing her temper with you," and she said "That's OK Mommy, we'll find it again tomorrow."

PRICELESS!!!