First I dressed the kids up in Valentine’s outfits, did their hair and cleaned their faces (I know, I put a lot of effort into this one!) and took pictures of each of them:

Next I pulled up my trusty Photoshop software and digital scrapbooking supplies and made them into these:

I sent them off to print and when they came back, I made them look like this:

The girls and I are excited with how they turned out and can’t wait to pass them out! On a similar note, last year Taryn needed to bring 35 Valentine’s and of course I had bought one box of 28. I had to rush out and buy another box! So how many of these little pictures did I order? 40. And how many do they need this year? 16. So now we plan to pass them out to every one we know, tee hee! Happy Valentine’s Day!

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So, I cooked up six chicken breasts in the oven.

I know, ugly picture. Love that Pampered Chef Stoneware Bar Pan, though!

Next, I put two breasts at a time (they were HUGE!) in my mixer bowl and used the paddle attachment. I turned it on slow and sure enough, those babies soon turned into nicely shredded chicken!! Knock me over with a feather!

So, if you are like me and didn’t know this trick – now you do!

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When you replace your toothbrush, first use it to clean your jewelry – especially if you have an electric toothbrush!  (You are replacing your toothbrush every three months like you are supposed to, right??) I have a Sonicare Toothbrush and let me tell you – my jewelry gets clean!! I’ve also seen a regular electric toothbrush used with good results. I’m sure you could use a manual toothbrush, but I haven’t tried it. I pulled one out of the dentist’s goody bag for the picture. Of course, those are good for cleaning lots of other things around the house, too.

I first soak my jewelry in jewelry cleaner. I happen to have some from a jewelry store, but there are also many different home made versions. The most common are liquid dish soap or baking soda and water. Before cleaning your jewelry, choose a cleaner based on the type of jewelry you will be cleaning (gold, platinum, silver) as well as the type of stone, if any. My rings are both platinum with diamonds.

After my jewelry has soaked for a while, usually a few hours while I’m cleaning the rest of the house, I get to work with my toothbrush. Dip the toothbrush in your cleaning solution, get a firm grasp on your jewelry and scrub. Rinse in water, dip both the jewelry & toothbrush in the cleaning solution and scrub some more. I do this quite a few times, looking after I rinse to see if there is more dirt in any crevices. I never take my rings off so they get very dirty and the diamonds are almost brown on the bottom when I start!

Now, dry them off, put them on and admire the sparkle!! That’s all there is to it. My rings always look like new after I do this. Throw away the old toothbrush (or use it to clean something else first) and get out your new one for your teeth.

Warning: some stones are porous and soft. You can damage them! Also, some might require extra maintenance – I know my mom “oils” her opals regularly. You should check for your specific jewelry before you clean it.

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First up was a paper strip pumpkin craft from HomeSchoolCreations. We struggled with this a bit … ok, *I* struggled with this! I don’t know if I had too many strips or what, but it was very hard to get them all on the brad and fluff them out, they were all stuck together. But, they still turned out very cute and are hung up in our living room.

Next was a painting craft that was very fun! First I put a tree trunk on blue construction paper. Then I cut a “cloud” shape out of another piece and taped it on top. The kids took small sponge pieces and dabbed them in orange, yellow & red paint to make the leaves. When it was dry we took off the top paper and were left with a beautiful tree. The instructions are on Family Fun.

Finally, we also did some activities & worksheets from HomeSchoolCreations. Jolanthe has TONS of great pre-school printable learning packs and the autumn one is her newest. She just started separating them into two packs – one for young pre-schoolers and another for the older kids. This works perfect for me as I have one of each.

On another note, I’ve been using the book “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” with Taryn, she is on lesson 75. I am quite impressed!! In fact, for her worksheets today she read and followed the instructions all on her own – she will be five in January. The lessons in this book are fun and Taryn asks for her reading lesson each day. They only take about 15 minutes each and within just a few lessons, she was already starting to read simple words. I highly recommend it and will start using it for Alaina this winter. She is only three, but I think in a few more months she will be ready. The age recommendation is 3-4, but I could also see it being good for an older child that is struggling.

Here is the fall tree they made the other day, this idea Taryn found in her Highlights magazine. She asked if we could do it, I told her we didn’t have any sticks as our two trees are tiny. She said “Nana has sticks in her yard”!

So we called Nana, who brought us some sticks, and they made their fall tree!

Thanks for hanging out with us on our fall themed day!

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I’ve been seeing these darling fall themed yarn wreaths all over the internet lately and really wanted to make one. BTW, if you haven’t discovered Pinterest yet, you are missing out!! Here were some of my inspirations (you can click on the picture to be taken to the owner’s site):

     

Most of the wreaths I’ve seen used felt flowers, but I didn’t want to make felt flowers. I had also seen somewhere someone putting their family initial on a wreath and I really liked that. So, with those details in mind, off to Michael’s I went!

Supplies:

• 1 foam or straw wreath (leave the plastic on if using straw)
• 1 skein of yarn for the base. Don’t so what I did, use a chunkier yarn. I promise it will be much quicker!
• 1 small wooden letter. I painted mine and then spread Mod Poge and sprinkled Martha Stewart fine glitter on it – the BEST glitter ever!!
• Various embellishments – flowers, bow, ribbon, fruit/veggies, birds, etc. Really its whatever you want!

 

First, you wrap the yarn around the wreath. And wrap, and wrap, and wrap, and wrap, and … well, you get the idea. You want to keep the yarn close together, covering all of the wreath up with it, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. You can do more than one layer if you want it to be chunky – I just did one – I was tired!

  

Then, you just glue on your embellishments where you want them! I wanted mine off center with the bow at the bottom. I just used my hot glue gun, but make sure you know exactly where you want everything before you start gluing – it doesn’t come off the yarn and you can ruin your whole project. You can add a small piece of wire at the top to hang it on or use a wreath hanger that goes over the door. I love those 3M Command hooks that come right off when you are done with them – I use them all over my house!



Now, if the Texas temperatures would get out of the 90’s it might really feel like fall. If you make a yarn wreath, I’d love to see!

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“Mommy?”

“Yes Alaina?”

“I love you!”

“I love you too Alaina!”

And so, to celebrate my favorite Alaina turning three years old, here is a recap of her third year of life:

In August she celebrated turning two with a lady bug party.

In September when Taryn started preschool, Alaina discovered one-on-one time with mom.

In October she started a pre-ballet & tumbling class once a week.

Unfortunately in November, she broke her arm. That was a hard six weeks for all!

December brought Christmas, a highlight for every child!

In January she saw her first movie in the theater – Tangled. She loved it!

  In February the weather started to get nice again.

In March she became a big sister! And what a great big sister she is!

April brought Easter – this was the first year Alaina was an active participant in the dying of the eggs.

In May she performed in her first dance recital and she was the only one in her class to do the whole routine!

June brought summer – and the ice cream truck!

In July we had BBQ’s with friends and lots of time spent at the pool.

  In August we rode the train to visit the zoo. Alaina liked the penguins the best.

Its been an eventful year! I love you Alaina and can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!

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And this one is another pillowcase style dress and was for a four year old. The fabric is Sweet Divinity by Riley Blake and I embroidered a little S on the bow.

What have you been making lately?

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When I got married, someone asked me “If he was a girl, would he be your very best friend?”

My husband and I are each other’s best friend. There is no one in this entire world that I would rather spend an extra five minutes with. I feel like the last nine years of marriage have flown by in an instant and yet I feel like he’s always been there. I hear people talk about how hard a relationship is, how much work it takes to have a happy marriage and I feel like I’m on easy street. My husband and I have even talked about this before, about how easy its always been for us. Sure, we have had things happen, but none of them have ever come between us, have caused us to have problems. Do we agree on everything? Of course not! But the funny thing is, we don’t fight about money or how to raise the kids. Do you want to know what we argue about? The dishes. That is the biggest problem in our marriage – he likes to do them after every meal, I like to do them once a day. If that’s as bad as it gets, bring on the next 50+ years!

What do you think? Do you think friendship is the most important part of a marriage?

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