I love these little people in my life, and ice cream :)

There's a place that we love to go. They have an awesome ice cream store where we indulge in mint chip ice cream cones. Water fountains that the kids love to run around, splash, and make wishes at. 

There's also ponds with bridges that have fish swimming around and beautiful flowers. Its a shopping center but its sooooo relaxing to me! 

The kids and I can easily stay an hour or two... or three.  :) 

Shoot, now I have a craving for some mint chip ice cream cones...

More Birdie Art

I saw the doctor this morning. Found out the time my little one's going to be born. That's exciting! Apparently she's already head down and ready. She just needs the last 3 weeks to pack on the pounds. I haven't gained a single thing. Oops. Doctor said not to worry about it since the baby is growing just fine. Must be all those veggies I'm eating ;) and ice cream and cupcakes. How did I not gain a single pound?? 

This weekend was full of cleaning all my craft stuff out of the nursery. My mom was a life saver! She helped me SO MUCH! 

After lunch today I decided it was time to take a break from cleaning and start a fun project with Aidan. I wanted him to add his own touch of art work into Madison's room. Same with Dylan, tho I have a feeling that's going to be a little more difficult. But today was about Aidan. We set up our cricuts and got to work cutting out stencils. 

For some reason Aidan's cricut wasn't cutting the contact paper. Maybe because I stole his blade and gave him my old one? Hahaha. Really need to buy some more. Last few times at JoAnn's we haven't seen any more blade replacements. Might have to peek into Michael's and see if they have any. So cutting out the stencils went to my machine. Aidan decided on cutting out the bird that we've been using for all the baby shower/nursery decorations. 

Really difficult to see, but there's his bird before painting. Our first attempt was with an oil based paint that was just a pain in the butt to work with. Plus we didn't have the right colors. After that we tried the acrylic paint that we used to paint the bird houses. Perfect colors and so much easier to use. 

We squeezed paint out onto a piece of foil and got started. He was so cute being so careful to make it perfect :) Probably why his came out so much better than mine.  :P

  

And here is his finished bird before we took the stencils off.

And after the stencils came off. LOVE his. Mine is on the right. I wanted a more washed out look so I kept dipping my paintbrush into the water before dipping it in paint. Not too smart of an idea because it ended up getting under my stencils. But its cute enough to make it into the room. I decided to frame Aidan's. It's just so adorable. Can't wait to place it into the finished nursery. Now to figure out a project for Dylan to make...

After finishing our little art work project I decided to pull out the sample paint I bought for Madison's shelves. I wanted to see if the color went and HOORAY it does! Since I've decided to not paint her room and leave it white I really wanted to add pops of color around. And I'd say this aqua will really pop :P 

I'll be working more on this project tomorrow with the hubby's help. And probably the kids help too, because painting is just too much fun! 

** I don't know if I've mentioned it but the bird that we've been using for Maddie's things is from the Create A Critter cartridge :) And the font that I've been using is from Birthday Bash.

How am I going to get everything done?

I feel so bad that I haven't been making the effort to post anything new lately. I had a great baby shower! So much fun. And there were so many great gifts. And I was just blown away by some of the hand made items that Maddie received.
This past week I've been running around buying everything that Maddie still needs and trying to get her nursery going. The boys have been REALLY enjoying the spring weather and have been playing outside every day and I can't help but go outside and enjoy the day with them. So cleaning is moving slowly, snail pace. :) On top of that my body has completely realized that it's in the last month of pregnancy. Wait what?! Only a little over 3 weeks to go!?!? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! Snail pace better pick up fast! The aches and pains have really set in and so has the 24/7 heart burn. Blah! But thankfully no swelling!
Hubby and Aidan helped set up the crib! I was so happy to see that happen. Now I'm just trying my hardest to clear out all my craft things so I can move in her dresser. My poor craft room :( My poor craft supplies all going in tubs and in the garage for now :(  I'm really going to have to set up a new craft space for myself! I can't live without my crafts!! lol
There's soooooo many things I'd love to still make Maddie before she's here but the cleaning is just taking up all my time and thoughts. Nesting? Hopefully I'll still have the crafting bug once she's here. Writing about nesting is making me want to get up and keep cleaning out her room! So I better get to it!
But first I'm going to leave a great video of pictures of the baby shower. I'm super super lucky to have an aunt that is a great photographer. So lucky to have someone capture these special moments in my life. Enjoy!

Ah! What a busy week!

Full of crafting and shopping. More crafting. More shopping. This weekend is the big weekend! Baby shower time!!! :D  I'm so excited to spend this time with family and friends celebrating little Madison. We're a little over 4 weeks away from meeting my sweet little girl. I'm so excited! Did I mention that I'm super excited!?!?! ;)

I'm also excited that I finally got a haircut! I went short! Loooove it! Feels so great! Also colored it so that I don't feel like an old lady ;) Kids sure do add a lot of gray hair!

Making silly faces with my Dylan-do

The boys and I are THRILLED that its spring! And that we have amazing spring weather going on right now! Lots more play time outside. Of course, until I have my c-section and I'm stuck inside recovering for a week or two or three. 

 It started out as helping me water the plants and grass that the sprinklers just don't seem to get. 

 But once brother came outside it quickly turned into water play time. 

I decided to hang out and look at my new magazines. Hello big belly. 

Crochet Binky Clip

Baby shower decorations are almost complete! Because of that I've been thinking of other baby projects I've been wanting to get done before Madison is here (there's about a million).  This time change has really been getting to the whole family. Kids are cranky, I'm cranky, and hubby is more exhausted then ever. Because of this I decided that my craft for today would be something really simple.

About a month or so ago I started some crochet binky clips. Found the idea on Pinterest. Here's the original web site with the tutorial. It really is adorable and a great fast project. Only thing holding the completion of this project back was that I didn't have clips and buttons just hanging around the house. I went to JoAnns and bought what I needed but once I was back home I realized that my weaving in needle didn't fit through the buttons. So the project just sat there and sat there. Finally while at my parents house this weekend I went through my moms things and found a smaller needle and some cute buttons that would work perfectly. So today while I was feeling blah I decided to finish the clips and cheer myself up a bit. It worked. I'm in love with the binky clips and can not wait to see them on my sweet baby girl!  

 I used Vanna's Choice yarn. 

Just wish I had some binkys to see the completed look. Hopefully I'll have some after the shower ;) 

Photo Challenge Time!

While I was sick I stopped taking photos. Completely forgot about it. Now I have no idea what day I should be on. Again, oops. So I've been going down the list and I'm on "Day18". Its still nice to take photos of whats going on in our lives right now, even if I'm not following the rules completely. Poor Aidan is somewhere back on day 9 or something like that. I really need to motivate him to take more photos so that we can still do our mini scrapbooks together.

So here we go, photos from day 7 to 18.

Day 7: Something New

My Kindle touch! Love it! And a new book also. Can't wait to start reading!

Day 8: Technology

My phone. We have a love hate relationship. 

Day 9: Faceless Self Portrait

Ok, so I thought this was going to be a fun one to take since I'm pregnant and everything. Nope. 

I had thought I'd be creative and take a photo of my shadow. That came out looking just like a huge blob.

So then I tried another that shows the bump but seems kinda boring. I saved both photos because I don't know which I'll add in the scrapbook or if I'll end up trying again another day. 

Day 10: Something I Made

I made magnets for my fridge! (plan to show more about it on tomorrows post)

Day 11: Something Fun

My cricut is WAY fun! Looooooove it! :D 

Day 12: Close-up

We have a treasure bowl on our coffee table. Its filled with pine cones and rocks and things that belong to the boys. Thanks to their Grandma and Nina.  

Day 13: From A Distance

I had a really hard time with this photo. Had no idea what I should take a photo of and everything I did take a photo just didn't seem right. Finally ended up with this photo. Its a picture of the tree in our front yard from the inside of our house. 

Day 14: Flowers

My sweet little guy picked a flower for his mommy :)

Day 15: My Shoes

I'm pregnant and I live in southern California. Of course I wear flip flops! :P

And yes I have big feet :x 

Day 16: What I Ate

I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of my mint chip ice cream cone today! Ugh! Oh well I'll do this picture another day. SKIP.

Day 17: On The Shelf

Maddies little bird houses are still hanging out on the shelf waiting for the baby shower :)

Day 18: In My Bag

Well I guess I should mention that my bag is a toddlers Buzz Lightyear back-pack. Inside that lovely bag I keep diapers for my 3 year old who sooooooooooo should be potty trained. Wipes. Butt paste. He suffers from rashes A LOT. Enough where I have to take that everywhere with me. Also in the bag is his knitted hat that his grandma made for him and some cute little gloves from JoAnns. Aidans report card, a lollipop from my last doctors appointment (ALL MINE), my wallet that I love oh so much, my favorite pen, and my phone. 

And that's what I have so far! I'm half way done! Woohoo! :)

Flower

We're healthy again! No more aches and pain from being sick with a cold. But the aches and pain from being in my 8th month of pregnancy have shown up lol I've been super busy crafting up baby shower decorations. I can't wait to post pictures of everything after the big day! :) Tonight tho I worked on my first non baby craft. Felt nice to take a break from little birds and all things pink and purple. Here's a little sneak peak photo of what I was working on. I'll post more pictures and explain it all later. But here's a hint, its for the kitchen :)

Thursday is normally my day to go in and help in Aidan's class. Last night before my husband walked out the door he reminded me he wouldn't be able to take care of Dylan. I had totally forgotten. Ooops. So in the morning I dragged Dylan into the class with me and offered to take home whatever they needed me to work on. Instead they said that Dylan could play with the toys there while I went over the home work packets. That lasted a good 5 minutes before I realized every kindergarten eye was on Dylan and not on the teacher lol So we dragged all the work to the house. Afterwards I decided to take Dylan outside to play. Felt like a perfect summer day. Its still winter right? 

He was hard at work making the yard look nice ;) 

And then decided to climb on things he probably shouldn't. 

 This boy has a way of driving me completely NUTS but then ends up being so sweet and loving and melting my heart. Seriously love my Dylan-do!

Painting bird houses

The one day when I said there was NO WAY I was leaving the house because I am just way too sick, I painted bird houses. Was nice to just sit down with paint and paint brushes and get these bird houses looking colorful and cute. My first thought for these was to use as decorations in the nursery. I've decided to go bird themed on Madison's room (yup! we have a name!) I want to put up a shelf by her window and have a few of these sitting there on display. After I bought a few I decided to get a few more because I thought they'd be cute as baby shower decorations too. Love how they've come out. I'm throwing around the idea of cutting out some things on the cricut to mod podge on the houses. What do you think?

Colors for her room are going to be pink, purple, green, and touches of aqua. With two boys I really want to stay more with the pinks and purples this time ;)

We're no strangers to these cute bird houses tho! For the past three years, every spring, we go off and buy a few bird houses to put on our peach tree in the back yard. These I let the kids go crazy with. And I have to tell you, some of them really do look kinda crazy!

But every winter they end up like this. Haha. They just can't handle the rain, which is fine since we really enjoy painting new houses every spring.

What happened to the actual house?!

This one is really trying to hold on!

Nice home for a spider :) Really does look like a Halloween decoration now!

Guess its time to take these down and go buy the boys their new bird houses!

It got us all!

Every single one of us came down with a really *really* bad cold. I'm still suffering through it. Thankfully the kids are just left with a tiny bit of congestion and cough. Did that stop us from crafting tho? Nope! (But it did keep us from taking our picture a day!) :P

Being sick gave me a chance to sit down and paint all seven? eight? bird houses that I had bought for baby shower decorations and then later nursery decorations. (Pictures tomorrow!)

Aidan had a school project due that thankfully we almost completely finished right before getting sick. Thank goodness we didn't procrastinate on that! Last night we put the finishing touches on his train and it came out SO CUTE! We got help from this web site. We followed most of it but changed a few things. Aidan really enjoyed putting this together. Dylan now wants to make a boat :) Maybe once I'm feeling better...

I was able to see all of the kids projects since they were due on the day that I help out in his class and I was really impressed with some of the work. Wish I would have taken some pictures of them! One little boy was so funny telling the teacher that his brother made his. When asked what he did, he answered "nothing". Hahaha.

My son has had this mini crush on a girl in his class for the past few months. Tomorrow is her birthday so we decided to make her a little gift. We picked up some starburst from the grocery store and then he went through all the cricut cartridges. (Adorable!) After he picked out what he wanted to cut he pulled out his cricut and went right to work. I helped with picking out the paper ;) Hope her parents don't mind she's getting a bag full of candy haha

I think for the rest of the night I'm just going to sit with my box of tissues and watch American Idol and keep working on a crochet blanket I'm making for the baby. Can't believe its March and she's due in April! Still have SO MUCH TO MAKE! Ah!