45 years to celebrate

I could say a lot about the fact that today, my parents have been married 45 years.  But I'll let this photo stand on its own.  Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom!

birthdays birthdays birthdays

I am getting a little nervous. Blizzard warnings where we are supposed to be traveling? Eeek. My husband is the best though and is trying to find a way to get us to my family. I owe him the world. And it will all work out. I just keep telling that to myself.  We'd rather be safe than not.  Oh, but it is so hard when you want to get somewhere and there are obstacles.  To make matters worse, I can't hold my mail online or over the phone.  What is the point of technological advances if they do not work? 

But, BUT, it is Noah's birthday today.  And he is happy.  So there is that.  And we are all healthy (knock on wood...I totally did, did you?) so there is that too.  And we will get to our destination somehow and sometime.  Breathe...

Here are my favorite fellows...

Here is Noah's cookie cake.  He wanted a green angry bird, so I put one on his cake.  It turned out pretty well (although his beak is much bigger in the game...He is a toucan.  Oh well)

Rhett wanted an ice cream sandwich cake.  It was fairly easy to make.  :)  It is too cold for me though.  Rhett loved it though!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and if you are traveling, be safe. 

celebrating an eleventh birthday

Rhett turns 11 tomorrow. Without me getting all weepy, I will attempt to explain how lucky I am to be his mom.

Rhett is curious.  He wants to know everything about everything.  He also thinks he is right about most things and never thinks his mom knows what she is talking about, especially in subjects such as Math and Science.  Or English...excuse me, I meant Language Arts.  Or anything else.  He always questions me.  "Are you sure about that?"  He doesn't do it so much with his dad yet. 

Rhett likes to talk.  Especially when he is happy.  And that is what I remind his dad, when Seth is getting frustrated because Rhett has not stopped talking.  I just say, "That means he is happy," and Seth smiles and can't be frustrated anymore.  Funny enough, he wanted to look up what the meaning of his name was the other day.  It means, "speaker."  We were right on the nose with that one!

Here Rhett is, with his Dad and Pop, at the Philbrook Museum.  I am sure Rhett is wondering if the fish get cold or why they are the color they are, or maybe he is asking the meaning of life.  No telling with that child. Though I get exasperated, I secretly love it.  He will never just do something without questioning the why of it.  And that is a good thing.   

Rhett loves to help.  He also loves to please.  In this picture, still at the museum, he climbed onto the tree branch quickly, but then turned and helped his brother.  Without being asked, he just grabbed Noah's arm and pulled.  

Rhett is such a sweet big brother. Too sweet, sometimes. The other day, the boys were fighting and I went to them to see what the big fuss was. Fighting over legos and Noah got his way. Again. Rhett just didn't know what to do. I told him that he needs to be assertive. If Noah is being mean, I said, then Rhett had every right to kick him out of his room, even if the legos belonged to both. Later that night, after the boys were in bed, Seth and I heard a loud bang upstairs. Seth ran up to see what it was.  A few minutes later, Seth came down and asked me, "What did you tell Rhett?" I repeated that he needed to be assertive and asked why.  Seth answered, "Because Rhett said Noah would not stop talking, so Rhett just pushed Noah out of bed."  So he is trying, even if it is not in his nature to do so.

Rhett still gets scared, still gets sad enough to cry sometimes and can be silly and goofy and, well, a boy.  But he is growing up.  I can see glimpses of what kind of man he'll be and it makes me proud.  But it also makes me happy to see this:

He is as excited as Noah is to open a card from our elf each day.  He still wants to believe in magic even when his logical mind is screaming it cannot happen.  He still believes in the wonder of childhood and I, for one, am so happy that he does. 

Happy Birthday Rhett. 

elvis likes owls too. whoo wouldn't?

Yesterday, our little elf left stickers to decorate the boys' dad's presents:

 A Chick-Fil-A sticker.  That is the answer to your question, "What is on Rhett's head?"  I don't know.  That is the answer to your question, "Why?"

Today, we found this:

You see, Elvis used my craft supplies to make his cards.  And he must have found my owl stamp and just loved it so much that he couldn't think of anything for the boys to do today.  They were so excited to get to go play the Wii though and thought it was quite hilarious. 

I have to say that Elvis has made this December the most fun for the boys.  I'm glad he came around this year. 

ode to all things peppermint-y

One of my favorite things to do this month is make peppermint bark.  It's easy, it's yummy and it is a good little gift to give away.  (Except the one year I made it and didn't give it away and I ended up eating the whole batch by myself.  Ugh. Because of that, I didn't make it the next year.  I needed time to reclaim my love of peppermint bark.)

Usually, I make it to look like this:

One bag of creme de mint baking chips, one bag of good quality white chocolate baking chips, and crushed up peppermints (I used the softer kind this year so it's not so crunchy).  Melt the creme de mint chips in microwave, spread out and let harden.  Melt white chips, stir in a few peppermints, spread on top of chocolate, top with some more peppermints, let harden.  Break and enjoy.  I like keeping it in the fridge because it tastes super yummy cold.

This year, I also made it like this:

In this batch, (that is still too soft to break apart) I melted bittersweet chocolate chips, and topped it with a layer of Hersey's Peppermint Kisses.  Topped it with peppermints.  It's pink!  And it is sooo good.  This stuff is dangerous. I need to give it away. Don't want a repeat of a few years ago...
I dare you to try it and not love it. (I am bringing this stuff with me wherever I go, so if I'm coming where you, get ready).

Oh peppermint bark.  How I love you.

Elvis makes us bake cookies

Our elf is a bit bossy. So far, he has ordered us to put up our tree (I was thinking of skipping that one this year but Elvis insisted), watch the movie Elf, and today we had to bake cookies. Because we were working on a short time limit (Rhett has baseball practice this evening), I went to the store and bought Pillsbury Simply... chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie dough and some Hersey kisses.  Easy and I didn't mind giving up control for this one. :)

The boys rolled the dough in the sugar:

Then after baking for about 10 minutes, they placed the kiss in the middle:

Now for the fun part.  While I drizzled chocolate onto the already sweet enough cookies, they followed with sprinkles.  They didn't hold back:

I wonder what Elvis has in store for us this week? (I kind of wish he had told me so I could have written it down ahead of time but I guess surprises can be fun.)



Inspiration to Creation: All about Flowers

Pinterest has become my new favorite place on the internet.  Its window shopping at its easiest.  Lots of inspiration there:

Inspiration: Nestofposies.com Felt Flower Wreath

Creation: Aimee's Felt Flower Wreath

My wreath looks like it was a lot easier than the one I was inspired by.  I actually did most of it in the car in the Laser Quest parking lot while waiting for Noah to finish up at a birthday party.  I wrapped a styrofoam wreath with 3 rolls of striped black and white ribbon (to make sure it was completely covered) and then cut felt squares into spirals.  I wrapped the spirals into flowers and stuck a silver ball-headed pin into the middle.  That is all.  When I got home, I did glue the ends of the ribbon down but the flowers without glue.  Easiest wreath ever.

Inspiration: Blue Sky Confections Paper Plate Wreath

Creation: Aimee's Paper Plate Wreath

Ok, so my paper plate wreath is not as cool as the other.  But this was a lot of work and my hands still smell like coffee.  Allow me to explain.  First, you take 50 cheap paper plates, soak them in coffee (hence the reason why my hands still smell like coffee), ball them up to wrinkle and lay flat to dry.  Then you cut them into spirals.  After this step, you burn the edges with a candle and I tried, but I kept setting the plate on fire.  (I had a dish of water near by) so I decided to skip that step.  Then I ran out of hot glue sticks, which you are supposed to use to glue the flowers onto the wreath.  So I decided to just wrap ribbon around the rest.  I glued pink pearls in the middle of some of the flowers.  I may make some tiny changes before hanging it up. Hers is a halloween wreath, mine will be for winter.  I'm happy with it and that's all that matters, right?  Although hers is really, really cool but I bet it took her days. Just saying...

In keeping with the flower theme, here is one more picture.  I finally, finally like how my fireplace looks.  I arranged the dried flowers and branches and love how it looks in the room.  (The black balls in the fireplace are for halloween.  Seth was a little concerned: "Why are there black balls in the fireplace?"  Hee)  Next week, I'll show you what I hung up on my blank wall. 

Have a great day!



it's all over but the sharing...

Please, Aimee, can you show us pictures from your birthday? Why, yes...yes, I can.

The cupcakes:

They had Cinnamon-Caramel Cream in the middle, iced with Chocolate Ganache, topped with Sugar Pearls to make them snazzy.  Pink candles because I try to add a little girly in my family's fun every once in awhile.  :)

My Beautiful Boys:

I forgot to mention that Rhett told me "Happy Birthday" at least a dozen times yesterday and, AND, Noah got up all by himself yesterday morning.  This is huge. It meant I didn't spend 10 minutes trying to drag him out of bed. 

My Sweet, Handsome Husband:

Seth got contacts a few weeks ago and is lovin' them.  What do you think? Do we look 17 years older from when we first started dating?  Maybe I really don't want an answer.  Hee. Hee.

The end:

Inspriration to Creation: Stenciled Tree Curtains

Inspiration: 

Last spring, I bought two books about the art of printing.  One book is titled Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils and Silk Screens.  One project that the author, Lena Corwin showed was stenciled "wallpaper."  She made tree stencils and then painted them on her wall to look like wallpaper. 

Creation:

I took that idea and made curtains for my living room.  Last winter, I took a few pictures of my two trees in the front of my house.  I traced the outline of those trees, took away the many, many small branches, and then made three stencils (two big, one small) out of the tracings. 

I bought 8 yards of a natural-looking fabric (basically a thicker muslin) and cut out two rectangles and got to work with two shades of blue:

Then I sewed the rectangles onto the bottom of the hemmed curtains.  It was by far the easiest curtain project I've ever done, minus the trouble I had with my sewing machine. (Thanks to my mom and Seth for the help in getting it fixed!)

Here they are, framing my heavier, shorter curtains in the living room:

I love how they turned out!  Now onto my next project... :)

visiting St. Louis, quick recap ahead

Labor Day weekend we went to St. Louis to visit our friends. I love St. Louis because they have such neat places tucked in the city. One such place is called The Magic House and it is a children's museum full of cool things:

I could see this hanging in my house. Couldn't you? 

When you walk in, there are all of these glass balloons on the ceiling.  It was such a neat image.

This 'music wheel' played a song by Bach.  Each chime played a different note and Rhett just held a metal stick to the chimes and we listened to classical music. 

They had a whole section devoted to our governement.  Here, Noah is in the Supreme Court. 

Don't they look like they would be really touch judges?  ;)

Another something I would like in my house:  a giant kaleidoscope.  The boys thought of Grandmom because she has a couple in her home (not this big!)

We also went to the zoo, went to a Cardinals game and rode a train in the woods (is cooler than it sounds) and went swimming but I didn't bring my camera to those things.  It was a nice little getaway. 

The rest of the week went by slowly because I kept forgetting what day it was.  'Its only Thursday?!?' I would think.  Saturday and Sunday were sports days for us, with Rhett beginning Fall Baseball.  He only plays double headers on Sunday and for only 5 weeks so it isn't so bad.  And Noah didn't complain at all. 

Of course, I felt reflective yesterday and made sure to enjoy my family.  I need to do it everyday but 9/11 is a good reminder that life is short. 

This week I have some projects planned.  I have already finished one which I'll show you tomorrow that I am excited about. 

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

august is over, on to september*

I wish I could say, "Happy Fall Y'all!" like I always see those painted signs say but alas, it is still stinkin' hot here. And I'm done with it.  I'm done with the heat, the heat index, the 7 day forecast saying more 100+ degree weather coming, ugh!!!

Really, I didn't come here to complain.  I did want to post because I haven't so here I am.  We are about to have a little 5-day vacation from school (They have Friday, Monday and Tuesday off) and the boys are so happy.  Just when you get into a routine...

Stopping myself from complaining. 

I think most of us are getting over the cold but Seth is just now getting it.  Poor guy.

I donated some clothes today at one of those red bins.  This red bin was in the parking lot of a daycare and of course, I parked right in the way of a parent dropping off their child.  She gave me the meanest look.  I was thinking, "But I'm doing a good deed!" It was punished though for sure.

Well, this is a bummer post.  So...

I leave you with another Flag Football picture.  Rhett had just gotten the ball and then ran it for a touchdown.  Woo!

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!



From "On to September" by Dear Nora

inspriration to creation: Butterflies from Maps

I'm a big fan of butterflies, and also love to keep mementos from vacations, so when I saw this, I knew I must do something like it:

My Inspiration

image from Image Surgery.  This beautiful creation is made by Joseph Warren.



I had many maps and such to choose from, but I decided to make butterflies out of my vacation memorablia from New York, Washington D.C. and chose two things from Oklahoma that were special to me.

My Creation

1. Map of New York: It shows the Brooklyn Bridge Subway Station where my mom, sisters and I got off to go walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was pouring rain, however, so after Jana bought a $5 umbrella, we got back on the subway and went shopping intead.

2. The Star-Spangled Banner Flag from the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.  This was one of my favorite places that my family went to during our trip.  This flag was huge and protected and couldn't be photographed.  I had a flyer for the museum though and a small picture of the flag so I thought it would make an awesome butterfly.

3. The White House.  We took a tour on the day that Noah had an awful toothache.  We had planned on finding a dentist after the tour.  He was a trooper and didn't complain too badly.  It was around the green room, however, that my other son began to complain.  He needed to find a bathroom, NOW.  Umm, are there public restrooms in the White House? No.  Our tour went a little faster from that point on, much to Seth's dismay.

4. Ocktoberfest, October 2010, Tulsa, Ok.  We had just recently moved to Tulsa and missed our friends terribly.  We heard about this German festival and thought we'd invite our friends from Edmond to come and stay the night.  They did and we all had a pretty great time.  It was tiring, but all the kids got their faces painted and got to ride roller coasters and we got to see our friends.  Win for all!

5. Map of OKC area.  We lived in Edmond, OK for four years, longer than we had lived anywhere else since getting married.  We met some pretty awesome friends there and even though some have moved away, and we have moved, we have stayed close.  Edmond will always have a very special place in our hearts.

6. The Lion King, New York, Girls Trip.  This was my first Broadway show.  It was an amazing performance.  Afterward, we walked down to a diner to get something to eat and ended up walking past Lehmen Brothers.  There was a lot of commotion there-media, cameras, and such.  It was September 14, 2008 the evening before news broke that they had filed for bankruptsy. You know the rest of the story.

I used an 8x10 canvas that I already had and painted it red. This canvas had black and white patterned scrapbook paper glued onto it from another past project, but I decided I liked how it came through.  I mod-podged the canvas for texture, then antiqued it with black glaze.  For the butterflies, I just cut out a pattern and used it for all of the butterflies. Some turned out better than others.  I mod-podged the butterflies to make them less fragile, then folded them in half and glued the "body" onto the canvas.  I mod-podged the wings, front and back yet again to make them stiff.  Then I glued the top of the wings onto the canvas, with part of the wing still puffed out (I used the end of a paint brush between the butterfly and canvas to get the same amount of puff for each one). I glued the edges of the bottom wing and the "foot" too. 

This is also hanging in my bedroom.  I love this inspiration to creation project the most so far because it has so many stories attached to it.  I like the butterfly-migrate-travel connection too. 

Have a great day!!

nothing is sweeter than with you*

Good Monday to you! I'm happy today. 13 years! Yea us!  I made Seth a picture cd using a song that is my very favorite ever.  It is called Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and describes perfectly what I feel for my sweet husband.  The chorus goes:

Ahh. Home. Let me come home.

Home is wherever I'm with you.

Ahh. Home. Let me come home.

Home is where I'm alone with you.

I'm a lucky girl.  ♥

In other news....

This picture will tell you how our weekend was:

It was busy and went too fast as usual.  However, I will say that those 2 and a half hours we were outside on Saturday afternoon was pretty awful.  The boys did great at their flag football game and I think had a pretty good time.  But it was so so so hot and humid.  I drank down 2 bottles of water and a half a gatorade and I was just sitting!! We were so sweaty and wet and I hope to never relive that experience.  When I got in my car after that games, the thermometer said 116 degrees.  I know it wasn't that hot but it did feel like it at times.  Whew. 

I will say I did enjoy using my camera! It does great for capturing the action.  I was a little afraid for it cause it got so hot, but I would put it in a cooler bag for awhile and luckily it survived.

Here is Noah:

Don't you love his green mouthguard? :)

Rhett got to play quarterback some and was cool and collected.  (Well, maybe just collected):

He also caught a pass perfectly and scored a touchdown!

Sunday came and Rhett came down with a fever, so he is home with me today.  (Feeling better but you have to be fever free 24 hours before going back to school.  I think it would be fine, but I don't want someone else breaking that rule, so I won't either).  I hate that he is already missing a day of school though.  Seriously. I guess you can't help it.

The bus situtation was a little better on Friday but you know, everything has its positives.  I have met so many neighbors and have become friends with a few of them over this bus thing so you just never know.  :) Plus Noah actually rode his scooter to the bus stop this morning with a friend and her parents and that is big in itself! haha.

I hope everyone has a great day!

*I love you Seth! Thanks for everything you do.  Happy Anniversary.

13 years and he still surprises

My anniversary is Monday.  I'll have been married 13 years.  Woo!  Seth surprised me with a gift though a few weeks ago. 

Any guesses?

my rockin' pair of boots

I start horseback riding lessons today!!  Every Friday, I am going to learn how to ride and take care of a horse.  It may sound silly to some of you, but I am most excited.  I love horses, think they are beautiful animals and am looking forward to learning all there is to know.  I have a helmet and everything.  I'll let you know how it goes.  If it goes even a little better than the bus situation, then it will be a success. ha!

Speaking of busses, Rhett was on his for almost 2 hours yesterday afternoon.  Didn't get home til 5 pm.  Crazy!! 

Have a great weekend!!

PS- Happy Birthday Pop!!!

Rhett-5th grader; Noah-3rd grader

First day of school.

The bus situation is a little sticky right now and I'm hoping that this afternoon, the bus even comes to our neighborhood.  This whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth and I'm a little sad that all the kids had to witness the stressful situation. 

Here's a quick recap:  Bus stop routes were changed.  One stop in the neighborhood.  Several upset parents (I'm included in this.  I don't understand it because of several reasons I won't go into right now).  This morning, many cars lined the street where the bus was to make the stop.  Transportation director shows up, threatens to divert bus.  Noah and I leave, after Noah gets stressed out that parents and transportation direction are arguing. 

Here's the thing.  I am upset about the bus route change.  To a point.  I wish there were something we could do.  To a point.  But, and here is a big BUT, I'm out if it means my child gets to school late or he starts seeing a side of me that isn't pretty.  I feel for those parents that both work and rely on the bus.  I feel for the transportation director who has a job to do.  But nobody handled it well.  There were parents getting upset about it the bus not coming, parents getting upset that the transportation director was not seeing everyone's side, parents getting upset at other parents for not cooperating.  It was getting ugly and I'm not good at confrontation nor conflict.  So we left.  And now I'm left wondering what is going to happen.  Will it just blow over? Will it change? I don't know.  Right now I just hope that at 3:45 and 4:00, my kids' busses drop them off in our neighborhood. 

Sigh.  Here's hoping that the boys have a good day regardless.

'twas the day before school starts

 The snacks in the pantry are all tucked away, nicely, waiting to be put into backpacks the next day.

 The small chocolate candies are treats for lunchboxes, pb for Noah and caramel for Rhett.

The bags of school supplies are overflowing.  So many supplies every year...

One more day of summer.  I want to say that I think summer was just right this year.  It didn't seem to go too fast or too slow.  Just right.  I think the boys are ready to begin the year.  I think we are all ready for the cooler weather.  The start of school means it is coming...soon I hope. 

Here's to a big, fun year full of wonderful things to learn and do and be.  Tomorrow is my favorite post of the year--First Day of School pictures! It may too dark for Rhett to do it by the bricks this year but we'll try it anyway.  See you tomorrow!!