Luck O' the Irish

First....I'm giving away a free stamp set from Close To My Heart. To find out how to win it, visit my website and check out the March Newsletter posted on the Calendar Page. You've only got a few more days to win, so go there now!


Last year on my friend Ker's blog she shared their tradition of Leprechaun traps. Their family has tons of fun traditions for holidays, and I decided I wanted to start some of our own. Bailee was too young to care and it was after St. Patrick's day when I read about it, so I wrote it in my 'to do' binder and have been waiting for a year. This year we've got our friend Moses with us during the mornings. I've slacked a ton and let them watch too much TV the past few months. But now that I'm feeling so much better I've wanted to turn the tv off and do some other stuff. Today I found a pattern for a Leprechaun online and we made some cute Leprechauns to hang up. What I learned?? Bailee's still to young to play with glue. I did all of the cutting, but the kids did all the drawing and Moses glued his together by himself. It was super fun and cut out 1 1/2 hours of tv. Tomorrow I think we'll make pots o' gold, and then Monday we're going to make Leprechaun traps. I'd love to hear any holiday traditions you all have!

Check out Kaboose for some great holiday and everyday activites and coloring pages!

I wish it would rain or something....

The wind has been blowing all day and the dust is killing me. Between allergies and a cold....well it's just not fun. A little rain would help a ton. :)

I pulled out all of my boxes of baby clothes today. There were 6 and they were not small....she really had a ton of clothes! I am a pack rat by nature, and working on getting over that, so I kept EVERYTHING that I had for Bailee. I decided since we are having a boy I really don't need all of these girl clothes. For real, I don't want to store 6 boxes of clothes that I may never get to use again. I kept a small box of my very favorites and even found some things that we can use for our little guy. Yea! If anyone needs some girl clothes sizes 0-3 months all the way to 3T let me know! I have plenty to go around.

It's been kind of fun to start thinking about the things we'll need for the new baby. New blankets, car seat, stroller, diaper bag...things like that. After going through Bailee's stuff though, I am determined not to go overboard. Especially with clothes. She grew out of them so fast that some were only worn a few times.

So the stroller I'm looking at is this. It's a Baby Trend sit and stand double stroller. Anyone have this, or one similar?? Bailee is too independent to sit in a stroller most times, so I thought this would be nice because it will be easy to get in and out of when she's tired of walking. Plus it's not as big and bulky as most double strollers. It has good reviews and a good price at wally world.

Bailee climbed in bed with me this morning and said "let's just talk, mom." I love when she says that, it's usually followed by some pretty random but cute comments. First we talked about "the church". This topic always starts with the list of people she wants to see at church. Cowboy Cora, Sister Amy, Sister Stott Marie, (yeah, that's what she calls her), Cowboy John (he gives her candy) and the Bishop (but only if she can give him something...aka the tithing). After we talked about "the church" and being reverent she said to me "Mom, I don't know how to be a big sister." Awww. I told her she could be the baby's friend and help mommy and that's how she can be a big sister. She's so sweet about the baby, she likes to talk to him and call him "tokyo". I don't care how much she wants to name him Pinochio, it's not happening. But she's so cute about it.


Here's some cute pics of Bailee being "daddy the ref"



And here are the cards we'll be making at this months card class. Visit my website calendar for details.

We've got a thumb sucker.

We went on Thursday to have our Ultra Sound and found out we are having a BOY! He wasn't shy about it at all. He was sucking his thumb when we finally got to see him, it was super cute. But of course my second thought was "I hope he doesn't keep that up." Bailee didn't suck her thumb, a binki or even a bottle. (Though the binki and bottle would have been nice at times. And I'll take a binki over the thumb any day.)

I have said all along that it was a boy, so I wasn't surprised. When we could see that it was a boy, and it was so obvious, the Tech told Bailee she was having a brother and Bailee seriously about cried. She has been talking about having a sister since we told her we were having a baby. After we left the hospital though I was telling Bailee all the fun things she could do with a brother. (I know she could do these things with a sister too, but she doesn't) When I told her she could teach her brother to play baseball she said "He can be the catcher and I'll be the batter." Me: "Oh, that's a great idea. But how about you can be the pitcher and he can be the catcher." Bai: "No, I want to be the batter."

We've talked about several names and haven't decided on one yet. But, everytime we talk about a new one we ask Bailee what she thinks. Sometimes she says she likes it, others she doesn't. So I asked her what she would like to name the baby and she said "Tokyo". HUH? After awhile I figured out that she's been seeing the comercials for Pinochio, and that's what she was talking about. We won't be going with that one. :)

This weekend we got to go down to St. George, and then Las Vegas to see family and attend a baby blessing. The weather was so nice, it was hard to come back to the cold. I hadn't told our parents when the ultrasound was, because I wanted to tell them what we were having in a fun way. So right after the ultrasound I went and made copies of the picture of the baby sucking his thumb. Then we went and found some blue frames that said "Little Prince" and wrapped them up for the grandparents. Bailee was excited to give them their presents, and it worked out perfectly because we were going to be with them all this weekend. It was fun to see the expressions when they opened them up. Funny thing is, each of them looked at the picture to try and figure it out and didn't notice the blue frame or the words. It was funny.

So now that we know for sure, I'll be going through the boxes and boxes of baby clothes and weeding out the pink and just keep my very favorites. There are a few things that I can use again, but mostly we get to do a little shopping. :)

(sucking his thumb)

(left arm, hand and back of head)

(It's a boy. No doubt)

(His cute little foot)

(arm and hand)

(Hard to get pictures of his face.)

(Another face picture)

(One last profile)

We also got to see the Alamo girls basketball team win the state championship. Tami is on the team, and Tressa is the head cheerleader, so it was fun to see them doing what they love.

Bailee's been inspired....

Last night we went to watch Halle and Brock as Oompa Loompa's in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Bailee didn't want to go because the movie scares her; she freaked out when Augusta fell in the chocolate river and got sucked up the pipe. But she actually loved most of the show, and laughed and danced around. On our way to the car, she told Luke that when she grows up she wants to be a 'doompa doompa' like her hooligans. (hooligans is her word for cousins, thanks daddy.) All the way home she was talking about being a doompa doompa and asking us to sing the doompa doompa song. Even after we put her in bed, we could hear her on the moniter talking about it. This morning when she woke up she asked for the oompa loompa song, so somewhere in the middle of the night she got it right. So funny. So thanks Brock and Halle for inspiring Bailee to be an Oompa Loompa when she grows up.

Randomness

Kids crack me up. I babysit a cute 5 year old boy in the mornings before school. Sometimes he and Bailee have the funniest conversations. Awhile back one of them went like this:
Bailee: "Moses, am I beautiful?"
Moses: "No."
Bailee: "Yes I am."
Bailee: "Moses, am I beautiful?"
Moses: "No."
Bailee: "MOM! Moses said I'm not beautiful and I am!"

Being 2, Bailee hasn't mastered the art of tact. If she see's Grandma B. without her hair done, she says "Grandma, I don't like that kind of hair." I've tried to explain that it's not nice to say something like that, in doing so, I tried the following example:
Mom: "Bailee, what if someone told you they didn't like your hair?"
Bailee: "But you do like my hair, it's beautiful."
Mom: "But what if someone else doesn't like it. Wouldn't that make you sad?"
Bailee: "No. It's beautiful."

On the plus side, when Grandma emerges with her hair dried and styled, Bailee says "Grandma it's beautiful!"

I've been feeling much better lately and have actually taken the time to work on some scrapbooking. Once I get back into the groove, it's hard to stop. I love playing with the supplies so much! I have so many layouts that are completely done and just need to be put in albums. Here's a little secret: I don't really want to have millions of books filled with layouts. A full album every year or two would be my choice. BUT, I love doing it so much that I scrapbook a ton of the pictures I take. Maybe the solution would be to scrapbook other peoples pictures, I could get my fix that way. So here's a few that I have pictures of today.

This cute birthday layout is our March Workshop. The paper is called "Stardust" and is so cute! It could be used for so many different themes, birthday, sports, little boys, beach...the possibilities are endless. This layout also uses Level 2 stickease, our new flexi-labels, ribbon, and of course some star and alphabet stamps.

This next layout is also of Bailee's 2nd birthday. The paper packet is "Notebook" and is easily one of my favorites. I love the contrasting look that the black gives. I've also used rub-ons, sparkles, paper flowers, buttons, and our Chocolate alphabet.

This was a fun one. The paper is called "Blue Ribbon" and was featured in last year's summer idea book. I used a technique called 'stamp kissing' to make the solid alphabet polk-a-dotted. Another secret? Those strawberries are actually Easter Egg stamps turned upside down and with a stem added.
This layout will be April's workshop. The paper is "Unforgettable", and I've also used Level 2 stickease, stamps, ribbon, and some new pewter foundry frames.
Cupcakes....yummy. I'm loving this new Cupcake Sprinkles stamp set. This was our February workshop. The paper is called "Daydream" and is really princess paradise--or Fancy Nancy. I thought it was great with the pictures of Bailee and McKinley dressing up in tiarras and boas. The cute wrapped candies were so easy to make! It's just a simple circle, stamped with a birthday candle stamp to make the stripes, and then cut some little trianles for the ends. Who comes up with these things?? Not usually me, but I'm happy to learn these tricks and use them in my own projects! What you can't see in the picture is the detail added with pearl paint. Now that stuff is yummy! You can use it white for a shimmery pearl look, or mix it with re-inker to create custom colored paint. I painted the cupcake top (under the title) and it really looks good enough to eat....topped with a few paper hole punched sprinkles.