Advent...

What a fun thing to do with the kids...counting down the days 'till we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I found one like this on flikr...it was a perfect way for me to use up my stash of Christmas scrapbook paper.

You could make it much cuter but I was in a hurry

(given I waited the day before Dec. to start it)

so I just slapped some old stickers on it and hung it up with jute ribbon I had.

And there ya go....

I have been putting little treats and notes in them each day.

One of the notes was that they get to make a gingerbread house...which they had to find according to the note.

(the scavenger hunt idea was from my friend Heather)

It was a BIG hit!

Sweet Surprise...

Found this in my drawer the other night. Not sure when he wrote it but it definitely was a "Sweet surprise" !

Halloween pictures...

Hmmmm...what to say, what to say?

Guess I am just sharing pictures

that's all I got...for now.

Pumpkin patch, movie night, and outdoor decor....

Just some reasons why I have been MIA.

Dawson and Avery have been out for fall break the past 2 weeks.

The first week we had a wonderful time at the beach and this past week we tried to get out as much as we could.

Unfortunately, the weather here has been FREEZING cold and rainy everyday!

Here we are at Jackson's orchard in BG with some friends.

Like I said, it was cold and rainy but, we still had fun.

Friday night we had our family movie night.

We watched Monsters vs. Aliens.

Our treat was "my version" of Bob the blob in the movie.

Such a cute movie!

Last, I finally decorated my front porch for fall.

I have been dying to make a pumpkin topiary and finally did.

I love how it turned out!

For the pillow, I used fabric I had and stamped fall and the pumpkin on it.

Well, that is all for now.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

We're back....

back to reality....that is.

we had a FABulous time!

good weather

good food

good fun

and ALOT of sun!

we even had several friends from MJ there!

...back soon to share more pics

4,3,2,1....

Counting down the days until we leave for the beach!

We will be staying HERE

Can't wait!

Around the house....

just wanted to post some pics....be back soon ; )

At the Zoo...

Just a quick post....b/c I hate when I go over a week with out posting SOMEthing. So, I am sharing our zoo trip today in pictures.....

Hopefully, I will be back (and in full action) next week.... ;~)

Hope everyone has a LOVELY weekend!

Scored.....

On some goodwill finds for my pantry project!

I was inspired by this pantry in the Lowe's Creative Idea mag.

I love the chalk board doors and signs, and all the baskets.

Our pantry is quite small and can get unorganized pretty quickly.

On top of that, we tend to leave the door open most of the time.

All the more reason to make it look pretty!

So, stay tuned for before and after pictures.

And the final reveal of my new and improved pantry!!

( I'm hoping by posting this it will motivate me to finish...we'll see)

** Fall Fever **

My favorite time of the year...is almost here!!

New project....

I have been loving these crayon and notepad organizers for so long!

After seeing one like this online that is made of felt,

I thought it would be perfect for my first one!

Not allot of cutting or measuring (my kind of project).

This will be great for the car, restaurants, waiting rooms, pretty much anywhere on the go!

My kids are always entertained by coloring or drawing something.

So, perfect for them...and me! ;)

Our trip...

The first night we went to the game. Avery got to wear her new dress and her rally monkey!

It was a great time....we had hot-dogs, peanuts, and ( instead of cracker-jacks ) we had ice cream : )

The next day we headed to six flags and stayed ALL day!

As soon as we got through the gates Dawson wanted to go to the roller coasters.

We rode rides, went to the water park, rode some more rides, then at the end of the day they had a glow in the dark parade.

On the last day, we went to the Arch. Eddie and Dawson went up, Avery and I didn't care to...I did it once already and Avery wasn't ready yet.

Dawson LOVED it! He even said it was his favorite. Which made up (a little) for the fact that Avery and I had to sit out in the Freezing rain.

Not only because it was raining but, also because it took almost all day to go up the arch we weren't able to go to the zoo like planned.

Last, here is a picture of our hotel we stayed at Union Station.

It was So beautiful inside and out....Avery called it her princess castle : )

Well, that was our trip!

Next is our beach trip in the fall...can't wait!

Summer Re-Cap....

Swim lessons...

reading....believe it or not, my kids did Allot of reading this summer! (well, one of them...the other one I did allot of reading to ).

Dawson's favorite books are the Bone books and Diary of a Wimpy kid.

crafts.... the kids had fun making their own pottery.

playground fun...

We also had basketball camp, VBS (twice), YMCA day camp, and finally a trip to St. Louis!

It's hard to believe that it is already over.

Now it's back to school!

My big 2nd grader!

Baseball ready......

As you know, I bought this fabric a while back to make for Avery. Well, here it is...ready to wear to the game!

we are so ready to get out of town and have some fun!

Next thursday we are headed to St. Louis for some baseball, zoo, arch, and six flags!

I can't believe that as soon as we get back we will be starting school!!

CRAZY!!

*** Happy***

...to be scrapbooking again

Have a lovely weekend!

*** Photos to share***

my handsome boy

i have a thing for feet shots...just love them

looking cool

yummm...shaved ice treats (my bribe to get some pictures)

Home away from home....

Eddie, the kids, and I spent the weekend away in our very own home town...down town to be exact. We had the pleasure to be able to spend the weekend with our kids at the loft.

Being that It was Fourth of July weekend we went to all the festivities they have going on at the waterfront.

We did some jumping, climbing, face painting, eating, and listened to some good music.

Then..... the rain came and came and came....yes we got SOAKED from head to toe!

On a roll....

Just made this the other night...

now I can't wait to make this for our trip to St. Louis to see the Cardinals play.

I love how her shoes will match perfectly.

SO addictive...this sewing thing ; )

Dance Recital and Fathers Day....

Saturday, Avery had her dance recital at the Blair school of Dance.

It was a very stressful yet exciting day for us all!

Avery got right out on that stage and did her dance. She surprised us all...considering she normally doesn't move a muscle with her hands sticking in her mouth on observation nights.

Here she is on stage ( you should be able to click to enlarge)

Sunday, we had a cookout for Fathers Day.

It was a great day....heat and all!

This week we are doing swim lessons everyday for 2 weeks.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Carnival fun!!

We are headed to the...

CARNIVAL

photo taken by: ichabodcrane/flikr

be back soon...

He did it again....

Eddie surprised me for my birthday with tickets to see COLDPLAY on Sat. AND we got to stay at the LOFT

It was an Awesome show...our second time seeing them and we both agree this time was Even better.

So, thank you too my wonderful husband ....who is really getting good at these surprises ; )

Another thing we did this weekend...that I am SO excited about is getting the kids this....

and they had a special going on so we got this too...for FREE!

You can't beat a deal like that!! We will have it here and installed Friday. We haven't told the kids yet...we are going to surprise them. I can't wait to see the look on their face!

One more day.....

Dawson will be out for the summer on Thursday...finally. We are so ready for summer to begin!

We have basketball camp next week and then VBS the week after that.

Our family vacation this summer we will be going to St. Louis.

We will have to wait until the fall to go to the beach :(

I made this book for Dawson to give to his teacher.

It's a "fill in the blank" type inside where he can write some things about having her as his teacher. I also left areas for him to draw a picture. It turned out really cute.

I would love to hear what everyone else is doing this summer...

I am adding to my post from yesterday....Dawson came home with his certificate. So, I had to take a picture of him with it...and I finished the teachers gift this morning.
Dawson has been saying all year that his teacher loves chocolate and wanted to give her some for her gift.
We got her favorite chocolate (according to Dawson) and I filled them in a used jelly jar and a sandwich bag.