Archive for the ‘celebrations’ Category

This morning I woke up to handmade paper chains draped across the dining room. Hand drawn cards from my babes. And pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles. Which means one thing, today is my birthday. Thirty three years ago today I came screaming into this world and haven’t stopped yet.

Since having my babes, we haven’t made a big fuss about my birthday. It’s just another year. But this year, Miles gathered the troops and had a crafting session last night with construction paper. I was sent to bed around 7 pm and told not go to come out. Well. If you insist.

Makena’s card depicted our entire family with a receding hairline. We all look like my grandpa. A chef’s hat was made. Masks were created and worn. A good old fashioned handmade birthday party. My favorite type.

And look what I got for my birthday! My own pair of chucks!!! I haven’t had a pair since seventh grade when I had off-white high tops that I would fold down and wear with alternating socks. Pink and green. Green and pink. With three swatches. White leggings. Big bangs. And braces. Fashion icon I tell ya.

Hope you all have a good one too!

A day filled with a flurry of activity getting ready for daddy’s birthday. Dishes washed, a cake baked, a card made, presents wrapped and colored and decorations hung. A wonderful day spent with my little ones to show daddy how much he means to all of us. Happy birthday love.

Today we are loading up the car and hitting the road for a little road-trip. Have a wonderful weekend friends.

There is something about the Fourth of July that melts my heart.

Maybe it’s the overindulgence of candy at the small town parade.

Or the kids waiting with anticipation for the next float to arrive.

Or the excuse to make a new dress for my little firecracker.

It’s about family and friends coming together for a barbeque picnic under the old oak tree.

Baby feet on the table.

And ending with little ones passing out, in a homemade ice cream stupor, before the firework extravaganza in the back yard.

From our family and friends to yours, Happy 4th of July!

Do you remember playing the game Colored Eggs when you were little? I remember many parties, play dates and recesses spent outside playing Colored Eggs.

One person is the “wolf”. The other people line up next to each other, with the wolf facing them. Everyone in line picks a color in their mind. The wolf then says…”knock-knock”, the line answers “who’s there?”. Wolf replies “a big bad wolf with (curly or some other variation) hair”.

The line says..”what do you want?” Wolf answers “colored eggs”. The line yells “what color?”. The wolf then says a color. Whoever had “picked” that color then runs around a selected area (to the far oak tree in the yard and back to the line, for example), with the wolf giving chase.

If the wolf catches the “egg”, then that person becomes the wolf with the game starting over. If not, and all eggs make it back to line successfully, the wolf then calls out the next color, etc.

With all of the colored eggs around this season, it has reminded me to teach my kids some of my favorite childhood games. What are some of yours?

This weekend I had visions of my children growing up… and growing up fast. Keegan can run! Oh yes, when my little man gets on the dance floor he runs and he runs fast. My little baby boy just learned how to walk and now he’s running. And to see a toddler learning to run is quite the sight. The look in his eyes, the excitement in his feet, he’s going places. Keegan’s got Happy Feet!

I have so many pictures in my mind that I wish I could illustrate for you. Keegan spent most of the wedding reception on the dance floor. Dancing. He somehow weaved between the other dancers, teetered a few times but remained on his feet. I rest assured that the wedding photographers worked their magic so I’ll have photos to share with you soon. A matron-of-honor can only keep up with so many things on the wedding day and my camera was not one of them. However, the dance off between myself and a male guest at the reception to Fergie’s ‘Glamorous’ will have to remain in the vaults. Not suitable for public viewing!

I think that Keegan got his dancing skills from his mama. However, I hope that he fell asleep before witnessing my dancing debut. I do predict that his future will be filled with dancing moments just like these!

I’ve been running around all week trying to get ready for the big weekend.  Miles’ sister is getting married in San Antonio and I’m the matron-of-honor while Makena is a flower girl.  So I’ve been running in circles, or as my dad so eloquently phrases it ‘Jade, you’re like a dog chasing his tail.’  I do a lot of chasing my tail!  Can anyone else relate?

With a weekend full of events coming up, I was in the market for a small handbag to bring along.  As I was checking my flickr page I noticed that my friend Beki had posted pictures of a beautiful green and black handbag.  I loved the contrast with the green and black fabrics.  I rushed to her blog to see if she had blogged it.  Not yet.  My next stop was to her ETSY shop to see if it was there.  Bingo!  Found it before she could blog it and it arrived in the mail three days later.  Beki’s got quite the following and I knew it would go fast.  She even threw in a great button pin.  Thanks Beki!  Keep making beautiful bags sweetheart!

Good news here concerning Makena’s finger.  Yesterday, the pins were removed and it looks really good!  Now she starts rehab for the next four weeks and we go from there.  It does look like it is healing, and that my friends is a miracle.

Speaking of contrast, this past weekend we went to Cousin Connor’s 6th birthday party.  It was a reptile themed party and had a reptile guy as well.  I kept my distance as the kids were in awe with all of the creepy crawly creatures that he brought along.  And to answer your question, yes those are Makena’s boots and her feet were in them!  Keegan was even enamored with the snakes.  As he was trying to get a good look at this big snake, the snake slithered up to him and went right between his legs as one very nervous mama looked on.  Eeek!

Today we woke up thinking about Valentines Day. As a family, we have always made handmade valentines. Even before we had kids, Miles and I would get out the construction paper and scissors to create a Valentine. Now that we have kids that can do some crafting, it’s time to get them involved.

I signed up for the Valentine’s Exchange over at Sarah’s site so we need to get busy making our Valentines to send to Pensacola. I’m thinking about some finger paint. This will be a first for Keegan so I’m sure it will be extremely messy.

While Keegan was napping, Makena and I decided to do some Valentine crafting thanks to some ideas from Martha Stewart. These crayon hearts are just what I needed for my kitchen window.

Now to figure out what to make for everyone. You know, I’m thinking about something for our garden. But don’t tell my Valentines!

The stores are now filled with SALE signs, clearing out the sweaters and Christmas goodies and making way for Spring. How quickly our culture moves onto whatever is next. The anticipation of the holidays, gone in a flash. The signs are still pretty obvious around our house. Presents are strewn throughout the house, sweets are still waiting to be consumed and we are all exhausted.

::my sister Katy drawing a princess with Makena::

We spent our first Christmas in our new house at home. The days surrounding Christmas we got to spend time with our entire family. My dad’s family came into town. My mom’s family came into town and then we went to San Antonio to see Miles’ family. We had family over for Christmas eve, chopped firewood, lit the fire, baked cookies, made cosmopolitans, strung popcorn and had a Wii bowling tournament, which my grandfather who has never even held a Wii controller won.

Santa came just as expected and delivered. What a nice fella.

We spent the day before and after Christmas shuffling Makena from one doctor’s appointment to the next. Getting first opinions, second opinions and then a splint made. No surgery for now. The growth plate on her little finger was crushed so there is NOTHING to fix. Only time will tell how her finger will develop. For now, it’s a splint for eight weeks.

Christmas was wonderful, I’m exhausted and working on my resolutions for the new year. Well, I’m at least beginning to think about them. I missed all of my blogging friends out there and am ready to get back into the swing of our normal routine. I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday.

It just hit me the other day that I haven’t taken a picture of our Christmas tree to show you. We went with the real tree this year, a big step for us. We had a pre-lit fake one for years but when all of the lights had gone out and we were stringing new lights on top of the burnt out ones we decided it was time. So we left the old tree in the attic of our old house for the new owners. Kind of like a house warming gift. Kind of not.

Finally finished all of my crafting for the gifts on my list tonight. Everything is wrapped and under the tree so I can spend the next few days enjoying my babes and family. Have I told you how much I love the Ikea gift bags this holiday season? Such cute little gnome/elves. We’ve got family and friends coming to stay and we’ve also got family to go and visit. Oh, and we’ll also have a follow-up with the plastic surgeon next week. A flurry of activity. Minus the flurries.

Today Makena and I made peanut butter kiss cookies. I’m sure that’s not the actual name, but I don’t know the name so that’s what we are going with. We made the peanut butter cookie dough and stuck a hershey’s kiss smack dab in the middle. It was actually more like stuff one cookie, eat five kisses, stuff another cookie, eat five more. Tomorrow is onto Sarah’s cinnamon rolls and then cookies, cookies and more cookies for the next couple of days.

Earlier this week week we went to the Trail of Lights near downtown Austin with some friends. They should rename it the Austin Cattle Drive because it is literally herds and herds of people with their strollers, trying to take out anyone who slows down their pace to actually look at the lights. Mooooo….. (Sorry, I’m in a mood)

I hope you all have a fabulous holiday. I’m going to take a break for a couple of days but will be back very, very soon and share all of the holiday goodness with you. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all take time to enjoy yourself. The kids are just getting too big too fast. Adios friends! See you in a couple days!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!
xoxo-
Jade