LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.LOVE

Well, instead of trying to copy all of the valentines pictures onto this family blog, I figured I would just post the link to Raspberry Rain's blog where you can see all of the pictures.  I did want to elaborate on this fun 'adventure' with my sweet Jackson.  First of all, Joey and I have REALLY seen a big turn around from Jackson since he has turned three.  He just seems more aware and more compliant, not as combative.  This along with him not being so opposed to my camera made for a much better photo shoot.  What I really did was give him candy and a whole bunch of red heart balloons, which he decided we magic balloons that would carry him to the jungle.  We played for a good hour with those balloons and still have them in the house.  I love this boys imagination and love that I have some sweet memories along with some fun photos to share.  Check out the photos HERE

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!

Fun Home Decorating

So, I have been SLOWLY working on getting some things up on our very bare walls.  It has truly been slow going considering all of the birthdays and holiday happenings that have been going on these past few months.  Raspberry Rain has also been busy getting in all of the family christmas pictures, so all of those excuses to say that I am just now really starting to work on mi casa.  Well, if there is one thing that Joey and I have decided when it comes to our style is that it must be cheap.  Haha!  Well, I guess it works well then that I love old weathered things that bring some history and stories into our home, because typically I find these beauties at resale shops or junk sales.  It all meets the cheap requirement.  Another reason that we have been slow to add things to our walls is because Joey really wants everything that we hang to be something that has some meaning or was made by us.  Now, as you can imagine, that does not make for quick decorating.  Coming up with ideas, executing said ideas, and being happy with the finished product, especially for a perfectionist like me is no easy feat.  Well,  we have this awkward large wall space by our fireplace that remained empty until now! Yay!  It makes me so happy to finally have an empty wall filled. 

This is what we came up with.  It is a subway sign that has all of the places that have been special to us on it.  It has both of our birth places, both of our favorite places to be in the whole world, our parent's birth places and even the city where we met.    

All we did was get a 4 ft by 4 ft. piece of plywood, painted it all cottage white, stenciled on the letters and numbers, and then began the time consuming task of painting this perfect grey color around all of the letters and numbers.  Side Note: You know, it was time consuming but really it was almost stress relieving to just paint. Well, once the painting was done, we got to do the fun part....using the power sander!   Ahhh....so much fun to use!  Once distressed as desired I used an antique glaze to make it look less 'brand new' in color and then sprayed the whole thing with a sealer.  Voila!  

We think it fits us perfectly and had a perfect home on this large wall.

I also just printed these pictures for our hallway this week.  I love the graphic black and white square prints.  And of course they are of my two favorite boys.  I ordered them on a thicker backing so they can just 'float' on the wall.  Super easy...cheap...and again, no artistic talent needed.  

I think they look great, but I am thinking I need three more! :)  

So, these are a few of the things that we have added to our house.  They make our house a home and hopefully there will be more to come soon.  The point of this post is to show that even if you are not artistic, you can get a little creative to personalize the little space of world you inhabit. 

Happy Birthday Jesus, Joey and Jackson!

So, December 16th was filled with lots of birthday fun this year! First Jackson had school that morning where they had scheduled a 'happy birthday Jesus' party which he loved.  He was a little confused because anytime someone said 'Happy Birthday Jackson!' He would say 'Happy Birthday To You Too!' It apparently was everyone's birthday on the 16th.  We went from a great day at school (minus a trip to the principal's office...yikes! Another post for another day) to a place called Going Bonkers.  And boy did he go bonkers!!!  From there we went to Chucky Cheese where he played his little heart out and even got to meet Chucky Cheese!! If you haven't seen the video on facebook already you'll have to check out my little man's dance moves on the videos at the bottom of this post.  The next day we had more birthday fun at my parent's where we opened gifts, ate great food and celebrated Joey and Jackson.  We somehow ALL ended up underneath my parent's dining table a.k.a. 'the fort'.  All I know is Jackson LOVED it!!!!! So, I think his birthday was a huge success!!!

December 16th sure was a day of birthdays this year!

Self Portrait- I Heart Faces Photo Challenge

Here is my photo entry for the new I Heart Faces photo challenge.  I think I look good rockin' the 'stache.What do you think?

Christmas Time

I love christmas and had a really hard time this year waiting until after Halloween to decorate.  I made it to the first weekend in November and then christmas was officially going to be in my home.  Jackson has helped me make ornaments and we have had fun decorating while listening to christmas music.  This is just such a special time of year and it blesses me to think of what it really means in the hope of my Savior Jesus Christ.  

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our homemade advent calender with small bags 50% off from Hobby Lobby and dollar store christmas chocolates.  Jackson wakes up ready to open his gift with a small treat inside.  He gets really excited trying to find the correct number and opening the bag for a new treat each day.  He is also learning patience, which isn't the fun part since he sees the bags and really doesn't like that he can only get one per day.  Good lessons to learn non the less.  

Hope you all have a wonderful christmas!!! God Bless!

Some of My Favorite Things

Ok, for some reason there have been a few things that have come up within the last few weeks that have really made me super happy, so I thought I would share them with you all today.
Ok first of all has to be 103.7.  This radio station plays Christmas music 24/7!!!!  It is the best, and I have it on in my car every holiday season!
Second, I found the best ever pound cake recipe! It is a cream cheese pound cake and I ate this thing in two days!!!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cream-Cheese-Pound-Cake/Detail.aspx
Third, I found the most comfortable lounge pants in the whole world at Victoria's Secret.  Seriously, they fit perfectly and are so comfy that I may live in them all day!!!
http://www.victoriassecret.com/ss/Satellite?ProductID=1265342767389&c=Page&cid=1287144204520&pagename=vsdWrapper

So anyway, these things made me happy and I hope you find some joy in them too!

Trick Or Treat!!!!

So, Jackson's 3rd halloween proved to be the best one yet! (well if you're measuring it by the amount of candy consumed)  We had a great time watching quite a few Halloween specials on tv yesterday, not to mention practicing our  knock on the door and....'TRICK OR TREAT!
Let me give you a little back ground leading up to this spooktacular day.  First of all, we received the gorilla costume about three weeks ago and have been getting our money's worth out of it for sure!  We decided to let Jackson play with it and he has probably been in his costume nearly every day before the BIG day.  He loved it!  We also were wanting him to wear it because he used to be extremely afraid of gorillas and our fear was that he would be scared of it.  So, all that to say that he really loved his costume.  Well, as it started getting dark we told him it was almost time to go trick or treating so we had to get our costume on.  His reply was, 'No thank you. I don't want to be a gorilla today.'
WHAT!!!!  The ONE day that he is suppose to wear his costume, he doesn't feel like it.  Oh great.  Well, after reasoning with him, bribing him and trying everything, we eventually just put him in it kicking and screaming.  He refused to wear the head, but he at least was part of a gorilla.  We went around to a few houses in our neighborhood and then went over to my parent's neighborhood where we hit up a few more houses.  All in all it was a great halloween!  I also had to post some pictures of our halloween party the night before at my parent's house.  Thanks mom and dad for hosting a TERRORIFIC PARTY!  :)

Bahahaha! Darrell and Stephanie you guys rocked the gangsta fo sho!!!

 My mom and dad were cheap Rangers fans.  They had all the gear with all the tags on.  Hehe.

 And here we are.  I was Jess and Joey was me from our college basketball days.  Do you love Joey's wig?  I do want to say that I don't feel the beard really portrayed me in college, but whatever.

Hope you had as much fun with Halloween as we did.  Thanks for reading!!!

Gross Goo!!!!

So it was pumpkin carving time in our house a week ago and whats not blog worthy about that, so here we go.  Armed with only a small 'scooper', some newspaper and a little elbow grease, daddy and Jackson set out to get all of the 'goo' out of our perfect pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  The only problem was that Jackson, my little sweetie is not a big fan of icky stuff on his hands as evidenced from last Halloween's pumpkin carving experience. I love this pic.

Well, apparently he still is not a fan of preparing the pumpkin, so I thought I would post a video showing you.  So, here we are in our garage getting our pumpkin prepared to be carved.

Haha! Oh great times.  Well, we may have struggled with the preparing the pumpkin, but our family was very proud of our finished pumpkin!  Jackson picked the design, of course the 'SCARY' monster, and daddy and mommy carved the design.  I do want to add that while we were carving, Jackson had the little hole puncher and was poking holes in the back of the pumpkin the entire time we were working.  I think he had a few hundred holes when we were finished.  It was definately a team effort here.  So, here was our finished pumpkin.

Hope you have a GOOreat Halloween!!!