So I have had the chance to babysit both my neice & my nephew over the last few weeks! It is great for baby fever! Meaning- I don't have baby fever! I really thought I would once Sara Beth was born (since I had it BAD when Ethan was born) but being able to snuggle & love on them has been good enough for me.
So Sara Beth & I have snuggled up & napped for an hour while Rebecca went to a school function for Leah one afternoon.
And then I got the opportunity to rock Ethan to sleep one night while we watched him & Kaleb for Jeremy & Marie to go out for Marie's birthday. And let me tell you- this is quite a feat. He is SUCH a mommy's boy (or Mema's boy) whoever is closest!This has been perfectly enough for me to get a baby rocking fix without having the lifelong responsibility of raising another one! It's all about perspective, right?
If you can believe it- we stuck it out & Zack has survived living to his first birthday! His big day was Nov 10th & the boys (Eli especially) couldn't understand why we weren't giving him a party or a cake or something! I think our dinner scraps made him happy enough!
Here are some pictures of the birthday boy! He loves to ride in the car these days, so carpool line is his favorite part of the day! Although, i think the reason he now loves to ride so much is because he has been going to "doggy daycare" one day a week. He gets to romp & play with other BIG dogs for 8 hours so he now WANTS to go in the car anytime we do, just in case we might be going to "Lucky Paws". And when he gets home from Lucky Paws, he will lay out on the floor & barely move the rest of the night. It is GLORIOUS. And he will tolerate just about anything.... Of course, he still gets thrown outdoors on the days that he is determined to get into any and all trouble around. And when he goes out, he does this instead of run his energy off... He can be so funny! Who can resist that face staring you down in the window? And he has also discovered our mirror in our bedroom. It is funny to see himself catch a glimpse & stop & check himself out. Vain!His main goal in life is still to eat whatever paper products he can find out of the bathroom trash cans, eat every crumb that hits the floor (except popcorn- he's not a fan!), and chase this little lady (who is still unimpressed with the drooling giant that has inhabited our home!)He is such a cute boy though, especially when he is laid out....Here are several videos (I am not sure why we video the dog so much!?)
This is a nightly ritual when Randy gets home from work. He & Zack get to boxing almost immediately. And i think they both have a blast! In zack's mind- the rougher the play, the better! And this is certainly rough!
And we also have this game we play where Randy will hold the dog down while one of us does something we know the dog will go crazy over. Say "oops" (where he knows he gets dropped food), or say "what's that?" (where he will go bananas to see who is at the door or outside) or just have the kids ring the doorbell which you can imagine what happens there! Randy's goal is to prove that he can hold the dog down & not let him loose. Sometimes he can, but if he wants to stay uninjured, he lets go eventually! Here is an example:
After Randy's turn, i decided i was going to take a shot at "8 seconds" on the bull. Ha! I pretty much immediately let go- i don't want any injuries! lol! And he wasn't really even trying. He knows who to "tone it down" with- me & the kids! Even though he has been such hard work, and requires so much attention. We love him soooo much. He brings a lot of laughs into this house!
Halloween Weekend we headed down to Nanny's for one night to have some pumpkin carving/painting/decorating fun. This is almost an annual thing. We haven't done it EVERY year, but just about! I decided (with the urging from the group) to go ahead & let Jackson carve his this year for the first time. I was a little apprehensive, but my fears were dissapated when I quickly realized that he was doing the scooping.... but left the carving to me on his accord.He picked out a design from a napkin of all things & I was to replicate it. I did the best I could, and he was pleased, so we will call it a success!While I was carving HIS pumpkin. He started painting MINE. So he ended up with both our pumpkins!
Eli's pumpkins were a whole other story. He was painting of course, which he loves to do. So just painting on a face wasn't going to do. HE would paint a face, then cover it with another color, then paint some more & end up covering the entire pumpkin with paint. So his pumpkins ended up looking like this: (after we encouraged some googly eyes & such!)He was very proud of his pumpkins too! And i love his little "juice mustache" in this picture! He enjoyed that grape kool aid!Group shot of all the kids with all their pumpkins!
Peto helped Jackson take some pumpkin seeds & plant them. We have been watering them ever since & now have a little "sprout". We love pumpkin carving parties at Nanny's!
I have to tell you that this year I will be reverting back to ordering my holiday cards again! I have been super busy this year with making so many actual gifts that I am going to let someone else do the card making this year. Who, you ask?
We had Randy's dad take our family photos this past weekend, so I have been perusing Shutterfly trying to decide on which design to use! I am loving these 3 designs right now & am having trouble deciding on which one! There are so many choices to choose from!
Surely you have heard of Shutterfly before. But just in case you haven't, let me tell you a bit about them.
Shutterfly is an online photo shop! What is easier than uploading pictures, & clicking "add to cart" to have your pictures in just a few days? It beats the heck out of loading the kids in the car, driving to the store, & trying to concentrate on what photos I need off of my media card, that is for sure.
They have awesome prices on just regular every day prints. I order these quite often since I scrapbook so much, but in addition to already having great prices, they reward you just for signing up! You get 50 free prints! They also offer free shipping often & I like to hang out & wait for this before ordering my prints, if I can. But if not, I can always choose to have the prints sent directly to a Walgreens, Target, or CVS nearby if i need them sooner....
I also just love the idea of photo gifts. I don't know why, but they just seem so sentimental & meaningful. And the family I give them to always rave! I have ordered photo books, mouse pads, tons of calendars, & several notebooks all with glorious pictures of my kiddos plastered all over them! Well, technically the photo book was about Randy's mandolins, but you get the picture! I am considering making some mugs this year for the great grandparents!
One great thing about shutterfly is that it seems to me that the more you use them, the more rewards you get in your inbox for things like 30% off photo gifts, or free shipping, or great deals on more free prints with a certain number of prints purchased. And I have always been pleased with the quality of my purchases.
Head on over to Shutterfly & get to shopping! They have a great sale going on right now with 20-30% off of all photo gifts in addition to free shipping on orders of $30 or more! Can't beat that! And order some holiday cards while you are at it & save yourself some time at the store!
And if you are a fellow blogger- you can earn yourself 50 free holiday cards by talking about your experience with Shutterfly! Click HERE to find out more!
So, awhile back, I decided I was going to finally work on making my craft room look cohesive. I am in there A LOT, so i wanted to actually like the space! It all really started when my father in law mentioned that he was going to "call the salvation army to pick up some furniture from the basement."
Ummm, HOLD UP!
I went & checked out the "furniture" and pretty much claimed 90% of it for myself! ha! Thankfully, he is being patient & allowing me to work on the pieces of furniture as i have time & the first project was a desk (for the craft room). I had a desk in there (thanks to my friend, Theresa), but it was more of a computer desk & it didn't work anymore for my needs. So this desk I got from Dwight was a perfect desk to sit my sewing machine on, and use the drawers to hold sewing notions & what not. I didn't take a before picture, but i really should have because it was an older wooden desk with old brass knobs (you can probably visualize!). I primed it, painted it black, & then distressed the edges & glazed it with a smoke glaze. Then i switched out the knobs with some brushed nickel ones & voila!After I got the desk in there, i decided to work on making my curtains a little cuter. I had some green pottery barn kids curtains hanging in there that i originally bought off Craigslist right before we moved. I thought they would match in one of the boys bedroom or in the playroom, but i ended up disliking the color in those rooms. So, i hung them in my craft room/ office. They were just plain old green, so they didn't have too much character. Soooo, i added some black & white polka dot fabric to the bottom of them to match my "green/black/white" theme in there. Yay! I LOVE them!This technique was so easy that i have decided to do this in my living room to my red curtains. I just have to find some more yardage of the fabric i have to match the living room. JoAnns is currently out! Bummer!
Next up: the project table Randy built me for my birthday. I needed some more table space in the craft room so i requested this table from ana-white.com (formerly knock off wood, where we got the free plans for the Lego table & the bed!) It still has to be sanded and painted, but once it is, it will be a perfect addition to the room! It will hold baskets underneath on the riser shelves too! Can't wait!
Randy's cousin, Josh - who lives in Texas, came into town a little over a month ago (& yes, i am just now blogging about it! The pictures were in the wrong folder, so i didn't see them!)
He was only in town for one day for a business trip, so we made the most of the time we had! We all met at Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was a little crazy, but a lot of fun, with so many people. After we finished, we sat outside & visited together for awhile...
Eli "played checkers" with Josh
Me & my sister in law, Marie
Ethan getting a little rocking from Grandma Evans (& i think Jeremy is trying to convince him it's okay- since he prefers rocking from Mema!)
Mema & Jackson
Randy with his Dad & Grandma Evans
Fun times! Wish we all had more time to spend together!
Back in October, we attended the Ivey Family Reunion. This is of course on my (Rachel's) side of the family. We haven't had this reunion in more years than I can remember. Randy wasn't able to go (boooo!) but we managed to make the trip to & from Lumberton without him & had a good time. Here are a two pictures that i took with my phone of me with my dad & grandad...And just me & daddy....
And here are some pictures that my brother, Jeffery, took. He was designated as the photographer for the day!
Me & the boys
My grandaddy with all his kids, grandkids, & great grandkids. (Or those that were able to make it. Several weren't!) My grandaddy with his siblings & all their spouses...
My grandaddy (on the far left) with his siblings (From R to L - Aunt Jean, Uncle O.W., and Aunt Carol)
My dad & his two sisters, (my aunts, Denise & Stacey)
Eli finished out his soccer season at the beginning of November. He absolutely had a blast! Everyday since, he has asked if "We have soccer tonight?" I guess we will be signing him up for spring soccer!
Here is the first night of practice. It was so cute to see all the little kids kicking the ball into the goal!
Right before a score!!! Yes, he made several scores this season! Go Spiders!! (Daddy helped coach - by default- this season. It was very cute.) Eli was proud of himself! And we are proud of him too!Way to go, big guy! You were a great at soccer!! Here are a few videos from the last game.... The first video is of Eli getting knocked down & then gets right up & takes the ball! He is the kid in red pants.....
And this video is them all lining up to give "high fives" and say "good game" to the other team. So cute!
If you are an instant gratification kind of gal... this is your project. I went to visit my mom a few weeks back & she wanted to make a fall wreath that she had seen in a magazine. I asked her if she had a tutorial & she said, "No, just a picture. We can do it." Well, she was right! It was super easy & super cute! It is a wreath made out of tulle. We took an embroidery hoop & since it will come apart, we both got a wreath out of one hoop! I think we used a 14 or 16 inch form. Then we cut strips of stiff tulle and tied them all around the form. I think i used 2.5 yards total of tulle. Then i added some orange polka dot ribbon & some black & white tulle i found in the remnant bin & voila! A super cute, and super easy Halloween wreath. I made another one for my sister that was fall colors but forgot to take a picture. Oops!
This has been perfectly enough for me to get a baby rocking fix without having the lifelong responsibility of raising another one! It's all about perspective, right?
