A Dinosaur, My Lens, & 52 Weeks

This week was Spring Break so I got to spend the whole week with my little man! He is getting so big (still no crawling) & I love watching every minute. This week he just started holding his own bottle! I love I can lay him down & hand him his bottle.

Here is his dinosaur that Matt's father got him. He loves to sit on it & watch Mickey Mouse. He is surrounded by pillows just in case he tips over. Every now & then he will but it isn`t a big spill & then he just lays there next to his Dino & pats him.

This past week was Matt's 25th birthday. We headed over Sunday to his Mom's house to celebrate. I`m two years older then Matt so it is nice now he is about to join me on the back side of the 20s.

Christmas Eve I some how broke my 50mm 1.8 Canon lens. I was soooo upset since it was his first Christmas and that lens take such great photos!

I called Canon & they told me to send it in. Either I would have to pay for repairs or it would be under warranty. Well that was in January I called, I just sent it off about 2 weeks ago. Thanks to the Lord it was under warranty, so I didn`t have to pay for anything! I just got it back this week & I was over the moon! Now I just have to refresh myself on using it in Manual!

I have joined a 52 week challenge from Home Storage Solutions-101. Each week you look at one thing in your house & organize it. This was week 1 for me & all I was to focus on was my kitchen counters & sink. First decide how you use your kitchen. We use it for food prep, cooking, food storage, mail & emptying your pockets when you come in. Once you figure out your kitchen's function you start organizing. I already had organizers for my mail & a basket for keys & that stuff. They say only leave out the appliances you use daily, which are out toaster & coffee pot. They also said get things up & off the counter, hang things on the wall.

I had these little buckets because I like to buy random things at Thrift shops. So now I have a sink clogger/little brush holder & a cup holder!

The the corner where the cookbook holder is I use to have my big stand mixer sit there. I put it up because I don`t use it all the time. It made so much more room for food prepping! When Matt got home from work he said, "the kitchen looks really nice & clean. What did you do?" You would have thought he told me I was pretty! haha I was so excited he noticed! Now they talk about how you should clean your sink out twice a day BUT I do not have a dishwasher so negative on that one!

 I really like the challenge so far because you only focus on one little thing. They said you might be tempted to keep going, say if you put an appliance in a cabinet & think, "I need to do this cabinet now too!". They say stop, don`t worry, one of the weeks you will get to that!

Parker  is at Matt's Mom's house this weekend. He hasn`t went for a weekend I think since December so I was a little sad last night when they came & got him. But Matt & I went for sushi & had a much needed date night! And I know Parker needed to spend time with his Mamaw!

 Mr. Moo says, "Have a great weekend!!"

It Took Forever

I have two craft projects that I have been "planning" to do for a long time. I finally started them and actually got them done! The first project was to make a chalkboard from a large tray I had.

I used the chalkboard spray paint because that is all I could find at Wal-Mart. You need to sand the item you will spray paint first.

Here is the tray after I spray painted it. I didn`t sand if the first time (picture above). Once it was dried I realized that I needed to, so I sanded and spray painted it again.

Here is my finished product! I painted the outside of the tray "spring green". Some paint got on the chalkboard so I glued the some ribbon I had around to cover where I got the paint. The blue I pained a light blue & also glued on.

I then nailed on the back the things to make it able to hang. I really have been talking about doing this for over a year. I`m glad I finally did it!

The next project is a Birthday Rag wreath. My sister Brannan made one & bought me one to do too. It had been sitting in my sewing room for months & I finally sat down & made it.

I choose to do a Birthday wreath to hang up on the day on everyone's birthday. I thought a multi color one would look "birthday-ish".

Here is the fabric up close. I made each strip 8 inches long & 1 inch wide. Right at the end I started to run out of certain colors, so I found some that were the same color but not the exact. They blended really well, you can`t even tell.

Sorry this is blurry! I tied my rags on the most outside ring & then skipped a ring & did the 3rd ring in. The part that takes the longest was cutting the fabric. I just randomly picked the rags & tied them on.

Here are some photos of Mr. Parker sitting in a little rocking chair at Nene & Poppy's. These rocking chairs were my sisters & mine when we were little. He was so funny because he could rock himself & he was just loving it! He is getting so big, I can`t even believe it!

Family.....

I had a post a while ago linking back to Ginger Unzueta Photography, who took some photos for my family. Just wanted to show yall the photos we got from her. She did such a great job, if yall are looking for someone to take photos Ginger is awesome! These are just the ones that Matt, Parker & I were in.

Poppy, Nene & all the grand kids

The whole crew

The Brown Family

Front Porch photos!

My heart <3

Parks & Me

My handsome husband and me! Oh the life of being a Mommy, drool on my shoulder haha

Kids & Grand kids, everyone is looking but Parker

Me, Ashton, Ambrey, Brannan & Hayley

The Daddys & their kids

Gukich Girls

Don`t if any of yall caught the episode of Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy that my Daddy was on. He was on the last five minutes of it, it was pretty funny! Of course he was wearing his Auburn scrub top too!! War Eagle!

The Party Planning Has Begun....

 Yes, my child's birthday isn`t for another 4 months, but you can never start getting stuff too early! The theme for Parker's first birthday is County Fair/Huckleberry Fin. Since his birthday is in the middle of the summer I thought it would be a fun theme. I saw on Pinterest someone pinned Shop Sweet Lulu. They have some great party supplies! So I went ahead and grabbed a few things!

     

The bags for the favors for the kids. They are going to "go fishing" for them.

The cups for the candy at the General Store.

The spoons for the Mason Jars with icecream in them.

The straws for everyone's drinks.

These are my favorite! They are milk jar glasses (these are plastic) for the kids to drink from!

I`m so excited for this party. I`m hoping if I start getting stuff here & there it won`t all pile up right before!

Craft Day & a Baby Hat

Yesterday I decided to finally do some craft stuff I have been wanting to do. So I went to Wal-Mart, got some supplies.

The first craft I did was from Infarrantly Creative. You turn empty wipe containers into plastic bag holders (but that are cute!) You need to have an empty wipe container, plastic bags, fabric, Mod Podge, a brush, scissors, adhesive spray, & ruler.

First you place the bags out & roll them up. If you click on their link they give you a detailed description of how to roll. I only had 4 bags, they say have 12.

Once you roll them, put them into the wipe container.

Then you take the Mod Podge & brush it on the fabric.

Then once the fabirc is dry, spray the container & place fabric on the container.

It really turned out cute!

Now I won`t have a pile of plastic bags in my pantry!

The next craft I did was The Cart Before The Horse. You need a blank canvas ( I did two), fabric cut up, Mod Podge & a brush.

You just brush the Mod Podge on & stick on the fabric.

It is super easy & great if you have tons of fabric just sitting around not being used! I did brown, blue & green fabrics.

I then attached green ribbon to the canvas so I could hang them in my den. I think they turned out great!

I just had to throw in these pictures of Parker. He is wearing the hat he worn in the hospital when he was born. It was so big then we could barely keep it on his head! Now it barely fit because he is too big!

I`m also working on another craft but I`m not done yet. I just have really been in the mood to sew & craft for some reason. I have two quilts also I started in Kentucky that I`m going to finish soon. Hopefully I can post pictures of my other projects when they are done.

Valentine's & Garlic Ranch Chicken

A late Happy Valentine's Day to yall! Mr. Parker had a great first Valentine's Day. His daddy wasn`t too sure when I said I was making a V-Day applique shirt, but I assured him it would be boyish.

I mean what could be more boyish then a dump truck?

Parker was invited to a Valentine's Day party that morning. As you can see from the picture, he had a lot of Valentine's! The little girl who is right in the middle (Red & white top w/ white bow) is Parker's birthday twin, Ansley.

On to The Parker Report, we have now moved into our big boy seat. He is still not too sure about it. Every time now I go to put him in it, he cries. But he is now getting use to falling asleep in it, so that is good. We are still rear facing though, and will be I guess they say now till 2 years old.

This is the week before we put it in. I was trying to get him use to it.

If you look very close (sorry it is a blurry photo) you can see Mr. Parker's first tooth! As of last night the second one has broke through right next to it, but you can`t really see it yet.

I just like this photo because I love me some baby feet!

On to the Garlic Ranch Chicken. My sisters, Mother & I are doing a Freezer Dinner exchange today. Each person picks a dinner, prepares it, puts it in some type of freezer safe container, & then gives one to each family. So I will have my meal & then 3 other freezer meals. The food is not cooked, you still have to take it out to thaw & then cook it. But the step of having to prepare the meal is already done. We prepared meals for 5 families (your own family included). This is our first go at it. From what I have read,  a lot of groups do this once a month. I got my recipe from Fabulessly Frugal.

What you need:
For each family - 4 chicken breast, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of mayo, 1 packet of Ranch dressing mix, & 2 Tablespoons of minced garlic. You will also need gallon sized freezer bags & a sandwich size bag.

Since I did 5 families I timed everything by 5 (20 chicken breast, 5 cups of milk, etc.)

I combined all the ingredients (except the chicken) in a bowl.

Then you take 1/2 cup of the mixture & place it in the sandwich size bag.

Next I put 4 chicken breast in the gallon bag & poured reaming mix into the bag. Lastly you put the sandwich bag into the gallon bag with the chicken & mix. Yes, sounds funny but you put the sandwich bag inside of it. The first time I read it I was like, "ummmm"?? Then stick it in the freezer for later!

I wrote on each gallon sized bag what you do to cook it. Thaw, remove the sandwich bag & stick in fridge. Broil or grill the chicken. Take the mix from the sandwich bag & brush the chicken with it about 5 min. before cook time is up. I`ll show pictures when I actually cook it.


Exciting news for myself, I finally bought SewWhatPro! Matt gave me my embroidery/sewing machine for my 25th birthday. For those who do not embroider I`ll explain a short way. When I wanted to put Parker's name on a shirt I would have to embroider each letter by it's self. Then I would have to make sure I calculated where each letter went. If I was off his name could be not centered or crooked. Really hard & really annoying! The SewWhatPro is going to make my life sooooo much easier! I go on the program & do it all right there, no headache!! So, needless to say, Parker is going to be sporting all my appliques finally I bought for him!