Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Valentine's Decor

I was going to put away all of my Valentine's decorations today, but I figured I better take some pictures so I will remember for next year.

Above is our shelf by the front door.

Here is my wreath that I made a few years ago. I've already posted about it. It was a project I made at Christmas with my mil and sils.

None of this is new either. I couldn't get them to stick on the wall, but my neighbor suggested I use mounting tape. Viola! They stay up! I'm a bit nervous to take it off. I hope the tape doesn't pull the paint off!

The mantle and back wall view.



The pink owl is new this year. I found it at Gordman's.

I found the printable online for free and bought these tulips at Michael's. I had the vase from when Molly was born. My mom found the gray bird for me after we moved in.

This is the banner I made this year. My mom bought these kits from a scrapbook company near her. Everything was cut out, I just had to assemble it all.


 I love it. It says "Adore" if you can't tell.

I put my wall hanging on the wall ;) ha. Of course I did!

I probably need to add something to this silver bowl on my sofa table, but I never got around to it.

I'm not sure I've taken a pic, but I originally had a gray side table. It was just too much with my gray/blue chairs and blue rug under my kitchen table, so I exchanged it for the white. I like it much better!

That's the end of the tour!

Valentine's Day 2014

We had a fun Valentine's Day this year. We had a few things for the kids and gave them to them the night before since Justin was leaving early for work on Valentine's Day.

We got the girls new nightgowns. I found these on clearance a few weeks ago for $5 each and had to get them :) We also got them a cinderella doll and an Amber (they have 2 Sophia's the same size) doll.

We got Jackson some new pjs, some football slippers and some plastic golf clubs.

On Valentine's Day my sister picked up my girls and took them to see Frozen with their cousin. My mom joined them there and then brought them home to me. This was the best gift to me because I stayed home and packed for our trip to St. George and cleaned the house while they were gone!

My parents got the girls a table and 2 chairs for their dolls. Jackson got a bunch of cars and trucks. He was taking a nap, so that's why he's not in the pictures!

After my mom left we picked up Justin at work and drove to St. George.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

A few milestones

I usually keep track of some milestones for my kids and I've kind of neglected that lately. So I figured I would put them in here.

Jackson is 20 months now and is talking a lot. He can say ball, mama, daddy, Monny (Molly), Adi (Ali), puppy, kitty and most animals and their sounds, wrench, hammer, open, hungry, etc. He will repeat what we say, "Shoot!" "Gosh!" Pretty funny. He still loves his puppy dog stuffed animals. We are down to 2 at the moment (of 4 total). But they seem to reappear from time to time. He still loves to read books and sits and reads them throughout the day. He is a very big fan of his daddy when he comes home from work and on the weekends when he's around.

Ali turned 4 and a few days later decided she was down with pull ups at night. We agreed and took them away and she was pretty good for about a week or so. Then she had about 3 nights when she wet her bed. No fun. So I might have been an indian giver and asked my sister for her extra pull ups back! I'm not exactly sure if she just forgets sometimes or what the deal is, but I think we will wait a couple months and try again. Compared to Molly, she has been a very difficult child to potty train! But she loves to create things and wear pretty things. She loves shoes and tried them on wherever she goes (as in friend's homes). We do a weekly play group for a few neighbors her age on Fridays and that's fun for her.

She also is done with her kitty. We had 2. One was the one she loved and it definitely looked loved! The other was the new one that my mom got when that one was first lost. Justin finally put it in the outside garbage after Jackson kept finding it and getting it for Ali from the inside trash cans :) It was pretty funny. She referred to it at as her "trash kitty" after those incidents. Well Justin hoped that she would take to the "new" kitty, but she hasn't! So now she just doesn't have a stuffed animal with her most of the day. It's fine, but it was kind of cute when she had kitty!

I'm not sure Molly has any big milestones necessarily right now, but she is still doing well. She had her 100 days of school project this past week and that was fun for her. She is still learning to write and read. It is a challenge for her, but she is doing really well with it. She loves making "books" as she calls them. This consists of paper that she staples on the side and then she usually writes things and draws things and maybe puts stickers in them. She makes them for herself, Ali, for Justin and I and for friends and family.

Justin and I have been enjoying a few shows lately. We don't have cable at our home, but we can stream from our computer. So far it has worked out fine for us. We watch Castle (as we have in the past) and this year we have gotten into Elementary and just barely have seen a couple of episodes of Sherlock, the BBC version. I enjoy Downton Abbey and my neighbor has a girls night on Tuesday when a bunch of us go over and watch it together. That's been a lot of fun.

The elementary school Molly goes to is moving to Year Round next year. I think we get our request forms this week and turn them in next week and then we get assigned. Our neighborhood is doing a group where you turn your forms in together but they decide which track you are on. I haven't joined it and I'm trying to decide which track we want to do! I'm trying to stay positive about it and hope for the best. I've never done year round myself, but I've heard positive things about it. Ali will be in preschool next year and following a tradition schedule, so that will be interesting to have them on different schedules. We'll see how it goes!

The snow is melting and we have lots and lots of mud outside. I'm looking forward to putting grass in a couple of months hopefully! We are heading to St. George next weekend to hopefully enjoy a change of scenery, which is hopefully warmer too!