Friday, September 30, 2011

life as we know it

Little chair for Julianna made by her daddy. He spent a lot of time on this cute little chair for Julianna. It was an old chair that my mom had for a long time and was getting rid of. He did a great job!

One of our latest projects. We've been collecting picture frames on our thrifting adventures to display Julianna's artwork. They have hooks at the top so the artwork is interchangeable. These frames are going to go on the way beside of our staircase. Our collection of frames is far from done.
Julianna with one of her first ponytails. I could just eat her face. So stinkin' cute!

Just relaxing with mom on a Friday night!

One of my favorite things right now! Inspired by Pinterest, Josh made this necklace holder out of an old rake he found on the side of the road. The only cost was the $1.88 ribbon and $3.00 can of spray paint.

Little Miss Sassy Pants!

Beautiful blue! The new color of our bedroom walls.

It's so peaceful and calming. I love it!

Julianna and her daddy love pickles!

Checking out the sticker that she got at the doctor. At her 18 month checkup, she's 22 lbs. and 32 inches tall. Her weight makes her a peanut but her height is average for her age. She also got a her flu shot.

Reading a book and turning the page the right direction. Go Julianna!

Just driving my car. Beep beep!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Happy 18 Months, Julianna!

Wow! It's so hard to believe that Julianna is eighteen months old. A year and a half. She's become such a little lady in the past 18 months. She's a toddler now with a growing personality. Her personality is sweet and sassy; just as I expected.

She can walk and run. But loves to be held and cuddled and carried around the house. She gives herself kisses in the mirror and says "JuJu!" She says bye bye and hey. Calls her daddy, "Josh!" probably because she hears her mommy say it so much. Her favorite animals is a dog and spots a dog immediately. Julianna eats what we eat and has a fondness for black beans, ham, cheese, strawberries, and blueberry muffins. She's fully aware of where to find the cookies in kitchen and goes to the pantry saying "eat! eat!" Julianna still hasn't had a hair cut and rocks the waterspout on a daily basis.

We're in love with this precious little girl. She makes us smile, laugh, and occasionally want to pull our hair out when she throws her food at dinner. She's amazing and she's ours.

Happy 18 months, little lady! We love you forever!




Childress Vineyards

Josh loves calling into radio stations to play the games to win prizes and he has great luck with it as well! This week he won 2 tickets to a dinner party at Childress Vineyards- retail cost $70. Our good friend Brittney watched Julianna for a few hours so we could go. We had a great dinner and Josh even got to squish grapes with his feet. Overall, a fun date night with the husband!







Tuesday, September 13, 2011

thrifty: outfits fit for work

Top: thrifted, Liz Claiborne, $2.00
Capris: thrifted, New York & Company, $5.00
Shoes: thrited, Liz Claiborne, $3.75
Necklace: Old Navy
Total: $10.75

Top: thrifted, $2.00
Tank Top: Old Navy, $3.00
Skirt: thrifted, Madison, $3.75
Shoes: thrifted, Liz Claiborne, $3.00
Total: $11.75

Top: Down East Basics, $20.00
Skirt: thrifted, Larry Levine, $3.00
Shoes: Duck Head, $13.00
Total: $36.00

Top: Wal-Mart, $4.00
Capris: thrifted, New York & Company, $5.00
Shoes: Target, $13.00
Necklace: Latasia Jewelry
Total: $22.00

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

guest post: baby sign language themed party

A Baby Sign Language Themed Party

Birthday parties would not be complete without cake, decorations and presents, but the activity portion of the party is what makes the event memorable. BabySignLanguage has you covered from party favors to games!

Decorations: String together baby sign language flashcards of the signs for happy and birthday followed by your child’s photo. Repeat the pattern until you achieve the length needed to hang like garland. You can also personalize the flashcards by photographing family and friends signing the words happy and birthday, or you can string together letter flash cards to spell out your birthday wishes or your child’s name.

Games:

BSL Charades - You’ve probably familiar with the game of charades where a player silently signals clues to his or her teammates in order to have them guess a word. This can be reversed and played using sign language. A player verbally gives hints and clues to encourage teammates to guess the sign. Of course, the player cannot be as straight-forward as to make the sign or say, “it is the sign for ___.” But, the player can describe what the sign looks like and what the sign represents. On the other hand, the teammates cannot talk and must sign their guesses.

If you are working with a group of children that do not all know baby sign language consider giving them a set of flashcards in order to help them determine the answer. Depending on skill level and age group, you may or may not want to keep score, use a timer, or divide into teams.

BSL Scavenger Hunt - With the sign language flashcards as their clues, the children must scour the house (or consider limiting to a room or the backyard) looking for the items on the cards. This can again be done as a group activity or divided into teams.

When playing inside, we use the signs book, balloon and common toys like car, train, bear, ball, etc. Outside we feature many of the same signs by placing these toys in hiding spots, but we also include signs such as leaf and flower.

Party Favors: Get your friends hooked on baby sign language, too. Send them home with a starter set of flash cards. Print your favorites from our free online baby signing dictionary of flashcards and let them know where they can go to learn more.

Thank You Notes: Take a photo of the attendees making their favorite sign and be sure to mail this in your thank you card. Alternately (or additionally), you can take a photo of your child signing “Thank You” and print personalized thank you cards with this picture on the cover.

Happy Sign Language for Babies Birthday!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

thrifty: sunday afternoon shopping

After church and after our afternoon nap, Julianna and I headed out to get a freebie from Victoria's Secret and to check out our favorite thrift store.

Thrifting outfit:

Shirt: thrifted, Old Navy, $3.75
Skirt: thrifted, Madison, $3.75
Belt: Down East Basics, $8.00
Shoes: Duck Head, $13.00
Outfit Total: $28.50

And the goodies I found! (All for $25.00!!)
Brand new with an awesome button detail on the pockets.



Beautiful neckline on this find... only $2.00!


Hollister pinstripe pants.


New shirt for Josh. Also brand new!

My eyes lit up when I saw these... 3.75 and Liz Claiborne!

Belts... the brown one is leather.

Ann Taylor Loft... perfect for Josh's sister's wedding this weekend.
I'd say today was a success! Plus I found another picture from for the hallway project. Can't wait til that comes together! What good stuff have you thrifted lately??

i love my family

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my little family? Well, I do. So much. Julianna has brightened our lives so much and she continues to amaze me each day! Love that little girl!

She's loving books right now (which makes her teacher mom very happy) and won't leave the house without a book. Every thrift store shopping trip results in Julianna leaving with the book of her choice. She chooses what she likes from the book shelf. She "reads" the book to herself and will give it to mommy or daddy to read to her as well.

She's also been a fantastic eater lately. A few months ago, I couldn't get her to eat anything and it was stressing me out! But now she'll eat pretty much anything I give her. She loves strawberries right now and anything with that she can dip into ranch dressing.

Julianna is also talking like crazy. She has so many words that she's using to help her communicate about what she wants. She asks to "eat eat" when she hungry, tells me "ni ni" when she's tired, and says "bye bye" and "hey" at the appropriate times. She's using less sign language now because she can say more words. She can say please and usually signs please while saying "peas".

She's our world. Enjoy a few pictures of our baby girl from the past few days:








recipe: my first pound cake

Yesterday, I made my very first pound cake. I've never made a cake from scratch. I'm generally boxed cake mix kind of girl but I've really been into trying new recipes lately so I thought I'd give it a try. I made 2 "mistakes" but it turned out great.

I used this recipe: http://elizabethsedibleexperience.blogspot.com/2009/03/cake-cravings.html and followed it exactly except I used light margarine (after getting home with it, I noticed that the package said not for baking- well, I baked with it anyway) and I used fat-free cream cheese.

And here's mine:



I served it with fresh strawberries-- delicious!

Friday, September 2, 2011

video: JuJu working at daycare

recipe: salsa chicken

On the menu tonight: salsa chicken. I had heard of it before but I wanted to give it a try so I made my own variation with the items I already had in my kitchen. And it was a success!

Ingredients:
  • 4 frozen chicken breasts
  • 1 can of cream of chicken soup
  • 1 cup of sour cream
  • 1 cup of salsa
  • 1 packet of taco seasoning
  • sprinkle of cumin
  • sprinkle of chili powder
  • sprinkle of crushed red pepper
  • 1 can of black beans
  • rice
Directions:
1. Place frozen chicken breasts in the bottom of the crock pot. Cover chicken with soup and salsa. Cover chicken with taco seasoning (use about 1/2 of the packet). Sprinkle on the cumin, chili powder, and crushed red pepper. Cook on low for 7 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, add sour cream and shred chicken with a fork. Cook black beans and rice separately. Serve chicken mixture over rice with black beans on top and enjoy!