shoeboxes

With the holidays approaching, I've been thinking alot lately about how my little family can help out some good causes.  A charity that immediately came to mind was Operation Christmas Child.  This is one that I've helped out before and I just love the idea of stuffing a shoebox full of love and goodies to send to a child who really needs it.  As a family, we decided to fill 2 shoeboxes...one for a boy and one for a girl, both in the 2-4 year age range.  We also decided to make our donation online so that we can follow our boxes to see where in the world they end up.  So the bean and I headed out to a few places to pick out the stuff to fill our boxes.

Here's what went into our boy's box:

Here's what went into our girl's box:

The bean even did some coloring to include in our boxes.  Sweet kid.
















Last week, we dropped off our boxes at a local church and they should soon be on their way to our "shoebox kids" as the bean so lovingly called them.  So excited to help such a great cause!  I can't imagine my kiddo having no presents to open on Christmas day.  Hopefully our boxes will spread a little cheer to some kids in need this Christmas season.

library day

Ever since he was a teeny tiny guy, the bean has always loved books and being read to.  He loves grabbing book after book after book and curling up in my lap for story time.  Now that he's older, he also loves going to the library.  I try to take him every few weeks and so far, every trip has been a huge success.  He understands that we have to be quiet and that we have to take care of the books that we check out so that other kids can enjoy them when we return them.  

We went to the library today and he picked out eleven books to borrow.  It's always interesting and sweet to see what he picks out.  Today's selection included a truck book, a couple of books about trains, a Busytown book, a Curious George book, and a book about a kid and his big boy undies.  We haven't really been pushing potty training yet, so that was an interesting choice on his part.  He also picked out The Little Engine That Could, which we totally have at home.  But this version had different illustrations, so it immediately caught his attention.

He plopped right down on the floor with the book and started flipping through the pages, "reading" it to himself.  I was super impressed that, even though the illustrations in this version were different, he still recognized it as the same story and was talking through the storyline as he flipped through the book.

I am a lucky mama to have such a smart and inquisitive kid.  I really hope that he keeps his love of books and reading as he gets older. 

happy fall

It's official...fall is here!

Our Florida weather may not reflect the change in season, but today is the first day of fall.  And I am so excited!!  Fall is by far my favorite time of year.  I've been wasting...err...investing a lot of time on Pinterest lately looking at all the fun fall crafts and getting inspired.  I've already started a little bit of fall decorating around the house.  And I am so excited to start working on the bean's Halloween costume.  He is going to be Buddy from Dinosaur Train...so, so cute!  Can't wait!  I'm also looking forward to our church's pumpkin patch and Trick-or-Trunk event.  Always so much fun.

To me, fall is all about cuddling up with your favorite people, drinking yummy hot cocoa.  It's all about putting on your coziest, most comfortable sweaters and watching the leaves change colors (although, not so much here in Florida).  It's a great time to think about all our blessings and to give thanks for all the past year has brought us.  And when I think about where we were last year (that's us in the picture below) and where we will be this time next year (2 kids...eek!) I do feel really blessed.  I really do have have the best little family ever and I am so, so thankful.

Happy first day of fall, everyone!

what we've been up to

Oh boy...it's been a while since I posted.  A very long while.  Our family has been so, so busy lately.  Here are a few of the things we've been up to in the past couple of months:

• We're expecting baby #2!  Our newest addition will be arriving sometime in late February.  And we are so excited...and nervous.  But mostly excited.  I can say that this pregnancy has been totally different (and much tougher so far) than my first.  But I think and hope that the worst of it is over and that I'll feel better from here on out.  Fingers crossed.
• The bean turned two.  Of course, we celebrated with a big party...lots of family and friends, the whole nine yards.  And the bean had a great time!  I absolutely cannot believe how quickly he is growing and changing.  It seems like he learns something new every day.  Along with that, he's becoming very independent...and much more defiant these days.  Hello, terrible two's!  Guess I need to re-read a few chapters in the Love and Logic book.
• The hubby has been traveling for work ALOT lately.  He spent two weeks in China in mid-July and has taken several other short trips here and there since then.  As you can imagine, chasing around the aforementioned energetic and defiant two-year old while being pregnant is tough work...especially while hubby is out of town and I don't have my regular back-up.  Those make for some long, exhausting days.
• We got a new car.  Well, new to us, anyway.  Since we are due to add another kid to the family in 2013, we figured we should probably upgrade to a vehicle that will accommodate two carseats.  So, we ended up with a 2007 Kia Rondo.  And I love it!
• Hubby and I celebrated our tenth anniversary.  I'm such a lucky girl.  Ten years is a long time to be stuck with somebody, and I really do feel blessed to have been stuck with such a great guy.  We celebrated with a quick, bean-free overnight trip out of town.  And it was wonderful.

So with all that going on, plus the regular day-to-day stuff, I've neglected the ol' blog just a tad.  Hopefully, I'll be able to stay more up-to-date now that things are hopefully settling down a bit.  We'll see...

our family do's

As part of my recent spring cleaning spree, I've been adding and updating a few decorative touches here and there around the house.  For the longest time, there has been one HUGE blank wall in my living room and I had no idea what to do with.  Should we hang photos there?  Artwork?  I was at a loss.  Then hubby and I talked about creating some art together to hang there.  We felt excited and creative.  We even bought canvases and paint.  We even hung those canvases on the wall in hopes that we would be inspired to create something awesome.  But then we got stuck and couldn't agree on what we wanted.  So for months, six blank white canvases hung on that wall...staring at me every time I walked in the room...mocking me.

I scoured Pinterest (imagine that) and found alot of great ideas.  The one that stood out to me was a sort of "house rules" turned art kind of thing.  With the bean becoming more and more a participating member of our family team and learning more about right and wrong, I thought introducing some family rules would be a good idea.  And what better way to start than to display it right on the wall of the room that we spend the most time in together.  But I didn't want it to be too "rule-y" if that makes sense.  I didn't want to hang a list of don'ts in our living room.  I didn't really want him to constantly see a list of things he wasn't allowed to do.  Instead, I wanted to list out the things that our family does...the values and traits that I want us all to have.  What I came up with is really more of a family pact or covenant.  It's our family do's.

Here's how I made it happen:

• First, I came up with our list of do's.  These are some of the most important things I want to encourage the bean to do and be.  I laid everything out the way I wanted it in Word and then printed it on six different pages.
• Then the hubby and I decided on paint colors.  This was easy...we just went with colors that we already have in our house.
• I painted the canvases green as the background color.

• I then traced my printed words onto each canvas using carbon paper.  This took a while because I'm a perfectionist and didn't want to have to do a lot of touch-up painting to cover up any errant lines that I made.
• Then came the task of filling in the traced letters with brown paint.  I'm going to be honest...this took forever.  I think it took me about 8 hours or so (spread out over a few days) to paint in all the letters.  I used the stiffest, tiniest paintbrush I could find and just went to work.  Again, I didn't want to have to do alot of touch-up at the end to fix any mistakes, so I took my time to make sure I stayed inside the lines.  I did have to do a little touching up with green paint at the end, but it didn't take long at all.

I love the finished product.  Up close it's not exactly perfect...it definitely has a hand-painted look to it.  But to me it's really the words that matter most anyway.  I love seeing our family covenant when I walk in the room instead of that big blank wall.  It just makes me smile.