Small Group Sprinkle

Our small group does something fun for second babies.  We call it a "sprinkle" instead of a shower.  We just buy fun little gifts that the mom-to-be might need.  The girls usually meet at a restaurant and enjoy a relaxing night kid-free.  We recently had my sprinkle at a local restaurant and it was a lot of fun!  It is always fun just to get together and catch up.

Abby, me and Lindsey 

Reagan got a lot of cute things!  I didn't get a picture of everything, but here are some of them.  Look at that cute monogrammed bib and burp cloth!

Her first towel!  She will probably be using a lot of blue towels but that is okay. :)  I love the grooming kit too. We use Westin's everyday so I knew she needed one too.

Katie got Westin his first backpack so she also got Reagan hers.  Love it!

Helga, Stacy and Katie

I am so thankful for everything we got!  It's always fun for the second baby to get some fun things too!



Happy Valentine's Day

Thank you all for praying for my Grandma.  She is not really any better and is getting tired of being in the ICU.  Please continue to pray for her, my Papa and my family.  I know I am so blessed to have all four of my grandparents still alive.  It sure is hard though to see one of them in pain.  Nothing can prepare you for it. 

Westin and I have had a good Valentine's Day so far and look forward to celebrating with Daddy tonight. 

This boy does flips on this chair at least 50 times a day.  If he is not flipping onto the chair he is begging to get on the bed to do flips.  He quickly learned it is not fun to do flips on the floor.  :) 

We met some of our small group girls at the nursing home today to pass out Valentine's.  All of the kids did so good!  Zach really got into it and wanted to make sure every body had one and no one was left out.  Sweet boy.  He even ran out of his Valentine cards and started passing out some of his stickers.  One man thought Westin was his grandson and wanted to hear all the latest news I had to share from "Stacy".  He thought I worked with Stacy at Bingo.  :)  I kept trying to change the subject but he was adamant about hearing all I knew.  :)  He couldn't believe Westin was so big but still thought he was going to be a shortie.   Haha!  Everyone was so sweet and appreciative of the Valentine's everyone made.  We will definitely be going back!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Please Pray

Would you please pray for my grandma?  She had a cold which quickly turned into pneumonia and other serious issues including a small heart attack.  She has been in the ICU since Wednesday.  The doctor commented today that he thinks she has finally stopped getting worse.  Hopefully she can start getting stronger.

Of course my Papa is beside himself and not resting well.  My mom has been staying at the hospital day and night.  Westin and I drove down Wednesday and I got to see her on Thursday.  She knew I was there and squeezed my hands and opened her eyes. 

Psalm 33:18 "But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love."

Please pray she will start getting her strength back and for complete healing.  Please pray for my Papa, my parents and the rest of our family.  And of course for the wisdom of the doctors. 

Psalm 33:20 "We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield."

February Goodies

Last week Westin and I went to Adeline's house to work on some Valentine's we will be taking to a local nursing home next week. 

What a difference a year makes!

Westin made these hand print hearts (found on pinterest, of course) for his grandparents and great grandparents.  He also made one for me.  :)

Isn't this picture holder cute?  My mom got it for me for Christmas.  It says, "They are only little for a season."  I keep his latest MDO art on it.  I stamped the "Be mine" with some little stamps I already had. 

These are the Valentine's we made for the nursing home.  I let him paint with pink and red paint on some cardstock.  Side note - can I just ask, why when he is not painting, that is all he wants to do.  But when I gave him a paint brush and paper he was "all done" in about 5 minutes?  We had to make 17 cards and I barely got 17 with these.  Haha!

He painted on five pieces of cardstock and then I traced hearts on them to cut out. 

Some are kinda bare.  :)  Like, I said I barely squeezed out seventeen. Ha!

Then I wrote some Valentine messages on them with a permanent marker.  These were simple but fun to make.  I hope they like them!  :)

Organizing My Jewelry

I still haven't heard from one of the Watch Me Grow sticker sets!  Go HERE to see if you are a winner. 

I am not a huge jewelry girl.  I wear my wedding rings and earrings everyday and I might throw a necklace on if I'm feeling crazy.  :)  I had all my earrings thrown in a bowl on our bathroom counter and my necklaces were hanging on nails in our closet.  I was always wearing the same earrings or necklace because they were on top of the pile.  So I searched pinterest for some inspiration and found these ideas.  Sorry about the pics-they were taken with my phone.

A picture frame with lace to hold my earrings.  Inspiration found HERE.  I had the frame in my stash so I just painted it blue and hot glued the lace trim onto the back.  I found the lace trim at Hobby Lobby. 

For my necklaces I copied what I saw HERE.   A towel bar with shower curtain rings.  I love this system!  I have been wearing more and more necklaces because I can see what I have and they aren't all tangled up.  Thank you to Elizabeth for telling me what was out of style so I could get rid of them.  I asked her to come over and go through my earrings and necklaces.  I have no clue what is in style and I do not like having more than I would wear anyway.  :)  I don't have the space!   

Funny story about the towel bar...I sent Cody to Walmart to get one for me.  I even sent a picture. He came home with a shower curtain rod!  Haha!  He walked in and said, "Where are you putting this?  It looks big."  Oh my.  I just had to laugh!

Elle+Ollie Handmades

Be sure to scroll down to the previous post to see if you are one of three winners of the monthly stickers.

My friend, Kari Beth, has opened an etsy shop with the cutest baby/toddler clothing!  Look at this cute onesie dress she made Reagan.

I love it!  It is even named the Reagan Onesie Dress.  :)  Like this dress, a lot of her dresses are made with Amy Butler fabrics.

She also made this tractor shirt for Westin.  He loves pointing out every tractor we see so he is going to love wearing this shirt!

She has a great eye for fabric combos and design.  She is helping me (which means basically she is doing everything!) make Westin's big brother and birthday shirt.  If you are looking for fun and adorable baby clothing, be sure to check out her shop, HERE.  Tell her I said "hi."  ;)

Three Winners!

The three winners of the

Watch Me Grow stickers are:

#10-  Amber

#9-  Taylor

#16- The Anglin Family

Congratulations!  Please email me at row35401 at yahoo.com so I can pass your info on so you can get your stickers.

Also, remember if you order a set now, use the code "babies" for 10% off!  Click HERE to go to the shop.

Thank you Fern and Fran!



Watch Me Grown Sticker Set Giveaway

The sweet twins of Twice As Nice Lettering have opened a NEW etsy shop called Watch Me Grow and are offering to give away three sets of stickers!  They have sooo many cute options to choose from!

Look at these cute ties for little boys!

I think I will probably pick out these elephant ones.  So cute!

These are a great gender neutral set if you are giving a gift or waiting to find out what you are having on the big day.

Like I said, so many options and there are a ton more in their shop! 

There are four ways to be entered to win one of three sets.  The first one is mandatory.  Leave a separate comment for each entry.  Please remember to leave your email address if you don't have a blog!  Three winners will be randomly picked this weekend (probably sometime Sunday.)

1.  Mandatory-Go visit the new shop HERE and let me know what stickers you would choose. 

2.  Mention this giveaway on facebook. 

3. Tweet about this giveaway.

4.  Blog about this giveaway. 


Don't want to wait for the giveaway?  They are offering a 10% off discount in honor of their Grand Opening.  Enter "babies" at checkout for the discount!
Good luck!!

Valentine Decorations

I had fun decorating for Valentine's Day this year because I don't think I have decorated the past couple of years.  Even though Westin probably doesn't notice yet, I still decorated for him. :)  The only new things I used were the two printables I showed you in a previous post. 

On the living room shelf there is a Valentine print and Westin's V-day card from last year. 

In the kitchen I hung the Be Mine hanger over the laundry room and framed another print from pinterest.  The candy jar is filled with my favorite....heart Gobstoppers!

By the sink is a silver tray with a framed quote, bird salt and pepper shakers and a Larkspur Lane figurine.

In the hall bath I stuck two heart picks from Hobby Lobby in the greenery and printed out another printable that I have had downloaded on my computer for several years.  So unfortunately, I do not have the source since that was pre-pinterest days.

I am sad to say that this little guy is sick again.  Although, I guess we have had a good run (minus the stomach bug) since the last time we went to the Dr. was in April.  He has a cold, eye infection and a ruptured ear drum.  I feel terrible about his ear drum because we didn't even know he had an ear infection.  :(  He must have a high pain tolerance because he has not been fussy one bit.  The only reason I took him to the Dr. was because he has had trouble sleeping this weekend because he can't really breathe because of his cold.  I'm so glad I took him!  Poor baby is now on an antibiotic, ear drops and eye drops.  Thankfully he isn't cranky but it is sad to see him moping around and just not feeling good.  I pray that he gets over this quickly and that we are sickness-free around here for a long time. 

There will be another fun giveaway this week too!

Winner!

The winner of the True Love pillow from Sweet Tea and Linen is

# 87

Stephanie from Hope is the Thing With Feathers!

Congratulations!  Email me your address at row35401 at yahoo dot com and I will forward it on to Carolyn.  Thank you to everyone who entered!  And thanks again, Carolyn!

Sweet Tea and Linen Giveaway

Carolyn of Sweet Tea and Linen has graciously offered to giveaway one of her True Love burlap pillows, just in time for Valentine's Day!  This pillow is 12x16 and comes with the pillow form and embroidered wedding date (or date of your choice.)  This would make a perfect wedding gift or anniversary present too!

To enter, go visit her etsy shop HERE and let me know what your favorite item is.  Be sure to leave your email address if you do not have a blog.  Random.org will pick a winner Monday evening so the winner will get their pillow in plenty of time for Valentine's Day.  Good luck and thank you, Carolyn!

Pinterest Projects

What did we do before Pinterest?  I guess whatever we did before cell phones.  Ha!  I've printed a few things off lately that I thought I would share with you.

First, I was so happy when I saw that these ABC scripture cards were free!  These are simple Bible verses your toddler can memorize.  I'm so excited to get Westin started on these.  He remembers and repeats every little thing I say so I know he will be able to do these. 

It suggests you laminate them but I don't have a laminating machine.  I just printed them off at home but if you want to save your color ink, put the files on a jump drive and take it to Office Depot and they can print it on card stock in color for less than .70 cents a page.  There are four verses per page so it will be less than $5 to print them all.  I print stuff at Office Depot all the time!  You can find these ABC cards HERE.

I also printed out this calendar of prayers you can pray for your children.  I have it on our fridge so I see it several times a day.  You can find it HERE.  I printed this at Sam's Club because I wanted it to be 8x10 and in a durable photo finish.

***It looks like the link to the calendar is not working now.  However, someone posted a link to a similar calendar in the comments.  Sorry about that!

I got a jump start on my Valentine's decor (I'll post pics soon) and printed off two prints at Sam's Club.  To print at Sam's or Walgreens (or wherever you print pics) then just save the image to your computer and go to Sam's website and follow the directions under the photo tab to send it to them online.  Once you do it once, it is very easy. 

HERE is the link for the one below.  I printed it in an 8x10. 

The one below is 16x20 and HERE is the link.

I was looking for a print to put in this frame for Reagan's nursery and found THIS one.  It was already the perfect colors so I just printed it on card stock at home.

I stapled a piece of twine on the back and clipped the print up with a tiny clothes pin (I bought a whole bag of them in the scrapbook section at Hob Lob.)  The frame was an old gold one my mom had and we painted it white and took out the glass and picture.

In non-pinterest news, Westin got his first stomach bug yesterday.  :( Thankfully it lasted less than 12 hours.  He did throw up seven times though, and that is the most pitiful thing ever to watch.  I basically watched him like a hawk all day so I knew when he was about to throw up.  We had very little mess because I was able to catch everything with a beach towel.  Haha!  By the end of the day he knew to throw up in the beach towel.  He got sick for the last time at 9:45 last night so thankfully he slept good the rest of the night. He was a good sport about it though, after every time he was sick he would say, "it's oh-tay." :)

He woke up at 6am saying, "eat eat eat".  I took that as a good sign and he has been fine today.  Thank you Lord!  It is so sad to watch your baby when they are sick.

New Guest Room

This room was what I called our "small guestroom."  It had a double bed and a huge antique green cabinet in it.  We moved the green cabinet to Jason and Katie's house and moved the queen sized guest bed in here.  This room is so small that it is pretty much all bed now. 

Even though it is small and the bed takes up the whole room, I like being in here.  It is light, bright and clutter free.  Right now it is the one room in our house that doesn't need cleaning out.  :)

The bedside table on the right is Cody's grandmother's old sewing table.  I'm storing some of my sewing notions in it in hopes that I start sewing more.  :)

Now that we have all our rooms moved, I can focus on cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets and everything else.  My "before baby comes to-do list" is a mile long.  Three more months!

Westin's New Room

Westin loves his new room!  He has so much more space and I find him playing in there all the time.  I wanted to move him as soon as possible so he would have plenty of time to adjust before Reagan gets here.  I should not have worried because he hasn't missed a beat.  There has been no change in his sleeping since he moved rooms and I am so grateful!  It took him a couple of weeks to run to his new room when I said, "let's go to Westin's room."  He would always run to his old room and stop in his tracks when he saw that his stuff was gone.  Ha!  Now he runs to his new room and yells, "WOW!" and jumps around like he can't get over the space.  :)

My plan was to move everything and put it in his new room just like it was in his old room.  I could be wrong but I think this helped him not care that we moved him.  Walking into his room is his coat rack. 

His crib wall looks pretty much the same except this ladder shelf wasn't in his old room.  It is from our guest room.  Right now it is just filled with stuffed animals to kind of hide the fact that it is a ladder so he won't get any crazy ideas to climb it.  :)

His toy area is the same, just loaded up with lots of Christmas goodies.

His rocker and reading area is pretty much the same too.

Personally, I like all the space his closet has. 

As I was taking pictures, Westin was having fun behind the scenes making a mess.

Then he tried to ride out of his room, Evil Kenevil style.

Next I'll show you where we moved the guestroom that used to be in here.  I'm so glad all this moving is behind us!