Valentines for Teachers!

So as many of you know I absolutely LOVE Ella and Charlie's teachers so this year for Valentines day I wanted to give them a little something special.  And just to pat myself on the back, I didn't even get this idea off Pintrest, I did it all on my own!  The little quote says .... Valentine, you're worth "purse-uing"! and I got them each a cute small purse but you could totally give little coin purses as well.  Have a happy Valentines!

Kids...

So I've been posting mostly about all my parties that I haven't really been telling all the fun things that have been going on in my kid's lives. The sun was very bright in this picture but they are just good lookin' kids no matter what!

Ella has been so much fun, she is learning to read, totally self taught because I work full time, but it's amazing to see what she learns. She is always impressing us with the questions she asks and she is constantly asking the meaning of the big words we use. She is such a thinker and says the most wonderful things. She has caught me off guard I don't know how may times by just how clever she is. The other night she prayed that her "Froggie" would become real and that she could have a unicorn, she prayed for strange things for three nights in a row and then after the prayer was over said "Mama, I think Jesus takes so long to answer our prayers because he is trying to teach us patience." She Loves school and even has a best friend named Kyra. They are inseparable and you can often find them holding hands walking to and from the cafeteria. And Levi protects them when all the other boys are mean. I've always been nervous about how she would hold up socially but the older she gets the less I worry. She can make best friends and that's a great thing to me. And she is quite the artist, someday I will have to put pictures of the things she draws. She came out of Sunday school the other day with a coloring page that said "I can follow God's plan by..." and she drew a picture of her sitting on the potty... it was priceless. She already adds so much detail and even SCALE, she drew a fairy house the other day and the grass was taller than the roof! I have dreams of us taking art classes together and her being a great artist when she's not being a doctor or astronaut or a Judge (all things she says she wants to be when she grows up.) Oh how I love this girl and feel beyond blessed to get to be her Mama.

Then there is my Charlie Bear... he is such a mama's boy. He loves to hold hands, in fact when you need to try to get him to fall asleep all you have to do is hold his hand. He will put both hands on your cheeks and just gaze and love on you. All he wants to do is be near me and he totally adores his Papa, his whole being lights up when Rob walks in the room. He is completely in love with his Uncle Burch and will do what ever he does, if Burch eats broccoli then Charlie eats it. They even have a special hand shake and he is learning to do owl calls. On occasion he is a GREAT big brother and most of the time he and Ella are best friends but I guess it's the boy in him and he just can help him self from teasing her relentlessly. He is loved by everyone! In church he just moves from family to family. I always try to keep him close but the older boys come and get him from me and everyone just adores him. He winks and gives that charming smile of his and your hooked. He is my baby. I can't get enough of him. And lucky for me he gives me all that I want. I hope he never gets tired of his Mama.

Valentines

So I was asked to do a last minute wedding for one my brother's friends on Valentines Day. When I say last minute I had less than a week... They wanted to use my parents BEAUTIFUL pecan orchard for the simple event. I was pretty excited. They are layed back country people. She was going to wear her cowboy boots and only family was going to be in attendance. As fate would have it though the wedding was either called off or postponed... I don't know all the dirt of the matter but in the two days that I found out about the wedding and it being called off I got alot done and wanted to share it.

These are the party favors/thank you gifts that I did. They are little match boxes that I covered in scrapbooking paper. The brown paper was actually the paper bag that they gave me at the scrapbooking store, it was perfect! For the little kids I took out the matches and put in little hershey candy bars and for the adults I just left the matches in. I could tell the two apart by what I wrote on the paper. They turned out so cute that I decided to make 40 more for Charlie and Ella's class for Valentines Day... I know, I'm amazing huh? ;)

I spent a total of maybe $7.00.

I had a million mason jars that I was going to wrap them in all sorts of fun ribbon and cloth for the perfect country/valentines look. Not all of it went to waste. I took a picnic basket dinner with all the fixins down to the pecan orchard along with all the wedding decorations and we had a beautiful, fancy valentines dinner that was very memorable. Just hope my kids don't expect all Valentine Days to be like this... well, maybe they can a little bit. =)

Food and Fun

So this is just a picture of the all the yummy food. I had these beautiful silver forks that were my Great-great-grandmothers and they held labels that told people what they were eating, like the chicken salad, or Raspberry Lemonade but I wasn't able to get a close up of it. I am SOOOO getting a new camera for myself sometime soon.


This was one of my favorite parts of the decorations, I did her name and weight and how long the baby was and it was in 3D so the picture doesn't do it justice but it was really really cute.




I think this is the only decent picture I have of the coffee filter garland that I made. It turned out perfect and it really was the prettiest shower I've been to if I do say so myself.

Baby Shower

Most of you are going to think that all I do is have parties and I would like to say that is not true but it really is. Anytime someone is pregnant, getting married, having a birthday... I'm the first one to volunteer to put it on. This time I lucked into doing a baby shower! The girl getting married isn't your typical baby booties and bottles. She got married on Halloween and had a Halloween theme, we are kindred spirits I'm telling ya.




Anyway, I decided that we would go with a little vintage theme and since my mom has this GREAT collection of silver and crystal that was my starting point and I think it turned out great.



I did hazelnut filled cupcakes with almond frosting and they were do die for! I'm just a little sad cause I didn't have time to really take pictures of anything. I was putting the flowers on the table and the next thing I knew people were there and I didn't get to take pictures of all the cute center pieces or the quizzes that turned out so cute with the pencils in the top... but you get the idea.

Creativity

I'm an artistic person and I'll tell you why. It's because of my mother. When I was little and wanted do something different with my room or my furniture she was always so supportive. She would let me pick out any color or fabric and let me run with it. And not only did I do this to my room but every room in the house! She never questioned what I wanted to do, never told me that it might look bad. I would get a project in my mind and she would take me shopping and buy whatever I needed to make my vision complete. She would even help a little with the work. We always had a deal. I would paint what ever she wanted but she would have to wash out my paint brushes. We still keep that deal. Anyway. Thanks to my mother's amazing ability to let loose and give up control, I was able to develop my passion and talent. Now I get to share it with the people I love the most. (My nieces!)





This is really old, I think I did this mural for Lyra's room two years ago? I can't believe it was that long ago! She is getting so big. Anyway, I always wanted to post these pictures because it just turned out so cute. People always assume I'm a really creative person because I can draw. This is not the case. I'm really good at executing other people's creativity and talent and putting my own spin on it. Tish is the one who found the picture and picked out the GREAT green color that I never get sick of. I still go in this room and just sit in the rocking chair and look at it. The bedding and art work she has really pull it all together. It's a lucky kid who gets to have this as their bed room!




This is Jess, Tish's sister in law. She helped me with the room and we sure had a good time, wish I could have such good company when I paint all my murals!





This is one I did for my niece Madison when I went up to visit this summer. She knew what I was going to paint cause she picked out what she wanted but she was gone to EFY when I did it so this is what she came home to. She already had the red wall, all I had to do were the flowers. It totally fits her. The funny part about this was I'd left my paint and brush on the ladder while I took a bathroom break, when I came out of the bathroom Ella came to me all excited and as proud as could be about the flower she painted just for Madison. She'd got my paint and brush and had painted her signature flower right under mine. I about died! I scrubbed it off right before the paint had time to dry... Looking back, I wish I'd have left it there a little longer, just long enough to grab my camera so Madison could have seen what she painted for her. At the very least, praised her for what a great job she did... I wish I'd been a little more like my mother in that moment.

Fall

When I was little I use to hate fall. Not the time of year, I have always had a love for pumpkins and Halloween, bonfires and cider, but the season. Fall seemed dead to me. I always saw the brown grass and thought it was so much prettier when it was green and alive. I would see pictures that artists would paint of wheat fields with pheasants flying in the gray sky and I would always wonder "who would hang that in their house?" Maybe it is because when your little you draw trees with green leaves and a blue sky with fluffy white clouds and red flowers on the ground, and that is how pretty was suppose to be.



Now I see Fall as something very different. I see all the seasons very different. I see fall as an old man resting from a long years worth of work in the dirt, with his mud caked boots propped up on his tackle box. His face covered in deep wrinkles and a piece of wheat hanging from his lips. He is anything but dead and ugly. He's alive and ornery, waiting behind closed eyes to spring to life and scare the skin right off you. He has a quick wit and a sparkle to his eye. A sparkle that brings so much warmth and light that it warms you to your soul and heals any hurt. Fall and I have had many mornings, evenings, moments and hours this season to get acquainted. I love Fall. Tonight Ella and I are going to color a picture, it is going to have a tree with orange leaves, a purple sky with fiery pink clouds, and brown leaves covering the ground. Its going to be pretty.