christmas in July

This post is written to remember that when I do crazy things in my eighties, my family will say to themselves, "Mom's not crazy, she did things like this in her thirties..."♥

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I had a playlist running the other day and somehow, multiple Christmas songs had gotten into it and before I knew it, I was singing along to Silent Night,  Oh Come, All Ye Faithful, and Hark, the Harold Angels Sing.  It's the end of July and I know how crazy that must have sounded for my children and for any flies on the wall♥.

The bummer is it got me in this COMPLETELY irrational Christmas mood.  I had no choice but to tackle a few of the christmas crafts that I wanted to do last year but didn't get to.

So welcome to my crazy little Christmas in July.

The first one was spray painiting letters for each of our stockings.

Here is the mantel last year:

Ignore the Grinch. This was the best picture I have from last year:

 There was no differentiation between the stockings, so I decided to go with a single wooden letter for each family member, and to spray them a dark red.

The color is not pink in real life.

 With just using my hands, I placed a screw eye on each letter so that I can tie them to each stocking.

The finished product:

(I can't wait to have them all hanging on our mantel this year!)

My second Christmas craft that I didn't get to last year was making a waterless snow globe.

This project has been on my list since I was pregnant with Ryder, but I figure, better late than never, right?

So I gathered my supplies:

 All I did was glue the three trees to the lid of the jar, then I filled the jar with about 1 1/2 inches of glitter.  

I love how both of these projects came out and I am so excited to pull them out this holiday season!

(I will have to wait a few months , but this year I will be ready!)

it only took a year and a half...

Right before Eden was born, WAY back in January of 2012, we got new carpet.

We love the carpet, and it all looked pretty good from a distance:

 Until you would, oh, say, be playing on the floor with your baby and toddler, then you would see the old paint from previous wall colors:

(Why they painted the base boards I will never know...)

 So this last week, while Eden and Ryder were occupied with Super Why episodes, I tackled those base boards.

 I can not tell you how much of a difference that 45 minutes of work makes in her little room! 

And it only took a year and a half!
(Eden didn't care.  Really, she hasn't even noticed♥)

 

 

As long as she has her books, she is set!

creating: bottle cap magnets

We discovered this little drink at Costco when we were organizing drinks for our fourth of July block party.  If you like lagers, you will enjoy this one, it's not as heavy as most others and it's actually pretty refreshing:

Another perk, and this is coming someone who loves Pinterest, is it comes in a cool bottle and has these really fun bottle caps:

Since I have an obsession with magnet boards, I thought these would make some cute magnets for Ryder's room.

I love how they look.  

What other three year old has beer bottle caps as magnets in their room?  Sheesh...

 If you are in the mood for a little game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, just ask our little guy.  

He doesn't quite get it but just thinks it's hilarious. 

Stay tuned for a project I have planned for those bottles...

creating: pipe cleaner tigers

Using Martha Stewart's Favorite Crafts for Kids,

Ryder and I decided to make these pipe cleaner animals.

 If you ask Ryder what his favorite animal is, right now, he will tell you tiger, every time...

 Tools!

 We had so much fun!  Pipe cleaners are such a fun item to play with.  I have been enjoying getting to watch Ryder work with his hands on his fine motor skills, doing something that he enjoys.

 I can't get enough of his face!

time with friends

It is always really special when we get to share our home with people that we love.  I got to do that this week with my family and some new friends that we made at Mt Hermon!

 My cousin and I have a playdate at least every few weeks.  We never leave with out getting another one on the calendar, and on this particular playdate, my mom, my sister, and our new friends that live near us that we met at Mt Hermon joined the group.

 Between the four moms, these were all of our babies...

(Yep, that's 10 little people!)

We all had so much fun and we can't wait to do it again!

sweet moments with my ryder

Ryder and I had so much fun yesterday where we spent Eden's entire nap time snuggled up on my bed, reading piles and piles of books.  It was glorious...

I will be honest, we have found that the threes have been so much harder than the twos.  My little guy wants to do things himself, his way, at his pace, when he wants to do it.   He has a determination in the way he does things and he has such a responsible spirit, it can be so hard in the day to day parenting. All that to say, he has a tenderness and a gentleness and I LOVE being with him.  I am so thankful that I have the privilege of being his mom and that I get to prayerfully navigate this thing called parenthood.  It makes moments like reading with my little guy even more sweet.

creating: getting inspiration

I have been gathering some kid crafting ideas recently and I have come across these two books that have had so many fun ideas and templates, I can't wait to tackle some of them with the kiddos:

 Ryder has a couple of projects picked out and I can't wait to share them with you.

He loves looking through it.  He is so precious to me...

This one has some really simple and easy projects with some great templates for different crafts.

Also, we have been having so much fun working with felt.  It is so easy to work with and kid friendly.

The kids love to hold it and Ryder loves to tell me how soft it is.  It really is fun watching them experience something so simple like that... 

10 years

On saturday I got to attend a little 10 year nursing school reunion with some of my classmates.  We had so much fun!  We met at a park that was close to our college and just talked and met each other's kiddos.  This was the most incredible group of human beings.  We experienced things together that you rarely get to share in any other context.  Experiences like watching a twins delivered via c-section,  witnessing open heart surgeries, placing NG tubes on each other, our first IVs and injections, watching people pass from this life to the next, then having my first, but not last experience of utilizing a body bag.  There were all nighters and LOTS of coffee, early morning and late night clinicals, driving anywhere from LA County/USC for ICU and ER experience, to City of Hope for an 18 week oncology rotation.  We shared in each other's personal joys and triumphs and sorrows and struggles.  We experienced some of each other's engagements and weddings and even the celebration of babies.  It truly was a privilege to spend three of the most INTENSE years of my life with these phenomenal people and I am so thankful for how they have influenced my life.

Here we were in 2003:

What fun it was to catch up:

We took a time of sharing highs and lows of the last ten years and what our plans are for the future.

Here was my date:
Kit stayed home with Eden who was very much in need of her nap time ritual.
It also allowed for so much more talk time.

Two of my room mates from college were also there and I love seeing them as mamas.  
They are amazing women and I was so excited that I got to live with them in that season!
Lana and I:

Look at James' thighs... Pure lusciousness!

Annie and I: 

Overall, we had such a great time of getting to catch up and share life together!

I still can't believe it's been 10 years!

and then there were two...

Yesterday, Kit took Ryder with him to work/VBS and I had an entire morning with my Eden Marie.  It's funny,  but it just doesn't happen very often, so it is such an adjustment for me to just be with one little person.  

Side note: While we were driving to and from Mt Hermon, Ryder rode with his cousins and my parents and our car felt SO EMPTY.  We were missing a huge piece of our family and I was so ready to get him back with us.

That's how yesterday felt.

I missed him but it was nice to know he was getting some alone time with his dad (his all time favorite person.)  Plus, I loved hearing about Ryder's day when we have been apart: the things that were his highlights, things that he ate that he loved, places that he went and things he saw and got to do.  He is so expressive and loves telling me ALL about his days.  He is such a big kid! So all that to say, I missed him but I SO enjoyed my morning with my girl, even though we were both under the weather.  Boo!  Even sick,  she is such a fire cracker and I am so excited to watch this little girl grow.  (Hopefully not too fast...♥) I am going to savor every moment that I get with my babies...
(She is not the happiest camper when she doesn't feel good.
Neither is her mama...)

However snuggling seems like it makes things a little better♥.

Oh, and when I asked Ryder at the end of the day what his favorite part was, he said, 

"Helping daddy talk."  

He wasn't kidding...