Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Carson's Lego Birthday

Here I am posting a little late about Carson's Birthday.
It was pretty good. Super stressful, but worth it in the end.

Plates on the wall: Party City, taped together
Streamers: Party City
Cupcakes: Me
Lego Heads on Cupcakes: Melted Wilton yellow chocolate on mini pretzel sticks
Bunting: Walmart or you can convo MaddiandAddiBowtique.etsy.com and have me make you a fabric one that you can hang on your kid's wall after!

 
Part of the goody bags included these handmade lego notepads that Jeanine basically made for me. I also had the party hats as part because they are a lot to do, and are really special. Big Candy bars were also involved. I didn't have enough time to get legos and bag those up, too. BOO to that.
Kayt decorated the sugar cutout cookies. I ate them all.
 
Keep in mind that I am NOT a photographer and I have is a phone camera.



Birthday boy!

   
He's already 2!






Thursday, September 26, 2013

Munchkin Straws[Amazon Link] !



Who doesn't need these? Perfect for cleaning sippy cup, tumbler cups, and every other little reusable straw you have.
I can't believe I just discovered them.

P.S., I'm part of the amazon associate program. If you click on the link and buy this product, I get paid! :)
Via: Amazon

Friday, September 13, 2013

How To Make Lego Invitations

My little boy is turning 2 on September 18! I'm pretty excited and boy does time fly. 
We are having a lego party for him because let's face it: *I* love legos. We were thinking about Thomas the Tank but we really just don't like the message the show sends to kids.

I used the cricut to make these. I bought the primary color card-stock paper at Walmart.
 Since he is 2, we are making the little "2" brick for invitations. 
I  don't have the shapes cartridge (actually everything is borrowed, cricut and a ton of cartridges), so I used the "Jasmine" cartridge for the rectangle, and I set it to 6". I was able to get 3 rectangles per sheet, if the sheet and machine cooperated together...
I flipped the paper and put in the "Accent Essentials" cartridge and pushed shift and one of the extravagant little circles, making it a plain old circle. I set those to 2 1/2" and got 8 out of the leftover paper. THEN, I was like "oh, these look like big legos" and was able to use the hole-y side for decorations! 
I hot-glued those circles down on the same color rectangle to give it a raised effect, and BOOM, a lego invitation. 
I still have to print off the details, but I'm just going to glue that to the back.
I looked for simple "lego" stickers, but was unable to find them. If I had, I was going to stick them to the tops of the circles to make them look legitimate.

jennibrenni.blogspot.com
jennibrenni.blogspot.com
jennibrenni.blogspot.com
AND there you have it! EASY DIY lego invitations!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

That Post About My Kids...

Here's that blog post where I decide to talk about my kids. It's also where I inadvertently leave out extremely important information about them and regret it later.

Sehara; My Girl; Sugar: She's a self-starter. She gets things done, almost obsessively. She relies heavily on a set schedule, minute by minute. She organizes her clothes in outfits, and folds them as so, or hangs them up as so. She'd put them all in ziploc bags but that's expensive and not very green. She likes to watch t.v. and loves curling up in a blanket during movies.
She's a reader. She can read for days and days, until her body tells her to get up and move... When she reads, she no longer wants a schedule and reluctantly does anything. She needs food, all the time. She has to know that she has food available.
She loves her siblings, deeply, and tries to whisk them away to her room, lay them (Madeline, because Carson is too active) next to her on her bed and read to them or silently. They always fall asleep.
She's a social butterfly, but has a hard time understanding that her friend's have other friends. She loves to spend the night with people. LOVES IT. She feels at home most at my parent's house. It's her house.
She's smart, but has to work on empathy. 
She's an eavesdropper and then will play coy and ask you a question pertaining to what you just talked about to confirm a plan.
She has a freckled nose and hazel eyes. Gorgeous. 
She has "long hair and don't care". Literally, I have to make her take care of that dang hair and I just want to chop it all off and throw it away. And stomp on the trash can with said hair inside and throw it out the window, then go get it and do it all over again. I require her to wear bows and she ditches those immediately.
Her feet stink. No matter how many times she washes them. I don't allow her to touch me with them, and I DON'T have a problem with feet. She inherited my hands and feet and I always feel bad for her because of that.
She's a teacher's pet. I love that.
She can make friends with anybody, any age.
People often ask me if she has ADHD, to which I reply "no". After extensively going to counseling (me) for parenting help, and reading certified ADHD material, no, she's not. Her behavioral issues that could be symptoms of ADHD are, in fact, direct results of inconsistent parenting from me. I did the best I could, though.
She goes to sleep when she's tired and is usually an early riser.
Sehara


Carson; Poochie: My sweet love. My boy. My boy that has to have a routine, as well. He has to have everything in it's place, at all times. He must do the same thing at the same time in order to function and not have a meltdown.
He goes to bed at 8 and wakes up between 7-8:30. 
He's strong, always has been. He gets things, understands people, situations, and sees past stuff to what's really going on. He rarely can be tricked or "fooled".
He always has to have a drink.
He's anxious and has to get used to new things, then he's great at it.
He's so smart. I can't wait to see what he's going to be like later on.
He's directionally adept. You can tell him to "go get that ball over there under that pillow in the corner" and he'll do it. You can point somewhere and say look at that____ and he will, he'll see it. You can explain to him a path to take to get somewhere and draw it with your fingers in the air and he'll go that way. He's amazing.
He has the biggest brown eyes with the longest eyelashes that will melt your heart, he reminds me of Lisa Frank puppy art. He is Tim's mini-me.
He's so loud! He has always been loud, but he keeps getting louder and louder.
He loves to sing. He learns well through singing and can be caught singing whatever comes to mind throughout the day. His favorite songs are "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me".
He properly uses "Yes" and "No" words, until this past week anyways....
Carson


Madeline; Sugar Dumpling; Bunny: She's a sweet girl. She has to be motivated to do something. She's needy and will whine until her needs are met (she literally would go on and on). She'd rather sit in the middle of the floor and cry until someone picks her up than crawl over.
She can crawl, kind of.
She has to be touched by people who come in the room. When Daddy gets home from work, he HAS to go over to her and pick her up or she'll kick her legs and cry and stare at him until he physically acknowledges her. One hug and she's fine.
She has blue eyes and long lashes.  She also has my feet. Poor thing. She likes to talk and is serious about her conversations. She's always loved to make noises to people and expects noise back.
She's also serious about her food. She has to be fed, a lot. Surprisingly, she's still a little thing.
Her feet don't grow fast. She can still fit in some newborn shoes.
She's very social, but isn't quick to smile. You have to work for that. She happily wears her headband without a fuss.
She's super sensitive when it comes to people bumping into her or moving her around. If she's happy she doesn't like to be bothered. We had to adjust to having a baby who loved to be cuddled but hated being rocked.  Or jiggled.
This sugar goes to bed late and wakes up late. She'd sleep most of the day away if she could. But she's a light sleeper with a loud brother..
Madeline
 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Birthday Party & Bad Chinese

We had a pretty fun Labor Day weekend. We went to a Family Movie Night on Friday at the Y, and that was horrible, the kids were way too rowdy, Tim took too long working out and didn't help me (and also made me miss any good time to work out), and we started getting mean looks from people around us. Not fun.

Saturday we wanted to get some Christmas shopping done, eat a meal, then go on a date but we didn't have a sitter. So we went to the Y, put the kids in child-watch and worked out together and with Kayt. Then went shopping and got a few presents. We met up with Kayt and Larry and all our kids to eat at T.G.I.F.

I sent Tim to the movies with his brother. I think they saw the Wolverine movie and I'm pretty sure they liked it.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. Church is always scary when Tim isn't there. I sent Sehara to sit with some friends where she took notes and behaved very well. Madeline had to go sit (she slept) with Joyce and Gail because I had to take Carson out and explain our rules for him about 20 times! LOL, CRAZY!!!

Sunday night we found a chinese place and thought it was great food, since we had been looking for a place to get our go-to Chinese from. Whenever we got it, which wouldn't be often.

For Labor Day, we drove down to Kentucky for Logan's 3rd birthday party. He had a super hero themed party and was too busy for my little camera to capture him.

Pops

Home is where your mom is!




Incredible Carson

Monday night ended up being painful. I was up all night in the bathroom, I'll spare you the details. I ate leftover Chinese and that's what came back up. So gross. Then, because I didn't get any sleep, when I did feel better come morning, I was too tired to function, especially because of the 4 hours of driving. Now Sehara has gotten sick from eating it (Tim did too, but he doesn't get sick like everyone else so it's hard to know when he is, and if it's something we should look out for the rest of us). 

I obviously didn't get to go to Ladie's Class yesterday, that would have been too much. But I felt so great by the end of the day that I did join Tim for his nightly workout, then I went swimming and sat in the sauna! So relaxing.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Catch 22's, Sleep, and Sewing

Well, there has to be something said for "catch 22's"! Where did that phrase come from anyway?

The night before last I had a delicious iced coffee, which kept me awake until 4 a.m. You can imagine I was pretty tired yesterday.
Last night I decided to go to bed earlier than 4 a.m., I tried 11 p.m., and I've been wide awake since 6 a.m.

I actually got a few consecutive hours of sleep in. So now I'm awake. But, nap time will come soon enough.
Carson goes to preschool at 9, and Sehara gets on the bus just before 8. If Carson is awake when it's time for her to leave, I'll have him tag along and we'll walk her together. He'll love that. When he sees a school bus he points and jumps and yells "SKOOLBUS!!!". 

If I am feeling energetic when I drop him off, then I may go to the YMCA to get a workout in. I've been doing good at remembering to actually go and work out. I found it's nice to walk a few miles around the neighborhood. It's been too humid for that the past several days.

I may also write some letters I've been meaning to get to. I have a few college ones that need to go out, and some friends in other places. I bought a fabulous card for Dreama. I signed up at church to send birthday cards to the Potter's Home children, so that must get done as well.

As for crafty stuff, I got a half yard each of some material I want to try out for bows and bow-ties. I thought about sewing some bibs, (I would get more fabric first) and I may get to that in the next few days. A lady at church suggested I buy batting for the middle. I found a tutorial that has a pocket on it, and I don't like that so much, so I thought about leaving it out. She basically traced a bib, and gave some extra room for a seam, put the right sides together, sewed it, turned it out, and sewed around the edges. I maybe could handle that. It wouldn't include a straight line though... But then I saw a few cute bibs with ruffles on them. Oh dear!

Well, it looks like it's Carson's lucky day! That means I need to stop typing.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Easy Bow Tutorials {Links}

As promised, I'm writing about my favorite hair-bow tutorials. These are what got me started on making my own.
When I looked at these, I swear I didn't even know how to use a hot glue gun, that's how much of a beginner I was, so they are easy-peasy.

My first ever DIY bows were Simple Bow Hair Clips, minus the no-slip grip because that was too complicated. I made so many of these!

Source: Makeit-loveit.com

Perhaps the most important and helpful tutorial I've used for making my bows is this Tuxedo Hair Bow Tutorial! As many bows as I made for the simple hair clips above, I made three times as many of these. 
I got to where I was comfortable using bigger and smaller ribbon, fabric, and other materials. I'm not so good with still-picture instructions so I had to examine and get frustrated over it. In the end, it has turned out to be my most useful tutorial...for the hot glue gun. 

Source: Randomosityblog.com

Another great, but not as simple tutorial, that I LOVE is the Sequin Headband. It takes a lot of precision and patience, but it pays off. I made the heart and I've had requests to make stars and other shapes. Plus, it has bling to it. Every little girl needs some bling!

Source: Hellobee.com
My goal is to share my favorite felt bow tutorials next! 
-Jenni

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Mid-day Snack

Seems to me these days I'm forgetting to eat, and the only reason I remember is because I'm shaking or I'm craving food like nothing else. Today, I after dropping Sehara off at her grandmother's I decided it was time to eat. While it may not seem like much, this is what I consider fine dinning:

Home-grown tomatoes on eggs on a piece of toast. I added a sprinkle of basil and pepper to my eggs.

I've already devoured it! Mouth watering good.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Bad Days & Burdens

This past Wednesday was horrible for me, with a good thing mixed in. The only good thing that happened was Sehara starting 5th grade! She loves school so much and thrives in that atmosphere.
Wednesday was followed by the third night of Madeline waking up and crying every 30 minutes and having to nurse. Wednesday was the third day where I couldn't set her down without her crying and screaming for me.
It was also the day when the mustang broke. My only mode of transportation. Ugh. It wasn't a surprise though, cars like that aren't made to last forever and certain parts of the engine just need to be replaced. So, it's in the shop. 90% sure it's the alternator.
I'm a caged bird over here! I have plans, you know! I planned on going to get a diet coke that morning and dropping laminate off at my mother in law's house.

The tears flowed all day. Sometimes I feel like doing all the things I do to make sure we are living the right way, treating each other in a healthy manner, having faith and following the laws God set, treating our children like humans and spending so much time loving them, spending time with friend's and family, being a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen, is all just for nothing.

Heck, I even learned to sew to be a little more sustainable.

Then I think about Ladie's class on Tuesday mornings. We are reading "Those Who Wait". I learned that the popular saying "God doesn't give us more than we can handle" isn't accurate. Because, sometimes I just can't handle some things.
In 1 Cor 10:13, God promised us we wouldn't be tempted beyond what we can endure because with Him we can find an escape. He never said we wouldn't have burdens. HE never tempts us.  As a matter of fact, He promised that we will have burdens (not because of Him) in life.

I would like to say that while that's all good and true, it's still difficult, and it is but I have to admit that I admire honesty and loyalty more than a lot of other qualities, and His word is honest and He is loyal. I'm able to deal with life a little better when I know that I, too, apply to His promise.

-Update-
I have waited a little while to finish this post because I had to get help with the bible stuff.
It was the alternator. It's fixed now. Madeline has stopped crying all day! As a result of her three horrible nights, she has decided to sleep in her bed. Seriously. She likes to go to sleep in her bed now. Not the whole night, but half is a start.
That's where I will leave you.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Busy, Indeed

True to my word, I have been busy keeping busy. We have had such an exciting summer.

Some things that we've done:

As a family:
A BIG trip to Texas for the Pugh Family Reunion. It was amazing. The drive there was so good for us (Tim, Missy, and I) to get to know each other on a deeper level. You get to truly see a person when you are literally with them 24/7. It was great.We were gone for a week. That's a long time!

Sehara:
Sehara got to go so many places. She's been down to Kentucky, spent so much time at friend's houses. She had been to Fort Hill Christian camp. and to Berea, KY for the Eco-Village reunion.

The kids and I (sometimes Tim, depending on work):
We jetted to Berea.Which was another big deal. We have been to play-dates almost every Thursday that we've been in town. We have explored Fairborn, and a little bit of Beavercreek and some of Centerville. We still have a long list to get to. We have spent a lot of time with friends. We went to Young's Jersey Dairy. The kids love that place. We also enjoyed the 4th of July Parade. Us girls go every Tuesday to Lady's class. The kids especially love the splash pad.

We've tried new restaurants, seen some movies, gone on long family walks, explored parks

Looking at my list, it doesn't seem like as much as I thought, but when I think about it, we have to schedule things around church, and naps, sports, diapers, and all that fun stuff.

We still have some things to do:
Kings Island
Ice cream and window shopping in downtown Fairborn with Kayt and her kids.
Berry picking at different farms around here.
A weekend trip to Kelly's in Kentucky.
A weekend trip to my parent's house.
The spray park and snow cones at the Greene with Kayt and kids.
Visit with Connie and see new places,
Visit Kaylee and meet her kids,
Visit Amanda and meet Elijah,
Visit Jodi and meet her girls,
Visit Donna!
And, get more traffic to my blog!

It may take until the end of the year!