Latest Family News
News Archive
|
Fire Truck Room
|
Posted By: Allie
Aug 29th, 2010 |
I've been wanting to re-do Kaden's room for a while now, something a little more grown-up. It was either going to be cars, or dinosaurs. . . and then I came across some pictures for a fire truck themed room and knew that's what I really wanted to do. We gave Kaden the choice between the three options and he said fire trucks, so yay! And I've already completed my first addition to the new theme. . .
I found the frame at DI for $1 and just took out the picture so I could use the glass. And using my new cricut software I made the cross image and cut it out with vinyl and stuck it to the glass. Pretty cute I think. Some other pictures for inspiration. . .
I just LOVE this pottery barn room. My goal is to paint a fire truck on canvas just like that one, well maybe a different truck, but same concept.
 
I really liked the brick in this room, so I may attempt doing faux brick on one of his walls.
|
|
|
Add a comment
|
|
Broken Toe
|
Posted By: Allie
Aug 25th, 2010 |
Sometimes you stub your toe so hard it feels like you borke it, but in this case I know it broke. I heard the bone crack and could move it in ways I couldn't move my other. Ya, gross. And it still hurts. I'm not too worried about it though, there isn't much that can be done for a pinkie toe, just need to take it easy for 6 weeks.
|
|
|
Add a comment
|
|
Things Going On
|
Posted By: Allie
Aug 19th, 2010 |
I just wanted to ramble a bit on things that have been going on. With our fence nearing completion, we (Jared) have been working hard on getting sprinklers moved and new ones installed where the fence will now be blocking previous sprinkler flow. We now have a big pile of dirt sitting on our patio, so it would be a good time to build my garden boxes. We will see what happens there.
Kaden has shown a big interest in being potty trained this past week. He tells me he no longer wants to wear diapers and is more frequently taking off his pants and diaper when he needs to go. It's a little hard for him to do, but I don't want to start buying pull-ups till I know he's a little further a long. If anyone has some tips I could sure use them since he's my first trainee.
Kairi just today has said two new words. Sippy and bubbles. Other recognizable words she's said : Dada (her first), ball (her second), car, all-done, and cracker. Though the last two she's only said once. I've yet to hear her say mama :( . . .unless i just didn't pick up on it. 'Dada' is very clear though, when she sees him in the morning her face will light up and she'll point to him and say DADA!. Last night while Jared was at work, I was talking to her about "when daddy gets home..." and she got excited and started looking around for him. She just loves him.
And I have been playing around a lot with my Cricut since finding the Sure Cuts A Lot program. It lets me cut any type of font I have installed on my computer. I also found Inkscape, which lets me create my own svg images for cutting. HERE is a tutorial I found useful on creating a simple svg word image.
I have also been doing a lot of digital scrapbooking; trying to get the kids' albums finished. If you are interested in starting I would suggest beginning with Memory Mixer, which can be found at Roberts Crafts. Just wait until they have a 50% off coupon. That program is good for basics, and it gets the job done, it's what I started out with. But it didn't have the capabilities I was looking for so Jared got me Adobe Photoshop and I absolutely LOVE it!
Here are my favorite scrapbooking sites:
Peppermint Creative : Super cute kits(I don't buy any but I look at them for inspiration), They offer a free kit download which is supposed to be updated regulary, but I have yet to see it updated. They have a lot of cute layout and vinyl craft ideas in their Gallery, and tonz of titles and phrases in their Phrases section.
Delicious Scraps : TONZ of freebies, from embellishments, to templates, photoshop actions, and mini kits.
The Shabby Shoppe : Cute layout ideas in their Gallery and offer some tutorials i've found helpful. they also have lots of free kits HERE.
Computer Scrapbook : Tonz of free kits.
Atomic Cupcake : You'll love this if you're familiar with photoshop actions. They offer a monthly free download, but if you know someone like Jared you can find more.
Free Scrapbook Fonts : Very cute fonts.
|
|
|
Add a comment
|
|
Kairi's Mess
|
Posted By: Allie
Jul 21st, 2010 |
|
|
Add a comment
| myndi Wrote: |
Aug 1st, 2010 |
|
|
Kids Pages
|
Posted By: Jared
Jul 16th, 2010 |
The kids sites are now done and Allie is working on adding content to their sites. You can view Kaden's HERE and Kairi's HERE. I am debating on whether I should make a site for anyone to register to and create their own online albums for their kids.
|
|
|
Add a comment
|
|
Digital Scrapbooking
|
Posted By: Allie
Jul 13th, 2010 |
I've been really into digital scrapbooking for the past week, since I got all of my files and programs back on my computer. I'm using a program called Memory Mixer which has made it very simple and there are so many free kits you can download that include paper, embelishments, and letters. . .it can get a little addicting.
I wanted to put together digital albums for my kids and stick with regular scrapbooking for my own albums, but now I just don't know anymore. Scrapbooking can be really expensive after all the things you have to buy; most of which you can only use once, and it takes up so much room. With digital it's just all stored on a hard drive and you can use everything as many times as you want. So . . .maybe I'll just scrapbook cards from now on and do everything else on the computer.
Here is a page I did; just playing around with the program.
|
|
|
Add a comment
| myndi Wrote: |
Jul 14th, 2010 |
|
|
Crockpot Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
|
Posted By: Allie
Jun 21st, 2010 |
|
1 can cream of chicken soup
5 C chicken broth
5 C water
1 C diced celery
1 C chopped carrots
2 C cooked chopped chicken
2 4oz. Pkgs long grain and wild rice mix with seasoning packets
Combine all ingredients in a large crockpot. Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours or until rice is done.
*I did mine a little differently but it still turned out yummy. I didn't have chicken broth so I just boiled some chicken legs in water until cooked. Then removed the meat and put the bones back in to continue boiling while i prepared everything else. I halved the recipe because my crockpot isn't that big but I still used a whole can of cream of chicken soup and I used my chicken stock instead of the broth and water (about 5 cups). I really liked this and so did the kids.
|
|
|
Add a comment
|
|
Strawberry Days Parade
|
Posted By: Allie
Jun 21st, 2010 |
|
|
Add a comment
| myndi Wrote: |
Jun 22nd, 2010 |
|
|
Follow-up
|
Posted By: Allie
Jun 15th, 2010 |
I took Kaden back to the Doctor for a follow-up. Yes he has asthma. I don't know a lot about asthma so I guess I'll be reading up on it for a while. Hopefully; now that we know, it will be a lot easier to avoid future scares like the last one. He has to take his inhaler twice a day until he is three. Then we will re-evaluate it and see if it's still needed or if we need to change anything.
 
Kaden with his inhaler and Kairi being cute.
|
|
|
Add a comment
|
|
Peanut Butter Middles
|
Posted By: Allie
Jun 13th, 2010 |
|
Cookies:
1-1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Cocoa Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 C Butter
1/4 C Peanut Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
Filling:
3/4 C Powdered Sugar
3/4 C Peanut Butter
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and 1/4 cup of peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg. Slowly mix in the flour mixture. Set aside.
For the peanut butter filling, combine powdered sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Beat together well. Roll filling into 30 small balls. Try to keep the balls all the same size; around 1 inch.
For each cookie, use 1 tablespoon of chocolate dough and roll into a ball. It helps to flour your hands first. Squish the ball of chocolate dough flat and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Wrap the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter ball to completely cover. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass into sugar and use the cup to lightly flatten the cookie balls. Bake for 7-9 minutes.
|
|
|
Add a comment
| heather Wrote: |
Jun 28th, 2010 |
|
|
Bowling
|
Posted By: Jared
May 29th, 2010 |
|
.jpg)
So almost every Tuesday I go bowling with Morgan over at FatCats for their "all you can bowl" and we try to get in as many games as possible. I think that we have started to improve our game and finally decided to start tracking our progress. I created a bowling page to keep track of our stats easily and right now my average is 149 but we have only tracked one game so far. My highest score is 192 which I had gotten a couple weeks ago. I actually got that same score 2 games in a row! Anyway you can go HERE to see our bowling scores.
|
|
|
Add a comment
|
|
Asthma?
|
Posted By: Allie
May 28th, 2010 |
The kids are sick again. Having sick kids is the worst thing in the world to me. They are so miserable but you can't do much to help them, especially at this age. Kaden took it really hard too, could have been from his previous pneumonia and weakened lungs, or the possibility that he has childhood asthma, he really had a hard time breathing the first night. He was constantly coughing and sounded terrible when he breathed. He would fall asleep for 20 min and wake up crying and wouldn't stop for an hour, then he'd fall asleep for another 20 min and this repeated the whole night.
We got him into the Dr ASAP the next morning and they said his oxygen was low. They gave him a breathing treatment and he instantly started breathing better. He also had to get a chest xray which came back fine. He just has to continue using a nebulizer for a few more days and will start taking a daily inhailant. For now we are treating it as asthma and in a few weeks will see how things go from there.
|
|
|
Add a comment
| Myndi Wrote: |
Jun 3rd, 2010 |
| Allie Wrote: |
Jun 15th, 2010 |
|
|
|
