Valentines

This year I was trying to come up with something cute but easy for Ethan to hand out at school for Valentines day. I remembered seeing some of these a while ago, and decided to give it a shot.

(Miss Porter, Thanks for "Beeing" my teacher! Happy Valentines Day!)

They turned out really cute and they were pretty easy to do.


When Ethan got home, he had to show everyone his haul. Lincoln and Jade were all sorts of excited to get in on that excitement.

Mart was a sweetheart and brought home some beautiful flowers. Love him!

Mart's card for me. Some of the pictures are sideways, I'll fix them later. :)

Mart made the kids some cute cards and we left them a balloon and a treat outside their door. Ethan kept reminding us for days leading up to Valentines that we did that last year.

We weren't able to get out and do anything, but cute Dee volunteered to take my kiddos for a few hours so we could at least hang out childless for a couple hours. We decided to have an at home date instead! I made steak and salmon and we ate way too much.

After we ate, we rented a movie and hung out until it was time to get our kidlets

Happy valentines day!

Ethan turned 7!

This post has been a long time coming! In January, my big little man turned 7 years old. 7! He has been on a Willy Wonka kick and we decided on a Willy Wonka themed party, and what better way to do that then to have golden ticket invitations!

The boys were so beyond excited to have their very own golden ticket

After making big wonka bars, then we made tiny ones for the party

Lincoln helped me make chocolate cake!

We had a minor mishap while running errands for more ingredients and I accidentally shut poor Lincoln's fingers in the car door. I felt horrible!

My finished cupcake creations. Very chocolate factory-esque.

Fizzy lifting drinks

And a chocolate factory (complete with chocolate fountain!) birthday cake!

We decided to have two different parties this year, one on Friday for family and then a friend party on Saturday. Friday we went to the Fun Park and played lots of games and then everyone came back for baked potatoes and cupcakes. Then the next day, a bunch of Ethan's neighborhood friends came over and went on a major sugar rush! I think one of the little boys even said it was the best party he had ever been too. I'm sure his parents were thrilled when he went home all hopped up on sugar. :) 

There was a lot going on, but Ethan seemed to have a blast!

It's hard to believe that seven years ago we were welcoming our first little member of our family, and now he's a year away from getting baptized! I love him like crazy and I'm glad he's ours. Happy birthday little man!

New Years Eve

Every year the week or so after Christmas, we will all meet up and my Grandma's house for Christmas. Last year as it was ending, Martin suggested that the next year (this year) all of the little kids should draw each others names like they used to and get a small gift for each of them, and all the adults (15 and older) draw a name and make a homemade gift for them. I drew my Uncle Chuck and instantly wanted to make him a quilt. I think he makes a quilt for someone every single year, but never gets one himself. I tried to pick colors that would match his living room, but wouldn't be too girly. I think it turned out pretty good.

In the middle of trying to get everything finished, Lincoln who was standing on a bar stool (having been told probably 2.567 million times to sit down) slipped, fell and smacked his chin on the granite counter top. A lot of blood, a lot of crying/screaming later, he was sitting on my lap and I looked at how bad it was. It was pretty deep and I was pretty sure I could see bone. I immediately cinched it closed as tight as I could with band aids and headed my my moms to see what she thought before we went for stitches.

Once there, we both thought that it was bad enough for stitches, but that we would try gluing it shut and steri stripping it closed instead. I had bandaged it up before getting a picture of the original goriness, so this is what it looked like before we played doctor. For obvious reasons, we didn't want to pop it back open just for a picture.

Linc did really well and only whimpered a little bit. He sported these lovely neon band aids for the next couple of weeks to make sure it healed.

Once back home, I had to find a jimmy rig a big enough table to lay out my quilt and get it finished.

Once finally finished, we rushed up to my Grandma's.

I think he was surprised but really seemed to like it. After we were all finished, he told me that his grandson's were staying at his house and he didn't have enough blankets for them while they were there.

The homemade Christmas went really well, and everyone seemed to like it. There were some really fun things that people came up with. We are going to do it again next year.


Lincoln's chin progress:

This was a few days later. It was bloody, but I didn't want to take the strips off until I absolutely had too for cleaning.

He finally got a little bugged and pulled them off himself while he was sleeping. It looked so much better than I could have anticipated.

This was about a week-week and a half later. The band aids irritated his skin and made it all dry and flakey.

I will take a final picture of it all healed up and add it, but it looks great. He does have a little scar, but nothing bad at all. What a fun way to end 2014! :)