messy wonderful life

mr. potato head.

ruthie unrecycling

the typical state of my "workshop"-they love to get into the ribbon...

Life with kiddos (or just life in general) is messy. You can't control it or try to. We are attempting to potty train, I've heard the woes-now I understand/appreciate all that I've heard. It's the pits. Not much serenity in my typical day-to-day. So I love when God gets my attention in His wonderful way and makes serenity happen. And it happened on my bday. I had about a 30 min (or less) nature walk at a ranch that is in my bro-in-law's family. I feel zip guilt for slipping away (only on your bday, right?) & saw all this beauty. God is the ultimate artist-all the fabulous flowers, trees & greenery, not all of them necessary. But they exist because they are beautiful-for our enjoyment. Love it. I was so full and content. Contentment is such a wonderful thing. When I allow myself to be discontent, my joy goes away. I'm constantly reminding myself of this. As I am typing this, I know I will be testing on all of this very soon...

I DO!!!!

Thanks ladies for your order: Leslie, Anna, Elisabeth & Paige. I completely appreciate it....Love, love, love doing these.

RAH-RAH pom POMS

You need to make these guys next party you have....I've seen them before & found a tutorial on Martha. Of course they look perfect on her site, mine are not perfect but festive. I have tons of these cocktail napkins, so I used these instead of tissue paper, I added sheets of newsprint too. I cut the ends to a point & you can round them for a more of a petal look. I used garbage ties twisted in the middle & fishing line for hanging...

My sweet niece came to spend the night with me and helped me make a bunch of these. Sweet girl. She made the party prep fun. Love her. MM loves to read. Her mom said she needed to go to bed at 10. So I "tucked her in" at 10 & left her reading her new book. Well she stayed up reading that book and finished it. Who knows what time she stayed up.

henry's partay

Above is the invite I did for the shindig. Henry's party was all about "summer"-watermelon, 4th of July, popsicles, sprinklers....I had SO much fun planning for this. I tried to keep my spending in check so I borrowed sprinkler & water toys from friends & sisters. And raided my mom's house for all things red & blue. I researched some water themed games & had tons of water balloons ready to toss.

Have to say I was so excited how the cake turned out. I can totally say this because I had help: the ladies at Kroger. My friend Sarah B. gave me this idea. They iced the cake for me-the top red and sides green. Then I added the green sour tape candy to the sides & then the black jelly bellies to the side. And added red sprinkles on top. Pretty easy....

Aunt Meg hooking Ruthie up....

Mae & Ruthie in their matching suits!!!
Had heavy duty water guns for the shoot the pin game...This one didn't go over because I didn't really put water in the water guns though.....details, details.

Below, they threw water balloons in the different buckets.


Mama said it was like Ruthie thought it was her party. She had a big time. I think Henry did too, but don't think he realized the party was for him. He opened a gift at the start of the party & would have been happy playing with it the entire time.



Below are little paper flowers I started making when I wanted some more decor at no cost. Just layers of cut paper & I put a cut up/scrunched cocktail napkin in the center.




Below: Bubble station....
Of course this "water art" game was my fave. Just got some water bottles & filled them with tempera paint & water. I had drawn out some b/w designs for the kids to spray with color.



These were Henry's party favors. Can't really tell, but they are popsicles molds I found at Michael's for $1 & paired it with a pinwheel that were at dollar tree.



Henry & his bud Steven...

father's day request

So I got a commission from my dad, it came just the week before Father's Day (which he didn't realize was that week)-I was happy for the project, he's hard to get for. He liked this confession prayer from that week's service & asked for me to "work it up". Any certain colors? "No", Will it be hung or on a desktop? "Not sure". So this is what I was working with...But I knew my swirly type probably wasn't the best for this job, so I did a digital & paper collage treatment to these words. Dad has always been supportive of my little creative ventures. Although, when I told him I was staying home with Henry-he was determined to keep me in work-taking a stack of my graphic design business cards and giving them to all sorts of people (all while Henry was a mere 2 mths old). That stressed me out but was sweet at the same time. My dad is a complete one of a kind. It is crazy that God gave him 4 girls. He so wants us to understand what he's talking about-he even draws diagrams on napkins to illustrate his point. It's like he knows I'm glazing over-he's losing me. Investments, politics, business-all the things my brain will not retain. I am always hoping there is no Q & A afterwards. Few funny things about my dad: he would not let us get our ears pierced until we were 18, he always keeps rubber bands wrapped around his hand (and flosses his teeth with it), he wears a seersucker jacket all during the weekend & after work-I've even seen him go on a exercise walk with it on. When he greets someone, he immediately starts off with "fine, fine"-knowing that they are going to ask how he is & he just wants to get on with it. One of a kind. He does so much for all of us-so giving. So loyal and repeatedly told us that our sisters would be our best friends. He wouldn't let us hold grudges. I am thankful for all of these things, thankful for my quirky, loving dad.

Okay, I have got to get to bed-these posts are way-rambling.

henry boy is 3

I'm sentimental right now, tomorrow henry is 3. Goodness, he's taught me so much. And he doesn't even know it. Even at 2 weeks old, God used him to teach me to serve like I've never had to. It was no longer about me, but it is better now that it is no longer about me. When he gets excited he jumps up and down and does this crazy dance. He can't say Ruthie-so his sister is Rookie. Now WE call her Rookie. When we are in the car and I slow down suddenly or take off fast-he always does the sound effect-"EEEEERRRR". He's obsessed with water towers & school buses.

Okay, I hate cats, allergic to them, but Henry has made me have a soft spot for our neighbor's cat. He loves that cat. The cat sleeps on our back porch and appears out of thin air when Henry goes out to play. I love my Henry boy, more than he will ever realize. He's given us 3 years of fun & has filled our hearts up.