Winna, Winna, Winner!

YAY! We got some more followers & we LOVE it! Each month we will try to have a giveaway to one of our loyal followers and this month the lucky number is 17! Follower Cori- You are the lucky winner! Please email me 6 of your favorite photos and I will photoshop them for you. Email Andrea@annielane.net. I can't wait to see your photos! Thanks to all our new followers this month. We've loved checking out your blogs and reading your comments!

Sisters Gone Wild!

We're going home. All 3 of us! We are going to celebrate my mom's b-day, and go to our famous home town Apple Blossom Festival. It's a HUGE 2 weekend event, with parades, Iron team races, and some illegal cruising, a carnival, a classy chassy parade, our favorite: craft booths & all the flowers and trees are in full bloom. It was my favorite time of year growing up & I love going home to visit. My mom & sisters will all be selling crafts at the craft fair. Wish us luck! We will gorge ourselves on food, see Merl Haggard (whoever that is) in concert, eat at the Sleeping Lady in my favorite town of Leavenworth, craft until carpel tunnel kicks in and NOT sleep a wink. Watch out Wenatchee, all your chocolate sales are going UP! We'll blog all about it next Wednesday!

Confessions of a cheapskate

So lets face it. I'm cheap. I hate spending alot on decorating, but I NEED to decorate. What's a girl to do? Insert cheap wall art. Every piece of "art" (I use the word art loosely) on my walls is homemade. EVERY single piece. Pathetic I know, but very affordable. I needed a wow factor in my oldest daughters room but didn't want to spend alot so I started with a really big canvas. 24'' x 36'' and painted it our favorite color, hot pink. It needed more texture so I traced around a wide rimmed glass and hand painted circles in a lighter pink. Because polkas make everything better. And while we're on the subject of polka dots- did you know you can screw up making polka dots? In my earlier polka years my mom banned me from painting them because I didn't do them right. Apparantly, you can do them wrong. But not to worry, get enough chocolate in ya & amazingly your twitching subsides and the polkas become perfected. Phew! I'm so glad I'm no longer banned from painting them! What kind of messed up life would this be without polka dots? O.K. enought of my polka banter. I did this all with basic craft paint. Warning: You use alot on canvas because it soaks it up! After several coats of paint, I let it dry for 24 hours. Then my mom & sister cut some vinyl words for me. Vinyl is my bff. I think I've used it in EVERY room in the house. I simply applied the words on top of the canvas and VOILA! Cheap wall art. I bought the canvas at Hobby Lobby using my 40% off coupon and the whole project cost me around $22. If you want to create your own masterpiece you could modge podge your own cutout letters or hand paint them as well. I want to buy a bunch of smaller canvas' and let my kids create their own art work for their rooms. They'll feel like picassos and it won't break the bank!

Embarrassing Moments

Come on, admit it, we all have a rather embarrassing item that we don’t necessarily want to get caught wearing. My item gets worn on a daily basis; my poor neighbors have just come to expect it. I rotate between two of them…

Pretty disgusting right? Normally it’s just my neighbors, kids, and husband who sees me wearing these paint splattered aprons in high hopes that I’ll actually avoid more paint on my clothes. I need to apologize to the fedex guy where I drop off my packages along with half of the customers and employees at Market Street, I made it through the store and up the checkout line before realizing I still had my nasty apron on. Why oh why couldn’t I have at least put this one on?

At least my embarrassing moments don’t involve continuing to wash my hands in a men’s bathroom that’s currently in use because I didn’t want to get caught NOT washing my hands. Thank goodness for the sister who takes care of THOSE embarrassing moments!!

Happy Earth Day

Do you want me to be honest with you? I'm not really super green. I know. Shocker. I know being green is supposed to be the "hip" thing to do these days. I just don't go above and beyond to be that way. I take hot showers longer than 3 minutes. I wash my white clothes in hot water. I use plastic bags from the grocery store. Sue me. BUT, I do love the earth. It's a super cool place to live and one of my favorite ways to observe this is to watch the Planet Earth series and Life on Discovery channel. This world we live in is amazing! I just can't get over all the cool shots these cameramen get! Crazy! We watch Planet Earth sometimes on Sunday nights and I am amazed every time. Go watch it. You'll love it. So much better than the old Discovery channel documentaries mom used to make us watch.
And here's one of my favorite treats to eat while you watch it. Smores bars. So good. And I'm sure they're just great for the environment!

SMORES BARS
3/4 cup light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons butter
12 oz. package milk chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
9 cups Golden Grahams cereal
3 cups mini marshmallows
Grease 9x13 pan. Heat syrup, butter, and chocolate in microwave 60 seconds, stir, and then another 30 seconds until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal in a large bowl, tossing until coated. Fold in marshmallows 1 cup at a time. Press into pan. Let stand 1 hour before cutting into. Enjoy!

Start Your Garden Earth Day 2010

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of earth day; technically it’s turned into earth week. While I appreciate the reminder, frankly it’s a little annoying that merchants seem to have turned earth day into a money making event to sell “earth friendly” stuff. I prefer the reminder that we don’t need to have more stuff and if we get creative we can use everyday products in new ways.

My daughter loves to plant flowers and when I found this idea in my favorite Readymade magazine I knew my little boys would love to try it too. Kind of like kindergarten all over again. David received a seed packet of wild flowers a few weeks ago from some work sponsored event (random, I know) so all I need were the seedling pots and potting soil. These seedling pots are just strips of newspaper wrapped and tucked around a jam jar for a mold. Once they’re wrapped you slip them off and fill them with soil and seeds. When the plants are ready to go into the ground you just dig a hole and drop them in. Newspapers are biodegradable and the plants roots will eventually grow through them. My cost? Free, I just grabbed newspapers from my recycling bin, it sure beats the seedling starter set I found for $13 at Home Depot.

52 Memories Challenge

So my kids were looking through our last years family album that I did on Shutterfly. And they noticed that I wasn't in a SINGLE picture! Really? Not ONE? That can't be right? Seaworld- not there, Disney World- uh uh, Christmas- apparantly not. Then I remembered "oh yeah, I hate all pictures of myself and try to burn/delete the evidence before someone can see the AWFUL pictures of myself. I am seriously the LEAST photogenic person EVER, I think that's why I prefer to be the photographer! So this is my challenge and maybe some of you mom's will notice as well that you are NEVER in pictures with your kids. Honestly my husband looks like a single dad in our family albums! So every week I'm going to get one picture with either one of my kids or all or even just my hubs and me- now that is really rare! In order to do this post I had to go back 6 months to even find a picture of me (that I would ever allow anyone to see). Thanks Renee for this picture with K! This is completely opposite of my sista Mandy cakes who finds her way into EVERY shot with my kids when we're together. (You think I'm kidding? I've got 100 pics of her to prove it) Occasionally I'll find an amazing picture of myself with one of the kids and I'll get all excited and then upon closer inspection, it's Mandy! Why can she take so many great pictures and I have a creepy Joker smile? I'm seriously the poster child of what NOT to do when having your picture taken. This last fall when it was time to get some family pictures taken I actually practiced my smile in the mirror. I can you hear laughing peeps, but it really worked! So here is everything I know about taking a decent picture of myself- hope this can help some of you out there!

1. Headshots are a girls best friend- Feeling fat, no problem! Cropping digital photos can take an awful picture to awesome!

2. Practice your smile- Make sure you do this in a locked room with the blinds shut or you might find yourself on You Tube! This really helps though!

3. Find your best side and work it! (This is meant for your face & not for other areas, but flaunt what you got!

4. Open mouth smile or a funny pose- This is definitely Mandy's technique and I got to say- it's way better than my creepy smile! Plus you will just feel happier doing it! Funnier is ALWAYS better than creepier!

So are you ready for the challenge? That means a shot every week with you and a loved one, or even just you! Next year I want my kids to look through the scrapbook and say "Wow! When did dad stop being a single parent on all our birthdays & vacations?"

It's Apple Blossom Time!

Squeal!! So excited- next week sisters with flair are all meeting up in our hometown, Wenatchee, WA to go to the Apple Blossom festival! Can't wait to see the whole fam! Mom is taking our cookie requests so she's all ready for us! It's sure to be a great time. The Apple Blossom festival in our town is a BIG deal. Huge. I try to explain it to Idahoans, but they just don't understand the magnitude of this awesome festival. Two parades, food fair, carnival, tons of entertainment, and of course, the Arts and Crafts Fair. For the past several years (excluding last year) Renee and Mom have run a booth at the craft fair selling their vinyl sign creations. They're at it again this year. Andrea and I will be there for "moral support." Should be super-duper fun. But what will NOT be fun is driving 11 hours to get there. With the toddler.
Yikes. Don't worry, since hubby can't get off work, I've found a Washington friend to drive with me. Should help a lot to have someone else to hand the baby food and entertainment. But I knew I must have some serious entertainment that would keep him distracted. Enter this little bag.

Yep, a little holder for our new portable dvd player. I think we'll be watching Toy Story about 8 times there and 8 times back. My little guy is in love with that movie. He doesn't move a muscle when it's on- seriously the best movie $$ I've ever spent!

Wish us luck on this drive! And come see us at the craft fair!!!

Wall art

Have you ever finished a project but then can't decide whether you love it or hate it. Well, that's what I can't decide. Is it fun or just weird? It didn't take much time, the only thing really time consuming was hanging it. That took atleast 40 min to get it straight! Plus lots of fun extra holes in the wall to patch later. My sister (and MOM!) both have a vinyl lettering business. You can order from Renee here.

So I painted 2 -24" square boards black with craft paint. You can find them at Lowes or Home Depot for around $5. Then I used blue painters (easily removable) tape to mark where each line should be. Then I simply laid down the letters & peeled up the clear backing. Easy Peazy Lemon Squeazy! Since the boards are REALLY thin, you can't hang it with regular picture hangers. I had to find fabric picture hangers. You simply wet the fabric and attach and then let it dry over night. So what do you think? Should I keep it or not? If I do keep it, I may be singing this song everyday for the rest of my life! P.S- These walls are BAAAAORING, I know! I'm painting my walls soon and can't decide which color. Gray is in but this is my entrance, into my family room & staircase & game room. I'm not sure I want to comit to all gray. What color do you think I should paint the walls? Help me peeps, I'm having commitment issues!

Give Away O Give Away!

Ok friends- we love our faithful followers and want to reward those who outwardly show their support. So each month we will try to have a give away to those who become (or already are) an official follower of our blog. From now until April 30th sign up to be a follower and you will be entered to win our giveaway for the month. Our super cute existing followers will automatically be entered as well. So what's this give away you ask? Well, a few people have asked me to photoshop some of their photos that they have taken that they love, but just need some extra flair. That's what I'm giving away. You can email me 6 of your favorite photos and I'll photoshop them to give them a little more oomph! Here are some examples of what I can do to your photos. I'll photoshop each picture 2 different ways so you can decide if you like vintage, color pop, or black and white. Here are some examples that I talked about as well in an older post. We love our followers! (sing this next sentence in your best Mr. Rogers voice) Won't you be our follower? Ok- hopefully your singing sounded less pathetic than mine and you decide to follow us!

Fishing Day

Do you know how annoying it is to hear everyone else talk about how great their weather is when I'm having snow storms in April here in Idaho? Super annoying. Just shut up already people. Well, today I'm the annoying one! After 6 inches of snow on Tuesday, beautiful weather today!!! Perfect day for fishing- outside. But when I found these online, I just had to make them. A much more permanent solution to paperclip and paper fish. I found the tutorial here. So great. And a fabulous way to use up some scrap fabric. My almost 20 month old didn't quite understand the concept of the game yet, but it sure kept him entertained a long time. And I'm sure I don't need to tell you about washers and magnets and ropes all being dangerous for kids under 3. It'll be something that we put up high unless we're fishing with him.


Off to enjoy our great weather! High 60's- that's burning up to us Idahoans!

Projects Get Me Through...

Frankly, the last couple of weeks have been exhausting. Being a full-time student while working is just not as glamorous has I had thought (I know, what WAS I thinking right?). Within a weeks time, I’ve had a poster project; a paper on the Treaty of Versailles, along with a powerpoint presentation; a critical analysis of a Supreme Court Case; a 10 page paper against globalization; a formal debate against globalization; a computer class term project and test; a book report on a 850 page book…AND a history II test. Thank goodness my western civilization professor moved that test until Tuesday or that could have been the straw that broke the camels back. Did I mention I also work and have four kids?

To get through times like this I have to have something to look forward to. Right now it’s the thought of taking a nap without laying there thinking about how behind I am, but I also look forward to projects. Andrea thinks I’m crazy, she plans vacations or parties to get her through…nope, I like projects. Sometimes I like to just dream about my parents coming and doing projects FOR me…did you check out Mandy’s amazing floors???

So far, I have 2 in mind, one will involve repainting the kitchen a different shade of grey and then my office/living room to match. The second will be re-doing this chair I picked up for $6 a few months ago. I loved the lines and details carved out of wood. Right now it’s sitting in a corner of my office and I look at it and imagine it white, then black, then roughed up, then white again. The fabric seat (in my head) has been many different colors some wild, some subtle, yellow, then grey, the avocado green... The planning is the fun part.

I work better when I have a set date for accomplishment so check back by June 30th to see the transformation. If you have any brilliant ideas for this chair then please add to my list…I still have finals to get through!

Free Canvas!

Do you like things that are free? Well me too! We have so much in common! I was a little hesitant to order this free 8x10 canvas from the Canvas People but it looks great! You simply upload a photo & pay $14.99 for shipping and its yours! Here are some things to remember when uploading your photo. It has to be a photo with alot of cropping room. The picture wraps around the frame so you need 2" of space around the entire photo. Think about this before uploading. I ended up reloading picture after picture because of this problem. They don't let you move the picture around at all- so where they crop it is where it stays. I think the quality is great though. They are giving away one per household and I have no idea how long it will last but I'd seriously jump on this peeps! Here's the link for your freebie!
http://www.canvaspeople.com/

Sewing lessons

Did you check out Renee's missionary tag?! I'm in love. I'd bet you could just contact her to buy the vinyl from her etsy store!

We (us sisters) have an incredibly talented mother. She never ceases to amaze those around her with her decorating, baking, sewing, quilting, animal rescue efforts, and electronic repair. She taught me everything I know about sewing. Last summer, Annie and I spent two weeks at home in Washington crafting with mom. We really wanted to learn how to applique. No, we actually wanted to learn! It wasn't our typical sewing session with mom that consists of us standing behind mom (eating her chocolate) while telling her how good it looks until she's finished the entire project herself. Andrea and I are self-proclaimed lazy crafters, ok? Anyway, we came home from that trip actually KNOWING how to applique. And I love it. You can personalize anything and make it super cute. Last summer we made a lot of shirts for the kiddos, but I also picked up the technique for baby bibs.

To applique you just need some sort of iron-on webbing and scraps of fabric. I've used pellon brand and steam-a-seam. Just cut the shape you want out of a piece of paper. Iron the webbing onto the fabric that you're using. Then trace your shape onto the webbing, cut out, peel off the paper backing and iron onto your shirt. Then sew a tight zigzag all around the edges. If you are applying an applique to a knit fabric, it's best to use backing(pellon brand, found at fabric stores) so your zigzag won't gather. For a more ragged look, you can just sew a straight stitch right next to the edge of the fabric instead of the zigzag.

To make this bib, I used a bib that I already had to use for the pattern. My craft store has all colors of tea towels and I can make two bibs from each towel. I just sewed on velco to attach at the neck.

Now go applique something!

When I have grown a foot or two...Missionary tag

My friend Teri asked me to come up with a special sign for her son and nephews several months ago. Always willing to take on a new challenge, I was happy to oblige. Teri had a brilliant idea to create a missionary tag complete with the customized name. Along the bottom she wanted to add “When I have grown a foot or two…” lyrics from a children’s song our kids know quite well. Neither of us had seen it done but the picture in our head looked AMAZING.

So this is what I came up with.

The supplies were easy, I used a piece of wood that measured approximately 9.5” x 12” x 2” I liked the thicker width so it could stand on its own. The entire thing was then painted in 3 coats of my favorite black paint. As a sign-maker {I've been selling on etsy as Nestlings for over 5 years}, cutting the lettering is the easy part. I used a font called Serlio to make it look a little more authentic and more of childish font for the song lyric. For the do-it-yourselfer, I think a cricut would work but I've never used one so if it doesn't please don't hold it against me. Most of the time I’ll distress the edges, but this time I wanted it to really look like a missionary tag so I left it alone. Once the lettering was applied I sealed everything with a few coats of varnish and let it dry.

Almost makes me wish I were the CTR 8 teacher,I’d have gifts ready to go! {Kidding, that’s not a challenge I’m up for right now!}

I linked up to:

Great Minds Think Alike...My Start On a Quiet Book

Great minds must think alike Mandy. I also struggled to keep my kids entertained during the church service and thought it would be brilliant to make them quiet books that would give them activities to do. Aren’t they adorable? I started them over 13 years ago and they’re still not finished. All four of my kids are now too old but I’m determined to finish them by the time I have grandkids (it’s good to set goals right???).

Over the years there were two tricks I used to keep from spending the entire service embarrassed and exhausted. This will sound crazy but, I found my kids were on better behavior when we sat in the very front row. Seriously, we sat in the very front row that nobody sits in. No toys or snacks came out of the bag until the sacrament was finished leaving about 35 – 40 minutes for the rest of the meeting. If there was screaming and crying etc. I took them into an empty classroom and explained when we were in the service we could have snacks and toys, read books, or color, but if we went outside it wouldn’t be very fun. Then we didn’t talk. I’d ignore the screaming and crying except to ask if they were ready to go back in and have their snack, toys, etc… The hardest part for me is wanting to hang out in the hallway talking to my own friends. When I was consistent it worked the best, and of course it works better with some kids more than others.

Another friend who sits by herself with four young children makes a special treat for her kid that is divided into 3 pieces for each. When one of the kids starts fighting with another they lose one of their 3 pieces. Now all she has to do is hold up her fingers as a reminder.

My youngest has been the hardest. He’s actually really good at keeping himself entertained my only problem is the kid is a “loud talker” he literally has no idea how to use a quiet voice let alone whisper. Anyone have any idea how teach a 5 year old to whisper???

I tried to create some duplicate pages; many aren’t sewn together so I’ll send you what I’ve got. Maybe one of us can finish this project!

Quiet Books

I have dreamt of making an amazing quiet book for my little guy since- oh, before he was born. I remember seeing some at craft fairs and thinking, "I could totally do that!" Who was I kidding? For some reason it has been really hard to get up the motivation to make this. But after seeing a friend's homemade quiet book, I'm hooked again. I AM GOING TO DO THIS! Of course, I've searched for a lot of inspiration on the internet and found this website, How to make a quiet book. AMAZING! This takes some real imagination, people! I've also been inspired by Homemade by Jill, such cute ideas! So I just started working on mine- HELLO, tons of work. It's exhausting. But I'm hoping it'll be totally worth it when my kid is an angel because he'll have this to entertain him for endless hours. I can hope, right?
Here's my first set of pages. Not finished, obviously.
Maybe I'll hire the rest of the pages out. Anyone interested?

Dry Erase Marker Magic

For some reason I was a little late to the game and never knew you could use dry erase markers to write on mirrors. It took me 30+ years to learn the trick and thanks to my sister I finally have! This has been a life saver especially since I leave for school at 6:15 am and there’s something really important that I need to remember to take with me or when I want to write a quick love note to my husband or kids before school (much easier to get off than lipstick). It’s magic I tell you…

Today is TAKS day {if you’re not from Texas just look up stomach ache & panic attack in the dictionary} so I quickly snuck into Madeline’s room before she woke up to wish her luck. She believes it works and she got the teacher that lets them chew gum while testing because studies show you gain 3 points if you chew gum while taking a test…whatever works is all I can say.

Thanks for the advice Andrea, this has been a quick cheap pick me up for our family!

Rich's (almost) famous chicken salad sandwiches

Have you ever had a chicken salad sandwich that pretty much just tastes like mayo with a side of tasteless chicken? Pretty nasty right? (nasty is a favorite word of mine, I just like saying it. nasty. nasty. nasty.) Well in my quest for the perfect chicken salad sandwich my hubs came up with this recipe. It has now been passed around to over 100 people and I'm hoping it will make him (well lets be honest, ME) rich & famous one day. Since he's already rich (his name is Rich- I'm not bragging peeps!), I guess I'll settle for just famous. Here is my favorite sandwich of all time- get ready for alot of ingredients folks, I promise it will be worth it!

Rich's Chicken Salad Sandwiches: Makes 16 sandwiches

*4-cooked & shredded chicken breasts *1 TBL worcestershire sauce

*1/2 tsp pepper *6 sticks of celery chopped finely

*1 TBL chalula pepper sauce or Tabasco sauce *1 tsp lime juice *1.5 TBL lemon juice *2TBL stone ground mustard (the good stuff) *2 Cups mayonnaise

*1 Cup shredded fresh parmesan *1 Cup toasted sliced almonds

*2tsp onion powder *1 tsp minced fresh tarragon

Combine everything but chicken & almonds. After you've mixed the ingredients slowly add the sauce to the chicken. You may have extra sauce so don't dump it all in. Just add as much as you like. Chill for an hour. Add almonds right before serving. Serve on a croissant or whole wheat bread & add some tomato & bacon and you've just created heaven! I want to eat the screen just looking at this picture! mmmmm- excuse me while I drool............and over use parenthesis.

Toddler Entertainment

Is your kid like mine at church? Wiggly, moody, wants to run away? Well, the moody thing is probably because church is during nap time, but I use so much energy trying to keep my little guy occupied! Finger puppets are just one thing I try to keep handy for those moments he's ready to lose it. I whipped these up yesterday while watching this. I stitched the details, where in the past I've used googly eyes (which eventually fall off- we have a lot of one-eyed finger puppets hanging around). I just used hot glue to attach the back and we're done! I used a little etsy inspiration to get me going.

Now go make some for your noisy kid. What?! Your kid's not noisy? Never mind...grrr

If I'd only known.......

My little sister Mandy once told me that mom & dad had to have 5 kids (actually she said 2 girls) before they got it right and she came along. I didn't know quite what to say to that (she was OBVIOUSLY kidding- weren't you?) other than they had one more kid after her- so what does that mean to her logic? Unfortunately, she has a point. I mean, when I was pregnant with my second all I could think about was what I was going to different because I already screwed up parenting the first! So now that I'm a mother of 3 I'm practically perfect! (insert sarcasm) I thought today I would share some things I wished I'd known when I was pregnant with my first & maybe someone out there in blogger world could avoid some of my mistakes. So here you go- here is everything I know about being a mother......

Ok. You got me. I'm still just as confused as ever- but I do have a list of baby items I wished I'd had with all my kids.....

1. Buy yourself a nice diaper bag. You deserve it! I found this one from Kalencom and loved it because it was laminated so you can totally wash off spilled milk & gooey finger prints. I found a week old leaky milk bottle spilled in the bottom. The smell was horrific and I thought I'd just have to throw this bag away. But because its laminated over the fabric I was able to bleach the entire bag and it didn't do anything to the fabric. AMAZING! Diaper bags can be pretty expensive but Kalencom's are under $80 usually, so treat yourself to a fun bag!


2. This baby bath was given to me by my mother in law when I had my first and it's the best bath ever! It fits right into most kitchen sinks too! It's adjustable as well so it fits them when they get older. This is called a Thermobaby baby bath and I've LOVED it. (we call it the barka lounger because the baby looks so chill in it!) I totally recommend it!

3. Ok. Seriously folks I wished I'd had this rubber placemat & bib set when I had my first two. This is amazing! Its made by Kiddopotomus and you can find them online. The placemat is perfect for restaurants because it has suction cup grippers on the bottom. It also has a little catch cup that hangs off the table to catch spilled food and it rolls up really small. This is such a great way to AVOID sickness in restaurants by having your kids eat off the table. LOVE IT!




This bib is awesome too! Its totally rubber so you don't have to have a million bibs that you have to wash in the laundry. I only use this one bib and it quickly washes up after each meal. It too rolls up nicely for travel.

4. Get rid of your huge high chair folks! What was I thinking? I had this expensive high chair that was so big it was practically a full size recliner that was taking up a huge amount of real estate in my kitchen! The worst part was that it had a fabric cover and lets face it- babies are kind of gross/messy, if you know what I mean. The fabric was just sick! And a total pain to wash! This chair doesn't take up any room in your kitchen because it straps on to your regular chairs. The best part is that its totally plastic- which means you can HOSE it off after each meal. Which trust me, you will need to after giving your baby chocolate pudding!

5. And now for my sentimental advice: Spend your money on a nice video camera & a digital camera! Someone gave me advice to video tape my 2 older children meeting our 3rd baby at the hospital. This is by far my favorite memory and I wish I had it done this when I had my 2nd. I also have heard of people recording the kids reactions to hearing that they are going to have a new baby brother or sister. In my opinion this could be a dangerous video that may need to be deleted if the reaction doesn't go well!

6. Spend the money and get some newborn photos. I fortunately have a good connection and my sister Renee took a bunch of photos for me. YAY! I'm SO SO HAPPY that she did but totally wish I had a done this for my other 2 kids. They grow up so fast and you will be thrilled that you spent the money later on. P.S- even if you purchased a really nice camera you will NEED to find a professional to do baby photos. A professional does NOT mean JCPenny's or Target or even Kiddie Kandids. Google your city name and the words newborn photographer and then look through all their photos to make sure you like their style. Newborn photos need to be taken preferably in the first 10 days of life for the sleepy shots!

7. Totally cute advice I was given- Pick out a different lullaby for each child & sing this to them each night. What a cute tradition!

So now if you're still reading this, and are not totally bored, you can avoid a few mistakes I made. I'm not going to tell you the 100 other embarrassing/bad parenting mistakes I made. But I would also like to suggest that you read the Baby Wise book and maybe watch about 30 episodes of Judge Judy. You will see a ton of awful parents watching that show and maybe you won't beat yourself up so bad. Plus you can get alot of great parenting advice from Judge Judy like don't dress like a hoochie mama when you come to court. Dont ever let your kids friends borrow your car! And NEVER leave your teenagers unattended over a weekend while you go on a vacation. That's just a lawsuit waiting to happen! What's with my fascination of Judge Judy you ask? Some kids got to watch Sesame Street before nap time when they were kids, I watched Perry Mason, I love Lucy and Judge Judy! Fortunately, I turned out just fine.

Or did I?

Hippity Hoppity Bunny Ears

Happy April Fool's Day everyone! Hope you're up to some mischief today- it's the only day you can get away with it!
Way back when I was still in college, I took a toddler lab. It was like preschool, only for toddlers:) The members of the class always planned out elaborate themes to entertain the little kiddos. Super fun. One day I was in charge and it was right before Easter, so I made these cute bunny ears. I found them the other day and couldn't get my little guy to take them off!
They are really easy to make. Just grab a headband and twist one pipecleaner around and make an ear shape. Then cut two pieces of white felt into ear shapes and hot glue a pipeclean sandwich. Repeat for the other ear. Then hot glue some pink felt for the inside of the ear- voila! Easy Easter project for your little bunnies to enjoy!


Happy Easter!!! I'm linking this to the Idea Room Inspired By party!