Sibling Love

So tonight Dusty went out fishing with a friend of his and me and the kiddos had a night to ourselves. I took them outside for a little while, but we went inside quick because the kids kept getting too close to the road for comfort plus it was hot as heck!! But I got a really great shot of the kids loving on each other (this of course after Noah pushed Livi down and made her). Either way, it was sweet.

Crayon UFOs

It has came to my attention that Noah is getting to an age where he is bored out of his gourd playing with his toys all the time. So, I'm going to try to make an effort to try to come up with some crafts to keep him (and sister) entertained.

Up at work, we've been fasinated by the app called StumbleUpon. It looks like you can even get it on your computer if you don't have an Iphone. If you're not farmiliar with sumbleupon, it's pretty much a lot of web pages pertaining to the interest of your choice (such as crafts, humor, sports, etc) that you look through and you either like or dislike what you're looking at. The more web pages you like, the more it takes you to pages that will be more of what you're looking for.

I love crafts, so that's one of the main catagories that I look through and let me tell you, it's freaking awesome!!! It is mainly other peoples blogs that have craft project tutorials. I've came across quite a few things that I think are great, but the craft we did after nap time today was Crayon UFOs. It was so fun. Here's how we did it:

Things needed:
Crayons (old or new)
X-acto knife
mini muffin pans (that you don't mind getting crayoned up, lol)
flat cookie sheet
wax paper

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

2. First begin by taking an x-acto knife right down the center of the crayon and remove the wrapping. My little assistant here handed me the crayons.

 3. Using the X-acto knife again, put the tip into the crayon and cup your hand over it as you gently press down (be careful because they will go flying across the room). The smaller the pieces the better.

4. Place the crayon pieces in each muffin cup. I found that it turned out better with at least three colors. Be creative!

5. Line the cookie sheet with the wax paper and put the muffin pans on top of the paper. Place the cookie sheet on the top rack of the oven.

6. Warm the crayons just enough to melt and not look like a crayon anymore (about 8 minutes).

7. Remove from the oven, but BE CAREFUL...the crayons will be really watery at first. Once out of the oven, use a toothpick to swirl the crayons, just enough to mix the different colors.

8. Clear a space in your freezer and place some wax paper down. Leave the pans in the freezer until crayons are hard in the middle and slightly pull away from the muffin pans.

9. Turn the muffin pan over and bang a few times and the crayons will pop out!!

10. Enjoy hours of fun!!!

Fancy

So, up at work we have a travel nurse (let's call her TK) that is just super amazing but, unfortunatly she will be leaving us (hence the "travel" nurse). Last night we had a going away party for her, along with another co-worker who is going to a different department, and a birthday party for my good buddy AO. It was a good turnout and not totally busy like usual when we decide to have a party.

I will say, I'm totally in awe of TK and she really got us laughing one night when she got Whataburger for the first time. You see, she's from up north and they don't have any Whataburgers there. She pulled out her ketchup and noticed that it said "Fancy" ketchup. We're used to seeing fancy ketchup, so we've never questioned it before and hearing this, we all cracked up. We all joked that it was ketchup that went to the school of fancy! (joke courtesey of the hillarious AO).

While on our way to Galveston, me and Dusty stopped at Whataburger to eat and on the tray paper that came with our meal, I noticed that you could buy whataburger shirts and the one that happened to be displayed was, wouldn't you know it, the fancy ketchup shirt. I knew then and there that I would make it for her as a going away present.

She really liked it and I would put a picture of her wearing it, but she's kinda iffy about blogs, so I'll just post the picture of the shirt. I'll truly miss that TK. Hopefully she'll make her way back one day! :)

What a wonderful LAZY morning

Dusty had to run to the shop today, but promised to be home by noon so I could go to sleep for work tonight. So, that meant having a lazy morning with the kids. We had a breakfast of strawberries, bannanas, and blueberries with whip cream and grahm crackers. So good! Then, like always, I turned it on VH1 so we could dance and have a good time. The Lazy Song by Burno Mars came on and the kids had to do a jig. (and my living room WAS clean about ten minutes before this video was took!!)

After we wore ourselves out dancing and playing, I noticed Livi had sure gotten quite, so I looked down and she was asleep in the floor. What a precious little baby.

We are so blessed to have both of them and every day is something new. Noah is growing up so fast and starting to talk. He has learned "damn it" and I'm gonna confess that it came from me. Dusty and I are both going to start watching what we say because he's a little sponge. It's so fun to be able to talk to him now and he can understand us for the most part.

Livi is still a little quite, but it's probablly because Noah won't let her have any attention. Classic sibling syndrome. She is just so sweet and always wants to be held. She's a daddy's girl for sure. From the moment her head pops up over the crib, she says, "Where's dada?". It's the sweetest thing. 

We want another one, it's just a matter of when. I think I'm more on the baby wagon than Dustin, but we both agree another one will be along someday. I'm going to go to college this fall to start my pre-reqs for nursing, so for the next few years, I'm going to be busy with that. If a lil baby just happens to pop up in the oven, I definetly wouldn't be bummed. :) It's weird to think that if I hadn't had my tubal pregnancy back in November, we would have three little babies right now. My due date was July 7th and I've been quite upset about it, but then I look at my two angels I have already and things don't seem that sad, but things sure would be different, huh? I'm just thankful for what I do have and am trying not to dwell on what I lost.

Lil pony tail

So, as you are all aware, my little Livi has been mistaken for a boy on numerous occasions, despite the obvious pink dress or purple shoes. So, today before daycare, I had given Livi a bath and was brushing her hair when I decided to put it up in a ponytail. It was a sad excuse for an actual ponytail, but it was worth a try. Maybe one day she'll have some long locks. Do they make baby rogaine??? Maybe a baby toupee!

Boom!

So, as you know we own an embroidery and sign business and do the occasional screen printing with Dusty's dad. Well, I thought I'd start posting all the cool stuff we do on here because one day I'm going to want to look back and show the kids exactly what it is that we do at the shop all day, lol.

My friend Chanda needed some State baseball shirts and with a general idea from a sample shirt she showed me...

I was able to create a design that worked for a shirt and a banner.

 Thanks Chanda!!! And Congrats Team BOOM!!!

Noah's boo boo

So, Noah came home today from daycare with a pretty nasty looking boo boo. When asking him what happened, he says "Bobby did it". I'm not sure if he's saying that an actual person named Bobby did it or if this "bobby" is actually "Barbie", so it shall remain a mystery at this time.

July 4th Fun

So, tonight was our annual fourth of July fun night! We had bbq, potato salad, baked beans, home made icecream, brownies, peach cobbler. Awesomeness! We had a good ol time. Before popping fireworks, Gonka decided to cut Noah's hair. Thank goodness because he really needed a haircut. Thank you Gonka!!! What I foundd so sweet was the fact that Dustin had his first haircut from Gonka. Hopefully this will be the first for Noah of many (wink, wink).

(Cousin Michelle kept the Bub still by giving him brownie bites!!! Greatest idea ever!)

After the haircut, we went out to pop fireworks, but we had to cut it short because of lighting and oncoming rain! Noah and Olivia appreciated it because they were none too fond of blackcats. Momma wasn't either!

Aunt Lisa and Bub

Granny Evelyn and sexy Michelle

Snake, Gonka, Festus

My beautiful niece Kaylen

Grandpa & Grandma

Lexie, Carlie, and Candice

Aunt Kim

Uncle Stacy and Granny Evenlyn

Me and the Bub

Lighting Bub's first firework

Kinda scary for the mama

Livi's first firework (Still kinda scary for the mama)

Getting smoked out...lol

Festus loving on the Bub

Aunt Kim lovin on Livi

Summerfest at the Park

So our day started with Target and trying on sun hats...

We did a little shopping and continued our way to a real cool carwash! Livi and Noah had both been in there before, but poor Livi was scared to death this time! Sad thing was, that the car wash stopped two times, making it even longer for poor Livi! Bub didn't seem to mind though.

After our nap, we got ready to go to the Whitehouse Summerfest firework show. I love to do things in Whitehouse and I was so glad that they had something tonight. We had a good time. We played at the park...

Ate a few hotdogs...

Played in the bounce house...

We did a little dancing to the live band.... 

 and enjoyed the awesome fireworks!