Megan - November 2009

This isn’t the actual picture.  I just thought it was funny – ha!!  In this picture she’s mad.  On the day she fell … in front of everyone she was NOT mad!  Pepper picked her up & she literally buried her face in his shoulders.  It was the deep cry.  The one that takes your breath away.  She could not catch her breath & she would not look up.  She was so incredibly embarrassed that she had fallen.  Fallen in front of so many people.  Only people who love her, but at that moment nothing matter.  My little 15 month old’s pride was shattered!!! 

Pride that I didn’t even know she had.  Sure she knows to be happy & clap when she does good things, but I guess I always figured that came from seeing all of us clap or jump up & down.  She knows she ’supposed’ to have good pride.  But how does she know to be embarrassed?  Already?  At 15 months?

I must be in a funk.  That or my procrastination is just catching up to me & I don’t have any posts ready.  Either way, looks like you’re stuck with another set of Random Facts about Mandi again!!

1.  My car has been hit on THREE separate occasions while it was parked!!  In a parking lot!!!  Two of those times were to the same car.  Is that normal???

2.  I cannot clap on beat.  Seriously.  Just ask my husband (and anyone else that stands near me in church).

3.  I just randomly became a Pampered Chef Consultant (so if you need anything let me know!!).  I was only hosting the party because the Sisterchicks wanted to have one.  And I became a Consultant.  Go figure!

4. I have 1 older sister & two younger twin brothers.   So I’m sort-of like the middle child, even though there’s four of us.

5.  I got married before I could legally have a drink … that’s why we honeymooned in Jamaica (totally kidding Mom!!).

6.  We call my grandfather CaCa and yes, I totally know what that means in Spanish … but we say it ONLY with pure love!! (He’s name is Carl.)

7.  I was sick as a dog at my 10th (I believe that’s right) birthday party.  I was vomiting as my friends were skating around the roller rink!

8.  My husband & I got a private tour of a lot in Hollywood – we got our picture taken and even splashed in the water of the famous “FRIENDS” fountain.  I loved every second of it!

9.  The sight of hair (no longer attached the head) will seriously make me gag.  My Dad always cleaned my hairbrush as a child & now thankfully my husband will!!

10.  In highschool & college, I dyed shoes for a living … just ask ohAmanda!

For more Top Ten Tuesday or to link up to your own list, visit ohAmanda.com.

Evan’s hair is such a battle for me sometimes. If he has a normal cut then it’s a fight for him to let me brush it in the morning.  I absolutely hate having “that kid” that looks like he just rolled out of bed in the morning & his Mom couldn’t even get it together enough to brush his hair!!  (Note:  That is what I thought before I had kids.  Now I realize that is Mom probably was just choosing to pick her battles & her child’s hair wasn’t the biggest battle of the day!!)

Either way, I like Evan to look clean, put together, well dressed (that does not read nice/expensive clothes, just whatever he wears may he wear it well, etc.).  But for about the last year and a half or more, the easiest solution to this battle has been a buzzed head!!

Evan does great when I take him to a salon for a haircut, but can I just say that it hurts my heart & my CHECKbook to pay $20+ for someone to buzz his head!!!  That’s crazy to me!!  I’ve done the Great Clips thing, the cute little kid places, and even barber/salon shops but when it’s all said & done it’s $20-$25 bucks.  To SHAVE the kids’ head!!!

So my husband’s been shaving it for a while now.  The only difference is that at home – Evan does NOT co-operated. At.  All.  Not even a little bit.  He wiggles, he screams, he whines & he’s a pill.   So our solution for taking it off the top …

Haircut ...

... with Goggles!

This way it doesn’t get in his eyes (because Lord knows he can’t possibly keep them shut for 1 minute!!) and for whatever reason it’s fun to him!!  I think he can embody a character that way!!  He becomes the mean diver in Finding Nemo!

Last year, the Sisterchicks got together at my house for the ‘craft of all crafts’.  Honestly – we were crazy!!  We had four adults, and 6 children under the age of 6.  Only one of those children was six.  Three of them were toddlers and two were newborns.  Like I said – we were crazy!!

We were inspired by the Handprint Calenders over at Doodles Place.  We had a good little thing going for a while – about 5 minutes tops!!  And then the kids’ excitement started to wear off.  They were ready to play with toys instead.  But I think the end result was well worth it!!  I ended up printing calendar templates off from Microsoft Word & inserting important family dates.  Then I took it to Kinko’s to have bound.  I added stickers to name each month.

Even with the craziness of putting them together this is probably one of my favorite HANDmade crafts.  I really do love these calendars & I know the grandparents love them as well!!

HANDmade Calendar

January - Snowflake

February - Heart

March - Clovers

April - Cross & Sun Rays

May - Flowers

June - Butterfly

July - Fish

August – Sun

September - Apple

October - Pumpkin

November - Turkey

December - Reindeer

I celebrated my 31st birthday this past Saturday.  I did some very random & unusual things on my birthday coupled with some very wonderful things.  I’ll let you decide the random or crazy ones versus the other!

1.  I had 550 Krispy Kreme doughnuts in my car.  The aroma is how I think Heaven should smell!!

2.  I wore a birthday “crown” on my head thanks to my sis.

3.  I spent an unusual amount of time in a walk-in refrigerator.

4.  I opened up a box of under garment thingies (not lingerie exactly but not Hanes either) from my mother-in-law (in front of all my in-laws).   Umm … Awkward.

5.  I drove home with a crock-pot full of chili praying it wouldn’t run out the sides & onto my floorboard.

6.  I was greeted with this in my drive way.

Sidewalk Chalk

7.  I saw a late-night movie with my husband.  (on a side note, if you want to feel really, really old – go see a late night movie with your husband on a Friday night!!)

8.  I ate my favorite food – Mexican – two of the three weekend nights.

9.  I slept in till 6:45am on Saturday.

10.  And the day that my husband had morning duty, both kids slept past 8:30am!!!

Craft Time with Daddy

For more Top Ten Tuesday Posts, or to link up to your own, visit ohAmanda.com.

Translation:  “Tickle, Tickle, Tickle”

The RANDOM Edition.  As in, the MOST TOTALLY RANDOM Edition possible!!

1.  I was born exactly 9months after Valentines Day in 1978 – hmmm ….

2.  As a toddler, I walked into the beach backwards.

3.  My first real memory(you know the kind without pictures) is at the age of Kindergarten – I remember shutting myself in the closet of our bedrooom.  My mom was threatening to tell my teacher (Mrs. Bryan) that I wasn’t as good as she thought I was – apparently I was in trouble alot after coming home from school – ha!

4.  I got glasses for the first time during my 4th grade year – with Mrs. Pryor.  She always asked me to read to the class when she stepped out.  I guess that means I was a good student … but why do teachers do that?  Don’t they know the poor student doesn’t want to “tell” on anyone when she comes back!!

5.  I lost a pair of glasses once when they flew off my face during a hayride with our church youth group.  They were ran over & crushed.  I was crushed in fear of telling my parents they’d have to buy me another pair of glasses!

6.  I got braces during middle school – yes, I was the lucky one … glasses & braces at the same time!

7.  I broke another pair of glasses while playing basketball in the 8th grade.  The ball hit me square in the faces & those silly things busted right at the nose!!

8.  I got my first ticket the summer before my senior year of high school.  It wasn’t for speeding, but rather for pulling out & hitting someone – rats!

9.  I came close to a 2nd ticket in 2000, but the officer wished me happy birthday, asked me to slow down & sent me on my way … Thank you Lord for birthdays & nice policemen.

10.  I had Lasik eye surgery in 2004 & finally put an end to my glasses saga.  Absolutely the BEST invention – E.V.E.R!!!!

So, how’s that for random?!

For some more (and hopefully more exciting) Top Ten Tuesday Posts or to link up to your own, visit ohAmanda.com.

I’m celebrating a birthday later this week, so today I had this conversation with “the four year old”:

4 year old: Mommy can I come to your birthday party?

Me: Of course!!  I’d love for you to come to my birthday party?  Guess what?  I am going to be Thirty-ONE.  Can you believe it?

4 year old: Yep, I can.  And guess what, you’ll be ONE just like Megan and Asa.

Me: Ah thanks Evan.  But I’m a little older than Megan or Asa.

4 year old: That’s ok.  I love birthday parties!

Well … at least he’s not old enough to tell me I’m old yet!

For the last two years, we have participated in Operation Christmas Child through Evan’s school.

Out of complete honesty both years have consisted of me going shopping at the stores, me packaging the boxes, me wrapping the boxes, me sticking the money in, me sealing the envelope, and me carrying the box to his classroom.  I know I mentioned it to him each year … that we were taking a present so some other children that didn’t have much – so that they would have a Christmas present to open, but I honestly didn’t expect him to get that much out of it.  And even more honestly I probably didn’t try to hard either.

I’m hoping this year will be different.  He’s four now.  He knows that Christmas is getting closer.  He’s already started telling me what he wants to get.  I’m hoping this year he’ll start getting a better understanding & even an excitement about what he wants to give.  He’s always been very excited to give gifts to Megan or his Dad, a grandparent or a friend.   But he has absolutely no idea that he has so much compared to so many other children throughout the world … or even down the street!!  His little world is shattered if he can’t get a toy every time we go into a store.

So this year, we’ll go shopping together.  We’ll pack the box up together.  We’ll wrap the box together (or maybe I’ll wrap & he’ll stick a bow on it), we’ll seal our envelope of money together, and together we’ll carry the boxes into his classroom.  Then at his school they’ll have a big drop-off celebration for all the boxes collected.

Sarah at Real Life is hosting an Operation Christmas Child Carnival.  You can link up & we can share about past Operation Christmas Child experiences or plans for this upcoming drive.  Plus there’s even prizes … and Veggie Tales at that!

I originally saw this idea when Impress Your Kids linked up to My Sweet & Simple Life.  Evan is all about the calendar these days.  He wants to know when his birthday is, when Christmas is, when … well any other holiday that equates to him getting a gift!!

So when I saw this Activities Tree I thought I would use it as a way for our family to countdown to Thanksgiving Day.  If you know me in real life, then you know I am anything BUT crafty!!  So you might be surprised when I decided to do this.  The inspiration piece was made of construction paper & then she laminated it so she could use it for different seasons throughout the year – brilliant!!

Is it mean to admit that I’m not a big fan of construction paper & I wish my fridge was clean again (without kid magnets & drawings – ha!)  So anyways, I attempted to make something fairly permanent & hopefully cute enough to hang in the house:)

So I started on my mission … and I actually finished it (almost) the very same day!!!  Another shocker for me!!

Here’s what I used:

1 thin sheet of birch wood for the backing

1 piece of magnetic sheeting w/self adhesive

*Note – I got super lucky & the birch wood was the exact same cut/size as the magnetic sheeting – no cutting required!!

Several sheets of printed paper – remnants worked perfect!

1 package of magnetic tape (I went for the pre-cut circles, but you could also use the long strips & cut)

Market to write

Craft Glue

Here’s what I did:

Line one side of the birch wood with the Self-Adhesive Magnetic Sheeting.

Line wood with Magnetic Sheeting

Glue paper to the magnetic sheet to make “pretty”.

Cut out the shape of a tree (I’m not crafty enough to have branches!!).

Cut out all the leaves (I just made one free-hand then traced & cut the others so they’d be similiar in size & shape).

Magnetic Leaves

Write the numbers for each day of “the count” on each leaf.Glue the leaves to the small magnetic tape.

And …

Our Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar

I still need to screw in hooks & tie a ribbon to hang it up.  And by self-admission it might be a “tad” busy.   But we’re going to keep it in our kitchen.  Each day we’ll remove a leaf & let Evan tell us one thing he’s thankful for that day (that should be interesting!!).  That leaf will then fall to the base of the tree & we’ll have our countdown:)

So if you don’t know me you may not be impressed but if you do then you should give me some comment love & pat me on the back … Either way, it works for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday ( it’s the Holiday Edition) or to hook up to your own, visit We Are That Family!