Friday, January 29, 2010

Valentine Mailboxes: A Tutorial

I saw these tiny mailboxes at Target... and I just HAD to HAVE them!

I figured I would come up with something to use them for - I did!
I made little valentines for my family!
What you will need:
small mailboxes
(Target had these in ther $1 section at the front of the store) or you can pick them up at thrift stores sometimes too.
Valentine Scrapbook Paper
Mod Podge Glue
Paintbrush (for glue)
scissors

This project really only took me about an hour to complete. Not to hard at all...even for those of us that are CRAZY busy!

I began by cutting my paper into a strip that was 4 inces wide. Next, glue the strip of paper onto the base of the mailbox. Note: I did have to cut a small hole out for it to fit around the flag of the mailbox.
Once all my mailboxes were "wrapped" in paper, I made little nametags to glue on each one using stickers and scrap paper from my scrapbooking supplies. I securely glued each name on my mailboxes and presto ~ valentine mailboxes for each member of my family!
So, you may ask....what are you gonna use these for?
Well... They are positioned on the mantle of our fireplace...
AND...I will be secretely placing little valentine notes or gifts in their mailbox on occasion and putting the flag up to notify them that they have "mail"! This will continue up until Valentine's Day!

Just a fun way to say "I LOVE YOU" to the most special people in my life!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Makeup Blunder

This is what happens when you leave your makeup in reach of your three year old.
Whoops!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Amatuer

I don't think I have said anything about my new camera. I got a new "fancy" camera for Christmas!
It is a Canon Rebel XSi

I LOVE it! I'm still learning though! It is hard to understand...so many different settings and such and I'm still trying to figure them all out. Usually when I get a really cool pic, I'm always like "how did I do that?" But, I'm sure I will get the hang of it as time goes on! My friend Dana is much better at taking pics than I am. She is just starting her own photography business up and she is great! So, if you are interested in taking some new family photos...give her a shout - I'm sure she would be thrilled to do it! Her email is danamaize@gmail.com.

I can't imagine doing photography for "REAL"! I would be so stressed out to know that I was expected to get some good photos. With me, it's a "we'll try it out and hope for a couple good ones" attitude!

However, I've had the opportunity to take some pics to practice.

A while back my friend Hilary let me practice on her cute kiddos...

I got some baby Drake time...

And then this last weekend, my friend Julie wanted to take some "belly" pics before her new baby came.
I am definitely an amatuer, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A Lazy Saturday

I was so excited for this last Saturday to come...

we had NO plans.... NONE, NADA, NOTHING to do!

Those are the BEST days ever! I was determined and succeeded at getting my house cleaned on Friday so I could just relax and bum around on Saturday and not think about how I should be up and cleaning something up.

Chris and I were trying to figure out what we were going to do on our "day off" and I suggested watching old 80's movies... lots of which I hadn't ever seen.

Yep, I'm talkin the classic 80's movies..


Footloose...
La Bamba...
Flashdance...
Pretty in Pink....
The Breakfast Club...
Sixteen Candles...
Fast Times at Ridgemont High...
Goonies...
The Lost Boys...
Say Anything...
We were excited...well, I was! I hadn't seen any of these and Chris ended up renting about half of them.

Other than watching movies...we hung out as a family...

..in our pj's.

we did fun crafts....

and painted...
and played Lite Brite...

but mostly... we did NOTHING!
It was GREAT!

Friday, January 8, 2010

America's Next Top Model

I swear, she is just so darn cute!

And, she came up with most of those poses on her own!

I can't believe she is 3! Where has the time gone?

Friday, January 1, 2010

Puerto Rico: Days 5 and 6

Sorry it has taken me so long to finish blogging about Puerto Rico. I only took over 1,000 pictures....literally... and that is a lot to decide what we wanted to share with you!
On Wednesday, we spent the entire day in San Juan, which was about an hour drive from our resort.
Here is the whole group of us... all 19... waiting for the bus to take us to San Juan.

The girls even caught a nap on the way.

I snapped these pics of Pam and Gary (Chris' mom and dad). If it wasn't for them...we wouldn't have even been in Puerto Rico. But, what amazes me is how cute they are... still in love and holding hands! I just LOVED it!


We visited the fort and spent some time souvenier shopping while we were there visiting!

This is our nephew Shannon. He is such a goofball and was posing for us on the roof of the fort. I just couldn't help but put these on here. He makes me smile!


Quick story... The fort had so many areas that were just huge drop offs. You can see them in the pictures above with my nephew cody (in the blue shirt). Many areas were fenced or had railings, but many areas did not. It was a little scary with three little girls! I was afraid they would crawl up on some ledge and just fall off into the deep blue sea! SCARY!

Well, as we were leaving the fort, Brian had the girls ahead of Chris and I. Well, Chris was back in the tunnel area (see below) and the girls were being put up on this grassy area to take a picture. The other side was one of those drop off areas and the grassy area was high, above our eye level...

From the tunnel, this is what we saw (minus the girls standing there).

Do you see the ledge? The ledge that looks as if my child could crawl up and fall over it? Well, Brian was putting the girls up over the ledge on the grass...which, of course we couldn't tell was grass because...well, you saw it, it doesn't look like there is grass up there! He wanted a picture and all we saw (or Chris saw) was three little girls climbing up on a ledge that he assumed was a drop off into the water! He screamed...and I mean literally screemed at the kids to STOP (and it was even louder because it echoed in that tunnel. I think we scared everyone around us, but that was the scariest thing Chris has ever experienced...thinking your children are climbing to their deaths! Whew....good thing there was grass on the other side...well, that and Brian, who really knew what he was doing was watching them.
This is what it actually was like...when we got closer?

Anyways, scary story...but I thought I would share. Hope I didn't lose you in it. Otherwise, the pic above is all the grandkids with Grandpa! By the way... I absolutely LOVE his hat! Only Grandpa J can pull of a hat like that so well!
Later that day, I even got a little Baby Drake time...

That evening after dinner we celebrated Brooke and Kelsi's birthdays with some cake that I picked up on my outing to Walgreens the day before.
Thursday was our trip back home and we had to be at the airport relatively early that morning....but we made it out to the beach for some fun family pics one last time.

This was the entry way of our resort! Beautiful! It reminded us that it was Christmastime...even though it didn't feel like Christmas!
These houses were so ornate...with such detail. Awesome. I never seen any gingerbread houses like them!

The airplane trip home wasn't quite as easy as the trip there since Brooke decided NOT to take a nap on the 4+ hr airplane ride...well, at least not until about 45 min from touchdown. Bummer! But, we managed... I guess! Everyone was tired, and somewhat cranky, and needed a nap...but we managed.
But more important...we had a wonderful time...we actually relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. It was a great vacation!