Happy 3rd Birthday, Adalyn Makenna!

 

Our baby girl turned 3 today. It's weird, 'cause I have kinda thought of her as 3 for a long time now.

She is pretty darn awesome. Yep, she can throw a tantrum like a pro, she has a strong opinion on many things in life and doesn't always want to share things, or smile in a picture. Yet, she is so internally kind and loving. Her general personality is so even keel and positive with a touch of silliness and humor.

Adalyn’s 3rd Birthday Interview

What is your favorite color?  

Blue

          

What is your favorite food?  

Apples           

Who is your best friend? 

Avery and Carson             

What is your favorite show to watch on T.V.?

Dora

What is your favorite book?        

Ummm…..My books.     

What does Mommy do the best?     

Make dinner  

What does Daddy do the best?       

Tickle

What is your favorite kind of animal?    

Butterflies            

What do you like to do with Mommy and Daddy?         

Eat cereal

What do you want to be when you grow up?                  

Mommy

Where is your favorite place to go?  

Stores…grocery stores….lots of grocery stores

How old are you?              

8…7… 8…. 7…. (with some prompting about what comes after 2)....3!

(taken on November 13, 2013)

I know Shane and I answered the questions for her last year, but I can't find the interview any where. I'm going to keep looking. I'm bummed I can't find it. 

Adalyn's 2nd Birthday 

Gratitude {Week 1 & 2)

Each day this month our family has been writing down what we are thankful or grateful for. I love hearing what comes out of the wee one's mouths.

11/1
Shane: nature
Adalyn: Lucky the Goat
Mom: our warm house
Dad: Sadie and Dodger

11/2
Shane: for God, Jesus and church to learn about God
Adalyn: God
Mom: my family
Dad: my job

11/3
Shane: a warm nice house with dogs, family and friends in our cul-de-sac
Adalyn: playing at somebodies house
Mom: food and our grocery store
Dad: everyone's health

11/4
Shane: our food and our grocery store
Adalyn: going to the grocery store and getting more food for us
Mom: our dogs
Dad: our upcoming vacation

11/5
Shane: our dogs are surviving and we have two dogs
Adalyn: Mariah (our neighborhood horse)
Mom: new carpet
Dad: being done with big house projects

11/6
Shane: we are still surviving in our life
Adalyn: that Lucky died
Mom: Miss Charlotte and how hard Shane is working in his Coping Cats class
Dad: new carpet

11/7
Shane: school and recess
Adalyn: for playing with my friends
Mom: Brittany and our child care swap
Dad: yummy food for dinner

11/9
Shane: that Mommy gets to see Penny Grandma and drop the cards off
Adalyn: I loves Mommy and Daddy
Mom: for Daddy staying home with the kids while I go to work
Dad: a productive day

11/10
Shane: a fun time at church and learning about God
Adalyn: going to church
Mom: my trip to see Grandma
Dad: Jessica getting to see Penny Grandma

11/11
Shane: my friends coming over to play
Adalyn: going to bed
Mom: the sunshine
Dad: thankful that Jessica survived her day today

11/12
Shane: friends coming over
Adalyn: friends coming over
Mom: an accomplished day
Dad: that Mommy survived her day with the new change in schedules

Close To My Heart {Christmas Shopping}

Do you have any crafty people on your Christmas list this year? If you do I have just the perfect place for you to go shopping for them!

Check out my Close To My Heart website. You'll find items for all kinds of crafters from card makers, sewers, scrapbooks, jewelry makers, or even that young girl in your life looking to express her inner self.

A few items to think about:

• Micro Tip Scissors ($9.95) are the bomb! Any body and every body should own a pair of these babies.  

• CTMH has a whole new line DIY jewelry items. Perfect for a teen, tween or jewelry maker in your family. 

• The Designed Decor Colonial White Frame ($26.95) is beautiful! It's ready to go to be hung on your favorite person's wall. Add a few pictures and a master piece is born. Easy peasy. 

• Workshop on the Go Kits ($24.95- $29.95) have everything a crafty person or a wanna-be crafty person needs to make cards or scrapbook pages. 

• Do you know someone who owns a Cricut? That's a fancy cutting machine. If you do, then they need one of our fabulous Cricut Collection Cartridges ($99). 

• Maybe you want to create a special gift for some one in your life. My Crush ($12.95) albums are an easy way to show someone you love them with pictures of you and your family. It will be a book treasured for years to come. 

These are just a few of the fun things Close To My Heart has to offer. Need more ideas or help shopping for someone? Maybe you want to see someone to buy you some CTMH products this year? Drop me a line and I'm happy to help.

Check out our Idea Books and our 2013 Holiday Gift Guide for more ideas.

Happy Shopping!

Christmas Card Workshop {CTMH}

Today is my 5th annual Christmas card workshop. This year we'll be making these beauties.

I have one open spot this evening at 7pm. 6 cards for $15. Contact me for more details.

All supplies used are from Close To My Heart.

Wanna make these from the comfort of you home?

You can by purchasing this kit.

Wordless Wednesday {The Kids}

Awesome Things Tuesday

Halloween has come and gone. Thursday's Trick or Treat link up party has come to an end, but it was so much fun, now you can join the Awesome Things Tuesday link up party.

This is the perfect place for you to link up any crafts, tips, recipes or other interesting things you have going on at your blog. 

My fellow hostess' are...

Randi Sowders - Sowdering About in Seattle / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter

Jessica Booth - Preserving Life's Moments / Pinterest

Ashley Emmett - My Craftily Ever After / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter
Victoria Schilke - My Little Birds / Facebook / Pinterest

Krystal McGarvey - My Life of Travels and Adventures / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter

<div class="Awesome Things Tuesday" style="width: 250px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="http://www.mylifeoftravelsandadventures.com/" rel="nofollow"> <img src="http://i44.tinypic.com/suwpd3.jpg" alt="Awesome Things Tuesday" width="250" height="250" /> </a> </div>

<div class="Awesome Things Tuesday" style="width: 250px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="http://www.mylifeoftravelsandadventures.com/" rel="nofollow"> <img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/67k2oi.jpg" alt="Awesome Things Tuesday" width="250" height="250" /> </a> </div>

Please read and follow the rules before adding your link.
1. You may link up as many projects as you would like. They need to be YOUR creations and projects.
2. Link directly to your post and NOT to your main blog.
3. Please no giveaways, promotions, items for sale, roundups, or posts that do not belong to you.
4. Please make sure to click and check out the other projects linked up!

 *By submitting your link you are authorizing me to post your projects and pictures as a feature and on various social media websites along with links to your post. I have the right to delete links that do not adhere to the rules.

Menu Monday

A big thank you to all those veterans out there and to the brave men and women currently serving our country, as well as their families. Shane told me yesterday he wants to just call them all "army guys". Works for me.

A friend of mine in San Diego has a Husband in the Navy. He is currently at sea until late April or early May. I can't even imagine how they do it, but they do and they do it with a smile. Big hugs and love to the Hackley family on this Veterans Day.

---------

I'm breaking out the cookbooks this week. I need some new dinner inspiration.

Monday -- Tastefully Simple Potato and Broccoli Soup with Beer Bread. 

Tuesday -- leftovers

Wednesday -- Beef and Orange Stir-Fry via my Everyday Food cookbook

Thursday -- leftovers

Friday -- Roasted Salmon with Lentils

Saturday -- leftovers

Sunday -- Breakfast for dinner

Dog + Chair

Sadie is an outside dog. Not because we make her spend the day outside, but because she wants to be out there. From the day we adopted her (8 years ago at the age of 1) and in every house we've lived in, her favorite spot is laying outside in front of the slider.

Back in the spring we acquired some patio chairs with cushions on them that sit near her patio perch. We joked around wondering if she would ever help herself up into one. Months passed and she never did.

Until last week. Maybe it was the chill of fall or the old bones at age 9. What ever it was, one afternoon I looked outside and saw her all curled up on the patio chair.

The moment she saw me looking at her I got this look... 

...this is her squinty eyed "I'm in trouble" look. 

She then tried to jump down really fast, but I told her it was okay and she could stay there.

Now she occupies the chair daily.

There are two chairs out there, but only this one will do. 

The armrest is also good for a pillow.

And from her cozy spot she can still see the happenings in her backyard. 

No squirrel or bird left unwatched.

But in the end it's just perfect for a nap on a chilly, wet day.

Real Life Friday

Adalyn has been potty trained since the end of summer. She trained pretty quickly and easily. She had a few problems when she was outside playing and would just go, but then it got cold and we haven't really been out in the backyard playing, so that problem just took care of itself.

Recently she has been peeing in her carseat. It happened for the first time a couple weeks ago and I blamed myself for not having her go before we got in the car. Then it happened again a week later. I thought it was odd, but such is life. The hardest part of the whole thing was washing the darn carseat cover!

Then she did it over the weekend while we had been in the car for only just a few minutes. She walked around Lowe's with wet pants and rode back home in a cold wet carseat. That should teach her, right?

Monday she peed, yet again. WHAT the heck!?! This time I used a new technique of kindness and truth telling. If you tell Mommy the truth that you need to go potty that makes me happy. I won't get upset if we need to stop and go potty.

Wednesday we were driving and she told me she needed to go potty. Yay! We stopped off (we have a whole go potty outside routine...we do this a lot). She said telling Mommy the truth makes you happy. Yes, yes it does! Phew, she was over the peeing in her car seat thing.

On the way home on Wednesday I smelled a little something. Did you fart, Adalyn, I ask jokingly. She denied any such doing. Adalyn do you need to go potty? No, she says. We arrive home and I go to unbuckle her and I see she is wet. Uh Oh, I say. You peed in your car seat. I then quickly realize she didn't just peed....she pooped, too! Really!

I was frazzled with this whole situation! What is going on. I quickly dug into my The Incredible Years training and decided she needed some major rewarding and positive reinforcement when she didn't pee in her car seat. Now every time she gets out of the car dry I give her a mini M&M. Two days into this plan so far she hasn't gone again.

Now I just need to figure out how to get the icky pee small out of the seat of my car. Welcome to my real life.

The Tooth Fairy

On Halloween evening Shane lost his first tooth.

That tooth, along with one other one had been holding on for dear life for a couple months. His big teeth had already started to come through behind his little baby teeth. He was a classic case of "shark mouth". The thought of losing his teeth frightened him on many levels. He was anxious about the possibility of blood, the thought of any pain and uncomfortableness (even though he expressed how painful it was to eat with them so loose) and the whole idea of change/transition from baby teeth to big teeth.

Halloween day I said to him. That tooth has to come out today. It was laying sideways. I told him how cool would it be to remember that your first tooth came out on Halloween.

As we ate dinner at Jimmy Johns after trick or treating in downtown Kirkland, Shane took a bite of his sandwich. Kenny noticed it first, as he spit his bite out and started looking for his tooth. Then a bit of blood came and Shane lost it.

 

Happy and sad all at once.

The baby tooth.

Because he was having such a hard time getting his teeth out. He was told that the Tooth Fairy leaves an extra special surprise for your first lost tooth. That night he received a lego set and $1 from her. He was so excited and couldn't believe that she knew he liked legos.

When I encouraged him to pulled his second loose tooth out and the Tooth Fairy would return. He told me, but she'll only leave me $1 this time. Ah, kids!

Here he is before he lost both teeth.

Here he is with both teeth out. He doesn't even have any holes since his big teeth are already at least half way in.

Wordless Wednesday {Adorable Helper}

The Lid Game

Our Toddler Group recently had a large amount of Starbucks oatmeal lids donated to them. A Mom found out they were about to be thrown away so she sagged them up thinking someone may have a good use for them.

I thought and thought about ways to use these lids. I wanted to create something out of them. For awhile I tossed around the idea of some sort of ornament. Then one day I was looking on Pinterest for sight word games. I saw something done with little dixie cups and instantly knew what I was going to do with them.

There is where The Lid Game was invented.

I took the list of Shane's sight words that is he learning in Kindergarten, cut out circles of paper, wrote the words on the circles and then taped them to the top of the lid.

Hold on...here comes the best part. I then hid surprises under the lid. I mix it up each time we play, but some ideas are: jelly beans, M&M's, mini M&M's, coins, small plastic animals, shiny rocks (from his rock collection) legos...which he then built something out of afterwards, and erasers. You can use anything that fits under the lid and that your kiddo finds exciting.

We started out with candy, but Shane LOVED this game so much we played 5 rounds of it the first time. After the first two times I switched it up to other items besides candy and he still loved playing. We play this every couple of days and he is really making progress on his sight words.

After he gets really good at the words I take them off and put new/harder words on the lid tops.

Of course Sister needed her version of the game as well. On hers I put colors, shapes and numbers.

If you can't get your hands on a handful of Starbuck's oatmeal lids, you can use dixie cups, silo cups, or little containers that you can't see through. 

Menu Monday

This is a week of meetings. Sometimes it just falls that way. Four of five evenings this week I a related work meeting or event. The day that I don't have something is the one evening Kenny has something. Luckily, I'm don't have to be any where until 7pm, so I'm able to still feed the fam and not miss much before the kiddos head to bed.

Monday -- Baked Penne (we didn't have that last week)

Tuesday -- leftovers

Wednesday -- White Chicken Enchiladas (yeah...we didn't have that last week either)

Thursday -- leftovers

Friday -- One Pot Black Beans and Rice

Saturday -- leftovers

Sunday --  Breakfast for Dinner (it's become our Sunday thing)

Halloween {2013}

We had a great Halloween this year. The kids are at a perfect age to enjoy this silly holiday.

I started out the morning by helping to coordinate Shane's kindergarten class' party. 

I had a ton of help and almost every kiddo had a parent there...

which in the end may have made it a bit more hectic, but fun none-the-less.

I wasn't sure how Shane was going to take having me in the classroom, but he rocked it. 

He waved good bye while I set up and he went to recess. 

He rotated through his stations with out me and smiled and had fun along the way.

Sitting next to his buddy Callum.

After nap time we went to downtown Kirkland and hit up a bunch of stores.

 I love going down there since it is during the day time and it isn't very crowded.

Famous coyote and cow in Kirkland. 

The kids love when they get dressed up for different holidays. 

We had came home to regroup and wait for the dark. Then headed out to our neighborhood for some more trick or treating.

Could she be any less excited?

He certainly has the picture pose down.

You think she'll figure out the picture pose soon?

What?! Daddy you are scary!!

Adalyn says, take that off, Daddy. I don't like that.

Checknig to make sure it really is Daddy.

Trick or treating was great. The weather was perfect. 

Shane went door to door by himself and little sister went running up after him each time.

Check out that loot.

They each got one piece before bed.

After eating her piece, she then lined them all up. Hilarious!!

The following morning, each kiddo got to pick 10 pieces of candy and the rest got donated to Shane's school where it will be sent off to soldiers over seas. Certainly NO need to have all that in our house. They kids were happy to donate it and didn't even ask for a piece of candy today. Well, actually, I do think sweet tooth Adalyn asked for some at breakfast, but not after that big flat no, did she try again.

Real Life Friday

This weeks edition of "real life Friday" isn't necessarily about a messy, unorganized or dirty house, but more about what real things happen while living with children.

My dear almost 3 year old Daughter LOVES to write. She recently lost writing privileges in her bedroom after an incident with her favorite blue highlighter. She neatly wrote with it all over her walls and dresser. She very well knows pen, marker, crayon, etc goes on paper. She just had a bit too much freedom and took her love of writing to the walls.

I have tried not to completely ban the usage of pens in our house because I think writing and drawing are very age appropriate and something she needs to be doing. Yes, I could say only write up at the counter, but "real life" happens and that just is difficult to enforce.

Early this week I discovered 7 circles on the back of our couch. I directed my attention to our little writer in the family. The story seems that while Daddy was out running one morning and Mommy was still sleeping, Adalyn and Shane were watching their morning TV. During this time she took it upon herself to decorate our couch.

7 circles

Her reaction when asked who did it.

Cleaning up the crime.

Baby wipes work great on all things ink related. 

With some help from Mommy the pen marks came right out. 

I'm sure it won't be our last pen incident.....