Another Two Blog Night

Can you believe it?!?! I was on blog hiatus for SO long, and now every time I post, I make multiple posts!! HaHaHa.

Tonight, after making the busy bottles for the girls, I decided to make some quick and easy necklaces for them too... M's has Tinkerbell on it (of course) and A's is just plain and simple. I like them so much, I may make one for myself, too!! :-)

Here's a photo of the necklaces!!


G'night... This momma better get some rest!! 6:30 will be here EARLY!!

Love you guys!!

Busy Bottles

Hi Everyone! I've completed another project that I found on Pinterest!! I think the girls will really like this one. I am saving these for our road trip to Arkansas, so I won't have a review from them for another couple of weeks. I made them a little different from one another... based on their ages.

For Amelia, I put dice, PomPoms, glitter, foam shapes and some jeweled butterflies in a plastic bottle. Then, I filled the bottle with water. She can shake it and hear the dice rattling around, watch the glitter fall and the PomPoms spin around. I am hoping for at least 10-20 minutes of entertainment with this one... We'll see... If not, it was a super inexpensive project, so I'm not out much!!

For Maddy, I put all the same things in her bottle, but I filled it with rice. This makes it a look-and-find bottle. She can shake it and tell me what all she sees... There's even a Tinkerbell button hiding in there!!

Once I filled the bottles, I glued the lids on with Super Glue... No need to tempt fate with spillage in the car!! HaHaHa...

Here is a photo of the bottles!!


I hope everyone's week got off to a good start!! Talk to you soon!! :-)

Love you guys!!

Girls Week

Bryan has been out of town this week, so it's just been the girls and me... Oh, and that silly ole dog we have!! ;-) I have been trying really hard to involve the girls in our dinner arrangements since that's usually the toughest time of the day when I'm flying solo. I have been so excited about our meals this week, and M has been too. Here's what we've had so far...

Monday we ate like Mermaids... I made sushi sandwiches and they had Goldfish and sea shells with them. The sushi sandwiches were just PB&J, but I used the rolling pin and flattened the bread first, then rolled them up and sliced them so they looked like sushi. The "sea shells" were mandarin oranges. M was SO excited about this meal!! She had 3 sushi sandwiches!!! When I make her a PB&J normally, she eats the equivalent of 1 sandwich. I couldn't believe that changing the shape made such a huge difference!!!

Tuesday I just did baked chicken with fruit salad and bread, but M got to help make the fruit salad. I marinated the chicken in some salad dressing and just baked it in the oven... Nothing special, but it tasted good. I cut up all the fruit then had M help me put it in the bowl and stir it. The bread was just some hamburger buns I had in the fridge (we used up all the bread with our sushi sandwiches) that I toasted and put butter on. I cut them into strips (thanks for the idea, Mom), and the girls loved that!! Another successful meal!!

Wednesday I made mini bagel pizzas. M was very into the TV show she was watching and chose not to help with these, but she certainly could have helped!! I just opened the bagels, put a little sauce, pepperoni, black olives and cheese on them, then baked them for about 5 minutes. SUPER easy and the girls LOVED it!! We had grapes as a side dish. They both ate more than I ever expected them to!!

Tonight I made a ham steak, fruit and bread. A ate more of the ham than I did. I cut the steak in half intending for the girls to share one half and I'd eat the other half. M ate one little strip of their half and A ate the rest. When I saw how quickly she was devouring it, I slowed down on my half and ended up giving A about a 1/3 of my half!!! It was crazy!!! I think I may have found a new favorite for A!!! M said she didn't like "regular ham" whatever that means!! Maybe she'd prefer the lunchmeat variety?!?! Either way, they both ate another great dinner!!

Bryan should be home in time for dinner tomorrow night, so it's going to be a Papa Murphy's night for us!! I have DVR'd a couple of movies this week, so we may do pizza and a movie with the girls!!

We're all looking forward to having Daddy home tomorrow! We've done a little "FaceTime" with him on the phone while he's been away. FaceTime is the Apple version of Skype which we can do from our phones. Both of the girls have LOVED getting to see him! They both got to tell him good night tonight. It's so sweet to watch their faces light up when they see him! M likes to tell him all about her day and her toys (as if he doesn't know what toys we have). His only complaint is that he gets motion sick when she carries the phone around while talking. HaHaHa.

Well, I never imagined that I'd have enough for TWO blogs tonight, but I did!! To tell the truth, one of my projects has to be put on hold until Bryan gets home because I need a couple of 20 ounce soda bottles, and I've been trying to lay off the soda lately. I tried water bottles, but the opening isn't large enough for my project, and I didn't make it to the craft store today, so the other projects that are on deck will have to wait!! Wonder if we'll get out the door early enough tomorrow to get some more supplies?!?! :-)

Ok, well, I'll end this now!! I just wanted to share our week of fun food with everyone!! Talk to you later!!

Love you guys!! :-)

PUZZLES!!!

As promised, here's a quick post to show you my next craft endeavor...

We FINALLY got orders for our move to Little Rock, so I'm in full fledged move mode now!! Part of moving with a 1 year old and a 3 year old is packing the car. The drive from Corpus to Little Rock will take roughly 12 hours. We plan to split the drive into 2 days... The debate is still on as to how to split the drive. One of us feels that we should hit the road in the afternoon the first day and make that the "short day". The other of us feels that we should do the "long day" first, so the second day is not quite so torturous for the kiddos. It'll be interesting to see how the cards all play out. With that being said, activities in the car for the girls is a MUST. This will be the first time that I've driven any real distance with the girls alone. Bryan will be in his car caravan-ing, but I won't have anyone (Hi Mom!) to help me entertain, feed, tend to the kids. This is where the creativity MUST start!! I have lots of ideas for M. She's pretty easy to entertain since she's a little older and understands that if she throws something on the floor, it's gone until we stop. A, on the other hand, hasn't quite grasped that concept yet. LoL. It will be an interesting couple of days to say the least!!

This project is for M. As I mentioned, ideas come easier for her as her skills are much more advanced. I saw this idea on Pinterest, and added my own little twist to it... I made Popsicle Stick Puzzles!! All I did was print photographs, glue them to large Popsicle sticks and cut them apart. This gives M something big to hold onto and also keeps the photos from getting too bent, etc. The twist I added was putting a strip of magnet on each of the Popsicle sticks. Then, I bought a small cookie sheet at Wal*Mart so they had somewhere to stick!! She now has 3 new Popsicle stick puzzles that will stick to the cookie sheet so they aren't sliding all over the place in the car!! I also took a puzzle that I made for the treat bags for A's Bubble Guppies birthday party and put magnets on the back of those pieces to make another puzzle. M has 4 new magnetic puzzles to occupy some of her time in the car for the long drive!! I hope she LOVES them!!

Oh, and I was worried that since the photos didn't have a lot of color variation, they may be a little tough for her (she IS only 3), I numbered the Popsicle sticks (a different color for each puzzle) so that she can have that as a little "crutch". The LAST thing I want is for her to get frustrated while I'm trying to drive and can't help her!!! That wouldn't be fun for ANYONE!!! :-)

So, here are the puzzles!!!




Sorry they aren't all oriented correctly... Blogger wouldn't let me turn them... ;-)

I have another project that I did this week, but the recipient hasn't seen it yet, so once it's unveiled, I'll see if I can get a photo of it... :-)

Hope you've had a great week!! It's almost the weekend!!! :-)

Love you guys!!

New Dresses!!!

Hi!! This may be some sort of a record for me as of lately... ANOTHER blog?? Already?? :-)

I have been scouring the website Pinterest lately. For those of you that aren't sure what Pinterest is, it's a type of social networking site where people can "pin" on "boards (virtual cork boards)" items that they have found on the Internet that they like. Some are do it yourself projects. Some are recipes. Some are just things they like that they would like to buy. As you peruse the site, you can, in turn, re-pin anything you see that you like. It's basically a digital idea book that you create for yourself. The danger of this site is that you can spend hours "pinning" things, but never going any farther. I have been guilty of this as of lately, so I've decided to start actually doing some of the projects I've found. Here is one that I did last night. This literally took me an hour and a half of my time... And now each of the girls have new sweater dresses!!

I had some old sweaters in the closet that I do not see myself wearing anymore, so I converted them to dresses for the girls. I am going to re-do the hem on A's dress because I am not thrilled with the way it looks, but other than that, I am pretty pleased with how they turned out!! Without further adieu, here they are!!!





As one of my friends put it in her blog when she made a similar dress for her sweet little girl, "I love my children so much. I would give them the shirt off my back. Or, you know, the old crappy one in the back of my closet that I don't wear anymore." HaHaHa. I couldn't have said it better myself!! No, really, to be able to re-purpose something like this is GREAT!! Maddy is very much into wearing dresses right now, so this is right up her alley!! :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!! Hopefully I'll be up to some more "Pinteresting" soon, and I'll have more to blog about!! :-)

Love you guys!

Part Deaux!!

No sooner did we get home from Kelly's wedding, it was time to load up in the family truckster and start the road trip to end all road trips... We left our house on December 15 and headed towards Atlanta for the big Towhey family extravaganza!! We had SO MUCH FUN!! I couldn't believe that every single person was there!! All of my mom's brothers, each of their wives, every one of their children, every spouse that has been added to the family and their children (ok, that means Maddy & Amelia)!! I think the final head count made it to 30!! The food was outstanding, and the company was even better!! I wish I could say "let's do it again next year", but I'm afraid that the Williams family won't be making it for a couple of years... Anyway, here's the big family photo!! I know that most of you have seen it, but I do have a few readers (Hi Tara!) who haven't, so here it is!!



After the extravaganza, we all piled back in the trusty 'ole Acadia for a drive to Charlotte where we spent Christmas with my parents and my dad's parents. We had a great visit!! We didn't take too many photos as we were busy spending time together!! Here are a few that we DID get, though...


Maddy helped Grandmom bake Christmas cookies this year...



She didn't like the sound of the mixer...



Ironically, Amelia thought the sound of the mixer was hysterical!!



This crazy girl liked the taste of flour... Ewww!!



She decorated like a PRO!!



Amelia thoroughly enjoyed the final product!!



The girls all dressed and ready for Christmas Eve mass..


Our sweet little family...


The girls with my dad's parents


We put out cookies for Santa!! Guess who is excited?!?!



We left Charlotte on the 26th and headed to Franklin where we obviously had too much fun because I realized while writing this blog that I have absolutely no photos of our time there. I think there are a few on my phone, but I haven't uploaded those to the computer... While we were there, though, we went to Cheekwood and saw a really cool train exhibit (Thomas the train was even there), we had breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, and Bryan, Maddy, Jay, Jenny and Chris went to a Predator's Hockey game!! We had a really great time!

We left Franklin on the 31st and started our long drive home. We stopped for lunch in Memphis and met up with Bryan's friend from college, Josh. It was great to get to see him!! New Year's morning we stopped in Dallas to visit with Breezy at the COOLEST McDonald's (thanks for finding it, Breezy)!! I think we were there for 2 hours!! I LOVED getting to see her and catch up even though it wasn't a long enough visit (Is there such a thing??)!! After that we finished our drive home and have been recovering ever since!!

I think that catches us up... We are now in pre-moving mode!! We're getting everything organized for our move to Little Rock!! We can't wait to catch up with some of our friends there!! After that, GERMANY HERE WE COME!!! I'll try to post again soon, but let's not all hold our breath!! I love you guys way too much to harm you in any way!! HaHaHa!!

Love you guys!! :-)

I'm Back!! (Part 1)

Apparently I have too much to say for just one blog... Or at least that's what blogger says, so here's part 1... Part 2 to follow VERY shortly!! :-)

One of my dear, sweet friends from college (Hi Tara!) mentioned to me the other day that she has no idea what's going on in our lives, so I promised I'd blog soon!! Bryan has asked me to hang out in our bedroom tonight so he can use the kitchen table to wrap my birthday gifts. Who am I to argue with THAT?!?! So, here I am... Nothing better to do than catch everyone up!! :-)

My last blog was on Halloween. I could say that not much has happened since then, but I'd be a BIG FAT LIAR!! TONS has happened since Halloween!!! My life is pretty much written by the photos I take, so I'll just browse through my photo folder on here and update you!! Here goes nothing...

I was commissioned to take the photo for Bryan's class. They came up with the idea, and the girls and I just showed up to "make it happen". I think it turned out pretty good...


Next up was our Whirlwind Weekend... During this particular weekend, we celebrated Bryan's winging (yay for finally getting those pilot wings), Bryan's birthday, Amelia's birthday and Amelia's baptism. Wow! I just got tired all over again thinking about the weekend... Bryan's parents and Granny came to celebrate with us along with my parents. We all had such a GREAT time!! I wouldn't have traded the weekend for ANYTHING!! I think Bryan and Amelia were pleased with their respective celebrations as well!!

Bryan blowing out his birthday candles:



The TC-12... Oh & Bryan and me!! :-)



Pinning on those wings baby!!!




My dad giving the simulator a whirl...



Bryan's mom giving it a go!!


The birthday princess!!



THE CAKES!!! Isn't my mom amazing?!?! Why do I not have these crafty skills?? LoL...



Amelia's Baptism...



Dave & Loren (Amelia's stand-in Godparents since Chris & Kelly couldn't make it to the baptism), Father Menza (can we take him with us when we move?!?!), Amelia, me and Bryan after the baptism!!



Next up was Thanksgiving weekend. The four of us flew to Atlanta to celebrate the holiday. Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving, but my sweet sweet cousin Kelly got married (Hi Kel!)!! Maddy was the MOST ADORABLE flower girl (if I say so myself), and I did a pretty good job as a bridesmaid... Here are a few photos from the event...

Doesn't she look WAY too grown up here?!?! Ugh... How will I ever make it through proms and (gasp) her wedding day?!?!


My handsome hubby and cute-as-a-button Amelia


Maddy and me at the reception



Maddy has SO MUCH fun at the reception!! She is still dancing and talking about it months later!! Here she is dancing to "Come on and ride the train" (one of the highlights of the reception)!!



Time really snuck up on me, and before I realized it, it was time to get our Christmas card photos done. Since I've taken up this photography hobby (and my hubby got Photoshop for my birthday last year), I decided that we'd make our own card this year. As a first stab, I think we did a pretty good job. One of my friends took the photo by the plane, but we took the rest with the tripod and the self timer... Not too shabby... Some of these you may have seen on the Christmas card. The others? Well, they didn't make the cut!! :-)








...To Be Continued...