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...

Catching Up...

My plan for this post is to share the photos that I have uploaded tonight from my camera which encompass Amelia's first birthday, our trip to San Antonio from this past weekend and our Trick or Treating adventures from tonight... With that being said, I don't plan for a lot of words... Mostly just photos!! Enjoy!!

First up... On Friday we celebrated Amelia's birthday a day early since we would be in San Antonio for her actual first birthday... Here she is!!











Friday evening we drove to San Antonio, ate some dinner and went to bed. Saturday morning we got up and headed to a really great children's museum!!

Amelia hanging out in the pretend airplane. :-)






After we left the children's museum, we headed over to Sea World... We didn't get very many photos there, but here are a few!!







Sunday morning we got up and headed to Randolph Air Force Base for the air show. The girls didn't last long at the air show, but had fun checking out the planes for a couple of hours!! :-)







Tonight, we went out with some of our friends to Trick or Treat. The kids had a ball, and we had fun hanging out with our friends, too!! After Trick or Treating, our neighbor had us over for pizza. We had a GREAT night!! :-)






We've been having a lot of fun lately!! Next up is our whirlwind weekend... We. Can't. Wait! :-) Love you guys!!