Little Girl is Growing Up!

So, since this blog is about our daily life, I feel it's necessary to update everyone on what's happening around here.

For the past few days, Ariana has been potty training.

It all started on Saturday when she refused to put on a diaper after her morning change. I gave in and let her run around without the diaper just to see what she would do. In a matter of 30 minutes, she had two accidents and refused to sit on the potty after each one. At that point I decided the diaper was going back on. She wasn't ready and I didn't want to force her.

Then on Sunday we had the same issue once her morning diaper change came around. At that point I decided to up the ante to see if I could entice her to sit on the potty. I went through my stash of left over candy and found a few lollipops, I showed them to her and explained that if she went potty, she could have one. Well, that didn't go over so well and 20 minutes of screaming followed. But, after those 20 minutes were over, she walked into the room, sat on the potty, and made her first pee. All by herself. I only knew she had gone when I heard her laughing and went to check on her. She was so excited when she got to have her lollipop.

Since then, she has gone on the potty all but one time (last night we were outside playing and after we came in she had an accident). Each time she has gone, it has been unprompted. We leave the bathroom door open so she can go in whenever she needs to to go.

The only issue we are having right now is the fact that she is clueless when she wears underwear. She hasn't yet learned that she needs to take them off before she goes, so she has been holding it in. Each time I try to teach her, a huge fit ensues (we're in that stage, oh joy). So, for now, she just runs around the house naked and goes as she pleases. I'm hopeful that in the next few weeks she'll have everything down and we can call this a success.

Catching up

So, when I left off we were at the beginning of December and I was working towards our advent calendar goals. I'm happy to say that we did accomplish most of them. Unfortunately, all of us were sick at one point or another so a few of them had to be crossed off the list. I wish I could post pictures of all the fun things we did, but I still don't have my camera. Hope to get one soon since that's the main reason why I don't post as often as I'd like to. When I read blogs, I like to look at pictures, not just read words. Oh well, moving on.

Now it's 2013 and we're almost through the month of January. How did that happen?

I didn't make any New Year Resolutions this year, however I have decided to take better care of myself. I don't want to call that a resolution because I'm afraid I'll fail if I give it that title. Crazy? I know.

In an effort to take better care of myself I plan to eat healthier and get active. Currently I'm a bump on a log. Sad to admit, but that's where I need to start. Since I stay at home with Ariana, I don't get out much. She's such a handful when I do, that I usually end up regretting taking her anywhere. Gosh, that sounds so bad.

I also plan to eat better. We all need to. There's no reason for us to eat fast food most nights of the week. I'm home, I should cook more. And that's just what I'm going to do. So far this week I've made some pretty yummy meals. Yummy enough, even the littles will eat it. Yay!

Also, (on a happier note) I just found this pinned on Pinterest!! To me that's such a huge accomplishment. I wish I could figure out how to add the "Pin It" button onto my pictures. If anyone out there knows how, could you please explain it to me in very simple terms. I just can't understand the directions Pinterest gives me, haha.

Other than that, we're having a wonderful start to 2013 and I hope that continues throughout the rest of the year. I also hope that each of you (whoever may be reading this) will also have a very wonderful year.

Advent Calendar: Day 1

Tonight, A and I (J isn't here) made a handprint wreath. I decided to do this on a night J wasn't here because we already have one that he made back in 2010 that we hang every year. I thought it would be nice for A to make one that matches his.

Advent Calendar

Earlier this year I decided I didn't want to buy gifts (toys) for my children for Christmas. That may sound horrible to some, but I have my reasons.

First, they have enough crap. Seriously. I can't walk into their rooms without tripping all over the the toys they already have.

Second, I want them to understand that it's not about the gifts. I don't want to raise greedy kids who think they should get the newest and greatest toy just because it's Christmas. It's about spending time with family and being thankful for what you already have.

With that said, I decided to do an advent calendar this year that focuses on doing things (and spending time) as a family. Since I only have J every other week, I made sure to schedule the activities that would impact him the most for the days he's here.

For instance, donating a toy. I've talked to J a lot about how blessed he is to have what he does. I know my kids don't have everything they've always wanted, but they do have a lot. And definitely more that many kids out there whose family can't afford anything. So this year I'm taking the kids to the store to pick out a special toy to donate to a local charity.

There will also be a lot of activities that focus on spending time doing special activities around town. I guess I've been living under a rock all these years, because I never knew so many things were happening this time of year.

I wish I could show you my calendar that I've spent the past week working on (at night after the kiddos went to sleep) but I haven't quite finished it yet. I was hoping to have it done by the first, but time slipped away. So, once I get it finished I'll update with a photo. Oh, and speaking of photos, I somehow lost my camera so all of the photos I plan to upload over the next few weeks will be from my phone, so their quality will be lacking. Sorry.

Fun at the park

Yesterday, A and I decided to spend a nice mommy/ daughter day together. We had plans to go to story time first, but since it wasn't meant for littles, we decided to go to the park instead. It was such a nice day out (in the lower 70s), so I knew some much needed outside time would be the best bet for us.

This was the same park we had A's party at just a few weeks ago, and ever since then she has requested we go play with the dinosaurs. Here she is giving her dinosaur friend some love.

 Next, it was time to "drive" the firetruck. I was impressed that she was able to climb in and get it to rock, all on her own.

 After that, it was on to her favorite activity while at the park. The swings! She would stay in there all day if I let her. I let her swing for a little while before we moved on to the next fun thing.

 

I tried to get her to climb up onto the merry-go-round with me, but she just wasn't having it today. Instead she decided to play in the water left from the light rain that morning. Here she is acting innocent... mommy knows better.

Of course, keeping her away from the swings didn't last long and she soon requested for more pushing. With a face like that, how could I resist? But this time she requested that I swing, too. Again, how could I say no?

 

After a while of side-by-side swinging she was ready to move on. Now she wanted to go play with her friend, dinosaur. I actually have a really cute video of her telling the dinosaur to "move," but I'm not sure how to upload it yet.

Then we come to the end of our park play date. Sadly it didn't end the way I had hoped. My plan was for A to slide down the slide a few times and then we'd get in the car to go home. So, she climbed up the steps to the top, I took this cute picture, and then she acted like she was going to slide. However, instead of sliding (which I was waiting for on the other side) she turned around to go back down. I guess she turned too fast and proceeded to fall all the way down the steps. She was only about three feet up, but in my eyes she fell 30 feet! I quickly picked her up, checked her for any injuries, kissed the ones I could find, then got in the car to go home.

An Under the Sea Party

A few weeks ago (sorry for late posting) we had A's second birthday party.

We were so lucky that it turned out to be such a beautiful day. I remember last year it was so hot, no one wanted to go outside (we had the party at our apartment). I knew we wouldn't be able to host the amount of people we were expecting at our apartment this year, so we decided to do it at a park in town instead.

This was a different park than we did J's party at, so it was new to me. A few days before the party, A and I went up there to scope the place out. That's when I realized that a few projects I had planned weren't going to work and I had to tweak them a bit.

But, enough about that. Now lets see some pictures...

 

This is an ABC book I made for A as a gift. It's filled with a few of her

pictures from the past two years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the beautiful birthday girl

 

After all of her friends arrived all A wanted to do was play, play, play! Her favorite activity of the day... swinging on the three seater swing.

 

I hope you had as much fun reading about her party as I did planning and creating it.

 

 

 *Ocean printables found here*  *ABC book purchased here*

*Crab cake tutorial found here*  *Fish bowl tutorial found here*

*Sushi tutorial found here*  *Octo-dogs tutorial found here*

*Banner purchased here*

Happy Halloween



I cannot believe it is November already. How did that happen?

I had a lot of fun this year with the kid's costumes. I let J pick out the theme again this year and he decided on Star Wars after he saw a Darth Vader costume at the store. I knew I couldn't make one better so I forked over the $20 and called it a day. Of course, then we went on the search for a light saber. The cheapest one we could find was $10. I know that's not a lot, but I really wanted to keep cost down so I tried to come up with something different. My search led me to the Halloween accessories aisle where I found a foam sword. Then with a few cuts to make it look more "saber" like and a nice coat of red paint we were set. I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out, and for $2, you can't beat that.

 

With J being Darth I decided to make A Princess Leia (original, huh?). After doing some research (I'm not too familiar with Star Wars, so I wasn't sure what she wore) I decided to make the white dress Leia wore in "A New Hope." I set out in search of an easy pattern for a long sleeve dress and came across this one. I did tweak it a bit to make the sleeves come to a point, but other than that, it is exactly the same (it was so easy to make, I even made another one out of cute Halloween fabric). For the belt I bought a pack of key chains from the jewelry section in Jo Ann's and clasped them together, then tied white ribbon to each end and tied it around her waist. I knew A wouldn't wear a wig, nor would she stand to wear a headband, so I did the next best thing. I put her hair in pigtails but looped the last little bit of hair so it looked like a bun. Easy.

 

Happy Birthday Big Girl!!

That's right, this cutie is 2 years old today!! Time to celebrate :)

 

And here's one of her reaction to her balloon surprise this morning :) She kept pointing and saying "Balloooon!!"

The Big Party

So, on September 15th we finally had J's birthday party. Although his actual birthday was in August, I held off his party until school started, hoping kids would actually show up. Well, that didn't happen. J isn't a very social kid, so I know he doesn't have many true friends in school, but I was hoping that by him handing out the invites near the beginning of school would get to the parents easier. Oh well. We still had a blast with those who did attend.

Now here comes the fun part! All of the details.

I worked on this party for quite a while. I knew (by pushing it back) I would have to manage my time between J's party and A's party (next month) so I wouldn't get behind on either.

Like I've mentioned many times now, I love planning parties. They don't always happen exactly like I plan (but really, what does?) but I still am very proud of my work.

For J's party we decided to have it at a local park. I was origionally worried about the heat but thankfully the weather held out and it was a decent day. We also had plans to go to the splash park after we ate cake and opened presents.

I appoligize that my photos are horrible (and lacking). I'm the worst at taking pictures, especailly at my kids parties. I'm usually the one busy making sure things are going attempting to go as planned. The photos I did manage to take don't really do the party justice, there was so much more than what I was able to capture.

These are the Lego men marshmallow pops that I made. I was very nervous about making them, but I think they turned out super cute. Again, sorry you can't see many of the faces... I was in a hurry taking the picture. I origionally bought two (one for each side of the table) large bowls to fill with M&Ms to use for displaying them, but I didn't buy enough so the pops weren't standing upright. So I decided to put them in a smaller cup I had left over and that seemed to do the trick.

These cups were filled with multi-colored Jell-o. Once they were set out I think half of them were gone the first minute. They were so refreshing on this warm day. I really wanted to attempt to make layered Jell-o but wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing it. I decided to just give it a try and see how it would turn out. I just made one flavor at a time, per package directions, the allowed them to cool. The only thing I did different was I had to do the "quick set" version of the instructions, so they would be ready in time for the party. I also attempted to be even more brave and do a diagonal layer effect. You can't really tell from my crappy picture, but they actually turned out pretty cool. Also, to decorate the cups, I attached to each one a sticker I purchased got for free from vistaprint.

These were popcorn balls that I attempted (and failed). I just couldn't get my proportions of marshmallow mixture and popcorn correct. I think if I had taken better measurements and calculated things out better, they would have turned out great. Needless to say, the few you see gone in the picture were the only ones eaten... I also added in mini M&Ms to add some color. 

Now for decorations. I wanted to keep them simple (and cheap, haha) so I just made some homemade streamers (tutorial found here) that hung from the pavilion rafters. These hung above the tables where everyone sat to eat. Again, this picture doesn't do them justice, you just have to take my word for it :)

Now this was a project I came up with on my own, homemade lego blocks. Basicly I just bought floral foam, tissue paper, and clear beads all from the dollar store. I wrapped the foam in tissue paper and then glued the clear beads on top in a lego-type pattern. Super easy and cost about $5 to make enough for three tables.

Here is a picture of J's banner (that I also got for free from vistaprint!) hanging above his cake I made. I really wanted the cake to be the showcase of the party and I think it was. It makes me so happy to see the excitment on my kiddos face when he gets to see the special things I make for him. It makes it all worth it in the end. It also doesn't hurt when I get the same sentiment from adults, too :)

And here is a picture of the birthday boy with his cake. Yes, the cake was bigger than his head! Six layers to be exact. Also, I plan to do another post about how I made the cake, so stay tuned. You'll never guess what the inside looks like...

 

As far as the other things I did/ made for the party that weren't available for photos when I finally got around to taking them were:

 

Rectangle pizza- cheese and pepperoni (to look like lego bricks)

Lego brick pinata- tutorial here, mine looked just like this one but blue without the pull strings

Homemade rectangle platters for the food- covered in theme matching tissue paper

 

One of the highlights of the party was the science experiment I did with all of the kids. I wanted to do something different, that all of the kids could help with, and I also needed it to fit into baby food jars I had saved to use for J's party. So what did we make? Slime!

 

J and I had made some a few weeks ago as a summer experiment and we both loved it so much. I knew it would be a hit with the kids at the party (ranging from two to nine years old). I also knew I wanted to turn the baby food jars into lego men heads, but didn't want to paint them, incase I decided to put something edible in them. So my solution was to draw faces on each of the jars and then tint the slime yellow.

 

Of course I didn't think the whole project through (color wise) and as we were making it, it looked like runny eggs. The kids loved it but the adults were turning green, haha. I made sure to give each kid a special task to help with the project, then when it was time to mix I allowed them all to put their hands in. The look on their faces when they felt it for the first time was priceless (I guess my memory will have to do for that image). After it was all mixed I divided it equally into all of the jars and sent one home with each of the kids.

 

 

Anniversary Fun

We've had a few busy weeks here in the H household. It's been hard to find time to get everything together to get ready to post. So I figured now is as good of a time as any...

On September 14th, Jamie and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. In a way I can't believe it's been four years already, but then again I can, haha. I'll say that we've had our ups and downs that's for sure, but thankfully we are as strong now as we have ever been.

For this special day we decided to get away. It has been over two years since he and I had a night away just the two of us. I was so excited to be able to spend one-on-one time with my hubby, but I was also sad that I was leaving my baby girl over night for the first time. Yep, she'll be two in 3 weeks (how did that happen!!) and this was the first time I have been away from her for an extended amount of time.

Glad to say we all made it through just fine. A didn't seem to even mind that we were gone.

But back to our fun time away. We decided that we would head down to Orlando on the 12th (since we have to plan trips during weekdays) and come back home on the 13th. We chose Orlando because we have our annual passes to SeaWorld and couldn't pass up "free" fun. But instead of SeaWorld we decided to spend the day at Aquatica (which we also have passes for, but only used once over the past year...).

It took us forever to decide on which hotel we wanted to stay at. Since we don't get away too often, we wanted to make sure our money (and time) was spent best. We finally chose the Monumental Inn and fell in love. It was a very charming hotel and the staff were all warm and welcoming. Since we checked in so late (10 pm) we asked if we could have a late check out. They said sure and asked us what time we wanted to be out! Since we hoped to be at the water park by one, we asked for 1 o'clock and they said okay. Now that's service :) 
 
The next day we were able to get up, grab breakfast, and still have time to go back to the hotel to hang out by the pool, all before we checked out. I can't recall any hotel that I've stayed at that I didn't feel rushed to get out the door in a hurry because it was check out time.

I'm not big on water parks. The only reason we added them to our passes was because J asked to go to the water park last year for his birthday. But I was up for doing something out of the ordinary with my hubby of four years.

I'm proud to say that I rode almost all of the rides! One thing you have to know about me is that I'm extremely afraid of closed/ confined places, so the thought of a tight tube freaks me out. Thankfully, many of the rides at Aquatica were two-seaters, so I was much more willing to ride with the hubs.

After our fun filled day at Aquatica, we decided to head across the street to SeaWorld for a bit (we had an hour until it closed) to check out the new Turtle Trek attraction. Again, I had to confront my fears of closed in spaces and venture into a dark room filled with people to participate in the attraction. It wasn't too bad and I really enjoyed the show. It is by far my favorite thing there now (since the whale shows aren't as exciting as they used to be, but safety comes first).

After we left SeaWorld we decided to have a nice dinner before heading back home. We plugged "sushi" into the navigation and we on our way to a yummy feast.

All-in-all, this was a perfect day to spend with my perfect match. I can't say enough how much I love my husband. He works so hard to provide for our family while I able to stay home with the kiddos. I'm tell you, I'm truly blessed.

The Big 9!!

So during my extremely long absence, my little man turned nine! I wonder if it's still okay to call him little, haha. At this point he's almost up to my shoulders (and I'm tall) and nearly 100 lbs. Not so little any more, but to me he will always be my little man.

Since his birthday is at the very end of summer, we usually have a hard time getting school friends to show up at his parties, so this year we're doing something different. I have decided to push his party back until September so hopefully more kids his age will attend. So as of now, his big party is in two weeks.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but in case I haven't, we're doing a Lego theme this year. I can't tell you how excited J is for this party. He's been a Lego fanatic for as long as I can remember. I will admit, though, that he got his fascination from me. I have fond memories of sitting on the floor playing and building with Legos for hours. Although the Legos of today are nothing like they were when I was young (all of 15 years ago, haha). Now you can buy complete sets (that cost an arm and a leg) and build pre-designed items. I like the concept, but I much prefer to free build, which is why I haven't bought J many sets. That, along with the price tag, plus the fact that they get destroyed as soon as we build it.

But anyways, this post is about his upcoming party. I love to plan parties. If I knew I could do it, I would love to make a career out of it. But for now, I'm all about making this one day super special for my favorite little man.

I've taken to Pinterest a lot for this party. Mainly because I have a vision for what I want, but it's just hard to see it all and Pinterest allows that. Already I have completed a few projects that I have pinned, but I also branched out and created a few of my own. That's the best part for me. Being as creative as I can, even though I may be taking someone elses idea, I try to add my own spin to it.

Another big goal for me is to do this party as cheap as possible (no surprise there, huh?). To me, the less I spend on everything, the more I can do. For that reason I shop for most of my party supplies at the dollar stores. Many of the items may look cheap, but if you add a little creativity to them, they can become really awesome. Oh, I can't wait to share all the fun things I have planned for this party. But it will have to wait for now. I'm having issues uploading photos, so once it's fixed I plan to do posts on each item, so stay tuned.

Hello again

I can't believe how long it has been since I wrote on my blog. I have to say that I've missed it.
Since my last blog post I was given the best gift from my hubby. I'm now the owner of a cool tablet! I'm still getting used to it (this is the longest I've typed on it yet) so I may be little slow with a few extra typos along the way.
Not much has happened here on the home front. We're currently debating on buying our first home. I have to say I'm rather lost in the whole process. I'm not even sure where to start. We don't want to just jump into it so this may be an ongoing topic.
Both of the kiddos are doing great. J's asthma and allergies seem to be under control at the moment. A, however, is testing our patience. She's led me to do research on strong willed children. I know that she's almost two and most kids that age are terrors, but I'm saying this is different.
Also, be on the lookout for more coupon stuff. I'm still going strong and saving a ton of money. Actually, we had a get together for the fourth and served a low country boil for ten for under $100, that includes dessert and drinks (adult included) too.
And because it's been a while, here's a picture of my cuties :)

No motivation

I can't believe how bad I've been when it comes to my blog. I know it's nothing new, I've disappeared may times before, but this time I just don't have it in me to sit here and type anything (well, other than this). There's been so much going on in my personal life, that only a few know about, that I'm finding it hard to focus on other things. I'm still couponing and finding some great deals, but just don't have the desire to type it up. I've also started exercising. I'm currently doing the 30 Day Shred and it's been kicking my butt for the past week or so.

This past weekend we did manage to get out of the house both days and do fun Easter activities. My mom's group got together on Saturday and did a baby only egg hunt, then on Sunday we went to the egg hunt put on by Jamie's work. Both days were a lot of fun, and were definitely needed to take my mind off of the stress going on.

So that's what I've been up to. I'm still here, just not as active.

Random Blah

So, I've been trying to come up with post ideas so I'm not away for very long without posting something, but I just can't seem to come up with anything. I notice that if a post involes pictures, it usually takes me forever to post it. Not sure why, most of my pictures are on the computer. I guess it's because Blogger is such a pain in the butt when it comes to posting pictures just the way I want them. I've had to become very familar with the HTML format of this blog just to post my pictures from Christmas.

As of lately I've been focusing most of my attention on coupons (as mentioned here). I've been able to score some pretty good deals which I hope to brag about some more soon, once I have my loot. I did do a trip already this week, and plan to go back out tomorrow for more. It's slowly becoming an addiction to find a good deal.

I've been slacking on posting my photos for the Photo 366 Project, but I am taking them. They're all on my computer, just waiting to be edited and then I'll have them up. I'm enjoying looking through all of the photos and being able to remember each day like it was yesterday. I can definately see me taking that away from this project, many special memories with my family.

Also, I'm starting a new project tomorrow. I will finally have an office! I'm so excited. I found this blog while searching Pinterest one day and fell in love with her closet office. So last month I decided to clear out Jamie's closet (we have a his and hers) and move all of his stuff into mine. This then motivated me to go through all of my clothes and get rid of the items I know I haven't worn in months, if not years. Ahh, for little accomplishments. So look forward to seeing some photos as things come along.

Christmas Photo Dump

In my attempt to do a (very late) Christmas recap post, I have decided to just post all of my pictures followed by a quick little detail about each one. As I mentioned in my last post, we had a very busy holiday season. Just about every weekend was filled with an activity. Then the two weeks around Christmas we went to Sea World, not once, but twice (once was just Jamie and I). So here you go, I hope you like pictures because I have a ton of them...

First was the Smores and Cocoa party at my sister's house. I was able to steal these pictures that each of my sisters' took.

A wearing her antlers, enjoying a snack

She loved the swing

Wheee

I guess she wanted to go outside

A wasn't too fond of this Minnie the Snowoman

Here are some random Christmas related photos

This was the first (and last) time
A was this close to the tree

She loved the antlers so much,
she wouldn't take them off

Thursday before Christmas we decided to take a trip to Sea World. We knew we wanted to go for their Christmas themed festivities, but we weren't sure exactly when we would go. Then I stumbled upon a great hotel deal, a $350 room for $50!! Since the deal ended on Christmas, we decided to pack up the kiddos and head down before. 

It was so hot the days we were there. There was a time we became concerned about A since she wasn't willing to drink much water, but in the end we all were fine and had the time of our lives. Seriously, it was an experience we will never forget, and may even try to do again next year. 

Attempted a picture of
both of them

Trying to get a picture in
front of the whale

A and J in front of the HUGE tree

Posing with the snowman

Standing in front of the "Sea of Lights"

So handsome

The "Sea of Lights" just before the show

J wasn't quite sure what to think of them

A loved the penguin that was her size

Shamu show at night

Acting goofy on the Toy Soldier's stool

A and J playing in the hotel lobby before day two

A was playing with our park map

J was showing me that she ripped it

J in front of the penguin wall

Waiting in line to see Santa after riding
the Polar Express

"Sea of Lights" during the day

Such goofy boys

Me and my #1

Writing a note to Santa

What he wrote

Sesame Street Christmas

A really loved this show, J even enjoyed himself

The only character she would go to by herself

Taking a break (to cool off)
in the baby care room

The opening of "O Wondrous Night"
one of the best shows we saw

The end of the show, definitely a standing ovation earned

The Toy Soldier goofing with A

This is the giant otter elf
that Jamie won for me

Once we were back home, we had a day to recover before Christmas morning. By now, we were all exhausted, but looking forward to spending it with family. Unfortunately, J woke up at 3am Christmas morning with a severe asthma attack, so it was late before we all settled into bed for the night. Thankfully, Santa understood and made a special late trip to our house.

Christmas tree pancakes

A Christmas morning

J Christmas morning

She had a blast opening her presents

Just what he asked for

One of the best games, we played
this for about 3 solid hours that night

A laptop

A was just as interested in
J's new Hot Wheels track

Lesson learned, never give a foam ball
to a toddler...

Her gift from Santa and definitely her favorite

A and J's ornaments from Sea World