Loving the Wednesday!

So meet my amazing friend Molly.  You can follow her madness at Between the Scheetz. Luckily for us our boys are around the same age so it's great to hang out and let them run out their energy.  Trust me on days like today I need it.

This morning started out with both the kids waking up to allergies.  We never had a problem with that till we moved out to the midwest.  Me no like.  

Well we all got up medicated and dressed for our day.  Which is going to be a busy and fun day.  We started off with a ladies Mary Kay brunch. The kids all hung out in the play room while us moms got facials.  GREAT fun!  

Then the boys had lunch and are now playing quietly (yes be AMAZED) with themselves.  

Later today Triston has his meet the teacher night at his pre-school.  I am very excited about this and nervous at the same time.  FYI here is one of my "I could be a madwomen" traits.  Am I really ready to let my little guy start school? AH!!! 

This just starts the ball rolling, next it will be cars and dates and college.  I know, I know I am getting ahead of myself.  But I can not help it.  I'm an over thinker.  I am super analytical (which drives my husband MAD).  So I am secretly (well not so much on here, but Triston has no idea) freaking out that my little man is not so little anymore.  

After his meeting we are going to have pizza with Molly and her family.  So in all a wonderful day filled with friends and the beginnings of a new journey.  I hope everyone else is having a great Wednesday!  

Yes I really did that

You know those days where you have no idea where you left your common sense, yep that's me.

Let me tell you what I did....

I'm in the bathroom getting ready for bed time.  I'm in the middle of brushing me teeth and in walks Triston.  At this point I am rinsing out my mouth.  I lean over and pull open the drawer that the toothpaste is in and point to it to show Triston that he needs to go brush his teeth.

All normal until now.


I need to spit out the water I am swishing in my mouth.  What do I do.......spit it out. NOT thinking I am no longer over the sink I'm leaning over the drawer.  DANG ME!  So I have a very clean  bathroom drawer.

Baby Amber

My dear friend JoHanna is getting ready to add another lil blessing into their family and yesterday I was able to attend her baby shower!  It was a lovely party.

The party started off with some light snacks and getting to know the other women attending.  It was a great group of women who were truly excited to be able to celebrate another life being brought into this world.  

Then we played a few party games:

The first was the game where you take the amount of toilet paper you think will fit around JoHanna's belly and the closest wins.  I over shot this by quiet a lot, but tore off the extra quickly to make it too small :)  hehe.  LOVE YOU JOHANNA!!!!

Then we played a game where you were blind folded and had to sift through rice to find baby pins.  I am going to be honest with you, I have never heard of this game and I thought it would be fairly easy….WRONG.  I did not do too well!  But it was a really good idea and great fun.  

Then for the last game she printed off a sheet with baby rhymes that were missing a few key words.  You had to fill in the blanks.  I did ok on this one but there were a few I wasn't too familiar with. Needless to say I won no games.  Haha, poo!  

In between each game she opened a few presents at a time.  Let me tell you JoHanna has some self control, I am not sure I could start and stop, I love opening presents!  She got a lot of cute clothes, a few bottles, diapers, and other great baby supplies.  Little Amber will defiantly be styling.  

Then right before the last game JoHanna dug into her cake.  It was super good, almost like a chocolate iv to your veins.  delish!  It had a little baby on top which was edible.  Of course none of us wanted to eat a baby, but one of the kids realized her this is sugar so it disappeared.  Haha.  I thought that was funny.  

All and all, it was a wonderful time!  I was thrilled to be celebrating with her and I can NOT wait for Amber to make her appearance.  

Under the two pines to the right

Today is a story of true friendship.  Nothing crazy like saving my life from a run away train or anything.  I feel amazingly blessed to have the chance in meeting people I would normally not come across in life.

Yesterday my friend Katie and I went on a fabric mission.  We live in a rather rural city and do not have many places to get fabric.  So here we go on a minor road trip about 30 east of us.

Katie comes over to my house and we pack up the kids in my car and head out.  I saw there was a letter box on the way to where we were headed.  You can not just pass up a letter box right? Exactly.  Katie says she is down.....

Picture if you will:

• Truck rest stop on side of highway
• Abandoned car rest stop
• Hill full of pines
• 2 women; 3 kids

It was a nice day weather wise, warm not too hot.  We are running around this abandoned side of the truck stop with kids in tow.  We finally get a brace on the direction to head and its down a hill and in the trees. So I say I will head down look for the box and bring it up.  

30 minutes later.....

NOTHING!  Katie and I are looking through all these trees making sure kids don't roll down the hill. All the while she is holding her son because he is only 1. So we are going nuts knowing this box is supposed to be somewhere but we CAN NOT find it.  Finally we throw in the towel both a little bummed but we had a great time trying to find it.  

On our way home from our fabric adventures I can not be but grateful for the friends God has placed in my life.  Finding a kindred soul who is down for running through fields to find a stamp and a pad of paper. Even though the "treasure" we were originally looking for was never found we found a better treasure in forming of an amazing friendship.  

Sprouting the future

Let me be honest with you, I do not have a green thumb.  Well unless I am wearing my gardening gloves, they in fact are green.  Maybe its my way of deceiving my brain to think my flowers will actually grow.  If it helps it helps right?  

One of our tabs was to plant flowers in the front yard.  We needed to spruce it up some. I have tulips that come up in the spring but the rest of the year it looks like a well weeded pile of dirt.  We went to out local hardware store and I let Triston pick out the flowers he liked and we headed home to plant them.  

Planting was fun I did most of the work but Triston enjoyed playing in the dirt, what 4 year old boy doesn't.  Then we watered our new flowers and I said a silent prayer that they live and Will will like them.   I think we did a great job!  

Now I will leave you with conversations from my son: 

Right before this conversation I was getting my kids breakfast ready.  Not even talking to Triston about anything important.  Then he states this:

Triston: "Mom I am not letting you teach me anymore, you are teaching me how to do it wrong."

Me: "Ok, Triston what exactly am I teaching you?"

Triston: "OH YEA TOUGH GUY!" 

What argument isn't ended with such random statements? 

We were watching a Disney movie and I got my Disney World itch that hits me every 15 minutes and this is the conversation that followed:

Me: "Triston, lets go to Mickey Mouses house right now!"

Triston: "You mean right now?"

Me: "Yes, right this minute."

Triston: "Can I bring my pizza?"

Never forget the important things in life, like your pizza. 

Fishing With Andi

Family Game Night

Please do not let the title confuse you, we DID NOT actually go fishing.  I am not that brave to take miniature Danielle's that close to water by myself.  Who knows what trouble these two would find and where they would end up if they floated down a river.  Try explaining that to WIll.  

We did however play the very fun fishing game.  If you will travel back to your youth and remember the fishing game where the fish popped up and you had to catch them with your dinky fishing stick.  Well I got one on sale for 5 bucks, you cant say no to that! 

Here we are fishing for pop up fish with Andi, Triston is not interested in the game right now, and she is good for being almost 2.  I mean she can catch these suckers better then I can.  But here is the catch (haha)  she apparently is a big supporter for catch and release.  EVERY time I caught something she stole it and put it back. Such a lil booger, I love it! Then at one point she thought she would change species and do some hillbilly hand fishing.  Yeah I got a lil angler on my hands.  

See why I would never take her to a river by myself, she would just dive and be one with the fish.  

Off to reel the lil ones in for bed!  NIGHT (Couldn't help myself) 

Treasure Hunt

Amazing Day! 

The View from where we found our box

Today we pulled ride bikes in the park.  

 We picked up a lunch, had a picnic and got on our bikes.  It was fun!  The weather was too good to go back home so we decided to go on a treasure hunt.  

Our version of treasure hunt, Letter Boxing  (another site).  If you have never heard of this you are missing out!  Pretty much a treasure hunt of sorts.  People hide a weather proof box that contains a stamp and a pad of paper.  You  then follow the clues to said box with your own stamp and pad of paper.  Once the box is found you stamp the pad of paper in the box leave a note and date you visited.  Then stamp your pad of paper with the stamp in the box.  In my book I say where it was, date, a little note, then there is room on the page to print out a picture we took at the box to remember.  

I found the box after breaking my phone on a rock!

Triston was excited about the stamp but this one had lost its stamp so he was a little mad. But hey" life doesn't always go as planned",  "it's about journey as well as the destination" and all those teaching moments in life.  

If you get a chance to check out letter boxing do you never know what you will find.  People put boxes in places that are amazing and you wouldn't even know about had you not looked.  Go have fun!!!! 

OHHH and the picture of me, compliments of Triston :) 

If you build it...

We Built a Fort!

Yesterday Triston didn't get to build his for his "Daddy Home Chain" so we combined todays movie night with a fort!  I am NOT the fort builder of the family but I think I did a good job of it!  

Lady even agreed that mommy can build a great fort!!! She is loving snuggling up in the blankets.  

Going along with movie night we made homemade pizza.  

While Triston was helping make the pizza Andi thought it would great help to out and do the dishes.  Or at least wear the gloves.  

 You may be wondering how Tristons first Slumber party went.  Well it was an epic fail, I left to late and Triston was too tired and flipped.  So another day for his first sleepover and mommy is not allowed to stay and have a glass of wine.  

Slumber Time

I want everyone to know I am FREAKING OUT!  My lil guy is spending the night at a friends house!

I'm not freaking out too much because I know he is in good hands BUT how is he old enough to do this?

I am very thankful for my friends to have him stay.  He was really missing his dad and Mike is very close to us. He felt that male bonding vibe thats been gone from our place, Triston wouldn't leave him alone (SORRY)!

I know he is going to have a blast, so I am excited for him but WHY DO YOU HAVE TO GROW UP?

I feel there will be no sleep tonight!  

.

a few links off the chain

WELL, We've pulled a few links off the "Daddys home" chain. 

Here are a few photos of us and our fun!  

Here we are making wax paper sun catchers.  I had a little hick-up with shredding the crayons.  But all was saved in the end.  

The next day was a park day!  We had a blast the weather was perfect and the kids got a TON of energy out which was great!!!!!!!!

I made some Chalk Paint for the kids to draw on the concrete with.  I used muffin tins and did 1TBL water/1 TBL corn starch.  Then added a GOOD amount of food coloring.  NOTE:  if you use as much food coloring as I did it might tint your skin if you get some on you and leave it a while.  Not bad, just a slight hue if you will :)

Going along with our chalk day we made a hop scotch.  Triston LOVED this!  

Passing the time

Is it time to go to the airport to pick up daddy?

One thing that is hard when a parent leaves is filling the time while the other is gone.  My son is now old enough to grasp that it will be a while before his dad comes home, but isn't able to understand how long that is exactly.  So to help him I showed him the calendar with "here is today, here is when Daddy gets home".  That was ok but then he kept asking is it August yet?  So we made a construction paper ring chain with as many links as days daddy will be gone.

The craft in its self was fun Triston loves to cut with scissors and we used a stapler to hold them together.  But before I put the chains on I put the day/date on them and added a daily activity to do for the day! I added the day of the week because  on certain days I know I have to do something so the activity on those days I knew to put near/with that day.  Also I am a big lets save money so much activities are free, if not they are under 5 dollars.  

So here are the activities:

• Making wax paper sun catcher
• Park Date
• Chalk Day -Im excited about this because our driveway always looks so fun after
• A trip to Walmart- I planned this to get supplies for any of the others ones I do not have. This day he gets to choose which bubbles he wants, which chocolate chips he wants to bake with, and all that jazz. So its his choice of the things I already planned on the chain.
• Movie night- make popcorn and do a craft related to the movie he chooses in the morning.  
• Plant flowers- we need to plant a few flowers in the front why not make it a fun activity for him.
• Make the living room into a fort- I wanted to do camping outside but we have no tent......so that was out. 
• RIde Bike in the park
• bubble day
• Frozen Discovery  - I tinted the water blue and added some of his own toys. I also used one of the old ice cream buckets I acquired.  
• make a chalk wall- For his Birthday I had gotten a plywood board and taped balloons filled little toys for them to throw darts at (I'll make a blog later about that party as it was super fun).  Well we never got around to using it again so I am going to take some of it paint it with chalk paint and put it up in our house. (so we spare from actually painting a wall, we move every 3 years and our time is up here so that would be no good.)
• Sprinkler day
• Scavenger Hunt
• Make cookies
• GO TO AIRPORT

A few of them I put in the link twice.  But there are a number of possibilities for this.  You can make ones for Christmas with good deeds to do in the spirit of Christmas, till Nana or Grandpa arrive, or for us until we move.  Plus if you live in a bigger city then you have more at your finger tips.  But you can find fun stuff to do where ever.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes :) 

Day of Fun!

 While you were leaving! 

Holding Hands at the Zoo

When we have to go to the airport it's always an event.  We have to drive 2 hours to get there.  Then Andi takes after mommy and gets car sick easily.  It bits!  So if we are ever heading up there we like to make a day of it!  Here are a few pictures of our "see ya in a month daddy" trip.

After we dropped Will off at the airport we headed to the zoo.  I love looking at the animals and the kids love acting like them so it's perfect.  Plus our zoo has free admission, who would pass on that?

Once the kids were done with all the animals we headed over to "pizza planet" aka Chuck-E-Cheese.  I  tend to always thow this place in for my son since he is such a picky eater (pizza only, especially when his dad leaves).  

What I'm thankful for today: fun distractions. 

Zombie what!!!!!!

Well around here we LOVE to listen to music.  If I am doing any sort of chore I have my kicker going and it easily becomes a wonderful dance party!  whoot whoot!!!!!  I hope my children enjoy cleaning because we always have a blast while doing it.

Anyways while listening to this random station that got on my pandora (still haven't figured out how)  I came across this wonderful tune...

Now I have been running to it for the past two weeks and I think its HILARIOUS! Well I normally run on my treadmill while my kids are sleeping or have quiet time but some how Triston has discovered this nice lil tune.  So I have a four year old who is running around my house saying  "nom, nom, nom, nom".

It's great and freaking funny!  So today I am thankful for creative people who take the time to make random songs!!!!!

Llama Llama what?

Well today I am thankful for llamas!  I mean what isn't awesome about spitting at people just because that is what you do.  Haha!  No but for real, I love llamas.  Not because they get away with spitting at people who annoy them, but because they are my random animal.

Llamas have been a random part of my life since one of many college road trips.  My friend Mari and I were driving back to Wilmington and these people had a llama stuffed animal in their window.  Little did they know it sealed the fate of the meaning of llamas in my (and Maris) life.  Mari and I laughed our buns off at the fact they had a LLAMA in their window.  Then we proceeded to love llamas so much we made a dance up after them.  Don't worry one day when Mari and I are living closer together we will record it and share it with y'all.  Though the world may not know how to contain the awesomeness.

So today I am thankful for llamas (and long running inside jokes).

Ok this is me trying to be a bull but I could kinda be a llama :)

drip, drop

So Danielle, what are you thankful for today?  Well if you must ask I have a nice little list.

1. For amazing friends who enjoy spending the day with you, even though your two kids are not enjoying themselves.
2. Your shorts being too big!!!!
3. For hole in the wall bakeries that sell slices of pie! (yummmmmmmm)  
4. Finding AMAZING deals on things I can craft with.
5. Children who sleep in cars.
6. Kids eat free......um yes and pizza none the less. (Only thing my son will eat, I shall share this story later)
7. Finding old CDs that contain the BEST songs ever.  Especially the songs you didn't even know you had!!!!
8. Last but not least rain because now I don't have to worry about moving (or forgetting) the sprinkler.

This whole day was a blast my friends and I went all around the town above us (in my minds its above please don't hold me to that though).  We found a fabric store, a bead place, the bakery, a boutique,  and a few other fun places.  It was great to just get out and hang out with the girls!  But I think one of the most fun things was listening to my RANDOM OLD CDs. I am pretty sure I looked like a freak dancing my buns off in my car driving down the highway.  But you know thats kinda how I roll.  Well it's nice short and sweet today!  What am I thankful for, an amazing day!

Miles Between Us

This morning I am throughly thankful for coffee!  But who isn't when they have a 4 year old and a 21 month old. We'll just say that last night was one of those "really?  REALLY?"  nights where no one wanted to to sleep and we had a few accidents occur.  Oh the life of a mom :) wouldn't trade it for the world.

Well in keeping to my theme, for the time being, one thing I am grateful for is long distance relationships.  I know it may sound odd but I truly believe that distance has been a blessing in my marriage.  My husband and I have been married for 6 years and within that time I do not think we have spent a whole year together without him leaving for a least a months time.  It's almost like a mini vacation, tehehe.

Now please don't think I don't miss him or I go running around spending mad cash on myself and all that jazz.  Because I don't and I do miss him terribly when he is home our world works so much better.  It's like removing the screws from a bird house we kind of just fall apart a little. Every time he leaves it reminds me of why I fell in love with him.  The little things you miss about each other that seem to get lost in the daily routine.

It also makes me step up my game at home.  Whenever he is gone I feel that is time for me to build on my relationship with my children.  To teach them that even if someone is gone they still love and care about you.  Plus we do some crazy projects to pass the time while waiting for daddy to return.

But one of the best things I love about distance, I work out like a nut!  I always want to look better when he returns then I did when he left.  You see I lack self motivation in the working out department so when he is gone its like lighting a fire under my buns (literally I did my leg workout yesterday and I'm sore!!!!!).

Today I'm thankful for distance.

"Absence is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great."
Roger de Bussy-Rabutin

View from the couch in my head.

Hi I'm Danielle!

I consider myself pretty down to earth.  I love to craft, cook, and read.  I am not a grammar scholar (disclaimer) so please don't judge my mis-puntcuations. I've always wanted to start a blog so no time like the present.  So here we go!!

To start I think I am going to write about something I am thankful for this month.  (Thanks Emma for the idea!)

Today I am thankful for where I am in my life today.  Don't get me wrong I will always have things to work on, but I am thankful God has lead me down the path that I have traveled.  I was born in Phoenix and lived there with the majority of my whole extended family till I was 11.  Growing up close to my cousins was a blessing I wish wasn't taken from me when we moved across the country to South Carolina.  Yet I would never trade moving to the south for the world.  I feel I was born to be a "Carolina Girl".  I stayed in the south till I met the man of my dreams and he moved me once again across the country and a little farther to Hawaii and now to good ole Missouri.  Along the way somewhere I acquired 2 kids, 2 dogs, and a load of great memories!

So until tomorrow I guess but thankful where you are in life now because you are only there for a moment and then its over.