Reagan and Camp: November 2011

DIY Home Decor

Nearly every weekend I get the urge to do some sort of crafty or home project. Kai is getting pretty used to my requests and sometimes abides by them. I still have a long "to do" list, that will eventually get done...someday.

A few weekends ago I decided to paint a chalk board on the wall. I convinced Kai to help me make a frame out of crown molding. Something that I saw on a DIY blog and sounded really easy at the time! It was a little harder than I expected and I didn't love the final product but I left it for a few weeks and then ended up finding a really great old distressed wooden frame at Stylish Patina Barn in Frederick that fit it perfectly! Now I love it! Our plan is to use it for writing reminders, hanging art work or cards, or just a space for the boys to play with magnets. Did I mention that it is magnetic too? AND it actually works!

One of my sources of inspiration has been Pinterest. You can find ideas for pretty much anything on there from food to style to diy projects. Such a fun site!

Anyway I got inspired by this...

via

and came up with this...

I used my Cricut cutter, some scrapbook paper, a sheet of vinyl and a few cheap frames. It didn't take long to do and would have been even quicker had I not had a curious 20 month old trying to "help" out.

Happy decorating! We're getting our tree this weekend and I couldn't be more excited! I love the smell of fresh Christmas trees! Now if snow could be part of the forecast it would be perfect...but not before Grandma Nancy gets here on the 14th! We need her to arrive safely, then bring on the snow!

Dear Santa,

Someone in our house is really in the Christmas spirit this year!

He's been talking about writing a letter to Santa & making a list for weeks!

He wrote out a special letter to Santa telling him about the nice things he's been doing this year.

Then he drew a lovely picture of Santa, Camp & himself.

He addressed the envelope, stuck a few stickers on & got it all ready to send out in the mail.

Oh and we may have included a 4 page detailed wish list from amazon.com!

We have Kai to thank for the wishlist. They went to Toys R Us and scanned items in on his iPhone and then came home and searched for more things on the computer! Somehow his Christmas list has grown over the last few days & I'm really hoping Santa doesn't bring all the items on the list because

a) we don't have enough room for all of them

b) we don't need all of them

c) Santa's going to be broke if he buys everything on the list

d) did I mention, we don't need all of them & don't have room for all of them?

Oh to be a kid again!

If you care to see Reagan's list you can find it here

and Camp's here

Happy Holidays!

Thankful

This year we have much to be thankful for! We spent Thanksgiving hosting a few of our friends that are also away from family during the Holiday season. We enjoy doing this every year & seem to get better and better at cooking up a large feast! Thank goodness my brother still fries up turkey on Thanksgiving because it means another year where I didn't have to attempt to make a turkey! Whew! I love cooking up all the sides & desserts, but baking a turkey just makes me nervous! What if it's dry? What if the flavor is bad? Plus, once you go fried I'm not sure you can ever go back. This year we injected our turkey with apple cider, honey, beer & some cajun spices! Nom...nom...

Super turkey injector

Ellie his helper

I had a few helpers in the kitchen too. We made The Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes again. So yummy!

I'm thankful someone else cut the turkey up. I'm not really a fan of this part. Apparently there's an art to cutting a turkey? Who knew?

We enjoyed spending time with Steve, Josh and their families.

We had basically every stage of development represented at our house for Thanksgiving. All I have to say is thank goodness we have gates! With lots of little crawlers and new walkers it was nice to know they couldn't go anywhere!

After dinner toy extravaganza!

Moments later my glasses were snatched from my face. I quickly learned Bodie is not a fan of the glasses. See him eyeing my spectacles!

Reagan decided he wanted to be a part of Josh & Angela's family.

Oh and Josh refused to smile nicely...this is what you get!

Trying for a nice picture of the two of us but his eyes kept wandering over to the tv.

Can you guess what was on?

Football!

Next time he'll make sure to smile at the camera.

Such a cute little family!

Winding down, Jodi got suckered in to reading Camp his new favorite book "Hug"

More please!

By the end of the night this is where I found Camp, not exactly the safest place in the house. Surprised? Oh and I'm thankful that he hasn't broken any bones yet.

As always we miss spending time with our families during the holidays and think about them often but it's comforting to know that we have close friends who are in similar situations to celebrate with.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Memory

I'm sure I've mentioned before, but Reagan is at a really great age right now. As parents it is fascinating to watch as your child goes through each stage. Some are wonderful, some not so much. I can vividly remember one of those "not so much" stages that Reagan went through when he was about 18-20 months. He knew exactly what he wanted but didn't have enough vocabulary to adequately relay his needs, or he just didn't have the patience for it. I'm being reminded of that phase in toddlerhood right now with Camp. His vocabulary is improving and he's beginning to string short phrases together. However, he is doing quite a lot of screeching squealing, and isn't always the easiest to reason with. I know this phase too will pass quickly and before we know it, and he'll be right where Reagan is. It all goes by so incredibly fast! Reagan has recently become very interested in games and in the last few weekends we've been to a few birthday parties and have picked up some new games as favors. At Eaddy's party he chose the game Memory and he's REALLY good at it!