two hours to myself, what do i do?

-the dishes from breakfast, nope
-hang up my last load of laundry, nope
-make the kids' beds, nope
-put away valentine's decorations, nope
-defunk the bathroom, nope
-mop up that sticky spot on the kitchen floor that my sock keeps sticking to, nope
-clean the black hole, a.k.a the basement, nope
-start dinner, nope
-exercise, one-big-huge-NOPE

*eat leftover dairy queen icecream cake from my birthday
*crochet beanie hats for my baby boy and for my good friend's baby girl {her shower is next week}
*switch between Oprah & Ellen

yeah, so this family that we go to church with have children 8-years-old and older, but my kids LOVE them. in fact, they are the family that we get to babysit our kids too. well, today we had to go over there to practice a song that i'm singing in church on sunday {their mom plays the piano and is choir director} and before i left they asked me if the kids could stay and play for a couple of hours...hmmm, let me think...um YEAH!!! so this is how i spent my time to myself. what does this say about me...do i really care?

for all you crochet-ers out there, go here to make the bear hat!
i did change it up a bit, so have fun!

for this baby beanie, go here
for the flower, go here
i did add a shell stitch to the edge, just google it!

the best part

well, first of all, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! we had a great day, and i'm sitting here enjoying the smell of the 3 dozen roses my matt got for me. i love valentine's day. we enjoyed going to a monster truck show with some friends, thanks again beth, and our kids. G loved it more than J! she kept cheering on "grave digger" and "martial law"! it was too funny. also, we got to go on our first date in 5 months last night {we normally are pretty good about date night, but with having the yuckies for so long, date nights went out the window}. we went to Sakura, a hibachi place, the shrimp was to die for! our chef was fun too, he cooked the food right in front of us and even popped shrimp up in the air and into matt's mouth. we had a 14-year-old boy and his little sister from church bbsit the kids, which worked out PERFECT b/c both my kids had a "friend". J & G keep talking about how they can't wait for them to come again. when matt went to go pick up our bbsitter, he had just returned from a JV basketball game and did so well that his coach asked him to stay and play on the varsity team. he told his coach that he couldn't b/c he was bbsitting. his coach told him that he could get out of it, but he told the coach that he couldn't stay b/c he already committed to us. what a great kid. i'm so glad we know their family.

i love my husband and children more than i can say. i also love my extended family and friends. i am truly blessed with all the relationships i have in my life. isn't that what life is really all about - relationships, people...and my people make my life a wonderful one.

also, today i started looking for fabric for baby boy's room, and this is what i'm going to do...sock monkeys...i LOVE this fabric.

really, there are two things i like about being pregnant...of course, (1)the end result: a beautiful baby, and (2)getting ready for baby to come. i love crafting and making all kinds of baby paraphernalia for my sweet child-to-be. since finding out this baby is a boy, i've already made bibs, burp cloths, and i've started on blankets. i even got out my box of baby boy things to see what i had that would work for this little guy, and to try to figure out what i need {which i'm sorry to say is quite a lot.} i gave most of my things away before we moved out here to family and friends... any hoo - i love washing and folding all the baby clothes and i am constantly looking at them, imagining my sweet baby in those tiny onsies. do i really have 124 days to go? and let's be honest...my baby is way fatter than that widget on the side over there!

lollipop, lollipop

for the kids' valentine parties at school, we wanted to do something a little special. we normally love to make these hard candy lollipops for christmas, but i was no where near the kitchen or crafting at that "baby-growing" time of my life. so for v-day, we put a little spin on our usual lollipops. we decided to make pencil pops. we found these great heart molds and pencil pop tops {i put the links below in the recipe}. we tried 3 different flavors: strawberry, watermelon, and lemonade. we normally love strawberry flavored things, but it ended up being our least favorite flavor. after we made the pencil pops, we got out my new valentine stamp set from stampin' up. J & G had tons of fun making their own homemade valentines. we spent a good portion of our day on this project. J wrote his name on all of his valentines, and G did about 10 and then got "way too exhausted" to do any more. J helped her finish. it was so much fun to watch them get so excited about this. i LOVE valentine's day. i have ever since i was a little girl b/c it means my birthday is close by. all my parties as a girl revolved around hearts...and i loved it. i still get giddy inside around this time of year!

Old Fashioned Lollipops

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

¾ cup water

1 tsp candy oils

¼ tsp Liquid Food Coloring

Candy Thermometer

lightly spray heart sheet mold {i used 3 molds to make 15 suckers} with cooking spray and insert pencil pops into your molds. in large saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. bring mixture to a boil without stirring. this syrup gets very hot. hook a candy thermometer on the edge of the saucepan to measure the temperature. children must watch the next steps from afar! when syrup temperature reaches 260°F, add the coloring. DO NOT STIR; boiling will incorporate the coloring into the syrup. remove from heat at 300°. watch closely from 260° to 300°, the temperature will rise quickly. remove from heat. when boiling has stopped, stir in flavoring. then CAREFULLY pour the mixture into a heat proof ceramic pitcher or glass batter bowl. this makes it easy to pour into the molds. It also allows you to be able to slightly reheat the mixture in the microwave if it cools too quickly. immediately pour syrup into the molds. after lollipops have cooled they may be removed from the molds. stick pencil in pencil pop.

here is a cute sample card my stampin' up demonstrator, teri, made with the valentine kit i got...too cute! for all my ohio friends you can have all this cute stuff too b/c i'm having a party on march 26th...so you'll have to come see all the other great stamps and sets you can't live without!!! {he, he}

whoo loves you

so now that i'm feeling better, you'd think i could get my act together and get my house clean...but no, i couldn't get these owls out of my mind...saw them at pottery barn in different colors (priced higher than i was willing to pay), and i thought they'd be cute in valentine colors...so, i put some of my fabric scraps to good use, and...here is what we get. i think they are pretty cute. little miss fit {a.k.a. G} has not been feeling well lately and wouldn't let me get anything done, but she didn't mind sitting on my lap while sewing, and she had fun helping me stuff the owls. i think i'm raising a crafter...and it makes me so happy.


today i got to go to G's school for a "mother's tea party". it was so cute. they sang us songs and served us cupcakes and juice {or tea and coffee}. they also made us these cute frames that also turned into a lovely broach {pin for your sweater}. sorry the picture is a bit blurry. it was a great day. i love spending time with my little missy. {even though she won't smile for pictures}.

her teachers told me for this picture she pulled her hair forward so it would "look just right." and i thought G hated being girly...it must just be a front for me...

news from cha

well, the week has come and gone, and now i have laundry to do and several responsibilities to fulfill. now i'm back to the artic zone and out of the 75 degrees...sigh. no more breakfast made to order or someone making my bed...but i terribly missed my sweethearts, and they happen to live in ohio and need much of my TLC. despite all the perks and the great time i had with my scrapbook friends, it's great to be home. we had a great week and had much success with dream street. it's so much fun to meet our retailers and to hear how our customers love our paper. one retailer told me, "dream street paper truly sells itself, it really flies off the shelves." not only was it great to meet the retailers, but to also see my good friends that i've made in this business. my co-workers {and good friends} threw me a surprise baby shower. i flew in last so they all rushed out to target to get my baby boy something before i came in town. it was so sweet of them, and i feel truly blessed to have them in my life.

here is a little list of some of the online retailers that sell
dream street:
a cherry on top
serendipity scrapbooks
scrapbook.com

*keep in mind that the new stuff won't be in stock for a couple weeks*

one more layout! i looked at this layout the whole week as i was missing my babies!

we took advantage of being in aneheim, ca and enjoyed disney land for a little bit
we had two other girls working with us through the week, but would you believe that i didn't take one picture??!! i'm still waiting for more pics...i'll post those later.

tracy took this picture of me in the shop at "frontier land"...not too shabby, huh?

and with this picture i became "the coolest mom ever" according to jack who is currently a teensy bit obsessed with star wars (even though he hasn't even really seen the real star wars). i think one of the paper companies had star wars' paper or something...i was too busy working to notice...but not too busy for a picture.

mj {i'm lovin' it}

mj
a dream street paper line
by lara ellingson

so this is my newest line. i'm very excited about it!!! we also got to do rub-ons this time! YEAH! {those are all the sayings underneath the paper}. like the rest of my lines, i named this after a special person in my life: matthew john = mj. i felt it fit him with his patriotism and recent joining of the military. i threw a heart paper in there too entitled: i {heart} you. i do love him more than i can even say. he is my best friend and favorite person in the world. i look forward to hearing him walk through the door at night because i love to be with him. i truly feel that he was made for me. i love you sweetheart. thanks for letting me pursue my dreams and for giving me wings to fly.

i took into consideration all the ideas that i received from fellow bloggers, coworkers, family, and friends. this is what i came up with: something to use for boys, girls, summertime, 4th of july, valentine's...or whatever floats your boat! i've been creating all day in order to get ready for cha {craft and hobby association}, a tradeshow in CA next week. this paper has been really easy to use.

go check out all the other fabulous lines from dream street here.

great for my active children...

cherries: a perfect match for G's swimming suit! {i know i spelled "eerie" wrong, i put up the wrong picture...i already changed it to "erie". i'm a horrible speller. when i taught kindergarten, we only had to spell words like "cat" and "mom". our hardest word was "the".}

perfect for "miss pouty face", just add a little black, and... voila!

J's 5-year-old pics. this line works great for boys or girls. i love these pics of my sweet J.

oooh, these stars were too fun! this paper works great for 4th of July too! here's a link for directions if you want to make your own too, with MJ paper of course!

a kissing ball for valentine's day...here's the link if you want to make this one too. i'm telling you, this paper is very versatile!

a candy bar treat for that special someone! this paper is much cuter than the original "symphony bar" wrapper!

a super easy valentine's card! don't you love the hearts??!!

my favorite part...

this year i just didn't have it in me to do a snazzy tree (i really do miss the smell of pine in my house, but then again...it might make me sick! who knows these days) ...so i let the kids go to town on our little fake tree that usually goes on the front steps. they totally had more fun this year b/c they got to do whatever they wanted without me saying, "oh, but those are too close together." and somehow my favorite part was the clump of all the ornaments "too close together". we got those snowmen last year at Kmart. they change color...the kids LOVE them. well, our christmas is a bit different this year (without any other decorations up), but it's good. i'm sure from now on we'll have to have a tree they can do with no stipulations.