Make You Over.

My always cute friend Chelsea has started a new blog called Make You Over where she plans on giving fashion advice to people like me.  Whaaat... wearing jeans + a black t-shirt everyday isn't fashionable? Huh.  As a kick off to this new venture Chelsea is hosting a makeover contest.  After scoring amazing sponsors that are offering the winner almost $2,000 in prizes, the field has been narrowed down to five finalists.  I just submitted my vote for the winner + you should too.  Hurry!  Voting ends tonight at midnight. Go here to view the finalists.

One Whole Year.

Oliver is one today.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.  Of course I'm happy.  I've had an entire year of sweet baby love.  And,  I'm sad.  I want to push pause.  I'm not quite ready yet.  Not ready for him to go from mama's boy to big boy.  Maybe it was those hours upon hours of colicky crying that tied my heart stings to his.  Maybe it's simply because he's my baby.  The littlest. 

Today we are celebrating.  Celebrating my small O.  This morning we had a photo shoot with Aunt Amy.  Then home for a nap.  Later this afternoon Oliver will graduate to a forward facing car seat.  

And then, there will be cake.

Family Night Work Party.

Did you know you can have fun and work hard at the same time?

You can.

And we did.

Children who know the value of hard work are few and far between these days.  I'm bound and determined to teach my children that anything worth having is worth working hard for. 
Our family garden should help with this, no?  

Two garden boxes down, two to go.

My Biggest + My Littlest.

Love these boys. 

So much.

Pot O' Gold.

Happy St. Paddy's Day, friends. 

  Here is a quick, last minute treat idea to deliver to your lassies.  And when I say last minute, I mean I just whipped this together five minutes ago. If I can do it, so can you. 

All you need is:

peat moss pots
yellow primroses (or another yellow annual)

Pot your plant, make a tag + deliver!

 Oh, and here's an FYI.  I'm in the midst of figuring out how to offer up free printables (like the tag above) to you all.  Wouldn't that be fun?  Any computer genius's out there want to offer up advice?  I'll love you forever.

Mommys Little Helper?

Household tasks that are impossible to complete with an (almost!) one year old in the house:

1. Sweeping.  No carpet = lots of sweeping. Oliver seems to think this red stick with the fancy brush at the end is a toy.  His toy.  When we're not fighting over the broom, I'm chasing him away from the debris pile. 

 

2.  Laundry.  The look of satisfaction on his face when he demolishes a folded pile is a little unnerving.

3.  Toilets.  Do I need to explain?

4.  Dishes.  "What Mom? This fancy pull down door isn't my personal platform?  But there are all of these shiny toys inside.  And the water..."

I know I've been MIA for awhile, friends.  I have no good reason other than it's spring and I'm really enjoying the sunshine.  (I think it's obvious I'm not getting any housework done.)  You need to know that I've missed you all and your cheery-make me smile-sunshine in my soul-comments.

And that last picture?
I just thought you'd like to see baby Oliver's curls again.  I love them so.

2010 Word Update.

As you may or may not remember, my word for this year is "learn".  I am constantly feeling  the pull to improve my aptitude.  I have a lot of interests and I felt like the word learn would help me stay focused.  I plan on updating this little space every so often with my progress.  So far this year I've learned:

Some photography skills.  Thanks to Nicole Gerulat and her amazing Photo 101 Crash Course, I can now use the "manual" mode of my shiny new camera.  I took Nicole's class on our anniversary weekend trip + highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in polishing up their photog knowledge.  If Nicole isn't teaching a class in your area, definitely snag her book.  I bought one + have learned tons!  You won't regret it.

I look awful in black.  Bleh.  Why didn't anyone tell me?  My skin...it's so pale and the black isn't helping.

BYU offers free online classes.  I'm taking this one first.

Oliver's hair curls around his ears.  Especially after his naps.  Isn't he darling?

Because...

 
...I'm pretty sure nothing makes my children happier then getting cozy in our bed + watching one of their favorite movies.  Just looking at this picture makes me want to snuggle up between them and take a nap.

Safety First.

Ryan spent the entire day Saturday putting up this:

 

To protect this snotty nose babe (and the other children):

 

from the scary pit bull that recently moved into the neighborhood.  It's already killed another neighbors cat. Seriously.