Archives for August 2011

Harper’s backing fabric arrived yesterday…yah!  Now maybe, just maybe, I can get this quilt thing figured out over the weekend.  Wish me luck.

We are big breakfast people.  We always eat breakfast and we love cereal.  It’s pretty much a staple in our house and we go through lots and lots of it.  I really never took notice until the other day when I went grocery shopping.  I squealed with delight when I saw that some our favorites were on sale + I had matching coupons…how about 5 huge boxes for $11…it got my blood pumping.

And muffins…well don’t get me started on muffins.  Like this morning the kids and I turned this pile of muffins:

into this in a mere 20 minutes…we really dig muffins.

I have been working for a while on gathering items to make a collection for above Hud and Sol’s beds.  It’s taken some time, but yesterday we walked aimlessly through Home Depot for about an hour looking for the last thing I wanted…and I found it.

Swing chains = greatness.

  Needless to say, I came home and immediately started piecing everything together.  Remember those old bike spokes…they finally have a home.  I think it’s pretty stellar…and the boys like it too.

Now I just need my third little boy home…his bike spoke is waiting.

We are waiting…all the time…everyday.  We talk about him…we pray for him…we dream about him.  OH.MY.WORD what a day it will be when he is home.  My heart is about to burst and everyday I think…this is it…it has to end today…I need him with me, in my arms…like now.  Plus, we really need another little one to accompany us to Chick-fil-A.

Happy Thursday!

Harper’s quilt is still not put together.  I am anxiously awaiting the backing fabric to arrive in the mail.  This has given me some extra time to try and figure out what I am really going to do when it’s officially time to put that thing together.  And it gave me some extra time to use the leftover scraps to make some cute little ‘flags’ (as Harper refers to them) for her room.

Yesterday I finished up this 15×30 canvas for my friend Cari.  Her daughter is headed off to college and she wanted a special piece of art for her dorm room.  I LOVE the colors and patterns in this piece.  Cari chose all the text and I was so excited that she was thrilled with it when she picked it up today.

When Cari stopped by, I told her how we were headed to Chuck E Cheese tonight.  Josh and I had a dentist appointment today scheduled for the exact same time, which we totally forgot about, which equaled no babysitter, which then equaled us taking our small little crew to the dentist office.

The bribe of a trip to Chuck E Cheese for good behavior was issued and they passed with flying colors.  I am not above a good bribe, especially when that means I will be eating pizza and playing skee ball for dinner.

  Cari is just about the only other person I know that admits to loving Chuck E Cheese as well.  Most parents despise it…at least that’s the word on Facebook.  In Cari’s words, “What’s not to love?”…my thoughts exactly.  She recommended we try the bread sticks…Whaaatttt?  How did I not know that Chuck E Cheese has amazing bread sticks…note to self was made immediately.

Our family and ole’ Chuck E go way back…we probably go way more than other families…we dig it, a lot.  My dad always gives the kids gift cards for their birthdays and on other occasions as well, so we never have to pay, which equals awesome (thanks Grandaddy).  Plus, thanks to my friend Brea, I am now on Chuck’s email list and get insanely great coupons.

Tonight we ventured in with some awesome coupons and the last of a gift card.  I had our total figured out down to the dollar and I was Oh, so successful and maximizing our gift card to token ratio.

That my friends is a whole lot of tokens…which I’ll just be honest…they are really for Josh and me.  The kids just love the craziness of the place and pretty much love the little ride games.

Kelley Fun Fact: We dig skee ball and race car and basketball games and we’re kind of good at all of the above 🙂

And it’s kind of fun to be rewarded with little tickets, that Harper thinks are gold, which you can later trade in for junk prized items…win, win!  Harper’s choice of prize was a small packet of Chuck E Cheese markers and when I say small, I mean tiny…really, really tiny.

Harper was all into the tickets tonight.  She would run over and proclaim with great pride, “I won 2 tickets.”  I was proud of her too.

Huddy climbing, yet again, unbeknownst to me.

We also spent quite a few tokens on the drawing machine.  I think Huddy just liked to put tokens in because we got quite a few that looked like this…

But there were some that I love and know that I will keep forever…is that a long time to keep a Chuck E Cheese token drawing…probably, but it’s just going to happen that way.

My heart is overwhelmed with my boy…I really, really need him home, like now, but we wait.

And all health conscious readers may want to turn away now.  I did splurge for the $5 bread sticks, based on Cari’s recommendation and they were AMAZING.  Thanks Cari…maybe you can go to Chuck E Cheese with us next time.

So all you Chuck E Cheese haters out there, give him another chance…you know you want to play skee ball and be rewarded with a small whoopie cushion with a mouses face printed on it that only cost you 1 billion small tickets…it’s just fun that way.

Happy Tuesday.

Aww, Monday, here you are.

Sad to see the weekend end yet again.

My mom gave my brother and me some childhood items not long ago.  The hat that Harper is wearing was mine when I was a baby…does this say anything about the size of my head at a young age…it was huge.  I think Harper looks like a cute brown headed Strawberry Shortcake.

The boys are truly best friends.  This picture makes me think about what they will be like when they are old…maybe they will meet up for breakfast every Saturday morning at the Cracker Barrel.

Haircuts were scheduled for Saturday morning…Josh even wrote it on our family calendar.

If I had a dollar for every time in Huddy’s short life he furrowed his brow like above…I would be a very rich women.  He is known for this look.

My sweet nephew Will had his 1st birthday party this weekend.  He is just the cutest, little smushiest thing ever.  Love you Will!

For his birthday I made him a few little goodies…W towel, bag tag and some rockin’ long sleeve tees.

My SIL Kim’s Granny passed away recently.  Kim and her Granny were super close and Mom and I didn’t want to just send flowers.  We wanted something special for Kim to always have.  I think it turned out just right.

Huddy is smitten with Josh’s road bike.  This whole incident was very entertaining to watch.

And we ventured out into TN tax free weekend.  It was crazy, but we wanted to snag school supplies.  Josh and I both found items that we probably really needed…like a Jack Sparrow man doll and a life sized light saber, but decided against…Awww, Jack Sparrow…I love you!

Yes, Josh is a 28-year-old Star Wars fan…always has been, always will be.  Light sabers are extra coolness.

The trip ended with “The Great Folder Debate” of 2011.  This is the biggest decision for Harper…in all her 2 years of going to 2-day a week MDO…the folder.  We’re talking big, big decision here folks.  Usually takes a while and always includes laying all the options out in the aisle to ponder over.

In the end, decisions were finally made and every one walked away with a cool graphic folder.

Hope your weekend was just as fun and random as ours.  Happy Monday!

Happy Friday everyone.  I am so glad it’s the weekend and to celebrate on my PPA Facebook page I’m having a little giveaway for this sweet little 5×5 canvas.  Head over and enter to win.

I had a dream this week that we got our referral.  It was one of those dreams that you have to think about when you wake up…like did that really happen.  Needless to say I was a tad bummed.

So what does any rational momma do in this circumstance…well, I went and bought stuff for my sweet little boy.  We trucked through several stores looking for the perfect blanket and a small ‘blankie’.  All my kiddos have a larger blanket and then a small ‘blankie’, so this was how I dealt with my disappointment when I awoke 🙂  It needed to be done eventually…I’m just ahead of the game.

Harper starts MDO in about 2 weeks.  Huddy is going to go this year as well, but Sol is going to hang with me at home on those 2 days a week.  I think he’s not going to know what to do with himself.  Huddy needed to get a backpack (that would hold a folder…hence the backpack is almost bigger than he is) and a lunchbox.  I know lots of people loathe Walmart, but I on the other hand, embrace Walmart.  $15 for both and we were done.  Huddy is quite smitten with Buzz Lightyear…this is his impression of Buzz with his Buzz backpack and Buzz lunch box.

He walked all through Walmart sporting his new backpack and lunchbox and yelling “To infinity and Beyond”…even if he doesn’t dig school maybe his backpack and lunchtime will make it all better.

And hold onto your horses for this one.

Laura Kelley Fun Fact #8: I have never had a ‘cool’ phone and I have never had texting for my phone and there is no way I could probably even get the internet on this bad boy.

Shocker, I know.  Josh not too long ago got texting and ever since then I have been a bit jealous when his phone makes that lovely little beep alerting him he has a text message.  I adored the ease at which he was able to get an answer to something or tell someone something without having to have an entire conversation.

All my friends and most of my family have texting, so I was left out of mass text messages and completely out of the socially cool loop.  When customers are local, they are more than welcome to pick up their items…one time a lady was coming to pick up her piece.  She called my cell phone and said, “I tried texting you, but it didn’t go through.”  I was thinking, “that’s because I don’t have texting.”  I just laughed and said, “Oh, really.”  I felt like the girl eating all alone in the school cafeteria.

And then my mom called me this week and said this, “I want to get texting for my phone.”  She is just as tech savvy as I am apparently.  My response, “Me too!”  And so last night we ventured off to the Verizon store together to finally enter the twenty first century.

My mom knows lots of people and those people usually have connections…so no big wait at Verizon for us.  Badda Bing, Badda Boom and just like that we were turned into texters.  Mom even got the snazzy hot pink cover which completely matches her personality.

We entered that Verizon store technically challenged, but left texters.  Well almost…

The rest of the night we sharpened our texting skills and today I even texted some pictures.  I feel as if I have arrived.  Tonight we are having movie night and we bought some much needed jelly beans to accompany our movie.  I was able to snap a picture and text it straight to Josh.  I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t kind of proud of myself.

Here’s to many, many more texts at 140 characters or less.  Happy Friday!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered The Sparrow Fund Giveaway.  I hope you will bookmark THEIR Etsy SHOP and keep them in mind for birthdays and holidays.

And now for the winner…

#76 Brooke Castaneda.

Super congrats Brooke and check your email for a message from me!  And a big thanks to Kelly for sharing with us.

I have been slacking on keeping up with our craft nights…which we decided to sub for our weekly Bible Study for the summer.  Everyone has been so busy, so we decided to venture into summer with a little less on our plates…hence craft night was born.

One of our recent projects were bleach tees.  These are so easy and so fun and really cheap.  All you need is a tee, a bleach pen and a design.  And maybe some freezer paper if you don’t want to free hand your design.  HERE is a great link on how to use freezer paper.

So here’s the quickness of the project.  Pick a tee, make sure something is in between your shirt (like an old magazine) and get to bleaching.  You may have to let the bleach sit for a bit, so the cheaper the tee, the better.  And I have also done this using regular liquid bleach…just mix equal parts water and bleach and I use spray bottles and even paint brushes.

So far for all of our craft nights we have dubbed an “Angry Crafter”…aka…someone who just gets mad at the craftiness going on.  Alissa usually takes the award…were working on her craftiness and feel she will get “Most Improved” by the end of summer.

But not this time…the “Angry Crafter” award went to…drum roll please…Courtney.  Courtney, her bleach pen and her pink tank did not mix well.

All craftiness does not always turn out perfect.  You’ll show that bleach pen next time Court.

Ashley made about a million tees.  She’s our over-achiever.

Alissa did not go all “Angry Crafter” on us that week.  She was pleased as punch with her tee and even modeled for me.

And last night we tackled tshirt headbands and bracelets.

We always have dinner together too.  Believe it or not we had…

that’s right, Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.  I may have a problem.  Do they have rehab for Cinnamon Roll Pancake addicts?  Let’s just re-cap my eating over the past two days…Tuesday night dinner…Cinnamon Roll Pancakes…Wednesday breakfast…Cinnamon Roll Pancakes…Wednesday night dinner…Cinnamon Roll Pancakes…this morning’s breakfast…Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.  Good thing I upped my running this week.  Seriously, they are delicious.  Go now and make them.  Like right now.  Your plate is destined to look like this…

After our breakfast for dinner feast, we set to work making headbands and bracelets out of tshirts.  You can see the tutorial we used HERE.

We used all old tees that we already had.  At one point, we took notice of the long sleeve tees which had been cut much shorter for the project.  Courtney said, “Try that on!”  It made for some good laughs.

You must ignore what looks like someone giving the finger to your right…pictures like this make me laugh.

At one point I looked over and saw Ashley trying to measure out her headband to see if it was long enough…I had to do a re-enactment of her measuring…next time just take it off the magazine Ash.

In the tutorial it used sewing, but we hot glued everything.  Which does always result in someone getting burned which always makes for an Angry Crafter.

These really were a great project and everyone got the hang of them quickly.

And the final results were quite lovely, if I do say so myself.  Definitely a repeat project and not one “Angry Crafter” award was handed out.

Happy Thursday!

The Sparrow Fund giveaway is still going on.  If you want a chance to win your choice of a rockin’ necklace AND bracelet CLICK HERE or just scroll to the post below.  Giveaway ends tomorrow night at midnight and I will post the winner Thursday.

Not much going on at the Kelley house…other than lots of dancing aka ‘playing fairies’ and everyone has to wear a dress to participate…Harper’s rule, not mine.  Nothing really surprises me anymore.

And for your enjoyment…yes this has been my house…everyday this week.  Ignore the grainy video and unsteady hand…let the dancing take you over.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADTxdBfsPdk]

I’m becoming quite fond of Huddy’s high heels.

I finished Harper’s quilt top and bought my batting and backing fabric today.  Now I just have to figure out how to put all this together.

I’m not a big cooker…I’m always looking for easy recipes.  Almost every week we have ‘make your own salad” night.  Healthy, easy and everyone eats their veggies.

I decided to completely cancel out our salad night by making these tonight…

Those, my friends, are Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.

And they were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.L.Y delicious.  Like go make these now.

And pretty sure I get the “Worst Mom Award” with these pancakes too.  Huddy is allergic to quite a few things, including eggs…like severely allergic to eggs…like he got the flu shot once as a wee one and we ended up in the hospital.  That’s how we figured out he was allergic to eggs.  Why, oh why, did I let him eat these when they have several eggs in them (doubled the recipe)….I STILL DON’T KNOW!  I was so excited about the pancakes and for some reason it just never even dawned on me.  Nothing says yummy family dinner like an allergic reaction…Josh ate the rest of his dinner with the epipen beside his plate.  But Huddy survived and everyone loved the pancakes…he just can’t have seconds or any more. Ever. Period.

I’m still working on some little projects around our house.  I’ve been collecting things for the boy’s room and got these prints in the mail today.  I am in love.  I found them on the Etsy shop Nonmon.

Each print is on  an old dictionary excerpt and look amazing.  Sol gets the frog print…he adores frogs.

Huddy loves “quirrels” and is notorious for trying to scare birds away by just yelling at them.  He’s not just all brawn.

They are going to look great in the boy’s room.  And kudos to the Nomon shop…they are located in Turkey and I got my prints in 10 days.  Pretty snappy service!  Go check them out.

Happy Tuesday.