Archives for November 2012

November 7, 2012 By Laura 5 Comments

Boys & Haircuts

First of all, No we are not cutting Amon’s hair…never, ever, ever. Not in my life time at least. He will be Samson. Except his power will be in his eyes.

Both Huddy and Sol have been long over due for haircuts. We’re talking loooonnngggg over due. I noticed Huddy’s hair this morning and decided today was the day.

Josh had part of the day off so he took the boys separately to get their cuts. Huddy was up first and off to Great Clips he went. When he came back he was a new man. He seriously looked like a slick little dude. He is just this crazy sweet-hearted child and now is looking as handsome as ever.

Sol was next. Josh dropped Huddy off…treats were exchanged…and Sol was off to the barber. The boys are not separate much, so Josh used this time to be one-on-one with each of them. The only thing is Huddy missed Sol. He kept asking when he was going to be done with his haircut and back home. Truly he pestered the fire out of me, so finally we made a phone call and Huddy and Sol had a good brotherly kid chat on the phone. It was hilarious. I love them so very very much and it’s deep.

Sol got home a little later and was looking sharp. Like seriously S.H.A.R.P. Sol is the kid you just want to ball up into a cannon ball shape and carry in your pocket for good pursed lip kisses and tight hugs. And he’s passionate as all get out. Dude is looking good now. Ladies beware.

That’s how our day rolled. Nothing super spectacular or even crafty. Just some cute little Kelley boys and new haircuts. I’ll take it.

Happy Wednesday.

Filed Under: faith Tagged With: boys, family, haircuts 5 Comments

November 6, 2012 By Laura 2 Comments

Election Day

It’s Election Day which means it’s a holiday, which means all the wee Kelleys are off from school {insert raise the rood hands here.} I love a good break from the normal day, so even though I’m not very political, I will gladly celebrate Election Day for a day off from the norm. (And my camera is still broken so again…more phone pictures. I need a camera doctor asap.) We started the day off right with Mickey Mouse pancakes.

This guy sat right here until his pancake was done. Sol takes his breakfast very serious. And is pretty dramatic about it most days. He would eat pancakes or waffles every single day for the rest of his life…I truly believe that. I envision Sol being the guy who says, “Don’t talk to me in the morning before I have my ~~coffee~~ waffles.”

Our November leaves are coming right along. Today was Sol’s turn again…The Batcave. This is so beyond fitting.

I discovered a major slice of skin missing from the bottom of Amon’s big toe. I have no clue what happened, but it resulted in his first bandaid. Everyone “awwwww” together because I am aware of how cute his little feet and toes are.

There has been lots of outside play. It is so crazy cold, but are my kids the only ones who behave better outside. I don’t care how cold it gets this winter. Parka up kids…we’re going outside.

Giving Amon shots is kind of getting old. He has an appointment this Friday with radiology. I am crossing my fingers and toes we will be able to bid blood thinner adieu.

I really like our toothbrushes…I feel like we have a great toothbrush color pallet going on. I wonder what color Amon’s will be when he finally gets some teeth.

He kills me. Like were talking just slays me. What am I going to do? Seriously, I’m afraid he’s going to ruin our stern and level headed parenting. I’m afraid he’ll just ask and we’ll cave. Maybe it’s the eyes. I must start avoiding all eye contact.

Huddy takes his love of blades very serious. At any given point in the day, he is always packing some sort of knife or sword or just something that can slice. It’s very serious business. You do not want to cross him in a dark alley.

I found this at the top of the steps today. I’m going to go ahead and make my prediction…Harper will be a heart surgeon with an illustrating job on the side.

And I discovered I can always get at least one good smiling pictures from the kids if I ask them to do a mad face, happy face and then silly face. Every time there is a good smiling keeper. That middle one…that’s the gold. Well, maybe they’re all gold.

Happy Election Day!

Filed Under: family Tagged With: election day, family 2 Comments

November 5, 2012 By Laura 13 Comments

Welcome To The 21st Century

Hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was nice…still busy, but really great. I’m excited for life to slow down a bit this week. Last week was cray…for lack of better slang words. I need a down week.

My new current liquid obsession is a cranberry sprite from Sonic. Oh goodness. There is just something about this sweet little concoction that can make my day so much better.

My friend Ashley mailed me a giant box filled with 30 different presents. Harper and I laid in bed and opened all of them. Too fun. Love you Ashley.

This was my favorite thing Ashley sent. Forget the Buffalo Wild Wings card or the Sonic card or super cute shirt. The Lassy Legs beat them all. And you’re probably wondering, “So does it work?” Well, yep it does. It especially works if you’re goal is smooth, hairless legs that you get by rubbing your skin raw with fine grit sandpaper. Like my legs were all dusty afterwards just like sanding down a piece of lumber accompanied by lots of little, what felt like, carpet burns.

I have been wanting Noonday & Matilda Jane’s sweet collaboration of a bag called The Weekender for a while now. Courtney totally rocked it out and got me one of my birthday. It made carrying all my packages to the post office way cooler. Love it Courtney.

I heart the self service machine at our post office. I use it 99.9% of the time. And mainly when the post office is closed…like Sundays. Happy mail is on its way.

I have lots of “thank you” notes to write for my fantastic birthday. I’m always looking for some good thank you notes and I loved these at Target. Hand writing a thank you note is something I will never let technology take over. Never. #dyingart

Josh got me an iPhone for my birthday. Now you may recall I just recently entered the world of texting. So a smart phone was waaaay out of my league, but apparently Josh thought I was ready. I have to admit I am quite over the moon about my leap into technology, but wow! it is confusing. I did get on Instagram…come find me {pitterpatterart} and help me out. I seriously need an iPhone class. I’m such a nerd. Do you have any tips or tricks? Any must have apps? Anything to help an un-tech savvy crafty sister out? I have downloaded the Joanns, Hobby Lobby and Michaels apps.

I think Ashley may be getting tired of Face Timing with me to tell me how to do something. She just is a wealth of somewhat helpful iPhone knowledge…or I just like to see her face because we live too far apart.

I did start looking for an iPhone case and when I did some googling I ran across THIS POST on how to design your own iPhone case. Super easy. Super fun. And just like that I headed over to Uncommon, uploaded my picture and ordered my iPhone case…and took my first ever Instagram photo. Yah!

Since that first picture, I have sort of been an Instagram fool. Way too many pictures. It probably doesn’t help that my camera is still broken. I just have so many questions…like…when you take a picture with Instagram does it have to upload to your feed every single time and how can I get my Instagram pictures in my regular photo stream on my phone? It’s all just so confusing.

I really want to master these iPhone shannanigans. I want to use it with confidence and without confusion and a million bajillion questions. I really want to be hip and cool and “down with it”…is “down with it” even hip and/or cool verbage…see what I’m working with here. I want to be cool enough to wear these jeans. It would appear that cool ladies who know how to use their smart phones would wear these. I want to be them.

Please help!

Happy Monday!

Filed Under: family, iPhone Tagged With: birthday, family, iPhone, technologically challenged 13 Comments

November 3, 2012 By Laura 10 Comments

Friday

I don’t normally post on the weekends, but I wanted to wrap up my 30th birthday week…30 Acts of Kindness. Yesterday was my official birthday and it was great. I felt extremely loved and encouraged and that was really nice. Thank you so very very much.

And here’s how my last six acts of kindness played out.

#1 Birthday bag & cupcake drop. My friend Eric has the same birthday as me and well, that makes us practically twins. Eric loves bacon and I wanted to surprise him with a little birthday and bacon love. I bought some fun birthday items like a birthday banner, hats and blowers, plus an awesome $1.50 game of Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey and paired them with some Maple Bacon Cupcakes. Let me take a moment and say how super amazingly delicious these cupcakes were. They were awesome…bacon and all. Give them a shot…you really will not be disappointed. And happy birthday Eric…glad we’re twins.

#2 Muffins to pediatrician’s office. We love our pediatrician Dr. Eidson. He’s really just the best. And he loved my mom. He always brings up sweet stories about her that make me cry, but the good kind of cry…the remembering and sweetness. We see him quite often…we actually had back-to-back appointments this week and yesterday Huddy had his 4 year check up.

Dr. Eidson and all of the staff are always just too, too good to us and as a mom, I cannot say enough how much I appreciate their love and kindness and patience and hard work. Instead of muffins I ended up making Nutella Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting. Why don’t you, right now, stop whatever you are doing and go make these. That’s about all I can really say. Superbness.

#3 Cupcakes to the bank. My Mom loved her job and she was incredible at it. Mom’s job at Pinnacle Bank was not just a job, but great friendships and family. Her co-workers have loved on our family like crazy and it has just been humbling and made us feel so very cared for and we truly appreciate it. I wanted to bless them with some yummy chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Just a little something to say “thank you.”

#4 Buy someone’s lunch. Since it was my birthday, the boys and I headed to Chick-fil-a after Huddy’s check-up. We drove through and ordered some lunch and then paid for the car’s order behind us. A very simple act that could change someone’s day.

#5 Popcorn, candy and movie rental bucket. We love a good movie night and decided to share this with another family. I fixed a little box with some microwave popcorn, some popcorn mix, giant movie theater candy and a Redbox gift certificate. Did you know you could buy Redbox gift certificates…you just print it off or email it to the recipient. I drove around looking for a family checking out a movie together and found one outside a McDonalds. It took some persuading…no, I did not want money for the bucket…no, I did not want them to sign up for something…no, there was not a catch, but finally after some explaining the mom took the bucket and said thank you.

And #6 Surprise art drop. At Harper’s school fundraiser a sweet friend really went after my silent auction art basket pretty hard. She ended up not getting the basket and made a comment about one particular piece.

I made this canvas up and did a surprise art drop yesterday. Who wouldn’t want to come out to your car and find something fun on top of it?

And that wrapped up my birthday week. It turned out to be a much better week than I had anticipated and I credit God for every bit of joy and love this week encompassed. I am just your everyday person…a very flawed individual and sinner…the deal breaker is Jesus. Because of the love of Jesus I have been transformed into something special…something extraordinary…something created for a purpose. Just like all His people. That is something definitely to celebrate and share with others.

Happy Saturday!

Filed Under: faith, family Tagged With: acts of kindness, birthday, faith, family 10 Comments

November 2, 2012 By Laura 25 Comments

Thursday

Thursday’s kindness is done. Let’s discuss.

#1 Overpay for a Contributor newspaper. We love the Contributor and the opportunity and hope it is giving homeless people here in Nashville. It really is amazing. Eileen is one of my favorite sellers, so it was an honor to see her smiling face yesterday morning and pay a little extra for the new November issue.

#2 Card for the hubs. It is so easy to think about others and forget to invest in the ones you are closest to. I am completely guilty of this. I want Josh to always know that no matter what, he is the most important person to me. I want to build him up and make him feel loved and for him to know just how proud I am to be his wife. He helped make my birthday week happen…especially since Amon could only do car rides and not go into any of the places I went. Josh Kelley is quite the catch and I never want to take him for granted. He is truly a blessing.

#3 Tip for drive-thru worker. I needed coffee and some doughnut holes for #4, so I went through Kristy Kreme. The lady who was preparing all the coffees and doughnut holes was so helpful and nice. After getting my order I gave her a little tip and thanked her for the kind help.

#4 Coffee for people waiting on the bus. I was a bit disappointed to only find a few people waiting for the bus. Only one person wanted coffee…the doughnut holes were much more popular.

This is what I had left, so Amon and I spent the next 30 minutes driving around finding random people who were out and about to enjoy the rest of the coffee and doughnuts.

#5 Care packs for the homeless. I bought up some pretty standard items and then let the kids pack some gallon zip-lock bags for some local homeless people we see pretty regularly. We want the wee Kelleys to never take for granted the blessings which are abundant in our lives and we want them to always help when they can. When we pass things out or buy Contributor papers, we always talk about treating others as we would want to be treated. I love that they know Ms. Eileen and Mr. Taiwan and several other Contributor sellers by name and wave and chat with them. I want them to always see people as just that…people…who God created and loves dearly.

#6 Donations for the Crisis Pregnancy Center. What a wonderful ministry and the center in Hendersonville is simply incredible. They do so much good, good work. We were happy to tote in some baby supplies.

And right after this picture, I dropped my camera on the sidewalk. It was bad…like real bad. I may have cried. I’m a little emotional. So there’s no telling what today’s pictures will look like since the camera I will be using is about 10 years old.

But today is my big day. Today is my birthday and I am finishing out my birthday week with my last 6 kindness acts. I’m ready the spread the birthday love.

These two guys will be perfect companions for the day + another little wee boy who I am quite smitten with.

Oh and Amon had another doctors appointment yesterday. It went great. Only a few more weeks of being home bound and then we can show him off to the world. November 26th cannot get here quick enough…I want everyone to know Amon like we do and to experience his infectious little personality. He is such a crazy cool baby.

We also started our thankful leaves yesterday. Each day of November the kids decide on something they are thankful for and up goes our leaf. I love that the very first thing they chose to be thankful for was Amon. This kid is going to be ruined…we’re all head over heals for him.

So here’s to a great start to my thirties. I’m pretty stoked to see what God has planned. If I had to guess, I would say my thirties are going to be pretty crazy cool. Have a great weekend.

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: faith Tagged With: acts of kindness, birthday, family 25 Comments

November 1, 2012 By Laura 7 Comments

Wednesday

Yesterday is complete and it was quite a full day with Halloween and all. Here’s our re-cap:

#1 Sticky notes on bathroom mirrors. I had to get candy for trick-or-treaters, so my sticky notes ended up in the Target ladies room. I was busted by a fellow lady bathroom user and she didn’t say a word…avoided all eye contact, with me and the hot pink sticky notes with messages like “Lookin’ good hot stuff”…I think I made her uncomfortable…her mirror even already had messages on it. I’ve found that most people are very skeptical of kindness, but I’m here to prove them wrong. Kindess can be rad and pure.

#2 Leave change at a laundromat. There’s a laundromat just right down from our house, so this was super easy to do. Some Happy Washing & Drying messages with some quarters and crossing my fingers someone decided to do laundry on Halloween. The place was completely empty when I was there…like not one person…I could have possibly stolen a washer and/or dryer.

#3 Handmade cards to a nursing home. The kids colored cute little cards and I wrote little messages on the inside. When we were almost to the nursing home I noticed one of Harper’s cards…it had bunting…she’s a girl after my own heart for sure.

#4 Art giveaway. This was for you guys yesterday. And the winner of yesterday’s giveaway is Crystal. Crystal check your email for a message from me. Super congrats! Thank you all for entering…your comments are always too fun to read.

#5 Mustache on unsuspecting car. So a friend gave me a giant mustache magnet…it’s pretty awesome, but then later another friend gave me the exact same ginormous mustache magnet and what’s a girl to do with 2 very, very large mustache magnets? Well I decided to spread a little joy and maybe a good laugh with a stranger’s car in the Park-n-Ride parking lot.

#6 Restaurant gift card for a diner. The day was a bit crazy and I was never able to make it to an actual restaurant, so I decided to give away a Subway card to a trick-or-treater’s parent. Well here’s the problem…we only had 4 trick-or-treaters…and 3 of them were teenagers who were not dressed up. Come on now. The other one showed up without a parent. So today I will be finding a recipient for some yummy Subway.

Here’s my list for today. Got to get my kindness on.

And how about a little Halloween wee Kelley drama. We waited until today to buy and carve our pumpkin. This was not our plan, but life has just been crazy. So one pumpkin, three little artists. What are 2 peace keeping parents to do? Here was my solution. I clearly wanted to get in on the face designing of our pumpkin too…I have no artsy shame…so I drew 2 eyes, a nose and mouth, folded them up and let everyone draw from a bowl what they would get to draw for our pumpkin.

And this was Harper’s reaction when she got the nose. Her artistic heart was not okay with the nose…she had her heart set on the mouth, but when you pitch a fit in our house, you don’t get what you want.

I went in to give Amon his bottle while they cleaned out our pumpkin. When I came out Harper had worked her sisterly magic on the boys. They had all come to the agreement that Huddy would do both eyes, Sol would do the nose and Harper would do the mouth. If they can work out an agreement on their own…if they can use their own little minds and words to peacefully solve a problem and everyone is okay with it, well, then I’m okay with it too.

She did do a really good mouth.

Then they all got dressed up and ready to hit some houses up for candy. They were just too excited. I loved their joy…and imaginations. Pretty sure Huddy and Sol both really think they can be superheros when they grow up. That’s pretty stellar.