Archives for January 2013

January 17, 2013 By 6 Comments

Good Times

I started the morning off far too early…like 4:30 am early, but I met Betsy for a 6 miler and got to knock some more miles off my 55 goal.  I should put Betsy’s face on here sometime…she’s this crazy cool lady who has the best stories, gives amazing parenting advice and runs like a rabbit.  She’s just fun.

Anywho…I get sidetracked a bit sometimes.  Let’s see…So today Amon kind of reminded me of Johnny Depp from the movie Cry-Baby.  If you’ve never seen the movie it’s terrible…terribly awesome.  It’s kind of this crazy 1990s movie.  If you have 2 hours to waste and want to watch a 90s so-bad-it’s-good movie, well then here you go.

This text went down today.  I’m the blue bubbles and Courtney is the white bubbles. Yes that happened.  And Courtney’s response further makes me love our friendship.

He was the cutest baby there, but he won that title very easily.

The boys have been playing lots of army men.  I really like when they do this because they are so deliberate and calculated and just super fun to watch when they are playing so seriously.  Amon has added a new element to this game as well.

I like when Harper gets home from school because she is always full of lots of fun kindergarten information.  She tells me things like what her friends had for lunch, that “so-and-so” has the same shirt as her, her favorite activity from the day and the list goes on and on.  I miss her during the day.  She’s kind of fun too.

I have belly diaper pictures of each of the wee Kelleys.  I love them and now I love Amon’s too.  All of it…little scars, handsome brown skin, adorable little belly button, polka dot diaper and all.  Makes my heart a bit happy.

We love reading chapter books and are currently working on Charlotte’s Web.  The kids love it…they belly laugh a lot while reading it.  We’ll watch the movie once were done.  We have a whole stack of our favorite chapter books from when Josh and I were kids that we’re making our way through.

And I made made this 8×8 canvas today for a kind friend…one of those really good friends.

**UPDATE:  All 3 canvases have sold.  Thanks so much.***

Tomorrow I will have three “Where you invest your love, you invest your life” M&S 4×12 canvases available.  If you know you would definitely like to purchase one, go ahead and send me an email using the “Contact Laura” button at the top and I’ll set one aside for you.

**UPDATE:  All 3 canvases have sold.  Thanks so much.***

Hope you guys have a great night.  I have an in-home date night planned with Josh Kelley and the wee Kelleys are seriously going to bed at, ummmmm 6:30.

Happy Thursday night!

Filed Under: family Tagged With: 6 Comments
January 16, 2013 By 3 Comments

Wednesday

Big thanks for all the tips so far on all my random goal inquiries yesterday.  I do sooooo appreciate all the advice.

I don’t have much to report today.  It was just kind of your totally random day.  I did make cookies and something went terribly wrong.  At Christmas Sol brought home a mason jar with cookie ingredients and a recipe from school.  Today the boys and I made the recipe…we just added the butter, vanilla and an egg.  I’m thinking I added too much butter.  The cookies were a hot mess and yet, delicious.  It was kind of crazy.  They appear totally unappetizing and then taste yummy.  Word.

We did a little grocery shopping too.  Cookies at Kroger definitely are an upside to shopping with lots of small children.  Several of the ladies at Kroger are way too good to us and are way sweet to the wee Kelleys.  I suppose we ate quite a few cookies today now that I’m looking back at my pictures.  Guess it was just that kind of day.

Do you guys use your library a lot?  We do.  Josh Kelley is the #1 library checker-outer.  He’s always bringing home new stuff that is too fun.  The other day he came home with an old school Transformers cartoon movie.  It’s beyond stellar…like vintage stellar.  And yesterday he came home with a Tinkerbell movie.  A 5-year-old Kelley girl was thrilled.

So while they enjoyed Tinkerbell, I wrangled Amon and got some loven’.  Amon love is the best love.

Lame post right?  Nothing exciting…just an average, run-of-the-mill day.  It was still pretty awesome though.  Oh and to add to our averageness…I made spaghetti for dinner.  Boom.  Now to finish up an art piece for a friend and I just may have several Mumford & Sons canvases up for sale at the end of the week.  Holla.

Happy Wednesday.

Filed Under: faith Tagged With: , 3 Comments
January 15, 2013 By 29 Comments

Goals

Harper is at school, Huddy and Sol are both at MDO and Amon is taking a nap.  I’m sitting on our couch and the only sound I hear is a combination called dishwasher, washing machine and dryer…all going at once.  Today my 2013 goals are heavy on my mind.  I’m rocking some of them and others I’m a bit behind in and others I haven’t even began yet.  So is life.  I could use your advice on a few of my goals.  Take a look.

*Monthly running goals.  I like to run, but wasn’t interested in doing a big race this year, so I decided I would set monthly running goals for each month.  This month I’m suppose to log 55 miles.  Josh laughed when he asked how I came up with that number…my response…”I just picked it.”  Next month I’ll probably use a little more logic.  I’m a wee bit behind because of bronchitis the first week of January and major rain the last several days.  I need to catch up.

*Move.  We love our house.  It is the most perfect house in the whole wide world, but only because it’s ours.  It’s right around 1300 sq. feet…Harper has her own room and the boys all share a room.  My boys will always share a room.  Even if we lived in a mansion with 10 gazillion bedrooms, my boys would still share a room.  I just like it that way.  We’re looking for a house or land zoned for Harper’s school because we love her school.  It’s hard because we don’t want a giant house and I don’t know if builders out there would even build a small house, but we have some plans brewing in our hearts and we need just an extra bedroom…and a garage would be awesome.  So far we haven’t found anything on Realtracs, so do any of you locals know of some houses or land for sale by owner?  I would so appreciate any info you had…it would be amazingly helpful.

*Anniversary trip.  Josh and I have our 10 year anniversary this summer.  We decided to take a much needed “just us” trip.  This is a fun goal.  Any suggestions on a good vacay spot for 2?

*Intentional blessings.  I really want to bless others when I feel God prompting my heart.  It’s not always easy to move stuff aside or drop what you’re doing when God asks you to.  But this year, I really want to see the needs in others lives and listen when God says “Do!”  I want Him to stretch our family for the encouragement of others.

*Heart Walk.  Nashville has a big heart walk in October and last year we were in the hospital the day of the walk.  This year I want our family to represent.  I want to be apart of helping raise money for heart research and to parade Mr. Amon around for all to see what an amazing little heart he has.  He is totally our ace of hearts.

*Verse memorization.  I really want to do this and yet this is one of my goals I’ve yet to begin on.  I always notice how I have song lyrics engraved in my brain and then how craptastic my scripture memorization is.  It’s terrible.  You guys have any good advice here?  Bring it on.

*New tattoo.  Yes…I am the person that puts “getting a new tattoo” on their goal list.  I already know what I want…this goal is more about just making time for myself.  I have a gift card…yes, they make gift cards for tattoo parlors…and need to visit my dude James.  Ha.  I’m a such a dork.

*Meet new friends.  Are we in high school or middle school or college orientation?  Nope…just Laura’s 2013 goal list.  I have wonderful friends, but I would like to meet more friends…and some couple friends would be even more amazing.  Anyone want to go on a really awkward “friend” lunch with me?

*More professional photos.  Awwwwe, yeah.  I can say I have rocked this one so far and have several photo sessions already scheduled for our little Kelley family for 2013.  I want to have our family captured in this special way and not just once a year, but several times a year.  If you are looking for a photographer, let me go ahead and give my big, ginormous shout out to Cheyenne Ward of Shots by Cheyenne and Laci Wilson of Barefeet Photography.  Amazing ladies and amazing talent.

Those are just a few of my goals for this year.  I would love any advice you may have.  I’m pretty good about taking advice.  How are your goals going?  And did you enjoy all the random Amon pictures I posted through out?  He’s too dang cute not to share and makes for some good photo blog post filler 🙂

Happy Tuesday!

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January 14, 2013 By 7 Comments

I Blinked…

Do you ever have those days when it feels like you blink…and the day is gone.  You realize it’s 4:45 and you have no clue what’s for dinner, you cannot not recall the tornado that swept through your house and wreaked havoc, but clearly one did and you got practically nothing accomplished that you really needed to.  That was my day today.  I have no clue where the day went…no clue, but here I sit and the day is gone.

So how was your weekend?  Ours was good and full.  Friday Harper had awards day at school.  The boys were so intent…a little fidgety, but clapped their hearts out for their sister.  She was so stikin’ cute and so proud.

I let them pick out their own little bag of chips afterwards at the Dollar General for part of their lunch.  You would have easily thought they won the chip lottery.  And oh the time…they both debated and talked out their options and debated some more.  Finally a decision was made.

Amon enjoyed his first ever ride in a grocery cart without his seat.  He was a wee bit tipsy, but thoroughly enjoyed himself.

This is kind of my most favorite plastic mug ever.  It was mine when I was a kid and now it’s Harpers.  She loves it.  And I love that she loves it.  We played quite a bit of kitchen this weekend.  I make a mean plastic egg, fabric lettuce and wood bread sandwich.

Hudson has been practicing his name a lot lately.  He loves to write and draw and cut and glue and he’s quite the determined little go-getter.  He’s pretty much nailed it.  I completely heart him.

Today I do know I scooted across our floor a lot trying to keep distance between my camera and this little dude.  When my camera comes out Amon wants to get as close as possible.  It’s like a fun little game…I’m pretty smitten.  We’ll probably play it again tomorrow.

My Erin Condren life planner arrived today too.  Oh sweet bliss.  I have felt lost for the last 14 days and now, well now I’m not so lost.  This is the best planner ever.  I know I could keep things planned out on my phone, but I like writing things down, so this is the perfect lovely solution.

I also made lunch.  I do know my boys ate at some point.

We also made a quick trip to Target for Amon’s formula + a few other things, after picking Harper up from school.  I snagged a new running toboggan clearanced.  Way prettier and colorful than my old one.  Holla.

And we rocked some shaving cream.  The best activity or boredom buster ever and our table smells delightful.  They will do this for forever…perfect thing to do while I’m trying to figure out what the heck is for dinner.

So how was your day?  Did an unknown tornado visit your house?  Hope it was a good Monday.

Happy Beginning of the Week.

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January 11, 2013 By 7 Comments

Insta Friday…hold the front door!!!

I’m kind of proud of myself…this is my 3rd Insta Friday in a row.  Welcome to crazy town.  I love it.

You know it’s the really good stuff  when “gold liquid” is printed on the side.  Sleepy town here I come.  Definitely a “do not operate heavy machinery” type of medicine.

Remember when I told you about these really awesome Brooks Pure Flow running shoes that Jami had recommended to me?  Yep, they’re this good.

Sol and Huddy were sword fighting and then Sol would play dead.  The only thing was he continued to yell out, “I’m dead.  I’m dead.  Someone help.”

Josh went to help his dad clean out their basement.  He came home with cowboy hats and a coon skin hat.  There are some happy boys in our house now.

She’s my favorite girl in the whole wide world.  Bedtime chatting is our fave.

Shirtless boys…or boys who just constantly pull their shirts up.  I do sooooo love Huddy’s outie and Sol’s sealed up innie.  Swoon.  Can you swoon over belly buttons?  Sure you can.

Our van has been in the shop so I have been toting around 4 kiddos in our CRV.  Huddy called shotgun.

They were fighting hard one day from the moment Harper got home from school.  Punishment:  Sit and hold hands and give each other compliments for 5 minutes.  They started out with things like “I love you” and “You’re a good artist” and “I like your shirt.”  Near the end of the 5 minutes I heard Huddy tell Harper, “I like your skin.”

Babies sitting on counters are way cute…like waaaaaay cute.

Paper rockets and lots of them.  Compliments of Huddy and his master glue stick and cutting skillz.

Turquoise frosting.  Kind of totally delicious.

His little clinched fists are pretty dang cute.

In the words of my friend Alissa, “Swag for days.”  He’s totally for real.  Look out ladies.

Their brotherly bond and friendship melts my heart into a big drippy puddle.  Like really big and drippy.

Stellar little sleeping baby.  #aceofhearts

The world’s most grooviest map.  Hello 60s.  Peace, Love and Geography.

And a surprise running date.  I had a lot to get done…so much to do…but was glad we took a bit of time to run and then grab dinner.  Dates are important.

Are you on Instagram too?  Come find me pitterpatterart.

Have a superb weekend.  Crazy happy it’s Friday.

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January 10, 2013 By 6 Comments

Smorgasness {I made that word up}

Thank you guys so much for entering my Happy 2013/Thank You BIG Time giveaway.  I loved reading all your goals for this new year.  Thanks for sharing them with me.  And here are the 3 winners:

therese schulle stokes says:
January 8, 2013 at 9:23 am
Shared on fb: Awesome giveaway at Pitter Patter Art!! THREE chances to win one of three amazing art pieces!!

Crystal says:
January 7, 2013 at 8:13 am
Shared your giveaway on my Facebook page. Hoping some friends check it out too!

shannon herrmann says:
January 7, 2013 at 8:12 am
Fan on facebook!  have been forever.

Super congrats ladies and check your email for a message from me.

I’ve decided I need to teach Harper, Huddy and Sol how to fix their own breakfast.  Can you imagine the extra sleep?  It sounds magical.  Either that or I need to start buying Pop-Tarts and putting them in a low cabinet.

I’ve been cutting strawberries the way my Mom did.  I can distinctly remember the way she held the knife and the strawberry between her fingers…it was just so her.  I miss her.

When looking at this picture I feel like they have formed a small gang behind my back and are threatening me in some way.  Good thing I’m not easily intimidated by plastic screwdrivers or Donatello’s staff.

Huddy is my question asker.  I love this about him, but it also sometimes drives me semi insane.  One day this week I decided to document every time he asked a question over a 2 hour period.  This was just the tip of the question iceberg.  I love him.

Sol made the cutest igloo at MDO on Tuesday.  He was so proud of it and Huddy really…I mean REALLy…wanted to eat it.

I adore these little chubby fingers.  I adore how he fists his food and just shovels it all in.

Fixing school lunches may have joined folding laundry on my list of arch nemesis.

Pretty sure I now have one million pictures of Amon at this point.  That whole thing about not having as many pictures of your youngest child is soooo not true with us.  He rules this Kelley roost with his fabulous hair and crazy enchanting, dark as night eyes.  Goodness we may have a problem.

And that’s all I’ve got for today.  Things are busy in the Kelley house and I have quite the To-Do List for today.  I hope your day is grand.  Happy Thursday!

Filed Under: family, giveaway Tagged With: , , 6 Comments
January 9, 2013 By 6 Comments

Krazy Kelleys

Life with kids is seriously so crazy and so hard and so fun.  Being a parent is not only amazing, but extremely hard.  I mean I love them like crazy…I only love Jesus and Josh more…so they’re pretty high up on my list.  Life with the wee Kelleys is never dull…never, ever, ever dull.

I struggle just like most parents out there to find balance and to be fun, but firm and to not lose my ever loven’ mind every day and to be patient and to love hard and to care and instill and invest and apologize when I yell and make mistakes.  That’s a lot to try and do on my own.

One of my goals for this year is to let God have His children back because I’ve been holding them a bit too tightly and acting as if they really are mine, when they are really God’s and He’s just entrusted Josh and I with them for a bit.  So I’m trying to get back to letting God teach me how to parent His wee Kelleys.

That’s kind of hard for me to do because I have these little pictures and all these dreams for what I imagine Harper, Hudson, Solomon and Amon will be.  And then God reminds me, “Maybe that’s not what I have planned for them Laura.”  This past year, more than ever, I have been learning to embrace and love and cherish the fact that God has walked our days out ahead of us and to plan in pencil because God has His plans and they far exceed anything I could ever imagine.

So I’m learning to let Him guide me in this crazy thing called “parenting.”  It’s terribly hard for me, but goodness knows this is a lesson I have needed to learn…I’m pretty good at botching things up and there are 4 wee Kelleys who I certainly don’t want to botch.

And a high-5 or fist bump to all you parents out there today because certainly you could use a bit of encouragement…this is not an easy task, that’s for sure.

Ephesians 2:10  “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Happy Wednesday.

PS:  Giveaway ends tonight at midnight.  So excited to see who the three winners will be.  CLICK HERE to enter.  Hooray.

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January 8, 2013 By 7 Comments

Baking The Day Away

I have totally missed baking some crazy good treats since I was sick for, ummm, like 3 weeks.  And clearly really sick people should not bake and then share.  Germania.  So I’m feeling so much better and decided I would do a bit of baking today and try some new recipes.  I had this really cute little helper.  His name is Amon.  He’s adorable.  And has fabulous hair.  You should really meet him one day.  Your world would be rocked.

Okay so here’s what we baked.  Sugar Cookie Squares.  OMG.  I try not to use texting language, but let me say again, OMG.  These are amazingly delicious.  Yeah, just go ahead and make these right now.  Like right now.

Next up…Twinkie Cupcakes.  Yes, you read that right.  These were top notch as well.  Josh LOVED them.

I used a new ingredient with the cupcakes…cake flour.  I’ve read about it before, but usually avoid all recipes that have an ingredient I’m unfamiliar with.  Time to try new things, so I sought out cake flour at Kroger and then rocked some Twinkie cupcakes with the cake flours help.

I also made the most fantastic Nutter Butter Balls.  I’ve made these before, but they are just so so good and extremely easy.  I dip mine in white chocolate and then immediately need to give them away because I would easily…I mean easily, eat the entire batch.

And at the end of the day…you know it was a good day when the top rack of your dishwasher is full of measuring cups.

Hope your day was good too.

Happy Tuesday.

Oh and the New Years/Thank You SO Much Giveaway is still going on.  It ends Wednesday night at midnight.  I have so loved reading all the comments.  Cannot wait to see who the three winner are going to be.  CLICK HERE to enter or scroll to the post below.

Filed Under: family, giveaway Tagged With: , 7 Comments
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