A Day in the Life of a Five Foot Mama: Holiday

Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts

Thursday, February 14, 2013

My 3 Valentines. I couldn't be luckier!

Though I don't always realize it or say it enough, I am so lucky and so blessed!

My most recent Valentine arrived 10 1/2 months ago. Bryleigh has grown so much since then, taking on a mind of her own and a crazy personality to go with it. She is getting so funny! I love her silly faces, her imitations, her dancing, and how she just loves to rough house with Valentine #2, her brother! She shows her love everyday, sometimes a little too much! :) I love you, my littlest Valentine!

Valentine #2 will be 3 in only ten days! I truly cannot believe how the time has flown and what an awesome little kid Brennan is turning into! He is ridiculously smart, pretty stinking adorable, and so hilarious! He makes me laugh A LOT every single day. I also just love that he still isn't too old for hugs or kisses and snuggles. He is caring and loving to his little sister and always makes sure she is being taken care of. I sure love you, Valentine Boy!

Ahh... This brings me to my last Valentine. Ryan and I have been together for 10.5 years and married for over 7.5. He knows me so well and takes great care of all of us. I love watching how he plays with the kids and listening to them all giggle together. He is honest and loyal- two traits I admire greatly. Besides all that, he is a great cook and makes supper most nights. Trust me- a girl can get used to that! Thanks for everything, Ryan! I love you! We all love you!

I hope you all have someone special to love this Valentine's Day!

Adorable Personalized Shirt Review and Giveaway by Monogramme Maison

I'm a huge fan of personalized clothing for kids. I think it is so cute, and once they are old enough to understand it, they feel very special having a shirt with their name, too! Brennan has has a few shirts with his name including a birthday shirt and a couple of big brother shirts. But even though Bryleigh had a little sister shirt, it wasn't personalized because we wanted it to fit her in the hospital and I don't 'pre-name' my kids! :) It is time for her to have her first personalized shirt!!!

Monogramme Maison has generously provided one of their shirts for me to review for Bryleigh! Valentine's Day isn't far away, so we thought that a personalized Valentine's shirt would be cute for her. I picked out a ridiculously cute heart cupcake shirt. I really like this style because it will not only look super cute for Valentine's, but it is adorable for anytime of the year. It is a simple design with only Bryleigh's name and the cupcake applique, which is sparkly by the way. :) We love it!

There are so many other adorable designs available from Monogramme Maison that I HAVE to show you a few of my favorites!

Studly Boy's Valentine's shirt!


Boy's monogrammed shirt!


For NEXT Christmas- Monogrammed Rudolph shirt!

Girly owl shirt!

Princess birthday shirt!

This is only a small sampling of what they have available now. You really need to go check out the rest! I especially love their selection of boyish shirts. Having both a boy and a girl, I find that it is typically much easier to find clothing I like for my daughter, and more of a challenge for my son. Monogramme Maison has tackled this issue well! Their boy (and girl) designs are great.

Monogramme Maison's shirts are more than cute, they are also high quality and carefully made. Bryleigh's shirt is soft and thick compared to many other shirts she has. The stitching is precise and looks perfectly centered and even. I really appreciated the included product care card. It gave very clear care instructions to make sure that Bryleigh's shirt stays in the best shape possible. The packaging was so cute, too! Each shirt comes wrapped in a cellophane bag tied with 2 colors of raffia. You wouldn't need to gift wrap these before giving them to someone.

The sizing, in my opinion, seems to run a bit big. Bryleigh is kind of between sizes right now, so we figured we would rather be safe than sorry and request the bigger size, 12-18 months, instead of 6-12 months. These shirts are 100% cotton so we expected some shrinking, as well. When the shirt arrived, I was a little surprised to see that the 18 month size looked a lot more like a 2T. I held it up to a couple of Brennan's 2T shirts and they were the same size. When I washed it, I dried it on high and hoped for some shrinking. Sure enough, it did shrink down about a size and ended up being a lot closer to what I would consider an 18 month size shirt. Bryleigh's shirt is one of the ruffled ones, so I can't speak for how the sizes are on the onesies. I don't find this to be too big of a deal either. This shirt has plenty of growing room. This is just something I would want people to know when choosing a size.

This is a fairly new shop, but they are off to a great start! They have 100% positive feedback with great, encouraging comments left by many happy customers. They are accommodating and here to please! The turn around time is fairly quick, too. They also let me know that they are introducing a brand new line of premium shirts made with Peruvian Pima cotton. This is the same cotton that many popular boutique brands use.

Monogramme Maison has been a pleasure to work with and I expect nothing but good things for them! Two Thumbs up from this Five Foot Mama!

Alright lucky duckies! Monogramme Maison has generously offered to give away a $25 store credit to one lucky winner! Just use the form below to enter (US only, please). Maybe you could stop by their shop at Etsy or their Facebook page to say thanks, too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Resolutions, Shmesolutions...

I've never been big on resolutions. I don't know why... just never made much sense to me. I think when I was a tween I made a resolution once or twice, but not since then. But today, I was thinking about what I would resolve to do if I actually did make resolutions.

Take more time for just me.

Paint my toenails at least once a month.
Read a book.
Crochet something for myself.
Write more blog posts.

Shower if I want to, even if the baby cries when I shut the door.
Cut the cord, get a part-time job, and give myself some time out of the house.
Go get at least 2 massages this year!

After looking back at my list, I'm beginning to think I should make resolutions. Hmmm....

Spoiled Kids at Christmas!

Wowie! I sure have some spoiled kids at Christmas time! They were so good yesterday, just having fun getting to know their new toys and books. I forgot to include a couple of things in the picture, but here's generally what their days consisted of:

Brennan

Texas A&M shirt
Homemade by Grandma Embroidered Badgers shirt
Red sweatpants
Angry Birds shirt
Sweater (unpictured)
Cowboys jersey (unpictured)
Long-sleeve shirt (unpictured)
Disney Bedtime Favorites book
Pixar Shorts DVD
Sugar Cookie Chapstick
Animal finger puppets
Starter Thomas set (unpictured)
Train set in Rubbermaid tote
Playdoh bucket
Playdoh tools set
Llama Llama Holiday Drama book
Superstructs building set
Mickey sounds book
Texas A&M plush football
Gyro bowl (unpictured)
Wheelies Loops 'n Swoops Amusement Park
Mickey repositionable sticker sheet
Homemade by Mama moose quillow
Ginger bread man Christmas lights
Space Captain Mickey (unpictured)
2 Snow brick molds
Sled (unpictured)
Lemax village candy shop
Bag of Mega Blocks
Remote control truck
Talking baseball toy
Mickey wood puzzle
"What do people do" book
Mickey pajamas
Mickey & Pluto ornament
Christmas countdown ornament
3rd Christmas ornament
Personalized train ornament
Godchild ornament (unpictured)
Amazon Toys Gift card (unpictured)
Money from family (unpictured)

Bryleigh

Cabbage Patch doll
Bathtub Froggy
Yogurt Melts
Baby's 1st Christmas ornament
Personalized Baby's 1st Christmas ornament
Baby Booties ornament
Fairy Messengers Tiger Lily ornament
Godchild ornament (unpictured)
Christmas sleep sack
Personalized Piggy bank
Dora outfit
Stuffed duck
Bag of Mega Blocks
Roll 'n crawl ball
Colors 'n Counting book toy (unpictured)
Homemade by Gigi (Grandma) sock monkey
Homemade by Mama Leopard quillow
My Pal Violet
Texas Tech bib
Texas Tech creeper
Lemax Village church
11 pairs of adorable socks
"I Love You So Much" Record a Story
"The Story of Christmas" book
Sled (unpictured)
Pink and Grey outfit
Santa Loves Me outfit
Zebra pajamas
Osh Kosh B'Gosh jean jumper w/ matching pink shirt (unpictured)
Brown sweatshirt outfit w/ matching red shoes
Bunny lovey
2 Homemade by Grandma embroidered bibs
Baby doll w/ homemade by Grandma blanket
Build-a-bear gift card (unpictured)
Money from family (unpictured)

I sure am thankful for family and friends that love them both so much! It is a good thing for the sake of us in our little house that Christmas comes only once a year! :)

Delicious Cookie Dough Truffles Recipe!

We are doing our annual cookie bake at my Grandma's farm again this year and I thought it might be fun to try something new and mix it up a little. So I went on a search for something delicious and hit the jackpot! I found these Cooke Dough Truffles and saw that the reviews were pretty impressive. I decided to give them a test run before the cookie bake JUST to make sure! :)

Mine are ever-so-slightly different than the original recipe, which can be found here if you are interested. Here is my modified recipe:

Cookie Dough Truffles-

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 pounds chocolate candy coating/almond bark

Directions

In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour, alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips.
Chill dough for at least an hour or until it becomes easy to work with.
Shape into 1/2 to 3/4 inch balls. Place on plate. Make sure they are still nice and firm before the next step. If they are softening, chill a while longer.
In a microwave, melt candy coating or almond bark; stir until smooth. Dip balls in coating; allow excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper. Allow to harden. If desired, remelt remaining candy coating and drizzle over candies. Store in the refrigerator.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try these!

Bryleigh's Homemade Christmas stocking!

It's done! I've been working on this stocking since January or February- before Bryleigh was even born! These cross stitched stockings take hundreds of hours to complete, so I am thrilled to be finished with plenty of time until Christmas, too!

Drumroll........

I love it!

Now my littlest one has a stocking that matches mine and Brennan's! Next year's project is Ryan's stocking. The only part of this stocking that I'm not crazy about is the 'B'. I did it correctly, but it looks kind of funny... Tonight I will try to improve on it.

And in case you are interested, here is my stocking

And Brennan's

And Ryan's... the reason we are all getting matching stockings, and not just getting stockings for only the kids. Honestly, I tease him too much about this stocking. It is something that was made for him as a child by a family member, but really... :)

Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday- Christmas Card 2012

Texas Vacation!

I should have mentioned last week that I wouldn't be getting many blog posts done since were going to be on vacation to Texas, but I didn't. I had very unrealistic expectations. I was thinking that I would somehow have time to write a post each evening explaining what we did each day. Haha! Hilarious! By the time we've gotten the kids to bed each night, all I've wanted to do is pass out, too.

Anyway, I thought I'd catch you up. We made it to Plano Sunday afternoon and were quite happy to take it easy for the evening. It was fun seeing Holly and Jason's new house!

Monday was also a lazy day. We mostly spent time hanging out with family. It was great to catch up with everyone and watch Brennan and Bryleigh get to know their aunts and uncle and bond with his cousins more and more. The big excitement for the day was meeting Ryan's brother, Mike, for lunch a delicious lunch at Taco Cabana. It was super tasty and very nice to catch up.

Tuesday was the only day (besides Thanksgiving) that we had planned before even heading to Texas. We went to Fossil Rim in Glen Rose, Texas. It was an awesome experience! The animals walk right up to your car to get their little treats. Some even stick their face right in the window! The four of us all really enjoyed it! You wouldn't think that a baby would get a kick out of something like that, but even Bryleigh liked it! Brennan REALLY liked it!

On Wednesday, I got to do something that wouldn't excite most people.... bra shopping! My sister and I both have the issue of having boobs much too large for regular bra stores to accommodate. Luckily for me, she knows of a great specialty bra shop near her house. So Holly, Bryleigh, and I headed out and I tried on a million. I found a couple of styles I really like and Holly was able to check me off of her Christmas list with the purchase of an AWESOME sports bra. And here's the funniest part.... I learned my real bra size. Drumroll, please- 32H!!! Woah.

After the bra fitting experience, I headed to a Ross store with another sister, Kris, and my niece, Autumn. It was good! I got myself a nice pair of tennis shoes, a pair of shoes and socks for Brennan, and some Mickey pajamas as a Christmas present for B. What a good deal, too! It was all about $60.

Ryan brought Brennan to Bounce U to jump and play. They had an awesome time and it sure wore Brennan out.

Wednesday night we got to go with Holly and Jason to a Chinese Lantern Festival in Dallas. The sheer number of lanterns was really amazing. It was beautiful! I could not believe all of the amazing creations that they made out of lanterns! Another impressive sight was the ridiculously long dragon made entirely out of China and silverware! Very cool! Both kids and all of the adults really enjoyed it.

Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving. In the morning, we took a drive to Carrollton to see Kris' house. We got to check out the house and see the kids' rooms. It was really nice to visit with everyone. I really loved seeing their dog, a Boxer, Mugsy! It has been 6 years! He is a sweetie!

After our visit we headed back to Holly's to get ready for the afternoon and get the kids down for their always important naps.

In the afternoon, we had a lovely Thanksgiving meal with my older sisters and their families, an aunt, and two cousins.

On Friday, Ryan and I did a little shopping in the morning. That afternoon, he went golfing with his brother, Mike and had a great time. That afternoon and evening we got packed up and ready to leave. We went out for supper with Kris, Autumn, and Wiley. It was a lot of fun!

And in case you were wondering, the kids were better in the car than I could have ever asked for! Thank you, kiddos! Here are a few more pictures from the trip!