Easter Time

Can you believe it? I have never dyed Easter Eggs with my kids. Some how I have avoided this Easter childhood rites of passage. When I tell my friends, they just laugh. And I repeat: "I am serious!" We'll this is the year. I have it marked on my calendar and this week my kids and I will experience coloring Easter Eggs together. I've bought all the eggs, vinegar and coloring kit ~ all I need now is the energy and patience to do it.

New Mom!

Last spring I purchased this book as a good coffee table conversation starter. Recently it has meant more to ME, then in the past. Baby #3 will be arriving this Fall. Our whole family is thrilled and it has been very cute to see my house of boys get excited about another baby!

***Side-note: I have been so sick the last couple months hence the sporadic and none-existent posts. I hope as I progress further into my second trimester I will start feeling better and will post much more often.

***Side-note #2: If you haven't seen this book before it is absolutely priceless and will have you rolling in the aisle. I highly recommend it. You can purchase it here. I hope to share through-out this pregnancy a few of my favorites.

This has been in the works for sometime but I am participating in this super fun, creative, challenging competition called: So You Think You Can Quilt. It started this month and each month we have a theme to quilt by. February's theme was love !! So go check out the quilts ,vote, and maybe you'll send me to the next round!!

A few weeks ago I entered to win a free all day conference pass to

Casual Bloggers Conference

and I WON!!! I couldn't believe my eyes when they announced my little twitter comment won! If you live in Utah, you should really think about going. They will be some amazing speakers like Courtney, Becca and Kristina.

They are offering an early bird discount if you register before the end of February. Let me know if you are planning to attend. I would love to meet up and chitty chat.

Busy!

Sorry for such a long delay in blogging lately. Life has been taking precedence over blog land.

As a family we have really been enjoying the Olympics. I just couldn't believe when I was dating my husband that he hadn't grown up watching the Olympics! I corrected that problem right away, and I must admit he is quite the Olympic junky now.

I also recently finished this book; Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I put everything on hold to finish this 970 page book. The laundry, dinner, dishes....I just couldn't put it down. I do give this book an (R) rating, but all the great things in between more than make up for it. ***Side note: Before suggesting a book to a friend, I always give it a movie rating. For instance: if what I was reading were on the movie screen what would it be rated?****

Makin' Whoppie

Now I am not talking about the Whoppie your all thinking about. I am talking about W-H-O-P-P-I-E! i.e. lets celebrate and having a good party. I thought up this fun game to play with your kids come Valentine's Day.

Whoopie Game:
All you need is:
Balloons x 7
Paper
Zany Ideas
7 valentine prizes

Channel your inner Whoppi and think of 7 crazy, zany, fun games. Here are 7 examples:
Try and eat a dollop of whip cream off your nose/chin, first one finished wins.
Put an ice cube down your shirt and make it come out your pant leg, first ice cube out wins.
See who can last the longest having their feet tickled.
Do the chicken dance with your feet tied together, dance it faster and faster until only one person is left standing.
Rub your tummy and pat your head for 15 seconds. Rub your tummy, pat your head and jump on one foot. Continue to add more tasks until only one player is left.
Play chubby bunny, most marshmallows in mouth wins.
Blind fold everyone and them search for the whoppie cushion, whoever "farts" the cushion first, wins.

Write each of these 7 games on paper and place in un-blown up balloon. Blow up balloon with the paper games inside. Write W-H-O-O-P-I-E on each balloon with a marker. With 7 players, (if more players; have kids pair up and play on teams) give each kid a balloon.

Object of game: 7 rounds: 7 balloons. Each round players will try and pop their balloon. As each balloon is popped the game (inside the balloon) will be read and all players will then play the game. After each game is played a winner will be announced and awarded a prize. Play each round until all the balloons are popped and each game is played. Even if a player does not have a balloon to pop they can participate and play the game. If two balloons are popped at the same time, play both games in the same round.

After all these fun games, your kids should be exhausted and will probably need a little sugar pick me up!! (Yeah right!) But non-the-less, Kitty has a delicious whoppie pie recipe you can make for dessert. They kids are gonna love it!!

Layer on the Love

One thing I have a difficult time throwing or donating away is clothes: warn out, doesn't fit, ruined, doesn't matter, I can't bare to part with it. I always want to re-purpose the fabric. I buy the shirt, skirt or pants, because I loved the fabric and that is why I lament over donating it somewhere else. I think; "That fabric would make the coolest something!" Typically what happens is it sits in my craft room in the corner where I have a huge pile of other clothes waiting to be re-purposed for who knows how long.

Recently we got a new downstairs sectional. It is big and brown and it needs some pillows to spice up the decor. I love new pillows! especially fun, funky, detailed pillows and nothing seems to brighten a room or bed like pillows. Unfortunately really great, fantastic pillows can get pricey. Since I don't have the pillow budget I want, I usually shop and hunt through discount stores like Ross and T.J. Maxx to find something better than your average run of the mill pillow. Last week I went to Ross and found 3 great pillows, plus the two pillows forms (I had at home) I knew I could use my re-purpose fabric. Yah!!

Enter: in my second idea for Valentine's Day: Valentine Maternity Pillow if you are anything like me, you have a (second) big pile of maternity clothes you only wear when your preggers. Alot of my pregnant clothes are either worn out, stained (because I spilled everything right down the front of me) or out of style. So I decided to re-purpose a sweater I worn while pregnant with both of my boys. I love this sweater. I wore it almost everyday, it keep me warn and snugly all through the spring and fall months of my pregnancies. But alas (I haven't been pregnant for 4 1/2 years) I lost the tie for around my waist and it has a lot of stains, a few stains. This sweater was perfect for my pillow idea!

Now I am not a pattern gal, I have owned up to this a few times, and I just wing it, but I am savvy enough in the sewing department that throwing it together usually works for me. If you are a pattern gal look here for pillow patterns or check out this YouTube video on how to make a pillow from old jeans!!

I love how this pillow turned out, especially because it reminds me of when I was pregnant and those are happy Valentine-y thoughts for sure. Any other ideas on how to re-purpose your old pregnant clothes? It seems kinda sad to just throw them all away. Even letting friends borrow the clothes is great, but re-purposing one favorite item seems like a great way to honor the long hard nine months you put into getting your little one here. I would love to read/hear your ideas.

Layer On some more Love over at Kitty's Blog, she is showing us how to layer your favorite sugar cookie into the sweetest valentine treat.