Valentine's Party

Adalyn's Valentine party at school was originally scheduled for Thursday, February 13, but since we had a snow day, it was moved to Tuesday, February 18. 

She was SO excited to finally be able to bring all of her Valentine goodies she had made. Nancy had helped Adalyn make goody bags for everyone and then we added stickers with a sweet little note for everyone to take home!

I bought these clear bags in the party area at Wal-Mart and found the stickers at Dollar General. The girls got Princess Sofia stickers while the boys got Thomas the Train and "Planes" stickers.

I love how they turned out!

The note at the top says, 

"Let's stick together! Love, Adalyn"

Here she is when I dropped her off for school that morning. 

(the hand on the hip thing is all her idea! She naturally does that anytime a camera is brought out- ha!)

I was able to attend her class party on my lunch break. I always love visiting with her while she is at school!

The party was a hit. The kids took home so many fun goodies from their friends plus a huge balloon from their teachers. She had a great time!

My bathroom mirror

I have so many projects up my sleeve for the Spring and Summer months for our house that I am happy to say I can cross one of those projects off my list! And it's only February! I have wanted to frame our mirror in our bathroom for a long time. I searched online (and of course Pinterest) and read step by step on how to make it happen. I told Adam what I was wanting and he was all game, so we made it happen!

This April will mark 3 years that we have been in our house. We did a lot of updating when we first bought it. Mainly painting and flooring the entire house. Last summer I got the urge to stain our bathroom vanity. Our house was built in 2001 so if you are like me and have an older home, you probably have a lot of builder grade oak cabinets throughout. Well, that is our case so I wanted to experiment with staining. I have stained wood before back in high school when helping my dad. I remember wiping it on, wiping it off, wiping it on, wiping it off. It was very thin and watery. I knew I did not want to go that route so Pinterest again saved the day. I came across Gel Stain. I did A LOT of research on it and we decided to go with "Java" for the color of stain. I have been meaning to blog about the process of using the gel stain on our oak cabinets and haven't gotten around to it. We finished it back in August! I will do a post about it soon but basically the gel is thick, almost like pudding. It was marvelous! It took 3 coats (1 each night) and we did 2 coats of Polyacrylic. We still had some stain left over so Adam used it on our trim for the mirror. 

This project of framing our mirror cost us about $30.00. It was so simple and inexpensive- I can't believe we didn't do it sooner! 

Adam went to Home Depot and purchased window/door frame trim. It was pine wood and ready to be stained. The same with our vanity, he did 3 coats of gel stain but only 1 coat of poly. My awesome dad came over yesterday with his saw to help us.They measured the mirror and then my dad cut the trim to size. By the end, you will obviously have 4 individual pieces of trim. Everything I read online said to glue the corners together but my dad put in a tiny nail instead.
Once you have your corners glued or nailed together, it will be the size of your mirror. Turn it over, and add your glue. Liquid nails is suggested, but Adam asked a guy at Home Depot which type of glue would be best for mirrors and he directed him to something else.

**It is important to remember, whether you stain your trim or decide to paint it, you need to do at least 1 coat on the back as it will reflect in the mirror. **

As you are adding glue, don't put it on the edge closest to the inner mirror as it could seep out once pressed.
You basically get 1 shot at adhering it to your mirror so take your time!

And because everyone loves a good before and after pic- here you go!!


Before- very boring!

Adding the glue to the back of the frame

Almost finished!

Yay!

Our bathroom isn't fancy and builder grade mirrors are just boring! So add a frame to make a huge difference! 

We absolutely love the outcome and will be staining the kids bathroom vanity and adding a trim to their mirror this summer. Our next BIG project is to stain our oak cabinets in the kitchen. Our kitchen is pretty decently sized and we have lots of cabinets and an island to stain. It will take us a while to complete and I have to admit, I am already stressing about the mess my kitchen will be in while we do it! Ah! But, I know the outcome will be awesome so that is our next thing to do on my list. 

Add a frame people---you will not regret it!

New bed for Adalyn!!

This past Fall is when I realized Adalyn was getting too big for her toddler bed. Her head and feet would touch at the same time so I knew it was time to order the conversion kit to transform it into a full sized bed. We ordered it November 29 and picked it up last week. It's considered a special order so it took forever to come in. 

One of Adalyn's big gifts from my parents at Christmas was new Pottery Barn bedding, along with sheets and a bed skirt. I hated keeping it tucked away in her closet while we waited on the rails to come in! Since we had two snow days last week, we took advantage of being at home and picked up her mattress and put her bed together.

To say she was excited is an understatement.
You would have thought it was Christmas morning!

Here it is!

The flash has made the green on her quilt look really bright, but you can see in the 3rd picture it isn't. My flash must have picked up on that some how. I searched for months for bedding. Adam was willing to paint but I really like the green walls so I searched every possible website and catalog to find something that had the "right" color green in it with touches of pink. I did not want something "loud" or themed, so this is just perfect.
I feel her room will continue to grow with her for a few years and that was my goal all along. I'd say by the time she is 9 or 10, it will be time to update it again.

A look back at my sweet girl in her crib and toddler bed.

First time in her new, "big kid" bed!

Last day in her toddler bed.

Look how much her hair has grown!

 

Finally... a decent snow!

All winter I have wanted a snow big enough for all of us to play in. So far this winter season, we have had nothing but dustings and some ice on the roads. Earlier in the week, there were lots of talk about possible snow for our area. Since Adam and I work for the school system, we of course wanted a snow day! I usually don't allow myself to get my hopes up when they start forecasting snows because in true Tennessee fashion, it hardly happens. They went ahead and cancelled school on Tuesday night- wahoo! We woke up Wednesday morning to nothing on the ground but we knew it was going to happen later on during the day. So we made our way to Pelham to put some hay out and eat breakfast. On our way back home it started sleeting so we figured it would start snowing soon. I told Adam that the temperature was just way too warm to get any of this snow they kept talking about. The rest of the afternoon rained on and off. I was glad we didn't really mention the possibility of snow to the kids because I didn't want to get their hopes up. I had told myself that we were too high for the system to reach us and figured it stayed down south instead. We went through our evening routine and as we were getting the kids out of the bath, we noticed it was snowing! This was around 7:00 Wednesday night and the kids were sooo excited to finally see some snow! To my surprise, it was sticking to the deck, roof, cars, wet ground, everything! It was coming down so fast, it was so peaceful to watch. My mom called me and told me we needed to take the kids out- and she was right! I was thinking the same thing right before she called. I found a hair dryer and dried Adalyn's hair since it was soaking wet from their bath. We put on their snow bibs and jackets and we made our way outside.

My pictures off my camera are a little blurry but we had so much fun Wednesday night playing in the snow! 

You can really see how much snow was coming down in this picture

His owl hat is way too small but it did the job!

Tiny snowman on my car

Adalyn named our snowman, "Flossy" :P

Landon has a friend!

"Flossy" is sporting a TN hat and a lady bug scarf

We played in the snow for an hour and once back inside, we put both kids in the shower to warm up. Bed time was later tonight but it was worth it making fun memories like this. 

Thursday morning we were up early ( I mean come on, we have a 4 year old and a 2 year old, of course we were up early! I know some of you feel my pain!) so by 7:30, we were outside playing once again! Tennessee snow never hangs around so I knew the snow would be completely gone by the end of the day. We stayed out for at least an hour and a half. The kids had a ball. By 3:00 yesterday afternoon, you would have never known it had snowed. It went away so fast! But, I am thankful for the 2 snow days at home and getting to experience playing in the snow with the kids. Now, I am ready for Spring! Bring on the warmer weather, blooming flowers, and lots of playing outside!

And just for fun, a comparison!

14 month old Adalyn and 4 year old Adalyn 

Random from my iPhone

 Sue sent me this picture of Adalyn Thursday morning. 

The easel she got for Christmas has been so good for her. She loves writing her name on the dry erase board. It made my day to see her practicing at school, too! Even if she did run out of room and had to improvise. ;)

Her daily activity sheet that is sent home every Tuesday and Thursday tells what all they do during the day. The sheet sent home this day said she was "very talkative"... 

Looks like we need to be practicing our listening skills as much as we are practicing our writing skills! lol :P

I snapped this the other morning while Adam and I were getting ready for work. They were sitting together watching Disney Jr. and drinking their morning milk. The quality is really dark and grainy but it is (somewhat) rare to catch those two sitting still and being nice to each other. 

We are also trying to remind them that they need to share. (and like it. Or act like they like it.) 

Landon really likes to play with Adalyn's toys. 

It can be an explosive and an entertaining situation...

Friday night at North Coffee, they had a Valentine Daddy-Daughter dance. Adalyn of course went with Adam while Landon and I had a night to ourselves at home. All last week was so busy for us so it was nice to be home for one evening!

He toted around Clifford, T-Bone, and Mac :)

Sunday morning I got the kids ready and headed off to Church. Adam had to be at the 8:30 service to help serve The Lord's Supper, so it was up to me to get myself and two kids ready. We arrived at 9:30 (15 minutes early - go me!) and while we were walking in the parking lot, Landon stopped and pointed to the arrow on the ground and said, "A triangle!!" 

I was so excited that he discovered that on his own without any prompting. Normally, when we go over colors and shapes, he does what any typical boy, two year old does... 

1. Ignores me

2. Says "green" for everything

;)

So I was glad to see that he actually does listen to us even when I think he will be telling me the Sun is "green" for years to come. 

Happy Monday!

Ski Trip to Utah

Ok so, Adam and I just got back from the most amazing ski vacation ever! Last January (2013), Tommy, Sarah, Adam and I decided to plan a vacation to Utah to go skiing. We decided we would go in January (2014) and since Adam and I follow Dave Ramsey, we saved all year long by putting money back in our envelopes so we could pay for everything in cash. ( If you do not do this, you should really try it! Seriously.)

We left last Wednesday, January 29. We both worked half a day and Jerry was gracious enough to take off work early so he could drive us to the airport. Our flight was due to leave at 3:25 but it was late arriving in Nashville so we were late leaving for Denver. We knew we only had a 30 minute layover while in Denver so we figured we would be pushing for time once we finally landed in Colorado. Our flight was scheduled to leave for Utah at 5:50 and at 4:45, we were STILL on the plane. The flight attendant asked everyone to be seated and let the few of us off first that had flights fixing to take off. Wouldn't you know, the gate we needed to be at couldn't be right beside the gate we just arrived at. That would be too easy. It was like half way down the airport. So we ran. Fast. Well, I tried to keep up with Adam but 1 of his strides is like 3 of mine sooo I trailed behind a little bit. :) 

As soon as we got on the plane, everyone was already seated and all carry-ons had already been put in overhead storage. I was so out of breath and burning hot I just wanted to sit down. They informed us that the plane was waiting for us to arrive and thank goodness they did! It would not have been a good thing if we missed it considering Tommy and Sarah were flying from Atlanta and were meeting us around the same time in Utah. Thankfully, we all arrived safely, got our rental car, and headed to Park City. By the way, our rental car was a Kia Sorento... I fell in love with it. It was SO roomy and nice! ( we needed an SUV due to our ski equipment) When one of our vehicles crap out, I will definitely look into those! 

It was raining when we landed, but by the time we got the car and was getting on the interstate, it had started sleeting. That just meant it would really be coming down harder as we made our way up the canyon! And sure enough, it was basically coming a blizzard. (What my Tennessee mind considers a blizzard anyway) Tommy and Sarah lived in Salt Lake for a few years so thankfully he was use to driving in those conditions and knew exactly where we needed to go. It was around 11:00 PM (Midnight in TN) there and you could not see the interstate due to all the snow. We were all starving by the time we arrived in Park City. Adam and I hadn't eaten since 11:00 earlier that day so we were ready to eat at the first fast food place we came to. It was good ol' McDonald's. I seriously have not eaten there in years but those chicken nuggets tasted so so good to me. I had Tommy snap a picture of Adam and I in the parking lot. The snow was coming down so hard and it was so peaceful to watch. I was in awe of all of the snow. I haven't seen that much accumulation of snow in the past couple of years combined as I did within the first hour we were there. So, like a true tourist, I stood amazed.

After our late dinner, we found our condo, unpacked, and went to sleep. A full day of skiing was ahead of us!

When we woke up early Thursday morning, this was our view from the balcony. 

Breathtaking, isn't it?

We got dressed and made our way over to Jan's to rent our ski equipment. We then stopped at Whole Foods to grab breakfast and some sandwiches for lunch.

Our next stop was Brighton. Our favorite ski resort. (Adam and I went skiing for the first time almost 5 years ago in Utah. We went to 3 different ski resorts and after our trip, we declared Brighton our favorite!) 

We knew Brighton would be just as awesome as it was the first time we went- and it was! It snowed on us the entire day we were skiing. You can't ask for anything better than that! 

They classify runs based on difficulty. Green, Blue, Black. Even though it had been 5 years, we picked the art of skiing right back up and skied Blues the entire weekend. 

The entire time I was skiing, I couldn't help but to stop in my tracks and stare at my view. I only wish all of family and friends could visit and see what we saw!

We skied for a few hours and stopped at the lodge to eat lunch. We remembered last time, eating at the ski lodge will cost you and arm and a leg. You will spend $12.00 on a hamburger otherwise! (That is why we brought our lunch every day!)

After we ate and warmed up, we headed back out to the slopes.

A few pictures from the ski lift.

After we got off this particular ski lift, I felt taking a picture by this sign would be fitting. 

Now this is just funny.

End of Day 1.

 We started skiing that morning around maybe 9:30 and we stopped at 4:00. Whew. Our last run of the day was on a mountain we hadn't yet skied on that day. With everything in me, I can almost bet we accidentally crossed over onto a Black trail. I remember praying the entire way down that I would make it down alive.

 By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, sore, and hungry. We packed everything up and made the hour drive back to Park City. (We were in Salt Lake) We stopped at a grocery store and purchased a few things to hold us over the next few days. 

That night, we cooked spaghetti, had a salad and some bread. Then we made our way into the hot tub. I'm pretty sure I can speak for all of us when I say we were extremely sore. Muscles on me hurt that I had no clue I had. At the beginning of January, I started doing squats every night to strengthen my legs for our trip. I should have also done calf raises, too. The upper part of my calves hurt SO bad. I'm writing this on the Tuesday after our trip and I am still walking funny.

Day 2- Alta

We woke up bright and early on Friday to head back down the canyon to Salt Lake City only to drive up another canyon to reach our second destination. Alta. We didn't ski here last time we visited so I was looking forward to seeing what it was all about. Alta was huge and had so many trails.

It definitely did not dissapoint! 

I took a few pictures of my surroundings while we were waiting in line to get our tickets.

This is the tow rope that took you to the other side of the resort. Again, this place was huge.

We took a break and the guys stopped to look at the trail map so we could figure out which trails we needed to take to get to the next lift.

Lunch time! We packed food and made it at the ski lodge.

You can't beat peanut butter and bread!

Random pictures from our day at Alta

There is nothing better than it actually snowing while you ski!

After we packed up, we headed into Salt Lake to drop Tommy and Sarah off at their friends house. 

Some scenic shots going down the canyon!

They were going out to dinner so Adam and I made our way back to Park City to eat and to shop. We were craving pizza so we found the neatest pizza place in downtown Park City.

After we ate, we went to Tanger Outlet and shopped around for a little bit. We were both so tired we didn't shop too long. We got back to the condo and immediately hopped into the hot tub. By the end of our 2nd ski day, we were still really sore. We took showers and settled in on the couch the rest of the night. Tommy and Sarah got back around 9:00 or so and we all went to bed not too long afterwards. 

Our 3rd and final day of skiing was at The Canyons in Park City. It was nice not to have to make the hour drive to Salt Lake like we did the days before. We also visited The Canyons a few years ago. The resort is absolutely beautiful! But pricey! I couldn't imagine how much it would cost to stay a week there. 

This was the first day we skied in sunshine. The other 2 days snowed the entire time.

(the gloves on the poles are cracking me up!)

This picture was taken before we went up a lift called Tombstone Express. I have to say, I was a little worried about this one. The only way down was by certain trails that were pretty intense. I'm happy to say we made it out alive and did it a few more times that day.

SO PRETTY!

Notice the sun isn't shining anymore! It was most definitely coming a blizzard. It was coming down so hard and so fast- it was awesome!

At the end of the day, Sarah and I parked it in the ski lodge while Tommy and Adam did one more run. It was snowing like crazy so we took advantage of it and made snow angels and took lots of video and pictures. We warmed back up once we got inside and watched everyone through the huge windows. 

That was our last day skiing and we all ended on a great note. We headed back to Jan's to return our ski equipment then back to the condo to get ready to head out to dinner. We were all starving and ready to pig out. I think the place was called Squatters and it was delicious!!!! I was stuffed once we left. We packed once we got back and watched some TV. Went to bed shortly after because we had to leave by 4:45 to head to the airport. Ouch! 

Once we arrived at the airport, we went our separate ways. Our flight to Denver left at 7:25 and once in Colorado, we grabbed breakfast since we had an hour and a half until our next flight. Most of you know I'm not a big breakfast eater and eating a biscuit or eggs first thing in the morning will make me feel kind of blah sooo what did I eat at 8:30 that morning? 

A personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

That's what I'm talkin about!

We boarded our flight, was in the air for about 30 minutes until the captain came over the intercom and said they were having technical difficulties (definitely something you do not want to hear while on a plane) and that they were turning around to land back in Denver. I was so ready to get home to see the kids I was kind of bummed we would be getting home even later that day. When we landed, they had all kinds of emergency crew and fire trucks on the runway waiting for our plane to land. (The landing gear (tires) would not go back up in the plane when we took off) I am very thankful everything turned out ok! We had to de-board the plane and walk to another plane that was waiting for us. We were suppose to arrive in Nashville at 1:45, but instead arrived around 3:30. But again, I'd rather be later coming home than not coming home at all! :) 

My dad was waiting in the pick up area while my mom and the kids were waiting for us by the luggage area. Oh how excited we all were to see each other!!! This was our first vacation away from them. They stay with grandparents a lot, but it's just a 1 night thing. This was 4 nights away so it was a first for all of  us. They all did great and we are so thankful for grandparents!! 

We got home a little after 5:00. Adalyn and Landon were excited to play with their toys again. We were all so tired we put the kids down around 7:45 and we went not too long after. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say I am the only person in America who did not watch 1 second of the Super Bowl. We had Despicable Me 2 on and I wouldn't have had it any other way! 

We had a great ski trip and we cannot wait to do it again. We have a family vacation planned for this Summer but I'm thinking we will start another envelope soon for somewhere tropical for next year!