Apr 28 2015

A month worth of blogs in one…

Posted on April 28, 2015 by traylee

Somehow life has been so busy that I just realized I have almost a month worth of blogs I’m behind on! So I’ll attempt to get caught up now…
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-3rd Annual pillows-

On Good Friday Daddy took off of work to go with our lil monsters and I to deliver 100+ homemade pillows, 40+ cards from Aub’s 4th grade class & Mad’s Kindergarten class, & bracelets from knot geek to our local Methodist Children’s hospital for our 3rd consecutive year. Once again our family and friends pulled together to help our children achieve their goal. The generosity and kindness of others never ceases to amaze me and I will forever be thankful to the folks that help teach our children such a priceless lesson in giving to others year after year.

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-Easter 2015!-

This was our first year with Budah grown and moved out. One of the things that mama’s don’t enjoy about their babies growing up.

We got a surprise visit from Gi-Gi! These little lovelies have come to truly love this kind soul. We were all happy that she was here in time to dye Easter eggs with us & even got to watch the girls wake up to see what Peter Cottontail brought for them and their Easter egg hunt before she had to say goodbye. Next time Paw-Paw needs to tag along:) All three girls helped with cooking dinner. Aub made the green bean casserole, Mad made deviled eggs, & Bitty made and decorated a cake. I simply love their help in the kitchen and enjoy teaching them family traditions and the secrets to family recipes.

Oh and how cute are these little peeps that Maw-Maw Shu Shu made for her grandbabies?

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-Mad’s first field trip!-

Traditionally each year daddy & I have tried to split it up so that both of us get to experience the joy of our lil monsters’ school days. Usually he does field trips & I do class parties. This year however has been a little tricky and things have been exciting and busy for daddy at work. So I get to do field trips this year! Thankfully he’s been able to do a few class parties with me this year too! So Bitty & I were able to tag along for her kindergarten zoo field trip! It was lots of fun. Though I’m still not sure how this little munchkin is old enough for field trips? I can hardly wait to see what the future holds for our five year old lil monster and so thankful I’m able to be a housewife and watch so much of it first hand.

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-Viva Fiesta!-

A first and a last, sigh. This year was Aub’s last school Fiesta float parade and Mad’s very first. It’s a school tradition I’ve come to love in Texas, mostly because it reminds me of my childhood too. We did Mardi Gras float parades and always looked forward to making one out of a shoe box. Each year we do a different theme. This year Aub’s was all about the color PURPLE! Her absolute favorite color. Mad’s was zoo themed since she had recently gone to the zoo. She has already decided next year should be a star wars float. Maw-Maw, Bitty, & I enjoyed watching all of the kiddos march through their school with so much pride over the floats they had made. And of course I got video for Daddy to watch two of his favorite little munchkins after work. Aub loved that we worked purple mardi Gras beads into her theme and Mad got so excited we started gluing every toy animal she could find including a dog and pig to her zoo themed float.

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-My hubster-

This has been quite the exciting month for my love. He was one of a few selected for a six month program at work that brings huge opportunities his way! I really couldn’t be prouder of my better half. He works so hard for our family all the while still managing to keep up with our small veteran owned business and never allowing any of it to get in the way of our family time. My little self proclaimed black sheep is one helluva husband and father!

And just when we think things couldn’t get more exciting for him we get the word that a song he submitted was selected to be a bonus track on the Rancid tribute album….RANCID!!! Are you kidding me? This is a huge deal and such an incredible honor for him. I swear this man of mine stayed on cloud nine for days and rightfully so! It’s one thing for me to have such a blessing to be able to have watched him share his musical talent with our four lil monsters over the years. Memories of him playing guitars with our son and singing with our girls are cherished beyond words. Or the time he had a friend help him professionally record the Rascal Flatt song “Broken Road” for me for our anniversary. But this, this is a dream come true for him and I am beyond proud of him!

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-Letter to GG-

Aub’s class has daily journal topics. Her teacher gave them a topic to write a letter to someone they miss. Aub wrote to my Maw-Maw that passed away seven years before I had her. We’ve always talked about her to our lil monsters a lot because she was such a huge part of my life. Really anyone that knew her would understand why. Aub shared her journal with me and said I could share it here. It absolutely melted this mama’s heart. She’s got such a genuine little soul and I have no doubt my Maw-Maw is watching over our children. We have a tradition of releasing balloons to “send them to heaven” to GG after any party since we live so far from her resting place. It’s something that has been a very special tradition to our lil monsters.

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-Called to the office-

After having our lil Mad home sick for a week it of course made me nervous when I got a call from the school. Even more so when I realized it wasn’t about Mad at all, in fact it was a call from the assistant principal about Aub. Aub?

It turns out my instinct was right. There was no way I was getting a call from a principal because our daughter had done something wrong, quite the opposite! Aub’s teacher was given the task to select ONE student for a leadership award…and she picked our little girl! I of course would love to share the picture of her here happily holding her certificate and ribbon, with her big brown eyes full of pride and the sweetest smile ever. But we opt to never post things that include their schools name for safety reasons and I opt to not share pictures of our children on my blog for personal reasons. I will however say it was a very precious moment. And hearing the principal gushing over her actually made me cry. You see this little gal was so stressed last week over the STARR test, and this was exactly what she needed to boost her back up!

These are the things that were checked off on her certificate:
•Be proactive
•Begin with the end in mind
•First things first
•Think win-win
•Caring
•Trustworthy
•Respect
•Responsibility

And this is what her teacher wrote about her:
“Aub is always on task, prepared and an active listener. She truly takes school seriously and feels it is important. I am so lucky to have her in my class!”

We are so proud of her. She truly has such a huge heart and can easily be her worst critic. This was a special reminder of her daily hard work and well deserved. To surprise her after school Maw-Maw took the girls for ice cream. And after getting her dance pictures taken Daddy & I took her out for a special dinner just the three of us. Keep up the good work sugar plum, there is absolutely nothing you can’t do!

So I think I’m mostly caught up with this month. Hopefully I won’t fall behind so much on saving up these “special to us” memories!

Feb 16 2015

3rd annual Valentine’s

Posted on February 16, 2015 by traylee

This year we decided to change things up a tad. Having made & collected a whopping 385 Valentine’s we were able to spread the love to a lot of folks!

After meeting a special little girl last year while delivering pillows to the local children’s hospital we’ve followed her online, cheered her on from the sidelines, and kept her in our prayers . Sadly in the last month Jalene’s family received the devastating news. After being the strongest four year old, that always found a way to maintain the most genuine beautiful smile ever through all of her pain, now has terminal brain cancer. Our hearts ache for her family. So needless to say Jalene was at the top of our list this year. We mailed her a box full of 200 Valentine’s as well as a few other goodies.

We gave 85 to a local VFW to distribute to Disabled Vets and split the remaining 100 between two local nursing homes.

As we walked into one of the nursing homes, Mad, our five year old, happily carried a bag full of the homemade cards. A gentleman that happened to be taking a lovely lady for a stroll stopped to ask Mad if she had a Valentine for him? He was so surprised that she really did have one for both of them as he had just been joking with her.

We are so thankful for all of the help that we received from friends and classmates that helped our lil monsters make so many cards this year. It helped us to give cards to little Jalene, disabled vets, and of course Maw-Maw’s & Paw-Paw’s. It also reminded quite a few kiddos to think of others.

Feb 2 2015

Protected: Eighty-Eight

Posted on February 2, 2015 by traylee

Jan 27 2015

Bitty’s 3rd “Vintage Strawberry Shortcake” birthday party!

Posted on January 27, 2015 by traylee

Bitty’s birthday was earlier last week. Since we were celebrating her birthday the following weekend we had a mini party on the day of. Her big sisters were off of school that day for MLK day so that was a little bonus! On each of our lil monsters’ birthdays we measure their height up in our laundry room to see how much they have grown. Bitty is learning our tradition and couldn’t wait to have her turn.She’s grown quite a bit since we’ve moved into our home a little over two years ago.

That evening we celebrated with cupcakes that she got to help me make! We used two of the girl’s iPads to FaceTime Paw-Paw & GiGi so they could join in the fun too. Bitty sat in Aub’s lap just giggling and covering her mouth as we sang to her. Such a little cutie our three year old is!A few weeks earlier I had already begun planning her party. Bitty LOVES Stawberry Shortcake and watches it daily on Netflix on her iPad. So I was beyond excited when she asked for a “Strawberry cake birthday”. Thanks to my computer savvy hubster (a skill I seriously lack) I told him what I wanted and he threw this precious invitation together for me. I seriously don’t know how he makes it look so easy.We printed it on ivory paper to give it more of a vintage feel. I found a strawberry stamp at a local craft supply store to give the ivory envelopes the final strawberry shortcake touch.The only downfall with opting for the vintage Strawberry Shortcake theme over the modern one was the lack of availability of store bought decorations, but I wasn’t about to let that deter me. I just made it all myself, of course I had some help from our three little ladies & Maw-Maw too. Party hats, party favors, all of the decorations, food tents, the table cloth, & the matching curtain for the back drop. The morning of I printed out some coloring pages on ivory card stock for our three little lovelies to color for us and hung them up in the kitchen as well. A lot of work, but a lot of fun. So with that said, here are the things we threw together!

Party hats with Bitty’s favorite Strawberry Shortcake characters…A big Stawberry hanging on our front door to greet our guest…I forgot to take pictures of all of the strawberries we made. But we had several hanging throughout the dining room, kitchen, & living room with the characters on them. Along with a banner that said “Bitty is 3!” And some spelling out “Three”.For her cake table I used a vintage fabric that was a soft sage green with white polka dots for the table cloth & curtain behind the table. Unfortunately I didn’t get a good picture of that. I framed a strawberry shortcake picture, and covered a #3 that I found at the local craft store with paper & a little Strawberry Shortcake. The little bird & black block letters with her name have been at her parties each year. And completed it with some strawberry shortcake balloons & red and white polka dot balloons that we blew up.For her cake we picked up a little cake from a local bakery covered in fresh strawberries for her to blow her candles out. And then I made two 9×13 cakes with my Maw-Maw’s strawberry cake (a family secret) recipe with my homemade cheesecake frosting. Of course I also forgot to grab a picture of them too.
Now on to the goodies!Raspberry Tart’s raspberries…Cherry Cuddler’s chocolate chips…Plum Puddin’s marshmallow pops…Blueberry Muffins…Strawberry candy…Strawberry fruit snacks…Lemon Meringue’s lemon cookies…Lime Chiffon’s m&m’s…Blueberries…A Strawberry Shortcake party wouldn’t be complete without strawberry shortcakes…Orange Blossom’s tangelo slices…Strawberry Shortcake wafer cookies…Strawberry pb&j…Grape pb&j…Huckleberry Pie’s pink mac & cheese…Apple Dumplin’s juice jugs…Strawberry Shortcake’s punch…We used red & white plates and napkins…For the party favors we had the homemade party hats…Some adorable strawberry sunglasses we found at a local party supply store…And lastly some homemade jelly and jam that I made with some precious labels my hubster made for them…Bitty’s blueberry jelly…Bitty’s strawberry jam…Bitty’s Apple jelly…Keeping with the theme we gave her a big box full of strawberry shortcake presents. Dolls, toys, backpack, book, puzzle, clothes, toothbrushes, & a homemade card.We opted to not have any games. Bitty is going through a shy phase. We didn’t invite as many people as we normally would. And just let everyone mingle. Thankfully she handled it well. She of course covered her little eyes and smiled while we sang happy birthday to her. But she was happy to blow her candles out. She was thrilled to play with her sisters, cousins, and friends. And managed to handle being center of attention as she opened her presents. Afterwards she ran and hugged me and said “Thank you for my strawberry cake party I loved it!”. Melts a mama’s heart! It was a special day for a very special little one spent with family & friends that love her most! We’ll be sharing the rest of the pictures from her birthday party privately with our fam & friends. Thank you to everyone that made her day such a happy one!

Jan 9 2015

Protected: Thirty-Seven

Posted on January 9, 2015 by traylee

Dec 31 2014

Gin’s antics, 2014

Posted on December 31, 2014 by traylee

This was our second year with our little “elf on the shelf”, Gin. Our 4 lil monsters named her after my Maw-Maw’s nickname. Gin can sometimes be somewhat of a naughty/silly elf, but our kiddos love looking for her throughout her quick stay to see what antics she’s been up to while they slept. We opt to not use her to tattle on our lil monsters to Santa if they aren’t behaving, instead as a continued fun way to keep the spirit of Christmas alive for them and yet another tradition for them to remember from their childhood. Of course they are able to pass messages along to Santa through her and they certainly take advantage of that opportunity.

These are the things Gin had been up to since she arrived on December 1st after we put up our Christmas tree until she went back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve this year.12/1: Gin arrived with her Elf on the Shelf book for us to read.
12/2: She had a “sack race” with some of the girls’ toys.
12/3: Naughty as ever, Mad’s army men caught Gin trying to get into the gingerbread men.
12/4: It seems Gin is also a fan of Spider-Man and made herself a mask to hang out with him.
12/5: She brought our kiddos some m&m’s and decided to have a few herself.
12/6: Gin loves to have stories read to her too!
12/7: Our girls found her in one of our Christmas stockings.12/8: She made a shoe train & brought our lil monsters some new Christmas socks.
12/9: Once again she found a way to spend time with Spider-Man, this time in our Christmas tree.
12/10: A fun sleigh ride with Aub’s barbie.
12/11: Playing “I Spy”.
12/12: She loves finding Santa around our home.
12/13: She brought a new motorcycle like Paw-Paw.
12/14: She finally got to be by one of our gingerbread men.
12/15: Just sitting in our living room on a mirror.
12:16: One of their favorite finds this year, Gin was flying on the ceiling fan!12/17: Bitty was rather excited to find Gin reading one of her favorites “Frosty the Snowman”. We watched this classic COUNTLESS times this year!
12/18: Peeking from our kitchen cabinets.
12:19: Gin loves reading “The Story of Christmas” too and learning all about Jesus’ birthday.
12/20: She even brought us a mistle toe!
12/21: Gin must miss the North Pole…we found her making sugar Angels!
12/22: She loves watching over our little lovelies while they are sleeping.
12/23: Gin simply had to be naughty one last time and painted Paw-Paw’s nose like Rudolph while he was sleeping!

Our lil monsters will miss Gin until next year, but they were surprised to find presents from her next to Santa’s cookie plate & empty milk glass…two new books & a family game.