And just like that, He's 2!

Caleb turns two tomorrow.  I was going to have a monster themed party at home, but last minute decided to have it at Chuck E Cheese.  I was running out of time and feeling really stressed about having to put on a party at home, so we made the decision to move it.  It was the best decision! 



The Birthday Boy!  He has so much fun!!  He stayed up till 9:30pm...the latest he has ever been up and he didn't fuss at all.

My little guy and princess

Family picture right before cake time.

Caleb had so much fun with the rides.

I didn't get to use the party decorations I had already made, but the kids had a blast!  I didn't have to do anything!  Just show up and have fun.  I think this is the way I will have parties for the kids for now on.

I had two monster poster boards with cutouts for the kids to take pictures with.  These were made by the Art club at Nogales high school where I work.

The kids had a blast taking pictures with them.

Monster cupcakes.  This was my first time using the icing tip for making hair.  It came out okay.  Probably should have practiced before making the cupcakes.  The package that I bought for the decorations, invitations, ets came from an Etsy seller named ItsAllAboutKidz.

 



Cute cake! The mother of one of my friends made this cake. And it was just a delicious as it was cute.



It blessed my heart to see how much fun he and Grace were having. Caleb is such a sweet heart and really active! He's loves giving us hugs and kisses. It's really sweet to see him giving them to Grace. I pray they will grow up to be very close. And I pray that Caleb will grow to be a man of God full of love and compassion. Happy Birthday my sweet boy.

Blessings,

Beth

Happy Birthday Caleb!

 And just like that, Caleb is one!  His first year went by so fast.  He's such a big boy that he literally was only a small little baby for a minute!  He's such a joy to us.  So charming and so joyful all the time.  Well, except when he's tired and it's past his bedtime...

We had a farm themed birthday party for him.  I promised myself to make it easy and buy everything.  Well I got so excited that I couldn't help myself and starting making things.  The theme was so cute and so fun to make things for. 

I made a "corral" for the cupcakes.  I made lemon and strawberry cupcakes and added farm animals as toppers.

 I saw this idea for a barn backdrop on pinterest and just had to make one.  I bought a red display board, cut out the shape and added the detailing.  It looked really cute.  The cake was made by my friend's mom.  So cute and so yummy!

The little guy being sang to.

Trying to get him to blow out the candle.

 His first cupcake!

It's very anti-Mexican, but I do enjoy these pull strings pinatas.

The bounce house was a hit.  Grace has a blast in it.

 The kids had so much fun!  And that blessed my heart.  It was a lot of work and I was so tired by the end of the day, but it was all worth it to hear them laugh and see them having a great time.

And now, time to gear up for Christmas.  That will be a little easier now that I am on vacation.

Blessings!

Beth

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

 Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We spent ours in Sacramento with my side of the family.  It was a lot of work to travel with our little ones, but they did a great job!  And I think we packed way too much stuff, but better safe than sorry.  It's a good thing we own a mini-van!  Mini-van used to be a bad word for me, but now I am in love this this vehicle!  It makes life with our little ones so much easier!!

 Grace refused to take her nap on Thanksgiving day.  I think it was being in a a new environment.  We were a little afraid that she'd be fussy that night, but she did great.  Other than being a little shy, she was well behaved.  And she crashed hard that night.

 Caleb stole the show!  He was all smiles and not shy at all.  He was held a lot!! Our little guy turns one year old next month!!  That was fast!!

Our Thanksgiving family picture!!  I am so very thankful for my little family.  I loved my life before, but now with my hubbie and these two little angel, I am loving life on a whole new level.  I could neve have imagined what it would be like to be a mother and it's such an awesome thing!

We have been teaching Grace the names of her Nashville family members.  It's so cute to hear her say their names.

Blessings!

Beth

Caleb's Room

The little man finally has his room to himself.  Before Caleb came along, his room was my scrapbooking space.  I took all my stuff out and he now has a proper nursery.  I have been crafting away to make decor for what were bare walls. 

I made these from scrapbook paper, 12x12 canvases, and used my new favorite cricut cartridge, Noah's ABC's Animals.  I orginally planned to use frames, but I couldn't find blue ones that fit within my budget.  You think crafting will save you money, but sometimes it doesn't.  So I cut corners and bought the canvases.  Joann's had a sale on canvases so it ended up being cost effective.

This is my favorite and I love how it came out.  I also used the Noah's cartridge for the letters and the corresponding animals.  I did buy a frame for this one.  It's 16x20".  I wish I had gotten a bigger one, but this works well too.

This is the name banner I made for Caleb before he was born.  It hangs over his crib.

The canvas art is over his dresser.

The ABC frame fit perfectly behind this chair.  This chair used to be in our bedroom.  I am loving it in Caleb's room and love sitting in it to feed him his bottle at night.  The throw is a blanket that a co-worker's mother knit for Caleb.

I have these oversized animals by the changing table.  I also have a few on the closet doors.  Caleb loves looking at them and always tries grabbing them.  I made these from the Cricut Aminals cartridge.

And here is my little guy hanging out in his room.  I love his pudgy cheeks and his darling smiles.  He is such a little charmer!!

And his sister! Grace recently had her two year doctor's appointment. She is 38 inches tall! She's a big girl. I signed her up for preschool today. She will start after Labor day. Huge milestone!! She is growing too fast!!

Blessings,

Beth

Finally Crafting Again...

It's been a rough month.  Life has been busy and stressful.  I am also dealing with some sad events in my family.  So I needed to craft!  Crafting keeps me sane.  I made this cute album for a birthday gift...more pictures to come.  I want to send off the gift first before I post more pictures.  

It was a farm themed 1st birthday party.  And since I was making die cuts for the album, I made a couple extra of these cute little guys...

It's a farmer boy and farmer girl die cut set.  Cute, right?  I made two extra sets and posted them on my Etsy store.  I can't help myself but to craft!

We have all been sick this past week. I took Caleb to the doctor this morning.  He has a bad cough, but no fever.  He is still his happy little self.  He's 5 months old now and he's huge!  He weighed 19.04 lbs!  And he's about 28 1/4 inches long.  BIG BOY!  Here he is in his 5 month pictures.

And Grace, well she's as cute as ever and such a toddler!  She is becoming an expert at many things, especially throwing tantrums.  I took a picture of her in action.  She loves throwing herself on the floor.

I think I might show this picture to my students.  Birth control!  Maybe I should video tape her in action and make my students watch it!!

I have 4 more weeks till my summer vacation!  I can't wait.  I have lots of plans...more things than I can get done in 6 weeks.  But most importantly, I will be spending lots of time with my munchkins.  What can be better than that?

Blessings,

Beth

Happy One Month Birthday!

Happy New Year! Life has been busy with the holidays and the birth of our baby boy! He was the best Christmas present!! I rushed our Christmas cards and his birth announcements. If I had waited this is the birth announcement I would have sent out, but in my impatience, I sent out a announcement through Costco.com. This sweet announcement was made by Tamika of ThePoshBabyShower.etsy.com. She also created our baby shower invitations. Even though I will not be sending this one out to family and friends, at least I can print it out for Caleb's baby book and scrapbook album.

It's already been a month since Caleb joined our little family. It's been an adventure having an infant and a toddler. Grace has been transitioning to having a baby brother and it's been a bit tumultous at times. She finally seems to be adjusting. Yesterday, she started giving Caleb kisses! Out of nowhere, she climbed on the couch and gave him about 7 kisses. I was stunned and happy!

It's all I can do to survive the days. I've been told that it's hard the first few months and then it gets easier. It's easier already with Grace getting used to Caleb. Yesterday, I actually went to the mall with both of them. It went really well. I have about three more weeks before I return to work. At that point, it will be a whole different getting used to! Until then, I will try my best to enjoy my little ones at home.

Blessings!

Beth

ps...Crazy me took on a craft project...a name banner. I don't know what I was thinking, but I've committed to it. It's a princess themed banner. I started working on it this weekend. I'll post as soon as I'm done with it. I have to be done by February 1st...oh me, oh my! Lord help me!!

Nursery Banner

Happy Friday! It has been another very long week! And I am so glad it's the weekend. I am now almost 28 weeks pregnant and officially in the third and last trimester. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is moving along and how big I am getting! I'm getting a lot of comments about how I look like I'm ready to pop! Not ready yet, but I definitely feel ready! I walk slowly these days!

I've had a lot of projects on my mind to do and one of them was making a banner for Caleb's room. I have a lot to do in preparation for his arrival...like organize his room and have a yard sale. My scrapbook room will become his nursery. Not sure what I'm going to do with all my scrapbook stuff or where it will go, but it must be put somewhere else!

The banner is quite large. Jonas picked out the shapes so that it would look masculine. I used K & Company paper from their baby boy collection and cut out the animals from a Cricut cartridge: Animal Kingdom. I like how it turned out.

His nursery will be decorated in a Noah's Ark theme. This banner will fit right in. I've got more ideas for picture frames. Next up, I'm making Sesame Street numbers for Grace's room.

Blessings,

Beth

It's A Boy!

Well looks like we will be welcoming a son on December 12th! We are very excited. Grace will have a little brother and Jonas will have an off-roading/camping buddy!! It's just perfect. And what was the first thing I wanted to do after the ultrasound appointment??? I wanted to go by Michael's and get a baby boy scrapbook album and scrapbooking supplies!! I feel very motivated to scrapbook now.

This is one of his feet.

This is a hand.

This is a side profile of the baby.

Yesterday I baked a little over 60 cupcakes and tomorrow I will be frosting them. I don't consider myself much of a baker, but the cupcakes came out looking and tasting good. Jonas and I tasted each one of the three flavors...

Blessings!

Beth