Thomas the Train with the Thomas'

Gavin was gone out to our friends' place on Saturday night to do a few things to his car, So i took the kids to the early service at church on Saturday and then we got up early on Sunday & went to see Thomas the train (and met up with our friends the Thomas Family- very fitting)! We didn't buy tickets to ride the train, because I'm cheap like that, but instead paid $5 to get in to do all the fun stuff. Mason played with train tables, watched the miniature toy trains, played with Thomas stamps, watched the music man show play bongos, went to the petting zoo & watched Thomas come & go. Next year we'll probably ride the train, but I will tell you we go there at 10 am & it was good timing, however, I wish we had gotten there an hour earlier! by 10:30 it was getting packed & we left at 11:30 am. Sunday and EARLY is the key apparently! Thomas wore the boys out and maybe more so ME!

Jackson, his daddy & Mason watching the mini trains. Isn't Jackson's daddy a good sport? haha You could call this training for 2- they're expecting #2 in August!


My sweet baby boy


Jackson the Thomas posing for me by Thomas the Train. Mason refused. He was in a mood.



It's easy to get this one to pose! No moods yet! YEAH!


Once I was able to get Mason to cooperate, it was impossible to get all 3 to smile for me!


Family pic of the Thomas' day out with Thomas- Jackson wouldn't look at me, so I grabbed his popcorn. :) He finally looked! HAHA



Boy did we ever time leaving perfectly. Mason wanted to go back on the bounce house. We waved Thomas goodbye as he pulled out for his next ride & we left. No argument! it was great :)

Meal planning (Before Monday for once!)

I try and meal plan for our family, but it doesnt always work. Or i can do it for 1/2 the week. I need to get in the habit of it again!

Just a little FYI on how we have changed up our diets in the last few months- 95% of our dinners are all natural foods or 'clean' foods meaning I prefer to have as little process foods in our house, we eat foods rich in whole grains, fruits & veggies and we have recently switched our meats to grass fed grain beef & completely all natural (free range if possible) chicken. I cannot express HOW much better the beef taste!!
I don't cook with anything that has high fructose corn syrup, not only for Mason's allergy to corn, but i see benefits of us all keeping it out of our diet. We are also joining an organic fruit & veggie co-op with our neighbors to introduce some new veggies and not to mention a cheaper grocery bill. not only is it eating healthier foods (i never ever buy produce from the mega super stores like walmart) but it also helps support local farmers. We do have our occasional dinner out, but for the most part we eat 95% at home.

Sunday (tonight): Spaghetti
Don't really have a recipe but here is what I use:

1 can of Hunt's all natural diced tomatoes
1 can of Hunt's all natural tomato sauce
1/2 a chopped up zuchini or squash
1/2 of an eggplant (after chopping you salt it so it doesn't become soggy when cooking)
1 small onion finely diced
1-2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 lb of lean hamburger meat
few various spices like italian seasoning, salt, pepper, little bit of sugar
I also always put it on whole wheat Angel Hair pasta because that's Gavin's favorite!
Cheese is also always good :) Love mixing some shredded mozarella cheese into my bowl of spaghetti but my husband prefers to eat that gross overly processed parm. cheese. (gag!)

Most people don't care for so many veggies in their spaghetti, but my key is chopping it very fine and my boys gobble it UP! give it a try, our veggie rich spaghetti is so yummy!


Monday: No bible study- but we're all meeting at a park with the kids and dinner- so we'll bring our heated up spaghetti leftovers. (love any excuse to eat my leftovers!) and a side salad & fruit

Tuesday: Italian baked chicken with italian seasoning, lemon zest, olive oil & sprinkling of goat cheese with a side salad & red potatoes

Wednesday: Tortilla soup (trying this recipe!) (thanks for posting this recipe charlotte, it looks good!

Thursday: it's whatever night- leftovers or make yourself a sandwich/panini!

Friday: Grilling night! We'll grill up one of our yummy steaks & a big side of grilled veggies (bell peppers, onions, red potatoes, mushrooms, asparagus) I'm also going to attempt some brussel sprouts this week too!

Check it out!

If you haven't ever ventured over to my other blog- come on over...

Artsy Fartsy Designs

I've recently revamped (okay it doesn't look any differently) but I've REPURPOSED my Artsy Fartsy blog. I LOVE that name. so many things fall under that. So do I. SO, instead of just using it to promote my paintings, I've finally decided to turn it into a craft blog which will still showcase my work, but also other craft projects I did, do & have going on. Also, I'll add some tutorials!! Everyone tells me I should teach some craft classes. HUH? Me teach? yea right. But NOW that my NEW craft room is almost complete, and considering the size of it, I do plan on having some "Moms Night IN" nights with some girl friends. I can't wait to show off my craft room when it is complete! We've still got a few projects left to do though. So come over and check it out! :)

Cowtown 5K 2010

So the week before last we graduated from our "Couch to 5K" running program! JUST in time for our first major goal. When we decided to do it we set a goal in sight- the Cowtown 5K! It was our first official 5K. We actually participated in one back in early January, but we hadn't completed the C25K yet & just did our 'training' at the race, I think we ended up running about 18 minutes of it. BUT the cowtown we ran the whole thing! I was very proud of us, but I was also disappointed in our time. When we ran the JiggleButt Run 5K in Arlington in January our time was 48:10. Granted it was a smaller run, first year for it & we started out running. The cowtown races (Ultra, marathon, 10K, 5K & kids 5K) all together had over 21,000 participants!!! Needless to say we didn't even get to run for the first 4 minutes at least of the run. So our time came out to 40:20. Not great. but our goal is to run one 5K a month & to improve our time each time! Overall, we did good & had a good time!

This was our view looking *BACK* from where we were standing from the starting line-- we were maybe about 1/2 way back.


I took a few pictures from the FW Star Telegram site... I can't get over how many people there were.

We ran with these guys for a while- the FW Fire Department. There was a ton of them. We ran in front of them for the first 1/3 of the race, it was neat because they sang their FD chants, it was so loud we couldn't even hear our playlist! They passed us up, they were kind of like a train pushing thru, everyone just moved aside!

Amy, Rilee & Chris came down & cheered us on. Laura is in the Blue, Jes is in the pink & I'm in Black- cant see us very well, but this was us finishing the race. It looks like everyone is walking, but I promise we were running!!

Red Faced & Sweaty Jes, Me & Laura

Stinky Me, Rilee & Amy- my cheerleaders!!

I was on the NBCDFW.com website & saw this picture - It's my friend Genevieve from Houston!!! How funny is this??? There were 3 of them, they were thing 1, 2 & 3 and ran with a Cat in the Hat! I thought this was hysterical! They ran the half marathon- Go GENNY!!

UP NEXT: Our March 5K is next weekend we'll be running the Dash down Greenville 5K in Dallas. THIS should be fun :)

Baby #2 is 1!

My sweet baby boy turned 1 last Friday. 1....... can i just keep him like this forever and ever? M #1 was a good baby and all, but he never seemed like a 'baby'. He always seemed older, more toddler like...but this one...uh, he is the sweetest, best baby ever. ever. ever. I can't have another, because I can't guarantee that the next will come out like him. I could have 10 more if they were all like Maddox!

So here is Maddox's stats:

23.6 lbs

80% for height (not sure what the measurements were)

has 8 teeth & currently working on 1 molar

sleeps from 8 pm to 8 am with a 2-3 hour nap. (LOVE this)

only eats what he can feed himself, he's exploring new foods, but still loves his organic bunny crackers the most. he likes: waffles, blueberries, bananas, plums, beans, toast, sweet potatoes...

he is very music oriented. loves music and just lights up when anyone sings to him.

His favorite things are:

his giraffe toy

the yellow measuring spoon (came out of a pack of 4 spoons from the target $ section i bought for the boys)

his play table

Baths

his 2 new birthday toys that play music

"Backpack" on Dora the Explorer. He thinks Backpack is HYSTERICAL. not so much myself.

and of course his all time favorite toy- his big brother.

Maddox started crawling about 3 weeks ago and is getting so much faster and into lots of things. thankfully most things are toddler proofed so we should be good!

He pulls up to his knees and is really trying to pull up to standing. He's very quiet and observant but when he does talk it's BABA or Daa (like for Dog) and he tends to get louder and louder until squealing especially when the cats are around. I think he's trying to scare them! He currently loves spitting and blowing raspberries at anything and everything, especially when I tell him or *anyone* NO. He gives high fives, head bonks, escimo kisses (rubbing noses), open mouth kisses & when he hugs you he grabs your whole face. Must say I love them all!

Overall, we have an extremely happy & healthy baby! Never could I have imagined how much joy baby #2 would bring to our family. God knew the perfect match for our family, and I couldn't have picked anyone better. I am so so so blessed to be his mom. I can't wait to see how much he grows & develops over the next year!

in honor of following tradition- I must include Maddox's 1st Birthday Invitation (birthday pictures coming soon!)

S(NO)W kids involved

They day we woke up with ALL the snow, school hadn't been cancelled, and I was amazingly off work that week. I came home from taking them to preschool- grabbed my camera & went to document that it actually happened. Shelby always loves the snow so of course she was excited to go play. I didn't last long (maybe 5 pictures!), I'm not much of a cold weather kind of girl, plus my neighbor came home so I went to hang out with her! :-)


Our home sweet home buried in a foot of snow. It's beautiful but after 24 hours of it I was ready for 65 & Sunny weather. That's the california girl in me. I didn't move to Texas for cold weather anyway!



Even just your average suburb streets were just stunning covered in snow!


Shelby taking a break from catching every possible snowflake!

Rewind X2

Valentine's weekend....had to think for a minute......we had our big snow storm with a whopping 12" of snow the thursday before. We enjoyed the snow & snuggled inside until we lost power at 5 am Friday morning. SO much for having a nice day in my pjs at home! We bundled up and headed to the Grandparents' house and camped out there for the entire day. We checked on the pets and house throughout the day eager for the power to come back on but nothing. Finally at 8 pm we decided to head back home and sleep in the cold house (okay it was only 61, but that is still cold for me!) Heading home i was just PRAYING for the power to return, we turned on our street & sure ENOUGH, power was on. I yelled in the car, "PRAISE THE LORD!!! We have POWER!!!" Mason thought that was pretty hysterical so he joined in on the fun and ran around the house flipping the lights on. I have never been more thankful to pay my electric bill than this month. I couldn't rough it without electricity. So sad...and even more sad, is I'm married to an Eagle Scout. or maybe it's sad, that HE as an Eagle Scout is married to someone who couldn't survive a day without power. YES....i think the 2nd is more sad. ha!

Saturday, I went to a long time friend's baby shower. I grew up with Amy- we've attended the same church since we were 7 years old. Crazy to think I've known her over 20 years!!! Since then we both grew up, I moved to Asia, came back, we both went to college, got married, then she moved to Asia, moved back and we both had babies, she is due any day now with her 2nd baby. Of course i love baby showers and now in the past 6 months, i've truely enjoyed MAKING baby gifts for showers! So naturally Amy got the blessing of one of my beautiful creations. I think each gift is just getting better and better. Here is Amy with the gifts I made for her and baby Bryson. i LOVE LOVE LOVE the theme she did in her nursery- VINTAGE TOYS. why didn't i think of that?!?!

Playmat for Baby Bryson

From February10

Cute blocks i made for his room:

From February10

Here they are in his nursery (I just LOVE these!!)

From February10

in celebration of Valentine's weekend- here are a few dresses that I've made for gifts, baby gifts, and just for my sweet niece Rilee.

Valentines Dress:

From Crafts

A Cute little summer dress.....if only i could get away with wearing this!!

From Crafts

i LOVE this print...deciding what I could make for myself out of this print :)

From Crafts

And here is that sweet baby girl modeling her valentine's dress for me ! All i can say is she is the luckiest niece in the world that I only have boys!

From February10

Rewind!

Last week was a crazy busy week, but what's new, right? I'm starting to get used to that.
February 19th was the dreaded day. 4 years from when my Mom passed away. how has it been 4 years? it seems like it's been so long, but at the same time it seems like it was just yesterday when we were planning her memorial service. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her. We've made a lot of good memories since then with the babies now being in our lives, but a lot of those great memories are also bittersweet to not have her apart of those wonderful moments. She will always be severely missed no doubt.


My dad came in town that week and it was a great trip for him. He really tries to make February 19th a great day in memory of my Mom. This year was by far the 'easier' day to get thru so far, but not without many tears shed. Since my dad was on vacation from Chinese New Year in HK, Amy, Josh & I all took off from School/Work for the day & we all headed to the Four Seasons for massages and a fantastic lunch! Our spa date went TOO fast. Can i have another please?
That evening we all gathered at Mi Cocina's to celebrate my birthday dinner since my dad left that Saturday. What chaos is ensued by us- but we wouldn't have it any other way. My Mom would have relished in the chaos ;)

Mason at Dinner......dipping his hotdog in yogurt. don't ask.

From February10

Mason with Amy & Uncle Chris

From February10

Rilee making sure I blew out my candle correctly

From February10

The next day on my actual birthday, I had a wedding to set up, so that was half the day, after getting home i enjoyed a nice nap with Mason & then Gavin & I had a great night out with friends to Esparza's & to Wilhoit's in Grapevine (my favorite hang out place!) I had such a blast with friends and was so lucky to have so many to hang out with! What a great way to finish off the weekend! I'd love a 2nd dose of that :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had our usual low key Sunday with house things & a trip to Lowe's.
Mason found his valentine.




Not this year, sorry babe.

But I did make these for valentines.








Which held this:



Eh. Riding lawnmower.....cool new sippy cup. The kid is happy with either.
My cute valentine bags I made- he could have cared less about, he just wanted to know what was in it. SO glad I made those instead of paying the $$ from Potterybarn kids!

We had a unusual v-day dinner-we cooked Thai food at home & had the neighbors over! It was fun & relaxing.... Def a must next year!

-- Post From My iPhone

Things I've made

We've been pretty busy (What's new!) between work, home projects & building projects, KIDS, running, yoga, birthdays, LOTS of baby showers (which means lots of sewing) and just the regular busy life on top of it all, no wonder blogging doesnt get done!

Back in December Gavin decided sacrifice his office (originally a large game room) since the boys are in the same room & I'm in need of an office/craft room. We talked about making the spare room into a playroom, but since our sunroom is still the perfect place for that & I didn't like the idea of the room next to the boys room being my craft room since I do a lot of sewing, I was afraid of waking the boys up, so Gavin offered to move over his office. What a nice husband!! Gavin's office is almost complete which means my craft room is NEXT!!! I've got a temporary table set up & the wardrobe units put together so I've been able to reclaim my dining room AND I've gotten quite a bit of sewing completed in the last 2 months. I'll have to take some pictures of the progress of the craft room as we go :)


So here are some recent projects I've completed!

Baby Gift for sweet little Grant next door
4" X 4" Blocks

From Crafts

Taggie (other side is brown minky fabric)

From Crafts

Playmat

From Crafts

Baby Gift for Selah who will be here sometime this month!
Taggie & 2 burp cloths

From Crafts

Selah's playmat

From Crafts

Laura (my running buddy) & I have started doing hot room yoga & really love it! So of course I made us bags for our yoga mats
Laura's mat bag

From Crafts

My yoga mat bag

From Crafts

Christmas gift for Nana, a throw quilt

From Crafts

back side of the quilt- mostly white with a strip of the left over fabric

From Crafts

Remember all the old vintage fabrics Gavin's Granma gave me? I was determined to do something with them for her for Christmas- this was just a basic wreath with fabric strips tied on

From Crafts

Her other gift using the vintage fabrics was a dozen place mats (okay that project took A LOT longer than expected) but I did use majority of the fabric she gave me AND i got to use up all the trim she gave me too!

From Crafts

My friend Dede, my sister Amy & I went to Canton back over the summer and amy bought some large bare wooden crosses. Of course me her PROJECT MANAGER (aka- person who does her projects! LOL) had them sitting in my dining room for quite some time and finally got them finished last week! i need to take a close up of the red one, i love the detailing on it!

From Crafts

Cross for my niece Rilee's Bathroom

From Crafts

My friend Meredith hired me to make some t shirt quilts out of her & her husbands college shirts (Texas A & M if you can't tell!)
this was a big learning experience for me, but i really enjoyed it and I hope she likes them!
The first is her shirts from her sorority- i used the backs of the shirts as a good amount of them all had bible verses on them, and i really wanted to incorporate that.

From Crafts

The 2nd one is more the true Aggie theme- lots of Maroon!

From Crafts