One on One

Organizing my time for each kid

Find time to spend with each kid individually can be difficult sometimes just because of time constraints and just life.

However, on this day I was super lucky and was able to spend some genuine one on one time with both the kiddos!

The hubby and I make an effort to occasionally (like once a year if we are lucky) to take each kid out by themselves and make it their special date. Our kids are so close in age neither one of them knows life without the other nor what it is like to get that individualized attention.

Haley and I hit up the nail salon to get some much needed wanted pedis. It was SO nice! I love hanging out with her chatting about girl stuff!

Who doesn’t just LOVE Denny’s! It was about 9:30 at night and Haley was at a sleepover and the hubby was out on a bear hunt and Cody said he had been crazy pancakes and he thought me and him should hit up Denny’s.

So I said SURE WHY NOT!?  He must have caught me at a moment of weakness.  I have to drive 25 minutes each way to get there and it was late, I was tired, but I didn’t hesitate!

Yup – there is my boy! All swagger like huh? We had the best time just the two of us chatting about the day and how dad’s hunt was going.  It was so nice to enjoy his company just together.

We try to make each kid feel special individually. Some days it is tough to carve out individual or special moments for each of them.  I like to hope that the moments we do have create a lasting impression and a great memory for down the road.

Is there anything you do for each kid? I would love to hear any ideas!



Which one is professional?

Can you tell which one is professional?

Haley's cute little foot!

My Flintstone feet!

Do you want to know which one was done professionally?

OK OK, yes it was mine. BUT I thought Haley did a totally fabulous job on her toes! She did it all by herself!  Now if I could just teach her how to wax eyebrows!

Mini-ME VLOG Hilarious!

Oh wow! This is hilarious! I had talked to my kids about maybe guest blogging for me sometimes, you know from a tween perspective. After I did my Vlog yesterday I thought oh wow that would be so much easier for them.

Of course my drama queen child was super excited to get to sit in front of the camera and we talked about different ideas but after dinner she came up to the computer and made her Vlog about me and then told me.

So here it is - totally unedited - my mini-me. Enjoy!

Yes that is MY mini-me! Got to love her! See that attitude? H-E-L-P MEEEE!!!! Just kidding she is an awesome kiddo!

Oh yeah - pole dancing? I asked how do you know what this is? She said uh duh I have known since I was like 8. Really? Hmmmm not sure where she saw anything about poll dancing - are they showing that on teenie bopper shows now?

Natural Consequences

There once was a really cool kiddo that got some really awesome glasses! He loved them so much he wore them every day all the time and his parents were so impressed and so happy that he was actually wearing his glasses.

About a week after he got the glasses he looked very panicked and confessed he couldn't find these really awesome cool Nike glasses. His mom had a slight meltdown and lost her mind for a moment and then gathered herself to get the rest of the story. Come to find out the really awesome boy had taken the glasses off and put them on the tailgate of his dad's truck while he was riding his bike. Oops he forgot to get the glasses before his dad left to go the gym! The glasses are NOWHERE to be found!

Well the mom was the least of his worries. Having to tell his dad was a completely different story. It wasn't as bad as he had built it up in his head. The momma probably reacted quicker and louder than the dad did.

The Natural Consequences are this: Mom and Dad buy cool awesome pricey glasses. Glasses get lost. The really cool kid is going to have to come up with the $200.00 to buy new glasses. Xbox 360 games - SOLD, DVD movies - SOLD, Nintendo DS - SOLD - only $40.00 left to earn to get new eyeglasses.

Natural Consequences  - that is all this momma can say!

Check out the Awesome Earth Day Deals from Shaklee

Non-Toxic, No Phosphates, Healthy for our Home and our Earth.

Find Your Style

A room fit for a Tween!  We have tweaked Haley's room a few times but a few months back we worked on some re-dos since she is starting to get older and she wanted an more teen  tween room. There is a lot you can do with some paint and a trip to Walmart!

This was a plain white wall. I took painting tape and just pulled different size pieces off and just made designs throughout the wall.

The wall to the left with the squares has been done previously and for this room re-do I only wanted to change the center square to a different color. However to get this wall like this I really enlisted the help of my mommy friend Tess! She was so wonderful helping me do this wall. The idea is that you have have a level and painting tape. We taped off the center square first and painted this and after it dried when then pulled the tape and then re-taped even over top of what we just painted. You have to do this for the squares that are side by side so that you do not have a white strip where you have placed the tape.

I found these really cool letters at Michael's Craft store and they just so happen to be in the color scheme we were working with.

This bedding set was at Walmart so it was really affordable and then we found an assortment of pillows at different places like Ross', Marshals, TJ Maxx etc. Always watching the budget. Haley had received her stereo for Christmas the year prior but there were holes for nails and so I hung it on the wall which made it look so totally cool. We already had these really cool string lights and we just wove them through her bunk bed slats. The circle mirrors we found on clearance and they were just peel and stick.

We also found this really cool rug on clearance for $5.00! (see that really cool dog? each tween needs a really cool dog!)

It took us a day of fun and painting to really get her room pulled together! But she loves it and we did it on a really minimal budget! With the comforter, mirrors, rug, and pillows I spent roughly around $75.00 for her entire room.

Buttercreme or Butterfinger? Why not both!

Once again this Sunday I was trying to think of things to do with the kids other than cleaning! I decided since Valentines Day was the next day why not make some awesome cupcakes together!


Who doesn't like a good cupcake? And as I mentioned before Cody loves to help me cook and bake!

We went and bought the supplies we were lacking to make the cupcakes and were debating what type of icing we would make. Butter creme or Butterfinger? We decided on both!

We decided to share our love - we made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butterfinger, buttercreme icing and Funfetti cupcakes with the same frosting and plain buttercreme and buttercreme with sprinkles! 

We decided to share the love and shared some with our neighbors, friends, and  Haley even wanted to take some to her teachers on Valentines day!


In the middle of making cupcakes Michael called on his way home from work and was just starving!


So Cody threw together a toasted honey-peanut butter and banana sandwich with fresh fruit on the side!

I sure do LOVE my family! 


What random act of kindness have you done lately?

Vampires or Werewolves?

We all know the debate around our house - Werewolves or boys who sparkle? I love sparkle so I have to say that I am TEAM EDWARD! However, Haley is TEAM JACOB so you can imagine the debates in our house lol! Well it is that time of year we start discussing her birthday party in March and I wanted to share her birthday party from last year!

It was such a fluke that the day we chose to do the party was the same day the New Moon DVD   was released ! Were we so excited! We had a Twilight/New Moon Double Digit Birthday party! Now some of the things were super cheap but I made most of the stuff so we really cut down on the costs.

Well I have to say I love this layout. I worked so hard on this for her and seriously for a 10 year old I think she really appreciated it. I made the cupcakes from a box and then made homemade butter creme icing and decorated the tops by using a zip lock back and cutting the corner out and then just swirling it on top. I dipped strawberries in chocolate and then drizzled melted white chocolate over them. I did the same thing with the stick pretzels. I really watched out for the clearance candies after Valentines Day because we knew were going with a red and black theme. You can't see it super well but I bought tulips that were highlighted in red on the end like the one on the book.

I printed individual labels out on the computer and just used clear tape to take them on the individual drinks and 2-liters. We looked for a variety of different drinks but the biggest hit was the Jones' sodas in the bottles like these  .

 I also printed out quotes from both of the movies and framed them in black picture frames I had picked up on Black Friday a few months before and put the quotes on the bigger drinks as well.

I did splurge to get a life size cutout like this one. 

It was a huge hit and we had it set up where anyone that wanted could get their picture made with it.

We started the evening with the original Twilight Movie  and then followed up with the double feature showing The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Two-Disc Special Edition). Even my husband was taking part in the festivities for Haley.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the bags I made. I found these really cool black and white bags for dollar and then took sparkly sticker letters and made each girl a bag with their name and a quote from the movie. I also printed off pictures from the movies and laminated them for bookmarks. I also found little black, white, and red notebooks for a dollar and decorated these with sparkly letters with Team Edward and Team Jacob for each girl. Each girl got a bag with the goodies and plastic vampire teeth like these.

The food was great! The movies were great! And the kids had a blast!