So, um.....

TJ and I are getting married.....like, for sure. Next year!

Magnet Madness

So, a couple weekends ago when my cousin Rachel was in town, her and I snuck out while our babies stayed home with the Grandma/Aunts. We stopped at The Pink Hippo. They sell cute, girly, kinda a little TOO cheerleader-y hair bows for girls, toddlers, and babies. Um...side note...they said a little bow would work in Elouise's hair and um.....yeah...it just looked dumb! Gotta give 'em props for the could sales work. They got an extra 3 dollars from me.

Anyway, we stopped at Nobbies and then walked around the mall. It just happened to be the weekend that stores had some sale items outside in front of the store. Calypso is the best place at these times because it's just like the awesome stuff from Garage Sales and Thrift Stores. I scored a few awesome things.

First.....A large ziplock bag full of Pall Mall Cigarette matches. Price: $1.00. Amazing.

Second.....This incredibly awesome Key/Letter holder. I forget how much....but like $3 or something. Unbelievable. I love it so much. Rachel made fun of me for taking pictures of it!

Third......A ziplock bag full of old poker chips. When I was holding this bag, thinking..."what could I do with these?", a manly looking woman came out of Calypso and said to me in a very abrupt, loud voice, "I know, you need it, right?!". She was right! I totally needed them. So, I bought them.

This past weekend, my cousin, Rochelle, was in town from Omaha, and we got together and made stuff. She is crazy good at scrapbooking and has so many awesome supplies and things. And, I took along my poker chips, old books and comics, and my good 'ol Modge Podge. I made magnets....tons and tons of magnets. We sat there for most of the weekend, in our pajamas, at my Aunt Lanettes dining room table. We laughed so much. We had so much fun that she is coming in town one weekend a month, and we are going to just sit and make stuff. In our pajamas, of course.

Here's some pics of some awesome magnets I made. Check out more in my Etsy shop. I'll be posting more up soon.

It's my party, and I'll cry if I want too....

Well, luckily there was no crying at Ivy's 2nd Birthday Party! At least, none that I can remember..... You'll have to excuse the quality of some of these pictures. Our new camcorder doesn't take the best pictures, so I stole some from my cousin Rachel's facebook! The party was a success. We had a packed house with both sides of the family. I think next year, we are going to start having 2 parties. One for the family and one for our friends. We just have too tiny of a house. And, Ivy will be old enough that we can like.....have the party somewhere fun!

I was really proud of my homemade banners!

Ivy got a monster coloring book for Christmas, and so I colored the monsters, cut them out, and pasted them to color paper.

I was really happy with some party supplies that I ordered from Bake it Pretty. These little boom boxes reminded me of Yo Gabba Gabba, which is Ivy's FAVORITE show! The little monster eyes were cool, too. You put them on your finger and make your hand talk....looks like your hand has eyes.

Everyone loves popcorn! I got these popcorn bags from Bake it Pretty as well.

Um....here's a pic of some snacks....yummy.

And, I tried to attempt some monster cupcakes! I am so totally not a cook, but these turned out fine! Not too good of a picture, but you get the idea.

And it was so hard for me to get a picture of Ivy cuz she was running around all over the place! But she looked super cute in her birthday shirt.

I said we didn't need presents, but of course, some people just couldn't resist! She got some Hello Kitty rainboots, coloring books, cool clothes, and some stuff to get her potty trianing on the move!

The kids were a little too young to enjoy "birthday games", so we just had a mini "balloon drop"! We dumped 74 mini balloons from the "sky" and the kids got to dance in them. I'm sure they all tried to eat them as well. And, I think there are still a few roaming around my house!

Ivy was so dainty when eating her birthday cupcake! She's such a girl.

And Elouise and Joshie had fun hanging out, too! Joshie is 3 weeks younger than Elouise, but he is so much taller! He'll be a big boy just like his uncles and dad.

Elouise makes such crazy faces! After the party, my Aunt Robin was holding both Josh and Elouise and all my family was trying to get them to smile!

We finally got some cute smiles! I'm so glad Rachel captured this picture!

I'm so glad that Gloria, Rachel, Faith, and Josh got to come in town. I love seeing Ivy bond with family. Her and Faith enjoyed some fast lunch of chicken nuggets together after the party was over.

The next day we hung out at my Aunt Lanettes house. Ivy was still sporting her tatoos we did at her party. She came to me the next morning with her tatooed arms stretched out and said "Look Mum, I pretty!". She is pretty. And funny. She was playing inside her diaper bag, literally.

Comics, Comics, I love me some Comics.

Okay, well now that I have some extra time, in between the holidays and Ivy's birthday, I am getting back into the swing of things with my Etsy shop. I've been cutting out some comics and finding old items that I would normally just throw away, and I am decoupaging them with my comics! For example, here is an old baby formula can that I have covered in vintage comics. You can use it for pens, markers, paint brushes, or whatever.

Also, I got all these old picture frames that I'm in the process of decoupaging as well. Here's an example of one that I just sold. There's more to come! I'm excited. It so fun to decoupage! And turn something that you'd just throw in the trash into something cool.

Ivy's birthday party is coming up and I wanted her to have a special shirt to wear. For my nephew Ben's birthday party, I ordered him an awesome shirt from my friend Jen's shop. Here is a picture from his party last September.

So, I went searching for a "2" shirt for Ivy and found KooKooKids with the perfect shirt for Ivy's Monster Mash.

Ivy's Birthday!!

Yesterday was Ivy Jane's 2nd Birthday. We went to the pet store, and she got a fish! I asked her what she wanted to name him (or her), and she sweetly responded, "Fish". So, "Fish" is the name of her fish! One of her little chairs to her table has a new home by where the small fish tank is. Ivy just stands there and looks at him. I took a pirate toy from my personal toy collection to make Fish's home complete. The fish is a Mickey Mouse.....Playta...or something like that! I don't remember! TJ and her picked it out. The black spot on "Fish" is shaped like Mickey Mouse's head....pretty cool.

We are having her party in a couple weeks when my cousin Rachel is in town. We decided this year to just have a family party. Our house is too small to have friends and family, so next year when she is older we will have to do 2 different parties. I'm sad about it, but I don't think that Ivy really cares at this age!

In other news....I have officially switched over to formula with Elouise. She got 31/2 months in of pure breastmilk goodness! Now, I feel like I finally have my body back and can get it back to "normal". Having 2 kids in 2 years has taken its toll, but in time, I'll get to a comfortable place. Bring it on Wii Fit....bring it on.

Wii Fit!!

Oh man, I love my Wii Fit! So much. It's really fun, and so hilarious. There's this one aerobics you can do that is just hoola hooping. So, you stand on this board right, and you pretend you have a hoola hoop and you just spin your hips in an even circle...with your imaginary hoola hoop. Its hilarious. TJ just plays the balancing games, which are super addicting. Whenever I play Wii Fit, Ivy gets a piece of her plain, white paper out of the top drawer. She brings it over to the floor and places it right beside the Wii Fit board, and she stands on it! She so cute!