Books Read in 2012

at the beginning of every year i post a list of all the books that i read in the previous year. i have been keeping track in a notebook since 2004. i think that year was the most books i've ever read in one year bit i have gotten close in other years. here is my 2012 list

Blessed Child-Ted Dekker and Bill Bright
Thr3e-Ted Dekker
Here Burns My Candle-Liz Curtis Higgs
Safe Haven-Nicholas Sparks
Loving-Karen Kingsbury
The Short 2nd Life of Bree Tanner-Stephanie Meyer
One Thousand Gifts-Ann Voskamp
The Last Summer (of You and Me)-Ann Brashares
Kidnapped-Dee Henderson
The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins
Mocking Jay-Suzanne Collins
Larkspur Cove-Lisa Wingate
Chomp-Carl Hiaasen
Blue Moon Bay-Lisa Wingate
Waterfall-Lisa T. Bergren
The Lightening Thief-Rick Riordan
Cascade-Lisa T Bergren
Looking for Alaska-John Green
Torrent-Lisa T Bergren
Bourne-Lisa T Bergren
Coming Home-Karen Kingsbury
Seven-Jen Hatmaker
Between Sisters-Kristin Hannah
Finally and Forever-Robin Jones Gunn
Mr Darcy Broke my Heart-Beth Pattillo
Parables from the Backside-J. Ellsworth Kalas
The Dashwood Sisters Tell All-Beth Pattillo
The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels-Ree Drummond
Last Light-Terri Blackstock
Night Light-Terri Blackstock
True Light-Terri Blackstock
Mine is the Night-Liz Curtis Higgs
Dawns Light-Terri Blackstock
Tributary-Lisa T Bergren
Firefly Lane-Kristin Hannan
Kisses from Katie-Katie Davis
Lost December-Richard Paul Evans
A Wreath of Snow-Liz Curtis Higgs
Cape Refuge-Terri Blackstock
The Road to Grace-Richard Paul Evans
Souther Storm-Terri Blackstock

next i will try to post my favorite quotes from these books that i have read this year.  so fun.

Book Theme Baby Shower

Lorax Lemonade. saw the idea to do this  here

we had  a really fun time planning this baby shower for our friends Blakeley and Lindsay. Blakeley was having baby #3 and at the time they didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. since the shower she has had the baby and it is a beautiful baby girl that they named Winnie. Lindsay was having baby #2 and it was a boy just like her first so we decided to go with a book theme. you can never have to many books. everyone brought a book and one of the books the moms kept for their library and the other one was donated to the hospital childrens floor. enjoy the pictures of our fun book theme baby shower.

julie made the cute decorations with the ABC and books

green eggs......

meatballs............

moon pies............

cookies...........

julie also made these cute book bags for the moms to put the babies books in

katie made this awsome cake to look like a book.

the momma's so cute.

this shower was not only the book theme but also a chill time and a girls night time thing too. we all showed up in our comfey pjs and the plan was to watch what to expect when expecting. but get a group of girls together and the talking never stops. we never did get around to watching the movie.

Would Love This

little girl would look cute in these dresses if we won this giveaway. check it out.

Kids Art Work Wall

so when i first considered hanging the kids art work in the house somewhere, i came across this  and fell in love. it is awesome. upon further inspection and consideration i found out that the system was from ikea. we don't have one all that close. at least not close enough to go just for this. although i'm sure i would find other things there that i had to have. and shipping was just to much.

then i saw this  and thought now i can do something like that. so i headed to walmart and started pricing thing and making sure i was getting the right size. that was 3-4 months ago. now the stuff to do this isn't all that expensive until you start timsing it by three. i thought some more about it all and remembered reading Under the Sycamore blog and seeing this post where she used a limb to make a curtain rod.i pinterest searched stick rods or something along that line to get a couple more ideas for how this would go down.

One morning when i was running i came across three limbs that would be prefect for my project. all i needed to get was glossy black spray paint, the rod hooks (hangers) they were like 2.18 for a set and the drapery rings that were a litte more expensive than i would have (a little over $5 for 7of them) liked but well worth it for how much i love this.

Panty Door Fun

my new chalk board on my pantry door.

when we first moved into our house i wanted to paint chalk board paint somewhere in the kitchen. my original thought was not here but pretty close by. i came across this diy by the lovely Ashley Ann from Under the Sycamore and loved the idea of using the yard sticks or rulers. i couldn't find yard sticks as cute as she has so i just went with all rulers.

i hate our doors in our house. they are hollow wood and flat. my hope is to one day get new ones so i figured that it couldn't hurt to do this because if i messed up maybe we could get a new one sooner. come to find out i love it and we may be keeping this specific door for a while longer and getting rid of the other ones slowly.

 i just taped off the area i wanted to paint. chalk board painted it (two coats i think) and used the liquid nails to glue the rulers on.

Frame

i have seen a couple of these cute state frames around pinterest lately and even pinned a few. when i saw this one i knew it was the one that i wanted for our house.

 

so here they are. our alabama and louisiana

i just love it

here is is with the other cluster of frames and canvases on the wall

and here is the big picture. it's a huge wall. i could keep going either direction with photos and fill it up

Something for the Wall

ever since i saw this on pinterest i have wanted to hang one up in our room for my jewelry. my dad got it for me but it took forever before i put it up. my husband thought that i was crazy when he saw me take it from my dad and put it in our van. he said, what is that for? when i explained he thought i was nuts. i hung it up one day when he wasn't home and after seeing it he rather liked it.  i knew he would see it my way.  ;)

 

so here is my version of it. i had to wrap the handle because there was this ugly black electrical take on it. the frame next to it is from hobby lobby and what is inside the frame is a card that i bought from Katie Daisy's shop The Wheat Field

Gifts

410. my husband brought me flowers today. orange/peach/salmon roses.

Gifts

405. getting to hold my nephew for the first time

406. being able to help my little sister as much as possible

407. just being there with her and my parents

408. my rock star sister who is dressed and walking the halls less than 24 hours after her c-section. she amazes me.

409. seeing my baby sister cuddled up with her new baby sleeping

Gifts

397. for my father in law who let me borrow his car to go to birmingham to see my little sister have her baby

398. for my mother in law who kept the kids for me

399. for my husband who let me go

400. that God worked it out that her water broke early on Friday morning (4am) so that i could be there

401. that i could be there

402. for my brother in law who was ok with me being in the room. strong and solid by my sisters side the whole time, very stoic and supportive

403. for my sister who was so tough and pushed for 2-2 1/2 hours

404. that Baby Wyatt Hayes came into this world safely at 10:08pm weighing 8lbs 1oz, via c-section but healthy and beautiful

Kids Bathroom Redo

 so i am terrible about getting before pictures and of course during ones as well. here are my after ones and they aren't even the after after ones because there is still some more stuff that needs to be done.

when we moved into our house 6 years ago the hall bathroom was a disaster. it was the old 60s style yellow tile (different shade of yellow on walls than on the floor) but it was just to much to redo (like taking the tile out) and really the tile was in pretty good shape. the wall paper on the other hand was terrible. my dad so kindly removed it one weekend when they were visiting us.  it stayed that way till just recently, just plain white walls.

we had a sail boat shower curtain from our previous apartment that we used and it worked fine. our first born came along and the sail boats stayed. then our second child came and she just turned 2 in June. it was right before her birthday that we (i mean i) started to work on the new creation of a bathroom. i have to give the hubs credit though because he is the one that came up with the idea to do a mickey mouse themed bathroom. 

it was a perfect idea and theme because it utilized the yellow tile without us having to change it.  he found that walmart had the shower curtian, rug(not the one pictured) and trash can. there was the counter stuff too (tooth brush and soap containers but our counter top is small and i didn't want all that)

once he let me know mickey my mind went to town. so as you can see there is one wall red with white polka dots on it (the dots are decals from If these walls could talk on etsy.) i wanted it to mimic minnie's dress (do you think that is what it looks like?) when on the main wall with the toilet and sink i got black circles to create mickey silhouettes all over the walls. decals from the same etsy shop.

 this is the wall above the toilet

 you may not be able to tell but the light fixture was a brass color and i painted it black. my hubs was not down with that. he was like no we are buying a new light fixture. i wanted to save some money so i said well i am painting it anyway and we shall see what happens. i won. the light fixture stays and it is black. besides i really like the light bulbs like they are on the fixture. a little retro. the joys of living in a 60s house.

 oh and for not wanting all the accessories on the counter tops my counter top is a mess. but like i said we aren't completely done with the bathroom. the towels came from target and kmart. thank you lesley and sarah.

 this bath rug came from target. my sister got it for an awesome deal. the one we got was just the black mickey head silhouette. i love that one too but it was being washed.  notice the cabinet. i painted it black and the hinges white and i really want to replace the knobs. they were not nice and i just shot them with spray paint but really want new ones. the counter top is an ugly marble brown that i have but my hubs thinks is fine now that the bathroom is done. i want a plain white one. we will get it once we save the money and the faucet fixtures that would go perfect with it all.

 see how well it all goes with the yellow tiles.  the tiles are actually a lot brighter yellow than they are showing up in the pictures. i still have to do something with the wall that the door is on and the light switch but not sure what. i think just a simple red sign that i found on etsy will be great but still mulling it over.

Gifts

396. getting to sleep in

Gifts

394. e-reader books at the library. completely wonderful

395. a book so good that i finished it in three days

Gifts

393. roaming around Barnes n noble even if it was only briefly

Gifts

386. reading to my daughter and having her say...hold it, hold book and watching as she holds the left side with her left hand and lifts her thumb over the pages as we turn them.

387. reading to my son with him sitting in my lap. so sweet and special

388. and finally time to read something for me.

389. a nap

390. a stroll through the used  bookstore....by myself

391. talking on the phone to my bff

392. sunggling with little guy in my bed before he goes to sleep.

Gifts

384. getting to cuddle with my girl first thing in the morning.

385. my 2 year old put her plate in the sink after she ate breakfast. it landed in with a bang but super awesome that she knew where to put it and i didn't have to ask.

Gifts

383. my baby sister is 29 years old today. i love you.

Gifts

382. for my parents, who have taken little guy for a week with them. it's given me the chance to get some stuff done here

Birthday P-arrrr-ty

 so i guess we will start off with pictures of the birthday boy. the happy birthday song was done last but this is the way the pictures uploaded so i will leave them here. my little guy has been crazy about pirates since last September when we went to Disney world. it was a complete surprise to us but we loved it. he talked about having a pirate birthday party starting February of this year. the day finally came and he had such a great time. we sang happy birthday to him and when we were completely finished with the song we all said ARRRRRRGH...........and see picture below after that little guy took his pirate hat off swung it around in the air and repeated the ARRRRRGH.  it was precious. something spontaneous and totally on his one. i loved it. below are more photo of the party and the decor. it was so much fun doing this theme this year. i had a great time gathering and prepping for it all.

blowing out the candles

map that the cake sat on

Saw this and knew that we would have it on the mail box at our party, for X marks the spot where the party it at.

a friend from college made signs like these for her son's birthday party a few years ago. i remembered looking at the pictures from his party and decided to made them for Little guy's birthday. I just love them. Thanks Virginia for the inspiration

this was just to cute. it was a must for the party

here i just made yellow lemonade and added some blue food coloring to make ocean water. i had seen on pinterest lots of labels at other pirate parties for pirate juice or sea water. so here is my version. ocean water. 

i came across this site that had a printable for a pirate party and at the bottom there was a "get yer loot" sign. i just decided to go with the cardboard like the other sign.
after writing the words on there i thought it needed something more. came across this picture when i was searching pinterest

pinned this cake and knew it was what i would be doing for the cake. it wasn't enough to feed everyone so i just made an additional sheet cake to have extra.

extra cake. my mom added the black licorice boat

after cutting the cake i had lots of extra cake and didn't want to waste it so i made cake balls with it and labeled them as cannon balls. i saw the idea here with cheese balls which i would have love doing too since cheese balls are just so awesome.

shark salad. this was so much fun. when little guy saw it though he said, yea watermelon. i don't think he even realized that it was a shark. silly boy.

a pirate party isn't complete with out an area to walk the plank. we just so happen to get lucky and have the party at a pool where there was a diving board so the plank was already there.

baby J.Crew getting his very first tattoo

Sarah and Sweet Grace

My cool parents who dressed for the occasion, showing off their tattoo's

my nephew being made to walk the plank

saw these hats on pinterest and google searched a video on how to make them. come to find out it was exactly how i thought they would have been made. :)

my sweet little girl.