[First] Taget Beauty Box

If you haven't heard already Target has a test program out to possible offer a monthly beauty box subscription. About 6 weeks ago they had openings to participate in the very first box for $5 including shipping and tax. When I saw it on a friends Instagram I jumped at the chance and was able to get one myself!

I received the box in the mail a couple of days ago and must admit I'm very pleased with the contents. Here's what I got:

Fekkai Glossing Cream, 2oz. This cream is amazing. I never wear my hair straight because it has a frizzy look so I decided to give this a try right away. I must say that it does wonders and it's light and not oily at all! I will definitely buy. Value: $8

Gillette Venus Olay Razor: I love razors with the soap around the blades so I'm excited to try this, so far it smells devine! Value: $9

La Roche-Posay Effaclar Acne Treatement, 5mL: I don't get many blemishes but it'll be nice to have this on hand when an occasional one pops up! Value: $4.62

L'Oreal Studio Secrets Magic Liquid BB Cream, .75mL. I haven't tried this yet but it sounds promising and if so I will be buying the full size version of this, only $8! value: $0.21

Sally Hansen Nail Effects: Queen of the Jungle. Although the giraffe look is a little loud for my taste I think it would be fun as an accent nail! value: $8.50

In addition to all of the above they sent along a $3 off of $15 in beauty products at Target! A $33 value for $5 all in all I say I got my money's worth and hope that they decide to create a subscription program and that they don't decide to jack up the price!

[Mr. Griffin] Turns 2

I blinked... and I no longer have a baby. My baby is now a full fledged toddler with opinions and ideas of his very own! This little man has truly captured our hearts.

Griffin enjoys doing whatever his big brother is doing and I often joke that he's picking on his big brother. He likes to pull Lil D to the ground in a bear hug and giggles the whole time. The boys enjoy chasing each other around the house and truly love each other's company.

Dallas said it best when he said that Griffin was going to be a lot of fun to hang out with but a pain in the butt to raise :) He's a stubborn one, but he can be so darn sweet. He refers to his blankie as his "boo" His blankie is any blanket that has been knitted so that he can stick his little toes through the holes.

My Mr. Griffin is so full of spunk and personality and our family would not be the same without him. He loves playing games whether it is peek-a-boo, a good round of cheer and clap, then stop, then start again, stealing someone else's seat, or just running the other direction when you call him. He has the best belly laugh ever.

Grif is super smart and knows exactly where he left his cup and will retrieve his and his brothers cups when asked, he's really good about listening when we ask him to pick up toys or put his plate in the sink/trash. He loves to eat and hasn't expressed any picky-ness yet. Something that always amazes me and I'm sure will change as he gets a bit older but his picky-ness translates to other things as well. Lil D tends to want a specific color cup/plate/bowl/toy he will go and switch Griffin and Grif done'st hesitate he just hands his brother wants and he takes the one Lil D doesn't want... it cracks me up!

This year Griffin's birthday landed on Father's Day. I joke with Dallas that I gave him a great Father's Day gift and it's the gift that keeps giving. And he really is a gift to our family. He is my sweet little boy and this life  is that much better because he is a part of it.

STATS: 29 pounds and 34 inches tall

[She's Crafty] Dinosaur Rocks

My little guy is turning two in just a few days so I've been busy prepping all kinds of fun things for his dinosaur themed party.. including these fun prehistoric rocks!

I got the recipe from Play Create Explore and although I over dried mine a bit.. I think they'll still be a hit at the party! I think next time it would be fun to use the skeleton dinosaurs.

[She's Crafty] Easy Peasy Mason Jar Centerpiece

Howdy ya'll <--- wow so very southern of me! Fitting for this post I suppose!

I wanted to show off some cute little centerpieces I threw together for my friends 30th birthday party.. held at Peter Piper Pizza!!! How fun is that? Just because the party is at Peter Piper doesn't mean you can't have cute table decor, am I right? Seeing as I'm in love with the mason jar trend right now I thought why not spruce some up by adding some fabric/lace and baby's breath for a classic and pretty look. I love the look of burlap but opted to recycle some old khaki pant fabric, then I picked up some inexpensive lace ribbon and tied a bow out of jute cord I had on hand. Easy Peasy.

[Lil D] Wall-E

My son has a new obsession lately... Wall-E!  He asks to watch it and he carries around/reads his Wall-e book.. A LOT. At first I thought he just really likes saying Wall-E and I have to admit it's quite adorable when he does but I actually think he truly likes the movie. I feel like he has to rev himself up to get the word out.. waaah wahhh Wahhhh-leee.

Even Mr. Grif knows that Dallas likes his Wall-E book.. just this morning Griffin found the book (well a different Wall-E book than the one pictured) and knew that his brother would want it so he brought it to him.. those sorts of things makes a mommy's heart swell :)

In addition to saying the word Wall-E lil D also does a funny/strange thing when watching the movie. About 15 minutes into the movie Wall-E starts moving around a lot and then start circling.. while this is happening in the movie, lil D is imitating it.. then he will stop at the same time in the movie Wall-E has stopped and then in unison lil D and Wall extend their arm, clamp their hand and turn it over. Lil D is not even watching the movie while he is doing this.. he just knows when and what to do exactly. So funny!

[Fun With Friends] Memorial Day

This past memorial day we had a BBQ with my two best friends and their families! We grilled up some burgers and brats, filled up the baby pool and just had a great time!

There are four little boys between us that enjoyed the heck out of the pool. It was fun watching them run around the yard and play!

[Lil D] Last Day of PreK...Until the Fall

School's out for SUMMER!!

Lil D had his last day of Pre-K. He only got to go for five weeks but will pick back up in the fall when school starts again. We love the teacher and the aides and are so excited he gets to be with them another year or two.

We've seen a great deal of improvement from Dallas just by attending this program for a short time. He now gets the concept that communication produces results. Not only that but he is starting to pay more attention when being asked to say things. For instance, the other night we were reciting the alphabet and he was doing his best to repeat the sounds. This is one thing we are going to continuously do this summer to work on all the sounds.

For the end of the school year his class had an ice cream social, and the families were invited! I moved my work schedule around so we could go and I'm so glad I did. We got to hang out in lil's D's classroom, have some ice cream, see how he stands in line to wash his hands, go outside to play and we got to give the teachers the gifts I made. I snagged the template from For the Mommas.

[She's Crafty] Promotional Frame Revamp!

Have you ever gotten a promotional frame? Being that my husband works at a hotel there are times when random promotional stuff gets left behind and sometimes it makes it's way back to my house.

My husband really liked the digital feature on this frame and he sat it on the entertainment center and that's where it stayed.. I couldn't stand starting at some random logo anymore so what's a girl to do?? Washi Tape it up but of course!

What you need:
-frame
-washi tape
-cute photo

What you do:
-Pick which washi to use, I used colors that go with the beachy theme I have going on.
-Start taping away. I wanted a more random feel but you could certainly just use one tape for the entire frame.
-Pop in a cute picture. The one I grabbed is from last year. An oldie, but goodie!

and that is it! Easy peasy. Gotta love a quick project.

[Happy Birthday] Wreck it Ralph Party - Lil D turns 3!

We celebrated Lil D's 3rd birthday Wreck It Ralph style!

We had an evening party in the back yard where we borrowed a projector to have an outdoor movie. I created a cute ticket style invite to let guests know that we were planning on having a party and then an outdoor movie!

Wreck It Ralph party supplies are pretty scarce so I had to be creative to show the theme. I did this by taking inspiration from the three games in the movie. Fix It Felix Jr., Sugar Rush, and Hero's Duty.

For the Fix It Felix Jr., representation I bought a roll of brick looking paper and hung some up on the fence to use as a photo booth backdrop. I also bought a pair of large Ralph hands from the Disney store and I made a gold Felix hammer by spray painting one of the four toy hammers we already owned. The boys love both of these and play with them all the time.

I used more of the brick paper on the sweets table by wrapping it on plastic shoe containers to add height. For the Sugar Rush portion of the movie. I also made candy decorations out of plastic plates and cellophane and suckers out of balloons, pvc pipe, and cellophane for yard decor. *Did you know that you can use hot glue on a brick fence and as long as you're not gluing paper it pops right off!!

The sweets table was a lot of fun to put together. I planned on including the My Hero blue cookies but the frosting I bought was a total fail so I gave up on it. I did have blue cookies, also made chocolate dipped Oreo to represent the O-RE-O OREOOOO soldiers in the movie! I included a bunch of different kinds of candy and even a pie.. since that is what the nicelanders give Felix.  For the cupcakes I made cupcake toppers that were each unique. There are a lot of different characters so I simply googled the characters, printed, and cut the, out then added a toothpick It turned out super cute.

For the Hero's Duty representation (I bet you really gonna watch where you step in a game called Hero's duty!)  I created a game by placing toy bugs (aka cybugs) all around the backyard. I gave the kids a little container with the Hero's Duty logo on it and told them once they collected 5 bugs to see me for their prize Their prize, of course, was a toy medal! I picked them up at the dollar store but wanted more of an authentic look so I bought some blue ribbon and switched it out. To make the game more difficult for the older kids in attendance I told them that they couldn't use their hands. It made for some entertainment for sure. I really liked that it was a game that could be played whenever a new guest arrived. It didn't need a group of kids to all focus on the instructions at once and it wasn't super competitive so everyone got to win!

For the favors, I simply made goody bags using some fun red/white striped bags that Party City carries. They're really inexpensive which is a bonus. I, of course, had to add a personalize tag.  used the Sugar rush logo and added the blur: thanks for coming, here's a Sugar Rush to go! XO, Dallas.

Once everyone had eaten I laid down some fun chevron blankets that I had picked up cheap at goodwill ($5 each, can't beat that and I found them in the same trip....score!) and we sang happy birthday, ate cupcakes and lil D opened his presents. He got some fun stuff! Wreck It Ralph toys, but of course, some accessories for the Leap Pad 2 his grandparents got him!! A coupe of outfits, chalk, bubbles, water balloons, a fun pool.  He also got gift cards to Barnes and Noble and Toys R Us. He and I are gonna go on a date one of these nights and go shopping. The boy loves books so I think he'll really enjoy picking out his own. He did receive a Wreck It Ralph book that he loved. One of his favorite gifts!

And of course after getting all those great gifts we had to send thank you cards. This year I chose to do so through a fun app called Postagram which I heard about from A Night Owl Blog. It's a really fun app and I found credits online so it was free for me to send.. this may be the way I send all future thank you notes from now on! So easy and personalized.

[Mother's Day] 2013

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day this year. I know I did!

My sweet son's woke me up bright and early.. Lil D who usually crawls into bed and cuddles in the morning decided to turn on the lights and pull off my covers at 7am to "eat, eat, eat" and Mr. Griffin greeted me with a messy diaper.. these kids I tell ya!

Once I got us all dressed and ready we headed over to my parents house where we spent the morning/day with the family. My dad and brother made us breakfast and we just all hung out. The boys watched movies, me and Jason set up an internet cafe in the kitchen, and my mom took a nap.

Lil D made me an adorable hand print flower card at school and every time I asked him about it he got a huge smile of pride on his face.. heart=melt! The week before I painted their hands and made a cute flower picture for their grandma's! Griffin was so cute he took it and handed it to his grandma himself.

That afternoon, I was to meet Dallas at home at 4pm. He arranged for my brother to watch the boys and for a cab to come pick us up. He took me out for sushi and drinks and didn't ant us to worry about driving... after dinner we walked over to get ice cream and finally to Starbucks for some delicious coffee! Some of my favorite things. He also gave me flowers and wrote a sweet message on the fridge. It was a great night and I felt spoiled which is exactly what he was trying to accomplish.

I am so blessed to have such an amazing mom and I appreciate her even more know that I know how much work is involved in raising children.. and I've only scratched the surface! My children are my world and the mean everything to me. I am so blessed to have them and their daddy in my life.