Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme

Welcome to the new week! This week is a no theme week for MTM. Baby Girl has been playing with her shape sorter lately and has been getting very good so we decided to do a shapes theme.


She had circle milk (a sippy cup looks like a circle from above, right? :), rectangle ravioli, oval chicken bites (chicken stick cut diagonally), and a pb&j sandwich that was cut into various shapes using mini cookie cutters. There were only a couple raviolis because she doesn't always want them (she's been starting to be a bit more picky), but after everything was gone she ate a few more.

After lunch we all cuddled on the couch and watched a Blue's Clues video about shapes and generally just pointed out different shapes to her throughout the day. We do that all the time, but more so today since it was Shapes Day! lol

To see what other creative mommies came up with this week, please visit Muffin Tin Mom!

Book Fan Friday

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Ours was nice. Baby Girl ate a little bit of everything we had and pretty much liked it all! Now today is all about putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house for Christmas. We got a couple of new decorations last year and I'm excited about putting them up! We usually get more stuff to build on our decorations the day after the holiday (whether it be Halloween, Christmas, whatever) so we can get it cheaper. Unless I see something I just LOVE and don't want to risk it selling out before the sales. I try to be good about that, though. :) This year we only bought Baby Girl a new stocking (since hers from last year was pink, small, and said "Baby's 1st Christmas") and a light up polar bear to go on our front lawn. SUPER cute. We also got Baby Girl a new ornament, which is something we'll be doing every year. My parents did it for me (it was always wrapped and under the tree when I got home from school and the tag always said To: Me From: the Christmas tree... it was always the first ornament to go up that year) so I would have a nice start to my own Christmas tree whenever I moved out. So we're doing the same with our daughter.

Speaking of Christmas, I will be updating the look of this blog today. Please check back soon if it is not up when you read this! Awhile back I won a giveaway for a custom header from Coffee: Freshly Roasted Graphic Design. I LOVE her work and I think the header she made me is so perfect! As for the background, my friend over at Momma's Playground put it together for me. Isn't it so cute? There is another background I found over at The Cutest Blog on the Block that I like, too, so I might switch things up halfway through the season. Who knows? :)


Anyway, on to this week's Book Fan Friday! I've decided that starting this Friday and for every Friday through Christmas I am going to read Baby Girl a new Christmas book. Okay, so if you've joined me for Book Fan Friday before, you know of my love for the If You Give series by Laura Numeroff. Not to mention the fabulousness that is the Kohl's Cares for Kids program. Well, one of the books available through that program was If You Take A Mouse to the Movies.


Among other things, the mouse strings popcorn and wants to put it on a Christmas tree and make ornaments and whatnot, so it seemed perfect for today.

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!


image found at blogging experiments.

National Something Or Other Day

Hubby came home for lunch yesterday carrying a bunch of packages that came in. Some of Baby Girl's Christmas presents arrived (I MUST wrap those soon so we're not tempted to give them to her early!), some stuff I need to make Christmas cake pops, and stuff for my cookie exchange. I ordered my cookie exchange stuff from Oriental Trading. I love that site. I got most of Baby Girl's birthday stuff from them, too. Anyway, Oriental Trading put in a 2010 calendar filled with different days like "Cow Appreciation Day" and "National Tell A Joke Day." Some of them sounded so fun and seemed like great excuses (not that you need any) to do crafts and celebrate with Baby Girl. So throughout 2010 I'm going to try and celebrate a lot of these days and will share what we do on this blog. I think I'm actually going to start next month and I will let you know what day is coming up next after each "holiday" post I do in case you want to join in, too! The first one coming up is December 1st... National Pie Day!

Monthly Craft Challenge

For awhile now I've checked out what incredible things people have made during The Monthly Craft Challenge over at Blue Eyed Blessings. I've never participated because I always felt overwhelmed by the cuteness of everything people posted! Well, this year I am putting that aside and participating, just for fun! This month is all about Christmas-themed decor. I have a few things in mind... nothing crazy or complicated, but I'm so excited to see how they turn out! Check out Heidi's blog for information as well as some crazy cute ideas and great inspiration!

Muffin Tin Monday - Thanksgiving

Happy Monday! Yesterday I celebrated a wonderful 3 years of marriage to my incredible hubby so it's an extra happy Monday for me. :) This week's Muffin Tin Monday theme is Thanksgiving! Nothing too crazy this week. We've been doing MTM on Sundays so Daddy can participate as well, but yesterday was our day so I wasn't thinking about MTM at all. Baby Girl enjoyed her tin, though!


There were diced carrots, cut up turkey sticks, and mini marshmallows. There was a lot more in the cups than it looks! (She didn't like the diced carrots too much so she had some leftover chicken pot pie with me afterwards... one of her faves!!) In the back is her beautiful Thanksgiving picture and we had a little turkey friend show up to enjoy it with us!

Check out Muffin Tin Mom to see what others did for MTM this week!

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday everyone! Being the Friday before Thanksgiving, I wanted to pick out a special Thanksgiving book to read to Baby Girl. We found The Beastly Feast by Bruce Goldstone.


It is pretty cute and the illustrator used great, vivid colors. It is about a feast that all the animals are bringing food to. For example, mosquitoes bring burritos and fishes bring knishes. It's a lot of fun.

We also did a bit of an art project. I printed out a Happy Thanksgiving coloring page off of Crayola and let Baby Girl go at it. We also did a few Christmas projects, but I'll post more about those after Thanksgiving. :)

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Our Trip to the Vet

Today our sweet little Ali (our 4 year old cat), went to the vet to get a yearly vaccination shot.


(That picture was from just a few months ago... I can't believe how much longer Baby Girl's hair is already and how much older she looks! Oh well, I didn't have a really good picture of Ali that is more recent.... guess I have something to add to my to-do list!)

Last year when she went to get shots, I was pregnant and hubby was with me. This time hubby couldn't get off work so I was pushing Baby Girl in the stroller with one hand, carrying Ali in the carrier with the other, and a diaper bag slung over one shoulder. I was definitely a sight! haha

Now let me start off this story with a little background story. Ali and Baby Girl are best of friends. Like, seriously. Ali curls up by our feet almost every night, but while I was pregnant she curled up next to my growing belly each and every night and just purred. Sure, it was probably just because of the extra warmth, but I like to think it's because she already loved the new addition to our family I was growing inside. Now that Baby Girl is a little older and crawling around, chasing Ali, Ali will run away, but not too far to where Baby Girl can't get to her again! :)

Anyway, all that was to say that when we went back to the examination area at the vet, Baby Girl was fine and was smiling at the two veterinarians and just having a blast. Once they started messing with Ali, oh she was not happy! She would yell at the doctors any time they would poke at the cat (checking her ears, giving the shot, whatever). Once they stopped she was all smiles again. She was so protective and it was just the sweetest thing. No one messes with her kitty cat!!

What sweet family moments have come your way lately?

Googly Eyes

Lately I've been trying to use googly eyes in my projects because I've found that they make things extra cute! Just like my Halloween spiders and Thanksgiving turkey. Thanks to Miss Dot over at Miss Dot's Cupcake Spot (SUPER cool blog with lots of great ideas... check out her cookie cutter tutorial!), I saw this SNL skit starring Christopher Walkin as the Googly Eyes Gardener! So funny. I'm never going to use googly eyes again without thinking of this skit! You know, it makes sense... my use of googly eyes for some projects started with the Halloween spiders. I am scared silly of spiders so maybe I just wanted to make sure I knew where I stood with them. :) Have a great day!

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday! We finally got our little butts over to the library this week to grab a couple of books. This week's book is Poor Puppy by Nick Bruel.


This is the sequel to Bad Kitty, which I got awhile back. I got a kick out of that book and Baby Girl enjoyed it, too, so I thought it'd be cool to go ahead and borrow Poor Puppy. It definitely is super cute and it still has some cool details in the pictures just like the first book. At one point while the puppy is playing with all his toys (because kitty doesn't want to play with him) he finds a bunch of cat toys and you see kitty perk up and start to follow him around. I just love that you get more out of the story when you really pay attention to the pictures. This book goes through the numbers 1-26 and the alphabet.

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Gobble Gobble!

Ever since I made some handprint spiders for Halloween, I wanted to make a turkey for Thanksgiving. I also have seen a few blogs using scrunched up tissue paper in their art projects and thought it looked really cool. So I incorporated that technique into our fall project as well!

I originally wanted to use brown construction paper for the turkey and red, yellow, and orange tissue paper for the feathers, but you gotta use what's available to you! There is no brown in the construction paper package and the NEX doesn't carry orange tissue paper. I could have ordered some online, but decided just to work with what was here. I think it turned out super cute. Oh! And of course I had to add a little googly eye! :)


It is hanging out on our fridge now. I plan on doing this every year and just have a parade of little turkeys up somewhere in the house showing how big she's gotten each year.

Muffin Tin Monday - Disney Theme

Happy Monday! This week's MTM theme is, well, there is no theme! So I took this opportunity to break out some Disney stuff and make a cute little tin. We did this on Sunday so we could all enjoy some Mickey-roni and cheese... though hubby had to go into work for an hour... which turned into close to 3, so it ended up being just Baby Girl and me. He's okay with leftovers, though. :) I would have LOVED to go all out with this tin, but there just wasn't time this week, unfortunately. There's always next time. I'm sure we'll be doing a Disney-themed tin again someday. :)

So Baby Girl had...


Mickey-roni and cheese (Mickey shaped pasta and cheese from WDW), Pixie Dust milk, princess bites (cheese cut out in flower and heart shapes with crackers), and Mickey shaped jell-o.

The jell-o wasn't quite set when she was ready to eat, so that's why I took the picture with them still in the ice cube trays. :)

And I thought I'd sneak in a cute picture of our little Sleeping Beauty.


Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see what others created this week for Muffin Tin Monday!

Perfectly Timed Giveaway

Remember the cookie exchange I talked about starting? Well, looks like quite a decent sized group wants to participate! Too cool! And today I heard of a wonderful giveaway consisting of a cookie exchange hostess package from Wilton. How perfect would that be? Head on over and visit Amanda to enter, too!

Book Fan Friday

First off this week, I would like to introduce to you (drumroll, please)....

THE OFFICIAL BOOK FAN FRIDAY BUTTON!


I'll wait until you're done cheering...

Done? Okay. :) My friend over at Momma's Playground made this button for me. I am super excited to have a cool button for Book Fan Friday. I have it over there in the sidebar and would be more than honored if you wanted to grab one and put it on your blog.

So, we need to get ourselves to the library because, well, it's been awhile. But this week just wasn't the week. Baby Girl came down with the flu or something a few days ago. She had a high fever, was cranky, clingy, didn't want to eat much... just generally unhappy. She's getting better and better each day and it looks like she's almost kicked it, but I didn't want to push it so we stayed in and read Richard Scarry's Favorite Storybook Ever.


Anyone else love this book from when they were a kid? When I saw it at the NEX (where they have a small selection of children's books) I was so thrilled! We read it this week and Baby Girl, of course, loves all the colorful, silly pictures. And I loved sharing with her yet another book I loved from my childhood.

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Giveaway

Just a quick note to let you know there is a very cool giveaway going on over at I Love the Way She Blogs! Up for grabs is a very cool Weekly Pocket Package from Pocket Full of Posies and a beautiful butcher's block from Functional Wood. It ends tonight at 10pm EST, so hurry, hurry, hurry!!! :) And good luck!

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Hubby got a fabulous new schedule and got to come home for lunch today. While at work he had checked for packages (the base we are on, you have certain times you can pick up your packages) and the apron I had ordered came in! YAY!


I ordered it from Flirty Aprons and absolutely love it! I can't wait to bake my first batch of cookies in it! I have already planned on making leftover Halloween candy cookies. I am going to use some cookies and cream candy (the same kind that I used for this cake), chop them up, and use them in place of chocolate chips.

That (among other things) got me thinking of Christmas. Which got me thinking of hosting a Christmas cookie exchange! How fun! I want to plan it out now so I can get invites out and order a few decorations (living in GTMO, you have to order things pretty far in advance to make sure it gets here on time... just in case). I know I have some wonderful readers and was curious if you have any ideas for a fabulous cookie exchange.

One idea I found is to hand out a Christmas necklace (just a cute, cheap little thing) to each guest as they arrive. If you mention the word "cookie," you give the person who calls you out your necklace. The person with the most necklaces at the end of the party gets a prize! I'm thinking a cookie cookbook and a whisk or something. If you have any ideas, have had a cookie exchange yourself, or would like to share your favorite Christmas cookie recipe, I would love to hear from you!

Wordless Wednesday

Baby Girl and her new favorite stuffed animal.


For more Wordless Wednesday, please visit 5 Minutes For Mom.

Muffin Tin Monday - Outer Space

This week's theme for Muffin Tin Monday is Outer Space!


Baby Girl's muffin tin consisted of the Milky Way (milk), the surface of the moon (peaches & cream oatmeal), Saturn's rings (Cheerios), and the moon and stars (cheese cut out with mini cookie cutters). A few exciting things happened during this MTM. She hasn't liked cheese yet (weird, I know) but she ate and LOVED the moon and stars! I also gave her a spoon (one with a handle) and she scooped and ate the oatmeal all by herself! She's getting so big. :) and :(

To see what other creative mommies came up with for MTM this week, go check out Her Cup Overfloweth (soon to be Muffin Tin Mom!).

November Already?

Welcome to November everyone! This is always a good month for our household. Not only is Thanksgiving coming up, but I married my wonderful husband 3 years ago this month.

Today I'll be transitioning my house from Halloween into fall/Thanksgiving. This blog will also be transformed a bit (background, header, etc.) so if you check in and it looks a little funny, it won't for long. :) Have a great day and here's to a fabulous new month!