Tulip Update

Back in October I had made a post (click here to see the first post) about planting tulip bulbs and was a little leery if they would turn out. Just wanted to update what they look like now...

I'm so excited they are blooming! I think it's actually early for them to bloom but since the weather is so warm...

I went ahead and snapped a shot of them, since the weather keeps changing...I wasn't sure what those cold nights might do to them. There are still a lot more bulbs to open up...I can't wait to see how they all look together!


And then of course...had to put a picture of my little buddy in front of them :)

Happy Valentine's Day

As we all know...today is Valentine's Day. Just wanted to share a pics and ideas from our house.

Briggs attends Mother's Day Out two mornings a week and today they had a Valentine's Day Party (yes...I know...for an 8 month old!). One thing I like about his school...no matter how old or young you are, they want you to be included in all the fun.

Here is a picture of Briggs with all his valentines from his friends...I think that face is so cute...he kind of looks like he is getting into something he shouldn't :)


I had been wanting to make some valentines for the grandparents and great-grandparents. We had to do two rounds of cards. I didn't have the right color of paint for the first round. I was wanting the traditional red and pink, but all I had was was purple and yellow...GEAUX TIGERS! So we just went with it...made a few purple and gold valentines while we had some help and then later Briggs and mommy made some red and pink ones together.

One day when "Aunt" Celeste came to visit, she helped us with the first round of cards. I can say from this little project...it was much easier with a helper. Either way, it was a fun idea that I got from another blog that I follow.


Here is Briggs with all his finished Valentines...he was so excited, he was squealing...you can probably almost hear him through this picture :)


And here is our finished product. This was the one we made for Daddy and slipped in his car last night so he was surprised when he left for work today.


Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Donations

Tis the season for cleaning out around the Poland house.


Got an old laptop that is ancient and barely works?...I never knew what to do with these things until my grandpa informed me...


Just drop it off at Best Buy. All I had to do was go to customer service and sign a piece of paper saying I was dropping it off to recycle the parts...and they take care of the rest...



And I'm a firm believer in cleaning out the house and closets at least twice a year. When I go through our closets..if we haven't worn it in a year...OUT OF HERE...

I know a lot of people would say have a yard sale...we have done that...it's just so much trouble and you might make $100 after sitting outside for 5 hours. Then I can barely handle people haggling you for a $.10 item...trying to talk you down to $.5....JUST GIVE ME THE DIME ALREADY...IT'S A DIME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Anyway...we just call King's Home. All you do is sit your stuff out, labeled KH, they pick it up and you get a donation receipt to use on your taxes...win-win for everybody.


Just wanted to get the word out on some things you can do with your gently used items. And another idea...IF you are a yard saler...we have always just bagged up our unsold items and called KH to pick up.

Happy Donating!

Big Boy

Thought I would share a few of my recent favorite pictures of little buddy...

Briggs and Daddy...guess I should mention...Briggs' new favorite thing to say is dadadada...we are working on mamamamama...but it does make my heart melt when I see how much he loves his daddy.


Guess who is sitting up like a big boy!...and here he is playing with his favorite toy...Mr. Duck


Wanted to make sure everybody knows what team we are for :)


Briggs in mommy's favorite hat...with his favorite girl in the world :)


And here is Briggs' new trick. He likes sitting up so much that he doesn't like to sit back in his stroller


or in his bouncy seat...


My baby is growing up. This past weekend he learned to crawl and clap. It's been an exciting weekend and lots more fun things to come.

Oooey Goooey Cake

I had this dessert not too long ago..and it was SO YUMMY!...thought I would share it.

-Devil's Food Cake (make it like it says on the box)
-Poke holes on it when it comes out...like below (I used a toothpick)


-Pour a jar of caramel (ice cream topping) over the top of the cake while it's still a little warm
-Put it in the frig to cool everything down
-When it's cool...spread cool whip on top of the cake
-Bang up 3 butterfingers (I used a meat tenderizer) and crumble on top
-Store in the frig covered so the cool whip doesn't dry out

Wedding gift idea

Anybody need a cute idea for a wedding gift? I thought I would get a little creative for the latest wedding shower I attended...so here it goes...

I went to Lowe's and bought a long board, then got them to cut it before I left (which is free by the way) into the length I needed. Brought them home, and started painting them.



I bought some stencils at Michael's and...



used a piece of tissue paper to trace out my idea and make sure it would look okay on the painted board...


I did some touch-ups once I got to the finished product on the board...I had sanded the edges of the board with Justin's sander (did I mention I'm really starting to love using power tools), did a blotting technique with some of the paint and glazed the edges of the board.

It was a time consuming process but I really enjoyed tapping into my creative side and coming up with something hand-made for my friend (with a little inspiration from pinterest). I actually don't have a picture of the one I gave away...but this is the picture of the one I made for myself (because I had to have a practice one...and my sister sees the things I'm working on and ALWAYS puts in an order...LOVE YOU ABS!)


So...you get the idea...you can make it whatever color you want and do a little different design with script format. It was fun and has inspired some other projects I might tackle one day soon.

Baton Rouge Trip

We have been a little busy lately...hints why my posts have been kinda sparce. We went to Baton Rouge this past weekend and had so much fun..here are just a couple pics to narrate our trip...

Because Justin's parents and my sister live in Baton Rouge, it's always challenging to split our time evenly. So before we had Briggs we started this new system....we start off at one of their houses on the first day and spend the night. We leave the next day around lunch to go to the other persons house and spend the night. Then leave to go home the next day. It's worked out well because then we don't spend all our time driving back and forth between houses (which are about an hour apart).

Here are some pics from G-Maw and Pa-Paw's house. This 3-wheeler is one that Justin and Landon rode when they were little...Briggs seems to like it :)


G-Maw and Briggs. They gave him that hat..it says "I hunt for hugs"


And here are Abby and I ready to set off on our sister date to New Orleans. We went to the jewelry show for the morning. It was so fun to just get away with my sister and hang out. We don't get to do that often without the babies.


Abby brought Brooks to play with Briggs while we were gone. We are so thankful our families are close and get along good. It was great knowing that the babies could play together at my in-laws house while we were gone on a sister date.


While we were gone, Brooks (left) and Briggs (right) played with G-Maw and Justin. These babies sure are focused...


And now we had moved to Abby and Josh's house. Cade was added to the bunch. Couldn't get Briggs to smile (which is unusual), but he had an unbelievably large poop right after this picture which then lightened his mood...just thought yall might want to know that...hehe :)


We decided to take a walk to the pond in their neighborhood to take a few pics, feed the ducks and let Cade fish with his new fishing pole.



And then Cade caught his first fish with his first fishing pole! That was exciting and Justin got it all on camera...YAY CADE!


Here are the babies getting ready for the photo shoot. Briggs was checking Brooks out with that gatorade bottle...sometimes I wish I knew what was going through that kids head :)


And here is the cutest little picture of Brooks and Cade


Which Abby was having to work for those smiles...jumping around behind Justin...before we knew it...GUESS WHO JUMPED RIGHT OFF THE EDGE OF THE GRASS INTO THE LAKE!...it was H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!!! and Justin of course got it all documented on camera.


THEN...we went to eat dinner at Sammy's and had some awesome fried pickles, mozzarella sticks, shrimp poboys and boiled crawfish...YUMMY! Then Brooks dumped a whole cup of water onto Abby's lap! It was awesome..and not her day with water...but at least she just kept on rolling with it and smiling :)


To end the trip...here is our little family pic. We weren't exactly dressed up..but just wanted to get a cute pic while we were all together with someone to take the shot.


As you can see...we had such a great trip. Loved getting to spend time with my sister, getting the kids together and seeing Justin's parents. Even though we swapped a stomach bug for a cold...it was great memories and lots of pics to show it :)