Mother's Day

This is my first official Mother's Day.  What a special day and I'm so thankful to be able to take part in it.  It has also given me a very different perspective on this day for my own mom and how much I appreciate her.

Just a little shout out to my mom...

Thank you for all the sacrifices you have made to raise all three of us (me, my sister and brother).  You are such a great example of how to be a loving, caring, sometimes a little bit crazy...mom. Seriously...you always know the perfect words to say when I need advice or just need an ear to listen.  I've loved seeing you blossom into your role as Rah-rah..which I always knew you would be a fabulous grandma.  You taught me so many things in life and most importantly you always guided and grounded my heart in the truths of the Lord.  For everything you have, are and will do...I am thankful to call you mom.

I love you

And I also wanted to give a shout out to Justin's mom...G-maw.

You raised a precious, loving, caring, and God-fearing son.  He didn't get that way on his own and I've been around long enough (10 years) to know how much you have done for your kids and husband.  You are a precious woman, a heart of gold and we are so thankful for you too.  You are a fabulous mom and grandma.  We love you!

 Briggs and I decided to make something special for my mom and Justin's mom.  I know how much I love it when Briggs makes me things, so we figured we would keep with the tradition.

The green hand is Justin and the pink is mine.  Then we put Briggs' hand print in blue on top.  It was a little tricky now that he is so active, but with a group effort..we got it done :)

And the inside we wrote personal notes to them. 

We love you both have a great day...we love you both!

Cradle refinish

As we all know...I enjoy putting a personal touch on gifts. I haven't gotten any complaints so far...so hopefully people are enjoying that?  

Anyway, we had a birthday party for one of Briggs' friends who was turning one.  I asked her mom if she had a cradle for her baby dolls...she did not.

I had spotted a really cute one at the flea market that week and decided to go back and get it.  With some minor improvements, it turned out to be a really cute gift.  So cute...that if I had a little girl, I would have wanted to keep it for her :)

So here is what I was working with.  Not too bad, but a little scuffed up and dingy looking.

 A little bit closer look.

And here is what it looked like after I painted it.  Pretty big improvement if I do say so myself.  If you look closely at the edges, you can see they are a little distressed/ sanded.  

This is what I used to do that.  It's a heavy duty sander.  I use it on lots of things to round out the edges and give my projects a little character. 

There was no wrapping this gift, so I just tied a sweet little pink bow on it and left it at that.  The little girl seemed to really like it (and her big sister had it filled up with baby dolls right after I put it down).   

I should probably say how much I paid for it...but I can't give away all my secrets.  Let's just say, at a flea market you can find REALLY GOOD DEALS and then with a few improvements, you have yourself a one-of-a-kind, cute little birthday gift :)

Baton Rouge Trip

I wanted to share a few photos from our recent trip to Baton Rouge.

It was a marathon trip as always and even more so this time because Justin is working on a big project at the office, so we had to leave Friday night after he got off work. That made for an arrival time 11:00 pm.  Most of you know...WAY PAST MY BEDTIME :)  Not to mention Briggs woke up during the transfer inside and thought it was time to play...augh.

The next morning we woke up and got over to Abby & Josh's house (my sis and B-I-L) to celebrate Cade's SECOND BIRTHDAY...I still can't believe he is TWO!!!!...

Here is their family...

Cade riding his new bike from his mom and dad

Our little family...

Briggs and Poppa having fun...

Briggs sitting with Rah-Rah...if you look close you can see the chocolate around his mouth...he might have gotten into a little cake :)

Me and my little sis...

Briggs and his favorite (only) aunt :)

It was a fun day of festivities.  It was also pretty chilly for Louisiana weather, but we had a great time with everybody together (minus uncle Russ b/c he had some senior stuff and had to work back in Florida...he promised he didn't have any wild and crazy parties while mom and dad were gone)

We even squeezed in eating some crawfish.  Not any pics of that b/c we were all too busy stuffing our faces.

We ended the day with a little bathtime fun.  Cade and Brooks were laughing at me and Abby jumping around like fools trying to get everybody to smile.  Briggs was just enjoying chewing on his toy and thinking we are crazy.

I think Briggs is ready to get out :)

Here is everybody in their jammers and getting one last snuggle in with Rah-Rah and Poppa before bedtime

 

And of course we saw Justin's parents while were were there.

Briggs and G-Maw hanging out at breakfast...

Briggs trying out a bike...I think he is still a little small for that one Pa-paw...

And here he is telling Pa-paw bye.  He had to leave and go to church while we loaded up.

It was a fun trip and we are always amazed at what we can fit into a less that 24 hour trip.  Until next time...

Teacher Appreciation Week

Can anybody figure out what I could possibly be making with all these supplies?...

Well it's Teacher Appreciation Week...THIS WEEK...Briggs and I decided to go the hand-made route again.  Maybe it's just me, but I think people appreciate things that much more when they are hand-made.  Sidenote..much more cost efficient too :)

The items below include:
- Lavendar plant (or your plant of choice)
- terracota pot
- saucer for the pot
- paint
- chalkboard spray paint
- painters tape
- newspaper
- permanent marker

I started by laying down the newspaper so I wouldn't make a mess.  Taped the rim of the pot with the painters tape and got to spraying.  I flipped the pots upside down and it was much easier to sprayl.  I did about three layers to make sure the pot was covered completely.

And  here is what they both look like painted (with the tape still on)...

And then I got so into my project that I forgot to take pics for the rest of the project...oops.  Guess it doesn't help that my 11 month old was in the baby pool..see below :)

So anyway, after my multi-tasking and complete FAIL at documenting it all...here is my finished product.

As you can guess...the chalkboard paint is to write on with...CHALK.  I tried it out and works great.  You can wipe off with a paper towel, but a wet paper towel works best. 

We wrote..."Thank you for helping me grow" on their pots.  I also went a little out of the box and painted the saucer a fun turquoise blue. 

The top of the pot is painted yellow (all I did was pull the tape off after I spray painted the pot).  Once it dried I used a permanent marker and drew the lines and numbers on the yellow.  I didn't use a ruler or anything, just eye-balled it.

You could use this gift in many ways and you don't have to paint the rim as a ruler, it could be just a different color or...get creative.  Now they have a cute pot with an herb they can use in lots of different ways.

Briggs 10.5 months

My very talented husband captured some precious pics of our little boy at 10.5 months old.  Thought I would share a few of my favorites...

Our first garden

We now have a garden!...I don't know that I should have the title "Farmer Iris" but I sure am getting pretty close :)

When Briggs and I went to visit my parents in Florida...Justin was working hard on my birthday present (this was the only thing I asked for).  He of course isn't in the mindset of "blogging"...hints no pictures of the planter box process...but here is the picture he sent me at 11:00 one night of his finished product.

And here is what I have done to it since I've been home.  We have all kinds of veggies that will hopefully grow into big yummy FREE, HEALTHY food for us this summer.  Some of our crop includes tomatoes, onions, squash, zucchini, green beans, lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, and lots of herbs sprinkled all over (basil, chives, parsley, rosemary, thyme, dill, fennel).

And here is the action shot of me harvesting our first onion.

CHECK IT OUT...homegrown in our own backyard.  I was super pumped.  There are more where that came from.  We used it in our green beans that night and can't wait to use more in the future.

 I have more posts to come on the progress we have made and more details on the garden but wanted to put this teaser out there of how it all got started :)

Grilling Out

We decided to try something a little different with our sweet potatoes tonight.  I just got the recipe/instructions from different places in google then combined what I thought sounded good.

First boil the sweet potatoes for about 5 minutes...until you are able to poke a fork in them without great effort.  Let them cool and then slice like pictured below and pull the skin off.

Find yourself one of these hotties (sorry ladies... he is taken),  and throw them on the grill.   He cooked them until they were soft all the way through...about 15-20 minutes.  I mixed together a glaze that was butter, cinnamon, cumin, salt...just to taste (sorry, I didn't measure it). Justin brushed the glaze on the potatoes as he was was cooking them.

And here is what they looked like finished...and yes they were as yummy as they look.  Briggs even thought so :)