The Valentine Crafts

Pintrest is so fun.

It gets my head spinning with ideas and projects.

This year, thanks to Pintrest, I let the kids go online and plan out their Valentine crafts.

They even invited a few friends over to make Valentines with them.

Here is what they came up with....

(I do realize Valentine's day has come and gone...better late than never, right?)

Friendship bracelets!

(They handed these out in their dance classes)

The bracelet just slipped on the little tag.

The tag was a printable.

Get that HERE.

We decided to make our bracelets double wraps with a button closure.

Supplies needed were few.

So clever:)

Mikayla made them for her sibs and cousins as well.  

She crossed out "our class" and wrote "my life".

I liked that.

So pretty!

The girls sewed their own buttons on and everything.

I did a whole lotta nothing for this craft.

{Except foot the bill of course.}

Cute colors!

This is what the kids chose to make for their teachers!

(there is a package of Rolos inside)

The kids found this idea HERE,

I have been feeling a little maxed recently.

I was going to try to skip Valentine's day but the kids were on top of it and I was impressed, they really completed these two activities on their own!

What did you do for Valentine's day?

Insta-I-Finally-Got-Around-To-Posting-Day

Sorry Insta-Friday.

I like the thought of you a lot a lot a lot.

But it's not me.

Not every week.

And probably for sure not on Friday.

It's just not a day that works for me.

Let's just agree that I will post the phone pics whenever I willy nilly feel like it:)

Caiters 

"um ya so I have to go tause I'm nursin my kid and so ya ok bye"

no joke.

she's edible.

Someone took away Jamin's carrot...

Just a fun little collage of bunches of my Instagram pics.

Looking back is such a great reminder of what a full and happy life we have.

I am thankful!

The day to day rolls on...

Spelling tests galore around here!

The dance studio had "red and pink week".

My kids (and myself) love dress up opportunities!

Mailee especially, she takes it to a whole new level.

I love that she isn't afraid to be herself!

Maddie made this little collage to document her new Lalaloopsy dolls!

We are quite into Lala's around here.

Too cute I say, too cute!

I made these in a pinch the morning of a Valentine's party.

I love when I actually have on hand all the ingredients for something that I feel like making.

These are fantastically refined sugar-free!

{maple syrup and coconut sugar were used}

Caleb made paint chip bookmarks as his valentines to pass out at the party.

They turned out cute.

{He's pretty cute, too!}

I love his cute little guy printing!

{he sharpie-d my writing for most of it but his name was written all by himself}

Grocer-guy wrote this on my bag of ripe bananas.

I want to know what it says?!?!?

Cambi Love is exploring EVERY inch of our house these days!!

Caity and her {2} doggy backpacks.

Because every girl needs more than one doggy backpack when she sits down to watch Dora.

Lastly, this song has infiltrated our house.

Much like Dynamite, Drops of Jupiter and MANY Taylor Swift songs.

Click the link above to watch little Caity sing along.

So cute!

Click HERE to read Mikayla's very thoughtful post on the same song.

This week I was talking about the meaning and significance of a beautiful old poem with Mikayla and I saw a spark of interest and excitement in her eyes that was thrilling for this mommy! 

Go check out her post, leave her a comment or thought of your own.

She is making a shift from "get the work done" to thoughtful thinking and it is so fun!!

A Whole Lotta Love

The last few days have been filled with pink and red and hearts and LOVE!

A Starbucks cup-o-love.

Fancied up eggs.

Yum.

An awesome verse for us to ponder this week.

{it's written in RED...looks orange in this pic?!?!}

Mike gave the kids a little assignment for biology.

Check out the title:)

Little Caity opening a little something...

Mailee set the table beautifully for our Valentine's dinner 

{on Monday night...tonight the girls have dance late}

On the menu:

Thai beef salad.

Mike has been asking me to make this for oh, about 8 years.

Not sure why it took me so long!?!?

Meyer lemon cream tarts.

Um...AMAZING!!

Yum.

Mike brought roses home for all the girls.

Caleb asked where his were.

{Cambria shared}

Check out my gorgeous roses from Mike!!

Little tarts taste best with little heart shaped spoons:)

How appropriate, Cambi started giving open mouth kisses this week!

I love baby kisses!

This afternoon we had a little extended family Valentines party.

Here are the cousins helping Jamin celebrate his first Valentine's day!

{Cambria was snoozing}

The home made valentines were in abundance.

Special treats the Stangs brought!

Aunty Terri is always a pleasure to have at parties.

She always dresses the part.

Soup in pink bowls.

Makes sense!

Our paint chip bookmark crafts turned out great!

The kids all added their own spin to this simple project.

"Sew" cute!

Cute baby kisses!

{okay okay, Cambria needed a *little* help going along with this little photo shoot}

Have a happy Valentine's Day!!

Amazing Frost

Okay there is some kind of amazing frost going on here.

It's beautiful.

I've never seen anything like it.

I'm entranced.

Look at the trees behind our house!

It's not snow, it's frost.

The kids and I decided to get outside and embrace another one of God's amazing creations.

Snuggled up.

Look!  Six smiles, six pairs of OPEN eyes...WOW!

Playing "peek-a-boo".

The girls can get their brother to do anything if they present it in the right way.

Today it was the red scarf.

He wasn't into it but they told him it was a good idea.

Maddie can't stop talking about her birthday.  

The countdown is on.

March 4 can't come soon enough:)

I was too lazy to edit these. 

 The colorless background is really what it looked like.

Amazing.

Cambi-loo.

We love you.

Caity strikes a pose with her big sissy.

There always has to be a jumping shot!

Caity-cutie-pie.

It was really cold but we couldn't get enough of this amazing scene.

New pose!

The kids thought this was hilarious!

{sidenote: Cambria is eating a rock in this picture}

The frost was soo tasty:)

Smiley Mailee

Leader of the pack!

I wonder why God made this kind of frost?

It wasn't necessary.

I like to think that He still would have created it if our enjoyment today was the only reason!!

Thank you Lord for your attention to detail!!