life lately

here are some words that i would use to describe "life lately":

*fun

*busy

*exciting

*enjoyable

*encouraging

*inspiring

*smelly

*tiring

*reflective

*blessed

*refreshing

maybe these will help explain my choice of words....

 this past week my boy has been sick.

when i became a mom i kinda forgot about that whole cleaning up vomit & diarrhea thing. 

when you have a newborn, spit up & baby poop are kind of exciting in a weird "i'm a new mom & i love everything about my baby" kind of way, you know?

this was, well, not quite so exciting.  

i think i did more laundry this week than i have all month!

so this week required us to lay low, but when baby boy is sick, it means quality snuggle time.

i did need a lot of coffee though. 

thursday night i was pretty concerned about dehydration so i asked a few friends to pray & friday morning, wouldn't you know he woke up at 6:30 am like nothing ever happened! 

the power of prayer!

but before this week....

 a roadtrip to visit my BF & Eli's future wife & brother-in-law

props to all moms of 3! getting 3 kids out the door is a job! 

"cheers" after fun at the gym!

 getting out to enjoy some sorta warm weather

(we take every opportunity we can!)

some bounce house fun

eli's finally starting to say some words & one day i found him wearing mike's press pass, pointing at the picture saying, "da, da, da"

so sweet!

 

donut date on fauschnaut day

mini-date with my love

this will soon be our new bookcases!

i'm finishing up the soul detox reading plan with she reads truth....good stuff!

ok so i have to explain this.

a couple of weeks ago i got a message from an old friend who recommended i try out for a Wal-Mart commercial.  She was trying out for one in her area & informed me that they were looking for moms in my town as well.  i thought, sure, what do i have to lose?

so here i am before my big skype interview trying out some reactions i thought they might like.

i did end up getting a call back to be the "alternate mom"....yes, the understudy.  

so i may not have caught my big break this time, BUT they did tell me i was on the priority list for the next time they come film here.  

don't worry, i'll keep you all in the loop!

being the "alternate mom" meant i had to be on call on the day of filming & therefore had to be ready & waiting should they need me.  you know, just in case!

so the night before i asked mike to help me look through my closet to help me find something to wear.

i mean, i could've been on tv so i had to look good, right?

my normal yoga pants and sweatshirt that i'd been wearing for 3 days just wasn't going to cut it!

the producer had sent me a dress code ~ all the things i could not wear. 

and all those things i couldn't wear, yeah, those were all the things i had in my closet.  

get a load of this ~ my husband actually told me i had nothing to wear!

can you believe this?

what man tells this to his wife?

that just meant an emergency run to Target!

remember, this could've been my big break.

and while we were there, we had a little family fun!

oh yeah & then there was valentine's day too...

first, the hubs let me have some "me" time so that i could work on a project.

now we finally have something hanging on our blank walls.  

then we exchanged gifts.

my hubs gave me an ipad mini!

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

i was so blown away!

 i cried.

(so in this post when i said i couldn't remember when i last cried, totally forgot it was this moment!)

it was awesome!! 

and still is awesome...i love it!

then we grabbed dinner from chipotle because it's one of our favorites!

whew! that was a lot. 

i hope life has been ___________ for you lately too!

(fill in the blank with any of the positive words listed above. i wouldn't want to wish you a smelly, tiring life, of course!)

because i love to craft.

ok, so at the risk of sounding really cheesy, i'm going to try out a new series? segment? i 'm really not sure what to call it, but awhile ago my bff suggested i do something like this & so i'm taking her advice. she and i had a craft weekend a couple of months ago & naturally, as i'm sure is true for the vast majority of the crafting world, our projects were pinterest-inspired.  she thought since i have this wonderful little blog here that i should feature some of the projects that i complete {since lately projects are on my almost daily to-do list}.  maybe it will provide some "pinspiration" {yeah, i really did just say that} for you to complete that project that's been taking up space on your "DIY/craft/someday i'll get to it board".  

so here's where the cheesy part comes in: i came up with a name for this little venture. are you ready for this? 

it's kind of like a stamp of approval.

i'd love to show you something "pintastic" than land here.
oh my! have you seen these? hilarious!!

i have a few projects waiting in the wings, but since valentine's day is closing in on us, i thought i would kick off this post with a valentine's day project. 

i feel like these days you can make just about anything with a toilet paper roll, and with the amount of toilet paper we use in this house, i thought a project that would allow me to put some of those rolls to use might be good! 

i saw this project here and here. 

here's my version.

 if you know me, you know that i strongly, strongly dislike the color pink.

you might be thinking it must make picking things out for valentine's day really hard,

 however, i'm really good at it by now!

i'm really digging the red/robin's egg combo, so that's what i chose for this year.

 now, i'll be honest, i didn't read any tutorials before doing this, just looked at the pics.

{i totally missed the part where michelle suggests taping the tube and think this would have been a really good idea!}

i had some blank cards already that i had gotten at a.c. moore several years ago.
of course, cardstock would totally work too.

i didn't have a plan for my stamping, i just went with it.

 i personally liked that the hearts were imperfect. 

after the blue dried, i added some red. 

here's another design.

and another.

i'll be working on a few more, and maybe, maybe i'll let eli do one too. we'll see. the last time we tried painting, he just wanted to touch the wet paint & i had to force him to put the paintbrush on the paper.

*sigh*

someday we will paint together. 

anyway, i'd love to check out your "pintastic" projects.

what are you working on?

the greatest love

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happy valentine's day!

we aren't huge valentine's people...it's always been pretty low key.

in fact, valentine's day 2008 (i think) was the biggest fight we ever had. (the 'i-love-you-in-every-language-written-in-highlighter-on-computer-paper' fight)

in keeping with my DIY kick (obsession) as of late, my gift this year was found on pinterest (and i'm sure i am not the only one!)

i'm making a fun dinner i found (stalking) someone's blog & to be perfectly honest, i probably will not change out of my sweatpants & clothes that eli has spit up all over....romantic, huh?

when i was considering valentine's day & making my preparations, this song lyric kept running through my mind:

"how deep the father's love for us"

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how often do i stop to consider just how deep that love really is?
sadly, not often enough!

on the day that we fuss over the right gift & the right card, do we stop to think about the greatest gift of love we've ever been given?

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on this day that some people fret over being alone, know that Jesus is the greatest love that you will ever know.

on this day known for chocolates and flowers, may you "taste and see that the LORD is good"

psalm 34:8

i'm so thankful that Jesus loved me enough to make the ultimate sacrifice and that i can celebrate his love everyday.

i pray today you will experience the love of the Father, the greatest love, in a new way!