RaptorMama

Check out the amazing bluebonnet pics I got this year.  #NailedIt

My kids are such naturals.  Xander especially has the makings of a model.  hahahahahaha

Don’t worry, I have plans to attempt this again next weekend.  Kate is going to be gone this weekend camping with her Girl Scout troop (I miss her already!!!) but I’m semi confident that the bluebonnets will still be looking good next weekend.  Fingers crossed!

I finally finished the interview books for Mia and Xander!!!  Longtime readers might remember when I made an interview book for Kate.  If not, check out this (super old) blog post where I did a tutorial.  🙂

Well, now that the time is nearing for my tiny baby big girl to start school I realized that I needed to get my tush in gear and make ones for the twins!  Amazingly enough I was able to get all of the supplies, though I may have paid a bit of a premium for a few of them.  Whoops.

I also realize that I never came back and updated the old post once I actually used the book so here you go.  🙂  I’m using Kate’s book for the photos since I actually have it up to date and the twins’ books are still blank.  I take Kate’s picture on the first day of school every year.  At first I thought that I would take it in front of our door so you could see her growth over the years with the door knob as a reference point, but I quickly realized that our poo brown HOA mandated door color is not an attractive backdrop for photos so I switched to our front porch.

Of course, then we came to the last day of school.  We were filling out the interview book on the eve of the last day of school and RaptorDad just assumed that I was taking pics on the porch with the chalkboard for the last day of school.  Which seemed like a great idea to me!  But then, where to put the pics…  I decided to make use of the backsides of the cardstock and added a velum pocket for the annual report card.  This is also where I put her class photo.  I actually take a picture of the picture (don’t worry, I pay for the 8×10) and resize it to 4×6 so it fits in the book.  (I covered it up because I don’t like to post pics of other people’s kids online without permission, but you get the idea.)

I love seeing how her answers change every year!  And I love having a sample of her handwriting.  <3

And since the whole books is already put together, it’s easy to keep up with.  🙂  Sometimes there’s a delay in printing the pics because I don’t want to pay shipping for one 8×8 photo, but the actual interview portion only takes a few minutes and is always fun to do the night before right after dinner.  Side note: apparently 8 is the new 13.  yikes!

This is actually one of my favorite memory projects because it’s so easy!  It’s a fair bit of work and expense upfront, but now that is’s done, it’s done.  🙂  Well, except for the idea I recently had for the cover page, but I’ve got to convince RaptorDad to put his mad photoshop skills to use for that.  lol.

 

What’s up spring!!!  We had a busy fun filled February and now we’re on to a busy (hopefully) fun filled March.  🙂  Let’s see the February goals.

1.  Make my bed every day.  I did better at the beginning of the month.  lol.  But I would really like this to become a habit.  The room looks so much nicer when the bed is made.
2. Sell all the cookies.  We did it!!!  And we will not do it again.  lol.  At least, not this many.  I know that plenty of people sell 1000 boxes or more, but 400 nearly killed us this year.  I’m thinking more like 200 next year.
3. Get my family well!  Ugh.  We continued on the sick train in February adding a couple of ear infections, some throat gunk, and bonus pink eye.  ::yuck:: BUT, Mia is scheduled for new ear tubes on Tuesday and as a bonus they’re going to take out her adenoids and maybe her tonsils at the same time.  It’s not going to be a fun recovery, but we’re really hoping that this solves her recurrent sinus issues once and for all.
4. Embroidery for quilt.  Still a work in progress…
5. Spring break plans!  Sadly, our spring break plans devolved into surgery recovery plans.  Kate is going to get to go to Houston for a few days though so that should be fun.
6. Interview book prep.  I’m still deeply in denial about preschool, but I did order the actual albums.  Now I just need to recreate the file and print the pages.
7. Finish Kate’s patch blanket.  I need to do this…
8. Bake something with Kate.  Success!   We made King Cake for Mardi Gras, and she took the lead on making some scones for a little tea party she had with her BFF.
9. Valentine craft.  No, but I did score a canvas that I want to use for a St Patricks Dat handprint craft.
10. December Daily.  I didn’t do a darn thing for December Daily, BUT I did finish a whopping TWELVE project life layouts.  🙂

March Goals

1.  Surgery recovery.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
2. Create files for interview book.
3. Print interview book pages.
4. Cut interview book pages.  I still need to find/ purchase all of the embellishments, but that can be done at a later date.  I ::have:: to have the pages printed before Mia starts school.
5. Patch blanket.  I need to just dedicate a few nights to getting it up to date.
6. Macaroons.  Kate and I want to try to make macaroons over spring break.  🙂
7. St Patrick’s Day festivities.  We’re going to attempt to make some pretzels.  Also, the aforementioned handprint canvas.  Maybe other stuff?  We’ll see.
8. Order name labels for Mia’s stuff.  ::sob::
9. Scrap!  I’d love to keep the momentum going on Project Life!
10. Hexie Love.  I’d love to get another 9 flowers stitched together.  🙂

I’ll try to get a few non-goals blog posts up in March, but I make no promises.  lol.

Oh January, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.  lol.  All 3 of the kids have been sick one after another and it’s so hard to see my babies (all 3 of them!) feeling bad.  Plus, Kate was sick for the first weekend of cookie sales so we had to cancel her 3 best booths.  Ugh.  Anyone want to buy some cookies?!?  I’m starting to panic.  lol.  So my January wasn’t as productive as it usually is.  Still, let’s take a look see.

1.  Clean all the things.  Hahahahahahahaha.  Yeah right.  Still, I think I filled up 3 or 4 trash bags so that’s better than nothing.
2. December Daily.  I made some progress, but I’m far from finished.  I think I’m on day 16?  Hopefully once the kiddos are better we can get back to our regular weekend schedule which includes scrappy time for me on Saturdays and garage time for RaptorDad on Sundays.  We’re both missing it!
3. Cookie Booth Decorations.  Holy crap y’all!  RaptorDad went above and beyond with the cookie booth.  I was thinking a sign, but he made us a whole booth!  He’s so awesome.  🙂
4. Swimming.  Well, between sick kids, sick mama, and selling cookies, I haven’t gotten much swimming in this month and the kids haven’t gotten to swim at all.  🙁  But it’s a new month!
5. I tried one new salad and brought back an old favorite.  So halfway there?
6. Interview book.  Ugh.  I haven’t done anything for this.
7. Hexagons!  I’ve been having so much fun with these.  🙂  I might have to do a whole blog post about them.  Oh, and I’ve now got 4 separate hexagon quilt projects going.  Why yes, I am insane.  Why do you ask?  
8. Daily photos.  I did great for a week.  lol.  Maybe I’ll try for 1 week a month of daily DSLR pics…
9. Load challenge.  Hahahahahahahaha.  I only got 9 pages done.  See above re sick kids.  But, I got a lot of hexagons done so that was super fun.  🙂
10. Blog.  My poor neglected blog.  lol.

February Goals.  Oh boy.

1.  Make my bed every day.  I’ve never made the bed in my life.  lol.  But, if I’m making a whole darn quilt for it, I’d better get in the habit now.
2. Sell all the cookies.  ::sigh::  We’ve sold 239 and we have 161 to go.  Ugh.  I’m hoping to have 300 sold before the end of the weekend.  Not sure if that’s possible.
3. Get my family well!  One kid just finished antibiotics, one kid is halfway through a course of antibiotics, and one is starting antibiotics today.
4. Embroidery for quilt.  I know how to do embroidery on felt from all of the stocking kits I’ve done, but somehow that isn’t translating to embroidering on cotton.  Need to trouble shoot this.  You know.  Because just making 4000 hexagons isn’t complicated enough.  😉
5. Spring break plans!  I want to go to the beach for a few days!  Need to make this happen.
6. Interview book prep.  Y’all.  I need to stop being in denial about preschool starting and finish Mia’s interview book.
7. Finish Kate’s patch blanket.  This is an ongoing project, but she has a backlog of patches that need to be sewn on before her camping trip in March.
8. Bake something with Kate.  I promised her that once we sold all of the cookies I would bake something with her.
9. Valentine craft.  I want to do a little craft project with the babies.
10. December Daily.  I want to finish this so I can clear off my desk and make a plan for catching up on Project Life.  🙂

I came up with 7 daily goals for the first week of January as some mini resolutions.  How did it go?  Really well!  My goals were to 1.  take a photo a day with my DSLR, 2.  do a scrapbook layout a day, 3.  fill up either a trash bag or a goodwill bag a day, 4.  get 10 thousand steps a day, 5.  drink 8 glasses of water a day, 6.  clean the kitchen every day, and 7.  work on my hexagons.  Overall, I did really well with photo a day, cleaning the kitchen,  and my water, succeeding every day.  I did pretty good with my steps, my layouts, and my hexies.  I failed miserably at the trash bag a day.  lol.  I thought I’d share my photos!

Monday:  The babies playing with their sensory bin!

Tuesday:  Kate doing research on owls.  Just for fun.  lol.  She wanted to show the babies a video she found.  I loved having her home on break.  I can’t believe she has to go back to school tomorrow!  🙁

Wednesday: It was so cold today!  The babies were tired and they laid down on a blanket pallet in the floor and alternatively snuggled and fought over books.  I love seeing their twin bond.  One of my biggest fears when we got Mia’s diagnosis was that they wouldn’t have that twin bond.  Boy was I wrong!  They are 2 peas in a pod.  🙂

Thursday:  Ice Skating with our Girl Scout Troop!  Kate loves Girl Scouts so much.  I’m glad we have such a great group of girls.  🙂

Friday:  Playing at the park!  The pretty weather came back, thankfully!!!  We met up with some friends and ended up feeding some ducks.  So much fun!

Saturday:  This is actually a different plaid shirt on Xander.  I <3 plaid shirts.  lol.  Here we are at the park in our neighborhood.  Notice the ever present car.  😉

Sunday:  Cousin day!  Love family time!!!

I’m totally doing this again this week!  I especially loved taking pics every day with my camera!  But I dropped the trash bag goal.  Ain’t nobody got time for that!  lol.

Field trip time!

Kate was working on her painting badge for girl scouts and one of the steps was to “get inspired” and look at different paintings by different artists.  I think the writers of the badge requirements envisioned us spending the day at an art museum, but y’all, this was way more fun!

Plus, we got to play with spray paint!

To say that is wasn’t double stroller friendly would be a massive understatement, but we still had loads of fun.  We just stayed on the bottom level.

I’d love to come back one day without the babies and climb up to the top!  There was so much cool graffiti to check out.

And Kate was thrilled to finish up her painting badge!  All in all, 2 thumbs way up for the Hope Outdoor Gallery.

I love New Year’s Day!  The possibilities always seem endless.  🙂  And it’s my favorite month to do goal setting!  Let’s see how we did in December.

1.  December Daily.  I’m up to day 9!  So, I have a long way to go, but I’m making some progress.  I’m hoping to wrap this up by the end of January.
2. Jake’s Stocking.  I am so close to finishing this.  My sister wanted me to change the clouds from “Happy Holidays” to “Merry Christmas” but I finished pretty much finished everything else and gave it to her a week before Christmas so she could hang it up.  I should be able to finish it in about a week next November.  I’m officially taking a break from felt for a while though.  lol.
3. Order Christmas Cards.  Done!  And they turned out super cute.  🙂  To be honest, they were cuter on the computer; the colors were a little off when they got printed so the pinks turned to reds and the aqua is more blue, but they were super cheap so I’m not complaining!  I’m so glad we got these pictures taken.  <3 <3 <3 
4. Address/ Send Christmas cards.  Done!
5. Take some Christmas pics.  Also done!  I even got a cute cousin pic.  🙂
6. Road trip book.  This one didn’t get done, but we did have loads of fun on both of our road trips.  🙂  Luckily Kate does not get carsick at all so she can just read the whole way.  I’m so glad she takes after RaptorDad in that respect!  I can barely look at a map without getting carsick.  lol.
7. Decorate Christmas tree.  We decided to go with a tiny pink Christmas tree this year and it was perfect!  My stress level dropped by 200% when I didn’t have to worry about Mia eating pine needles or breaking ornaments.  
8. Christmas menu.  Y’all.  We went with a retro menu to go with our retro tree and it was so much fun.  I love it when my family is willing to play along with my crazy ideas.  🙂
9. Cookie Booth plan.  Well, I have a plan, but I haven’t done anything to execute it.  lol.  I need to get on this one big time!
10. Planner Stickers.  Still a work in progress.  lol.

I’m toying with the idea of trying to learn something new each month this year, but it’s still just a rough idea.  My initial idea was to have 12 projects already decided on, but I’m having a hard time coming up with them.  Suggestions?  lol.  Some projects that I know I want to work on include:

1.  My hexagon quilt!  I now have 14 hexagons stitched together.  Unfortunately, that’s just a drop in the bucket.  I found a hexagon calculator and it informed  me that I needed over 4,000 hexagons to make a king size quilt.  lol.  I might end up making a quilt for bitty baby instead.  😉  I will say that I’m having tons of fun with this project though!  I love playing with all the different fabrics.  🙂
2. Cross Stitch.  I want to design a cross stitch with some song lyrics that I love.  I need to figure out how to do the design work though.
3. Interview Books.  At this point, I think I just need to redo the files.  I need to buy the actual albums and embellishments as well.
4. All the scrapbooking.  lol.  December Daily, Project Life, 12×12 layouts…
5. Some kind of embroidered map.  This is still in the conceptual stage.
6. Learn to can!  In my fantasy land, I figure out how to grow tomatoes, grow a massive crop of them, and then can salsa and tomato sauce.  hahahahahahahaha

And that’s where I run out of steam.  lol.  Shall I come up with some actual January goals?

1.  Clean all the things!!!  Hmm…  Maybe the trash bag a day challenge?  So either a bag of trash or a box to goodwill every day.
2. December Daily.  I’d really love to finish this by the end of the month.
3. Cookie Booth Decorations.  We start selling cookies on the 17th and I need to jazz up our table!  I think we’re going with a super hero theme, but I need to get my behind in gear and make it happen.
4. Swim!  RaptorDad and I have been doing good with the swimming.  I think I’d like to set a goal to swim laps 3 times a week and take the babies swimming one day a week.  That’s a pretty lofty goal, but I think it’s doable.
5. Salads.  We’ve been eating healthier since August, but I’m getting a bit sick of the same old salad every day for lunch.  I’d like to try 4 new salads this month that are tasty and healthy.
6. Recreate files and print pages for interview book.
7. Hexagons!  I toyed with the idea of trying to do 31 flowers (7 hexagons in each flower) in 31 days, but that seems a bit insane.  Maybe I’ll try to do 10 flowers?
8. But speaking of a daily challenge, I think I’m going to do a photo challenge.  I’d like to try to take at least one photo a day with my DSLR camera.
9. I think I’m going to do a LOAD challenge as well, that’s LayOutADay.  So 31 layouts in January.  Oh my, I’m giving myself an awful lot of crafty projects to work on.  lol.
10. Blog!  I’d love to get back to blogging 3 times a week.  🙂

I have no delusion that I’m actually going to accomplish all of this, but I figure go big or go home.  lol.

Oh my gosh, the time has been flying!!!  I’m not quite sure how it happened, but it’s already December!  And I am determined to make this an awesome December.  First, let’s see how I did in November.

1.  Gratitude Banner. We skipped this this year, but I’m planning to do it next year for sure.  I just need to think about it in October, not November.  lol.
2. December Daily prep.  I ordered another kit on Cyber Monday, does that count?  hahahahaha
3. May Project Life.  Nope.
4. June Project Life.  Nope.
5. Scrap January 2017.  Yes!  Whoo hoo.
6. Jake’s Stocking.  I have been working on this a ton and I’m getting so close!  Maybe I’ll post a progress pic on instagram later today.
7. Take down Halloween decorations.  Done.
8. Bake for Thanksgiving.  Done.  Oh my y’all.  I ended up making 5 pies and oreo truffles.  Because I’m a crazy person.  lol.
9. Christmas Prep.  I have so many ideas!  But I didn’t get much done other than deciding that I was going to make a Christmas tree skirt.  Perhaps it will be done before Kate graduates high school.  lol.
10. NaNoCraftO.  This was hit or miss.  I think next year I want to be more intentional and organized about it.  It was fun though.  🙂

December Goals!

1.  December Daily.  This is one of my favorite projects of the year!  I would really like to keep up with it this year, with a one day delay.  (So scrapping the 1st on the 2nd, etc.)  I doubt I will manage to keep up with that, but I would like to finish the project by the end of December, and not have it hanging over my head in May.
2. Jake’s Stocking.  This must be done.  Must.
3. Order Christmas cards.
4. Address/ send Christmas cards.
5. Take Christmas pics.  I’m not using them for Christmas cards, but I do want to get some pics of the kids in their Christmas outfits.  Especially since we got Baby Jake a matching outfit too!  Yay cousin pics!!!
6. Road trip book.  We’re taking 2 road trips this month, one with just me and the kids to San Antonio, and one whole family trip to Houston.  I want to make Kate an activity book for the car.
7. Decorate Christmas tree.
8. Christmas Menu.
9. Cookie Booth plan.
10. Planner stickers.  I’m getting closer, but I still can’t figure out the settings on my silhouette to have it cut through the sticker but not the sticker backing.

Wish me luck!

October was a crazy busy month!  We went camping twice for Girl Scouts which was fun but exhausting.  lol.  I didn’t get a much accomplished as I was hoping to, but tomorrow is another day.  😉

1.  Halloween Costumes.  Done.  We tossed our original (super complicated) plan in favor of skeleton pajamas for all the kids.  I felt a little bad phoning it in, but it was nice not to be scrambling at the last minute.
2. Hang new pics.  Done!  I am so happy with the way it turned out.  🙂
3. May Project Life.  I didn’t get anything done on Project Life.  Whoops.
4. June Project Life.
5. Scrap November 2016.  Done!
6. Scrap December 2016.  Amazingly enough, I finished this one too.  All of 2016 is done!
7. Yoga Shirt.  Ugh.  The actual shirt that I ordered disappeared, but I did cut out the vinyl and give it to her.
8. Jake’s Stocking.  I didn’t get nearly enough done on this.  Whoops!
9. Hexies!  I bought some more fabric, does that count?  😉
10. Find Interview Book file.  Nada.

November Goals:

1.  Gratitude Banner. Um, I really need to figure this out today, huh.  I’m planning to use this to help us focus on gratitudes this month and to help Kate work on her writing.
2. December Daily prep.  I ordered a kit today!  Yay!  But I want to go through and sort through my Christmas stuff.  I’m considering making a little kit for Kate with stuff I won’t use so she can make a December Daily of her own.
3. May Project Life.  Maybe?  lol.  I need to get caught up on this.
4. June Project Life.  lol.  A girl can dream.
5. Scrap January 2017.
6. Jake’s Stocking.  Oh boy.  Maybe this should be my only goal for the month.  lol.
7. Take down Halloween decorations.
8. Bake for Thanksgiving.
9. Christmas Prep.  We’re hosting Christmas Eve this year for my fam and I’m super excited!  🙂  I’m thinking of sprucing up some of our decorations.
10. NaNoCraftO.  Michael does NaNoWriMo every November and I get BORED!  I’m thinking of giving NaNoCraftO another go.  lol.  This is where I try to do something creative every day.

September has been a bit nutty as we get back in the swing of school time stuff, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  🙂  I even managed to get some stuff crossed off of my crafty to do list!

1.  Scrap October 2016.  Done!
2. Halloween Costume Plan.  Ugh.  I keep waffling back and forth.  I need to just made a decision and stick to it!
3. March Project Life.  Done!
4. April Project Life.  Done!
5. Finish Drew’s stocking.  Done!
6. Redo bookshelves.  Done!
7. Create 3 Montessori trays.  Done!  In fact, I made 9!  I should blog them, huh.  lol.
8. Print interview book pages.  I got the paper for this, but I can’t actually fine the file on my computer.  lol.
9. Order remaining supplies for interview books.  This didn’t happen, but I did order prints for Kate’s interview book and for our living room wall.  Oh, and I bought new frames!
10. Assemble interview books.  Nope.

October!

1.  Halloween Costumes!  I need to finalize the plan in the next few days so I can get cracking on these.
2. Hang new pics!  The prints should be here this week.  Yay!
3. May Project Life.
4. June Project Life.
5. Scrap November 2016.  Pics are already printed.
6. Scrap December 2016.  This one is a bit of a stretch goal.  lol.  I did edit/ print pics for it today though.
7. Yoga Shirt.  My friend asked me to make her a shirt and I need to get it done!
8. Jake’s Stocking.  I only have 2 months to get this done, so I’d better get cracking!
9. Hexies!  I have a Christmas present idea for some of my hexies, but I need to make loads more.
10. Find Interview Book file.  I either need to find it or I need to recreate it.  lol.  I’d like to go ahead and get these printed even if I don’t get the albums/ embellies purchased.