Insta-Friday. Instagram Weekly Photos

Linking up with Life Rearranged and sharing my photos again. This week we moved from Tempe, AZ to The Woodlands, TX. I am so tired! Here's my week: 

We will miss our sweet friends and family in Arizona! One of my friends came by and took EmJ to the park with her two daughters to help keep her from getting in the way of the moving furniture! It was such a blessing!

A last minute hug session with some BFF's in AZ

Sweet girl! Xoee

I need more COWBELL!!!

Scooter Skillz

After the truck was packed we cleaned up the condo and started our loooooooong drive! The first day we drove 10 hours and then we drove 12 the next day. What was I thinking?????

My driving buddy!

Junk in the trunk!

Pit stop

Emily is now fully potty trained... so we had to make a few "unscheduled" stops! She kept yelling I pee'd in the dirt! 

She kept herself busy the WHOLE time! God gave me a travelin girl!

Smiley face... 

Poor Foofa got a ladybug "tramp stamp" somewhere in New Mexico 

Fixed a hole in her jeans. 

The sun set on us just before the Texas border... 

Lovin life in Texas.

We are glad to be finished with the driving and I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed again and am looking forward to getting settled in here. I've cried more this week then I have in a long while. But I'm trusting God with all that He's bringing our way. 

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps

Proverbs 16:9

Here's to believing in the placement of those steps!

Toddler Activities

Seriously, I loved this game as a kid. And I'd forgotten about it until just the other day at Tarjay, I saw it! It was on sale for $4.99. I couldn't pass it up.

So I took it home and Emily and I have been playing it ever since! It's super easy for her to grasp the idea of one bean at a time and we take turns. At first when it would spill out she would be all bummed and pout for a second. But now she gets it, and she even tilts the bucket when I'm not looking to make them spill on my side. Little stinker!

I've really enjoyed finding all these cute little games that she and I can play together.

Here are some other cool games for the 2-3 year olds:

This fun little game I got for $3.50 at Kid2Kid. (It's a little re-sale shop, but it has nicer stuff cause they buy it off of you. They don't just work off of donations) The bummer thing was that it was missing one wand and a ton of the little butterflies. So I just sewed some ribbon in the same shape and it works great!

I got this at Tarjay as well. I don't remember how much it cost but it defiantly was worth it. I have to edit out a lot of the cards for her, otherwise she can't really play. First we started with 3-4 matches, and now we are up to 6-8. She loves it and asks to play all the time!

Insta-Friday. Instagram Weekly Photos.

Linking up with Life Rearranged
It's a great way to share all those photos and it's got me taking more pictures!
Sooooo here we go!

My Dad is a handy man out here in Arizona, and he's the keeper of this castle up on Camel back Mountain. He had to do some handy stuff so we went up with him to take a look around. 

The whole driveway was decorated with all these white stones. The whole castle was built with the rock of the area. Pretty cool.. actually really cool, it was freezing up there!

This is my arty pic from the balcony. I love cacti and wrought iron. 

And the door knockers were epic. The whole place really! I kept saying "Nice Knockers". Nobody laughed. *sigh*

The stain glass alone was amazing! This place is like an actual castle. It's nuts. 

Then we bundled up and headed to the Grand Canyon! My brother and his girlfriend had never been. And Emily kept calling it the "Green Canyon", at first it was really what she thought we were saying... then it became her own little joke! 

It was cold and this little girl did so good! She's happy no matter what! Such a blessing from God!

My brother and his girlfriend are down there somewhere.... it was too scary for me! But I loved the view!

These are just a few of the other pics of Thanksgiving weekend. Yes my daughter is still wearing her Tinkerbell costume as often as she can! This girl loves holidays!

This is how my daughter "helps". She wanted to give Sandie a treat! Sure the door is closed and she can't get to them... DETAILS!!!!.... she'll just let her STARE at her treats! Hilarious!

We don't have a tree yet but we were looking! 

This is my favorite! We are all getting into the Christmas spirit in our house! I love that EmJ is so silly! Merry Christmas!!!!!

Find me on Instagram : @chasing31

Love ya!

Bri

Turkey Christmas Santa Comics

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love this time of year! I get to cozy up with my family and laugh and joke and remissness about the year and previous years! My brother and his girlfriend have just flown in to visit for Thanksgiving. I'm so happy to have loved ones around! EmJ was so excited for her Uncle Nick to come and visit that she stayed up till midnight! And she kept saying "all my friends are home". Just melts my heart!

My brain starts to wander to Christmas already, but I have to remind myself to stay in the moment, enjoy and be thankful for today!

{via} and also on Pinterest

{via} and also on Pinterest

Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Bri

Advent Calendar DIY

Advent Calendar

Stamping out the tree

Sooo last year I made an Advent Calendar for myself and my sister in law....

As you can see I used my daughters hand and foot prints as my stamps for a Christmas tree.

#1 I bought about a yard of plain muslin, and 2 yards of the christmas fabric.
#2 Purchased the little ornaments that are meant for the pint sized mini-trees. 25 of em.
#3 Lots and LOTS of iron tape. (I don't sew!! I wish I could)
#4 Green yarn
#5 Two different colors of Green, and 1 brown.
#6 The little clasp fasteners "Hook and Eyes"
#7 Some green-ish thread for stitching on the previous item.
#8 Green felt - for the top star.
#9 Wooden Dowel and round ends.
#10 Ribbon that I already had to hang the calendar onto the dowel.

This took me forever and since I made two I did each one a little different.
First I made the one for my sister in law

I took this picture only so that she'd see how it was meant to work. (I mailed this to India, where she was living and working, with the paints included for her to stamp her sons hands and feet with. So that's why the tree is blank.)

On mine I went ahead and puffy painted the numbers on. It was MUCH faster and easier to read.

Here is how I did it:


A) Iron tape the green and blue pieces together (these would be your festive fabrics) all around the edges.  Be sure to place your loops of ribbon in that sticky iron on tape too! This will hold onto the dowel at the end for easier hanging later.

B) Iron tape the three rectangles to the lower portion of your Advent Calendar. Only iron tape the two sides and the bottom. You want to leave to top open for your ornaments later.

C) Take Your Muslin fabric (which will become the triangle) and stamp your child's hands and feet in the shape of a Christmas tree. I put cardboard under mine so that the paint didn't ruin my floors!

D) Carefully cut around their tree leaving about an inch of extra muslin.

E) Stitch on the tree to your Advent Calendar using the green yarn. Also sew "pockets" for separation of your ornaments and days. 

The lines above are not exact. And as you can see from my pics, neither one was the same. 

F) Stitch on the "hook and eyes" to the calendar and the ornaments you've purchased. I sewed the "Eye" portion onto my tree and the "Hook" portions onto my ornaments. Some were sewn into the ornaments, hot glued, and even knotted onto them. Depending on which method worked the best. 

G) Puffy paint on your numbers.

H) Insert Dowel (and hot glue the round ends on if you want to) and Hang up! 

Tada! 2010 Christmas.

My little girl loves this Calendar! And when she's all grown up we'll marvel at how tiny her hands used to be! 

Time, stop going so fast!

 I love you EmJ, you are the light of my life. 

Thanks for stopping in!

Love,

Bri

Uses for Clothespins

Ok so the dentist wasn't all that bad, I survived!! And I've decided to share some of the projects I've done around the house over the past few months.

Problem: I had TONS of extra clothespins lying around from a Christmas project forgotten. I was going to use them on all my Christmas gift tags last year, sounded awesome, but I never got around to it. So there they were taking up space in my laundry room closet. So I decided to use as many as I could! Here are some of the things I did!

So here is my jar of clothespins... this is the same jar that my husband picks up once a month and says, "Why the heck are you keeping all these?". Well honey... I've made a substantial dent in my collection. Your welcome!

That's some laundry line  rope up on top there

#1: 

I wrapped all of my ribbon scraps around the clothes pins.  I used the end that usually holds the clothes on the line, to pinch the end of the ribbon so that it wouldn't unwind. And now the cute little jar is holding all my ribbon supplies nice and neat!

#2:

I hung the laundry line rope from the hardware that holds up the hammock and started to pin up all of Emily's stuffed animals. And there are tons! She still has more on her bed. Girls are crazy! 

Oh and when Emily saw this, she cried out "Oh, my TOYS???!!!! But I can't get them!" 

 I just wrapped a part of the stuffed animals ear, arm or leg around the rope and pinned it on. Emily is still little enough that she cant reach this to tear it down.... once she grows I'll have to re-evaluate this. But if she grows like me, then I have at least 20 more years!

#3:
When Dave and I were first married I found these great ABC flashcards at Michaels for $2.50!!! And I have finally hung them up in our kids room! This was a craft 8 years in the making! (I did this in January or February when we first moved into our apartment.

I used some felt flowers (not pictured), leftover buttons and hemp twine that I had left over from other crafts.

I hot glued a felt flower onto the clothespin ant the top (where you would pinch it to make it open) and then in the center of the flower I glued a button. Easy Peasy! 

And then some of the clothespins I just painted. Once it was all dry I hung up the twine and pinned on my cards! I used a staple gun to hold the twine on the wall. This way there are only a few small spots to patch when we move!

#4:
I used the rest as magnets! I already had the magnets from another left over craft. I got out my low-heat glue gun (thank you geniuses that created this!!! No more blisters for this girl!) and started to glue magnets onto the center of the clothespin.

Then I stuck it on the fridge with a picture! Super easy!

So I kept myself busy for an evening and organized my life a bit!

Now what to do with the left overs???!!!
I still have about 50 or so! Here's some inspiration from Pinterest
I think I'll need a little more time before I get to this level of craftsmanship.

This light fixture is pretty sweet!

{source}

This is a sweet little mirror/wreath.

{Source}

Alright that's enough from me! Happy Crafting!

Love ya!!!
Bridgette