versatility

so, my wonderful friend jen ray, from here, here, and here, gave me an award for being a versatile blogger. thanks jen!!
i think that is fantastic (since i see myself as more of a jack of a few trades, master of none, then blog about a few things that really get me excited, ie. the rainbow cupcakes?!!? so many colors!!) ( i'm by myself all day with a three year old and i guess blogging and reading blogs is my adult escape? that's ok right?) (so many parentheses) anyway, here are the ten questions:

1. Why did you create your blog?
we were moving away and it was a way to show my family and friends what we were up to.
2. What kind of blogs do you follow?
crafty blogs, yummy blogs, fam and friends blogs, and witty/funny blogs. i could literally spend all day blog stalking and finding new blogs that i love!
3. Favorite brand of make-up?
i don't have a fav brand. i have stuff from mac, covergirl, mabelline and some stuff i got at the mall.
4. Favorite brand of clothing?
i do love down east basics but i also get stuff at target and....it's been a while since i've bought new clothes so i can't actually remember...oh!!! i love ross too!!
5. Indispensable make-up product?
cover-up (when will my skin stop acting like a teenager!!)
6. Favorite color?
hands down, green. grass green. granny smith apple green and most of all (if you know me very well) get up kids shirt green. but truth be told, i just love color!! i just tend to lean toward green...but a very close second is a very soft aqua
7. Favorite perfume?
i haven't worn perfume in probably 6 years. but, i do love anything citrus and anything tropical smelling (coconut lime verbena anyone?)
8. Favorite movie?
this is a hard one for me because i pretty much like any movie i see, at least i can appreciate it as a...work of art? (for lack of a better term) but if i must choose, i will give a few: pride and prejudice (very *bewitching), any movie from my past, goonies, the labyrinth (cody is currently watching that. he requested it himself! haha jonathan!! i've trained him well) anything scary or fantastical (watcher in the woods...oh yeah, google it)
9. What country would you like to visit and why?
i would LOVE to go back to ireland. i don't know what it was...what am i talking about!!? yes i do!! crazy cloud cover and rain, GREEN hills that go on forever and the quirks of the people in the smaller towns, the way they talk, the things they say!! it was soooooo soooo sooo very enchanting. i find myself dreaming about it and day dreaming about it sometimes. or on a rainy day i'll say, "this is how it was in ireland." followed by a big, deep, dreamy sigh. (though my husband would probably want me to say germany or italy.) but it's ireland. definitely ireland. (ireland i am coming home!! i can see your rolling fields of green and fences made of stone.....oh, you get it!)
10. Would you rather forget to put mascara on one eye or forget blush on one side of your face?
i've done both in a hurry, so whichever, i guess blush would probably be remedied quickly by a couple passes of your sleeve soo...
the 7 people i pass this along to are:
my sister-in-law tracy
the fabulous jackie sarager (wife to my husband's first cousin)
my sister-in-law jamie
my sister-in-law melissa
a very fun friend that i miss keara
the last two i'm going to say my sisters juliette and tiffany, though, they hardly ever blog! maybe they will if i beg?!
Here are the rules:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award
2. Answer the 10 questions
3. Pass it along to 7 blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy
4. Leave your recipients a note, telling them about the award
good luck everyone and thanks again jen!!

psychedelic cupcakes!!!

oh my gosh!! i just made the funnest cupcakes!! Carson's art teacher at school is in charge of extra stuff going on at school, for example a teachers birthday. i don't remember what the occasion was, but she asked if i would make some psychedelic cupcakes!! so this is what i did: she gave me two confetti cake mixes, but i wanted to make it even more funky!! i mixed as usual, then divided the mix into 5 bowls. i colored the batter purple, blue, green, yellow, and pink. then i just spooned it into the cupcake cups and baked!! below is a picture of the batter before baked.


then, for the frosting i made regular vanilla butter cream, and she also gave me a can of cream cheese frosting that i also added. i divided that into separate bowls and colored them purple, blue, pink, orange and yellow. i left some frosting white. i spooned it into my bag with a large star tip. i think it turned out pretty cute! here is the finished cupcake...

this is the cupcake after i took a bite!! i think i was a little too excited about it!! you should have seen Cody's face when he saw these!! he ate one whole cupcake, and he never finishes cupcakes, he usually only eats the frosting!!

here are all of the finished cupcakes!! i love that each one is different too!! oh, i also used green and purple sprinkles for fun!! i think i will make these again for St. Patrick's day, but with blue frosting and a gold coin on the top!! so cute (Juliette gave me the idea about the gold coin! genius!)

yay cupcakes!!

CARSON IS SIX!!!

i can't believe i have a six year old. truly. i am still seventeen, right? oh....riiiiiiight...i do remember those 9 birthdays since i turned 17....yowza!! anyway, carson had a fun birthday weekend. jonathan let him open his presents on saturday (it wasn't his birthday yet) but he was happy with everything he got. the picture below is carsons cake (i know i'm lame, i didn't make him one this year, last years was a doozy) on sunday night. carson got a bike 3(?) christmases ago. we have no where to ride bikes, so he hasn't learned to ride without training wheels yet. however, that bike was tiny!! it fit him at the time, but now his knees hit the handle bars!! soooo, he asked for a new one and this one was on sale!! yay sales!! after about a 1/2 hour he got frustrated and switched to his razor scooter.

cody loves his tricycle!! i love watching him on it!! he always says, "i'm dunna win!!" i don't know why he always thinks he is racing, but i love it!!

so the morning of carson's bday rolls around and he had already opened all his presents. normally, we have a big birthday breakfast with a huge birthday sign decorated with little stick figures doing silly things. but this year, since he already opened his presents, i thought it would be sad if he came down the stairs to a big sign with no presents under it. so...we did nothing. when he came into our room and we were talking about how he is six now, i had to break it to him. i said, "you know cars, you already opened all your birthday presents right? there are no presents for you downstairs, and also no sign and no breakfast." his face fell and i felt like a big piece of crap. then an idea sprang into my head at just the right moment and i said this, "buuut, me and cody are coming to your school for lunch!! and we're bringing sonic with us!!!" he was ecstatic!! sad/mad/crazy situation avoided. phew. so cody and i went to the dollar store and bought a birthday balloon, and some party hats. then we walked over to sonic and ordered our food and walked to carsons school (i was very tired last night with all that walking). so, carson got to sit at the birthday table at the front of the cafeteria where everybody walks in and he got to choose a classmate to sit with him. he chose his friend jordan. this is us making silly faces for his birthday, and yes, i need to work on my eye-crossing skills.

this is carson and his wonderful teacher ms. bridges!! his classmates were all sitting in a circle and singing happy birthday. then i passed out cupcakes.

it was a fun day. when we got home and checked the mail, there was a package from my parents for carson and cody. they got so many fun things to play with from everyone. carson has been crafting it up with his new craft supplies, playing u-build sorry, and transforming his new transformer. thank you to patti and ted (jonathans parents) and gary and janet (mine)!! you are wonderful and we ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU IN A FEW WEEKS!! also, thank you to nanny and grandpa for the card and 2 dollar bill. carson already spent it at the dollar store buying more craft supplies (a protractor).

valentines party!!

today was carson's class valentines party. he was obviously not happy in this picture!! he has a fierce toothache that cannot be fixed until tuesday or possibly later. we have been kept up nights from him screaming in pain from this tooth. he didn't go to school yesterday, but i thought he should go to school today. we've been alternating tylenol and ibuprofen along with a numbing agent directly on his tooth. he is in pain!! anyway, about the valentines party!! as you saw on the previous post, i made valentine robot iron ons and yes, i made one for myself as well....i couldn't help it!!!

carson with his valentine loot and he even shared some with cody!! yay for sharing!!

here are the valentines we made. i had some valentine paper left over from the valentines we sent out last year and i got a $1 valentines stamp at michaels a while ago....so carson wrote the name of the valentine on the front and we cut it out and glue dotted it to the front of the folded card.

then carson stamped the stamp and signed his name!! he was totally thrilled with these!! he didn't even complain that they weren't batman or scooby doo or some cool character. he also made a wonderful valentine for his teacher that i totally forgot to take a picture of :( he did that one all by himself. it was awesome with 4 different colors of paper, hearts galore and glitter glue. (he really likes his teacher)

here are the heart shaped cakes covered in colored white chocolate. they were yummy. we wrapped them up individually and attached the card. he was so happy with them....so was cody...he had more than a few.

happy early valentines day!!

cupid is dusting off her wings yet again!!

if you know me well, you know i absolutely love valentines day. i cannot explain why, i just do. and if you know me well, you know that exactly eight years ago, on valentines day, i made dozens and dozens of heart shaped sugar cookies, frosted to perfection i might add. on that day i also dressed in red and white, and donned my cupid wings and delivered (on my beach cruiser for some deliveries) those dozens of cookies to all my friends and family. it was seriously fun!! this year, since i live 12 hours away from my family i thought a little package of a different type of goodies might be spectacular. so....if you are female, and in my family (or soon to be) you will be getting


one of these cute hair flowers
(if they look a little burnt around the edges,
that's because they are. :) i only had a torch)

if you are my nephew and
not a preteen you'll be getting
this love robot iron-on :)


my two nieces, sydney and sloaney
will be getting these girl robot
iron-ons :)



if you are a sarager niece, you are getting these cute skirts!!!!

close up of cute polka dot fabric

if you are a tipton niece you'll be getting these
these cute skirts!!!

close up of more cute polka dot fabric!!

all of the girls with skirts are also getting a hair flower to match their skirts, and more iron on hearts to make matching shirts!! if you are older than 10 and male.....i'm sorry........i don't have anything for ya.....but i love you anyway!!!

come back on friday to see what carson and i made for his class for valentines day!! they are soooo cute!! and yummy too!!! yay valentines day!!

walkin' in a winter wonderland!!

today was a crazy adventure. we have had a cold front here in northern texas. right now, outside, it is -5 degrees and snowy. yesterday carson had a snow day and it was fun. today is colder with more snow and no snow day. i didn't have to walk carson to school today but i did have to pick him up. so we bundled up like crazy. this is what cody wore: pj's, fleece shirt, jeans, socks, fleece feety pj's, snow bibs, gloves, scarf wrapped around his face and head, warm snow proof jacket, hood and snow boots. carson wore pretty much the same minus the feety pj's, but i had to bring to the school the snow bibs, the scarf and his hood for his jacket. the wind here is brutal, which is why it was negative 5. so anyway, cody and i leave our apartment to pick up carson and cody is walking extremely slow. crazy slow. and after about 2 minutes he says he can't walk anymore. so, i pick him up and continue on our way. yes, despite the below freezing temp, i begin to sweat and am totally out of breath (i'm a brisk walker, even holding a child.) i ask him if i can take a break and he can walk for a while. he says ok. he walks about 20 feet then tells me he is going home and turns around and starts running for home. i run to catch up to him and carry him the rest of the way to school. this took us about 20 minutes. we get to carsons school early by about 10 minutes. normally, we just wait until the teacher opens the door and she calls out the name of the child whose parent is there. not this time. since i need to get him dressed in snow clothes, i totally barge in as she was finishing up. she was totally nice about it and it took me the whole ten minutes to get his snow clothes on. then we make the trek back across the field, across one street and coming up on another street when carson says he can't make it and he needs to rest. he plops right down into the snow and just sits there while i am holding cody. after a few minutes of this, i hear a car behind us and someone yell, "ya'll need a ride?", "yes please!!", i yell before i even see who it is. it could've been a murderer, i would've still taken the ride!! so we took the ride and it turns out that her son goes to carsons school and he knows him. so not a murderer. yay!! it cut our time by 1/4th, but i made her drop us off a little ways away from our apartment so we could get the mail. that is where all the pictures came from. hope your weather is better than ours!!






















this is our doorway. that snow you see on the carpet is from the wind blowing snow through the crack between our door and the floor. the guy said he'd come by today and fix it.....so far.....nothin. but snow.




















carson after he was rolling around in the snow.




















cody hiding from snow and wind while i get the mail. he had just fallen into a huge snow hill that was about a foot an a half deep. not happy.














don't let the smile fool you!! i was super cold!! and yes, i am wearing carsons backpack. he was too marshmallowed up for it to fit!!

carson rolling in the snow on the snow hill, cody fell, then rolled and is attempting to stand up while he cries and can't move. if you look behind cody (on left) you can see where he fell. carson=happy. cody=very sad and mad and runny nose and yelling at me.

*the first picture is of my boots that are not snow proof. they did have snow up to the top of them just before i shook them off and right before i took the picture.