Brrr...Time to Shop!

It's getting cold here! My wonderful friends and family are still frying on the westcoast and we are entering into jacket weather. Today's high is projected at 51 degrees! Now that is the lowest we've seen out here since July, but I know some of you haven't put away your shorts and tank tops yet. :)

A couple weeks ago, I was going through the kids' clothes to get rid of everything that didn't fit. I then discovered that they had NOTHING to wear! Now, I don't say this lightly...they really had NO cold weather clothes. Here is a picture of part of the stash of giveaways!

Dylan had two pairs of pants that didn't go above his ankles yet because they were bought late in the season last year. Ava had zero that were long enough, but with girls and leggings...you can get away with it. That is when I started actually looking at all the sale emails I was getting from Carter's, OshKosh, Old Navy, etc. I was nervous the temperature would drop suddenly and my kids would freeze. So...I went shopping!

I love shopping online because I can do it while the kids are sleeping, which makes things so much easier!

The last week and a half has been fun because we saw Fed Ex and UPS a lot! :) I got a package from Carter's with some warm coats for Ava, one from my mom with kiddo pants...Thanks!, some Ugg type boots for Dylan...Thanks Oma!, a BIG bag from Old Navy, Randy got his textbooks (I'll share later) and I got a box from Thirty-One! So fun!! To make it even better, ALL of the clothes were on sale...jeans for $8! Here is Ava's Old Navy stash.

She has purple skinny jeans! Dylan did not allow me to take any pictures of his items, although, his favorite is a batman longsleeve tee with a cape! I can now responsible cloth my kiddos as the weather changes, although, I am far from finished. :)

I mentioned a Thirty-One box...

Then I opened it to find this...

The kiddos loved their gift from Nana! Ava is always carrying some type of purse around and Dylan is an "organizer" even if we don't always understand his system. ;)

I loved my hostess goodies too! Thanks to everyone who shopped at the party!

You can kind of see Ava's head at the bottom. She didn't want to sit still for the picture, she wanted to go grab everything and mess it up. :)

I have my first home party since moving on the 20th so I'm excited! The online party really helped me get some new stuff to show off at the party. I met with my hostess yesterday, without kids for both of us, to plan the party. She's excited, I'm excited...this should be a great kick off party in Alexandria!

As far as Randy's textbooks go, he is going back to school! Beginning in November, Randy will be a graduate student at American Military University getting his MBA in Human Resources. The classes are online and the degree will take three years...I think. Yay for Randy! He wanted his focus to be Finance, but since his job is HR and the Navy is paying the majority of his tuition...he is going HR. :)

We are and will continue to be a busy group! My mom comes into town on Friday then Randy and I get our first date night since moving on Saturday. We will be getting gussied up and going to the Navy Ball! So stay tuned because I will post pics!

Have a great long weekend!

Let's Get Creative!

It has been a good week; challenging at times, but good. :)

Randy left for a work trip in TN on Monday and my mom drove in from San Diego on the same day. This swap always helps with the kiddos. Gotta love Grammy! :)

Dylan usually does pretty well when Randy leaves, however, it has been a while since he has been on a week long trip. Randy and Dylan have become such buddies

that this trip was a bit harder on the boy. In addition to the length of the trip, we also dropped Randy off at the airport instead of him simply leaving for work in the morning and not returning until the next day. So...there were some emotional situations this week. Having my mom here was very helpful because somehow I was able to remain more calm during these tantrums. She also supplied wine and ice cream. Who can argue with that? :) So...while I was working through the kiddo things this week, I came across two articles on Facebook that seemed very appropriate.

This is a stay-at-home mom does all day

Your Children Want YOU!

In addition to kiddo fun, with my mom here, we have had a week worth of crafting. We hit a couple fabric stores and Hobby Lobby, one of my favorites. My mom has made Ava a couple dresses and has plans for more, which is where the fabric store came into play. We had to pick out fabric right? I'm so excited to see what all the finished products look like...there are quite a few. :)

I brought out my multiple boxes of ribbon and I do have A LOT of ribbon. :) I made bows for a friend as well as plenty for Ava.

These are for Ava! The two twins are for pigtails!

Ribbon was 50% off at Hobby Lobby so I got a little excited.

I also decided to try something new. I want to learn to sew so that I can make Ava cute dresses too. I decided to make a "jelly roll" quilt to practice my skills. It is a bunch of 2-inch strips of fabric rolled together. All I had to do was sew all the ends together to make one long strip.

This is one strip...I just need to stretch it out.

Then fold the long strip in half and sew the side seams. This is repeated until it is a lap quilt. Pretty easy! The great part is that I got to practice my sewing without doing much cutting at all!

To top off all of the fun, my introductory kit from Thirty-One showed up today!

Yipee! I love this bag line and decided to be a consultant and sell them myself. I already have a couple parties lined up and I'm excited to get started. I wanted to be able to earn some money, but wasn't ready to go back to work full time. This gives me the opportunity to spend time with adults, sell/buy cute bags and provide some extra money for the fam.

What has been nice about this week was instead of feeling rushed or stressed to get so much done, which is how I normally feel, I felt relaxed in being able to have the time to be creative. I also got to be creative with someone instead of on my own. Hey...I'm social, I need a buddy and moms make good buddies. :)

I'll be back on my own during the day next week so I'm sure it will be a whole different scene. :)

Friday Fun Day

I can't believe it has been a week since I last posted! In my head I have written a post each day, but unfortunately haven't made it to my computer. :( So...what have I been doing?

Let's start with my fun Thirty-One Bag party! I mentioned a couple weeks back that I had attended a bag party and just fell in love with the line. Not only do I just love bags, but I also love the patterns, the different styles and the personalization. I got my order on Wednesday...

Thirty-one is now my new fav! When I LOVE something, I feel the need to share. This is why I decided to throw my own bag party, but this one had to be online. It is currently in progress and will be open until Feb. 27th. I'm curious to see who decides to participate. I hope people love it as much as I do.

So...I took these fabulous bags to the park today for a playdate. I mentioned last week that Dylan really loves playing with his friend, David, from school. Well, we joined David, his mom and sister at a park by their house.

A few other mommies showed up and I met some nice women and kiddos. It turns out that one of the mommies is a YMCA gym goer like myself. We recognized each other. She said she noticed my red hair. Of course...a redhead can never hide. ;) Dylan was very excited because he got the opportunity to water the bushes today...if you know what I mean. ;) Lack of bathrooms opens up new experiences. :) Ava was walking all over and even got a little cuddly with David's mom, Billie, since her morning nap consisted of the 10 minutes it took to get there.

Now, I have both kiddos napping which is absolutely wonderful!! Woot Woot! It's time to organize my coupon binder, which by the way, provided me with about $100 in savings this week. Another Woot Woot! :)

Have a wonderful Friday!!