Father's Day Recap {Gift Ideas}

I know it's a little late, but I finally have a minute to sit down for a little Father's Day recap!  I wanted to share some gift ideas.  These can be used for any special event really - birthdays, Christmas, etc.  They aren't just for Father's Day!

When Carson was just about a month old, I started one of our first traditions.  (I love traditions!)  I bought these wooden letters and snapped some photos for a Father's Day gift.  I put the photos in a 3-slot frame and they get replaced each year with a newer version.  Nick loves seeing how the photos turn out and it's fun (and super hectic) being the photographer.  I can only imagine what our photo session will be like next year when Mason is 1 and Carson is 3.  Oh boy!

Father's Day 2012 (Carson: 1 month)

Father's Day 2013 (Carson: 13 months)

Father's Day 2014 (Mason 2 months, Carson 25 months)

 I also like to do a "handmade" craft/art project for most holidays.  In the past we hadn't done anything for Father's Day so I decided to start yet another tradition.  You can't have too many traditions, right?!  I found an extra scrapbook I had laying around and made a little cover sheet:

Next I made a craft with each of the boys.  I browsed Pinterest for some inspiration (obviously) and found some cute ideas.  Carson loves wearing Daddy's shoes.  He'll put them on, laugh, and say "too big!"  When I saw this idea I knew it was perfect for him.  

Here's a close-up of the poem in case you want to copy!  I just traced one of Nick's shoes and put Carson's foot print inside.  Then we did a little photo shoot of Carson wearing Daddy's shoes.  Nick thought it was adorable!

For Mason I needed something simple and something with a foot print.  He still has his hands clenched shut a lot of the time so hand prints are pretty much out of the question!  I found this cute bee foot print idea and made it go along with Father's Day:

Each year we'll add a page or two to Nick's book and it will be a fun keepsake to look through.  Carson already loves looking through and we only have 2 pages!  Eventually I think the boys will do crafts together but for now, I wanted to do a page for each of them.

We also made a grandpa craft this year.  My dad loves fishing so I thought this was perfect for him!  I envisioned it turning out a little cuter, but I think you can still tell that it's a fishing pole with a fish.  Maybe?

I also got Nick a couple small gifts I knew he would enjoy.  Here are some links in case you need husband gift ideas!

    

Home. {a tour}

Days after moving in back in 2005!  

Our house is on the market.  Listed officially.  For sale!  Our home.  Our first home together.  We've been here for 8.5 years and we BUILT this home together.  Literally!  Ok, not literally, a construction crew built it, but we chose everything!  I love our home and we've made it our own.  I'm obsessed with my paint colors and I know every square inch of this house.  This is where we brought our puppies home.  This is where I brought my first baby home!  This is the home we lived in when we got engaged and when we got married!  Are you sensing a trend?  I'm a little sad to leave.

Moving is so bittersweet!  I'm sad to leave our first home.  SO sad.  We're moving to be closer to my husband's work which makes me happy for him.  It also makes me happy about the opportunity of him coming home for lunch and possibly him coming home earlier in the evenings!  Even though I'm sad about leaving our first home, I'm excited for new beginnings.  I'm excited create a space for our family of 4 (+2 adorable furballs)!  I'm so excited to make another house our home!

Reminisce with me for a minute...here are some [MLS] pictures of our first home.  I will miss it so much!

Foyer

Formal Dining/Living Room

Kitchen

Dinette

Great Room

Great Room again...I love our fireplace!

Powder Room

Guest Bathroom

Nursery

Guest Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Loft (Playroom/Office)

Backyard

As much as I love this home, there are many things I would love to change....
-I would love to have white woodwork.
-I would love to have upgraded countertops.
-I would love to have hardwood floor (or even laminate!)
-I would love to have a finished basement for the kids.
-I would love to have a flat backyard with space for boys to be boys.
-I would love to have wonderful neighbors that can turn into wonderful friends.

I'm hoping our next home will be just as wonderful as our first, even better!  When I get sad, I just try to think of a line from one of my favorite songs.  [I may or may not be listening to the song on repeat while writing this post.]  You make your house your home and I'm excited to create a new home with my growing family!

{via}

Birthday Weekend Recap!

If you are my friend on facebook or you follow my instagram (or my friend in real life), you know that Sunday was my birthday!  I wanted to have a fun-filled family weekend and I'd say that was a success.  Here's a look at what we got into....

{Saturday}

Saturday morning we went to the zoo.  It was apparently "Kid Fest" day so there were a bunch of character "mascots" running around and Carson had tons of fun!  We have a zoo membership which is awesome and we realized we had never taken Carson over to see the gorillas.  (Our zoo is huge and it's easy to only see half of it in a trip!)

That afternoon my dad and step-mom came over to deliver a birthday present for me and one for the hubs (his birthday is exactly a week after mine)!  It was nice for Carson to be able to visit with them since he doesn't see them that often.  At first he was shy, but then he loved showing off!

That evening we decided to go out to celebrate my birthday [eve].  I hadn't planned anything because I was totally convinced that my husband had something up his sleeve and was going to surprise me.  False.  [Husband Fail #1]  We went to one of our local malls and decided to just walk around the outside area a bit since it was nice.  We went to check out the splash pad and Carson LOVED it and got SOAKED.  Luckily we knew that was a possibility and had a towel and dry clothes in the car.  Here's a quick video:

Someone needs a haircut!!!

After we got Carson changed it was already 6:45 and since the hubster hadn't made reservations anywhere we had to find somewhere that could get us in right away since it was time for Carson's dinner.  We ended up at California Pizza Kitchen.  Not the fanciest of birthday dinners but it was tasty and I didn't feel uncomfortable when Carson got a bit noisy!  :)

{Sunday}

Sunday was my actual birthday!  As I was getting Carson up and into a fresh diaper, hubster was downstairs baking some chocolate chip cookies!  [Husband Win!]  Don't be too impressed though, he used my homemade cookie dough that I froze into balls so it was basically like break and bake, ha!  Since it was my birthday, I let Carson try his first taste of my chocolate chip cookies.  

Batman capris are so hot right now!

Later that morning we went to one of our favorite parks and my mom and sister met us there.  My mom brought donuts and Carson had a blast exploring, climbing, and running around.

Later that day we went to Graeter's to get my free birthday sundae.  Perfect timing because the temperature was 90 and "felt like 98"!  We don't go to Graeter's too often, but when we do, I always get a cone.   I might be changing my ways because my sundae was AMAZING.  It was called the "cookie monster".  It had 1 scoop of cookie dough + 1 scoop of cookies'n'cream (my two favs!) and those were covered with hot fudge, chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry on top.  To die for!

We even let Carson try a little bit of ice cream.  He wasn't a huge fan, probably because of the cold-ness but he loved his Cheerios! :)

Later on Sunday my amazing Momma brought over a birthday cake for me!  She has baked this same type of cake for me EVERY year of my life.  It's what I ate at my first birthday party!  I started the same tradition with Carson on his birthday a couple months ago (HOW was that already a couple months ago?)!

How did you spend your weekend?  I hope it was great!


I'm linking up today:

Weekend Recap!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We had a fun-filled weekend full of awesome weather so we were outside a lot!  Here's a peek at what we got into...

{Saturday}

We participated in our first official 5k!  You may remember back in early May when I ran my first ever 5k.  Although that race felt somewhat official since I got a super awesome race shirt, it was a virtual event, so I was only running with Nick.  Saturday we participated in the Color Palooza 5k and it was SO much fun.  And also about 90 degrees.  H-O-T!  We ran with a group of friends and even though we got a little split up, it was still a ton of fun.

The color run took place during our city's pride festival.  My dad came down to the race with us and hung out with Carson while we ran.  Carson wore his rainbow tie in support of pride!

{Sunday}

We went to a friend's house for a super fun playdate.  They had not one but THREE pools in their backyard!  Carson wasn't so sure about any of them but he made sure to try them all out.  

He talks with his hands... :)

Later that afternoon we played outside for a bit.  We had Carson's sprinkler on but all he wanted to do was climb the stairs and play with his beach ball!

Anytime he finds a petal on the ground, he picks it up and puts it back in the plant! <3

What did you do this weekend?  

I'm linking up with Sami today: