Happy Birthday, Jaelyn!

As I mentioned before, we celebrated Jaelyn's birthday all weekend long! We had a lot of fun celebrating as a family! On the girls' birthday's, we always let them choose every activity that we do. They choose all of our meals, what we do, and we are sure to make them feel special on their special day! We also take them to Toys 'R Us and let them shop for and choose a present of their choice. Jaelyn's birthday turned out to be a great day!

We started off Jaelyn's "after-party" family celebration by taking her to Red Robin, the restaurant of her choice, to eat!

Opening a present from us. A baking set with goodies to make!

She was thrilled that they brought her dessert.

They sang to her too. She loved it.

Eating her yummy treat.

More chocolate cake just for my girl!

Blowing out her candle.

Jae with her cake.

Then we had a slumber party the night before Jaelyn's birthday, per her request. We brought our our air mattress and watched Tangled. We stayed up late, too!

Jaelyn lives for slumber parties! She asks if we can have one almost every other night.

The next morning, we woke up, played with all of her special new toys from her birthday party, and got dressed and ready for the day. Jaelyn decided she wanted to eat at the donut shop for breakfast so that we did! After breakfast, we headed to church. Jaelyn loves to go to church. The girls wore pretty dresses, too! 

For lunch, Jaelyn chose Wendy's. After Wendy's, we took her to Toys 'R Us, where she chose her present. She ended up picking a Toy Story water dispenser, colored bubbles, and chalk.

We came home to play outside in the beautiful weather! Jaelyn put on her new roller skates, from Grandpa and Grandma Pollock, and gave it a shot.

She played in the sprinkler, swimsuit and all!

After playing bubbles and chalk, we headed inside to watch Tangled once more. We had ice cream for supper and ended the night at a friend's house! Jaelyn had a great fourth birthday!

Xoxo,

Tanna

Photo Booth

Sisters.

You can't tell me that they don't look alike. I see it in their eyes. Love my girls!

Xoxo,
Tanna

A Toy Story Carnival: Jaelyn's 4th Birthday Party!

As I sit and write this, I have a sense of pride.
We did it. We pulled off an amazing party to celebrate our girl. Her 4th birthday. She wanted a Toy Story and Carnival birthday party and after over a month of planning, building, and shopping, we brought her party to life. And we celebrated.
After high-fiving Matt, knowing what we accomplished together, I realized just how much we had really accomplished...together. That simple high-five, which is normally just a hand gesture, resembled so much more than I can even explain. More than planning a party and pulling it off. More than impressing our guests with all of our hard work. Not only did we throw a party for family and friends to celebrate Jaelyn and her life, we've also successfully raised her thus far. Four years doesn't seem like many, but it's something and I couldn't be more proud of our teamwork, our parenting, and our love for Jaelyn.

Being a mom is the hardest job I've ever been given but I was chosen to raise her and that is exactly what I will do. In a way that I can be proud of. I look forward to many more fun, beautiful, and challenging days with her. My princess. When I became a mom, four years ago, I never knew how much love I would have for one little being. I wish I could successfully express how much I love that girl. She keeps me on my toes, makes me laugh, and has a heart full of love. I am already so proud of who she is and who she is becoming. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for her and I love dreaming about what she will do someday with her precious life.

Now onto her birthday celebration!
Jaelyn's Toy Story Carnival.

Invitation.

When deciding on what to do for Jaelyn's birthday, I wanted to do something outside and something FUN! Jaelyn mentioned she wanted a Toy Story party and a carnival just seemed to fit her. I planned most of the party and Matt brought my ideas to life with his artistic skills and creativity. I spent weeks searching clearance aisles, dollar stores, and my own craft closet to keep my party cost-effective. It was a lot of fun to work together with him to see what ideas we could come up with.

We served Popcorn and Cotton Candy at Jaelyn's party! I made these signs to add some color!

Refreshments and Snow Cones!

We had bottled water and Capri Suns!

Snow Cone Table. Blue Raspberry, Watermelon, and Cherry. I found awesome snow cone cups in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. They were a lot of fun to use!

The treat table!

Each of our guests recieved tickets, to play the games, and bags to hold their prizes. I bought the little "trinkets" that they sell at Wal-mart for Valentine's Day at 90% off for the prizes.

The Color Wheel.

To incorporate Toy Story, I used each character as a game.

Mr. Potato Head Color Wheel.

To play this game, the child chose a color on the board, where they placed their washer and if the wheel landed on their chosen color, they won!

Pin the Tail on Rex the Dinosaur.

Matt's artwork.

Take a picture as Woody the Cowboy and Jessie the Cowgirl. Adults and children alike enjoyed this!

Jessie the Cowgirl Lasso Toss.

Just like a ring toss with a great name!

Slinky Dog Plinko! We had discs to slide down the board. Land two in the same slot and you win!

The sign.

Bullseye Bean Bag Toss.

Sign.

Buzz Lightyear Balloon Darts.

Sign.

Ticket Boxes.

Woody the Cowboy Ball Toss.

Treats! Jaelyn requested chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I also made chocolate covered marshmallows.

Popcorn and Cotton Candy.

Jae with her Snow Cone!

Cake time!

Pinning the Tail on Rex the Dinosaur!

She did a great job!

I have to mention that Jaelyn dressed herself in this picture. :)

Matt and I as Jessie and Woody. It was such a fun party and I can't wait until the next one!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Jaelyn's birthday all weekend long!

And I can't believe my princess is FOUR!

Xoxo,

Tanna

Childhood Recipe: Hamburger Cookies

As an elementary school student, I always looked forward to birthday parties in the classroom, especially mine. I loved to see what other mom's would bring in honor of my fellow classmate's birthday. My mom's ideas were nothing short of creative. One of my most favorite recipe that she made was Hamburger Cookies.

(Source)

I wanted to share the recipe today because its such a fun and creative idea, especially if you have little darlings that love cookies like mine do!

1 box of Nilla Wafers

1 box of Keebler Grasshopper Mint Cookies

Shredded Coconut

Green Food Coloring

Red Frosting

Yellow Frosting

Sesame Seeds

Water

Take 2 Nilla Wafers. Using one of the frostings, place a small dab on the inside of one of the Nilla Wafers and place a mint cookie on the bottom of the Nilla Wafer. You now have your bun and hamburger patty! :) Top with red frosting (for ketchup), yellow frosting (for mustard) and green colored coconut (for lettuce). Place the other Nilla Wafer, bottom down, on the top to form your hamburger! Using your finger tip, spread a dab of water on top of the hamburger just to get it moist and sprinkle with sesame seeds. And there you have a yummy, sweet hamburger treat!

Enjoy!

Xoxo,

Tanna

Crafty!

First of all, I am so thankful that my Grandma taught me how to sew, craft, and everything else. I definitely recieved her "creative gene" when I was born. When I was a little girl, my grandma would use all the patience in the world to try and teach me everything she knew about sewing, quilting, baking, cooking, knitting, cross-stitching, and any other craft you can think of. Being a little girl, with not-so-much patience, I usually just gave up on what she was trying to teach me, because I was so frustrated, and moved onto whatever else I thought sounded cool to learn and wanted her to teach me.

Now that I am getting older, I love every opportunity that I have to sew something together, knit, paint, and just create. I have definitely found a new appreciation for my Grandma and how she would use hours upon hours of teaching me all of her skills. I also believe that my Grandma is my biggest fan. Anytime I come up with something that I have made, I immediately call her because I know she'll be proud of me. I love that I can get direction from her over the phone, when she is five hours away. I love that she is my inspiration with almost every craft I do. I can only wish that I am as crafty as her some day. I can only hope that I can put together the most beautiful quilts ever. And I can only hope that I am as kind as her someday to try and teach my little girls exactly what she has taught me. Thanks, Grandma, for your patience, love, kindness, and crafty gene. :)

With that being said, I am putting my own skills to work! I have been knitting hats for Chaseton in my free time. So far, this is what I have come up with.

An orange hat, brown teddy bear hat, multi-colored green hat, and a soft, blue hat with speckles of white.

Even though it will be summer, I still wanted to make sure that Chaseton would have something to cover his fresh, newborn head. I've had a lot of fun making these hats! I've even ordered a few appliques to attach to them, in the shapes of footballs, letters, and shapes. I cannot wait to see what he thinks about them!

I find that I am more motivated if I set goals for myself. As a mom, it is sometimes hard to achieve those goals because I am easily distracted in doing something for my girls rather than myself, which is perfectly fine with me. The goal that I have set this time is to make atleast 10 hats to donate to the hospital/NICU in Chaseton's name, when he is born. I believe families will be touched by the gift of a hand knitted hat, rather than a typical hospital one. I cannot wait to share my craftiness with other babies! Here I go!

Xoxo,

Tanna

Crafting for Chaseton: Hats, Blankets, & Sneek-Peeks

I've been sewing and crafting up a storm for my new little man! Last time I posted "Crafting for Chaseton", I had just finished making up burp cloths that you can see here. I recently made Chaseton a recieving blanket with adorable little turtles on it and a matching green baby hat with different colors of green. They were so simple to make and turned out so cute!

I have a lot of things that I am in the process of making or am planning to make or sew. It will save us quite a bit of money and add some character to his things as well. I am really excited to get started on my list and get them finished!

Here are a few sneek-peeks of the items I have started on for Chaseton but haven't quite finished yet:

Shadow Boxes.

As most of you know, Matt has always had a passion for sports. He had saved most of his High School sports gear so I decided to put it together in a special way to uniquely decorate Chaseton's room.

Basketball: An article from the newspaper, sweat band, and picture.

Football: Chin Strap, Glove, Mouth Guard, Picture.

I think they turned out great and will always be a special piece in Chaseton's room!

(There is also a baseball one that I haven't finished quite yet.)

Sleepers.

After two babies, I finally came to the realization that these things are awesome when you're changing diapers in the middle of the night-or anytime. Not to mention, they look so cozy!

I decided to personalize them a bit. I can't wait to share how they turn out!

Chaseton's Room.

We've been working hard on his nursery. We decided to go with a beige wall with a white and red stripe. It turned out great! I am so thankful for a crafty husband! We still have quite a bit to decorate but we have made a lot a of progress. His crib and changing table are even up! More to come!

I hope this makes those that can't be here to help us prepare feel a little bit involved. We have so many fun projects coming up that I can't wait to share about so stay tuned!

(I apologize about the quality of my pictures. They are all taken from my phone so they might not be as clear as normal.)

Xoxo,

Tanna