Handmade Princess Pillow

LOOK! I made that pillow!! I am so proud. I am definitely NOT an exprienced seamstress, but I had bought some princess fabric a while back to make Hailey something and hadn't used it yet. I saw a castle sencil at Micheal's and thought... that would be really cute on a throw pillow. First, I stenciled the castle onto freezer paper. Then I cut out each little peice.Next, I ironed the freezer paper onto the fabric, then I used spray paint to paint the fabric purple. Then, I let the paint dry and removed the freezer paper. Look how cute the castle looks!! I love it and so does Hailey! Then I just sewed the pillow, stuffed and closed it.

DONE!

Here is the back of the pillow in the princess fabric:

And a side shot:

This was a really simple, cheap, easy, and cute project! I can't wait to make more pillows for our living room!

Ready to Nap

I just had to document this day in history. Today, at 10 AM, Hailey asks to eat lunch and take a nap. WOW! She never wants to take a nap, and today, 2 hours early, she is asking for it! She must have been exhasted. And, yes, I let her eat lunch at at 10AM and nap. What mother wouldn't? That is all.

Making Cookies....

My great aunt and uncle gave me this Cookie Factory for Christmas in 1993. My mom just found it buried away and gave it to me. So, Hailey and I decided to try it.

Luckily, we had Nestle Sugar Cookie dough on hand!! :)

The Cookie Factory comes with a "normal" flat cookie pan and cookie molds. Hailey wanted to make animal cookies. The molded pans are so much easier and faster than rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters. You just press the dough onto the mold.

Then you put the pan in the Cookie Factory. It only takes about 6 minutes and the cookies are baked perfectly!!

We made some heart cookies and then Hailey decorated them (with an INSANE amount of sprinkles...).

They my not look very cute, but they sure tasted good!

An Interview

..... with my four year old daughter. I saw someone else do this interview about money with thier child and thought it would be funny to see what Hailey's answers were.

1. How old are you?
four

2. Do you like money?
yes

3. What do you like about money?
i can buy a house

4. How much money do you have?
eleven

5. How much money does mom and dad have?
not a lot

6. How much money is there in the world?
a whole bunch

7. How do you get money?
i find it

8. What is a bank?
somewhere that you put it in the bank and get a house

9. If you had $100 dollars what would you do with it?
put in the bank and then buy a house at home depot or something like that

10. How much money would you like?
fifteen dollars

Let me explain some of her answers....

As you probably noticed she mentioned buying a house several times. Mike and I have been talking to her about how important it is to save money instead of spending it all. He has been explaining to her that he saved most of his money when he was younger, and was able to buy our house because of how much he had saved. He also explained to her that if she saves her money, she can buy her own house when she gets older. So, for now at least, this is her plan: save her money to buy a house.

The other thing she mentioned that needs some background explanation is home depot. We have just finished turning part of our basement into a room (thanks PawPaw), and we got all the supplies at Home Depot. So... therefore, to buy a house you buy the materials at Home Depot. She is one smart cookie! :)

Oh, and I loved her answer to number five! She was dead on! :)

I will try and post interviews with Hailey again. I love hearing her answers!

First Snow of 2010

Today marked the first snowfall for us of 2010. The forecast predicted we would get around 2 to 4 inches of snow early morning last night. However, at 7:00 AM there was still no snow in sight. Hailey learned at school on Wednesday that wearing her jammies inside out would make the snow come. So, she was very diappointed that there was no white stuff on the ground. Later in the morning, the snow finally decided to show up. It wasn't enough snow to cover the grass, but there was a pretty good coating on the driveway. So, this afternoon Hailey and I bundled
up and battled the cold to have a little fun in the half inch of snow we got. She had SO much fun making snow angels and making a "snow castle" (a small pile of snow).

Making snow angels was by far her favorite thing to do! Last year, she was too afraid of the cold snow to make them so I was excited that she like making them this year! The picture above is Hailey making a snow angel next to the one I made.

Note in the picture below that Hailey is wearing goggles!!!! When we were getting ready to go outside Haileygoes and gets her goggles. She tells me she needs her goggles so that the snow doesn't get in her eyes. She is such a silly girl....

Here she is trying to throw a snow ball at me. Unfortunately (for her, good for me) the snow was too powdery to make any good snow balls.

Here's to more snow this winter!

Happy Birthday Hailey

Happy Birthday Sweet Princess! Today is the day you turned FOUR! I can hardly believe it has been four years since you were born!

Here are a few things we know about you:

1) You are a girl of MANY words and always have an opinion.

2) You love school, and always ask when you get to go again!

3) You don't have a favorite color. When asked, you list the colors of the rainbow.

4) You have an incredible imagination.

5) You are VERY stubborn. I hope that will serve you well in the long run!

6) Your favorite toys are Barbies, my littlest pet shop, and anything imaginary. :)

7) You make the BEST facial expressions. You have a face for every situation.

8) You have a great memory!

9) You do not like chocolate, but you do like peanut butter cups!

10) You can dress yourself. Sometimes your clothes may be inside out or backwards, but that ok because YOU did it by yourself!

Hailey picked a princess theme for this years party. Here is her cake (which I am proud to say I made)!

Here are some decorations for her party. We decided to have a family only party this year, and invite her freinds in future years.

Here is a close up of the table.

The birthday girl herself!!

The inside of her cake: TIE-DYE. She requested it! It turned out really neat!

Opening presents was so much fun! Thanks to everyone who came!!

Here she is riding her new bike that Mike and I got her! I can't believe she is big enough to have a bike already. How the time flies!

Happy Birthday Hailey! Mommy and Daddy LOVE YOU!

A Charlie Brown ICE Christmas

My wonderful Papa invited us to go to ICE! Mike, Hailey, and I were able to go, along with my mom and brother. This year the theme was A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles Shultz. Most everything you see in the pictures (except us of course) is made from ICE! It truely is amazing how much detail is put into each and everything. I can only imagine the time it must take to make each item....

Anyway, it was absolutely FREEZING in the the exhibit (to keep the ice from melting) so they give you special blue coats to keep you warm. However, they do NOT provide socks or gloves.... Hailey refused to wear socks, and Mike forgot his gloves, making them BOTH miserable about half way through....

Here is a picture of my family at the beginning of the experience:


One cool thing about the exhibit is the ice slides. The picture below is a picture of me going down the "kiddie" slide. There was a "big person" slide about twice the size of this one, but we didn't want to wait in the long line.

Below just might be next years Christmas card (oh wait... Hailey wouldn't cooperate and get in the picture... so never mind). But I do think it is a pretty cool picture.

Below is a picture of my wonderful mother, brother, and grandfather (Papa/G-pop).

Clayton had fun at the exhibit too!

In the very last room is a nativity made completely out of ICE!! It is a great way to end a fantastic exhibit and to remind you the reason for the season!

As I mentioned earlier, Hailey's feet and Mike's hands were freezing. So, after we left, we went straight to the car heater to warm them up!!! (Please ignore the insane amount of junk in the car!)