I Dig You! Valentines

We got Brian's school Valentines put together early this year because we will be getting home from Hawaii at about 2am on V-day. And he probably won't be going to school tired and jet-lagged that day, so we made these up early to bring in before our trip. I fell in love with this idea I saw on pinterest and Brian thought it was cool too, so at the end of summer, I found some clearance sand shovels in the outdoor toys section at Target and bought 'em up. Brian chose Hershey's kisses and York Peppermint Patties (his favs) to fill them. I found the cute little heart bags at the dollar spot in Target. I ordered the customized stickers from Sarah+Abraham. I love how they turned out, so fun and cute!

(Click here to see last year's school Valentines)

Getting Organized: Hair Pretties

As soon as I knew I was having a girl, the influx of hair pretties began. I made a bunch, bought a bunch, was given a bunch. They started taking over her dresser drawer. I had them all piled together in a big heap. They were everywhere. Except on her head, because even at 21 months old, she will only wear them for 5 seconds before she pulls them off to play with them. But one day, hopefully soon, she will wear them and I'd like to be able to see what we've got. I asked my older sister who has a daughter how she stores hair pretties and she said to buy a hanging jewelry organizer. So, that's what I did. I went to Target and found this one for $8 in the closet organization section. It has 2 sides, one side is already full. The little pockets are not see-through, but opaque enough that I can see what is in them. And the best part is that I can hang it in her closet right next to her clothes and one day when she will wear them, I can see immmediately what matches. Super easy, cheap organization, yay!

A New Quilt for Emily

I saw this beautiful quilt on pinterest a while back and I got curious how it was made. I linked over from pinterest to the blog tutorial and was immediately excited by the idea of making my own chenille. It's easy but takes forever. You basically have to sew straight lines on the bias, every 1/2 inch over the entire quilt. And then using a special chenille cutter, cut through 3 layers of flannel. Once the quilt was finished, I threw it in the wash, dried it, and it came out so softy and fluffy. I love it and it's a perfect new crib quilt for Emily. I also made a matching little baby doll quilt with leftover fabric.

Ten Years Ago Today

Today is our 10 year anniversary. I can't believe it has been 10 years already! Where has the time gone? We are officially grown-ups in our 30s, raising a couple of little people. When we got married, I never really thought very much of what our life might be like after 10 years, so I don't know if I would imagine it like this. But I am very happy with our life together now. I love the Air Force life and all the friends we've made along the way. We have loving families on both sides. We've gotten to live in Europe and Asia and travel, go places, see things, and eat things I never dreamt of 10 years ago. And our greatest accomplishment has been our two beautiful, crazy kids. Steve does for a living what he has always dreamed of and I get to stay home to raise our kids the way we want them raised. We are definitely lucky and blessed after 10 years. My grandparents just celebrated 68 years of marriage, and they are still madly in love, so here is to hoping that Steve and I get 58 more years together of complete wedded insanity/bliss.

Getting Organized: Gift Wrap

This year around Christmas, I realized how poorly organized my gift wrapping supplies were and how I had way too many gift bags, some of which were not in great, reusable shape. And since I've been on an organizational binge due to our upcoming move and my discovery of this website: i heart organizing, I decided it was time to do something. I was inspired by this picture on pinterest and even found the organizer pictured on Amazon. I considered that organizer but wanted something that would take full advantage of the entire back of the door on our storage area under the stairs. I have always heard wonderful things about the Elfa collection at the Container Store and they just happened to be on sale, yippee!

Here is how my wrapping stuff looked before. Shoved under the bed in Emily's room or in her closet, not ideal locations now that she is getting bigger and needing more of her bedroom space for herself and her stuff. Plus that dumb wrapping paper roll holder is too short for many of my rolls and so the lid would just sit akwardly on top. The under-the-bed storage container was all wonky from our last move and the lid wouldn't fit right, plus it was overflowing with way too many bags.
I decided I needed to purge, purge, and purge some more until I could fit all of my supplies on this over-the-door elfa rack. This rack worked perfectly for us since we are a military family and we move alot, we need something that does not get drilled into walls/doors and can go with us when we move. This organizer would also be great for a pantry or bathroom or laundry room or garage, so we will always be able to use it for something. Or at least that is how I justified the cost because Elfa is not cheap, even on sale.
Here is what I needed to purchase to create this storage:
77-3/4in Mounted Standard
Set of Two Residential Overdoor Hooks
3 Deep Baskets
1 Shallow Basket
1 Media Rack

Here is a link to all of the overdoor Elfa components

A deep basket holds about 15 paper rolls (with room for more) and the media rack holds them in place
A shallow basket on top fits all of my curling ribbons

Another deep basket holds my gift tags and stickers, a handful of gift boxes, wrapping tissue, and some more ribbon

And yet another deep basket holds all the gift bags I kept. I purged and tossed anything ripped, torn, old looking or just plain ugly. I made sure to keep a handful in each category: holiday, baby, wedding, birthdays, etc. I probably still have 40 or so bags and they all fit in this rack.

So, now all my gift wrap is in one convenient space on a door that was doing nothing to help me organize before. It kinda just stood there doing nothing. But Elfa and I put this door to work and we didn't even need to drill one hole! The whole set up of the rack took literally 3 minutes and sorting and organizing took about an hour total.

Our California Adventure

Teenage Grandma Bunny

My Grandma Bunny took a nasty fall on Christmas Day and wound up in intensive care with a broken bone in her neck. We were already waffling on plans to head out to CA for a few days between Christmas and New Years, and her accident sort of made up my mind, we had to go see her. She has since had two major surgeries and is still in the ICU and is having her share of issues but is hanging in there. The kids and I made the 6-hour drive each way with no problems. They were like little passenger angels. Happy to watch DVDs and take long naps. I got to visit my Grandma in the hospital and see my other Grandma too, see my cousin Kevin who was in town from CO, and also take a peek at Laura and Allan's new house. Aunt Julie and cousin Grace were visiting too, so we took a day to do Disneyland with them and my Mom, while Aunt Laura had Emy for the day.

Brian's all-time favorite Disney ride: the Matterhorn

Christmas Day

We spent a nice, quiet day at our own home. Here is the morning toy spread.
The kids slept until 930!! I had to wake them both, but not before I got some coffee for myself. Brian slept on our floor that night to prevent him from bypassing our room in a fit of excitement to spend the first few precious moments of Christmas Day all by himself examining the spoils. That may have happened last year.

Emy got a fridge full of play food to go with her play kitchen.

Brian got his much-talked-about "Polar Express" Geotrax set.

Num, fake naners.

Then, just when they thought the toy glutany was over, a parent spied something brightly colored and inflatable in the back yard. Alas, a bouncy house!

Potential naptime location?

December Catch-up

I never posted any pictures from late December, so here is my attempt to get caught up. I've been busy. Since Christmas Day, I've sewn 8 purses, 2 quilts, managed a trip with just me and the kids for 5 days to CA, put away all the holiday decor, organized a few parts of the house, cooked, cleaned, etc, etc. I never sleep. Or at least it feels that way.

December was great. We didn't go anywhere for Christmas. Steve's parents and sister came to visit us to spare us toddler airplane fun. Forget "Snakes on a Plane," they need to make a movie about toddlers on a plane, it's much scarier. Anyways, the Hurt's were here until Christmas Eve day and then we spent the Day itself as a small family, without the stress of traveling. It was nice. While we had our visitors, we took a one-night trip up to Flagstaff, stayed at Fort Tuthill and took the Polar Express Train out of Williams, AZ to the North Pole to meet Santa for the third (and last) time. Some of our favorite peeps, the McCarty's came with us. The kiddos (Brian, Emily, Jake and Alani) wore matching jammies and got all sugared up with cookies and hot chocolate and sang Christmas carols and read the Polar Express book and got a bell from Santa. Brian just loves this adventure every year and we will miss it. Maybe in {insert new assignment here}, they will have something similar?

The next day we drove up to the Grand Canyon to look over the side. It's still there. Still really deep. I always think it looks fake. After we were back home, Steve took us all to base for a quick tour. His sister, Amanda, and I got to take a ride in the simulator. It was fun and I got a kill with a missile but it makes you soooooo airsick and dizzy. Especially when the computer locks up and sends your jet into a spin.

You can't tell from this picture but it was snowing soooooo hard as we were driving from Flagstaff to Williams to catch the train.

She was like this the whole ride pretty much. Tired. Didn't want to be held. This is the sequel to Toddlers on a Plane, Toddlers on a Train. We'll let it slide, she's usually super cute.

I'll let you give me this bell, but then you are going to back away with your hands in full view and leave immediately. I might look sweet but I've been put in the same category as snakes on a plane in the past.

We all kept a tight grip on this wild little one

Our family/friends, the McCarty's invited us to crash their Christmas Eve family party!

Cleared of all charges....

Well, almost all charges. She is still completely guilty of regularly stealing food and hearts. But she has been cleared of any suspicion that she might have Celiac's Disease! Yay, no special cupcakes for this little one. And she hasn't been sick since her last bout of illness around Thanksgiving. So, maybe it was just a series of really bad viruses? We have also not given her any chocolate since she was sick because Steve could not have chocolate as a child. She sees her Pediatrician next week for a weight check (which she should pass since she's gained about 1.5 pounds in the last 2 months) and we will discuss food allergy testing then. But her endoscopy and intestinal biopsy showed no diagnosis and her Gastroenterologist has cleared her!

It's always something though. She is fighting off a double ear infection right now, for which she just finished her second round of antibiotics today. Hopefully, she will be given the all clear when she sees the doctor next week. Who she hates. Loathes him. Like screames bloody murder and it takes us both to hold her down so he can look in her ears. She got a toy with some doctor equipment for Christmas and she was terrified of it for weeks. If she saw it, she would whine and run to the other side of the room until it was hidden again. Brian especially enjoyed pretend giving her a shot and listening to her scream!

She is 21 months old yesterday and is just the cutest little thing. My favorite is when she asks for something and we give it to her, she now says "thank you!" very clearly and very fast. And she's big time into cuddles and kisses right now, love it. I'm starting to see glimpses of what it will be like to not have a tiny little one in the house since they are both growing so fast and we can actually have a conversation with Emily now. Sad. Please slow down babies! I'm begging you!

10 Exciting Things for 2012!

We've had a great 2011, but 2012 is going to be awesome! Here are some things the Hurt Family is excited about in 2012!

1. 10 years! That's a decade! In exactly 2 weeks, Steve and I celebrate 10 years of marriage. Wonderful, perfect, wedded bliss, every single day for an entire decade with no exceptions. Well, maybe a few exceptions but mostly bliss with a little bit of chaos, some sarcasm and a touch of annoyance. We were talking about it this morning and decided that 10 years of marriage officially makes us old! We'll be celebrating with dinner at the early bird buffet followed by a game of bingo! Actually not sure what we will be doing that day, probably not much since it's a night flying week. Steve will be flying and I'll be wiping sticky hands and reading goodnight moon 3 times in a row.

2. Our little man turns 5! At the end of this month, Brian turns the big 5. That's half a decade! How did this happen? He was just a tiny little baby and now he's running around all crazy, telling us all kinds of fancy new things like "hey, Mom, did you know that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States!?" Say what, how the heck do you know this stuff? He's so smart and sweet and he can't wait to celebrate his big day by bringing cupcakes to school and of course enjoying cake and presents at home too.

3. Hawaii! We are heading to the Big Island for 10 wonderful days in February! We are planning on spending lots of time on the beach and at the pool, going on a snorkeling trip and maybe driving to see the volcano. The kids and my parents are coming too so it will be family fun (though not fun during the airplane ride because Emily has not learned to appreciate flying yet). But hopefully she loves sand and warm water!

4. The sweetest old lady I know turns 90 in March!! My Grandma Mires will be 90 years old this year and we will be heading to CA during Brian's spring break to celebrate this milestone with her and our family.

5. Showering the bride. Also in March I will be helping to host a bridal shower for my little sister!!

6. Our baby girl turns 2 on April! This is sad, she will no longer be a baby. I think technically they aren't babies after 1 but you can get away with calling them babies anyways. But once they turn two, they for sure aren't babies anymore. They start speaking in sentences and having massive tantrums, no more sweet little sleepy babyness! And although I miss tiny baby Emy, she is so fun and entertaining now. Just earlier today I gave her a piece of string cheese and she grabbed it and yelled "thank you!" And she has these little looks she gives that melt you, especially her Daddy who will give her anything she wants when she breaks out the puppy dog eyes.

7. Wedding bells will be ringing in Vegas for my sister and her fiancee, Allan, at the end of April. I can't wait to see sin city again and have a fun filled wedding weekend. We are taking bets now on whether Emily will throw the flower petals on the aisle or eat them.

8. Brian graduates! Preschool, that is! There is nothing cuter than preschoolers performing a cute little song and dance. I'm excited for his pictures with a tiny cap and gown, so cute!

9. We move, maybe? We anticipate moving sometime this year (hopefully summer or later). We have no idea where or when we will know where or when. Steve has several balls in the air right now as far as job opportunities in the Air Force. He's put his name in the hat for a few specific jobs and is also an alternate for ACSC school. If none of that works out, then he will be competing for an assignment in the fall. So, just waiting now for something to line up. Although if we just stayed here in AZ forever, you would never hear me complain (except maybe in July/August on a 120-degree day).

10. Brian starts kindergarten. He is very excited about this step in becoming a big boy. He thinks all kindergarteners get to ride the bus to school and he's excited that he won't have to nap anymore but is disapointed he'll have to go to bed earlier at night. He also has no clue what homework is, so I think it's going to be both a fun and an interesting transition for him.