Friday, August 31, 2012

Just a Quick Hello

Hello all :)  Just a quick hello- that remind me of one of my favorite FRIENDS quotes- "P as in Phoebe, H as in Hebe, O as in oebe, E as in ebe, B as in bebe, and E as in Ello there mate!" =D Annnyways- i just have  a NOTD today cuz it's not the right lighting to photograph the little hat i made for missy, and now that all my kiddos are finally asleep- yes it's 10:30pm- i can do a chapter of homework.  I've been doing a chapter a night to hurry and get this class done in my efforts to graduate by spring!

So- here we are- it's Friday Fun Day again and that means Bear's choice and here's what he came up with.

The main things he wanted to be in this "artwork" were a sun- he picked out from a stamping plate, and then a ground and sky.  First I free-handed the sky color which is Sinful Colors Love Nails and then free handed the moons that make up the ground in Sinful Colors Happy Ending.  I stamped the sun in Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold, but the image was flawed and would only stamp the swirl in the center, so i just freehanded the outer rays.  Slapped on a top coat and there you have it.

Starting tomorrow I'm going to be doing a 30 day nail challenge which has me doing manis with a daily theme.  I'll show ya tomorrow :)  First theme is RED

Over and Out

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Miss Bee Repurposes Some Furniture

Hey Ya'll!  How's the weather out there? It's still mighty warm here :) But I'm enjoying summer while it lingers. 
 
NOTD
I was excited to use some new polish that came in my Julep Maven Box today- These colors are Brandt which is the off-black creme and Sophie which is described by Julep as a "chic truffle mushroom creme."  To achieve this look I applied base coat, then Brandt first on thumb and accent finger-one coater- and Sophie on all the rest.  Then using the alternate color i just freehanded a stripe down the middle of the nail with the polish brush.  Then I took a striping brush and took the original base color and striped in the very center of the nail.  Lastly I finished up with some top coat.  Very fun and Sophie-sticate ;)
 
 
 
So! Missy Bee had quite an adventurous day:  Lots of big girl high chair time for snacks and dinner.  "What a big smile you have mom. It couldn't be because of this piece of cereal hanging from my chin for the past 10 minutes?
 
If this picture doesn't say daddy's twin, I don't know what does!!
 
 
 
Tryin hard to get the last little pieces of snack into her mouth.  I love this age!!  And what a disposition- she is so content to work so long and hard at it :)
 
So, after dinner she set about repurposing her furniture.  She was quite a happy girl to be able to explore the under side of her favorite little play chair. 
 
She lay kickin around on her tummy in this thing for quite some time while mommy worked on her Christmas stocking
 
"mom, where's my prize for gettin all the way in here by myself?"
 
 
 
"So that's what's holdin me up!"
 
 
 
Ok, then she made her way around the room a bit more and i pushed her bumpo closer to me, and sure enough she was crawlin on it, then up on hands and feet, and then ta-da daddy!
 
 
 
 
 
Then she thought she'd be really brave having just got herself to her feet outide of her crib for a while and she thought she'd tackle the very interesing ogre on mommy's bed.  This is one of the few pics i have just Bee and Bug.  She was climbin all over him and for once he was allowing it!  Priceless!  Have to give a shout-out to my dude Bear who ran me the camera so fast so that I could catch this special moment <3


Hope you all have a fabulous friday!

Over and Out


 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Social Stories

 Today I worked on some social stories for little Bug to help him with mastering a few skills.  For those of you that don't know, a social story is a story you can read with your youngster that gives a walkthrough of behavior and actions in a situation to help your kiddo become more familiar with expectations and also to boost confidence as they see how they are learning an expected behavior.  They are very helpful for children on the spectrum, but they are good for any learning situation with your young child.  Some stories I have done with Mr. Bug in the past have been potty time and bed time.  They can be very detailed and with our little man, it seems to work best that way.  Some things we're working on right now is having him be more responsible of his morning routine, and having an easier time going to church.  Here are how they turned out:
 
 
 Today we will go to church:  I will read this with Bug every Sunday probably about an hour before church to help him mentally prepare for the fact that on this day he is expected to behave a certain way.  Big pictures for each sentence help him manage the list of things he will tackle in this skill.
 
 Here are a few more pages in his story.  The nice thing about making your own stories is that they are tailor made for your child. It's not someone else's cookie-cutter expectations.  You know what your child needs better than anyone else :)
 
 I make sure to give a happy goal in sight for the end of the task so that he has something to look forward to.  This was the most recent picture I had of him eating something lol, but if I want to change the end of the story I always can (ex. At the end we will come home and Mom and I can do a puzzle).  With Bug, for the time being, I won't know if he understands what each page means, but the more we read the story and he follows along, the clearer the expectations are and the less frustration there is in his life which is huge!
 
 
This is Today is a School Day:  This first page signifies that it's not a weekend, so he knows when he wakes up and I read this to him in bed, that he has tasks in front of him and he can expect to get on the bus and go to school after a short period of time.  Here are a few of his tasks. 
 
 Social stories are not necessarily to change the behavior of the child.  For example, Bug has no problem getting on the bus- he loves getting on the bus!  It just helps him to know what's coming up next and what the expectations are.
 
Last but not least, his item to look forward to.  Really, school is what he looks forward to, but he knows that his school day comes to an end, and the next time he sees me, and perhaps his next social story, will be when he comes home from school- so that's where I leave it.  Now to make this more enticing for him, I could say "when I get home I will be able to pay on my Ipad" but Bug has no problem with going to school right now so I can leave it with just getting to see mom ;) which obviously is not as great as the Ipad, but why list the greater reward if it's not needing at the time being eh?   Of course I laminated each page and I will probably hole punch each as well and put them all together with a ring so that they stay in the order I want.   Have questions about social stories and how they could help you and your child communicate?  Ask away :)
 
 
 
 
Course I couldn't resist posting what missy Bee looked like tonight at bedtime when she was supposed to be going to sleep! That trixy minx!
 
 
 
NOTD 
 I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White as a base, and then I cut out the pattern for my tips from my tape, and put it over the white.  Then I used Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro and painted over the whole nail-one coat, immediately pulled off the tape toward freshly-painted color, and there you have it :)

Over and Out

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

After Party

So, that title not only denotes the polish my nails are rockin' today, but also most definitely the mood this week has taken on.  All the partyin' is finally over and certain young people are figuring out that it's time to put their noses to the grind stone so to speak.  Mom, did I complain about school this much when I was a kid? and if I did, how did you handle it?  Boy oh boy I know it's just the big change from summertime, but really kiddo- there are worse things in life than going to school!  Fast-forward to bedtime when his story was concerned with a certain child being granted a magic pencil and whatever he wrote came true as long as it was for the good of others and not himself.  Then the child proceeded to solve all the "real" problems that exist in the world for little boys and girls.  At least at night time when I have him in bed and things are winding down(his mind isn't going 100 miles a minute and posing a question/excuse for everything I tell him) and I can teach him some important lessons as long as they are in the form of an entertaining story :)  In other news, tonight Bear and I decided that we're going to be roommates forever ;)

 
 
 
Here's After Party by Revlon
 
So from the bottle I thought this color was going to be more blue- but it totally looks more like an army green to me on the nail.  This is just two coats of After Party with a top coat.  On the accent nail I just dotted with a matte polish which is a super easy way to have a fun texture on your nail with very minimal hassle involving dry time or planning :)  Try it; you'll like it. (any of you hear yo gabba gabba in your head when you read that sentence? =p)



On another note- Nicole from http://www.wonkywonderful.com/ always has the yummiest treats and tonight she inspired me to whip up something cold and delicious of my own. 

 
This took 5 ingredients:
1 c. blueberries
2 c. milk
2 c. ice cubes
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
 
Put all ingredients in  your blender and turn it on-voila, cool-down summer treat. This makes A LOT so have 4-5 mouths to feed if you're going to use that much milk ;) I usually make this with the traditional flavors of an Orange Julius, but these delicious fresh blueberries were begging to take a swim.  What variations have you tried?
 



Shout out to my awesome brother in Argentina right now serving a church mission.  I miss you and keep smilin' hermano!!  xoxo


Over and Out

Monday, August 27, 2012

I've Got the Blues

Today I have a variety of blues swatched.  The first is Julep Melanie which is from their metallic collection and metallics always show every flaw more than any other polish for me, but this was still very pretty.  Note- my poor little third finger on both hands always rips and is never able to grow out to match its buddies :(  That must be my most-used finger lol



This next blue is from Maybelline's Color Show collection and it is one of the denims called Denim Dash.  I have yet to meet a polish from the Color Show collection that I do not like.  This particular polish dries matte! Love! and like most mattes dries very fast.  This was a one-coater which is great since this is a smaller bottle compared to your OPI.


Marine Scene by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear turned out much more teal than I thought it would, but- still in the blue family, sorta :)  This polish had a great finish as the xtreme wear's tend to have.  Me likey very much <3.


This is Color Club Chelsea Girl again, making a reappearance in my blue swatching.  This is three coats and still not quite opaque.  I'll be interested to see if more of their polishes have this issue.  Maybe it's cuz it's a jelly not a creme and I need to allow for that.

Which blue would you love to rock on your nails this week?



Miss Bee was such a big girl this week sitting in her high chair for the first time!  Look how happy she is in her achievement!


Hi sweet girly


Love how little her body looks in this big 'ol chair.

Look who realizes that his old high chair is out.  He totally decided this was where he needed to have a little snack all on his own :)  It was like an old friend came to visit.

Have a great week all!

Over and Out

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Bear's Baptism

I thought I was going to evade the terribly yucky flu flyin through our household, but it finally found me last night so I've been trying to rest up today and not give it to baby daughter.  But I had to post these special pics tonight.  As promised (mom) lots and lots of baptism pics :)  For those of you who don't know, my folks are serving a mission in Laredo, TX and couldn't be with us for Bear's baptism.  We missed you grandma and grandpa!!


Before the baptism




Tim was able to do the honors.

The boys and their dad


Afterwards in his new church clothes.


Sweetie brothers


Happy Boy.  He was sure gettin tired of posing for pictures, but trying to be a good sport.


Little Bee.  Showing off her teeth too :)


Happy Mommy!


Huh??


Huh?? x2


Bear and his Dad.


Thank you G and G Peterson for coming all the way out for the baptism!


Missy loves her brother soooo much!  What a sweet pair.


After the baptism we went and let the little dude play the day away at John's Incredible Pizza.


Concentrating hard, but to no avail.

And more playin


This is what Bug did most of the time.

Bear's favorite ride there- a 3D movie that also moved you around on these seats.  Can you tell which person is tired of riding this ride?


NOTD
 This is Wet n' Wild Megalast 2% Milk as a base coat which was crazy frustrating to deal with- big awkward brush and kinda gloopy polish.  Then I used tape to stripe on China Glaze Mahogany- which was really not my favorite color.  Lastly I free-handed Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear in Pacific Blue which ended up being the pearl of this mani.

Over and Out