14 Days!

And so it begins! Fourteen days of Valentines surprises for the boys in their mailboxes when they wake up each morning!

Earlier this week I finished these fun little boxes and they personalized themselves :)

I'd say they've been enjoying them :)

Ryder's is a new home for his favorite, favorite thing- his "black guy" :)

And Cooper's is a new treasure box :)

I might have to search for the boxes just to be able to put surprises in them at all!

The huge majority of the surprises I'll put in

are things I'll make on the fly :)

Here's a few:

Jumpy Frogs from Jellyfish Jelly

Love Rocks from Red Bird Crafts

Hidden Messages from BHG, as pinned HERE

Valentines Bingo Game from Simply Fresh Designs

Anyhow, I'll stop there, but will hopefully post some updates

about their favorites over the next two weeks :)

Also going to be doing a version of THIS idea for Stephen :)

Love this season!

It is January, Right?

The puddles that were in our driveway last week make me have to wonder!

We did get some snow after this,

but looks like rain will turn it into mud and puddles again tomorrow...

looks like they aren't complaining anyway, eh? :)

Kids Art Heart Garland

say that a few times fast, eh? :)

When I went to decorate my mantle for Valentines, I saw a pile of Cooper's pictures, destined for the trash (because if I saved all of his pictures as keepsakes, they'd already need their own room)... I decided I'd try clipping them up and creating a cute heart garland! He loved helping me with it!

In order to get four hearts out of each sheet, I folded the page into quarters like above, then drew half hearts and clipped! And, of course, I would have drawn incorrectly on the paper I grabbed to snap a pic of... nice! Make sure your half hearts are facing the seam... :} :) Then I punched small holes in both side of each and strung them all together.

And took pics of him being super silly in the process! I thought it turned out pretty cute on the mantle...

I know it's pretty busy and not super polished looking, but all those pics sure say a lot about love and our family... Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds, Grammie and Papa, some of my favorite pics of the boys when they were all littler...

And these fun love blocks I whipped up... I love the look of painting two colors on top of each other and then sanding and haven't done it in a long time!

Anyhow, if you have some extra kids art lying around,

it's actually Valentine decor just waiting to be made! ;)

Simple Moments

Just a few pics of everyday moments...

pics I might skip over posting in favor of others that all go together,

but thought they needed to be added to

the story of our life :)

 3D glasses make sweet shades

Morning cartoons with a guy in each hand...

that black guy makes everything better :)

Love how neither of them are looking at the camera, but instead at the computer movie...

Tragic, really, as there are so few pics of me with them!

This was the night Daddy was gone on a campout with Taron,

so we built our own huge fort in the living room to camp out in ourselves!

The adult leopard gecko has since been traded for a smaller, albino version...

which, also, seems to make everything better :)

Printable Animal Valentines Cards

 

Sometime between Christmas and New Years, Cooper asked me what holiday comes next and I told him it'd be Valentines. Without missing a beat, he said/asked, "So that's mailbox time?!" Last year, I built Cooper a little mailbox that I put a simple surprise in each day, a "14 days of Valentines" for kids I guess. Well, he loved it and has been frothing at the bit! Actually I love Valentines hullabaloo, so I might be just as excited! ;)

Cooper is very inquisitive about learning letters right now and, of course, is an animal nut! So I combined all three- Valentines, animals and letters- to create some simple cards he can play with and use with his mailbox or heart pouch, on top of just once a day surprises. I used these awesome free animal brushes from HERE. I want him to enjoy the giving and loving part of the season and not just be thinking about what he's getting himself.

I tied sets of them up and put them inside these little heart pockets I made. There's a pocket for all six of us so that Cooper and Ry can give us all little notes! The cards are made to be folded in half so that he can have room to practice the letter from the front or write and draw what he likes. He caught on instantly when he saw the letters!

 I started making Ryder a set of his own and realized that usually he wants the same as Cooper, so I decided not to create a headache for myself! (As though feeding the animal craze doesn't do that for me enough!.) Anyhow, hopefully Ryder will learn to recognize the names/sounds of the pictures on them too! His scribbles all translate to "I Love You" I'm pretty sure ;) No translation needed for Cooper- he couldn't tell me enough how much he loved them and how grateful he was- made it all worth it...

Have I ever mentioned that in the first conversation Stephen and I ever had, I told him I was NOT an animal person?? Still not, just a glutton for punishment I guess.. ;)

There are eight pages with three animals/ letters on each page ready to download HERE!  Enjoy! And share... he he :)

Printable Animal Alphabet Valentine Cards

family DANCE evening!

Once a month, the Buffat side of the family gets together for a combined Family Home Evening. We girls pick a theme and then each bring part of the dinner and a dessert, plus there's a brief lesson- it's always a good time! It was most recently at our house and our theme was "Summer in the Winter" so we fired up the grill and made summery salads!

Once our short lesson was over and everyone was done eating... you guessed it- dance party time! The teenagers asked Stephen if he would please turn on his music and quickly everyone was in on the fun! Our sweet nephew Brandon loved it! Really everyone, from family patriarchs Grandpa Reynolds and Bruce, to the toddlers and teenagers, seemed to be totally enjoying it!

Ryder was constantly trying to drag his older girl cousins into to twirl with him!

See those two above? Men and women don't come any better than them... Stephen's Grandma Sally and Grandpa Ralph are forever making the rounds to be part of all of their children's goings on. All that you see here is because of them- because of all they have weathered together and taught their children in the process. I know that my husband wouldn't be who he is if not for these two dear people. We love them!

I have been blessed with such fun sisters and brothers in law! Marvin and Kathy and Ryan and Marci are always enjoyable and comfortable to be around. I appreciate that they seem to really love and enjoy our boys... and we love having their girls around too!

I know it's get together's like these that make it so are all at ease when we get together. :) Even as anxious as I can be,  it doesn't take too long usually for me to calm down and enjoy! I love how comfortable this family is together and am so grateful to be part of it!