Lovey Dovey Decor

Growing up, I LOVED coming home from school or practice to find mom’s seasonal goodies all over the coffee table, mantle, entry way and throughout the house.  And we’re not just talking about Christmas here…EVERY holiday got it’s little time in the spotlight and it made every part of the year worth getting excited about.  It always made me feel all sparkly inside…and I’ve missed it.  While we were overseas, we tried to decorate as much as we could but it wasn’t the same.  So, I’ve really been enjoying getting our little nest spruced up for the holidays this time around.  To start, my goal this year is to make a wreath for each holiday…so here’s what I made for our door this V-day:

               Living in Vernal and living on a budget is making it a little tough..but I’m trying to improvise.  For instance, there wasn’t a wreath to be found in all of Vernal, so I went to the DI and found a Styrofoam wreath with humungo fake flowers on it.  I’m pretty sure it came from someone’s gravesite (kinda gross) but I decided it needed a second chance at life.  So, I wrapped it in some cheery polk-a-dot fabric and made some flowers and such out of scraps.

I wanted some cheery things inside for the winter too…so, I made these garlands out of paint chips and ribbon (Thank-you Pinterest).

After repurposing some things around the house, we have a tablescape with some goodies…Chinese figurines of a couple getting married that were given to us by a friend in Tianjin…a framed piece of fabric with some 3d things I stitched in it…and candy hearts, of course.  I always like to have some themed candy, but I like to get the nasty, non-chocolate kind so I won’t eat all of it.  Jordan says he doesn’t like them either, but the goal keeps getting lower and lower. Funny, the very same thing happened to the candy corn last November!

 

“You are my favorite” is a phrase that the man used to say to me when we dated…and he still does…love that Valentine of mine.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

xoxo

A Taste of Sunday…

First, we started off with a second taste of lunch… :0)

Then on with her little photo sesh to show off the cute bow my sis-in-law, Yulie, made and the sparkly red shoes from Susie and Addy that she can’t kick off her feet!  I had to celebrate THAT triumph…

    

 

Pretty sure my happy girl thinks taking pictures is hilarious.

        

Trying to remove the shoes…

 

  

Wait for it, wait for it…

.

.

There it is…

 

NAP TIME. :)

Happy Sunday!

Pocketful of Yuan…

In January I pulled out my big red coat that I hadn’t worn since last Winter and found all these treasures in my pocket from China!

1.Yuan!!!!  73 1/2 Yuan to be exact.  Sounds like a lot, but it’s just around 10 bucks. Worth hanging on to for the next time we go?  Possibly ;)

2. Candy and Gum- I was pregnant and very sick at the time.  Sometimes sucking on these things were crucial.

3. Lots of Tums- Pregnant.  Enough said.

4. Receipt that reminded me of how cool and beautiful their symbols are.

5. The best scented VS lip gloss that I thought I lost.  The good smell right under my nose helped me avoid puking.

All these items added up to a total score.  They reminded of China and how we needed to celebrate Chinese New Years!  So we did, with some last minute Beef and Broccoli from the freezer section (oh yes, we’re all sorts of fancy), fortune cookies and a Chinese Movie via RedBox!

Last Year’s Celebrations-

J drove us all over the city to see all the fireworks on our little red motorbike…then tried to get me to go up on the roof of our high rise building at midnight (when the fireworks really go ape-wild) but I wouldn’t due to my fear of heights and the ridiculous ladder you had to climb to get there…It was amazing though in our apartment….Fireworks were literally going off on all sides as far as you could see and there were ones RIGHT up next to the window.  People were lighting huge ones in the courtyard too that landed on the roof…right were J was!  He was fine, but a little singed.  The video he got was well worth it…I’ll have to find it in our old files and add it here one day!  This picture was from our ride before there were too many over the river…and there’s that lucky red coat!

This was our spread this year…(the hanging symbol was given to us by our neighbor, Ron/Charlie…he couldn’t ever decide on just one English name…so we always called him both.

  

If you’re wondering why she’s in a Bunny suit, here’s the answer:

We celebrated Chinese New Year’s living in Tianjin, China last year and it was the year of the Bunny.  In China, you are the animal of the year you were born, according to their calendar and when your year rotates around again, it’s a BIG deal…You pretty much have the biggest birthday party of your life, you’re super lucky for that year, you eat a ton, wear lots of red and people give you mullah in pretty little envelopes (if you’re Chinese, we just ate a lot and enjoyed being pyromaniacs).  Amelia-Jayne was born last year, so she’s our China Bunny…1987 also happened to be the year of the Bunny- so I’m a bunny too!  I guess that makes Jordan the new Hugh Heffner. Haha.

Amelia-Jayne tried to munch through her own fortune cookie and got her first taste of what else?!  RICE cereal.  We had to get the Asian theme in there somewhere for her. :)

 

We decided that we want to have traditions surrounding the places we’ve been and that next year we are going to really live it up for Chinese New Years…a party will happen with joutsa, chopsticks and PYROTECHNICS!  (We’re really excited about that)  So, if you happen to be in the Uintah Basin…come celebrate with us!  YOU’RE ALL INVITED!

Next stop…BRASIL!

  Carnival, anyone? I’m not sure Vernal is ready for that kind of party. ;)

5 Months!

Babycakes is 5 Months Old!  And as Jordan would say…that’s almost 6 months! :)

                    

All of the sudden, it seems like our little girl isn’t such a little baby anymore.  Now she has even MORE personality in her little body!  Here are some of her latest tricks:

-Amelia-Jayne loves to smile at strangers in the grocery store…her favorite demographic right now seems to be old men.  I think she misses her Papi!

-This girl can sit…and roll…and roll into things, off of things and under things.  I don’t know how she does it…because she usually gets into trouble when we’re out of the room (ie: rolling into the sharp end of the rocker) and only rolls once when we’re with her. She also has this funny little butt bridge she does when she’s on her tummy…it helps her do her little army crawl scooch.

-She sleeps all the way through the night and is usually pretty dang happy to see us in the morning.

-If you tickle her neck, feet or sides she has this funny old man giggle.

-Babycakes has been eating like a champ now for a week.  It took her about two whole feedings of rice cereal before she got the hang of swallowing…now she leans into the food, tries to grab it (usually successfully at least once or twice) and gets upset if we take too long to get the spoon in her mouth….You would think this girl’s been eating for years now.

-She likes to take out her bows, kick off her shoes and pull of her socks (and giggles while doing it.  Notice the pictures above).  She also LOOOOOOOOOVES to spit up ALL over herself anytime I give her a bath and get her (or me) dressed all the way.  I’ve been questioning why I get us dressed at all the last few weeks.  Her favorite time to do all of these things simultaneously happens to be Sunday mornings…last Sunday she even managed to dump the bucket of soapy water from her sponge bath all over my living room carpet…Church is starting to get a little more eventful each Sunday. :)  She is still a great baby, she’s just learning that she can do SO many things! 

Good thing she’s so dang cute. :)

Dear Detox,

I would hate you if you weren’t such a dear friend to my butt. Good thing you only come to visit in January.

Sincerely,

The Deprived Lady

3 & 4 Months!

The holidays were way too fun to stay caught up on blogging, so here are some pics of how much the little miss has grown these last couple of months…

3 Months

4 Months

 

TODAY’S STATS:

Weight: 18.5 lbs (96%)

Height: 27” (99%)

We always get comments on how chunky she is…I love that she’s chunky and might need a bra any day now…but today I learned that based on her weight to height ratio, she’s only the 68th chunker out of 100 babies her age.  What the heck?!  I say bring on solids. ;) 

Head: still off the charts.

….Staring down at my favorite boots that inspire her borderline heinously bright outfits….

 

The Babycakes has really grown into herself, personality wise.  She really is quite funny and I have a feeling she will be my little firecracker.  It’s just a hunch now, but when she laughs at me when I tell her “you have to go to sleep now” or smiles at me when she has a blow-out or spits up on both of us after just getting ready for the day…I think it’s a pretty good hunch.  :)  Amelia is a really well-tempered baby, loves to smile at strangers, will endure a long shopping trip with Nani and Mommy as long as she can look at the pretty things too, and has connected her will power to her fingers (ooh…I can get that!  oooh….hair!!!).  She will however, let out a high pitched and very loud scream if she accidentally bit a finger from chewing on it or mommy and daddy couldn’t get the bottle fast enough….emergency.  But that’s pretty much it.  She loves to be around people and still has moments where she will stare at a blank wall or a completely non-stimulating area of the room and interact with it.  I personally think she’s just being visited by loved ones I can’t see.  I’m a believer!

Some big changes happened this last week as she moved out of our bedroom and into the nursery (she did great!  I think she thinks it’s her throne) and she JUST started sitting up on her own!  Daddy and I both think she’s too smart for her little pants and are loving her sweet and spunky little personality in our lives.

Better Late then Never…

So, Babycakes was born 4 months ago and we just got our birth announcements Christmas cards out last month. :) Besides being behind the ball, we’ve had some issues with finding addresses that were on my old computer and locating our overseas friends.  So, if you haven’t received yours for one reason or another….here they are.  I made two because I’m indecisive.

(This picture was taken by the lovely Susie!)