14 Days of Valentine's, Part 2

Well, Valentine’s Day is over. We had a great evening. Arek appealed to my sweet tooth this Valentine’s Day, and we celebrated with homemade rootbeer floats and Reese’s pb cups (not together though… that mix doesn’t sound very appetizing to me). And I finished giving him the rest of his 14 Valentine’s gifts. It was a lot of fun to do. I tried to be better at taking pictures this last half, so here’s what I did:

These are the cards I made to go with various gifts... now on to the days:

Day 9 – I heart attacked the front door. Each heart said “I Love You” in a different language. No judgments if some of them are wrong… I just googled the phrase! Arek’s favorite (and mine) was the one I had Julie color. She loves to color, although sometimes it is a challenge to keep her from eating the crayons while she’s coloring. :) Here’s both pictures, the whole thing as well as Julie’s:

Day 10 – Movie Night! I presented Arek with this coupon that I made and then after school and work we went to Lee’s and picked a redbox and some goodies. The ultimate choice: Contagion (Real Steel, which was what his first choice was, wasn’t at that redbox). It was really good but SUPER intense. Both of us never wanted to touch something outside of our house again after watching it… so we put in a fun movie to lighten the mood before going to bed.

Day 11 – A mushy love note and rootbeer milk from Gosner’s Dairy. (There had to be ONE love letter in this 14 Days thing!)

Day 12 – A heart-shaped, double layer cake... plus a few cupcakes because there was extra batter.

Day 13 – The big Valentine Dinner: cordon bleu focaccia bread sandwiches. This is quite possibly Arek’s favorite dinner ever, but I rarely make it because it takes a lot of prep work. I honestly felt like I was cooking all day long. But in the end it was definitely worth it because it was DELICIOUS. We had sandwiches as well as cheese-filled focaccia bread that we dipped in homemade alfredo sauce. Mmm… mmm… good!

Day 14 – the best for last, at least sentimentally. After the big dinner I guess today’s gift might seem small, but I loved it. I made a photo album compiled with photos of Arek and me. 4 years ago on Valentine’s Day Arek and I decided to get married (although we didn’t become engaged for another month). It has been a wonderful 4 years with him. I love him so very much. And I am glad he had a good Valentine’s Day.

Here’s what my sweet, busy, croup-free Julie has been up to:

She LOVED the Day 12 cupcakes! With her friend Gracie... finally able to play again after they are both croup-freeShe found some old knee-high stockings of mine and thought they made excellent gloves.

14 Day fo Valentine's, Part 1

We are halfway done with the 14 Days of Valentine's. So far it's going really well. Arek is loving having a surprise to look forward to every day, and I am having a blast surprising him. Here's what I've done for days 1-8:

Day 1 - Valentine's Mailbox with homemade card explaining the 14 Days & Baby Ruth candy barDay 2 - Tootsie Roll Jar
Day 3 - Love crossword, with all the Q&A's being about usDay 4 - Big breakfast: red waffles, sausage, eggs, orange juice, and hot chocolate
Day 5 - Jar of reasons why I love him... here's two pictures of all the reasons laid out and the
finished jar
Day 6 - Box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates... some of Arek's absolute favorites
Day 7 - Heart-shaped sugar cookies
Day 8 - Love message on the bathroom mirror

There are still some good things left... but I'll have to wait to post them until I've done them. What's Julie been up to? Unfortunately she has caught the croup, so she's been coughing a lot the past few days. Luckily we caught it early and she is taking some steroids and also we bought a humidifier, so she is feeling better every day. Unfortunately, she passed the croup along to her friend before we realized she had it. :( So our days have been more mellow than usual, but Julie is still her happy self despite her coughing fits. Hopefully by the end of the week she'll be all better

Februrary Craft - 14 Days of Valentine, Intro

So the big craft project for the month isn't actually one big project, but a bunch of mini projects. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about how I don't ever do much for Arek on Valentine's Day. So I decided to do the 14 days of Valentine's for him. Starting on Feb. 1st (yesterday) I am giving him something every day to remind him of how much he is loved. Yesterday was the Love Mailbox (see below) in which I left a note explaining the 14 days, and also a Baby Ruth candy bar (because he loves them but hardly ever gets them). I can't tell you the other days yet, because they haven't happened, and I wouldn't want to spoil it for Arek. But I'll keep you posted. I'm really excited to do this, and Arek was very surprised that I was doing it. So happy beginning of the 14 days of Valentine's!
Here's what Julie's been up to:She loves to pull my clothes out of the dresser and try them on. Yes, the item is my sports bra, which ordinarily I wouldn't post... but she put it on all by herself and was so happy to be wearing it that Arek and I laughed the whole morning.


This is Julie's new favorite activity... She loves to stand on the coffee table and look out the window. She spends probably an hour every day just watching the people and cars go by

She has become a HUGE Daddy's girl. She anticipates him coming home every day, and drops whatever she is doing to greet him. She also loves when he puts her to sleep, which is really sweet. He is much more fun to play with, too, and she has a blast being carried and chased and all those energetic activities that Daddies love to play with their kids. I love watching them.


Lastly, she loves to rock in our glider chair in her room... it's pretty much the only reason she enters her room except to get dressed and takes naps and go to bed. Yesterday I think she spent 10 whole minutes on it at one time, which is huge for her, and she almost rocked herself to sleep until she got her second wind and was on the move again.

Photoless Update... Sorry

So I was not planning on blogging today so I have zero photos to share. Julie wanted her coat on this morning, so I figured that we'd come to the library. Of course, the day I DON'T bring the camera with us is the day she falls asleep and I actually have time to blog. Oh well. Life keeps rolling by incredibly quickly. I haven't used my sewing machine again, mainly because Arek and I decided I needed to have a budget for my craft spending. Julie's dress used my January project money, and I have already spent my February money on a project I am SUPER excited about, but you will have to wait to know what it is because I'm trying to keep it a secret from Arek. He never looks on here, but my luck, this would be the one time. :)

Julie continues to grow like a weed. I can't wait until her 18 month appointment to see what her new stats are. I thought she would be slowing down growing (and she is because for the first time in MONTHS I haven't had to buy her new clothes) but she is still getting taller. I keep wondering how I got such a big girl so quickly, but she's adorable and I love her lots. Lately I've been trying to teach her some signs because she still doesn't say many specific words. She has added yeah and no to her vocabulary though. She thinks "no" is a funny word and laughs every time she says it, which is a lot, even when she means yes. She is very good at signing "please"and "more" and we're working on "done" and "thank you". We are going to check out a book from the library to do some more because she really seems to enjoy it.

Arek is busy as ever, but still manages to stay on top of all his school work. Julie loves to have him put her to bed at night now. I love hearing him sing her to sleep... it's priceless.

Next week I should have photos to share and also be able to share my February craft.

Ta Da!

I LOVE my sewing machine that I got for Christmas. I have spent most evenings since I got it sewing things together, including a jean quilt-top that I've been wanting to make for ages but couldn't because I didn't have a sewing machine. And I wasn't going to do THAT by hand... one hand-quilt was enough. Anyway, but until I buy the border, binding, and back fabric that quilt will have to remain a quilt-top. In the meantime, though, I decided to sew a dress for Julie. She is growing like a weed and most of her church dresses have become very short on her (which is fine, I know, because she's a toddler and wears tights, but she still needed a new dress).

So after many hours deciphering pattern lingo and lots of phone calls to my mom to help me understand what I was supposed to be doing, and having to unpick stitches several times,

here is my first completed project on my new sewing machine:

I think it turned out really well. I had a lot of fun doing it and it was so satisfying to see the finished product. Here are some of the many things I learned with this project:

- how to gather

- sew a zipper

- sew on satin ribbon (which I learned it really hard to do and still make it look good)

- add lining to the inside of the dress

It fits!

Despite her face in this next picture, she loved wearing the dress. And since it was a 2T size, it still has room for her to grow, which is good because she is still growing like a weed!

And, as you can see, she can still climb in it, which is very important for Julie!

Play Time, Nap Time

Now that the holidays are over, and Arek is back into school and both jobs, Julie and I have lots of time just to ourselves. We try to incorporate new things into our routine at home, since we can't go outside often due to how cold it is (no snow to speak of but it sure is BRR chilly!). So, to entertain ourselves, Julie and I get silly and create new jobs for ordinary household items. Here is one of her picks for the colander: It reminds me of one of those fencing masks you see in the movies. It made me laugh so I made her out it on her face again so I could take a picture :)

And here is a first for Julie: She fell asleep while eating lunch. I had to snap a photo before laying her down in bed... I know my mom has several photos of me doing this, but this is honestly Julie's first time. Precious!

Ride 'Em, Cowgirl!

My dad made Julie a rocking horse for Christmas. My grandpa made a similar one for all of children's families, and my dad thought it would be great to continue the tradition. Julie absolutely LOVES it. It only took her a couple of days to learn how to climb on it herself (Which , despite how easy it looks in this picture, is quite a sight to see because it is taller than her legs are long. She has to pull herself to a standing position on it and then lower her legs down to straddle it).

She climbs on up and rocks out dozens of times every day. Here's one of my favorite snapshots that I've captured of her on it... I love that she is showing her new "cheese" grin.

Thanks, Grandpa Glad!