Summer home projects

We moved to our new house in November–just in time for winter. I’m so excited that the weather is getting warm and we can now spend our days outside! We have just over an acre so there is tons of space for Ryan to run around and lots of land for us to make plans with. Things on our wish list: a sandbox for Ryan (Steve wants to build it), a swingset/playground area for Ryan, a garden, a compost pile, a rain barrel, some landscaping–we really need to

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Getting crafty: homemade crib sheets and baby gowns

Awhile ago I was complaining on my facebook page that really cute crib sheets were either impossible to find or cost a lot of money (like custom ones on etsy). Someone suggested I make my own. HA! Okay, I have a sewing machine and I’m not too bad at sewing, but I’ve really only ever made baby gowns and shirts–with a pattern.

This awesome facebook fan directed me to a crib and toddler bed sheets tutorial on the Dana Made It blog. It looked way too

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New Year time capsule for Ryan

I saw this idea originally in my Family Fun magazine. Then, as the New Year got closer, I saw it all over Pinterest. So you may have seen it already, but it’s just too cute not to share. I LOVE this idea.

(picture from Family Fun)

In the picture above, the idea was to have your child write a note to themselves to read in the future. Or–especially if your kids are younger, like mine!–you can create a survey or questionnaire

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Homemade snowmen gifts for Elmer’s Holiday #GlueNGlitter

So cute, right?! I love them! I want a whole family of them! I need more sizes and shapes of water bottles! lol. Ryan had a lot of fun making these snowmen, too. We’ve been crazy making crafts this holiday season. Mainly because it keeps us busy with something fun and festive to decorate the house with, but also because I love homemade gifts. Things that Ryan helped make are the best presents for grandparents! And Ryan is super proud of them.

With all this

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Holiday crafts for the kids: a week of Christmas on Pinterest

What would I be doing without Pinterest?! I have found so many awesome ideas on there for Christmas this year that I decided I had an entire week of fun stuff to show off 🙂 Coming up: gift wrapping ideas, decor, and gifts. Click each picture to get to the pin for more info/tutorials:

 

 

 

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Advent calendar activities for kids

A few days ago I posted pictures of our festive holiday decor–mainly homemade crafts I did with Ryan–and one of them was an advent calendar. Instead of candy, each day of December until Christmas offers a new activity to do as a family.

I used red foam board and cut it in half (or close to it) with an x-acto knife. That left one edge a little raw looking so I glued a fuzzy red ribbon around all

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Steve and I counted last night… we have moved 7 times in the last 5 years. At each new place, we knew it would be temporary. First, we were in Iowa finishing school, then we moved back home and were renting. So we’ve never felt like we’ve had our own place and because of that, we’ve never really gotten into decorating. We’ve paid monthly for a storage unit for the last 2 years and most of our decor things were kept in there.

As some of you know, we finally

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