Our First EXPO event-at CWU

Best Buds-Blake & Bryce

These two are the bestest of buddies. Blake & Bryce

Last night they had a super fun sleepover...hours of matchbox cars, Geotrax, snacks, farting & giggles. 

(Yes I said FARTING! gah!)

I'd say they had a blast! 

What's MY Little 

Boy Made Of?

-according to Momma Martone

He's a wee bit ROUDY

has a mischievous GRIN

Curious EYES and a 

Pancake SYRUP covered chin....

A DOLLOP of mud or snow

right behind his ear,

And his SCHOOL BAG full

of TOYS I fear.

At times you can see 

his KNEES

through the 

HOLES in his jeans

He likes "HOT" CHOCOLATE MILK

but won't let you wipe

the MUSTACHE now shining like silk.

He's made of PLAY-DOH pies and

NACHO CHEESE kisses

Full of wonder at

Christmas and excited for

his birthday WISHES

Not ashamed to snuggle with 

people who LOVE him...

Gives the tightest HUGS 

and always returns an 

"I LOVE YOU" 

without any forced TUGS.

A heap of

GIGGLES and

wiggles and LOVE;

Yep-these are the THINGS

MY little boy BRYCE is

made of.

....and I wouldn't have him ANY

other way.

 We love our little guy!

We all Scream for SNOW Cream!

A 2 day (so far) relentless Snow Storm

(well 8 cups of snow is all you REALLY need ;)

+

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

+

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract=

 an awesome situation!

YUMMERS!

Goodbye you Nasty HUNK-O-JUNK!

I will spare you the picts of what our old couch looked like-just trust me when I say-NEVER NEVER NEVER buy Macy's furniture-or their extra warantee. They are worthless-no matter what they tell you and their furniture is WAAAAY overpriced. 

We've been saving for a new couch we found at IKEA and then came across this beauty at Costco last week-but wait-there's more.....it was even LESS EXPENSIVE than the IKEA couch! Holy Moses! I LOOOOOOVE it! Love the chaise, love the grey, love the vintage look on a modern piece, love the fabric, love that it is a sectional, love that it has a matching footstool....LOVE LOVE LOVE. 

THANK HEAVEN FOR COSTCO & their AWESOME furniture & prices!

The Sewing Trade

BIG thanks to my dad & Kathleen for getting me a sewing machine for christmas! I finally broke it out of the box & after a few zanex (kidding) I was ready to read the book & find out how to even START the thing! lol

(mike-finding this whole process amusing-decided to take an attractive pict of me reading the manual-thank goodness for the included DVD tutorial or I would have been totally lost! gesh)

anywhooo-all that to say, after calling my mom for a pep talk-where she reminded me of all the things I've actually sewn in my life (which for some reason my mind had chosen to forget about????) I felt pretty confident in being a TAD better than novice. A TAD. However-that being said-I accomplished everything on my to-do list for the night!

Emma will be THRILLED with this new towel I made her birthday. 

As well as the tank top favors that I made for each of the girls coming to her ARIEL party! They aren't the object of perfection, seeing as I am NOT a master seamstress, however-Em adores them & is so excited to hand them out, so that's all that matters I guess.

Em LOVED watching me sew-LOVED it. I gave her a few quick lessons, and she was a natural. Yay! She has even asked Nana to buy her a "sewer" when she is a little bigger. Nana said absolutely :) She even promised Em that together they would sew a couple dresses for her AG dolls when Nana visits this easter. Easter can't come soon enough for her now.

She's SUPER excited (I call it OBSESSED :)

EmmaLee's birthday party this year is themed "The Little Mermaid" and she is BURSTING with excitement about it. I slowly get things ready for it as to leave me minimal to do closer to party time-and thus eliminating 99% of the stress.

The past week Em has begged to put things together "herself"-so she helped ;) do things such as:
-Ariel Water Bottles
-Ariel Utensil Holder Library Pockets
-Invitations/Envelopes & Labels (we had to actually MAKE envelopes because we couldn't find the "perfect purple ariel ones" that Em had in mind! Gesh. :)
-Pick out Fabric at Joann's for a PINK Princess Ariel dress (there will be a "character meet & greet" at her party-Ariel AND Prince Erik!)
This week she has found numerous things online that she thought would be "PERFECT" (direct quote) for the party too. Like: Starfish cookie cutters, hair accessories & plastic Ariel platters! Where would we be in this process without Etsy & Ebay? Hello! You should see the high she gets from planning a great shin-dig. I accidently deflated her balloon when I told her that this was going to be a party she COULDN'T help set up. She is the bday girl & it is a surprise. Bummer.

Today I got an email notice about the Disney Store "Twice Yearly Sale" *PS Their sales are a little addicting and typically REALLY well priced-UGH. ;) lol Anyhow-Ariel is usually pretty hard to come by on her own-she is normally mixed in with the other princesses (trust me-we've found this out in this whole party process-what a pain in the a**!) But wouldn't you know it. AFTER I bought Em's bday gift yesterday-YESTERDAY-there is a whole PILE of things she would freak about. (Though I know she'll love what we got her :) but still-where was this stuff a week ago-better yet, where was this around CHRISTMAS? Poop on that timing.

Well-at any rate, maybe she'll find something fantastically Ariel at Disneyland this fall :) There is a whole Ariel store there filled to the brim with nothing but THE LITTLE MERMAID. 

Momma/Daughter Girl Time

I have been promising Em to go on a "date" for Pedi's for months now....finally we found time this afternoon! First stop: Starbucks of course. Em ordered for herself (as usual), the barista about died. Thought it was the cutest thing ever (direct quote from said barista).

Then we pulled up to the beauty school and Em about wet her pants and squealed "I am just so excited to get my nails done Mom!" And she really was....she thoroughly enjoyed EVERY second.

It's the little things in life right?

She's got the routine down....a little relaxation & catching' up on Hollywood gossip from the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine. (I love how her little legs won't even bend down the bottom half of the bench :)

"Can YOU believe it?" she said. "This book is FULL of Justin Beiber and Princess Kate! Awesome!" Love this kid. Seriously. Love.

2012 Motto

For those who know me-I've actually always lived by this rule but, just throwing it out there as a reminder:

New years Indoor "Fireworks"

Ok-so maybe they were LED balloons and not our typical New Years tradition of giant sparklers, but they were pretty fun. As is usual on NYE, we had a variety of appetizers throughout the day instead of regular meals-something we look forward to each NYE :) Was fun to go through all my recipes on Pinterest and try a bunch in one day! My visiting teacher brought us a bottle of sparkling cider, we made a few toasts as as a family....all in all-a nice relaxing evening.