What I’ve been up to lately

I’ve been having a lot of fun getting crafty lately. It has been such a great outlet to browse around online, find something that inspires me, and then go recreate it with my own twist. Back in July I started a blog for my crafting endeavors, and I’ve had SO MUCH FUN joining in on the craft blog community. You can check out my craft blog HERE (just click on the link).

A few weeks ago I entered one of my projects in the audition stage of an online competition called Crafting With The Stars. I was one of 12 contestants to be chosen! (Don’t even get me started on how exciting this is for me!!!)  This means that I’ve been paired with a blog “star,” a lady named Michelle who has a great blog called “Someday Crafts.” The competition is 4 weeks long and three people get eliminated each week. We are given a theme/challenge for each round.

Round One’s challenge was to make a project using items from the Dollar Store or thrift stores. I had so much fun going through the creative process. In the end, I was thrilled with how my project turned out. I can’t tell you which one is mine until the winners of the week are announced since they don’t want it to just be a popularity contest (which I can appreciate).

I would LOVE it if you would go vote for your top three favorites though! Just click on THIS link, look through the projects, and vote at the bottom of the post.

And, since you really stopped by to see a picture from Jace, here’s one of him talking on his remote which doubles as a telephone while holding the handle of a swiffer duster (one of his FAVORITE toys).

 

Happy Birthday Nolan!

It’s Nolan’s last birthday of his twenties today! So, in honor of his special day, here are some of my favorite pictures of him from the past year!

He is such a caring Dad

A great dog walker

A creative cat entertainer

A loving husband

A great friend

A hard worker

A good provider

A man of integrity

A strong man

A handy man

I am so thankful to be married to a man of such character. I respect him, I look up to him, I value his feedback, I need his input, I appreciate his listening ear. He takes his role as husband and father so seriously and desires so strongly to honor the Lord in all he says and does.

Happy Birthday Nolan!

11 Months Old!

Our little guy is 11 months old! I can’t believe we’re just a month from turning a year. Jace is at a very fun and exhausting stage right now. Everything is a new discovery and so exciting. He loves exploring every inch I’ll let him get into. He is getting really fast at crawling and loves to play chase. He absolutely adores Toby. He’ll crawl up to Toby and open his mouth to be licked. Or he’ll head-butt the dog as a sign of affection. Or he’ll pull himself up at the couch where Toby’s relaxing and squeal with delight. Toby had to take the opportunity to lick Jace during our photo shoot and Jace, of course, loved it.

He’s also entered the stage where he is very clingy with Mommy. If I dare do anything other than sit on the couch he demands to be held. He also doesn’t like to be told no. He definitely has a mind of his own. He’s pretty smart at understanding what is off limits though. He’s caught on that you shake your head for no. Several times now he’s crawled up to Toby’s dishes, paused, shaken his head no as if to remind himself he’s not supposed to touch it, and then continued crawling. He’s done the same thing at Nolan’s receiver.

I love the look in his eyes in this picture.

He loves food! It can be any flavor and he’ll eat it. Until this week, though, it had to be pureed as well. He’s finally accepting more textures! He also says, “Mmmm” every time he sees food. If I’m sitting at the couch or in the recliner eating, he’ll pull himself up wherever I am and say, “Mmmm,” until I give him a bite of my food. Between him and Toby, there’s a lot of begging going on in our house.

If Jace loves it, he eats it. We’ll tell him to go get Hippo (his chair from my mom), and he’ll pant while quickly crawling up to the chair, tackle it, and grab it by the mouth full. Nolan said this picture perfectly captured the evil carnivorous look that he gives all his stuffed animals.

This kid pants all the time. While he’s crawling he’ll stick out his lips and breath in and out really loudly. “Hooo hooo hooo” is the sound we hear as he explores the house. It’s cute.

We’re so thankful for our little guy!

3 Days of Christmas! (and then some…)

Oh we had an exciting and very busy Christmas season in the Nelson household! I had so much fun adding to our Christmas decorations thanks to inspiration from the [probably] hundreds of craft blogs I follow. The best part was making and adding Jace’s stocking to the mantel with mine and Nolan’s.
(If you want to know more about our stockings, check out this post on my craft blog.)

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Jace got to look super handsome in the shirt I embellished for him to wear on Christmas Day. It says, “Best Tree Ever” under the car. He likes to model the clothes Mommy makes him.

Jace made his first art project for our friend Mary. I painted his fingers for snowmen and did his whole hand to do the tree. He liked having his hand painted and then hated having me force him to make his hand print.

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Christmas Eve was the start of three days of Christmas. We celebrated with Nolan’s family at Jared and Rayanna’s house. Jace had a lot of fun playing with Uncle Jared’s Star Wars toys. Between his uncle and his cousins, he’s doomed to be a HUGE fan.

Jamie wanted to sit next to Jace at dinner. Jace loved having her next to him. He got to eat “Christmas in a Cup” (a nice way of saying Turkey, stuffing, green beans and mashed potatoes all pureed together… yum!).

Grandma and Grandpa Nelson gave him soooo many fun things! I think he’s still taking in all of the toys.

After the family time, we went to the Christmas Eve service at church… Nolan attended, I oversaw the nursery, and Jace covered every square inch of the nursery crawling with another little boy.

Christmas morning, Nolan and I woke up at 9 am and Jace was still sound asleep. At 9:30 we realized we didn’t have to wait for Jace to open our presents, so we headed downstairs and were all done before our little guy woke up. Nolan was super sweet, wonderful and generous and gave me a Silhouette craft cutting machine. I LOVE IT!

Jace joined us for breakfast… he snacked on Cheerios while we ate the Steiner family traditional sticky cinnamon rolls.

Then Jace opened his gifts from us. He loved looking at the pictures in his Jesus Storybook Bible.

And he LOVED destroying everything Daddy built with the blocks we gave him. He went back and forth between destruction and excitedly playing with the little tool bench from Great Grandma and Grandpa Steiner.

That afternoon my parents and younger brothers came over and my mom fixed a wonderful ham dinner.

On our third day of Christmas celebrations, the 26th, the whole Steiner family got together at our house after church. My parents gave Jace a hippo chair (the same as what they gave Josiah one year). Jace LOVED “Po” (what he immediately started calling it).

Trying to get all four grandkids to sit still, smile and look at the correct camera proved to be a little difficult.

We said goodbye to my parents and Tim on the 27th. Jace loved having family stay with us. He especially loved all the attention from his grandparents and uncle.

And we captured Jace’s scowl! He’s really good at showing us when he doesn’t appreciate/agree/like/you name it…

And, just for a little more cuteness, Jace sitting on “Ippo” as he now calls it.