Halloween Fun!

The kids and I decided to "BOO" some of our neighbors for Halloween this year.  We had so much fun making the treats together.  Here is a picture of our "BOO" baskets we put together.

One of the treats we made is one that you normally see around Christmas, with a twist.  We used pretzels, Hershey's hugs, and candy corn.  Lane and Jenna were able to do most of these by themselves.  Jenna's main job was unwrapping all of the candy!

Here's how you make them: Heat your oven to 200 degrees.  Place square pretzels on a cookie sheet and a Hershey's Hug on top of each pretzel.  Bake for about 4-5 min.  After they come out of the oven place a candy corn on top of the hug.  Let cool for a few minutes and then place in the refrigerator.  Enjoy your yummy treats! 

We put these along with some brownie bites, candy, and two boo straws in each basket.  I downloaded the cutest "BOO" sign and instructions from The TomKat Studio.   You can download your free copy here: http://www.thetomkatstudio.com/

If you haven't ever BOOED before here are the directions for how to do it:

We don't know alot of our neighbors yet, so we had to be kind of sneaky about choosing houses to BOO.  We loaded the kids in the car after it got dark on Friday night and went looking for the perfect houses.  My job was to drive, Lane ran up to the houses, put down the boo baskets, rang the door bell three times and then hauled it back to the car.  It was so much fun spying to see who came to the door.  Now we are driving around looking to see if anyone else is BOOing their neighbors.  So far, we have seen a few signs up in people's windows.  This will definitely be one of our new family traditions each year.  You should give it a try in your neighborhood, school, or work and let me know how it goes.  Enjoy! 



A New Addition

We are excited to let everyone know that Jordon Baby #3 will be joining our family this Spring!

Even after having two children, it is still so amazing to see your baby on the ultrasound.  This little one was moving around like crazy.  So very cool to see the baby's arms and legs moving and kicking!   This was taken at 10 weeks 5 days.  My official due date is April 22 but I am sure the baby will arrive a few weeks earlier, given my history.  Lane and Jenna went with us to the ultrasound to see the baby.  Jenna said, "Awww, baby is sweet."  Lane is a pro at this; he still remembers going when we saw Jenna for the first time.  We will keep everyone updated and should be able to find out if it is a boy/girl in about four weeks.  I can't wait!  God has truly blessed our family!

Teacher Survival Kit

Are you looking for something to give your child's teacher for the first day of school?  After being a Kindergarten teacher for eight years, I know how stressful the first day of school can be for a teacher.   Now that I am a stay-at-home Mom, and have a little extra time on my hands, I wanted to make something special for Lane to give his teacher on the first day of school.  Here's what I came up with!



I have been dying to use chalk-board paint for a project and when I decided to make this gift, I knew it would be perfect!  I simply bought an 8 inch clay pot and painted the bottom of the pot with chalk-board paint.  I painted two coats to really make it look dark.  I decided not to paint the lip of the pot but rather tie a red checked bow around it.  Then, I found these little wooden shapes for 29 cents and painted them too!  I hot glued the mini chalk-boards to small dowel rods and added a bow for some added color.  Then, I used a piece of white chalk and wrote his teacher's name on the pot and the words on the mini chalk-boards.  Lane signed his name on the last one!  Then came the fun part, fillling it with goodies.  We put a bottle of water, a coke, a bag of munchies, a bag of m&m's (stress=chocolate), stickers and a note pad in ours.  Since I know I never wanted to go home and cook after the first day of school, I added a gift card for a local restaurant.  After his teacher is done with her goodies, she can erase her name and label it with whatever she wants.  This would make a great holder for markers, pens, pencils, etc.  I included a few pieces of chalk too!  I hope his teacher enjoys her gift! 

Lane Lost His 1st Tooth!

Last Monday, while eating a grilled cheese sandwich,  Lane felt something strange in his mouth.  He was so excited when he realized it was his tooth!

I asked him if he was ready for the tooth fairy to come and he got sad.  Not what I was expecting.  After talking to him for a while he told me he wasn't ready for the tooth fairy to take his tooth.  He wanted to keep it for a few days.  One of my friends had given him a really cute tooth fairy pillow before he was born but it is packed up somewhere or may still be at our Pearland home?  So, we went to Hobby Lobby and bought some supplies to make our own.  Lane insisted that it hang from his door so the tooth fairy could easily spot it!  He picked out all of the colors and designed it.  I did all of the sewing, etc.  I think it turned out really cute! 

Hopefully, I will get an embroidery maching soon and can start adding monograms.  I would love to add his name or tooth fairy at the top.  The tooth fairy was finally allowed to come to our house on Thursday night.  She left a $2 bill in the pocket of his pillow (hanging from the door) and an electric tooth brush under his pillow (on his bed).

Jenna Turns Two!

While we were back home, in Pearland, our sweet little girl turned two.  I had so much fun planning Jenna's 1st Birthday party last year, that right after her party I started planning this year's theme.  I am crazy, I know!  Ladybugs have always been a favorite of mine.  My students and teacher friends know this is true.  So, I always knew that if I had a girl, I would definitely at some point use this theme.  Over the past year, I collected ideas and items for the theme.  Planning early may seem crazy but it definitely saves you money and allows you to pay attention to the details! 

A picture of the goodies/sweets table.

Love how the cake turned out.  It was made by Missy at SugarBoo Sweets.

I decided to have a smash cake again this year.  I didn't want Jenna to mess up the cake that the guests would be eating.  She actually did, but that's a whole story in itself.  SugarBoo Sweets also made this yummy cake.

I made the cupcakes and then added these cute cupcake toppers from The TomKat Studio.  I became a fan of Kim's work when I was planning Jenna's Sweet Shoppe party last year.  She is so creative and has wonderful products and ideas.  If you are planning a party you should check her website out:  http://www.thetomkatstudio.com/

I made these ladybugs using pretzels and chocolate melts.  They were actually pretty easy to make and tasted super yummy!

A closer view of the happy birthday banner that hung on the sweets table.  I purchased it also from The TomKat Studio.  The products are e-mailed to you, you print as many as you wish, cut out and assemble.  Super fun and easy!

I wanted to add some color above the sweets table.  So, I decided to make a backdrop.  I used tissue paper to make pom-poms and then added a few special details to the one in the middle to turn it into a ladybug.  My Mom and Lane had fun helping me!

This is my favorite craft I made for the party.  It hung on the front door for the guests to see when they arrived!

This was a very last minute addition to the front porch.  I had purchased about eight of these cute pin-wheels at Hobby Lobby for 80% off.  A few hours before the party, I decided to use them by the front door.  The plant that had been in this pot had died.  I simply placed three of the pinwheels in the pot and then added red crinkled paper (that already had) around them to cover the dead leaves and dirt.  I placed the other pin-wheels in the flower bed leading up to the porch.   

Each child received ladybug antennae (left) when they arrived at the party.  The black polka-dot bags were the goody bags for the boys.  Each bag had plastic bugs, a net, tweezers, and bug magnifier.  The bug books were for the babies.

The red and white polka-dot bags in the picnic basket were for the girls.  I purchased these and the cute balloons from Shop Sweet Lulu.  Inside each one was a red and black, fabric hair clip that I made. 

Here's a picture of the hair clips!

I wish I would have snapped a few pictures of the food.  We had a "picnic lunch".  I purchased sandwiches from Subway for the adults and made special cut-out sandwiches for the little ones.  We also served fruit kabobs (strawberries and blueberries placed in a pattern).  These looked really cute standing up in some green grass vases.  The children had fun blowing bubbles, jumping on the moonwalk and making ladybugs out of foam.  I was so busy running around I didn't get any pictures of this.  My goal for my next party is to make sure I assign someone other than me or my husband to take pictures of everything!

Here are some more pictures from the party!

She blew out the candles all by herself!

Me and my little ladybug!



My sweet family!

Uncle Chris and Aunt Amanda wearing their antennae!



Opening her presents

Thanks again to all of our family and friends who came to the party and helped us celebrate!  We had such a good time seeing all of you!  This party was bitter sweet to me because I knew it would be our last birthday party in Pearland and definitely the last party at our house!  This last picture was taken on Jenna's actual birthday.  My parents, Lane, and I went to Sugarbabies for cupcakes!

Exciting News!

We just got back a few days ago from a two week vacation back home.  It was so good to visit with family and friends while we were there.  Now that we are back in town we are getting busy working on our new house!  That's right, Kyle actually closed on our new house while I was in Pearland getting ready for Jenna's birthday party.  Don't worry, I did see the house before we bought it!  We are so excited and relieved to have found a house so quickly.  The supply of homes is here is low and the demand is high (totally different than the rest of the country).  We looked at the house the first morning it came on the market and put an offer on it a few hours later.  I feel like we were really lucky to get it because there were back to back showings that day and others offers coming in. 

Here is a picture of the front of the house.

The garage is on the back of the house.  In Midland, most houses are built this way.  We have an alley behind our house.  Kyle's favorite part is the long drive way and three car garage!

We are all excited about our new pool.  I will have to post a picture of the pool later.  For some reason I can't get it to upload more than one picture right now.  We are going to spend the next few weeks painting the interior and getting new carpet in the bedrooms and family room.  Can't wait to move in a few weeks!   I will share more pic's as we get everything fixed up!

Road Trip

This morning we decided to drive a little more west, past Odessa, to Monahans Sandhills State Park.  Many locals told us the kids would have a good time there.  It only took us an hour to get there and let us see some more of our surroundings.  We saw oil pump jacks, flat land, blue sky, and more oil pump jacks.  Then, all of a sudden the terrain changed. 

At the visitor's center they have disks available for you to rent.  You take your disk to the top of the sandhill and try to slide down.  Lane and Jenna enjoyed it!

The sand was very pretty and white.  It was also very soft which made it very hard to walk on.  Our feet sunk in the sand very fast.  One of the employees at the visitor's center said they haven't had rain there since Labor Day of last year, WOW!  They told us to come back after it rains because it packs down the sand and allows you to slide down faster. 

We had a great time but it was very hot!  It was a long trek back to the car.  Lane and I had to take several breaks to keep from passing out.  Jenna had it the easiest  because Kyle carried her the whole way.  Needless to say, we all drank lots of water afterwards.  We saw a roadrunner on our way out.  I am just glad we didn't see a snake!  One good thing about the temps being so high is that the "wildlife" is staying under ground.  We hope to make another trip when the weather gets cooler.

Getting Used To Life In Midland

We are starting to adjust to our new home in Midland.  The children are doing great in their new surroundings.  A few days after we moved here, Lane started swim lessons at the COM.  It is an awesome facility that has five pools and an olympic size pool with diving boards.  On Thursday, Lane got to jump off the diving boards and swing on the rope. 

We have been trying to keep busy!  Midland hosts a 4th of July children's parade each year.   The children decorate their bikes, scooters, strollers,etc. to show their patriotism.   Very last minute, we decided to go.  We made a quick stop at Target to get a few decorations and decorated Lane's bike and Jenna's stroller when we arrived.  Next year, I will definitley plan ahead for the decorations.  Many of the children were all decked out.  All in all, it was a really fun morning.  On our way home we discovered a jumping place.  Lane was begging to go there.  So we ate a quick lunch and then took the kids jumping.  The strange thing was we ended up being the only ones there.  After going home and resting we headed a few miles west to Odessa for the Firecracker Fandango.  The children enjoyed food, crafts, balloons, and even stayed awake for the 10pm fireworks! (It really doesn't get dark here until around 9:30).  One really positive thing about this move is it has allowed us to spend much more time together as a family!  I have more photos to share but my computer isn't cooperating right now.  I will try again soon!

Midland Bound

In October 2010, when Kyle first told me of the job opportunity he had been offered I really never thought it would happen!  A week later we flew to Midland for the first time to check and see if it would be a place we would be willing to move our family to (neither one of us had ever been to West Texas before).  We were shocked when it really looked a lot like where we live and not like a dusty, western city.  Everyone we met was friendly, there were nice neighborhoods, and lots of restaurants.  We couldn't really object to it except for the fact that it would be eight hours away from both of our families.  In January, Kyle started his new job while the children and I stayed in Pearland to finish the school year.  Again, I knew I still had many months before it would be my turn to really move!  My goal, was to take each day one at a time.  Teaching school all day, baseball practice and games 3-4 times a week, school activites, and a rambunctious little girl in the mix, was a challenge for this "single" mom!  Thankfully, I have wonderful family and friends who helped me many times along the way!  I couldn't have done it without them!  The last few weeks, my focus has been on finishing the school year, saying good-bye to co-workers, students, friends, and packing up my classroom.  Today it finally sunk in that we really are moving in one week!  We went outside this evening and Lane couldn't find his bike and asked me where it was.  I told hime that Kyle had taken it to Midland last weekend.  He began crying and it hit me, he won't ever ride his bike up and down our street again. Leaving our house and sweet neighbors is going to be hard!  I am full of many emotions: excitement, sadness, anxious,overwhelmed (just to name a few).  I am excited to have the opportunity to stay at home with my children, which is something I have always wanted to do.  I look forward to what this next chapter in our lifes holds.  I decided to create this blog to keep up with all of our family and friends as well as a way to chronicle all of our new adventures!    Next Friday, we will drive eight hours to get to our new home.  Please pray that our drive there is as un-eventful as possible!  Thanks for Keeping Up With The Jordon's!