The Winter Blues

I have spent the last month or so in the winter blues.  This is how the last month has gone...

1. Technical blog problems
2. Court wrapped up with Emmy's dad
3. My last blog post got deleted because of the technical problems
4. Emmalyn scared the crap out of us while at school one day and was rushed to Children's (she's good now)
5. My hours got cut at work
6. It snowed in late March

Through it all I have managed to come out stronger.  I am a strong woman and I want Emmalyn to grow up and be proud of her Mommy.  I don't want her to ever think I didn't live my life because I was stuck in my 40 (35) hour a week job, working to pay the bills and doing nothing more.  I want to take Emmalyn on vacation, I want to have a savings acct so I don't have to worry about emergencies, I want to redo my closet and my kitchen! 

After all of this last month, I have came up with 2013 goals because I am the type that I have to write things down so I can see them crossed off when I'm done...

1. Start my own business
2. Help that business become as successful as possible
3. Blog at least once a week..because I love it
4. Try a new recipie every week
5. Go to DC
6. Take Emmalyn to the beach
7. Stick it out with my current employer even though I'm disappointed in my hours cut
8. Go back to college
9. Go to Canada
10. Find a new place to live
11. Budget my money better
12. Volunteer my time or services more often 
13. Make sure my mom knows how much I love her
14. Enjoy 2013!

I am more than capable of doing these things.  I want to see that I have done these things by December.  

I have started my own business with my best friend....and I am so excited about it! We are going to do so well at this, I have so much faith in us. 

After the last month or two I have decided that I deserve to be happy, I deserve to let myself be happy.  I may want more things in my life but right now life is what it is and I am going to make the most of it.  

Birthday Party Planning

I am becoming so proud of myself for learning how to do things for free on my computer when I could just pay for it to be done online.

Emmy's birthday is coming up soon and I recently created her birthday invite...

Theme : Yo Gabba Gabba also know in the E household as BABA!

It's pretty simple but that's just what we needed! Cute, simple, and cheap!!!

I'm still working on the other Baba birthday stuff I can't wait to put this together for her party! (and to share the pictures)

We love to get messy with paint...

Emmy has created some beautiful Valentine's day cards that her family will be getting in the mail this week...

We have so much fun with arts and crafts.  For the rest of the week she kept pointing to the pink paint and asking to paint again, needless to say we have a lot of pink paper in our house right now.

LOVE it!

Snow Snow Snow!!

This past weekend Emmalyn went to her Dad's, and I worked...a lot.  Emmalyn visits her dad every other Saturday until Sunday and during that time I try to not miss her so much by working as much as possible. 

When I picked her up on Sunday she was really interested in playing in the snow, as cold as it was I didn't want her to stay out there long so we played for a minute and then I brought the snow inside....

I am so glad I did, because she had so much fun.  At first we just played with it and talked about how cold it was and wet, and how she didn't like it on her toes.  

...and then my little baby put the snow in her mouth!!! grosssss!! eww eww eww!!

The initial thought of her eating the snow was gross... but who hasn't tried snow!? I used to make snow Ice Cream! So I decided to document it and those faces made it so worth it. :) 

We also got creative with the snow...

Food coloring & snow turned out to be a very cool Mommy/Emmalyn moment.  

I just love moments like these!

Cutting Out the Fat

I've been thinking a lot about my five year plan recently and what matters most to me.  The biggest thing on that list is buying Emmy and I a home.  I want to have a place that we can paint our rooms, mount our TVs and most importantly have a "doggy".  

After I realized what the most important goal was to me, I started thinking about how I'm going to get there.  I have wrote things down on paper, emailed myself tips, googled almost anything I could imagine regarding budgets, and I am still trying to figure out how to do it.

I also set a strict timeline for myself.  I want to buy a home by March 2014.  I want to have Emmy's next birthday party at my house.

I decided the biggest thing was to start cutting the fat out of my life.  Cut the debt out of my life, cut the expensive dinners out of my life, cut the extra expenses that we can avoid.

I have recently become a coupon mom, and I love it.  I "like" lots of coupon sites on facebook, I have started looking at second jobs, and started spring cleaning a little early.  If my house is less cluttered I will at least be a little less stressed as I continue to reach this goal.

I want this so bad!

It felt good to write out my plan.  :) Ahhhhh!  

This is kind of what I want....

I would say this post is very scatter brained but that's exactly how I feel when thinking about this topic.

Keep Calm

Image via CrunchBase

Calm : a state of tranquility.


This picture is so funny to me.  I have a very busy 23 month old daughter and calm is not a state that I feel that I am in very often.  Don't get me wrong I love that little thing more than life itself but when she's putting all the toilet paper in the toilet, or screaming because I won't let her walk down the stairs all by herself, I am feeling anything but calm.  

This week I have tried to slow down, calm down, and enjoy her.  I laugh when she colors on my walls and when she pulls out all her diaper and tries to put them on her babies...Because right now she is making memories.  Which brings me to one other thing that I found on the internet this week

I found this on this WONDERFUL Etsy Shop! 

How true is this!? My house doesn't need to be perfect, but the memories need to be worth it!  

Valentine

Emmalyn's school is having a Valentine's day party and of course I wanted to send her with Valentine's for her classmates.  I saw a similar idea on Etsy and figured I could come up with my own version...

I found a  Fish Bowl Template on Google,

I then went to Google+ and used the Picnik editing on there to add my text.  Because the font selection is AMAZING!!

How cool is this!? I left enough room on the left side to add cupcake flavored Goldfish (YUMMY).  I bought the mini bags in the Valentine's aisle at Target.  

I can print these at home, with paper and ink that I already have and the total cost to me was $5, including the goldfish and they are ADORABLE!! 

I'm so proud of how cute these are.  

Don't pay for the PDF from someone else, you can do this much cheaper on your own.  It only took me 20 minutes. 

If you do something cute, can I see it?  I can always use cute ideas/suggestions!!!