Random Acts of Christmas Kindness 2014 - Free Printable

I realize I have been away awhile - life is crazy in my house right now with holiday season in full swing, along with the celebration of a 1st and a 3rd birthday. Basically, we are running non-stop right now!

However, I need to make time for this post so I can share with anyone who might need this.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile (anyone? Bueller?) then you might remember my thoughts about the tragic events that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. Just knowing someone who has lost a child to something so heartbreaking really struck me and since then I wanted to make an effort every year to honor Olivia Engel, and each of the other 25 lives lost that day.

My older daughter just turned 3 and she is at an age where she can really absorb the concept of kindness and how to share that with other people. Recently I shared with my Facebook and Instagram friends the Random Act of Kindness cards I put together for December. My plan is to involve my children as much as possible when we prepare and share these random acts, and spread some kindness both inside my home and around our community in honor of the Sandy Hook Angels.

Meanwhile, several people have requested the cards I made, so it makes sense to attach them here so anyone can have access to them.

Please print these out, and start sharing the kindness - it can be anything from paying for someone's coffee at Starbucks to cooking someone dinner - be creative!

I hope to post pictures soon of our experiences with this effort, and I'd love to hear how others have used the cards!

Download Random Act of Kindness Cards .pdf here!

Project: Personalized Alphabet Book

If you've read a couple other posts, you know I am trying to expose Bugga to the alphabet as much as possible. Right before her 2nd birthday I thought it would be a great occasion to gift her with her very own Alphabet Book! Since I knew she loved her books so much and read them over and over, combined with knowing that she loves looking at our pictures of her on our phones, an Alphabet book using pictures of HER would be perfect.

I used Blurb.com, which is my go-to company for making photo books. You can pretty much set the layout to ANY design you want, versus the other companies that have very rigid templates that I used to get so frustrated with.

Some examples I saw online used just one word for each letter, but I noticed Bugga latching on to that one example and not letting go. (For example, "H is for Horse" is what she calls "H".) Therefore, I used several examples wherever I could (there are some very difficult letters to find photos for) so she knew that MANY words started with that letter.

Here is an example of 4 of our pages from the book:

To help you out, here are the words we used for each letter:

A - Airplane, Art, Asleep

B - Ball, Beans, Beam, Bath, Bunnies, Bucket, Beach

C - Chicks,Climb, Cuddle, Crying

D - Dig, Dress, Dog

E - Eggs, Eye, Elephant

F - Family, Fingers

G - Giraffe

H - Hat, Helmet, Hiking, Horse, Happy

I - Ice

J - Jeans

K - Kicking, Kiss, Kitchen, Kitty

L - Laugh, Letters

M - Messy, Mommy, Mirror, Motorcycle

N - Naptime, Nose

O - Ocean

P - Phone, Play, Puzzle

Q - Quack

R - Read, Relax, Ring

S - Shoes, Slide, Stripes, Sunglasses

T - Toes, Tongue, Toys, Tunnel, Tutu

U - Up

V - Valentine

W - Water, Window, Watermelon

X - Xylophone

Y - Yogurt

Z - Zipper

Oh Canada...Baby!

Well, she's here! On December 21st we welcomed our little dual citizen to the family! "Bella" joined us at 2:24 PM after we patiently waited for her arrival...and she was only 6 days late! As I am sure I will be posting about her as much as her older sister, "Bugga", I'm going to continue with my little blog nicknames to have a little fun with my kiddos' names without putting them out there before they have an opinion on the topic.

Things are going great with us, and I have to say, as much as I didn't want my poor kids to have holiday birthdays, it is definitely nice to have my husband home for some extended time from work so we can navigate these crazy baby and toddler waters together until I can get my Mom act together to get back to doing this on my own during the week.

If Bella had taken much longer I was scheduled to be induced on Christmas Day, which I was NOT excited about! Fortunately she found her way out a few days prior and we were all able to spend our first Christmas in Calgary home in our cozy living room, fireplace going, snow coming down outside, and one exSTATIC 2 year old...it has definitely been a Christmas to remember!

Happy holidays to all, and I wish everyone an exciting and prosperous 2014!

Project: 2013 Memory Box

I saw a cute and easy idea on Pinterest (of course), so this is my variation of it...

This is a bit of a year-long project, but it is an easy one. Keep a box (or a jar if you go that route) in an easy location, like the kitchen counter, and fill it with fun/happy/touching memories that happen throughout the year. Then, open the box on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve and relive those great moments with your family.

Memory Box

Supplies Needed:

• cardboard box (I used a recently-emptied Kleenex mini-box - it already has a hole in the top, and reusing is my favorite way to go with trash)
• fun paper
• scotch tape
• hot glue gun
• decorative items (punches, paint pen, etc.) - optional, whatever you have!

Instructions:

1. Wrap the box in the decorative paper like you would a gift box. In my example, I used two different designs (black & white polka dots, and teal & white stripes), and split them over the opening so I did not have to cut too much. Use scotch tape to hold down ends.
2. Since there are now 2 scotch-taped sides, those are the sides I used for the "2013" signs so as to cover up my tape mess. In this example, I used purple cardstock cut to almost cover an entire side, punching out the corners to give it a more tailored look. Then I cut a glittery foam sheet slightly smaller and stuck it straight to the purple paper. I then hot-glued the sign over one scotch-tape side. 
3. Decorate the signs, and boxes, as desired! I might dress mine up some more, but for now, I'm keeping it simple.
4. Add memories throughout the year!
5. On New Year's Eve (or another night at the end of the year), open the box up when your family is together and read each of the memories. This is a great way to remember how the year went, while adding more reasons to celebrate!

New Year...More of the Same!

This is the time of year where people usually make really elaborate plans to be better, do better, live better. And I suppose everyone could use a little personal improvement on some level.

However, thinking this over, I really don't want too much to change in my life. Well, except maybe to slow down the growth of my daughter - she is getting way too big, way too fast. My husband and I are truly loving every minute with her, and with each other, and realize that we are very lucky to have what we do, and to live such full lives.

So my New Year's Resolution for 2013 is to continue to take time every day to really LOOK at my husband and really LOOK at my daughter and acknowledge how I feel in those moments and all the moments before and after.

Oh, and I would also like to resolve to go to bed before midnight on weeknights. I had to get that in there too.

Happy New Year everyone!

Activity: Baby's First Painting

As an arts and crafts fanatic, I have been eagerly awaiting the time when my daughter is old enough to understand being crafty and how much fun it can be. WELL apparently 8 months is that age!

My two main missions with any baby craft are to a) not make a ridiculous mess, and b) not poison the baby. Starting a baby with a crafty project comes with some limitations. Obviously I want to do what I can to prevent anything dangerous from going into her mouth (like everything seems to do lately), and should it accidentally get there, it can't be dangerous.

So this project is a perfect starter idea. I have seen variations of this craft across Pinterest, but here is my version. It is safe, mess free (yippee!) and you will even have your first piece of Fridge Art when it is completed.

Items you will need:

• non-toxic paint (I used primary colors and had white on hand for lightening up the different combinations)
• 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bag
• cardstock/paint paper (the thicker paper can handle the globs of paint better)
• that's it!

1. Put a "glob" (that's a technical term - perhaps poker-chip size) of each paint color on a different part of a piece of paper.

2. Carefully place the paper with paint inside the Ziploc bag. Seal the bag.

3. Start squishing away! Help you baby push and smear the paint all around, mixing the colors as you go. I spent a lot of time talking about each color and the colors that resulted from the mixing.

4. Once the fun is over, carefully remove the paper from the bag. Make sure you are out of the reach of your baby (mine wanted to help). Set the paper someplace safe to dry over a piece of newspaper. Once dry, hang that baby (the art, not the literal baby) on the fridge for prominent display!

For additional projects, use specific paint colors, and then cut shapes from the finished and dried paper. You can cut pieces to make flowers, frames, etc. - these are perfect for birthday cards for family or Father's Day gifts!

Project: Baby's First Day Memory Box

I wanted to preserve and display all the mementos I have been saving from Bugga's entry into this world. I have several souvenirs from that exhilarating trip to the hospital for her birth...and of course that day changed our lives so it is fun to think back on it. I thought a shadowbox with all of these memories would be a great way to present everything.

There are all sorts of ways to build a memory box like this...this is my version and how I did it.

Items you can use:

Collect items used in the hospital 

• baby hat
• baby shirt
• newborn-size diaper (or whatever size your munchkin was on Day One)
• hospital bracelets
• going-home outfit
• baby socks/gloves
• first bottle, etc.

You can also use other relevant things like the baby announcement, baby footprints and photos.

Also craft items...

• shadow box (I picked up mine at Michael's with a handy 40% off coupon so it was about $12)
• craft paper with a bright design
• tape/rubber cement
• pearl-head pins (I used the ones that came with the shadow box, but there were only 4)
• safety pins
• letters (I pulled out what I had on hand - some little wood letters left over from some wedding projects, sticker letters, etc.) or a nice calligraphy pen for adding the baby's name (you can also just print off your printer using a specific font
• corner punch

1. I printed off a few special pictures on our home printer. You could also get some prints done on photo paper, but I didn't feel like waiting that long to get them. I just edited 6 pictures in Picasa to make them black and white (to keep the crowded box from feeling even more busy) and printed them on regular paper. Obviously, the more pictures you want to use, the smaller you need to print them. I wanted to use those special moments - when Mom (hey that's me!) and baby first met, the first time Daddy got to hold the new family member...I also wanted one with our Labor & Delivery nurse because she was that fantastic.

2. I opened up the shadow box and removed the back. I laid out the items to make sure they all looked right and were not a complete mess (it is easy to get carried away). I have seen projects like this that are just the baby hat and a little name plaque, but I wanted to use pictures, the little shirt Bugga wore, and the teeny bracelet that went around her ankle so I needed to find a layout that looked put together. I essentially did a photo background and then laid out the little outfit on top of that.

3. Once I was happy with the layout, I removed the items and started working layer by layer. I used tape to affix the craft paper over any of the shadow box background that would be exposed after everything is in place to add a pop of color. Then I used tape cement to keep the pictures in place where you want them.

4. I taped the diaper in place from the top so it "hangs" from the display. I then pinned up the shirt in the back using safety pins for a "tucked in" look, and used push pins to hang the shirt, as well as the little hat.

5. I attached the hospital bracelets in the remaining open space using tape on the back so you cannot see it when displayed.

6. I thought about putting a headshot of Bugga between the hat and the shirt, but once I saw how that looked, the display didn't feel right. Instead I added a little name plaque so we know which baby this is for (easy now with only one...but there could be more!). I used a piece of solid craft paper, punched the corners to give them a softer look, and used silver letters for her name.

7. Put the shadow box back together and display!