Introducing.....

Miss Penelope Rose Robison!  

She was born on Monday at 5:13 pm, 4 days over due and she made a speedy arrival!  We are so blessed to have another sweet baby girl.  Ronnie is outnumbered and he's totally cool with it.  

As you can see...she's already making quite an impression.  jk She's a wonderful baby...already eating and sleeping well!  Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! More pictures and stories to come soon...for now we are all resting and getting to know each other at home.

Blessings!

My Grandma's Quilt

by Holly

My family does not keep things.  If it is "old" we tend to throw it out, or put it out on the curb for the Salvation Army.  Passing on family heirlooms seems like a foreign concept in our circle, until recently.  We moved my grandmother out of the house that she has lived in for the past 40 years, and I got a chance to set aside some special things.
One of those things is the quilt my grandmother made to celebrate the bicentennial.  She lived about 8 hours away when I was growing up, so trips to Grandma and Grandpa's were always a fun vacation.  My sister and I would stay in one of her guest rooms (picture floor to ceiling thimble cases and needle point art).  It had two twin beds with one of these quilts on each one.  I have some very fond memories of sleeping in that room with my sister and wrapping up in my quilt at night.
When we moved her out, I asked her if I could have one (my sister has the other one).  At this point, they are pretty faded and definitely show some wear and tear.  But I couldn't wait to get mine cleaned up and find it a place of honor in our home.  Wanna see it?

I know that this pic doesn't do it justice.  Each flower is a different patriotic print fabric.  It is so happy and I LOVE it!

  My goal this week is to write my grandma a letter telling her how much I appreciate the quilt and showing her it's place of honor.  Maybe she can tell me a little more about it and I can learn it's story.  This is something that I look forward to passing on to my kids.
Do you have any special family pieces?  They are so comforting!  And now mine has a special place (and I have a cozy "new" quilt for my new favorite reading spot).

Makes me want to curl up right now (although it is a bit warm at this point, but soon...).
Happy Tuesday!
Exciting news coming from Mollie tomorrow..... stay tuned.

Momma's got a brand new bag!

by Holly

Just in case you're wondering... no, I haven't taken over the whole blogging thing.  Mollie is on baby watch (today is her due date) and we are waiting....................  So, I am just looking forward to adding stuff on here a couple times a week until the baby comes and Mollie gets some recovery time and rest.  Wait, maybe I am taking over :(

Anyway, one of my bestest friends in the world gave me the new Amy Butler book, "Style Stitches" for my birthday.  Of course that was 6 months ago, but I really wanted to make one of her bags.  It has a lot of structure to it, and I was a bit intimidated at first.  But, I was able to take my time with it last weekend and now... Momma's got a brand new bag!

Of course my family's first response was, "You made yourself ANOTHER bag?"  But I can't help myself!  I have stuck with a sling style bag for a while now, which was great for carrying sippy cups, snacks, wipes, etc.  But now it is time to move on.  This bag is just for me.  It has some great divider pockets inside and, sorry kids, no room for your cars, food, or even rocks (they have many collections).

I made it out of outdoor, canvas fabric so it is sturdy and wipes clean.  WooHoo!  Can you sense my excitement?  I love taking this baby out!
If you're up for a project, her book has some fun stuff and they range from beginner to expert so you can learn and grow along the way.
And now that play time is over, it is back to getting ready for the next Queen Bee Market coming up in August.  Hope you all are enjoying your summers!  Happy Thursday!

Homemade Daddy's Day

by Holly

This past weekend was crazy!  We had 3 parties at our house over 4 days, with the final one being our "Daddy's Day" celebration.  Unfortunately, Big Man was sick with a fever (where it came from, I'll never know and, luckily, it left as quickly as it came) so our plans were a bit altered.  Ideally, my husband would have loved to spend the day hiking, swimming, or anything outdoors.  The weather was beautiful and we were ready... until Big Man started acting all weird and loopy.  We took his temperature (101.3) and then spent Saturday night in and out of sleep since he moved into our room and "slept" on the floor.
Despite our sleep deprivation, our family came over after church (needless to say, I stayed home with the boys) and we had a nice time being together and eating tri-tip sandwiches (yum!).
This year, I really wanted the kids to give their dad something that they could make.  He will have a new office pretty soon, since our church is looking for a new building, so I thought that a plaque or frame that he could put in his new office would be nice.  I found a great wood frame at Michael's that I stained, and then Big Man could stencil something on the bottom.  I took a picture of all the boys at the beach the other day, which was the perfect picture to put in the frame.  Here is how it turned out...

Poor Big Man, trying his best to look chipper.  In case you can't tell... the frame says "Behind every good kid is a great dad".  Big man was so proud that he did the letters (I cut out a stencil for him to use with my cricut).

I also got into the homemade act.  At Easter, I made the boys neck ties out of some great, golden yellow, vintage inspired fabric.  Well, as soon as I made the boys' ties my husband began asking where his was.  Unfortunately, I had run out of fabric and when I went back to get more, it was gone.  Bummer! 
But, happy day!  Last week they got more in stock and I knew that making him his tie for Father's Day would be perfect.

So, while the day didn't exactly go as we had expected, it was a special day as we celebrated a great Daddy!!!

Those boys love their daddy.  (I think he's pretty great too!)  Hope you had a great day as well, celebrating the dad's in your lives.  Happy Tuesday!  Oh, and we have added some new items to our etsy shop if you want to take a look.

Summer Snackin'

by Holly

Our summer is off to a bang.  With 3 growing boys in the house, someone is ALWAYS hungry.  And, unfortunately, they take after me.  Not only are we hungry, but we get grumpy as well.  So, I am looking for fun ways to keep them fed.  I tend to let them roam the pantry when they get hungry, but they aren't always making the best choices (and neither am I, but THEY don't need to know that).  They usually start begging me to get down the candy bucket (supposedly reserved for special occasions).  Today I found an answer to this predicament.  I have to admit that familyfun.com is my inspiration.  I love this website.  Tons of great suggestions and easy ways to have simple fun with the kids.  So, we made hard boiled egg mice (crazily enough, I have always thought mice were cute) and strawberry ladybugs.  Here's how it goes...

 For the mice all you need is a hard boiled egg, olives, radishes, and I used a parsley tale (different than the suggested chives).  Slice the egg in half, cut thin radish slices for the ears, cut little eyes out of the olive, and cut off a tail from the parsley.  Here are all the pieces cut...

  Put the egg yoke side down and push the ears down into the egg.  Using a toothpick, poke two holes in the egg where the olive eyes will go and then stick the olive pieces in the holes.  Put your tail in the back, and you get this cute little guy...

We even gave him a little wedge of cheese to nibble on.  So cute!
Here's what you need for the ladybugs...

Super simple... strawberries (cut out the stem), red grapes, mini chocolate chips, and skewers.


Put a grape on the end of the skewer and stick the skewer through the strawberry so the grape tucks inside the end where the stem was.  Then, just take the pointy end of the mini chocolate chip and push it into the strawberry in two rows.  Here's our little ladybug...

And here's the best part...

Happy Snackin'!

Just in case...

by Mollie

  As all of you know I am about 2 week out from having our 2nd little baby! We feel so blessed to even be able to have kiddos so we have decided to keep the gender of the baby a surprise!  Zoie's nursery is going to be both of the kids room so we have already transformed the lilac and white girly nursery into a fun apple green and white kids room. Totally gender neutral but still a fun pop of color.  

  I am totally in nesting mode right now and decided to make the kids matching outfits for when they get their photos taken.  We have an amazing family photographer (Cindy Kyle Photography) who is "on call" to come and get those adorable first few days shots of our new little family...but besides the adorable nakey pics we need matching outfits right?!? I started with a dress for Zoie. 

I followed Kelly's tutorial (Sewing in no mans land) but added length to make the shirt into a dress.  I have this fancy little rolling hem foot that saved me a ton of time on each of the ruffles and I used my gathering foot to make the ruffles themselves.  Of course she needed a matching headband and Caterpillar shoes from Old Navy (Thanks Lindsey for the name of those shoes!) 

 Then I had to make an outfit for Mr. Man.  I made our signature bow tie onesie and took a little help from Wal-Mart with the shorts. ($3?!? how can you beat that?)

And for little Miss I made a flower onesie (buttons to be added in the center later) and a matching skirt.  I forgot how tiny their little bodies are!!!  Of course, matching hair clip (assuming she is born with hair, Zoie was!) 

I can't wait to meet our little bundle and dress him/her up in their new swag!  We finally settled on names for a boy and a girl so I am at peace... Now to just convince my husband to finally get the bassinet down from the attic and for me to pack my overnight back for the hospital...Then we are set to jet! 

 Don't forget to go to this post to put your entry into our contest! 

Blessings! 

Saying thanks

by Holly

Today was a sweet day. I was crazy busy with my kids school stuff, but in the middle of it all was a sweet moment of thanking middle-man's kindergarten teacher for an amazing year. The room mom from the class had approached me about making a gift card bouquet for her. To be honest, I had no idea what this meant. I looked up some ideas online, and then remembered that one of my most fabulous friends, Courtney, had just let me borrow one of her new cricut cartridges that makes flowers. Here it is here...

If you have a cricut, I highly recommend this cartridge. I have made quite a few fantastic creations with this one. It takes a little effort to get all the layers cut, but the outcome is super cute!
Now I know that not everyone has a cricut, so you can also get various foam flowers at Michael's and other craft stores that would work just as well. Here are the flowers I came up with...

All I did was stick them to craft sticks (at various heights), and put cardstock on the back of each flower (taped on the sides and bottom, leave the top open) to be the pocket for the card.

Parents went out and bought gift cards to various places, and some even gave her cash. I stuck them in the flowers and had each child in the class sign their name on a piece of ribbon that I tied to each craft stick. Then I stuck the sticks in a piece of styrofoam that I placed in a hot pink, woven basket that I found on sale at Michael's. Everything stayed nice and tight. Yay!
The sweet part was that Missy, the room mom, found the perfect book to go along with the "bouquet." It is called "Mrs. Spitzer's Garden." It is about a teacher who is given a packet of seeds from her principal to take care of for a year. She waters them, feeds them, and tends gently to them until they grow and become ready to move on. Oh my goodness, I am getting teary just thinking about it. We asked the teacher if she would read the book to the class and all of us moms just stood in the back and cried as she read. What a blessing to have such a fantastic teacher for your child's first year in school. I have to say, my kids have had some amazing teachers. I am so grateful!
So, along with the "flowers" with the gift cards, each child also placed a packet of seeds in the bouquet. Here is how it turned out...

It turned out even better than I had hoped, and middle man's teacher was speechless. So, all I can say is (and this doesn't even do justice) "thank you" to Mrs. Schiefer and Mrs. Finley for taking such good care of my little seeds this year.

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

cultivating creative minds

by Holly

O.K., now this may sound like a BIG title for the blog today, but just bear with me. I have been thinking a lot lately about summer. My boys are doing the end of the school year countdown (4 days to go) and I am starting (Yes, you caught me... just "starting". Insert panic here.) to wonder what we are going to do with our summer. One of our missions here at YeLLoWMeDaiSY is to bring out creativity in our kids. Yes, it is easy to invest in electronic do-dads and big ticket fun to keep them occupied. And sometimes asking them to shut all that off and just play is like pulling teeth.

One of my families favorite activities to do together is go camping. I don't necessarily like all the work that goes into it, but I always love the outcome. Usually about a day into it, we all get into a groove. A creative groove. We start really looking at the nature around us and we get inspired. Here is an example... 2 Christmases ago big man got his favorite Christmas present ever from my sister-in-law. A sketchbook. Here is the inscription on the inside...

While big man likes to draw, at first I think he was a bit intimidated by all blank pages inside. It has been 2 years now since that Christmas, let me show you some of his treasures...

That's one tough cowboy. And this one...

Grrrrrrrr. And one of my favorites...

This was during a camping trip (he always brings his sketchbook along). And now the pages are almost full and his is about ready to move onto a new sketchbook.

So, a big thank you to my sister-in-law for showing us that creativity doesn't have to be complicated. It can be as easy as a book of blank pages and a pencil.

This summer I am committing to creativity. Simple creativity (Hopefully, you won't find any project over 5 steps). I am committing to play forts, nature walks, sketchbooks, and probably even some interesting culinary creations. We will play this summer. And I am pretty sure that if I invest in this like I intend to, my kids are going to have their best summer ever. And we will all have some amazing memories of the crazy things we did all in the name of creativity.

Happy Thursday!

Simple Summer Fun

by Mollie

I used to be a preschool teacher.  I always enjoyed the simple activities that captivated kids imaginations and attention spans.  I loved using the simplest supplies for them to get busy learning and working. Zoie is only 18 months old but she has taken to throwing fits lately.  I am doing my best to ignore it and normally we move on but it seems that those few precious hours between afternoon nap and dinner can be especially challenging so I'm always looking for something fun to do and that's when I remembered this! 

Water painting!!  

I just filled up one of our empty golden spoon containers (yummo!!) with water and let her have at the sidewalk to paint.  She thinks she knows the alphabet so she starts with abc then makes a bunch of different sounds and ends with a resounding Z!!  She sat and painted for almost 20 min without wanting to get up or move! For those of you who know her, that's AMAZING!!!!!!! 

Of course then we moved on to paint other things in our yard as well.... Like our security sign (it was actually pretty dirty so she helped mama out!) 

Her castle...

and of course the slide which she wanted to go down right after she got it all wet so she had a nice wet bottom and couldn't have been happier!

It was a great little activity that both mommy and baby enjoyed.  I spent some time "painting" our flowers and grass while she worked hard.  Love the summer time and can't wait to do more fun things with my baby girl! Now if only this other baby would arrive so I wouldn't have to waddle around anymore.  Don't forget to check out Monday's post and put in your vote for a discount at our store!!

Blessings!