Penny's New 'Thing'

Today the 3 of us went on a walk, with Scott and I pushing Penny in her carseat, which fits into the stroller. This is what it is supposed to look like:

Notice the hood. The back of it is against the back of the carseat, and the front is pulled forward just enough to block the sun from her eyes without obstructing her view of the world.

Turns out, that's not how she wants it.

Yes, she has decided she wants the whole thing in front of her, and will pull it forward, no matter how bad the sun is in her eyes, or how many times we put it back the way it goes.

I Made This

Again, thank you, Pinterest. I saw an idea similar to this mail sorter, and made it my own.

Can you tell the reason I had to make these, based on whose box is overflowing?

Again, this cost me $0 to make. They are cereal boxes, cut to the right dimensions, covered with scrapbook paper (you could also use fabric or wrapping paper), with clothespins hot-glued to the front to hold anything important.

And now, Scott and I are not moving little piles of mail back and forth all over the house!

2 Things

1. How cute is this baby?

2. How awesome are our "Scott Smith original" shirts that Scott made for us? If you like them, or know someone who will, similar shirts (and other products!) can be purchased here. Also, if you have a specific design you'd like, let Scott know, and maybe he can draw it for you!

We love wearing our matching shirts made by our favorite guy!

I Made This

I've been seeing menu boards all over Pinterest lately, and I love the idea. I found this one in particular:

(found here)
and loved it.

So I decided to copy it.

This menu board is great because:
1. It's a spot to put down what you're making for the whole week and takes a lot of the stress away from planning dinners.
2. It is a nice list of what meals you make, for those times when your mind just goes completely blank even though you know you make tons of recipes.
3. You can put all the ingredients required on the back, which makes compiling a shopping list so much easier.

I did a few things differently- in the interest of cheapness, ease and my own taste.

First, I couldn't see wasting a perfectly good picture frame, so I just got a piece of wood and cut it to 11x14. Then I mod podged my paper onto it.

Also, since I don't have crayon boxes at my disposal, I used jello boxes. They were thicker than I wanted, so I ended up cutting them all the way along the side, then fitted the 2 pieces together and glued them in place. Does that make any sense? So they were still the same height and width, they just didn't stick out so much when I attached them. I just needed 1 box- I cut it in half and used the top for one box and the bottom for the other.

I used ribbon and Stickles for my clothespins, and cut out my letters on the Cricut and used a gel pen and Stickles to decorate them. I hot-glued the clothespins and the boxes to the board.

I drilled holes in the top and used wire to hang it.

I didn't laminate my cards (cheapness and ease- it will be easier to add new cards whenever I get new recipes this way), so I had to print on both sides of the paper. It took me a few times to get it all lined up, but it worked pretty well. I entertained the idea of color-coordinating the cards for main ingredients, but I haven't done that yet. If I decide to then I will just ink the edges.

Here's my sister's:
It was made using all the same techniques except we used a mac and cheese box.

This was all very easy and could have been done in an hour or two. (If you don't spend twice as much time messing around than you do actually working, like we do.) And it cost me $0 to make, since I already had all the supplies!

I Love to Read

Penny loves books! (In case you can't tell by the millions of pictures I have taken of her with them)

She holds the book while I am reading and will even turn the pages!

I have tried very hard to get it on video but it never works out.

As Scott and I are both avid readers, we are so excited about this!

This is a book about hearts I was reading to her at the doctor's:

Terrible, huh?

She also thinks anything that glows is wonderful.

We don't let her watch TV but if she is in the same room as it, she will wiggle herself around until she can see it.

She still hates tummy time. She will be like this for usually about the first 3 minutes of it:

But quickly turns into this:
She has found her thumb!

And loves it.

She also loves her dolly:

And we love her.