Kind Words Printable (perfect for Valentines!)

I had an idea yesterday that simply COULD NOT wait! :)

If you remember, earlier in the year I posted about our family motto for 2012. You can read all about it HERE.

The motto we chose is Love is Spoken Here. I feel very strongly that home needs to be a safe place, a place where you always feel loved and important. Seeing our motto up in my living room made me think about last year around Valentines Day. I did a fun Family Home Evening that used conversation hearts to tie in the importance of using kind words. I wanted to do something similar this year when I thought up this idea last night.

First of all, I wanted a printable that talked about the importance of words, kind ones especially! I FIRMLY believe in the importance of words. They have the utmost ability to build you up or completely tear you down. Saying something kind is something SO small we can each do in our own lives to bless those around us. I have some people in my life that thing I am really awesome. They think I am more awesome than I am :) But because of their kind words...I want to try and become that awesome person they think I am . THAT'S what words can do for us!

I made this printable using one of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa

After I had my printable all ready to go I placed it in a frame for this purpose:

Starting February 1st, every day we will pick a kind word or phrase that we will focus on for the day. Using a dry erase marker we will write that word on the frame to help us have a constant reminder. We will continue to pick a new word every day until Valentines!

I am so excited to see how using more kind words will change the spirit in our home. I am excited to focus more on the words I speak to my children and husband, and everyone else in my life. If you want to join me in this challenge, I made some printables for you too :)

All my Valentines Decor is in Aqua, Hot Pink, and Light Pink. In case you are a little more traditional with your colors, here is one you may like too :)

In the spirit of this post...THANK YOU so much for all of you that take the time to leave me so many kind words on this little blog! It always brightens my day and makes me want to be better.

I hope you enjoy these printables and that you FEEL the love more in your home as you focus on Kind Words!! :)

Snowflake Soup

This week we are learning all about snowflakes! Couldn't have come at a better time, since quite a bit of snow got dumped on us today :)

Today I thought of a fun little play on the traditional "Snowman Soup"....instead, I made Snowflake Soup. I think my kids are going to LOVE this as their after school snack tomorrow.

If you are going to make Snowflake Soup...all you need are some Powdered Snowflakes :)

Or in other words...some French Vanilla Hot Chocolate :)

You just take a warm cup of milk, add a few scoops of Powdered Snowflakes, and you have your very own Snowflake Soup.

Just because everything is more fun when its cute, I spray-painted a mason jar lid blue, added some polka dot fabric tied around the middle, and printed off a little label to top it off.

Hope you are having a great (and snuggly!) day! :) Thanks for stopping by!

http://funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com/2012/01/too-cute-tuesday-linky-par-tay-67.html

http://jaysonandashley.blogspot.com/2012/01/tell-me-tuesday-32.html

What a trip!

Wow! We have been gone for 2 weeks and it is SO great to be back home! You really see how blessed your life is when no matter HOW fantastic your vacation is...your favorite place to be is home :)

We have a bunch of new followers...thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you see some things you like, and as always, PLEASE contact me if you have any question or are interested in guest posting or blog-swapping!

We had quite the adventure on our vacation, starting with a day at SeaWorld, then one week at the beautiful island of Maui, and ending with 3 days at Disneyland! Yep...I'm exhausted :) I took about a bizillion pictures at all of these places, but tried to contain myself when posting them :) Here are some quick highlights of our very first trip without the kiddies in HAWAII!!

(and yes...I do realize there are a lot of pictures of me...feel free to scroll down if you want!;)

I have always wondered if they really give you a lei when you get off the plane...wouldn't that be incredibly expensive?! Luckily I got my lei when we arrived at the hotel...I would have been seriously dissapointed! ;)

This was the awesome view from our hotel room, we had a great patio with two loungers and a table with chairs. I loved waking up (fairly) early in the morning and going out to read, listening to the waves crash on the beach....SO relaxing!

We were exhausted the first day we got there and ended up taking a nap in the late afternoon. This is what we woke up to out our patio...

One really fun thing we did was to go golfing at one of the gorgeous courses by our hotel. It was my first time and I totally loved it! I want to take lessons so this spring and summer I can go out with Paul. It was a great place to have your first experience, just driving around the beautiful course in the cart was fun!

This is what we saw when we came out of our hotel every day...isn't it just amazing! I was constantly saying to Paul, "I can't believe we are in Hawaii! We are golfing in Hawaii! Can you believe we are whale watching in Hawaii?!" It is just so incredibly gorgeous.

The final night we were there we attended a Hawaiian Luau at a stunning villa RIGHT on the beach. It was rented out for the night and is officially my new dream home :)

These tables are where we sat for dinner, then the dancers came out with the trees and ocean as their beautiful backdrop.

One of the coolest things about going to Hawaii right now is all the whale watching you can do! We were lucky to go out 2 times, the first time was a combination whale watching and snorkeling excursion...we liked it so much we went back out again a few days later to see more whales. I loved this catamaran that we rode on...it was so fun!

Paul's favorite activity in Hawaii was learning how to surf. He was REALLY good at it, I was very ipressed. Since I am really uncoordinated and really bad at swimming...I layed out on the beach and took pictures :)

One of my favorite things about Hawaii?! Getting all dressed up! As a busy mom I am usually the last one to get ready, it was fun to take the time to get all ready to go out on the town with my guy :) And the shopping before Hawaii was pretty fun too :)

The best part about our trip was spending so much time with this guy. After almost 10 years of marriage and 4 beautiful children, he is still my best friend. I laughed every time someone asked us if we were on our honeymoon, but really, I still feel like we are. Every marriage has its struggles and is a lot of WORK, but all that work makes for the best reward. An eternal companion that I would never be complete without, I love you Paul! :)

Thanks for indulging me and all my pictures! I am excited to get back to real life and post some fun things I have had stewing in my head while I was gone. Thank you so much to everyone that emailed me or left comments while I was gone, I try to respond but I am sure I missed some of you. Stay tuned for lots more fun stuff at Blue Skies Ahead!! :)

Bath Paint...Fun in the Tub!!

I found this great idea on one of my favorite blogs, Meet the Dubiens, and knew immediately it was something my kids would love.

Homemade Bath Paint!

All you need to make this is baby wash, corn starch and a few drops of food coloring!

All you do is mix 1 C of body wash, 4 TBSP of corn starch, and one drop of food coloring. Really...just one! A little bit goes a long way, and this way there will be no staining!

I put them in some small tupperware containers I had on hand and store them in my kids bathroom. When we want to use them I pull them out, give my kids some paint brushes and they will play for EVER in the tub!

I also think these would make fun birthday gifts or party favors too. I know my kids may be getting some in their Easter baskets later in the year :) Have a wonderful day everyone!!

Disneyland Autograph Books

Hello everyone!! If this whole scheduled-post thing is working we are actually on our vacation right now, but I still wanted to share some fun things we did in the last year that you may not have seen before. We have a bunch of new followers here and I must say....THANK YOU so much for taking a few minutes out of your day and stopping by!

We are spending a few days at Disneyland with a bunch of family so I thought I would repost my Homemade Autograph Books I made last year for a trip. These were so quick and simple, and my kids LOVED them! It was a fun way to personalize something with their favorite characters....and mine were a little bit cheaper than the ones at the Magic Kingdom ;)

All you need to make some of your own are some of those 4x6 plastic photo books, I got mine at the dollar store. Then you print off your kids favorite character, add some wording and finish it off with some coordinating scrapbook paper!

In ours I just kept a handful of index cards in my bag. When we would see a character I would hand my kids a pen and their index card. Once it was signed I put it in one side of the picture book, then when we came home I printed out pics with that character and put them on the other side.

My kids loved their autograph books! I let them each pick out what characters they wanted and I LOVED that they only cost me a dollar a piece! :)

Thanks for stopping by today! We will be home soon and I have some fun craft ideas, activities for the kiddos and LOTS more!

More Candy Heart Jewelry...Rings!!

These cute rings are JUST as easy as the Candy Heart Earrings I posted awhile back. All you need are your candy hearts, some glue, and some dollar store rings!

I got a bunch of those dress-up rings at the dollar store and popped out the gems. Then I let the girls pick what sayings they liked the most and we hot-glued the hearts on them. Don't you just love how the simplest things can make our kids so happy! :) My girls loved their rings and wore them for days.

That's it! :) Pretty simple, right?! Have a great day everyone! )

Pineapple Waffles and Tropical Green Smoothie

We had a simple, fun breakfast last week that I thought I would share today! We were still learning all about Hawaii and this little gem came to me as I was driving to the gym in the morning...isn't it funny how our crazy minds think of things?! :)

Pineapple Waffle and Tropical Green Smoothie

The whole thing took about 5 minutes to throw together...a must for any breakfast in our home!

First up you have your smoothie. My sis in law made these for us at our last girls weekend and I LOVED them! Its so simple, you just toss in the blender 2 handfuls of fresh spinach, one banana, half a bag of frozen fruit (I used mango and pineapple) and some V8 Splash juice (I used the mango peach). Blend it all up and enjoy! Yes...it is kind of a yucky color but my kids LOVE them and I love that they are chugging a cup full of spinach first thing in the morning :)

Add a fun little tropical umbrella and the kids think its really something special :)

For the pineapple I just made some whole-grain toaster waffles, shaped up the sides, and used apple slices to make the top.

Nutritious, filling, and FUN! Hope you enjoy! :)