Donovan - Bailey MS Football - 7th grade A Team

Donovan is special to my heart, not that he ranks above any of my other kids, not one is better than the other but what makes him so special you ask? Because see Donovan is not my biological child, I didn't birth him. He was a package along with my husband and I love him dearly. He's the sweetest boy and I love his sweet voice saying "April how was your day today?" every day when he see's me, he's usually the first one to ask anything and it's his own unique question.  I love how he'll walk up and gently rest his head on me and just say so how was your day, even if it is the 2nd or 3rd time he asked for the day.  I still answer each time. 

He is an amazing athlete and can play any sport with ease. He's the kind of kid anyone would be lucky to have around on a day to day basis.  And what is his sport of choice right now, well of course football.

I make arrangements every Monday to go to his game, I don't think I have ever missed a football game...(Actually 3 years ago when he played his Freshman year of little league, I missed it because Izaiah played on another team at different locations. So Justin and I had to split up.) And this year Izaiah has practice on Monday's, which at first worried me, I mean how can I get Izaiah to practice and still make D's games.....but luckily Izaiah has a great dad.  Even though he lives in Angleton, he will drive to Spring on Monday's pick Izaiah up and take him to practice, so I can attend Donovan's games with my husband.  (and if you don't know, Angleton is about a 60 to 90 minute drive one way from Spring, so that says a lot about his dad)

I may not be his biological mom but I do the same for him and love him the exact same as I do for my biological children.....I love our big blended family!

I have definately made football a frequent discussion on here, I can't help it, it's a major part of our lives.  And this year is another monumental year, it's Donovan's first year as a middle school football player.  He's on the 7th grade A-team, we literally are two years away from high school ball.  My husband is really looking forward to plenty more years of this. So I just have to share some images with you from last weeks games....

Okay so about this first one, this is something he does every game, several times a game, he's pointing out the ref and verifying that he is lined up correctly....just a small tid bit of info about him that the average person wouldn't notice.

Alexis "The Birthday Girl"

17 years ago ....I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  I was only 18 when I had her, most people know that her father went to prison just before she was born, I was an instant single teenage mother.  BUT, I had my amazing mother as my support system.

I will have to admit looking back on it all I would have to admit I did a damn good job raising her.  I've done it on my own, the the help I got from her father was basically a year, he got out of prision when she was 12 and was sent back.  He left me with a hurt little girl that I had to piece back together...I hate that I let him hurt her but I think it made her stronger.  She see through his bs and promises now.  I have a strong, smart and beautiful young woman who has such a bright future.  She's in honor classes at magna school for Nursing, she be taking duel credit classes for her senior year and when she graduates she'll already be able to work in the hospital while she continues on to college for Nursing.  She's strong and athletic, she is an amazing volleyball player.

She makes me so proud to be her momma!

All this talk about football......so it's time for some Volleyball pictures of my baby!

WESTFIELD COWBOYS - Scrimage #2 & CY LAKES vs KLEIN COLLINS

Football is starting....I know my husband is soooo happy. 

Besides Izaiah having scrimmage #2 a week ago, we now have my husband's nephew to watch.  He plays on varsity at Cy Lakes....# 55.  We got to attend one of his games last Saturday and I will admit I enjoyed it.  I love watching football when I have a personal vested interest.  I'm sorry but the NFL can suck it, lol....but shhh, don't tell my hubby I said that, K?  He loves ANYTHING football...me on the other hand, eh' not so much, EXCEPT that I enjoy watching my boys. 

Soon we will have 4 teams to watch....Izaiah on the Westfield Cowboys, Donovan will be on the junior high team for Bailey Buccaneers....and then my husband's nephews....one a junior at Cy Lakes playing Varsity and then other a freshman on the Cypress Longhorns, over in the YFF. 

It's going to be a busy season for us.

Here's a few from the Westfield Cowboys scrimmage #2 against the Patriots and then below you can see a few of Dion from the Cy Lakes and Klein Collins game last Saturday. 

COWBOYS vs PATRIOTS

CY LAKES vs KLEIN COLLINS

Our Family Central Command Station - A Family Communication & Homework Center

This year we decided we needed a better way of communicating and organizing our family.  With four kids all involved in activities and at three different schools we needed a way to organize our life.  In our home as you come up the stairs but before you enter my work area or the game room there is this empty space.  It's about the size of a breakfast room and I figured this would be the perfect place for our Family Central Command Center...

This is the before, I used this area to store and extra t.v. and some boxes filled with props, it was a catch all, basically a dumping site. It needed attention and it needed it bad.

So, I headed off to Ikea.  I love that Ikea is so budget friendly.  I got two small desk tops at $5.99 each, eight desk legs at $3.50 each, two wire bars at $4.99 each, three wire baskets at $2.99 each (only used 2), the package of metal hooks were $1.99 for 10, the white metal hanging file was $9.99 and the metal magnetic board was I believe $12.99.  Then I got the white dry erase board, large calendar and week at a glance dry erase at Office Depot.  The closet maid 9 square shelf came from Walmart and I believe it was $40.00 give or take.

A few things that I still want to add is a chore list, an area to pick up lunch money and a spot to list the daily chores.  I'm still working on that part.  Oh and a shopping list, see each kid has their own bathroom basket (maybe I am a little OCD) with all their OWN personal hygiene items (deodorant, soap, sponge, tooth paste, etc) and a centralized shopping list will help me know what everyone needs before I head to the store.  Because, I am so tired of hearing, "ah, you went to the store? I was going to tell you today I am out of toothpaste". 

And low and behold, what do we have here....my high school junior sitting here doing homework tonight.  I think this was a success!

Baby Name Blocks - Nursery Decor & Some Cute Onezies I Made - All For Baby Nathan

Okay so to follow up on my previous post, I talked about being unable to finish the gifts for Tiffany my sister-in-law....WELL, I'm back to tell you about the gifts.  I made a few and I purchased something as well.

To give a little background, my brother and Tiffany went with a nautical themed nursery.  Hence the nautical themed shower.....she was able to use a lot of the things I created in his room.  I'll be heading out to their house this weekend so I can get some pictures of his nursery before he gets here.  Here is what his bedding looks like......

Item number 1....

Now, I kept the theme in mind and ran across the cutest sign on amazon, since the room is nautical then deck signs would be appropriate. Right?  Well I found a Poop Deck brass sign....and of course I envisioned it properly mounted over his changing table.  And that is exactly where it is. Here is what the sign looked like when I bought it...

My brother did mount it to some stained wood and it really does look cute in his room.

So on to Item number 2..... the main part - the title to this post...

THE NAME BLOCKS...

I made wood blocks to read Nathan Ray to display in his room.  I  and I decoupaged nautical items on each side to match the nautical decor of his nursery.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out, I wanted them simple and I wanted them to coordinate.  The wood was a little rough in some places and had some dings but after I finished, I took a step back and realized I liked them that way, it gave them some charactor. They were very easy to make.  I had some one cute the wood blocks for me, since I do not have a saw, yet...It's on my list.  And I painted them a solid khaki color, then I cute letters and various shapes using my cricut.  I then glued the letters and shapes on and covered them with a decoupage glue to seal.  They turned out so cute!

Now.....Item number 3

I wanted to personalize some onzies for my new nephew, so I made these.  They are in various sizes and the black one being the smallest, so hopefully as soon as he gets here he can wear that one because we all know he will be awesome!  The white one is just an iron on decal I found at Hobby Lobby, I love frogs so when I saw this I knew it needed to be on a onezie for him.  And then of course there is the blue one, my favorite and I am sure it will be his as well.  The "Aunt" part was done with a stencile the same way I did the Really Awesome Dad shirt in this post HERE

Well that about sums up the goodies.....later gator!

DIY T-Shirt Screen Print (HOW-TO) - 1st Time Dad Hospital Survival Bag Gift

I spent so much time and energy on giving my sister-in-law, Tiffany sunch a great shower that I ran out of time and wasn't able to do a couple of things....

1. my gifts, UGH!  Such a big deal, right, I mean who doesn't get the mom-to-be a gift?  I know... but since most of my time went into decor and other ideas, my "projects" were put on the back burner.  (more on these projects in a follow up post)

AND

2. a special gift for my brother, I had this idea that I wanted to put together a "1st Time Daddy Gift".  I wanted it special but something he would like and maybe even use.  BUT....again I was all into decor and other ideas, that this "project" was placed on the back burner as well.

The week after the baby shower I spent it finishing both of these things.  But first I thought I would talk about and show you the gift I made for my brother.  I put together a hospital survival bag, I put his favorite snacks, some energy drinks and a bunch of  "It's A Boy" suckers to pass out at the hospital.  I passed on the cigars, lol...he would like those but the suckers I figured would be better received by all.

I also made him a shirt, not this is just not any shirt, this is the shirt that he will wear when Nathan is born....don't worry Tiffany was all on board and assured me he would wear it.  The front of the shirt says "This is what a really awesome dad looks like" then on the back I will bring a stamp pad so that we can stamp Nathan's footprints on the back and write in his day and time of birth, his weight and his length, this way is turns into a really great keepsake.

Now I was going to put this all in canvas bag and call it a day but then I thought, would he really carry this into the hospital and I knew the answer was no.  His birthday was about to come up and I knew we would be meeting for dinner so I ended up getting him a Dallas Cowboys duffle bag.  This way it will serve as the "survival" bag and he can use it later on.  He loved it!

We ended up meeting for his birthday dinner and I was able to give him the gift, it turns out this was a really great idea and he really liked it all.  Yay!

Here are a few shots of the bag and my brother, if you scroll down after you will see the DIY steps I took to make his shirt.  It turned out great, I love how it has a slight faded almost vintage tee look. 

So to make the shirt you need the following:

1. Fabric Paint

2. Freezer Paper

3. an Iron

4. Sponges

5. Cardboard

6. Cricut or another way to cut you design

I started off by cuting the sheets of Renoylds Freezer Paper to fit into my cricut, I designed the words on there and then cut them into the paper. 

I then ironed on the Freezer Paper, yes, that is it, no special glue, no majic....and it sticks!

I used my sponges to paint on the fabric paint.  The cardboard as you can see from the picture above it helps to keep the paint from soaking through to the back of the shirt. 

After I painted it, I let it dry for about 15minutes and before it was fully dry I peeled off the freezer paper, then I let it sit over night and dry completely.

An here is the finished shirt...pretty neat, huh?  You can make just about any design with this, it's so easy and cheap!