From our home to yours...

Merry Christmas! Here is our Christmas card for 2012. I love that we were able to include our homesite on the card this year. Next year we will have a house!! Our foundation has been poured and framing is about to take place. So exciting!

Here is a little snapshot of our tree. The theme is red and green, with "C" ornaments! And a chevron print with the reason for the season. May we all give GLORY to the newborn King!!

I just got finished making a ton of Christmas sweets! I made pretzolecans, Christmas Crunch, and cinnamon sugar pretzels. I'll also be making the traditional cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Last year, I tried Pioneer Woman's recipe and it was a hit. I will definitely be making them again.

From our home to yours, enjoy celebrating the birth of Christ, our Savior, and the gifts of peace and joy HE brings.

Merry CHRISTmas!!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Kelty turned 3 years old today! It's easy to keep up with how old he is because it's the same as the years we've been married. We were married June 2009 and Kelty was born December 2009. :)
 

{1st birthday celebration}

{2nd birthday celebration}
 

We continued the tradition and made pupcakes! I still don't know how he knows that they are for him. As soon as I start making them, he doesn't leave my side in the kitchen. He knows he gets to lick the beaters! When the timer went off, he jumped off the couch and ran into the kitchen to sit by the oven. Smartie!!

We were watching the College Football Awards tonight and found out it was Texas A&M's quaterback, Johnny Manziel's birthday today too! So Kelty shares a birthday with Johnny Football. :)

 

 

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Kelty Boy!!
...............................................................................................................................................

 

Here is the pupcake recipe I use if you are interested:

 

Peanut Butter Carrot Pupcakes

 

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons vanilla

1/4 cup oil

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups shredded carrot

1 egg

pinch of salt

 

Mix everything together and bake in mini muffin tins at 325 for about 15 minutes.

 

Makes 24 mini pupcakes.

Poor Blog

I have to apologize to my poor, neglected little blog. I'm so sorry but I will be back soon!! Here are some posts you can look forward to...

-A baby shower for my Brooke (the teacher next door to me) and baby Harper

-A&M vs Bama game (Yes we were there!)

-Thanksgiving Recap

-Christmas decor & Christmas cards

-Updated info on our new house!!

STAY TUNED...

Fall, Babies, and a Sad Day

Hello friends! The weather the past few days has been beautiful. The epitome of fall! I made some candy corn cupcakes for our fall carnival at school last Friday. I colored the batter in yellow and orange, then layered it to resemble a candy corn. Did the same with the frosting. Also, I cannot stop burning this "leaves" candle from Bath and Body works. It smells like fall, love!!

This past weekend I went to visit my best friend from high school. Kylie had baby Emmeline a few weeks ago and I had yet to meet her. She was the sweetest baby and had the funniest facial expressions. I had the best afternoon holding that sweet baby girl and catching up with Kylie. She lives SO close to where we are building our house, so I hope to see more of them!

Bryan has been out of town the past few weeks. (sad) He usually leaves on Monday and is gone until Thursday. That leaves me and Kelty to spend lots of time together. This afternoon we took a little stroll in the park next to our apartment complex. It was just what I needed.

   

I needed a relaxing walk because.......

Today was a very sad day. I said goodbye to my little Tribute. I rear ended a truck a few weeks ago on the way home in rush hour traffic. This was the damage, and my car ended up being totaled. TOTALED!?! Are you kidding me? I have been so sad about it, I loved this car. I went today to hand over the title and get my insurance check. I told Bryan I might cry. I had this car since the beginning of college.

You were good to me tribute, I will miss you so.

October Update

Hello friends!! Just wanted to share a quick update from what's been going on with us lately. I went through the pics on my phone and chose the ones I haven't shown yet. It's going to be pretty random, so here goes nothing!

A few weeks ago I got a new cup called bubba cup. Bryan likes to make fun of me for that, ha! I LOVE it because I take it to school and it keeps my water cold all day. I'm not kidding. It stays cold for 12 hours!! It's my new best friend. I also got a fun sparkly phone case, and my new favorite pens. I have to get used to giving grades (we didn't have grades in Kindergarten) so these pens help the (not so fun) grading process seem a little more fun! 

Kelty's favorite season is fall, just like his momma. He can't get enough of the cool weather on the balcony. On the evenings and weekends, he spends about 90% of his time in this exact spot. Such a sweet boy. :)

We went to our last Rangers game of the season a few weekends ago with Bryan's parents. I will not discuss the fact that the Rangers are not in the playoffs....moving on. On a more upbeat note, this handsome guy caught a foul ball and was over the moon. If you can't tell by that smile on his face, I'm pretty sure this made his year! Such a boy at heart, love. :)

Last weekend we went home to help my parents move out of their house that they have lived in since I was 2 years old. It's pretty bittersweet. But I did enjoy going through old things, including my high school yard sign. Shout out to RHS!!

The best part about going home was spending time with these two cuties! They are my favorites!

They went to homecoming and wore their cute mums made by my talented mom. I had to share this picture because they are ADORABLE. I hope my kids are this cute!

Here is a little snapshot of the (almost) empty living room. I still can't believe they are moving! My brother keeps sending me pictures today of the empty rooms in the house. I said I won't believe it until I see it. But it's still hard to comprehend. Lots of memories left behind, but so excited to make new ones in my parents amazing new house!!

Last random pic for you. A trip home wouldn't be complete without a trip to The Donut Stop. And we recently discovered you can get CHERRY donut holes. All that means is they give you this amazing cup full of the best every cherry icing. Elliot wasn't shy with the dipping!  YUM-O!

Well that about wraps up the random October update! Hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into our life. See you soon!!

{Be sure to check out the Tiny Prints Christmas Card Post BELOW}

Christmas Cards from Tiny Prints

I can't believe it's already the time of the year to start thinking about Christmas cards!!! Can you believe it?!? It's the most wonderful time of the year!! Fall is here, and all the best holidays are just around the corner. It makes my soul so joyful! With that being said, I've been trying to pick out our Christmas card for 2012.

It's going to be a monumental one because of our new house! They should break ground sometime next week, which means we should move in sometime in February, yay! I am dreaming of taking our Christmas card pictures with the different steps in our house process. I'm am also planning on including our new address on our Christmas cards this year. So, it will be a Christmas card and a moving announcement all in one! 

Tiny Prints has some amazing Christmas Cards. I can spend hours, looking for the perfect photo card because they have SO many choices. They even have chevron, which I am obsessed with.

Also, be sure to check out the Special Offers Page, that Tiny Prints has going on! Discounts on cards, birth announcements, invitations, and gifts. 

Now get to shopping!

{This is a sponsored post from Tiny Prints}

Throwback Thursday

At the beginning of the year, I made an autobiography for my students to teach them all about ME! In the book I included a page about when I was in school. I went through old pics and found some of my elementary school photos to include. I thought they would get a kick out of seeing me when I was there age. I was right, they LOVED the pics. It was unanimous vote that my 2nd grade picture was the best!

2nd grade

It's official, I'm teaching 2nd grade this year!! I had my first week of school last week, and it went great! I have a sweet group of kiddos. I'm only teaching English Language Arts (reading and writing) and my partner teacher does Math and Science. So I have 2 classes, and teach the same thing in the morning and afternoon. I think it's going to work out well, and I'm really enjoying the schedule.

Here are a few snapshots from my classroom.

{Big shout out to my momma who helped me get my classroom ready. She even spent her birthday helping me! THANKS MOM!!}

I got this super cute gift from one of my students. So creative!!

And on the house front, the old house on our lot has been demolished. Here is the site of our future home. We are excited to get the process going, and will hopefully move in early next year! :)

Back to resting up for me, so I can get ready for my 2nd week of 2nd grade. Happy Labor Day!

Palo Duro Canyon with my Brothers

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I LOVE my big brothers. I'm sure when we were younger, I probably wouldn't have shared the same sentiment but now that we are all grown up I look at them in a totally different way. They are some of my favorite people in the whole world. 

I'm super blessed!

I've always looked up to them, and tried to follow in their footsteps. That hasn't changed as we've gotten older. :) They make me feel loved and protected. And I sure hope when I have kids, that I have boys first, so that my little girl can experience older brothers too.

With that being said, I was thrilled to have them all to myself when we went on a hike in Palo Duro Canyon. We hiked the Lighthouse trail, which was a first for us all. It was fun experiencing something new with my favorite guys. We hiked, laughed, sweat, posed for pics, and tried not to get bit by the crazy ginormous biting flies. It was definitely a hike to remember.

 Palo Duro Canyon beauty

 Jordan and me

Ryan, the photographer himself

 We made it to the lighthouse!

Big hug!

Love them!

Classroom Crafting

Happy Friday! Today sure doesn't feel like Friday, but it's hard for me to keep track of my days in the summer. Sadly, I have only 2 weeks left of my glorious summer break. Teachers report back to school on the 21st and the kiddos will come back the 28th. So it's time for my brain to switch back into school mode! To help with that, I've been working on some crafts for my classroom.

Now I am still not 100% sure on which grade I will be teaching next year. It's between Kindergarten and 2nd. My preference would be Kinder because I love that age, and because I already have a year of kinder experience, so I know what to expect. It depends on how many kids we have registered for Kinder, to see if we need a 5th teacher again. I had a few projects in mind I wanted to do, thanks to Pinterest, so I had to start with the ones that would work for both grades, just in case.

The first one was to separate my crayons by color. The kids all start out with a box of crayons, but inevitably they come to me saying, I don't have a red, blue, green, etc. So this way, it will be quick and easy for them to find the color they are looking for, and they won't spend hours digging in the crayon bucket. I saw a few different ways to organize them on Pinterest, so I adapted all of them and came up with my own way. I bought 9 galvanized buckets from the dollar section at Target, and then made my own chevron (LOVE) labels for them. Then I just printed them off and laminated them. Easy peasy! If you are interested in the labels, I would be happy to share them with you! Just let me know in the comments and I'll send them your way! I used this free chevron paper. I got my inspiration here, here, and here.

I plan on using nails or thumbtacks to hang them on the wall in the back of my room. I'm really excited about how they turned out and can't wait to use them in my room!

My next project was Dr. Seuss themed of course! Next year, our campus theme is "Oh, the places you'll go!" I actually suggested it, and it was the one picked! I already had tons of Dr. Seuss stuff, so I was well on my way. I used pages from an old calendar to make a welcome sign. It's not totally finished, but this is what I have for now. I still need to add a solid color background to each circle, and I'm not positive those are the letters I want to use. I might want some that are a little less busy. THIS is the picture I used for inspiration. I actually found some Dr. Seuss ribbon at Wal-Mart, and so it will be perfect to use in between each of the letters. I'll be sure to show off my finished project when I get it completed.

I still can't believe school is about to start. Here is to another great year!

As for me and my house...

There have been some very exciting developments on the home front that I would love to share with everyone. We have decided to build a house in the Cultural District in Fort Worth. We are so, so, SO excited about this! 

Here are some details. The builders we are using is HD Homes. We have chosen The Crawford floor plan (see pic below). It's 3 bedroom, 2 bath, plus a study. It also has window seats in both the breakfast nook and the master bedroom, which was a huge selling point for me. :)

This is what the front of our house will look like! Since the Cultural District is an already established neighborhood, there isn't much land to build on, so HD Homes buys old homes for sale, tears them down and rebuilds on the property. We have already chosen the lot that we like, so now we are just in a waiting game to get the title, tear down the house, and then we can start building! The homes they build  have the same style as the older homes in the area. That was another thing we loved, we got a new house with character!

We are very excited about living close to downtown Fort Worth. There are tons of fun things to see and do! We make trips down there all the time to check out the area, and on our last trip we found this fun ice cream sandwich shop called Sweet Sammies. It was delicious! I'm excited for all the fun things we will be close to: The zoo, TCU, Super Target, Chick-fil-A, Trader Joe's, the list goes on and on!

So, I've been busy filling up my Pinterest boards with lots of ideas for the new house! As of now, we are hoping the house will be done by early next year. We are so excited to start this new adventure!

Summer Update

So I've been seriously lacking on blogging this summer, so sorry about that. I've been busy doing...absolutely nothing, ha! Well I've been up to a few things, but I definitely have been staying RELAXED!

A few weeks ago I took a trip back to the homeland (Amarillo) and spent some time with my amazing family. Here are a few, or a lot of pictures from my adventures.

Bryan had to work, so Kelty and I made the journey down by ourselves. K loves using Chick-fil-A cups as a pillow. :)

First thing I did was head up to Colorado with my mom, aunt, and grandma. It was a fun girls trip that included shopping, massages, and of course going to biker bars with Mema! Who knew?!?! 

Once back in Texas, I got to spend tons of time with sweet Charleigh Jo!

Love these girls.

Elliot is such a diva! She loves dressing up and her imagination is amazing! She called this little get up her "high school outfit." Not sure what that means, but it was hilarious. And she had to pose for the picture, of course!

Kelty boy LOVES water. So, out at Bryan's parents house anytime the sprinklers were going, there was Kelty. He spent most of his time wet!

 We got to celebrate Elliot's 4th birthday! Here she is cozying up with Uncle Bryee after drying off from swimming.

These girls have such sweet uncles. Charleigh was loving some snuggles from RyRy.

Bryan went on his annual 4-wheel drive trip up in the mountains of Colorado with his dad and his brother. I couldn't send them off without some cookies for their trip!

S'mores cookies

{these were by far the favorite}

 

M&M cookies in 4th of July colors! 

I also made sure to leave some time for crafting! I have some Dr. Seuss fabric that I have been wanting to use (for over a year!!) so I finally made some pillows and pennants for my classroom.

I also got to paint cake plates with my mom. We finished them after about 4 hours of painting!! It was so much fun and they turned out great!

One of the highlights of this trip was going on a sibling hike in Palo Duro Canyon. It's rare that I get to spend uninterrupted time with just these two, and I enjoyed every second! I have such great brothers. :)

This picture makes my heart melt. Elliot adores her Pops. :)

And I had to share this little picture with you. This is Bryan when he played baseball in high school. Such a cutie!!

And this is from my last day there. We took this at lunch. :)

 Sorry about the picture overload. But I had to share all the fun times that were had! I'll be back soon with some fun things that are coming up for The Clements Crew. Can't wait to share!!