Knock Off - Easter Egg Mason Jar

This past Saturday I got to enjoy my day in Lincoln with Hubby's, Aunt Jill. We had a great time and found some treasures! Aunt Jill is a treasure hunter when it comes to junk... she is always on the hunt, so when I seen a sign on the highway about an antique show/ flea market I knew she would going. We met up in Lincoln Saturday and had lunch, then made our way to the show.

The show was great, there were quite a few vendors and some good bargains. I will share more on the antique buys in another post! ;)

Today I am here to show you the Easter Egg Mason Jar I made Sunday! I seen something similar at Hobby Lobby while enjoying my day out with Aunt Jill.

To make my version above I spent a whopping $1.97 + tax, I believe the real deal was $12.

I seen these eggs at Walmart in the Easter aisle ( I was on the hunt for some Peeps) The eggs are the only thing I purchased for this project, everything else I already had on hand.

I chose some paint colors that were kind of spring-y and went to town.

The eggs I bought at Walmart even came with these little egg holders, very handy and perfect for drying.

After I was done watching paint dry, I started layering the eggs and some of this "nest" looking stuff... I don't have a clue what its called, I have had it awhile and it isn't in the original packaging.

I topped it off with some burlap in between the lid and ring and twine wrapped around the ring. (sorry it is blurry - not a pro )

I am really happy with my finished product! When I finally get to dig my spring decor out, I know of a cute ceramic bird I have that will look cute sitting atop the lid!

We can't wait for spring in our house! I am sure everybody else feels the same way!

Blessings,
Dakota

Better Late than Never - Right?

I thought I would share some of Parker's birthday day fun with everybody! He turned three just a couple months ago and we had a party at home for him with family. We went with a race car theme, it was on clearance, and the boy really doesn't care right now people!

Banner was reused from a previous birthday supper. 

Black and white checkered duct tape was used to decorate water bottles.

Aunt Tessie, in red, made both of Parker's cakes. They turned out great and Parker said "MMMM... delicious!" 

Meema Jill thinks he should be a vet, so far he is on the right track! 

Grandma and Grandpa Hurley got him a new bike, and his daddy taught him how to ride it! I am sure this summer will be spent running after a certain boy on his bicycle! 

I messed this up and can't rotate it now, but this is Dr. Parker, ready to work on all his patients. 

We are always happy to get to spend time with family, and we really like to celebrate any occasion! Thank you to all our family for celebrating three years of life with this handsome boy!

Blessings,
Dakota

Cattle herding!

As it is getting warmer out. We on the farm are getting closer to calving! Our heifers (first time mommas) have been calving for awhile, but our Cows haven't yet. Our cows have still been in the cornfields eating up the leftover corn from combining. We take our cows to a few different corn fields so we know they are getting enough to eat. So we referred back to older times and herded the cows down the road to a different corn field. I love these kind of days with my husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother and sister in law, and whoever else can come to help. I didn't get to ride on the four-wheeler this year since I am pregnant and didn't want to risk it, but I did get some good pictures! :)

 

They were ready to go! That is my brother in law Witt on the four wheeler. We don't use horses :( too bad. 

 



Oh ya that's a great view right there! Poor pregnant mama cows.



Yes it was fun crossing over a bridge. YIkes!! They did good! It took us about 40 minutes to go 3 miles. It was a lot of fun and everything went well. Afterwards we had donuts and pop waiting for us! :) Just another day on the farm ;)

Love,

Taylor



Feeling the pressure

Alongside of having our first child this year, I am finishing up nursing school. I only have three more weeks of class time then I start my internship and I am feeling the pressure! I am anxious about my last two tests that are coming up. I have to get an average of 73% on all the 4 tests we will have taken this semester. It seems easy, but school never comes easy to me and I am a horrible test taker so I am a little stressed. I am also feeling the pressure to get my baby's nursery ready. I would much rather be doing that than studying, but I have to study over doing some of the nursery stuff most days. Which stinks! This week I start my clinicals and that means less time for studying, baby prepping, and regular house cleaning duties. I love clinicals, if only that's all we had to do as nursing students to pass haha. May is my graduation month and my baby is due June 26th! A lot to be excited for I know! I am confident everything will work itself out and that I will make it through nursing school and getting ready for our baby. Thanks for listening to me vent!:)

Love,
Taylor

It's A Boy!!!!!!!:)

Well its that time! I am 21 weeks and 6 days today! Last weekend we had a gender reveal party for some of our family. It was a fun party with a lot of prepping. Our theme was Camo or Glitter!! Cute I know!

My friend who is a photographer put this little invite together for us!:)

At the party we revealed the gender with the cupcakes. It took awhile to make these beautiful cupcakes. I decided to stay with the Camo look, so the cupcakes are camo and inside is a colored frosting (pink or blue). Then when the guests bite into the cupcake they will see either pink or blue and know what it is!:)

 

We made 2 boxes of white cake batter, separated it equally into 4 different bowls. One bowl we made brown, one was black, one was green, and one we left normal. Then we put those into cake decorating bags like in the picture above to put it into cupcake holders. This is how it turned out in the holders.

 

After putting all the colors into the holders we tried to make the batter as flat as possible, so the cupcakes would look like cones when they were baked. Putting them into the oven for 19 minutes they were done!:)

They turned out better than I imagined. So after we baked all 48 cupcakes. We started to put the frosting in the middle. We are having a BOY!!! :) so we dyed the frosting blue! My friend and I made the frosting from scratch so we had plenty.

This is how they looked after piping the frosting. That is when it got a little tricky. We had to be artist. I decided to put white frosting on top with pink and blue question marks to cover up this so they wouldn't know what it was until they bite into it :) My friend put the frosting on and I did the question marks.

I think I did a pretty good job making the question marks! :) Heres a side view.

and some more views...

It was a fun three hours making these beauties! But we realized that not everyone was going to be able to come to our party so for the ones who couldn't come they received a gift in the mail. Here is what they received :)

and just for you all to see my bump a little closer here is a picture of me at 21 weeks..taken a couple days before the party :)

 

It has been soo much fun preparing for this party and announcing what we are having. We are so blessed to be having a baby boy!

Love, Taylor 















Patience and Time with our Three Year Old

Being a mama can be so confusing. Right now I am at a loss for how I need to parent my crazy, funny, energetic three year old. Somehow he has developed this habit of screeching at the top of his lungs when he gets mad about something. Anything from a toy not working properly to not getting his way with somebody seems to send him in to overdrive lately. Frankly, I don't know whether to try and redirect the situation, reprimand him, or try to ignore him???? Every parenting article I have read swears by all the mentioned methods, but none agree on anything! 

It breaks my heart to hear this precious little boy screaming at the top of his lungs. It's frustrating, but honestly tears at my heart strings even more. Since Hubby and I are not the "yelling" type I am so confused as to where this habit even comes from??? 

As confused as I am right now, we are just trying to find what works, for us, not everybody else. Slowly I am finding that quality time with my little man helps to "avoid" the temper tantrums.... I just have to remember this. I just have to slow down, and take my own advice, before the melt downs take over. 

Funny how he is always a charmer though, even after he screaches at me for minutes straight! :) 

We love our little guy so much and hate seeing him be so angry. 

Wish us patience! ;) 

-Dakota 

Guess What!?!?

Well - those closest to us have been waiting for this update for awhile now. And even though we have told everybody close to us, I still wanted to document it here on the blog.

We are expecting baby number two! This is one of the first tests that I took. I first used a dollar store brand, they work just as well as any other. The only reason I bought these Clear Blue Digital tests, was because I wasn't quite sure of when I would have ovulated, due to being irregular. 

I have a hard time explaining how excited we are about adding another Little to our family!!  Parker is also very excited to be a big brother! He is expecting a "little sister" and wants to name her "Sunny". Although we do not know the gender yet, we do know that we are not going to be using the name Sunny. Bless his heart though. 

So far this pregnancy.. has been very difficult. VERY DIFFICULT. I have experienced a lot of morning sickness, and some of it has lasted all day. I am also extremely tired, which is a little harder because I now have a three year old to take care of and chase around the house. Hopefully, this will all subside rather soon now and I will be able to get my energy back and keep some food down, without any nausea. 

Here is a little before picture, so I can compare through out my pregnancy. This picture was taken shortly after we found out that we were expecting. (excuse the dirty mirror)

Blessings -
xoxo, Dakota