Angry Bird Pumpkins

My little techno-genius preschooler has learned how to play games on our touch Android phones. His favorite is Angry Birds and it's variations as well (Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons). Beginning when Owen was 18 months, we have carved a pumpkin for Halloween. Last year I put Barry's carving skills to the test and had him try to carve a Thomas shaped train. It turned out fairly good so this year Barry suggested we do Angry Bird pumpkins. A couple weeks ago one of my Facebook friends from the ward I grew up in posted a picture of her kids with their Angry Bird pumpins. She had painted the pumpkins red and yellow for the birds and green for a pig. Then she glued cardstock cutouts for the eyes, eyebrows, and beak or snout. They turned out so cute and I figured it would be much easier than carving!! So thanks Michelle for the idea :)


Owen was excited to help make them but his enthusiasm must have bomb-dived that night because I ended up painting them all by my lonesome while Barry worked on homework (oh yeah, Barry has been working on finishing school by taking online classes at BYU-I but that's for another post). Anyway, I got Owen to paint just long enough to take some pictures. I had some blue and red craft paint at home and I bought the rest from Walmart. Note to self never use Apple Barrel brand craft paint if you want one coat coverage. I had to use 2 or so coats where as the Folk Art (also sold at Walmart) and Delta only took one.

Owen was not happy about me trying to get him to paint.

Owen loved gluing the eyes and other parts on.

I used the thicker pop-up glue dots to attach the eyes and such. At first the glue dots didn't work because they would pull up the paint instead of sticking so I just scratched off the paint with my nail in the spot I was going to put the glue dot. Even with a very windy night we only lost one set of eyes/eyebrows so the glue dots worked really well.


Here is the finished product. The best part was hearing the trick-or-treaters as they approached our door and say "Angry Birds! Cool!"

Owen was very excited to go trick-or-treating.

He likes candy more this year but 

I'm very glad he'd rather have string cheese or a Go-Gurt instead. LOL.

This is Halloween!

Just read my sister-in-law's blog post about Halloween. She posted The Nightmare before Christmas song "This is Halloween" and since I cannot get it out of my head now (thanks Allison) I thought I should title my post the same.


I know I'm a little late posting about Halloween but as they say, "Better late than never." I posted last month a picture of the Harry Potter costume I made for Owen. Unfortunately my dreams of having a little boy to dress as Harry quickly vanished (I believe the spell is Evanesco) with the mention of one particular superhero, Robin.


You see Owen's finally made a best friend at school named Dillon and it has helped tremendously with getting him to like school. Owen absolutely loves being around Dillon and well, Dillon loves Batman. So every time when someone asked Owen who he was going to be for Halloween  he'd say, "I'm going to be Robin and Dillon, he's going to be Batman."


Finally I decided there was no way I was going to get Owen to wear his Harry Potter costume for Halloween. Good thing the sweater vest and tie can be worn to church He actually wore them a couple Sundays ago. He even plays with his wand every now and again. Fortunately the cloak is big enough that he could still wear it next Halloween (I can still hope, right?) or may be able to sell it on Etsy or eBay. Plus I figured it would be relatively inexpensive time-wise and money-wise to make him a Robin costume. 


I used this tutorial to make the super hero cape and this tutorial to make the Robin logo to put on the cape. I figured I could do better than the Robin logo she drew by hand and made available for download. I used the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator to trace an outline from an image of the Robin logo I found online. It was actually really easy because the Robin logo is mostly straight lines and ovals. After that I just printed it out, cut the felt using the pattern, and used iron-on adhesive to adhere the logo to the cape. I used the leftover fabric, felt and iron-on adhesive to make him Robin's utility belt (no tutorial needed for that one. :D )


I lucked out and found a solid long sleeve green shirt ($5) and a solid short sleeve red shirt ($2.50) at Walmart and the best part is they have been worn again as well. Though some people thought I should make Owen be Harry Potter anyway, you should have been there to see his smile when Dillon dressed as Batman exclaimed, "Owen you really are Robin! Come on Robin!" Plus Owen has worn the cape at home several times. So here is my little super hero!

Owen Sings Halloween Songs

It's Finished

Owen's starting a new school this October 31st. Hogwarts! LOL. This costume was actually pretty easy to make and put together. I used black and red flannel to make his robe and then followed this tutorial on About.com. Owen would not allow me to trace him so I traced one of his long sleeve shirts instead. I lucked out and found the neck to ankle measurement of 4T clothing.

I took a Home Economics class in middle school so even with my basic sewing skills I only had trouble in two places, the underarm area and the very top of the neck. Good thing I had the best sewer I know (Barry's mom) to help me in those spots. I bought an iron-on Griffindor patch from eBay, Harry Potter costume glasses from Amazon, and the gray sweater vest from Children's Place.

Owen already had a white dress shirt and black dress pants so all that was left was the tie and the wand. I searched all over for a reasonably priced Harry Potter tie. I finally ran into a site called Tiecoon. For just $10.00 and $2.50 shipping I was able to get Owen and Barry matching ties. Though it doesn't look like the exact one they wear in the movies it is close enough and I'm looking forward to the Sunday after when Father and Son wear their matching ties to church.

Griffindor Robe Tutorial

I was looking around for a wand for Owen and knowing him I didn't want to pay to much for a cheap wand and that's all I found. So I started looking at making my own. I looked at tons of tutorials and for the longest time I couldn't find anything I liked or wasn't time consuming or involved carving one. With all my crocheting frequently visit the yarn maker sites for free patterns. I was looking for a pattern for a Harry Potter scarf on Lion Brand Yarn site's and that's when I found this tutorial.

Elder Wand Tutorial

I decided to can the scarf since me and my perfectionism was spending way too much time on it and I figure Owen will be warm enough with the robe being flannel.

New Adoption Efforts

I must give a big thank you to Grooveshark (like Pandora) and Jenny Oaks Baker. I woke up yesterday morning with lingering thoughts and feelings from the day before but after listening at work to the pure sounds of Jenny Oaks Baker playing the violin I feel better. It has been an emotional couple weeks. A couple weeks ago marked 3 years since we were approved to adopt and still our nursery's door stays closed. It is still all decorated from our previous failed adoption.

We've gave great thought and even looked into adopting older children. Most of these children come with special emotional and developmental needs and I do not have the emotional or time resources to spend (being honest with myself). We have to weigh Owen's best interests too and he is just not mature enough. Most the situations want the adopted child to be the youngest and a substantial age difference to between them and any existing children. So no matter what we do we wait. And my little persistant personality struggles with waiting because it goes against my core belief about being proactive.I didn't just wait to become a valevictorian in high school or graduate Cum Laude from BYU-Idaho. I worked and worked just like Rudy who worked his tail off to play for the Notre Dame football team.

Perhaps the "writing on the wall" is to stop kicking at the barriers on my road of life because it causes me extreme emotional pain. I need to stop focusing on what I can do next and just enjoy life. If I quietly work on our adoption efforts, it will mean it won't be my main priority anymore and I can focus on and enjoy the family I have in the here and now instead. If anything this adoption journey, and even our journey to Owen, has taught me is that the amount of effort you put forth in adoption does not guarantee you will find success.

http://threebearsboutique.blogspot.com

So I've decided just to quietly work on our biggest road block in adopting again. Though an expectant parent's free agency is the biggest roadblock I have no control over that area. I can work on the next biggest road block which has been the lack of financial resources when more expensive adoption opportunities come up. We do have an attorney in Florida who is on the lookout for a situation in a reasonable budget range but even then we need to raise/save more for that. Right now the majority of infant adoptions cost between $25 to $35K. So my pie in the sky goal is $30K but even earning a few thousand would help.

I've started a little boutique called the Three Bears Boutique where I can sell handmade accessories and put the profits into our adoption savings in hopes that if an adoption opportunity comes along we will have the funds to consider it. Right now I have crocheted items but I hope I can get some other ladies to sell their items in my boutique who are talented in other areas like bow making, jewelry, or sewing and who are willing to give a little of their profits to our fund. I needed something that would be fun (so it wouldn't become stressful), not adoption related, and not all time consuming (currently working on that part). So go visit my boutique even if only to see and enjoy my mad skills. LOL.

Park City - Day 2

Even though we have taken several trips to Salt Lake as a family we've never been to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. I didn't foresee Owen would misbehave as he has in the past visiting zoos/aquariums because he has matured quite a bit (though quite spoiled). In the past Owen has shown interest in the animals for about 10 minutes and then decides it would be more fun to run all over the place until I've had enough chasing him. Oh well. At least this time he was interested for 30 minutes before he started running around. He did like the bugs, huge boa constrictor and other snakes (I'm praying he never wants a snake as a pet). I enjoyed seeing the sea turtle and the penguins. I let Barry look at the remaining exhibits while I watched Owen run, mess with the penny stamping machine, and then whine and cry when he didn't get what he wanted. I wish I could say we didn't cave but we figured that being our summer vacation getting him a little souvenir was OK.

It was almost lunchtime when we finished with the aquarium. Barry's sister told us about a burger joint in Heber that is decorated with trains and has with 100+ flavors of soda. Trains for Owen + countless Diet Dr. Pepper flavors for me. I was sold! 




Most restaurants add the flavoring for you but this place has the new Coca-Cola Freestyle fountains that are touch screen and have every Coke product available. I was the one who initially figured out how to get the flavors and then told Barry how. I clicked on Diet Dr. Pepper and then it gave me the choice of cherry vanilla, cherry, or regular Diet Dr. Pepper. I got cherry vanilla and told Barry. Barry made a Raspberry Lime Diet Coke by mixing Lime Diet Coke with Raspberry Diet Coke. I sure miss the Berries and Cream Diet Dr. Pepper!!! 





After lunch we drove back to the townhouse for a little R&R before Barry's sister and her family came for a little sleepover party. We went swimming again, ate pizza, and played games. I even beat Amanda and Barry at Phase 10! I have to gloat because I NEVER win board games. Barry made us a delicious pancake breakfast that morning and as an added surprise we opened the patio blinds to find a bunch of hot air balloons flying amid the mountains. One of the best things about our vacation was that I didn't have to stress out planning or cooking any meals. Barry is wonderful in this area and good thing too since my repertoire is limited to dishes such as Kraft Mac N' Cheese and spaghetti with bottled marinara sauce. LOL. Hey I can boil right ;) 

Park City - Day 1

The summer season for our family is all work and hardly any play (except for Owen & myself) since it's landscaping season. With Barry exhausted and me dealing with my own issues, life has been stressful to say the least. We were in dire need of some R&R and family fun. Originally we wanted to vacation in Oregon and go to the Farwest nursery convention. Since we have been pinching pennies to save enough to increase our adoption budget we decided it was too expensive. So we canned Oregon and looked for another destination. 


Barry is the king of finding travel deals. Apparently timeshare owners in Park City, UT are having problems with filling their vacancies so we got a killer deal for 4 nights in townhouse. We also saved money by purchasing some groceries instead of eating out. The townhouse was located in the Newpark Resort part of newly developed area of Park City close to Kimball Junction. It was a gorgeous townhouse! It had tons of sleeping room with 1 king bed, 2 pull-outs, and 2 twin beds. as well as 3 complete bathrooms.


Though Owen isn't a Thomas fanatic anymore he still LOVES trains.  Our first stop to Park City was at the Golden Spike National Historical Site "near" Tremonton. I say "near" because it is truly in the middle of no where. LOL. We made it just in time to see the reenactment of the trains meeting. The trains are almost exact reproductions of the Union Pacific's No. 119 and the Central Pacific's Jupiter. Of course we left on the hottest weekend of the year so we didn't spend as much time as we wanted. Owen was in 7th heaven seeing the trains and the rest of the weekend asked daily to go see the Jupiter.


It was so bright that all of us had to wear sunglasses or what we call "cool dudes" in our home.

Eagerly awaiting the Jupiter train

Union Pacific's Jupiter - Wood
burning steam train

Posing by the Jupiter train

Owen and Daddy examining the main train parts.
Owen knows them all.

Central Pacific's No. 119 - Coal burning steam train

Overheated already!

Thankfully Park City was about 10 degrees cooler than the valley and the resort had a swimming pool. We invited Barry's sister and her family to come swim with us. You wouldn't know from the pictures but Owen acted like a cat thrown in the pool. He had a death-grip on Barry the whole time even though he had a life jacket. Aunt Mandy and I were able to pull him off a couple times. You would have thought that after the first or second time going swimming he would have loosened up. Yeah right!

Daddy and Owen

Aunt Mandy trying to get Owen
to chill out and flow on his own

Dipo Family

Noah

Eloise

Hazel and Uncle Nate

Owen and Neckties

It amazes me that as a mom how I end up needing to learn some skill I never expected to need. The ability to tie a necktie because I'd have a son who hated to wear pre-tied ties is one of those skills. We have tried all types of fastener, the clip-on, Velcro fastener, and plastic fastener and Owen refuses to wear any of them.

Unlike girls who have bows, flowers, ribbons, headbands, dresses, leg warmers, tutu skirts (I think you get the point), boys have just a handful of accessories with the most important accessory being TIES. So I have given some thought from time to time on why Owen refuses to wear a tie. I decided that he didn't like holding still long enough for me to fumble around trying fasten it with the Velcro/plastic fasteners and the metal clip simply poked and the metal surface bothered him. So what was the solution?

So yesterday I remembered the regular necktie Owen got last Christmas from Grandpa & Grandma Vest. I figured if I could tie it around his Buzz Lightyear pillow doll's neck and then loosen it as far as I could then I could just drop the tie over his head with his collar already up. Then I could quickly put his collar down and adjust the tie. But I didn't know how to tie one and Barry wasn't home so I searched YouTube on my phone and watched this video.

Well my little plan worked!! Owen looked so cute and handsome. Someone also suggested that a zipper tie might work since I could also just slip it over his head and adjust. Does anyone know any stores that sell these in the 4-6 size range? I have yet to see one in the stores I've shopped.

Halloween Sneak Peek

Halloween!?!? You say. That's 2 months away. Yes, for a person who stopped dressing up at 8, it is humorous how excited I get. So excited that I've been known to buy Owen's costume in August ever since his 1st Halloween. Give me some slack this year because I am making his costume this year so I had to give myself a time cushion in case I need to enroll the skills of a more experienced seemtresses.

Here are some pictures of what I have so far. See if you can guess what Owen is going to be.

Conversation with Owen This Morning

Me [While driving after taking a quick look at Owen in the back seat]: "My Owen."

Owen: I'm not Owen. I'm a kitty.

Me: Oh, alright then. My kitty cat.

Owen: I'm not kitty cat. I'm a tiger kitty.

Me [Chuckling]: Oh, my mistake. My tiger kitty.

Owen: That's right.

Raize TrueType font for Visual Studio 2010

Though the main purpose of this blog is to share and record the going-ons in our family, I wanted to share Raize TTF (the converted version of the bitmap font Raize to TrueType) with my fellow developers in the programming world. (Note: It only works in 10pt size)

I'm very excited because after following like a zillion steps, I was able to get this, my all-time favorite programming font, to work in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (the programming environment we use at work). You see since we upgraded from 2008 to 2010 I've been unable to use this font because the latest Visual Studio no longer supports bitmap fonts. And for the life of me I couldn't find a vector version of it. So I decided to do the conversion myself and after finally finding a tutorial online I was successful!!

Summer Crafts

I've been working this year on getting decorations for each season and major holiday. I've shared some I've made earlier this year and here are my recent creations. Once again I used the Cricut to cut the vinyl and mod-podged scrapbook paper onto blocks I painted black.

One side

Other side

Here is the completed shelf for July. I took some Red Vines and cut them in half for my jar (thanks to Holly D's blog for the idea). It's hard to see in this picture but I also got some cute red star garland. I still think I need one more decoration for next year.

I didn't have time to finish my shelf for summer as I'm still looking for ideas. I found this way cute watermelon decoration online. I'm going to forgo the flower and scrapbook paper and just use paint and then vinyl cutouts for the seeds. I'm also going to be daring and use our little hand jigsaw and cut a shape out instead of just straight cuts.

New Kitties

Our next door neighbor got two new kitties. Owen discovered them the other day and has been going over there to play with them every afternoon since. This wouldn't be problematic if he wasn't allergic to cats and dogs. Thankfully his allergic reaction to cats isn't as bad as it is to dogs. With cats, he gets a runny nose, itchy eyes, and a itchy rash. With dogs, it's all that plus his eyes swell and he gets hives. I'm thinking about trying Claritin or Zyrtec on him.

I've enjoyed watching and teaching him about kittens. How they don't like the water except for drinking and how pulling their tails hurts them. But most importantly that cats have a mind of their own and just because you want to love and hold them doesn't mean they want to be held. The grey striped kitten is a little more on the wild side and doesn't like to be held but the black one purrs almost immediately once you start stroking him. He is pretty easy going.

Yesterday Owen brought the black one into our yard and told me, "This is Squeaky. He behaves when I hold him." I had to laugh. He got the name Squeaky from an episode of Fireman Sam about the escape of the school mouse. He's been watching the show on Netflix.

Now he's been asking Daddy if he can have a kitty. When I asked him if he wanted to get a kitty just for Owen, "No, I don't want Owen's kitty. I want this kitty." LOL

Barry's Birthday

I love surprising people with just the right gift. With how much Barry loves (LOL) having his birthday as he gets older, it is makes it even more satisfying. We celebrated Barry's 3_th birthday last week. We had a small celebration with just his parents and ate his favorite pie, Marie Calendar's Coconut Cream. For Owen's enjoyment, I put some candles on it and let Owen blow them out after Barry. Owen is big into birthdays this year.

Now for the story behind his gift... In November, Barry went with his brother David to Portland, Oregon to see a Duke BB game. Duke has been Barry's favorite NCAA basketball team for a long time. He holds Coach K in very high regard. Anyway, Duke doesn't usually play this far west so it was once in a lifetime opportunity to see them play and see Coach K.

With our anniversary, Barry's birthday, and Father's Day in consectutive weeks, I usually get a big combined gift. So for his present I had his ticket, program, picture, and the Duke logo custom framed. He was speechless after he opened it.

Happy Anniversary, Birthday, and Father's Day honey!

Owen's Tracks

Easter 2011

It was fun but a bit of an overkill on presents/sweets having Easter so close to Owen's birthday. Here is my kitchen/dining room shelves that I decorated for Easter. So much fun! I look forward to making some vinyl decorated blocks for summer, 4th of July, and fall.

Here is Owen in his Easter suit. I lucked out and found it 50% off at Sears.com months ago! In his Easter basket, Owen got bubbles, candy, a "Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!" book, a Curious George book, and a Backyardigans easy reader book.

After church we had dinner and an egg hunt at Grandpa & Grandma Luthy's home (Barry's grandparents). This year Owen really understood what to do during an egg hunt and the whole time he kept saying, "Come on Mommy we need to find more eggs." Too bad the dog got to some of the easy eggs before the kids.

Curious George Cupcake Picks

This year I tried something new and made my own cupcake picks. I found a Curious George coloring page on the Internet. In Photoshop Elements, I used the paint-bucket tool to fill the outlined areas with color, shrunk it, and placed it on a simple circle design as you can see below. I did the same process using a banana clip art image. I printed them on regular copy paper and then used a 2" circle punch to cut them out. I also punched out a back for each one from a matching solid card-stock (yellow for George and green for the bananas). I used Scotch tape to attach the toothpick to the backs and then two glue dots to attach the back to each circle.

Download

Download

Happy Birthday Dear Owen!

Owen turned four Wednesday and we've been celebrating since last Saturday. LOL. Saturday was his birthday party. He wanted a Curious George party and once again I had lots of fun decorating.

Here are the cupcakes and picks I made. If you are interested in how I made the picks I'll post a PDF for you to download and print as well as the instructions later.

Here is our dining area decorated in all things George!

Once again I made Owen his own little cake. Last year I had help (thanks again Melanie B. for teaching me) but this year I was able to do it ALL BY MYSELF! I was so excited with the results. I got the decorating bags, tips, and angled spatula from Walmart. I used yellow frosting for the border with red sprinkles and a Curious George figure on top. The figure came as part of a birthday candle set I bought online. As you can see I think it turned out to be really cute!

Owen had lots of fun with his cousins. It turned out to be a beautiful day! The kids loved playing outside which made the cleanup afterward so easy. Owen got pretty spoiled again with lots of toys and clothes. He got really excited when he opened a t-shirt with Star Wars' R2D2 and C-3PO on it from Grandpa Olsen. He pumped his arm and said "Yes!"

On his actual birthday, we opened presents from Mommy and Daddy and from the Dipos (Barry's sister) when Daddy got home. We gave him a Fisher-Price Imaginext Space Shuttle and a Leap Frog Fridge Word Builder. Owen was so excited about the space shuttle that he said it was the best present he had ever got. LOL. We splurged and got cupcakes from the Cocoa Bean in Rexburg. They were very good but a tad bit too rich for my liking.

Saturday Barry's parents stopped by and gave Owen a Little Tikes Water Play Table. He immediately wanted to take it outside and fill it up. Owen loves playing in the water. I have to fight just to keep him from taking a bath more than once a day and from making a mess by playing in the sink. Multiple baths wouldn't be too big of a deal if the water didn't dry out his skin so much, causing his eczema flare ups, and if he would be more agreeable when it was time to get out.

Owen's birthday is always a bittersweet time for me. I think of the pain his sweet birthmother went through for months on end after she placed him in my arms. With our failed adoptions and many unfruitful contacts, I think I know a little more about her pain and how big of a miracle Heavenly Father performed to bring him into our family. We waited for so long and as much as it's been exciting and fun to watch Owen mature and progress, at times I feel a pang of sadness knowing these four years have gone by so quickly. Even more of a reason I have to remember to cherish every moment even when he's driving me crazy. LOL.

A Rant

So I used to have a feature phone (Samsung Rouge) I bought two years ago.

Touch screen, slide out keyboard. It was the best! Long story short it got water damage and no longer worked. As a replacement, I am using LG env one of my awesome co-workers let me have for free. No touch screen but at least has a QWERTY keyboard.

Anyway getting close to having my free upgrade but there are no feature phones like my old Samsung except for those by LG. I hate LG phones. They are crap! All the feature phones are being replaced by smartphones. But here is the kicker, you have to get a $30 data plan to purchase a smartphone. The $10 data plan that I had is only for features phones. It's a conspiracy! Oh and I can't find a decent used Samsung Rogue either for the price Verizon offers for new phones.

Sorry for ranting but I felt the needed it today. LOL.

Holiday Decorating

I've been having fun making some seasonal decorations to put up on my shelves in the kitchen. It's been a great distraction and something I like to do.

My mother-in-law let me borrow her Cricut and I was able to cut some vinyl letters out. I want one now except I want the Silhouette electronic cutter (hint, hint for next Christmas Barry) cause' I've got skills, computer graphic skills.

Also, I got this wonderful an idea from a former classmate's blog (http://thoughtsinvinyl.blogspot.com) to use both sides of the wooden blocks so as to save storage space when the time comes.

Anyway, here is what I did...

I used a power handheld reciprocating saw (image me doing the Tim the Tool-man Taylor grunt here) and made five blocks out of a 2x4 of pine. We have lots of scraps from when we framed our basement.

After sanding, I painted the sides, top, and the edges of the front and back with black craft paint. Then I used mod-podge to stick the scrapbook paper onto the blocks and then applied my vinyl. So on one side it says LOVE and when March comes I can flip it to say LUCKY.

I also made a decoration for Easter/Spring. Barry already had a 2x4 he had cut to be a 2x2. So I used the saw again and cut out one block for the HAPPY and then I cut a 2x4 to go underneath. After the cutting, sanding, painting, mod-podge, and vinyl application here is how it turned out. I must say it turned out really cute!

Conversations with Owen

Wearing the Owl hat he made in Preschool

Owen is growing up fast. I can hardly believe he'll be 4 the end of April. The amount he's learned in just a year is unbelievable. Lately we've had some fun conversations between us. And the expression "Kids say the darnest things" is so true.

Me - "Come on Owen. Let's hop into the car. We're going to visit Grandma & Grandpa."

Owen - "Lets go to Disneyland first.


Owen - "Mommy, what kind of birthday do you want? A Cat in the Hat birthday or Super Why birthday?"

Me - "Cat in the Hat birthday."

Owen - "Oh, OK. Then Daddy can have a Super Why birthday."

30 Years Young

I haven't been too excited about the prospect of being 30. You picture your life and you have certain expectations at what your life will be like and unfortunately I would have liked to be a mom of 2 by now. However, I am learning to accept things I have no control over and how important it is to be happy and grateful for what I do have because I am actually very blessed.

Anyway, we had a quiet celebration for my birthday. New Years Eve Barry's parents watched Owen while Barry and I went out for dinner. We called into Texas Roadhouse and had them put them on their waiting list. The wait was an hour so we decided to go over to Kohls before dinner. It's sort of a birthday tradition that Barry lets me go shopping for a new clothes. Barry's parents gave me a gift card to Famous Footwear, JCPenney, and the cutest necklace/earring set. So New Years Day Barry's mom and grandmother went shopping with me. I used my Famous Footwear gift card and got some really cute Mary Jane church shoes. Then we headed over to DownEast Outfitters (one of my favorite stores) and I got some super cute skirts and a dress. So I was pretty spoiled. Of course everything was 50% off so that's the best part of my birthday being right after Christmas!

30, flirty, and fabulous! Wearing my new sweater, skirt, necklace, earrings, shoes, and hair flower on my birthday last Sunday.