2013 ~ A Year in Pictures

It's been a year of laughter, love, joy, music, dance, and a few tears.

Here's to a joyful 2014 filled with friends, family, and love!

Lopez Family 2012 Year in Review

 Rather than a lengthy Christmas card insert or multiple blog posts throughout the year (neither of which I am good at!) I have decided to create a Lopez Family annual video. This project was so much fun to put together! I know I need to be more organized in 2013 with my pictures.  I've spent the past 4 days looking through my hard drive, phone, drop box, Facebook, family and friends' Facebooks, etc. There are still a few shots/videos/people I wasn't able to include. 

I hope you enjoy The Lopez Family 2012 in Pictures!

Music: "Rock & Roll" by Eric Hutchinson
2008 Warner Bros. Records Inc.

 Nikon Coolpix L810 16MP 26X Optical Zoom Black Digital Camera (Google Affiliate Ad)

Christmas Craft Exchange

For the past 3 years, my mom and I have participated in the Christmas Craft Exchange at Craftaholics Anonymous. We have so much fun crafting together and meeting new friends from all over the country through this exchange! In fact, I still keep in touch with my partner from last Christmas through Facebook!

This year, we decided to put my Cricut to use. We made magnetic Christmas Countdown boards! These boards are reversible, so come February, they can be used as Valentine's Countdowns! Aren't they so cute! We used Cricut Craft Room, which is such a great tool for Cricut users. They have really upped their game in the past few months. **Thank you, Provo Craft!!** I loved this project so much, I made one for Tessa, too! I am thinking of making one for her birthday as well, using a pink magnetic sheet and silver vinyl. Wouldn't that be super cute?!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Sit down and read a book today in honor of Read Across America and Dr. Seuss. We're planning a fun park day with the kiddos! Hopefully, if I get some good pictures (and I get around to it!) I'll share the fun!

Image found here

Kid, You'll Move Mountains!

A friend recently posted this video of "Oh the Places You'll Go" filmed at Burning Man. I think it is a beautiful rendition of the book. I hope you enjoy it!



I found this printable online a few months ago and have it up in Tessa's room. I don't remember where I found it, but it is such a great inspirational quote for little ones!

It's Me Again!

Double meaning to the title of this post. The obvious, I haven't posted since before Christmas, and I wasn't very good about posting often anyway! I can't say I'm going to be much better, but I sure will try a little harder! My life has been pretty consumed with a toddler lately!

The other reason for this title is my latest project is almost completely recycled! Back in September I shared an autumn shirt that I made for Tessa. I loved that shirt! It was so cute and festive! After Thanksgiving, though, there was no way I was going to have Tessa wear it again. So, I took off the leaves, buttons, and ruffle, and it sat on my sewing table waiting to be used. I thought of Christmas shirts, winter shirts, New Years shirts, but never got around to making anything. Finally, tonight, as I was looking at my to-do list, I decided to cross off "Make Tessa's Valentine's Day Shirt." I looked at a few (dozen) ideas on Pinterest and decided to make this shirt:


The main fabric is actually recycled from a dress of Tessa's from over a year ago. I can't believe I've carried it with us through 2 moves, but tonight I am glad I did! It was perfect for this project! I can hold my head high at storytime tomorrow with my Valentine's-Day-ready toddler! Now to get the Valentine's ready for her MOPS class on Tuesday! Here's what I'm hoping to make:


Here's the link to this project. For some reason, my link tool stopped working mid-post.
http://bugger-dixonline.blogspot.com/2012/01/diy-princess-and-super-hero-peg-doll.html

And, since it's been such a long time since I've posted anything, I can't leave without an updated picture of Tessa! This picture gives you a quick idea of interesting ways Tessa keeps me busy these days!

Lopez Family Christmas Card

Simply Love Holiday Card

holiday party invitations and thank you cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I finally got around to ordering our Christmas cards. I LOVE them! Hopefully I'll be on the ball enough next week to get them mailed out in time. If you are on our Christmas list, you can expect our card a couple of days before or after Christmas. For all others, enjoy our online card!

It's Almost the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It’s that time of year again! I am planning our Christmas card photo! Ryan and I have been married for 4 1/2 years now, so this will be our fifth family Christmas card. I love photo cards. I love looking through the pages of options online and choosing the perfect card! This year I think I’m going to plan our photo around the card!

Shutterfly has their beautiful line of holiday cards out to peruse and order in time to get cards out! I love Shutterfly! I use their website throughout the year for printing pictures, ordering birthday cards, birth announcements, etc. I especially love playing around with the different options they have for Christmas cards and gifts! Last year I ordered acrylic prints of Tessa for my mom and mom-in-law for Christmas. They turned out beautifully! They have so many gift options and trinkets available to order, you could almost complete your Christmas shopping on their website!

Another very popular gift with my family is the photo calendar. At Shutterfly.com, you have so many choices between wall calendars, desk calendars, and year-at-a-glance poster calendars! What I love about this gift is once the year ends, you now have 12 prints of your photos! My sister still has her 2006 calendar hanging on her wall because she loves the December photo I put in! It’s fun to look through it from time to time and remember what my nephews were up to back then!

If you’re curious about our cards this year, I’m leaning towards the Sparkle Joy or the Blossoming Joy (both found here). I was toying with a black, white, and red theme for our family photo, and the Blossoming Joy card would work perfectly with that color choice!

FYI, Shutterfly provided my high-quality photo Christmas cards last year, and is giving our family (and other qualified bloggers!) 25 complementary cards this year! Whoo Hoo!

Media Socialite

My Uncle Mark is visiting this week! I love when he comes out to Southern California for a visit. The last time he was out, Tessa was still in my belly, so she finally got to meet him. My Uncle Mark is a neat man. When we were little, we called him Crazy Uncle Mark because he was young and fun. He is always learning new things and expanding his horizons.

My sisters, Uncle Mark, and me. 3 weeks before Tessa was born!
His latest adventure is in the social media arena. We spent several hours together, teaching me about HootSuite, helping me learn how to use my twitter account, and finding topics of interest for me to start some daily e-newspapers. I now am the editor of two e-newspapers: Do It Yourself Daily and Sew What's New? I'm excited about my new adventure in social media and to see where it will take me. I'm thinking of topics for other potential newspapers. Maybe SAHM, crafting, repurposing... who knows what else is out there! Click on over to one (or both) of my e-newspapers and check them out! There are some pretty cool articles!

Welcome Autumn!

Autumn is my favorite season (along with spring and summer!) I love the cooler weather, the warm colors, pumpkin and cinnamon scented EVERYTHING, my birthday, Halloween and Thanksgiving, so many great things to look forward to in the fall!
Last year I really wanted to make a fall onesie for Tessa. I never got around to it, so that was one of the first projects on my autumn to-craft list this year!

I love how this shirt turned out! I just sewed on a few silk leaves along the veins so most of the leaf is loose. The buttons are added just for extra cuteness! My favorite part is the plaid ruffle along the bottom! My mom found this adorable ribbon at JoAnn's. I just pulled out the wires, sewed it into a ruffle, and sewed it onto the tee! I can't wait for it to fit Tessa! Hopefully it will fit before we go to the pumpkin patch for pictures!

I'm linking up to Craftaholics Anonymous' Fall Frenzy Link Party!

;

First Sale!

I just completed my first Etsy sale! Of course when I opened my store, I had these big dreams of items flying off the shelf, but as it turns out, almost a year and a half have gone by and I've just now sold my first item! I think it is really cute! It's a personalized diaper wipes case with a ruffled pocket on the front for diapers. My customer wanted something bright, sophisticated, yet still girlie. I think she's going to love this! I sure do!

Seventeen Months!

Tessa, this has been such a big month for you! I think you learn something new every single day!

• You are constantly signing “cracker.” I almost regret teaching you that sign! You really love to eat crackers! You are a really good eater, actually. You prefer fruit, but on most days, you’ll eat almost anything we give you!
• You are now singing, or doing the motions to “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Mr. Sun,” Patty Cake,” “Riding in the Car,” "Where is Thumbkin," “Five Little Monkeys,” “Butterfly Floating By,” and you do the “Hokey Pokey!” I really need to get you on video! You are just too cute!

• You love to point at people as they come through the door. Anytime someone leaves, you have to run and wave bye-bye and blow kisses!

• You have two new teeth! Your front teeth have finally popped through! And the two next to them are working their way in!
• We had you dedicated to the church this month. It was a very special ceremony and a great time to celebrate with family and friends!

• You are still a great sleeper and take really good naps pretty much every day! We are sooooo lucky!
• You HATE the car almost always. I can’t wait to turn your car seat around. I know you’ll be so much happier!

• You are so social! You love going to Sunday School to play with the other kids. You love to play with other kids at the park. When we go out to restaurants, you love to look around and talk to other tables.
• Your favorite word is “Hey!” You use that expression all the time, when something unexpected has happened, when you want us to turn the TV on, when trying to get somebody’s attention. It is so cute, and you always get a laugh when you say “hey” to a stranger in public!

• You had a photo shoot for a Halloween Costume company. You were the cutest little ladybug and bumble bee! Unfortunately, the pictures won’t be published until next Halloween, so we have a long time to wait before we get to see the final product. But you were awfully cute in the digital images I got to preview!
• You love the water! We put you in your pool all the time. We went to the water park a couple of times, and even though you are too small for the water slides, you love wading around in the kids’ lagoon and floating in the lazy river!

• You love to laugh and are absolutely delightful! Tessa, every day I am more and more amazed with you and cannot believe how blessed I am to be your mom. I look forward to each new experience with you and miss you so much when you are napping or sleeping! I love you more and more every day!

This is Tessa last year at this time:

I can't believe how much you've grown!

Tessa's One Year Photo Book

I finally got around to putting together a photo book for Tessa's first year. I wish I had started earlier. I know I could have made it even better, but Shutterfly had a free offer that ends tonight, so here's what I made! Enjoy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Sixteen Months!

My amazingly spectacular little girl is sixteen months old already! I got an e-mail toady that started off "Oh where, oh where has your baby gone?" and it rings so true to me! Tessa is heading into toddlerhood way too quickly for me! Here's what she's up to now-a-days:

~ You are trying really hard to jump. You crouch down and then pop up onto your toes and squeal with laughter!

~You have started doing chores! You love to help me load and turn on the dishwasher, do the laundry, and feed the dog!


~ You are a book worm! Your current favorite is the Peek-A-Boo Halloween book Grammie bought you last year at Target's dollar spot!

~ I just got out your nesting blocks and shape sorting ball and you have gotten really good at both! You love to stack the blocks as high as you can reach on your toes! You now point at the correct shape in the ball and then work your hardest to put the shape in. You get it right almost all of the time!

~ You are also getting really good at puzzles! You can now match the pieces to their correct spot and sometime get them in correctly with no help at all!

~ You have two new signs: cracker and please! You have become a cracker fiend since I taught you how to sign it. That is all you ever want to eat!

~ You figured out how to use your fork all by yourself! I left you with some watermelon and your baby fork, and when I looked over from the kitchen, you had a big piece of watermelon on your fork and were chomping away at it! You are too smart, little girl!

~ You love the beach, especially the ocean! Our little Southern California girl!


~ You are now running as often as you are walking. You spend most of your day running from one room to the other around the house!

~ You love to dance! Anytime you hear music, whether we are at home, in the car, or at a store, you have to stop and dance!

~ You said "Robbie" this month! Or at least something that sounded a lot like Robbie!

~ You want to do everything Mommy does. You like to put things in the trash can, climb on the step stool to look in the cupboard, brush and comb your hair and teeth, put toilet paper in the toilet! I swear you are doing new things every day!

~ You love to play Hide and Seek. You hide behind the coffee table or Baba's chair and bounce up with joyful squeals!



You really are such a lovely little girl! I am reminded every day how lucky your dad and I are to have you in our lives

Handmade Gift Exchange!

Last month I participated in a handmade gift exchange with Craftaholics Anonymous. She is the same blogger who does the winter craft exchange that I participated in last year! I love these swaps! They are so fun and I love trying new projects for them!

My exchange partner was a girl who lives in Wyoming. She has a 6 year old daughter, so I decided to make Mommy & Me aprons! It was my first time making an apron without a pattern, but I just perused a couple of tutorials online and made these cute ruffly aprons!


Speaking of things I made last month, I tried my hand a freezer paper stenciling finally! I painted and embellished this little onesie for Tessa. I LOVE how it turned out! Sweet and whimsical!

One Year Photo Shoot

I finally got Tessa's one year photos taken (only 3 months late), and the images came in the mail today! Last year I bought a photo package off of Group On. It was like $59 for the shoot and CD of images. I am so glad I bought that! The CD has 459 images on it, which is A LOT, but they are all mine! So you don't have to look through all 459 images, I created colleges of my favorites from each setting. We went to breathtaking Balboa Park, where I doubt there has ever been a bad picture taken! It took Tessa awhile to warm up to the photographer, so the first setting didn't have many great shots. Plus, we did a lot of impromptu Mommy & Me pics. I wasn't planning on being in any of the shots, so I am not wearing make-up, but at least I curled my hair!






All photos taken by Robert Goold Photography

Lake Arrowhead Village

Yesterday, Tessa and I drove up the mountain to visit Ryan's mom and her husband, Nauni and G-Pa. They have a family cabin in Running Springs and were doing some summer cleaning, clearing away pine needles, checking for broken tree branches, and doing minor baby-proofing (so maybe we can start spending more time up there this fall!). Nauni, Tessa, and I left G-Pa and his buddy behind at the cabin and ventured out to Lake Arrowhead Village.

I love the village. It is peaceful and quaint. I have many great memories of time spent in Lake Arrowhead throughout my childhood, high school, and a trip, post-college, with my coffee talk girls. I probably haven't been there in about 10 years, though, and there have been quite a few changes! Unfortunately, due to a beetle infestation and the poor economy, some of the changes aren't great, but one new thing is, there is now an amusement area for children. There is a little park with a playground, a mini golf course, and some rides!

We spent several hours there yesterday. Nauni doesn't get to see Tessa very often, so it was important to spend some good time together! We started off at a little tea shop where we sipped on iced lattes and shared a delicious lemon poppy seed cookie. Nauni shared some with Tessa, just for the special occasion! We then found a neat toy store. It had a little book section, which, anyone who knows Nauni can imagine how much time we spent there! We also walked around a looked at all the puppets and stuffed animals. Tessa left with a new book, The Princess ABCs, a calico kitten puppet, and a new pool toy. You've gotta love shopping with grandmas!

After we left the toy shop, we discovered the amusement area. Tessa made a beeline for the carousel, which, unfortunately, was closed. The music was still playing, so my music-loving daughter danced along for awhile! We then headed into the shop where ride tickets were sold, and Tessa discovered funny mirrors! She LOVED them! She ran from mirror to mirror, laughing and laughing at her reflection! She also loved the clown paintings with cut-out faces (you know what I'm talking about?) and played peek-a-boo with Nauni, and laughed and laughed!

We took Tessa to the little train next. She did such a great job! My heart was so full watching her go around the track all by herself! She was so brave and had a great time! It was not easy for me to watch my little independent girl go on a ride alone, but she loved it!

After the train ride, we walked down to the lake and watched the boats and ducks. It was a beautiful day. One I will remember for a long time and will love to share with Tessa when we visit Arrowhead as she grows.


Since our weeks are pretty much the same ~ park, library, pool, church~ I decided I'm going to aim to write about interesting things we do that aren't part of the same ol', same ol'.

Fifteen Months!

Wow! Tessa, you are growing and changing so much every day!
* You are walking like a pro, running like you have been your whole life, dancing 'til the stars fall from the rafters, and even trying to jump and skip!

* Your communication is improving everyday as you add more and more signs.
* You love to sing and have taught all of your toys to Patty Cake and the Itsy Bitsy Spider!
* Your favorite day of the week is Thursdays because we go to the library story time. You have a BLAST there!

* I know you are going to be an amazing friend as you already like to share, pat friends (and sometimes strangers) on the back, and kiss, kiss, kiss!
* You are a great sleeper, and even have become a great napper more days than not!
* You have become a little fish and LOVE the water!

I love you so much my wonderful and amazing little girl. I am so excited to watch you grow and learn and become more of a little lady every day.

Summer in Snapshots ~ Week 3

I didn't do post for Week 2. So, here's Week 3!

Our Week in Pictures ~ June 26 – July 2 ~

1. Shopping! My mom and I went to Carters and Osh Kosh for their $3.99 sale. They have this Lego table in the back where Tessa was able to play while I was able to shop! I’ve gotta share my favorite deal ~ I found a summer tunic shirt for $3.99 with an additional 20% off. I bought 4 different colors in size 24 months for Tessa, thinking they’ll be perfect for next summer (always thinking ahead!). When I got home, I realized they totally work as summer dresses this summer, so she will get twice the wear out of them! Hooray!

2. My mom ordered a water table for Tessa to play outside. She LOVES it! If she could, she would be outside from the moment she wakes ‘til she goes down at night. We often eat breakfast outside because she waits excitedly at the door while I’m making my coffee, and I just have to indulge her and go outside!

3. Mommy and Tessa’s breakfast at Starbucks.

4. Driving the car shopping cart at Vons! This made for the most pleasant grocery trip I’ve had in 15 months!

5. Family day at the beach! Tessa loves the ocean. She wanted to spend the whole day in the water, which led to a 3 ½ hour nap!

6. We stayed with friends over the weekend. Tessa had a great time playing with their 6 month old daughter and their loving doggie!

7. The balcony at our friend’s house overlooks Point Loma, Coronado, downtown San Diego, and the airport. Gorgeous! Tessa loved watching all the airplanes take off and land. She spent so much time on the balcony (just to be outdoors!) and had a great time waving to all the planes.

*I labeled all the pictures TWICE, but Picassa didn't seem to want to save it tonight, so you'll just have to figure it out on your own! I'm sure you won't have any trouble!

Beautiful day at La Jolla Shores!

Our beach-loving baby!