Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, Friends!  I hope you've had a nice week.  It was a week full of lots of regular stuff here.  And if you know what our last few months have been like, I will take all the regular, routine things I can get :)  I've got lots of favorite moments to share with you this week.

1. House Projects

We have several house projects that are starting to come together.  Our typical set up is that I do the shopping and Kevin does the installing.  Good team work right!?!  I love these brass curtain rods and the striped curtains look so pretty in our family room.  Stay tuned for a house post where I'll link as many things for you as I can.  And my Fiddle Leaf Figs seem really happy here, too.  

2. Jordan Bakery Box

I'm s-l-o-w-l-y starting up my bakery again.  Chocolate dipped pretzels and cookies seemed like the perfect place to start.  I'm thankful for my first few orders to help me get the ball rolling.

3. Ruggable Rugs

Did you see my post all about our Ruggable rugs?  I shared all the pros and cons of them.  You might be surprised about #2 and #4.  I know I was!  You can read the whole post here.

4. The Baby

I have to wake Leo up to go and get the big kids at school most afternoons.  Waking up a sleeping baby is the worst.  I wish he could snooze for a while longer, but it just can't happen.  He's a total trooper in car line and thinks smooshing his face with the head rest is hilarious.  Thank goodness for snacks, board books and cars to play with in the car.

5. Show & Tell

Fletcher's class earned Show & Tell as one of their incentives this week.  He was SO excited to bring Sprinkles to school.  Fletch said he was really well behaved and he participated in all the fun things like yoga, classwork and other stuff with him.  Kindergarten is awesome... most of the time.

6. Valentines

We've had a great time working on valentines this week.  Olive is giving out cat valentines + mochis.  Fletcher went with a mix of "boy valentines" + pop it key chains.  They had to sign all of their valentines and it was really cute to listen to them talk through who should get which valentine.  So and so likes purple.  She loves dogs.  She would love a princess.  It's sweet to see them making connections with their new classmates.

7. Heart Lunches

I packed a few - I LOVE YOU BERRY MUCH - lunches this week.  The kids loved them!

8. Kid Handwriting

I love seeing their little signatures.

9. Bulletin boards.

We had these hanging in our old kitchen.  I loved having their art and school work on display and so did the kids.  We found a new spot for them in our mudroom.  I keep finding the kids looking back and admiring their art work :)

10. Winter Sunsets

We have been having the best winter sunsets lately!

11. Church Search

We are still visiting churches (it takes a while to find a new church home!) and Leo was not happy about it.  Thanks to and April 2020 birthday and COVID, he's barely ever been dropped off anywhere.  So getting dropped off at the toddler class is not his favorite.  We got paged to pick him up early.  Snacks, songs, coloring and new toys were no substitute for a Dum Dum and snuggles with mom.  We'll keep working on it.

12. Purple Aces

We took the kids to another basketball game last night.  We are having fun wearing all the purple and doing some new things together.  My Dad always goes to the home games and sometimes my mom tags along.  Kevin and I both grew up going to the games.  Our seats were across the stadium from each other.  We'd wave and meet up to walk around at half time.  So it's super nostalgic to be going to Aces games again.  In a new stadium downtown.  The kids have a lot of fun so it's a lot of fun.  A little bit of work with Leo, but mostly fun.

Leo caught on quickly to the standing/clapping/school song routine :)

And he made it through the entire game this time.

And this cute girl... she couldn't wait to try Dippin Dots, tried really hard to get herself a spotlight on the dance cam, is working super hard at school and hit a big milestone that she's been working on ever since we moved.  I'm super proud of Olive!

Have a great weekend!!

Linking up with Momfessionals

The Pros and Cons of Ruggable Rugs

I'm excited to finally be able to give you this post - the pros and cons of Ruggable Rugs!  I was so excited to order rugs from them for our new house.  I had heard lots about them and really loved the look/fact that they can be washed.  Here's my honest review.  I hope that it gives you a little more insight to these super popular rugs.

We have the Kamran Hazel Runner Rug (2.5ftx10ft) in our kitchen and the 9x12 Kamran Cayenne Red Rug in our family room.  Both are on wood floors. 

Ruggable Rug PROS:

1. The rugs are beautiful!

2. They are so soft.

3. They offer coupons and sales regularly.  Do not pay full price.

4. They ship fairly quickly.  Ours arrived about 3 weeks after we ordered them on Black Friday.

5. So far any spills we have had on them (thanks kids and cats :) have cleaned up really well.  No staining and that's just spot cleaning.  I expect that they will wash beautifully.

6. There are tons of color and pattern options.  They even have holiday rugs.  Now that we have the rug pads it's tempting to snag some Christmas plaid for my kitchen.

7. They look and feel very high quality.

8. Their customer service is very quick to respond and problem solve if you have issues.

 

Now onto the cons.  I would buy another Ruggable in the future, but I wish I would have known these cons before buying mine.

Ruggable Rug CONS:

1. The rug systems (rug + pad) are expensive even with sales.  I'm hoping the fact that the rugs are washable will mean that we get a good long life out of each of them.

2. The rugs are intentionally made a couple inches longer than the pads.  I assume they'll shrink a bit when we wash them, but I wish the pad was closer to the same size as the rug. 

3. We initially had trouble with our runner rug sliding around.  It would end up moving after walking through the kitchen all day.  I contacted customer service and they gave me some tips.  Mop the floor really well and clean the pad really well to ensure no crumbs and such got between the rug pad and floor.  Once I did that, the rug stays in place much better.  So before you place your runner rugs down, super clean the floors.

4. The 9x12 rug pad comes in 2 pieces.  I had researched their large rugs a lot and no where did I see anything about the rug pad coming in two sections.  It doesn't connect.  The pads just lay side by side.  This made laying our rug down very tricky.  Had I known this I might have gone a different direction.  Now that our rug is down it's not an issue, but I will always be annoyed that when we go to wash it, it will be hard to lay it down flat again.  For the price, I definitely expected one big rug pad.

5. The big rugs are thin.  It's very soft, but there's not plush or cushion to it.  You cannot get a thick rug pad for the 9x12 rugs.  So if you're looking for a thick rug pad, search elsewhere.

 

Let's go on a little rug tour!

 

 Let me know if you have any other questions!  I'd be happy to answer them for you.

Toddler Entertainment

Do you have a busy toddler at your house?

You know that I do.

As Leo is approaching his 2nd birthday (how!?), it's been fun to find things that he enjoys doing.  It's even better if he finds in entertaining and it keeps his attention while I get things done.

He loves playing with my measuring cups in the kitchen, magnets animals and vehicles on the back door and he really loves my basket of scrunchies, headbands and twisty pony tail holders.  I get that out for him to explore while I get ready most mornings.  He also has a few favorite shows that he finds entertaining.

I've got a few more suggestions for you:

Leo loves egg cartons.  He puts mini trains in them.  Dumps and repeats.  When he's done he starts smashing each little egg section.  I've also given him little Hatchimals or pom poms to put in each section.  He loves all of those.  Yay for free fun.

Leo loves to write with pens and paper.  I keep a post it note and pen with me most of the time.  He loves to draw and scribble.  It's the easiest on the go activity.

Of all the toys we have, Leo loves this two step stool.  He thinks it's his perfect perch.  He's yet to fall or get hurt on it so I let him climb from time to time.

Give your toddler jobs.  Sweeping and laundry are his favorite to help with.

Leo loves egg cartons.  He puts mini trains in them.  Dumps and repeats.  When he's done he starts smashing each little egg section.  I've also given him little Hatchimals or pom poms to put in each section.  He loves all of those.  Yay for free fun.

Dum-Dums are life.  They get us through errands, appointments, school pick up lines, etc.  Never leave home without them.

Bundle up and go for a walk.  Leo is happy to ride along as long as I find him a stick.  We usually go for a walk, wave hello to neighbors and/or dogs and then head back home for some garage scootering.

Turn your garage into an indoor play place.  Leo loves to scooter, slide and drive all of his little cars in the garage.  We bundle up and head out to play.

But beware... you might blink your eye and find yourself in this situation.  He's a climber.

 

 

In school pick up line, Leo loves to look at board books, play with his cars, chew on teether type toys, play with his kid's flashlight, eat a snack and fake blow his nose with tissues.  I keep a basket of things in the car just for him to play with while we wait.  Sometimes he likes to listen to music, too.

Colored pencils are working for us lately when it comes time to coloring because they're not nearly as edible as markers and crayons.  Ask me how I know.  Leo loves a good coloring book and blank paper.  Sometimes I buckle him in to do some art while the big kids are doing homework.

He loves anything with wheels.  Match box cars from the grocery store have gotten us through a pinch.  I always try to keep a couple in my purse, too.

And sometimes despite your best efforts, you still walk into the kitchen and find your toddler hanging out like this yelling MAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAA to come and save him.

What things does your toddler find entertaining??

Icy Snow Days

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a nice weekend.  The kids were out of school and home doing e-learning last Thursday and Friday.  We prepared for anywhere from 1-8 inches of snow and ice and stocked the fridge with our favorite foods.  We ended up getting lots of ice and maybe 2-3 inches of snow.  It was super slippery and definitely not snowman making snow.  

We made the most of it - sledding and checking out all the frozen things around the neighborhood.  Thankfully, we only lost power for about an hour.  We stayed home for almost the whole 4 day weekend minus leaving to go to church.  Where Fletcher promptly fell in the parking lot and then both boys cried when we dropped them off at their classes.  Whew.  Finding a new church home is hard work.

Look at these icy, snowy cuties!  Leo ate lots of snow.  I pulled him around and he just kept yelling YUM in between bites of snow.

Everything was icy and so sparkly.

Leo agreed to wear a hat, socks and gloves and it was amazing how much happier he was out in the snow this time.

Fletcher was sweet pulling Olive & Leo around on sleds.

The big kids offered to help me with Leo while I did some baking on Saturday.  They did great!  I walked upstairs to find them having the best time in a stuffed animal filled crib.  Never mind the Pringles crumbs everywhere.  They were having the best time.

I'm not sure if we'll get any more snow this year, but we're hoping for more!