Monday Happy List :)

Today I've linked up with Mamarazzi to share my Happy List, a couple days late but BETTER late than NEVER...

#1 on the Happy List...

My youngest son Gage got his SUMMER Swap package from his partner Brody last Friday!! My hubby text me when I was at work if it was ok for him to open it and I said NOOO!! (lol)

I needed to be home to witness the facial expressions as he opened his mail!!

So here's what Gage got...

A cool water squirter and a whistle along with...

A whole FUN box full of individually wrapped BOYISH goodness!!

Gage with all his loot!!

He got: popcorn, playdoh, toy cars, a Shrek coloring books, pom poms for crafting, a grown your own herb kit (way cool!), gummy sour sharks (yum!)...

Chalk, 2 soft baseballs, some powdered candy and his first pair of goggles!

He was SO excited about the goggles!

And OMGoodness, this is the GENIUS idea... its called a POPSICLE "SNUGGIE", loove it!

Its made from felt and you are to slide it onto the bottom of the popsicles shown to keep little fingers from getting too cold!! Gage's swap partners momma EM made this and embroidered Gage's name on it!!

COOLNESS I tell ya!!

Plus she included the 3 popsicles too:)

She also made Gage his own "MAN BAG" which I was bursting with laughter about because he loooves to carry bags around and calls them his "purse"!! LOL

The front side of the MAN BAG...

The back side of the MAN BAG with a Letter G on it, too cool!!

Gage has had a BLAST playing with all his goodies, play doh has been the #1 fave, then the cars...

Cute!!

Here's what WE sent to lil Brody, Gage's partner...

Brody is 1 so I had fun picking out lil' guy stuff for him!

Got him some Gerber snacks for his lil teeth to enjoy, his mom said he's loves balls so we sent him 2 water splash balls, a cute SUN t-shirt, an Elmo bowl for his snacks, some cool big boy crayons which are triangle shaped which is easy for lil hands to hold! Brody is a HUGE fan of Yo Gabba Gabba so I printed off some coloring sheets for him and made a lil coloring book.

Also made him this Yo Gabba Gabba sign for his room...

I'm pretty pleased how it turned out!

I used a $1 wooden egg shaped sign and Modge Podged it with some colorful paper, the Yo Gabba Gabba peeps faces were downloaded from www.nickjr.com; I Modge Podged those on too then added letter sticks for Brody's name and the YGG name!

Here's the back side...

Just used some fun polka dot paper, hot glued the ribbon on and some fun buttons to hide the bottom of the ribbon strings! Wa-la!!

Yo Gabba Gabba goodness!

Em, the lil boys mom said when he saw the sign he went, " GABBA!" Awww:)

#2 on my Happy List...

PICNIK!!!

Holy Moly, I'm probably the last person on earth to use picnik for photo editing and fun but I got sucked into it today and am IN LOOOOOVE ♥

Did you notice my new blog header?

I MADE IT!!!!

YES INDEED!

WITH picnik!!

Ooooh it was a pain in the butt at first but I mastered it:)

I also played around with a fave pic of my boys too...

Here's the BEFORE...

 

And here's the AFTER... "picnik-ed" style...

Ahhh I love it!

I brightened the color, softened the edges, added a border and text!!

Its turns an "ordinary" looking photo into "extraordinary"!!

#3 on my HAPPY LIST...

A MOMMY TIME OUT!

Have you ever given yourself one of these?

If so, you SHOULD!

I've been an emotional wreck lately!

Lots of tears shed over Fathers Day and not having my dad here, I've had a ROUGH time with my boys FIGHTING ALL DAY LONG!!

I'm so stressed with them, I feel like I can't handle my MOM job right now:(

I hate feeling that way but I know when I do its time for a...

MOMMY TIME OUT!

So after dinner tonite, I left for an hour and went to the cemetary to visit my dad, my nanny who's 86th birthday is today is Heaven and my poppy who passed when I was 17. I visited each of them, talked to them and cried my eyes out. I went back to my truck and sat for another 30 minutes crying and just reflecting on how much I still NEED those 3 in my life!!

Once I got myself together, I drove to McDonalds for a treat...

   

A Large Unsweetened Iced Tea and a...

Caramel sundae with NUTS!
Cost me only $2 plus tax but it helped me feel better!!

I realize that I will never be a perfect mom...
I am HIGH stress and unfortunately that rubs off on my boys at times:(
But we make the best of each day that we can and look at the GOOD that came from that day!
I think thats the only way to get by when times are tough!!

....................................................
Thanks for visiting me today and reading through this looong post!
I have Gavin's KIDS swap to show still and my SUMMER Flip Flop swap to show too, but I will save that for another day.. this tired momma needs to hit the hay!

Noelle ♥