The Toddler (Boy) Bookshelf

On my first ever outing with Trey I went to two of my favorite places. Starbucks. And Target. 

He was only about two weeks old and I was scared to death to be out and alone with him. 

Over two years later, this all seems so silly now as I'm writing it... 

We wandered the store. I sipped my coffee and he slept as shopped. I decided I needed to get him a little something for being such a good shopping buddy. But what? 

And then we found ourselves in the book section.

Oh how I love kids books, the colors, the stories, everything about them. Yes, I realize I sound like Kathleen from You've Got Mail... 

I have always loved to read and I credit my mom with 100% of that. She always said "It doesn't matter what you're reading as long as you're reading something". She was always more than happy to help contribute to my Golden Books/Berenstain Beers/Judy Blume/Babysitters Club/Goosebumps/Sweet Valley High collections. 

I came across a section of Sandra Boynton books (at the time I had NO clue who she was, which seems crazy as I can recite most of her books by memory now!) and Trey and I decided that "The Belly Button Book" needed to come home with us.

It is definitely one of Trey's favorites but we've accumulated QUITE a few more books ever since. 

A while ago Erin posted on her blog about her favorite kid's books and ever since I have wanted to share the favorites from our home!

I keep these brown baskets (from Target) throughout the house with books in them, I rotate the books between them and keep what we aren't reading at the moment on a shelf in Trey's closet. I have found that having easy access to them around the house equals lots more reading! We do a handful of books everyday before his nap and a handful before bedtime (which usually turns into.. "hooooow 'bout.... one moooore?") but we also love to just sit on the floor during the day and read.

 I've "caught" Trey "reading" to mickey quite a bit lately and think it's just the sweetest thing.

You can see lots of the ones that we love in the pictures but I'll link to what I'm pretty sure are our "favorite fifteen" right now!

(In no particular order...)

Trey's "Favorite Fifteen" books - at 29 months 

1. Llama Llama Red Pajama - We first stumbled upon the sweet, little Llama last year in Christmas book form and we have been obsessed with him since. We also have "Llama Llama Time to Share" and "Llama Llama Misses Mama". These books are so fun and I feel like I could have wrote them myself, I often joke that Trey is my little Llama!

2. The ABC Book - This was actually one of J.D.'s old books, we have quite a collection of Seuss books from when he was a child and I was so thankful that his mom saved them all. We had to read this book 2738 times a day for a few months straight. It really helped him with identifying letters, as well as distinguishing between upper case and lower case. And it's just a fun and super silly book too!

3. Only In Dreams - This one came from Trey's Auntie Mel Mel (my SIL) on a Spring trip she took to San Fran and hit up the Paul Frank flagship store. It's all about the fun you can have in dreams and features our favorite little monkey.

4. Goodnight Moon - Truth? I think this book is CREEP STATUS. That old lady whispering hush? Homegirl needs to hit the road. But KIDS LOVE THIS BOOK. I don't know why and I don't try to understand... even if it gives ME nightmares.

5. Little Blue Truck - I'm pretty sure it was a blog friend that first introduced us to Blue, and I am forever grateful. Everyone in our house loves this little beep, beep, beep.

6. Little Blue Truck Leads the Way - Blue part two! Trey likes to read this one first!

7. Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site - This is #1 in rotation for this week and Trey cannot get enough. I think his poor babysitter had to read it like 5 times in a row last weekend before bed. If you don't have this ORDER it!!

8. The Birthday Box - I love this author - the artwork is awesome and the books are so silly! We have a lot of fun with this one!

9. I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean - One of my friends (Hi MJ!) picked this up for Trey's birthday and we have been reading it religiously ever since. It's all about the different animals in the ocean, it's a really fun read.

10. Dinosaur vs. Bedtime - I have to give props to J.D. for picking this up for Trey all by himself. My Dinosaur voice has much to be desired but Trey gets HYPE for this one! (The dinosaur also goes up against the potty, the library & santa! They're all great!)

11. The Going to Bed Book - A long term, before bed favorite. I think we actually have a few copies of this..

12. Dear Zoo - It is always fun to read this lift-the-flap book on the night/morning before we head to the zoo!

13. Sheep in a Jeep - This is a GREAT rhyming book and it has a fun craft that goes a long with it too!

14. Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? - Classic. We love to make all of the sounds with dear Mr. Brown

15. Goodnight Beach - we picked this up on the way back from The Outer Banks last year and I'll be honest, I didn't think Trey would like it as much as he does. It's a bit unnecessarily wordy but he still asks for it quite regularly. Maybe it's just beach memories for him too!

What are your favorite children's books? Please share them in the comments I am always looking to pick up new ones and I know other readers will enjoy discovering new favorites too!

DIY: 1 Hour Instagram Pics-Turned Magnets!

I've been meaning to print my instagram pictures for... well, lets be honest here....

FOREVER.

Everyplace I would see to print them would be like "4-5 weeks for delivery..." or I'd see DIY things on Pinterest that would require you to trim them from 4x6 to 4x4... ehhh.. no thanks.

So a couple weeks ago I stumbled upon the new "Printicular" app. I was INSTANTLY hooked.

Printicular a picture printing app that links to your instgram, facebook and camera roll. You simply click on which pictures you'd like and then send them off to WALGREENS (yes!) and in UNDER an hour (first batch was like 20 minutes, second was 45) your nice, square, 4x4 prints are ready to pick up!

(They are $0.39 per print and I used "partner25" to take 25% off of my total order. Also, you pay when  you pick up.) 

I did a test run with only 10 pictures at first just to make sure the quality was ok and that my Walgreens could really do this. I was pleasantly surprised. So I few days later I printed 100 more.

So after I got home with all of these squares I sat staring at them. What should I do with them now? I could put them in an album but I really wanted to SEE some of them. I had seen a company a while back that you can order your instagram pics turned magnets from and a light bulb went off!

I grabbed some scissors, scrapbook tape and some old (large) magnets that I had laying around. I cut the magnets up into strips and taped them on the back of the pictures with the scrap booking (double sided) tape. And ta-da!

SO EASY!! 

The magnets are easy to pop off the back as well - which will be great when I switch these out and put them into an album! 

How do you display your instagram pictures? I'm looking for fun ideas for other parts of the house! 

Christmas Eve & Cookie Party Recap

A few years ago I purchased a "cookie decorating kit" from Trader Joe's and thought it would be fun to have a "cookie station" for our Christmas Eve with our family. 

The idea was a hit and since then a new tradition was born.

 Every year on Christmas eve we all get together in our jammies, have dinner, decorate (and EAT!) cookies, invite the reindeer to visit and after the little one goes to bed we all snuggle up and watch Elf. 

This is one of those things that I hope to continue for the rest of my life and that Trey will always have fond memories of. 

I now make the cookies and icing from scratch, to make sure that we have enough! And thank you pinterest for the idea of putting the icing in bottles, that was always a HUGE mess on the dining room table! I also included a hot cocoa (in the crock pot - genius!) & coffee bar this year and it was a huge hit, so I'm sure we will continue to include that in years to come! 

This year's reindeer mix is from Trey's teachers - a friend of mine usually gives us a little bag of it as well but I forgot to bring it home from her Christmas brunch a few weeks prior. Trey loves going outside to sprinkle it on the ground. And of course we couldn't forget to leave them some carrots!

And looking back on Christmas Eve from the past few years:

Christmas recap to come tomorrow - I'm sure my fellow 2010 mamas will agree - this is a FUN age!!!

I love reading about everyone's Christmas eve traditions - what do you do with your family & friends?

Awesome Ecomom Deal - $15 off $50 and Free Shipping!

How fun are these Green Toys? I ordered them off of Ecomom.com - they have been my go to for so many things over the past year - Melissa & Doug Toys, Plum Organics Pouches, Ella's kitchen foods, etc. 

Well, exciting news for those of you who have never ordered from them before - they have a new referral program! Use code: REF043603CPKGH

To save $15 off a purchase of $50 or more and snag free shipping! 

I wasn't paid for this post, but I do get a credit for referring new customers now! As will you if you shop with them and then refer friends! It's an awesome program and the company carries wonderful Eco-friendly products as well as an outstanding customer service department! 

Head over to Ecomom and let me know what you find!! 

Goals for 2013

I decided to go ahead and put some goals together for the new year. I know that some huge percentage of resolutions fail but I'm hoping that I can keep some of these going for a long time! 

1. Work on "eating clean": I do a good job of making sure that everything I buy for Trey (and the household mostly) is organic and free of things like red dye 40 but I also want to make sure that we are getting all of our veggies in and trying to eliminate lots of unnecessary chemicals. Does this mean I'm giving up Starbucks or a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant? Absolutely not. It just means I am going to try and be more conscious.

2. Get my home organized: Where do I begin? I want to start keeping a cleaning schedule and sticking to it. I hate that overwhelmed feeling of tackling things that haven't been kept up properly. I'd also like to step up HOW I organize things. I should probably just apologize to the hubs now for the order I'm about to make at The Container Store....

3. Switch over to natural bath/cosmetic products: Yep, another place I have always been great at researching for Trey (with the help of my bestie - she always gives me great advice/info on living a "greener" life) but I haven't switched over my bath or cosmetic products - same with the hub's bath products. I am going to start looking them up on the EWG Skin Deep database before I buy anything new! I know once I switched all of our cleaning products and detergents over to natural ones I felt a lot better!

6. Do SOMETHING with pictures: I touched on this in my last post but photo books, prints, canvases, WHATEVER. Just do something with them!!

7. Send more snail mail: I am TERRIBLE at this. And I need to give up the excuses and start hitting the post office when Trey is at school! I love getting mail and I know that my friends and family do too!

8. Decide on a "theme" for Trey's big boy room & execute: The hubs and I have gone round and round and round on a "theme" (if you can call it that - we aren't big on room themes) as well as exactly which furniture to order. I'll be sharing some ideas in a future blog post!

8. Eat out less/try more new recipes: All week we do great dining at home. And as soon as the weekend hits... BAM. It's like the stove doesn't work anymore. We don't plan on giving up our Saturday nights out with friends & kids but no more random Sunday afternoon lunches out. At least not every week. I also want to start trying to make more of all of the yummy recipes that I have "pinned" rather than always turning to our old standbys.

9. Worry less. Enjoy life more.  No explanation needed. 

Say Cheese & Happy New Year!

Happy New Year y'all! Gosh I can't believe another year has flown by so quickly. 

I have always taken a lot of pictures of Trey (like the rest of my blog/IG buddies!) but I have always been awful about DOING something with them. 

Don't believe me? I JUST printed pictures for our 2009, 2010 & 2011 picture frame ornaments. Trust me, I hung my head in shame as I picked up the prints. 

So I decided that at the beginning of 2012 I'd make a monthly collage (small steps people.... small steps). 

And besides losing one of them I kept up with it really well. In addition I sat down with my EC planner and just wrote, wrote, wrote what was going on with Trey and our family. It's definitely not a true journal but I still consider it an accomplishment. 

I'm planning on taking these collages and making them into a 2012 book and pulling from the planner for what we were doing during that time! 

I couldn't pick a favorite moment of 2012 if I tried! I loved watching Trey grow and learn, I was thrilled when J.D. switched to a company that allows us to spend A LOT more time together as a family. And most important, a TRUE MIRACLE was among us when my mom woke up from being on life support. God is good. And I am truly thankful. 

I'm not sure what 2013 will bring for the Beach Bum family but I'm excited! 

I've also been inspired by the oh-so-sweet, Ashley to come up with some good, meaningful (and ATTAINABLE) resolutions for the new year! 

I'll be posting those soon! What about you? What's on your 2013 list?C

Wishing You & Yours

In the midst of some late night gift wrapping/bow making/frozen hot cocoa drinking at 12:20 in the morning I thought I'd share our christmas card this year!

p.s. I totally slacked on addressing and mailing these so some are still on their way if you haven't gotten one yet!