what do rodeo's & dr. seuss have in common

today at my school we're celebrating rodeo day because today is Go Texan day which is the annual marking of the beginning of the houston livestock show & rodeo. everyone in houston is encouraged to dress up in western gear, or cowboy stuff, or just wear a snap-button shirt & we even get to celebrate it at school... yee haw!!! houstonians look forward to this day all year, Go Texan day has been called a spirit. it's even been referred to as a fever. very few individuals - if any - can explain it, but we looooooove it! you can smell pit-smoked barbecue for miles, it's the best & you even get to see real actual horse riders and wagons going down the street. so everyone gitty on up, get snapped up & don't forget your boots... it's time to show your lonestar pride...YEE HAW!!!

then at livi's school they were celebrating dr. seuss's birthday. they made all sorts of crafts & the neatest was a cat-in-the-hat hat & all their worksheets were based off all different dr. seuss books. of course they read as many dr. seuss books as they could, it was a very fun whimsical day. mommy & daddy even made livi a special shirt of the truffula trees from the lorax, which was the hit of the day! we really really love dr. seuss, mommy & i's first books we ever read were by him. he's so silly & he always makes us giggle. but underneath all the silliness he always has a great message like be yourself, love conquers all, everyone is equal, laughter is the best medicine & knowledge is power. so HAPPY BIRTHDAY dr. seuess & thank you for all the life lessons!

"why fit in when you were born to stand out!"
~dr. seuss

daddy did what

daddy was so inspired when livi cut & donated her hair last year to children with hair loss, that he decided to grow & grow & grow & grow & grow & grow & grow & grow & grow & grow & grow his hair so he could donate to them also. they are an amazing organization, you should take some time to read all about them here! their mission is that "Children With Hair Loss was created as a resource for ALL CHILDREN who have medically-related hair loss. It is our mission to empower these children to become whole again by making hair replacement available to those who may be financially challenged and might otherwise not have a means of obtaining the hair they want and need. Our goal is to assist as many of these children as possible in changing their lives by improving their outlook and empowering them with a degree of self-confidence that will allow them to face the world with renewed self-esteem." daddy ended up cutting off over 9 inches & looks like a completely different daddy. mommy & daddy decided to surprise us with his haircut so when he picked me up at school i screamed so loud in excitement, i probably scared a few people & when livi saw she couldn't stop smiling.  ms. brenda who cut off livi's hair also cut daddy's hair & she donated the haircut again because she thinks it's so awesome what we're doing. we are so so so proud of him & think he' the besets daddy in the whole wide world & hopefully he'll inspire somebody to donate too!!!

shine a light on slavery

did you know that there is 27 million men, women & children trapped in slavery around the world today in over 160 countries?! stand with us. raise your voice. join the fight for freedom. today please join us & other freedom fighters from around the world as we SHINE A LIGHT ON SLAVERY. draw a red X your hand. tell your world that slavery still exists. BE IN IT TO END IT!

enditmovement.com

st. jude math-a-thon

GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?! my school is partnering with st. jude children's research hospital & we're having a mat-a-thon to help raise money for the hospital. this program allows me to improve my math skills while helping children at st. jude children's hospital who are battling cancer & other deadly diseases. i will receive a funbook filled with math problems & will complete the problems in the next several days! i'm so so so excited that my school is participating in this because as you all know this is a very special cause that's close to my heart! i would really appreciate if you would donate $10 or $20 as i complete the funbook! if you'd like to donate you can click here!

yoga

every morning at livi's school they start out the day doing yoga to get their brains & body awake. livi loooooooves yoga & since she's so good at it the teachers usually have her in the front leading so everyone can see how the pose should look! she loves to come home & teach us all of the poses too & it's awesome having our own yoga instructor anywhere we go.

cinderella project

hey friends-
our church is trying to make young girls proms unforgettable by having a cinderella project & collecting gently used prom dresses, shoes & jewelry. you can drop off any of these items with us or at the Bridge's "cinderella project" in the church lobby and we'll take it from there. thank you so much for helping us want to do good & making someone's fairytale come true!

technical support

thank goodness we have the best technical support around at all times.

my valentine's day party

today i had my valentine's day party at school & it was by far the best school party i've ever been too!!! we had pizza, ice cream brownie sundaes with sprinkles, nuts & cherries on top, cookies, valentines & awesome games. we had 4 different stations to go to play games & win prizes. one game was stacking as many conversation candy harts on top of one another as you could, another was tossing as many marshmallows as you could in a cup in one minute, one was moving a cookie from your forehead into your mouth without using your hands (that was super funny), another one was two people had straws in their mouth & they had to move a pretzel from one straw to the other without using hands. it was crazy in my class room, but we were having a blast & having a wonderful time hanging out together!

livi's 100th day of school

today is livi's 100th day & it's also valentines day so she decided the perfect way to celebrate both would be for mommy to make her a shirt with 100 hearts on it. so they cut out 100 hearts out of scrap fabric & stitch-glued them on. we love it & think it came out amazing!

 everything they did today involved the number 100. their homework for the week was to bring in a bag of 100 things & livi decided to bring in 100 green legos. then they made a display of all the things the students brought in. they made a fun special snack with 100 goodies, a necklace with 100 beads, a crown to wear with the number 100, 100 dots art with cool dotters & all other sorts of activities.

as i mentioned before it's also valentines day & livi is the only girl in her class & let me tell you those boys spoiled her rotten. all the boys kept bringing all these gifts in & mrs. hendrick thought the were for her, but they were all for livi! she definitely is loved by her friends & we're so happy for her!

livi was one tired girl when we picked her up today, but they had a wonderful day celebrating.

our valentines

livi & i are so super duper excited about our valentine's day parties at school tomorrow... whoo hoo!!!   we've made all of our friends & teachers special valentines & it took us a few days, but i think they will really feel our love. this year livi & i decided on the same valentine to make for everyone & we can't wait to hand them out!

also for my valentines my teacher had rules... 1. we had to give one to every member of the class & 2. we had to write a sentence on our valentines that included one thing we like about that student.  because sometimes we can unintentionally hurt each others feelings throughout the year & she feels that valentine's day is the perfect opportunity for us to share good feeling with each other. i have to say it was a lot of work, but i thought it was a great rule too!

then for a special added sweet treat mommy made valentine treats for all of our teachers too. she made our famous bark but cupid style, let me tell you it's mmm, mmm, good! since daddy has to work on valentines she even made a special batch for him to take to work to share!

here's the recipe for the cupid bark if you would like to make it too...
14 whole oreos, broken up.  
1 1/2 C pretzels, broken into pieces. we used the small stick pretzels
1 lb. white chocolate or milk chocolate, almond bark or melts.
1/2 C valentine candy corm.
1/2 C valentine m&m's
valentines or red and pink colored sprinkles.
cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper. spread broken cookes, pretzels and about 1/2 C of the candy corn & m&m's onto the waxed paper.  place white/milk chocolate in a container and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.  stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds until melted and smooth.  white chocolate melts faster and burns easier than chocolate. then drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie mixture, spreading with spatula if needed to coat evenly.  sprinkle remaining candy corn & m&m's and colored sprinkles over the chocolate while it is still wet.  do not let it harden.  place cookie tray into refrigerator until set and firm. remove and gently break bark into small pieces. store in air tight container.

acorns to oaks

the year of the horse 2014

livi's art teacher at shady oak has a blog called acorns to oaks & it's all about the students art projects & the inspirations behind them! so take a minute to go look at all of livi's art work she's done so far this year, it's so wonderful! here's the link & all the posts on the page has livi's art in them: http://acorntooakart.com/?s=livia+l

winter watercolor trees

snowman & snowflaes

square, striped pumpkins

scarecrow & crow paper collage

pipecleaner sculptures

color wheel collage

yellow taste like...

show you care this valentine's day

please take 30 seconds to spread the love to help make a child's valentine's day extra special & send a FREE valentine to a patient at texas children's hospital! children in the hospital this valentine’s day won’t be able to trade valentines with their friends, but with your help we can still make their day special. this is such a wonderful idea & we're so happy tch is doing this, if you'd like to do it too please click here!

lazy sadie

mommy's pillow

sadie is the laziest dog there ever has been. if she sees a blanket, that's it she claims it & is out like a light in a minute. so if you're cuddled up on the sofa & you get chilly it's a race to who will get to the blanket first.  her absolute very berry favorite place is sleeping on mommy's pillow & on mommy's head. if mommy is lucky she'll get a tiny itty bitty place for her head, but for the most part sadie is hogging it all. of course she has us all trained to leave cozy blankets out in every room for her because she's so ridiculous yet so very adorable. 

faith

my virtue for the month is faith which is believing in what you can't see because of what you can see!

my awesome week

this week has been filled with awesome things each & every day! on monday there was a party for about 100 special 3rd, 4th & 5th graders that had read at least 7 of the texas bluebonnets award book.  for our special party they had "the snake man" come with all his friends (that's code for snakes) & it was so much fun. then after school i started my first art lesson with my art teacher, i loved being back in a art studio. i spent most of my lesson doing research on what i wanted to create & then i started sketching.

on tuesday i had free dress because i reached my monthly reading goal, i love being able to have one day of free dress every month!

then on wednesday i had tumbling, which is my favorite. i've almost for my front walkover down, i've working super hard on it!

on thursday these 2 books mommy special ordered for me from the library came in. it's this really cool series about these 4 best friends & i've read the first two, but have been waiting on the last two. i'm so excited they finally came in so i can read what happens next! 

then to end my awesome week,  today i had a half day of school, it was still morning when i got out of school... whoo hoo! mommy & i decided it was the perfect time to go shopping for all my art supplies so i'd be ready for monday. this was my "grocery" list: sketchbook,  large drawing pad, water color pad, canvas pad, watercolor pencils, water based paint, oil pastels, acrylic paint set & super tip markers. it was so wonderful packing up all my supplies in my big top artist bag when i got home! 

super bowl XLVIII

yesterday was the super bowl & it was the seattle seahawks against the denver broncos. the seahawks WON & i mean they crushed the other team. the final score was the seahawks 43- broncos 8! talk about an amazing insane game, we're still hoarse from all the yelling & cheering we were doing! this was the seahawks 2nd time to be in the super bowl, the 1st time didn't go so well. let me tell you something about seattle seahawks fans, we are hard core & we have nothing but love for our team. the city of seattle has been going crazy with ideas to show all their support, it's been so neat to see everything people have come up with. these are some of our favorites...

their awesome send off

of course we had to show our love & support too for the bestest city there is! livi wore my old seahawk jersey, i picked out an awesome custom shirt that mommy ordered & mommy ordered a special shirt for her too but it never showed up. mommy was so bummed that daddy surprised her made her the coolest one ever, he even drew it free hand... i watched him to do it, it was amazing!

we were ready to cheer on our seattle seahawks

livi also drew a special picture that she hung up to cheer them on. it was so stink in' cute. she drew the space needle, a football player, fire works bursting & a snowman because they have those in seattle.

all in all it was the best football game ever & it shows what we've always believed seattle is & will always be #1!!!