Our New Furry Friend

Recently, our hearts were broken when our sweet Gracie got out and went missing. We were pretty sure she was sick and we sadly think she went to find her final resting spot. She was, hands down, the best cat we've ever adopted and we miss her so much. We knew we would want another kitty in our home, but we're worried about how it would turn out. We saw this little guy on Craig's List and decided to message the owner to see if he was still available. I also found out that she was posting about him in a FB group for people locally adopting out pets and selling pet related products and services. Someone had been interested, but never came to get him. So long story short, I went about 1:00 am to meet with her and bring him home. So now, without further back story, meet Toby:



The first few nights were a little rough. He was really scared and he meowed that loud, high pitched kitten meow a lot. But he's finally starting to warm up to all of us and I think he's going to be a great fit for our family. Welcome home Toby!

A Little Early Christmas

So I kind of already knew, generally, what I was getting for Christmas - a new camera. I've been wanting one forever and Nick found the one I wanted at a good price. Well, then last night he found exactly what he wanted at an excellent price. So he went ahead and got it. And since we both knew what we were getting, and it just happened to be the 25th of the month, we decided to exchange presents early! Here's what we got each other - I'm so excited about my camera!





And I love the pictures I'm getting already - and I haven't even figured out how to use the manual settings yet! The super photogenic little boy helps too :)



So now I've got no excuse to not be taking pictures - and the perfect tool to finally complete a Project 365 next year!

Oh Christmas Tree!

In the years past, we have always done real trees. Then one year, when this little apartment in Vegas, we bought a cheap artificial tree. It wasn't the most gorgeous tree, but it served it's purpose. Since that year we've done 2 trees - one real tree that served as the main tree and the little artificial tree that I would decorate in a matching color scheme. Until last year that is. Last year, to save money, we just used the little artificial one. But with our big living room, it just seemed so tiny. So we made a vow that we would hit up the Black Friday sales and get the perfect tree. Imagine when, to our delight, we saw the ad from Home Depot with this gorgeous, 7 1/2 foot Martha Stewart, pre-lit tree that was going to only cost 1/3 of it's normal price! I said I would get up early and go down to get it, but after my adventures on Thanksgiving night with Target and WalMart, Nick offered to go instead. I was pretty glad he did since 1) I was just tired and sore and 2) the box was huge and would have been pretty hard for me to carry. Not impossible, but hard.

Long story short, Nick got our dream tree and we got it all set up last night. I sat for probably an hour fluffing all the branches. What looked like a main branch was actually a bundle of 3 branches that had tons of little branches coming off of it. My finger tips were numb from the scratchy branches and I did suffer a couple of flesh wounds, but I would definitely say it was worth it. What do you think?



Later today, our plan is to get it decorated and the rest of the Christmas decorations up. Yay for Christmas!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Things have been changing around the Van Rij house, so I figured it was time for a blog change. Ya know, new changes, new year, new blog - or something like that. One of my big changes is, as of the end of November, I will no longer be designing. Mason started school a couple months ago to help with his speech issues and we're hoping to get some outside speech therapy started soon too. Plus, Bailey will be 2 soon and I really want to spend more time with her. Taking the time to teach her all that she needs to know right now. It was a hard decision, but definitely one I think was the best. I'm excited to be going back to being a mommy, a scrapbooker and a blogger again!

One of my last blog posts on my last blog was this one and I loved it so much, I wanted to repost it here to kick off the new blog. Check out, save the blog and be sure to keep checking back!

So I've been going through my Pinterest boards Learning Through Play and Great Stuff for Kids and making a list of little things to help keep Mason engaged during the day. Here's what I came up with:



By no means is this complete. I've thought of 2 or 3 things to add today alone, but it's a good start. And today went pretty well - though we were gone a good chunk of the day running errands and having a Mama + Mason lunch date...

Anyway! This afternoon I took some time to make our colored rice while Mason did some water play in our highchair (keeps the mess contained as much as possible!) This is a super easy way to make a tub of great sensory play. Here's what you need:

- bag of white rice
- rubbing alcohol
- food coloring (I used the neon colors)
- baggies (I used gallon sized ones)
- wax paper
- cookie sheets (how many depends on how much rice you make - I needed 4)
- a little sunshine
- small bowls, plastic cups...anything to mix the rubbing alcohol & food coloring in

So this is, like I said, super easy. First off, you're going to mix the rubbing alcohol and food coloring together. What I read said to do 2 Tblsp and a few drops. I had a lot of rice though, so I ended up doubling the rubbing alcohol and food coloring.



Next I divided the rice into the 4 gallon sized ziplock bags. They weren't perfectly divided, but I wasn't worried about it. I just got it as close as I could.



Then, one bag at a time, I poured in one of the color mixtures, closed the bag (pushing out most of the air first) and then squished, shook and mixed it all together. I did this until the rice was totally covered.



Then I opened the bag and checked the color. They were all lighter than what I wanted, so I just dumped more food coloring in (no rubbing alcohol, just food coloring). Then I closed the bag and squished, shook and mixed the color around again.

Once I had all four bags colored, I covered each of my cookie sheets with a piece of wax paper and dumped the contents of the bags on a tray each. I used a spoon to spread it out in a layer that covered the whole sheet. Okay, I used my fingers on the green tray before I got smart and used the spoon. My finger tips are still a bit green now...



Now here's where the sunshine comes in. Take your cookie sheets of rice outside and set them in direct sunlight. This dries out the rice pretty quick. The instructions I read said a couple hours. Yeah, here's where being in the desert is helpful. It was 110 today, so those bad boys were dry in less than an hour. Score 1 for the desert.



Once they were dry, I took them inside and dumped them all in one gallon sized baggie, shook it up and set it where we can dig in (literally) this weekend.





So what are you waiting for? Get some rice and get to coloring. Your kids will love you for it!