Inspiring Free Online Mom Conference

There is a wonderful FREE online conference for moms that begins today!  The following video introduces you to what the Mom’s Conference is:

 

Doesn’t that look cool!? Come join me!  Each day of the conference (beginning today,) a new set of 4 presentation videos will be made available on The Mom Conference site for a FREE 24-hour viewing/listening period.  The line up of speakers is phenomenal!

mom conference

What a great way to get re-energized at being the best mom you can be!  I’m especially excited about the meal preparation presentations.  Head on over now!  Click here.

Good moms bring joy,

Katy Perry Inspired Greeting Cards

One of my favorite albums right now is Katy Perry’s Prism (Deluxe Version).  I used the lyrics from some of her songs to make my Valentine cards this year.  I couldn’t show them to you before Valentine’s Day…it would have spoiled it for my family.

take me to the river valentine familybringsjoy.com

drum valentine familybringsjoy.com

The above is from the song Legendary Lovers

Below is from one of her more played songs on the radio Unconditionally

unconditionally homemade valentines card

inside of valentine familybringsjoy.com

The next two are from the song Double Rainbow

one of a kind valentine familybringsjoy.com

glitter together valentine familybringsjoy.com

All of these are pretty simple to make.  You could make these for any occasion not just Valentine’s Day.  If you have any questions about how I made them, leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

Katy Perry Inspired Greeting Cards familybringsjoy.com

Make something today,

Friday’s Five Things I Learned At Disney Land

1. The Disney Character I’m most like is Jessie from Toy Story.

There’s a place in the California Adventure park where a computer asks you a bunch of questions to see what character you are most like.  Turns out I’m most like Jessie.

Book about me at disney familybringsjoy.com

photo 1 (2)

I found this info out AFTER we met Jessie.  If I would have known of my special kinship, I would have gotten a photo with her too!  Below Jessie signs my daughter’s autograph book.

Jessie signing book familybringsjoy.com

2. There are special cutting artists on Main Street of Disney Land who can cut your silhouette by hand.

You might not think this is cool, but I do!  The lady who cut my kid’s silhouettes has been working this craft at Disney Land for 40 years!  I could not believe my eyes as I watched her.

3. If you feel something in your hair at Toon Town in Disney Land, don’t pull it out of your hair…it might be a bee!

DSC08933Yep, this happened to me.  I felt something in my hair.  I pulled it out of my hair to find a bee.  As soon as I figured out what it was I let go of it…too late…it stung me.  I haven’t had a bee sting since I was 4 or 5 years old.  It’s pretty painful.  We found the first aid station and they had some good numbing gel for it with an ice pack.  Thank goodness!  For future reference, if anything like this or any other unfortunate accident occurs while you are visiting Disney Land, tell the nearest cast member (worker) and the nurse will come to you.  We had to walk a little ways to get to the first aid station.  The nurse told us she could have came to us.

4. Spending money on an experience is completely worth it! (I already knew this)  In this case it was the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Disney Land.

This was my daughter’s chance to be prettied up like a Disney princess.   The sweet beautician treated her like royalty doing her hair, nails and makeup.

Disney Boutique collage familybringsjoy.com

Daughter was able to choose what dress/princess she wanted to be.  At the end of the beautifying process they open the curtains you see behind her.  A special mirror is revealed with animation and music. (I wish now I would have taken video)  Here she is…Snow White.

Snow White at Boutique familybringsjoy.com

Next included a photo shoot in Cinderella’s carriage!

Photo time at boutique familybringsjoy.com

Isn’t it gorgeous?!

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The photographer let me take a few photos with my camera.

snow white in carriage familybringsjoy.com

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That’s not all…time to meet other princesses!  First is Cinderella.

Cinderella and daughter familybringsjoy.com

Another favorite…Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

Ariel with snow white familybringsjoy.com

I am so glad we did this.  I will forever have this time etched in my memory…and more importantly I think it will be something she will never forget.

my princess at Disney Land familybringsjoy.com

5. I don’t like roller coasters, crowds and kids who complain about wait times.

I used to like roller coasters when I was young.  As a matter of fact, I would purposefully ride in the very front and put my hands in the air.  Not anymore…it’s another sign of me getting old.  Boo!  I got motion sick riding Space Mountain.  I hate motion sickness.

teacups with dad familybringsjoy.com

son & I at Disney Land familyI thought going in February was a good time to go to Disney Land…meaning less crowded.  Turns out Valentine’s Day/President’s Day is a popular time to go.  I mean honestly, we could hardly walk through the parks.  Thursday was the least crowded of all the days of the weekend.  I’m so glad we took the kids out of school that day.  Disney Land was more crowded than California Adventure, yet I was very disappointed with the amount of people there.

If I didn’t already know how impatient my kids are already, I do now.  Sigh…it was incessant whining and complaining about waiting in the lines.  Sometimes they wouldn’t want to go on the ride if they saw how long the wait time was.  And let me tell you, most of the wait times were around an hour.  We learned to use fast passes as much as possible.  The last day we were there my daughter and I only rode one ride all day.  Instead, we went to lots of shows, which I love.

This was our first family vacation without our oldest daughter.  If you are a new reader, she’s a college freshman at an out of state university.  It was weird not having her with us.  This is a different stage of life for all of us right now.  K, if you are reading this, know how very much you were missed.  We thought about ya while searching every shop for a plush Flynn Rider.  I’m sure there will be other Disney opportunities for us to vacation together in the future.

As Tigger says, “Ta ta for now!”

Disclaimer: I was not compensated in any way by Disney to write this post.

Disney Brings Joy,

2014 Valentine’s Day Mantel

Valentine's Day Mantel 2014 familybringsjoy.com

Greetings!  I told you I had been busy working on our Valentine’s Day mantel.  I’m sharing it with you today.

Disney Land countdown board familybringsjoy.com

This Valentine’s Day will be extra magical as we will be at Disney Land! {watch out Insta friends, my Instagram feed will be overflowing}  We realized our youngest, who is almost 11, was only 2 and a half years old the last time we went to Disney World.  She was telling me she doesn’t remember much of that trip and it made me sad.  She is pretty much already a tween but young enough to still love everything Disney.  Kids grow up so fast!  The kids have a long weekend off from school and we are taking advantage of it.  I hear it’s supposed to be a good time to visit the park…not too busy.  We sure will enjoy the little reprieve of snowy, cold weather we’ve been having here.  I checked the weather and it’s supposed to be a high of 81 and low of 50.  Ahhhhh…that sounds nice.  None of us have ever been to Disney Land, so we decided to check it out instead of Disney World this time.  Anyway, so I have sort of a Disney theme going on this year for the mantel.

The board I bought at Hobby Lobby and painted it with chalkboard paint.  I’ve used this board many times on my mantel.  I just erase and write what I want for the occasion.

Minnie Mouse Heart Garland familybringsjoy.com

I made this garland initially with just doilies and kids valentines I bought at the dollar store.  I glued them on and used different ribbon to tie them together.  Well, the doilies are a little fragile.  I hung it up and it ripped and tore.  I thought if I reinforced it with some washi tape where the ribbon was it would work.  No such luck, they still broke apart.  I hate when a project goes wrong.  I guess the weight of the valentines was just too much for the doilies.  I ended up adding reinforcement by cutting hearts out of card stock and gluing it to the back of the doilies.  I also punched small holes on both sides of the card stock hearts and tied them together with white twine.  Hooray!  It is not falling apart now!  I love the cute Minnie Mouse valentines.  My daughter made some just like this to hand out to the characters when we meet them for an autograph. (Of course hers are not strung together.)

close up of heart garland familybringsjoy.com

valentine trees familybringsjoy.com

The yarn tree I made for Christmas one year.  Super easy…wrap the yarn around over and over and pin the end on the top.  The dollar store also had these smaller trees. I decided to make a conversation heart tree.  Again, super easy…all you need is a glue gun.  The other tree is made out of buttons, brads and a few flowers.  I’ve seen similar ones on Pinterest and wanted to make one.  You can’t tell in the photo but, I mod podged music paper onto the back of the trees before adding the buttons and hearts.

right side of valentine mantel familybringsjoy.com

Anyone who goes into my house knows I love these little black and white signs.  The quotes on them are worth reading over and over.  Santa even put mini ones (wooden signs like the one above) in each family member’s stocking last Christmas.  I found this one at a local shop in town.  The wooden red heart my daughter made.  I found the vase at a local discount store.  The cute Precious Moments couple was on the top of our wedding cake.  It is special to us.

left side of frame familybringsjoy.com

I was going through my love box (where I keep cards & notes others give me) and noticed a theme in the cards hubby has given me.  He likes to give me the cards with the little kids on them.  Aren’t they adorable?!  Boy that photographer must have offered those kids something pretty awesome to get them to pose like that. lol!  I covered the backs of the window panes with different kinds of scrapbook paper and taped the cards onto the paper with blue painters tape. {I love that tape because it holds well but you can remove it when you want without damaging anything.)

right side of valentine frame familybringsjoy.com

The next few photos are of the music paper pinwheels I made.  Again, I attached them to doilies and added a few embellishments on top with the glue gun.  One of the pinwheels didn’t want to hold it’s embellishments.  They kept coming off so I just left it plain. (The one over the 2)

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valentines pinwheel familybringsjoy.com

Here it is again all together…

Valentine's Day Mantel 2014 familybringsjoy.com

I shot a couple of pics of the tree I have on my foyer table.

valentine tree familybringsjoy.com

I liked the next shot of our newest piece of art above the tree.  Jesus is LOVE.  I thought it fitting to include HIM.  I was trying a different angle to change things up a bit.

Jesus and valentine tree familybringsjoy.com

I hope everyone has a lovely Valentine’s Day week.  No need to show your love to someone only on Valentine’s Day…express your love daily.

Love Brings Joy,

The Music Of LOVE: A Playlist For You

Love Songs Playlist familybringsjoy.com

Being the hopeless romantic that I am, you can imagine how much I might like the upcoming holiday.  This week is the perfect time to break out the sappy love songs in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  It’s not a celebration of only romantic love.  I believe it is a celebration of relationships in our life, people who we love.

I put together a Valentine’s Day playlist for you.  Oh boy was this fun!  I absolutely love music.  I enjoyed grabbing tracks from before I was born all the way up to modern day songs.  There are upbeat tempo songs as well as ballads.  I promise there is all types of music included too.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

 valentines playlist25-50 51-75 last few songs

Music Brings JOY,

Flurry Friend Friday

snowy neighborhood view familybringsjoy.com

This is what our neighborhood has looked like for the past week.  As a matter of fact, we’ve had the most snow here in Oklahoma since we moved here 7 years ago.  We have snow at least once a year here, which is different from living in Texas.  This also means lots of snow days with the kids at home.  I’m pretty sure our kids will be in school until June this year instead of May.

kids and snowman familybringsjoy.com

On Monday for Family Home Evening we built a snowman.  This was the biggest snowman we have ever built because the snow rolled very well.  You aren’t seeing things if you see some blue on the snowman.  We had our lawn fertilized right before it snowed.  The dye from the fertilizer made an impression on the snow.  The box you see my daughter holding is our snowman kit from Land of Nod (not an ad.)

snowman making familybringsjoy.com

It’s cool seeing the “same” snowman reemerge every time we build one.

button on the snowman familybringsjoy.com

snowman making familybringsjoy.com

putting the button on the snowman familybringsjoy.com

snowman kiss familybringsjoy.com

our snowman familybringsjoy.com

We made him right next to the mailbox so everyone can enjoy him as they drive by.  He always makes me smile when I drive up to the house.  We had more snow yesterday so he looks just like this still…alive and well.

my boots in the snow familybringsjoy.com

Our ski attire and boots have come in real handy for these snowy days.

trees familybringsjoy.com

Here’s our backyard.

snowy pool familybringsjoy.com

The pool could probably serve as an ice skating rink without the cover.  Not that we would ever do that. 😉

our cat familybringsjoy.com

Here’s our sweet outdoor cat, Daisy.  She’s a little cold.  I love how her fur puffs up in the winter time.

sunset with snow familybringsjoy.com

One of these days I’m going to learn how to do justice to a sunset in a photo…maybe.  Don’t look at the boob on the house.  That’s what we call those covers you put over our outdoor faucets so your pipes don’t freeze. lol…not sure what their actual name is.

Have you had any snow this winter?  Has your family built a snowman?  I’d love to see yours too!

Hope this finds everyone staying safe and warm this winter.  I’m excited to share my Valentine’s Day fireplace mantel with you very soon.  I’ve been creating away!

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram: @familybringsjoy and all the other social networking sites.  Buttons are on the side.  Oh and I finally figured out the plugin to use when I reply to a comment on my blog, it will automatically send you an email with that reply.  Before, I would answer questions via email and it wouldn’t show up on the blog.  This is great because before I would have to copy my email reply and paste it on the blog.  It was a tedious process and sometimes I would forget to do it.  I don’t want anyone to think they are ignored.  I also don’t want visitors to NOT leave a comment because they don’t think I will respond.  Comments are little gifts to us bloggers.  I APPRECIATE EACH AND EVERY ONE!  Thank you!

Snowmen bring joy,