Valentine’s Day | Our Life

ValentinesDay-1So I know soo many people absolutely despise Valentine’s day, but when you’re a parent, any day to justify showering your babies with gifts is a day worth celebrating! I wanted to share a post of what I was going to be gifting my children this Valentine’s day and where you can find them–because let’s face it, they are super cute and you will totally want them.
Happy Valentine’s day everyone!

1. The Boy Fox:
One of my awesome friend’s Sara makes the cutest little stuffies right here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You can find her shop, Moffit Plush Co. on Etsy! Her creations are not only great for babies, kids, and tweens, but also adults! I personally would love to have some of Sara’s cat, owl, or hedgehog stuffies sitting on my couch or shelf displayed as home decor. Not only does she make a huge variety of these cute stuffies, but she also makes brooches and jewelry. Go check out her shop–I promise, you will have a full shopping cart by the end of your trip.
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2. The Top-Knot Doll
Jean is also a dear friend of mine who makes all of her wonderful creations right here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I like to keep my business local–can you tell? You can find her shop, thedearestjean, on Etsy as well! You can also catch her at many local pop-up shops. If you’d like to keep up with her and her sweet little family, you should head on over to her blog, jean dear. I was so excited for Jean to finally make Eila a doll! The hair piece and skirt is removable, so the child can play around with other clothes and accessories! She also makes some pretty adorable hair pieces and bags for little ones and adults–and her birthday crowns are a must for any child’s portrait session or birthday party!
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3. Headphones aka My Sanity Savers
My son, Maxx, is obsessed with playing PBS Kids, Nick Jr., ABC Mouse, Angry Birds, and basically any other game on the phone or computer ever created. So when I found these headphones at Gap Kids, I had to snatch them up! May my life contain a little less annoying repetitive kids songs.
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4. My Mom Snaps
Duh–I had to get this book for the kids! This illustrated book written by Kari McGrath, Darcy Jerome, and Melissa Egan is a must for all of you mommy photographers. My poor kids are so sick and tired of a camera being in front of their face, but they will thank me at their graduation parties when they have a thousand photos of their life to look back on (or maybe they won’t). Anyways, you can find this adorable book at sale at Amazon!
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5. Hug Time
My kiddos are book worms–so they are always so excited to get books on holidays. I love the simplicity and illustrations of this book written by Patrick McDonnell. It’s very hard to find Valentine’s day books that aren’t too floofy or girly, but this one is very gender neutral! I purchased this at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore.
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6. Annie’s Organic Fruit Snacks
These yummy fruit snacks are a staple in our household. Our family is 100% organic, animal friendly, and vegetarian, so we have to be careful about what snacks we buy for the kids. A lot of gummy snacks (like fruit snacks) contain a yucky ingredient called gelatin. I’ll let you do your own research on that one. Anyways, we don’t like to have a lot of candy around the house (because they will ask over and over and over for it), so this organic snack made by Annie’s is a nice and healthier alternative for our kids!
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Farewell and Happy Valentine’s Day!

All photos are copyright of ©Della Terra Photo, 2013.
dellaterraphoto@gmail.com

Midwest Winter | Our Life

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So we’ve been having a huge snowstorm over the past day and we’ve been making some fun of it! Our neighborhood is such a beautiful and historic neighborhood–add pretty flaky snow on top of that and you have houses that belong in magazines. Here are some photos of our family having some fun in the snow and some photographs of our gorgeous neighborhood.

Please do not edit, crop, or alter these photographs in any way. These images are not to be re-posted or used on any form of social media without the consent of ©Della Terra Photo.
Thank you.

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All photos are copyright of ©Della Terra Photo, 2013.
dellaterraphoto@gmail.com

Yarn Christmas Tree | Craft

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These yarn trees are a perfect touch of warmth for your holiday decor. They are very simple, easy, and cheap to create. You can choose from a variety of yarn colors and just have fun with it! All supplies were purchased at a local Hobby Lobby.

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What you’ll need:
Foam cone
Three colors of yarn (I chose a deep red, heather gray, and cream)
One sheet of tan felt (or your choice of color)
Hot glue gun
Scissors
Marker

YarnTree-2Step 1: Trace your felt bottom for the bottom of the finished tree.

YarnTree-3Step 2: Cut your felt bottom–be sure to stay inside of your marker lines so you don’t have any black edging.

YarnTree-4Step 3: Cut about a foot of yarn for the top of your tree.

YarnTree-5Step 4: For this specific layer–Start from the bottom and work upwards as you will need to stack the yarn on top to create a peak.

YarnTree-6Step 5: When wrapping the yarn–hot glue only the ends. Wrap the yarn tightly and it will stay in place! Be sure to be random with the width of each color so that is doesn’t look so uniform.

YarnTree-7Step 6: Hot glue the end of the yarn to the bottom of the cone as it will be covered with the felt.

YarnTree-8Step 7: Hot glue the felt onto the bottom of the cone to give it a finished look.

YarnTree-9Step 8: Depending on what type of yarn you use–you may need to clean up any shedding.

YarnTree-10Step 9: Decorate and enjoy! Stay tuned for a stick tree DIY using small sticks from the backyard!

All photos are copyright of ©Della Terra Photo, 2013.
dellaterraphoto@gmail.com

Kids Craft | Peg People

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So lately I have been seeing these little rainbow peg people all over the place–so I decided to make my own. This “project” was suuuuper easy and took me maybe fifteen minutes to do. It’s an excellent way to teach your child colors, numbers, and the good ol’ “ROY G BIV” trick. We have recently decided to homeschool our children, so I’ve been making/collecting things to start our first school year next year! We really want our children to learn with objects, art, and the earth. We would like to instill self-sustainability in them and teach them through the montessori approach–not just sit in a classroom and stare at a blackboard. We are so excited to start this journey with them and are so thankful for how supportive our family and friends have been with our decision. A friend and I will be doing a “homeschool group” where we will have class with the kids together, go on field trips together, etcetera. If you are in the Fort Wayne area and would be interested in being a part of our homeschool group next year, please get a hold of me–we would love to have you! Later this week, I am going to make a memory game for them–check back in to see how it turns out.

Supplies:
7 Wooden Peg People
Acrylic Paint in the colors of your choosing
Non-fraying paint brushes (mine frayed and I had to keep trimming them–grr)

Where I got supplies:
Hobby Lobby

How much it cost me:
Around $9

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All photos are copyright of ©Della Terra Photo, 2013.
dellaterraphoto@gmail.com

Our Life | Pumpkin Patch

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My (Tarah) friend Nicole and I took our little ones to a nearby farm to go pumpkin picking–along with many other activities. It was rainy, foggy, and extremely muddy–but we seriously had the best time. If you are in the Decatur, Indiana area, please take some time to check out Steele Farms! We will be going back very soon (on a sunny day).
Thanks for the great fun!

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PumpkinPatch2013-17(Maxx enjoying a nice dig–little stinker!)

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PumpkinPatch2013-36(Poor Eila was walking around for a good thirty minutes with all of this corn in her boot–ha!)

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I hope you all get to enjoy this awesome place soon with your littles!

Our Life | Johnny Appleseed

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We, somehow, got a Saturday off this month and decided to enjoy the Johnny Appleseed festival in our hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  We make it a point to go every year, but it was nice to be able to enjoy it this year–and not be on a rushed schedule. This is our favorite festival in Fort Wayne–the sounds of banjos playing, the smell of caramel apples and root beer, children running around painted and dressed up like Native Americans–it is the most humbling and warm feeling in the world. We wish we could do this day again–over and over and over.

Here are some photos from our day with the kids at the festival:

JohnnyAppleseed2013-4I (Tarah) love listening to this kind of music!

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-7“Daddy, I won!”

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-9So then of course, Eila had to get in on the action and win a necklace.

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-14She cracks me up with her questionable looks–sweetest little munchkin I know!

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-20Eila, Maxx’s little cheerleader (:

JohnnyAppleseed2013-28We paid $1 for him to win a mint. Hm.

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-25Through the maze they go–I can’t believe I didn’t grab a photo of the giant teepee they went through. Grr.

JohnnyAppleseed2013-27Eila saw the little girl behind her put her arms out to balance, so she had to try it out too. It is amazing to watch kids learn from one another.

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-35Picking out satchels–that they bought to “collect rocks in”–ha.

JohnnyAppleseed2013-37I’m not sure why we did this to ourselves, but we did. Definitely regretting it now–but they’re happy (:

JohnnyAppleseed2013-50We found this amazing handcrafted cheese board for $12 at the festival–I didn’t photograph the back, but it has all of the information (when it was made, where it was made, etc.) carved on the back of the handle. I’m ordering a dough board and a custom music box (for when Eila graduates)  from this guy too. Incredibly gorgeous and one of a kind!

JohnnyAppleseed2013-39Waiting in line for homemade root beer–Eila is so hungry she has resorted to eating her fingers!

JohnnyAppleseed2013-44Worth the wait!

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-43Enjoying some yummy apple dumplings!

JohnnyAppleseed2013-49Visiting Uncle Jerod at Granite City for some late lunch. Yum.

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JohnnyAppleseed2013-47Yep–that’s about right.

Thanks for peeking into our awesome day with the kids–see you next time!

Our Life | Apple Orchard

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We had a wonderful time going apple picking with our friends at Cook’s Orchard in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was pretty crazy keeping track of six kids, but we all handled it–and pounds and pounds of apples later, we have enough applesauce and apple pie to last throughout the apocalypse.

Here are some photos from this awesome day!

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Thanks for looking–and be sure to go check out this awesome orchards. It’s and awesome activity for your little ones!

Sully | Our Puppy

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So yesterday, we went a picked up a brand new family member!

He is the cutest little thing you ever did see. We have named him Sullivan Ihrie and are calling him “Sully” for short. No, we did not purchase him from a breeder. We are very strongly against supporting that. He is a Poodle/Australian Shepard mix (they think, ha). We definitely think he has poodle in him because of his coat and the shape of his face. Regardless, he is freaking adorable (:

Here are a few photos of our first couples days at home!

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Our cat Lula is less than impressed, but she has done very well with him!

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Hope this cuteness made you smile today. Enjoy your Saturday everyone!