Sunday, October 31, 2010

The (Second) Best Holiday


Collin is the "Saggy Baggy Elephant" this year. It's from the old Golden book of the same name.





Something you don't see everyday....

Shane and I reused last year's vampire costumes. That's the beauty of moving. No one has seen your wares.


Technically, Lydia was a witch for Halloween. You can see photos of that costume here

However, there were so many Halloween functions, we switched between the witch costume and last year's southern belle costume. I know I took her on a little photo shoot last year, but I just used my point and shoot camera. This year I have a snazzy new camera to experiment with. AND a lawn full of leaves!








My, she is lovely.


Yawn. Done editing photos. Now it's time to dig into the candy bag!

****









Friday, October 29, 2010

Halloween....TRICK!

Need a good trick idea for this Halloween? Check out this one that I was subjected to recently.....


While visiting my parents one night, some of us stayed up late playing Mexican Train. Finally we decided it was time to go to bed. 


I got in my pajamas, washed my face, brushed my teeth and turned to use the water closet. 



BUT SOMEONE WAS ALREADY THERE!


Did I scream? Hello! Wouldn't you?!? If you innocently went to pee and were suddenly faced with THIS?! I can't believe I didn't just go ahead and wet my pants. 

This terrifying "person" is completely inanimate. My sister Emily and her husband put it together using a body made of a duct tape base and clothes for filling. They toped the torso with a freakish mask and wig.  Tucked the monstrosity in a pair of jeans and placed it on the toilet. Adding toilet paper as a nice touch.

As soon as they heard my scream, Emily and Greg came laughing from the next room. They had been hiding in there, just waiting for me to find their creation.

I have to hand it to them. It was awesome. In a totally disturbing way.


"MOM! Something is wrong with the toilet. Come look!!!!"


Have a wonderful Halloween everyone!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

One last sunny warm day.



Love being able to enjoy a lawn again. (Without the fear of southern bugs.)


Friday, October 22, 2010

An Autumn Baby Shower




Last weekend was my sister Molly's baby shower. It was orchestrated by my sister Emily, my mom and myself. As Emily and I deliberated over the theme, it just came to me. Little Pumpkin! So darling for a fall shower. We went with the colors of orange and gray with brown accents. Very autumn and very boyish. (Which is what my sister is having.) Emily went to work on a cute invite. I love how it turned out.

I had the best intentions of getting really great photos of the entire shower. However Lisa, one of my best friends from college, arrived and we had 8 years of catching up to do. All I ended up getting was the table and a few decorations. Don't worry Molly, Lindsay got some great shots.


On the menu: Cinnamon rolls cut up and placed in cupcake papers with little pumpkin toothpicks. Candy corns and roasted almonds (the most AMAZING combo!). Pumpkin pie and cheesecake. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, Ham roll ups, Baguettes hollowed out and filled with hummus and fresh veggies. Fruit, chocolate covered almonds and apple cider punch. The highlight was "Emily's Crustless Quiche". She doesn't divulge the recipe, but this one is close. Just substitute cheddar and add bacon. Delicious! 


I offered to do the favors. I don't know what I was thinking, but I ended up making 36 pairs of earrings. That, on top of hand-stamping all the letters onto hand-cut cards, ended up being a bit more time consuming than I expected. But they were cute. I even had a couple pairs left over. Abby, I saved one pair for you. I will send the other pair to a reader. Leave a comment on this post and I will randomly choose a winner next week. 


This was how I displayed them. 


So sad I didn't get any cute shots of us ladies at the shower. We all looked so cute! Oh well, here are a couple the next morning, after we stayed up late talking. Which was one of the best parts anyway. Just wish my sister Abby could have been there.


Congrats Molly! Can't wait to see your little pumpkin :)

Don't forget to comment if you want to win some of the earrings.

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

One little moment

Last night I heard Collin crying in the middle of the night. He's been doing that a lot lately. I think it's something about being in a new house.

For now, I don't mind it. Every night I wake up blurry eyed to find my little baby crying for me. I pull him out of his covers and wipe his tears. We sit down in the rocking chair and he buries his face in my neck, his little sobs quieting. He is so warm, and I cover us both in his blanket. I could probably lay him down after a minute or two, but usually I can't seem to pull myself away. I know I'm probably starting a bad habit, but at the same time, I realize I have just a few months left of this baby time.

As he slept on my chest last night, I held his little bum in my hands and felt his slow, steady breathing. I had missed him while away for the weekend. Suddenly I remembered, not too long ago, holding him that way when he was still inside me. Sleeping was hard when I was very pregnant, and I spent a lot of late nights laying in bed, holding his little shape and feeling his movements. I would imagine what he would be like. I imagined holding him in my arms.

Now, actually holding him in my arms, I realize this is about as good as it gets. I know that most of the time I complain that I want to just get out of the house, dress in something other than mom clothes and sleep an entire night through. It's these moments however, that makes to realize, this, being a mommy, is what I was always meant to do.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Daddy Daughter Pancakes

I've had so many emails lately asking if we are still doing our Saturday morning pancakes. I should say if Shane is still doing them. All I do is snap a few photos and eat them. Well, yes, he is still super daddy and making his awesome breakfast concoctions. I will make sure to start blogging them again. For now, here are a couple from the archives that I never got around to posting.



Remember this daddy daughter date? Well check out what came about the morning after:





I know. He's a pancake artist. 

And the sweetest dad.



Too advanced for you? Try the candy corns as an easy halloween breakfast.

Back from my weekend away. Missed my babies. Sleep in until 11:30am yesterday.

****


Saturday, October 16, 2010

Sneak Peak.

Helping with my sister's baby shower today. This is what we are drinking. More details soon to come. 

Oh, by the way. I'm spending the entire weekend sans kids! Thank you Shane. Hope you and the kids are having a great time back in Boise. I'm having a great time here in Utah.


Apple Cider Punch (recipe from BHG)

Ingredients
6 cups apple cider
2 cups orange juice, cranberry-raspberry juice, or orange-mango juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 750-ml bottle sparkling white grape juice

Directions
1. In punch bowl, large pitcher, or pitchers combine apple cider, orange juice, and lemon juice. Slowly add sparkling white grape juice. Serve immediately. 


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Getting the band back together


Loved high school. 
Getting together with my two best high school friends reminded me of that.

However, after finding a box of "memorabilia" while at my parents house,
 I was reminded once again....
you couldn't pay me to go back. Drama!

The scary thing is, I will have to go back to high school. At least watch my daughter go through it. And she will be going through high school in a world of Facebook and texting and whatever else they can come up with in the next decade.

 And no matter how much I will want her to believe it, she will ignore my assurances that "None of this will matter in a few years."

Maybe being a 30-something isn't so bad. 

Though I'm feeling a little uncool not having bangs....

Saturday, October 9, 2010

What's making me happy today.



This little sweetie.

and

This little ballerina.






Waking up to a crisp autumn day.

Getting a surprise late birthday package in the mail

and

Listening to happy music.

What's making you happy today?

****

Friday, October 8, 2010

Halloween Countdown



Thursday, October 7, 2010

In clarification. And opening myself to severe judging.

Thanks for all the great comments and emails about my living room. I feel like I've had a bunch of visitors in my new home :)

One thing I totally forgot to mention. This house is a rental. We aren't allowed to paint or screw anything into the walls. We have a year contract, but after that, we will be buying a new home. Hopefully in this neighborhood since it's awesome. (I recently discovered one of my blogging buddies lives just around the block!) I mention this as several of you had great paint color ideas, but alas, it was the first thing I asked the landlord about and I was brutally rebuffed. (What movie is that from?)

As this is such a temporary residence, we have a "use what we have" position on decorating. Other than the new rug and new hall table, we used what we had from our last home. Oh, and the bookcases are new, but they are intending for our future library. In our new house, we will probably replace almost everything and banish the dark couches to a basement or theater room.

April - like all your ideas. I agree with you on not liking the TV above the fireplace, but that's where the cables are. Also, while I would love a set of three Modern Bird Studios pieces, that would run me over $800, so I'll probably wait on that.

We love this home for now. While it doesn't have the charm of our last house, it's incredibly functional for our needs. With 4 bedrooms we can finally have a guest bedroom. This is really necessary since often our house guests stay a couple weeks or more. The one difference is in our last house we had a dining room that served as the play area. There is no such space in this house.

And now for the judging part.

I have decided (and need to inform Shane) that the master bedroom will now be the kid's playroom. I know. Horror. But the more I think about it, it just makes sense. We are buying a new king mattress this week to save our backs from our old queen size. However, I don't want to buy a new bedroom set until we get into our permanent home and I get a feel for the style. I'm just going to throw the mattress on the floor. The master will consist of a mattress, an alarm clock, a lamp...... and lots and lots of toys...

So there you go. For the next year Shane and I will be sleeping in the playroom.. It may not be romantic - but we can always stay in the guest room if we don't want to be surrounded by toys. I can shower and get ready with the kids right next to me (can you say long bubble bath!) I can relax in bed with a book as they play together. And the penultimate perk? My kids rise and shine at 6:30 am. If I am sleeping in the playroom, I can just bring them in to play while I doze. I am absolutely gitty at the prospect.

While it's good for now, sleeping in the playroom is bound to mess with my head. I am asking you to watch for any warning signs. For example, hearing me say something totally monstrous like: "I have no need for a babysitter since I never want to be apart from my kids." Or if I suddenly appear in public wearing "mom jeans" or skip that completely and wear my flannel pjs to the store. Play doh scented candles? Winnie the Poo diaper bags? - Time for an intervention.

Please watch me for signs of such terrors and inform me immediately if such symptoms become evident. For the next year I will try to combat the onset of such lameness by devouring design blogs in an attempt to design my future "kid free" master bedroom.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

My New Living Room




One whole room is finished and I actually like how it turned out. (Shocker, I know.) Shane and I wanted to incorporate colors that were really "us" (don't worry, lot's of yellow in other rooms) and make it feel like a comfortable place to relax. I still have a few things I'm going to change. I'm going to have a green plant replace the flowers on the small table. Also, we have to work on a way to hide the electronic equipment on the mantel.  And I want a really cool upholstered chair in the open section. But other than that, it works. Especially compared to the "before" pic.


Another possible arrangement. (Rug will be centered if we go this route.)

Which one do you think?


Sorry these pics are a little dark. I am in a photography funk right now.

Like the big painting on the wall? I had a basic idea of what I wanted there, but I couldn't find it. So I bought a large canvas and painted it.  I'm no artist by any stretch, but it's kind of fun to have something "original".


One more angle.  

Scroll down to the next post to see how we did the canvas wall.

That photograph in the corner was the first piece of "art" Shane and I ever bought. At an art fair in Salt Lake City. We were newlyweds and the $65 price tag (unframed) was huge for us, but we loved it and decided in years to come we would be happy we bought it. We were so smart.

Room for our books.


My Modern Bird Studios piece has a place.



Finally a place to put our Smashing Pumpkins tribute. Signed by the entire band. I should say "my" tribute, since I was the one who met them backstage. Shane was so mad when he found out I didn't invite him, but we had only known each other a couple weeks at that time. (And inviting him might have tipped him off that I was secretly in love with him, and I was playing that fact close to the chest.)


Bought a new rug. The colors were so perfect, I couldn't resist. 



My new shelf from OldNewAgain. Saw it on Peppertowne and fell in love.



My last living room was all about the family photos. This time, I am limiting it just a couple. Of course, the hallway is going to have a ton. :) That will be my next project....

Canvas Wall

I stared at a blank space on the wall for a while, until I figured out just what I wanted. 


We went to Lowes and grabbed a ton of paint samples. We compared until we found 6 shades that matched our new carpet. 


We bought those shades in mini sample sizes. (Under $3 each!) Then we got 6 canvases at Hobby Lobby. 


Family paint night.





How do you keep a 16 month old busy when there is paint around? Two words. 
Spaghetti and lollypops. 


And....Done.
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