Wallace Family

Project Life Tuesday: Week 4

2012-01-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

Shooo...I made it to Project Life Tuesday this week just barely! This strep got me good and I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did and I am so proud of it!

I have made it an entire month of doing project life this week and I love.

I know I say this every week, but I am so in love with the Amber Edition. I am not even kidding it makes me so excited each week when I get it out! It's so my style. Not that I didn't like the other kits, but this one is so ME!

Anyways here ya go....our week......

This week I had three pages! I had printed that January subway art and had to put it in my book when I was finished with it. This week I changed my mantel out so it was perfect timing. I love that it fell in the last week of January! This is the left side of my page.

And here is the right side of the page.

Here are my main pages without the extra page.

This is the left side. Just a few pictures and journaling. I love, love adding 2X3 pictures in my album as well as using the 4X6 journaling cards to journal about two pictures! Works out perfectly! I love my arrows too! (Anyone counting how many times I used the word love!!)

And the front of the extra page. I loved this sub art. I cut it down and then just added a little tidbits of our month of January on a journaling card above it.

On the back I wrote about 4 of the major things that happened this month including, NO snow days, being sick, flying a kite, and Kendall's obsession with Care Bears!

And the right of my page. A few more picture and some journaling and all done!

Hope you enjoyed looking at my week! I can't wait to see all the creativity over at:

Weekend Fun!

2012-01-30T20:32:00.000-05:00

Hope ya'll had a great weekend! WE had a good one. I spent the weekend recovering from my yucky strep...and I am feeling a lot better. Of course my allergies NEVER go away!

Anyways, we spent the weekend at home and cancelled all our plans just to make sure I was fully better! So, Saturday night we got take out and Kendall and I made Cupcakes. I had to share because it was so cute.

I have waiting for a long time to start doing things like this with Kendall and even though she isn't old enough just quite yet she was a help.

She helped me pour the dry mix in the bowl.

She helped crack and put the eggs in. She didn't like the egg on her finger AT ALL! It was really kinda funny:)

She helped me pour the water in.

She helped me pour the butter in.

She even took a little break to make sure Belle was doing alright and having fun making cupcakes!

But, she drew the line at the blender. I tried to get her to help me blend, but it scared her and she took off for the stairs. By the time I was finished she hadn't gotten too far down the stairs, so she came back to finish with the last step.

She helped me pour the mix in the cupcake pan!

Of course she was asleep by the time I iced them, so she got to test them at breakfast this morning (DON'T judge:)

I tried to take a few good pictures of our first baking experience and I look forward to many, many more baking days with my sweet girl. Maybe next time I will ask Daddy to be the photographer:)

Have a great Monday and here's to no more sicknesses in my house for a few months!!

A Kendall Party: Minnie Themed

2012-01-27T14:29:00.001-05:00

I promise not to let Kendall's 2nd birthday party take over my blog, but it is a big thing for us and so I will probably have a few posts before it comes and a few after! Of course I know she is only turning 2 and it's not a big birthday, but I enjoy making things for her party and decorating so I probably go a little overboard! But, that's just how it is!

I have to tell a quick story though...a few weeks ago our friend Tripp turned two. So, we were pumping Kendall up for Tripp's Party. After his party, at which she had a lot of fun, she would wake up every morning and say Tripp's Party? SO, we had to explain to her for about a week that Tripp's Party was over. We thought we would just go ahead and get her ready for a Kendall party so we started asking her if she wanted to have a Kendall party. Of course that worked! What kid doesn't like having a party for themselves???

So, here are a few of my ideas for her party. The first three I made this morning and the others are pins from Pinterest that I will be creating before her birthday. We still have 2 months, but I am a planner and I want to get it all ready, especially since I work a full time job and don't have a big break before then!

I already decided that we would do a Minnie Party. So, this morning I used my Cricut to practice cutting out a few Minnie's. They actually turned out pretty cute! I made the left one 11 inches and the right one 5 inches. I definitely won't make any smaller than 5 because they just get to be a little too hard to piece together.

Here is a close up of the bigger one. I will probably make a few more of these to hand around things and to use at the door, and other places like that.

Here is a close up of the five inch size. I will probably make a lot more of this size to put a few different places. I will most likely use this size on her banner and her birthday sign for the door.

And here are a few other pins that I found that I plan on using. Of course I have a few ideas of my own as well that I plan to share as I create them. Then I will take pictures of the BIG day and share that all in one or two posts for ya, I know ya'll are so excited you can't wait for a Kendall Party!!

Please remember that at the bottom of all my pins are the sources for where they came from and I take no ownership in any of the following pictures. When I do make them I will show my own pictures! These are just ideas:)

Source: etsy.com via Christy on Pinterest

I LOVE these. I have a Cricut cart that will cut out the cupcake holders and then I will create the Minnie version of this with my Cricut, as well as using the color scheme that I have choosen for her birthday. I have two cupcake stands and I will only use these if they work in my stand because I love the stands and definitely want to reuse them!

Source: etsy.com via Christy on Pinterest

This is super cute. I am not really sure I could figure this out or if I will even do it, but I thought it looked really cute and it would be nice to have on the cake table!

Source: etsy.com via Christy on Pinterest

I will definitely do this! It looks super easy and is probably way cheaper than buying the Minnie plates. I will only do this for the cake table. I am planning on buying the pink and zebra plates and napkins from Hobby Lobby for the food!

Source: etsy.com via Christy on Pinterest

I probably only pinned this because it really was a Kendall party! But, I really do like the way that it is set up and I plan on using a little of that as well for Kendall's cake table! I love the Zebra boxes and can totally make those with my Cricut as well!

See that wasn't too bad was it! Sorry, if these post are boring to you all, but this is a great place for me to keep all of my ideas and to document my progress on her birthday! I can't wait to share with you all the outfit I am making for her as well as her bow!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Valentine Mantel

2012-01-26T12:04:00.001-05:00

I have been waiting and waiting to finish my Valentine Mantel and share it with you guys! I finally got it all up and ready to share.

I have to say that my mantel is in the basement so there isn't much natural light shining through. Really I live in an older house surrounded by overgrown trees so we don't get much natural light at all plus it has been gloomy and rainy these days so we really aren't getting any natural light. Wow that was a long sentence all to tell you that my pictures are the greatest:)

Anyways here we go.....my Valentine Mantel!

I do love how it turned out and I really don't think the pictures do it justice, but just go with me here! I didn't do much and it's very simple, but hey I like simple!

I hung my homemade heart wreath up that I made a few weeks ago! I love it and will be sad to take it down for March.

These little glasses were used in my sister in laws wedding. I took three of them and wish I would have taken a few more, but I have used them during all the Holidays to make a little more festive!

I have been contemplating spray painting these candle holders. We got them as a wedding present, and I really like them, but it's time for a change. We will see. We are remodeling our basement bathroom, so maybe I will get an idea when we pic a color out for that room!

This is my absolute favorite thing on my mantel! I love, love to decorate with picture frames! I printed this fun little print for FREE from eighteen25 and I love how it turned out! I just sent it off to be printed in a 8X10 format. I found the frame at my favorite place Hobby Lobby and new it would be perfect for this print! I will also be sad to see this go. Thinking I might be able to find a place for it after Valentine's Day though! You must visit eighteen25. They always have the best free printables!!

Here is one more far shot. I wish I could get a really good picture, but these will have to do. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my Valentine Mantel!!

Linking of with homestoriesatoz

Sick Day:( With a little fun news at the end:)

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

I told ya'll I wasn't feeling good and I wasn't fooling anyone. I came home from work Wednesday and slept for about three hours. When I woke up I knew I would feel better and boy was I wrong. So, I made my way to immediate care (and the only good thing that came out of that was I got to see my very sweet friend ABBY)

Turns out I wasn't faking it.....and I have the dreaded strep. Have I ever told you how much I DISLIKE strep. Like more than anything in the world. There are many sicknesses that I would much rather have than strep. But, that's life and I am treating it and hopefully I will be on the mend and feeling much better the weekend cause who wants to be sick on the weekends?

My sweet husband surprised me Tuesday night when I first started feeling bad with a yummy drink (Diet Big Red a big obsession) and my favorite flowers. Of course he didn't forget our sweet little girl and got her a flower, a balloon and a yummy snack!

So, I have been in bad all day and am starting to go stir crazy. If you know anything about me you know I don't sit still long. So, I have gotten up a few times and then always end up back in bed. What I really would like right now is a big bowl of broccoli cheddar soup from Mcalisters. Just haven't found any takers to go get it for me:(

Here is the worst part about being sick. My poor baby can't be around me. We are doing whatever we can to keep her from getting strep. I really don't want her to get this awful, awful illness. So, this morning Chris got her ready and took her to the sitter and all I could hear her saying was mommy? Chris asked me a question and she heard me talking and started crying for me. Sad. I just want to squeeze and cuddle my sweet baby girl, but that's not possible right now. Hopefully by the end of the day I will be able to at least see her:(

So, onto some good news. I finally decided that we will do a Minnie birthday party for Kendall. We are planning on having the party here and renting a few bounce houses if the weather permits! We will just wait til closer til time to see how that goes.

I found this, your not gonna believe where, TARGET. I knew you wouldn't believe it. It was the last pink one so I scooped it up! They had black ones as well and I am thinking about going back and getting another black one. I have decided that I will do zebra and pink Minnie theme. I am planning on making most everything and will probably start making things now so that I am not panicked as the time gets closer!

I pinned a few things today that I plan on adding to Kendall's party ideas. While I was pinning I thought I would search my blog to see if anything from my blog had been pinned and to my surprise I found this....

I was so excited! Of course no one understands my excitement around here haha so I just squealed a little in the bed by myself. I only have a few close friends that know I blog so I don't really publicly share my blog especially on places like fb. I don't know why I decided to do this when I started blogging a few years ago, but I did probably because I thought my friends would think I was nuts!! Anyways I thought I would share this with ya'll....so exciting!

Anyways it's almost Friday and I am so excited for the weekend and here's to no more illnesses this year! I wished for no snow and this is what I got in place of no snow...beginning to think the snow wouldn't have been so bad after all...although May 16 still sounds so pretty...and I am babbling so I will stop now:)

Make It Wednesday: Pinterest Style!

2012-01-25T08:21:00.001-05:00

I thought this week I would share with you two recipes from Pinterest I have tried. You all know that Pinterest is the "thing" right now. You know it's the "thing" when your local news does a story on it:)

I just posted the link from Pinterest and you can click there to get the recipe! No reason taking pictures and posting the recipe when it is already there!

I should also add that thanks to my good friend Jen I was able to post both of these recipes to my been done Pinterest checklist!

So here goes nothing:)

Source: sundaybaker.net via Christy on Pinterest

First, I am not even going to lie, I ate this whole thing in two days. Well, one of the loaves. It makes two, but it is sooo yummy and I don't even feel bad about eating it in 2 days. Know why? It's only 500 calories for the WHOLE thing! So, one night it was pretty much my meal, I know bad, but we got home late and it was there and it was good. The next night I just ate it as a snack with milk and it was the best snack. So worth saving those last few calories for it! Now go make it!

Source: canyoustayfordinner.com via Christy on Pinterest

I am being honest here this is my blog and I have to say that these weren't my favorite thing. I totally expected them to be oh so yummy. I think mine needed more buffalo sauce and more cheese. I don't know they were just a little bland for me! I love the idea and will have to try it again with more of the above ingredients. Like I said it wasn't my favorite, but I am not against trying it again:)

So, what have you been making on Pinterest? Are you overly addicted to Pinterest yet? I will say that I do get on there a little bit, I don't waste a lot of time on there, and I do make something new I pin at least once a week, so it's definitely not a complete waste of my time:)

Happy Wednesday everyone...only 2 more days til my movie comes out and it's the weekend!!

Linking up to:

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Project Life Tuesday: Week 3

2012-01-24T06:30:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's time for another week of Project Life Tuesday!! I did a pretty simple spread this week. We didn't have a whole lot going on this week. I did make a collage from our Christmas with Chris' dad.

Here is the whole layout. One side I still had a vertical page and the other side is the original PL pages.

A close up of the right side.

A close up of the left side!

I am in love with this edition of Project Life. I love the Amber edition. I have liked all of the previous years, but this is by far my favorite. It includes so many of my favorite colors so I think that's why!

Ya'll I have been so sick this season and I can't figure out why:( I think I am getting a head cold or something. So, I am planning on taking a HOT steamy bath and going to bed!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will stay!

Don't forget to stop by Jessica Turner's blog for:

Organizing Takeover number 3: Pantry Redo: Don't judge me:)

2012-01-22T22:19:00.001-05:00

I have been working on our pantry for a few weeks now and finally finished it one night last week! I can't believe what a BIG difference an organized pantry makes in our life. Ya'll I am not kidding when I say I have cut our grocery bill down by over a half! It's amazing when you know what you have how much less you do spend!

So, this is what I started out with! A big ol' mess with no organization to it!

The door really didn't look too bad, but I knew it could look a little better!

So, the first thing I did was take EVERYTHING out of the pantry. I mean everything. I am not going to lie, once I did that I was extremely overwhelmed and wasn't sure where to go. So, I just started working!

I mentioned that for Christmas I got a bunch of OXO containers. I asked for those for this project and I am so glad I did. These are the best containers and I will never buy another container for my pantry!

I also bought these baskets at Target and sorted a few things out in them including, Kendall's snacks, my snacks, fruit snacks, baking needs, candy, crystal light, and I believe that's it!

How pretty does that look? I tried to organize our pantry into sections and then labeled with these chalkboard ovals I cut with my Cricut!

The top shelf is not reachable without a chair so I put a few of my kitchen Christmas platters up there and cookbooks as well as other things we don't use often!

Chris attached these to the bottom of the shelf. They have breakfast foods in them and make it nice to poor things into and get rid of boxes!! I don't like boxes!

And the final picture! I wish I could take better pictures, but the pantry is really in a weird part of our house and it's almost impossible to get a good picture! I don;t think the picture would do it justice anyways! There is no longer anything on the floor except extra cat food. I also hung a hook on the bottom to hold our lunch boxes that I use all the time!

And the door doesn't look too different. Like I said it was pretty put tougher, I just moved a few things and labeled it!

Up next a few closets! I am getting a lot organized by doing a few things each week and oh what a difference it is making!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope my post has been a little inspiring for ya'll to organize something in your house!

Thanks to my friend Abby I found another fun blog party! SOCIAL SUNDAYS sounds like a great way to meet new blogger friends! I hope all of my followers will stop by this party and if you are new welcome. I can't wait to visit your blog:) (For some reason I couldn't get the blog button to work!)

Linking up to Met Monday!

10 Random Thoughts on Thursday!

2012-01-19T20:57:00.001-05:00

Ya'll I am not even kidding this post will be so random! So here goes nothing! A few pictures sprinkled in of my extra sweet and extra cute little girl! I might lose some of you so if I do I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

-First, Kendall is absolutely OBSESSED with Care Bears. There is only one ~~tiny~~ huge problem with that, no one and I mean NO one sells Care Bears (the movies and videos are out of course!). I just wish I could find her a little Care Bear somewhere. She would love that thing dearly if I could! We watch "bears" every. single. night. The same four episodes every.single.night. I could probably recite them to you, not really just sayin! Does anyone know where I can get a Care Bear that won't cost me an arm and a leg?

-Second, I have decided to start potty training. Well, sort of! Kendall is so interested in going on the potty so I thought why not just put her in some undies tonight! Yeah that worked out great...NOT...she peed in the first pair and didn't care, but when she peed in the second pair she took off running to the bathroom...screaming "mommy I pooped" (She has a little confusion between the two things that happen down there!) Needless to say I just put her back in her diaper. I think I will just try putting her in undies a few minutes longer each night and see what happens. Might not be the correct way to do it, but hey we are trying. And she is only 21 months old, so we have time I suppose!

A super sweet girl that finally cheesed for mommy!

-Third, this sweet girl of mine doesn't know what kind of party she wants to have yet. Yeah I have a little over 2 months to plan it, but I am a planner, and I am a working mom so I need to start early. It is a toss up between a Minnie (Not Mickey) or Bear party! The probably with Bears is I will have to order everything. I can make all the Minnie stuff and already found some cute things at Target that I would like to get, but we need to make a decision. I am leaning towards Minnie clearly, so I am rubbing that one in pretty good!

-Fourth, I am so exhausted! I don't know why NO NO NO I am NOT pregnant, for some reason I have received a few emails congratulating me on being pregnant and I laughed at the first one and then got a little freaked out by the second one! Sure I gained a few pounds over Christmas, I have a belly that will never go away no matter how hard I workout, but I am NOT pregnant PROMISE:) Ok off the soapbox! I am not understanding why I am so tired. I only worked three days so far this week!! HMMMMM.....

Look at that pony tail:)

Fifth- I have stayed in my calorie goal since Monday! Four good days, and I worked out three nights in a roll. I am taking off tonight, but I will work out on Saturday since I am taking tonight off. As I said above I am exhausted and tonight isn't gonna happen! Plus I stayed under my calories enough tonight to not worry about it!

Sixth-Chris has planned something fun for us to tomorrow and won't tell me what it is. Have I mentioned before that I dislike surprises very much? Ok well now you know. Don't EVER surprise me cause I don't like them! K? Thanks!

I probably won't win mom of the year because she is eating a Cadbury Egg (I think they are gross!), but really it's January and we already have Easter candy out?

Seventh- I finished my pantry, but I am too lazy to finish taking pictures so I will have to share it with you next week, blog fail SORRY!

Eighth- I am getting ready to send my PL pictures to the printer so I can pick them up tomorrow! Three weeks in a row that I have them printed and in the book! I think I could get use to this and I think I could keep it going for the whole year! I have a lot of motivation now, I just hope it doesn't leave! I am thinking about using one of the fun sheets with all the 2X3 pictures this week, because I have a quite a few pictures to use. Just thinking about it though who knows what I will actually do!

Ninth- Kids say the darnest things! I was telling my first graders that we were MAP testing this morning so they needed to get unpack, choose their center, exchange their just right books, and relax for a minute. One of my students yelled out at me P.S. We also go to PE today! Do you think she even knows what P.S. means? Probably not, but she totally used it in context:)

-Tenth- Have a great weekend! My sister in laws birthday is this weekend so we will be celebrating with her on Saturday! Hope share some fun pictures from that night with you soon:)

Make it Wednesday: Valentine's Burlap Wreath

2012-01-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

I am getting excited about decorating with a little pink and red in our house for the next few weeks! I found this wreath at THIS blog and had to make it tonight. I am pretty excited about how it turned out and I am so loving burlap right now!

So, all I needed to get was florist wire, red burlap, and the heart wreath frame. I had a gift card for hobby lobby so I didn't spend any money on this project! That's a win in my book:)

I took the burlap opened it up and cut it in half and then cut it in half one more time. So, I had two long stripes to work with.

Getting started was a little difficult, because my hands and florist wire don't get along! Basically all I did was stick it through at the bottom and wrap it around. It's hard to wrap that wire around, that's for sure!! Once I got started I was going pretty good! I just bunched up a little and then wrapped it with the wire.

I had to start the new strip about half way through so that was a little difficult as well, but I got it to look like another bunched up piece and just moved on.

Here is what the back looked like when I was done. Not very pretty, but no one will see it:)

I tried to push the wire down as far as I could, but it is hard to work with! The burlap was everywhere haha. I should have never done this project on my carpet, but I an vacuum it up tomorrow!

And the final product! I am going to hang this on the mirror above the mantel. I am working on my mantel right now. It has been absolutely plain since Christmas and I have been OK with that!

I share it with you guys as soon as I get it all done!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like my wreath! I have to say this wasn't one of my favorite projects to do, but I love how it turned out. Florist wire and my hands are not friends these days and my thumbs are hurting!!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

Project Life Tuesday: Week 2

2012-01-17T06:30:00.000-05:00

Can't believe it's already time for Project Life Tuesday: Week 2! Seems like this year is already going by fast. We are already half way through the month of January. I will be honest with you, I am not a big fan of January so this doesn't hurt my feelings very much:)

So, here are my pages for this week! Nothing big, just my simple everyday pages! I didn't add anything to this week's layout. But, I did use two vertical pages. I am loving these pages because I take so many vertical pictures!

I love using the 2X3 spots for pictures as well. The only thing that stinks, just a little, is the journaling cards with this edition aren't made to be turned horizontal. It doesn't bother me too much because I just make do!

Here is the right side....

Here is the left side...

Here is the bottom let side. I also have been using one journaling cards for two pictures. I have learned that it allows me to add a few more pictures than the normal 7:)

The top left side....

The bottom right side...

And the top right side...

I think I mentioned on accident that I bought Clementine, but I actually have the Amber edition and I LOVE it. Definitely my favorite so far.

I know that's a lot of pictures, but I wanted to make sure you had a good look at this week in our lives! Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to stop by:

Everything Tastes Better with Mini Chocolate Chips!

2012-01-15T22:21:00.001-05:00

Like so many others I am obsessed with Pinterest, but I refuse to waste my time on there and do nothing about it! So, I have made a few projects and I have made a few different recipes. For some reason, not sure why, but my recipes are usually desserts! That's definitely a problem ya know when your trying to lose weight and all:)

For the past week I have said my diet will start tomorrow and then tomorrow comes and I eat All.Day.Long! I can't help it I LOVE food! So, today I made this cheesecake ball and it is YUMMY! I love it with chocolate graham crackers and pretzels. It's good if you like that salty, sweet taste.

Source: newtoveggieworld.wordpress.com via Katie on Pinterest

It is one of the easiest desserts I have ever made too. Click on the link above to see the source to where I got this, but I will try to give you a quick and easy version of how I made it!

You need, 1 cup mini chocolate chips, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1 8oz. cream cheese, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I have to tell you the first time I made it I didn't have vanilla and didn't make a difference, but it DOES! Don't leave it out.)

First, you beat your butter and your cream cheese until softened. Then mix in your sugars and vanilla.

Mix that well, and then add...

mini chocolate chips!! I have gone through a bag of these in a week. That can't be a good thing, can't be!

Mix them all together!

Once, I mixed them I added almonds on top. The recipe doesn't call for this, but I thought they would go yummy with it and they did!

And there is an absolute problem when I added mini chocolate chips to my grocery list tonight. Yes that is a problem, but I am still so buying them.

Oh by the way my diet starts tomorrow for sure.....
I'll let you know how that goes:)
Have a great Monday everyone!

Linking up with Between Naps on the Porch

Friday Night Fun!

2012-01-14T23:08:00.001-05:00

Friday night we went to Chris' dads to finally do Christmas with him. I can't believe it took us so long to do Christmas!

This is my little cute butt before we left tonight. She looked so cute, but wouldn't turn around so that I could take a picture of her! She's gotten rotten like that. Like she knows I want to take a picture and she isn't going to let me:)

Like example number 2 here I asked her to smile with baby and she told me "No mommy! Just baby"

And example number 3 right here I asked her to cheese and she cheesed and she also closed her eyes and this is the picture that I ended up with. I still think it's quite cute:)

And she insisted that I take a picture of baby. So, I did! And isn't baby so cute too? We all think so, and every baby in our house has a name. The same name. Addy. That's Kendall's little buddy at the sitters. She loves Addy and talks about her all the time!

When we got to Papaws all Kendall wanted to do was walk up and down his stairs. We have stairs at our house, but it's more fun when they are someone else's stairs.

Then it was present time and after every present instead of saying open daddy, so said more. She isn't rotten or anything is she? She definitely got more than her share of new toys last night! Shoo I don't know where we will put all these toys!

I thought her and papaw were so cute opening her gifts and looking at each one quickly before asking for more. Kendall loves to give others presents as well. She loves to open other peoples presents too. Heck she loves to open anything.

I LOVE this picture. We took Kendall to the Paint Spot to make her grandparents pottery. We made Buddy this mug, because he drinks his coffee every morning and we thought he would love using that for his morning coffee!

This is Kendall with her Great Grandpa. She is so lucky to have so many great grandparents and even one great, great grandma in her life. She sees her great, great grandma every Wednesday when she goes to my grandmas house!

And here is Kendall on her new tricycle. I love that I can push her on it until she gets the hang of it! She was so funny on it. Of course she had to get off of it and push it also. We are really ready for the spring now:)

And this sweet puppy. Yeah she isn't too happy with me tonight. I made her get a bath and she wasn't loving it at all. Actually I am pretty sure she didn't even like it, but hated it. Her poor skin is getting so bad from this weather and I hate it for her. I give her meds, but it just doesn't seem to do very much for her. So, I am ready for this weather to go away in more than one way! Summer anyone:)

OK OK I know I said no more organizational posts for a few days, but I just couldn't help myself. WE went to Target tonight and I got another basket for my bathroom drawer, and Chris convinced me that they all needed to be uniform (Can you tell he is a project manager haha?) So, I bought the bigger basket to get rid of the white one that was in there. I love that I could fit all of it in this drawer and I love that it is even MORE organized now and I love that there is nothing on my vanity anymore!

And I love that I don't have to work for two more days!

Night ya'll:)

Organizing Project #2- Bathroom Drawer

2012-01-13T21:22:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I made a quick Target run for a few things that I needed. One of my goals is to not go to Target just because. I need a reason to go haha. Sadly I can always make a reason to go to Target duh!

Here are the things I picked up! I got the green baskets for my pantry. That is another project that I have been working on and can't wait to share when I am finally finished. I bought a few more OXO containers for my pantry organization (Another one of my new obsessions!!)

And the rectangular shaped baskets are for the bathroom drawer. When I was reorganizing the cabinets I realized that I also needed to do the drawers. And I knew that I wanted something like these to help me organize it!

So, this is what it looked like. Don't you LOVE the rose paper in my cabinets. I know it's awful, but like I said this room is on Chris' to do list for updating soon and I am not going to spend money changing things on this vanity when I know that it is going bye bye soon:)

I used one of those containers to put my brushes. I have a lot of brushes and believe it or not I use ALL of them!! The clips are only used when I am straightening my hair or on nights Kendall's hair is getting washed! Real life I shed more than a normal person. It is almost scary how much I really do shed. I could be a cat:)

This sat on top of our counter and I didn't like it. So, the clips went into one basket I bought and...

The tooth brushes and toothpaste! I LOVE it not being up on that counter!

And this is what I ended up with. I think I am going to go back and get one more of those baskets to put where the shout wipe is. It would actually fit there perfectly! That white basket probably needs to be cleaned out one more time, but for now it will do. If I do get another basket I will sort through it some more:)

And I promise tomorrow night I will not post another organizing post...Something new I promise! But, I am having so much fun:)

Happy Friday yay and bonus for me because it's a three day weekend:)

Organizing Project #1 of 2012-Bathrom Cabinets

2012-01-12T18:35:00.002-05:00

Since my word of the year is simplify, you will probably see a lot of pictures over this year containing that word and well all the simplifying I am doing in my life:) So here is the first of many posts for the year, and hopefully by the end I will have the most organized home in the state of Kentucky (just humor me mmkay?)

So, last night I thought I have got to get a project knocked off my to do list for this week. The good thing about most of my projects are they aren't too big and I can do them in one night or day. So, when I got Kendall settled I went to the bathroom and this is what I first found!

A big hot mess: I guess I need to preference this post by saying my bathroom is extremely outdated I mean EXTREMELY!! It is one of my husband's to dos for this year as well! I am pretty excited about it too! We need new flooring, new vanity and wall colors! I can't wait to share that transformation with you. Another thing I will mention is the rooms in our house aren't very big. I feel bad saying that because we do have a lot of room, but we just have small areas. Clear as mud?

So, the first thing I did was pull EVERYTHING out of this cabinet. Real life can you believe all of this was in there?

AND all of this! Yes all of that came out of that hole from just above. Insane you say? Yes I think so too:)

So, I got that pile down to this pile and just kept going from there. There were two half full bottles of finger nail polish. Another reason I wanted to get this under control, we were wasting money buying things that we already had but didn't know was there!

That red bag is FULL of nail polishes. Let's be honest here, I rarely paint my own nails, RARELY. So, I knew that the majority of it had to go and the rest would fit in the container in front of the red bag!

All that had to go, but what could fit in....

here! Tada! I made it work. First accomplished part of this post. A lot of the polishes were nasty and old and needed to be tossed anyways so no harm done.

This is what I ended up with at the top. The blue container has things that we use often (hairsprays, lotions, etc.) The brown bag has all of my summer hair products and lotions. No need to keep them out all year when they are within perfect reach in that bag. Behind that bag you will see hairsprays that I keep on hand when my good runs out before I get back to the hair dressers.

I completely forgot about this pink basket that was in Kendall's room filled of baby lotions and shampoos. I knew that I wanted to free that space up in her room for something else. So, I emptied those bottles out and thought this would be perfect for under the cabinet. It easily moves in and out of the cabinet so that we can get in it.

Just it look great! You see those tan towels to the right! They are the best ever. I think I blogged about them before, but I am not big on the tanning bed and I love the way these work...no streaks:)

So, in went my extra deodorants, nail polish, I moved that summer bag down there, extra bags are in there and that's about it and it works for us!

I had organized under the sink not too long ago, but it needed a little updating.

First, I wanted to make all of this fit into one bag. I didn't wear half the stuff that was in it, so in the trash it went!

And an empty organizer? I'll take it:)

This is what I ended up with. The big 31 bag has all of my bathroom products in it and the teal and pink has extra bath toys of Kendalls. (Oh bath toys what do I do with all of those?)

Remember those lotions and shampoos I was telling you about? yeah these are those. I would keep using them, but Kendall's skin has gotten so bad that I had to switch to Aveeno for the winter. I am going to use it again this summer, but I will probably put some of it for our next baby (which won't be for a while), give some to my mom and give some to Chris' mom.

Here is the finished product. The top has extra toilet paper, the blue container, hairspray, and then I decided to sit the things out that I use everyday so that I could quickly access them and put them right back where they are.

This is what I have left to give away! I don't need or use any of this so I am just getting rid of it. Not sure where it will go just yet, but I will find it a home I am quite sure:)

I love what I did with those drawers because

-I can get to everything I need quickly and put it back where it goes quickly

-I simplified an area in our home that doesn't have a lot of space and was crammed with things we didn't need.

-It's ORGANIZED!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have you organized lately?

We are suppose to get a little winter weather today and tomorrow morning and I want it to go AWAY! Spring anyone?

What I Made Wednesday!

2012-01-11T15:26:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite things to do is make things for other people! I love making gifts they are so much fun and I think it's so much more meaningful sometimes when it is a handmade gift!

Last week while I was sick and Kendall was sick, Jess took such good care of getting things prepared for a sub and making sure our lesson plans were done and ready for this week as well. I couldn't have asked for a better team mate. Jess has become one of my best friends and keeps me going everyday at work. She is definitely a life line at work!

Anyways I thought I would show my appreciate by making Jess this cute little paint bucket!

So, first I made a simple little Tag to go on it. I used my Cricut and the Simply Charmed Cart. All I did was piece it together, write a little note to Jessica on the back of the tag. Then I used 3d tape to add the bug to the tag.

For the actual paint bucket I just used some thickers and a little swirly felt sticker that I had.

Next, I took some mesh and tied the tag to the bucket!

Lastly, I filled the bucket with pretzels! I love how it looks filled with goodies and I hope Jess will enjoy it!

Jess is obsessed with preztels and sweet tarts! I really wanted to fill the bucket with the heart sweet tarts they put out at Valentines day, but she is getting married in July and insists that she is watching what she eats (She is clearly thinner than a rail and needs to eat MORE!) SO, I thought she would be happy with her next favorite thing pretzels!

I forgot to mention I got the paint bucket at Target in the dollar section where else the best place ever!!

What do you think?

Happy Wednesday! Two more work days for me and then a three day weekend!!!

Project Life Tuesday: 2012: Week 1

2012-01-10T06:30:00.002-05:00

I am beyond excited about today's post!! I have been dying to share with you my cover page and my first week of Project Life 2012! And today is finally the day!! Thank goodness it's here!

So, let's getting started!

Here is my cover page and I LOVE! I didn't do much to it, just added a picture of the three of us, our last name, the dates, and our names. I love the simplicity of it, yet our small details that make it "us"

Here is a close up of the top half.

Here is a close up of the bottom half!

AND...here is week 1 of my project life album. I love the way it turned out as well. I will say I spent a little longer on my layout than I normally would, but it's still SIMPLE, and it's still ours. I told you I was doing a few things different this year and one of them was using different page protectors besides just the original ones. I do like to take a lot of vertical pictures so this page will probably be used a lot! I also added our 2012 glasses and loved the idea of adding some "things" that are important to us throughout the year!

Another thing I am doing differently this year is a weekly approach instead of a daily approach. Believe it or not I had way too many pictures this week..Can you believe that! I had to pick and choose which I really wanted to add and went with the ones you see. This week was a big week for us, being the first of the year, going back to work, and our sicknesses. So of course I probably won't have that problem every single week and that's OK!

Here is the left side of my layout. I LOVE to make collages and I am sure you will see those throughout my entire album. It makes it so much fun and different!

The right side is a new page protecter and I loved it, because not only could I put vertical 4X6 pictures, but I could also add horizontal 2X3 pictures! I also used a big journaling page, turned it vertical and wrote all about our sicknesses for this week! LOVE....

I love the way my layout turned out this week...I am so excited about continuing this album and I can already tell you that doing the weekly approach has taken the added pressure away!! See, what works for me doesn't work for everyone else, but I am only doing what is SIMPLE for me:)

Don't forget to stop by Jessica Turner for:

To do, to do, to do...

2012-01-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

I am such a list person (surprise surprise!) And I got this Erin Condren notepad when I ordered my Life Planner. I decided to sit it on my island in the kitchen to keep my to do list for 2012 on.....

So this was my last for last Monday! And guess what NOTHING got marked off of it last week....

I am not saying I failed...I am saying life happened, Kendall was sick, I was sick, we weren't sleeping, and the list just wasn't important.

SO, to fix that situation I simply marked out last weeks date and added this weeks. Works for me and I am hoping, crossing my fingers, that we are all getting better and this list will get marked off a little faster this week!

I did add one thing to the list and that was clean the hardwood floors. They are nasty so hopefully I can get that done!

Of course there are things that aren't on that list that are a given (dishes, laundry, vacuuming) that I do daily to try to keep up with my house being clean or somewhat clean. I never feel my house is clean, but shoo I do work my bottom off to try to get to that point:)

I was hoping by creating this list I could narrow down a few things a week that I want to get organized. So my focus was to write those few things on this list and not the things that I know have to be done every night anyways.

This is all part of my 2012 Goal of simplifying!!

Have a great night everyone!

Pinterest: Recipe

2012-01-08T21:30:00.000-05:00

I LOVE Pinterest, but I want to make sure it's not something just wastes my time!! Therefore, I try to do and make a few things I pin each week!! So, I found these,

Source: smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

I could not pass up making them they were so easy to make! And oh my sooo yummy. Although they are more calories than what I like a snack to be they are filling and better than eating a box of candy:) So, here's how I made them. Click on the picture though to be taken to the actual recipe from the original blog.

Here are my ingredients; peanut butter, honey, vanilla, coconut flakes, flaxseed, and mini chocolate chips.

First you mix ALL those ingredients together (Again click on the pin so that you can get exact measurements of the recipe!) Once you mix let chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Next, I used my cookie scooper and scooped out 24 scoops of this yumminess!

I just scooped it straight to wax paper and when I put them in a container I didn't separate them so I sure hope they didn't stick all together!

Lastly, I just rolled my scoops into ball and there you have it!!

I figured up that two of these is 250 calories. I think they are a pretty good size and like I said they are filling. I am sure you could substitute things (raisins, craisins, etc.) to make it a little healthier, but I think they are perfect just like so!!

If you make them please let me know what you think!!

Linking up to Met Monday...thanks for stopping by:)

Have a great week.

Go Fly A Kite...

2012-01-07T14:00:00.001-05:00

Thanks for all the sweet comments we are starting to feel a little better around here! Kendall still has a terrible rash on her bottom and hands, but it's looking a lot better! This morning I woke up and I was sore throat free!! Thank goodness, after five days it FINALLY went away! Think I'll treat myself to Jimmy Johns since it went away:)

New Years day it was a little warmer than usual, but it was extremely windy. I started cleaning out the hall closet during Kendall's nap. This is where we keep too many things; coats, diapers, wipes, games, blankets, shoes......and the list goes on. So, while cleaning I found a kite that we had bought to take to the beach. Only we took it and never used it.

I sat it out and when Kendall woke up she found it and wanted to open it. So, we did and then Chris said it's actually probably windy enough that this kite will fly. So outside we went. I bundled Kendall up first. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't freezing cold either and we didn't stay out too long!

Needless to say she LOVED it! When Chris first got the kite in the air she kept saying "Oh nooo, mommy, oh noo" It was the cutest thing in our squeaky little voice. We let her hold the kite, but she let go of it haha!

She was way more interested in watching the kite in the air than holding the string.

The only bad thing about flying a kite in our area is we have a lot of trees around us. So, it got caught quite a few times but that was OK daddy could get it out!

She is such a big girl. I can't believe how big she is getting and she doesn't look like a baby girl anymore she looks like such a big girl!

Makes me so sad to think how big she is getting, but it also makes me so excited for all the fun things we can do together as she gets older! I am especially excited for this summer. She will want to do so much more this summer and we will have lots of fun:)

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow

2012-01-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Kendall had a 103.8 fever, Today her fever is gone and she is cranky, but Tomorrow she will be back to her normal happy self.

Yesterday my throat was hurting when I woke up, Today my throat was killing me when I woke up so I went to the doctor for an antibiotic, and Tomorrow it will feel much better after another round of antibiotics.

Yesterday Kendall went to bed without a problem as usual, Today she won't stop crying long enough to fall asleep, Tommorow she has to be back to normal.

Yesterday I thought I had it together, Today Not.So.Much, but tomorrow I will get it together again.

Yesterday Kendall went to the sitter and I went to work, Today we both stayed home and slept, but Tomorrow we go back to normal routine.

Yesterday was a pretty good day, Today not so much, but I know tomorrow will be so much better.

So thankful for yesterday, today, and tomorrow:)

Project Life Tuesday 2012

2012-01-03T06:30:00.001-05:00

Last week I worked like crazy to complete my Project Life 2011! And I did it!! I can't tell you how proud I am of myself, because it was looking a pretty shady this time last month. So, I thought I would share a few pages with you and talk about my goals for 2012

This is actually the very last week of 2011 and I have a picture for everyday. Actually most of my pictures are collages. I make all of my collages in Picasa and I love it! When I got my MAC book I lost my Photoshop. I have been meaning to get one for my MAC I just haven't done it yet, so you will notice that my pictures no longer have the week on them and I am quite alright with that.

Some of my layouts look like this. I used the card stock that came with my kit to insert in places where there weren't any pictures because I either didn't take one that day or I used one from my iPhone.

Some weeks look like this with a lot of iPhone pictures and a few camera pictures.

Here is another week with both types of pictures. I loved the idea of putting my iPhone pictures in my journal slots because when you make an iPhone pic a 4X6 it doesn't look so great.

I do have a few weeks that are all camera pictures and I love that because I really didn't think I would have many. I actually took a lot more pictures than I thought I did this year.

And one more "normal" looking layout with journal cards in the right place and pictures in the right place.

SO......... my goals for 2012 are a little different. Of course I am still going to keep it, you guessed it, simple! But, I have a few things I want to change and here they are;

My layouts. I would love to get my layouts done weekly instead of monthly. I spent a LOT of time catching up on this project not because it was hard or time consuming, but because I let myself get so far behind. I refuse to get so far behind.

My pictures. I have got to take more pictures with my camera. My parents spent good money on a Rebel for me a few years ago and it's silly to use my iPhone because it's convenient. OF course there will still be some iPhone pictures in my album because we all know my phone doesn't leave my side. But, I would like the majority of my pictures to be from my Rebel!

My style. I ordered a few different photo protector pages instead of the normal set. I would like to change things up a little bit. I love to scrapbook and I haven't really added any of my creativity to my Project Life albums. I would love to get back into that and use my own creativity to add to my album. Plus it makes it so much fun. But, don't worry I will still be keeping it SIMPLE!

My focus. I have always been a stickler for the picture a day focus, but I have decided this year instead of making sure that I have a picture for everyday to make sure I capture all of the little things in our life that I don't want to forget. So some weeks might have a focus that all happened in one day. ONe week might have a picture from everyday or just a few days. My point is that instead of "making up" a picture to take for the day I want it to be so natural that I don't think about having that picture every single day!

One thing that will stay the same is I will still link up with Jessica Turner at Project Life Tuesday. It keeps me accountable and I enjoy looking at others albums.

Oh and I promise to try to take way better pictures of my album. Tonights excuse is it's snowing here tonight. I don't want that white stuff around because I don't want a snow day. BLAH!!

Are you doing project life 2012? Do you plan do to anything different this time around?

I look forward to sharing my new focus and Project Life with you this year:)

December Daily (Picture Heavy)

2012-01-02T20:30:00.001-05:00

It seems the Holidays take so long to get here and then they are gone in a flash! This will be my last post about Christmas I promise, but I had to share my December Daily 2011! I am so proud of myself for once again completing this project.

We have enjoyed getting out the one I created in 2009 (Part 1 and Part 2) and I know we will love looking at this one as well! I wish I could have completed one last year, but life got in the way and a baby that was learning to walk on her own was there too so ya know!?

Anyways here is what I came up for this year, again don't forget I love in the gloomy state for January and February and the sun has been absent so this was the best I could do.

I love the way the cover turned out!

My book ended up be extremely thick, but I really think it was all of that chip board. I already have an idea of what I would like to do with my album for next year. You can never be too prepared right?

This is one of my favorites. Kendall was so happy in the car this morning, but she had no clue that we were about to rock her world with a sweet old man named Santa!

Love my ornaments!

Such a big girl!

I loved that I had an extra page to end our book with a copy of our Christmas Card for 2011.

And the back!
I hope all of you that went back to work today survived and made it through the day!
I hope you enjoyed looking at my book as much as I loved making it:)
Happy Monday everyone!

Pinterest Inspired!

2012-01-01T20:00:00.002-05:00

I am so sad that today is my last day of Christmas Vacation, but I am excited about a new year! Not so much that it is a new year, but all of the plans I have for this year!! Remember that word I was telling you about, ya know, simple? Well, that's totally what I am living by for serious! That is my 2012 motto, Simple, and I like it:)

On to a project! I was so totally inspired by a Pinterest Pin (shocker!) SO, I thought I would share my inspiration and what I came up with! First, I must stay that the weather here has been so gloomy, that's our January and February, so my pictures are the greatest because outside light is few and far between around here!

So here is my inspiration!

Source: twogirlzstuff.blogspot.com via Christy on Pinterest

I thought this would be so cute behind my bed! So, off to Hobby lobby I went to get the right tools to create this look. I got a frame, paint, and the letters all at hobby lobby and maybe spent 25 dollars on the whole project!

This was a SIMPLE project too:) All I had to do was paint the letters the color I wanted and then hang it up! SIMPLE!

SO, this is what I started out with, it was simple, yet so boring!

And my end result! I think it looks a little lonely up there so I have a few ideas of things I could add, but who knows! I have to say I really like it. I also have to say that I put me and you instead because Chris and I's song in high school was Kenny Chesney's Me&You! AWE

So, what do you think?

I think the paint color matches our lampshades perfectly and I think I really like it! It's simple but not boring!

Thanks for stopping by and hope everyone has a great first week of the year:)

Linking up to Metamorphosis Monday

Linking up to:

My 2011 New Years Resolutions: A look Back

2011-12-31T23:45:00.039-05:00

I have never been one to be huge on resolutions. but I like to think of them more as goals. As I was getting ready for the new year I got to thinking about a post that I did last year on my goals for the New Year. I wanted to take a minute to reflect on these goals to see where I have come from then to now! So here goes. The Red is the goal from this year, just so you know where I am going with this post:)

This post is probably totally boring to you, but since this is my blog and my diary I want to do this for myself. So if you make it through it leave me a comment and tell me what you think and if not Happy New Year and I hope you feel good about your 2011 goals if you made them:)

These goals are written in this post!

First I would like to get Kendall back on a normal sleeping schedule. She has (KNOCK ON WOOD) slept for at least 12 hours the past three nights, which has been amazing!! I would like to get her in bed by 8:30 during the week so that I can get some things done at night while she is asleep which leads me to my next goal,
I have to say that this goal was quite easy to achieve. Kendall is such an easy sleeper. I literally lay her down in her bed for nap or at night and she goes right to sleep without any problems! Now don't get me wrong we have our occasional bad nights, but our bad nights don't compare to some of the stories that I have heard. I have to say that when Kendall was young I spent a few days getting her to go to sleep on her own. Those few days were the best thing for us. We don't fight sleep time and I think that is so important because I know how stressful bedtime is for some moms. I sure do hope that we have this same luck with our next child, because I sure do love my sleep!

Reorganize and restructure myself. Having a baby takes every organizational skill you have and throws it in the garbage! Or at least it did for me:) I need to start making my lists at home and work again, keeping bills and other important papers organized in our office at home, keep myself organized at work which has been extremely hard this year, and just organize a few other things in my life!! This goal could be a post in itself because there are so many strings attached to it that I could go on and on about places and things I want organized, so I will just tell you as it happens!
This is a hard goal to say I have completely accomplished. I have to say that where I am now doesn't even compare to where I was this time last year. I think one of the hardest parts of being a mom is the first year. They need you the entire time they are awake. Don't get me wrong Kendall still needs me 99% of the time that she is awake, but now she plays on her own at times, watches Mickey, or even helps me do laundry and other small tasks around the house. Sure the tasks take me a little longer, but we get them done and that's what matters.

As silly as this may sound but the remodel of my kitchen was a huge time saver for me. You have no idea how long I spent in the kitchen cleaning and doing dishes especially since we had bottles and other baby items as well. (If you don't have a dishwasher you totally know where I am coming from!) Now I load the dish washer start it and walk away. Unloading the dish washer literally takes me five minutes! This freed up time for me to get other parts of our house cleaned!

Another thing that has made this goal easier to achieve is Kendall now eats whatever we eat. When I was having to make sure bottles were cleaned, nurse her, feed her baby food, or schedule things around her feeding times it was hard. I am not going to sugar coat it, nursing was one of the hardest things I have ever made the decision to do.

Not only did it affect what I did at home, but it also affected my job. I spent my break in a closet pumping and another time during the day had to be spent pumping. Therefore, I was always behind at work.

My first full year of teaching and being a mom was extremely difficult and I wanted to throw the towel in multiple times. At the end of last school year I started purging a lot in my classroom. This was so helpful at the beginning of this school year. I had a place for everything and everything was in it's place.

I also made my students responsible for making sure things were in their place and no longer leave it to myself to get those things done at the end of the school day.

Another thing that has changed for me about school is I ask Chris to get Kendall from the sitters when I need to get something done at work. Last year I tried to do this myself, and it wasn't always the best idea because then I was behind the next day.

I could go on and on about things that have changed at work for me this year, but I have to say that I am in such a better place this year in my classroom than last year and that makes all the difference in my life!

So have I improved things in my life to help me get reorganized and structured? Yes! Could I do more in 2012 to make it better? Absolutely:)

Lastly, I would like to get back to my pre baby weight before Kendall turns one! I think I can do it. I have three months to lose 15 pounds and there are NO excuses now. I am starting weight watchers tomorrow and I am going to start working out as often as possible! I am holding myself to it because I am tired of complaining to people about the way that I look and feel when I am the one that can control it! We will see how it goes:) I will keep you updated! I am going to try to take monthly pictures and maybe when I start seeing the difference I will post them on here haha!
I am very proud to say that I have totally achieved this goal! I did it, maybe not by Kendall's birthday, but before 2012 and so far I have kept most of it off:) The key for getting this weight off of me was exercising! Unfortunately I haven't been doing that as well as I was this summer, but don't worry I see that it is a 2012 goal of mine and I will achieve that! I loved how it made me feel after I was working out and I love that I no longer dread getting in my closet to find something to wear and I refuse to let that change in 2012!!

I am very proud of where I have come since last year and I am so excited for a new year and all the great things that will happen to my family in this year!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T00:52:00.000-05:00

We had a very, very busy Christmas Eve and Day! We started Christmas Eve off hanging out at home, but quickly moved into our yearly routine. We went to see Chris' mom around 4:00 because Christmas Eve is also her birthday. We were suppose to go to church at 5, but someone not my husband forgot that we weren't going to late mass and wasn't ready on time! So, we headed to my mom and dad's for Christmas Eve dinner. This year my grandparents who live in Florida were in town which was nice for Kendall!

Kendall had a ball opening all of her presents at mom and dad's. She got WAY too much, but mom and dad bought her gifts that will stay at their house for her to play with. They got her all the Little People things including the house and the zoo so that she can play over there!

Uncle Joe got her Elmo dance or whatever and she loves it! We did bring that home and she dances away to it too funny!

Uncle Mike and Aunt Kristin got Kendall a Minnie and a Cupcake stuffed animal thingy that turns into a little girl. It is so cute and we also brought all that home!!

After having dinner and opening up presents we headed home to get ready for church. I knew, mama's instinct that Kendall wasn't going to cooperate during mass. Who was right? I was and I missed all of mass. I couldn't sit in the cry room because there were people in there watching mass and didn't' want to disrupt them so therefore I wondered around our church's school while Kendall whined. Oh well we learned our lesson and someone, Chris, will be ready for mass at 5 next year:)

Christmas Morning we woke up and brought Kendall down to see what Santa brought her. She got a big train table and she is loving it! She played with it for a little while and her other gifts, dolls, strollers, puzzles, and other little things for a while. Then we headed to my grandmas.

We opened presents at my grandmas and then headed to my great grandmas. This year was bittersweet because my great grandma isn't doing all that well so we won't be having Christmas at her condo anymore. We probably shouldn't have this year, but my grandma wanted one more year which I can understand!

After leaving my Great Grandmas we headed to Chris's moms. We did Christmas with his mom's family. Her dad isn't doing to well and her mom is in the nursing home so it was a bit sad. Teresa and I took her mom back to the nursing home and then came back to do presents with Kathleen, Kendall, Chris, Teresa, and myself! Kendall was spoiled rotten there with all kinds of things for her bitty baby!

It was after midnight when we got home so we were all of sorts with Kendall's sleeping times! But, we had a great two days!

The day after Christmas Kendall loved playing with all of her new toys especially her train table!

We did Christmas with Tripp this week because he was sick last week. They had fun playing with all of their new gifts including a basketball goal, a tag junior, and other goodies!

I have been working LIKE crazy on my Project Life and Decemeber Daily! I am so proud to say that I am completely finished with Project Life 2011 except the few pictures I sent to print out tonight! I am extremely proud of how hard I worked on this project and how well it turned out! I will share a few pages of it with you this week and my process for next year!

I am almost finished with my December Daily as well. Just sent the rest of those pictures to be printed as well and will share that with you as well!!

I am will be back soon with all of my great projects that I have worked on over my break!! Get Excited for 2012!!!

It's late and I didn't proofread this post so there are probably thousands of mistakes I am so sorry!!

A Renewed Scrapbooking Room! Simplifying My Scrap Stash

2011-12-26T15:46:00.001-05:00

It seems that reorganizing my scrapbook/craft room has become a December tradition. You can see some of the processes and changes I made in this room here. Well, after this year I hope it is no longer a tradition and it is one that just stays!! I am extremely happy with the before/after results of this project.

I must say that I owe a lot of thanks to Becky Higgins for creating Project Life. I know that ya'll have heard me mention a special little thing called Project Life. It has changed not only how I memory keep for my family, but it has changed the way I think of things in my life. One of the biggest changes that Project life has given me is an urge to simplify so many things in my life.

I have been reorganizing and purging our house for over a year and we have gotten rid of so many unnecessary things in our house. You may think how in the world did a thing called Project Life give me this urge. Well, let me tell ya!

In my opinion, the focus of project life is just that: simple! Of course I can't explain it like Becky does, but when I think of Project Life I think of taking pictures and recording/documenting what they mean to our family today. That's simple don't you think? Yes, it is and of course everyones process is extremely different, and my process will be a little different next year as well. But, no matter how I change my process each year it's still simple: take pictures and document/record our everyday simple life:)

So, all of that being said, I knew that there were lots and lots of scrappy things NOT being used in this room, and it was a stash that I no longer needed or wanted. I knew what I needed to do and that was get rid of it and give it to someone that could use it!

I have been a scrapbooker since I was 10 years old! That's 17 years of a stash that I have built and built and built! I can't even begin to tell you the amount of stickers, paper, embellishments, stamps, albums, and ribbon I had in this room! So, here is my process:

I am so embarrassed that I am even sharing this with you but hey we are friends right!? So this is where it all began. I was getting more and more frustrated with the fact that I just couldn't cut something out quickly with my Cricut or just do a simple and quick craft on the nice table that Chris had made for me a few years ago!

So, this is what I started doing: I made three piles, a school, donate, and Kendall pile! Do you see those four plastic folders? They were completely full, almost couldn't be shut full, of stickers! I got rid of all, but a few stickers. That little stack was as big as Kendall's stack got and it was just a few stickers that I knew she would enjoy playing with:)

I am a bit obsessed with containers! I think that's OK, but they all didn't have a purpose in here. So, a few went back with our Christmas decorations so I will remember to use them next year, a few were donated, and a few will go to school! That simple:)

And the ribbon! Oh the ribbon! When I found out I was having a girl I went a little crazy on ribbon! I love making Kendall hair bows, but the problem is she only needs one or two bows of the same ribbon and then I would have lots left. It started to just become a mess. I got the ribbon organizer for Christmas last year and it wasn't enough to hold all of my ribbons. I decided that it needed to be enough, so I used the red bucket to place all the ribbon that was no longer of use for me. I will take it to school for the girls that have baby girls and can use it to make them hair bows!

And the end! AHHH I love it. I just walk in here to see how nice it is! I am thrilled with how easy it was for me to simplify this room! And I know it's boring and there is nothing interesting about this space in my house, but I love it and it makes me happy and it makes my husband happy and when we are happy Kendall is happy!

And do you see my new Project Life binder and core kit up there! Yes, it has it's own spot and in case you were wondering I went with Clementine this year and I can't wait to begin using it for the New Year! And I can't wait to share with you all of my new ideas for my Project Life 2012

And here is all of the donations I will be making. There is a container under that big bag and it might not look like it, but there are lots and lots of goodies here to give away:)

My kids at school will have fun with all of their new goodies for the writing center!

My sister in law works in the NICU at Kosair so I gave her all the stickers and scrappy things to take to the NICU to be used when they are decorating for different seasons! I hope they can put them to good use!

And for me? I think I have to say my word for 2012 will be SIMPLIFY what do you think? You like it?

Linking up at Metamorphosis Monday

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-23T23:01:00.002-05:00

We hope that you and your family have a blessed Christmas! Thanks for stopping by:)

Puzzle Pieces Christmas

Shutterfly has classic, elegant Christmas invitations for your party.

View the entire collection of cards.

Let's Talk Hair: My Hair

2011-12-21T21:14:00.000-05:00

So, I am sure this post will be SO interesting to all of you, but I was getting ready yesterday morning before my hair appointment and thought I am going to take some before and after pictures of my hair and it turned quite hilarious quite fast:)

I have very coarse, dry, frizzy hair and I also have the BEST hair dresser. If it weren't for her I probably wouldn't have much hair left:)

Anyways yesterday I went in to get a Keratin treatment. This is the second time that she has done this to my hair. I love getting it done because it smooths my hair out, but I hate the process. For three days I can't put my hair in a pony, tuck it behind my ears, or wash it. Now the washing part doesn't bother me because I don't have to wash my hair often. Like I said it's coarse, dry, and frizzy. I just put a little baby powder on my roots and tada!

So, here are the funny before pictures I took yesterday morning. I couldn't figure out how in the world to take these pictures. My roots were looking a bit yucky. It's harder to keep them hidden in the winter time than summer.

This was before I was walking out the door just wanted to share my cute scarf!

Kendall insisted on brushing her teeth while I was taking these pictures!! You can totally see my roots in this picture. WOW they are bad!

And one more bad root picture!!

And here is the last and the last day for three days that I can tuck behind my ears:(

And here is the after. I almost didn't share these because my bangs look SO funky, but I decided heck with it ! Not to mention I have no makeup on and my eyebrows are a little red! Haha the real me you see! I can't spray them down so they are wild. We are trying to train my hair to this side and when I can't spray it's extremely hard.

Roots look much better!! My hair looks a little oily haha and I am not use to that! It feels so heavy right now with that stuff in it and I can't wait to wash it and have nice new hair! I have enough hair that you and I and another friend could share my hair. Real Life: I lose a head of hair after every shower and after having Kendall I never knew I could lose that much hair!

And the back look how smooth!! I'll post a picture Friday of the real after once I can wash it and style it the way that I would like!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week before Christmas. I have a few more things to get and then I am FINISHED!! One year I will be finished with shopping before my Christmas Break. Yeah right who am I kidding:)

Kendall's First Cards Game

2011-12-19T15:36:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we took Kendall to her first Louisville Basketball game. We took her to the UL vs. Bellarmine game! She did alright but we didn't make too far into the game:)

Sitting with daddy watching the game! She was interested in everything going on around us and I mean everything:) Which was why we couldn't stay very long! And here is the other reason:

Our new stadium is very nice, but our seats aren't the greatest and the bad thing about the stadium is the seats go up instead of back so we literally look at their heads and to be quite honest I was extremely nervous having Kendall up that high as busy as she is. It was also nerve racking walking up and down with her.

We made it to half time, but then quickly decided that it was time to go! So, we headed on home!

Can't say that this big girl didn't enjoy her short experience in the YUM Center! Maybe in a few years her and Daddy can go enjoy the games together:) But, until then I think she will enjoy her time with Mamaw and Papaw while mommy and daddy go to the games:)

Snowman Poop and "cute" Plates

2011-12-18T22:19:00.001-05:00

Nice title for a post huh? Haha! Around our house Snowman Poop is a must this time of year. We make it several times and it makes so much! I have already made three batches of it this season! I know it's terrible we can't keep our hands out of it. I have to say that the first batch we split with Jen and the second batch we took to a party and used for presents, and todays batch is ALL ours:)

I have been making this for as long as I can remember. Most people call it muddy buddies, but we like to call it snowman poop around here!

Trust me this is the easiest thing you can make, and you can't mess it up I promise!

All you need: Chex mix (I like plain Jen uses chocolate!), 1 cup of semisweet chocolate morsels, powder sugar, 1/2 cup of peanut butter, a teaspoon of vanilla,

and I almost forgot the butter! Again everyone makes this different and I know a lot of people don't add the butter, but we like butter around here so I add it!

First, you pour 9 cups of Chex mix into a bowl and then set it aside. Easy as can be:)

Next, you measure out a cup of the chocolate morsels;

and a 1/2 cup of peanut butter, and your 1/4 of a cup of butter.

Then, you will mix all of this together and microwave for 1 minute. Once you microwave it for 1 minute, mix it, then put it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. Continue this until it is smooth and easy to stir.

Lastly, add in a teaspoon of vanilla. Again another ingredient that I know many people leave out. I am telling you if you google muddy buddies or maybe even snowman poop you will find so many different varieties for how people make this. I think it all pretty much tastes the same, but that is my opinion

OK moving along....

Add your mixture to the cereal. I add a little mix, add a little more, and mix until it's all been added.

And all of it is pretty well mixed. I think I could have used a little more chocolate in this batch, but it still works the same!

Here comes the fun and oh so messy part:) Pour your mixture into a garbage bag. A clean one of course!

Then pour your powder sugar over top of your cereal. This is the ONLY ingredient I don't measure out. I just pour what I think will be enough. We LOVE powder sugar around here so you can never use too much!

Once you have it all in there mix the bag up really good. Shake it and get all of the cereal covered with powder sugar!

And as Kendall would say TaDa!! You have your very own Snowman Poop

Or Muddy Buddies whatever you prefer to call it!

And real life here: The recipe is totally on the back of the Chex Cereal Box. Not even gonna tell you that I made this recipe up because I used the exact same one that is on the back of this box! Easy as pie:)

I found these last night and completely forgot that we had them. I was thinking I wish I had a few cute (as Kendall would call them) Christmas plates. Then I got to thinking and I was like shoot I do have a few cute Christmas plates but where in the world are they.

Luckily for me my memory was working last night and I remembered where they were and I was able to get them out all by myself! That's the best part. And aren't they cute?

Hope ya'll have a wonderful Monday! I am relaxing tonight and this week because I am now on Winter Vacation and loving every minute of it:)

Linking up tonight with Met Monday

Home Christmas Tour 2011

2011-12-17T23:35:00.002-05:00

I am a little late getting this post up, but that's alright better late than never! Yesterday was our last day of school for 16 whole days and I was pretty excited about that!! I am ready for a much needed break!

Now on to our decor. I didn't do a whole lot of decorating this year. Our house probably looks pretty dull compared to the hundreds of other blog posts out there, but I did what I could to keep my sanity and still keep my house some what straightened! I am sure I left out a few things, and if I find that I will share them in another post:)

I love that I have moved my baker's rack out into the Great Room. It gives me another place to decorate for the Holidays! I didn't take a big picture of my baker's rack but this is the top and the bottom! I love looking at our December Daily album during the Holidays. I have been working on my this year's and I know we will love looking at it next Christmas! I also LOVE my Willow Tree Nativity! It's one of my absolute favorite pieces!

Those glass bowls from my sister in laws wedding have become quite handy! I love filling them for each holiday! And this is my Louisville Christmas Platter!

We are no longer dreaming of going to a bowl game, because we will be there!! We are going to the Belk Bowl and we can't wait to watch it!

The wreath on my front door that I still want painted black:)

On the inside of our front door!

This is a new decor this year! I put this on Kendall's door and I thought it was cute. I could definitely do something a little more creative on it, but I just wanted to get it hung!

I didn't get a picture of the inside of Kendall's room but she has her tree and a pink Santa and Snowman siting on her shelf! I will take a picture one day this week!

Kendall loves playing with her Little People Nativity set!! She has fun lining the pieces up and putting the Baby on top of the stable!

Another favorite of Kendall's she loves to dance to this little guy!

Real life: There is nothing on my candle holders. I haven't found the perfect thing for them just yet. I'll let you know when or if I do! I haven't found the right place for my cards just yet. so they are hanging out on the mantle for now.

Totally didn't realize that my stocking was backwards until just now. Mine is slightly different than Chris' it has stripes on it! I love our new stockings. Mine being backwards is totally fitting because when I ordered them they sent mine wrong. They sent me a stocking with a reindeer on it and we had to send it back. I highly recommend Pottery Barn Kids! They had the best costumer service and were quick to pick up the wrong stocking and send a new one!

Our upstairs tree. It's decorated with our special ornaments. I love all the ornaments on this tree. They all have some kinds of meaning to them!

This is also new. I have become a little obsessed with deco mesh!! It's so fun and cute to work with! i added it to my banister at the top of the stairs,

as well as the banister going down the stairs! So stinkin' cute!!

This is our downstairs tree. It is covered with jingle buddies. In college I was obsessed with these things and we have all the sets that we could find from Wizard of Oz to The Grinch. This year we even added an Elf on the Shelf jingle buddy!

And a few decorations sitting on the table in our other Great Room. I love this picture of Kendall from last Christmas. It makes me oh so sad at the same time, because she was so little last year and she is getting so big!

Thanks for stopping by and please don't forget to go by http://kellyskornerblog.blogspot.com

PS: I can NOT for the life of me figure out how to add a link into my blog posts. I knew how to do it on my PC but for some reason it is not the same on a MAC. If you have any idea how to do this could you please let me know? Thanks so much!

Pajamas Day

2011-12-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

Today was Pajamas day at school and Jess and I decided that we would dress in our jammies as well!! We had a lot of fun and were super comfy all day!

We have 2 days of school left until Christmas Break and I can't wait for it! I am so ready too. I can't wait to be off with Kendall for 16 whole days. I am so ready:)

I think I am just about done with all of my Christmas Shopping, but I feel like I am never fully done until Christmas Eve. One year I am gonna get it all done in a decent time so that I can just enjoy the Holiday itself!

Hope ya'll are having a great week!

Christmas Card Pictures

2011-12-11T22:01:00.001-05:00

Why do the weekends go so darn fast? We have a five day week this week and then we are off for 16 WHOLE days and I can't wait!!

We had a busy weekend this weekend, Friday night we went to visit a sweet friend and their new baby. He is such a cutie and Kendall had so much fun playing with his big brother:) I wish I would have gotten some pictures, but I was too busy catching up with their mommy. I don't get to see her much and I miss talking to her, so it was nice to catch up while the kids played!

Saturday we went to a surprise birthday party for a friend. Before we went I tried my hardest to get some cute pictures of Kendall so that I could get our Christmas card me. Here are a few that I took before we left. She was being complicated so I had a hard time:)

I finally tackled her on the floor next to the tree and got her laughing a little.

She refused to smile AND look at the camera at the same time so I just took what I got:)

At the end I got her to lay UNDER the Christmas tree and she thought that was so funny! Why didn't I think of that to begin with haha!

And I could tickle her while she was laying down and still take her picture! So, hopefully I got a few good ones for our cards!

I love this one even though her eyes are closed!

Hope everyone has a great Monday! Christmas will be here before we know it:)

Project Life Tuesday!

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I made it to another Project Life Tuesday! I am super excited that we are getting closer and closer to the end of the year and Christmas! We are getting closer to having our Christmas all up and to finish Christmas Shopping!

So, here are my pictures and don't forget to stop by www.themomcreative.com for more project life posts!

Friday November 25: We bought Zoey this sweet Minnie bed on Thanksgiving! She seems to really enjoy it because she didn't get out of it at all today! I am not sure who loved it more though Kendall or Zoey!

Saturday November 26: We put our outside decorations up tonight. Kendall wasn't too sure of Santa at first, but after some warming up she decided she might like him. She loves looking for him outside every night when we come home!

Sunday November 27: I revamped an old wreath into a new improved wreath! I love the way it turned out. I am so into Deco Mesh this year. It is in a lot of my Christmas decorations!

Monday November 28: Kendall likes to dump things out including but not limited to toys, milk, and goldfish! Tonight she dumped out the toys and climbed into the container. She is so silly!

Tuesday November 29: Kendall helped me decorate the basement tree. After just a few ornaments she was over it and took off to find something new:)

Wednesday November 30: Tomorrow is December 1! I got my December Daily album all ready to go and I love how it turned out this year!

Thursday December 1: Kendall got her first Advent Calendar treat! It was a puppet and she had so much fun playing with it!! She is too funny and I love how animated she is!

Hope you enjoyed our pictures!

December Daily: Dec. 1-4

2011-12-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

I hope ya'll had a great weekend! We had a busy and quick one that's for sure!

Friday night Chris and I went to the UL/Vandy game! Anyone watch it? We bought near had a heart attack before it was all over. Guess that's why they call them the Cardiac Cards!

We have had so much fun with Kendall and her Advent Calendar. Of course she doesn't quite understand it all, but she seems to be enjoying it each day:)

I wanted to share with you my pictures for my DD album. Here are my pictures for the 1-4.

December 1: We couldn't wait to give Kendall her first gift, so we did it first thing this morning. She was so funny, because once she realized she got something out of the first box she checked the other boxes for goodies as well. Lucky for us I hadn't put any other treats in just yet! She got a snowman puppet and she was so funny with it!

December 2: We did our calendar when we got home today and Kendall was so interested in seeing what was inside! There was another puppet, this one being a penguin! She already knew what to do with it so she was having fun with it as soon as she pulled it out.

December 3: When we woke up this morning I decided to make us cinnamon toast! It was so yummy and we got such a kick out of watching Kendall eating it. She loves cinnamon toast, her sweet sitter makes it for her all the time. I know ya'll are jealous of my jammies! The most comfortable kind, Chris' old t-shirts:) I also will be adding this picture. We went to a Christmas party tonight and 3 of the made dishes were from pinterest! This is seriously the best site and we LOVED all three of these dishes, but I have to say that the chocolate dessert was the BEST! I wish I could share the site with you, but I am not sure of what it is. (I made the pizza dip)

December 4: I love today's Advent Calendar treat. We got her the Elf on the Shelf jingle buddy! I love it because our basement tree is full of jingle buddies. When they first came out I bought them like crazy! I have so many different sets of them from the Wizard of Oz, Charlie Brown, The Grinch, and so many more!

Saturday we also took Kendall to see Santa which so deserves a post in itself! I will post that picture here soon, but it will be added to my December Daily page for Saturday as well.

I am almost finished decorating our house for Christmas. I am waiting for our stockings to come in the mail, I have to get another roll of deco mesh to finish the banister and then I will share our decorations. I don't do a lot, but I love what we have:)

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

December Daily: Part 1

2011-11-30T23:10:00.002-05:00

OK I feel that I need to first preference this post by saying:

A. I am not a photographer and I so wish I wish! I have yet to find a good way to take pictures of my scrapbooking and crafts. Maybe one day I will:)
B. It has been raining here so taking these pictures outside were not an option. I am hoping to take part 2 outside and the finished product outside as well! But, we shall see!

Ok and moving on here is my December Daily for 2011! I am so excited about this year's December Daily for many reason, but the main reason is Kendall has really taken interest in looking at my albums so it makes it more special and gives me more of a purpose as to why I do what I do!

You may remember me saying this, but this album was originally intended for DD last year, but it was baby season and I didn't get it done! That is my story and I am sticking to it. So, here is the cover. I totally bought this album a few years ago in the dollar section at Target. My fav.! I took the album a part and painted the front and back covers.

After painting it, I distressed it a bit. I love the look that it gave it!

You can see above how thick the album is! I love things to stick out and 3D, so in turn I get really thick albums and I am OK with that.

I guess there isn't much talking I can do for each page so I won't bore you too much with my words, but I will tell you that a lot of the paper I used is from Echo Park. I had a bunch of random stickers and I am sorry I can't say where they came from and I used my Cricut Cart. Simply Charmed to cut out a few shapes as well!

I am not really big on traditional Christmas colors and I think it's because I love the color pink so much! I always throw those colors in as well, but I like to add my own touch to it as well!

I hope you enjoyed part 1 of my DD and I look forward to sharing the rest of it with you soon.

Project Life Tuesday

2011-11-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Believe it or not I am finally making some progress on my Project Life Album. I have quite a bit of catching up to do for sure, but I am getting there and I am very proud of myself. This week I only have three of the 7 days to share with you, but that is better than nothing!

I have a lot of great ideas for my project life 2012 album! Maybe I will share those with you very soon:)

Saturday: We went to my favorite place with Jen and Brad: The Melting Pot! If you have never been GO. Kendall didn't go nor would I recommend taking kids under say 10 haha, but I just had to share that sweet picture of my little girl that still had a few blotchy red marks on her face!

Friday: My sweet little girl broke out in a horrible rash. I had no idea what was going on, but the doctor said it was just a virus that would go away on it's own. They gave her a steroid but I just couldn't give it to her especially since the doctor said it probably wouldn't help her at all. Thankfully it went away by Sunday!

Thursday: Thanksgiving: We have so much to be thankful for, but these two are what I am most thankful for. I am so lucky to have such a sweet, loving husband, and a healthy and happy baby girl!

Don't forget to stop by www.themomcreative.com to see other great Project Life pictures!

Welcome Santa

2011-11-28T23:04:00.000-05:00

We are always so excited to welcome Santa in to our home each year! My husband loves Christmas more than any other kid I know. Really. That is probably why I have most of my Christmas presents already and will still have way too many under the tree. I know I haven't been that good!

I love this little sign that hangs on our door as you walk up the stairs! Kendall pointed it out tonight and I told her santa was coming to which she replied "Santa?" Oh dear sweet girl you must have forgotten who Santa was since last year's run in at the mall. Don't worry I will reintroduce you two here VERY soon:)

Saturday it was so nice here! We were able to get a few Christmas decorations up outside. Kendall of course did a lot of helping with all of that. She was cracking us up with this Santa because clearly she's just not a big fan of him just yet and it took her quite a while to get use to him before she could get near him!

Kendall clearly wasn't interested in getting her picture taken with Mickey either. After about ten shots of this I gave up and just figured this would work for this year!

Every time I try to take Kendall's picture lately she has been putting her hand over her face. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why she was doing it until last night. She is saying cheese and taking a picture with HER camera! Too cute, but I wish she would stop cheesing and taking my picture so I could take hers:)

I love this sweet Little People that Brad got Kendall last year. It is the Nativity Scene and she has had so much fun playing with it!

And this year she was able to help decorate her Christmas tree and I couldn't have been more tickled!!

I will show you her room very soon!

Have a great night everyone!

Revamped Christmas Wreath!

2011-11-27T21:33:00.002-05:00

I love Christmas decorations, but goodness gracious it is a chore to get them out! I have had this wreath since probably before Chris and I got married. I don't think I have hung it on the door, but I am sure Chris did before we got married:)

I decided it needed a little revamp before I could hang it up this year. I had thought about making a new wreath, but I saw this idea at Hobby Lobby and it was going to be way cheaper to make it myself using what I had. Plus I like way cheaper don't you?

So, my first step was to simply bunch deco mesh onto the wreath and tie it on there by wrapping a piece of the wreath around it! Super, super easy I promise!

I thought it needed a little more so I decided to add an ornament where I tied off the deco mesh. This picture isn't the greatest picture because I had to use my flash. It has rained here ALL day so there was no using natural light.

And the finished product on our door! (By the way, since I moved into this house I have been asking Chris to paint that door black and it is still that color. I am not a fan of that color and never have been, but hey I have gotten a lot of other things a long the way!)

And a close up!! I am so proud of my new wreath. I love making new out of what we already have! Saves money and it's fun.

Here, is a before and after picture without the lights on.

And this cute butt, well she refused to smilie for me in a picture and she KNEW exactly what she was doing! I love her to pieces though:)

Have a great Monday everyone!

Linking up to http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com for Metamorphosis Monday!

Black Friday

2011-11-26T10:44:00.001-05:00

Today we had a pretty low key day! Chris did his black Friday shopping from 7:00 Thursday night until 8:00 Friday morning! He is nuts I know this. And he took a two hour nap and never went back to sleep the rest of the day!

He got a lot of good deals INCLUDING my Mac Book Pro!! He got a great deal on it because they were running a deal, he got to use my teacher discount, and he got a printer for free! I thought he did good and I am loving my Mac.

I think I need to go to classes on how to use it though haha. I am just not use to the programing, but I think I love it so much better than a PC! I can't wait to really get it all figured out. Any tips are GREATLY appreciated!

I was looking last night to get photoshop for it, because I think I will miss my photoshop!

Trying to figure out how to organize my photos on IPhoto is going to be a task as well, but it is so nice to have a working computer of my OWN:)

On Wednesday my mom, Kendall, my sister in law Kristin, and I went to the outlets in Edinburgh. This is a tradition that we have had for about 4 years now and it is so much fun. I got Kendall quite a few things, but not so much for me! That's alright, because I was really excited about all the great deals I found for Kendall especially at Gymboree! I got her these cute jambes along with 2 other pairs. Can you tell that we love jammies in this house?

Zoey even got in on the Black Friday deals!! She got a new bed and it has Minnie on it! She loves it. She slept in it all day yesterday and all night last night:) I am so glad we were finally able to find the perfect bed for her. I have had her same bed for a long time and it was time to replace it with a new one:)

Do you see the face on my sweet girl. She is one hot mess that is for sure. She still isn't all the way better, but hopefully we are getting there. Her spots are all gone which is good, but now her nose is runny and she is a little congested. I can't wait for her to get better and stay better for a while!

Today it's suppose to be pretty so hopefully we will get some of our Christmas decorations put up outside and inside. I will be sure to post pictures later if we do! We LOVE this time of year and we are so excited about all the festivities!

I am just about done with my December Daily album, and I can't wait to share it with you:) I will do that some time this week BEFORE December 1st. I got my album out from two years ago and Kendall loved looking at it even though she isn't in it!

Hope ya'll have a great Saturday:)

Happy Thanksgiving day!

2011-11-24T17:04:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving Day!! We have! Chris is getting geared up for his yearly Black Friday shopping! He loves it:)

This morning I made yummy Mickey Pancakes for a special sweet girl I know:)

They were so yummy! Kendall ate both of hers very quickly and I had a few and so did Chris. We got a Mickey cutter that is meant for eggs, but I tried it with the pancakes and it turned out cute. Kendall was thrilled to eat Mickey pancakes.

These are our pumpkins from our Hubers trip. It's about time to tell them bye bye! Kendall was playing on the table this morning with them and we were talking about how we are glad we didn't crave them because we got to enjoy them a little longer!!

Here is my sweet family! We took some self portraits this morning before heading out to grandmas.

Kendall is talking to her Papaw. She is so funny:)

Me and my sweet girl.

I have so much to be thankful for every single day of the year. I am one lucky girl with a loving sweet husband, daughter, and family. We have everything we need and you can see it right there in that picture:) Love those two!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and for those of you that go shopping have fun and be safe!

Project Life Tuesday (Almost Wednesday!)

2011-11-22T23:32:00.000-05:00

Well tonight I had a little extra time to work on my Project Life since I am out of work for the rest of the week!! Yah me! So I worked on this weeks ablum a little bit.

Before I get into this week's pictures I wanted to show you something I decided to do. This year I clearly missed quite a bit of pictures. It happens. Life happens and sometimes we forget to take pictures! It's OK and I have made a mental reminder to try to be more intentional in taking pictures every week.

Anyways I decided to make use of the scrapbook pages that came with the kit. I cut them down to 4X6 and inserted them into my book where I forgot to take a picture. This keeps weeks that are missing pictures pretty and not just empty:)

Here is an example of a week in March.

As you can see I have also taken a lot of 2X3 pictures using my Iphone that I need to get collaged and printed out!

So much catching up to do, but I can do it because we all know it doesn't take too terribly long to catch up on Project Life!

So, here is this week's pages without pictures. I am ALL caught up on this week's journaling. I just have to print my pictures now:)

And here are this week's pictures!

Thursday: Kendall was sick at the sitters today, so I had to get a sub and come home early with her. She clearly looks fine here, but I always handled being sick well as a kid also.

Wednesday: I finally finished Kendall's advent calendar and I can't wait to stuff it with goodies. We will have so much fun with it!

Saturday: We took Kendall to build a bear and it was so much fun. She was so cute picking out her bear, waiting in line, and making her bear. She didn't like giving him a bath though:)

Tuesday: Kendall decided that Tripp needed to eat supper with us, so she grabbed his picture and brought it to the table to sit with us while we ate. She loves her little buddy:)

Sunday: Kendall got all dressed up while I went to the grocery today and this is what I came home to! She is a big hot mess that is for sure.

Friday: Kendall has decided that the barstools are her new high chair. She climbs up on them and asks for fish! It's so cute I can't stop her:)

Monday: Kendall had fun tonight playing in her tent with her bear and her baby. So cute! I love that sweet smile and how much she is growing everyday.

I know my pictures are all out of order, but I was so confused with the collages of smaller pictures so just bare with me:)

Please check out The Mom Creative: Jessica Turner as she catches up on her project life album as well!

Spicy Chicken Mac and Cheese Yummy!

2011-11-20T21:33:00.004-05:00

Happy almost Monday everyone! I am pretty excited about this week because it's my favorite time of the year! First, we only work for two days, then we go outlet mall shopping on Wednesday, Thursday is my favorite Holiday Thanksgiving, and Thursday night and Friday morning is Chris and Brad's annual shopping days:) This year Jen and I are adding in a little extra traditional. On Thursday night we are going to bake our heads off! I am super excited about it too:)

Before we get started I had to share with your our new bar stools!! We love them especially Kendall who takes it upon herself to climb them to get to on top of the bar! Anyways I got a great deal on these bar stools. I got them at Kohls when they were buy 1 get 1 for a $1.00 and I had 20% off! I was super excited about that!

And here is one last look at my Turkey on my table. I have already taken him down and put him away. I got Christmas out this weekend but didn't put any of it up. However, I have no idea what I am going to put on my table, because we have never had a table quite like this to decorate! Pretty excited about that.

Alright on to my recipe! I don't think I have ever posted a recipe, but maybe I have I don't remember. Let me be honest here, we cook pretty much the same things in this house every week like spaghetti, chicken, pork chops, BBQ, and any other blah food you can think of, but this recipe is one that we love around here. It has become a weekly staple to our dinner menus. It is SO easy to make I promise and it is quite yummy! Everything you need is pictured above; cream of chicken, diced chicken, mac and cheese, and petite diced tomatoes one with chiles and one without. Before Kendall started eating our foods, I always did both with chiles because we like spicy around here. If you don't like spicy you could do no chiles.

First thing you do is cook your chicken in a pan. I always add olive oil for taste but that is just something I do when I cook meat on the stove. While your chicken is cooking prepare your mac and cheese as the box says or just like you make it normally.

Once your mac and cheese is finished cooking and your chicken is well cooked the way you like it, mix all ingredients into the chicken pan EXCEPT the bag of cheese.

I basically just pour everything top of the chicken and then stir it all up until it is well mixed. Once it is well mixed I smooth it out in the pan like the picture below.

Once you have smoothed it out let it cook until it starts to pop or look like it's boiling just so the new ingredients can get warm. Then pour the bag of cheese on top of it. Now, I have to say my pan is pretty big (don't know the measurements exactly but it isn't a normal size pan) so that's why I use the whole bag. You can use as much or as little cheese as you want, but we are cheese fans around here:)

After you add the cheese you cover the pan with a lid. I usually turn the stove down just a tad. Once your cheese has melted it's finished!

As you can see we were hungry tonight and we didn't even let the cheese melt all the way before we started eating it! I guess you could consider this a casserole. We didn't eat casseroles growing up so is this what ya'll would consider a casserole haha? I promise you will love this and it so super easy to make! Just give it a try:)

Another great thing about this recipe is it makes A LOT. We always have leftovers and we are not people that eat leftovers often. But, I think it is almost better the second time when you do warm it up! We never let Spicy Chicken Mac and Cheese go to waste!

While I was cooking I was also putting up our dishes and I just had to share another picture of my super organizer! I love this cabinet. It is no longer a pan to get a pot, pan or a lid out!

Hope you guys enjoy your weekend and please let me know if you plan to make this recipe or if you do try it:)

Linking up to Met Monday at Between Naps On the Porch and Amaze Me Monday

My Poor Sweet Baby:(

2011-11-18T21:56:00.001-05:00

I feel as if though this month has been a crazy and sick time for us. It seems like it started the week of my fall break. Kendall got a bad cold, then I got it and am just recently getting over it, and now my sweet girl has a virus and it makes me so sad for her:(

Yesterday, our sweet sitter called me at work, which totally flipped me out because she NEVER calls me. I just happened to be by my desk and saw that my phone was lighting up (As a school teacher I keep my phone silenced, but on my desk because we are required to take them with us during emergency drills) Anyways, she called to tell me that Kendall had thrown up, so I knew we had to get her immediately.

Well unfortunately one of the small downfalls to my job is I can't just up and leave. I have to find a sub and I was trying to do it quick. Unfortunately again there aren't many subs available and all the good subs are gone fast! So, to make a long story short because I am sure you are not interested in our situations haha, Chris got Kendall and I left around 10:30ish.

When I got to her she was perfectly fine. In fact we cleaned the basement, or I cleaned the basement and Kendall sat in her chair on the couch while I vacumned. Totally safe I know but she thought it was so funny and how could I take her away from it!

Last night she was perfectly fine other than being a little more thirsty than normal. So, my plan was to go back to work today and send her back to the sitters. Oh and I called the doctor who said what we had thought the drainage from her runny nose probably was just sitting on her stomach and when she drank her milk she threw it all up. TMI I know:)

SO, we wake up this morning, lay in bed for a little bit to watch Mickey, and then I went to get her dressed. When I pulled her jammies off she had a rash on the inside of her legs. It wasn't much but I knew it wasn't normal so I decided I should try to get a sub, take her to my moms until then, and let the sitter know that she wouldn't be coming back today.

Well, you heard my spill about subs and it wasn't possible to get one. So, I stayed at work until her doctor appointment at 2:00. A sweet, sweet instructional assistant covered my class while I went to the doctor with Kendall.

Let me remind you when I saw Kendall in the morning she only had the rash on the inside of her legs, a little on her back, and one in her scalp.

When I met my mom at the doctor I about died. She had the rash all over her ENTIRE body. I felt so bad for her and it scared me a bit too. She has NEVER had any type of rash. She does have very sensitive skin, but nothing like this has ever come up on her skin.

When we saw the doctor Kendall did an awesome job. She is usually so scared of the doctor and screams the entire time. When we first went back to weigh her she started to scream, but once they started to talk to her she was fine and I was so thankful for that:)

Turns out she has a virus that is a really long latin word that means red spots of different shapes. Never heard of it before? Yeah me either! But, I will take it. Kendall has had a virus before and I knew that the only thing really to do for one is to let it run it's course.

The doctor did give her a steriod to hopefully make the rash go away. It is a very small dosage of a steriod and she say it might not even work but we can try it. She doesn't seem to feel bad or be bothered by the rash, but we just feel so bad for the way she looks. The doctor also told us that it looks worse than it actually is.

Tonight we just hung out at home and had supper, watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and just hung out. You can really see the rash on Kendall's legs in this picture where she is eating her yogurt. My sweet little baby girl. I sure hate when she is sick and would much rather it be me than her:(

But, you can tell as she sticks her hand in her mouth to eat her yogurt because it isn't cool to use a spoon, that she looks just fine other than that rash!

Here is a close up of her leg. She has a band aid on for no other reason other than she loves to wear band aids. It's her own fashion statement I guess:) She is definitely her own little person and I love that about her.

As you can see we even let her have a little extra paci time because we feel so bad for her. I am sure I will be checking on her quite a bit throughout the night, but I sure hope when she wakes up we don't have as many sad little red marks as we do now!

Has your child ever had a rash related to a virus? The doctor said it could last 2-3 weeks and we are really hoping that isn't the case. He did say that she isn't contagious so that is a good thing.

Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend:)

Home Made Advent Calendar

2011-11-16T21:27:00.007-05:00

I am so EXCITED about the Holidays that are creeping upon us!! I can't tell you how stinkin' excited I am! I think what makes me so excited is how excited Chris is about Christmas as well. We already have a closet full of Christmas presents. Real life my friends:)

I have already started preparing and completing many projects that I plan to finish and create for the Holiday season. And I am so excited that we have plans to get our Holiday decorations out this weekend.

I just finished this advent calendar for Kendall as well and I love how it turned out:)

I bought the kit at Hobby Lobby and painted the boxes and added all the scrappy goodies to it! I think the kit cost me less than ten dollars after using a forty percent off coupon! Gotta love those coupons.

The hardest part was painting it. I think it took me about a week to paint, but I got it done and that's what matters:) It really wouldn't have taken that long, but I just did a few boxes a night after Kendall went to bed and didn't want to rush and mess anything up:)

I love these two boxes. I think they turned out really cute especially Christmas Day! I am not big on red and green Christmas things, but I know that is the theme of the season. I decided to go with pink, grey, red, and green! I just love the pink Christmas decorations and I already bought a few for Kendall's room. Of course we will have traditional colors throughout our house, but I just love the thought of my favorite color with my favorite Holiday!

This little snowman was too cute to not use. He is just a simple sticker and I really wish I could give the company that made him credit, but all I had was the sticker sheet and it had no information on it.

I covered the entire box with decoupage once I was finished. However, I didn't decoupage the inside of the actually calendar itself. I was afraid it would all stick together and didn't want to take those chances. So, I just did the boxes.

To create the numbers I used my cricut and the following carts: Pooh font, Alphalious (totally mispelled that!), and seasame street font.

And here is my confession: I totally bought this kit last Christmas and just got the chance to make it. Better late than ever huh? There were a lot of things I skipped out on last Christmas because I just didn't have the time to do it. Taking care of a baby is a full time job in itself and once Kendall went to bed at night I was done for the night as well. This year I have a lot more energy and am able to do more when Kendall is awake since she doesn't require me to do as much for her. I think she will even get to help with a few things this year as well.

I think Kendall will have a lot of fun getting a little special treat each day when we get home. I was wondering if you do advent calendars and what you put inside them? I was thinking a little bag of her favorite candies each day. I was trying to think of some small gifts I could put in there as well, but I really can't think of anything. Of course my mom did get her a few of these little Disney finger puppets that I could probably put in there that she would enjoy getting each day!

This is the back of the calendar. I was thinking about putting her initials on it, but thought against it. She may want to use it for her little girl one day when she gets older. Do I really want to think about that NO not really!! Chris said I wouldn't be able to use it for our other kids if I put her initials on it and I said he was crazy anyways because all of them will get their OWN calendar DUH:)

Here are a few other Holiday crafts and goodies that I plan on doing,

1. Erin at Sunny Side Up has the cutest Holiday ideas and last year she made M&M pretzel hugs and put them in the cutest tree containers. Well, I was so lucky to snag those containers at 90% off at Target last year after the Holidays. I can't wait to make those hugs and deliver them to our neighbors, family, and friendsQ!

2. December Daily. My album 2009 Two years ago I created my first December Daily. Of course I didn't get to do this last year either. I actually started it and had every single intention in completing it. Yeah that didn't happen so I am using what I started last year for my album this year and I am happy with how it is turning out! Can't wait to share it with ya'll

3. My best friend Jen and I are planning on having a cookie and baking day. We are going to make all kinds of yummy goodies to give out to people, because we just want to make them, but not actually eat them haha!

4. Enjoy the season with family and friends. This is definitly the most important of them all. It is so easy to get all caught up in all the things that need to be done. But in all reality nothing NEEDS to be done and the most important thing I NEED to do is spend the special times with my family and enjoy it.

What are your Holiday Plans? Anything special you plan to make or do?

Linking up to:

http://www.tipjunkie.com/

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/

Project Life Catch UP!

2011-11-15T06:30:00.002-05:00

Like the Jessica Turner I am also playing catch up on my project life. I took a lot more pictures this year with my Iphone than last. The problem is these pictures don't print in good quality at a 4X6 so I prefer to print them as 2X3. I was having a hard time figuring out how to do this, but I finally got it together!

To do this, I just used Picassa and created a collage with 4 pictures. I got these collages done the other night and I probably have about 20 more iphone pictures that I need to create collages with!

I love looking back at all the pictures that we have taken this year, but I already know that next year I have to make a goal of using my camera a lot more. I use my Iphone way too much, but it is just so convenient!

Kendall has been getting my project life binder off the coffee table at night to flip through it and I love that she has such an interest in looking at all of our pictures. Makes me smile a big smile!

Are you playing catch up with your Project Life? How much further do you have to go? My goal is to be finished with this binder by December 31st, so that I can start the new year. I have a lot of great ideas for my new book and some things I would like to try differently!!

If you are playing catch up then good luck!!

Build A Bear Fun!!

2011-11-13T21:52:00.000-05:00

Last night we took Kendall to build a bear! I thought it would be fun to let her build her own bear! She was so sweet with her bear, but wasn't quite sure she should step on the pump to fill her bear up:)

She was so sweet loving on that sweet little bear. We named him Oldie, because my little brother got a puppy and that is what Kendall has been calling him even though that isn't his name.

Hugging her bear to make sure he is the perfect size for her!

Kendall making her final decision on her bear. It was a tough decision ya know!

We had to wait just a little bit for the girl in front of us. But, Kendall was patient and had fun watching the girl make her bear:)

Kendall and Daddy gave Oldie a bath. Well, Daddy gave Oldie a bath, Kendall was a little scared of the bathtub (the air!)

Loving on her new friend Oldie. Oldie even got to sleep in bed with her last night along wtih Minnie:)

You see the face that Kendall is making? I think she is getting some more teeth, but she loves to rub her tongue on her teeth. It cracks me up too! It's so funny because you can see her little tongue going to town on those gums and teeth!

If you haven't been to build a bear before, when you go you make a wish on a heart and then put it in the bear. Well, Kendall didn't want her heart to go in the bear she wanted to keep it. She kept walking over to the container of hearts after we put hers in the bear and wanted to take the hearts. I should have just asked if we could just buy an extra heart haha!

Hope you guys have a great week:)

Random Monday

2011-11-08T20:05:00.002-05:00

Here are some exciting bullets for my Monday!

1. I got two packages of happy mail today! First, my Erin Condren planner! I have been super anxious and excited to get this in the mail and it FINALLY came!! I am so excited to start filling it with our life:)

2. My project life goodies came today!! I couldn't wait to start using these goodies and I did just that:)

3. Kendall got so many, many cards her first year and I was stocking them in a pile in my scraproom. Insert Becky's incredible pockets and there is no longer a pile of cards sitting in my scraproom:)

I have been working away on some Christmas Projects, one being my December Daily that ALi Edwards does every year!! I am loving this years album and can't wait to start filling it!!

Have a great Tuesday everyone:)

I'm Thankful for....

2011-11-07T21:26:00.003-05:00

Sometimes, I find myself doing a lot of complaining, whining, crying, and more complaining. I decided in the month of November I am going to write down something I am thankful for each day. I have been keeping track by posting it on Facebook everyday, but I also made a quick and easy book to write them in so I can keep them somewhere else as well.

I will be honest my intentions were for Chris to do this as well, but ....ahmmmm...I can't seem to get him to participate. That's OK I forgive him:)

I made this book using an American Crafts minialbum and a few little stickers that I had, plus some Thanksgiving paper I had as well. I didn't purchase anything. Even better because I have a ton of scrapbooking stash that I need to start using!

Anyways, I thought I would share with what I have been thankful for the first 7 days of November!

1st: Thankful for the yummy supper Chris cooked and snuggles from Kendall before bedtime.

2nd: Thankful that I am able to go to the doctor to get medicine that will hopefully make me feel better.

3rd: Today I am thankful for a sweet and healthy girl! I am so little that God chose me to be her mommy!

4th: Today I am thankful that Chris has gotten me a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard three times too many this week:)

5th: Today I am thankful that Chris let me sleep in this morning while he got up with Kendall even if he did let her eat marshmallows and cookies for breakfast:)

6th: That I am thankful for a mom that loves me like I'm still a baby. She would do anything for me no matter what! And I would do anything for her:) She's my best friend and I'm so grateful for her friendship. She treats Kendall just the same and would do anything for her as well! Love my mom:)

7: Today I am thankful for a best friend that will meet me at Target just cause:)

I think we should be thankful EVERY SINGLE day of the year. Ya know I have a lot to be thankful for. Way more to be thankful for than not, and sometimes I let the little things in life that really don't mean much at the end of the day get in the way of that!

So, What are you thankful for!?

Photobooks

2011-11-06T14:20:00.003-05:00

I've always been a big fan of photobooks. They are easy, fast, and fun. Not to mention they make for great memory keepers:)

I am still a traditional scrapbooker at heart and I love my Project Life, but I still find these photobooks to be a great way to also hold our memories.

And let's be honest here I probably have thousands upon thousands of pictures that need to be printed!

I wanted to share with you my new love for photobooks. The other night Kendall was looking at a photobook of her (3-6 months to be exact) and she was getting the biggest kick out of it. And I LOVED it.

She was pointing out everyone she knew and saw (mommy, daddy, Tripp, papaw, Jen, Memaw, Brad, Joe, etc...) It melted my heart.

It also brought my purpose of perserving these photos to life. Kendall will look at these for years to come as well her children and their children and well you get the point.

Our memories are important to us, but will also be important to generations to come.

So, I am rambling on, but my purpose of this post is remember the purpose behind perserving those memories, because I was sure reminded of it as this sweet girl looked through her books the other night:)

Happy Sunday everyone!

Stationery card

2011-11-05T15:05:00.001-04:00

Cool Cornucopia Fall Greeting

Shop Shutterfly for beautiful Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T16:49:00.001-04:00

Do you see that face that girl is making?? SO my child and I LOVE it!! For Halloween we went to my mom and dads for supper and then took Kendall to my Grandmas and a few houses in my mom's neighborhood.

She was so funny! She loved walking up to peoples homes. Couldn't be because she is just as or more nosier than her momma!!

Love this cute little scarecrow!

When we went to my Grandma's Kendall insisted that she come trick or treat with her. My grandma is taking care of my great grandma so she couldn't walk around with us, but she did go to one house with Kendall and Kendall loved it!

Kendall wanted to know what that was, but not enough to go up too close to it!

Big girl trick or treating all by herself:)

Kendall says come on to us all the time! She was walking like a big girl everywhere, but she got tired and was ready to go home and munch on some candy!

Hope ya'll enjoyed your Halloween.

And on another note I am still without my computer. My opinion is get a MacBook and toss the other:) But, what do I know?

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-24T21:00:00.001-04:00

I hope you enjoyed my Kitchen Remodel. I LOVE my new kitchen and the functionality of it! I am working on my photography skills, so I don't think my pictures really give you a good picture of what it really feels and looks like in my room! Anyways enough about that.

As I said I have been working on my photography skills, so when we went to the pumpkin patch on Friday I thought I would try to take a few shots that weren't on auto!! I know it's sad I have an amazing camera and I keep it on auto. I just haven't had a lot of practice without it outside of auto!

Another thing I tried to do is not take a single picture with the flash on! Enough about photography let's look at the pumpkin patch!

We had SO much fun at the pumpkin patch on Friday. Kendall has been a bit under the weather, but that hasn't kept us from enjoying fall break! I loved her little dress that I made her Wednesday night! I was suppose to make it last year, but time gets away haha!

Kendall loved the patch. As soon as we got off the wagon she took off! She was running all over the place picking up weeds, leaves, grass and even a pumpkin or two!! She didn't want to get back on the hayride she was having so much fun!

We got a good chunkle out of her trying to pick up pumpkins as big as her, but she never gave up trying haha! She's a mess that's for sure:)

One a little more her size, but still a little too heavy!

The perfect one!! The weather was also perfect for the patch. Look how blue the sky was:)

This picture is a little blurry, but I LOVE it!! Her face just shows every bit of this sassy girls attitude!! And boy does she have one ever:)

Just relaxing on all the pumpkins!

There was a big wagon of pumpkins at the restaurant so I threw Kendall up into them! She thought it was funny, but then wanted down!

I think I got some great shots of her at the pumpkin patch for sure. We had a good time and I am so glad Chris was able to take the day off and go with us!

Only downfall? It took us over 2 hours to get home. It should have taken us no more than 45 minutes, but one of the bridges on the river is currently closed and traffic is insane (the bridge connects Kentucky and Indiana) A lot of people commute from both sides of the river for work. I have no patience for traffic and would definitly have to get a new job if I was in this situation!

Hope your enjoying your week. And on a sidenote I am still without at computer:( Chris has been so kind to bring his work laptop home for me to work on at night, but hopefully we will get ours fixed soon and won't have to deal with this anymore!

Trick or Treat at the Zoo!

2011-10-23T15:32:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we took Kendall trick or treating at the zoo!! We had a lot of fun:) Kendall
especially had a lot of fun!

This year I decided to make Kendall's costume. I knew I wanted her to be a scarecrow and I couldn't pay the amount of money that the costumes were that I saw! I just couldn't stomach it haha especially when I could make something just as good!!

It cost literally 20.00 dollars or less to make her costume! All I had to purchase was straw, burlap, the shirt and a sunflower!

While walking through the zoo Kendall kept saying more, more after getting candy! She used her manners too and said thanks:)

I love her sitting on this barrell already going through her candy after just three stops. Doesn't take much to keep her happy!!

This picture is a little blurry but I love it! Such a cute picture of Kendall and Daddy!

She was more interested in looking at the pretty princesses than getting a picture with them!

I LOVE Wizard of Oz and wasn't going to miss the chance to get our picture taken with them! Kendall wasn't too sure of them though!

My sweet little scarecrow and I!! She was so funny, but when we got to the playplace that we usually play at she was a little upset because they had it closed! She got over it quickly when we got to more candy!

We had so much fun and I can't wait to take her trick or treating tomorrow!

Kitchen Remodel FINISHED!!

2011-10-23T14:57:00.003-04:00

OK, I am hoping you made it through THIS post and are now here to see the finished product! I really wanted to do this in one post, but it wouldn't let me because of all my pictures. So, here we are!!

So, remember I was telling you about that wall and the holes that it left. Well, here is the wall all mudded up and ready for us to sand and paint! I said we because I did this too you know?

And here is my floor completely finished. I think it looks really good next to our cabinets! I love the colors in it. I am pretty sure I have already said that, but I just wanted to make sure you knew how much I LOVE that floor.

And here is the dishwasher and the two new cabinets/drawers we added to our kitchen. One of the cabinets now stores our trash cans and I can't tell you how much I like this. The trashcans were in the hallway in the pantry. It was a pain plus we didn't really like the thought of the trash and the food together! This has worked out for us perfectly!

Just another picture of the wall missing and the new cabinets!

And a view from the "kitchen". I love all the space we made for ourselves. I must also mention that we decided to keep the bakers rack out in the family room. Another room that isn't often used, but is part of our house:) We thought it would be a better use of space if we were to move that rack out into the bigger room as you walk up the stairs. It's worked out really nice for us as well!

And here is the front of our cabinets. The one on the left has our trashcans and the one on the right has our pots, pans, and lids.

We now have two trash cans, which can be a pain, but hasn't been too bad so far. We knew one little can wouldn't be enough for all the trash we have everyday so we went with the two.

And here is that shelf organizer I was telling you about again. The bottom holds the pots and pans and the top holds the lids.

The lids all nicely organized!! Did I tell you how much I LOVE this drawer!! So so easy when cooking dinner at night!

And the FINISHED product!! We purchased our table at IKEA and we absolutely love it! So nice and roomy. We didn't know what to do the first night we ate supper on it. There was so much room and we weren't sitting on top of one another!! Even Kendall had plenty of room!!

The view from the "dining room" I love my new counter space. It's so nice to unload dishes here, to prepare meals here, and just have that extra space for other things. I can't tell you how much I LOVE my kitchen. It ALMOST makes me not want to ever move out of this house. Just Kidding we are slowly, but surely outgrowing our sweet little home. But, this update gave me a good few more years left in this home:)

And the bakers rack that no longer stores my crockpots and my salad bowls. I love how simple it looks with just a few fall decorations and other small items!

Just one more look at the counter so that you can see the corner round that Chris laid around the bottom of it. A little detail that made a big difference.

And here is your finall look at all the before and afters of this kitchen remodel. I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I am enjoying my space:) Have a great week!

Linking up to Between Naps on the Porch: Metamorphosis Monday

Kitchen Remodel The Start Picture HEAVY:)

2011-10-23T14:25:00.002-04:00

First, I have to say if you make through this post than you deserve a cookie:) And if you just want to look at my pictures really quickly I totally understand! But, my husband worked EXTREMELY hard on this project (that is an understatement!) and I don't want to miss a detail so here goes nothing!

Once upon a time we had a dining room that looked like this. I have lived in this house for almost 5 years and I can count on 1 hand how many times we have used this space. Such. A. Waste. The rooms in our house aren't very big, so as you can imagine wasted space in our home is not an option.

Not only was this wasted space, but the kitchen table was about to fall apart. It was a hand me down and all the chairs were near their end.

My mom got Chris and I this baker's rack for our first Christmas. I love it, but it quickly became a storage space for all the extras in our kitchen that we didn't have cabinet space for. And we didn't like that. Who wants to see your pots and pans out in the clear open?

Remember, this wall, OK, don't forget this wall!

So, this is my kitchen. The flooring was outdated and I couldn't tell you how old it was. I should say that this was a remodel that has been a long time coming. Chris previously did the backsplash and a new countertop. So, that part of the kitchen is updated along with the stove and the fridge.

What was I thinking when I thought this red-orange color would look so good in our kitchen? I don't know!!!

Here is the table in the kitchen. So little room that we actually had to push it up against that wall. Oh yeah that wall, you still remembering it? Well, that's the same wall so don't forget it OK? We also had to take out a chair so that we had a spot for Kendall to eat once she started using her highchair.

See, all those dishes? See, the three drawer cabinet? That USE to be a half dishwasher, that burned out long before Kendall came around. Meaning that for the past 2 years or so, I have been HAND washing all of my dishes, including every. single. bottle. I know it sounds a little foolish to say that, but have you ever thought how much time we waste washing dishes? Far too much time. We are all about saving time around here, because we don't have a lot of it with Chris and I both working full time outside of the home. When we get home from work, cook supper, and eat we are not interested in washing dishes! You get my drift?

This is a view from the hallway. Can you see how squished we were in this kitchen? Now imagine Chris, myself, and Kendall all walking and working around in this kitchen while trying to cook supper at the same time! Not easy:)

One more look at the wall. Don't forget it!!

Remember that wall I told you not to forget? Well, you can forget it now, because it's GONE! Chris tore that thing out of the house and I am sure he had a lot of fun doing it! We thought how can we make the most out of this space. The first thing we thought was tearing this wall down. It wasn't being used and we could think of a million different ways to utilize the room behind this wall if it was all connected to the kitchen. We also knew that we needed two kitchen tables no more. We don't sit at both of them so why would we need them? So, the remodel began!

After tearing that wall down, Chris moved to the floor. The floor definitely needed some updating and I knew I wanted tile laid. My dad does an amazing job of doing tile, so we asked if he would help Chris lay the tile. Of course he said yes!

One last view of the floor before it gets pretty!

And there it is! My new floor. I love it! I am really happy with the color tile we choose and I think it turned out great! See those wires hanging up from the floor. Guess what??? I am getting a dishwasher!! Thank the goodness!!!

A close up view of the floor without the grout. Isn't it pretty? I love neutrals and I couldn't imagine going with any other tile;)

And the view of the whole floor after Chris grouted. We went with a darker grout, because I knew it would get dirty if not!

And another view! I just can't tell you how excited I was at this point for the finish of our kitchen! We were living in a mess. But, we all know it takes a mess to get to clean!!

The first look at my new dishwasher!! I LOVE it and couldn't be happier with where we decided to place it in this room!

This is another one of my favorites! I love to keep things organized and what better way to do it with a rack that holds pots and pans! No more picking up the stack to get the biggest one off the bottome. It also holds lids at the top. So, we no longer dig through the drawers to find a lid either:)

Remember that wall? Well, of course it left a hole, so Chris had to drywall, mud, and sand the holes on the ceiling and the wall!

Because I have so many pictures to share I have to split it into two different posts!! I hope you have enjoyed part 1 of our remodel and will be back to see part 2!! I am going to post them both immediately because I don't like to wait and I am sure you don't want to wait either. And if you don't care just humor me:)

Computer Issues: AGAIN

2011-10-21T00:11:00.001-04:00

It seems that I have VERY bad luck with computers. We are experiencing issues once again. Hopefully we can get them fixed soon and I'll be back!

I have lots to share!!

One Kings Lane AND Erin Condren

2011-10-12T21:33:00.002-04:00

So I had heard of One Kings Lane, but never officially signed up for it UNTIL tonight!

I just happen upon a blog who shared the news that for $25.00 you could get a $50.00 egiftcard to ErinCondren.com.....WHAT....I have been drooling over her Planners for weeks, but just couldn't do it!!

But Guess What!!

I signed up HERE for One Kings Lane and I got a 15.00 credit! So, I got a $50.00 credit to ErinCondren.com for $10.00 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!

I sure can't and I am THRILLED!

I can't wait to get our pictures taken next week so I can find a good one to put on the cover of my new planner!!!

YES....this girl is excited and you should totally Sign UP here if you want a great deal as well:)

A baby bed for?

2011-10-09T14:34:00.001-04:00

Friday night Chris and I headed to Ohio to take a trip to IKEA. WE were on a mission to get a kitchen table and mission was accomplished!! I plan to share our kitchen makeover sometime this week and I promise you won't be disaapointed!!

Of course we found all kinds of cute things for Kendall including this baby bed....errr...I mean Kendall bed? Kendall refused to let her baby sleep in this bed! She insisted that it was for her and I was convinced she was going to fall through the thing! Luckliy for me she didn't:)

She even had Chris cover her up and give her paci so she could go night night! She is such a stinkin' mess I am telling you!!

All that sleeping made her a little thirsty! You see baby laying on the floor next to bed:(

Poor baby!!

Hope you guys had a great weekend!!

A Fall Day at the Park!

2011-10-03T22:10:00.002-04:00

Ok so that's not a fall day at the park, but I had to share first that Kendall has decided that she needs Minnie to sleep with her every night. I went in to check on her the other night and I found her laying like this fast asleep. Of course my first thought was hurry get a picture:) Poor child doesn't have a chance away from a camera!!

Tonight after we ate we decided to walk to the park that is about a mile away from our home! Kendall had so much fun and didn't want to leave!

I know that nights like this are getting limited, so we better enjoy them as much as we can. In two weeks it will probably be 30 and snowing around here ha!

Kendall thought she was such a big girl at the park tonight and didn't wany ANY help with climbing on anything.

I finally convinced her that she might need just a little help getting up the rock wall:)

She loves going down the slides and says weeeee the whole way down! We don't even go down with her anymore she does it all by herself!

She's getting so big!

I know it's true, what everyone says:

Don't Blink because just like that she will be grown!

Happy Monday and have a great week:)

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-28T21:44:00.000-04:00

I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY can NOT wait to share with you every single Before/After Picture of this remodel. You won't believe your eyes! It's taking everything that I have to not do it now, but I want it to be COMPLETELY finished, new table and all:) Two more weeks and the reveal begins!!!!

Polka Dots and Halloween!

2011-09-25T21:27:00.002-04:00

I love a little change that makes such a big difference don't you?

I knew as soon as we got pregnant that I wanted to have our child's name on their wall in some way. Just loved the idea. With our second I will probably do a monogram of some sort! I just like that identification on EVERYTHING!!

I also knew as soon as we found out it was a girl that I wanted this bedding from Pottery Barn Kids. I don't think they even sell it anymore or I would have linked to it!

Well we talked about doing polka dots around her name, but then she came and we just never got to it until this weekend!!

I was at Target the other day and I found these on sale! I couldn't believe it they matched her bedding perfectly, so I bought them and ended up using them all for this:

I adore how it turned out. The colors of the polka dots match her bedding perfectly! You may remember, or not, that her rug is a perfect match of polka dots also from Target. I have heard that Target tries to match a few things here and there to other places, or it could have been just by luck. Either way I don't care because both the rug and the wall decals worked out perfect!!

I also added a few cute Halloween decorations to Kendall's room this weekend! I love how this little shelf turned out so sweet!

I love this time of year because I love to add new Holiday decorations to our home!

Enjoy your week:)

Linking up to Metamorphosis Monday with Between Naps On the Porch

Wordless Wednesday: My Kitchen Last Week!

2011-09-21T19:52:00.000-04:00

Mickey on Ice

2011-09-19T19:29:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday we got to take Kendall to see Mickey on Ice. I for one was super excited and couldn't wait!! Kendall was excited she just didn't know it yet!!

Last week I made her this cute little tutu and wanted to get some pictures of her before we headed out to the show!! She is such a booger and was so not interested in me taking her picture!! Oh well I got a few good ones.

It was a beautiful day here Saturday and it was perfect to go downtown! Not too hot and not too cold:)

These are my favorite of the pictures that I snapped before we left!

It was bed time and Kendall refused to look at the camera for Daddy to take a picture of us!! That's alright I still love this sweet picture!

I had to take this picture so ya'll could see how long her hair is getting! It's so cute. We have been trimming it every few weeks and it's getting so long! I love it:)

Well, Mickey on Ice was more like Mickey saying hi and introducing Lion King, Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, and Peter Pan! But, it was the cutest thing ever, plus Lion King and Little Mermaid are my two favorite Disney movies!!

This was the end of the Little Mermaid scene and it was so pretty!!

And this sweet girl was in awe almost the entire show!! I thought for sure we would have to get up and leave because she wouldn't make it through the show, but I was so wrong she loved every bit of it and was so funny clapping, dancing and laughing at the doggy from Peter Pan!

In March Disney Princess on Ice is coming to Louisville and we will SO be there!!!

A Twist on Chocloate Chip Cookies

2011-09-18T21:06:00.005-04:00

First I must say I can take NO credit for these cookies that you are about to grow 2 inches in the waist by just reading about! I found the recipe for this on the ever most famous PINTEREST. I am so addicted to that place it's scary, but I have made several things that I have pinned so I am very proud of myself:)

OK so who doesn't love a great Chocolate Chip cookie AND who doesn't love a great Double Stuffed Oreo???? Well, why not combine the both and create this.....

The BEST cookie you will probably ever put in your mouth! I. Am. Not. Kidding.

I made them last night for a football party and everyone there was talking about them!

First, let me be really honest with you, they are extremely time consuming and a pain to make, but so worth it:) It takes a lot of flour on your hands to form the cookie around the oreo because the dough is a bit sticky!

I also have to say that I have stocked away the chocolate chip recipe in my favorite recipes because they were by far the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. i made a batch of just the cookies themselves! YUM YUM!

And not just because I made them. Chris is very critical about the food I make and he loved them!

You see that Oreo baking in the middle!! YUMMY!!

So, the next time you want a chocolate chip cookie, you must try this recipe and stick in oreo in it as well!! SO YUMMY:)

Linking up to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

AND......

And if you can't get to the link through Pinterest go HERE for the yummy cholcolate chip recipe.

Go CARDS!!

2011-09-17T10:18:00.003-04:00

Today is the big game against the Cats and Kendall says, "No sleeping on the field today Cards you better get them Cats!!!!"

We are taking Kendall to see Mickey and Minnie on ice before the game this afternoon and we think it's no Coincidence that Minnie and Mickeys favorite colors are red and black!!! And that we will just happen to be at the YUM center:)

I love looking at old pictures of Kendall from this time last year!! makes me smile everyday:)

Have a great Saturday and......

C.A.R.D.S Go Cards Go!!!!!!