Just Because

Some photos of the kids because I happen to think they are cute. ☺

 Britton likes the play kitchen too!

 A few months ago, I was actually thinking I wanted to get a play kitchen for the kids  and I had been looking around and choking at the prices. Then I get an email from Kiera asking if I wanted Jordynne's play kitchen that she had grown out of, and I replied "heck yes!"  So that is where this kitchen set came from. Thanks Kiera and Jordy!
The kids have loved it. (Mine and some extras that come over to play) ☺

 Tough cop.

He looks rather intimidating, no?

 Oh, Aidan. He made up this contraption and then was blowing bubbles in the cup.

 I don't know.

 One of the projects I've been wanting to do for forever (Pinterest inspired). I've been needing a place to put all of Ella's hair clips and bows. Looks like I have room for some more! ☺

How many winter sunsets can you really take a picture of? I keep asking myself that question, but I keep taking pictures. Today was just gorgeous, feeling a little too much like Spring and confusing Grandpa Bob. ☺
One of my goals is to actually get some sunrise photos since I now have a bunch of the West side of our valley, but not very many of the East side.
You realize what's required of Sunrise pictures though, right?
Exactly.

Living Room - Before and After

I've been wanting to do before's and after's for all the rooms in our house, but I've been waiting to take pictures of the house now until after I'm done decorating. Well, apparently that will be never so I've just got to move on. This house is small, barely 1000 sq ft, so the goal was to make it feel bigger, bright and airy.

First up is the living room.

This is how it looked when we started.

During

 After - The obvious changes being that we moved the window over and made it larger. We moved the door off the far wall.

 Can't remember the name of the paint in here. It's a light gray/ blue and I love it, but it is very subtle. (as are most of the paint colors in this house.) ☺ Update: The paint color is Reflecting Pool by Behr.

 Still haven't figured out what to do on this wall. I kind of like the idea of a picture wall, but I'm worried that would make this whole room feel cluttery. Suggestions?

 A different angle of the wall.

I like mirrors and what they do for a room, but I already have a big mirror over the couch. (although, I'm open to moving it, just don't tell Cary I said that!) ☺ So what to do, what to do?

Pathetic!

The other night the kids were on the ipods, Ken and I were on our laptops, and Cary was on the PC. He said we were pathetic and took a picture. :D

Getting Out

So, our weather has been cold and breezy, if it's not going to give us moisture it should have the decency to make it enjoyable outside. The other day  Cary was working out of town, the kids didn't have school that day, and it was the witching hours of the afternoon, the kids were driving me insane. (INSANE!!) Mom is gone to California, so we couldn't go bug her which is what we usually do since she feeds us popcorn AND we get out of the house. ;)

I decided we were going to bundle up and go for a walk since that sounded infinitely better than the crazy town they were driving me to. ☺ The pictures are deceiving and I think the high that day was like 30 degrees with a breeze. I'm still logistically trying to figure out how to take 3 kids on a walk...sometimes I pile them all in the wagon, but with as cold as it was, I thought Britton would be warmer in the Bjorn and I was wearing one of Cary's jackets to try and cover us both.

Needless to say, I think we made it about 10 minutes before we all thought we were going to freeze to death. Britton wasn't a fan of being attached to me and he started crying and cried all the way home after we turned around to go back.

Walking and getting out of the house FAIL.

I'm not sure how we're going to survive the rest of winter...

Don't we look like we're having fun? ☺

 This is how I found these two.

 Their lastest thing is to get on our bed, throw all the pillows off and then play under the blankets. Considering that making my bed is the ONE job that I actually get done around here, it doesn't make me that happy. LOL.

It's hard to stay mad though when the troublemakers are this cute!

Story Time

 Britton wants to join in at story time too.

 Ella's hair tickling Cary's nose. ☺

Bugging the sister already too.

Photography

As if my life isn't well documented already, I resolved to be part of a 365 challenge/ Blessing book challenge.

Sometimes I need to break out of my photo ruts and that's why I thought it would be fun to be part of the 365 challenge, which is taking one photo everyday, and try and make it interesting. The Blessing book challenge is to take a picture of a "blessing" and aim for posting atleast one a week with a caption. I figure this is kind of what I do anyway, so I'm trying to combine both in a way, and I've already kind of failed. LOL. ☺

So maybe it'll just be my original blogging, but hopefully I won't fall off the wagon this year.

 1. Mom's kitty, Ahava, comes over and hangs out in our yard a lot. It took me a while to figure out that we had a gopher that was working it's way all across our yard and that's why Ahava was so intriqued, well, that and I think she likes the kids. The other morning I looked out my kitchen window and I could see the gopher digging another hole and it's head would pop up while it was pushing dirt into a mound. I mentioned it to our neighbor, Brad, and he brought a trap over to get rid of the gopher and so here is Ahava watching the trap. (The gopher has been gotten rid of and I was feeling kind of bad about it...I am my mother's daughter.) ☺

2. Britty (yes, we call the poor kid "Britty", I'm sure it will be one of those nicknames that dies out when he's older) has been sick for 3 weeks now, and this last week he has been SO clingy to me (and only me!) and it's been really hard to get anything done. I'm not really into the whole "wearing" my child, but in cases of desperation, you do what you have to do. Otherwise, I had a very pitiful little boy following me around crying in a trail of drool and tears so then I'd have to pick him up and go cuddle on the couch all day. He's so cute.

(No, I still haven't hemmed my curtains there in the background.)

 3. I've done zero decorating in this house. For one, I really hate the idea of poking holes in a freshly painted wall, and I want all new stuff. ☺So it kind of feels like I don't have anything worthy of poking holes into the wall yet. Heh. I've really been wanting to make something to hold all of my jewelry though, so I grabbed an old mirror that I wasn't going to be using, screwed some hooks in the bottom, popped a plastic grid thing in the front, hung it up, and viola'. I've only been wanting to do that for a year now...

 4. Britton eating a snack. Even when he's sick he's a happy boy, as long as someone is paying attention to him. As usual, I get carried away taking pics of the kids.

Wow! This is my 700th post too!

My Kids...

Ella gets her great fashion sense from me...



"Mom, take a picture of me!"
The favorite new phrase around here.



"Take a picture of my cool trick of a foot in the air."

No children were harmed in the making of this photo.

Awww...I love these guys! ♥

By the way, Aidan came home from somewhere with that book, so if it's yours and you'd like it back, let me know! ☺