Is It Really January?

First off, I can't believe the month of January has come and gone. It flew by! I think part of the reason if flew by is that the weather has been amazing! We have had several days when it got close to 70 degrees. Yes 70 degrees in January! So crazy compared to last year when it snowed just about every week and it was so bitterly cold. It has been a rainy January but we have also had some really beautiful days so I won't complain. The last few days have just been gorgeous and we have spent tons of time outside enjoying it!

Sunday afternoon we went up to the lake in our neighborhood to feed the ducks. The kids had so much fun.
Ok so they really aren't ducks but are geese. They are actually really nasty. And very annoying. They stand in the middle of the road entering our neighborhood and we have to wait on them alot.

Kate just loved it! She threw them bread and said "I love you duck." She just squealed and had the best time.

She also wanted to eat the nasty old bread that had been in the freezer for 6 months.

The water in the lake is so high due to all the rain. It was right up at the pier level. I was so nervous Kate was going to fall in the water. I love this picture! Ben has having so much fun running on the pier.

We had a blast just running around playing chase and duck, duck, goose!

I love getting to spend time with my family outside. I've got more pictures over the next few days to show you of more fun we have been having.

New Stuff Around the House

Over the weekend we did a few things around the house that I just have to share...

I am so excited that the breakfast room is finally finished!! It has been about a year long process but it is finally done! And I LOVE how it turned out. I am so excited to finally have a fun breakfast room with lots of color. We painted 3 of the walls a very neutral cream color (Navajo White - Sherwin Williams) and then painted an accent wall a super fun apple green (Sassy Green - Sherwin Williams).
I have been struggling for several months with what to put on the wall. I saw this clock on HGTV and knew that it would be great for the space. I bought it on etsy and am so happy with it! It is fun and spunky. It completes the room.

My mom and I designed the curtain and she sewed it. It turned out so pretty!

My favorite part is the fun fringe!

I painted the bench at the table the same color as the wall. My grandfather made this bench in the 1950's. My mom and her siblings sat on it. Then my brother and I sat on it. Now my sweet kiddos get to sit on it. It makes it very special.

I am still loving my redone hutch (thanks Katy)!

So glad to have the breakfast room done so we can enjoy it!

I also did a simple update in our bedroom. I have never liked the pictures over our bed so I did some rearranging. I moved all the wedding pictures to one side.

And added some pictures of the kids on the other side. I have had this canvas of Ben since his 2 year portraits and never put it up. I just ordered a large canvas of the kids from Easter. I got it on sale at Winkflash and it turned out great! I have a spot for Kate's 2 year portrait (when I get it done). It is great to have some fun new pictures up!

Wonderful Weekend

It has been another great weekend around here (sorry I say that each weekend don't I). Really it was great! Friday night Matt let me have a girls night out with some friends. It was wonderful to just get to visit with 2 of my favorite people! We talked for hours and closed down Chilis. It was so much fun!

Saturday we got to have lunch with our friends Kyle and Candace who moved a couple of years ago. It is always great to catch up with them when they are in town. Other than Ben's crazy vomiting episode at lunch it was wonderful.

My sweet hubby gave me a new camera lens on Saturday. I LOVE it and am so excited to have it. I went on a photo shoot with my photography group on Saturday afternoon. It was fun to get to play around with the lens. We enjoyed a quiet night at home on Saturday.

Today was church activities this morning and then we enjoyed some time outside this afternoon. The weather was just beautiful! I was able to get these 2 great pictures of the kids with my new lens.

We are excited for a new week to start!

The Best Sounds

Each afternoon when we get home from school, Kate goes down for a nap and Ben has "quiet time." I love this time (not just because I get some quiet time myself) because I love listening to Ben play in his room. He has the biggest and best imagination. The noises he makes as his plays always make me smile. There are full on battles between army men and Batman or sword fights with knights. It is so cute! The battle scenes are always so intricate and make me laugh...

I just love this little guy and his amazing imagination!

Organizing Part 1

My big goal for 2012 is to get our house organized. We have way to much stuff and it needs to go! I have gotten started working on getting things in order. I will do updates periodically to show you what all I have been doing.

First up was our room and the trunk that held all my old magazines. I have to admit that I am a bit of a magazine hoarder. I think I have kept every magazine that we got since we got married. I had hundreds of magazines. When I was looking at the magazines it was like a time capsule with all of our different addresses on the labels. I figured it was time to get rid of them. I totally cleaned out the trunk...
There were just piles and piles of magazines. We took them all to the recycling center and I vowed to not recollect them. I am going to recycle my magazines every couple of months. I then cleaned out under the bed and took all the books that were there and put them in the trunk. Much easier for us to get to.

I then cleaned out the armoire in our room that contains our photo albums and photos. I organized them and cleaned out. Looks much better and more organized.

My spice shelf was a mess! I could never find what I needed. Plus I had spices that were like 5 years old. I cleaned them out and got rid of duplicates. It was pretty easy to organize with a spice shelf that worked great. Hopefully I will be able to find what I need much better.

I also tackled the medicine cabinet. I got little baskets and organized them into kid meds, adult meds and bandaids. I made fun little tags for the baskets. It is working great and there is not more hunting for that perfect med.

One area that was a total mess was under our bathroom sinks. There was just stuff piled everywhere. I cleaned out tons of used bottles of lotions and stuff. I threw away like 4 bags of stuff. I organized everything and placed them in big baskets to keep them from getting into a big jumble. It worked amazing. I love how it turned out and it makes things so easy to find.

Ok so I think I am off to a good start. It feels to good to get things into better order. I am also making huge piles of things to sell in the spring garage sale which means money!

Playing Around

The weather the last few days has just been gorgeous. We have had an unseasonably warm winter so far but it sure has been rainy. I mean days and days of rain. But the last couple of days have been nice and sunny with temps in the 60's. Beautiful! We have enjoyed lots of time outside.

Today some of the ladies from my photography class met to play around with our cameras. We let the kids play and worked on taking photos. The kids had fun playing. I am still working on the photos but here is what I got. These were all shot in manual which is a big deal for me! I struggle with the lighting but I know the more I practice it will get better.

I am hoping the nice weather sticks around for a few more days.

Kate's First Black Eye

I like to call Kate our little monkey. She is a crazy girl who loves to climb and do crazy things! It has so surprised me that we have not had any major accidents before last night! She took a tumble off the chair into the corner of our sofa table. Caught her right in the eye.

It puffed right up and turned blue. Nasty looking!

Ben got his first black eye at 12 months so Kate more than doubled him.

Kate has also started this funny thing that she says. I guess it is the age and being super possessive. She grabs anything and very meanly says "mine" all while glaring at you. It makes me laugh. It is usually over things that no one else even wants. Like her apple slice - "my apple" with a mean glare. Believe me baby I don't want your apple! Here she was saying "my cup."

My favorite was the other day when Matt waved at someone he knew and Kate grabbed his leg and said "my dad." All glaring and being mean! Too funny because no one was going to take her daddy.

Love this sweet little girl - black eye and all!

My Kind of Saturday

Today has been a yucky, rainy kind of day but we have made the best of it and had a great day. We called it our Disney marathon movie day. We started by working a new Disney puzzle. Then we started watching movies. We have watched 3 so far. The kids are loving it!We even played the Disney Scene It trivia game we got for Christmas. It was lots of fun. Matt and Ben beat Kate and I 3 times in a row!

It hasn't been all play. Matt and I have been doing some organizing of closets and cabinets. Matt found this scary looking old coat. I think he looks sort of creepy...

It has been a great day so far. Just how I like to spend them with my 3 favorite people! We might venture out later for some errands and dinner. We will see. We might just watch more movies.

Our Love Story in Black and White

I was working on another organizing project today and I came across a box of letters from the love of my life. Matt and I met when we were 14 and 16 years old. Our relationship started by passing notes in the halls of high school. I will never forget that day when he handed me a note. I liked him so much but I didn't know what he thought about me. Although the note was really about nothing more than school and band, it was the beginning of something great!

I have an entire rubbermaid box full of notes and cards like this. Through these notes you can see our relationship grow from friends to dating to love. Now looking at our life together - married, 2 kids and so much more - I just can't believe it. It really is something special. I often say the way our story played out is maybe not how I would have scripted it. I mean who really wants to meet the love of their life when they are 14 but God had a bigger and better plan than I could have ever imagined and I would not change a thing!

Matt is an amazing writer and some of the thoughts and things he wrote down still blow me away today. I don't know what exactly to do with all of them but I do know I will keep them forever. That is a big deal for this girl who gets rid of everything! I guess one day Ben and Kate will look through them and I hope it will provide them a legacy of our love.

Also in the box were some really bad 90's pictures of us. Really sometimes I wonder how we were ever that dorky!