The Pretender

So Lilly has always loved to play pretend

and she is very good at creating her own

very detailed worlds

and she is usually (always)

very adamant that we all participate

She likes to be the leader

and (sometimes not so nicely)

tell us all what we should be doing

in her pretend world

She can be very bossy

sometimes manipulative (in a 4 year old way)

Oh Nolee you don't want to just give me that

toy you are playing with...well look at this pretty block.

It's sooo much more fun to play with than the toy you have right now.

Do you want to trade?

and STUBBORN

and again we have no idea where she gets these traits

(and yes I can see my husband roll his eyes at this)

but we love our little bossy Lilly & all that she is

and love all the laughs she gives us

and boy did she give us a good one yesterday

So we went to church yesterday

We have not been to church in a looong time

but are trying to get better at that

and I know this is a sad excuse

but we have our reasons (and questions)

and wow that could be an entirely different, very long post

Anyway after church

we went over to my parent's

and I overheard Lilly, Nolee & Logan playing downstairs

and in true & typical Lilly fashion

I hear her say "Okay now this is what we are going to play"

I started to walk away thinking nothing of it

until I heard what came next...
Lilly:  "I am God and you two have to do what I say"

Obviously we have to do a better job of explaining things...:)

Oscar

I came across this picture recently and I just had to smile

(it's from a couple years ago)

I know it's very weird to take a picture of my daughter

in a public restroom but I had to

Lilly saw this trash can in a local park's bathroom

and immediately turned to me excitedly and said

"Look mom, it's Oscar the Grouch's house!"



The Human Body

So one of our nightly routines are the books before bed

One of Lilly's favorites is The Human Body book

It's a nice book that goes over everything

in very understandable (kid friendly)terms

it explains how we have different color hair, eyes, & skin

it shows pictures of your muscles, bones & organs

(but not in a graphic way)

It also talks about (& includes pictures)

of the different stages of pregnancy

as in what the baby looks like at 1 month, 2 months, etc.

Scott read this book to Lilly the night before

my sister-in-law's baby shower

and I'm not sure if they got into a detailed discussion

on when the baby is ready to come out

but this is what Lilly told Brit at the shower

Lilly:  "Did you know that soon baby G will be head down

and ready to come out, cuz when the baby is head down

that's how you know they are ready to come out."

Brit:  (laughing & looking at me) "What do you guys teach her?!?"

It just goes to show that a 4 year old absorbs everything...

in a very literal manner :).

The Lighter & Brighter Kitchen!

So we have been working like crazy here

I've been wanting to re-decorate our kitchen for some time

and I've been pinning inspiration ideas like crazy

Side note - one of the things that I may love the most about pinterest

is the fact that I now can basically show Scott the ideas in my head

instead of spending hours trying to explain it while he

just looks at me like I am crazy

(or gives up and just nods his head)

So after much heated discussion we opted

to NOT paint the cabinets

Scott likes them just they way they are

(I would like them white...)

and since we were re-decorating a kitchen

"that looks perfectly fine as is"  (Scott's words)

and my wonderful husband is helping me

I figured I better pick my battles

Plus he does have a good point...

they are not builder's grade.

They are very nice...and it's a TON of work

and after painting the kitchen, living room, back splash, chalkboard wall

I am done

So anyway we re-painted

put up a bead board back splash (LOVE)

and I did get my chalkboard wall

Which Lilly has now claimed as hers...

as in I'm not allowed to draw past a certain point

So here is what we started with

Not bad...but a bit dark

So here is what it looks like today

(well only after I cleaned off all the counterops

...it is never really this clean)

Ohh do you see my new rug by the sink

I have never spent $40 on a rug (remember I am cheap)

but that thing is like heaven under my feet while doing dishes

Even Scott was impressed and didn't even blink at the price tag

Still gotta change out that nasty ceiling light 

 I had just enough fabric left over from re-covering the chairs

to do a curtain for the window - yaaa!

We replaced the annoying vertical blinds

that keep out pretty much no light, don't run on the track smoothly

and basically just tick me off most days

with Lenda curtains from IKEA

You can see Scott's under mounted lights in this picture

This was totally his favorite part

I do have to admit I like them a lot too

And here is our Lilly's chalkboard wall 

I still have decorations to put back up,

gotta get to that ceiling light,

would love a new sink,

and some cool vintage metal bar stools

but all of that can wait

I love that I now have a brighter, lighter more cheery kitchen :)

The bead board adds just enough white to make this girl happy

and I'm so happy I have a husband who is willing to go along

with my crazy ideas :).

The Nugget

One of Nolee's habits

is keeping me company while I get ready in the morning

So the other day I grabbed the camera

& took some pics of the cutie :).

This kid LOVES her milk

she will get up in the morning and down a whole sippy cup

without coming up for air

The other day she did it and semi-crushed the plastic

cup with her hand when she was done

like she was at a frat party or something...

we are sooo in trouble with her :)



Nana's Closets

We go over to my parent's house every Sunday

we all hang out

my siblings, my parents & our kids

It's a very nice way to end the weekend

and it's great to see all the kids playing together

It's also fun to go through my old toy boxes

and play with all the old toys

it just brings back floods of memories

and it's fun to tell my kids what I did when I was little

We went through my mom's storage closet downstairs

on a recent Sunday and found my sisters

old dance costumes

Of course I just had to put them on the girls

and then have the girls parade around

and dance and just be goofy

This one was a little shy to begin with

Until she got a look at herself in the mirror :)

These could so be used for some hilarious Halloween costumes

Lilly kind of looks like Gumby

and as soon as Nolee put her's on all I could think

of was Nacho Libre!



Pillow Mountains

This weekend we were all relaxing & watching a movie

and I actually had a seat to myself (very rare)

until the girls did this to me

That is ALL the pillows in the house piled on top of me

They even got their pillow pets in there

Of course after that great fun

we piled all the pillows in the middle of the living room

And practiced our running & jumping

Even Uncle Grant got in on the fun

Then there was hide & seek in the pillow mountain

I love lazy afternoons like this

Now if we would have only flipped the couch over

and made a fort out of it I would have felt 5 all over again :).



A Day for Us

I have been wanting to go to IKEA for some time now

I have never been (I know!) and I've just heard it's amazing

So one of our vacation days got earmarked for just this!

We dropped the girls off at daycare

drove the 2 1/2 hours to THE store

and then walked around in awe for 3 hours

We have SO many ideas now

and I think Scott completely planned out his man cave in his head

I'm already itching to go back :)

I love these industrial lights

Scott thought this would be cool against the back wall downstairs

and I'm loving all the books, games, etc we coudl store in there!

I was digging this storage/computer wall unit  

The littlest things were so neat

like this under the counter mounted rod

This is Scott's ultimate man cave look

all walls covered in book cases

so maybe it would be more of a library than man cave

but I LOVE the idea!

Is this not the cutest little baby chair?

I thought it would be perfect for my parent's cottage

and it completely folds up!

If I had more wall space in my kitchen

I would definitely be trying this idea out

This is the coolest wine bottle holder I've ever seen

and I am still kicking myself for not picking one up at $10 a pop!

This is THE sink

as in my dream sink, and it will someday be in my house

and I will love it and cherish it and do dishes at it happily ever after

These nightlights were the neatest things

We picked up the flower one for the girl's room

although now I wish we would have gotten the moon one

for Nolee's room

She is obsessed with the moon

We did get a few things for the house...

I got this new rug for the kitchen

I recovered the dining chairs with this fabric

which is not from IKEA

it was actually a Target shower curtain

1 shower curtain did all 6 chairs with material left over

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pattern and the fact it was only $20

And this little dodad was the reason we made the trip in the first place

I love that we now have more room to hang all the girl's master pieces!

We actually got 2 of them

but we (I) have big plans for the kitchen/living room

painting the entire room(s), chalkboard wall, backsplash

maybe new countertops, maybe painting cabinets...we are

still in the discussion (convincing Scott) phase right now

so we are holding off on putting the second one up

My brother & sister-in-law may be headed there soon

as they plan on doing some renovating themselves

and I'm already starting my list to send with them!