Family

Family
You MUST Chase Your Dreams, For Your Dreams Will Not Chase You

Monday, January 30, 2012

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...:)

Friday, January 27, 2012

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!"




Thursday, January 26, 2012

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 :).

Thursday, January 19, 2012

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 :).

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

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 :)









Monday, January 16, 2012

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!



Thursday, January 12, 2012

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 :).


Wednesday, January 11, 2012

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!