Crystal's Thirty-One Party Giveaway!

This is the only way I could think of to post it. Hope you all don't mind!! It's a great giveaway! I hope you all can make it to Crystal's Party on Thursday!!

Here it is! The Giveaway!! Included is:
Thirty-One Mini Organizer in Minty Chip
1 Liter Big Sexy Hair Volumizing Shampoo
1 Liter Big Sexy Hair Volumizing Conditioner
1 10 oz Paul Mitchell Baby Don't Cry Shampoo
1 OPI Nail polish in "A-Rose At Dawn, Broke By Noon"
1 Nail Buffer
This is a $75 Value!!

Here's how to get your chance at it:
Show up = 1 ticket
Show up & bring a friend = 2 tickets
Show up & book a party = 3 tickets
Show up, bring a friend, & book a party = 4 tickets
Bonus tickets will be given out during the party too! Turn all of your tickets in for a drawing at the end of the night! Good luck!!

Boys' Bedroom Pictures - Rough Draft

I'm calling this a Rough Draft because the boys' room is not done. Once we get rid of the crib, the bed will move to that wall and we'll hang pictures and shelves. I already promised Caleb a shelf and book lamp for his top bunk so he can read when Ben is sleeping.

Oh, pictures. Right.

Let me take a moment to show you how far this room has come. It has seen a lot of changes since we moved in two years ago. First, it was the room of a clown who obviously died a very violent death.

Then, it was Anna's room. This color matched a color in her crib bedding. I thought it was going to be a touch of girly. It was a truckload of girly with a side of Pepto Bismol. I wish I had a picture of the room with all her furniture in it. It was actually pretty cute. This picture is before we moved in.







And, now. Caleb's desk and Ben's crib. I only had to take a sock and a book off of Caleb's desk - he's kept it relatively neat since moving rooms. Of course, his chair is usually a catch-all for clothes but today it was cleaned off. Lucky me.










This is the black-out curtained window, nightstand and bunkbed. Excuse the mess on the bottom bunk (and top for that matter, bed-making is on Caleb's chore list). It's a playground for the kids right now. Even though the two little ones aren't allowed on the top bunk, I've experience a couple of heart-dropping minutes when I've walked in the room to Ben sitting up there. The downside of having a bunkbed - worrying about your little kids falling and breaking something. Oh, and that half-naked little guy just got done with some greek yogurt. He was so messy with it, the shirt had to come off.

Some of Caleb's books. His favorite right now are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Although, his aunt and uncle just got him some Goosebumps books that he's loving, too. 

We really thought the dresser and all the boys' clothes would fit well into this closet. Hm. Looks like we'll need a couple of shorter dressers that can go underneath the clothes. Don't look too closely at the clothes. I realized earlier that Caleb doesn't necessarily turn shirts right side out before hanging them up. Oh, brother.

And there it is. Nothing in this room will be going on Pinterest, but it is what it is for now. :) Next up is Anna's room. We just need one more coat of paint on some of the walls, but of course we ran out. I'm itching to get to work on her room. 

Hopefully I will be posting sooner rather than later... 

Good Intentions Wasted...Again...

Oh, hi. Yeah I said I'd keep up with this blogging and I haven't. Surprised? If you know me, you shouldn't be. I have good reasons. Well, to me they're good reasons but I think you would just call it laziness. I have that right, right? After herding 3 kids all day, I'm tired and all I want to do is cuddle up with my fantastic husband on the couch and watch TV or play Scramble on our tablet. See? Lazy.

By the way, I changed the name of this blog, if you couldn't tell. What do you think?

I have actually been pretty busy at work, which I am very excited about. A little advice: Give your hairstylist some love. For whatever reason, if you can't/don't want to go in and see her every 6-8 weeks, shoot her an email. Tell her that you are still her client and still love her work and have every intention of seeing her again. If for nothing else but to stroke her ego. She needs it sometimes. I will admit that during slow times (ahem, the last 2 years), when I saw tumbleweeds occasionally drift across my appointment books, I thought no one liked me and I would have to stop doing what I loved because I wasn't cutting it (punny, haha...). But it's like this year, someone flipped a switch and my wonderful clients are coming back to me! I really love all of my clients and I enjoy doing hair so much. It never gets old to have people wanting me to do their hair. ME.

A lot going on around here. We're switching rooms around. Anna is getting the boys' room and the boys have moved into Anna's room. This requires much painting, rearranging, and patience. Pictures to come soon. For now, I have to go paint some more. See you soon, promise.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies and a Dumpster (Not Related)

The title is weird. Oh well.

Last night, we had some dear friends over to our house for dessert. Beverley and I have been friends since 8th grade. She's one of my best friends and I love getting together with her. Our husbands get along great, too and we had a really good time. The kids were all in bed and we were able to have uninterrupted time to catch up. Do you know how rare that is these days? If you have kids, of course you do. Anyway, they were able to come for dessert and coffee. And by dessert, I mean this:

It's brownie on the bottom, cookie dough (egg-less) on the top. In other words, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. Thanks to Recipe Girl. Really, it's supposed to have a chocolate drizzle on the top but something told me it was going to be sweet enough without it. Might have to try the drizzle next time, if for nothing else but to make it more photogenic. I did take a shortcut since I was low on time and used a boxed brownie mix. Who cares, right? Not me. And not Beverley.

Let's move on to less appealing topics. Such as trash. The kind of trash that comes from renovating your house and ends up living in your garage for two years.

I was so excited to be getting a dumpster delivered to my house yesterday. I had called and told them that we needed a 3 yard dumpster. After talking to my husband, we realized that wasn't going to cut it and I called back and changed it to the 6 yarder.

Bank account charged, ready for delivery.

Dump truck delivers, I don't look outside.

Chris gets home, mentions that the dumpster looks on the small side but I'm busy and don't double-check.

I leave for the grocery store at 5:10 and realize, awesome, we got the 3 yarder. Even more awesome? The garbage company is now closed and won't reopen until 8am on Monday. We decide that we will not give up our productive weekend and so we fill it anyway. Half of our garage looks great. The other half, not so much. When we're able to put the rest of our junk in another dumpster, I will take a picture of my cleaned-out garage.

The stinkin' 3 yarder.

I'm excited about being able to park in the garage. Although, I probably won't for a while because there's no garage door opener installed. And, I'm not all that anxious to manually open it so I can back out, then get out of the van to close the garage door behind me ... every time I come home or leave. Can you blame me? So, our garage door opener sits in a box in the garage and it will stay in that box until Chris decides he can do it. I believe in him. I also believe that I am an excellent cheerleader (such a nice word - better than nag, don't you agree?) when I'm [this close] to being able to do something I have never done before. Parking in my own garage will be huge for me. I know, I live a very simple life.

With tears of boredom streaking down your cheeks, I will stop writing about my garage. You're welcome. And goodnight.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes & Company

I made Snickerdoodle Cupcakes tonight from here.

This is my version. They would have been prettier if I would have busted out my frosting tips and all that. I didn't have time. They were pretty on the inside. Trust me.

Ben's a fan. Okay, he licked all of the frosting off of his then broke the cupcake up into a million pieces. One day he'll learn which part of the cupcake is truly the best.

They were very good and very easy. I was worried because I didn't have cake flour like the recipe called for, but after doing a little research I just removed a couple of tablespoons of all purpose flour and sifted the flour first. The cupcakes turned out great!! Usually cupcakes from scratch, at least in my experience, are dry and dense. These weren't at all! I will definitely be making these again. I didn't have the time to make the icing from scratch but I will try that next time, too. I ended up just mixing cinnamon into a container of vanilla frosting and it was still good.

I had my parents and my sister and her family over for dinner and dessert. We don't get together very much so it was a lot of fun. Fun and loud. My sister, my parents and I all live about a mile from each other, almost in a perfect triangle. You would think we get together all the time living so close. I guess that shows how busy life can be.

Wow, two posts in one day. I'm not kidding around, am I?

Let's try this again...

After two years, I'm going to come back to blogging here. So I've been a little busy. You know, baby-making and baby-raising. Since I recently got my full night's sleep back, I figured I was ready to tackle writing things down. Things I know I will regret not writing down if I don't start now. I've already missed too much.

Ben. Ben is almost 19 months old now. I am more in love with him now that I have ever been. He was such a high-maintenance kid from day one - still is to an extent. But he is such a happy thing...and he's a riot! I could just watch him all day. The other night, after I had been at work most of the evening, Chris and I just laid in bed and talked about how adorable Ben is and the funny things he does. Makes me sentimental, weepy even, to think of my last baby growing up so fast.

Anna. She is almost 3...and she's good at it. It's drama central over here lately. Not fits in the classic sense. But crying fits. Crying and crying and crying... Wait. What a bad way to start off talking about my sweet girl. Let me try again. We love Anna very very much. She is smart, funny, and artistic (what? yeah). She keeps us on our toes, but all of her affection more than makes up for it. Usually at least once a day I can count on her giving me a hug and kiss and saying "I love you, Mommy." Never, ever gets old.

Caleb. Caleb just turned 8 and he is a lot of fun...and challenging. The age gap throws us (Chris and me) a little. The different ways these kids need love and discipline is clear, yet muddy. We're stumbling through, learning as we go. I feel like it shows, at least Caleb can't tell...usually. :) Caleb adores his Dad. From the time Caleb gets home from school, I sporadically hear "When is Dad getting home?" Dad = All fun, Mom = Homework and chores. Can't blame him, can I? He loves to read. He just finished all of the Diary of a Whimpy Kid books and loved them. He and I watched "Judy Moody and the Not So Bummer Summer" the other night. While in Marshall's tonight, he saw a Judy Moody book so we let him get it. He didn't put it down until I pried it out of his hands at bedtime. I hope he keeps this love of reading.

Okay, off to get my full night's sleep. Well, at least until 6am when Anna decides my bed is more comfortable than hers and poking me is more fun than sleeping.

Goodnight!

M.I.A.

Sorry I've been a little MIA on here lately. Chris and I have been working to get the house in better shape. Well, it'll take years to get it where we want it but it's slowly improving. We painted the front door and the front door and window trims white. Makes it look SO much better. And Chris has been really great about trying to get our yard looking better. He mows our lawn every week and he's put Weed and Feed on it. We have A LOT of dandelions. The previous owners/renters didn't care about maintaining the yard at all so Chris mows often to cut the weeds back until they die/are pulled. We're hoping to till up, even out, and seed the backyard soon. The kids can't play in it until that's done. Too many little potholes, they could sprain an ankle.

Last week Carrie and Brandon and little Reese came over for dinner while they were in town. It was so much fun! I wish they didn't live so far away. Caleb had so much fun playing with "ReeseMuff" (his nickname for her). And she is the most adorable little thing!! I loved watching her running around, she's the prettiest, smiliest little girl and very well behaved. The visit was too quick. I posted pics of our kids together on Facebook if you're curious.

Anna will be 1 tomorrow! Did that go quickly or what?! She's really starting to walk a lot more too. After pulling up, instead of crawling, she walks some steps first - sometimes quite a few. And she's saying - or trying to say - so much! She says "doggie", "please (peese)", "Daddy", "Mama", "Anna (nana)", "flower (fla fla)", "baby", "Where is it (is it?)"....And if you ask her "What does (any animal) say?" she says "Baaa". We're working on that one. :) She sleeps 11 hours straight at night - occassionally she wakes up around 5am just wanting cuddle time with me. I rock her for a few delirious minutes then she's off to sleep again.

Caleb is loving t-ball. He told me yesterday "Mom, I think they're going to put me on TV really soon because I'm so good at baseball." :) He's a very athletic kid. He also loves playing basketball. I think he'll want to play that come fall. He and Chris like to get out in the backyard and shoot hoops. I love watching them do that. Such a father/son thing to do. :)

Baby boy is doing well. Getting bigger and stronger. I can now watch his aerobics from the outside of my belly. He's getting closer and closer to having a name. I wish I could say that Chris and I are such planners that we've had names picked out for years but we don't. We never pick out our kids' names until after we are pregnant and know what we're having. Makes it a little more difficult. But, we have a #1 pick that might turn out to be it. Just need to roll it around on the tongue a little longer and make sure it's what we want. I'll let you know when we've decided for sure.

I guess that's it. These updates need to be more frequent -they're always too lengthy. Have a great weekend! (Oh, it's only Wednesday, oh well.)


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