funny kids...

D, whose teacher speaks french to them, says to me....

" mom, you are not ecouté me!"

little S loves to listen to my ipod playlists. she was singing along in the car today...

"next time baby, i'll be puddin' proof"..... instead of bullet proof.....

finally finished boy nursery

my room inspirations.......

i liked the r on the wall and the cool colors of this nursery.

i love the patters... polka dots mixed with gingham. blues, reds, greens, whites....
i love vintage cowboy movie posters...
and here is the final product. baby R's vintage western nursery......
i painted an old armoire distressed red and made it his changing table. i also found a cool online store for vintage movie poster reprints... although i suspect they may have stolen my card number and tried to make a purchase at Walmart out of state. just a hunch...
old shoes are fab.
old red lantern. garage sale, $5 for 6 of them. i also got some frye boots for myself at this same garage sale for $5. yeeee haw!!
all 5 quilts my grammie has hand stitched for all my chillen.
retro toy from target.
baby R received several of these the day he was born. maybe he will be a farmer when he grows up? they look good in his room anyway... and i'm sure he will enjoy playing with them when he gets bigger.
my grammie also painted that cow picture. now it has a perfect home.
i found the polka dot duvet set at ikea and made it into a bumper. i had some old red gingham curtains that i cut and made into a valence and bedskirt.

i love my vintage cowboy material, but didn't know what to do with it. my friend suggested hanging it on the wall. so that's what we did. we just stapled it up behind the shelves.
my fav thing about the nursery is the new crib. our old crib was recalled and i received a voucher to purchase another one. score!! especially since the old one was pink :)

budget bathroom remodel

this is the only picture i could find of the bathroom before the remodel. i did some really fancy editing on myself to spare you the oh so flattering backside shot of my very post-partum body. you are welcome. this picture does make me laugh tho, this was baby R's first bath. he screamed the whole time. the girls' eyes were glued to him the whole time.

* i also like the conveniently placed cleaning products.

so the exciting thing about this remodel is that we did it for under $300. we used almost everything from the existing supply of products in our garage. we bought the wall boards, the textiles, a little bit of tile and the toilet paper holder. everything else we already had.
we even hung up those towel hooks we bought, oh say, 7 years ago. so now we don't have to throw them over the shower door.
i love the vintage picture of 5 kids in the bathtub that my lovely auntie gave me :) and the vintage art and vase my lovely friend gave me :)


i was so proud of p dubs. he did all the trim and finish work so nicely.

we had some leftover tile from the other bathroom that matched the 80's tan tile close enough. i think it looks better in person.
now it has a very light and happy feeling. not bad for 1 week and under $300!!!

fun and pretty things...

i love this replica my daughter drew for me last year when we went to paris. i have it right by the computer so i can look at it all the time. i love love love love it. j'taime. j'adore.
i found this shiny golden chandelier at a garage sale, bought it for $20 and painted it black. voila! now it looks like one of those scrapbooky parisian black chandeliers. :)
some friends and i hosted a baby shower for another one of our friends. i had a tissue paper flower kit i had purchased at Michael's a long time ago on clearance. after putting a few together, my sis told me and S a better way to make them. so S took over and made the white ones. she did an awesome job and they were bigger and fluffier than the kit flowers!

the cute cupcakes my sis made for the shower.
and some beautiful pink roses to top it all off :)

tradition

2 of my dearest friends and i have a tradition.

we met when our oldest daughters were 4. we were overjoyed when all three of them were in the same kindergarten class. we started the tradition the morning we sent our eldest children off to kindergarten. we got together for breakfast and cried and laughed and wondered how we would all cope with having school age children. just this morning we got together for the 6th annual back to school breakfast. we still laugh and cry and share our hopes and dreams for our kids and wonder what is in store for us in the future (and how we can control it, even tho we know we can't)

i cherish these breakfasts and these friendships so much. i can't wait to see us when we send these girls off to their first day of college.

first day of school 2010

little S started 3 yr. old preschool this year. she was very excited to go. she has the sweetest teachers.

she is in the same class with cousin A. we are hoping they don't get kicked out. they did great the first week tho, so i think they will be fine.
the 3 big girls are all at the same school now. S - 5th grade, L -3rd grade and D- kindergarten!
D was not too sure. she went in without a problem, but had a really hard time the rest of the week. she cried every nite and every morning, it was so sad. but by sunday nite, she was jumping up and down saying she couldn't wait to get to school. she had a great 2nd week.

S and L were happy to get back to school. they were excited to see their friends and teachers.

and now another school year is here and ready to fly by again!

positive vibe merchant

someone posted this on the inside of a bathroom stall at the mall. i like to think of how many people smiled when they saw it.

5th time around

we have been doing some re-organizing around the house to accommodate for baby R. like including his picture on the kids picture wall. i did the paint touch-ups all by myself. didn't i do a good job? this picture was taken after the paint had dried btw....

handsome paully setting up the crib for the 5th time :) he was just a young lad the first time he set one up...10 years ago.
i think baby R appreciated it.
he appreciates our bed more tho....

then and now...

we were really stretching to find activities those last few days of summer. we saw this idea on another blog and S got really excited about it.

awwwww.... is she the cutest little thing???

8 years later...... still pretty darn cute :)

newborn baby D......

5 year old baby D.......

interesting......

still fits!!!

fads

i guess these little silly bandz are the new fad. i heard about them last week. then i heard about them again... then again... none of these times were from my children. just today, after school, i asked the school secretary if she had heard anything about them. if anyone would know about it, it would be her. she said no. i said i hadn't heard anything from my kids so i wondered if they weren't allowed at our school or if it just hadn't "hit" our school.

as i was tucking the kids in tonite... guess what was on the nightstand...

L said ... "ooh mom!! look what carla gave me!!!!! a silly band!!!"

S chimed in... "oooh I want some of those sooo bad!!!"

so i guess they are into their first fad.

some of my favorite fad memories.....

these really did predict the future. really.
i just couldn't get enough of these sweet little things. my heart still speeds up when i see them. i remember stacking them up on my floor, single, double and triple sets.
i loved these charms soooo much. i had them everywhere... bracelets, shoes (my kaepa double color laces with alternating double sock combo), backpack, etc.

i also made these really cool folded paper transformers, but i couldn't find a picture of those. :(

my mom

Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land.

She prepares a world she will not see.

-Pope Paul VI

my mom has been travelling (we are euro, spelling wise). i miss her. when she writes things like this, it makes me miss her more.

p.s. i am becoming so domesticated with my bountiful baskets. you wouldn't even believe the cooking i have been doing. i just slid my knife down a thyme stalk to remove the leaves... yeah fancy, i know.

p.s. little S misses her sisters so much. she is currently in the other room fighting with the t.v. she keeps trying to have conversations with it. and then she gets mad and says "hey! give me that back!!! that's mine!!!"....... to the t.v.

dolly and me tutus

a friend of mine gave D and Josefina a matching tutu set. it is about the cutest thing ever.

check out jacknmolly for more cute tutus. :)