New Year’s Resolutions

Welcome 2012! I wanted to start the New Year out right by listed some things I wanted to accomplish this year. I'm going to get a game plan in action for each goal so I can have no excuse to not have accomplished these things by next year at this time.

1. Lose 25 pounds
   
2. Run in 3 5K's
   
3. Take a photography class.
   
4. Learn Photoshop.
   
5. Build a piece of furniture.
   
6. Paint a piece of furniture.
   
7. Simplify.
   
8. Get all my albums up-to-date and printed!
   

   
    

   I know this seems like a lot. But all these things are very important to me and I believe I can do it in a years' time. What better way to keep me motivated than to keep an online journal? I'm ready!

Guess Who's Walking??????

Maci starting walking last Sunday!!! I can't believe it! My baby is walking! She took her first steps on September 25th and my Dad was actually over and got to witness her first steps too!

Ava's 7th Birthday

I wanted to post about Ava's 7th Birthday festivities before I forgot about them. She turned 7 on August 11th. On Friday, she had a slumber party with a few of her friends. Well, actually it was 11 girls including Ava and Jaylen. Ava and some of her friends helped me decorate.

They had a blast. We ate pizza, made ice cream sundaes,



opened presents

and watched Soul Surfer. Such a great movie and such a good story. The girls just enjoyed being with each other, oh and there was a fashion show that night too!

On Sunday, we had the family over and celebrated. We made cupcakes and an awesome tie-dyed cake that Ava and Jaylen helped me make. The kids had a water balloon toss and then we got out the slip and slide! It's always great getting family together.

She got 2 of the things she really wanted!!! A charm bracelet and a guitar!


Happy 7th Birthday Ava! We love you so much!

Dining Room Chairs

This dining room suite used to be my Grandmother's dining room furniture.




Excuse the mess. That is some stuff from the birthday party that I need to take back to my friend Nicki.


Anyway, when my Grandmother passed away the dining room furniture became mine. I absolutely love it and it is very dear to my heart. We have never owned a house with a dining room so it has always been stored in our basement of our other homes. When we built this house that was the one thing that I wanted..... A dining room for my Grandmother's furniture. The chairs however; are that ugly 70's green that needed updating.




I covered them with this fabric and I love it!!!



Let's check them out side by side!



Still have 5 more chairs to go. What do you think?

Life is a Mess

It has just been one of those days.




You know when you just want to throw your hands up and go back to bed. Yeah, I've actually been having A LOT of those days lately. You know, I'm not sure how to handle it. How to handle life.



Some times it just seems too much.



Am I the only one who feels like this? I feel like I try so HARD to spend time with my girls, be the good wife, good to my family and be a good friend. This is on top of trying to manage the house, take care of the girl's needs, the laundry, finances, work. Egghhhhh. I haven't even mentioned trying to take care of myself. I still have 25 pounds of baby weight to lose and Maci is already 9 months old. I mean you should see my car. It's ridiculous. I know that their are atleast 2 sippy cups in my car. GREAT! It has been so HOT these past few days they are both now going to be full of chunky milk. Has anyone else done that? It smells horrible. But this is going to be the start of something better. At a better life. A more organized life. A more fullfilled life. This is my attempt to live life to its fullest and to document it.

Cleaning out my closet

I immediately thought of Eminem when I wrote that.

http://youtu.be/RQ9_TKayu9s

I went through the basement this weekend and I found a ton of things to sell on craigslist. I already sold the jogging stroller the day I posted it. This is fun! And just the beginning of simplifying things around here!

Front Porch

The girls helped me plant some flowers for the front porch the other night. Boy was it a stressful night! Brian had gone to show the business to a few people and I was left with "the night responsiblities" all by myself. I had gone to Walmart at lunch to get my geraniums and new green pot so I definetely wanted to get those planted. The girls helped me and had fun doing it.


Well then a storm came up so we went in for dinner. I'm very uneasy when it comes to storms. I love them but they scare me. I had tried to let the dogs out to use the bathroom but they are scared of storms too. Go figure. So as I was trying to fix the baby some oatmeal and the girls some chicken nuggets one of the dogs poops on the floor. Egghhhhhh. So now on top of trying to fix food while the baby is getting fussy and Jaylen is getting impatient I have to clean up dog poop. But we all survived and here all the pictures of the front porch.



This is a wreath that I made using one of those twig wreaths and just tying pieces of ribbon to it. Then adding a monogram letter that I painted myself. And then adding the flowers with a glue gun. Easy Peasy. I even made my mom one for her front door. I saw this on another blog somewhere but do not remember which one.



What do you think?