Confession Time.

We have never (not since we've been married) had a dining room table that we could regularly eat at as a family. I know! This sounds totally ridiculous.

In every house we've rented, the dining room was either too small to seat our entire family at once, OR the dining room was carpeted. CARPETED. Can we discuss the ridiculousness of putting carpet in a rental dining room? Do you know how trashed your carpet gets when you let little kids eat on it?

Our house? No carpet in the entire downstairs. Do you know what this means?!
I'll tell you what this means!


It means eating dinner as a family.
It means having someone in charge of setting the table.
Having someone in charge of clearing the table.
It means sitting as a family around a table to enjoy a meal and a conversation and each other's company.
It means Mom feels motivated to make dinner again.
It means enjoying my children and hearing about their day.
It means I have more patience.

I really never thought that something as simple as eating dinner together could produce such amazing results. Looks like it might be time for me to start wearing an apron and pearls.

Read More

The Curtains were Hung...

By the window with care...



Please ignore the still unpacked box and that hideous floor lamp. It's all we've got till we can settle our lighting disputes. We like to dispute. You didn't know?



Also, if anyone has some brilliant idea for the top of that bookcase/wall between the curtains, we'd appreciate it. I was hoping for a large portrait of each kid, but we're still unsure.



I want to rehang the curtains so you can't see the rods... not loving them on the ring clips so much. I tried moving the ring clips down on the curtains, but then they don't hold onto the fabric so well. Helps?

We're undergoing the slow conversion from reds to greens and blues. Be patient while we mismatch?

Read More

Together

Printing this one large for my new house. Would it be weird to get wallpaper made?
I have to admit that I don't normally think the boys look alike. But I can totally see it in this picture. Just look at that identical smile!

*Contented Sigh*

Read More

The moment you've been pretending to be waiting for.

House pictures. Or I can do you one better. A house tour.

Please keep in mind that I did this tour the day we moved in. I would estimate that 90% of that stuff is now put away. I still need to properly unpack the kids' rooms but I need to buy some toy storage/organization first.



I'll do another tour soon so you can see where we decided to put all our junk!

Here are some stills from before the house was bombarded with two truckloads of crap.

The girls' room. Need to hang curtains in that corner... any suggestions on how to configure that one??


Boys' Room. Needs another coat of paint. Needs Matt to get busy with some kind of funky stripe he has planned.


There was a whole fiasco regarding our color choices, but lets just say that Matt redeemed himself and repainted two entire walls for me. But that's what happens when you do a poor job paint matching, eh Matt? Love the brown corner. It brings me a tiny bit of happiness every time I walk up the stairs. Also, it makes me want a frosty.

Suggestions always welcome.

Read More

Uh. So. Yeah.

One of my kids had a birthday on Friday. I'll let you guess which one.

A hint:


I have a really hard time believing that he's actually a full year old. He has fully integrated himself into our way of life (read: chaos) and into our hearts.



As you can see, he's walking all over the place. He's pretty steady on those tiny legs.

Yes, we're quite fond of the little bugger.
I'll have to come back in a bit with house images. My hard drive is wigging out.

Read More

Things that are missing:

I admit to having moved rather chaotically. We haven't changed our address with basically any of our companies, we still need to finish cleaning the other place (going on a cleaning strike for the last two weeks comes back to bite me!) and I use the word "packing" rather lightly.

Throwing random things is boxes is more like what happened. I do not recommend this moving style at all.

Things that are missing:
1. All of my pajamas. I actually know where they are, but it's in a Rubbermaid bin in the garage underneath about 4 others. Not worth it.

2. My sanity. Pretty sure that got packed along with the next item.

3. Our memory card reader for the camera. So, despite having taken pictures, I can do nothing with them. If I don't find it tomorrow, I'm buying another one. My sanity, however, might be gone forever.

So, in an attempt to entertain you, I will share some pictures I've never shared.

These were taken in the beginning of March. Those of you in cold weathered areas should get your hankies out.

It got hot. So we did what we do in the Summer. We blast the sprinklers and cool down!
Yes, this gives me heart palpitations. She's up pretty high.

Because sometimes finding your bathing suit just takes too darn long.
A good time had by all! They played out there for a good half hour and my lawn got well-watered (well, not MY lawn...) and boy did it need it.
And not to be left out... Lucas joined right in, though I get the feeling he just wanted a drink.

Read More

You can stop.

Holding your breath, that is.

The house is ours! I probably won't be around much till after we move (next Saturday) due to an incredible amount of painting that needs to be done to rid us of the pink walls.

Also, my computer is harboring a virus which we can't seem to lick.

Read More