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fun finds
08.31.12

Favorites on Friday

Happy Friday friends!  It was so fun hearing from so many of you yesterday!  Your “boy” stories cracked me up.  I’m so glad I’m not alone!  That thought brought me comfort today while I cleaned up destroyed spaces and chased my wild 2 year old up and down our street (he has learned how to escape out the front door so if I forget to lock it I can plan on a good workout at some point).  The good news is that I don’t have to go to the gym to stay in shape.  Kole has taken my workouts to a whole new level!  :)  
Sharing a few more favorites today!  
I have had zero time for cooking dinner lately (not that I would even if I had the time – ha!) so here are a few of my favorite quick and easy go-to’s for dinner.  
 A lot of mornings I toss some chicken in the crock pot.  Then I shred it around dinner time.  

Then I toss some of this Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce over it.  I love BBQ sauce and this is by far my favorite store bought sauce.  Toss the BBQ chicken in a roll, boil some corn on the cob and dinner. is. served.  DONE.

Another one of my favorite go-to’s for quick dinners is “boil-in-bag” rice.  LOVE this stuff.  You pull out the bag and plop it in some boiling water.  It’s done in 10 minutes.  Cut the bag open and let the rice sit for a bit to cool and wa-la!  Easy, tasty rice that was no mess to cook.  (The “no mess” is my favorite part.)

I did make one new recipe last week.  Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas and they were SO good.  You can find the recipe here.  A total Erin recipe.  Easy and fool proof.  Great for leftovers.  They reminded me a little of my Mexican Chalupa’s.  Have you tried those yet?  They are SO good and easy and fool proof too.  
Other favorites include:

Better Homes and Gardens Kitchen and Bath magazines.  I can’t get enough of them!  I am always drawn to the same things in kitchen/bath photographs which makes me feel a lot more confident in the way I am designing our new house.

Cetaphil lotion and daily facial miosturizer/sunscreen.  This stuff is THE BEST.  I mentioned in my make-up post that I wear sunscreen every single day under my make-up and Cetaphil is my favorite.  I have to wear sunscreen daily because my skin is so fair and I live in such a sunny climate.  Best secret to looking young – wear your sunscreen.  Or so I’m told.  :)  My dermatologist recommended Cetaphil for daily sunscreen (and lotion) use.  A little bit goes a long way so one bottle lasts a long time.  It has a little shine to it which I like because I have dry skin.  It gives my skin a bit of a glow!  I always order it through Amazon (I included the link above) because I can’t ever find the facial moisturizer in stores.

Another favorite product of mine is regular old Pond’s cold cream.  Several of you tried my favorite mascara out and loved it (YEA!  Makes me so happy!) but wondered how I remove it.  Pond’s is the best for removing make-up.  I’ve tried several other products for removing make-up but always come back to Pond’s.  I use this every night to remove my make-up before I wash my face.

These are my favorite newish pajamas that I have LIVED IN this summer when I’m home.  I bought them at the Gap Outlet and the material is so soft and comfy and stretchy.  I never want to take them off!  Another favorite are my Ugg house shoes.  A fun Christmas gift last year.  I know.  You’re thinking who wears Ugg house shoes in August?  Um that would be me.  Weather doesn’t change that much around here and my kitchen tile is so hard and cold.  I always like house shoes on when I’m home.  I’m excited to put less tile and more wood in my new house.  But I bet I still wear the house shoes.  :)

 Close-up of the print on the pajama pants.  Grey with coral flowers.  Cute, right!?  They make me want to join Ellie in her crusade to pass a law declaring that every day be pajama day.

I know I mentioned my favorite cereal Bran Chex in my last favorites post but I have to also say how much I love the containers that hold them.  I found these at the Container Store and this one container holds three boxes of Bran Chex!  Talk about a space saver.

 Really ALL of my pantry containers and baskets are favorites of mine.  This is by far my favorite organized space.  I love that it looks good but is also so practical and easy to keep organized.  The OXO containers have been perfect for keeping food fresh and visible.  I doubled my pantry space when I got rid of the boxes and started using these containers.  WOOT WOOT!  Love them all.  (You can see where I bought all of my pantry containers in this post).

We bought these necklaces for the girls on our back to school shopping spree.  They are from Justice and my girls begged me to buy them.  It wasn’t a hard sale because I love the necklaces too.

The relationship these two have is one of my favorite things.  
My favorite of all the favorites.  :)  
 Addison likes to wear them both.  

 We always tell her how special and lucky she is because she gets to be a little sister and a big sister.  
My last favorite I don’t have a photo for.  The girls and I have been doing a lot of dancing in the kitchen lately and I have to say that our daily jam sessions have become a favorite part of my day.  Some of our dancing is choreographed.  Some of it is on the fly.  We even sing a bit too.  Oh yes.  We do it all.  Our recent favorite song to dance to is Run the World (Girls) by Beyonce.  (Who runs the world?  GIRLS. GIRLS!  Who runs the world? GIRLS. GIRLS!)  I’ve thought about filming our jam sessions to share with you, but frankly I just don’t think you all could handle it.  
We’ve got moves that would blow your mind.  
;)
Happy weekend everyone!
xoxo, Erin
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Kole
08.30.12

And the toddler strikes again

Ok.  I distinctly remember that when my girls turned around age 2 1/2 life with little ones started easing up a bit.  Yes, they were 2 and very much had minds of their own, but still, I remember them starting to entertain themselves for longer periods of time.  They would sit and look at a book.  Or play with their dolls.  Or color a picture.  Or watch a short show on TV.  So as Kole nears the 2 1/2 mark I find myself often wondering WHEN IN THE WORLD IS THIS KID GOING TO SLOW DOWN!!??  

Yes.  He’s cute.  I’ll give him that.  But FOR THE LOVE!  This kid doesn’t stop!  He has two speeds – fast and faster.  He ran away from me in the grocery store today and I swear I wished I would have had on my Nikes.  If only you all could have witnessed the chase scene that ensued.  Up and down the isles, around grocery carts, through the check out counter.  
Then we get home and he operates under two settings: mom needs to constantly entertain me OR I’ll entertain myself.  
And here’s how my little buddy entertains himself… 

He is obsessed with moving all of the couch pillows and stacking them together on one couch.  

You might think this is lousy photography, but no.  This is just my boy stacking at lightning speed.  (And ok – slightly lousy photography.)  He does this with all of the upstairs pillows on the beds too.  Moves them all to my bed in a big heap.  As soon as he sees I’ve put them back, he gets to work stacking them all in one place again.

So I’ve given up and if you drop by to see me, this is what you will be greeted with.  
Once the pillows are on their designated couch he moves on to the shoes in the garage.  
Above is the “before” and below is the “after.”  
Clearly he doesn’t get the whole “before and after” concept since he is taking my organized spaces and DESTROYING THEM.
I clean up this mess at least three times a day.  
If I didn’t need the shoes out of the way to drive I wouldn’t bother.  
And now today.  His latest trick.  
Remember how I cleaned out my girls’ book shelf?  
 And I categorized everything so neatly and gave all of the books a happy home?  
Kole decided the books needed a new happy home.  On the floor.  I knew there was going to be trouble when I found myself cooking dinner tonight without Kole under my feet.  He did this in a matter of minutes and then moved on to “entertain himself” in the next room.  

A couple of weeks ago while we were at a picnic for one of the girls’ summer camps Kole kept himself busy with the sidewalk chalk.

He was such a mess that Kenny took off his clothes before we got to the car.  

 Then Kole decided it was his turn to do the chasing.  

He was thrilled to have his clothes off.  They clearly do nothing but weigh him down.  

Yup.  Doesn’t look like things are slowing down any time soon.  
:)
xoxo, Erin
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organization2
08.28.12

Organized outfits for school

First day of school was a success! 

My little divas had a fabulous day.  Loved their teachers.  Loved seeing all of their friends again.  Loved their new sparkly shoes that light up with each step signaling to the world that they are coming a mile away.  I loved seeing them so happy.  And I loved having an hour and a half of peace during Kole’s nap (bliss!).  And I loved that I didn’t get nearly as emotional as I usually do.  A few tears, but nothing I couldn’t hide under my sunglasses.  Like I said – the day was a success!

I got lots of questions yesterday about where I shop for my girls.  Nothing special.  I just head to the mall.  All of the malls in San Diego are outdoor malls.  They are very sunny, happy places to be.  :)  Here is a breakdown of where I bought the outfits in the picture I shared:

My go to stores for my girls are Gap Kids (has always been my favorite), Children’s Place (hit and miss), Gymboree, and lately Justice (Addison’s favorite – she loves anything that sparkles!).  Once in a while I check out Old Navy.  I had coupons to all of these stores so we got the girls some fun stuff for the school year.  
I mentioned in my “Back to School Checklist” post that I was trying to find a way to organize my girls school clothes for the week.  I really needed to come up with something to reduce the drama each morning that usually takes place when it’s time to figure out what to wear.  I had seen so many fun ideas on Pinterest and was going to come up with  something really beautiful and spectacular.  Then I remembered that I have no time right now for beautiful and spectacular so instead I did what I do have time for: easy and practical.  I had the girls pick out their outfits for the week including socks and accessories.  

Then I grabbed some scissors, a black marker and some gallon sized Ziploc bags that I had on hand.

 I wrote each day of the week on the bags (twice so El and Ad each have their own) and then cut a small hole in them to slip the hanger through.  LOVE IT!  The bags hold their socks and accessories and remind my girls what they are wearing each day.

 El’s first day outfit ready to go!  

 Addison’s too!

A few more examples:

The bags are big and strong enough to also hold things like leggings and skirts.  
 Whatever doesn’t go on the hanger fits in the bag!  

El’s outfits for the first week.  They are all Ellie approved: extremely comfortable.  
 Ad’s outfits for the first week.  They are all Addison approved: extremely fashionable.  

My girls never change.  :)

 A lot of the ideas I’d seen on Pinterest were great, but took up too much closet space.  I love that the outfits/bags fit nicely in the girls’ closets and everything we need is all in one place ready to go!  I also love that this didn’t cost a cent and took me about two minutes to put together.  I’m so excited about my new system for organizing outfits!  One more way to minimize stress in the morning.  Which we desperately need.  Because a certain two year old is so good at maximizing it.

I guess easy and practical isn’t so bad after all. 
 :)

xoxo, Erin
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Ellie and Addison
08.27.12

Prepped for the first day

First day of school tomorrow!  
The backpacks are ready and lunches are packed.  
 Outfits for the week have been carefully selected by two excited and slightly nervous little girls.
(I’ll share my new system for organizing them soon!)

The freezer is organized!  Yes.  I realize this has nothing to do with back to school, but it made me feel good to announce it nonetheless.

School supplies are loaded in the car (along with a box of tissues for me), kids are getting a good night’s sleep and I’m off bed myself.  Waking up extra early tomorrow so I can see my babies start 1st and 3rd grade.  What!?  Maybe I should snag a few of those tissues now.

Goodbye summer!  Goodbye to carefree mornings in pajamas.  
You will be missed most of all.

xoxo, Erin
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New House
08.23.12

More house decisions made

Hello friends!  Another slooow week on the blog.  Kenny and I have been consumed with new house stuff (what’s new, right!?).  We have been finalizing so many things.  I’m such a mix of excited and exhausted which pretty much sums up the way I’ve felt ever since we started this building roller coaster.  I still have some sketches I have to go through tonight before another meeting tomorrow so this will be quick, but I wanted to pop in and say hello and share a few of the decisions we’ve been making this week.  
Some good news is that we are almost done picking out kitchen and bathroom fixtures.  Hooray!  I went through and changed half of what I had picked out earlier and now I feel better about fixtures.    The bad news is that my “hey let’s remake decisions we’ve already made and change things up again” attitude is happening more and more and Kenny is seriously about to kill me.   My poor husband.  I know I’m driving him crazy but I can’t help it.  I just feel like this is my one chance to do this and I have to do it right!  I keep reminding him that after this house is built he will remember why he loves me.   Ok… after the house is decorated.  Then he will remember.  :)
More good news – we’ve ordered my farmhouse sinks!  Let’s all just hold our breath and have a moment of silence for the beauty that is the farmhouse sink.
Ahhhhhh.  Breathe out.  K.  Now we can continue.  My love for them is indescribable.  Whenever I see pictures of farmhouse sinks  my heart starts to race much like it does when I see pictures of dutch doors.  Do any of you share my passion?  I know I’m not alone.  :)  I ordered the sink in the picture above for my food-prep island and a double farmhouse sink for in front of my kitchen window.  I gave Kenny my sweetest smile and managed to talk him into getting one more for my downstairs laundry room.  Quite a surprise since he was already about to kill me at that point.  Good to know that after 15 years my “sugary sweet please can I have something” smile still does the job.  I tried to pull off one more for the upstairs laundry room and that is where Kenny drew the line and my smile lost all its magic.  That’s ok.  I really would have been over the moon with just one so to say I am flying high about my sinks right now is a serious understatement.   
I have been ironing out lots of kitchen cabinet details this week and I’m so excited about the organization that will be taking place in my kitchen everyday!  I’ll share more of those details at some point.  Right now we need to order our kitchen appliances and I am so torn.  We have decided to go with Thermador  and we were going to just get the cook top and do cabinets below like the picture above (with ovens on another wall).  Now I’m debating the full oven again…  
This is what we would get if we decide to go with the full oven.  It might make more sense to do this because of some issues with the way I want my cabinets.  I love the look of this oven, but also love the cooktop because then I can use the drawers below for pot/pan storage.  Any opinions on a cook top vs. a full oven?  Would love to hear your thoughts!
Want to see something really beautiful?  

This is Thermador’s top of the line 48 inch Professional series oven.  When we very first started looking at appliances I walked into the store, marched right over to it and said “I want this one!”  Then the sales man said “that’s the most expensive oven made” and then Kenny said “of course it is” and then I said “ok – never mind.”  :) The sales man said “this has an exclusive built-in steamer, a titanium griddle and grill, a large capacity convection oven, and a top of the line warming drawer.  Then I smiled and said “I just wanted it for that cool white vintage looking dial on the front.”  Then  Kenny rolled his eyes (in that oh so familiar way) and said to the salesman “this is what I’m dealing with.” 
And that pretty much sums up the way most of our house discussions have gone thus far.  :)
Ok –  I’m off to look at my sketches.  Lots to post next week when more of these decisions and meetings are behind us.  We are finishing up windows Friday (I swear – windows are going to be the death of me!) and then I think house meetings will slow down for a few weeks.  
Enjoy your day everyone!  
P.S.  I found this picture on Pinterest last week (couldn’t find the correct source) — 

and it made me SO excited to decorate my new house for the holidays!   Is anyone else getting excited for Christmas!?  It’s a bit early, but I can’t help it.  I’m counting down to November when I can start celebrating.  It will be here before we know it!

xoxo, Erin
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Mom Adventures
08.21.12

Tips on Traveling with Kids

Traveling with kids.  Do you feel tired just hearing that sentence?  :)  If you’ve read my blog for a while you know that Kenny and I travel often with our kids.  Especially to our home town in southern Utah to visit family.  The drive is exactly 6 1/2 hours from our doorstep to our favorite retreat (my moms house) if there is no traffic.  We have made that trip with our kids so many times in the last ten years (and many other trips) that I feel like I’ve learned a lot about how to make traveling with little ones as pleasant as possible.  I’ve had several people ask if I have any tips on traveling with kids and I do!  Here are just a few things that we do to make our road trips go as smooth as possible.

{TIPS ON TRAVELING WITH KIDS}
 
Tip 1)  Don’t travel with kids if you can at all avoid it.  
Kidding.
Kind of.
Tip 1 for real)  If you’re driving to your destination, do a bit of homework ahead of time to make sure that you aren’t going to be on the road during heavy traffic times.  If possible, avoid traveling on Fridays and Sundays if you are driving in areas with heavy traffic.  It’s hard to do, but by leaving really early on a Saturday morning vs. a Friday afternoon can save hours of time on the road.  There is nothing worse than being stuck in traffic with small children!  You don’t want to make an already long trip even longer.  We usually leave early on a Saturday morning and if Kenny has to be back to work Monday, we wake up super early Monday morning to drive home and Kenny goes straight into work.  Often he will take Monday off as a travel day so we don’t have to drive on Sunday in all of the traffic.
Tip 2) Pack the car the night before and leave early in the morning when kids are in their calmest state.  I mentioned we leave early in the morning to avoid traffic.  We also do this because kids (at least our kids!) travel best in the morning.  We pack the car the night before and as soon as everyone rolls out of bed we hit the road.  The morning hours are always calmer times when everyone is rested and the kids are more content to relax in the car.  Parents often think “let’s leave in the evening so the kids will sleep on the drive…”  This usually backfires.  I know because I’ve done it.  And it usually backfires.  Because kids are so excited about the trip and are out of their normal routine they don’t sleep and instead are overly tired and hyper and much harder to travel with.

Tip 3)  Allow plenty of time for stops along the way.  You really have to learn to “enjoy the journey” when traveling with little ones.  Knowing you will make more stops and planning that extra time into your trip will make for a more stress free travel day.

Tip 4)  Pack each child his/her own little bag of snacks and fun things to do on the drive.  

I always pack my girls their own bag full of snacks and things to do on the trip.  This way I’m not handing stuff back to the them and they are always excited to see what I’ve put in their bag.  (They also get to pick out a few favorite toys to play with that go in their bags.)
Because Kole is still little, I keep a small bag next to me of things to occupy him on the drive.  A few of his favorite books, his favorite train, snacks, water, etc.

This is a fun little book that we took along with us whenever we traveled this summer.  Kole uses it in therapy and he LOVES it.  It’s a simple matching book/game for Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?  It would be so easy to make your own if you have a toddler who enjoys this book.  Just download matching pictures of the animals in the book and attach velcro so your child can match the pictures.

Kole finds the small animal that matches and places it on the big animal.  He “reads” the book while he does it and it’s the cutest thing.  He’ll say “bear..  what you see!?”  :)

A homemade matching book like this is perfect for traveling because it keeps little ones busy for a while.  It would be so easy to make a matching book with all sorts of pictures that little ones recognize.  I’d love to make similar books like this for Kole.  If only I didn’t need to sleep!  :)

Here are a few things I load the girls’ bags with:  coloring books, word searches, crayons, clip boards with blank paper so they can write letters or draw pictures….

Sometimes I toss in some homemade flashcards of whatever I’ve been working on with them.  For this trip Addison was working on adding doubles and Ellie was working on her three times tables.  Practicing their math facts isn’t their favorite travel activity, but sometimes I can get them to quiz each other and make it into a fun game.

I also toss in their Boogie Board Pads.  Same concept as an etch-a-sketch.  A fun writing tablet that you use a certain pen for and erase with the touch of a button.

Music is always fun for a long trip so we make sure to bring the kids’ favorite songs along.  This Wicked CD has been a staple in our car for a while now.  :)

I always pack the girls a few snacks of their own and just tell them when they can eat them along the way.  Wet wipes are a staple for dirty hands or spills and the black case holds our DVD’s – the ultimate survival tool for a successful long trip!  We are so grateful for our DVD player in the van.  We usually try to go as long as we can without a movie and then toss one on when the kids start getting restless and are tired of doing other things.  They aren’t a necessity but boy do they make traveling with kids (especially our two year old!) much easier.

Tip 5)  Don’t swear at the other cars on the road because your kids will hear and they won’t forget and they will remind you over and over that you said a bad word.  (This tip was brought to you by my husband.  Thanks to my girls he is working on his road rage.)  

:)
Happy Traveling!

 

xoxo, Erin
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New House
08.17.12

Let there be concrete!

Today was an exciting day for our project “new house.”  
We have concrete!  
 Kenny and I went up to the lot right after breakfast and it was so fun to see it buzzing with activity!  

 I have been so excited to finally get the foundation poured.  Now things should really start moving!

 Framing for the porch pillars.  :)

Kenny and our framers discussing the location of said porch pillars.
 We let the girls come up to see what all the excitement was about.  
 They won the crew over by hugging each one of them.  
My girls always hug new people they meet.  
It’s so sweet. 
Except for when it’s scary.    
But it was sweet today.  We have the NICEST men ever working on our house.  
They have all requested more banana bread muffins.  I will be busy baking this weekend.  :)

 Poor Kole had to wait in the van.  Can you imagine letting him loose on this scene!?  :) 
 Luckily there were lots of big trucks passing by to keep him entertained.  

 Kenny and I met back at the lot at 5:30 in the afternoon and this is what it looked like.  
YEA!  Foundation is set.  We can now officially walk on the floor of our new house.  

Exciting stuff!
Aside from everything happening with the concrete, this week we have also been plugging away at windows, design for all the built-ins, and the kitchen cabinet layout.  This stuff is fun, but SO time consuming.  It was great meeting Kenny at the lot today because that is the only time I have spent with him lately.  It’s well after midnight and he is still at work.  Whenever it’s IPO time I have to take a deep breath and gear up.  It doesn’t stand for Initial Public Offering to me.  It stands for time to be a single mom again.  I’m not complaining.  After 10 years I’m pretty used to the hours that come with my husband’s job.  Plus it is after all the reason we can afford this house.  (Maybe my blogging contribution can pay for the kitchen bar stools.)  HA!  ;)  It has just been a long, busy week and I miss my husband. 
But the weekend is here!  And we have concrete!  There is always something to smile about.  :)
One more week of summer for my girls!  
I want to PLAY with them as much as possible.  
Then school will start and hopefully I can finish some of the projects I’ve started around here.
Or at least be able to keep the house picked up for longer than 20 seconds.
Nah.  Who am I kidding!?
:)
Enjoy your weekend everyone!  
xoxo, Erin
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Addison
08.15.12

Top three pics this week

Three pics from this week that make me smile:    

The feeling’s mutual buddy.  

Do you ever wonder why Kole is always running around pantless?  (This isn’t a knock knock joke by the way).  He’s too fast for me.  It takes every ounce of will and strength I have to hold him down long enough to change his diaper.  By the time the diaper is securely fastened, the two of us are equally over it.

Kenny will give me a hard time for posting the ironing picture because it may give off a false impression that I iron his shirts often so let me clear that little misunderstanding up real quick.  I don’t iron.  His work clothes go to the dry cleaners and if my clothes or the kids’ clothes wrinkle often I get rid of them or we wear them wrinkled.  We have a “buy clothes that won’t need to be ironed” policy in this house.  But that husband of mine has been so busy.  Meetings in San Francisco last week, working round the clock on an IPO (initial public offering) this week.  Plus in his spare time he’s building me a house.  So I decided to iron a few new shirts he bought while Kole was napping.  El was swimming at a friends house and I told Addie she could either iron with me or we could invite one of her friends over.  She chose ironing and a movie with mom.  Love that girl.  We popped popcorn and called it an “ironing movie popcorn party” (I know – major originality points for that title are in order).

Speaking of popcorn.  Kenny came home late tonight and I decided to pop some more.  I must have set the microwave to 2 hours and 20 minutes instead of 2 minutes and 20 seconds.  Oops.  Didn’t notice until smoke was coming out of the microwave and the smell was so bad we could hardly breathe.  We’ve been airing the house out all night.  I really shouldn’t be trusted in the kitchen.  Or with an iron.  Today was a dangerous day for me.  

Short post tonight because I spent most of my blogging time scrapbooking!  WHAT!?  Crazy right.  I have so much stuff on my to-do list right now that I should have been doing instead.  But designing my scrapbook room has made me miss my hobby that I never have time for anymore.  So I made some time for it.  Simple Project Life layouts for Kole’s book – nothing fancy at all and it felt so good!

K – I’m off to bed.  As soon as I close the 15 windows that are open and turn off all the ceiling fans.

Clock just turned 12:01 so I guess I can officially say Happy Wednesday everyone!
:)
xoxo, Erin
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Ramblings
08.14.12

New Shoes

New shoes for my crew.  The girls were crazy about Sketchers Twinkle Toes.  They weren’t my first choice.  They girls begged and pleaded and I gave in.  Even though these shoes light up so much with each step they remind me of Times Square.  At least I’ll always see them coming!

I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t crazy about a pair of shoes.  When Addison saw the shoes Kenny bought she said “Dad!  You can’t wear those!  You’ll look like a teenager!  Like Troy on High School Musical!  People will think you’re my brother instead of my dad!”

Ha ha!  What she doesn’t know is that Kenny and I are teenagers.  Our kids keep getting older, but we haven’t aged a bit.

We’re still 15 and 17.  Same as the day we met.  We’re just playing house.  
Go ahead.  Call us Troy and Gabriela.  (Don’t we look the part?)  
And now we have kids who make fun of the things we wear.  
Which is terribly wrong.  
Since that is what I do to my parents.  
Because they are the ones who are aging.  
But not us.  
Kenny – you keep those shoes!  And I’m getting a perm.  
We’ll live on forever.
 And celebrate with a big box of Froot Loops.  
:)
xoxo, Erin
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New House
08.13.12

Weekend wrap-up

 Saturday morning we went to the beach.  

 Addie hunted sand crabs.  
Ellie hit the waves.  

 All three kids played in the sand and enjoyed a snack.  

 I soaked in the sunshine and took lots of pictures.  

 Kenny spent time in the ocean with the girls.  
Grins on all three faces for well over an hour.  

The little dude lounged in some shade.  
For a whopping 2.2 seconds.
Not long enough to give mom much of a break.  
But long enough to try on dad’s sunglasses giving mom a pretty adorable photo opp. so all was forgiven.  
Saturday afternoon included a shopping trip with the girls for new school clothes.  
Kenny and Ellie were good sports.
Addison and I could have shopped all night!
The two of us are positively giddy about our purchases. 
Church on Sunday.  
No pics because getting my crew ready and out the door on time Sunday morning is an unbelievable feat. And after church we are all in a race to see who can change out of dress clothes and into pajama’s first. 
It’s close, but I’m usually the winner.  
Then it’s afternoon nap time for Kole…
followed by a trip to the lot (everything is always followed by a trip to the lot).  :)
 And then some time at the park.

 Because the girls need space to ride.  (Safety first!) 

 And this boy needs space to run.  
LOTS and LOTS of space to run.
Two weeks of summer left!
We are cramming a lot in.
I say BRING IT ON!
And then LET IT END!
:)    
Happy Monday everyone! 
xoxo, Erin
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New House
08.10.12

Home Decor Binder re-do!

Last May Once upon a time while we were still house hunting I created this “home decor binder” to hold all of my magazine pages for inspiration.  I gave it a cute cover.

I added some “thickers” to make the inside cute.  Because if you are a scrapbooker you know that thickers make everything cute.

Then I created tabs for each category to file my inspiration pages.  Categories like mudrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, etc.  Everything was wonderfully organized.  

Except it wasn’t.  This binder has driven me crazy for the past year and because I am now using it almost daily, I knew it was time for a better system.  The problem was that it was too much work for me to keep punching holes in the pages.  Seems like such a little thing, but when you are constantly putting pages in and pulling pages out it becomes a pain and before long, my binder looked like this…

with all of the pages clumped together at the front and spilling out all over the place because I kept thinking I’d punch and categorize them later.

Problem with that thinking is that I have no time right now for laters.

Then (as I mentioned yesterday) I went back to Staples to bask in Martha’s office supplies once again and what did I find!?  ANOTHER aqua accordion file!?  Only LARGE!  How did I miss that the first time!?  I knew in an instant it was the perfect solution to update my home decor binder and make it more user friendly (ok – more Erin friendly).  :)

I dashed home and the second Kole was down for a nap I pulled all of my magazine clippings out of my old home decor binder and got to work re-organizing everything in piles.

 A pile for pantries and paint.    

 A pile for built-ins and laundry rooms.  

And a pile for everything else I could come up with that I need to remember for the new house.  Whenever I categorize things in piles like this whether it’s magazine clippings, photos for an album, kids’ school work, toys … whatever it is… I always tear apart sticky notes to quickly label each pile.  Then everything is in order out in front of me and I can start on the next step.

The for real labels!  My favorite!  :)
 This file has 12 pockets!  It’s huge!  

 It easily fit all of my magazine clippings with room to spare.  And I have a lot of magazine clippings!

Then it folds up nice and snug with the grey band that goes around the bottom.  Which is another huge bonus.  Much thinner and easier to store than that bulky binder.  Now I don’t have to worry about punching holes to keep things organized.  And it’s a breeze to find any inspiration picture I need in a snap.  Win Win.  I’ll take it!  :)

So now you know why I’ve been smiling lately.  My new built-in binder and home decor file are working like magic!  In fact, I have another idea of something else that needs organizing around here.  And it just so happens that once again, this large accordion file would make a fabulous solution!

Darn!  Guess I’ll have to head back to Staples.  
A woman’s work is never done.
:)
Maybe I’ll see you there!?
xoxo, Erin
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New House
08.09.12

New House Update/Organized Binder

This week has flown by as fast as the rest of this summer!  I can’t believe school is going to start in a couple of weeks – I know some of you have started already.  Didn’t kids just get out of school!?  Crazy how fast the days fly by.  Anyway!  Popping in to share a new house update.  We’ve been busy this week trying to figure out furniture placement in a few rooms because we had to tell our builder where floor plug outlets should be located.  Kenny and I may have had a fight minor disagreement over said plug outlets which amused us greatly the next day.  Seriously!?  We were arguing over plug outlets?  Yes my friends.  That is what building a house does to you.  It certainly won’t be the last time we disagree about something concerning this house.  The good news is that we have become champs at getting over disagreements in record speed.  That is what being married for 15 years does to you.  :)
I took the framing crew some banana bread muffins yesterday.  They loved them!  Those muffins are always a hit.  Which is a good thing since that’s pretty much the only thing I know how to bake.  We declared it our first breakfast in the new house.  :)  Can’t wait to have the crew over when the house is finished.  For banana bread muffins again of course.  Here are some pics I took of the lot last week…

Lots of trenches and underground pipes for plumbing!  Is anyone asleep yet?  
No?  Well then here’s a few more pics that I just took today…
This is the left side of the house and the pop out in front is Kenny’s office.  It will be a happy day when he doesn’t have to take a client call in our car in the garage.  :)  To the right of Kenny’s office is where our front door will be.  We have a porch with a front door and two doors coming off the sides of the porch – one into Kenny’s office and one into the mudroom (by way of my beloved dutch door!). 

A view from the left side of the house.  
A view from the back left corner which is our master bedroom.

Left side of the house again (guess I was too lazy to walk around and take any of the right side).  

View from the right corner of the house in front of the garages.  We have a gas trench inspection tomorrow and then hopefully by the end of next week they will be laying the foundation!  YEA.

 Ok.  So now you’re asleep.

:)
Let me wake you up with this fun binder I just bought.  You’ll never guess where I got it.  

That’s right my friends.  I had to go back to Staples!  Those office supplies by Martha Stewart have been calling my name ever since I bought my purse organizer.  It’s hard to see in this picture, but the binder has such a cool texture.  I also picked up some fun tabs and something else I’ll share in another post.  :)

I love this binder.  I love the color.  I love the thick side pocket… 
 I love the easy to open/close latch at the bottom of the rings. 
But I didn’t buy this binder just because it was so fabulous (although that is totally something I would do).  I actually really needed something to hold all of my ever-changing sketches for the built-ins for the new house.  It was getting too hard to view them all on my computer.  Plus I wanted to make notes directly onto the paper.  My cabinet guy and I are e-mailing back and forth almost daily making tweaks and changes to things and I needed a better way to organize everything.  
This binder is perfect!  

I used the yellow tabs for all of the closets, blue for all of the bathrooms, and green for everything else. Now when I need to find the sketches for a certain room it is so much easier to locate them!  This binder takes me to a really happy place.  :)

The pocket on the left has been perfect for holding miscellaneous papers/notes of things I want to remember.  There is so much to remember!

And here’s a peak of one of my favorite sketches…

This is a bird’s eye view of my scrapbook room/office.  I keep tweaking things in this room and it still isn’t finalized.  Can’t wait to move in and organize this space!  I’ll share more pics of these sketches at some point.  Unless the majority of you are more drowsy now than you were during the dirt pics.  Kenny has a funny way of instantly falling asleep whenever I bring up our built-ins.  Such a multi-talented man I married.

:)

Happy Thursday everyone!  
xoxo, Erin
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