Erin, Author at The Sunny Side Up Blog

Organization

02.20.13

Organizing pictures on your computer

Hi everyone! I thought today I’d share how I organize my pictures on my computer. You may remember that I ended my relationship with iphoto a while back. As much as I have loved my new Mac, I just couldn’t ever figure out a system on iphoto that worked as good for me as the system I have been using for years. And that’s the thing about organization. It’s really just about finding what works best for YOU. So I went back to my old system. And I have fallen in love with my old system all over again because I had a chance to see what else was out there. And it’s so true that you never really realize what you have until it’s gone. {tear}

(I can just hear Kenny singing Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” right now. He sings that song to me whenever I say anything even remotely sappy.)

Moving on.

I know this system won’t work for everyone, but it may give you a few ideas of how to organize your pictures on your computer. It will be especially helpful if you share a lot of your pictures on a blog. Which I do. :) So here’s what works for me:

When I open the folder on my computer marked “PICTURES” multiple folders pop up:

(**If my pictures of these folders are hard to read, just click on them to make them bigger)

I use a simple folder system for organizing all of my pictures. I love folders. My brain likes to see things laid out this way. On the first row, I have a folder for each year. Then under those folders, I have random folders for pictures that are grouped together for a certain purpose (Project Life pictures for the girls, Kole’s scrapbook, Digital Scrapbooking supplies, etc.)

Now let’s click on the folder “2011” —

Inside the folder for each year, I have a folder for each month. At the top I also have a folder called “pictures to organize.” When I download my pictures (I usually do this each night because I take pictures every day) all of the pictures go straight into this folder. I don’t have time each night to organize all of my pictures, so this folder is a resting spot for my pictures, but not their final destination.

Now let’s click on the folder “July” —

Inside each month I have one folder for blog posts and one folder marked “randomness” which is basically just every picture for that month that I want to keep but don’t end up posting. It works the best for me to organize my pictures by blog posts because that is how my brain remembers where my pictures are located. If I want to develop a picture of Kole brushing his teeth for his scrapbook, I remember that I had a post called “copy cat” with pictures of my little man brushing his teeth in July of 2011. If I can’t remember the exact month, I just pull up my blog and the date I posted will tell me where that picture is stored. If you don’t blog, instead of a folder titled “blog posts” you could just categorize your pictures similar to how I do for posts – by whatever common theme they have (4th of July, El’s birthday, painting the wall, etc.).

Now let’s click on the folder “July Blog Posts” —

Here I have a folder for each post I did this month (in order). I try to be specific about what pictures are in each folder to help me find pictures in the future.

Now let’s click on the folder of my previous post titled “Lots of Stuff” —

All of the pictures from my last post! And that is where my folders finally stop! I know. It’s folders, inside of folders, inside of folders… but this system has worked for me for so long. I just love having my pictures so nice and tidy in their happy little spot where they belong. :)

This system also makes things easy for me when I’m about to develop pictures for my kids’ scrapbooks. If I’m working on Addison’s book for the months May through August, I just go through each blog post folder for those months and each month’s “random” folder and pull any pictures that I want for her book. I move them to the folder on my main page called “PROJECT LIFE”, make any collages I need to and then send them off to be developed.

BTW – some of you have asked me how my albums are coming along since I haven’t been posting pics of them. Well, they’re not. I had great ambitions of getting so much done this summer and now I’m laughing at myself for even thinking that would happen! This summer has been so busy. But it’s ok. I’d rather spend this time making memories with my kids. I’ll record those memories later when they’re back in school. I’ll also shower, prepare meals, and do laundry when they’re back in school. A few other things that have also taken a back seat this summer!

So I’d love to hear your thoughts! What works for you with picture organization? Anyone do anything similar to what I do? No? Am I the only crazy folder lady out there?

I can live with that. :)

xoxo, Erin

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02.18.13

Organizers

Re-run #1 for the week! Ode to Organizers!

I told you I was going to post things that make me happy.

(Originally posted June, 2012)

————————————————————————————————————————

Hi friends! I’ve missed you the past few days. :) We are checking off our “end of school year to do’s” right and left around here. I can almost say one week down, one week to go. And that will be a happy thing to say. I haven’t been this excited for summer break since I was in school myself! I’m about to end what I’m hoping will be my craziest school year, although with new house stuff heating up and becoming more and more time consuming I think I’m in for one more crazy year. But no more crazy talk for now. Instead let’s talk about something fun. I have been planning my organization presentation for tomorrow night! And that is FUN. :) The basic outline for my talk is to first go over my tips for getting and staying organized. I’ll have a projector and computer so I’ll be able to pull my blog up on the screen so everyone can see pictures. Then I’m just going to share different ways I’ve organized some of the spaces in my home to give everyone ideas. I was thinking it would be fun to take some of my favorite organizers to share because I like visuals and well – I kinda like organizers too. But which ones? I have too many favorites! So I rounded some pictures up to help me decide.

{BASKETS}

Baskets are beloved organizers for sure. Here are some of the ways I use baskets to organize things in my home…

baskets in the pantry for food…

baskets in the living room for books and baby gear…

baskets in the bathroom to hold toilet paper.

(These last two pictures were taken in December. Makes me want to pull out the Christmas decor!)

Baskets in my closet for accessories like belts, hats, and scarves…

and in the laundry room for smaller laundry items.

{BINS}

Bins for blow dryers and curling irons…

bins in the playroom for toys…

bins in the linen closet for cleaning rags and supplies…

bins to organize wrapping supplies…

and doll clothes in the girls’ room…

and “currently reading” books in Kole’s nursery.

{CLEAR ORGANIZERS}

While I love a good basket or bin I’m also crazy about clear organizers! I love to be able to easily see the items I’m organizing.

Clear organizers in the pantry to organize food…

and in the fridge to organize more food.

Clear organizers in the garage to hold nails and clips and screws…

clear organizers in the girls’ room to hold bigger toys…

in the closet to hold smaller toys…

in the craft cupboard to hold craft supplies…

in the bathroom to hold bath toys…

and clear organizers in the playroom for even more toys. I know – have a toy, right!?

(Move over barbies! These bins have recently been taken over by trains and trucks.) :)

Clear organizers in the hutch to hold miscellaneous items like cords, decor, and remotes my husband won’t let me get rid of…

clear organizers to hold extra dolls/stuffed animals my girls won’t let me get rid of…

and a clear organizer that I’ll never get rid of.
For when the girls and I are in the mood to get fancy. :)

{RANDOM ORGANIZERS}

The rest of my favorite organizers are random. I like random and well – I kinda like organizers too. Have I mentioned that before?

A rack for magazines…

a case for cords…

some ribbons for bows…

dividers for clothes…

stackable shelves for canned goods…

and for spices.

A crate to hold files…

files to hold school work…

and folders to hold anything else I can come up with.

Boxes to hold keepsakes…

and Christmas decor.

And last but not least, drawer organizers for bathroom essentials.

WHEW! See why I’m having a hard time deciding on a visual?

Have a favorite. Or two or two hundred.

Wish me luck. :)

xoxo, Erin

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02.18.13

House to-do list and blog plans

Happy President’s Day everyone! I hope you are all well!

I have been working on my house to-do list tonight. Here are a few things I will be up to this week:

– finalize all cabinet/built-ins (they are starting production this week!)

– pick out the hardware for all cabinets/built-ins

– finalize front door design (will also be made this week!)

– choose brick (I just have a small amount of brick trim around the house between the rock and siding)

– pick out wood floors (we had some picked out but they don’t go with the grey color I am painting my islands. Bummer! Back to the drawing board.)

– finish picking out bathroom tile/counters (I have everything figured out except the laundry and girls’ bathroom).

– meeting for window coverings

– meeting with landscaper (pool coping, etc.)

– call stair guy to finalize and order posts/railings

– choose exterior paint color

Definitely enough to keep me busy and then some. :) Last week when I opened up about how overwhelmed I have felt lately many of you were so kind and understanding. I really appreciated the support! Because I have so many decisions/meetings I need to deal with this week I just don’t have time to blog. :( I was considering taking a week off but then I remembered a sweet comment I recently received:

“You know what I would like just as much as your new posts (which I LOVE)? Old posts, re-run! Have a 2 week re-run week! I promise we’ll all be happy!!!”

Lisa! First of all – that is so kind of you to say. Second of all – what a great idea! I am going to take your advice and have a “re-run” week on the blog. For those of you who are fairly new to my blog you might see a post you haven’t before. For those of you who have been with me a while you might enjoy re-reading an old post. Or you might do what Kenny and I do when we see a re-run on TV – get bummed and change the channel. :) That’s ok. I hope I don’t have to do this too often, but this is a week that I just need to focus on my kids and the house. And hopefully find a minute to take a shower. At least one. That’s all I’m asking for. ;) Then next week I will be back with lots to share!

So every day this week there will be a new/old post for you to read/not read. :) If you have an old post you’d like to see again, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to find it. If not, I’ll just pick some past posts that make me happy and share them with you one more time.

Again, thanks for understanding! Enjoy your day and I’ll pop in later with the first re-run. :)

(Thanks again for the great idea Lisa!)

xoxo, Erin

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02.15.13

Valentine gifts for teachers and friends

I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day! I don’t know about all of you but I ate way too much junk today. Way way too much. My kids weren’t the only ones on a sugar high! So since I’m all about the junk food right now (starting that diet tomorrow…) here are some pictures of part of my temptation today. I had so many pretzel snaps left over from December (we didn’t have time to make friends our annual Christmas Pretzel Hugs) and as you know I went crazy buying Valentine m&m’s this year…

So Valentine Pretzel Hugs it was!

An obvious (and fun) choice for teacher/friend gifts for Valentines day this year.

Addison and I have such a quick assembly line system with these babies.

I line up all the pretzel snaps while she unwraps the hugs…

Then we both place a hug on each one (a few may get eaten along the way)…

Then after they are melted to perfection (7 minutes at 200 degrees), I pull them out and pop some m&m’s on them and wa-la!

A delicious treat perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Or the day after.

Or the day after that.

I picked up some cute little owl sacks at Target.

Then I punched a small hole in each of the kids’ Valentines.

Then I just tied the Valentine on with a little red ribbon.

Simple. Cute. Done.

We had a plethora of these owl sacks all over my kitchen counter this morning but the girls left for school with most of them so I was only able to get a picture of these three for Kole’s therapists.

Later in the evening we delivered them to a few more friends on little plates. The more pretzel hugs to go around the better! That’s always been my motto anyway.

Kenny worked from home this afternoon while Kole napped so that I could help with the girls’ classroom parties. So much fun. The kids all had a great Valentines Day.

And me? Well Kenny got me a little something I’ve been wanting for a long time this year for Valentines Day. No flowers or chocolates for this girl. I finally got a label maker!! Oh my word! I’m flying high! Just you wait until we get moved into our new house! I’m going to organize and label every single thing we own.

And then some!

So romantic. My husband knows me well.

Happy weekend everyone!

xoxo, Erin

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Valentines Day

02.14.13

Kids’ pics and Valentines

So many sweet comments and e-mails after my last post. Thank you all! Turns out there are other moms out there who often feel the same way. Who knew? ;) I think it’s so important to be able to talk openly about the ups and downs of motherhood. And life in general! We all have our days and it’s nice to know that none of us are alone in feeling overwhelmed sometimes. Your open, encouraging, sincere words cheered me up immensely and helped to make this a much better week. So thank you friends. Thank you so very much.

A while ago I mentioned having our family pictures taken for our Christmas card and how I need to get some of them posted …

My darling friend Josie took our pictures this year…

Josie is a long time BFF of mine and our families love to hang out and vacation together (our husbands are friends from high school). We went to Disneyland together when I was pregnant and then Maui together when she was pregnant. Lately we have decided we desperately need a vacation where neither one of us is pregnant! To say I was excited to hear she was pursuing a career in family photography would be a huge understatement. I am THRILLED! I feel like I now have a professional photographer in the family. :) I’ll share some family pictures later but here are a few she took of my kids.

The pics were taken in my mom’s backyard while we were visiting over Thanksgiving and Josie’s kids were there. El was dying to run and play with them so we only got a couple of photos out of this little peanut. Love what we got though!

Kole just wanted to play in the leaves so most of his pictures looked like this —

But Addison? My little fashion loving diva. She was so proud of her missing tooth she could have posed and smiled all day. We got so many fun pics of her. Here are three of my favorite…

Thank you Josie! I adore every one and will treasure them always. (You can check out Josie’s photography blog here and her facebook page here). If you are in the southern Utah area I would highly recommend her! She truly has a natural talent for photography. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my friend. I’m saying that because she’s my friend and she’s GOOD. :)

Persnickety Prints had a great deal on picture Valentines and because I knew I would be short on time this year and because I loved the pics of my kiddos so much it was a great solution for us. I let the girls choose what pictures they wanted to use (they chose two pics each to mix it up).

The pic I used of my little man that I recently shared was taken by a different photographer early Fall.

I knew my girls would want to personalize their Valentines so I picked up this pack of blank colorful cards and envelopes at Target last week. I figured they could write a little note to include along with the picture Valentine.

While I was in therapy with Kole this week I put the girls to work! They were so excited to make them. They worked…

and they worked on their Valentines. I thought they would just write a little “happy Valentines Day” or “thanks for being a good friend” but oh no. They wrote individualized poems for each person in their class. Oh my word they were cute. And hilarious. Kenny and I had a good time reading through them all. :) I’m off to finish teacher gifts before bed. Enjoy your Valentines Day everyone!!

xoxo, Erin

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02.11.13

Can I just say…

Hello friends. Sunday night confession time. I am SO exhausted. Can I just say that being a mom is such hard work. How are you all doing it!? :) I feel like I am hanging on by a very thin thread lately. Last week just about did me in. Kenny was in San Francisco most of the week and I had too much going on. House meetings and regular therapy and additional assessments for Kole and El had a big project due for school and then Kole got sick and then Addie got sick again (which put me on ultra high alert since our weekend at the hospital). Kole was up in the night and not napping well so I felt a bit like I was in newborn land again getting little sleep. Up at 5:30 to get me ready and then everyone dressed and fed and lunches made and to school on time. Going going going until 8:00 when they are all in bed and then so much stuff to do before I can sit down. Clean the kitchen, do some laundry, answer e-mails, plan my schedule for the next day wondering how in the world I’m going to be in three places at once with sick kids. I had to drag Addie in her pjs to a speech assessment for Kole and it was raining and I forgot an umbrella. I felt like mom of the year. By Friday afternoon I was so burned out. I put Kole down for a nap, turned on a movie for Addison, walked over to my closet under the stairs and just started pulling everything out of it.

Ha! I don’t know what I was thinking!? I don’t think I was thinking! I didn’t really even need to organize this space and I knew I wouldn’t have time to put everything back the way I wanted it anyway! I just had to clean and organize something to feel some sort of control.

Please know that I am not complaining right now. I love being a mom. I love my life. I am blessed beyond what I ever could have hoped for. But some days and some weeks are hard. And I want to record the hard days right along with the wonderful days because it makes me appreciate the wonderful days that much more. Like I said, being a mom is tough. And you can’t really understand how much work it truly is until you become one. I feel tired and pulled in so many directions every single day. And since I’m being so open right now, can I just be honest and say that because of my current schedule I am having a really hard time blogging. In fact, I have considered taking a break. Putting my blog “on hold” for a bit. But every time I think I’m going to really do it I feel sad. I love blogging so much and I know that the second I stop I will miss it and I will miss all of you so much. Last week I got several e-mails from a few of you. Random thank yous from readers saying they enjoy my blog. The e-mails all made me cry. Big tears just rolled down my cheeks. They came at such a perfect time and reminded me of how much I love this blog and connecting with all of you. So thank you. Thanks to those of you who wrote last week and to all of you who have written or left a sweet comment in the past. Your kind words mean so much to me. And I am not taking a blog break. :) At least not right now anyway. But I am sending out a disclaimer that I might not be posting as often and my posts will most likely be LAME for a while. Until things slow down. And maybe they never will. But they better! They will.

Kenny is home this week (hallelujah!) and I spent a lot of time today getting on top of the house work so that next week will feel better. I whipped out this little list over the weekend:

My girls were really good to pitch in and help. They knew I meant business!

I also had them lay out their clothes for the week.

There have been several weeks that I haven’t done our little weekly outfit system because I forgot or I was just lazy and I always regret it! Mornings run so much smoother when we have outfits organized and ready to go.

And last but not least (for this ridiculously random post) –

I woke up to this Saturday morning. Can I just say that I KNEW as soon as I came up with my “no stuffed animals on the kitchen table” rule Ellie would figure out another place for her pandas to eat!

Feathers the owl even won a place at the table. Lucky little thing.
That girl makes me laugh.

Enjoy your Monday everyone!

And thanks for always making me feel like this blog is a safe place to vent. :)

xoxo, Erin

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Valentines Day

02.08.13

Valentine Ideas

I can’t believe Valentine’s Day is in a week! It snuck up so fast this year. My fingers are crossed that we have some time this weekend to work on the kids’ Valentines and a few other little projects in the works. I ordered Valentines for my girls this year because I knew our time would be limited (I’ll show you them next week!) but I thought I’d share a few of my favorite ideas I stumbled upon on-line. I love these three creative Valentines and if I didn’t have so much going on right now I for sure would have duplicated one of them! Maybe if you have little ones one of them will work for you this year?

Tammy Mitchell Designs

Three Moon Babies

Shorty Creations

So cute, aren’t they!? It’s probably good I didn’t have time to make them because I don’t know which one I would have picked! My girls are making their boxes in school this year but here are a few pictures of their past Valentine boxes if you need some ideas…

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02.07.13

making me happy (picture dump)

Sharing some pics from the past couple of weeks. Most of them are from my iPhone. Just a few things that are making me happy right now. :)

Ahhhhh! I’m home. In the Martha Stewart office supply section of Staples. I had a particularly lousy day last week so I decided to cheer myself up with a quick trip to one of my favorite hang outs. And I bought a new planner! With accessories! Squeal! And I haven’t had two seconds to organize it and it’s killing me! Hopefully this weekend. Gives me something to look forward to. :)

Thank you for the pick me up Martha.

El made “food” for her pandas. They’ve been eating with us at the table for every meal. Tonight we had homework and food and stuffed animals and art projects all over the place at dinner time and I felt like I was losing my mind! So starting tomorrow there is now a “no stuffed animals on the table” rule. I’m assuming the pandas will still join us. Just most likely nearby on the couch or floor.

Speaking of art projects – here is one the girls came up with last week. (And yes, it’s typical for my kitchen floor to look like this. No room at the table you know. The stuffed animals need their space.) They took one of Kole’s Huggies diaper boxes and cut it to pieces. I wasn’t sure what they were up to but before long they had made these…

El made a home for her pandas.

The foot prints are my favorite part.

And Addison made a home for her horses.

These two make me smile. When I’m not tripping over their toys and crafts. I just took my Christmas cards down. I was hoping to keep them up until Valentines Day but as you can see in this picture a few of them slowly started to fall so I took it as a sign. But I loved having them up for a while greeting me each day when I walked down the stairs.

My smart pop popcorn from Costco. This always makes me happy. When I hear it popping in the microwave it signals kids are in bed. Time to relax and blog and crack jokes with Kenny and veg out in front of the TV. I was not happy a few weeks ago when I went to Costco to buy it and it wasn’t there. I wasn’t about to leave that store without my smart pop! I went to the help desk and had them look it up for me and sure enough they had some but it was in the back and would take a minute to pull it out. I told them I’d wait. The man helping me clearly found me amusing and said “you’re pretty serious about your popcorn, aren’t you?” My reply: “you have no idea.” :)

Making me beyond happy right now is this picture. Our crew is getting ready to wrap the house for drywall and yesterday I got a call to come up and approve the window molding. Giddy doesn’t begin to describe my reaction when I saw this window! They nailed it! Exactly what I told them I wanted. I met the whole siding crew and hugged them all. They were excited that I was so excited. I don’t think they usually get that big of a reaction from some window molding. :) But ahhhh!!! Just picture that in white! My idea of heaven is a combination of The Container Store and white trim.

Oh and I guess Kenny and the kids would be there too. ;)

Snapped this picture driving yesterday.
I love seeing the reflection of the Palm Trees.

And speaking of trees Kenny and I started picking out the trees to go in our yard for the new house this week. It was so much fun tromping around the nursery! I’m going to have trees with leaves that change colors in the fall! I’m so excited about that! Not a big deal to many of you, but not so common around here. I tried to pick out a good mix of San Diego flowering trees/vines with a few trees/plants that remind me of Utah and Virginia. Next year when I decorate my mantel for fall I will have real leaves baby! :)

And a few pictures from the Cove during our last visit. It was a cloudy day but still fun to check out the seals and the scenery…

Kole was getting so mad at the birds for running away from him. It was hilarious.

The last time I took pictures at the Cove my girls were three and five! Oh my word.

That feels like last week. Look how little they were.

And here they are now. Obsessed with a game on dad’s Iphone instead of playing at the park with their little brother. As soon as I took this picture I took away the phone and told them to go and play and that they weren’t allowed to grow out of the park for at least another five years. If any of you have tips on how to make that happen I’d love to hear them!

Anything making you happy lately? :)

xoxo, Erin

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Valentines Day

02.05.13

A valentine snack

Thank you so much for the sweet comments and well wishes about Addison everyone! So kind of you all. They cheered us both up today. :) Addison is doing great and aside from a cough, breathing treatments, and constant hovering from mom she is back to her old self again. YEA.

Sharing a little Valentine snack I made for the kids on the first day of February.

Ordinary fruit is much more fun when you put it in a heart shaped bowl on an aqua platter.

A great way to kick off the new month! My girls loved it.

But a certain someone wasn’t all that impressed with my heart shaped bowl and my aqua platter.

First he ignored it.

Then he noticed it.

Then he ignored it again.

Then he picked out all of the strawberries and ran off with a red stained face.

Quickly followed by mom with a wet paper towel.

Happy February everyone! :)

xoxo, Erin

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02.04.13

Weekend at the hospital

Well! We had quite the weekend. My sweet Addison woke up not feeling well Saturday morning. By noon she was having a hard time breathing and by mid afternoon she was having a severe asthma attack (despite the breathing treatments we had been doing all day). Her little chest was heaving up and down so hard and she just couldn’t get enough oxygen. (Ad has childhood asthma and every time she gets even the littlest cold it goes straight to her lungs.) Kenny rushed her to Instacare and as soon as they saw how low her oxygen levels were they put her in an ambulance and rushed her to Children’s Hospital.

And that is where we spent the weekend. Well. Kenny and Addison spent the weekend there.

I popped in and out as much as I could with El and Kole.

Addison perked right up when she saw her sister. Especially since Ellie packed her a bag of her favorite stuffed animals, coloring books, and treats. In fact, when I took Kole home for a nap Ellie insisted on staying at the hospital. She and Addison thought it was quite the party hanging out on the bed, eating Popsicles and watching High School Musical 2 all afternoon. :)

The room had a beautiful view. Kole especially seemed to enjoy it. :)

Ad is home now and doing so much better. Her parents on the other hand are completely exhausted. I think I’ve cried more and slept less this weekend than I have in a long time.

She gave us quite a scare!

I am so grateful for my husband who didn’t think twice about missing the Superbowl and sleeping on a hospital couch so that he could park right by Addie’s side and take care of her every need.
I am also so grateful that it wasn’t worse and that she is home with us tonight.

Phew.

These kids are aging me.

xoxo, Erin

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01.31.13

My little boyfriend

Oh Mr. Kole. My little boyfriend. Exactly two months from today you will turn three. I don’t think you can turn three. You are too good at being two. In fact, you pretty much have the two year old thing mastered. :)

I can’t look at these pictures without smiling. They so perfectly capture your little expressions and personality. You are so much fun right now. And so much trouble. Fun and trouble all mixed into one. Your favorite thing to say is “not yet.” It cracks us up. Sometimes you say it so matter of fact. “Kole – it’s time to brush your teeth” — “not yet.” Sometimes you say it when you are mad and throwing a fit. “Kole it’s time for a nap.” NOT! YETTTTT!!!!!!!” You are still such a mommas boy. We are together 24/7 and we both prefer it that way. Sometimes if I’m away from you it feels nice to have a break. For about 20 minutes. Then I start to miss you and wonder what you are up to and I can’t wait to see you again. You love your sisters so much Kole. You call them “my Ellie” and “my Addie.” When they are at school you run around upstairs calling “my Ellie!” “my Addie!” “where are you!?” Then when I tell you they are at school you get mad and yell “not yet!” :) You also adore your daddy and get so excited to see him. I have a hard time getting you in bed at night because you don’t want to leave dad’s side. You still love your pillows Kole. You love to pile them all up on my bed and then tap all of us on the shoulder to “come play.” So we do. We all pile on the bed and play in the pillows with you. Your favorite is when dad tosses you high in the air on top of them all. You also love to cuddle. Our favorite time together is right after you wake up from your nap. I get you out of your crib and we come downstairs to the couch and we turn on Peppa Pig (your favorite) and then we cuddle. We cuddle as long as we possibly can. We are always bummed when our cuddle time is interrupted by life and the schedule. You love swinging at the park, practicing your ABC’s, riding in the car, Eggo waffles, taking baths, and your choo choo trains. You are working hard on your speech Kole. I am so proud of how hard you try and of all of the progress you’ve made this year. Your therapists adore you. Even though they say you have “compliance issues.” I have to suppress a smile sometimes when you are acting up in therapy. You love to stir things up and get a reaction. Like I said before, you are very good at being two. :) You are one big ball of energy Kole. You love to run and climb and jump and play play play and mess up your sisters toys and mess up the house and mess up the laundry and mess up whatever you can find to mess up. You make life messy. And I never thought I’d say this, but because of you, I’m starting to like messy too. I wouldn’t change one hair on your sweet smelling head little buddy.

At least “not yet.” :)

Love you so much Kole –

xoxo,

mommy

xoxo, Erin

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Organization

01.30.13

Paper control – a quick and easy solution

Once upon a time I had a kitchen drawer that looked like this….

but life got busy and before long it turned into this…

Yeah. A nice example of one of my organized spaces that became really difficult to keep organized. I took care of my recipes by re-organizing them in my aqua accordian file, but I still had mounds of paper I was trying to corral in this drawer. We don’t have a home office in my house so I have to get creative when it comes to paper control! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know I have paper organized in Kole’s room, the closet under the stairs, and in kitchen cupboards… just to name a few places. :)

What has been working well for me when it comes to paper control is the system I use for my kids’ school work before I put it in their albums. So I decided to copy the same system for the papers I was attempting to organize in my kitchen drawer.

I picked up a $5 crate from Staples. (The crates are my favorite because I don’t like lids on the top of my files. I want to be able to access things quickly and easily.)

Then I ordered my favorite hanging file folders on Amazon because they didn’t have them at Staples. And they are my favorite. Did you want to hear more about them?

Good! Because I’m excited to tell you about them!

They are the Pendaflex Ready-Tab hanging folders and you can find them here.

I love them because of the built in tabs that easily lift up and down. And the fun colors. And because of the built in tabs that easily lift up and down. Did I mention that yet? They are my favorite!

Is my love affair with file folders scaring anyone? They make me almost as giddy as sticky notes. :)

K. We can move on now.

I pulled all of the paper out of the drawer and separated everything into piles. I quickly realized that aside from phone numbers, most of it was miscellaneous information for the kids.

So I gave each of my kids their own folders and within two minutes I had a much better system for my paper piles! I think this system works so well for any paper you want to organize. Much easier than digging through a drawer to find what you need.

I ended up with extra folders that I’m keeping in the back so that when random paper comes in that I need to hold onto I can easily create a new folder. There was also enough room in the back to store my home decor files and my built-in binder. Bonus. :)

I safely tucked this crate on the side of my couch in the living room. It’s my hidden little spot where I keep must haves for every day.

The corner basket holds my camera and video camera (a goal of mine is to film my kids more this year!). Next to that are books the girls are reading for our D.E.A.R time each day (more about that in this post).

Then I have Kole’s diapers and our favorite throws in the other two baskets.

Our daily essentials for the living room. :)

It’s not my ideal spot for paper control, but it will do for now!

At least it’s working better than the kitchen drawer. :)

xoxo, Erin

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