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Ellie and Addison
06.28.12

Tidbits on Thursday

I was sorting through my pics tonight and this one made me smile.  I’m so happy it’s summer because once again I can control what my kids are (and aren’t) eating.  Too many times their lunch boxes would come home with all of the healthy stuff still neatly packaged and the fishy crackers?  Not a trace.  Even my napkin note reminders weren’t helping much.  Well those days are long gone!

Not only are the kids eating better under my 24/7 watch, but in true I’d rather be doing anything than cooking Erin fashion, I’ve also turned a lot of the food prep over to them.  It’s clear from the picture above that they enjoy it as much as I do.  

Daddy’s home!  This little guy gets so excited when his dad walks in the door.  
(The feelings mutual little buddy). 

He also gets pretty excited for his nap.  You can tell from this picture of him peeking out of his hiding spot right after I gave him his binkie the other day.  It’s always a fun game of chase we play, but once I catch him, he admits defeat, rubs his little arm, and puts his head on my shoulder while I carry him to his room.  And the latest?  He just started blowing me kisses from his crib.  I melt into a puddle as soon as I close the door.  Then shortly after melting, I book it to get as much as is humanly possible done during those precious two hours.  Funny how I’m always so excited to put him down for a nap and have a break, but after about two hours, I start to miss him and I’m ready for him to wake up.  Then 10 minutes after he wakes up I’m wishing there was a nap #2 in my future.  :)

Just before school let out I shared all of the fun teacher gift ideas I rounded up on-line.  For the girls’ teachers I decided to copy Jen’s “Creative Juices”gift idea.  I totally spaced putting the candy in the cups, but it was still a fun way to jazz up some Jamba Juice gift cards.  
I told the girls to get in the tub this evening and came upstairs 10 minutes later to find this:

American girl dolls are taking their baths too!  I smiled when I saw the sink drains pulled up even though there’s no water .  I also got a kick out of their “robes” sitting next to them for when they get out.  So clever since they know these dolls can’t get wet.  Stuff like this seriously makes my day.  
And while I’m on the subject of things that make my day, I am so in love with Williams Sonoma dish towels!  I bought these fun towels for a couple of friends’ birthdays last month and had to pick me up a set too.  They are so durable and just the right size for drying the counter or dishes.  Plus I love the colors for this time of year!
I also picked up some fun summer clothes for the girls.  These cute stripped tanks and solid skirts were $5 bucks each at Children’s Place!  Can’t beat that for comfy (Ellie approved) summer attire.  

And how cute are these new Reefs for my little shadow?  He HATES them.  Can’t stand the feeling of something in between his toes.  It’s kind of hilarious when I put them on him.  He walks around funny for a minute and then sits down and starts trying to pry them off.  I’m sure he’ll get used to them at some point.  And he’s got time.  Flip flops work year round in our neck of the woods.

 So what have I been up to with my girls taking over kitchen duty and Kole spending all of his spare time hiding from me and figuring out how to take off his new shoes?

 I’ve been organizing of course.  :)

This was my kitchen at around 2:00 in the afternoon yesterday.  
And I’m almost done with my little project!
“Afters” to share next week, but here’s a peek at the labels I used…
Is everyone else as in love with Martha Stewart’s new office supplies at Staples as I am?  I was in Staples today and for a minute while I was looking at all of her labels and paper organizers I think my heart stopped beating.  It quickly started again when Kole almost tipped the cart over trying to escape and Addison tried to “help” by screaming at him at the top of her lungs.  But I didn’t mind.  I was long gone in my happy place and walked around with a spring in my step the rest of the day picturing all of the organizing that is going to take place once I move into my new house.  Oh the joy!  
Organizing, shopping, and time with my kiddos.   
So far, this summer is off to a great start.
:)  
xoxo, Erin
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Ellie and Addison
06.27.12

Q & A – photography tips/background

Hi everyone!  It’s Q & A time.  :)  
Could you tell us more about your photography?  What camera you use?  How you got started?


Can you share some photography tips?  
Your camera work is great.  Can you tell us more about it?  Did you take a class or read a book or just read the instruction manual that came with your camera?  ;) 

I’ve had multiple questions about photography lately and I have to say that I don’t feel worthy to answer them!  My photography skills are a work in progress and far from fabulous, but they are better than what they used to be so I’m happy to share how I got where I am.  I bought my first SLR in March of 2009 and I’m still using that same camera.  It’s the Canon Rebel XSI and by now there are similar cameras with much cooler features and upgrades I’m sure.  I did take a class when I first got my camera because I had no clue how to use it.  BUT.  I felt like I learned NOTHING in that class.  Most of the people in it were used to using SLR’s and everything was way over my head.  I guess I needed an even more beginners beginner class.  :)  So after the class I read a few on-line tips (no books…and do people ever read those boring instruction manuals?) and then I did what I’ve been doing ever since.  I take a lot of pictures.  I take pictures every single day.  And when you take pictures every single day you start to learn a thing or two about your camera.  Without really trying to, you learn about photography.  That is my best advice I would give to anyone starting out.  Forget the classes and the manuals and just take TONS of pictures.  Play around with your camera.  Try out different settings in different lighting and see what you get.  Keep your camera out all the time so you can easily grab it and snap away whenever you get a minute.  Practice, practice, practice.  That’s how I’ve learned everything I know.

Another important tip I’ve learned from taking so many pictures is to pay attention to what’s in the background of your photo.

Quick example:

Here’s a picture I took for a Fashion Friday post of a couple of my necklaces.  I took this in my bathroom and I could tell the lighting and the blah tile background weren’t ideal.  
So I took a picture of the same necklaces on my living room coffee table with natural light coming through the window.  HUGE difference.  The necklaces look like they are supposed to.  Everyone knows that natural light is better for photography, but it’s important to also remember what a huge difference background makes.  I always try to clear the background of any clutter that might take away from my picture and if it’s a staged picture like the one above for my blog, I look for a background that will make my object stand out.  If I’m taking close-ups of the kids and don’t have time to clear the background (you have to catch those moments so fast!) I usually blur the background like in this photo:
This is so easy to do with a good lens which is my next tip.  Invest in a good lens!  It makes all the difference.  I have two fixed lenses (Christmas gifts from Kenny) which means they don’t zoom at all. They take beautiful pictures.  One of them is the Canon 28mm (my every day lens) and the other is the Canon 50mm (I use this once in a while for pics of the kids).  With both of these lenses I am able to get a lower aperture setting which allows more light in my photos and makes it so I can blur the background.  
My next photography tip when taking pics of your kiddos (or any people) is to take less of the “say cheese” photos and try to catch them interacting with each other.  I have learned through taking tons of pictures that my favorites are always when I catch my kids just being themselves.  
Quick example:

This picture cracks me up!  It was Valentines day and I was trying so hard to get a good picture of the kids.  Trying to get all three of them to look and smile at the same time, AND get them all in focus with Kole whipping all over the place was NOT happening. After taking about 15 pics that looked just like the one above I finally decided to stop taking pictures for a minute and to just let the kids interact with each other.

Then after a few minutes, without them even paying attention, I stood on my coffee table and took this picture from above.  I love this picture.

There are so many camera tips I could bore you with.  They are technical things that you can learn about on any photography website or in any camera manual.  But honestly, these are the things that have improved my photos the most:
-Take LOTS of pictures (keep your camera close by!)
– Pay attention to the background
– Invest in a good lens
– Catch kiddos in their natural state 

I talked about this in my “photography – lesson learned” post but honestly, when it comes to taking pictures, capturing moments like these:

far outweigh getting a technically perfect picture any day.  So while the technical stuff helps, it’s what is going on in the photos that make the best pictures.

My last piece of advice is to focus on that.  

:)

xoxo, Erin
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Mom Adventures
06.26.12

Chore Chart

Hi friends!  I started a Q & A post tonight but it is now well after midnight and I am nowhere near finishing it.  I clearly have more to say than I have time to say it.  As is always the case.  :)  It also didn’t help that I was trying to watch The Bachelorette at the same time and got totally sidetracked.  I can’t ever decide which is better entertainment.  That show and all of its nonsense, or my husband’s witty commentary during it.  Either way, it was an entertaining night to say the least and it kept me from finishing up my planned post.  So for now since I’m short on time I just wanted to quickly share my girls’ chore chart since several of you asked what chores I was having my girls do each day for their star charts.  A lot of charts are happening around here.  :)
Two years ago when I had baby #3 it became painfully obvious how much I was babying my girls.  Suddenly I was too busy to do every single thing for them and they were clueless as to how to take care of themselves.  Little things like fix and clean up their own snack, run their own bath water, and put away their own clothes were too much for them to handle.  Why take care of yourself when mom always does everything for you?  So since then I have given my girls daily chores and I have tried to teach them how to be more independent.  I am my own worst enemy when it comes to this sort of thing because as you may have noticed by now, I’m a bit of a control freak.  Especially when it comes to keeping my house in order.  It has been a learning process for me to be able to “let go” and turn some things over to the girls even if it means things aren’t done as perfectly as I like them to be.  Kole has forced me to mellow!  It’s a good thing.  HE is a good thing.  :)
Anyway, on to the chore chart!  
This is a simple list of chores I now expect my girls to do each day.  It hangs in their bedroom where they can easily see it.  My girls are 6 & 8 years old and it feels like just enough responsibility for them (and it works with our schedule).  At the end of the night we do a quick clean up before bed and they are always in charge of their bedrooms, bathroom, and playroom.  They know that if they do a better job keeping these spaces picked up throughout the day they will have less to do at night before they get to read stories with dad.  The girls also put away all of their own laundry.  Whenever I fold the clothes I just lay their clothes out on their bed and they put it away when they notice it.  I also added on the chart a few simple things we are working on under the category “clean up after yourself.”  I’m trying to teach them to be more mindful of taking care of the little things.  The constant little messes they make and just leave for someone else to clean up.  That someone always being me of course.  They also know to ask me if there is anything else I need help with.  Most days there isn’t because we run out of time and after picking up their rooms and doing laundry they are burned out, but every once in a while I have them help with other random chores… dusting, picking up the downstairs, and sweeping (that’s always a favorite).  I also do a lot of quick pick ups with the kids where I say “pick up 10!” and they have to pick up ten things off the floor and put them away as fast as they can.  Kids respond much better to chores when it feels like a game.  If we have quite a bit of cleaning to do upstairs at the end of the day I turn on music and we dance and sing while we clean.  It gives us all the extra boost of energy we desperately need at the end of the day.  
Our chore chart is far from fancy, but the expectations are specific (my girls need specifics!) and it gets the job done.  
**Update on the star charts.  Both of my girls got all of their stars last week and we have play dates with friends lined up this week to celebrate.  We also watched a movie together – The Incredibles.  The girls decided promptly after the show that the three of us are called The Freckle Girls and we all have super powers.  We do a “FRECKLE GIRLS… UNITE!” chant with hand motions that gets us pretty pumped up about saving the world.  One freckle at a time.  
:)
xoxo, Erin
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New House
06.25.12

New neighbors and lot pics

Our new neighbors broke ground on their house this week!  They had a ground breaking party yesterday to celebrate.  Kenny and I feel like we lucked out big time with our new neighbors.  We love them!  We are in between two darling families.  Both have kids – one neighbor has five and the other four!  This is a bit rare in my area.  There seems to be a two kid average around here.  One neighbor is a surgeon and the other is a plastic surgeon so aside from having a kid friendly neighborhood, we are also covered on the doctor front.  If one of the kids’ get hurt – covered on the right!  If one of the moms need a Botox boost – covered on the left!  ;)  

We met in the cul-de-sac of our new little neighborhood, ate food, and then went up to their lot for a quick ceremony with shovels.  Such a cute idea and it was fun to meet friends of our new friends.

Seeing their lot with a fence around it in phase one construction mode made me so excited to break ground!  Their lot is pretty much identical to ours.  Both lots are shaped like rectangles.  Deep back yards – another rarity for my neck of the woods.  I am so grateful that the timing worked out and we were ready to jump on our lot when it popped up for sale.  And that I was somehow able to convince my husband (who swore that we were never going to build) that we needed to build.  Still don’t know how I pulled that off but I’ve patted myself on the back for it every day since.

 Of course Kole was in his element with all of the dirt piles.  

 Good thing dad was close by to assist when needed.  Every explorer needs a wing man.  

View from the back of our neighbors’ lot.  We had to get creative with the shape of our house when we were designing it because of the rectangle shape of the lot.  I wanted the house to have a lot of windows (I love light!) and Kenny cares a lot about the yard, so we designed things in a way to maximize the light and to make the back yard feel private.  My architect joked with me when I kept asking him if I had enough light that I would be walking around my house wearing sunglasses.  Which is good.  Because I need a new pair and that is a pretty good excuse to splurge on one.  
A few more lot pics…
 Yes – those are my girls.  The ones in dresses scaling the construction equipment.  

 Gate to our new neighborhood.  The lots are at the top of the little hill to the left of the picture.  

 View of our lot from the front.  Our garages will stick out on the right side.  This will all be much easier to visualize when I can share a photo that actually has something in it other than weeds.  :)

Side view.  
Addie was jumping up and down so I decided to join her.  You know how you see all those cool pictures of people in mid air?  And everyone looks so fabulous and athletic and happy and carefree!?  

Yeah well we tried to pull one of those off and failed miserably.  Instead I got this picture of me doing a  sad little jump with my butt sticking out to the the side and all of my hair in my face and a husband who wasn’t in the mood for re-takes.  Oh well.  Addie looks cute and the two of us have the happy part down.  We could have got there.  20 pictures later… I’m confident we could have got there.

So I know that I’ve now bored you all to death with pictures of DIRT but oh how I love this dirt!  And I needed to post this for my own family records.  You know.  For the someday when I have time to make all of my family blog posts into books.  I might be 65 before I get around to it, but someday it will happen.

We signed all of the construction loan papers tonight and these are the last pictures of the lot before we break ground (if all goes as planned – two more weeks!).  That reminds me of the show The Money Pit with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long (“two weeks!”).  Love that show.  Love my lot.  Love that pretty soon this dream of mine is going to start becoming a reality.

And now the time has come for me to stop boring you all with pictures of dirt and bath tubs.

At least for a few days.  :)

Happy Monday everyone!  
xoxo, Erin
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Family
06.22.12

Tub advice and Utah pics

Happy Friday everyone!  Ok.  I had some fun Fashion Friday pics I was going to post tonight and then this afternoon I received e-mails of the first drafts of ALL of my built-ins for the new house!  {SQUEAL!}  I’ve spent the last two hours pouring over the sketches and making notes of everything I want to change.  Bathrooms, laundry rooms, mudroom, scrapbook room, closets (hello my new master closet!  I’m dying to meet you.)  Very exciting stuff.  :)  And time consuming.  Have I mentioned yet how time consuming building a house is?  I’m sure many of you who have been through this are well aware.  And things are just getting started.  So I’ll have to go through my Fashion Friday pics sometime  next week.  For now I’m just going to apologize.  For the next year.  For the absence of posts and/or the lameness of posts.  Because I’m sure there will be plenty of both.  My mind is swirling every minute of every day with all of the decisions that need to be made.  And we all know that I suffer from a severe case of DMD (decision making disorder).  When I told my family we had decided to build they all just shook their heads.  (Erin?  Is going to make a million decisions?  Under a time crunch?)  I’m going to have to work hard to prove them all wrong.  While I truly do know what I want for this house, there are a handful of little things that are popping up that I’m just not sure about.  And since I don’t want my family to be right to constantly bother my family for a second opinion, I’m going to have to bother all of you.  :)   So first decision of many I’m going to ask you all to help me make!  
Master bath tub.  I’m really torn.  
I LOVE the look of a free standing tub:

SO pretty, right!?  But I’ve never taken a bath in a tub like this and I really love a good bubble bath.  I don’t want a tub that just looks pretty.  I want something that is comfortable too.  So I’d love to hear your opinion on all things bath tub!  
 Would something like this be more comfortable?  Which look do you like best?  If I go with the tub in the first two pics, would it bug me to not have room around the tub to set things?  
Thank you so much for your tips/advice/opinions!  I need them all!  :)
And since I’m already up too late (what’s another half hour, right?) … here are some pics I never got around to posting from our last quick trip to Utah for my dad’s retirement party.  I love being at my parents’ house in the summertime!  

 Kole loves being there too.  He never leaves the backyard.  Little explorer.  

I had to laugh one afternoon when I went out to check on him and he had snuck into the strawberries and carefully taken one bite out of each, leaving a little trail in his path.  

Then his cousin and partner in crime had a better idea.  
(C’mon over here buddy.  Our mom’s are too busy chatting to notice that I made off with a whole bag of circus cookies…)
 BUSTED!!
Oh my word.  That picture of them caught with their hands in the cookies (literally) cracked me up!  
Kole’s straight out of the pool hair just makes it that much better.  
:)

A couple more of the wild diaper bandits:

 Aside from a dip in the pool, we also threw a quick family birthday party for my little Addison.

Still can’t believe she’s six!  
Love this little character.  :)
Happy weekend everyone!
xoxo, Erin
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Mom Adventures
06.20.12

Star Behavior Charts re-born!

They’re back!  My star behavior charts.  The same star behavior charts I made for my girls in 2009 when they were 3 & 5 years old.  The same star behavior charts that I pull out every summer when we need a little extra something to keep us on track.  
These babies never disappoint!  My girls were so excited to see their star charts again.  These charts were worth every minute I spent making them.  Back in the day when I had time to draw perfect lines with a ruler and hand stamp letters individually and hand cut stars out of a banner – twice!  Because what good is a chart that isn’t laminated? 
Ahhh… let me take a minute to remember and bask in the glory days…  
:)
What I did manage to find time for was setting some new goals for my girls this summer.  Attitudes need to be kept in check, daily chores need to be completed, and homework (from mom) does happen around here every summer.  (The school teacher in me always comes out this time of year!  More on my low key summer school routine later.).  Kole’s therapy happens at my house 2 hours a day for three days a week and the girls are fending for themselves during this time.  They get a star for playing quietly in their room and not interrupting his session.  And of course – no fighting.  

They are allowed one warning because perfection is an impossible goal, but usually all I have to say is: “oh – I hope that isn’t a bad attitude I hear because you wouldn’t want to not get a star tonight!” and wa-la!  All is calm again.

We also came up with some rewards if the girls meet their goals.  My girls LOVE to sleep in the same room in their bunk beds.  We stopped letting them do this on school nights because they can’t control themselves and they stay up WAY too late talking and playing.  So during the school year sleeping in the same room is a weekend treat.  Since it’s summer and the girls can stay up later and sleep in a bit I told them that if they get all of their stars each day, they can sleep in the same room that night.  Works great because they have something that reinforces their good behavior instantly each night.  If they get all of their stars for the whole week, they get to pick one of the other rewards we came up with together.  Playdate with a friend, yogurt or cupcake (we love visiting two little shops for these fun treats), movie with popcorn (my girls watch movies all the time but if Kenny and I actually sit down and watch one with them and pop popcorn it’s suddenly a special treat), and dinner of choice (McDonald’s here we come).  When I first made these charts one reward was a surprise at Target.  DUMB idea.  We were buying a new toy every weekend.  Now I make sure the rewards are things that are easy to pull off.  They are actually things we often do anyway – but it’s good for the kids to know they are special treats and not always just a given.  Am I right or am I right?  :)

The stars velcro on and my girls love putting on their own stars.  They can’t wait to do it at the end of the day!  Even though it took a little more time, I’m so glad I made a separate chart for each of my girls.

Charts after day one.  They got all stars again today after I took these pictures.  :)  Ellie is keeping things neutral with one color choice.  
 Addison decided a rainbow was much fancier.  That child of mine is in the business of being fancy.

These charts have yet to let me down.  Like with most things involving children, consistency is key!  I’ve found that a little extra motivation can be a very powerful thing.  :)

Anyone else doing something special to keep kiddos on track this summer?  I’d love to hear about it!

p.s.  You can see my original Star Behavior Chart post here (my girls look so little!).  If you are in my current camp and have NO time to come up with a cute color coordinated system like this one, don’t fret!  You can always re-create the three kids vs. two kids Star Behavior Charts I made after I had baby #3.  Those worked like a charm as well.  :)

And while we’re on the subject of having no time – do you love that we are over half way through June and I still have my Spring blog header up!?  Nice.  At this rate I might as well skip a Summer header and jump straight into Fall.  Of course here in San Diego our seasons all feel the same anyway.  Guess I’m not that behind afterall.  ;)

xoxo, Erin
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Ellie and Addison
06.19.12

Recent and Random

See the silver clock on this picture of my mantel from a couple of years ago?  It was the first thing I bought for our current house about ten years ago.  When our house was being built I started getting so excited to finally decorate a place of my own.  Kenny and I had only lived in apartments up to that point and all of our furniture was either leftovers from family members or wedding gifts (and we were so poor we were lucky to have what we did!).  But Law School was almost over and Kenny and I both had real jobs waiting for us in California.  So I decided it was time to break free of our poor struggling student chains!  I went to Pottery Barn (because what better place to stage a break out) and bought this clock.  It was around $45 and I remember feeling like it was such a splurge!  I winced at the checkout counter when the lady rang it up and days later I almost took it back.  I felt so guilty spending that much on a clock!  But I didn’t take it back and it is still in my house today and is a fun reminder of how exciting it was to finally pick out my own home decor for a place of our own.

So when I was out shopping last week and just happened upon a Pottery Barn (it’s a true mystery how I always seem to end up in that place…)

I saw this vintage iron tiered basket set.  And it spoke to me.  And I decided it needed to be my first new purchase for my next new house.  On sale for around $45.  Just like my clock.  Only this time I didn’t wince at the checkout counter.  :)

You all know I have a thing for baskets.  (I was reminded of how many I have when I had to move one basket out of the way to take a picture of the new one!)  And to be honest, I have NO place for this in my house right now.  I am just going to patiently wait until I get into my new house and then find its purpose!  

I can use it to hold bathroom essentials like it is displayed in the PB catalog, 
Or for fruit in the kitchen like my current tiered baskets.   Or maybe for scrapbook supplies in my office…  SO many possibilities!  I get giddy just thinking about it.  :)  
And if none of those ideas work, Ellie pointed out that it would make the perfect home for her Littlest Petshops.   I have to admit, that cat does look nice and cozy.  
Another fun purchase I made months ago – this organizer for my kitchen…

Isn’t it fun!?  Found it at Home Goods.  When Kenny saw it he said “oh great.  You bought another stacker so you can stack more stuff.”  He clearly doesn’t get it.  I want to paint my “stacker” and make fun new labels for whatever I do decide to stack inside.  It’s located next to our garage door so I’m thinking it will be great for cell phones, keys, wallets, miscellaneous stuff the kids need each day.  One more thing on my list of future projects!


 Today was our first day of summer and Ellie spent in on the beach!  She is doing her lifeguard camp again (pics are from last summer) so she is one happy girl.  And my car is one sandy mess.  As it will be for the next two weeks.

I managed to keep my other two entertained.  A living room fort was made just in time for Kole to destroy it.  (So glad to see Kenny’s law school books finally being put to good use.)
While Kole napped, I balanced my checkbook and Addison made necklaces.  Then I decided her project look a lot more fun than mine so I joined her.  We paraded around the rest of the day in our new jewelry.  Addison told me when I put her to bed that “the necklaces stayed fashionable all day long.”
  
That they did.  :)

 Of course once Ellie was home the kids entertained each other all afternoon and it made me so happy!  I was just soaking in the fact that we didn’t have anywhere we needed to rush to.  Nowhere we needed to be.  Just free time to do whatever we wanted!  Kids played in the backyard.

I turned on my go to for music – “Pandora” – internet radio on the TV.  I have it set to play “Lenka” music.  I love Lenka and it plays not only her songs but anything else that sounds at all similar to her.  I did a little cleaning…

 reviewed my house plans for the thousandth time…

 and attempted to organize my mountains of new house stuff that I still need to go through.
On tomorrow’s agenda:

Tackle the homework drawer.  Things got a little crazy the last few weeks of school!  
And the craft drawer.  Which clearly needs some love before the kids can get creative this summer. 

I pulled out my list from last January and updated it a bit.  Slowly but surely I’ll tackle all of the spaces I want to organize this year.  Summer is a great time to organize.   Right along with Winter and Spring and Fall.

But I’m so happy that summer is finally here.    
:)
xoxo, Erin
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Family
06.18.12

Thanks for the little things

I hope everyone had a great Father’s Day!  I just wanted to gush over the father of my children (yes – it really is you Kenny) one last time today so that there isn’t a doubt in his mind regarding how much he is loved.  I would have posted this earlier, but I was in full on kid mode ensuring that Kenny got his  father’s day nap and break from bedtime duty.  :)
————————————————————————————————————————
Kenny, 

these three think the world of you.
And I guess you’re kinda growing on me too.  :)
Thanks for all of the little things.
Thanks for taking the girls to school every morning. 
And reading to them every night.
Thanks for calling each day to see how I’m doing.
And for smiling at me when you walk in the door each night.
Thanks for your constant sarcasm each evening.  
It makes me laugh and snaps me out of my zombie like tired mom state.  
Thanks for taking me to the So You Think You Can Dance concert four years in a row.
And for letting us build this house since we both know it’s my dream and not yours.
Thanks for being so on the ball all of the time.  
For thinking ahead and being the master planner that you are.
Thanks for putting everyone in this family before yourself. 
For working such long hours to provide a nice life for us all.
Thanks for dealing with all of the estrogen that flows through this house on an hourly basis.
For enduring countless meltdowns.  
For watching countless barbie movies.
And for gluing countless dolls back together.
Thank you for being the kind of dad that you are.
For being so hands on raising our kids.
I could NOT do it without you.
Well, I could. 
 But my zombie like tired mom state would be a constant and it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. 
Really though.
I could NOT do it without you.   
Just wanted to let you know that I notice the little things.  I notice them every single day.  
So do the kids.  
And they have their own reasons to love you.
A whole wall of them.  :)

 I agree with Addison – you ARE so nice and handsome.  
I also totally agree with Kole’s words of wisdom.  No translation necessary.  

 Thanks for enduring so much abuse on a daily basis.  
You really are an amazing dad.
And you know I’m right.  
Because I’m always right.  :)

 We all love you to pieces!
Happy Father’s Day babe.  

xoxo, Erin
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Ellie and Addison
06.15.12

School Days

I made it!  Tomorrow is the girls’ last day of school!  WOOT WOOT!  I know many of you have been enjoying summer for a while, but not us!  The last few weeks have been so busy and I can’t wait until Monday morning comes and I can sleep in!  And by sleep in I mean wake up to Kole babbling at 6:30 instead of the alarm clock at 6:15.  Still.  It feels different.  :)  And no more making lunches and homework!  I know.  2nd grade and Kindergarten homework isn’t too painful, but still.  We are ready to set our own schedule for a while.  Kenny and I are celebrating tonight by starting Glee.  We’ve never seen Glee because with a lot of shows we like to wait until summer so we can start a series and stay up ridiculously late watching one right after the other.  (Hello Jack Bauer marathon that lasted three summers long.  Jack – you were in our thoughts tonight.  Well, at least mine.)  
My girls have had SUCH a great year.  They both had wonderful teachers and have grown so much.  I’ve had a great year too.  Lots of highlights and memories.  My “mom moment” is the first one that comes to mind.  :)  A special day and one of my favorite posts.  I had lots of “mom moments” this year and I’m so thankful for each and every one of them.  Here are a few pics I rounded up that I took throughout the year.  I love to snap pictures of the girls on their way out the door in the morning before Kenny takes them to school.  I’m always standing out on my door step in my pj’s with messy hair, trying to keep Kole from running into the street, waving to the neighbors driving by, and happily snapping pictures.  It’s my morning routine.  
:)

First day of Kindergarten and Second Grade.  
(Love that they still hold hands.)

 Just last week.
 Addison in a dress and El in sweats.  My girls are nothing if not predictable. 
Looking forward to a wonderful summer with these two peanuts!!
Hope you are enjoying yours!
p.s.  I am guest posting at I’m an Organizing Junkie today!  Laura has such a fun blog – all sorts of great organizing ideas!  Be sure to check it out.  :)
xoxo, Erin
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Family
06.14.12

Goin’ Fishin’

At the end of May we made a quick trip to our beautiful home state of Utah for one special reason. 
  

The week prior we received this invitation in the mail.  
The front said “Rich is goin’ fishin’…”

And on the back was this cute picture of my dad who retired from his amazing career as a College President.  We have known for a while that my dad would retire this year and his co workers at the college planned a huge good-bye celebration in his honor.  There was no way I was going to miss it!   
A beautiful display table was set up with many of his awards throughout the years.  
And pictures of his family.  

It was fun seeing this picture displayed.  This was taken the year that Kenny and I graduated from college before Kenny went to law school.  We were engaged at the time and my mom had gone back to school to get her masters degree, my sister was graduating from High School, and my dad attended the college graduation every year (of course) so almost the whole family was in a cap and gown that year!  Kenny was the college Valedictorian (smarty pants) and he spoke about my dad and what a great mentor he was.  It was a really cool year for all of us.  My brother who was in 8th grade at the time was just happy to be along for the ride.  :)  
Crowds of people from the college and the community gathered together to wish my dad a happy retirement.  It was really great to see so many people who care about him and look up to him.  He is well respected and loved by so many people.  I am always so proud to say I’m his daughter.  
The Vice President who is now taking his place made him this quilt (she did such a beautiful job!).  It has a square from all of the different college departments (technology, nursing program, etc).  
Then everyone signed the back.

 Another amazing tribute to my dad was this picture that Del Parson painted of him to hang on the college campus.  Del Parson is an amazing artist who paints a lot of portraits for the LDS church.  My mom was worried about how it would look and we all kept teasing her saying “Del paints pictures of Jesus for crying out loud!  I’m sure dad’s portrait will turn out just fine!”  ;)

My mom looked so beautiful the day of the party.  She is so happy my dad is retiring.  We all are!  This is a picture of her with two of her best friends.  Their daughters are two of my best friends and they are like second moms to me.  :)

 Love these two.  The three of us are always so happy to be together.  
We can talk and laugh until we are all in tears.  
Like the night before the retirement party.  
We stayed up way too late brainstorming ideas for a poem my sister wrote about my dad.  
During the program, several people spoke about my dad and what an inspiration he was.  Then my sister got up and read a poem showing the other side of my dad.  The side that we all know.  It was the best tribute I’ve ever heard.  She had everyone laughing and crying all at the same time.  My sister has that effect on people.  :)

 The two of us with “dad.”  

Then I asked the guys to get in a picture and my brother decided to be a dork and pose.  So I asked him to knock it off and to just sit up and smile…

 and he did this. 

 Several pictures later I finally got this one.  Thank you Austin.  It’s always such a pleasure getting you to be serious.  **Notice my husband plastered on a smile and didn’t move in all three pics.  He has been trained well.

And one of the six of us.  
We all had red eyes from crying during the program.  When my dad got up to speak he talked about how proud he was of his career, but how he was the most proud of us six.  He referred to us as “his six kids” which brought tears to our eyes so quickly.  He has always treated Kenny, Shawn, and Dayna like they are his own.  He talked about our degrees and how proud he is that we all took our education seriously and how much we have all achieved.  Then he talked about his six sweet grand kids and how excited he is to spend more time with them.  I’ll never forget the sweet things my dad said about his family and how that was the one time in his talk that he got choked up.  We all love him so much.  
My mom and I were talking after and couldn’t believe we didn’t get one picture that day with my dad in it!  He was too busy socializing with all of his friends and co-workers!  Popular guy.  :)  So here are a few of my favorite childhood pics with my dad..

The two men in my life.   
So what does my dad have on his agenda now?  
A little bit of this…
And a whole lot of this.  
Dad – I am SO happy for you.  Nobody deserves it more!  
You mean the world to me and I love you so much.
Your favorite, Erin 
(we can keep the favorite part between us – we both know it’s true)  
p.s.  I know I’ve mentioned this before, but just in case you find yourself with more spare time than you can handle…
I could sure use an extra set of hands around here! 
:)
Love you dad.  
xoxo, Erin
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New House
06.12.12

New house update – designing my office!

Wow.  I have been so busy with our new house that I haven’t had much time to share the latest details!  Our plans are still in the city but we are very close to getting everything approved.  Such a crazy process in California!  Fingers are crossed we will break ground sometime in July.  I’m so excited I can’t even stand it!  I just got off the phone with my designer discussing the layout for my scrapbook room/office which is why I am currently grinning ear to ear!  :)  When we were looking at existing homes I was really trying to find a house with two offices (or two spaces I could turn into two offices!).  
Currently I have my so called “office” under the stairs (paper control).
In a corner of Kole’s nursery…
And Kenny?  Well when he needs to take a conference call or talk to a client from home (which happens daily) he heads to the garage and gets in the car!  It’s the only quiet place in our house!  :)  We have made it work, but we are both SO excited about having our own office space in our next house.  Here are a couple of things I discussed with my architect when we were designing my office:  
Function:  I keep calling this space the project room because I want it to be a place not only for me to scrapbook and blog, but also for the kids when they are working on a project for school, or when they are just in the mood to craft and be creative.  A room where we can spread out our projects and get messy!  It’s also where I want the family computer to be located.  No computers will be allowed upstairs where I can’t keep an eye on everything!
Location: I wanted my project room right next to the kitchen (as a mom I am in the kitchen more than anywhere else!).  Not visible (I plan on it always being a mess) but very close to the main living/kitchen/dining area so that I can easily sneak in to get some work done when the kids are occupied.  Also so that it will be an easy place for the kids to do their homework or craft with me close by.  
  
Organization:  Of course I want this space to run like a well oiled machine!  I have so many ideas swimming around in my head about how I want to store all of my supplies!  This will not be one of those craft rooms with TONS of scrapbook supplies from the floor to the ceiling.  I’m a bit of a minimalist and I’ve found that I do better with less “stuff” – especially when I’m scrapbooking.  I like to keep things simple and I hope this space reflects that.  Simple and organized.  :)  
Wish List:  I would LOVE a built-in wrap around desk in this space with cabinets above and a mix of cabinets and drawers below for storage.  I’m currently debating an island.  I’d love the extra work/storage space, but I don’t want the room to feel too crowded.  
Here are a few of the pictures I’ve saved for inspiration for this beloved room that I am SO excited about (along with what I love about the picture and the source):  

I love this wrap around desk.  I also like the look of the open shelves above, but that forces you to be really tidy with your storage!  Still debating if I want open or closed cabinetry in my office.  Maybe a mix?

 Another great wrap around desk from Pottery Barn.  Cute shelf above too!

Love the colors in this room.  Wonder if I’ll be sick of aqua by the time we move in a year. 
Probably not.  :)
 Another wrap around desk.
I want some pull out drawers similar to these for wrapping paper/supplies.  
A couple of options for paper storage.  
 A functional island that doesn’t take up too much room.  

 At one point I debated a separate desk/homework area for the kids – something similar to the pictures above, but if I do an island I think that will function well for a kids’ space.

 I want to leave room on one wall for some sort of inspiration board and a place to display current layouts I’ve done or art work from the kids.  Love the yellow striped ceiling in this picture!

 The green and white craft room above is so fun!  Amazing storage!  

The cabinets in this office space are so pretty.  Looks like a kitchen!  

 This is a cool desk that wraps around in the middle of the room.  Interesting idea…
And after seeing this picture above I’m debating painting the cabinets in my scrapbook room a fun color.  Or maybe painting half of them white and the other half a color?  
Add that to the thousands of decisions I have to make for this house during the next year!
Good thing these are such fun decisions to make.  :)
p.s.  You can see more of my inspiration pics for my office on two of  my favorite Pinterest boards:
xoxo, Erin
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Kole
06.11.12

Our weekend – true story

There was a void in our lives this weekend.  Something was missing.  Something we didn’t appreciate until it was gone…  Last Thursday afternoon Addison informed me that our garage rug was wet.  It took me about two seconds to realize that our hot water heater in the garage was leaking.  This lead to a series of phone calls and visits.  The husband, the plumber, the flood specialist, and the dry wall repair man.  Long story short we have been without hot water for FOUR DAYS people!  We’ve had a hole in our garage and fans blowing day and night to dry out the wall where the water heater once stood.  
After taking the coldest bath of my life Thursday before my little presentation (shower wasn’t working at all) I realized I couldn’t put my kids through that kind of torture (I think I screamed when I rinsed my hair – no – I know I screamed when I rinsed my hair).  Word around the hood had spread and multiple kind neighbors offered a warm shower, but I ended up boiling water instead.  Six pans and six trips up and down my stairs did the trick.  When mixed with the ice cold water that was still working just fine it made for a series of luke warm baths for the kiddos.  Luckily Kenny could shower at work and luckily my hair looks better on day four than it does right after I wash it.  True story.  If only my head didn’t itch, I’d never wash my hair again.  
The hardest part has been no dishwasher!!  What!?  Hand wash dishes!  For four days!  
Are you kidding me!?   

I swear that’s all I did this weekend.  Wash dishes.  I could have taken ten pictures of the stacks and stacks of dishes I washed.  And while I washed I thought about my sweet grandma who never had a dishwasher a day in her life.  How did she manage?  And then I thought about my kitchen plans for our new house which includes two dishwashers.  And I wanted to weep for joy.

lt actually was a wonderful weekend, despite our water situation.  

My new Project Life page protectors came in the mail.  I ordered them in an attempt to motivate myself to scrapbook this summer.  I don’t need new page protectors.  But I do need some motivation.  And some extra time would be a nice bonus.

My presentation went great last week – so much fun.  (Thanks for all of your encouraging words!)  It went so well in fact that I inspired myself to do a little organizing.  ;)

A quick tidying up of the Tupperware drawer was just the fix I needed.  

 I also made my favorite easy chicken fajitas.  And then I washed more dishes.  
And dried more dishes. 
And washed more dishes. 
And dried more dishes.     
What did my girls do while I organized and cooked and washed my life away?  

They collected snails in the backyard of course.  A whole family of them.  They all have names.  Brittney, Jeanette, Emily, Claire, Emma…the list goes on.  The crazy (or should I say scary?) thing is that my girls can actually tell them apart.  
True story.   
 Ellie decided that since I won’t let her get a pet, she’d take matters into her own hands and come up with a pet or two (or ten) on her own. 
 I am not a fan of snails.  
Last night when Addison said her prayers she said “and please bless mommy that she will stop freaking out over our snails…” 
HA!  Keep praying Addie!  
 Aside from tending to their new “pets,” my girls also drew paper plate lions,

and had a picnic with their princess dolls.  On a Charger blanket of course.  
(It’s really the only way to dine…)
The Jasmine vines in our yard smell SO good right now.  
Totally signals summertime in San Diego to me.  
We were outside a lot this weekend.  At the park, at our lot, on a walk, in our backyard.  
 The weather was so warm and sunny and beautiful that the girls tromped around in their rain boots just for the occasion.  

 And what was my little man up to?  
Well, he was in absolute heaven being outside so much.  Tending snails with his sisters, 

pushing around his favorite Thomas choo choo train,
 looking like he was straight out of the 1950’s wearing nothing but a white shirt and jeans, 

 stirring up dirt and all sorts of other mischief, 

and completely getting away with it because all it takes is one flash of this smile and his mother is so smitten that all is immediately forgiven.

True story.  
New water heater is coming tomorrow.  Oh happy day!
I’m never hand washing another dish again.   
At least for a week until I’ve recovered.  
:) 
xoxo, Erin
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