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Birthdays
03.11.11

Maybe finally

Well.  This is it.  It’s almost 11:00 Pacific time so I have just over one hour left to be 33.  Tomorrow is my birthday (woot woot!) and 34 will be my new norm.  What will 34 feel like!?  I’m sure it will be such a huge change.  I bet I won’t even recognize myself tomorrow when I wake up.  I’ll look so ….. mature?  
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to start going to bed at night before mid-night.
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to stop eating my kids’ leftovers.  Especially the spiral mac-n-cheese.
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to really learn how to use my computer and camera instead of just faking it all the time.
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to start learning the real lyrics to songs instead of just singing my own versions. 
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to stop eating a turkey sandwich every day for lunch and start mixing it up a bit.
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to pay attention to Kenny when he starts talking about finances instead of just completely tuning him out and going to my own little happy place in my head where budgets and savings don’t exist. 
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to stop speeding and to be a much more cautious driver.  
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to learn actual directions and stop relying on my passengers to get me where I need to be (especially since my most frequent passenger isn’t even a year old yet).
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to enjoy cooking.
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to stop dreaming about being the star of So You Think You Can Dance and practicing in my kitchen every now and then when nobody is looking.
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to feel like a real mom and wife instead of just a kid who is playing house and totally winging it most of the time.
Maybe I’ll finally be old enough to stop feeling positively giddy every time a holiday is around the corner.
Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and realize that I’m not finally old enough for any of that stuff.  Maybe I’ll finally be old enough for all of that when I turn 35.  :)
My adorable friends took me out for dinner last night to celebrate at my favorite restaurant.  It took us over 15 phone calls and text messages to finally realize there wasn’t one night this week that everyone could make it, so we were missing a few friends.  Our solution to that little problem?  Two dinners.  You all know I have no problem spreading my celebration out for as long as is humanly possible.  :)
Here we are last night…
And the year before that…  (K – I’m a WHALE in this picture.  I so remember my birthday wish last year.  Get. this. baby. OUT!)

And here we are the year before that. 
We haven’t changed much and I’m glad.  I LOVE these girls just the way they are.  Shari made me the most delicious homemade yellow cake with chocolate frosting (my favorite) and we ate cake and chatted and laughed the night away.  They had to kick us out of the restaurant which seems to be the norm for us.  :)  I had successfully lost two pounds in the last few weeks and after this week I’m quite sure I will have successfully gained them right back.  But it wouldn’t be a true birthday without a little weight gain — right?  
Maybe tomorrow on my birthday I’ll finally be old enough to stop telling myself it’s perfectly ok to pig out at certain major milestones in my life.  
Maybe I’ll also finally be old enough to stop thinking that about every two weeks is a major milestone in my life.  
Nah.  
Bet that comes at age 35 too.  :)
xoxo, Erin
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Ramblings
03.09.11

My #1 Priority

Hi friends!  So the week isn’t even half way over and I’m exhausted.  This week is so busy!  A birthday party, parent/teacher conferences, play dates, one dentist appointment, two doctor appointments, several appointments with my realtor to look at homes, school registration forms due (for next year — already!?), summer camp deadlines…..the list goes on.  Plus all of the regular running around we do.  Bummer.  All I really want to do is finish decorating for Spring!  I’ve made some simple changes and my house is feeling so festive!  I can’t wait to finish.

So it’s after 9:00 and the first time I’m sitting down for the day.  I did want to do a quick post about my exercise routine though because so many of you have asked and have been very patient to wait for an answer.  I mentioned before that exercise is a priority for me.  It’s important to me for several reasons.  First the obvious reason — keeping my skinny jeans from busting at the seams.  But I also make it a priority each day because I love and enjoy exercise.  It makes me happy.  Must be all those endorphins!?  I love to have a little “me time” in the morning to get lost in my music and work up a good sweat.  Then I feel better about myself and I make better food choices.  It just helps me start the day off right and I am a MUCH better/happier mom if I’ve exercised.  And if mom’s happy, everyone is happy, right?  :)

My workout routine varies depending on the situation with my kids.  When Ellie was a baby I would get up and strap her in the baby jogger and we would walk/run together.  Sometimes we’d walk with a friend and sometimes it would just be the two of us.

What a doll.  :)  Ellie was 6 months old in these pictures (2004).  She would usually fall asleep during our walk and take her morning nap in the jogger.  I did this every day until she turned about 15 months old when she just wouldn’t sit still for me in the jogger anymore.  That’s when I joined a good gym with a great day care set up.  Until Addison was born I took Ellie every morning to the gym and would do an hour of aerobics while she played.  That worked out great….and then baby #2 came along. 
(2006)

Upgraded the baby jogger to the double BOB jogger (LOVE this stroller by the way.  By far the smartest and most used baby purchase we ever made).  By this time Ellie was two and could look at books and sit still in the stroller again.  Addison was a month old in this picture when I started walking each morning with the two of them.  Same morning routine – waking and running with the jogger until Addison was older (I think around 9 months) and then I started going to the gym again.

If I can make it work with my schedule to do a morning aerobics class, that is my favorite.  I LOVE aerobics.  I danced my whole life all the way through college and aerobics gives me my “dance fix.”  I love Kick Boxing, Hip Hop, Step, Zumba (anyone tried this?  It’s SO fun)…anything cardio that gets you moving.  I’ve always thought it would be a blast to teach aerobics classes someday.  If I go to the gym at a time when there isn’t a class, I get on the treadmill for 30 minutes, the elliptical for 15 minutes, and then do weights for another 15 minutes.  (I’m a cardio junkie but HATE weights.)  Nothing fancy, but that is my routine for the gym.

Right now, I just can’t make it to the gym.  I’m currently still in the “year of the baby” which translates to mean “survival mode.”  Currently my family all wakes up around 6:30 a.m.  I get Kole fed and changed, the girls dressed and fed, hair done, and lunches made.  Kenny takes Ellie to school on his way to work around 7:30.  I throw on my gym clothes, slick my hair back in a ponytail, and 20 minutes after they leave I take Addison to pre-school.  Then I come home and put Kole down for his morning nap and hop on the treadmill in my garage.  It’s not ideal (I’d much rather work out at the gym) but my motto with exercise has always been that something is better than nothing.  I make that 30 minutes count.  I blast my workout mix on my i pod and walk really fast up a huge grade (like I’m walking up a big hill).  I hold 2 pound weights and punch the air while I walk.  Yes, you heard me.  I practice my kickboxing punches while I walk — forward jab, cross jab, upper cut…  I look like a total dork!  Kenny walked in on me mid-workout once and laughed for 20 minutes.   Then for months he teased me by imitating my boxing moves.  He can laugh all he wants.  Deep down he knows he wouldn’t want to cross paths with me in a dark alley.

Two days a week Addison doesn’t have pre-school and is home with me all day.  On those days I get Ellie off to school, get Kole down for a nap, and turn on “Little Bear” for Addison.  She watches it for half an hour (exact time of my workout) and then we do some crunches and lunges together.  You don’t want to mess with Addison in a dark alley either.  ;)  As soon as I can hold Kole’s morning nap off a little longer I’ll start going to the gym again in the morning and taking the kids with me.

Like I said in my previous post – it’s all about priorities.  I try not to make appointments and schedule things early in the morning.  I like to exercise as soon as I possibly can because I know if I don’t do it early, it won’t happen.  A lot of days (especially lately) I exercise and then never even change out of my gym clothes.  Today was one of those days.  I stayed all sweaty in my gym clothes with no make-up on all day.  I was running around in ten different directions and didn’t get a chance to shower until 8:00 at night when all of my kids were in bed and asleep.  Oh well!  I got that 30 minutes of exercise time done this morning and that’s what matters to me!  Aside from keeping my kids fed and alive, exercise is my #1 priority.

K – I said that would be quick and instead it was long and boring!  I hope that post answered your questions.  If you have other questions, leave a comment and I’ll answer your questions in my comments too.  How many times did I just say “questions?”  It’s late.  And I need to get to bed because I have an early morning date with my treadmill.  :)

xoxo, Erin
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organization2
03.07.11

Time Management Tips

I’ve had some questions e-mailed to me lately from the sweetest readers.  Questions like: “how do you do it all?” or “how do you fit everything in?”  So this will be a really short post.  Here’s my answer:

I don’t.

Ha!  Seriously though.  These are questions I don’t know that I have the answer to.  I don’t think I have it all figured out and have found a way to magically “do it all.”  Every day is a little different and every day (especially since I had baby #3) has been a huge challenge for me to make the most of the time I have.

Even though this is an area in which I’m constantly striving to improve and I don’t consider myself an expert, I’m happy to share a few things that have helped me manage my time.

1)  Decide your priority for each day and write it down.  It’s all about priorities and planning to make time for them.  Each night before I go to bed I glance at my planner and take a look at the next day.  I find the small pockets of “me time” (when Kole is napping and kids are in school, etc.) and I decide how I’m going to spend that time.  I always think “what is the most important thing I want to accomplish tomorrow?”  Exercise takes top priority for me.  I always figure out when I’m going to exercise first.  (I’ll answer questions about my exercise routine in another post soon.)  My binder I shared in my paper organization post helps to remind me about things that need to be done soon (immediate/important actions and projects I am working on).  I look at my schedule and then fill in the “down time” slots with things from my binder I want to accomplish.

2)  Be specific.  When I write my to-do’s for the next day I am very specific and realistic about what I’m going to get done.  I don’t write “work on Project Life albums.”  That is overwhelming to me.  I write “select next photos to develop” or “organize March – May art work.”  I focus on just one step of the project I’m working on.  If I want to organize my closet (something I would never have time to complete in one day) I write “go through Kenny’s shirts.”  You get the point.  If I’m specific and realistic about what I want to get done I have a much better chance of actually doing it.

3)  Set routines for yourself.  I’m a routine kinda gal.  Having a set time to do certain things each day helps me a lot.  I always exercise as soon as I can in the morning, do housework in the late afternoon/evening, and blog at night.  I resist the urge to clean at other times during the day so that I can get more done on my to-do list.  There is always something that needs to be cleaned and if I didn’t have my set cleaning routine, I would just clean all day long…and still have messes!  

4)  Make the most of every minute.  I have found that since I had Kole, I have really learned how to make the most of every minute.  Moms are amazing multi-taskers!  For example, I wrote the outline for this post in the carpool lane.  :)

5)  Watch the computer!  The computer is such a time trap, isn’t it!?  I don’t tweet and I haven’t been on facebook since October.  Blogs are my weakness!  I’ve found that for me it pretty much needs to be all or nothing.  I can’t sit down at my computer and think “I’ll just check my blog and a couple of others….”  Before you know it I’m lost in blog land and 20 minutes has turned into an hour and there goes the only time I had to get anything done.  Since I had Kole (and my free time has become incredibly short) I don’t get on the computer much at all during the day.  I answer most e-mails, upload and organize pictures, write my blog posts, and read other blogs all at night after my kids are in bed.  (I stay up WAY too late!)  I have also had to really cut back on how many blogs I read and how often I read them.  I still read all of my friends’ blogs (and new friends I’ve made in blog land!) but as far as “just for fun blogs” I only follow six or seven.  If I find a new blog that I love and want to start reading, I make myself drop a previous one.  Harsh, I know, but there are only so many hours in each day and again, it’s all about priorities.  

6)  No TV during the day.  When my girls were little I’d watch Oprah, or just turn the TV on during the day while I cleaned to feel like I had adult company in the house.  Not anymore.  There isn’t time at all now for TV during the day.  (Still love listening to music though!)  My mom gets frustrated with me that I never know what’s going on in the world because I don’t watch the news.  The news hour is when I’m cleaning, doing laundry, bathing two kids, and entertaining a baby all at the same time.  Who has time for Brian Williams!?  ;)  Besides, the news is mostly depressing and if my TV is going to be on in the afternoon, you better believe we’ll be tuned into Max and Ruby or The Wonder Pets so that I can have a short moment of peace to get something done!  

There you have it.  A few things I do that help me make the most of my time.  I hope that answers some questions.

What about you?  Any tips or tricks that have helped you with time management?

xoxo, Erin
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organization2
03.04.11

pantry and butterflies

Yea it’s Friday!  So ready for the weekend.  Kenny has been swamped at work and I have been flying solo a lot lately.  I’m definitely ready to have an extra set of hands around here.  ADULT hands.  :)

Thanks for your kind comments regarding my header!  As you can see, I went with the majority and switched to the flowers.  Decision made.  :)  Several of you asked me about how I make my headers, what program I use, and if I would do a tutorial.  Well!  I already have!  You can read all about how I make my headers in this post.  The post is also found on my sidebar labeled “blog headers” under “additional popular posts.”  I also explained how I create the sidebar labels.  The only thing I didn’t explain is the step by step for the actual digital scrapbooking because that is something that is fairly easy to figure out if you just spend some time playing around with the program.  Hope that post is helpful to some of you!  Feel free to ask questions if you have them and I’ll do my best to answer.

Today was a pretty productive day.  I like Thursdays.  Thursdays are my favorite day of the week with my current schedule.  Addison doesn’t have pre-school and it’s not my day to carpool so I’m able to stay home more and get things done around the house.  I like getting things done around my house.  One of the things on my to-do list today was to tackle my pantry.

It was looking a little rough and neglected so I whipped it back into shape.  It always amazes me that such a small space can become such a big mess if I don’t stay right on top of it.  I threw SO much away.  I aslo got several snack baggies ready for the weekend.  Love that.  
Kole, as always, was a huge help. 

There are definitely signs of him all over the house!  I used to have his food divided into separate columns for fruits and vegetables, but now they’re all just lumped together.  You know, because three kids is totally mellowing me out.  ;)

This makes me laugh.  Can you tell what cereal we’re eating these days!?  Kenny loves Cinnamon Honey Bunches of Oats (mixed with yogurt) and I love Bran Chex.  We eat the same thing for breakfast every day. My local grocery store stopped selling Bran Chex a few years ago so Kenny had a huge box shipped to me from Amazon.  It was so cool that we started ordering all of our cereal from Amazon.  It’s cheaper and just about the time we are running out, a new box full of seven boxes of cereal appears on our doorstep.  I love that it’s one less thing I have to think about in the grocery store.  We call it our food storage.  :)
Ahhhh.  A clean pantry is a great way to start the weekend.  Don’t you think?

In honor of March (my favorite month!) and because I’ve had butterflies on my brain thanks to my header, I thought I’d once again share this butterfly craft I made a couple of years ago for my girls’ bedroom…

It was easy, fast, cheap and fun!  You can read more about it in this post.  This picture reminds me that it’s time to plant my petunias!  Did I mention that I love March?
Have a great weekend everyone!
xoxo, Erin
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Blogging
03.03.11

Indecision – my middle name

First of all, thank you for your excitement and encouragement after my fun Becky news!  Your sweet comments and e-mails always make me feel SO good.   
Second of all, thank you to the kind reader who suggested trying all natural ‘pop chips’ after my eating healthy post.  Bought some BBQ pop chips today and they tasted SO good.  
Third of all, is anyone out there watching Parenthood?  This week’s episode was SO good.  I couldn’t help crying. 
Fourth of all, I finally got my spring header up!  My indecision with this little project was NOT so good.
Usually it doesn’t take me too long to knock one of these out, but for some reason this time things just weren’t clicking for me.  First I went through about a dozen picture collages before finally deciding on this one…  
Here are a few of the cast aways…

Then I went through about a dozen different options for my sidebar.  Here are a few of those cast aways…
                       

Finally went with this one…
Then I just wasn’t feeling good about the background for the header.  Of course the best way to see if I like it is to put it up on my blog, so depending on when you checked in yesterday you may have seen it…

PINK (I liked this, but nothing was working with it for the sidebars)…

RED (did NOT like this – not springy enough, but right after I put it up I got busy with the kids and so red it stayed for most of the day)…

YELLOW (started this and then quickly decided Sunny Side Up was looking a little TOO sunny)…

GREEN (I just love green, but using green for the header and the sidebars didn’t shout Spring! It shouted Leprechaun!)…

And there you have it.  My rainbow blog!  I finally decided to just give it up and leave the background plain old white.  And now I’m happy with it.  I’ve totally made my decision.  And I’m not going to change my mind again.  Ever.

Unless I decide to go with the flowers instead of the butterfly…          
    

:)
p.s.  See why Kenny is so NOT excited about building a house with me!?  Picky + Indecisive = Erin.
p.p.s.  Speaking of the house hunt, while we haven’t found anything we love yet, we have ruled out a lot of possibilities which has helped narrow our search.  I recently vetoed one neighborhood I’ve always liked simply because it contains too many speed bumps.  I don’t do speed bumps.  
p.p.p.s.  Please DO NOT tell me you like one of the above choices better than what I decided on.  I will once again crumble with indecision.  
p.p.p.p.s.  Unless you want to tell me if you like the flowers or the butterfly better.  
:)  :)  :)
xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
03.02.11

Somebody pinch me

I’m mentioned today on a blog.  On BECKY HIGGINS’ BLOG!  When I read Becky’s e-mail yesterday saying she wanted to include my Project Life Process in one of her posts I about fell off my chair.  Then after the shock wore off I started dancing and jumping around the kitchen.  Then I called Kenny at work….”you won’t believe it!….BECKY HIGGINS….Project Life…..”  I think that was about all he got out of that conversation.  Addison was loving it.  “Why are you so excited mommy!?”  Then we picked up Ellie from school and I had a perma grin on my face in the carpool lane that wouldn’t go away.  Smiling and waving to everyone.  Isn’t today a SENSATIONAL DAY!?  As soon as Ellie got in the car Addison said “Ellie, mommy is SO EXCITED today!  She was dancing around the kitchen.  Someone is going to do an e-mail that will make her very happy!”  Clearly she didn’t get much out of our conversation either.

BECKY HIGGINS!!!  REALLY!?  She has been my idol now for how long?  I’m such a major fan of Becky and all of her amazing scrapbooking, sketches, kits (which I own every one), organization, blog…

Excuse me.

I have to go lie down now.

xoxo, Erin
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Scrapbooking
03.01.11

Project Life Process

I don’t exactly have album layouts to share today.  Lately real life has been getting in the way of Project Life.  :)  But I do want to show you all what Kenny got me for a little Valentines gift this year.  (Cue angels singing in the background…)

YEA!!!  My new kits!  Two of the Amber kits for my girls and one Turquoise kit for Kole.  Talk about the best Valentine surprise ever.  Isn’t it romantic!?  ;)  Now that I have my hands on my beautiful new kits I am SO motivated to get caught up so that I can start using them.  Hoping that by next Tuesday I have LOTS of layouts to post.

I wanted to answer a question one reader had after my last Project Life post: “how do you keep track of the other stuff that goes with the pictures so when you scrapbook you have it all there?”  I’ve had other similar questions on how I organize and assemble these albums so I thought I’d share my process – for any fellow scrapbookers out there who get as excited about all of this stuff as I do!  :)

Step 1 – Go through photos.  I organize my pictures by blog posts since I share most of my favorite pictures on my blog.  For example, in my 2011 folder I have a January folder and in the January folder I have two other folders – one for January blog posts and one called January randomness (pics I am keeping from the month but didn’t blog).  So if I’m working on Addison’s album, the first thing I do is go through my folders of pictures for each month and choose what I want to develop for her album.  I put everything I’m going to develop in another folder titled something like “Addison’ PL March – June 2010”  This step takes the longest for me because not only does it take a while to select the pictures, but I also have to crop and save any vertical pictures I’m using (directions on developing two 3×4’s as one 4×6 in Photoshop here).  Luckily most of my photos have already been cropped/edited so I don’t have to add that step to the process.  Blogging has made this all so much easier for me.

Step 2 – Upload photos to print.  I’ve used on-line sites before, but I get really impatient with the whole shipping thing.  There is a photo store near my home that is a bit pricey, but produces high quality prints so I usually just pay a little more and go there so that I can pick up the pictures an hour or so after I make the order.

Step 3 – Organize photos in order.  I use my blog and picture folders to help me organize the pictures into piles in the order I will use them.  I group them in themes (Disneyland, picking lemons, random February pictures, etc.) and spread them out all over my work space.  You can see to the left that I was sharing a work space with Addison and her Valentines.  :)

You can see in this picture I posted two weeks ago the piles of pictures on the right.  (You can also see why I need a bigger scrapbook room!)  :)

Step 4 – Add additional memorabilia.  Any little thing I think I MAY want to add to these albums I keep organized in my PL drawers in my scrapbook room.

I have a pile for each of my girls (the work is organized on the left of the drawer).  Here is a picture of Ellie’s stuff from March 2010 through today…

After I put my pictures in piles, I go through all of the paper pile and add anything that goes along with the pictures.  (I date EVERYTHING I save for my girls (write the month and year on the back before I stick it in the drawer) so it’s easy to see what goes where.  I decide what is really special enough to keep and trash the rest.  Now that I’ve added their work to each picture pile, I’m almost ready for the fun part…

 Step 5 – Before I start assembling the albums I do one last thing.  I go through my blog and see if there is anything I want to print for their books.  I know I mentioned this a lot when I first shared Ellie’s album, but I have to say again that blogging has made the journaling for these books so easy.  Here are a few examples of how I’ve added material from blog posts to my albums…

On Ellie’s first day of Kindergarten I used the PL journaling cards to explain what was taking place in all of the pictures which left no room to write about the things Ellie told me about her first day of school.
I had blogged all of the little things she mentioned about the day so I just printed the post and added it to the book in an 8×11 sheet protector.  These are the little things I cherish that I never would have written down or remembered if I wasn’t blogging.  
In December I had written a whole post about all of our December traditions so I just printed the post and added it in with all of the Christmas pictures.  
Here I added Addison’s “Quotable Quotes” from the summer of 09′ (just like the post I did yesterday) and printed it straight from my blog with the picture on it and everything.  Blogging makes it so easy!  
Step 6 – Assemble the albums.  While I enjoy this whole process, assembling the albums is the most fun! These albums make the creative process so easy.  Stick the pictures in the slots, choose the color/card scheme, and do a little journaling.  Before you know it a beautiful album is coming together right before your eyes.  :)

And that’s it!  My process in a nutshell.  Hope that answered any questions.  Hope you too can find some time to scrapbook this week (if it’s something you enjoy).  And I hope you all have a lovely Tuesday!  
xoxo, Erin
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Quotables
02.28.11

Quotable Quotes

Addison’s Latest:  (Fall 2010 – Winter 2011, age 4)

“I thought yesterday was the day after tomorrow!?”

Me:  “Addie, be careful not to touch that curling iron.”
“I didn’t mom.  Look!  My fingers are still on!”

Addie talking to Kole while watching the wicked Queen first appear on Snow White –
“Cover your eyes buddy!”

Ellie:  “Mom, you should have another baby…I’m having six kids when I’m a mom.”
Addison:  “Not me!  Kids are too much work.  I’m having two babies and when they have dirty diapers I’m calling a babysitter to change them.”

Me: “Guess what Ad!  I have a new job in church.  I’m going to teach primary so I get to be in the same room with you and Ellie!”
Addison:  Are you teaching my class or Ellie’s?  If you’re teaching Ellie’s class and not mine I will be heart burned.”
Me: “Did you mean heartbroken?”
Ad:  “I will be heartbroken and heart burned.”

Ellie’s Latest:  (Fall 2010 – Winter 2011, age 6/7)

“Mom, can I bring two “friends” (toys) in the car instead of one?
“no.”
“please!”
“no”
“PLEASE!”
“I said no Ellie.”
“But mom!  It’s groundhog day!”

“Mom, will I for sure have to get surgery some day?”
“No.”
“But Bobby said I will.”
“Bobby must be confused.”
“Well he’s the tallest one in our class mom.”

“Mom, I didn’t get waffles AND I had to do homework.  This Saturday has been a flop!”

Me:  “What did you learn in school today?”
Ellie:  “We learned about frogs and toads!”
“What is something you learned about frogs and toads that you didn’t already know?”
“That you can’t cut them in two and share them with someone else.”

“Ad, did you know that if you don’t go to heaven you go to this really scary place where Satan lives and it’s full of garbage and… guess what else Ad?”
Addison:  “What?”  (eyes as big as saucers)  
“Bumblebees!”

Saying the prayer at dinner:  “Please bless that Kole isn’t so fussy tomorrow and please bless that I can have a play date next week and please bless that me and Addison can go to Legoland someday….”
Me:  “Ellie, you need to remember to bless the food.”
“Please bless this food that it will be yummy.  Amen.”

xoxo, Erin
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Ellie
02.25.11

Random Friday

Thanks so much for the great tips after my last post!  I really appreciate your comments.  A lot of food for thought.  :)  (yeah – it’s late and I’m tired)

I’ve eaten SO GOOD – for like three days.  And now I’m ready for some peanut m&m’s.  My mantle is calling me!  Kidding.  Kind of.  A couple of health problems I have that need tweaking: (whenever I say the word “tweaking” I think of Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail.  Love that movie.  Love the way he says “a project that needs tweaking“….)  Anyway, my problems, aside from the obvious one that I can’t stick to the point.  First of all – the water thing.  I love water and I feel lucky that I don’t like soda.  Aside from a major minor obsession with root beer during my pregnancy with Kole, I never drink the stuff.  BUT even though I drink water with every meal/snack, I know I don’t drink enough of it.  To be honest, the reason I don’t is because it is so inconvenient having to use the restroom every time I turn around!  Most days I’m running errands with at least two of my kids and it’s so much work to drag my whole crew into the bathroom.  Lame excuse?  Maybe.  But it’s the truth.  My other problem is that I don’t eat a lot during the day.  I get busy running errands, taking care of the kids, working off of my trusty to-do list, etc.  A lot of the time having to stop and fix something to eat just feels completely inconvenient.  So I don’t do it.  Then I get the kids in bed and sit down.  And I eat dinner.  And I eat a snack.  And another one.  And another one.  Quickly I realize how hungry I am from the day and I eat too much.  SO.  More water (less errand running?) and more frequent, healthy meals/snacks during the day.  And definitely more You’ve Got Mail watching.

Several of you have e-mailed me about my workout routine (how I fit exercise in and what I do) so I’ll post about that sometime next week (even though it’s nothing too exciting).  :)

Sharing a few pics I came across tonight that I took of Ellie and Kole in December –

She is my best little babysitter!  Honestly, even though having three kids is crazy (complete madness at times) in some ways it feels so much easier than when I just had one and even two.  I think the age difference is MAJOR.  My girls are just such a huge help.  They keep Kole completely entertained and out of trouble.  I probably hear five times a day “Mom!  Kole almost put a barbie high heel in his mouth!  Mom!  Kole almost got stuck.  Mom!  Kole almost tipped the chair over!”  Key word here being “almost.”  They are extremely cautious and diligent with him and I rely on their help a lot.

Speaking of my best little babysitter Ellie, the other night I told her she had WAY too many “friends” in her bed and she needed to take some off.  (She has been sleeping in our guest room lately)  I went to tuck her in and found her toys off of her bed (yes) but instead of being put away back in her room, they were strategically placed all around her.

Dolls and ponies enjoyed the view from the window.

Disney figurines took on the Twilight Series.  (psst…Eclipse is the best!)

Additional ponies spent the night with classics like Lord of the Rings and A Tale of Two Cities.  Can’t go wrong there.

And it seems the dogs were left to choose between Constitutional Law, Securities Regulation, and Comprehensive Criminal Procedures.

Poor poor dogs.   
Have a great weekend everyone!
xoxo, Erin
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Food and Cooking...or lack thereof
02.23.11

Healthy Eating

Just got back from the grocery store.  I am TRYING to drop a very annoying, very unwanted, incredibly stubborn last 5 pounds of baby weight that just doesn’t seem to want to budge.  But I am determined to lose it for good over the next few months.  Of course I’ve been determined to lose it for good since last summer, but this time – for real.  :)  Here are my go to snacks/foods when I decide to kick it in gear and eat healthy.

{Favorite snacks}

Eating Right sugar snap peas (girls prefer them in the ground)
carrots
Smart pop popcorn
strawberries
Dannon light yogurt
Eating Right granola cereal with raisins (I love this w/o milk – just as a dry snack)
Claussen pickles (have to be refrigerated – so good!)
grapes
for my chocolate fix I love Eating Right jello pudding and Healthy Choice fudge bars

Oh…and I LOVE California cuties.
{Favorite fast meals}
Of course I always eat my turkey sandwich for lunch.

For dinner I love Eating Right chicken stir fry.  So does Kenny.  It’s just the right amount for the two of us and perfect for nights when we eat later after the kids are in bed.

You all know my addiction to Lean Cuisine pizzas.  I like a lot of the Lean Cuisine meals.

I use the almond slices and cranberries in my Summer salad.  I love that salad and it’s a pretty healthy dinner option as long as I don’t go crazy with the dressing.

I’ve found that the secret for me to stay on track with food is to prep everything as soon as I get home from the grocery store.  If I wash and cut up the produce, wash the lettuce and make some salads it is much easier for me to grab something healthy when I’m hungry and in a hurry.  If I don’t get things ready to go, I just grab whatever is convenient (usually not healthy) because I don’t want to take the time to prepare food. (more about my favorite cutting board in this post)

Some of these things may not be the healthiest thing out there, but they taste good to me so I don’t feel like I’m totally depriving myself and they have worked in the past when I’ve needed to drop a few pounds.  What are your tricks to eating healthy?  Any great snacks/meals that help you stay on track?  I need all the help I can get!  :)

xoxo, Erin
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Family
02.22.11

Favorite kind of weekend

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  We traveled to southern Utah to hang out with family and check out the home show.  It was a really quick weekend but we packed a lot in!  

Dayna (my sister-in-law in the ever so stylish hat I bought her for Christmas) and I spent lots of time chillin’ with our boys.  Drew is small and nimble.  He is all over the place crawling and using the furniture to stand and walk.  Kole is bigger and hmm…how should I put it…less nimble?

 He’s doing the army crawl, but for the most part is pretty content to be held or to sit and watch Drew (his younger cousin) crawl circles around him.

But oh am I ever in love with this little guy.  I don’t care if he doesn’t walk until he’s two.  In fact, come to think of it, I quite prefer it that way.  :)

 We celebrated my brother’s birthday and my girls especially enjoyed the cake and presents.  You can see the finger marks in the cake from two little ones who just couldn’t wait five more seconds to dig in.

 They love spending time with their Uncle Austin.  Uncle Austin is a VERY good sport.  :)

And it snowed!!!  So exciting!  It never snows where we come from and it rarely snows in Southern Utah.  My mom and I were so excited to wake up early one morning to find snow softly falling.  I ran and woke the girls and they flew down the stairs and out the front door in their pajama’s.

 They tasted the snow.  And then danced in the snow.  And yes.  We all had a big old IT’S SNOWING party!   I know that this isn’t exciting to most of you and our snow storm was pretty weak and misty and may not have even stuck to the ground, but it was snow none the less.  And we were thrilled to see if for the first time this winter.  Addison knew right off why it had snowed in the night.  Because she was wearing her snow flake pajama’s, of course!

 Since the snow brought with it some chilly temperatures (yes, 55 degrees is chilly to us) we decided to stay in and do some crafts.  I opened my mom’s craft cupboard and gave her the look.  The look that says “are you kidding me mom….how are we supposed to find crafts in here?”  Then she gave me the look.  The look that says “I knew you’d be appalled enough to clean out my cupboard.  That’s why I sent you to it in the first place.”

 So of course some organizing was in order.  I pulled everything out of the cupboard and got to work categorizing.  Isn’t that the best word?  Categorizing.  I can’t say or think that word without smiling.

 My mom had some little plastic baskets on hand so I put everything in its place…

 And then back in the cupboard.  Ahhhhh…

 much better.  Supplies are organized and easily accessible.  Organizing is a perfect stay inside while it’s snowing activity, don’t you think?

The next day we went shopping and while my mom bought matching soccer outfits for two of the men in her life, Dayna and I found clothes and home decor in all sorts of bright colors.  When we loaded our stuff in the back of the car we decided it looked like a spring explosion!  I’m so so excited for March!

And one of my favorite things about visiting Utah.  With mine and Kenny’s parents in town we have the best babysitters around…and you just can’t beat their hourly rate.  The four of us snuck away to dinner one night and it was so fun catching up.  THANK YOU to my parents and Kenny’s for spending so much time with the kiddos this weekend so we could play.  My girls adore all of their grandparents.  And Kenny and I think the four of them are pretty swell too.  :)

A weekend full of baby watching, birthday celebrating, snow fall partying, craft cupboard organizing, home show viewing, Chinese food dining, spring time shopping, and LOTS of family bonding.

My very favorite kind.

xoxo, Erin
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home decor 2
02.19.11

Car’s House

Hi friends!  It’s Friday night and a three day weekend ahead.  YEA!  Very much looking forward to the next few days.  I’m also looking forward to the next few hours.  In my pajamas.  On the couch.  :)   When I went to visit my sister Carly a couple of weeks ago I snapped some pictures of her house.  She and her husband bought their house about four years ago and have been giving it quite a make-over one step at a time.  They love contemporary – completely different than my decorating style, but I still LOVE what they’ve done.  And since I totally have house decor on the brain I thought I’d share a few pics with you!  Wish I had some “before” pics to show, but since I don’t I’ll just share the “afters”…

They pulled up the original carpet in the living room and laid this wood floor (they’ve done a lot of the work themselves – DIY style).  Car’s husband made the coffee and end table out of cement.  Very cool.

Love this picture collage in their entry.  I think they’ve repainted this entry at least five times.  Every time I visit it’s a different color.  :)

They got rid of the original black ornate stair rail and had this sleek steel railing put in.

They covered sheetrock beams in their dining room with wood and then covered a whole wall with brick (on the left).

Some shelves they installed in the kitchen.  I love the purple scale.  And the tidy upside down coffee mugs.

Their bedroom.  Another room that has been painted multiple times.  That’s the fun thing about paint.  It’s an inexpensive way to completely transform your space.  And if you’re my sister, you can transform again and again and again.  Love you Car.  ;)

Next is one of my favorite spaces in the house!  They turned the loft at the top of their stairs into a TV/playroom for the kiddos.  Love the wallpaper.  This print is so in right now.  Very fun.

Thanks for the warm welcome Car!  :)

Next is another favorite room – Claire’s bedroom (their 3 year old)…

The dresser and nightstand Car used in high school.  She painted them white and put new pulls on them.

Then she made these pink window coverings by covering a wood cornice with fabric.

Aren’t they so cute?  Such a fun, creative, in-expensive idea.

Darling bookshelf.  Darling picture displayed.  May be a tiny bit biased.  :)

This desk and chair were also pieces of furniture from our childhood that Car painted.

I also love the way she displays Claire’s artwork.  She bought this display clippy thing (nice description, right?) at Ikea.

New baby boy’s nursery.

And this bathroom set was originally – hmmm – what’s the best way to put this – UGLY!  Until Car spray painted everything white.

And then painted the wall such a beautiful blue.  She changed all of the hardware, laid down a new Anthro rug and wa – la!  DARLING bathroom.  I love this room.  I love her whole house.  It has been so fun watching this work in progress.  They have worked really hard on this house and have done an amazing job.  I love visiting them and continually seeing the progress they are making turning this house into their home.  Aren’t home makeovers fun!? 
Have a great long weekend everyone!
xoxo, Erin
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