So lately at our house we’ve had a little problem. A problem involving bedtime.
It has always been part of the girls’ bedtime routine to first tuck in their “friends.”

Well. Ellie has taken choosing a FEW friends to a whole new level.





So lately at our house we’ve had a little problem. A problem involving bedtime.
It has always been part of the girls’ bedtime routine to first tuck in their “friends.”
Well. Ellie has taken choosing a FEW friends to a whole new level.
Told you I HAD to have that circle cutter. :) Also picked up this butterfly punch (because even though I have several butterfly punches, I don’t have this size and it’s only fair that I include a large range of butterfly sizes on my scrapbook pages – you know – to be fair and not discriminate) Also picked up some poster paper for a fun project in store for the girls. Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that if you go to this link at Oprah’s website you can print off a coupon for 50% off one Martha Stewart craft item. Score! Love my paper cutter even more at half off! The coupon is only good for today though so hurry quick.
Shari and Car – I know you two are all over this!
(sister and friend who hate all things crafty – hard to imagine…right!?)
Happy Shopping! :)
My day started at 5:30 a.m. when my girls woke me up. They didn’t feel well the day before so they went to bed super early…which always results in a super early wake up time. I rolled out of bed and turned the TV on for them. We have a no TV in the morning during the week rule, but a 5:30 wake up time immediately banishes all pre-made rules. Then I got back in bed. I laid there thinking about how completely awake I felt and how I should just get up and start the day. So many things I could do! Get on the treadmill and have my workout done early, get a jump start on laundry/housework, read something uplifting to start my day off on the right track, edit pictures and do a little blogging, finish the scrapbook layout I started yesterday….so many options.
Ended up going with option D – none of the above. It was a cold morning and the covers were so comfy and warm. I laid in bed awake thinking of all I should be doing for one hour until my alarm told me it was time to get out of bed – for real. (alarm being my baby boy “talking” from his crib – I have to say that a happy talking baby is my all time favorite alarm) Got Kole fed and Ellie ready for school —
Got Ellie and Kenny out the door and then I made this mess – I am working on my “Mind Organization for Moms.” It’s the organization system we learned about at the Power of Moms Retreat. I’m taking everything I learned and tweaking it a bit to fit my needs. Very cool. I’m excited to share it when I’m done! But all this paper organizing takes time and I ran out of time before I could finish today so for now my living room is covered in piles of paper.
Hi friends! Hope you’re all having a good Monday! I just wanted to share some fun news. Kami from the amazing blog “No Biggie” is featuring me on her blog today as part of her new series called “Be My Guest.”
I have been a fan of Kami and her blog for a long time. She always comes up with such fun posts and after reading and commenting on each others blogs for the past two years we have become good friends (love that about blogging!). I’m sharing my top tips for getting and staying organized so be sure to check it out. Thanks for having me Kami!
I did finally add an e-mail button (said I’d do that months ago) so if you have a question, e-mail me. Much better chance I’ll actually answer your question. I always have good intentions of answering questions in my comments, but like I said – life gets in the way and sometimes I forget. I also added some fun things on the sidebar. A list of fall posts from last year and a list of popular posts according to google stats. Which can I just say always surprises me. Seems everyone is checking out my organizing posts and not many of you are clicking on the old food/cooking category. What? Really? I have like two awesome recipes in there! :) Anyway, I added the lists of posts for any of you who are new to my blog…or if you’re just REALLY bored one night….or if your husband MAKES you watch Survivor once a week. (I know – talk about painful.) I do my best blog stalking during Survivor.
Anyway – before I can move forward to fun fall activities and posts I need to do a quick summer wrap up. These are just random summer pictures with no particular theme, in no particular order. It was kind of a crazy summer with a new baby, but one I want to remember.
An interesting little phase the girls went through dressing up with shirts on their heads. Red Riding Hood? Little Bo Peep? Homeless bag lady? I don’t’ get it. We were much more home bound this summer than we usually are and I think they were forced to get really creative. Or maybe they just went little crazy.
Typical pile from unloading the car.
Kenny and I at a parade in front of his grandma’s house.
This cute little guy just turned six months and has now outgrown the swing. Weird. I’m done with this swing forever. He’s also rolling over now. The girls kept giving him tummy time and rolling him back and forth. I’d say “NO – STOP! We are NOT encouraging movement!” I tried to not let it happen, but happen it did.
Christmas p.j.s in June. That’s just the way we roll around here.
Heading to the beach. Yes I took this picture driving. Not a good thing to do, but I happened to have my camera nearby and this picture stirs up fun summer memories.
Leaving Ellie’s first grade summer camp performance.
Another example of us being home bound/crazy.
This just makes me laugh. Ellie drags her pet dog “Frenchy” around all over the place with this leash she made from some of my scrapbook ribbon. The girls tie him up to the stair post to hang out sometimes and I always get a kick out of how his feet are never quite touching the ground and his tongue is hanging out. Poor Frenchy.
Next are a few pictures that scream “third kid”…..
Just a few months old and feeding himself.
You’re never too young for a little TV. Kole prefers Little Bear.
And this scene was all too familiar. I’d leave Kole alone for a minute while I was off dealing with his sisters and come back to find him asleep on the floor. Sweet sweet baby.
A few readers have asked for tips on garage organization so the last time I swept my garage out I took some pictures to share. When we first moved into this house I didn’t touch the garage much – I figured it was Kenny’s domain. But after a couple of years the randomness of all of our stuff piling everywhere totally drove me crazy! I spent two whole days gutting out and cleaning the garage – I still remember Ellie waddling around in her little walker the whole time I cleaned. :)
So – I organized everything in 2004 and since then have just worked hard to keep things clean. I usually sweep out and straighten the garage about once a month while the girls are blowing bubbles, picking flowers, or riding their bikes in the front yard. If I don’t do this, things get messy in a hurry. Garages are such catch alls for any and everything! It’s an area you definitely have to stay on top of if you want it to stay organized. Most of our shoes are in our closets, but we have these by the garage door to hold most often worn shoes – especially for the girls. We never wear shoes in the house (best way to keep your carpets clean!) and the girls know that before they can come in the they need to take off their shoes and put them on their shelf (top is Addison’s, second is Ellie’s). Straightening all of the shoes on these shelves is also one of the little jobs my girls do to help out.
Space for more important things like Christmas trees, bikes, baby joggers, and the Barbie Jeep.
Oh.. and I also organized all of the loose nails, screws, etc. And I labeled them. And I put them in alphabetical order although they’ve been messed up a bit since then. When Kenny came home from work and saw this he seriously wondered if something was wrong with me. Now years later he KNOWS something is wrong with me.
Kenny won’t admit it, but I know he loves not having to search all over the garage for a toggle bolt or a drill bit when he needs one. :)
**Re-organized shoe station here.
Kenny was gone all day today so it was just me and the little ones. I had such a good Saturday! We didn’t leave the house. Not once. It was SO nice. I went into an organizing frenzy. We learned about this organizing system at the Power of Moms retreat that I am so excited to try out. BUT…to do it you need a place to put several file folders, organized cubbies, etc. I have NO SPACE left in this house! I feel like we are busting out of this place. So after doing some serious analyzing, I found a space that could work on some shelves in the closet under our stairs. BUT… I already had holiday decor there. So I moved the holiday decor upstairs to my closet which led me to re-organizing all of my closet including going through all my clothes. Then I had to move stuff I had in my closet to the closet in the guest room…which was already full of other stuff so I re-organized that closet…and moved some of the stuff in it downstairs. This went on and on and by the time the day ended I had cleaned/organized three closets, four kitchen drawers, and three other areas that needed to be straightened and sorted through. I also decorated the whole house for fall (it’s looking so festive!) and put up all of my outside decorations. Purple and orange lights and pumpkins are now covering my yard – love it! I can’t turn the lights on until next weekend though or my neighbors will get mad at me again. They always give me a hard time for starting the outside holiday decor so early. I just can’t help it. It’s too much fun. :)
So what did my kids do while I tore apart my house?
First they colored and decorated ornaments for our Halloween Tree. (Addison found Ellie’s pumpkin princess costume from a couple of years ago and hasn’t taken it off. She has to have the whole thing on at all times including the hair accessory and shoes.)
Sorry little dude. I’ll make it up to you someday. How about a Thomas the Train on me? No pink involved….unless the princesses want a ride…. ;)
Winner of $30.00 to Amber’s shop is…….
drum roll please……..
Johanna Markworth!
who said:
“Love your blog! Love, love, love the necklaces! Thanks!”
Congrats Johanna! Email me at [email protected] and I’ll get you in touch with Amber. :)
Whew…that was stressful. So many darling blog friends who commented – I hate that I can’t send you all a necklace! Last giveaway I had around 30 comments so Ellie drew a name out of a hat. This time we had to think big and use the random number generator. Johanna was chosen – she was #37 and 3 and 7 happen to be my mom’s favorite numbers so I felt pretty good about that! Congrats again Johanna!
I wanted to let you all know that the next Power of Moms Retreat is coming up on October 22-23 in New Castle, New Hampshire. If I remember right from our days living in Virginia, the fall leaves will be absolutely beautiful! I can’t say enough about how wonderful the Power of Moms Retreats are. I am so glad I did this! I learned so much and made some great new friends. If you’re interested, you can learn more about the Power of Moms Retreats here and the New England Retreat here. Also, all of my readers can receive $20.00 off of this retreat by using this link. Go check it out!
Here are a few more pics from the retreat I just attended taken by one of the presenters –
(when we first arrived – meeting everyone)
Melissa, a new friend from the retreat, brought her baby boy. He is Kole’s exact age and every time I looked at him I missed Kole SO BADLY. Funny how it always sounds so nice to take a break from your baby but after about an hour you’re dying to hold your little one again…
Felt VERY good to come home to this smile. :)
Last weekend was The Power of Moms Retreat in Dana Point, CA (about 45 minutes up the coast from San Diego) that I mentioned on my blog a while ago. My friend Ann and I went and had such a great time! Seriously. This moms retreat was so much fun. If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of these I definitely recommend it! Two days of staying in a beautiful hotel, eating delicious food, and the best part – making new friends with other moms and learning SO MUCH about how to be a better mom.
Here’s the inside of our hotel room –
And speaking of the next day and needing Tylenol, Ellie proudly came walking down the stairs in this ensemble…
What was I saying about Kenny being impressive??? Good thing mom’s back in town.
I am so excited to announce this giveaway! Amber, a darling mom from Kansas who reads my blog (and always leaves the sweetest comments), wants to give away something special to one of my readers. Amber has an Etsy shop and sells unique hand stamped jewelry. She has beautiful “timeless treasures” that you can purchase online or you can have her create something unique and special just for you.
I wanted something simple that included each of my kids’ names and a blue jewel stone. This necklace Amber made me couldn’t be more perfect!
You may not know this, but my little sister is now a movie star. Well – that’s what we’ve all been calling her around here. Carly is the director of legal recruitment for Prince, Perelson and Associates in Salt Lake City (sounds important, right?) and she was asked to be on Studio 5 to talk about job interview strategies. We have all been SO excited (and by “we” I mean her family…the little people she will now likely leave in the dust for stardom, fame, and fortune). We were together in Utah last weekend and went shopping to find something perfect for her to wear for her big TV debut. She’s six months pregnant with her second baby (due on Christmas Eve!) and we found a perfect loose purple silky top that screams “I’m professional yet stylish yet down to earth yet incredibly smart and talented.” She did an amazing job and since I’m so proud of her (and of course taught her everything she knows) I had to share her 8 minutes of fame with all of you. :)
Car – Well done. Just remember to talk to me before signing any movie deals. There are a lot of sharks in the industry.
Still unpacking from our camping trip to Brian Head. Before we headed to the mountains I had a little time in Utah to hit a few of my favorite stores. Got some more scrapbook supplies (because I needed new paper flowers like I need a hole in the head). Also got lots of blue paper – can’t wait to get going on Kole’s book! (wonder if he’ll care if his book is full of paper flowers?)
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