Friday, June 15, 2012

Kid Pics

Here are some cute picture of the kids that I have taken recently.  Just pics of the little ones this time...  :-)





Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Patriotic Decorating in Mini!

I decorated the dollhouse again this year for Memorial Day/4th of July.  I love how festive all the different decorations look, so very patriotic!

I saved all the decorations that I made last year and reused them this year.  The blue blanket on the back of the couch is just a scrap of fabric folded over.  I bought the little American flag next to the fireplace at the dollar store (in a pack of 24, I'll have to come up with some other uses for them!)




I also have started on the kitchen so I elected to put out some holiday type food.  I am trying out this arrangement of the furniture right now, and I have to say that I like it much better.  Still a long ways from completion, mind you, but I have a good idea of what I want.


I made the little hot dogs myself, as well as the bowl of blueberries (didn't make enough blueberries, oops!), the small teacup, and the cookies on the plate.  Emmaline made the brown doughnut (on the white plate at the very front of the table).  I still have more things I'd like to make (more blueberries for one!) but I'm happy with how this is coming along.


Again, sorry for the poor picture quality.  I've finally figured out that I just don't have enough light in the garage for good pictures.  I'll keep trying to get that figured out!  Thanks for your patience!


Friday, June 8, 2012

New Fridge!!!

Our fridge has always been a bit tempermental, from the time we first moved into our house.  It has always leaked water down the back of the fridge part so I have had to keep containers in the back to collect all teh water running down.  Lately though it had been getting worse, I had to have a container on every shelf!

When the weather started getting warmer we noticed that the fridge didn't seem very cold anymore, so I turned the temperature knob down all the way but with no change.  The water containers in the back of the fridge were no longer freezing like they used too, and all our food just seemed warm, almost room temperature.  So, we knew we needed to start looking for a new fridge.  We had only just started looking on craigslist when we mentioned in passing to some folks from church that we were looking for a fridge.  And, incredibly, they had one sitting in their garage that they were wanting to give away.  So, they gave it to us!!!  It is stainless steel, side by side, bigger than what we had, and very fancy!

It has special controls for the produce and deli drawers, and a special shelf just for drinks, which keeps them extra cold!


We are loving it, and feeling very spoiled.  :-)

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Visit with Auntie Mary


My sister and her husband were in town this week to visit family!  We were able to spend an afternoon and evening with them at our house.  It was such a special time!  The kids enjoyed getting to know their Aunt and Uncle a bit more and had lots of fun playing with them.  It will be a few years more before my sister and her husband can move back here so I'm glad the kids had this time together with them.

Mary and Ty with a few of the kids

Me and Mary with Jeremiah

Some beautiful flowers that Mary brought for me!

Say Cheese!
Having fun out back...



Friday, June 1, 2012

Lego Birthday!

Elijah celebrated his birthday this weekend with a lego party!  He picked out the theme months ago so we had ample time to plan.  :-)  The only activities he wanted was for the kids to have contests building different lego things, so we set up a table in the garage with all our legos on it and all the bigger kids had contests, first to see who could build the tallest tower, and second, to see who could build the coolest thing.  The kids had so much fun!  After all the games were over most of the kids just kept playing with the legos, they are such a universal toy!

For Elijah's cake I made some giant legos.  I choose to frost them in bright colors, just like the real deal.  I tried stacking them but that was a dismal failure so I just lined them up on a few trays. 


After cake Elijah opened his gifts.  He got all kinds of legos, books, clothes, and other stuff.  He was one happy camper!!!  Overall it was a great party!


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Visiting with Great Grandma

This past month my husband's Grandma has been visiting.  We were wonderfully blessed in that we were able to see her quite a bit!  Elijah was able to go camping with most of Mark's family on Mother's Day weekend, and to spend some time getting to know her there.  He had a blast!

The next thing we did with her was have tea at my Mother-in-law's house!  Yum!!! It was such a special time for the kids to see their great grandma!  Mark had to work so it was just me and the kids.  My kids are a bit shy so it took awhile for them to warm up to her, but once they did they stayed right by her!  :-)


The next time we got together was a bit different in that it was just me, my mother-in-law, and great grandma.  We went out for a tea/brunch, then spent the morning window shopping.  Mark watched the kids for me, it was such a nice break!

Our final get together was at my in-laws house for Memorial Day, a celebration/goodbye time all in one.  By this visit the kids had warmed up to Great Grandma enough that Emmaline wouldn't leave her side but just sat and talked her ear off!


It was a very special time and I'm so glad the kids had a chance to spend this time with their Great Grandma!!!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dollhouse Home

I like to see all over views of other peoples dollhouses and thought you might enjoy one of mine as well.  Since I'm working on the inside now I've flipped it around so the exterior is facing the wall.  I haven't made much progress on it, summer is a very busy time.  I'm sure I'll get something done on it soon though. 



Currently my dollhouse "lives" in our garage.  Someday I'd like to have it in our bedroom, but as that's not really feasible right now, the garage is very workable.  Plus, I can leave out a mess while I'm working without driving myself crazy.  :-) 

Friday, May 25, 2012

Love Note

One morning this week I got out of the shower and came into my room to find this note on my nightstand!


Awww, so sweet!  It made me cry... :-)  This will be cherished and treasured for many years to come!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Another Birthday Celebration

This weekend we went out to my parents house to celebrate my Mom's birthday!  All of the family that lives here was able to be there for the party, which made it such a nice special time.





Emmaline and her cousin having fun with an old wagon!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Family Room

After swallowing a hard dose of cold reality, I realized that the chances of painting the family room before this little guy is born were extremely slim.  So, I went ahead and rearranged all the furniture and got the room set up the way I wanted.  It is still kind of rough, there's no decorating done or anything like that but the set up seems to be very workable for us.  We have done school quite a few times and found it to be ideal.  Also, with the kids toys where they are at, the little ones can play quietly with toys right next to us while we do school!

In this picture you can see how it's set up.  The computer desk works so well under the window!  Next to it is the turtle tank in the corner, then the school shelves, then a dresser full of all our games (we like to play games, so we have a lot of them), and finally the toy shelves.  We bought a new tank for Elijah's frogs and put them on top of the game dresser.



Here are the school shelves.  I went through the school stuff somewhat as I put it on but I need to do more sorting and organizing as I can.  All our picture albums, baby books, etc are on the top shelves.  I also put all the art supplies (paper, glue, scissors, playdough, etc.) on these shelves.  Our library books occupy one shelf (2nd shelf from bottom, left side) and our kid books are on the next shelf down.  I'm always amazed at how much school/kid/art stuff there is!


And here are the toy shelves.  I did a major sorting of all the toys when I set up this shelf.  No, these are not all the toys, we still have 7-8 bins of toys in the garage as well as oversized toys that I switch out on a daily basis.  The toys that made it onto these shelves are the ones that are played with consistently on a daily basis.  There's also a box of weapons next to the shelves on the left that you can't see in this picture.


I would still like to work in a bookshelf just for books, but I'm not sure where yet.  Maybe in the corner by the game dresser?  I also want to build some shelves to hang above the toy shelves to put 3D art that the kids make on, and hang up a bulletin board to display all the drawings the kids make.  But for now, I'm very happy with how this worked out!