I'm not the missing LINK!

I linked up my first blog post yesterday at Centsational Girl!!! This is exactly why I started a new blog. My old one was mostly about my girls (and had a lot of personal info) and I was ashamed of how unprofessional it was. Not that this is professional by any standard but who wants to hear blah blah blah about my kiddos all the time (besides the grandparents). I'm so excited!!!

The topic was SPRING! I linked up my pillow post from last week. Not anything too thrilling but it was my first go at it so I'm alright with it being a bit of a ho-hum post. Plus, I tried to restyle (or actually, style for the first time) the shelves of my TV cabinet but I want a lot of apple green and bright white pieces and just couldn't round up enough to make them look that good. I think I need to buy some cute accessories regardless of color and break out the spray paint!

Her next Fair Weather Forum is Easter Projects on April 11th and I'm hoping to have a one-of-a-kind project to add to all the creative ideas from everyone else! Go link up!!!

It's the litle things...

Two things happened this week that have made my life a heckuva lot easier.

1) I got a new car. No more cramming my groceries in my tiny trunk! Woo hoo!!!
2) I saw a woman using a Sam's Club cart in the neighboring WalMart and I am now doing it too! I don't have to wedge my groceries all around E in the cart and there's plenty of room next to G for the stuff I don't want smooshed. Plus, when E's sittin' up the girls can both ride up front.

Here they are in all their easy (well, as easy as shopping with 2 little kids can be) glory. If you look close you can see G peeking over the seat. It doesn't take much to make me happy. So awesome.

And, on a side note, I saw this tree while walking in my in-laws' neighborhood this past weekend. I SOOOOO wanted to let G climb in it. Isn't it the perfect little fort, or castle, or pirate ship, or... or anything a little mind could imagine?!? I WANT this tree in my front yard someday. Maybe for future grandbabies. Who knows...

Springy Thingy

Just a little change can make things feel so much lighter and brighter. And the weather outside is letting me know its definitely time for a change!

This is the "before" with the dark brown pillow that came with the couch.

And this is the "after." Ikea, you treat me soooo nice.

This is the only problem I'm having ringing in this new and glorious season...

My mom painted this pic of my childhood home and I LOVE it. Unfortunately, it only comes out in the winter months. I need to replace it with something but what I used in my old house now has a new, more permanent home. Oh, poor me. I'll have to get some new artwork...

7 months!!!

Can't believe little E is already well over the halfway mark to a year. I love her SOOOOO much (teeth clenched, wanna take a little bite of her, "SOOOOO")!!!

Here she is, chillin' with her sign. She's a little slumpy still but we're working on that whole sitting up thing. Its over-rated anyway, right? Kinda like Pittsburgh in the tourney. Phew, what a game (yes, March Madness is alive and well at my casa)!

And here's her big sis getting in on the picture action. This is her first toothy smile on cue. I love it! G also did her first drawing of people (that actually sort of resemble people) right after this shot was taken. Since its chalk I can't save it so I snapped a pic and will immortalize it here in the blogosphere.

The pic is of (from L to R) "me as a baby in a swaddle, my daddy, and E grown up into a big girl with ponies (pony tails)." I think the monthly pics make her a little jealous of the baby which is why I always let her crawl in the crib for a shot of them both (thank goodness she only weighs 28 pounds).

You may be right! I may be crazy!!!

I often hear Billy Joel playing on repeat in my head. You could say its my theme song. Here are the two new paint samples up on the wall in G's room.

The far left is my first attempt, Behr's Blue Cascade. And, while I decided this was an awesome color, its just too dark for our tiny 10-ish by 10-ish foot space. The middle sample is Valspar Tidal Wave and the one on the right is Valspar Sea Serenade/Betsy Ross House. You can check out the virtual interpretation of them in G's room here. I've decided to go with good ol' Betsy. It is REALLY blue and I think I might be losing my mind but hey, its just paint, right? Right??? (chirp, chirp, cricket, cricket)

Sorry for the 800 posts on this one tiny aspect of her room but I'm really struggling with this. I was thinking about abandoning the Kilim Beige that runs throughout our house in the toy room and going with an light olive-y green but now, not so sure. I don't think picking paint color is a talent that I possess.

On a more exciting note, I've been working on an Ikea shopping list for this weekend. That's right, I'm heading Cali to visit the in-laws (oh, and squeeze in a little NASCAR...what? yeah. I heart NASCAR. Don't hold it against me, ok? I just can't resist. Some of you dvr Real Housewives, others find it therapeutic to scrapbook, me, I just wanna watch cars go in a circle...really fast.). Top priorities for the trip to mini-Scandanavia: curtains for living room, bedding for The G. And, who knows how much other crap-ola many other goodies I'll bring home.

Making special books keepsakes

I am stealing a WONDERFUL idea from a wonderful blogger on an easy way to document the growth of my kiddos and make keepsakes out of the books that are special to us. She swiped the idea from someone else too, so I don't think Brooke from Inchmark will mind the theft. We gave G the book Ballet Kitty Ballet Class (Bernett Ford and Sam Williams) for her 3rd birthday, along with a leotard, tutu, and ballet and tap shoes. We also signed her up for her first dance classes. Its an amazing program for 3 -4 year olds that is through the City of Las Vegas Parks and Rec and costs us only $17 (!) a month. I love seeing her in her cutie little outfit, she loves going, and I love the chance to chat with other mammas of pre-preschoolers.

Anyway, we traced her hand in the front cover of the book! I love that we will be able to look back at it later and see how tiny her little hand was. It will also help us remember when she started dance. This will probably be worth millions one day when she is a famous ballerina. OK, with the moves she's getting from me she's more likely to do backup for Lady Gaga. Or, if she gets her boogie style from her dad she'll only be famous when she's at the club and has had one too many "big girl" beverages. But, either way, its priceless to us.

PS. I just traced her hand today but I figured it hasn't changed too much in the last 2 1/2 months.

New paint samples for G's room

I showed you the painted sample of Behr's Blue Cascade on G's wall last week. The sample that I thought was much too dark and moody for a sweet, vibrant 3 year-old (although I love the color and highly recommend it if you're going for that sort of thing). And, to do my due diligence I decided a little more ground work was in order before buying another sample. Enter: Lowe's virtual room painter...

Valspar Tropical Mist

Valspar Sea Serenade/Betsy Ross House

You can see the old color samples on the wall which annoyed me at first and I thought about editing them out but then realized that because I felt the color was too dark, this was a good way to ensure that I didn't make that same mistake.

I also put the new Garden Party pillow cases on and removed the dark blue bedspread that had previously been on the bed. This gave me a little more true idea of how the room will look once I find my white matelasse cover. I ended up getting samples of the 2 colors above. What do you think? I'm excited to try them. They're more teal-ish than I had originally planned but I felt that all the more gray-blue colors looked murky which didn't scream 3 year-old either. And, for some reason, the Betsy Ross/Sea Serenade color has 2 names. One online and on the label of the paint can, the other on the store paint chip. Weird. The Lowe's guy didn't understand either. He also thought my almost 7 month-old was GIANORMOUS (he actually used that word). Its all good though because we delight in her pleasant plumpness. He also noted that his (much smaller) 6 month old wasn't nearly as chatty or responsive and active so I took that to mean "Ma'am (yes, I'm embracing it now that I'm well into my 30th year), your supa' fat baby is a genius."