Kitchen Advice Needed

I have been TRYING to decide on a color scheme for my kitchen...

My current kitchen has tan walls with black cabinets & a black table & red accents
I really like it, but I want to do something different when we move.
I have thought about every color I can think of and I THINK (still may change my mind tomorrow) I have decided to incorporate GREEN.

I have been collecting ideas for different rooms in my house & I noticed how many of the kitchen ones that I have saved had GREEN in them, so I think I will be very happy with it!

Now...I need YOUR OPINION...

{Keep in mind that my kitchen table is BLACK}

Do we paint the cabinets white, black or green?
&
Do we paint the walls white, green, tan or another color?

Please help me decide!!!

Pumpkin Tutorial

April, your tutorial is up at my craft blog...

It's not great, but it was my first attempt.

I can't believe it is almost OCTOBER!?!
Someone needs to inform the weather that we would be perfectly happy with temps under 100, considering we are in Fall & NOT summer anymore!

AND...

I hope we get in our house in time to decorate for Halloween!
I really want to make one of these spider web chandeliers for my front entry way...
it is made with an old umbrella!! Too cute!

Haul My Buns...

My boys helped my sister answer to HOMECOMING lastnight:)
He asked with a Tonka Truck full of Cinnamon rolls and said something like "I want to haul your buns to Homecoming" ---so I had the idea to take a naked Ryler over lastnight & write YES on his buns & have him crawling away when he answered the door:) My family edited my idea & put hot dog buns all over the floor & wrote out the YES on a sign for a fully clothed Ryler to hold.
This is right before they answered the door...
well, we were HOPING they would answer right away, but they didn't & my boys started to get restless & Parker ran away crying.

Luckily, Ryler was still sitting there, chowing down on the buns, so I got a cute pic of them before taking him away:)

Before & After

Exterior of House-BEFORE

Exterior of House-AFTER

I can't wait to see the house with GRASS in the front yard!!!

Also we need to clean the bricks & we are putting red shutters on the windows...but it looks a million times better already...thanks to my brother Matt & his painting skills!!!

House Progress...

This week we still got a lot done, but the progress feels slower because we are painting & EVERYTHING in the house needs to be painted.
Every door, every baseboard, every wall, every ceiling...you get the point.
And painting takes time.


My brother Matt is an AMAZING PAINTER(call him if you need the interior OR exterior of your house painted or any pieces of furniture!) He is excellent! He came over last week & painted the exterior of our house & I LOVE IT!!! This pic shows a bit of the BEFORE trim color...kinda an orangish-tanish color & the new stucco color. The best part about this project??? I didn't have to choose the colors! My brother found exterior Birchwood & Swiss Coffee paint on sale for 1/2 off, so that is what we used...saving us hundreds of dollars. Thanks Matt!! I will do a complete before & after of the paint job soon!

While my brother was painting, I decided to try to tear down the extended patio that we didn't like, so I pulled out the drill & hammer & went to work & had it coming down in no time!
We plan to eventually lay grass across the entire backyard, including where this extended patio was.

Here is a sneak peek at our awesome family room & a bit of our kitchen.
The lovely wood paneling was the selling point on this house.
Or was it the AWESOME window treatments?
Or the brown crown molding?
or the black outlets?
????????????? :-)
There was much debate on ripping the wood paneling off the walls
OR
painting over them.
We got a LOT of advice on this room, but in the end did what we wanted.
And I like the end result. A lot!
I will post pics soon, so you can see what we did to this room this week!
(and yes, since you are all dying to know...those lovely curtains are available to the first person who wants them!)


A special THANK YOU to Julie, Kylie, my Mom & my Mother-in-law for watching the boys at different times throughout this week, so I could work on the house...and a million other people that have offered their help! My kids have been having a blast, I just hope they still remember who I am after all of this!

TWINS!

My good friend Tiffany is having TWINS
& I am so excited
{that it is not me} !!!
I offered to give her a baby shower & it was so much fun this past Thursday! I didn't know we would be smack dab in the middle of moving, when I planned it...but THANKFULLY I had SO MUCH HELP! All my friends & her family brought food & decor & made it great!
...and thanks to my INCREDIBLE husband. He took the day off work to work on the house & ended up with the kids most of the day, while I got things ready for the shower! And thanks to my mom for hosting the party & for all of her cute dishes we used!

Crystal, Catherine, Bettina, Devyn, Beau & Melissa

Tiff & her mom...

I'm so glad we have all stayed friends after highschool!

CONGRATULATIONS TIFFANY!!!!

Prayers

Last night before bed I started to say prayers with Parker.
Usually he just repeats whatever we say, but last night I started out & then he just started saying them on his own. It was so sweet.
He said, "Dank Thee for our blessings
and our life
and Bugs Life
and Bear one(a sing a long movie he loves)
and Tarzan
and Grandma's house
Amen.

50's Party!

For Family Night on Monday, my aunt put together a FUN 50's Night with all of our cousins!
I used some old black & white material I had from a skirt that I cut up last year & did a quick 15 min. project to make the boys some 50's shirts...

We had a blast! Grandma provided a pizza picnic & we had fun dancing the night away...well mostly watching the cute kids dance the night away:) Buddy Holly sang & Elvis even showed up & it is always a fun time with the cousins!

Can't wait for next month...the annual Halloween Carnival!

Bye Bye Blue!

The beginning of the END of the house of BLUE.
The former owners really liked blue & it is everywhere. Slowly, we will paint & say goodbye to all the blue. Today we started with getting rid of the blue carpet.


Aren't we cute in all our sweaty, dusty glory!?!

Today's House Project:
Remove disgusting carpet in the playroom...

*to the far left in the corner is the BLUE "church" carpet, as I call it, that was in the playroom...looking kind of white, since it is covered in popcorn ceiling residue.The black squares are the linoleum squares & in the top of this pic they must have laid some sort of ceramic down to make the floor level...what a mess!

...AND
...yucky, sticky, gooey, messy, glue-y, smelly, peel & stick linoleum squares that were UNDER disgusting carpet...

It was HARD.
Matt & I have matching blisters on our hands.
this was not the simple project we thought it would be.
Every single square was STUCK...REALLY STUCK down to the cement & the smell of the glue was OVERWHELMINGLY powerful(hence the awesome face masks in the pic of us)
I think we both got high.
We are tired
&
achy.
I came home to put the kids down for naps.
Matt is still there working...
He is INCREDIBLE!

**I'm trying to come up with a way we can win the lottery tonight, so that we can hire someone to go back tomorrow and finish the job. I'll let you know if I figure it out.



P.S. A HUGE THANK YOU to my AMAZING sis-in-law, Julie, who watched my kids while I went and worked with Matt today! We appreciated it so much!!!!!!!!!

Baby is Blue!

This morning I was putting away some laundry in Parker's room when he came running in and said, "Mommy, baby is blue!". I immediately assumed that Ryler had choked on something and had stopped breathing and was turning blue(he eats EVERYTHING...so I have to be extra careful not to leave anything small laying around). My heart dropped as I quickly dropped what I was doing & RAN to the family room & saw this...

I couldn't do anything but laugh & take a picture.

He most definitely WAS blue! He ATE the top of the marker off! I cleaned him up, fished the tip of the marker out of his mouth and Parker & I had a chat about not leaving the caps of the markers after he is done coloring.




PS-Don't you love Ryler's innocent "deer in the headlight" look he is giving me:)

Dust...and more dust...

Popcorn Ceilings Removed...Check

Hot Husband...Check

Move HOME Marissa!

Marissa came to town this week.
Left to Right: Catherine, Marissa, Staci, Crystal, Brittani, Kylee
& our 13 children!- Peter Piper Pizza 9/14/09


Oh the memories I have with Marissa.
We were best friends growing up & we spent a LOT of time together.
She used my nick name "stacki" regularly
(my email address will ensure that nick name lives on forever).
I remember a lot of sleepovers in her closet. Yes, we thought it was cool to sleep in her closet, it was HUGE & I think we thought it gave us more privacy or something??
Or we'd crash in the basement.
She was my only friend with a basement & I thought it was the coolest...even when it flooded & we had to pull up the carpet to let it air out.
I loved Marissa's cooking, she could whip anything up like she had been a housewife for years, when we was only 10. I specifically remember her gooey carmel popcorn & crumb cake that I could've eaten every day of my life.
I also remember if we didn't eat our dinner at her house, her mom would make us eat it for breakfast the next day! I thought it was cruel.
Now that I am a mom, I think she was smart.
I broke a LOT of things in her house growing up.
I don't know what it was, but if I went to the Orme's, I KNEW...and they KNEW...something was going to end up broken...
or dead.
It was a curse that was not removed until they moved to Hawaii.
And actually it is probably still there, but I have yet to visit Hawaii to test it out.
They are probably thankful:)
I hopped her fence every day on the way home from Johnson Elementary to cut off a few blocks to my house. One day I scraped my arm. I still have the scar that reminds me of those fence hopping days.
Marissa was a couple months older than me, but due to July/October birthdays...we were sentenced to be in different years in school.
Come to think of it, it was probably a good thing.
We probably stayed closer because of it. And Marissa learned things the year before me, so she would teach me life lessons...like the birds & the bees:)
(No wait...I have to thank Crystal for teaching me about that one. I have a vivid recollection of learning about the birds and the bees at Taylor Jr High pool when Crystal's cousin took us to the pool to swim & filled us in. My mouth hit the bottom of the pool, I'm sure...) haha

One day we are all determined to get Marissa to MOVE HOME.
She was in Hawaii for years & now resides in Utah...where it is MUCH TOO COLD for her.
Her 2 darling little boy & gorgeous little girl need to grow up in the AZ heat.
Besides their beautiful skin would take to the sun very well.
So...what do you say?
Should Matt start looking for a house for you guys!?!? :)

Child Labor Laws?

The work on OUR New {old} house has begun...

The 1st thing to go...

This sweet wallpaper.
The TEXTURED baby blue & mauve will be missed...
by none.

It was so fun to start working on the house as a family. After waiting MONTHS for this house to close, we were more than excited to get started!
We finished removing the wallpaper on this entry wall & THANKFULLY it is the only wall in the house that had wallpaper on it...because removing it is a pain!

We will be on to the next project today...
Removing Popcorn Ceilings.
You may think we are crazy to buy a house that needs work, but Matt & I enjoy doing stuff like this & look forward to the transformation we create...one step at a time!

Happy Grandparent's Day!

For Grandparent's Day, we decided to take a picture of all the Grandkids & give it to our parents!
My sis-in-law, Julie pulled it together last minute, telling everyone to wear a solid shirt & she went and got big suckers for the kids!:) My sister Kylie took the pictures and we framed this picture for my parents.

I asked Kylie to take some pics of my two boys for Grandma & Grandpa Allen that turned out so cute!:)

HAPPY GRANDPARENT'S DAY...
to my parents & Matt's parents...the 4 greatest Grandparents in the whole world!!!!!

Youth Museum

My sis-in-law, Julie, invited us to the Youth Museum with them & we jumped at the chance, because we have never been!
I LOVE IT! Seriously...it has EVERYTHING!
I was a little nervous of the "Monster Exhibit" they have going on...because Parker has been very afraid of Monsters lately, but he seemed fine & had so much fun!
We need to get a Family Pass...it is just a giant indoor playground with SO MUCH for your kids to do! Thanks so much for the invite Julie!

Struttin' His Stuff

Proof that my baby is walking...

(He thinks because he is the size of an 18 month old...he needs to act like it. Stop my baby from growing up....pleeeeeeeeasssssse!)

A Labor -less Labor Day Weekend

We enjoyed a WONDERFUL weekend in the pines. We had the family Ranch all to ourselves & it was such a nice, relaxing weekend for us! The weather was gorgeous, it rained every day & the boys were in absolute heaven with an endless supply of rocks, sticks & dirt!
I got to read (Hunger Games...loved it, thanks Emily!) & work on a few sewing projects(I finally hemmed some pants that Matt has been asking me to hem for almost a year) & best of all, we just relaxed & enjoyed having fun with our family! I am so grateful for all of the memories I have at our Ranch & thankful that my boys are able to make memories there now! It is no Hilton, but I LOVE IT !!! I'm so glad we were able to escape the heat for a few days & take a much needed break! I hope all of you had a fun-filled Labor-less Labor Day Weekend too!