Little Heroes

We all could use a little super hero, in his undies, to save the world
 {or atleast his mommy}.

Shoes

In the years we struggled with infertility I wanted nothing more than to "complete" our family.
The nagging ache that someone was missing bothered me almost on a daily basis.
I knew in my heart that there was one more.
For me that unsettled feeling of counting heads (or shoes for me), and having one missing, never went away.
One day I was gathering up miscellaneous items that the kids had left laying around.
I had a habit of stashing their stuff on the stairs to take up the next time I went up to their rooms.
I lined up Cooper's shoes, then Maelan's...
In that instant my heart seized as I realized there was a set of shoes missing.
Tears came to my eyes and I my heart literally ached for the little person that may or may not ever have his shoes lined up on the stairs.
I have thought of this day countless times and believe me, the first time I had all three pairs of shoes lined up on the stairs my heart filled with contentment and the sure peace and comfort of knowing that our family was complete.
Today I experienced that comfort and love again...

I don't know why, for me, the image of three sets of shoes makes me so emotional.
Maybe it's seeing their three, distinct personalities in their choice of shoes, maybe it's knowing that we are complete, and happy to be here now enjoying the ages and stages they're in.
Perhaps it's knowing that it won't last forever and that I better enjoy the craziness of it now.
I do know that lining up shoes, and counting to three has given me peace and my heart swells with the knowledge that no one is missing.

Life's A Beach

Awhile ago, (like always) I was feeling the need for some tropics, so I bought the kids one of those tacky, photo-shower curtains.
Blue skys, palm trees, beach huts and a long stretch of sand. 
So depressing.
Anyway, it gave me the idea to make a subway-art, printable with a few of our favorite beach towns and beaches.

My photo skills are slacking this week, but you get the idea.
It looks great in their bathroom, it goes well with the blue toothpaste spit in the sink...
Cannon recognized his name and calls it "his" picture.
If your looking for a cute, inexpensive way to update your decor, printables are the way to go.
They're easy to make (on Picnik, that soon will be closing. Boo) and blogs all over the Internet have them for free.

Board And Batten

For years I've loved the look of board and batten walls.
I've drooled over pictures on blogs of DIY women, who masterfully whipped them out and then blogged about it.
I've showed Steve dozens of pictures and bookmarked my favorites.
He wasn't taking the hint so I made a Christmas list this year (first one ever in my married life) and casually added, board and batten walls :)
A few days after Christmas I found him standing in the hall with the measuring tape...

 Before

This wall has literally been bare for 7 years.

It has bugged the heck out of me for 7 years.

It's only purpose has been to collect dings, dents, and matchbox car crashes.

 blurry-oops

Same story for this wall and landing.

It has held various pictures throughout the years but nothing ever felt right.

 During

My sweet husband is a little OCD.

Don't get me wrong. This is a good thing...just a test of my patience some times.

I told him all the DIY-blogger-ladies just run down to Home Depot to buy their wood,

 and then just glue the wood to the wall.

He insisted in custom ordering our moulding (wood)

 to match the rest of the custom ordered mouldings.

He also agonized over how far apart the slats were so he could nail them to the studs in the wall.

I appreciate all his attention to detail and his perfection-isms

 (even if it adds a few weeks days to the project).

 But I am SO glad he rocks the handy-man skills!

I love my awesome walls (and awesome husband) more than I ever knew I would.

He added a picture ledge to this wall and the wall on the landing.

Now I'm searching for the perfect pictures to put on them.



 upstairs hall

looking down from upstairs

Such an improvement!

I think it was a lot more work than we anticipated, that yellow paint took three coats of white paint to cover, and Maelan filled and sanded a million holes, and taping, and cutting in the edges took forever, but I LOVE them and LOVE Steve for doing them for me.

Thank you Honey, I owe ya ;)

2011 Book Review

I've been reading a lot of book reviews across blog land lately, so I thought I would throw mine out there too.
I only read 21 books last year.
I'm going to blame that on having 3 church callings for a good part of the year, I'm also going to blame my ipad and Pinterest....need I say more ;)
So after reviewing my "very technical" book rating system, my top 3 of 2011 also happen to be the first three books I read.

(Sorry, you can't really click to look inside-I borrowed the images from Amazon and was too lazy to edit them.)

Each of these books are so different from each other but I really liked all three.
CeeCee is one of those characters you fall in love with. By the end I wanted to live in Georgia surrounded by ecentric women.
Lark and Termite touched me because of the deep relationship and love between Lark and her disabled brother Termite.
Wench, was fascinating to me because I had never read a book about this topic; the love affairs between white plantation owners and their black slaves.  I was curious and googled the topic after reading the book and was surprised to find how common it was. I recommended this book to a friend and she didn't like it though....so your on your own.
For fun, and to make this post really long, I thought I would add a list of all my books of 2011.

These Things Hidden-Heather Gudenkauf
Rose-Leila Meacham
Losing Julia-Jonathan Hull (this is one of my all-time-favorites. I re-read it every couple of years)
The Cradle-Patrick Somerville
Salting Roses-Lorelle Marinello
Fireworks Over Toccoa-Jeffrey Stepakoff (another really good one)
The House At Riverton-Kate Morton
Room-Emma Donoghue (read this one too!)
Miles To Go-Richard Paul Evans
Silver Girl-Elin Hilderbrand
Dreams Of Joy-Lisa See
The Very Thought Of You-Rosie Alison
The Mountain Between Us-Charles Martin (my sis LOVED this one. Takes place in the high Uintah's)
Belong Too Me-Marisa De Los Santos
Best Friends Forever-Jennifer Weiner
The Best Of Me-Nicholas Sparks (can't go wrong with Nick)
American Wife-Curtis Sittenfield
Lost December-Richard Paul Evans
There you have it.
By the way, I just read The Bungalow, by Sarah Jio. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.
It will definitely make the list for this year.
Happy reading.
Send some recommendations my way.

My Perfect Kids

For years I've been jealous whenever I received a Christmas card in the mail.

Perfect smiling children in nice, color coordinated outfits.

Perfect setting, perfect photographer, perfect families.

You get the idea.

I've avoided doing pictures and cards for those very reasons.

Anyway, one of my goals for 2011 was to send out a Christmas card even if it killed me, or I killed the kids, whichever came first.

So one Sunday, a week or two before Christmas I announced that we were doing pictures.

Whether they liked it or not.

I threw together whatever outfits I could find, that somewhat coordinated, bribed the 4 yr. old, and away we went.

I had my eye on a few locations around town but they were all taken by other perfectly coiffed families and photographers, so I had to use plan B and possibly C.

It was cold and I was losing light but I was on a mission!

This is what we sent out...

They're cute kids huh?!

See, perfect children :)

Overall I'm happy with how they turned out.

Despite the crappy lighting, teary eyes, red noses, tears, threats, and bribes.

Imperfections and all, I'm quite certain that my kids need to slow down on the growing up thing and let me drag them all over town again and take more pictures.

 

Milk And Cookies

I'm always on the hunt to find inexpensive gifts for the kids to give their teachers.

This year Cannon had 9 bus drivers, teachers, and aids to give Christmas gifts too!

I used to harass my Mom for giving gifts to everyone, including the mailman and dry cleaning lady.

I felt a little bit like that this year.

Cannon has the sweetest bunch of people getting him back and forth to school and the kindest teachers, I had to let them know how much we appreciate all they do.



So, I dipped dozens of Oreos and sprinkled them with crushed candy cane.
If you have never tried a chocolate dipped Oreo you are SO missing out!
Then I did a little search on Pinterest and found these adorable milk carton printables from, Papercrave.

So cute and easy to assemble.
They were just the right size for 3 dipped Oreos.
I put them in a little cello bag, printed up a cute tag, and finished it off with a cute red and white striped paper straw.

Needless to say they all loved them.
Just thought I would share in case your looking for an easy, inexpensive, super yummy, very cute, teacher or Valentine gift.
And, it never hurts to score some brownie points...or Oreo points.