Sewing Station

I have been working on making curtains for the big window in our living room but my craft space is not set up yet. I finally located the cords that go to both of my machines and have set them up on this table that is in our living room. It works just fine except that sewing can be a little bit of a mess (okay, a LOT) and it might drive me a little bit crazy.

When can I get my crafting/sewing area set up??

Color Pop

I have decided that I want to add more color to our home - but where to start? The paint color in our living room is a greenish/greyish color and I want to compliment it but not make it too boring.

I decided to finally use this painting that I did for a final project back in college.

A little back story: The assignment was to pick a painting from a set of pre-chosen artists and duplicate the painting - brush stroke for brush stroke with exact color matches. Then, we had to do our own variation of it for the second painting. The one on the left is my "copy" of the original - the right is my own version.

My brother really like them so I let him hold onto them for awhile but I got them back around the time that John and I got married and they've been sitting in storage ever since. I just haven't been able to figure out where to put them.

Fast forward to now - I need color in our living room - what a great "inspiration" piece! I decided to have them professionally framed - finally! (They've been in a side by side matted rectangle this whole time but no protective glass.)

I see that a certain craft store is having a 55% off custom framing orders so I go get a quote - and WOW! Basically, it was going to be around $150 to get it framed. Seriously?! I told the lady that I'd have to discuss it with my husband (knowing exactly how that discussion would go - haha) and decided to just look around at the regular frames they had. Coincidentally, they had their frames 50% off too. Each piece was a 12x12 square so I decided to just remove the matte and get 2 12x12 frames. I was a little sad to do this but it was the cheapest way. I ended up saving around $120 doing it this way - and I love how they look!

Now I need to figure out how I want them to be placed in my work-in-progress gallery wall....

Popsicles

The girls and I went grocery shopping today and Riya asked, ever so cutely, if we could get popsicles. Of course we can! She patiently (as patient as a 3 year old can be) waited for John to get home and she ate ALL of her dinner so we went outside and licked and chomped away.
This was Emma's first real experience with a popsicle and it was stinkin' cute - especially when the cold would hit her teeth just right. :) She loved them!!
I love that we have a porch that we get to hang out on now to enjoy these simply pleasures!

Curly Sue

This is one of my favorite pictures at the moment. I love how it turned out! No editing here - just a setting on my phone.
The girls and I went outside so they could play in their new water toy and I took some pics of them playing. At this point, Emma was only in a swim diaper but standing on the steps of our deck. She was staring at something and wasn't moving. I love everything about this picture - especially how it shows her pretty little curls!

Cool Shades

Riya was given some new sunglasses from a girl in John's lab. She wanted to try them out yesterday to see how cute they were....
What do you think?!
You can't tell from the picture but she was lifting them up to look at the camera with her eyes showing. She saw this picture and asked, "Where are my eyes?"

A Place for Books!

We FINALLY got a bookshelf today! We haven't had a good sized bookshelf since we left Texas and these books were very happy to be able to get out of the boxes they were stored in!

What? They were.

June Craft Night

Tonight was our much anticipated craft night - and we made these cute necklaces. We combined June and July this month because a few of us will be out of town in July. Our June craft was bandana (or regular circle) skirts for the 4th of July but I couldn't make mine tonight because I still have not unpacked my sewing stuff. I just decided to do the necklaces - I made a purple one for Riya too.
So easy and so cute - watch out family - I hope you like them... you might receive one. ;)

Pillow Fight!

Emma decided to attack John with a pillow when he sat down on the couch. Riya thought this sounded like a good idea too so pretty soon, John was being smothered with pillows! I ran to grab my phone to capture the action and it continued for quite awhile. They were giggling so hard while they were attacking him!
It was adorable!
(the giggling - not the attacking... of course..... no, no - that was adorable too. :P)

Sneaky Emma

Emma is not embracing our "no food in the living room" rule. We had that rule at the old house too but the kitchen was right there so they could sit on the tile and eat a snack or whatever and still be able to watch a show or feel part like they are part of what is going on in the living room. It's taken some adjusting for Riya but she's done great. Emma, on the other hand, refuses to obey. Today, as I was catching up on some blog reading, I heard something behind me and turned to look. She had brought her cereal (without milk) into the living room and plopped down behind me with her back to me (so I couldn't see her) and was eating away. It was so cute that I decided to let it go. Then, I got up a little while later and saw her like this (still trying to be sneaky) - she was sitting in between the couch and the recliner eating it while watching whatever was on the TV. This was a much better hiding place and I thought it was pretty funny that she thought she hadn't been discovered - so I continued to not say anything to her.
What a sneaky little girl... :)

All done!

The lease for our old house had a very detailed cleaning list for us to complete before a final walk-through with the landlord. We began this cleaning on Saturday - and worked for several hours on the details. Then most of the day yesterday was spent cleaning as well. It's not that our place was that dirty, the list was just that detailed! We wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything because they charge for everything left undone and it comes out of the deposit that we'd like to get back.
John took this picture as he left the house after finishing up on the cleaning. Goodbye duplex!
I went through the final walk through with the landlord today and she literally walked through the house. She opened the oven to see if it was cleaned and then proceeded to walk through the house. I'm stressing the "walk through" part because she didn't look at all the details we made sure to have complete. She just said everything looked great and we should be getting the full deposit back. Nice!

At least the future tenant will appreciate our detailed efforts.  :)

This and That

I finally got around to doing laundry today and this is what I emptied out of our pockets before I washed. Can you tell we moved?

Happy Father's Day!

This is the only picture that I got today but I think it captures the day just perfectly!
First off, notice our very moved-into living room? Not much has been put away yet - as you can see.
Second - Happy Father's Day to my lovely husband and father of my 3 adorable kiddos! We love him so much! We are so blessed to have him as the daddy in our house and we wanted to get him something special this year...
John has been wanting an acoustic guitar for sometime now but we just haven't gotten one for one reason or another. He has an electric but rarely gets it out because it's not really something you can just "mess around" on.
Way back in April, someone in our stake was getting rid of a Fender acoustic/electric guitar for a very reasonable price. I asked John what he thought and he just never said one way or another so I got the brilliant idea to get it and save it for Father's Day. I stored it at a friend's house until today so that he wouldn't see it during our move and he was so completely surprised and happy when he saw it! I loved the reaction! He played until his fingers got sore - and he's determined to get them used to the guitar again. :)
We love you John! Happy Father's Day to my favorite big guy! (Jayden is my little guy)

Tutu Party

Riya got to go to a birthday party for one of her friends today and it was all about tutus and dancing. She was a little too shy to participate and wanted me next to her the whole time she ate but I think she had fun anyway.
She went to bed late and woke up early so I think she was extra tired during the party. She had her own party last night with Grandma at her hotel - 2 parties in 24 hours is exhausting! :)

Grandma Time

Grandma Jordan (my mom) came to visit us today and she brought goody bags for the girls! They each got some bubbles that didn't pop very easily and they had a lot of fun blowing them on the deck with Grandma. These bubbles will stick to things and not pop very easily. We looked on the roof of the house after this and there were a lot of bubbles just sitting on the tiles!
We also went to a BBQ for John's department at Purdue and had fun playing on the playground. Especially Riya when I decided to help her on the seesaw. :)

Ahhh...

After a crazy, hot, exhausting day yesterday - I was too tired to even shower before going to bed. This morning, I finally got a chance to do it. It felt so good, there was nothing else worthy to be my picture of the day.
Ahhhhhh!

Moving Day

What a day! Too exhausting to write about in any great detail but I'm glad we are mostly done! Whew! This is what our new garage looks like after moving in!
Let the fun unpacking begin!
Thanks to everyone from church and John's lab who came to help! We are so very grateful to you all!!
And thanks a ton to Melinda for watching the girls ALL DAY! You are awesome!

New Toy!

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad on Craigslist for a wooden kitchen set with all sorts of accessories at a great price. I debated for awhile about getting it because we already have a kitchen set with TONS of accessories. The girls don't really play with the one we have anymore but this one seemed like the kind they like. I finally got it today! I'd been in contact with the seller and luckily, it hadn't sold yet. The girls played with it for a really long time - especially Emma!
The dishes are like real dishes - John kept saying, "We could really use these!"
It is just really nicely made and I'm very happy that I caved in and got it. The other one is now up for sale... any one want it? :)

More Packing

I've been having a hard time getting myself to go pack up Jayden's room. I just miss him so much that I didn't want to go into his room and see everything just how he left it. I have a hard time with things like this. The day he left, I cried when I found his Bakugans around the house. It hasn't even been a week yet.
Yesterday was my mom's birthday so we Skyped with her on the computer in Jay's room. I began packing up while we were Skyping because everyone was in there with me and it was somehow not as hard.
This gave me the strength to finish it today. This is one corner of his room ready to go - the other side is boxes. I did it!

Busy Busy

I have not abandoned this blog. Do not fret. I have had a lot going on the last few weeks and I haven't gotten around to blogging. I am still taking pictures and will update as soon as I can. We are moving to our new house on Wednesday and we may not have internet for about a week. If I don't update by Wednesday, know that it will probably be next week before I get around to it. And when I update - it will be a lot of posts! Be prepared!
Stay tuned... :)

Ribbit!

After church today, we went by the new house (just down the road from the new building) to put some garage sale leftovers into the garage. This little guy (or girl, I guess) was in there and I almost didn't see him - he blended in so well with the floor!
He was a little cute - kind of.
It's been a long time since we've had frogs around - the kids will love it!

Taking a Tumble

One of my biggest fears of our current home is the stairs. They are really steep and ground at the bottom is tile. I have been constantly paranoid that one of the kids (especially Emma) would fall down them and get seriously injured. I've taken a few tumbles but just had some sore body parts afterwards. Riya has missed a few steps before but, again, just a few bumps. Not too sure about Jayden and John. Emma decided that she'd better take her turn today since we are moving out on Wednesday.
John and I were both in our bedroom when we heard the tumble down - it took a few seconds to register what it was but that's all it took and John was down at the bottom holding her. She fell from the top to the bottom and landed on some shoes! Thank goodness they were there to break her fall!! She came out of it with just a rug burn under her left eye (see picture). She had a good cry but calmed down pretty quickly and she didn't appear to be in pain - just shook up. We gave her some tylenol for a possible headache and she seemed fine the rest of the night!
I am so glad we will not have stairs in our new house!!

Garage Sale Part 2

Today was day 1 of my second garage sale. One of our friends live in a neighborhood that is having a sale this weekend and they are out of town so I asked if I could use their yard. She is awesome and said yes - so we set up outside her house today. Another friend brought some stuff over to sell too so we had a good amount of things to look through!
John brought the girls up so he could go to the lab and they quickly got bored! By the time we closed up, we were all hot, thirsty and a little bit burned. Oops - I forgot the sunscreen.
We closed up just in time for me to head over to Sonic for Happy Hour and I got this BIG drink. Seriously - a Strawberry Limeade Smoothie after a day like today was so refreshing - I don't know that anything could top it! Yum!

Riya's Pics

Riya will often ask to "play a game" on my phone. When I let her, occasionally, I get my phone back with all sorts of new pictures on it. So, today, I thought I'd use one of hers.
This is of Emma trying to put a princess crown on her head while Riya is lying down in her bed.
Do you love the messy room? I am beyond the point of cleaning now - just packing. No motivation to straighten up when I know I'm just going to be putting the stuff into boxes. Strange? Maybe.
Thanks for the contribution today, Riya! :)

(PS - for the record, I did take a picture today too but it was just of something we are selling on craigslist - I figured this would be more entertaining)

He's Leaving On a Jet Plane

Today was a sad day - Jayden left for Texas for 6 weeks.

6 WEEKS!

He has never been away that long!

We are all sad that he'll be gone all summer but we hope he has a good time. We taught him how to text message before he left so that he can send us messages whenever he wants to. He has a cell phone that we got for him that he only gets to use when he goes to Texas but this was the first time he's learned how to text.

July 20, hurry and get here! I miss my little guy so much already!! :(

PJs to Rags

While cleaning out the master closet yesterday, I came across some pajama pants of John's and I asked him if I could get rid of them. He told me he'd had them since before his mission and he was keeping them because they were comfortable. I reminded him of the fact that he hadn't worn them all winter and he told me they had a huge hole in a certain area that would make them a little inappropriate to wear.
He then told me to make something out of them instead of throwing them away. I asked if they could become rags and he agreed. :)
Today, I set my serger up on the floor (on top of a box) and serged the ends of two squares all the way around and I was able to make 8 rags out of those cute, retired PJs.
Thanks, Honey!
Perfect for the massive amount of cleaning we will be doing soon!
Jayden saw them and decided to bury himself in them - including putting one across his face saying, "Mmmm - they smell so good!" Funny boy!

Packing

Oh the joys of packing! Here is most of the stuff that was being stored in our master closet - my progress so far. I told you it was huge!

And so it begins...

Black-out Curtain

Today was the Stake Priesthood meeting in our area so we didn't have to be at church until 11:00am (instead of 9:00am). I was determined to have the kids sleep in somehow. One of the girls usually wakes up first and proceeds to wake the other one - then Jayden follows shortly after. I wanted to prevent the girls from knowing the sun was up this morning so, last night, I put a quilt on the inside of their curtain to completely cover the window. It worked! They slept in! Not really late but later than usual!
Riya was confused when she woke up and came into our bedroom because it was light outside. :)
Also - today we only had sacrament meeting because of the priesthood meeting and Riya was so sad that she didn't get to go to Primary and see her teachers. Poor girl. First stake conference and then stake priesthood - I think we are okay until October now.
Next Sunday we start going to our new building!

Flashback!

Look what I found today!! Yep - those are Jelly sandals. Brand-new, GAP, my size, half-priced Jelly sandals. John thinks they are hideous (surprised?!) but I love them!

(please excuse my pedicure needing toes and my awesome flip flop tan line - sure sign that summer is here!)

First Day of Summer Vacation

The kiddos decided to go play outside on the driveway - and Jayden was the only one ready for the picture. :)
We let it be a lazy morning, so lazy, in fact, that Jayden is still wearing his play clothes from field day yesterday. I'm pretty sure he slept in them, too.
Bring on summer and a (hopefully) significant decrease in laundry!

Last Day of First Grade!

Today was Jayden's last day of first grade! I really can't believe that he will be in second grade in August! Where does the time go?!

The last day at his school was celebrated by having field day all day long! This is him with his teacher, Melissa. (Yes, Melissa - not Ms. Adams as I would have preferred. The charter school that he went to was on a first name basis with everyone. Teachers, administrators, and students. All first names. Ugh.)

He had a ton of fun and is so excited to be done with school for the summer!

Strolling Around

The girls and I went for a walk after Jayden went to school. I packed them in the double jogger and we were off! We walked up our street, down the next and around the neighborhood behind our house - I clocked it on the van at 1.5 miles total. Not a ton but not bad for a quick stroll!
This was my cute view while I was walking. :)