I survived Christmas!!!!

huzzah!! Christmas is over!!! It is summer yet? All I want to do is to go to Rhode Island and play in the sand...

But, before I do that there is LOTS and LOTS to catch up on. Christmas was awesome and there will be lots of fun photos to come. The kids were pumped and loved all of their gifts, but I got the best gift of all. For reals. A REAL GROWN UP DSLR CAMERA!! I can not even tell you. I have wanted one since I had Jackson.  My parents, sister & brother in law and aunt and uncle all pitched in and got me a Nikon DS3100.  I have taken 257 photos with it so far and two of them are great. HA! Needless to say, I'll be reading The Pioneer Woman's photography tutorials for the next century so I can figure this baby out.

So, here we are, the final day of 2012. I am so BRING IT ON for 2013. Really, I'm pumped. Lots I want to do this coming year and accomplish.  So, in the spirit of getting things done, here is my "to do" list for 2013.

Yeah...so I don't have anything for October yet. Perhaps that will be my month of rest.

So, as you can see January is the money diet.  I stumbled across that over here at Happy Simple Living.  Then in some other internet adventures I found this site and was like.. YESSSS!!!!  So, I have a bunch more to share about how I'll be doing the diet using all the fun tips/tricks from And Then We Saved, but you'll have to wait for that until next year. Okay, I have to go shopping now before I'm cut off for a while ;)

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!! See you in 2013!!!!

friday!

Going to keep it short and simple this Friday afternoon. Probably won't be around since I have next week off to hang out with the crazies (aka, build ridiculously big lego sets). Wishing you all a happy happy holiday!!!

all i want for Christmas....

Since EVERYONE seems to post a Christmas wish list or a "you should buy this for Christmas" and I want to be just like everyone else, I figured I'd post one too.

hello lovah! after I posted about the amazing Frye boots, I set on a quest to find some kick-ass boots that wouldn't cost me $400. I love these (in brown please) they would go with everything, and they aren't too bad at $129.

Anyone else get that evil Williams Sonoma catalog the other day? I want it all!! But mostly these things:

All Clad Deluxe Slow Cooker

This is the slow cooker to end all slow cookers. The insert can be used on the stove so you can brown or saute ahead IN THE SAME PAN. It has other super cool features, and it's pretty. AND it's only $400. what what!

Additionally in said evil Williams Sonoma catalog, I would like the Peppermint Hot Chocolate, the Popcorn Maker Gift Set, as well as the DIY Mozzarella and Ricotta kit...because it just seems cool to make your own cheese.

I would like everything from the Neon & Left Bank Toddler Girl collection at baby gap. okay..obviously that's less for me than for Taylor, but whatever, I can put it on my list.

I also need lots of new make-up. I really want to try the physician's formula organic stuff, and I want to get a new B&B cream, because I love that stuff.

I would like gift certificates to Balance Spa.

I still want this.

I think that's it.
wow...my list is lame :(

http://julieverse.com/thank-a-teacher-day-december-17-2012

Wordy Wednesday

Jackson's pre-school has a library and the other day he came home with a Thomas the Train DVD and a new Truck book.  We were sitting down reading the book. I read it once, then he reads it to me.  There is one page of the book that says "trucks can carry anything from concrete-blocks to running shoes".

From Amazon.com Trucks by Ken Robbins

Well, when Jackson "reads" the story, this turns into "trucks can carry concrete-blocks, unicorns, and shoes"

huh?

then is hit me.
bubble guppies.

I won't even try to explain them.

I've looked everywhere for the episode online to share, but can't find it. Let's just say the episode is about trucks, and somehow there is a truck that's carrying unicorns, and unicorns love hay.  In fact, they constantly say "haaayyyyy!" during their scene.

okay. in my head this was going to be a funnier post....next time i'll just post a picture on wordless Wednesday..

dear santa

Dear Santa,

It's been a while. How are you? I hope things aren't too crazy up in the North Pole.  As i'm sure you are well aware, I've been relatively good this year. While "relatively good" doesn't usually cut it for what I'm asking for this Christmas, I have been extremely good at one thing:  making sure my kids believe. Yesiree, I have two VERY excited, VERY "I believe" children at home.  In fact, my 4 year old starts asking about Christmas in February, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with presents. Really.

Also, it's snowing on my blog..so I should get points for that.

I feel that ensuring that the next generation of kids doesn't scoff at the idea of the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus is very important. And, as I have managed to do such an amazing job of this, I feel it is only fitting that I deserve the gift below.

Now, it doesn't have to be this EXACT house, but here is my wishlist:
-4 bedrooms
-2 baths
-play room
-finished basement
-deck
-fenced in yard
-fireplace (duh!)

Also, I realize a house doesn't fit under my tree, so a box with keys and the address will suffice.

Thank you in advance!




This post was inspired by Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writers Workshop. Check it out!

moody

In my wonderfully warped world I'm super awesome at everything. In my latest attempt to be something I am not, I decided to create a mood board for Liss's little girl that's on the way, or Baby Peaches (BP) as I (Jackson) call her.

Liss told me what she wanted for a color scheme so I started googling stuff, and found this amazing (aka $$$$$$$$$$)  bedding on etsy.  I was instantly in love with that fabric, and then tried very hard to find it on google. Suprisingly enough, entering "aqua coral floral fabric" doesn't yield the results one would hope. Luckily, I'm super smart and emailed the etsy seller asking her who makes the fabric.  She got back to me rather quickly and I went ahead and entered the designers name into my google search bar. (I swear..google didn't pay me to say google a certain number of times in this post..though that would be pretty cool.

So here is the $60.00/yard fabric that started it all (now I know why the bedding was so expensive!)

Caitlin Wilson Textiles (AMAZING!!)

Aside from the unobtainable fabric, all I knew is that Liss wanted grey chevron and we'd most likely do that for the crib skirt and maybe for the window seat she was making (stay tuned, she'll have a guest post on that soon).

So, I started that crazy googling again and was putting my finds over on my polyvore account to create my first every mood board.  VIOLA!

nursery idea by tink0129 featuring urban outfitters

Liss ordered all the fabric, and she's already done the curtains, as you saw in this post.  I made the baby blanket and a pillow, and ordered her the super duper cute bunny over at etsy.  I still have to order her coral fabric and make slipcovers for the glider cushions...but since I'm obviously so good at everything, I'm sure I'll get that done in no time. HAHAHAHAHAH!

Once she (we?) have more of the nursery done I know that she'll post more pictures!

Also, if you like free stuff, head on over to Natalie's blog for a give away!!!

finally....some #$@#$ pictures!!

These pictures are going to be crap quality because I took them at night, with my iphone...but crappy pictures are better than no pictures right?

Let's start with IKEA. IKEA is evil. it's like Target but more expensive and you need a truck. Liss and I headed down to IKEA last weekend so she could buy her bookcase that she's turning into a window seat in BP room and I went to get the TROFAST and turn it into something like this:

http://ericandlydiasfamily.blogspot.com/2010/05/lego-my-messy-legos.html

Bye bye big bulky train table, hello sleek awesome lego table.

I also wanted to get some new shoe storage. I was over the bench that we had in there since we moved in. It always just collected crap, and I was sick of shoes everywhere.  Because I'm so original, I went right over to YHL to look up the shoe storage they had done in their laundry room. IKEA being so smart decided to discontinue Retur and re-market it as shoe storage and sell in a three pack. Very tricky IKEA.  They are now called TRONES.

I had a list. A very strict list of what I needed at IKEA. We walked in and decided to look around even though we both knew what we needed. Bad idea. Very bad.  The first or second living room we walked into I exclaimed "this is where I want to live!" it was so cozy and warm and inviting and had a cute little corner with a desk very similar to the one I had purchased there before and turned into a chalk table.  It also had a roll of paper hanging near it.  I was inspired.  To be honest, I had seen something similar when MODG revealed G's big boy room and loved it.

I also found frames for $1.99, and since pictures of my kids in frames is pretty much a Christmas gift staple, I picked up a bunch of those. Oh, and a tiny stuffed moose. But I digress. Here are the pictures!!

So I had to do some maneuvering to bring the kids table into the living room, but I have to say I love it. For some reason when the couch is up against both walls, it just seems so much more cozy and open.  Here it is with our new "snow" pillows as Jackson lovingly calls them.

So to the right of the couch is the new kids corner:

Please excuse the super safe exposed electrical outlet. I have a cover for it..somewhere..

Here is the new entryway/shoe storage (or shoe dispenser as Michael calls it)

Also, there's our Christmas tree!! So, there'a  quick update for you of what's been going on.  I have like 2 bagillion things to do before Christmas, so wish me luck!!!

child labor

Lot's has been going on at casa de kenney, but due to lack of time I've (as usual) not been great about uploading my photos. I definitely need this, like yesterday:

Moving on..

I've tackled a bunch of projects over the past month or so. I updated our throw pillows to be more wintery, moved around the living room a bit, decorated for x-mas, made a new "kids corner" in the living room, and changed our coat hook/shoe storage situation.  I also FINALLY painted the IKEA chairs from the chalkboard table I made for the kids a few months ago.

I picked out two paint pods over at Ace Hardware, one in red and one in aqua. My goal in all of this is to start bringing in pops of red, and I'm considering painting the bookshelf in my kitchen red, but not sure if it will be too much.  I later read online that you probably shouldn't use paint pods for real painting, but I did it anyway. Since these were just cheap-o kids chairs, I wasn't really concerned with the quality.

Biggest mistake I made was telling Jackson about the paint on our way home. He wanted to see it so I pulled the pod out of the bag and showed him. This of course led to him having to hold the paint all the way home, then Taylor of course needed her paint. This all turned in to me getting home, setting up two paint stations, and letting a 4 year old and a 21 month old paint furniture. Pure. Genius.

This is the only picture I have as you can imagine attempting to take "in process" photos of two young kids painting furniture wasn't happening. Jackson actually did a pretty good job. Taylor was a mess and gave up after about two minutes (thank God!). I went over their work and smoothed everything out. It took 2 coats of the aqua and 3 coats of the red, but I'm happy with how they came out. More pictures of my new kids corner and all the other fun crafts soon. I also need to get my  hands on baby shower pictures (LISS!!!) so I can post about the craftiness of that.

peace!

UPDATE: I came across an amazing blog  (Mama's Losing It) and she does this really cool writer's prompt link thingy..so I'm linking up with her today for# 3 What's the last thing you bought.  duh. paint pods. Hoping to do this every week. so fun!!