Insta-Friday

1. I find the older two like this a lot, and it just melts my heart!
2. First significant snowfall.
3. Battled oldest into a nap – Mommy won!
4. All bundled up and ready to play in the snow!
5. First attempt at Snow – Ice Cream.
6. Hubs set B up with the keyboard and mouse, she looks so excited.
7. Celebrated the Hubs 27th Birthday with a pan of rice krispees.
8. A snuggling on me watching a show.
9. B was fascinated by the Hubs phone the other night.
10. My girls!
11. Taxes are filed – woot woot, looking fwd to the 8th!!!
12. Celebrated A’s 2nd birthday – what’s more fun than a playdough table filled with playdough goodies.

* If you’re on Instagram, come find me @kat7205 *

DIY–Coffee Table

So about a year ago my parents picked up a 5 drawer blue print cabinet for $5 at an auction.  They offered it to the Hubs to re-vamp and sell.  We don’t have a picture of the true before, here’s an in progress shot.

 

At this point in the process, the Hubs had cut the depth in half, re-configured the sides for the new depth, and started sanding.  And we decided instead of 5 small drawers, he should make them into 3.  It looks like five, but drawers 2 & 3 and 4 & 5 were combined to make bigger drawers. 



This is after the piece was sanded, minus the center ovals, those are the original wood color.  Back when the Hubs was with the carpenter’s union he did a job on a cooling tower at Hershey Park.  They were trashing all of this 20+ yr old redwood and said that he could take some.  This is what he made the top and legs out of. 

So, this piece has sat like this in his parents garage for about a year, time got away from him.  I’m so glad he did and he didn’t sell it.  Because one day last week it clicked that we could make this into a coffee table for our living room, especially now that we separated our sectional couches and have room for it (will update on this next week). 

The Hubs picked up the piece and brought it home so he could put some polyurethane coats on it and 4 wheels for the bottom instead of the legs.  Here’s how it looks now.







We all are loving the new addition to the living room and the start of our living room transformation planned for this year.  And I can already picture this in the future, when we move, with the original legs the Hubs planned and it being a great entryway piece.

I'm linking up to HoH, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Craft Envy,

Happy 4 Months Brynlee!

B -

Whew – time is flying by.  Wanted to do this monthly letter last month but the days just slipped by and before I knew it, it was the 20th again and your 4 months.  You are growing rapidly now a days.  New bigger sized clothes you just got for Christmas are already starting to get too small on you.  You had a check-up this week and your stats are as follow – 16lbs 15ozs & 25 1/2” – high 80%, low 90% on the charts, just like your older two sisters. 

You have definitely established a nap and eating schedule, which makes me one happy mama!   You are very particular with how you like to be held, we hold you sideways and you bury your head in the crook of our elbow and against our body and then we pat your bottom.  The past couple weeks you’ve started mostly sleeping through the night.  I say mostly, because some nights you wake up, but if we put your nunny back in your mouth you go right back to sleep.  You did have a couple nights (2 weeks ago) of randomly waking back up for a bottle.  You wake up happy in the mornings and are content to play with your mirror/light-up fish.

The past week you’ve really started to do some new things.  You roll from your tummy to your back.  Have great head control.  You prefer to sit in your walker or bumbo.  You grab the toys on your walker and have started grabbing some rattles and other little toys and bringing them to your mouth.  You also love nomming on your fingers and hands – you are such a little drool bucket.  It’s fun seeing you hit all of these milestones.  I can’t believe you are already reaching them, which makes them even more bittersweet since you are our last baby. 

Can’t wait to see what’s coming in the next month.

Love you so much baby girl -
the Mama

1st Snow

Over the weekend we had our first snowfall and it was so much fun watching the older 2 enjoy themselves in it.  Now for just some of the many many photo’s I took, these are my favorite of the day!

Insta - Friday

I haven’t done this in a while, decided to dump the photos from my phone and create a collage of the weeks happenings.



Left to Right:

1. B trying on her new winter hat from the Bestie.
2. Older two playing dress-up.
3. B loves this little bunny from my LSB group on BBC, she was having so much fun anytime the bunny would get close to her mouth!
4. Date night with the Hubs – Texas Roadhouse enjoying a Jamaican Cowboy followed by seeing Contraband at the theater.
5. My Mom and me created mini 5x7 cookbooks for the family, of my Gramma’s regular/favorite recipes for each of us to have.  I decided to make her Marble Brownie cake for my Mom’s birthday celebration.
6. There they are straight from the oven.
7. E & A going around the house on E’s scooter.
8. On Sunday my Mom gave me 2 of my Gramma’s rings, this 1st one was her mother’s ring – which just so happens to be the exact months of my 3 babies, my Gramma and me have so many connections, we shared a birthday and our 3 kids were born in the same months, I hope as I get older I will be more like her.
9.  The bottom band with the round diamonds was hers as well.
10. I decided 1/2 a year was plenty of time and I needed to finish B’s quilt and got’er done this week.
11. Getting a picture of B on her finished quilt.
12. Yummy dinner last night – tried the Supreme version of pancakes on the Bisquik box with blueberry syrup, they were a MEGA hit!

Valentine’s Mantel

This year for Christmas, my parents bought the Hubs and I an electrical corner fireplace.  I was so excited to have this addition, not only to cut down on our oil bill, but for also having a new thing to decorate. 

The Hubs figured out a way to hang up my $5 yard sale Pottery Barn mirror, since corners are sort-of hard to decorate, but with our floor plan this was our only option. 

I didn’t buy anything new this year, shopped around my house and Valentine’s décor I got last year from the Dollar Tree and the Dollar spot at Target.  (Please excuse the wonky colors)



Have you gotten out your Valentine’s Décor yet?  Do you even decorate for Valentine’s?

New Year + Birthday

One week ago today, I celebrated my 27th birthday.  Here in Pennsylvania, we have this thing called the Farm Show, approx. 400,000 people attend every year.  Normally, this is not our thing, but Oldest child came home from school the previous week (– begging us to go), and this is part what they learned about, along with farm animals.  So, since my birthday landed on one of the Hubs days off, we decided to take advantage and take the girls’ that morning.  Came home for a couple hours before I headed to a pedicure.  That evening the Hubs made a yummy dinner.  We all snuggled watching a movie together and had some homemade cinnamon sugar pretzel bites for dessert (thank you Pinterest).  It was a great day!  Here’s a couple pictures from the day.


On our way to the Farm Show.


My beautiful 3 girls and I – am SO blessed.


Shot of the yummy pretzel bites! Thank you Hubby!!!

As each year comes along I look forward to the New Year and my birthday being close together.  I get to reflect on the previous year and make new goals for myself. 

Here are the things I want to focus on this year -
1. My Marriage – I feel like I tend to lose myself in the daily things and the girls’.  This is becoming a top priority.  I want to bring more romance back into our lives, regular date nights, intimacy.  Make sure the Hubs knows he’s appreciated for all of his hard work, the amazing father he is, and a wonderful hubby. 

2. Parenting – I’ve been shifting the way I parent the girls’ and so far much better results, aka my sanity has somewhat returned! ;o)

3. Hobbies – I really want to work more on my sewing.  Learn to crochet.  Learn more about using my camera in Manual mode.

4. Savings – This past year I’ve had to really get good at making $1 stretch beyond $1.  I’ve taken up couponing and want to continue the great savings I’ve been able to give my family.

5. Myself – I tend to put myself last/forgotten on many aspects and this year I’m making myself a priority – top of the list is my health.

I look forward to seeing where the journey of my 27th year leads me & sharing it with each of you.

2012 Punch List

2011 was full of some major basic room re-do's.  This year I want to focus on the little things that make our house a home and more us.  I'm so excited to tackle everything on this list - here it goes.

- Finish re-finishing our staircase.
- Get lamps for the living room, play area, kids' rooms.
- Re-organize basement - PURGE, PURGE, PURGE!
- Paint ceiling in dining room.
- Fix ceiling in kitchen.
- Replace window pane in kitchen window.
- Find a dresser and re-do it for living room.
- Wall mount tv.
- Create canvas art for living room.
- Revamp living room curtains or sew new ones.
- Paint bookcase for B's room.
- Create gallery wall in B's room.
- Hang blackout curtains in B's room.
- Make custom headboard for our room.
- Make embroidery family tree for our room.
- Make new throw pillows for the couch and our bed.
- Make/thrift new accessories to decorate tabletops and shelving.
- Update photos in living room gallery wall.
- Re-paint shutters.
- Fix roof over addition.
- Paint the exterior of the house.
- Make our first vegetable/herb garden.
- Create storage area outside for kids' toys.

I will of course be updating as we check things off of this wonderful semi-long list! :o)  What do you have planned for around your casa this year?