January+Snow Days=Organizing

January and organization and snow days...these 3 things seem to be going together more and more.  And so, as another possible snow day comes, I'm planning on tackling some organization projects and enlisting the kids' help.  There are oodles and oodles of organizing blogs and websites out there, but I happened upon this one and have decided to jump on the 21 day challenge (although I'm more than fashionably late!)  As I read through some of her posts, I saw her Day 12 posting: organized spice cabinet.  Hello, genius!  I have almost all my spices in containers on the shelf, but I always have to lift a spice bottle up to see which one it is.  Here's the simple ingeniousness of an organizing guru...LABEL THE TOPS!!! I do owe a label maker and put it to great use so much that I ran out of label tape and never bought more.  BUT, I have plenty of permanent markers in several colors that I can simply write spice names on the tops of all my spice bottles.  LOVE IT!!!  So, here's to another snow day :)

Coffee Table

I was given an old coffee table by a friend who got some new furniture to fill her space.  We haven't had a real coffee table at all and haven't really had a need for one. When we did need one, we made due with our over-sized ottoman.  This poor ottoman has most often been used as a trampoline though.  With the kiddos and their endless energy, not having a coffee table has been a blessing.  Not having the coffee table meant having more space to play and spread out.  However, lately we've been playing more board games (usually chess or Monopoly) and I decided a coffee table would be helpful both for storage and table space. To say our sofa is large is an understatement.  I still remember the salesman's line, "This couch is great! If you take the back cushions off it's the size of a twin bed!"  He wasn't kidding. It's huge.  It's ugly.  But it's comfy, we don't care too much if things spill on it or if kids jump on it, and it has come in handy as a bed on a few occasions.  So for now and until we have cash to buy a nice new one, it's what we've got.  Back to my new coffee table.  It was dated, but large and fit the scale of the sofa.  The table has some perfect storage for all our games and even space for baskets of books.

  

All I have left to do is put a couple coats of sealer on the top.  This project has taken MUCH longer than I had planned.  Lots of sanding and stripping.  Pictures to come!

Sunday Shots

Here are some favorite pictures from this past week.

John Paul and Lily playing in the back yard.

Penelope eating her pappas con huevos.

The cardinal was spotted New Year's Eve at the Arboretum during a walk that Jaime, Alexander, and Lily were on.

Jaime got the pictures of John Paul and the cardinal. 

Saturday Sharing

There are so many absolutely wonderful, creative,and inspiring blogs out there.  I thought I'd spotlight a few of my favorite current reads.

First up is Centsational Girl

Kate's got fabulous before and afters...many have tutorials so you can learn how to do the same.

Look what she did to this piece for her office:

Simply amazing!

There are decorating ideas aplenty, some recipes, gorgeous photos (she lives in northern California and often has beautiful photos of the vineyards), and so much more.

Next up is another daily read, Clover Lane.

Sarah's blog is inspirational to me for parenting perspective (she's got 5 kiddos).  She writes so authentically that I feel as though we are sitting in the same room having a conversation.  Love that! Her posts make me laugh out loud, bring tears to my eyes, and make me feel like I'm not the only mom going through similar things with my family. Sarah also has organizing and decorating tips.

Lastly for now, is Life in the Fun Lane.

I adore this blog for the furniture redos.  Holly has a beautiful classic style and gets most of her pieces from thrifting. Take a look at her daughter, Wren's, room.  Also, I fell in love with her WhiteBerry shop and find it inspiring my work.

I've got many more, but think I'll save them for next week.
Happy New Year!

My Baby is TWO!

Penelope  turned 2 during all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas.  We were able to slow down (due to most of us getting a nasty stomach bug) and be at home to enjoy time together.  She's such an animated, independent, spirited, stubborn, loud, sweet, sassy, rough, loving, amazing big girl.  She loves to help me clean and she makes plenty of messes.  Penelope has mastered clearing her dishes from the table and putting them in the dish washer.  She is quite proficient at cleaning out the dish washer as well.  A favorite pastime of hers is rifling through the silverware drawer, licking various spoons and forks, then putting them back where they belong.  Germs, what germs?!  Like Alexander and John Paul, drawing and coloring are a favorite activity as well.  Paper and walls have had her artist touch added to them.  She's great at writing the letter O and announces it every time.  Penelope Rose, you are adored by your family!  Happy second birthday!

   

So Excited

I'm SO excited to finally be back here!  Our computer died a while back, hence the silence here.  However, we were just given a used laptop (thank you Mom and Bean!) so now I can finally use a computer again.  I've been getting by using my wonderful EVO phone, but I was too frustrated with trying to do blog posts from it that I gave up.  Anyway, I'm back and am so excited to be writing and posting again.  So much more to come in 2011!  Happy New Year!  :)

Chef JP Goes to School

John Paul is so excited!  Tomorrow he goes back to school. Alexander has been back to school now for almost a month.  The preschool open house was almost 2 weeks ago.  John Paul is so excited that tomorrow morning he finally gets to go back to school with Miss Jan and all his friends, and the kitchen.  Back in the spring, he wanted to have Miss Jan over for a play date...or in his exact words, "Mom, when can I have some alone time with Miss Jan?"  My response, "Umm, buddy, what would you and Miss Jan do if you could have a play date with her?"  John Paul, "Mo-oom, we'd play kitchen!"  Fast forward to tonight and our conversation.  I asked him what he would do when he got to school in the morning and he replied, "Play with the kitchen stuff."  And here I was thinking he'd say something about Legos.  Jaime and I wonder if the boy will end up being a chef or just a foodie like us.  Miss Jan, ready or not, he's all yours for 7.5 hours a week, there's plenty for the chef to learn!  :)

Already!

Today was Alexander's first day of second grade.  Already.  Yes, it's still August (although the weather today is hinting at autumn!!!!).  Yes, he's that old already.  I'm still not believing it completely.  Today and tomorrow are just half days, but he had to wear his uniform, get up on time, be to school on time, sit at his desk, bring all his school supplies, etc.  He sits right next to his good friend, Brennan. Alexander has known Brennan since they were babies.  I have a picture of the 2 of them lying next to each other before they could even roll over!  We are so excited for this school year and it's such a big one...1st Reconciliation and 1st Communion.  When I picked Alexander up, he said his day was great.  I asked him if they played any games and he went into a detailed explanation of the Starburst game.  Evidently each kiddo got to pick a couple of Starburst candies out of a bowl.  Depending on what color they chose, they shared various things about themselves.  Alexander chose yellow and orange.  He got to tell his class about his summer (specifically he told them about the T-Bones game he and Jaime went to over the weekend as well as our trip to Chicago) and his favorite food (pizza...not just any pizza, but the pizza he ate over at Brennan's house). 
Here's to a fabulous year full of growth, friendship, and learning! 

Testing a post via phone

Tomorrow Starts A New Beginning

Tomorrow morning I take Alexander to school for his school pictures. 

It's the official unofficial start of the school year.  Wow! He's starting second grade.

I've had so much fun this summer with him (and of course my other 2 kiddos). 

We stayed incredibly busy doing all of the things on our summer checklist and we had plenty of down time too.

Side note: It's amazing how few pictures I've take with my camera since I got my new phone. I really need to put the phone camera down and pick up the real camera more!