Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Menu Monday (on Tuesday)


Tuesday -- leftover Baked Macaroni and Cheese (so yummy!)

Wednesday -- Roasted Chicken with Lemon and baked corn on the cob

Thursday -- leftovers

Friday -- tacos

Saturday -- leftovers

Sunday -- Dinner with family

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Adalyn's First Haircut

In preparation for our family pictures we took yesterday there were haircuts happening left and right in our house. Which even included Adalyn. It wasn't much of a haircut, but I took her to see Nicole over at Zo Hair Salon to get her ends evened up. There was a corner of her hair that never fell out when she was a baby and it was a good inch longer then every where else. Her hair was also getting harder to brush and more tangled so clipping the ends off helped solved that problem.

I was very nervous about how my little girl would take to getting her haircut. I had flashes of Shane's 1st haircut when he was 10 months old and SCREAMED the WHOLE time.I conveniently  scheduled it for a time that my Mom would be in town, too. I figured back up wouldn't hurt if all hell broke loose.

She continues to stick with the pattern of doing everything the opposite of her brother. Adalyn did not shed a single tear, she did not make a fuss or a peep. She hopped right up into the chair and let Nicole go to town. Well, she didn't keep her head still. She was like an owl, swiveling her head side to side taking all the action in around her. It didn't take long to even out the tips and complete the 1st hair cut though.

Before:  hanging out while Shane got his hair cut first.


Up in the chair...feeling a little shy at first. 

Oh, but wait...I can see myself in the mirror. 





 All done! Now that was an easy hair cut (for me at least), no tears and just a little wiggling. Yay!!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Three Aesthetic Improvements

A couple weeks ago Kenny said to me while we were standing in the backyard "We have three aesthetic improvements happening soon." I looked at him confused and asked "What are you talking about?" Ah, his answer made sense, while just slightly offensive to me, but I'll forgive him.

#1 -- Getting the exterior of our house painted. We've wanted it painted since we moved in over 2 years ago and we finally reached that home improvement project on our list. I knew what I wanted it to look like in my head and I am excited to say the final result is perfect. I LOVE, love, love the paint job so much.

Before:
Kenny put up some new trim pieces to help even out what was already up. Those are the brown colored boards around the windows.

After:


It was painted in Gauntlet Gray from Sherwin Williams.  It was the truest medium/dark gray I could find. I didn't want a blue gray, green gray, brown gray or purple gray...I just wanted plain gray. In some light it does have a blue hue or sliver hue to it, but mainly it's just gray and I love it.


I don't think you can really tell in the before pictures, but we really wanted to minimize the trim around the windows and door. Before they were painted in the trim color. We painted them the same color of the house and we got exactly what we wanted! The odd trim around the windows, door and garage is almost invisible now. 


What I really, really love most is our black front door. I love our black front door so much that I can't even explain to you how much I love it. I wish I could see it from the inside of the house, because I just want to stare at it. Not to mention I also love the clean white gutters and the clean soffits that we can see from inside the house. I think that this is my 2nd favorite house project that we've completed. The first being the kitchen then this.

Rite Painting, owned by Mark Lane, did the work for us. I would recommend them to anyone. The two guys who worked on our house were super fast, incredibly efficient and detailed in their work.  I'd say they did just about a perfect job and in less then 4 days of work.

#2 -- We cut down two large Douglas Fir trees in our backyard. When we moved into the house we had these two trees limbed up a quite a bit. We finally decided after much debate to just take them out all the way and let the sunlight really in. I'd like to mention that I've been called a tree hugger once or twice in my life and cutting down two perfectly good trees was something that I didn't take lightly. We've planted over 12 new trees in our front and back yards since moving in, so I feel we've done our far share of "mitigating" for the two tress we took out and now we have sunshine. Lots and lots of bright sunshine (when there is sun) all day long in our back yard.

Arbor Barber worked on the trees both times. I would also recommend them for any tree work you may have. 

Before:



During:


 Arli and Shane very much into all the action outside.

After:






We have quite a few more projects to do in the backyard this summer, but in the meantime we look forward to playing outside in the sunshine.

#3 -- Getting my hair cut off. Now this was the one aesthetic improvement I could take as offensive, but I like the change, so I'll let it slide.

It's been a busy couple weeks over at our house. It tends to make the days and weekends fly by. We can't wait for chance to enjoy some of our new aesthetically pleasing things in our lives.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Locks Of Love

After close to 2 years of growing my hair out, I just couldn't take it any more and had it chopped off. At some point during those 2 years I decided to keep growing it out and donate my hair to Locks Of Love. They ask that you send in 10 inches of unbleached hair (colored is okay, just not highlighted). They do except shorter amounts, they sell those off for money which in turn helps them to keep the program going.

I didn't think I had any where near 10 inches...turns out I had 10.5 inches cut off! Whohoo!


Before:



After:
(not the best after picture, but I'll blame that on the photographer, 
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the lack of sleep in my life)


I love my new do. Nicole over at Zo Hair Salon cut it and she did a FANTASTIC job. I've had this cut on and off for many years and she cut and shaped it perfectly. It feels weird to brush and shampoo it, but other then that it is so nice to not get it caught in my coat zipper or have it all tangled up in the morning.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Menu Monday

I didn't make a menu last week. That was a bad, bad decision. No matter how much I hate sitting down and making the weekly menu, in the end it is SO WORTH IT! I'm getting back on track this week.

Meatless Monday -- Creamy Lemon Pasta with Mushrooms and Asparagus

Tuesday -- leftovers

Wednesday -- Turkey Sloppy Joes

Thursday -- leftovers

Friday -- Chessy Vegetable Chowder

Saturday -- leftovers

Sunday -- Raid the 'Frig Night


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a wild and crazy couple weeks over in our little world. I sometimes don't even know where the days go to, but they seem to fly by. Full of daily mundane life activities (grocery shopping, cooking meals, cleaning/picking up the house) and equally full of playing outside in the wonderful sunshine we had for weeks, t-ball games and practices, planting and caring for our 2012 garden, hair cuts, house projects, visiting with friends and family and enjoying hanging out and being a crazy family of 4.

Adalyn turned 18 months this weekend. I may be a little bit biased, but I think she is pretty darn cute. That cute little thing doesn't hold still for more then 3 seconds at a time. She knows what she wants (or doesn't want) and has no problem letting you know what that may be. She is starting to form some words (hi and bye are used very often) and I often think she says other things, but of course she won't repeat anything on command. She also barks like a dog, which is just plain awesome. She learned that trick from Arli.

Her sleeping continues to be up and down, but all of her teeth have finally popped through which has helped in the sleeping department. Getting her to consume food is a challenge. I haven't figured out if she just can't hold still long enough to eat, isn't hungry, it's connected to her sleep issue, or is just a toddler. Maybe it's a little of all of it.






I hope to be back up and blogging this week. I've got lots of family news to share.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Almost Wordless Wednesday -- Picture Round Up

It seems that my time for blogging has disappeared and my camera is full of fun pictures. Here is a little "almost" wordless Wednesday picture round up of what has been going on at our house lately.

Adalyn trying on her brother's space suit hat on. 
Of course, you need gloves with that kind of outfit.

It's very difficult to eat in, too.
 
 
 My girl has been crashing out in the car unexpectedly lately.

There is a duck on Kenny's car!
He started out on the roof, then went to my car and then to Kenny's.
We haven't seen our ducks in about a week or so.

I really need to get Shane a button that say's "I dressed myself today". He picked this outfit because he "had meetings" later in the day. It was also a 65 degree day out, too.

Adalyn and Arli eating lunch.

This past week I took the trays away, now the big girls eat up at the counter.

Adalyn was being a goof.
She is signing cold in this picture. 
I have no idea what was cold though.



Monday, May 7, 2012

Menu Monday

We had a super duper fun and busy weekend. The Celebrating Women Fair went off well and we also  had a great time visiting with family while Kenny's Aunt and Uncle were in town. Now the sun is shining, my house is a mess, I'm starving, Adalyn's napping and Shane is in quiet time, but yet I have no inspiration or motivation for dinner plans this week. Let's see what I can come up with. A trip to the grocery store for some fresh items would be very helpful.

Monday -- Dinner pretty much isn't going to happen tonight between Kenny rushing home to take Shane to his baseball game. When they return around 7:30 I am then rushing off to a board meeting. Guess we'll all just be fending for ourselves this evening.

Tuesday -- Penne Rosa (this looks really good, but not sure I'll have all the necessary ingredients to make with out a trip to the store)

Wednesday -- BBQed Hamburgers (we finally got a new BBQ and I'd love to try it out if the weather holds)

Thursday -- Grilled Cheeseburger Wraps

Friday -- Broccoli and White Cheddar Mac and Cheese

Saturday -- Leftovers

Sunday -- It's Mother's Day...no dinner making for me!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Converstions with Shane

Me: Are you going to go to Vacation Bible School this summer? I need to sign you up today and want to make sure that you really want to go.

Shane: Yes. I'll be five right?

Me: Yes, you'll be five when you go. You'll be happy when I drop you off?

Shane: Yes, five year old's don't whine, right?

Me: Yep, you are right. Five year old's don't whine.

Shane: Will I be able to go to Vacation Bible School when I am six?

Me: Yep, you sure can.

Shane: I won't whine when I am six either. When I am ten I REALLY won't whine, because ten year old's are really big and they don't whine at all!

Me: Yep, that sounds about right to me!

I'm documenting this conversation to remind Shane of his "promise" of no whining when he turns five and beyond. I can't wait for his fifth birthday!!!!