Long time coming!!

Wow, I cannot believe it has been over a year since my last post! Where has the time gone?!?! I know where, school, school, and school. I am gearing up to start back for my senior year towards my BSW with hopes of a MSW not too far behind. This is has kept me crazily busy and adding my practicum and both kiddos starting school in a week we will keep up the craziness for sure!

With all the chaos I am still anxiously trying to get our house up to my design standards in my short 3 week breaks from class. Tackling the bedrooms are first on my list! Kaydences was done awhile back and now it's Cuy's turn.

Here is his room in all its glory. Super tiny, gross tan color that our entire house was painted when we moved in, and in desperate need for some new accessories. A few weeks ago I randomly took his bed apart and removed his closet doors in hopes of making more space(I think it did!!). It is working well for now but we are ready to get going on the projects. First up is painting!

Here is our inspiration...

http://pinterest.com/maleruski/for-cuyler-man/

First step is to replace the tan with a nice, manly light blue and add a chunky horizontal navy blue chalkboard stripe to make the room seem bigger. What do you think?!? Cuy insists on adding green and silver to the color pallet as well. The plan is to have bits of both in accessories, bedding and decor. Check out my board for his room and tell me what you think :)

Be on the lookout for updates!!

 Mal

GOOOAAALLLLL!!!!!

My husband and I are huge soccer fans as well as players and we are so excited to have bought season tickets for our local MLS team!!! St Pat's day marked the home opener and what a great game!!! We won!!

Not only do we get to watch something we love but we also get to hang with @ 20 of our good friends, we all bought tickets together and get to sit in our own section! Pretty exciting!! Lol, I live for these little adult moments that I seldom get!

It also does not hurt that a few of our buddies love to cook and actually brought ingredients for fajita's at the tailgate. Tailgating with fajita's?!?!! BEST idea ever!!! And so easy!

See how good they look!!!

After tailgating for a bit, we headed in and I scored big time with the jacket and jersey I had been eying! You have to love how kid sized clothes are half the price of adults and boy's large is right about a women's S/M!! The hubby wasn't as thrilled since his jersey he was eying was $20 more than what we found online...bummer. Another week of not looking as good as me for him :)

After the game we headed to the "Players Club" where there are tons of big screens (march madness watching ensued) and a big gathering of fans and the "band" from the Cauldron. The Cauldron is the coolest part of the stadium, it is a section of seats where the fans a re going buck wild the entire game, they have signs, drums, chants, the whole shebang! It is definitely on my list to sit at least one game there just for the experience!!!

The Cauldron drum master and drummer's where at the club and chanting away and getting everyone pumped up after the big W, I am determined to get to bang on the big drum at least once this season!!! I was told it is a right of passage as a ticket holder! I am there!!!!

While in the club my friend and I snuck out to look at the field and I happened to jump over the barrier and take my pic laying on the field!!! I was then told by security I couldn't jump over there that way again, my reply "Is there a door I could use then?" They didn't think it was as funny as we did, lol. But I did get a picture!! (My phone is being ridiculous, but I'll try to add it later!)

We are all looking forward to this week's game and are going to attempt taking BOTH kiddos to see if they can sit through a whole game!!! Wish us luck!

Go Sporting!!!!!!!!!

Bedroom makeover continues on!!

After painting Kaydence's room a few weeks back I have slowly gotten things together to finish up her decor, or at least add to it since her walls are now bare!! The forecast is rain for the week and I happen to be on Spring Break from school so I stocked up at Michael's and Hobby Lobby with lots of fun indoor projects for her room.

Some of my ideas include...

A stenciled chandelier with jewels!
Silhouette pictures of Disney Princess'
Canvas paintings
Curtains
Jersey weaved rug

and more!

Very excited and hoping to get a lot accomplished this week! Bring on the rain :)

"Did you make dinner?"

There has been a reoccuring theme lately in my house and I am not ok with it. Seems like every night I am constantly asked, "Did you make dinner?". Um, yes I did. Just like EVERY night. I will admit maybe 1 of the 7 days in the week I decide we can wing it and usually end up eating fast food or pizza. BUT it is literally once a week. Why am I constantly asked if I am making dinner?!?!

This week a new trend started, it came about after my husband couldn't get a hold of me (the kids and I were outside and phone was charging), he decided this meant I wasn't making food and called his mom to pick him up something on her way home (she is living with us). When he gets home he acts like he is shocked that I actually had already fed the kids (seriously! they eat at 5pm everyday...), made him his plate, and had his mom's food ready for her.

So when I asked why is his mom bringing him a burrito instead his reply that he didn't know if I had made dinner had me baffled. She was also concerned that we wouldn't have food around, again baffling. In my frustration I decided to make sure everyone knew from now on what dinner I have planned for everyday. I finally found a purpose for my chalkboard sticky vinyl pieces.

It may not be pretty but I guarantee there are no more questions about dinner :)

Love me some tasty treats...

I had a day of cooking and prepping my menu for the week ahead. I cannot get over how delicious and easy these granola bars are, and my kids beg for them!! Just beware that you may eat about half of them in the first day, they are that addicting!!!!

Want the recipe?!?!? Here ya go :)

Adapted and adjusted from a recipe found online somewhere...

2 1/2cups Rice Krispies
2 cup Oatmeal
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or any other dried fruit, I use whatever I have on hand...)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup peanut butter
tsp vanilla
2 tbsp wheat germ (optional)

Heat brown sugar and honey until boiling mix in peanut butter and vanilla, stir til smooth.
In a larger bowl mix all dry ingredients, then add brownsugar/pb mixture and stir stir stir. Grease a 9x13 pan and press into pan. (I have found pressing with your hand or back of a plastic spoon works best). Chill in fridge for about an hour until firm. Cut into squares. Try not to eat them all in one sitting!!!

I have also found that storing this in an airtight container at room temperature is the best way to keep them. They will be fresh for over a week if they last that long!

I also whipped up some spinach macaroni "muffins" to freeze for kids lunches and and easy side dish for dinner. These are pretty delicious too!

The picture does NOT do these justice, they are divine!

Birthday's!!!!!

Every year I have the pleasure of throwing two birthday parties in about as many weeks. Anyone else would probably dread this but I LOVE IT!!!! The kids birthdays are my favorite time of the year! I start coming up with themes months in advance and start collecting ideas and goodies for their big days. Although their birthdays are only 3 weeks apart I refuse to throw a joint party, who wants to share a party?!?! especially when your little? So until they request to have a joint bday celebration I will throw them weeks apart so they can enjoy their own special day!

Miss Kaydence's 2nd bday was first and she requested a "Puppy Party" (So much fun!!!!) As soon as the theme was set I was all over the internet looking for inspiration, and man did I found it!!!!

Slowly over the weeks I did a few things here and there to get in preparation. I needed to have amazing decorations and refused to spend the $$ on pre-made ones when really how hard can it be to make a paw print?!? The creative juices started flowing and here is what we came up with....

Top of my list---Dog Bowls for all the appetizers!!

Can't have a puppy party without dog themed food!!

Her homemade puppy cake! I refuse to use a store bought cake...unless requested :)

 

 

 

 

 

We had such a blast celebrating her turning 2!!!

 

Where to put all those Doll Baby's?!?!

Kaydebell's room is well under way, next on the list is to take the corner changing table out of her room and figure out some fun doll storage since all her babies are piled into 2 doll beds and I am pretty sure they are suffocating each other! I have been keeping my eye out on pinterest and other blogsites for some way to contain her 14 baby dolls!!! Finally I found something that caught my eye..

Check out the original post.here.

Since it is starting to feel like spring I have been checking out every store to try to find a decent sized bucket to tie together. The cheapest I have found is @ $4-5 each, do the math and that's a lot of moula!! But I think Sunday was my lucky day, I was wandering around Dollar Tree looking for storage containers for Kaydence's room and stumbled upon some wire waste baskets. I stacked a few on top of each other right there in the store and decided for a $1 each I could afford to try them out, I bought the store out of waste baskets (sorry other shoppers) and spent $1 on some colorful zipties and went home to start my project!

I am just going to show you the steps in pictures, since it is pretty straight forward :)

I tied the fronts and a few in the back to make sure they were stable.

The top one is a bit tall for her but it was a little odd looking without the top. And since it is in the corner if a kid leans against it it will not topple over :) Although I will not recommend climbing on it as they are wire and might bend and collapse. Overall it is pretty sturdy and we have had no problems with it!

My thinks she should be in all pictures lol

The wastebasket rack and this old shelf (we were given it and I turned it on its side and added a few new baskets from Dollar Tree) are the main storage for toys and accessories. It is working wonderfully and I LOVE how the stack of baskets turned out. I am contemplating spray painting the entire thing to match her room colors or leave it black with the fun zip tie colors being an accent.
All in all this project cost me $16 and I have a place for all her Doll Baby's!!!