A random post and small update on our Summer so far...

I, again, have been bad about posting. I really need to post more in order to record my kids' activities!

That said, the kids have continued to learn and grow.

Corbett has really been crawling all around. I know he was doing that the last time I updated, but he is a REAL mover!!!

He is also eating alot more baby food, which is a good thing. (sorry no pic of that...we're too busy trying to get him to eat to think about cameras.)

He is trying to form words now and I swear he said 'thank you' (or a form of it) the other day. He can wave bye-bye.

He loves to crawl/follow his sister and I can't wait until he is walking Lord help me and they start to play together. She tries to pick him up, take care of him, feed him, gets his paci. It's totally cute.

Isn't this a cute picture of my little man?

Gracie is just an explosion of words and sentences!

She comes up w/ the oddest things to say and do.

And she seems to be getting more of a Mama's Girl YAY! and at night, she wants me to 'sit!' right beside her on the couch while she watches Dora.

If you say 'ouch' or act like you don't feel well (which we rarely do, but I think it's a 'thing' with her) she will look at you all serious and say 'what happened? Got owie? Kiss it make better' and will kiss whatever is hurt, or your face.

She still doesn't like to wear hair bows and I am beside myself. I SO looked forward to dressing up a little girly girl and I think I've got a tom boy. I wonder where she got that from!? I mean, she does like dresses, but hates HATES her hair brushed.

This was from Sunday...she liked the outfit but ended up taking the bow out of her hair. This was the only picture I could get of it in...and yes, she's sitting on a cooler. Ahhhh MOTY award here.

She's replace the ever so cute 'tee-ta' (thank you) with 'thanks' (that's right, no Thank You-just 'thanks'), but hey at least she says it.

And I recently taught her to say her prayers at bedtime(yeah, we're late on this one). She is so cute doing it too. She'll fold her little hands and try to repeat after me, but she only says the last word of every sentence. :)

And she adores going on the boat! She'll even pick that over Dey Dey's house (my moms house).

We've spent almost every Saturday on the lake and that will probably continue until we head to the beach in July. We can't wait! Should be much more interesting w/ two mobile babies this year! Oh, and Gracie did finally get in her pool the other weekend...now, asks to put on her 'babing suit' and go 'swimmin'.

And here is a picture of my Hyndragea (favorite flower) and just so happens mine is doing well this year (every year really). The bush much bigger of course, but wanted to show you a glimpse.I got another one for Mother's day but it's still adapting to being planted but looks like it will do good also.


That's all for now..until Friday when we show our next rooms for Kelly's Korner.

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Show us where you live Friday-Home Office

It's time for Kelly's Show us Where You Live Friday, Home Office.

I'd like to first thank Kelly's Korner for doing this as I have gotten alot of great ideas and inspiration for my own home. Thanks Kelly!!

Off we go!

This will be short and sweet since I don't have an official home office. That is because they didn't build one in this house our many kids and few bedrooms.

But, here is where I do my blogging, EBaying, emailing, and very random photo editing.

*Notice Max nd Ruby is on the TV...it's a normal 'wind-down-the-day' thing.

Thanks for coming and sorry I didn't have more to show you. Maybe next week!?

R

In honor of my Hubby, recently named 'AC' on here and other places

So, you probably know my hubby's real name but recently he acquired the nickname 'AC'. It stands for Angelic C(first letter of his name). Some really close friends have reaffirmed to me that it is, in fact, angelic so I thought I would post about his 'awesome-ness', or just a few examples. :)

I just wanted to post to give kudos to AC and tell you what all he does for me/us:

• changes all diapers (for the most part) for both babies.


• changes clothes (morning and night) for both babies.

(are you dying yet?....just wait....)

• 'bath time' for both babies, every time. (I can count on one hand the baths I have done)


• Cooks meals, and most of the time cleans (It's usually my job to clean the dishes but he normally does it, in the end).


• Vaccuming. yes, he cleans. I do the bathrooms and laundry, but he vaccums and mops the floors. Oh, and he also does the cat box.


• Yard work. I never do yard work-scared of snakes (as we have them).

(I know, I know---the listing is going on and on)

• Puts the kids to bed at night.


• puts gas in my car (although he's relaxed on this one and I don't complain, afterall he's AC)


• lets me have internet time (email, Fbook, and blog) and he takes care of the household duties. For example, he is currently washing dishes didn't I say this was MY duty above~?!?!? while I blog b/c I said I needed to 'get something out'.


• and lastly........he gets a MOW (Medal Of Wifey) because if when I have a RantNRave, he calmly 'weathers' it and then asks, " what can I do to help you?".

Yes, he's a Saint, and yes, I love him DEARLY! And, NO!, you can't have him!

He's my AC...........for as long as he'll have me

Show us where you live Friday-Kids's Room/Nursery

Once again, it's time to show off the house. (Have I mentioned I love Fridays!?)

Kelly's Korner does these segments and I just love them!

I really get inspiration and although would love to change alot about my house, I think my DH (Dear Husband) would just croak! Can anyone relate?

I digress.

Off we go.....

And be warned...no fancy photography here and no clever shots. Just raw footage because, well...that is what it is. Raw messy

First, I will explain my set up. I have two rooms upstairs and three kids. Well, most of the time. My step son (SS) has a room and the TWO babies share a room (the smallest). For now. Remember DH is working on adding a bathroom in our FROG so SS can move up there. So, when you see their room you will see a really cramped situation mass chaos.

Here, you're looking into the babies' room from the hallway. Notice the pack 'n Play set up to the left. That's where my son sleeps, he's the youngest and I won't show a close up b/c he was IN it asleep when I took the pics! :)

Here, you can see the crib and two dressers, all painted black. The lampshades, which you can't see well, are a black and white gingham. The dressers both came from His House (thrift store) and we redid them and painted them. The crib was my crib. My mom saved 30-something ahem years for me to use. Believe it or not, it was in great shape so we redid it and painted that too. I hope to save it for my daughter as well. Ignore the Dora toy box with clothes piled on top! Ahhhhhhh

Here is the close up of the crib. Notice the two babies and 'Gabba Gabba' that are well placed together, sitting up. My daughter likes to play in her crib in the mornings while mommy and daddy get to sleep in

Here is the changing table with alot of junk on it. I have never used it as a changing table. But, here it is. I got it for $20 and did the same as the other furniture. Redid it and painted it black. This was actually the first nursery piece I got and painted....It got me thinking. Notice the picture in the back. Same as you saw in this post when we did kitchens, but it is my daughter.

This is the close up of her's.

Next, I take you to SS's room. Notice the railing that looks out over the den. This drives my mom nuts and is the reason she wanted us to move before Daughter was born. *sigh*

This is from the doorway.

This is to the left right inside. His room is actually the largest and my plan is to put Daughter up here. The small doors is a storage area. The piece the TV is on was my DH's grandmothers. Coffee table and sofa, His House.

View of the messy sofa and the bed. He used to have a skateboard hanging over the bed but just took it down this weekend because he said it kept falling off and hitting him in the head. And yes, for some strange reason I let him tape (horror!) posters in here. That won't be happening in the new room though (I knew we were going to redo this one).

And here is the view opposite the door. See how big it is. I do give him kudos because he keeps it pretty clean. :)

Now, I'm thinking of painting it spring green (will find an exact color on my Sherwin Williams color wheel) and I already have a chandelier to go in here. I'm excited, can ya tell!?

Whew, I'm glad we're done w/ that segment. I really don't like the rooms up there now. Too cramped. I can't fit the babies' clothes in the closet and drawers so they're just everyone and it's driving me bonkers. BONKERS, I say! I actually took a picture of the inside of their closet (they share one!) but decided not to show it for sheer embarassment!

My other rooms:

Kitchen

Den

Spare Room

Dining Room

Until next week...........

I need to update on some kid stuff...

Since I want to try to use this blog to record milestones for my kids and because I've been terrible about updating their baby books, I really should update some things they babies are doing.

Daughter, "G", is 2.5 years old.

She is in, what some call, the terrible two's but really, they aren't that bad they are terrible!

Her vocabulary is exploding and it's so cute! If I am upset (not the crying kind, but frustrated kind), she notices and says 'What's wrong Mommy?' (in broken G-language of course). She tries to take care of 'Bubbie' (and I've yet to understand WHY she calls him that but she came up with it and it's sticking it seems).

She has a full set of teeth and she loves to use them. She's eating non-stop and won't eat anything green (I wonder where she got that from!?!) I have tried to give her green things but she says 'not like!' and pushes it away. The only thing she will eat green are these. Go figure.

G is also now FULLY into TV. She never cared about TV until around 18 months but here we are. She LOVES Dora the Explorer. It's cute annoying at times.

Everything is 'MINE!' and 'I do it!'

She LOVES shoes and she can pick out her own shoes (and they match the outfit I've DH put on her) and knows which shoe goes on which foot. She takes them off and carries them with one hand, held together (paired correctly) and puts them up. Can you picture it!?!

Also, she's a neat freak! She's all about putting something in the trash, putting up dirty clothes, and closing doors/cabinets. I really hope this lasts!!! And wonder where she got that from.....hmmmmmmmm... :)

Then there is Son, "Cman". He is 1.5. Yes, I have Irish Twins. Yes, my life is nuts. Yes, I'm a nice and controlled insane mother most of the time. But, it's my life and I like it...Wait!?! Maybe not a good reference there.

Cman has had his share of struggles over the last year. If you want to read about that, go here.

Otherwise, we're moving forward and concentrating on the milestones he has crossed and where we are today. I'll add that he was a 6 week preemie so developmentally, he's behind.

Corbett has three teeth (they aren't fully in but are 1/2 way).

He is crawling all over the place now and we're so shocked every day/time. Of course, this happened when we went out of town to the beach. Nice. MOTY.

He is still on formula (Doc's orders b/c of his weight) but is eating some baby food.

Recently, he started forming 'mama' and 'dada' and it's music to our ears!

And one of our new things is waving 'bye-bye' which consists of little fingers being curled (not actually waving)........it's so cute and so welcomed!

He uses that wave also as a 'gimmie that'. I'll fix his bottle which he loves-will be he$$ to get him off of it and he does his little wave until you give him his bottle.

I hope his favorite therapist, Jenn, has seen these things.

He still only weighs around 17 lbs and that is our main concern. Let's hope he starts to eat 'real' food or we'll be guided to a Speech Therapist. Great.

I think that's about all for now but this is likely to change or need updating weekly the rate they are changing and growing. It's so scary yet rewarding!

I am sharing a few treasures I found today .....

.....on a power shopping trip. I am very pleased and again hooked on trying to update my house. I fell short of this for about two years while having babies, you see.

They were on clearance at TJMaxx and well, I couldn't resist b/c they were great deals!
But, for now please vote on pic #1 or pic #2 for a place setting in my dining room. You have seen it right?
Pic #1:

This is my current table setting and is my formal china, new placemats and new napkins. The napkin rings were my grandmothers and so were the glasses. Silverware was my other grandmothers'.

Pic #2:

Same placemats and napkins but arranged differently and w/ 'new plates'.

I found these plates today as one/two of my finds. They were $3 for the big plate (that looks like a charger) and $2 for the smaller one (that has flowers in the center--not really 'me' but I like the look). I bought these plates today in hopes of starting my own white 'china' collection, with the intent of hanging dishes and serving platters on the wall in my (red) dining room. The more I see this setting, the more I want more of it! So, tomorrow if they have more available, I am getting enough to set my table.
So, you see, I will should have enough to keep the table set like that.

What is the vote you ask?

Whether I should do the 'new' one of keep the existing one for my uncle's visit this weekend. I haven't seen him in about 12 years (long story) and he's coming for dinner on Sunday, our treat.
So, VOTE please!

Now, on to show you my other finds. I hope you can see them well. All were on clearance but one and that is a 'bowl' I FELL IN LOVE WITH and it was $8.

See:

It's hard to describe but hopefully you will see them in your area but it's made out of what looks like rolled tightly folded, I think magazine pages. It's so adorable and my plan is to put it in Gracie's 'new' room when it's done. This one favors pink and green so it'll go nicely since you know I have it all planned out by now.

Here is my next find...I've always admired candelabras but thought sterling (I swear I know how to spell it.....ugh) silver ones were a little 'much'. I found this one and snatched it up. It was, wait for it, $7.50! The bottom is like a frosted 'glass' instead of it being all silver. And yes, I know this isn't 'real' silver but I love it all the same. Just not sure if it goes in the middle of the table or elsewhere in my house.
What do you think???

(PS-I'm currently searching for a new table runner..that gold one 'fades' in the room)

Moving on...

Don't ask me what this box thingy is but I fell in love. It's kind of distressed white and has some Paris writing on the front. I think I'm getting into white (distressed) things..........hmmmm?

I want to hang it somewhere in or around the kitchen. Any suggestions? I'm thinking around the coffee maker and I'll keep Splenda Packets in there...? I know it's probably made for keys, but you all know I never do anything typical. :)

And my new wine stopper is right under it. You can't see it well (boohoo) but it's made of solid crystal or some material made to look like it and has an "A" etched inside it (not ON but inside). I love it! You can add this to my collection of A's, please!

Next my hodge podge of other stuff.

First, notice the Aqua Globe (back of box showing. sorry). I have wanted one for a while but found this one for $3.99 at TJ's. Steal. It's an orange one and doesn't really match my decor overall but I will find somewhere to use it.

Next, and you can't see it well, I found a cute hanging sconce-of-a-thing that was $2. It's between the magazine bowl and the candlestick, laying down. It has a dragonfly on it and a snail. I'm thinking of painting the whole thing black or red (another VOTE?) or leaving as it and putting it on my porch. If I paint it, it'll go inside....but WHERE?!?!? (You put a candle on the bottom).

Next, is the candle stick. It doesn't show up well here but it's gold with mirror tiles all around the bottom. It was $3!

Lastly, my black book. It is around 5x7 and was $5. It isn't a book, though....it's a storage 'box' as it opens and has storage. My intent was to get this one and a larger one and stack them but I forgot to grab the larger one. Remember, I was power shopping before picking kids up at daycare. BUT, plan to obtain one while grabbing my dishes. If black is gone, I'll snag a green one and pair them up or get a stack of three going and make an interesting color pattern (they had white, pink, black, and green---OH YEAH).

Total score today.........$55!

Updating my house and retail therapy.........PRICELESS!!

I'm baaaaaackkkkkkkkkkkk.

Stay tuned.

Show us where you live Friday....Dining Room Edition

So, here we are again.....Kellys Korner is doing more of Show us where you live Friday. I love this week so I hope you will enjoy the tour!

Welcome to my dining room previous EBay shipping and receiving as said by DH.

I am so glad this week is dining room as I really hated showing my spare room, or called a F.R.O.G. in the South . You can see that post here.

I will add that my comments come before the picture incase you are confused. Not sure if most do this or not but it makes sense to me. Off we go!

The most boring view so posting it first since you've seen my kitchen, or should have. This is the view from the kitchen.

So, here is a view from my front door. It's behind me and I'm looking into the right side. Remember my Foyer when you saw my den?

This is to the right. I will add, that when we first moved in, ALL the walls were white boring. I first painted the walls (or the uppers-the bottom is all white and moulding, nice.) a yellow but didn't like it always wanted a red room so repainted it a red, Chinese Red, to be exact. I LOVE it! Although it was hard to paint and isn't perfect, I like it.

Dramatic. Me. But in a good way.

I also feel the need to add that my chairs are not matching...well, not all of them. In fact, the table and 6 chairs came from the side of the road. That's right. Side. Of. The. Road. AND it was broken all up and in pieces.

My mom passed it, stopped, and asked the people who lived in the house if they wanted it. 'NO!' Apparently there was a domestic situation and the man smashed every piece. (Sad).
Another mans' trash is MY treasure.

I had it fixed and redone and here you go. I also just recently redid the fabric in the seats. Previously, they were an OLD outdatedpattern. Ugh.

Sorry to ramble but wanted to give you hope that trash=treasure and not everything needs to be new or matching! Have fun w/ it!

And I thought I would give you a close of to one of my husband's 'awards' from recent. He got this bowl for his 20 year service award celebration the other month. It's Waterford crystal ad came with a mahogany stand. First, who gives a male something like this!? But, secondly, we've come to appreciate it and I felt I had to display it and am glad I did. Like it? It's sitting under that big (red) mirror above-and I put a candle in it but just for this picture.

This is from the opposite corner and you can see the kitchen through the door frame. Start noticing all the animal print. It's my fav!!!

This view is kind of from the kitchen but just inside the dining room. This is a view of my grandmothers china cabinet, passed down to me. I LOVE it and once I move it (it's been moved only a handful of times since being passed), I leave it--and it's contents. The china inside was also hers with a few peices of my moms. My mom prized possession. And ignore the bouncy seat in the back ground.....I couldn't get rid of all the baby items! Heehee

This view is from the kitchen to the left. It's of my buffet that I love.

And I also love the mirror above it.

So, here you can see my always set dining room table. I recently updated my table runner during Christmas, the placemats, and napkins and mixed up my patterns some. Do you like it?

And here's a close up of my place settings. I like different combinations of things and most of my stuff doesn't match so keep that in mind.

You can't see it but the napkin rings are sterling and have a small "A" engraved on them. They were my grandmothers also and I use them since they match my married last name. Can we say nostalgic!?!

And because I loved my dining room at Christmas, I decided to include a few from then. We decided to have a Christmas party this past year. No clue why as if we didn't have anything else going on. That time of year is crazy for us, even outside of the holidays. My daughters bday is 12/20 and my son's is 1/31 so we're in the midst of planning birthdays as well as getting ready for Christmas.

Anyhoo--here you go. Some with flash and some without.

And I went all out this year....I had a tree almost in every room.

And I had to include the last one, even though it isn't Christmas totally. It was taken right before our Thanksgiving dinner. And yes, those are ornaments hanging already above my table. I just couldn't wait to try that idea I saw somewhere.

Well, I hope you have once again enjoyed your tour. I enjoyed showing you my dining room and can't wait to see yours and to show the next room of my house. I'll be sad we this comes to an end though.

Until next time.......

Another post today....

So, the next couple of posts will be sort of random and out of order a bit, but it's how I'd like to
post them so bare with me. I did have to come home and post my 'Show us where you live Friday' just for Kellys Korner and you can see that post here.

Recently, DH and I went on a mini vacay. And adult one. We left early Wednesday morning and came back yesterday (Saturday). It's the best feeling in the world to come home to a toddler girl running toward you, screaming 'MOMMY!!!' And I later heard she was saying that morning, 'I want to see my Mommy and Daddy'. Aweeee

Anyhoo....
It was nice to get away for a few days. I will admit that it took us a while to stop listening for little voices/cries. Also, we kept wanting to go make a bottle, baby food, and change diapers.
I knew I would come home and feel like my babies had grown a TON since we were gone.
I was right.
*sigh*
Here you see Corbett snacking on a cookie.....
Notice his bib that we got for him while gone. It has a motorcycle on it and says 'Skid Marks Happen' LOL and if anyone knows him, this is his motto!!

And....apparently, we're now entering into our next phase of life.
Life with two toddlers.
He's moving.
And quite fast, I may add.
Today, I spent it chasing after both of them.
I was quite busy!

Gracie just loved my cowboy hat.
She had to put it on and much to our surprise she wanted to keep it on.
I, of course, thinks she looks adorable and like a future star......stay tuned! :)



She's a ham for the camera these days!
And I think she's precious.....



Hope you enjoyed seeing what we came home to after our mini vacay.
I truly missed my kids, but also enjoyed the time away.
On a side note, after we picked them up, Gracie jabbered on about something in the back seat and both of us kind of jumped. We were like 'what was that?'
Ahhhhhhh, maybe our vacay was too long.

Show us where you live Friday....or Sunday

Yes, I am late...why you ask?
Well, I was out of town on Friday and although Ihad already done my kids' room post, I understood there was a change. No biggie but here is my sorry excuse for a spare bedroom. I will say, though, that it won't be a 'spare' for long as you will see progress pictures at the end of how we are transforming it into a bedroom for my step son. By which, we had to add a bathroom. More on that later.

Off we go......

Our spare room is our FROG. Know what that is or is it a Southern thing?

It is a Funished Room Over Garage. We call it a FROG. Odd huh?

This is what the room used to look like. It was taken about 5 years ago right after we moved in and got settled. Behind that screen is out cat box. Cleaver huh?

This is the other side of the room. The couch came from His House (like Salvation Army) and is a pull out and is very heavy going to be a PAIN to get out of there when it's time .

The chairs (I have two just alike) also came from His House and they are (slip) covered in white denim. Seems unpractical huh? Not really since it is slip covers. They actually snap off and wash really well. Clorox is my friend!

This is the view of the computer table, which by the way was my grandparents. It's over 60 years old as it was the first piece of furniture they bought. I love that thing! And ignore the oboxious neon light in the corner. Not sure how DH swung that one by me.....No clue where it is now. Hmmmm.

I am including a few shots of this room decorated for Christmas. It's kind of cheesy though. This was a $10 tree and I mainly just packed it w/ lights so you could see it out of the window. This is our FROG, remember, so this window is really high.

And this is another view of our sad tree.

And this is what the room looked like as we starte rennovations earlier this year. This is the beginning of the new bathroom and this was where the table and PC were set up. See any neon light? Nope. Hmmm....??!

And here is a view of the whole thing. That light isn't staying-it just so they can see in there. I am VERY impressed with DH's handywork and although it's saving us a tone of $ in labor, the project is coming along very SLOWLY!

I'm particularly impressed that he installed this pocket door, and recessed lighting!

And here, the drywall goes up.

And the draywall is finished! This was taken about a month ago and that is they last time they have worked on it. A friend is helping DH and well, he's been preoccupied lately. *sigh*

I should add that when this room is done, it will allow me to split up the two babies so they will ahve their own rooms. I can't wait! It looks like a toy and clothes explosion b/c I don't have enough room for all their stuff. Stay tuned for that episode....

Hope you enjoyed the tour!