Painting the House Part 1

Is there anything worse then painting? All the prep, the time, the core workout, rolling up and down only to have to apply a second coat! Every time I thought of painting I looked at my white walls and thought to myself, "white isn't too bad". I wanted to hire someone but man that is SO expensive. Then there was picking the color, where do you start, do you know how many colors there are? If you look closely to the pictures you'll see I bought small samples to "test" before making the big plunge. It was much easier then I thought it would be to narrow down to a paint color. Although I did end up buying 5 samples before I picked a color. The results have been worth it. I'm glad to have the white walls gone, I've learned that I'm a color person. I must have color!! As soon as I finished the kitchen/family room I immediately moved to the front of the house and now have the living room, entry way and dining room done (pictures to come). When I finished that I did the girls rooms...also will post pictures. My friend did warned me, she told me as soon as I painted one room I wouldn't stop until they were all done, I didn't believe her, but she is right. I'm not stopping until the whole house is painted!

Cuties Even when A Mess

Here are some more pictures I came across from the spring. I don't really even remember much about the events surrounding these pictures but that is OK, because they speak for themselves.

My little brownie helper

Lydia getting into the fridge

found some good stuff

Our girls LOVE the mall. I can't really blame them I do to! Really though our mall is like a mini amusement park, we have a play area for the kids, a train you can ride around the mall on, and a carousel...Kate always picks that same black horse.

3 Easter's this year!

It's almost August, and I'm blogging about Easter. That is just how it goes around here. We had 3 Easter's this year.


We took the girls to the community center's Easter egg hunt. I told Kate to look for the golden egg because there was a special prize. I have to dig up the picture, it's on brock's iphone but her basket was filled with only yellow eggs. Any time she saw a colored egg she just left it she was hoping that the yellow ones qualified as golden egg, she was very disappointed to learn that she didn't really have THE golden egg. At the community center they had cute games/crafts for the kids, and we had our pictures taken with the Easter bunny (almost must try and update with those pictures). They made really cute Easter bunny hats. Which Kate loved wearing and
Lydia loved to try and take off and rip into shreds.


We then went to my brother's house for a family Easter egg hunt. He lives on a nice big property which was perfect for a big hunt. Kate's basket, she did such a good job posing for the camera, check out where her hand is!

One of the only good pictures of Kate and Lydia together

License to Drive.... Kate and Violet cruisin

Easter at our house, check out what the Easter Bunny brought the girls...we hid their baskets and Kate had a great time hunting for them

She found them in the living room and is having a great time going through her stuff, Lydia, (around 11months) loved being a part of all this action and was having a great time checking everything out

Baby Lovin

I never get tired of watching this video, it's from about a week ago. Lydia just turned 14months old and I think she is going to be the best mommy some day. If Brock was writing this post he would tell you that I was BEAMING this day when I took this video. Kate never and still has never cared much for baby dolls so to see Lydia lovin on her baby has made me a happy mommy. It's ok cause I still love and adore Kate for many other cute things about her. But when I was a little girl I LOVED playing with my baby dolls so it's fun to see that I have a daughter that might enjoy this as well. It took me having two of them but I got a baby lovin girl!

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Why I don't mind Grocery Shopping With Kids At Wegman's

Wegman's is a grocery store in our area, it's more upscale then your average grocery yet they sell the exact same stuff that other stores sale. For me I like the convenience, it's right on my way home from work. They also have a dining area and sell pretty good food, it's not cheap but affordable. They have a pretty cool seating area upstairs and a place for kids to sit and eat while being entertained in front of a TV. On Friday's they do a movie night for the kids, lay out blankets for all the kids sell candy and popcorn while the parents kick back. We like going there, it's a nonstress place for us to hang out as a family and I can pick up grocery while I'm there. I know this all sounds strange, hanging out at a grocery store.

BUT this is why I shop at Wegman's they have HUGE family bathrooms, several of them, they are always CLEAN and they have place to store your tots while you take care of business. I've seen these before, but not in a practical place like a grocery store! It's so funny to look over and see your tot just suspended from the wall on this thing. Sorry the picture isn't that great, this was taken from my phone.

Cute as a Bug

Before I get to the cute little bugs, I want to show off these cupcakes I made for a baby shower I hosted. My friend had her baby boy in July but we celebrated his impending arrival in May. I don't have any pictures of the shower other then these cupcake, yes, I have my priorities straight.

Since we are talking about food, here's some of the food we did for the Cute As A Bug birthday party for the babies. Rowan (Emily's son) and Lydia are 2 days apart. so it just seemed right to do party for them together. Here are some of the treats we made, these tasted as good as look. Don't you just love the hand that is trying to snatch.


A fruit pizza we made for the party, I love how it turned out.

Kids in their jammies playing in the sand and water table, this is before the big party

The birthday baby

I love this picture of Lydia playing with the big kids

Kate decorating the buggie cakes, we also had a bug hunt for the kids which was a lot of fun, as well as a pinata

The highlight of the party watching the babies devour their cake. It was so fun to see how differently these babies dug into their cakes, like a little lady Lydia gracefully ate it.

And like a Rough Rhinosauraus Rowan attacked his

Guess who's cake belongs to which baby

Northern Neck Camping Trip

We met up with Brock's family for some fun camping. All his brothers and sisters were there except his youngest sister who had just had a baby. Brock's brother's wife's family owns a house on the lake and although there were plenty of beds in the house everyone opted to sleep in tents. Both girls had so much fun and did great sleeping together in a tent. It's building my confidence that we can do this again. Here are some photo's from the trip. We had such a great time together that we are trying to make this an annual event.

We celebrated Lydia's Bday

Lydia opening her gifts

Erik was the champion catcher of the day, poor dad was desperate to catch something

Kate cuddled up with dad while he fishes

The little beach area

Kate using the potty!

Makin mud pies

we went for a little canoe ride

May was such a busy month for us, the last several posts have all occurred during May, but probably the most special time of May was spent celebrating Lydia's birthday. We had a big family party for her...picture of that will be in another post. These pictures are of her on her birthday spend with her little family. We also went on a family camping trip the weekend of her birthday with the Winfrey family. Lydia rang in her first year with style I felt like I partied the whole month.

Daddy giving Lydia her gift, he went to the store and picked this out especially for her.

Lydia wondering what it is....

She is so excited to have a DVD player for the car!

Daddy showing Liddy how it works

Lydia approves, but is starting to wonder "where's my birthday cake?"

Lydia and her birthday cupcake

Yum, cake face

Here she is reaching for Kate's leftover cupcake, since Kate only eats the frosting and leaves the cake. It's ok cause Lydia will finish it!