Merry Christmas to All...

And to all a good night!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a very excited little boy and a "Baby's First Christmas" this year. It was our "funnest" Christmas yet as a family! =)

Half Bath After

First of all, Happy First Day of December and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We woke up to snow falling here today, so pretty and a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

Now, time for the reveal of our downstairs half bath! Sorry it took so long ;-)

Click here to see the before pics or here is a reminder:

It was quite, ahem, lovely, wasn't it? You should have seen it the way it was for the last, oh, 2+ years! We had started to tear it out and then it just sat...and sat...and SAT. Until, my wonderful husband finally announced that we were just going to hire someone to do BOTH bathrooms (ugh, wait til you see the before pics of the upstairs bathroom, YUCK!)

So here is the finished downstairs half bath. Well, not COMPLETELY finished, I still need to finish decorating, but its a million times better than before!

Alrighty, here we go! Just a couple pics because, well, its a tiny bathroom and there's not much to show ;-)

 My pretty vanity, I wanted it the moment I saw it. Its from Lowe's. We had to get the smallest version because the next one up was just a hair too big for the space. I used oil rubbed bronze light fixtures - that was a fun search, NOT! I had to get the kind with the on/off switch on them because we didn't have a good way to wire them both to a switch and it would have been silly to put a switch under just one....I spent at least 1 day online searching, then when I was about to settle for something that wasn't quite right...I found these on a site I had already looked at...then found them on amazon.com (where I had also searched before!). I swear they added them overnight!

Oil rubbed bronze faucet (from Lowe's). Oil rubbed bronze looking towel and tp holder. Not quite actual oil rubbed bronze, but it was cheaper than the others and works fine for me!

 Jim insisted on having a medicine cabinet, so we got the one above (kinda hard to take a good pic), also from Lowe's. It doesn't "go with" the vanity, but its a close enough match. I am glad we got it now, more storage is a plus! Oh and it had to go over the toilet because the area over the sink is too low because the bathroom is under the stairway. I think I am going to get a vinyl wall quote to go there...or make a sign myself...not sure yet.

As for the paint color, I gotta let you in on a little secret.....I am not the biggest fan of blue for home decorating. I always turn to my beloved greens. I told myself I had to pick a color other than green this time!! So when I saw a picture of a bathroom that was similar to this, I fell in love with the blue! I just think it goes so well with the oil rubbed bronze and the wood colors. The color is called "Heritage" and its by Valspar, at Lowe's. Sorry I forgot to post that before!! I totally meant to!

The woodwork is actually Antique White. That was a mess up. Jim picked it up instead of the plain white, but I am happy he did. I like how it matches the vanity top and the towels. Good faux pas Jim!! ;-) I made sure to get WHITE when we painted the upstairs bathroom though, hehe.

That's pretty much it! Except for these:

My cute little owl towels! I found them at Goodwill for $1.99. I have always loved owls (a bit ironic that they are so "in" right now!) so this was a fun find, the perfect colors too!

I hope you enjoyed my little bathroom makeover. Keep an eye out for our upstairs bathroom's makeover. I will post those before pics soon!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am Thankful for all of the veterans that have served our country. Without you, we would not be the country we are today. May we continue to lift up and support our service men and women as they do the difficult, scary, and highly honorable job of protecting our country and freedom. Thank you!

Happy Veterans Day!

Tiny Half Bath Before

Alright, here are some before pics of our tiny downstairs half bath. Jim ripped out the vanity and toilet over 2 years ago, then he put the toilet back in (same toilet) because my sister and her hubby were coming to visit and my sister was pregnant at the time so we didn't want her to have to go to the upstairs bathroom in the middle of the night. Then the half bath stayed like that, just a toilet, for the last 2 years. I did take a lot of the wallpaper off too, but I don't have any pics of that. Sorry!

Vanity straight ahead when entering the door. See how the ceiling is slanting above the sink? This bathroom is under the stairway.

Toilet to the right of the door

Looking at the floor from the doorway.

Well, that's our lovely little half bath/powder room before we had it redone. I will post the after photos in a couple days!

Hi....Remember Me??

Long time no see! I hope there is SOMEONE out there still interested in my blog! I am going to try this out again. I am not going to even try to post every day, but maybe a couple times a week.  Maybe only once a week. I am not going to work myself up about it though. If I can get around to it, I will blog. And hopefully I will be able to keep up with some of YOUR blogs too! I really miss my blog friends and I am hoping I can do a better job of being a good blog friend to you.

So wow...what's happened since I last posted....well, I had a double ear infection and some sort of sinus/allergy infection. That was not fun AT ALL. Lots of pain, I even told hubby that I would rather go through natural childbirth again than that awful ear pain. Then Matthew got a cold and had a cough for a few days, but it wasn't bad. Jimmy then got it and he is still coughing. Our Aussie, Luke, turned a year old on the 23rd. And then there was Halloween, Matthew's first. Jimmy was a cowboy and Matthew was a cow. I am posting a pic below.

We have been having both of our bathrooms remodeled (finally!!) so I am excited to show you the before and after pics. I am so glad we have nice bathrooms now, its like a huge miracle!! Seriously, our upstairs bathroom was just awful, there was even mold growing on the walls and ceiling - I was a bit tired of having to bleach it. YUCK! So I will be posting about the bathrooms in the coming weeks, this week I will show you the downstairs half bath and then I will post the before pics of the upstairs full bath a bit later. Its not finished yet so I will post about it when its closer to being done.

Well, I am off to do mommy duties. I will leave you with this pic of Jimmy and Matthew from Halloween. Have a great week!!

Tot School - Letter L

 

Jimmy is 32 months old 

Boy, am I late getting this posted!!!

Here is what we did for letter L last week:

Letter L on Starfall.com

We did the letter L tracing sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

The Letter L Lion on the Totally Tots website

A Leaf Garland like the one on No Time For Flashcards.

We read a few books:

We made a letter L tree with leaves on it.

Some things we did that have nothing to do with letter L:

A neat Tracing Placemat inspired by the ones on No Time for Flash Cards.

And shape matching using Carisa's shape tracers printable.

Shew, that about covers it! Sorry this was sooo late! Letter M will be up in a few days, hopefully!

Make sure you head over and check out the other Tot School posts for the week at 1+1+1=1

It's that time of year...

Fall has arrived!

 Our Volunteer pumpkins that I let take over the compost pile =)

 Jimmy with his first pumpkin of the season

 Harvest time is here!

I just LOVE fall!!

Tot School - Letter K

 

Jimmy is 32 months old  
(He was 31 months when we did these activities)

Last week we resumed our alphabet activities with the Letter K.

Here is what we did:

Letter K on Starfall.com 

I made a Playdough Mat for Jimmy and he did a great job! I had to help with rolling out the playdough, but he traced the letter with no trouble at all. We will definitely be doing more of these!

I printed out this Letter Hunt and Jimmy did great. We are still working on how to circle things, but he did a wonderful job scribbling over the k's. =)

We also did a letter tracing sheet. I am so sorry but I forgot where I found it! If you know, please let me know so I can provide a link. It also came with pictures you could cut out to make a collage around the uppercase and lowercase letters.

We made the letter K kangaroo on the Totally Tots website. Jimmy loves it!

We read lots of books, including these with the letter K in the title.

We also had plenty of playtime, especially with blocks and trains. Jimmy's favorite!

To end the week, we went to our town's festival Friday night and Saturday. Friday night they always have an auction in the center of town and Jimmy's grandpa bought him this:

So Jimmy ended the week learning how to pedal his new "tractor" and carrying around little rocks in the trailer.


Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you head over and check out the other Tot School posts for the week at 1+1+1=1

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful for RAIN!!! It hasn't rained in I don't know how long, but this morning and this afternoon we had a couple nice downpours. Not sure if it was enough to saturate the ground much, but it was helpful nonetheless! My annuals in containers are pretty much done for since I neglected them, but the ones in the ground were hanging in there and hopefully will be pretty for another couple weeks. A couple of our pines that we planted this spring were starting to look a little dry too. Praying they make it! I just haven't had time to get out and do too much yard maintenance this year since Matthew was born and Jim is doing all he can to just get the mowing done! We have so much that needs done, but it will happen in time, I hope!

Tot School - Review

 

Jimmy is 31 months old

We started Tot School last week. We reviewed letters A-J since that is where we stopped before summer and the baby came. We just did some of the past activities again and went over the letters on Starfall.com. We also looked over Jimmy's foam Letter Animals we made and I had Jimmy put them in order.

The difference in Jimmy from last spring is amazing! He can now say 2, 3 and 4 word sentences, he knows all the letters in the alphabet and can count and recognize numbers. Its amazing! We are still going to work on the alphabet so we can finish his letter animals and so that we can work on pronunciation. He is still having trouble saying words correctly, but is improving every day.

This year I also plan on starting to teach Jimmy to tell time and we will work on listening. We have really been struggling in that area. He does not want to listen to mommy, but will listen to daddy. So I am going to try to teach him through creative ways and activities. If anyone has any ideas to share, please do!!

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you head over and check out the other Tot School posts for the week at 1+1+1=1

Tasty Tuesday - Apple Crisp

Jim's parents just moved into a new house and they have an old apple tree in the backyard. It was so full of apples when we were there on Sunday! Jimmy loved picking the apples and he filled up a shopping bag with them. The apples haven't been sprayed with any chemicals either - added bonus!! So what do you do with a ton of free apples? You make Apple Crisp of course! Then you give the rest to the horses =)
This is an oldie but a goodie that my mom used to make all the time, it has always been one of my favorites.

Apple Crisp

Ingredients:
8 cups peeled sliced apples (I think traditionally tart apples are used, I used whatever the apples were growing on the tree, not sure what they were)
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
2/3 cup cold butter

Place apples in a greased 9x13 baking dish.
Mix the brown sugar, flour, oats & spices in a bowl, then cut in the butter until crumbles are formed. Sprinkle mixture evenly over the apples. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes or until apples are tender.

Super yummy served warm with vanilla ice cream! I also love it after its been refrigerated and is COLD!! Mmmmm!!

Click the button above to discover more mouth watering recipes!

God Bless America

The Budweiser Clydesdales always make me cry, no matter how many times I see a commercial. This one is no exception and was only aired once. In honor of those who were lost 9 years ago today....

(Make sure you hit pause on my playlist before viewing)

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful for our weekend getaway with the kids & Jim's family last weekend. We had a very nice, relaxing time. It was Matthew's first "vacation" and Jimmy's third.

Here are a couple shots from a picnic area where we had lunch on Saturday. It was so pretty up there, such an amazing view!

One of the few shots of Matthew awake on the trip!

Daddy trying to teach Jimmy how to keep his face out of the water and to doggy paddle. Jimmy did pretty well! His favorite part was jumping in the water and daddy would catch him.

Our sleepy little guys!

Introducing...Tasty Tuesdays!

I am joining in a new blog hop this week. I was going to start my own Tasty Tuesday feature, but found it already existed here so I thought I would participate. Makes less work for me lol!

This week we have something I found a while back, not sure where, but they are sooo yummy! I think they were named after a very popular gourmet coffee chain, but we call them Heath Bar Brownies.

Heath Bar Brownies 

In a large bowl combine the following ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup margarine
1-1/4 cup white sugar
1-1/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. vanilla
3 eggs
 
Then add:
4 cups all purpose flour
Mix well. 

Finally add:
12 oz. pkg chocolate chunks
12 oz. pkg white chocolate chips
8 Heath bars, coarsely chopped

Mix well and spread in a greased 15X19 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes
(I do not have such a large pan so I use a 9x13 pan and an 8x11 pan).

I let them cool for a few minutes, then I cut them and put them in the fridge because I like them COLD! But they are also really good warm with a glass of milk or vanilla ice cream. Mmmm! I just made these last week and they are already gone, but now I want more just thinking about them!

Enjoy!!

Click the button above to discover more mouth watering recipes!

Thankful Thursday

Wow, I can't believe its Thursday again already!! These weeks are just flying by!

I am sooo thankful to some very special, very talented friends who sent some goodies for the baby. You know who you are!  Here are some photos of everything:

Some really cute burp cloths. I just love the jungle pattern, it goes well with our Rainforest baby gear.

A couple adorable bibs & a cute hat (again, jungle animals, you ladies are on the ball!), some bodysuits, and some yummy smelling soapy goodies for me!

And another pic (I posted a similar one not long ago) of Matthew sporting one of his hats a friend sent, and laying on an afghan from another friend. So cute!

Thank you ladies for taking the time to create such special things for Matthew, you are so kind and thoughtful, we really appreciate it so much!! We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends in our lives!

CSN Stores $30 GC Winner!

The winner of the $30 coupon to csnstores.com is:

Domestic Diva!! I am emailing you right now. 

If I do not get a reply within 48 hours, I will have to choose another winner. 

Thank you to everyone who entered!!