finally home

We are finally moved into our pretty new home! I know I said before the Mister and I made a contract with eachother on this house that we won't move for 5 years, after all the craziness of remodeling, moving, rearranging and decorating we have finally resigned from house hopping and have to decided the only reason we will move again is out of state. fine with me. Here are the before and afters of the house pictures. I purposefully took them before our boxes arrived.

Before:

After:

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After:

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After:

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After:

(a walk-in steam shower)

<--Her Side                              His Side-->

We also put in a three foot by 1 1/2 foot rainfall showerhead in the ceiling. It is as heavenly as it sounds.

and then the closet...

each with our own side with shoe drawers and laundry in the middle. A love has blossomed.

Tan would be so sad if I forgot the garage! :)

All in all, I believe it is quite lovely. Once rooms begin to come together, I will share those pictures too. No more Pinterest House envy for me for a while!

... well until I start decorating

the apple doesn't fall far

Having my family in California and Mr. L's family in Arizona gets a little tricky when trying to keep a 16 month old entertained in the car for 6 hours. We are planning on traveling quite a bit this summer and I've been struggling to keep this boy entertained in the car so that he doesn't remember that he knows how to undo his carseat... great.

I've pinned plenty of ideas on pinterest which got my creative juices flowing. Since we have so many family get togethers coming up and we don't get to see everyone all the time, I wanted Gunnar to know who everyone was, so I printed a picture of each person in our family and put it in a photo book from the dollar section. The Guns loves it! He smiles the entire time he looks through it. One of my favorite parts is that because it is just a cheap plastic book, it's super easy to tape back together or replace it! 

...and luck you! Here's the printable for the cover!

for ever

While we were in California, baby boy and I had time to visit with my dear friends that I had not seen in too long (love to you all). I didn't realize just how much I missed them all so much. All these girls truly inspire me and I am so grateful for their love and support! They are always so thoughtful and helpful and understanding! My dear friend d threw the sweetest party for her daughter while we were there. She is amazing! Please read her blog! I am always in awe by what she posts. The party had a Camping theme and we were asked that our gifts be themed as well... such a great idea! It was so fun to see what people came up with.

Baby boy and I decided to make a semi-homemade gift for this sweet little girl. My mother and I headed to Joann's, picked out some wood pieces and a few things in their summer section and headed home. This is what we came up with:

Some mini x's and o's, medium u's, a wooden dowel, fabric, net, wooden boards, a mason jar and lots and lots of soy paint!

And somehow it turned into this:

horseshoes

tic tac toe

butterfly jar (and a net that wasn't pictures)

and a camping chair.

Everything was wrapped in fabric and it seems that she liked it... or at least I hope so!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

let me pencil you in

Sorry about the pause in posting folks! We had some losses in the family so we went back to California for a couple weeks. Now we are back and ready to get into the swing of things again! I'm gonna go ahead and warn you that we are moving (again) in a few months so posting is going to be slowing down again while I try to pack up our house with a 14 month old who just discovered how to tear tape off and open up boxes :)

I have pretty much become an absolute pro at moving. Mr. L and I have been married for 2 1/2 years and we have lived in 4 houses already (...soon to be 5). Before we even got married I traveled all over the world and lived in a lot of different places so let me tell you that the art of moving has be perfected by yours truly.

To keep my sanity, I depend on lists and lists and schedules and more lists. I was a professional organizer before I found Mister Right so I know a thing or two about keeping it together :)  Before the little one arrived, I relied on my FC planner for everything... even what to eat and when to eat it. no joke. I like to keep them to remember things in my life, almost like a journal. example:

These are only the month pages...just imagine what each day looks like!

Scheduling naps and errands and chorse wasn't quite working on their format, so I decided to make one for myself and share it! I printed the sheets on card stock at Staples and they laser cut it too so that it was nice and even on each side. Then, I lined up the sheets with a bit of cardboard underneath for a hard surface and secured them in place. I applied a padding compound to the top line and now I have my own daily check list! It's really quite easy and just how I like it!

download it here!

It turned out exactly how I hoped it would! I put it up on the fridge so I see it all day and it really helps me to stay organized! I hope you like it! Let me know if anyone is wanting different colors. I think I might add a few options to download if you would like! enjoy!

saint patrick

It's time decorate for another holiday! My house is covered in green already, but the pictures frames aren't! I'm not a fan a getting pinched so I like to cover my bases... enjoy!

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top to bottom, left to right

Another love in my life is reading. It is not much of a surprise for me to have such a love of stories and books growing up with my dad. He would take us to the library when we were little and let us pick out any book that we wanted. It was so fun to sit and choose but the best part to me was when we got to go home and read them and then write book reports on the book that we got to check out! Yes, I'm serious. I loved it. No joke. He owns a few bookstores and my parents house has slowly turned into a library over the years. I aspire to their collection.

I am trying to make sure that our Little One loves books as much as we do. I think it is really important for kids these days to read from an actualy piece of paper instead of playing on kindles or ipads (however I might reform in later years so don't hold that against me). I make a point to show Little One how fun books are by pointing out the colors and words slowly and I always have tons of books mixed in with toys so he can see how fun they are.

I just came across this link on Pinterest. It is a great list and perfect for all ages.

I also did a little printable for Little One's room that I wanted to share with you fine folks as well!

download                                                                  download

download                                                                     download

mister man

We had a birthday in our family a few weeks ago and boy was it fun to celebrate! I love a good party! The shin-dig's theme was "Mr. Man". Little baby G from day one has been beyond his years. He is bigger than most of his cousins and has always learned very very fast. He was born very prematurely and we were told it would take a few years for him to catch up. It didnt. He is a total champ and the Man theme was absolutely perfect! We had a blast!

Food was simple and "manly" themed. Hot dogs and "handlebar" veggies with plenty of sweets. I made cupcakes to look like sliders and cut thin sugar cookies to look like fries.

We wanted to make sure that everyone knew this was a party and to act like it was, so instead of the boring center pieces, I spruced up each table with balloons tied to a basket of games! Each basket had bubbles, kaleidescopes, UNO (for the adults), crayons and coloring pages. We played games, had a pinata and made funny faces in the photobooth too!

looks like it was a hit :)

We sure loved our party and hope you do too! Here is a printable for the coloring pages just for you!

Just open in a new window, right click and save. enjoy!