Settling In

Leila will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. We have settled in to our new family of 5. I know I say this with each addition to our family but I cannot imagine not having Leila in our lives. She is such a sweet girl and one of the best babies ever. Other than her normal witching hour between 8-9 PM, she is seriously a dream baby. I have enjoyed getting to know her over these last few weeks and I can't believe I will be back at work within a month. Marissa and Dylan adore her to pieces. They never stop giving her kisses throughout the day. Leila has the sweetest smile and I love hearing her voice when she coos at us.

We have a lot going on at the house. We are currently getting our patio put in and waiting on the sidewalk to be installed. We will be ordering a shed soon and we have plants that need to be planted. I have been getting back into crafting when I have some free time. Leila is stretching out her feedings a little more which makes life easier. I can't wait to get some curb appeal here at the new house. We finally have some grass coming up and I redid our wooden rocking chairs to spruce up the front porch. I also painted the garage door going into the mud room. I LOVE how it turned out. So much better than boring old white. I also made a wreath for the door and the kids helped paint the letter for me. I am still in love with my kitchen, it is truly the heart of our home!

Cherry java cabinets with granite

Pinterest Worthy Wall Collage?

A few weeks ago my mom took the older kids so I had 3 days without Marissa and Dylan.  I took full advantage of my time with just Leila. We did lots of cuddling, napping and we happened to be pretty productive, too! My main goal was to get Leila's birth announcements ordered and create a wall collage of all 3 of my babies. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I have an iris for Marissa and a rose for Leila. All that is missing is a porcelain shoe for Leila with her birth information on it. I happen to think this is pinterest worthy, so I'm adding it to my pins in hopes of inspiring someone else to get those baby photos off of your hard drive and onto a wall in your house!

New Kitchen Lighting

For Christmas, Danny got me new kitchen pendant lights (I know, I know...I'm weird and like that sort of thing as a gift).  After cutting 3 feet off the wire and a little help from my brother, we have new lights!  I am wanting to create some roman shades for the kitchen, but I'm at a total loss of what color would match our kitchen best.  This isn't the best picture, but here's my new lights all set up!  Excuse the mess, I was preparing for Dylan's 1st Birthday party. ;)

I saw this fabric at the store and it kind of drew me in, but Danny wasn't quite convinced. This picture doesn't truly depict the colors, they were a little more muted, but I ended up not getting anything because I'm too indecisive waiting to find the perfect match.

A Good Time for Quilting

Yesterday we were preparing for Hurricane Sandy to hit the Eastern shore.  We were called off from work and were expecting high winds and lots of rain.  I decided it would be a good day to make Dylan's receiving blanket baby quilt.  I haven't gotten to use my sewing machine in months, so it was good to get back to it!

I kept with a very simple design, just like I did with Marissa's quilt.  I did a monogrammed applique and love how it turned out.  I love making these keepsake quilts with receiving blankets.  

Of course I had to add a satin binding to the edges. Danny says a blanket isn't a blanket unless it has a ribbon on it. ;)

Marissa sleeps with her quilt every night.  I am happy that it is well loved and used often.  I hope that the kids keep and cherish these blankets for a long time to come.  And I hope they know that they are made with love, not perfection.  

Marissa's Minnie Mouse Party

We had such a great time at Marissa's 2nd birthday party, despite the rain and cramming a ton of people in our little house.  We had lots of yummy food and Marissa was so spoiled by her friends and family.

One and Two year comparison

DIY Decorations

Favor bags.  The babies (under 1) got a Mickey or Minnie bib and a board book.  The older kids (over 1) got a Mickey coloring book, crayons, a board book and gold fish. :)

Cupcakes I made.  They got a little dried out, so I need to figure out how to prevent that in the future.  They were only out for a few hours during the party but I was definitely disappointed that they got dry.  At least they looked pretty, right!?

Danny's kegerator decoration

I made an "adult" Minnie Mouse Cocktail.  It was super delicious!  I had actually pinned a recipe similar to this on Pinterest and made some modifications:

1 Large bottle of Pinot Grigio

1 Frozen Pink Lemonade Can

3.5 cups Sprite

Serve with an ice cube with a raspberry frozen inside

I had planned for these centerpieces to go on the tables outside but since it rained I just put them around the drink station and the pass through where all the food was kept.

Miss Minnie!

Marissa (2 years) and Dylan (8 months)

I never knew there were so many Minnie Mouse toys, I hope she doesn't outgrow Minnie anytime soon!

Singing Happy Birthday!

Kitchen Renovation - Complete!

Most evenings when I'm cooking dinner, I scoot Dylan's high chair into the kitchen while I prepare dinner.  He has his "witching hour" in the evenings and he usually wants to be held or worn.  As a compromise, he will usually sit quietly in his high chair if I feed him puffs while I work.  Well, one day I scooted him across the dining room and kitchen threshold and the chair leg caught one of our craptastic sticky tiles that came with our house.  The tile ripped and I told Danny that it was time to finally get new kitchen floors!  He agreed and threw in kitchen counter tops as an extra bonus.  My cookin' must be pretty good to have earned such a treat. ;) 

Here's the beginning of construction.  We had 3 floors to tear up.  The sticky tiles, linoleum and a wood board that the linoleum was adhered to.  In addition to the 3 floors we had about 1,000 one inch long staples to pull up.  It was a lot of work!  We also installed all new floor trim and door trim.

Laying ceramic tiles:

Grouting, a very dirty job

All of our hard work - complete

My red counter tops.  Before we even bought the house I said they would have to be the first thing to go...3.5 years later we are finally replacing them.  I have to admit, they kind of grew on me.

No counterops: 

Yay!!!  New counter tops are in!

New sink:

Excuse the party decorations, here's the pass thru going from the living room to the kitchen:

All of our hard work paid off!  I'm very happy with the end result.