We saw rhino's Brenden

Wild Animal Park is amazing. I can't believe I heard lame reviews from people I know such as, "It's way too big and TOO hot!" Or, "The tram thing isn't that great." Really? We loved it! My mom and Manuel were already in San Diego when Justin decided yesterday morning (10:30am) to go. So we called them up. They decided to join us at the park. By 2 we were getting tickets and checkin' out the animals. Fun trip. We'll be going back all year;) Thanks for coming with us Grandma and Grandpa!

My hutch is coming to life

The guy I bought my hutch from was worried about the glass being splintered in the middle door. Glass doors? In my house... I don't think so. Those doors were comin' off anyway.

Here she is in all her Behr "Raffia Cream" glory. Ask Rebecca and she'll tell you, Raffia Cream is always the perfect color.

And this pic didn't turn out so good this evening, but that's eggplant in there. Do you love it? I do! It's the one piece of furniture that can carry it off. 10 more coats of purple and some knobs and I will finally be the owner of my very first hutch. (I've been looking for 2 years).

Grayson's closet

While I'm on a roll and motivated to get things done I cracked the whip on this bad boy. (There were tons of boxes I took off the top shelf before remembering to take a before pic). And who makes closets like this?! Really? One rack to hang your stuff on. Who has one t-shirt, a dress and no shoes?

This time around I had ALL my kids with me. And helping, ha.

But by the end of the day it looked like this! And as you can see Grayson can reach his shirts. (which also means he wants to change 10 times a day).

And look what I finally found! A Hutch! And it's wood! And it was $65.

Kennedy shoots a gun

What?! This is how Justin entertained the kids while I was tackling that closet the other day. He took our 5 year old out shooting.

No, I'm not kidding. And that's no airsoft gun, it's a 22 (whatever that means). I'm living a whole different reality than the one I was raised in. Where I come from we weren't allowed to own water guns!!! Not a single gun in the house when I was growing up and now my husband takes the kids out shooting before they start kindergarten! Don't get me wrong though, I don't mind. A girl that cute better know how to use a gun.

Don't worry mom, it was totally safe. That blue cord thing hangin' around her neck, those are ear plugs and she had her special glasses on. Apparently she was really good too. Wasn't scared at all.

Closet reno for the girls

This might be embarrassing, but it's not my room and I forgot to take a before pic of the closet. Just imagine this mess inside...

of that sad thing. Justin took the kids away for 24 hours and I knew it was my golden opportunity to get this room situated. And then I realized.... Justin's GONE! Who's gonna man that table saw?! I hate the table saw. If you hold the wood wrong that mean ol' saw will kick it right back at you. Talk about scary. I still used it a little but the whole time I was cutting I had to scream at myself (inside my head of course, don't want to freak out the neighbors) "you can totally do this. You're doin' it. It's almost done. There! Good job! No get away from that thing before it eats you!" How pathetic is that? But anyway here's what else I did.


I bought this shelfy thing. Would have preferred white, but this color was $20 cheaper. You don't have to tell me twice. Plus I decided the girls will most likely end up drawing on whatever I get. This might camouflage crayon and marker a little better.

Then I screwed in some boards. When I was installing the little board it just wasn't firm. It was hanging off the wall on that side. So when all my other attempts to screw it in the drywall failed I grabbed the liquid nails and shoved as much in the crack as I could. Rebecca, didn't you say it's all about caulk and paint, right? I went with that idea and you can't even tell it looked like this! Okay well you can in this pic.

But not here! Well it's not as amazing as my closet, but my little (giant) pony on top is pretty darn cute. I thought I was doin' this for pretty cheap... then I bought those baskets. No coupon. No sale, but they needed to come home with me.

MacKenzie's Curls

Mom, I mean Katelyn

I guess she does look like she could be their mom:)

Notice the book Sierra. Do you remember calling me asking, "what happened to Shere Khan"? He run away a Mogli.

YW Tie-dyed shirts part one

We did these for mutual last night. We will iron on "BE Strong" next time. Whacha think? They turned out awesome huh! Okay so I didn't get pics of ALL of them, but they turned out SO good.

Kennedy's "Mom hair"

Kennedy needed a hair cut and asked to have it "short in the back so I can stick it out like yours". A child after my own heart.

The hair lady ("lady" seems old, she's like 24) fixed her hair all nice, but tomorrow... we'll try a little party in the back.

PS: She turns 5 on Friday.

And I just saw this on my friend's blog. Cute little videos of Grayson and his girlfriend. This was how Katelyn babysat while Justin and I were on the cruise... she delegated! Ha!

Hunting Day

And as they left the first thing that came to mind was,

"Bunch of red necks".

Notice Chloe's excitement. Looks like she's already been run over by a truck.

Did I ever show you the mural on the kids wall?

I don't think I did. I thought there was going to be a dresser in front of it and thus you have a floating lion... what do you do. But hey, much more interesting to look at than the white walls they used to be.

And while we're stuck inside this week I've found the kids like this. It seems like they've been wearing the same jammies for the past 3 days.

And Grayson's always there to mix things up. Okay I'll admit it I put the tutu on him, but look how happy he was to wear it. He only has so many years until his friends will start making fun of him. Gotta live it up while you can!

We've got a little Tom Cruise

Ring pops and sunglasses in the dollar spot @ Target.

And a package of Thomas panties, I mean underwear.

Just practicing his slide.

Mom's clown name is Lavendar

Grayson doesn't have a "clown name", but he's learned how to paint his face all by himself.

And I tried to make this stupid wreath... it didn't hang like the thrifty girl's. I'm not so proud of it, but it took some time to go get everything so they're stayin' put for a few more days unless I can figure out some awesome ribbon situation.

But this picture looks goofy to me, but I tried the same idea on this frame and I really liked it. It was black. Sprayed it ivory and glued the rest of my lima beans on there. Not too bad.

Grayson and his ball, it's in the blood.

Here's Justin with the basketball.

But Grayson has a soft spot for Mickey.

The big cruise the one where I forgot to take my camera!

For those who don't know, I just turned 30. And after years of hating my birthday I made a resloution last year to never hate it again. So last year I got Disneyland passes for the whole fam and this year Justin and I left the kids and went on the cruise. First stop was Catalina. So beautiful and the weather was perfect.
The water was so clear! We HAD to go snorkeling and with the water being a good 55... I needed all the wet suit get up. We're talking wet suit, booties, hat, gloves... you get the picture (and you'll have to have an imagination because we didn't take a pic of that). Justin and I suited up and walked over to a little cove and jumped in. We could see for at least 75 feet! So pretty.

The new dog... like I wanted one in the first place

But if I am going to have a dog I must admit so far she's my favorite. She's a chocolate lab who we now call Chloe. The people at the pound said her name was Cindy. Really? That's not a dog name.

So far MacKenzie seems to have trained her to sleep in bed with her. Although that rope tied around the bed sure does help.

Organizing that beast of a master closet under the direction of my mother.

For my Happy Birthday (coming soon in Jan) my mom came home with me from Christmas and showed me how to get things done in the closet. She paid for California Closets a LONG time ago and after one closet she said, "That's it! I can do THAT myself". And she did.

However... I had no clue, until now. It was so not hard to do and with Kennedy's help (ha) we were done in no time. It was an all day project, but we got it done in one day! (Okay we got it done in one day because Justin had MacKenzie and Grayson outta the house). Thanks Mom! I love my new closet.

And now I'm ready to rip out the rest of the closets in the house!

Is it an upgrade when you get a bigger clock?

The clock I had before stopped working a few months after buying it (stupid piece of junk). I went to get another clock motor thing except... it wouldn't fit! I was about to get one from Costco when I found this sweet deal @ Home Goods. It's huge. And now it's screaming for a new friend of a mantel. But for now it will have to make due w/ the reindeer and snowmen.

And not to let Rebecca take the show with her display of Christmas presents. I already had this pile started. It's just as cute as yours no? And just as spectacular!

Flashback Wednesday was nicer than "Old chubby pictures w/ bad hair"

I mean this is blow up and put it on the wall worthy. Looking at all the birth pictures it is finally starting to feel like a LONG time ago.

What a cute little girl she is/was!

Remember this? I notice Rebecca conspicuously hiding in the back with orange hair? Maybe it's just the lighting. And how old is Justin? 14, maybe 15?

hunting chucker

Justin's been hunting 3 times now and finally.... he got something! He was so excited.

They're kind of cute too. These little guys are called chucker. For those of you who already knew that we must not know each other very well. I'll let you know what they taste like later.