A Little Christmas Cheer

Christmas is, by FAR, my favorite time of year, and in this case, decorating has really transformed our new house into a warm, cozy home. I have enjoyed finding new spots for all of our Christmas decorations, and also adding a few new pieces each year.

I love decorating in the kitchen, especially because we don't have a tree in that room, and it's nice to bring the Christmas feeling into this area through little touches here and there. 

We have a fireplace in our sun room, and it's decked out with our stockings. This is one of my favorite rooms in our house, but we don't use it all the time because it's more of an "outdoor room" and not heated/cooled - other than by the cozy fireplace.

I really love getting a real tree every year, and this year was no different. Our family room is where we spend the majority of our time, and where we put our tree. The metallic trees and reindeer are new this year, and I just love how cute they turned out!

Our Christmas decorations have added to the cheerfulness of our home, and I'm hoping to keep them around as far into January as I can ;) 

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas from our family to yours!

A Brief Summary of Fall 2016

First off - Hello blog - it's nice to see you again! Our lives have been so busy the last few months, and my little blog has been left behind. I've missed writing about our family, however, so here we are.

At the end of June this year, we received some big news - we would be moving! Travis achieved a promotion at his company, and became a sales manager in Central Pennsylvania. We started looking for a new home, and at the same time put our house on the market. We listed it on a Monday, and had an offer by Friday. It was so fast! We found a home that we all liked, made an offer, and we moved three hours away - from Ohio to Pennsylvania - in the beginning of September. Such a whirlwind!!

We closed on our new home, and the moving truck arrived here the next day - which was also Avery's first day of preschool at her new school. She has handled the entire situation like a champ, and she and Kendall have adjusted very well to our new home and community.

Also in the month of September, Travis and I were able to take a trip to Maui, Hawaii, with a brief stop in San Francisco on the way. It was an amazing trip, and I am planning a separate post about it soon. It was a little crazy taking a trip like that so quickly after we moved, but it was a trip of a lifetime, and we were able to relax and enjoy our first trip to Hawaii.

Since then, we've spent a lot of time unpacking, rearranging, decorating, and trying to make our new house feel like home. It has been fun getting to know our new area, and we still have a lot to explore. We have beautiful mountain views surrounding our house, and I promise there will be more pictures to come. Although we still have a lot to do, I've enjoyed decorating our home for Christmas. There's something about the holidays that just makes your home feel so cozy and warm.

Happy December - and I'm excited to be back!

Summer Pictures

We had some pictures taken of the girls a few weeks ago and I couldn't be happier with how they came out. We have had a very busy summer so far, and have really enjoyed spending a lot of time with family. We are so lucky to have these little girls, and I don't take my time spent with them for granted.  

Wintry April

Here we are in the first week of April, and just when you think you've made it through the winter, you wake up to several inches of snow outside. Avery was begging to go outside this morning, and since it may be the last of the season (I can only hope!), I gave in and took them out to play. Now that Kendall can walk fairly well, she wants to go outside, but she's still a little small to actually love playing in the snow. We stayed out for about a half hour. I wiped down the slide, and Kendall spent most of her time on the bottom of it just climbing on and off, while Avery made several snowballs for Ranger to chase. The nice thing about playing in the snow in April is that it really isn't too cold, and it didn't take me too long to get our layers on and off. 

To be honest it seems like we've had more snow in April than we did in February and March, so I'm really not complaining too much. I can handle a little snow now, considering how mild a winter we've had. However, I've had a bad cold for about a week, and it will be nice when warmer temperatures arrive, along with the end of cold and flu season. 

In other news, we've been updating our master bathroom with new flooring, and a few cosmetic changes. So far, we've re-painted it blue, and I stained the cabinets from cherry to a dark espresso. It's coming along nicely, but we still want to add some hardware to the cabinets and put the trim back up. Hopefully it will be completed this weekend or early next week. It will match our master bedroom color scheme a lot more now, and I really love it how it's turning out!

To see what our master bathroom looked like before, you can see it here. I'll be sure to post the completed project soon. 

Thinking about the Future

It's been a slow week around here, and honestly, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the future, including the future of this blog. I started this blog when I was pregnant with Avery, and even though I haven't always been consistent, I've enjoyed writing about my life with kids so far, and I love going back and re-reading my posts to see how my life has changed (and sometimes stayed the same.) 

I'm not sure about what's in store for the future of this blog, but I am thinking about doing more, whether it's here with this blog, or starting something new. I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do as the kids get older. I realized that I am very fortunate to be able to stay home with them right now, and I take my responsibilities very seriously. I've talked with Travis about how my role as a stay-at-home parent has also benefited him, and therefore our whole family, because he can focus on being successful in his job without worrying about about childcare or planning for his business trips, or work dinners. I try my hardest to create a "relatively" stress-free home. At this point, I don't want to go back to work full-time when the girls go to school, because I want to be there for them when they need me for school activities, or homework help, or whatever it may be. 

However, I don't want to totally lose myself in my kids, only to find myself lost when they grow up. I've been doing a lot of research and thinking and planning, so stay tuned for some of my new ideas.

 In the meantime, I got an exciting call yesterday from the Learn to Skate Director (where Avery is taking ice skating lessons) and she asked me if I'd be interested in subbing for some people tomorrow, because several of the skating coaches will be out of town. I haven't coached skating for many, many years, but I agreed, and I'm actually super excited about it! Being a skating parent now, I have a totally different perspective than when I coached before. I think I'll treat the kids differently now that I have my own kids, and I'm excited just to get back out there and get Avery excited about ice skating. It's also been a nice distraction from everything else that's been going on around here. 

Anyway, I'm done rambling on about my thoughts, but I leave you with this super cute picture of Avery running with Ranger yesterday. I'm looking forward to more of this kind of thing in the future!!

Easter 2016

Considering the stressful week we had prior, our Easter Sunday was pretty close to perfect. Our day was filled with family, food, and lots of chocolate candy. Avery was the MOST excited she's ever been about finding her Easter basket, and she ran around our yard ecstatically later in the day collecting eggs in our little Easter egg hunt we set up for the girls. We made it to church in the morning and even arrived early in order to grab seats in the balcony...right outside the cry room which I utilized about half-way through. It was a great day, and we'll be eating leftovers for the next week, and chocolate for the next month!

The weather here was absolutely amazing. It was sunny and around 70 degrees...perfect for our Easter egg hunt. It was so cute watching them look for their eggs...even Kendall had a great time!

I took this last picture because it's so nice to see flowers blooming around here. Avery is back to school this week (she had spring break last week) and I'm happy to get back into our routines. Hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend!

Easter Eggs

It's hard to believe that today is Good Friday, and Sunday is Easter. It's so early this year; although I think it fits because the weather here has been warmer than usual, and we already have some tulips blooming. It's been nice to have a longer spring this year, and a shorter winter.

Avery and I dyed Easter eggs this morning, although I didn't make a big production out of it. I hard boiled 10 eggs, and only made three colors, that I let Avery choose. She chose purple, pink and blue. To be honest, the pink and purple don't look too different, but they still turned out cute. I kind of let Avery take the lead this year and use more of the things in the kit. We used all of the egg wrappers, which I've never used before, and they turned out really good. She also put little stickers on most of them. 

I think keeping it simple was definitely the way to go. In past years, I've tried to do more, and she's bored halfway through. This year we only spent about 30 minutes on them, and we gave Kendall a few of the fake eggs that I also had on hand. She didn't really participate - she just carried her little eggs around the kitchen which was cute. 

We have some family coming over for Easter after church on Sunday, but I think after this week's circumstances, it will be pretty low key. We've already bought things for the girls baskets, and I'm glad I did my shopping early. I'm actually most looking forward to watching Ten Commandments on Sunday night, like I do every year. 

Have a great Easter weekend. 

Choosing to be Grateful

Yesterday, I was reminded that life is short. We had a very unfortunate death in the family (on my husband's side) and we are all grieving and trying to get over the shock. It is never easy hearing that type of news, or giving it, and my heart breaks for the parents, the siblings, the grandparents, and the child that are all deeply affected.

I often get caught up in the daily frustrations of life, but this is a definite a reminder for me to be grateful for all of the people in my life. I don't want to take anybody for granted, so I want to be more specific. I am grateful for my family - my husband, my children, my dog, my parents, my in-laws, my grandparents-in-law, my sisters, my brothers-in-law, and my nephew.  You all mean so much to me, and if I don't say it enough, I love you. Also - to my friends, I know that we may not always see each other as much as we would like, but I care about you all and am so thankful for you in my life. I've been hugging my little girls a lot yesterday and today - I always want them to know how much they are loved.  

It's not just people for which I'm grateful - I'm also so thankful for the things I've been able to do, our trips, our house projects, and even running.  The past few weeks I've been feeling a little frustrated with running, because I'm slower than I'd like to be, and it's hard to get motivated. I decided quit complaining, and just be grateful that I can run. This morning, I took Kendall for a run in the stroller;  Avery rode her bike alongside, and even Ranger came along. We went to the park and completed two miles - certainly not the farthest or the fastest, but it was something, and that's better than nothing. We ended up having a great time together.

A few weeks ago at a MOPS meeting, someone passed out "The Homemaker's Prayer" and I've thought about it a lot lately, and especially in the last few days. I am happy to share it with you, and remember that every day that we are given is precious.  

{House Tour} The Playroom

Oh the playroom....this room is constantly changing. It is continually a "work in progress" because we're always accumulating new toys, and I'm always working on new organization strategies. I actually love scouring Pinterest for playroom ideas.  However, no matter how much time I put into keeping it organized, it seems to (mostly) be a disaster zone. Sometimes I'm not sure how other moms keep areas like this clean, because it seems like it's the room I clean the most, and looks the worst.  I don't even think my girls are as bad as some. They actually hold their attention on toys for a good amount of time before moving onto something else. I have started working with Avery more diligently on putting away her toys when she is done with them, and before bedtime, but that is also a work in progress. 

To be honest, one of the reasons I took pictures of this room now is because we just bought some new seating for the room. We had a recliner in here before, but I wanted something that would allow more seating, and something I would enjoy more. Many times, toys end up all over the living room because that's where I was sitting, and it seems like my kids want to be near me most of the time. We chose a futon because it's practical - it can easily become an extra bed, and it's also faux leather, so it's easy to keep clean. We rearranged things a bit, and reorganized, and I vacuumed and cleaned. I already capitalized on the space underneath for extra storage, too. For now, this is as good as it gets! 

This room was Travis's office for a few years, before we turned it into a playroom, but you may notice we kept the deer on the walls. I think they add "character"to the room, haha. We also kept the  bookshelf in here for storage, and the bench in this picture is also for storage. 

I love having a little table and chairs, and they probably get the most use of anything in here. Avery uses the table for coloring, play-doh, and tea parties with Kendall. I took these pictures this morning, and I tried to do it when the girls were eating breakfast, and before they'd be in here, but I didn't quite make it. I captured a few pictures with some  of the cutest photo bombers :)

So that's it! I am actually pretty pleased with it right now, and I'm hoping it will look like these pictures for the next few minutes or so. Let me know if you like it, and have any other organization tips for me! Have a great Monday.