Pre-School Teacher Appreciation Gift

My oldest son just graduated from pre-school. *sniff*    When/how did he get old enough for that? I can't believe he's such a big... kid already. I look at him, and he's shot up (probably) more than an inch in the last couple months. He's lost that 'little boy' look, and he's actually a kid now. It's so exciting that he'll be going to kindergarten in just a few short months, but I keep anxiously looking for the pause button to keep him little for a bit.
Want to see some pictures from his graduation night?

Doesn't he look handsome?

All lined up and ready to sing to the parents/grandparents.

So, what do you get the teacher that taught your son so many new things? I thought of flowers, but flowers die, and I wanted something unique. I thought of some kind of nick-nacky thing, but she probably already has tonnes of those. So, I came up with this.

I got a rough idea from a Close to my Heart catalog (if you're interested in more info, check out my cousin's blog... she sells their products and makes BEAUTIFUL stuff...Paper Bliss Crafting. Her name's Tara... she's awesome.)
Anyways, I tried thinking of something that didn't sound too cheesy to put on the side of the can. Finally my friend came up with this saying, and it totally works! My dear husband thinks it's cheesy, but he couldn't come up with anything better. :)
Inside are graham crackers, marshmallows, and Caramilk bars... everything you need to make s'mores!

Thanks for checking it out!

Ready For The Rest Of The Tour?

Hello, again! Welcome to the rest of my home tour! Last week I showed you the outside and upstairs of my house. Today, you'll get to see my basement. Are you ready?

Come on down. Kinda looks like a creepy, damp,
smelly, spider infested dungeon, doesn't it?
I can assure you, it's not. Keep walkin', you're fine!

Aaahhh. See? What did I tell you. This is the bottom of the stairs
looking into the (huge) playroom. Yes, the carpet got
cleaned and looks MUCH better. 

Here's another look. The door at the back is a bathroom.

This is Tyler in the bathroom. The toilet is up those steps.
James thinks this is just great because he says it's like
a king's throne!

So, if you want to turn around and head back towards the stairs,
we'll continue our tour. Through that doorway, please.

This is the room that has become my office. The desk is against
that wall with no drywall on it that plans to get covered in the
next little while. I love that it's right off the play room, because the kids
can still chat with me, but I have my own little space.
On the other side of that unfinished wall is our little 'guest room'
area. 

This is one of  the down stairs bedrooms that has become our storage
room. We don't need this bedroom as there are plenty upstairs for us.

Slowly but surely, stuff is getting done around here. My dear hubby just filled in the trench around the back of our house that (we think) the old renters' dog made. Water sits in there, and we're concerned about a leaking foundation. Now the trench is filled, and I'm chewing my fingers, anxiously patiently waiting for some nice weather so I can go plant some stuff along the back of the house. The grass is just starting to pop up on the new dirt, so it's starting to look really nice out there!

Next tour will be of the yard.

Thanks for checking my house out!

It's Been 5 Months?

I can't believe it's been 5 months since my last post! Anyways, a lot has happened in those 5 months. We sold our townhouse and bought a 'real' house.
We're SUPER excited to have our own 'real' house, but this one does need quite a bit of work. It's live-able how it is, but we love getting our hands dirty and fixing things up.

This is the front of our new home...

... and this is the back.

It's SO nice to have a yard to mow and room for the kids to play. We plan to paint the exterior this summer... so no more pink!

Want to come on a quick tour of the rest of our house?

Here's my wonderful father in law putting together our bed. This
is the master bedroom.

This is Tyler's room. It's a bit of a weird shape because it has
to accommodate the stairs, but it works great for him!

This is the main bathroom. And yes, there's
a toilet... it's behind that wall you see on the
left at the back of the tub.

                               

This is the living room before. It was a really strange
yellow that looked HORRIBLE with the floors.
There's also a great fireplace in this room, and the wall
behind that was a weird brown. 

This is the living room after. Not a great picture, but you get the general
idea. We painted (and by we, I actually mean my dear hubby helped me...)
it a nice light, airy grey. It looks AWESOME with the hardwood.

This is James' room before. There were TONNES of holes in the walls, so
they all got filled.

James even got to help me paint! I'm so jealous of his room. He has this
GREAT window that looks out over the back yard.

Now his room is a really cheery blue. A perfect 'boys' room!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little tour of our new home. Next up is the basement, so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!

I know it's Christmas day, but I just thought I'd pop in for a quick sec to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Hope you got something nice! :)

My New Toy

Guess what I got today? One hint... it starts with 'C' and ends with 'ricut'! I'm SO excited! I have a few projects I'd like to try, but I promised my hubby I wouldn't start playing with it until after Christmas... as it's my present. The lady I bought it from included 2 extra mats, a new blade, and 6 awesome cartridges! Hooray for awesome people!!!
Anyways, I look forward to sharing my projects with you.

New kitchen floor

So I just posted that our house is for sale, and has been for a while. We had the UGLIEST lino EVER in our kitchen. I'm not sure who would EVER have chosen to put something that horrible in a home. It probably wasn't that bad... but I hated it. When we got married 5-1/2 years ago, I thought painting the kitchen green was a great idea. I also like the orange cabinets then, too.
Our house wasn't selling, we were sick of getting lookers and them all saying the same thing. "The paint needs to be re-done, and the lino needs to be replaced." We decided it was a good idea to buy some cheap lino, get it installed, paint the kitchen a nice, neutral grey/brown, and see what happened.

Please don't mind the mess. Here is before. See what I mean about the 'orange' cabinets?

Another before.

A before shot of my wonderful lino.

I finished painting!

New paint, old floor.

Better view of new paint, old floor. I already LOVE the new paint! Don't know why we didn't do this years ago! It even makes the cabinets look less orange!

 Here is where the 'afters' start. I'm SO in love with my new kitchen, my husband is scared I'll never want to leave!

This is the new paint and new floor together. Ahhh... it looks SO much better.  Even better now  that the table  and stuff is back in there, but my kids are eating right now, so I'll have to get a picture of the dining room later. 

Another view of the paint and floor...

Don't mind my goober child. He was SO excited to play on the new floor!

Ahh. The stove is no longer in the garage!

LOVE the picture I found for above the sink.

Like my key holder?

Well, there 'ya have it. My new kitchen! As I get stuff cleaned up and moved back in, I'll take some better pictures. I just love it! I really can't believe we put off doing this for so long!

Waiting...

Our house has been for sale since July. We were super excited to move... to start over in a new home, to paint, to make something ours... for our boys to have more of a yard to play in. A couple weeks ago, our realtor came and told us that the people that lived in the home we were really interested in were interested in trading homes with us. We were so excited! I boxed up almost all of the kids' toys, we put a bunch of stuff into storage (ALL my crafty stuff), and we waited. A week before our set moving date, something didn't work out on their end, and the deal fell through. Now, I'm taking stuff back out of boxes so my kids can at least play, but the crafty stuff is still tucked away. I just want to be creative again!
Anyways, I'm not sure what I was hoping for out of this post. Maybe just to vent? We have someone else interested in this house now, and we've found something else. It's an old home... built in 1958, but it has so much character! I really hope everything works out, because I can already picture what colors I'm going to paint everything. Is that bad?
I can't wait to give you all a tour of our new home... IF we get one... and show you all the work we've done.
Some day.
Hopefully soon.