And the project for this weekend is....

Emily's bedroom! It is WAY overdue. I mean WAY. Her room is currently mustard, or maybe it's more of a school bus yellow with a navy blue ceiling with stars stenciled on it. Clearly, this was painted before we moved here. Because her room is upstairs and all she does is sleep in it, her room has not been a priority. Well, now she is older and even she (being the hip little chicklet that she is) has noticed that it is tragic. She told me she wanted her room blue. Then she wanted it red. So we "compromised" and her room will be purple-I told her that we were mixing blue and red to get the purple color. It's called "A touch of violet" and is the same color we used in her original nursery in Chester, then again at the beach. It's the only color we have done in all 3 houses!
I have taken the before pictures and will upload them with the after pictures when we are all done.
I have to go paint now! :-)

Hip Hick Chick goes FLY!

In my never-ending quest to become organized again, I have once again ventured to the FlyLady sight. http://www.flylady.com I looked into Fly Lady before Emily was born and was following her practices. Then I had Emmy and with a newborn, all cleaning schedules went out the window, then we moved (into a hotel), then our home in VA Beach, and then when I was finally ready to get organized again...BAM! Pregnant with sweet baby Allie. Then newborn again, the moving again! I told you...it's been a long 4 years. Anyway-Ben has made it clear that we are going to be here for a while and I have made it clear that there will be no more pregnancies, so it's time to get organized again.
So....now we'll see if I can be hip and fly.... :-)

Problem Solved!

It's done! My shelf/bench combo are assembled and put up! I love the way they look! Sorry it looks a little crooked---that isn't the shelf...it's my picture taking! :-)

I am thinking I need to put something on the shelf part....not sure what though. Maybe a picture frame or something....who knows. I'll figure something out.

I don't think this job would have been done as efficiently if not for the help of 2 very important people:

Big Thanks to Emily and Allison for keeping Daddy on-track while assembling and watching the NCAA tournament! Multi-tasking at its absolute finest!

I forgot to mention...

Please comment on this blog! Let me know what you think! Did you see or read something that you like (or dislike-I can handle it...really I can)----let me know!
Thanks!

Mission Organization

I'm getting there....."there" is back to where I was 4 years ago. Completely organized and put together. It's taken me a while, but hey, give me credit-I had 2 kids in 2 years and moved twice in 3 years. It's been a long 4 years. Good, but long. Anyway-enough excuses---time to organize again.

I have these problem spots in my house. My biggest bone of contention at the current moment is my front foyer. My husband (who I love and adore) seems to think that the floor is the perfect place for his coat. He comes in, throws his wallet and keys on the front table, shoes, hat and coat in the floor, along with his computer bag and that is where they stay. DRIVES ME NUTS. I am working on a solution to this problem now.

I have these 2 things sitting in boxes waiting to be assembled-I have been told it is a weekend project---during March Madness--we shall see how this goes-lets just say I'm not holding my breath.

These will go on the wall behind my front door-I ordered both in black.They are from the Westfield Collection from The Company Store http://www.thecompanystore.com/

LOVE THEM!!!
Some of their prices are a little much for me on some things, but if you have an account with them, they send great coupons and usually there are some good free shipping codes or deals on http://www.retailmenot.com/

In other house news, the master bedroom is coming along quite nicely. Just for a refresher here are some before pictures (Before we painted and the new furniture arrived)

Our old Master was a mess. The furniture was really old (it was mine from when I lived with my parents, and before that belonged to some old woman). Don't get me wrong-it was fine, but it was a full sized bed and we had just really outgrown that. The room just made me angry when I went in there. Not really good for a master bedroom. But since it was upstairs and no one other than us saw it, it wasn't really high on the priority list. That all changed after Ben got his bonus! Yay! We decided the days of the girls having the nicest bedroom furniture in the house were over. We started with the mattress--we found a great deal on a KING and purchased that first. We then started looking into furniture. I found a couple of collections on-line that I liked, and off we went to the furniture store. We ended up getting the Madison collection from Raymour and Flanigan (http://www.raymourflanigan.com/) and we were really pleased with the transaction. I didn't realize you could negotiate furniture prices! We were able to get a king sleigh bed, 2 night stands, a dresser and mirror and a chest for a nice price! Here are some after pics of the bedroom! I chose Restful by Behr-approriate name for a bedroom, no?

We are in love with this room now! I have 2 framed pictures of the girls to hang up (another weekend project, I have been told) and I added this above the bed:

This was our wedding song and when I saw this vinyl decal on ETSY (http://www.etsy.com/), I just had to have it!

So....that is all for now! Hopefully once all the "weekend projects" are done, I'll have more pictures to post!

Officially a 2 year old...

In every way. And when I say every way, I mean the "terrible two" every way. Allie woke up a few days before her birthday and decided that she was going to break bad on us. The hitting, pushing and all out temper tantrums have officially began. I started time out with her, and let me tell you-her reaction to being put in a corner away from us is Oscar worthy. Girlfriend can really put on a show. Such drama. It's hard for me to keep a straight face during her little performances. This over reacting is clearly a trait that she has inherited from her father! All who know me can attest to the fact that I am always calm, cool, and collected! (Wink, wink)....it's true...Allie is a little Janell, through and through. I am hoping that the fun little phase that we are in now with her trying to beat up her sister won't last too long. Bless Emily's heart, she is so patient with her. It's like watching a little Ben and Janell. One calm and rational one, and one crazy feisty one. I'll let you decide who is who!
Allie had her 2 year check up yesterday. She is 24.6 lbs. and 32 and 3/4 inches long. Dr. Kelly said she looked great. Developing right now track and hitting all of her milestones. She had to get one shot and didn't cry at all, but when the nurse was done, Allie looked her right in the eye and said "You hurt arm!" Just to let her know that she was aware of what had just happened, I guess!
In other news.....I am now obsessing over painting the powder room and the girl's bathroom. I am thinking stripes for the powder room---wide horizontal ones. Ben of course, is totally opposed to this....he has now vetoed 2 of my "visions" for the powder room. I don't' really know who he thinks he is....I am the one with the design visions around here....he just supplies the man power....I need to remind of that apparently! :-) I am pouring over paint samples constantly....Emily is trying to help me out, but her "vision" of a red and pink bathroom just doesn't really fit with the rest of the house. She's still young---she'll learn soon enough.
I'll be back soon to show pictures of my ideas!

The cupcake curse

IS GONE! I beat it! I successfully baked and iced some pretty fancy looking cupcakes! My original idea of fancy flowers didn't turn out as I had first planned, but instead, I made lady bug cupcakes! Only appropriate since we call our baby girl "Allie bug".

More birthday pictures coming tomorrow....

We had a great time celebrating with our new friends!

Oh......just to prove that the cupcakes were taste tested by the birthday girl----I think it's safe to say she enjoyed them! :-)

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes

The last time I tried to make cupcakes it ended in disaster- I almost burnt the house down. In my defense, I was newly pregnant, had terrible morning sickness and had a 1 year old. It's been 2 and a half years since that time, so I am trying again. I have these grand illusions of beautiful flower cupcakes for Allie's 2nd birthday party.

I went to Michael's today and got all the supplies I think I will need. It's not the baking of the cupcakes that is a problem-it is the icing. And like everyone that has a problem with icing cupcakes, I decided to go and add extra pressure--actual decorations! Should be interesting!

Wish me luck!

Venturing into the blogging world...

Because I clearly have so much time on my hands, I decided to add something new to obsess over. I thought a blog would be a fun place for me to put down some ideas, to share funny stories about the girls and to just pontificate about life....I promise nothing except for my random thoughts! :-)