Project Pinterest Week 1

Okay, so let me start by saying that I wanted to really diversify myself and try more than just recipes for my first week of 3 pinterest pins, but I ended up doing 2 recipes.  I need to get out and get some supplies for some crafty pins and it just didn't happen this week. Sorry.

But....the 2 recipes I tried were REALLY good!  The day I made honey garlic pork chops, I was all sorts of domestic.  I prepped dinner completely while Austin was napping.  I kept thinking to myself "why don't I do this everyday?"  Good question.  I'll keep working on the answer to that one.

Anyway, the pork chops were really good.  It looks like the recipe was originally for the grill, and I think that would be really good.  It calls for 6 cloves of garlic, but my cloves were pretty big, so I only used 5 and still managed to get heartburn just smelling it while it baked.  Really good though.  The ultimate test was Emily.  Emily doesn't like anything.  The next night was left over night and when it was time to make her plate she said "I want more of the pork from last night"

So....yeah.  Success.

I am always looking for different veggie side dishes and had tried roasted carrots before, but these carrots are our current faves.  I used baby carrots instead of chopping up regular sized ones and I don't think it made any difference in cooking time or anything.  Again, Emily gobbled these up.  So another success!

As I mentioned before, we spent New Years Eve here at home hanging out with the girls.  We had lots of fun and there isn't anywhere else I would have wanted to be.  In between the pizza eating and board game playing, I printed off this end of the year interview and filled it out with the girls.  My favorite answer was when they both answered (separately without hearing each other's answers) that their favorite thing to do is hang out with their family.  I hope they always feel that way!  But, if they don't, I have it in writing that at one time they did! :-)

In other news, the girls started swim lessons this week.  As swim lessons have ALWAYS been with the Gravitt girls, it was traumatic and there were tears.  I decided to change their group lessons to semi-private lessons in hopes that more individualized attention at their level will help us get over the dramatics every time they have a swim class.  I just can't take it anymore.  I mean...there comes an age where water wings and noodles just aren't socially acceptable anymore, right?

Also, I snapped our first pic for the 52 week album.  I decided, instead of trying to pose pics and have the perfect background, lighting, etc., I was just going to try to capture a REAL moment.  That is what it is about, right?

So, I got this.  The girls came in from school on Friday and immediately started reading to Austin.  He is so lucky to have them.

And they are really lucky to have him

And I'm lucky for all of them!

Nesting, Shmesting...

The insanity continues.  The nesting insanity that is.  Ben and I were talking about it, and honestly, it has been crazy since we moved here.  With just keeping up with 2 crazy little girls, work, surgeries, drama...the list goes on.  Now that we have a real reason to do stuff, we are making up for lost time.  It is about freaking time!

The girls room is pretty much done.  They have been in it for a week now.  I ordered wall decals for above their beds and we are looking for a fun full-length mirror.  I must say, the colors really came together nicely.  I don't have tons of pictures just yet because I'm waiting until it is totally done, but here are some previews:

You can see the colors really nicely here.  

  The girls were having a little story time before school one morning, and I was able to snap a picture. You can see a little more of the room here.  More pics to come once the details are all done!

In between paint coats and trim and all that fun stuff, we started on the kitchen table.  This kitchen table was a mess.  Ben had spilled paint on it about 10 years ago.  We didn't use the table for years, but pulled it out about a year ago and just kept it covered with a table cloth.  That became a pain and I wanted to paint it.  Ben agreed to stain it, so that is what we did!

I decided to go to the holy grail of all home DIY and decorating.  Pinterest.  There, I found this great how to:  Centsationalgirl

I went right out and got everything that she said to use:

Then I left explicit directions for Ben to follow her directions to the tee and I left to get my hair cut.  I asked him to take pictures while I was gone- he just sort of stared at me.  Needless to say, there is only one "during" pic and I took it.   I do have before and after pics though:

Hot mess table before:

Table while getting last coat of clear coat on it:

And the final result--I am in love with it.  I snapped this pic with my cell phone, so it's not the greatest, but you get the general idea.  Still working on some different things for the centerpiece. 

Yay!  One more thing crossed off the list.  

The nursery is primed and 3 of the walls are painted.  Ben went rogue on me with the paint.  We found that we had a lot of light blue left over from when we painted the playroom a few years ago.  It was very similar to the color that we agreed to use in the nursery, so I thought we were all set.  Wrong.  Ben decided to add a quart of darker paint to the mix and see what we ended up with.  I must say, it is nice.  I can't wait to see the how it looks when the navy blue wall goes up!  Pics coming soon....

Oh!  And my crazy Daisy turned 1 this week!  Happy Birthday puppy!