Thank you Mom, for the early birthday/xmas gift!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
And to all the people who have been rockin' the Ugg's for years: I totally get it now. These are the most comfortable things I have ever put my feet into... I feel as though my feet are being hugged with every step... That I am walking on clouds... That I am floating through life without a care in the world...
I am in love!
Today was an awesome day!! We took all of the kids to a holiday parade...
The kids had a great time, and it was a nice mild day - perfect!
Spent the afternoon at Jeff's parent's house, the kids got to play outside...
The Lewis boys climbed a tree...
We came home and decorated the house for Christmas... We set up one of the two Christmas trees we will have this year... We had just one casualty this year...
Ended the day with a batch PB chocolate cupcakes (Jeff's favorite) and about to settle in and watch the Project Runway season finale on DVR...
Life is good today...
Just a few recent faves from a couple different shoots that are FINALLY finished...
That's all for today!! Thanks for looking!!
I have never been a big fan of the Uggs.
I don't dislike them. I just don't LOVE them. And I certainly cant justify spending $140 on something I don't love.
That is until I was meandering through the mall yesterday, and my eyes landed on these.
I'm not gonna lie. I may have actually started walking in slo-mo and I swear I heard "Dreamweaver" playing.
Oh, the want. The SHEER WANT that courses through my veins.
(KNITTED BOOTS!!!)
(WITH BUTTONS!!!!!)
*sigh* If only to find an extra $140 laying around.....
Remember these guys?
Well, they were a hit last christmas. They've been floating around the kids playroom ever since, most recently were part of an impromptu puppet show that all 6 of us in the Lewis/Johnson house took part in...Yesterday, that little yellow guy ended up in the livingroom, where Jeff's kids were playing volleyball with him. No, internet, I do not know why. That is just what boys do.
Later in the evening, as I was cooking dinner, I heard a ruckus in the livingroom and I peeked around the wall to see what was going on...
Jeff was pretending to pull the yellow monster out of the little kids' ears and they were in absolute hysterics about it. Often times, what will happen is that Jeff will spend about 10 minutes doing something ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS to rile the kids all up and then he'll wander off and leave them pinging off the walls like little pin-balls. This was no exception.
Alyza was so amused by the "monster in your ear trick" that she decided to try it for herself. So she grabbed the little yellow monster and ran after Jeff. Being that Jeff is approximately 47,000 feet taller than anyone in this house, she targeted the only thing within her reach, and SQUEALED...
"THERE'S A MONSTER IN YOUR PANTS!!!!!"
She then turned to me and said "MOMMY THERE'S A MONSTER IN JEFF'S PANTS!! LOOK!!!"
I looked over at Jeff, who was looking at me, and I am pretty sure both of us were thinking:
"That's what she said."
Ever have one of those lives days where you want to just curl up and lose yourself in the flicker of a pretty candle flame? Every thing you do, every thought you have, every word you speak just comes out wrong, or happens wrong, or just IS wrong?
That's the type of week I am having.
I love these birch tree candles. I feel very inspired to try making some...
Thank you for this image...
It absolutely made my day today... And it reminded me that my kids don't watch NEARLY enough Sesame Street. Which, I will need to remedy!
Love it.
Often, as I sit to join Jeff for our morning cup of coffee... he smirks at me, or chuckles, or avoids eye-contact all together...
I've never really understood why...
Until now.
Girls night, was as always, a BLAST.
We celebrated Miss Stacy's birthday with Champagne and cake!
There was karaoke, dancing, lots and lots of randomness, and even a cab ride home... All of the ingredients for a perfect girls night out.
Also - been working on some "shelves" at the new house... here's what I've come up with... Yes, some of the frames are still empty... Gotta (eventually after everything else is done) make some time to pick out photos to fill them with... Maybe I'll get a personal assistant for my birthday?
The hallway...
Dining room #1...
Dining room #2...
(Don't mind the messy table.) Just need some curtains in there...
Finally got around to hanging my birds in the livingroom... They need something else though, looking a little bare over there...
Another coffee picture for the archives... Oh how I love this spot in my kitchen....
The bookshelf in the livingroom... just getting started on this one...
That's all for now...
There will be little-black-dresses, champagne, endless banter about boys, and lots of giggles...
(I am SO excited.)
Pictures tomorrow!
TGIF!
That is what I did today.
Holy.
Crap.
You have never seen so many leaves in your freaken LIFE! Thank you man-kind for the creation of leaf-blowers, and thank you Dad for saving the day! My blistered hands are grateful!
A couple shots from Halloween. We got a bit rained on, but still managed to have a great time. This year we had a froggy and a butterfly...
Happy November!
Finally got around to putting together a fall playlist...
This fall has been a season of change, for sure. Growing. Adjusting. Changing. It's all good. It's so good.
This music may seem a little dark & twisty... I assure you I am not going to the scary place... I am just absolutely STARVED for creative time to the point where dark and twisty music is all I want to listen to right now.
Almost time for a winter playlist at this rate.....
Happy Fall, everyone!
Had to schedule some free time to finish Josie & Ayden's wedding photos... Literally. They were AWESOME to be so patient though...
Here are a few favorites... I'm not sure if that blue sky backdrop could have been more perfect if it tried...
Proofing this wedding with a glass of Pinot, and some awesome music almost made me want to get married again...
(Almost.)
Fall playlist coming soon!!
Very short and pressed for time these days... But a few pics to share...
More treat-making happened when my parents stopped over. Where my Mom comes up with these ideas is beyond me, but YUM YUM!!
CHOCOLATE COVERED MARSHMALLOW POPS!!
HOW FREAKEN CUTE ARE THESE?!!??? Same deal, shaped like ghosts!!
Jeff borrowed my camera for a bit and snapped a couple shots outside...
HOLY GORGEOUS!!
Keegan took a snooze (and yes, he totally naps like this!!)
(doesn't it look like he has eye-shadow on??)
And... my bottle cap collection has outgrown it's home thanks to my best friend Bird's love of liver damage. ;)
That's all for now... Happy Monday to you all!!
Harper's Butterflies are making their rounds through Jeff's family... I had to try my hand at making these yummy yummy YUMMY treats myself. SO easy, and so YUM!
Lay some mini pretzels out on a cookie sheet. Top with hershey kisses.
Pop in an oven, and "warm" for 2-3 minutes at 350 degrees!
(Careful not to over-cook, you just want the chocolate to be melty, not well-done.)
Remove from oven and smush peanut-butter M&M's into the kisses while the chocolate is soft. (The kids had a blast smushing several into one, as you can see.)
Let them cool (or pop in the fridge for a bit) and then eat & enjoy.
Warning: may cause belly-aches if you eat too many, which is easy to do, since they are RIDICULOUSLY addictive!
Enjoy!
Spent the morning at Jacob's very cold rainey football game today...
Hopefully Jacob will forgive me for being a wuss, and staying in the car for the second half. I can do COLD, but COLD & SOGGY, not so much!!
Happy Sunday! GO PATS!
1st graders are BUSY PEOPLE. Let me just tell you about the pile of papers that has accumulated in my kitchen. Every day, I pull a stack out of Alyza's backpack that is the size of Mt. Washington, I kid you not.
Every so often, as time allows, I rummage through the pile, seeing what she is learning, and how she is doing. The other day, I discovered that Alyza has been learning about spiders.
I had to pause for a moment, when I saw the following worksheet...
I thought it rather interesting that although the instructions clearly say to draw just a spider in the box, she also included a person screaming, so I asked her about it.
Her response...
"Oh, That's YOU Mom. I made you screaming..."
Recently, I've had lots of photographing opportunities. Fall wins the popular vote by a landslide. Here's one of three cutie-pies I got to spend some time with last weekend...
Recently, I've been so busy I didn't even REALIZE it was fall. Hello October, where did you come from? Really need to make time this week to go for a walk and enjoy this beautiful place I call home...
Recently, I learned that telling someone they smell clean is not really a compliment.
Recently, I was finally able to kick my feet up for an evening and enjoy some baseball and some yummy wine in my new home. It was even more glorious than I imagined it would be.
Recently, I spent five straight evenings in the house with all four kids and survived. Bonus for still having my sanity.
Recently, I discovered a patch of cute mushrooms behind a dumpster at work...
Recently, I came to the conclusion that CHILDREN DO NOT KNOW HOW TO KNOCK NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU TELL THEM...
(Recently, I added bathroom door locks to the long list of things we need to purchase for the house.)
Recently, I got the boxes cleared out of the pantry and set the jade plants on the shelf in front of the window. Can't believe it's been almost two years since we potted them.
Off to the store to buy some shelves... This move seems to never end. :)
The other day I saw something so magnificent in the giftshop at my work, that I was not certain I could leave without it in my hands. It made me giggle so hard, and I loved it so much that I actually had a dream about buying it that very same night. It was a plush moose head, and I knew the PERFECT spot where he could hang in our bedroom...
But, it was expensive. Well, I mean not like thousands of dollars. But more than a weeks worth of "fun money" on my new budget.
I came home that night and said to Jeff...
"I saw something today that I might need to buy for our house..."
"Oh yeah? What was it?"
I paused. Not sure how he would receive the idea of hanging a fake moosehead over the bed...
"A fake moose head. I want to hang it in our bedroom..."
He looked up from his laptop, and without missing a beat replied...
"Why not in the livingroom??"
As I came walking in the door after work yesterday, I noticed something different on the tag below Jeff's mail slot...
It made me smile.
(Life is good.)
I've started getting up at 5:30 just so I have time to surf the internet, and sip some coffee with my favorite giant-type person. New habits are fun. It also gives me a little time to blog before my day gets started. Triple-arm-pump to that.
I finally finished up the photos from my friend Liz's wedding. She seemed very happy with them, and I thought I would share a few of my favorites!
Thanks for looking!!
I've been wanting to change this blog for a while. I think last summer, I even sat down and attempted to learn CSS once, but I was being far too ambitious about it, and ended up frustrating myself, consequently putting the kibbosh on any/all blog re-designs.
This time, I decided to keep the layout simple and colorful (much like myself). I celebrated a small CSS victory last night by rocking out to Britney Spears, and announcing to the habitants of the kitchen that I had finally gotten the spacing right on the stupid effing navigation bar. No one really celebrated with me, but that's ok. Britney and I did just fine by ourselves.
The new blog will go live 10/1. You might start to see some smallish changes prior to that date as I update and revamp things in the sidebars. There may also be a daily photo section, or a daily style section... We shall see how much I can accomplish in the next couple weeks...
Stay Tuned.
Just wanted to talk about my Peanut. She is a big girl now. She is a first-grader and she does things like recess, and gym class, and "hanging out" with friends. She is too cool to wear her backpack the correct way, but too little to carry all of the weight on one shoulder. She rolls her eyes at me when I tell her to eat her sandwich before her cookies, yet she runs to hug me good-bye as I turn to walk away from the school yard...
The day she discovered she was going to have art class, she was BESIDE HERSELF. I love that so much. She came home with this lovely painting, which we hung on the fridge.
On the first day of school, I stuck a heart-shaped love note in her lunchbox. The other day when I went to use my laptop I found the following note stuck to the front...
My favorite part is: Love=Alyza.
(That picture makes the note look HUGE, when actually I was just holding it close to the webcam.)
Anyway... Love my peanut. Love watching her take off and soar. Love the excitement in her little peanut eyes.
I am unbelievably lucky to know her...
When I saw this picture earlier today, I laughed so hard I cried.
At first, I giggled at the image of Jeff driving down the street in this truck. Because, let's face it, a grown man towing a robotic pony - that's pretty funny. But it's when you start to think about the innocent bystander who will witness this debacle pass him by, well that's when it really starts to be funny. Because you know he's going to stop in his tracks, do a double-take, and try to make sense of the situation.
And no matter how hard he tries, unless he's got a 6-year-old daughter at home, it will just never make sense.
And that is what's funny about it.
So, what you may not know about this move is that temporarily, my stuff is being moved into storage, and the kids and I will be living with Jeff or a few weeks until the house is cleared out and ready for us to move into. In preparation for this move, we've been trying to figure out where and how we will cram six people into a space made for three, and even more stressful than that: WHERE WILL I PUT MY CLOTHES??
Side Story: several months ago my office roommate (Hi Steff) and I found out that we would be moving to a new office. The office is bigger and more updated, and I think it's safe to say that we've been pretty excited about the move. However, after months without any news as to when we'd actually be moving, you can imagine my surprise when I walked into work this morning to discover that we would be moving to the new office space today.
Today as in: The day after I already spent the entire weekend packing and moving in extreme heat and humidity. Yeah, that today.
After a couple cups of coffee, the task did not seem as daunting and by the end of the day, Steff and I had made some good progress. But by 4pm I remembered that when I left work I'd be making my way home to a pile of empty boxes waiting to be filled, and suddenly the better option became finding a set of train tracks to lay down on. And just as I was about to give up on life, the following picture popped up on my cell phone...
Immediately followed by this picture...
He had taken the afternoon off of work to clear out two-thirds of his closet, and an entire bureau for me to use.
(Oh yes. I think I'll keep him.)
I.
Am.
Never.
Moving.
Again.
(Period. Exclamation Point.)
I kid you not. Jeff is STILL arranging furniture in the cyber-house. I'm pretty sure I woke up in the middle of the night and heard him click-dragging TV's and coffee tables in and out of various rooms.
I am telling you, with this type of intensity, you'd think he was coming up with a new National Health Care Plan... But no, he is just trying to make room for a few extra bean-bag chairs in the kids play room.
Every hour or so, he completely redesigns a room, and then I have to follow him into another room to look at a piece of furniture so that I can conceptualize his new design. I've been referring to them as field-trips.
I am starting to get a good understanding of what life with an engineer is going to be like.
But anyway. Let's have show & tell!
The snazzy new sofa... It's all individual pieces, so you can build it to fit your space. We got it in an "L" shape, with arm pieces on both ends, AND the ottoman which can be used to make one side a chaise. I fell in love with the color. It is way more perfectly chocolate in real life...
Did I mention the new table?
This was not at all on our "to buy" list. Not in the slightest. But I'm pretty sure that when we sat at it, we both had a moment, and without even saying much of anything it was decided that we were not leaving this store without this table. Tall people like it because it's pub-style, creative people like it because it's square shaped (I'll admit... symmetry makes me hot & bothered.) Parties-of-six like it because it seats eight! Bonus!
Done and done.
And I would be lying if I told you I did not squeal on the way out of the store...
We got the house!
(!!!!!)
We haven't officially signed anything yet, but we do have a key to the garage, so I think it's pretty safe to say the house is ours. Next week I will begin hauling all of my crap over and temporarily store it there until we move in...
To celebrate, Jeff and I are drinking Mike's Pomegranate Hard Lemonade, and renting Twilight On-Demand. We are so bad ass.
After making a spreadsheet entitled WHOSE CRAP WILL GO IN WHICH ROOM, and having several discussions about a new sectional we had recently priced out, we decided it might be in our best interest to measure out some of the rooms and make some sketches. So yesterday, armed with a pad of graph paper and a tape-measure, we did exactly that.
Most people, at least of the normal variety, would have taken the rough sketches and made some basic decisions, only to be tweaked when actual furniture is placed in actual rooms. But not Jeff. No, not Jeff. Jeff came home with his rough sketches, pulled up AutoCAD, and made a floor plan of part of the house. And then he measured every last piece of furniture we both own, drew them to scale, and started arranging them into the floor plan.
You think I'm kidding?
Like I said before... I could spend a lifetime being entertained by this man. He has spent the entire evening rearranging furniture in his cyber-house, and is still going strong as I sit here typing this. Perhaps I will get him a doll house for Christmas?
Today also marks a milestone for us. Our first furniture purchase!! Once we had sized up the living room, and got the dimensions of the sofa, we put a deposit on the most perfect sectional to have ever existed, and as soon as we have a move-in date, we will schedule a delivery. We shared a high-five in the parking-lot at the furniture store and it was then that I decided this has been worth all the gnawed-off fingernails and stress zits.
(He is currently placing a sofa diagonally in a room... I'd better go intervene.)
My son.
The most uncooperative photograph subject to ever exist.
Just wanted a couple shots to document the busted arm...
What he lacks in photogenic qualities, he makes up for with his spirit - that is for sure. This boy has not ONCE complained about this heavy, clunky cast or the pain of the broken arm within it. Amazed by him, I am. Yoda, I am not.
In other news... My house is a disgusting display of complete disarray. (No, I am not Dr. Seuss either.) I'm trying very hard to hold it together. But chaos, and piles, and boxes, and empty walls, and not knowing where any of my stuff is = SHORT TEMPER AND TWITCHY.
Alyza announced to me that she was going to help me pack, and later I noticed this addition to the pile...
We may not know where our toothbrushes are... But winter boots and backscratchers?? CHECK!!
Wow. Is it Monday already?
A little tummy bug has me laying low today, but other than that, it's all-systems-go around here.
We are hopeful that everything will come together seamlessly, and that this will be our new home...
Aside from some Granny wallpaper (understatement of the year) which will need stripping, it's a good fit for all of us, and we're excited.
I felt a little shady, driving by slowly, and snapping these pictures, but I was too excited not to.
(If you know anyone with a used snowblower they want to sell, send them my way!)
Aside from that... Nothing much to report. Busy weekend, lots of packing, house in COMPLETE CHAOS which is making me grumpy and short-tempered.
But, although I am moving at speeds faster that lightening I am also trying to slow down and realize how cool this all is...
Happy Weekend to you all.
I will be spending mine in a SEA of boxes. So I figure I might as well make the boxes fun to look at...
(Let's do bullets, shall we)
In the past 2 weeks....
(Happy thoughts for a quick recovery are very appreciated!!)
That's all for now.
Since having him around on Sunday mornings makes lap-topping and coffee-sipping more fun (and I think he would concur). We've decided to make it a ritual...
A ritual that we partake in, in a home that we share...
Now, to just find that home...
*life is changing, rearranging.
Had some technical difficulties there... But now appear to be back in business.
WHAT. THE. HECK. IS. GOING. ON. WITH. ME? WHERE AM I? WHY AM I NOT POSTING ANYMORE?
I wish I had some super-amazing explanation, like: Aliens landed their spaceship on my patio and took me hostage, leaving in my place a slightly less amusing version of myself who did not have the password to my computer, and therefore did not keep the blog updated.
But I have no explanation. Not even for myself. I just feel myself changing. Everything about me seems to go through some sort of major renovation every 3-5 years... It's that time again, apparently.
I am being forced to find a new home, and with that change is a renovation so grandiose that it will blow your mind... More on that soon.
PAINTINGS!!!
Tonight, I discovered that Keegan will GOBBLE UP his dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets if I make them talk to him in funny voices... I started to be excited about that until I really thought about how weird - and slightly creepy - that actually is...
Be patient with me. I will come back around...
