iron chef night

for our january combined young men and young women's we did an iron chef night. they boys planned it all and it was such a blast. the kids were divided into 6 teams and then given like 2 minutes to make a pizza. no recipes, no help, just a massive table in the middle filled with ingredients. they all loved it.

i wish i would have gotten pictures of the judges and the done pizzas, because surprisingly, they turned out really tasty, 2 of them in particular i loved{bbq chicken-yum-o!}but i was in charge of baking them and got all caught up in that and forgot. it was a fun night and a great activity to get everyone involved.

play doh

paisley got a princess play doh set from the jensen's for Christmas and she has been loving it. she is fully focused on squeezing out the play doh in the above picture.

i have to admit that i don't get it out as often as she asks for it because it makes a bit of a mess, but i do love that she has something creative that she likes to do.

and yes that is a mini home depot aprom that she is wearing. gotta love the free crafts from them!

new foods

lately miss pais has been all about the hard boiled eggs. i usually buy 2 packs at costco and then hard boil one so that we have them on hand because they are healthy snacks and quick dinners{egg salad} and now miss pais will say "i need egg, i need egg." i love that she is a pretty dang healthy eater and LIKES the healthy stuff and prefers it most of the time. she still doesn't like anything to drink but water and milk and that is a ok with me!

{how she gets the yolk on her eye, i do not know!}

another new food is kix. she got a box from santa for Christmas and now loves having a bag of those to munch on while in the car. she doesn't like them as much with milk, but did ok with it.

{do you love her cindy lou who hair?? maybe someday she will have something more them blond curly whiffs of hair}

west side story

so the other night chris and i went downtown with some of his fam to see west side story. i got all dolled up and wanted to get a shot of my newly "ombred" hair{which it totally wasn't, and still isn't quite right, i need to go to utah to see jk stat to fix it and make it right!} to show some friends. i am so tired of the "here's me smiling for the camera" pictures and thought i try one of those cool, i am not looking pictures. totally harder then it looks. i don't think i am quite cool enough for them.

{unfortunately they turned out way better then the ones taken at the theatre with chris..ever have one of those days when you think you look pretty good and then you take and picture and think eww?? this was one of those!}

apparently i don't remember the movie of west side story very well and have only seen it done by high schools because wowza, this was way more racy them i remember. it was downright dirty in parts actually, i loved the singing and the dancing and it is always nice to have a night out, i just wish classics could stay a bit more, well classic is all.

it was fun to see this kid in action: yes that is neil from so you think you can dance, he was snowboy in the show. he is a crazy talented dancer.

getting warm

it can get pretty chilling in the morning out here in the country, so most of the time chris will build paisley and i a fire. one morning paisley let me know that she needed to take her shirt off to get warm. i love what makes sense to a toddler!

paisley at 28 months:

{this is what happens when you leave your toddler alone while she is eating carrot sweet potato soup-whoops}

paisley is lately really into:

aristocats, toy story 3{aka buzz}, her 3 babies, bananas{she eats one a day like clockwork for breakfast}, dora, and cutting with her little scissors.

paisley loves to sing, and will randomly be heard singing twinkle, twinkle, wheels on the bus{with the arm movements of course}, jingle bells, her abcs, popcorn popping, or anything else that she has heard several times, like the songs they use in her dance class. she counts pretty well, even counting to 10 in spanish{thanks dora!}, and knows most of her colors.

she adores nursery and the gym daycare that she goes to almost daily{which is where she made this rockin chef hat-fun right?? i LOVE my little small town gym and daycare:)}

most 3t shirts are almost too short for her, although 2t pants fit perfect right now, which means the girl has a long torso. she is constantly talking, and i mean constantly.

paisley loves to play hide and seek, jump on the trampoline{preferably with her uncles, or other little/big kids}, and is just getting into actually sitting on our laps and paying attention to books-especially the fancy nancy christmas book, which is her current favorite.

paisley is a little lover and often gives hugs and kisses to just about anyone. she loves and then sometimes hates to be tickled and really likes to ruff house with daddy. paisley loves to explore and especially in dirt/sand/water. i have heard from several sources that she acts more like a boy in the fact that she is rarely sitting and always busy. {makes me wonder what my boys will be like??}

we are loving this busy toddler stage with miss paisley, she is such a source of joy and entertainment. i love the words/sentences that she puts together sometimes!

ps-does anyone else worry about their kiddos watching too many videos?? paisley used to not sit for anything, but is now getting more into them, aka asking for them all the time. i am having a hard time determining an ok amount per day, but i want to start keeping track so i know how much she is getting...any ideas??

help!

ok, so i am in serious need of making a decision and i just can't seem to do it. remember when we were little girls and looking at wedding magazines and dreaming about what your wedding would be like was so fun? well, ever since i have been married, i do the same thing, except with homes. so now that i have a home and can paint and decorate however the heck i want, and i can't decide which idea to do! so here is my problem:

currently my front room looks like this: {yes, i still don't have much furniture, searching for the perfect pieces is taking longer then wanted, but surely worth the wait in my opinion}

in the end i want a full wall or mostly full wall of bookcase where that little brown one is, a couch under the window and smaller chairs in same spots they are in now.

this was my original inspiration:

{ps-they tell you the exact color that this room is painted and i went to look at a swatch, but it was WAy dark, i don't know if it was photo lighting or what, but even the target pillow that i own now is not that bright of yellow...so i have been totally frusterated with finding the "perfect" shade in a magazine or online and finding it so not perfect in real life.}

i wanted robins egg walls, with white furniture and yellow accents. instead i have more of a country/sky blue.... so now that i have to re-paint i am considering doing something different. like stripes:

i am leaning more towards the tan rather then gray because i think it will match my carpet better, but i also got the suggestion to do a yellow and white stripe{not too bright, but not baby pale either} which i like.

i have also always wanted to paint/refinish/do something with the dark, old, college piano and thought it might be fun to have striped walls with a bright piano like the one on the left:

i also want to paint the fireplace accent wall a color in our family room. i was thinking if i do yellow and white stripes, i would do it the yellow color, or if i painted the piano, make the same color that i paint the piano only lighter.

then, today, i ran into this picture:

and totally fell in love with the striped curtains, so then i am thinking maybe i should just stick to my original robins egg blue walls and do striped yellow and white{or tan and white} curtains. but then i am not sure what to do with the piano.....

so basically i need to decide how to paint my front room, fireplace wall, and then what to do with the piano.
AHH! i am seriously driving myself{and husband} crazy and just need to make a decision and do it so i can move on with my life and other house projects!! any ideas/advice is appreciated:)

i just want to finish and have a cute home again. i am not use to living in an un-decorated place, also we are starting on the casing and baseboards and painting before those are installed will be much easier so i need to decide and paint like next week....

{please excuse if this is just a jumbled mess of ideas to you, my brain is on decorating overload. also, sorry to those i have already talked your ear off and sent you emails about this!}

a little laugh for your wednesday part 2

so ridiculous and so close to true it is scary. {but also totally funny!}

a little laugh for your wednesday part 1

i serisouly love this kid. i love the end when you hear his family loosing it over his reaction. so funny! i love when he goes from complete sceams to crying to gagging in about 1 minute.

completed fireplace

 chris finished up one of his projects over new years weekend and i am happy to have another thing crossed off my house list. a few months ago we traded our more modern black and glass fireplace cover for this fireplace insert. i don't love the look, but it does warm up the house so much better so i am happy with that. only problem was that we had cut the sheet rock to size for our old insert and this one was smaller.

 so, chris set to work cutting the sheet rock to be even, cutting leftover tile from the hearth and then tiling around or insert to make it look finished. he also just an extra plate over the gas hole. it looks so much better!

i still want to get some fireplace paint and paint the brass crisscross pattern, because i loathe the brass and i need to decide what color to paint that wall, but we are making progress:)

{note to self: dust the fireplace before i take pictures of it next time!}

new year

welcome back. after a crazy, but fun holiday filled with parties, crafts, sewing, BAKING, canning, wrapping, eating, and so on i am ready to tackle one of my 2011 goals: getting this blog caught up. so, you will have to read all about our fun holidays in a few months because from now on i am blogging about what is happening currently and then back dating the rest of 2010. i got so far behind when my mom died and have just never quite been able to catch up{i am totally fine with blogging about the past week or two-that is caught up to me, i don't ever think i will be a same day type of gal!} but i no longer want to have that tie and memory. so here goes.

new years day was a productive one for us, since we still have so many projects and what not going on with the house, chris was up and going pretty early with paisley and i close behind. we loved having so much time to accomplish stuff over Christmas and new years' break. but with all that work, we still need lunch breaks and miss paisley just loved having daddy home to join her at her pink table.

i love these two! {please excuse the random paint can, door frame, door, etc...someday this house will be done!}