Merry Christmas!!

It was a very fun Christmas! Nobody was sick this year! Thank you Modena for the Pj's! The girls got up at 11:45PM just as David and I were going to bed and Austin got up at 2am and they all giggled until about 5am and were up again at 7am. So my vision is blurry and I can't think straight. Its now 9:50pm and we just got Austin in bed!!!!! And the girls are still up. I want whatever they are on! Austin's highlight was just seeing his name on the presents. I could hear him talking all night and that's all he would talk about! "See Addie? See my name on the present?" I loved it this year! All 3 new what was going on and all 3 still believe in Santa!!




Look at that face!!
He wasn't even done opening up presents and had to run and put this on
I think this might be his favorite toy (maybe not, he took his new Buzz to bed)
You can't tell by the picture, but the girls were able to put in new earrings
Aubree played the WII all day...I'm not joking!
The coolest pop up book!
Too cold to go outside on the coaster car
The girls showing off their stuff
Austin's coolest toy EVER!
Making Santa cookies (UGh! Check out what I get to clean up!)

Making a gingerbread house
Christmas Eve dinner (I don't do anything on Christmas day)

My Christmas present to MYSELF!!!

Here it is in all of its glory!! I got the dining room set at DI for $33 and painted the top with chalkboard paint. The cubbies and totes are from Home Depot (The biggest expense by far) I eventually want them all the way across the wall. I have bigger plans for above the wall, too. Vintage maps?


I spray painted pots and glued them to a lazy susan from Amazon
Cute bench from Home Depot. I missed counted on the baskets. Maybe someday I'll go back and get some more. For now, its FINE! I'm having Modena make a slip cover for the cushion.
Scrapbooking organizers from Micheals
MY FAVORITE!! I felt so crafty after I got these done!! They were sooo easy! I found them at DI for $4.00. The desk is painted in chalk board paint. It looks smeared cuz I washed it before I took the picture. BUT HOW CUTE ARE THOSE! My girls love to play school and they LOVE THEM!



$1.00 frame from DI
Cute little plates and cups for 50 cents at DI. They are just for decor girls! I did a close up picture and saw where I needed to do some touch up painting (which will never happen!) so i didn't post it.
Thank-you Melanie for helping me with these! They are made out of raingutters and they were less than $20! David thought their was no way I could pull it off and that it was "white trash", but when he saw them after they were hung he was pretty impressed!!

I've had this easel for like 10 years from IKEA. It was never used, but I'm hoping its now more usable

I can't find my before on the doll house, but it was a bright pink and Aubree had drawn all over it (bad english, sorry) My dad made this for me a couple of years ago (I know, I have very talented parents! And I'm always putting them to work!!) I couldn't spray paint it because I thought it would be too hard, so I just tried to match the paint the best I could to the spray paint I had been using. And I put on a new coat of white. (Did I mention I haven't gone to the bathroom in 2 weeks?!)
$8.00 from DI. My first big project and I tried to be creative by antiquing and glazing. Not so good. The table is not made of real wood so it just soaked up the glaze. So I thought I would splurge on some knobs from Anthropology.

This wall is not done yet but I wanted to post it anyway. I have some cute frames for some of the letters and I'm waiting to see if Modena has any left over material for the canvas boards to fill in the holes. I got the frame at DI for $2.00 and typed up the quote on photoshop and printed it at Costco for $6.00. Its my favorite quote and I have been dying to put it somewhere besides their scrapbooks. I found the quote on a wall at our local aquarium. (UGH! That darn flash!)
This project took me 8 hours alone just painted the stamps and figuring out what scrapbook paper to put them on. Luckily I had all 3 kids at school and Austin had both preschools that day.

After 2 weeks of very long hours, numerous trips to Home Depot, Micheals,DI and Wal-Mart the playroom is ALMOST done. And yes I said ALMOST!! I gave poor Modena a package of material and a pretty long list of things I needed her to sew for me. Oh the things I could do if only I knew how to sew!!! So thank-you to my poor neglected kids, my poor husband who had to put everything together (and for those of you who know him, know that that was a REALLY big deal!) my dear friend Melanie for helping with the shelves and linking me to cute websites, and most of all thank-you to my poor neglected body. For the malnourished only ate because it was Christmas season and neighbors would drop of treats which were sadly the only thing I would eat, my poor neglected bladder because it just had to wait, and my very sleep deprived mind.. what was left of it anyway! And the most important part: MY HUSBAND WHO LET ME DO IT ALL IN SPITE OF IT GOING WAY OVER THAN WHAT I HAD ORIGINALLY ESTIMATED!

MY NEXT PROJECT

This is my next project! I have to do this like right NOW! Except I'm in the middle of redecorating the playroom...DANG! I'm almost done and I cannot wait to post pictures. We got everything set up on Sunday and now I'm just doing the final touches. (Final touches meaning an 8 hour wall art project. I'm seriously looking at it right now wondering "How the freak did this take me 8 hours!!!!) But now my family is starting to feel neglected. Laundry isn't done (important articles of clothing still wet in the washer), bed not made, way too much TV time for Austin. WHY THE CRAP SHOULD MY LIFE REVOLVE AROUND CLEANING THE HOUSE AND SPENDING QUALITY TIME WITH MY KIDS....WHO ARE DRIVING CRAZY BY THE WAY BECAUSE OF CHRISTMAS. There. I've said my peace.

When the Wind Blows book review

When the Wind Blows by James Patterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Really a good read, their were some points I didn't want to put it down and read it in 4 days. Not a lot of swearing and a minor you know what seen. I had never heard of the book before but my mother in law recommend it to me.



View all my reviews

Reeder Christmas Party

Addie's new haircut. That DANG hair in her face!! And her cute cousin Kate.
Aubree and her cute cousin Allie
The Reeders rented out the bowling alley up at Weber State for the afternoon

Our Little Pianist

This was right before church and yes this is also a school outfit! She made her necklace and she's very proud of it!
She's trying to show off her missing tooth! The dentist was a little concerned she hadn't lost any teeth yet. By the end of kindergarten Aubree had lost 5 teeth! (She puts her headbands in herself cuz she likes her bangs a certain way and the flower has to be in a certain spot)

Addie has been taking piano lessons for almost a year now. The past 3 months she's been able to play songs you actually know so its been a little more enjoyable to listen to her. When she really likes a song she will play it over and over and over...
She doesn't like to look at the music so she will immediately memorize it. Its actually kinda creepy how fast she memorizes her songs. I hope she sticks with it because I think someday she will be pretty amazing!!!


SIDENOTE: Okay this might sound weird and cheezy, but even before she was born I always got the music vibe from her. Like I knew this one was going to be the one who was into music. When she was 15 months we were renting a house that had a piano in it and I would take pictures of her pounding on the piano like "Look how young she started!" hee hee.

Yesterday was Captain America & Today we are Batman!

Austin LOVES to play dress-up little boys style. He LOVES superheros...ALL OF THEM! He has every superhero costume you can imagine! He loves playing superheros with his dad and gets so into it! He has recently started looking at David's old comic books. He'll lock himself in his room with about 10 of them and look at the pages for about 45 minutes. Thats a long time for a very active 4 year old. Everyday he tells us something different Santa is bringing him. "Santa bringing my Iron Man mask?" or "Santa bringing Thomas?" (he has like 8 different Thomas toys so we might just wrap one of his old toys!) and the last 3 days its been "Santa bringing my Captain America shield?" It will be a very interesting Christmas morning.