i got to smooch on TWO little cuties

Last night I got to babysit my handsome nephews Kaden & Ethan while Mommy & Daddy went out to dinner at Benihana's to celebrate their birthdays.  It was the first time that I have got to watch both of the boys together and it was SO much fun!

Kaden is such a sweet big brother and he absolutely loves his baby bro.  He is so protective of him and anytime that Ethan cries, Kaden goes "BABY! BABY!" and then tries to go kiss him and comfort him.   It's really super sweet and I love seeing them together.  It's always a fun day when I get to put on my Auntie hat and spend some time with these adorable little cuties.  Of course I had to take pictures so I could brag to you about them.  :)

Sweet Little Pumpkin

How sweet are these two little boys?!?

KP wanted to snuggle his little bro! He's such a good Big Bro!

Officially a 1 month old! He's getting chunka chunky!

I had such a fun night with my sweet little buddies! I can't wait for Mommy to ask me to watch them again *HINT HINT*  This last picture is my favorite! I was trying to take a picture of Baby E and I and look who snuck in the back....honestly TOO PRECIOUS! He wanted to be a part of the action. :) 

I also have some fun video footage from last night! If you wanna check it out, click on the link on the sidebar and check out our YouTube channel!

**Stay tuned tomorrow for another post about the little loves in my life!! Family Friday is back and better than ever!! :)***

A Mini Revamp

Tonight I was suddenly inspired to bring out my inner re-vamper, and I just had to work on a mini project!!!  I had a frame sitting around that I had re-painted a while back, but hadn't really done much with it.  It was a 5x7 frame and I really don't have too many pictures in that size.  I'm one of those people who take a million pictures all the time, but am horrible about actually getting prints made.  Lame...I know.

I had painted a silver frame that was cute, but not my style in coloring.  I painted it delicious heirloom white a while back, and as I was cleaning my closet tonight I came across some extra corkboard that I had left over from my corkboard re-vamp.  I cut a small piece of the corkboard liner, the same size as the glass that comes in the frame.  

Since the cork I bought is made for drawer lining, it has a self-adhesive backing which is amazing!! (Seriously you gotta try this stuff!!) I applied it directly to the back of the frame.  Since it's self-adhesive it's super easy to remove if I ever want to use the frame for it's intended purpose.

After that I put it right back in the frame, and easy as that you have your own adorable mini-corkboard!!!

I wasn't really sure where I wanted use this little baby in my house.  After thinking for a while, I decided to use it in my kitchen to hold all my coupons that I get/print on my off week of grocery shopping.  I always seem to misplace them when I actually go grocery shopping, and this way I can keep track of them easily in a one stylish area! :)

Pretty darn cute huh? I'm in love and it was seriously one of the EASIEST projects I have ever done!  Gotta love that! :)  Hope you are having an amazing week!

**I'm linking this post to the following AMAZING blogs! Swing by and check out other great projects!!***

http://www.creationsbykara.com/ 

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/

http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/

http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/

http://shanty2chic.blogspot.com/

http://www.justagirlblog.com/

it's Fall ya'll

Where the crank have I been this month? I just realized that it's nearly the end of September and I have really neglected blogging this month.  I have been working on some mini DIY revamps, as we finally painted our master bathroom, and it required some accessory updates.  I was a bad blogger and didn't take pics of any of what it looked like before, but I still plan to do a post on that when I finally have everything revamped and hanging up.  Trust me, it's pretty darn cute! :)

In the meantime, I have been SO busy with work and life, that blogging has been on the bottom of my to-do list. I have been enjoying this beautiful Fall with my family though, and it's definitely my favorite time of the year.  I love pumpkins, cool breezes, scarfs, boots, hot cocoa, beautiful colorful leaves, and let me tell you, Minnesota is just gorgeous during the Fall!!  Yesterday I went to the apple orchard with my sister Pam, her two beautiful boys, and my Mom.  It was such a fun day!!! I honestly can't think of any other way to enjoy the deliciousness of Autumn than an apple orchard.

Chilling on a pumpkin :)

"Riding" the school bus to the orchard!

My beautiful sister & her boys!

It's hard to keep a 2 year old still enough for pics, so you gotta figure out ways to trick them!

Sweet little monkey

Precious baby Ethan :) 

Honestly, too cute for words!

I hope that you guys have been enjoying this gorgeous Fall time as much as I have been!!! I can't wait to share with you my awesome revamps for my bathroom! Hopefully I can get to that this weekend, or maybe next early next week!!

welcome to the world little one {{Ethan Wyatt}}

Please join me in welcoming my new baby nephew into the world!!

Ethan Wyatt was born today September 7th, 2010 at 11:55 am.

7 pounds, 6 ounces

20 inches long

& every inch of his is covered in HANDSOME!!!

I'm so thankful to God for all the amazing new babies he has blessed us with over the past few years!!! He's been so good to us and I can't wait to watch this new little guy grow up!  I love you Ethan!!

I'm taking care of Kaden aka NEW BIG BRO today and tomorrow until Mommy gets out of the hospital, so I definitely have my hands full but I love it!!!

Here's a fun video of our day together waiting for baby Ethan!

a beautiful week together

This week has been so wonderful! Scott finally started his new schedule, and for the FIRST time in our marriage we are both home together at night!! Yay!! When we first got married Scott was working late every night till 10:00, and at that time I was working 8-5.  It was super challenging to barely see him at all during the week, but we made the best of it. From that time, his schedule has been progressively getting earlier, and finally he is now working nearly the exact same time as me!!

I have honestly been giddy all week at the simplest things that I am sure many married couples take for granted or count as normal.  It's been so fun to have him go to bed at the same time as I do, and getting up in the morning when I do.  I have love getting kisses good morning, and having him tell me "have a good day at work."  I feel so excited over the facat that he is home shortly after I am, and that we get to have dinner together at a "regular" dinner time instead of at 8:30ish.  I love running errands after work with him, and having mid-week dates!! Honestly, it's all been SO fun, and I am so thankful that we are finally getting to spend more time together! :)

Anywho, I finally got my gorgeous mirror hung up and wanted to share it with you all!!

Ahh, I love it!!! It's the perfect fit! :) What do you think?

Notice my jersey??? That's right it's FOOTBALL season (my favorite part of the year) and that means it's time to rock the Patriots jersey yet again for my fav Tom Brady!! <3 My hubby snapped some shots of me tonight while we were watching the Pats game.

Ohhhh Tom, how I heart you! :)

It gets pretty tense in my house when the Patriots play Scott's homeboys...the Mannings. (BOO!)  He thought he was pretty funny snappy this picture tonight.

....Not funny Dodge....not funny at all. :)

I hope your weeks been as blessed as mine has!!

is it really worth it?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the perfect marriage. Yes, there are days when I may think I do, but sure enough a moment comes along and I realize quite quickly that it is far from perfect. I have moments where I am down right imperfect. I have moments when I get angry, frustrated, selfish, mean, and nasty, (although I’m sure none of you know what that feels like). What can I say, I’m still a work in progress!!!


It seems to me when Scott & I fight that it’s always about the stupid little things in life.  It's the insignificant petty things that always turn into an argument, never the big important things.  And the other night, we had one of those times. I don’t know if it was just that I was extremely tired from working all day and then volunteering at church all night, but I must have just had a short fuse and he must have had short fuse from the day he had at work.  Anyways, it started off as an easy conversation about his day at work, and quickly became one of the most stupid fights that I can ever remember having. I was tired and trying to get him to tell me quickly a “long” story about a situation at work (long according to Scott, but I think anything beyond 5 words is a “long” story to him ). I kept giving my opinion on this work situation and he kept telling me to calm down and quit having such an attitude, which I wasn’t even worked up, but nothing irritates me more & gets me more worked up than when someone else tries to tell you how you feel about something. 

Well, I bet you can piece together how the rest of the conversation went. I didn’t quite hear the whole “long” story, because the conversation ended up with me storming off to bed, and him stewing irritated at me for the rest of the night.  Honestly, there is nothing I hate more than going to bed angry. I think God was “in the know” when He said that whole thing about not letting the sun go down on your wrath. Man, He’s smart! :) I just hate the feeling of not having a kiss goodnight, or saying I love you to each other. I always have in my mind that life is so precious, and each and every moment is a gift. I hate wasting even one of life’s moments being angry! Unfortunately, this tension boiled over into last night, and we had yet another bad night of being angry at each other.  Nothing is worse than when a stupid fight not only ruins one night, but two nights in a row.

Finally, this morning, I had to stop and think about the past two days and for me, it all boils down to one thought….is this really worth being angry about?  It's the same question that I face in every situation like this and  I’ll give you a hint at the answer.....it's no.  Every single time I ask myself that question, I come to the same conclusion that it’s just not worth it.
 
Regardless of the situation, I can never seem to find a valid reason to stay upset & angry about something. Trust me there are plenty of times that I have tried! I try to argue my case over and over again in my head, trying to convince myself that I am right for wanting to be angry, but always God finds a way to get to me and show me how silly I am acting.  Even in the times when I may be "right" in my reasoning, it's never okay to justify holding a grudge with someone. There are so many times throughout my life that I have truly done stupid things. Things that I was 100% wrong in doing, and things that were worth being upset over, but God reminds me that He gave me His grace and forgiveness that I needed (& didn’t deserve) in each and every one of those situations. He was able to extend His love to me, when I truly was not worthy of it, and I will always need to do the same for others.
 
This is something that sounds easy, but isn’t always easy to live. I try to be a Godly loving wife, but I am still human and still need God’s grace to help me attain some of those attributes in my life, especially in this area. However, one thing that I am completely convinced on is that it is God’s plan is for me to love my husband with His amazing love, and if God has called me to do it then He surely has equipped me with everything I need to accomplish it!!  Let me tell you, it’s not always easy to love Scott with the love of God, especially when we have moments like we had this week, but at the end of the day it boils down to choosing love over choosing anything else. 
 
Scott & I are two imperfect people who made a covenant with each other to be husband and wife and that promise we made to each other will always find a way to bring us through the trails that we face as we walk through life together.  Despite it all, even on our worst of days, I still would rather have him by my side than anyone else.  :)

is it okay to be just me???

I’m gonna have an honesty moment here.  Ok, maybe not an honesty moment since this will be a whole post, but I’m pretty sure you catch my drift.  Sometimes I’m afraid of my blog.  Yes, I said it, I’m afraid of my blog.  Why you ask? Because sometimes, I just don’t know what to say.  Correction: I know what to say but I don’t know how it will be received.  Any of this making sense? Yah I didn’t think so.  Let me back track a bit.

I first started blogging back on Xanga  (anyone remember back that far?) my senior year of high school.  It was the Facebook of that day, and I would blog about all the high school things that were going on in my life at that time.  I have always thoroughly enjoying writing, I journaled religiously throughout high school and blogging quickly became something I enjoyed.  I continued blogging on Xanga sporadically throughout my college years, and it was hard to keep up on once Myspace and Facebook came along.  I actually just went back and dusted off my Xanga account the other day, and I am honestly thankful that I used it as much as I did during those late teenage years of my life.  I really enjoyed gong back through all my posts and reading my thoughts at those times in my life.  I don't always remember the details, and even if I do, its good to read through how I felt at those times.  Life changes so fast, that it can be hard to really capture all those details, and blogging has been a great tool for me to re-live all those moments.

Fast forward to 2008 when I started blogging here on Blogger.  I was a newlywed and missed blogging all my thoughts and experiences in life.  I figured what better time to get back into then right as we were starting our new life together.  I had hoped to be able to share a lot of what our new life as husband and wife, the good things that happened, the bad things we faced, the amazing God things that we experienced, and all the days in between.  I started off pretty good as I browse through my earlier posts, but slowly began neglecting by blog.  About a year ago I started finding all these amazing home decorating, DIY blogs and my blogging purpose had been renewed!! I was so inspired and wanted to try my hand at some of the great projects that I had seen all over the place.  Since that time, so many wonderful people have stopped by my blog, commented on my projects, and some have even been kind enough to follow along with me.  I find that SO cool that you would think that my blog is worthy of your time.  I have loved being inspired by others ideas, and getting to know so many wonderful people through blogging.  I hope that some of you following feel the same way about me.

All this has brought me to today…. sometimes I struggle with the thought of how to combine my initial hopes for blogging and my renewed thrifty DIY purpose of blogging into this one blog.  I sometimes feel like if I do blog about my marriage or my day to day life, that I am somehow letting down those of you how found my blogs through the projects I have shared, and expect me to share more of those ideas, but if all I ever do is just blog projects, I feel like I am letting myself down for not really capturing all the memories I had hoped to.  See where it gets hard?  I really want to find that balance of both, but still make it enjoyable for others to read along with me on my daily life journeys.  

I guess I said all this to say,  that you will probably see more posts about my life in the upcoming days. I hope you won't find me too boring, or choose to not follow along anymore.  I usually don't get many comments on my personal posts, and that's ok because it's truly a post for me if nothing else.  I hope that there will be things that you find relate-able, after all we all face the same types of challenges, and joys in life.  I guess i just really I don't want everything I post to fall into just one category, I truly want this blog to change as I change, and follow me through all the things that life brings my way.  Someday I know that I will blogging about my kids, and my life as a parent...I hope you'll stick around with me for that!!  I definitely will continue to post my revamps and creative attempts, its very much a part of who I am!! 

Thanks for reading and following along in life with me,  it means more to me than you could ever know!  Most of all, I hope that its ok with you that I want to be just me.  After all, I think I'm a pretty cool person. :)