Easter Egg Hunt

Okay this is my attempt to get caught up, I am so behind on blogging lately! This Easter Egg hunt was one of three that my kids went to this year, I was afraid that the kids were starting to think that finding candy in eggs was a daily thing...lol. Anyway, this Easter Egg hunt was so much fun! It was on Saturday, it was a beautiful day, we met family there and had a great time. The kids also got to see the Easter Bunny AGAIN but we did not do pictures this time. Here are some pictures of our day!


Ayla and Auntie Amy


Playing games with Katie and Evie





and they loved the snowcones....

Collecting our goodies!!

Mommy's boy!!



and Daddy's girl



We had such a great time, I love seeing a smile on my children's faces...

What a fun day!

Happy Easter

HE IS ALIVE!!

Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross so that we can have eternal life! God is so good, I do not feel worthy....

Hope everyone had a most wonderful Easter!!

One Sweet Chick

We have just been hanging out this week, having playdates, playing outside, coloring easter eggs and watching the Chipmunks! The new Chipmunks movie came out on Tuesday and I swear I already know every song to that movie. My kids love the Chipmunks more than any other movie! For some reason Ayla's favorite is Theodore, she keeps telling me," I love Theodore, he is so adorable". It really is a cute movie and that is saying alot because I never thought I would be a Chipmunks fan but it turns out they are not so bad after all...hehe!

We went to a friends house this week and colored easter eggs. That was alot of fun and we plan on coloring some more tonight! We are having family over for Easter dinner on Sunday so I am hoping to have an Easter Egg hunt outside as the weather is supposed to be beautiful the rest of the weekend.






Ayla loved playing with this Kitchen while we were at her friends house this week. We have one of the plastic walk in Kitchens like this one,



but she liked this wooden one much better. With the walk in Kitchen, the stove, fridge etc are not big enough to put anything in. She likes this wooden one because she can actually put food and pans inside of the stove. So I am thinking about selling the one we have and buying a wooden one. She also loved all of the wooden appliances, the toaster, blender, coffe pot. She has been asking for the coffee pot EVERY DAY since then. She helps her Daddy make coffee everyday so I guess that is why she likes it so much. I can not find these around here anywhere so I guess I will have to order them on line.







Brennan was fascinated by the Zhu, Zhu pets and he played with them most of the time. I think the Easter Bunny might have a surprise for him!!





Remember the $9 outfits that I bought for Ayla at Walmart? This is one of them, I love them and she has actually wore two sets this week. She loves the zip up hoodie jacket and I just think they are adorable! Oh and her shirt says, "One Sweet Chick"....





and that she DEFINITELY IS!!

Hope everyone has a great Easter Weekend! We are going to an Easter Egg hunt tomorrow and then WV plays Duke in the final four tomorrow night, so if you think about it, please help a friend cheer on the West Virginia Mountaineers!! GO EERS!!

Weekend shopping and the FINAL FOUR BABY!

On Friday, John and I drove to Louisville Kentucky for just one night. We had to get Kaleb on Saturday so we just decided to stay in Louisville and do a little shopping while we were there. We ate at Stoney River Friday night and it was awesome. It is a steak house and one of the best that I have been too. We do not have one here, so that was a nice treat. We ate at the Cheese Cake Factory for lunch on Saturday and oh my word, the Red Velvet Cheesecake is AMAZING. If you live near a Cheese Cake Factory, PLEASE go and get this. It is the best cheesecake I have ever had. I swear it melted in my mouth..lol.



Okay, moving right along, Since it was my birthday, I did decide to buy myself a few things, shocker, I know! I needed some new perfume so I bought some "Baby Grace" by Philosophy.



I have had it before and loved it, it is so light, fresh and clean, just like a baby! I actually love all of the scents by Philosophy but this is definitely one of my favorites. If you ever pass by a Philosophy counter, try it out and let me know what you think! They also have a new make up product called "The color of Grace Amazing Grace Shimmering Face Powder".



I have been looking for a nice highlighter for awhile and I was able to test it and I loved it. It really makes your face glow and gives you that dewey look! You know how much I love beauty products, so this was a great treat for me!

Lastly I bought this Vera Bradley travel organizer. I have wanted one forever and when I found it on sale, I broke down and bought it.



This is perfect to fill with everything you need while out of town, all of your everyday necessities, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. Then when you are ready to go somewhere all you have to do is throw this in your suitcase and your done! And I love that you can hang it on the door-Genius! This will be great for our trip next month. By the way, only a few more weeks until Disney. I am so excited, I can't wait!

So it was a great birthday weekend, thanks to everyone for the sweet gifts and cards. John bought me a beautiful new watch and Mama Sandy surprised me with a Burberry coat ( I will never wear another one, I love it) the kids gave me a card, m&m's and chocolate cupcakes! This is the only picture I have of my birthday weekend. It was taken at the Cheese Cake Factory with my I phone so it is not that great. I really need to invest in a smaller camera that I can carry in my purse. Suggestions anyone??



Last but definitely not least, the West Virginia Mountaineers are going to the FINAL FOUR baby! We defeated number one seed Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night. I was so proud of the Mountaineers, they played amazing. Kentucky is an awesome basketball team and they did have a bad night, but in WV's defense, they played their hearts out and were on fire! Our starting point guard fractured his foot last week and he was not even able to play. Our back up point guard Joe Mazulla played an awesome game scoring 17 points and surprised many by his performance. This is the first time in 51 years that WV has been in the Final Four! We play Duke on Saturday so hopefully we can pull out another victory! I am so proud to be a MOUNTAINEER!!

And just because, here is a picture of Kaleb and his "friend"..lol. It is great to have him back home!




Oh and Ayla is feeling much better, thanks to all of you that have asked! Here she is today before we left to go out. She loves her high top tennis shoes, she calls them her "Hannah Montana" shoes!! Have a great week everyone!

Stain Removal 101

This week at Kelly's Korner the topic for "Show Us Your Life" is cleaning secrets. I do not have any cleaning secrets, but I do have some laundry tips I thought I would share. I have actually had this post saved for a while and thought this would be a perfect time to share!

Okay so I am OCD about stains on my children's clothes...I think everyone that knows me, knows this by now.. but to justify my obsessive compulsive behaviors...hehe.. my children's clothes are an investment for me because I sell them on ebay when they outgrow them! Of course they have play clothes and with those, they could go and roll around in the mud if they wanted to... well not really, I mean maybe if it were dry mud...lol. So my friend Molly has shared some of her awesome stain removal "magic tricks" with me, and I would LOVE to share them with you.... you know cause I'm nice like that-ha!!



OK, I keep a bunch of "unusual" items in my laundry room for tackling stubborn stains....it wouldn't be my laundry room without them....MEAT TENDERIZER (unseasoned) I use this for any protein based stains blood,milk etc

WD-40 OR Dawn dish washing liquid...either of these will take care of grease spots on clothing. DO NOT use the WD-40 on silks

LEMON JUICE: put on a spot on a white top and sit in the sun...TA_DA! add a bit more lemon juice before laundering,works wonders on those formula stains


RUST SALT mixed with Lemon juice will take out mildew stains, soak dingy white socks in hot water(hotter the better) and lemon juice then launder like usual they come out bright whites


For ink pen or marker try alcohol or cheap hair spray (Aquanet is the best for this)





Okay, I also never put the children's clothing in the dryer (unless they are play clothes). I wash everything on the hand wash cycle and only a couple of things at time. This prevents piling and keeps the clothing in fantastic shape. It also helps if you use lingerie bags like these from Nordstroms...it has two sides and you can put two pieces of clothing (or more, if you would want to) in one bag! These prevent clothing from piling, snagging and if you have something with buttons, sequins, beads, etc these are perfect for that! Oh, these are great for tights, leggings and hose as well, they do not pile at all!





Okay, well I hope you have enjoyed all of these wonderful stain removal and laundering tips!! If you know of any others tricks, I would love to hear them!!

Oh, by the way, I just recently learned about the oxi-clean gel stick. It is awesome, it is great for grass stains, you MUST get one of these!!

Multitasking!

Who says you can not watch TWO shows at ONE time??? This cracked me up last week when I saw Brennan doing this. We bought him the fisher price kids dvd player for Christmas and he LOVES it. He knows how to put his movies in, how to rewind, fast forward, push play, stop etc...and so at certain times during the day he will sit in the stool in the kitchen (this is known as Brennan's chair now) and watch some of his movies. He rarely watches a whole dvd, I think he just likes putting them in and taking them out. Anyway, he is also addicted to my I phone and plays games and watches videos on it as well. We have a few videos on it for the kids and on this day Brennan was watching "Clifford, the Big Red Dog", on his dvd player and "Max and Ruby" on the I phone. It was so cute how he had the phone propped up on the dvd player. I thought this was so funny, John said he is a multitasker..lol.



So Ayla is finally feeling better, she has been sick all week and because of that we think her arthritis is bothering her. She has been crying about her left knee and holding her elbow so now that she is better hopefully her joints will feel better too. It stinks when she gets sick because we can not give her arthritis meds to her because she will have an even harder time fighting off the sickness, so we have to wait until she is well. Yesterday she started feeling like herself again and today she is doing even better so I think we are over the worse part! Tomorrow is my birthday so John and I are going to drive to Louisville KY and stay Friday night. We plan on having dinner and doing a little shopping! We will be home Saturday, so it is just a little one night get away..lol. My sister and brother in law have offered to stay with the kids Friday night so we can spend some time together for my birthday. We have to pick Kaleb up Saturday in KY also so that is another reason why we decided to go. So I will be MIA for a few days, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Dresser, Toy Story and Dancing with the Stars

Are you guys as excited as I am about "Toy Story" coming out on dvd tomorrow? I love these movies, I can remember watching them with Kaleb when he is little. I can't wait to take Ayla to see Toy Story 3 when it comes out in June. At target the combo packs (dvd/blue ray) are on sale for $22.99/ea but if you buy both (Toy Story 1 and 2) you get $10 off instantly. In addition to this you can use these coupons from the Disney site. Works out to $12.99 each.
There is also a 10 dollar coupon for the "Princess and the Frog" if you are interested. These will make great gifts for the Easter Basket!

So we, I mean John finished Kaleb's dresser yesterday. It really turned out nice, he put several coats of stain on it and with new hardware it is just like new! I love the retro/vintage feel it has to it! Actually, I think this dresser was made in the 70's. Like the lamps? We found those at Homegoods. Have you noticed that we are lamp people? There is just something about having matching lamps on a piece of furniture!! I will have to show you some pictures of our lamps, we do have some interesting ones!! Oh and I am loving how the middle panel opens up and there are three drawers that pull out. That is a really nice feature. So here are a couple of before and after pictures, what do you think?









Hope everyone has a great week! Ours has not started out so hot. Ayla woke up sick this morning and has been throwing up all day. I hope she is able to sleep tonight and I hope everyone else stays healthy!! Oh, I almost forgot, did anyone watch Dancing with the Stars? What a cast, it will definitely be interesting this year and did anyone else think Pamela Anderson was acting weird? She was definitely um not herself..lol!! Okay, I am tired so I am going to bed early tonight. It is only midnight!!!