the start of our garden...

I'm hoping to have a BRIGHT green thumb this spring/summer!

Libby and I planted some seeds this past week.

We planted some veggies and herbs-- we will see if they turn into veggies and herbs!

I killed every plant I owned last year-- 

 BUT I'm not counting that! 

I was in my first trimester and SO SO sick.

 So it can't be that bad this year! :-)

our valentine's day

A SUNNY Valentine's day might I add! We were all so thankful to see the sun after 3 days of rain.



Before kids I never got into Valentine's day-- I thought it was so silly! Having kids has totally changed me, or rather it is changing me.

I think it's so fun, and pinterest really helps make it fun! What would we do without Pinterest?!

I bought a cute felt heart garland at Tar-jey that I hung on the mantel to kick-off the Valentine's holiday {and you can see Libby put her own special touch to it}.

Here are some pictures from our day.

Hope you all had a day full of LOVE and LAUGTHER!!!

oh the places you'll go

We have started a new tradition. I love traditions if you can't tell. :-)

I had Libby's teacher write her a note in the book last week. I can't wait for her to read her sweet note {and all of her future teachers}! I am so glad I found this idea on pinterest! I'm pretty excited about it :)

easter eggs

We dyed Easter eggs last night! We got a really late start on this, but atleast we did it! :-)  Libby wanted to do it all by herself. And it was a rather clean process! yay. 

We have one easter egg hunt down and 1 {maybe 2} to go! 

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We are doing this today, or this one.

These are some great activities for kiddos.

We did this yesterday. {and i realized i didn't put a card in the eggs telling who it is from... i just found them in my purse! loosing. my. mind. so if you get a egg in the mail... it's probably from us!}

Have a great Easter weekend! HE IS RISEN!!

spring fever

This past weekend I got major spring fever! And I was determined to make our front door entrance look better. I made a trip to Home Depot to get some flowers to plant in our front door planters. {I know I should probably wait until after Easter to plant just to be safe, but I couldn't wait!}

Libby helped me of course... She loves to help! We made a BIG mess!

It was so warm Saturday! We even talked about getting the sprinkler out and putting Libby's bathing suit on. We never got to it, but I'm sure it will be out soon!

I took these pictures Sunday afternoon. {same time the two pictures in the last post were taken.} Libby actually stayed still for a second so I could get her picture. She is starting to get highly annoyed with my picture taking. Half the time I have to convince her that I'm taking a picture of "that bush" or "that door" for me to get a decent picture. I think I had to tell her I was taking a picture of the door in the picture above of her shoveling dirt in the pot. :) She bought it!

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This picture reminds me of spring. BUT let me assure you...

Usually the kitchen table is covered in school papers, backpack, lunch box, mail, magazine, etc. It was in rare form on Saturday morning. I thought I would take a picture, so it can provide motivation for ME to keep my table clutter free!

Have a great day!!!

simplifying: the playroom

This week I have been working towards simplifying my life/house. {the good Lord knows that's not happening right now.} I've been trying to do something each day to help me get to my goal. I have cleaned/organized the refrigerator, pantry and laundry room closet this week. {dare I say room... it is definitely a closet.} It is so nice when everything has a place!

Yesterday I worked on cleaning out old toys/ putting up toys/ cleaning the playroom. It's always a HUGE task!

I was in my cleaning zone all after noon, and was totally unaware of what was going on. {Don't worry, I knew exactly where Libby was... she was asking me to change barbie's outfit every 2.5 seconds.} I thought it was four o'clock and was wondering why Nolen was home from work so early... It was actually six o'clock. Oops.

Anyway...

I have also made a decision to do some minor design tweaks in the playroom too. Since it's the very first thing you see when walking in the front door, I thought I would try and tone down all the pink, and make it a little more neutral/pretty instead of all PINK. For example, I replaced the pink, blue and green storage baskets with woven baskets for toy storage. I went to World Market and Target yesterday, and probably spent an hour picking out basket. Yes, I'm indecisive when it comes to buying for my house. It's hard for me to commit to something. Because I want it to last me for a while.

I took out the storage unit with all the plastic bins too. It was looking too junky. I'm going to list it on craigslist or ebay this weekend. {hopefully along with some other stuff.} Holla if you want it! I'll give you a discount. I also put up the pink and lime green scout bin that had all of L's dress up clothes. I got a neutral woven basket and just picked a few dress up clothes to put in the basket. 

This brings me to another thing I am doing in order to help simplify. Toy rotations. I put up some of L's toys in her closet {and left some out for her to play with} and we will rotate the toys every few months. I'm hoping this will keep her toys "new" and it will be a nice change in toys without buying new ones.

OK-- You are probably bored to death... here are some pictures.

It definitely isn't finished, but everything is cleaned out and has a place. The artwork {one of my fave paintings} in between the bookcases I plan on moving to Libby's room maybe? I want to get a new rug to replace the pink shaggy rug. Someday all of this will happen! I feel it.

Here is my playroom board on pinterest. I love them all!  Libby will be in college before I get it all together! ;-)

have a nice rainy day!

two valentine crafts

Since Valentines Day is just around the corner, I though I would share what I {and Libby} have been working on this week. Of course BOTH of these ideas came from pinterest. Shocking... I know! :-)

First project we made was this beaded necklace with clay beds. We used sculpty clay from Hobby Lobby, string, a chop stick and some satin ribbon. This project doesn't really have to do with Valentines Day, but Libby is making it as Valentines gift for someone. I think these would be so cute for any occasion! Here is kind of a play by play on how we did ours.

I thought they turned out so cute! Libby was so proud of what she made!

The second project I've been working on are these felt envelopes. You can order those exact ones from Etsy, but I thought I would try and conquer them without spending $22-25. I failed the first time I tried to make them. I got an envelope I already had and traced it etc, etc. It looked TERRIBLE. Then, I saw where the lady was selling the patter for $10, so I figured that was my best bet!

FYI-- I ran out of fabric glue so the ric-rac isn't attached yet. They definitely aren't perfect, but they look like envelopes and Libby loves them! She loves writing "notes" and "mailing" things!

Here are my favorite pictures from this week. The weather has been too good to be true for February! We play and play outside all afternoon somedays. Makes for some real good sleeping! :-)

TGIF!!!

market + january faves

There hasn't been much blog time this past week. I left for market in Atlanta on Thursday with my mom{she has a cute gift/clothing store in downtown Alex City... check it out here.}, we were at the lake this weekend celebrating Nolen's birthday and it's been SO pretty outside lately we've been soaking it up!

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First up... Market! It was the apparel mart this past week in ATL. I like the apparel mart way better than gift mart. Who doesn't like to look at tons of clothes!?! It can get so overwhelming too AND tiring!!

We woke up early Thursday morning so we could fit as much in as we could.

After almost 8 hours of non-stop shopping my feet were killing me. If you ever go to market wear comfortable shoes, thankfully mine were.

I think we got a lot of really cute stuff. I can't wait till it all comes in!

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I'm so happy to report that I have finished month ONE of project 365. I managed to take ONE picture a day without falling behind. There were only about 2 times that I was like, "oh crap it's 9 o'clock and I haven't taken a picture yet!" When it doubt, take a picture of your hubby reading the WSJ in his pjs! :-)

Here are some of my fave pictures from January that I never posted.

Goodnight!! We've got a special someone to celebrate tomorrow! post coming soon... :-)