Trick Or Treat

I am officially "Halloweened" out.  I have to say I enjoy watching the kiddos have fun, but this is not my favorite holiday.  Truthfully, it never really has been.  I don't like most of what comes along with Halloween, but I allow my girls to dress up as long as it is completely innocent and non scary.  I tend to veer towards cute when it comes to picking out costumes.

Sydney has been saying she wanted to be a princess.  Big shocker there.  First she picked Sleeping Beauty.  We had the costume already, well my friend Brandy did anyway, so I borrowed it from her.  Then I went to Target and got her a blond wig.  She put it on and came running out of the bathroom screaming.  It was hilarious.  That was the end of that.  I guess seeing her self with blond hair freaked her out.

She then proclaimed that she would be Belle because she has brown hair.  Perfect, we have that dress too so I won't have to buy anything.  Win, win.

 I think she makes one beautiful Belle if I do say so myself.  Thanks to Auntie RoRo who came over and curled her hair.  I'm jealous of my daughter's hair.  It is so gorgeous.  Both my girls got lucky in that department.

Brooklyn decided she wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake.  Unlike Syd, she was determined to find a costume wear she could wear a red wig.  We settled on pink.

We had a great time in our neighborhood tonight.  We love our neighbors and feel incredibly blessed to live where we do.  We got home and the girls laid out all of their loot.

 We told the girls they couldn't keep all of their candy and that they needed to decide what they would keep and what they would donate.  Brooklyn was totally serious and I started cracking up when I saw her donate pile.  I don't think so baby girl.

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe time with your families tonight.  Who's ready for Thanksgiving?

Finally an app for Blogger

Yippee! Blogger finally got an app for the iPhone. It's the little things in life right? I'm curled up in bed while I write this little diddy on my iPhone. Maybe I will actually get more posts done now. Just maybe.

To write their names in sand

Years ago, I came across this blog and wept.  I knew that if I had a chance to spend some time at the beach, I wanted to write my kid's names in the sand.  As I watched Brooklyn and Sydney play on the beach, my heart ached, knowing I would never get that chance with Zoe and Jonathan.  I wanted somehow for them to be there with us.

So I wrote.....

and wrote.

It was just a simple way of letting my sweet babies know how much I love them and miss them.  Who knows, maybe they could see it from Heaven.

Snapshots

We spent a wonderful Fall Break down in Orange Beach, AL.  It was marvelous.  Grandma Sara, Brian's mom, flew in to vacation with us and it was so much fun.  We ate too much fried fish, stayed at the beach til dusk and just enjoyed being together as a family.

I was thrilled to have a new zoom lens to use, thanks Jamie for letting me borrow yours, and it made all the difference in the pictures I captured.  I think this lens is going on my Christmas list.  (In case you are wondering, I shoot with a Nikon D40 and used a zoom 55-200 lens.  I edit my pictures in Picnik.)

Enjoy!

A Letter to my Firstborn

My Dearest Zoe,

I can't believe it's been 7 years since I held you in my arms.  Sometimes it feels like yesterday and other times it feels like it's been an eternity.  Oh how I miss you so.  I know you love it in Heaven.  Are you having a blast with your baby brother?  I know you would never want to be here with us on earth, but selfishly I wish I had just one more day to spend with you. 

One more day for you to play with your sisters. 
One more day to rock you and sing to you. 
One more day for your daddy to read you a story. 
One more day to just look into your eyes and let you know how much I love you.  I hope you do know just how much I love you my sweet girl.  Do you know?  Does Jesus tell you?  I can't wait for the day that I get to see you again.  Oh what a wonderful reunion that will be.  When we are all together again.

Until that day my baby girl, just know there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of you and miss you so so much.  You will always be my firstborn Zoe.

I love you to the moon and back,
Mommy

P.S. Happy Birthday Zoe!  We hope you see the balloons we sent to you in Heaven.  We love you and miss you very much.  Love, Brooklyn and Sydney.   

Wordless Wednesday

Laundry Room Reveal

I'm so glad I told y'all I would reveal my laundry room makeover this week because it forced me to get it done.  I love how it turned out.  Ok, so you are probably thinking, "Why would she spend money fixing up her laundry room?"  That is a great question.  We were kind of forced into it really.  We had a leak upstairs in the girls bathroom and it caused water damage into the laundry room right below it.  These are the only before pictures I have.  Sorry.  

I should back up a bit.  4 years ago when we moved into our house we painted it a teal color.  I was going to add a cute border, if there is such a thing, after we painted, thus the reason why I didn't do cut in work at the top.  Well, 4 years later, the border was never added to the walls and I hated the color.  When we had to have the drywall replaced, I decided it was a great time to change the color.

I started off by painting the walls Cumulus Cloud by Martha Stewart.  I love it.  It's the perfect shade of grey.

Then I replaced the unattractive light fixture to the one you see above from Ikea. 

It was a steal at only $29.99.  I love the feel it lends to the room.  Thank you dad for hanging it. 

The safety pins I purchased from Ballard Design.  They were 3 for $35 and I just think they are so cute.   The accordion drying rack I already had.  I bought it from The Container Store years ago.  The wall hook I also had.  It's from Ikea.

I had to find a way of hiding the ugly hose box you see in the first picture above.  I got lucky that the towel I had, which I bought on sale, online, at Pottery Barn last Christmas for $5, was wide enough to cover it.  The towel bar is from Target and was $12.99. 

The wooden stool was $14.99 Ikea.  I will probably end up painting someday.  I'm dying to try out the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I picked up a month or so ago.  The runner is from Costco and was $9.99.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's grey with creme pinstripes.  The basket in the corner was my huge score from Christmas last year.  It came in a set of 3 from Wisteria for $12.99.  Unfortunately, they no longer carry them.

The ironing board cover I got from Home Goods for $9.99.  The iron board rack I bought a long time ago from Bed Bath and Beyond.  Unfortunately, I got a new iron and the iron is too big to fit into the holder.  Not sure what I'm gonna do about that yet.  I hated the look of the utility sink so I bought a table cloth from Target for $16.99 and turned it into a skirt for the sink.  I simply sewed (who am I kidding, I had my dry cleaner do it for $10)Velcro on to the fabric and stuck it on.  Easy peasy.  It also gives me another place to hide extra detergent and other supplies.

I wanted to keep an open feel and not hang any cabinets on the wall, but need a little bit of storage to keep all of my supplies.  I found this laundry cart at Bed Bath and Beyond.  With a coupon I think it was under $35.  It fits perfectly between my washer and dryer.  I've talked about this on my blog before, but I love glass containers.  I'm a little obsessed with them actually.  You should see my pantry.  They are not only beautiful, but practical as well.  I know exactly how much I have in each jar so I never run out.

Well, there you have it.  I hope you enjoyed the tour of my laundry room.  I can tell you that I no longer dread doing the laundry.  In case you were wondering about the price tag for this makeover, I did the whole project for around $250 including all the accessories. 

Not everyone is going to have an extra $250 laying around to spend in their laundry room.  I have some easy and inexpensive ways you can add some beauty to your room. 

1.  Add some photos. It's much harder to complain about doing laundry when you're staring at the people that mean the most to you.   

2. Add a little color.  A gallon of paint is cheap and it's the easiest way to transform a room.  I couldn't believe how much bigger the laundry room felt once I lightened it up.   

3. Add some pretty baskets and glass containers to keep your supplies in.  Ball jars are inexpensive and you can find them anywhere.  You may even have some lying around your house.

I'd love to hear what ya think.  Drop me a comment and you could win a burlap bag like the one hanging on the hook above.  I'll be picking a winner on Monday.  Good Luck!