Happy Easter!

I am so very thankful to have Jesus in my life.  Lord, without you, I would be nothing.  Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Thank you for all the things you have blessed my life with.  
Happy Easter!

Where have YOU been?!

Hey everyone!  I promise I am still here =)  Life has thrown me a few curve balls but I'm getting ready to pick back up asap! 

1. I have my laptop back after being serviced...AGAIN!  Don't buy Toshiba's PPL!!!!  Hubby rebuilt the hard drive on the home pc so it's now working again as well.  AND....drumroll please!  Hubby got his MACBOOK PRO!
2. I have Cupcake's bed finished!  Big reveal soon I PROMISE!  Elizabeth is as stunning as I knew she'd be!!!
3. My car was broken into.  I've been working diligently ALL WEEK to salvage all the charges the jerks made!  Not to mention without my SWAGGERWAGON...which has been tough :(
4. And ofcourse I have some pics to post from family visiting.  Seems like forever ago but the laptop maintenance threw me.  :(
5. We finally booked a vacation to Disney!!!!!  I am SUPER excited about it!  =)

I would have blogged some on my lunch break but lately I haven't gotten one.  Good news is work is busy.  Even better news, we have all our electronics in working order again.  Best news, criminals may have tried to ruin my weekend but my GOD is bigger than they are and he CONTINUES to bless!

Salon time anyone?

I have SO been MIA lately!  We've been having major computer issues.  Our laptop is out for repair and our desktop bit the dust last week!  Yikes!  So any blogging lately has been limited due to lack of a computer.  I know, wah-wah-wah.  LOL!   

However, I have made some time to get started on my newest hobby.  What?  You haven't heard about my salon?  Check out this post to catch up.  Remember Elizabeth? 

She's started her treatment.  We are mid way through, but I have a good feeling about her.  You know that point when you are at the salon and you are sitting there looking in the mirror thinking "wow, there is so much foil on my head I look like a space alien!"  What, tell me I'm not the only one whose had that thought ;-)  Sometimes, mid process it is hard to see what lies ahead.  The beauty that will unfold when your visit is over.  Well, that middle point is the part of the process Elizabeth is going through right now. 

First some sanding...Just to rough up the stained wood so that primer can stick better.  Even sanded, I still love her.

Next, a coat of primer.  I did this as evenly as possible.  This is a first time make over for both of us. 

Next step...Sanded again and primed another coat.  Check out the details.  Not over the top.  Just enough curves and details to make an elegant statement.  

 

And finally with the final sanding after the double primer coat.  Here she is....just waiting.  Waiting on my time to free up so I can give her a nice new color so she fits perfectly in my daughters room. 

With the primer I think I can see the beauty that lies ahead =)  Don't you agree she will be lovely as a little girls headboard? 

Family Birthday Pics

The past few weeks have been extremely hectic and busy for me.  That said, in my last post I realized there were lots of pics of family that didn't make it on the blog.  And my family does check my blog so I wanted to take a sec to post a few more pics from Chuck E. Cheeses.  I had a friend grab my camera as well and she took several pics with me as well.  And I think most moms agree that they are usually taking the pics and not in them.  ;-)  So, get ready for mega pictures =) 

Birthday Party Fun!

Hi everyone!  I hope you have all been well this week!  Over the weekend we celebrated the Princess bday at Chuck E. Cheeses.  Here is a collage of pics of the various guests who braved the party! 

And one special shot of just my Princess!

One of my friends at the party took some pics for me.  I managed to tear Princess away from some air hockey long enough for a quick shot...although, you can see she was not as happy as I was to take this pic:

As the commercial goes...I have proof...Chuck E. Cheeses, where a kid can be a kid!

=)  Love you hubby!  =)

Princess is 4

Today my little Princess turns FOUR! I can not believe it's been four years since I had my first baby! She has continued to amaze me. I am as in love with her as I was the very day I found out I was having her...as much as the day I laid eyes on her beautiful face...

as I was the day she said Mommy...

as I was the day she said "i love you" for the first time...

as I ever have been!
(Professional photography by Your Story Captured, HMP Studios, and Camree Photography)

This last year has been so much fun! I have watched my sweet baby go from a toddler to a little girl! Here is a collage of some of my favorite's from this year...and if you will notice, she almost ALWAYS is smiling!

Little Princess at FOUR!

My precious little Princess.  You have no idea how much Mommy prayed for you or for how long!  When you came into this world my entire life changed and I knew that instant you were worth the wait!  I had no idea how much my heart would swell with joy and love.  You are my beautiful Princess and I love you more than you will ever know!

• You have a fantastic imagination!  You love to pretend you are your favorite character and role play.  You always want the whole family involved and give us a role to play along with you.  It is wonderful to experience this with you!
• You are such a princess.  You love to dress up, you love to wear lip gloss, and you love to have your hair fixed so you feel beautiful. 
• You are having the most fun when you are outside!  You love your trampoline and swing set you got from your Gigi and Gman.  You also love to ride your tricycle, play inside your playhouse, play in the sandbox, play with your tball set, or even just blow bubbles.  If you are outside, you are happy!
• You learned how to snap in the last couple of weeks.  I am so proud of you because you are so proud of yourself for learning something new and challenging.
• You love puzzles.  I like to know that you are flexing that little brain of yours to new places when you put them together.  But I have to admit, I hate keeping up with the little pieces and the mess they make.  LOL
• You know your ABC's, can count to 10 in spanish, to 25 in English (maybe more but you get tired of counting!), and best of all YOU CAN WRITE AND SPELL YOUR NAME!!!! =) 
• You have a great memory!  You know the words to songs we hear or sing after only hearing them once or twice. 
• You love your little sister and it shows.  You share anything with her...toys, desserts, and even your clothes. 
• You personality is coming out more each day.  You are shy, but at the same time very friendly.  No matter where we are you are likely to make friends with someone. 
• You are always asking for me to tell you stories about when you were a baby.  You are sentimental like Mommy, but at the same time you love hearing the funny parts and that reminds me of Daddy! 
• You love your daddy like crazy and he is your hero, but you are and always have been Mommy's little girl!  You are always telling me that you love me.  It melts my heart!

My most favorite part of this year is that you asked Jesus to come and live in your heart.  We talk a lot about it and what it means to us.  Most recently we talked about when you are feeling uncertain because you are alone in your bedroom that Jesus lives in your heart and that means you are never alone.  Sweet girl, our God has big plans for your life and I am enjoying seeing you grow. 

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ¹⁹  ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you ²⁰  a future filled with hope. ²¹  29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ²²  I will hear your prayers. ²³  29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, ²⁴  29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ ²⁵  says the Lord.

Kitchen Counter tops REVEAL!

FINALLY, the time has come that I can share with you my counter top install!  Without further mumbo jumbo, here's a pic:

Other than my desk area, which I showed you in my sneak peek here, we only have two sides that meet at a 90 degree angle.  But don't let that fool you, there were many tricky parts here!  For instance the side shown in the picture below obviously had to have the exact cut out where the stove goes.  We took our counter tops off and to a local business for them to cut exactly.  Apparently the did not measure twice and cut once.  This side was wrong the first time they cut it for us (as was the desk area!).  Since it was their mistake they were more than courteous to get the new one cut quickly (like an hour later) and very easy to work with.  Problem was we had tried to install over a weekend and they were not reopen until Monday.  Hubs works and has school so we couldn't reinstall until the following weekend.  :( 

 Even with all of that drama, check out these beauties on a close up!  (Like my recipe holder?  You can read about it here.)

Here is another angle, just because I am really pleased with them :)

 And now for the other side.  It was cut perfect the first time!  Yay!  Problem with this side?  We *wanted* to put in a new sink.  And that meant DIY install.  So I purchased a granite sink in black with much deeper bowls.  My hubby and step dad followed directions exactly on how to 'push out' or 'tap out' the area at the top of the sink to place the vent for the dishwasher.  To no avail.  It cracked, not on just one sink, but two!  So with all that work we decided to just go ahead and install that side with the sink we had.  We were pretty skeptical that it would stand out like a sore thumb, but as you can see below, it wasn't very bad after all!

The local business convinced me to take this end piece home and see if I wanted to install it.  I reluctantly did just that.  Now that it's on, I like it!

 And once we worked through all those obstacles, the corners presented ONE more!  One side was higher than the other.  So the corner was not level.  My brilliant hubby came up with an idea of using some thin pieces of metal to ever so gently raise the side that was lower to meet up with the higher side.  Make sense?  Below you can see that it worked out fantastic!

And one last shot because I am in LURVE!  And after all that hard work, I think it was worth it!

So what do you think?

TGIF!

TGIF is all I can say this week!  Whew!  It's the weekend!  =) 

The lady who owns "A Blank Canvas" posted pics on facebook.  I thought it'd be neat to follow up and show you all what EVERYONE's paiting looked like.  You can see the wide variety in paint choices here.   

I was one of two who chose to paint pink.  Several picked the blue optin.  Then some went out on their own...grey with red, red with brown, purple with green (one of my favs), and one even painted her stems white outlined in black instead of black or black with white dots.  Yay for creativity!!!

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend!  I am hoping to get some pics of our kitchen for you all, do some cleaning, and get started on some of my paining projects I talked about here.  :o) What are your plans?

Rough Start {and a Painting}

This has been a rough week on me! Cupcake got sick Sunday night and hubby and I both were up most of the night with her. Then on Monday I was off work and taking her to the doctor. Nothing serious, just sinus and double ear infection, but if you have kiddos you know even the every day crud can bump a routine out of whack.  And work has been crazy busy!  Which means less time at home :( 
I had every intention of posting about our counter tops this week, however, due to our bump I do not have decent pics of it. I tried to snap some shots on Sunday when we got the mess all cleaned up but they turned out dark and hard to edit. I promise this weekend I am going to try really hard to get some good lighting time and get some shots to share with you. I am loving them!
So, today I share with you what I did over the weekend besides counter tops. (And really hubby did most of the work on the counter tops, I just supervised. LOL!) Have you ever been to one of the Painting parties that are all the rage lately? Well, in our area, they have been going strong for about a year or more.  There are various businesses offering this but the one I attended was called "A Blank Canvas".  Until this weekend I had other priorities and had to pass on all the invites to them. I love crafting and all that goes with it so I have really wanted to go to one. A co-worker invited me to one over the weekend and I MADE time to go. (This meant I missed donating to our big consignment sale this year, but I did it anyway.) Here is my work of art:

The hosts chose the painting you create and the Artist then takes you step by step on creation.  I picked the colors.  She said we could choose our own color of the vase and had a pink example, a turquoise example, and a red example.  Since this was my first time I did not go out of the box and choose green or anything.  I thought it'd be better to be able to look at one already finished.  I figured if it turned out ok then it could go in a playroom eventually or maybe even my girls would like it.  Let me tell you I had SO MUCH FUN doing this!  Now, this is sort of an abstract painting and it's not really my style.  But it was a blast!  I loved learning about painting on canvas and about mixing colors and about how to create something like this.  I also enjoyed the company of about 18 other women and enjoyed seeing the various versions.  It was utterly relaxing for me and very fulfilling.  =)  I am not at all sorry that I missed the consignment donation to do this for myself.   

Crazy Weather!

We've had some CRAZY weather here in Alabama this month.  Just a week ago I was moaning about having to take ANOTHER vacation day for snow and ice.  {I prefer to take a vacation with my toes in the sand staring at the Gulf of Mexico}  Then by the weekend, it was WARM! 

The girls and I made the best of the snow day.  The morning was a little rough so we decided to get outside and play before the snow all melted away.  And even though this year we have had snow several times already...we really do rarely get snow here. 

Then, over the weekend we began to get the normal warmer weather.  So we got out and played...AGAIN.  =)

I learned that snow days can be made fun and my girls *LOVE* each other and have fun together!  Not bad for one week.  And best of all, I spent time enjoying my most favorite part of my life...my girlies.

On a side note we tried to get our counter tops installed over the weekend.  In short, the counter tops were cut wrong for the SECOND time.  I may elaborate more on that in another post.  But for now, we are still without one side.  Gasp!  Soon, very soon, I plan to have them picture perfect! =)