Mother's day

 

 I had a wonderful Mother's Day.

 

I got to sleep in till almost 11am!

My hubby made us breakfast, or should I say brunch since it was sooo late.

 

 

 

 

He picked out the most beautiful cards, one from him and one from the kids.

I also got a special massage and aromatherapy treatment... hubby done good!!

 

 

And I just got to spend the rest of the day with my babies.

The wonderful reason I get to celebrate this day.

 

My lil angel.... she is such a happy happy soul.

I hope I can make her as happy as I do now in 13 years when she's a crazy teenager.

 

 

My crazy lil guy that just amazes me sometimes. He is so loving towards the people he loves, he is attentive to his sister, and although too hyperactive and whiny at times he is too wise for his 4 years of life.

 

Here he is telling us he needs to check his email.

 

 

 

My mom came over in the afernoon and spend time with her grandkids and me of course.

Then the hubby and I grilled up some steak and potatoes for dinner.

 

 

As much as I love being appreciated and doted on during Mother's Day, I cannot forget two things.

One, the mother who gave me life. Who carried me for 9 months, who I depended on for nourishment and support and comfort and who sacrificed to be there for me as I was growing up. Not just my mother but also my grandmother who was a second mom to me.

 

Secondly, my children and what a blessing from God that they are. Of course without them I could not celebrate Mother's Day but also without them I would not be the person that I am today. I appreciate all they have shown me, the unconditional love, their dependance on me has taught me unselfishness and the miracle of life.

 

I truly have been blessed and I hope all the mother's out there had a great Mother's Day as well.

 

 

 

 

 



New Product!! and a giveaway spoiler….

 

I just tested out a new product!

Stay tunned to see what I think of it and there just might be a giveaway!

blank page in a new book…

Have you heard that saying before? That January 1st is the first blank page in a new 365 day book?

At this point in my life, I hope so, I really do.

The weekend before New Year’s we spend a lot of time giving the house a really good cleaning and checking off a lot of our to do’s from our list that we never seem to make the effort to do.

The boys washed the screens all over the house and I cleaned the windows from the inside. BTW, window cleaning tip, equal parts rubbing alcohol and water… done!

We also put together the baby’s crib and shampooed the carpet in the entire house. Next time, we’re ripping out the carpet and putting down wood floors! I’m not even joking!

It felt good and it was our way of washing off the old to begin new.

I got to spend some time with my lil guy just me and him. I treated him to his first Icee, and probably his last. Don’t let this photo fool you, he didn’t like it much.

We took in a beautiful sunset right in our yard while I watered the grass.

We spent New Year’s with our friends and my son was so excited to be going to what he called a firework party.

This was the first year he really got into the fireworks and sparklers, usually he keeps to the pop pops and stays away from anything you light on fire.

Great, I think I have myself a fire bug.

Of course as tradition goes, we had mochi soup at midnight.

YUM!

We had a nice time and I for one am happy to say goodbye to 2012 and look forward to a brighter and different new year in 2013.

I have decided not to make resolutions or a list of goals for this year. We have so much going on and especially with the new baby on the way I don’t want to be tied to a list that I will constantly compare myself to.

Instead the only thing I want to work towards this year is enjoying and loving my family. I will not let myself get pressured to doing certain things by a certain time. I will not pressure myself with the little details. I will let go and let God guide me. My focus is my family and they come first, not making anyone else happy.

Here’s hoping for a better 2013 for my family and all of you!

What ever happened to Christmas being the most wonderful time of the year??

 

I know that I have admitted in the past that I am a Christmas Grinch. I have been changing my ways, I really have.

Even though it was like pulling teeth and I would rather have pulled my teeth out than have to nag at my hubby to spend 5 minutes to take some of our Christmas decorations out of the attic, I had a fun time with my lil man putting out decorations.

We didn’t take down all the decorations this year only one box and no lights on the house this year either. All I can think about it having to spend the time taking them down and packing them away just weeks before the baby is due.

I even did my best at keeping my OCD in check and I let my son decorate the tree with very little help. I sometimes sit on my couch and look at the tree and see two ornaments hanging too close to each other and I want to move them so bad, but I let it go. I’m so proud of myself.

Still all I can think is, what is so damn jolly about this time of the year?

I don’t know if it’s the hormones, or exhaustion, or stress, or all of it put together but I just want to skip the holidays all together!

Everything is rush rush and its so commercialized, how do we get back to the real meaning of the season?

I’ve been so busy at work and then going to the hospital to visit my grandma every day after work and then rushing home to cook dinner and do our night time routine and then do it all over again! I have had NO time or energy to do my Christmas shopping. This is the last weekend before Christmas and instead of helping out my hubs is going to ride with his friends, just great, thanks! I told my hubs from last week, I need his help with the shopping and well… I won’t even go there.

So this year, we’re not doing Christmas… if I get the chance to do my baking, I will, if not, oh well.

I don’t even feel bad for not having anything ready or having the time or energy to put into Christmas, is that bad??

How about you guys? Are ya’ll ready for Christmas?

Beginnings of a Big Boy Room

 

So with baby number 2 on the way, I’ve got to get in gear and get working on my son’s big boy room.

When we asked him a long time ago, he said he wanted a room with blue walls and white curtains, I think I might watch too much HGTV with him around.

Currently, this room is being used as a junk room, kind of a catch all where we put things we don’t know what to do with or need somewhere to get it out of the way. It also serves as a guest room so whenever we have guests the junk in the room gets pushed into the closet and cleaned.

I have been just too exhausted to move the big stuff in the room, but I found a few spare hours so I started painting his room.

And this is the color that he picked out. I can’t remember what the name of the color is but I got it from Sherwin Williams and it’s a $5 can of sample paint, I think I am going to have just enough to do what I need to to with just that a $5 sample size of paint!

I have a habit of painting around furniture if its in my way.

This is just the beginning and I’ll give you all the details when the room actually starts to take shape.

Meanwhile, daddy finished priming the back patio and started to paint it grey to match the house. My son had to join in the painting as well, so luckily we had this sidewalk chalk paint for him to play with.

He loved it and it kept him busy. Looks like I’ll have to diy more paint!

Stay tuned for updates on the big boy room.

Just keep in mind, I’m moving at a snail’s pace!

more backyard-agains....

While I'm on the subject of our backyard, I thought I'd let you know about all the other things I got knocked off the to do list as well.

First of all AGAIN back to the project list for this year.

It seems like all I've been talking about but I'm so glad to be getting these projects done, thats the purpose of goals right?

And it feels so good checking them off this list.

First off we have my pavers!

I got these pavers from a jobsite we worked on. They are really nice in person.

The hubs and I quickly put them out and within 5 - 10 mins we had them in just the spots we wanted.

Seriouslly only 5 - 10 mins. Made me wonder why it took me so long to do this.

And then it was time to level them out. I had to dig in some areas and fill in others and I was reminded why. Ugh..

Since we had extra lumber from our Pergola project, the hubs built a little bench sort of thing to raise up our potted plants from being on the ground.

It's actually been really nice not having to bend down to work on the plants.

Also keeps the puppy from chewing it up!

AND speaking of chewing things up....

Remember meeting my maple?

I almost threw that puppy over the fence!

She thought my precious maple was a chew toy, NOT GOOD.

We put up fencing around it to keep her out and hopefully let the maple heal it's self.

See not good!

We lost a good 3 feet on her :-(

Of course, just because I'm loving our new addition to the patio here it is again!

Hope you all had a great weekend... why do they always have to end so soon??

It's about darn time....

Pretty much since we first moved in to our home almost 5 years ago I have wanted to put up a shade over our back patio.



The back patio faces west and in the afternoons the sun is just horrible, pretty much making the back yard unusable. Well, thats just unacceptable, especially with a very active 3 yr old.

You see our backyard is fenced and what better way to keep em entertained?

Go out in the backyard and let them run off all that energy!

That's why this project has made it on my project list for 2012

So, do you remember when I told you I was so excited I could almost pee my pants?

Yay!

Yes we finally got working on our pergola, here is the before.

And after so much hard work, sweat, tears.... ok fine we hired a contractor!

(so worth it!)

I couldnt be more excited! Yay!

Still more work to be done, we have to finish the roofing and paint it, not to mention get some yard work done, yikes! Can't belive I'm actually showing this picture, yuck.

BTW, this sucker is HUGE! It really feels enormous!

Our weather is cleared up now since all of the storms and it has left our backyard all torn up. Majority of our grass died, although it looks awful right now it's not too heartbreaking since we're in the process of changing out the grass anyway.

Hey, anyone up for a painting party?



a day of rest and rain

If you follow me on twitter you might have seen this picture below.

Saturday night was my husband's neice's first birthday party and if you know how the locals here do it, you know what a big deal a first birthday is.

Prepring potato mac salad

It was a ton of work and there were so many helping hands.

Luckily everything worked out, because we have a major storm on our hands right now.

Before we left for the party my lil guy took a few minutes to rock out.

I sure hope he learns how to play one day.

I'm not at all musical.

 

Anyway, about that storm... it's really bad.

We got home on Saturday night and the tent we had up for the contractor to was building our patio had collapsed from all the rain.

The tent frame crumbled and bent, we're in mourning.

(darn thing cost a pretty penny... 23,000 pennies actually)

We had to spend the day inside and we just had to spend the entire day in our pjs and of course have some hot cocoa to keep warm.

And of course left over party food for breakfast!!

What else is there to do on a stormy day? EAT!

20 minutes away at my mom's house things weren't going as well.

They live in a flood zone and boy did it flood!

Remember I told you about my mom's house?

How about a before & after shot.

Her neighbors came over as well since they got flooded too.

I thought this picture was classic. I told her atleast the flood should help you get rid of those strays that keep hanging out by your house, maybe not....

Today the rain continues and roads and bridges are closed and a portions of the highway has completely collapsed.

Please pray for everyone here on Kauai for more news you can check out Hawaii News Now
or search Koloa Flood on youtube.

I'm so excited I could pee my pants

Do you remember that list of projects for 2012?

Work has started on one of them, can you guess which one?


~ Squeel ~

DIY Soap Scum Killer

About a month ago, Jennifer from Life, Crafts and Whatever posted a miracle recipe.

She called it the Soap Scum Killa.

Ok, so its not really a Miracle but it sure does work like a dream.

I have white shower stalls and no doors just a shower curtain so me taking pictures of that is just pointless. But me sharing this recipe will be life changing.... ok maybe I'm being a tad overly dramatic but you'll love it.

First take two regular household items. Dawn liquid soap and vinegar, equal parts.

Put the vinegar in the microwave for about 1 minute and then add it to the Dawn.

Mix it well together.

It won't smell all that great.

Let it cool slightly before pouring into your spray bottle.

Otherwise you get this....

Yea, it melted, lesson learned.

All you have to do it spray it on let it sit for a bit and then scrub off.

I could never see my soap scum and I scrub my shower once a week.

When I used this concoction I noticed the water bead off the shower stall as if I had just polished it. I also used it on my bathroom sinks and my kitchen sink.

Loved it!

It's a cheap (free if you already have the stuff at home) and you know exactly what's going in it.

I'll be linking up at the parties at the bottom of my page, hope you guys try it out too!!



Let there be light...

I'm slowly chipping away at my list of Projects for 2012 and one being updating the lighting in my kitchen.

My kitchen has horrible lighting, infact when we moved in there was just a hole above the sink and no light fixture at all.

I picked up these lights on clearance for $7 for a pack of two. We have it in our kitchen, entryway, hallway and bathrooms. It was cheap and served its purpose.

Problem is, the light is really really dark, it doesnt give off enough light.

I always get frustrated washing dishes at night, or prepping food or even just taking blog photos.

I took to the internet for inspiration of course.

Over at the House of Smiths I found a post about her changing her kitchen light.

I loved it, the right look and the right price too.

So I went searching and found this pennant light on Ikea's website and unfortunately they do not sell it online and surprize surprize, we dont have an Ikea here.

Thankfully I found something similar over at Home Depot for $27.99.

And even better the hubby gladly installed it in less than 2 days of sitting on the kitchen counter! Yay!

I love it!! The light is just the right size and it is soooo much brighter in my kitchen now.

I think it was the perfect little project to start with.

It was cheap, fast and easy to do.

Makes me motivated to keep going with my projects, don't you like projects like that?

Lucky I didnt start with my cabinets...



Cleaning with Purex

This past December I mentioned cleaning for the New Year.

Not only is it about letting go and moving forward, but we have to star the new year CLEAN.

I got this new laundry detergent from Purex to try out called Purex Ultra Packs.

I like anything that makes my life easier so I was down to try it. Plus its so clean and simple no mess. I dont have a sink in my laundry closet so not having to go to the sink in my kitchen or bathroom to rinse out the measuring cap on the detergent was cool in my book.

Check these cool lil guys out.

They felt really interesting and I had to resist all temptation to squeeze them between my fingers till they burst. Hehehe

All I had to do was pop one in the washer and that was it.

I have to say I really liked it.

It was not messy, easy to use and they made my clothes clean.

I did however have two pairs of my son's jeans that still had a little tint of red dirt on the knees after the wash was done.

I wasnt bummed about it since red dirt here is nearly impossable to wash out of clothes without pre-scrubbing and pre-treating and even then sometimes it never comes out.

I was impressed that it did do as well as it did without any pre-tretment.

Oh and bonus points, they have a free and clear version too!

Over all I really do like using them, I've always had great results with Purex products.

If you want to try them out for yourself check back and I'll be giving away some coupons for ya'll to try them too!

Disclaimer: I received a free sample of Purex ultra Packs laundry detergent in exchange for writing a review. All opinions are 100% mine .