Our New House!

We have had a very busy spring around here! We have been contemplating the pros and cons of building a new house vs. buying, and have really been pondering the options for over a year. We are so lucky to have land from B's family that we can build on if we want it. This winter, we got pretty serious about looking at house plans and had even discussed clearing our land and slowly starting the building process.

But, all that has changed! In early March, we stumbled upon the PERFECT house... in a fabulous neighborhood, in our school district, at the end of a great cul-de-sac, with a fantastic FLAT yard, with plenty of room for us now and room to grow in the future. So needless to say, we quickly put in an offer and were ecstatic that it was accepted (after a couple of rounds of countering)!! Thankfully, we already had a buyer lined up for our house, and the best part is that we can stay here in our old house until school is out in June and we don't have to move during the crazy busy end of the school year!

We are slowly trying to de-clutter and I'm having a great time looking at fabrics and making decorating decisions. The girls are thrilled that the new house has "stairs"! I'm excited about the fabulous kitchen (I might actually decide to enjoy cooking something) and the great open spaces for entertaining. B can't wait to get in the huge yard and "play" with all the guys in the neighborhood. He's already been recruited for a volleyball team and a Texas Hold Em group. HA!

We are all a little sad to think about leaving this house... both girls came home from the hospital here and we are so fortunate to be able to see both Grammy's and Nana's houses from our street. But, the new house is only 15 minutes away and we are so excited about the new memories we will make in it!!

So sad to see it go...

Our summer is over :(

I have been The Worst Blogger Ever, but I have plenty of good excuses. I've spent the last 2 months with 2 precious girls who are growing up WAY too fast!!! We spent almost every day at the pool and lots of lazy mornings at home in our p's and j's... it doesn't get much better than that.

S turned 8 and somehow became a big kid over the course of the summer... she sang a solo at musical theater camp, joined the swim team & kicked some serious butt in the pool, and got her ears pierced. Mommy cried :(

R has turned 5 and is even more of a diva than she already was. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she won't be the kindergarten playground drama queen.

Tomorrow is the first official teacher workday and I'm just sad. I can't even think about not being with my girls every minute. I passed up a girlfriends' movie night tonight so I could stay home for bedtime. I keep reminding myself that at least we get to be in the same building every day, since both girls will be at school with me this year, but I just want to hold on to the easy, lazy days a little longer!! Maybe someday I will post some pics of our summer fun :)

I spy with my little eye...

SPRING BREAK!!

We have been loving our week off! We hung out at home on Monday and Tuesday, bought Easter dresses on ebay, played with friends, took naps, and just rested. We stayed up late and slept late. Did you know that a 4 year old can sleep until 9:40am and a 7 year old can sleep until 9:55am? Of course mommy gets up a little earlier than the girls, around 9:15-ish :) Wednesday and Thursday were our shopping days. The weather was sunny and 80+ degrees... perfect!!!



The girls @ Friendly taking advantage of the gorgeous weather...

They picked out their own outfits today and were super excited to break out the flip flops :)

We all really need a tan!!!

We have a standing tradition of lunch at Cafe Carolina with Kristen, one of my bff's since preschool, whenever we are in GBO during a school break!

The pollen is kicking mine and Riley's booties right now... we both have nasty red eyes and she's been working the inhaler daily. And while I love, love, LOVE being home with my girls, it almost feels like spring break is nothing but a big old tease. Monday morning will be right back to reality with alarm clock at 5am, and it's such a LOOOONG time until school gets out on June 15... we will SO enjoy our 3 more mornings of sleeping late!!

Tea for 12!!

A couple of weeks ago, R went to a birthday tea party for one of her best little friends, Savannah. The party was here and she had a fabulous time!! All the little girls played dress up, had an ettiquette lesson, listened to a teapot story, and enjoyed their tea (pink lemonade)! They had sandwiches and of course teapot cupcakes. It was the cutest and girliest party ever!!

R with her friends Aspen & Gracie

CHEERS!!

Such a little lady!

Does it get any cuter than this??

Bubbles were in the goody bags!

Now that party season is here, we are working on the party plans for S and R's bdays. We start early... their birthdays aren't until July!! R wants a Pink Paris Diva Day (nails, hair, tutu skirts, and Eiffel Towers). S can't decide between a nail/cupcake outing, a pottery painting party, or a slumber party. I'm trying to talk her out of the slumber party... At least we have plenty of time to decide!!

Think Pink

We have had a crazy week!! Everyone has been sick with assorted germs- B had a sinus infection, both girls have been congested, I had the stomach virus. Both girls have had mini versions of the stomach bug and B has passed his sinus mess to me now. YUCK!! We need warm weather so we can go outside and get some fresh air! Thank goodness temps are supposed to be in the 60's in a few days!!!

Added to all the germs, I had a scary dr. visit last week as well. At my annual ob/gyn appt, I pointed out a tender lumpy area near my armpit. Dr. did not like the way it was different from the other side and scheduled me for a mammogram/ultrasound. I went on Tuesday to have it checked out and thankfully, everything was fine! Hormonal changes are most likely the culprit, but it was scary to think about what it could have been. I'm super glad that the radiologist said I don't have to go back for another m-gram for 7 more years- it was NOT fun!!! On the positive side, at least it's nice to know that everything in there is how it's supposed to be :)

The girls have been hilarious as usual. At children's church last week, S had to draw pictures of something that made her happy and something that made her sad. Her "sad" picture was of me telling her to make her bed, which is funny b/c she never complains about making her bed b/c she earns quarters for doing it!! Her "happy" picture was of her sitting on the couch beside God watching Little Miss Perfect. I'm not so sure God watches LMP, but apparently she thinks so!!

R is having picture day at preschool this week, so she had to try on some dresses this a.m. and have a fashion show...

We decided to go with the silver sweater dress. She is all kinds of cute in it!!

Finally, here's our newest addition- Flipperz the Second...

Happy Weekend!!!!

Empire State of Mind

I am a huge SATC fan, and I know it's really early, but I can NOT wait to get "carrie"d away!!!

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKQ5yRFkBnE

SO exciting!!!

Valentine's Day & a funeral

We had a LOVE-ly Valentine's weekend full of family and friends!! Here's R on her way to preschool for her V-day party Thursday...

Friday night we ate dinner at my grandparents with the whole family. Valentine's day is my Grandpa's favorite holiday, so we always have Togetherness (his word for family time). On Saturday, B and I went to a wine tasting at the country club and had a GREAT time!! Lots of great food, wine, beer, and friends! The girls stayed with Nana during the afternoon and also spent the night, so we had dinner out and stood in line for 30 min. for some HOT NOW Krispy Kreme doughnuts... so yummy and so nice to have over 18 hours of quiet!!

We stayed home Sunday and were lazy, which was perfectly fine with all of us. As you can see, some of us had fun being lazy...

You'd laugh if your sister wore her Valentine gift bag for a hat at the dinner table!!

I bet this breakfast for dinner would make you smile with it's pink heart pancakes and pink milk... We LOVE pink!!!

After our LOVE-ly weekend, we had a sad Monday... we came home to find a lifeless fish :(

We were not surprised by this news. The fish had not eaten in days and had been lying around on the rocks at the bottom of the bowl. S handled it well, but drama queen R put on a show worthy of an Oscar! She needs to be on Broadway some day, the girl can cry, wail, moan, etc. on command. We gave Flippers a proper burial at sea and the girls drew pictures of him. I did not take a picture of the dead fish (you're welcome!), but here's one of the girls admiring him back when he was healthy...

We are hoping for a sunnier day tomorrow!!!

What we do on Snow Days

We were excited to wake up on Saturday morning to another snow fall... around 8 inches this time. Unfortunately, our town decided not to scrape the roads until yesterday (Monday) afternoon, and we are now getting a lovely coating of freezing rain, so we have been IN THE HOUSE for 4 days now!!! To say we need to get out is an understatement. I love being home with my girls more than anything, but we have run out of things to do! We couldn't even print out some Groundhog Day activities b/c we need a new ink cartridge! I am checking the temps constantly to see if there is any hope of driving on the roads today. So, here's what the Tiaras do on snow days...

Snuggle in bed watching cartoons...

Paint pictures of sea shells using Daddy's Theta Chi shot glass for the paint water...

Eat...

Have play dates with bff Lily Grayce...

Check out the sledding conditions in the back yard...

Clean off the swing set slide...

Make snow angels...

Look cute in the snow...

Practice our Angelina Jolie face...

Go to the pool (to sled on the parking lot) with Anna...

Jump & shovel on the trampoline...

Smile in the snow...!!!

Why I run...

I've been so good lately, trying to go out and run at least 3 times a week. So far I'm up to about a mile and a half. When I went out my door the other day in the windy, 30 degrees, I had to ask myself why I am doing this??? It didn't take more than about a block for me to remember why I run...

the quiet! I don't listen to anything but the cars and the trees and I love it!! Alone time is SO important!

the satisfaction! I know that this is something that I can do, but it just takes getting out there and actually doing it.

my health! I've never worried about myself until this past year. Lots of little health things have made me realize that I have to work on this. I've always just focused on taking care of everyone else. I'm realizing that I do a much better job at taking care of everyone else when I've taken care of myself first!

Fitting into skinny jeans is also motivating, along with knowing that pool season is just not that far away... :)

Christmas fun!!

Our Christmas started in the best possible way... SNOW on the last day of school before vacation!! We got out of school early and had time for a play date with S's sweet friend A-M before the snow got too deep...



The girls were thrilled beyond words with the 7 inches we got! That's a lot around here!!

We also enjoyed a Snow Fun birthday party that weekend for R's buddy D...

We spent our first few days of vacation visiting with great old and new friends on the 23rd and getting our house ready for company... B's entire family was here for lunch on Christmas Eve (16 people!!) and we still had major work to do to get everything put away from the remodeling projects. Lunch was successful and it was great to have the whole family together!! This was the first Christmas in many years that EVERYONE was here and B said it was just like he remembered as a little boy- craziness and people everywhere!!

One of S's first gifts... not exactly her favorite of the day, but so cute!! I need to remember to do this sometimes myself...!!

R's pride and joy... her dollhouse from Nana!! This was a gift of sanity for Mommy and also a gift of peace & quiet for S... S has had her own similar dollhouse for a couple of years and we often have major drama over R rearranging S's Barbies. Now (hopefully) there will be no more arguing!!!

Christmas Eve ended with tracking Santa on the NORAD site and sprinkling reindeer food in the snow!! Our first white Christmas!!!

Christmas morning brought gifts from Santa and Mommy & Daddy... the favorites were a Nintendo DS for S and a Leapster for R. We headed to my Grandma & Grandpa's for breakfast and more presents, then home for a rest before dinnner at my parents (Grammy & Bumpy).

Here's R opening her 5th Eiffel Tower related gift of the holiday... she's obsessed with the Eiffel Tower!!! I love her style!!

S was so excited about her PINK razor scooter!! Such a girlie girl- love that, too!!!

Both girls got an American Girl doll from Grammy & Bumpy... Kit for S and her bff Ruthie for R. They were thrilled!!

At the end of the day, the girls wanted to sing happy birthday to Jesus. I was proud that they were able to remember the real reason for the season! We also got to visit with our NYC friends who dropped by after the girls were in bed- so great to see them again!!

We hope you had a holly jolly Christmas!!!

ebay Alert!

I am getting myself motivated and trying to start listing some outgrown little girl clothes on ebay. Most are 3T or close to it. Check us out- the seller id name is benmere415. Happy week before Christmas!!

SO excited about this...

... We have a new bathroom!!! We have been in the process of having our master bath remodeled since about Halloween, so I am beyond excited to have it DONE, finally!! The previous owners of our house did a pretty crappy job of putting in a teeny corner shower, peel n stick floor "tile", brass lights and fixtures, etc... There was water damage behind the shower wall and in the floor, so it all had to be taken out and started over from scratch!

Here's a Before shot...

And another... with the shower doors already removed and a bunch of B's work stuff inside...

And here's a picture of the lovely During process... nothing but studs and plywood...

With one wall and a Hollywood light fixture left behind...

During all the work, B and I moved into the girls' bathroom. It was a little tight with 4 people and all our stuff!

We also moved out of our bedroom during Thanksgiving in order to take up the carpet and have hardwoods put down. Here are B and his bff E working hard on the floor...

The bedroom with new floors, but still without furniture...

We had to put our bed mattress on top of the sleeper sofa mattress in the living room and have been sleeping there for 3 weeks! Our bedroom furniture is scattered throughout the living room and office/computer room...

Imagine how cozy we all were in our living/bed room over Thanksgiving when some old friends who now live in NYC dropped by to catch up!! Where to sit??

I have had a really hard time with the displacement of all this. We couldn't get to our Christmas stuff to decorate because of all the furniture and everything else scattered everywhere. We finally now have our tree up and the house somewhat decorated, but I am still not in the Christmas spirit like I usually am when my house is a wreck and only halfway decorated!!

Here is what the bathroom looked like about a week ago...

Ready to see the After photos???

TA DA...

LOVE my giraffe towels- thank you, TJMaxx!!! Still need to go back for some accessories...

This picture does not do the shower justice- it is huge!! We have 2 shower sprayers in there so you are never cold!! The shower door is ordered and should be here the 21st. We also have ordered a new bed that should be here by Tuesday. Hopefully by Christmas we will be back to normal!!