More divas in the house

This past weekend my wonderful friend Robin and her girls came in town to visit. We had blast and so did the girls. If I list everything we did, well the post would never end. But it did include some great shopping, food and laughing. So here are a few shots from this weekend. Saturday was the big night when Sissy's friend and Sugar got the "Diva haircut" (as I call it) at good ole' Sweet & Sassy.

And can I just tell you how excited I am that the owners are building a brand new a Sweet & Sassy right. down. the. street. from. my. house. Man, I just love it here...

Sissy and Mini-Me outside Sweet & Sassy.

Back view of Sugar's hair (sorry y'all but the next few are for Grandma and Grannie!)

Sugar showing off her glitter star they painted on her cheek.

Shopping...shopping...shopping...boy they start early!

Monkeying around...

...Texas style. Well both girls started taking Gymnastics a couple of weeks ago and they are having a blast. Almost everyday Sissy asks, "Mommy, how many more days till Gymnastics?" Of course the plan was for Sissy to take lessons while Sugar and I observed from the window. BUT after listening for 45 minutes to Sugar crying and saying, "Mommy, I wanna do dat" during big sister's first lesson, we went ahead and signed her up too.

The place we are going is incredible. The building is decorated with (of course) a Texas theme inside and out, full of saddle seats, cowboy boots, bears and stars. The coaches are young and talented, the equipment is top of the line, and the environment is very positive.

The only drawback this session is that this is Sugar's first time so mommy has to take the classes with her. Yikes! So for right now we only have pictures of the little one performing and Sissy posing.

So Sweet

This was a conversation that Sissy and I had the other day while playing in the playroom. She was lying on the floor with a huge grin on her face and she said:

Sissy: Mommy?

Me: Yes

Sissy: I think I'm in love with a boy!

Me: What??? (she's four y'all)

Sissy: A boy. (giggling with the sweetest smile)

Me: What boy?

Sissy: (softly giggling)...my daddy...

My heart melted, then I immediately ran downstairs to the bedroom to tell hubby.

I have to admit it, I was a little scared at first. But then when she answered 'Daddy' I thought good, that's what every little four-year old girls answer should be! :-)

Wheels Off

Last evening was one of those nights I have dreamt about growing up. It wasn't about purchasing a dream car or finishing a marathon it was about my first born, my little girl.

She's growing up...

The early evening started out with teaching her to roller skate and having some wonderful mommy daughter time since Sugar was in bed. Then together we decided it was time to take the wheels off. The training wheels that is on her My Little Pony bike.

With just a few cranks of a monkey wrench, I was holding the back of her bike seat as she frantically tried to pedal, balance and look straight. We went up and down the street several times then around the block and down the little alley hill behind our house. It was good times. I continually laughed out loud while bending over trying to hold her 40lb. body and bike up while she screamed and laughed, "Mommy I'm scared!"

It was that moment that I realized I was doing what I dreamt about doing as a parent. Teaching your little one how to ride a bike. Laughing and giggling and watching the amazement on their face when you let go for just a second. It may seem like such a small thing to some but to me, it was an amazing time watching her grow. I know this is only one very small milestone she will reach in her lifetime but being a part of it and watching her was wheels off.

Seriously?

Has it really been that long since I posted?? Okay, so maybe it has...Now I have this blank text box and not a thing is coming to me.

I could post pics about our roller skating party we attended on Saturday but then that would mean I would have to download the pictures off my camera...scratch that.

Oh I know, I could post pictures of my french toile duvet cover that is just about completed and the bunch of pillows I made for the daybed in the guest room...but that's just boring.

I could tell you about our wonderful Father's Day...when I mopped floors and scrubbed toilets to help make it a better Father's Day...but that's not good news.

I could post a picture of the last minute Spiderman cake I made for hubby's birthday last week...but it didn't turn out that good.

I could tell you the story how I paid the electrician a bunch of money to come out and push a silly reset button...but that would just embarrass me.

Oh...I could tell you the story about how a golf ball busted out our upstairs window...but we live across the street from the golf course... so I really don't know the story.

Well apparently, I have no good stories to tell...so for now go look at my friend's super cute new baby it's much more interesting than this old blawg!

Watchout Martha

Lately, I've been a bit of a Martha Stewart in action. Now for those of you that have known me for a loooong time probably never thought I would utter those words. As much as I hate to admit it, it's true.

Since moving in the new house I have smothered myself in house projects. I think I've got them going on in almost every room of the house. Hence, the reason the ole' blawg has been neglected. Below are some shots of Martha + Frugalness = Happy Mommy and Daddy. :-)

Here is a sneak peak of my sewing room/guest room. I'm currently making [read attempting] to make my own duvet cover and I made some pillows for the day bed. My choice of colors are aqua blue and chocolate brown. This happens to be one of my favorite rooms in the house and and I even had the painters paint it blue to match! I'll post a final picture when it's all done because it's going to take a while for this novice sewer to complete.

We have big peformers in the house and they will perform on anything with height. Needless to say, they were ruining the last wood step on the stairs and I was certain one of them was going to get hurt on the fireplace hearth...soooo mama made them their own stage. I just used some free wood (thanks previous homeowners) to make the platform and sewed purple sequin curtains with a matching drape on the front of the platform. Lastly, I glued some purple leapard print fabric on top.

This is Sissy performing with my Karoake machine I had from when I was in high school. It plays the radio and tape cassettes but it still works. Smile. (Now I'm showing my age...)

If you haven't noticed by now, I had the painters paint the playroom PURPLE! Oh yes, it is bright purple. Hey, their only kids once right? This is a picture of a ceiling fan that was left behind from the previous home owners (thanks again). It was antique gold and I spray painted it white and painted the fan blades in different colors. I actually searched for one like this on the Internet and couldn't find one so I made one myself and hung it up. *The colors are actually much brighter than what they turned in the picture.

Now this picture is not from my house, but this is a project I worked on as a birthday present for my girlfriends' daughters 4th birthday. She was changing the theme out in her room so I re-made this canopy over the slide on her bunk bed in the new color theme of hot pink, black and zebra print. She loved it!

These are the curtains I made for Sugar's room. You can't really see from the picture but they are light pink silk panels with tiny pink and green embroidered flowers on them.

And last but not least one of my personal favorites is the conversion of the ugly attic door in the playroom. I could not for the life of me think of what to do with this big white door in the middle of wall of the playroom. See, I can't put toys or furniture in front of it because then I wouldn't be able to get in and out of my attic. So a few weeks ago I was flipping through my BHG Organizing catalog and read about this cool product called Chalkboard Paint. That's when I had an AHA moment. I headed to Home Depot and bought myself a can of black chalkboard paint and went to town. Next, to hide the doorknob I wrapped a pink satin bow around the door handle. Then finally I decorated a little cardboard box with zebra fabric to hold the chalk and erasers. Wha-la! The girls absolutely LOVE it.

So if you're wondering what in the heck T-Lo has been up to, there you have it...I've been playing susie homemaker. I think Martha would be proud don't you? :-)

Thursday Thirteen

Graphic courtesy of Kelly @ Diary of the Nello

Thirteen Things I have realized about my age over the past week...

1. You know you're getting older when...You switch your subscription from Cosmopolitian magazine to Better Homes and Gardens. (I coincidently subscribed myself this week.)

2. You know you're getting older when...You show up at the swimming pool with a one piece swim suit and matching body cover...with kids in tow.

3. You know you're getting older when...You know all the words to every song on Noggin or Boomerang but can't name a single current pop song.

4. You know you're getting older when...Your kids and dogs are dressed and groomed better than you.

5. You know you're getting older when...You can watch the History Channel for long periods of time, without falling asleep or getting bored.

6. You know you're getting older when...You only weigh yourself when all your clothes off.

7. You know you're getting older when...You get eight hours of sleep and still need a afternoon nap.

8. You know you're getting older when...You consider a "late night out" is after 9:00pm.

9. You know you're getting older when...You catch yourself repeating phrases that your mom or dad used to say to you.

10. You know you're getting older when...You have to pause and think about how old you are.

11. You know you're getting older when...You finally say your age and realize later the you were wrong.

12. You know you're getting older when...You change from sugar-coated cereals to fiber-filled cereals. :-)

13. You know you're getting older when...You can't think of thirteen things that you just thought of earlier in the day.

MIA

It's been a crazy few weeks around here but the reason I haven't blogged lately is because I'm in Tennessee visiting family. I've been here for almost two weeks now and we are having a blast. I have so much to blog about and quite frankly not enough time. So here is a bullet list of what's been going on and what we've been doing...

• My whole house has been painted while we and the girls are gone.
• We got a new bedroom suit that has been delivered and hubby got to sleep in it first. (I finally got my king-size bed!!)
• We've been to the zoo and got to witness a mama giraffe give birth to her baby!
• We got to see our nephew on leave from the army before possibly being shipped to Iraq.
• We've had a few family birthday parties while in town and a Memorial Day cookout.

That's just a brief list of what we've been up to...stay tuned for pictures and more posts. :-)

Texas Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I Love About Our New Home in Texas

You had to know this was coming...this is a special edition of Thursday Thirteen with pictures. I thought this was much more fun this way...and since everyone has been asking for more pictures of the house I've included a few of my favorites.
* Also, we still are waiting for the painters to come and I am in no way close to finish decorating so bear with me.

1. The Flowers in our Yard.

2. The Jacuzzi Tub in our Master Bath
















3. The Two-Story Stone Fireplace. By the way, that cross will be hung in the niche as soon as I figure out what hardware works on stone!




















4. Our home church...Fellowship Church.


5. The Large Girl's Rooms finally painted with color!



































6. Our New Banquette Table in the Nook. Especially since Sugar can no longer push the chairs over to counter to reach any medicines, scissors, etc. - yeah!
















7. The Green Grass with Texas Longhorns
literally down the street!
















8. The Media Room that hubby has so kindly allowed (read forced) to be the Playroom until the girls get older.
















9. The Big Trees and Huge Thunderstorms followed by Rainbows.
















10. The Circular Staircase when you enter the through the front door.




















11. Old friends...and because I did not get their permission ahead of time, I did not post any pictures of my girlfriends. I'm sure they are SO thanking me right now. :-)



12. The Double Convection Ovens




















13. The Tex-Mex Food

We're alive...sort of

When a close friend who is also a very busy woman and still has time to blog herself, tells you "you haven't blogged in like forever"...well then it's time to post something.

It's not that I don't have lots to blog about (because I honestly have tons) but it's more because I have been under the weather for the last five days. If you've been around here long at all you know when I get sick, I get sick. After popping lots of pills (of course prescribed by my doctor) I was actually able to get out of bed today. I'm guessing having our community garage sale in the rain on Saturday probably didn't help much.

So before I got sick here is what we were up to...

Going to the zoo...

Spending time with friends...























Finding new things at Wal-Mart...notice the TV in the first picture? Oh yes folks, for only ONE dollar a mama can have peace and quiet while grocery shopping!

Sweet & Sassy

UPDATED TO ADD: I just realized the best picture didn't post...the picture of the back of Sissy's hair and her trying to get Sugar to look down. :-)

We just found [thanks to a few friends] the girls a new place to get their haircut. Sweet & Sassy has got to be the cutest girly place ever, next to Libby Lu's of course. Well last night we had severe thunderstorms, hail and a few tornados in the area, so today we finally ventured out to get the "do" done today.

Sissy got the Cutie Cut and Sugar ended up getting her first haircut ever. See, originally I did not plan on having Sugar's hair cut because she really doesn't have any hair. But, the whole time Sissy was getting her Cutie Cut she was saying, "my turn, my turn". So before it was all said and done Sugar was finally in the diva seat getting her a new do. And, boy do I mean done. If only y'all could feel her hair...it is super. super. fine. baby. hair and somehow the hairdresser managed to style it with a flat iron! And, to top it off both girls got glitter spray.

Here are some of the diva moments we captured today...Sissy got a Stacked Bob and Sugar got layers. :-)

For Heather

If you haven't heard already what's going on in the blogosphere than go here. Every time I read an update on Heather I say to myself, "really, how much can one person take?"

Then I went to her blog via another because I truly did not believe what I was reading. You can get a tidbit of it by reading this...

All I keep thinking of is Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Please, if you want to help go on over to Boomama's blog and help a friend out. You can go here to get the details.

We're praying for you Heather!

At the Dump

There's something to say about a place that proactively builds with kids in mind, like The DUMP. For those of you who are not familiar, The DUMP is an awesome new furniture store that opened up here in Dallas right after we arrived. I can honestly say that it has become our second home since we moved back. Since almost doubling the size of our house we had seven years ago, we have been long overdue for some new furniture. So this where we have been...

Not only are the prices, quality and customer service great, they have a little section devoted for the kiddos to hang out in big leather chairs and watch cartoons on the tube. It's also conveniently located in front of the drinking fountains and restrooms. Below are some pictures (mainly for the family of course) of the girls in our new favorite furniture store.

Here is a shot of them sharing a chair and Sugar is trying to say "cheese". But sometimes that little tongue gets in the way. ;-)


This is a shot of Sugar copying her sister's moves when we get upset. Sissy didn't want to share the chair anymore! *BTW - The wet spot between the legs is a spilled drink from the car. :-)
And, finally this is Sissy wanting her picture taken in front of the fireplace. Because of course she needed some attention too!***Updated: That Little Blessings video below has been fixed if you missed it!

Little Blessings

If you have read my blog for any length of time you will know that Sugar does EVERYTHING that her big Sissy does. Sometimes this is bad but this week it has been literally a blessing. Sugar started this week copying her Sissy's prayers at meal time. Today I decided to catch it on camera because well...it.was. just. so. darn. cute!

You can tell by watching the video she was a little distracted with the camera on her and the fact that Sissy was trying to remind her to say "Daddy". And right before she starts, Sugar shouts that she is going to say the prayer. This is only because this is exactly what Sissy announces when she doesn't want mama to say the prayer. Go figure.

For those of you who have trouble understanding a two-years old speech, I have translated it for you ahead of time. :-)

"MOM I SAY IT...
Thank you for a great day
and Smokey and Daisy and (herself) and Sissy
and Mommy and and um Sissy
Amen"

My Little Pony LIVE, Easter and lots of Good Times

I know this is not the best title for a post, but you know what? We have been soooo busy I can't get it all done in time for the blog. Behind many cardboard boxes, dirty dishes and bare walls we've been one busy family.

Friday night I went scrapping for my first time in TWO years. Yes, two years y'all. Surprisingly, I found my Crop-n-Style bag and one tote of scrapworthy tools. I even got two whole pages done and was in bed by 2:00am.

Saturday was the big show day. We took the girls to see the My Little Pony LIVE show. They absolutely had a ball and so did I! Sorry Nick Jr. fans, but this show was WAY better than the Dora Live show.









Easter Sunday we were invited to a friends family luncheon and egg hunt. And let me tell you folks, these people know how to put on an egg hunt. Their parents' backyard was huge and looked like something out of a Home and Garden magazine. The pictures below are exactly what you see when you walk out their back door.

I believe they hid around 300 eggs filled with candy and money. The girls had so much fun and we're finding more eggs than their baskets could hold! Below is a picture of the kids in a funky tree hanging out back.
What you can't see from the picture was that it was about 50 degrees on Easter and the day before we actually had snow flurries! Yes, as our pastor said, "we might have a white Easter"!

The best part was coming home late Sunday afternoon having the entire family take a long nap!



I love this time of year...

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!