9!!

well, kalei had another birthday.

i keep telling her to stop growing up. yesterday, i told the kids they just needed to stay their current ages for a while and not to get any bigger! i'm sorry to say they laughed at me. i can't believe our girl is almost to double digits!!

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?!!!!

anyhoo, just wanted to share a little of her birthday, so you can feel like you were there (feel free to sing along):

kalei's cake was SUPER yummy. she special-requested a lemon cake (i used a lemon cake mix, added 4 eggs, 3/4 cup water, 3/4 cup oil, 1 cup sour cream, and a lemon pudding packet - mix all together and pour into greased and floured cake pans - bake as directed on the cake mix box - the cake turned out so deliciously moist!), but she doesn't really like traditional icing, so i mixed a small tub of cool whip, a packet of lemon jell-o, and two 6 oz. cups of lemon yogurt to use as icing. it was sooooo good!!! the birthday girl was very pleased with it.

kalei had one present on her wish list: an american girl doll that looked like her. we went online and she picked out the doll she liked, and we even ordered glasses so the doll would indeed look like her mini-me.

here is kalei's "surprised" face.

hmmmmm.... looks more excited than surprised, yes?

we love you, honey girl!

thank you for being part of our family - we hope your day was as special as you are!

weekend craftiness

i signed up to participate in a quilt-along a few months ago. i think i was supposed to have this quilt top finished at the end of february. better late than never, right? (story of my life!)

on a lighter note..

TA DA!!!!

our kitchen-cabinet-painting-adventure is complete!

we went from this (taken when i realized - "hey! we don't have any good 'before' pictures of our cabinets and james is already taking the doors off!"):

to THIS:

(the cabinets have actually been finished for a little while, but i had to wait and take pictures when the counters were semi-cleared off. i'm trying to be very deliberate with what is placed back into the cabinets and where and blah, blah... (notice these photos don't include the table behind me - still filled with items who don't have a home, yet.)

there you have it!

our photo-based essay on "what we did over spring break.... and a couple weeks after."

what a difference, eh?

p.s. yes, we got a new fridge! (and i made adorable new magnets for it and am trying to contain them to the side of the fridge - i love the front with nothing on it.)

p.p.s. i love how the fire extinguisher now matches the cabinets perfectly! safety + style = love it!

p.p.p.s we painted the insides, too, and added new hardware cause i'm a little ocd and that's how we roll.

breaking the cycle

since the beginning of the year, i've felt conflicted:

i want to "lose weight."

i want to "get healthy."

basically, this is code for wanting to be skinny.

but, i know that my body doesn't do "skinny."

i run 2 miles most mornings, and walk a little afterwards.

i feel like my body is healthy, but not skinny.

why aren't i happy with healthy?

at the beginning of the year, there was a conflict of messages in the stream of blogs that i read - one would say, "it's a new year and i'm finally going to lose this extra weight!" while another would proclaim, "let's just all accept ourselves and stop talking about weight completely!" i didn't feel drawn to either camp. i don't want to let go of all weight goals, but i don't want to be held hostage by those same goals. i am so sick of weighing how i feel about myself based on my weight! i am sick of my running negative internal dialogue when i have a "bad" day on the scales! if someone talked to kalei the way i sometimes talk to myself, i would be all over them in a heartbeat - in less than a heartbeat. why in the world would i want to raise her to talk to herself that way?!

this morning, i read this.

i will not worship this weight idol any more. the weaning process will be long and hard at times, but i look at my daughter and think that i owe it to her (and myself) to break this cycle.

she's worth it, and so am i.

deal alert!

hello! i promise we have updates and pictures to post (and we'll get to it soon - the kitchen photos are very exciting!), but i wanted to share this awesome deal!! for everyone who wants to purchase 'tangled,' disney has a coupon for $5 off the dvd/blu-ray/3d/digital copy version, and target has this version for $25, so you can get all those copies for just $20!!! WOW!!!

you can find the coupon here. (you have to sign up for movie rewards, but as far as i can tell, you're not roped into anything dubious.) also, once you buy the movie, you can go back to disney movie rewards and get a free 'tangled' charm bracelet! (shipping extra, of course.)

just wanted to share! hope your week is fabulous!!

UPDATE: the shipping & handling for the charm bracelet is $2.85! yay! (and will be here in 6 - 8 weeks - boo.)

eye-opening

i just read this online - a quick read, but really thought-provoking. reading it, i wanted to run and hug my kiddos, but also show them how other children around the world live - not to scare them, but just to widen their perspective a bit. i think we'll plan a family home evening lesson around it, and include lots of discussion.

edited to add:
p.s. i want to say that this seems to be a collection of extremes - at least i didn't see any examples from the u.s. that i felt represented my kids' rooms (especially that princess' room from kentucky - wow - so NOT kalei's room). still, though, my heart aches for the kids that live in these extremes, that this is their reality. i want my kids to be aware - not scared or insecure, hence the loads of discussion - but aware that we are lucky, and we can help.

6!

this little man is now 6!

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?!

a week or two ago, koa & i found these christmas poppers on clearance at pier 1 - he thought they'd be fun for his birthday, and i thought they'd be cheap entertainment for $2.

(he was really excited to open them, if you can't tell.) woohoo! nothing screams "happy birthday!!" like tissue paper crowns and british jokes. the kids loved it. especially the slight explosion when the poppers were popped.

the day after his birthday, we celebrated at chuck e. cheese! it was our family's first time at this interesting establishment. the kids had a fabulous time. they loved the pizza and the games and redeeming their tickets for prizes. we won't be back until james & i are fully recovered from this time - it'll be awhile. koa went to tae kwon do on saturday and told his instructor that his birthday was february 10th and 11th - chuck e. cheese was that exciting!

the top picture is from koa's birthday (5 days ago). the bottom picture is from yesterday. we asked koa to not ever ask for snow on his birthday again. he was unrepentant and enjoyed their week off of school to the hilt.

we love you, koa!! happy birthday, little man!