Five things somebody loves Tuesday

So I thought I would try something new and fun for the month of May. Each Tuesday I am going to list five things that someone in our family loves. Fun!! I will start with the youngest member of the family.. Hannah Kate!

Her blankie! I just searched online to get a picture of her blankie and it's hard to believe it actually looked like this at one point. She didn't really become "attached" to her blankie until she was around the age of 2. I love that she has something that is soothing to her. It is so cute when she is weepy and gives me those sad little eyes and says, "mama, where's my bwankie."

Hannah LOVES ballet. She takes ballet on Friday afternoon and she talks about it all. week. long. She has taken gymnastics for awhile in a mommy and me class but I was nervous for her to start the ballet. It was not a mommy and me class and she wouldn't be able to see me during the class. For those of you that know Hannah know that she attached to me at the hip. So needless to say I was a little worried. She kept saying she wanted to do it and so we gave it a try. The very first day she walked into the class like she had been going forever and absolutely loves it. Every single day at home she wants to have on one of her ballet leotards and her ballet shoes. She even sleeps in them at times. (its just not worth the fight) The cutest thing is when she tells random people in her quiet little voice, "I take ballet."

Who doesn't love Fancy Nancy!! Lauren loved Fancy Nancy and recently Hannah jumped on the Nancy train. Hannah is such a girly girl to she loves to listen to all the things Fancy Nancy is up to. Almost every time we get done reading, or even sometimes before we are done reading, she is anxious to get all done up just like Fancy Nancy!! We even scored a Fancy Nancy dress up dress at Marshalls a couple weeks ago! Score!

TANGLED!! Along with every other little girl in America, right?! It is such a cute movie and I was happy to catch a break from "Despicable Me." Hannah's two favorite parts of the movie are with Flynn gives Rapunzel the "smoudler".. she cracks up laughing every time. Then of course she lanterns part. It is so purdy when Flynn and Rapunzel are out there on that little canoe with a million lanterns floating all around them. Every Mom's.. I mean girl's dream, right!

I know, I know. She is 3. She shouldn't have a passy. I get it. But she does. She loves them. She is actually sitting next to me right now and when she saw the pictures of the passy's she jumped up and hugged me and said "I love passy's. I love them. I love THAT passy. " Now who could deny a sweet little Hannah a passy after that!! Obviously not ME!

the house.... in pieces

People keep asking me when I am going to post pictures of my new house. I keep trying to get around to it but to be honest, what keeps me from posting them? Remembering to take pictures when its actually clean enough to take a picture. I tell myself I am going to take pictures as soon as my wonderful cleaning lady leaves every other Monday and I forget every single time. I think its because I am usually numb from excitement that the whole house is clean. Because it is the ONLY time the whole has is clean. So you are going to get pictures of my house in doses... as I can get it clean AND remember to take a picture. ;) Enjoy!

First I give you, my kitchen. This was my baby of the house. I put so much thought and time into designing this kitchen. I didn't keep track but we easily had 15 revisions of this baby. And I have to say, it was worth every single minute. I love it and it is exactly what I wanted. :)

An Earth Day Project

Lauren had to do an earth day project for school last week. They had to make something using recyclable materials from home. After some brainstorming (and searching the internet ;) ) she decided on making the tin can herb garden. It was a lot of fun and she loved working on the project.. especially painting the cans! And to top it all off, she got second place in her class!!! WAY TO GO LAUREN!! The kid that got first place made a disco ball out of cd's. To which Jamie replied "who the heck recycles CD's?" Oh my!

guess who came to visit!!!! and our weekend in pictures

THE LANDSCAPERS!!!!! They came on Thursday and Friday of last week and I was overjoyed!!! Perfect timing since it has rained every single day since they laid the seed. It looks great. When it warms up a bit I have two rose bushes to plant out by the deck in back and some other flowers on the other side of the deck. We also need to enclose the play system in back with some timbers and order the pebble rock for that. Cannot wait for all that to be done. Then when we finally stop dipping below 50 degrees at night they can come paint my front door and garage trim!! I cannot wait!!

Maggie Moo came to visit last Thursday!!!! Her Grandma is out of time so we get to spend Thursdays with her while her mama is at work. Hannah absolutely loves playing and taking care of Maggie and it gives me that baby fix that I so badly need.

Lauren and Julia!! They were laying on the couch watching "Megamind" and apparently there was a scary part and they were comforting one another. This is how these two are all day long. Just warms my heart!

Hannah and Lauren love to match but with their age difference it is sometimes hard to find things for them that match. Trusty old Gymboree jammie's work every time. They get so excited when they get new matching Gymbo jammies and I must say they are super cute in them!!

MAX!!! LOVE HIM!!

thank you mother nature

This weekend was absolute bliss! The weather was in the 70's on Saturday and 80's on Sunday!!!! What a wonderful, unexpected, break in mid April in Indiana! Friday night we had our new neighbors and our wonderful builder and his wife over for dinner. It was a great time and the neighbor girls spent the night which was a lot of fun. The weekend continued with meals outside, water balloon fights and breaking in the new swing set. Perfect!!

a girl turns 8

It is hard to believe that I have been a mama for 8 years now. In some ways it seems impossible and in other ways it seems like sooo... much longer than that. The long awaited day finally arrived for Lauren. She is the last one in the family to celebrate her birthday for the year and man does she hate it. We listen the entire month of March how unfair it is that her birthday is last. I always try to convince her that we save the best for last.. she never buys into it.

Her party was a success all in all. We had 10 little girls spend the night on Saturday night and I spent all day Sunday in somewhat of a coma trying to recuperate. Apparently Lauren was trying to recover as well because she took a 4 hour nap and then went back to bed at 9:30pm. And what a sweetheart she is. She thanked me two different times on Sunday for her party. I love that big heart.