Equality

Equality.  Hoping and praying for it.  For my family, for my friends, for everyone out there not being afforded this simple human right.

Sophia had it right.

Tell 'em, Dirty Harry!

Instafriday

Some Instafriday for you...

Riley's club volleyball team Dynamite played in a tournament this past weekend.   Their last tournament of the season is this weekend in Davenport.  I'm bummed to see the season coming to an end.  They are a great group of talented girls with two awesome coaches!  It's been so fun to see all the progress they've made this year.

Family movie night, Wreck-it Ralph and burgers on the grill.

I think she's in there...somewhere.

Cucumber salsa from Pinterest.  I used plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  So good, I ate it with lunch and dinner!

Broke out the sewing machine...it literally had dust on it. :(

Digs in Grammy's reading glasses.  Silly girl.



I bought JT's 20/20 experience and aside from Suit and Tie, my second fave is That Girl.  Digging it, for real.

Valentine's Day and Concert Time

Better late than never, I guess.

Valentine's this year were the one's I found on Pinterest.
I clearly wasn't thinking the whole idea through, because when it came time to carry them to school, Camdyn could hardly lift her bag.
So, Daddy ended up delivering them all.
Nice job, Mom...great planning.

Rowyn had her Sweetheart concert at school.  They made the little teddy bear shirts at school out of their hand prints.  So sweet. She seriously has the best preschool teacher ever.  She loves Ms. Carsen!

She looks like the jolly green giant. Ha!
And all the red eyes...creepy.  Nice camera work.
It was a cute program, she certainly loves to perform.

Riley had her string concert tonight.
It's neat to see how much they've accomplished in less than a year.

And I can't believe how quickly she's growing up.
Literally.
She wore my size 9 boots tonight.  I can share shoes with my 11-year-old.  Craziness.

New House Progress

A small peek into what's been going on at the new house...


Standing in the living room looking into the kitchen.  There will be an arched opening eventually, and the plywood to the right is where the french doors to the screened porch will be.

Clyde had a drywall party on Saturday, he had some great friends and a neighbor come help out and hang drywall.  We have roughly 350 sheets to hang all together, so the help was much appreciated!

This will be Rowyn's room.  Her bed will be built into the inlet to the left.  The hole in the ceiling which will be a little wider, will eventually have a ladder going up to the third floor loft.

This is peeking up into the loft, which we plan on using as a toy room.

Eventually, my closet which runs over the garage.  Hopefully, all those wires won't be there forever. ;)

The view from our master bedroom.  Cold, wet, and snowy right now.

Standing in the kitchen looking into the living room.  The far wall will eventually house our fireplace in the center.  It will also have box beam ceilings.

Lots of insulation left to put in.

Going into the mudroom with a bathroom on the far wall.  Clyde is building lockers for the kids, a storage pantry, and closet in there.

 The lights for the mudroom.

The mudroom flooring is a gray slate.

 The pendant lights for over the island.

The light in the foyer.

And I just ordered this chandelier for the dining room.

So, lots of work left to be done, lots of things left to be picked out, but we're getting there...slowly, but surely.

Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed we sell our current house...and soon!  Please let anyone you know looking to buy a house in an amazing neighborhood about our Midwesthomesellers FSBO listing and let them know that we're motivated sellers...make us an offer! ;)

Catching Up

I'm doing a great job of this whole sporadic blogging thing.
Honestly, I don't think I've had my good camera out since Christmas. So, Instagram's you get... 

Good thing she's getting a big girl bed in the new house.
Sharing it with that behemoth doesn't leave much room for little girls.

I've been fabric shopping for pillows and curtain fabric.
This Riley Blake chevron is perhaps the happiest fabric I've ever laid eyes on.

Riley's club volleyball team, Dynamite, got second place recently in a tournament.  They played REALLY well and were up against older girls.  Very proud of them!

What do you think of the new JT song?
I'm digging his new look.  Hello, gorgeous!

Speaking of gorg, how bout my new do by Rodiggity?

Riley's team played in the Iowa Games again this year.
They wound up taking second place. Way to go, Lady Stangs!

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know of my lapse in parenting.  Post dentist office shake.  But really, she didn't bite the dentist or anything, so really she deserved it. ;)

Riley's basketball game at the Boys and Girls Club.
Tantrum, followed by her storming off announcing she wasn't sitting by us anymore.
Oh the drama.

Happy Birthday to my youngest sister, Meghan!!

We celebrated this past weekend...veggie chili, homemade corn bread, and red velvet cheesecake.  Divine!
She and Carrie are off to stay at my sister's house in Lake Geneva for some skiing and snowboarding.  Have fun guys...and no broken arms this time!

Making some new artwork for the girls' room.  I found the image on the Internet and painted an old frame with some leftover pink paint.  I loved that book!

I'm making these Valentine's this year from Tammy Mitchell Design
Clearly, I've lost my ever-loving mind since between the four kids, they need about 90 Valentine's.  Didn't think that one out, did I?


We've had a few showings on the house, which we recently listed on MidwestHomeSellers.  I'm hoping once the weather gets a little warmer, things will pick up.  The new house is coming along slowly, but surely.  With Clyde in school, me working nights and weekends, and all the kids' activities, it's hard to fit in time for him to work on it.  Right now they are gearing up to insulate it and then drywall.  When that's done and it's not so cold in there, I'll try and get some pictures.

Christmas 2012

December

Petey-Woody-Charlie was here making sure no one was naughty.
Daddy brought home santa cupcakes and a yummy cheesecake.
We did a lot of baking in December...and a lot of eating!

Friends and neighbors, we got together to play games.
Telestrations was pretty hilarious.  We also played Cards Against Humanity, which is essentially Apples to Apples gone wrong. It's inappropriate, yet hysterical.  We loved it. Ha!  

Riley and her class did presentations about Colonial Williamsburg.
She has mad skills doing string games.  She demonstrated Jacob's ladder and several other things that I would certainly have made into knots.

We spent most of the Christmas holiday at my parents house.

My brother and his wife (and their two fur babies) were home for Christmas this year.
Rowyn called him "Weird Beard" most of the holiday, to go along with "Sty Eye", the endearing name she made up for my mom when she had a sty in her eye.  Clearly, she excels at rhyming...and name calling.

The kids settled down for our annual Christmas Eve picnic.

This guy did dishes.
Love him.

We set the train up around the tree, which was derailed more times than I can count.
I used brown paper and twine for wrapping paper this year.
Tom and Jerry's...yummo!
The stockings were all hung by the chimney with care...


Christmas morning started with crying.  Someone was jealous.

Because someone else got her own personal trampoline.

He wanted Halo 4, instead he got a Halo figure.
Santa must have known there was too much shooting in the video game. ;)

The tears quickly ended when she started unwrapping.
Distraction, such a good thing.

Happy she got her incredibly creepy Lalaloopsy doll.

OMG...a 1D toothbrush!!! 
Ha!
She won't even throw the box away.
*sigh*
Young boy band love.  

Right in the middle of it all.
Boothie, of course.

A view of the chaos, post-wrapping paper pick up.
Rowyn is eating some sort of candy, gotta be sure to start rotting your teeth at 6 am.

Christmas night, we went to my parents.

The Hickey's were all together this year...I'm so thankful we could be.  

After dinner, we opened gifts and jealous tantrum #2 for the day ensued.

The next night we had our annual fondue dinner, except this year...

Brendan and Christina brought their chocolate fondue pot for dessert.  Oh.My.Heaven.

After Christmas, we got together with my sister Kathleen and her family.  We miss them and don't get together nearly often enough.

Christmas week was perfect.
Spent with family and friends.
I wouldn't have it any other way.