Happy Easter and we're home!

After about 5 weeks away, we are finally back home! We got in last night. I will sort through the 280 pictures I have of the trip to post, but for now, here are the pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes outside of the church building. It was 65 F and sunny!
(I forgot about the airplane tatoo on the boys' arms...)

Todd made us monkey bread for breakfast (pictured below) and salmon, rice, homemade bread, green beans and strawberry shortcake for dessert. He spoils us!!!

My Craigslist Rules

I love Craigslist! You can find some great deals if you have patience. The boys' furniture, our coffee table, the headboard in our room are some Craigslist treasures we found. (Pretty much all the other furniture my dad made). We've also gotten baby items, toys, clothes, etc. I got a baby swing for $15 and then sold it (she doesn't use it anymore) for $20.
Let me tell you about some of my Craigslist Rules:

1. check often-- especially the "free" catagory. I once got about 10 big garbage sacks of wood chips/mulch for the front flower beds for free. She said she got a ton of emails, but mine was the first!
2. For furniture, you can always reupholster, paint and change knobs and drawer pulls. Look at its potential.
3. Never Never Ever pay the price they are asking! Always Always Always ask for a lower price! 90% (or more) I have asked for a very significant lower price and got it! Even if I think it's a good price, I always ask if they are willing to go lower. It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I wanted to get 2 things in particular right now- furniture for Katherine's room and an Ikea bookshelf for the playroom (see earlier post). I really liked this dresser in this room: so I was looking for something like it. I found this as an ad on Craigslist:

http://www.lindasfurniture.com/product/used646 (it wouldn't let me add the picture, sorry)

I'd paint it all white, add glass knobs, maybe a few finishing touches, and I think it's pretty good! Best part, They were asking $695 for the whole set (2 dressers and a mirror, a nightstand and the bed), then lowered it to $595, which means to me that they can't sell it, so I asked if they'd take $500, and they said yes. Since it's a shop, they have layaway and financing options as well.

And I did find the Ikea bookshelf, $90 at Ikea new, plus tax, and it is listed on Craigslist for $60 and it's 8 months old. I asked if he would go lower, so I'm hoping not to pay over $50 for it- half price!

I also saw this on Craigslist:
It would go perfect in my retro/vintage schoolroom/playroom (see earlier post)!
However, she's asking $150 (not likely). She probably got it for $10, repainted it and added the cool knobs. So, I could either offer a really low price, or just take her idea.

Here is another find:
Just add white paint, new knobs and it would be a great desk for Katherine's room; or add black paint and new knobs and it could go in me and Todd's room. They are asking $60, so I'd offer maybe $40.

The only problem with Craigslist, is that there are so many good deals but not enough money to get them ALL!

good stuff

http://lds.org/move/index.html?type=conference04-2009&event=april179&lang=english

Do I have brain damage?

I am in Conway, Arkansas right now visiting my parents. I was looking on the internet, and found this house I want in Greenbrier (population about 1,000? right outiside of Conway population 50,000). It has 4 bedrooms and is on 2 acres!!! It's listed at $235,000. I would love to live close to my parents and have so much land. I would have a big flower garden, a big vegetable garden and orchard, farm animals, and a kids area.
Even a fireplace!

I decided to blog about it because I was thinking that if I saw this post when I was a teenager--that I wrote that I wanted to live by my parents in Greenbrier, AR-- I would have thought I had brain damage. I wanted to live as far away from AR as possible. Kerry, my sister, wanted to live in San Francisco, and she ended up in Little Rock, AR, and Allison wanted to probably live in my mother's lap:), and she ended up in Tucson, Arizona. We'll see where Ryan ends up.

I forgot the camera cable at home in Utah, (to get the pictures from the camera to the computer) so I didn't want to blog until I had the pictures, sorry about the lag in posts.

playroom ideas

I have been thinking a lot lately how I am going to decorate and organize the loft/playroom/schoolroom. I want it to be well organized and the style to be retro/vintage with lots of bright colors. Here are some pictures that have given me ideas:

I found this blog of a lady who is a fabric designer (links to her fabric I want under her pics)

Here is her studio and other pics from her:



I thought it was cool how she put her fabric in frames on the wall like this:



http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/
http://www.freespiritfabric.com/core-pages/gallery.php?gal_id=161&sw_id=1668
http://store.annamariahorner.com/fabric.html


I also found a lot of ideas at http://www.landofnod.com/
I'd like to get these suitcases to store the boys' crayons, markers, glue and scissors in. They're cute and they can carry them to church etc.:

I'd like to get these curtains for the loft/playroom/schoolroom from land of nod:

I like this idea for storage (also land of nod) but I'm going to take cereal boxes, mac-a-cheese boxes, etc., and cover them with paper to make my own:
I like this paper at Michaels (maybe to cover the creal boxes?):

Some more inspiration pictures from http://kellymccaleb.typepad.com/my_happy_little_life/:

Allison has this from IKEA and I want to get one as well for books and toys in baskets:

I'm going to paint this tree on the wall for us to decorate with the seasons:

I also got some canvas for each boy for them to paint and they turned out cute! Todd took them back to Utah, so no pics. Other ideas are to make a kite out of fabric or paper and a paper chain for the tail to put on the wall, wall art that says "create" (out of buttons, pom poms, etc. for each letter), and "dream" in vinyl lettering (just the dream and the bird) from http://uppercaseliving.com/

and one that says "just add imagination" that looks like this:

And I'll paint the kids table and chairs. What color should I do the walls? I'm thinking a yellow, and a blue on the wall that I paint the tree.

Maybe I'll add one of these vintage posters.



So, that's what I've been thinking about lately.

cool European toy stores online

Allison has some cool toys she got in Germany and Kerry showed me this cool toy store online:
http://moolka.com/
Here is another one like it:
http://oompa.com/

updated post with pictures- my b-day and st. patrick's day

Here is one of the pictures we took of us at night:Here's another picture we took of us at night, laughing so hard we were about to pee our pants:

Still at night, Allison said this looks like a Reader's Digest pose:
My birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant:
My beautiful birthday tea party:
The flowers hand picked by nana and allison's boys:
My great grandmother's tea cups:
the beautiful table in the AZ sunshine:











Me, Allison and Kerry at Sagauro National "Forest" by Allison's house:


I am on vacation at my sister's house in Tucson, AZ. I think everyone should have a break like this! I'm loving it! I am so relaxed! It's nice to get away from it all for a while. Todd drove the boys down but now Todd is back in Utah:(. I wish he could be here, too, but it's fun to have the boys back.

St. Patricks Day:
Last night leprechauns came to my sister's (Allison) house!(She has 3 boys ages 6, 4 and 2.) They opened the kitchen cupboards, turned over the kitchen chairs, turned the milk green, left glittery leprechaun dust everywhere, painted green on paper and the paper towels, left green footprints on all the kids' hands and faces and left a note next to the kids' leprechaun traps (that were knocked over) that said in tiny handwriting: "nice try! Better luck next year!" They also left fake gold all over the batckyard to trick us into thinking it was real gold. Oh yea, and a tiny gold pot with a clover on it, and left cookies but 2 were eaten:). The kids thought it was so cool. We had cereal with green milk for breakfast, and for lunch we had baby kiwis, clover shaped PB&J's, mini cans of sprite, green fruit roll ups and mini mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches. For dinner we had salad and spaghetti with green alfredo sauce. We all wore green except for Auntie allison, so the kids pinched her all day.

My birthday:
I wanted to wait to post about my birthday until I got the pictures from my other sister, Kerry, but I'll add them later. It was the best birthday ever! Todd had to work from home and watch the boys for me so I could go to AZ, and Kerry, my mom and Allison had to take time out of their busy lives to be with me for a few days while I turn from young to old-- overnight mind you. I hear 30th birthdays can do that to you. It was a surprise that my mom and other sister Kerry were there, too. On my birthday I took a long morning nap with the Baby (she came with me)-what a blessed thing naps are! When I woke up, they had prepared a beautiful tea party for me! My sisters and mom are really great cooks and cooked up some REALLY delicious food! I'll post it at the end for me to remember. Since it is gorgeous weather here in southern Arizona, they had the table set up outside with a pretty tablecloth and napkins, and flowers hand picked from the wild by Nana and allison's boys. While we ate, we smelled allison's orange blossoms which is heavenly. Back home in Utah Todd said it was snowing-- about 5 inches. Then Allison got a sitter for her kids and my sisters and mom and I went shopping the rest of the night. We went to an antique store, a nursery with tons of all sorts of plants and flowers, then we spent 3 hours at Joann's fabric and craft store. Then we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Driving home to Allison's house, you go through the lone and barren desert. We decided to stop and take pictures of the stars and bright moon. Then we decided to take pictures of ourselves, which made us laugh so hard we all about peed our pants! It was the best, most special birthday ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Tea Party Menu:
*tea: raspberry kiwi tea with sugar cubes, both Allison brought back from Germany
*drink: equal parts fresca, strawberry lemonade and margarita mix with cut limes and oranges floating in it
*toasted sliced baguette bread with fresh mozerella, sliced heirloom tomoatoes big and cherry- all mixed in olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh basil from alllison's garden
*not toasted sliced baguette with chive and onion cream cheese, topped with sliced cucumbers and sliced cherry tomatoes
*fruit kabobs- grapes, bananas, straberries and apples marinated in pina colada mix
*banana bread sliced, topped with cream cheese and sliced strawberries
*petite quiches- 8 eggs, 1/3 cup heavy cream, colby jack cheese, fresh basil, diced bacon and tomatoes, pie crust, topped with cheese, 350 degrees
*lemon blueberry scone mix from Trader Joes
*chocolate toffee covered in pistachios also from Trader Joes

living in the moment

yesterday early evening, i sat in allison's reclining chair, reclined, and the back door was open. the temp was perfect and the breeze was blowing on me and i was soaking up the moment and i was so relaxed. then allison and i went out front with the kids and the kids rode trikes and bikes, and then we all went on a bike ride around the neighborhood with the 2 littlest kids in the bike trailer (i gotta get one!). Right now it's 90 degrees and the kids are playing in the sprinklers. i decided that we are going to make this a tradition- spending the month of march in AZ hanging out with my sister!