In Order

Many of you may know that my sweet friend Cheryl of In Order For Life has bravely taken on my messy home office as a project for her portfolio. We have had numerous purge and filing sessions and we are making incredible progress. You have to hire her for your organizing needs - she is sheer brilliance! My office will actually be featured on her "before and after" page. Actually, I suppose I am the brave one to allow my dirty little secret of a room to be showcased! At least you will get to see its transformation from chaos to sparkly clean.

One of my homework tasks was to dispose of old documents. Yes, we were the guilty owners of bill stubs dating back to our dating years or earlier - yikes! So I got out our handy dandy circa 1986 shredder to safely dispose the remains of what we had purged.

The warning on our shredder literally made me laugh out loud...hold on to your neckties, folks!

Note to self: buy new shredder. It actually burned out by the time I was done. I am pretty sure I saw smoke.

And this made me laugh even harder - you know it is time to clean out your office when the "toss pile" of old bills/documents ALONE is almost as tall as your toddler. At least she made good use of old carbon copy checkbooks. Anything is a canvas!

Stay tuned for a future post as part of my Project {RENEW} series. I will be sharing more about this exciting office make-over!

"Shhh-no" Much Fun

In case you were puzzled, that is how CoCo pronounces "snow". We were spoiled this week with Chris off work for some snow days so we enjoyed winter's offerings. Charlotte is a regular polar bear (like Daddy). She loves the white stuff...must be genetic. Also had to add a snapshot of our snow-day staple: monkey bread, mmmm!

Aunt Sissa

We celebrated Melissa's birthday a few weekends ago. We are so lucky to have all our family close by so the cousins can grow up together...so, so cute! To see more pictures in a snapfish album click here.



The kids had a great time playing in Pop Pop and Mom Mom's bed. They love each other and it just melts me!

Bake in Shapes

When it is cold outside, baking makes sense. Especially baking treats in fun shapes. Over the past month we've enjoyed making snowflake snickerdoodle cookies from Den & Chel and fun pancake shapes, also a gift, from Pop Pop & MiMi. Thanks for the fun treats, our little chef loved it!

Go Ravens!

As we advance through the play-offs there is a sense of complete excitement in our house. We are a football family. Even Charlotte slips into her number 52 jersey for game time. I thought I would share some pics from the last few game days. We've baked good luck cookies and Charlotte even made Chris a purple and black cupcake using her new play dough set. We indeed bleed purple 'round these parts. Just ask Charlotte how she feels about the Steelers...it is worth the laugh. Here's to tomorrow - GO RAVENS!

The Crew

Big thanks to my friend Lisa for snapping these precious pictures of our little crew rocking out on New Year's Eve. Do we have some cute kiddos, or what?


Jackson, Christian, Caden, Ryder & Charlotte

22 Months

January 8th marked the 2 month countdown to 2! I'm admittedly in denial about how big our baby girl is getting. In case you didn't know, she has quite a flair for the dramatics (wonder where she gets that from?). We are amazed every day at how bright, kind and beautiful she is turning out to be.

Ham in a Hat

She put my hat on sideways and then proceeded to pose for the camera...my, oh my! And yes, I keep asking where has my baby girl gone and who is this big kid filling her place?

Reason #463

...why we love our 'hood!
It's no secret that we love our neighborhood. We love the community of neighbors all around us who are genuinely fantastic people. We love the quietness of it, with just the right amount of bustle and laughter from the neighborhood children.

Last week we found a new reason to love it even more: the kindness of our neighbors across the street who GAVE us their outgrown wooden swing set for Charlotte. The look on her face when she saw it nestled in our side yard was priceless. Thank you, Rhoten family! We are SO grateful!



We still need to secure it into the ground and add a little TLC. Chris has grand plans to build a roof (to replace the old tent) and make the club house part really chic. How fun to fill the sandbox this spring!

Project {LAUNDRY}

Here we go!
Makeover #1 - Laundry Room Storage

I just have to share that this was the deal of the year. A 42" premium wall cabinet found on Craigslist that I talked down to $30. It replaces awful wire racks laden with clutter and totally makes the laundry experience so much more pleasant. Add some custom hidden shelves to the left of the cabinet (way to go, Chris!) and you have instant streamlined storage. Ahhh.

Click all pictures for a larger view:

BEFORE (an older photo but you get the picture)



DURING (daddy's little helper)



AFTER



The curtains need some hemming/styling and I plan to mount cork board down the side of the unfinished cabinet edge for notes and such. We hope to paint and redo the floors, too...someday! I am totally happy with how it turned out, especially since it is right off our kitchen and VERY visible (which was a problem when it was a mess).

Project {RENEW}

I figured I would start a series of posts in this new year devoted to one of my resolutions - the redecorating/organizing of our home. Naturally, many projects have fallen by the wayside since having Charlotte. We...okay...I am on a mission to change all that and revamp our digs. And luckily my handy man husband is along for the ride and graciously up to the task. I plan to post our progress as we cross things off the list. Stay tuned!

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Happy New Year from our little monkey!