A wonderful family filled Memorial Day weekend!

Hellooooo there!!!  It’s been forever since I have posted and I apologize!!  Life has been a bit out of control around here!

Did everyone have a great Memorial day weekend??  And can I just say THANK YOU to those who risk their lives to keep us free!  I know I should devote a whole lot more words to those men and women.  Really, do we stop to think about how much our freedom means??!!  I know I don’t enough!  I will confess I took it completely for granted until one of my brothers joined the Army.  When it became more personal it became more important for me to stop and think about all of those putting our nation first!  Our freedom is a beautiful thing!

We spent the weekend with my family going to the zoo, playing mini golf, and fishing!  Thrown in the midst of all those fun activities was my class reunion.  Let me tell you — I cannot, really cannot, believe it has been 15 years since high school!  It might truly feel that long ago – but I don’t feel that old!   It was great to see old classmates and their families!

So, want to hear about us going fishing??  Growing up my mom was the avid fisherman.  She is thrilled the girls are getting old enough to go fishing.  So, for weeks, she had planned on taking them fishing Sunday.  It turned out hot, super windy, and we were in a thunderstorm warning.  But the entire family went and had a good time!

My husband and I both enjoy fishing but we have found it is virtually impossible to fish ourselves while our girls are fishing.  My husband is always determined to try – I have just given up and decided my role is better as the “helper” for the girls!  It’s always amusing to see how fast they feel a tug, just know they have a bite, and need to reel in their line!

Other than spending quality time with family the best part of fishing was E caught her first fish!

She wanted to keep the fish and bring it home to keep alive in a tank or pond…we had to break her heart and throw it back!  Aunt Joce made the fish touch her arm and E panicked!  When she saw blood on the fish I thought she might never fish again.  It was an emotional few minutes – I think E experienced the whole range of emotions!

I love weekends spent with my kids and my family!  This weekend was a great time to focus on my girls and be so thankful for all we have!

Hope you had a great weekend as well!

Jaimi 

Long Time No See!! (or Blog)

Wow!!  It’s been a long time since I have posted!!  Sorry about that!  We have been hit with sickness at our house and now that everyone is finally well we have been busy busy busy!!

Want clued in on what we have been up to???

A weekend with friends in KC, a new gun, a ball, the zoo, bowling, and camper ownership!  (Just to highlight the FUN stuff!!)

How about hearing about the ball???  Never did I think we would attend a “Ball” in our life!

My handsome hubby and I went to a Black and White Ball with friends a little while ago.  It was a fundraiser put on by the Young Professionals and United Way Young Leaders.   The targeted age group was 20-40 year olds and the theme was masquerade.  It was like prom for old people!  It was fun to find a dress and make a masquerade mask.  As with anything it made it more fun to do with friends!

It really was such a fun evening.  It was so much better than prom.  You were with your husband and you could just relax and enjoy yourself!  We enjoyed a delicious dinner.  Ryan had lred fish on a bed of rice and I had steak with new potatoes and shaved brussel sprouts.  There was a photo booth where we took a series of fun pictures.  The dance went until midnight and we were definitely feeling our age and yawning by 11!   (But we stuck it out until midnight!)

We had so much fun dressing up and spending the evening together and with great friends.  We are looking forward to enjoying the event again next year!

 

*I found my dress on eBay for an amazing price.  My mom has always had to alter almost every dress I’ve ever worn, but amazingly this one fit perfect!  I was so pleased!  I was going to go for high heels, but practicality took over and I decided I would never make it all night in them so I found some awesome silver sequin flats that will look fab with jeans!   A much better choice!

*My sister is awesome at doing hair – didn’t she do a fab job with my hair?!!  I am so thankful she was able to come do my hair, help me get ready, and spend the night with our girls!  I love when my family comes to visit!

I don't know why my eye is hidden on one side...looks a little crazy!

Have you attended any great functions with your significant other?

*I hope to catch you up speedily in the next week!  We’ll see how crazy our life gets this week!

Thanks!

Jaimi

Easy Peasy Super Functional Seat Covers!

Has life gotten as hectic for you as it is us right now??!!

I have to share these super functional seat covers we made for our dining room chairs.  I am so excited to be protecting our chairs!  Yeah, dorky, I know.

My aunt and uncle gave us their super well cared for table and chairs.  The chairs are beautifully upholstered…and can you guess what these are going to look like if I don’t cover them soon??!!  And let me tell you—I SO wish I had had these babies before the marshmallow gun war…not pretty on my chairs…

See, nice right?!

We put towels over the seats for quite a while…but it was just a hassle and knew we had to do something more permanent.

So…. We made super easy seat covers.  I thought this project would take me an afternoon…until my help showed up…

My super cute helper!

She loves my sewing machine…loves to take the spool of thread off while I am sewing, likes to unwind the thread, likes to grab at the spinning wheel on the side, likes to unplug the machine, you get the idea…pretty much super helpful! lol!

How can you get upset with a face like that??!!

Back to the seat covers…  We took a cheapo towel, the cheapest vinyl flannel backed table cloth we could find, some bias tape (could totally make your own-I was just being lazy) or ribbon, and thread. (I can’t take all the credit for this idea…my mom figured out all the particulars.)

Half a towel covered the chair seat.  So, we cut each towel in half then cut out notches where the back of the chair meets the seat.

The first cover I made I cursed a lot sewed the bias tape around the edge of each opening and hemmed the cut side of the towel.  The second cover I made I just zig zagged around all the raw edges and sewed the bias tape on so it would tie around the legs of the chair.

Added a piece of vinyl tablecloth to the underside of the part of the towel covering the top of the seat.  I didn’t think of it initially, but we sewed ties underneath for the front legs to help hold the cover in place.

Can you see everything? This is the bottom side of the finished seat cover. The ties at the notches are for the back legs and the ties towards the front of the towel are for the front legs of the chair.

And now we have more "boring beige" in our house!! LOL!

I hope I explained this well enough.  It really was super easy.  Especially because my mom took pity on me and finished mine for me! 

Happy sewing!!

Jaimi

Be My Valentine!

We have been valentine making fools around our house!  I’ve heard a couple other moms talking about how their boys do not see the fun in Valentine’s day and it makes me SO glad I have girls!!  Girls who are excited about Valentine’s day anyway!

We totally used ideas we found on pinterest (of course) and made them work for us!

See what we have made…

E really wanted wild animals for her valentines.  We got the inspiration from Design Mom.  I so wish we could have found wild animals for her to give, because she seriously has the awesomest free printables!  We settled for squirting sea life animals instead!  (I have to tell you I am so proud of myself.  I let E cut out all the baggie tops herself – so not a straight line in sight, but she was so proud she did it all herself!  Makes it worth not being a control freak for a little bit!)

H enjoys goofing around with play mustaches.  So these were totally calling her name!  We found the idea and free pattern at Blonde Designs Blog.  Sparkly red lips for the girls and mustaches for the boys.  I hope the other kids love it as much as we do!  I know we are a little kooky!  (We did make things easier by buying file folder labels and printing the tag on those instead of sticker paper.  Super simple!)

We had to make some for our cousins and special friends.  So we totally didn’t reinvent the wheel and used this awesome freebie from Moms by Heart.  Our favorite flavor Kool-Aid and a silly straw!  Awesome!  My husband just couldn’t wait two days and tore into his immediately!  Such a kid!

For bus drivers and teachers we bought those cute little mini antibacterial hand gels and put cute labels on them from the girls.

So, that wraps up what we gave for Valentine’s this year!  Now, I must get everything ready for the class party tomorrow!!!  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh?!

Do you have any great Valentine ideas??

Jaimi

Super Awesome Barbie Houses!

I don’t know about your girls, but mine love Barbie!  And man, do they have a lot of Barbie paraphernalia!!  A while back I organized it all into containers by type of Barbie stuff…doctor set, clothes, shoes, etc.  But it still kept ending up in a jumbled mess on the floor!!!  I couldn’t take it much longer!  I understood they wanted to play with many different categories of Barbie stuff at once, but MY OH MY the mess!!

My girls also swoon over the doll houses at Hobby Lobby.  Very expensive dollhouses!  So, a Christmas gift idea was forming…  Let me tell you, my husband loves when I come up with these ideas…no, no, not really!  But he is always a good sport and willing to give it a go!  Thank goodness!!

So, he found plans for a Barbie house, built it, painted it, and walah!!  My husband, sister, and I spent an afternoon decorating the houses.  Oh yeah, did I mention he made two?!  My grand idea was to have two so we could close them together and hide keep all the Barbie stuff in the house.  (Which has worked out wonderfully by the way!)

We used scrapbook paper, fleece, felt, ribbon, and lots of glue to decorate the walls and floors.  (I am embarrassed to admit I had enough pink scrapbook paper in my stash to decorate all the rooms without buying more!  Yikes!)  We were covered in glue by the time we were done, but it was so fun!  I mean really, when else would you get to decorate 12 rooms in pink and sparkle!!

I have to tell you…I was planning on making all the furniture and linens homemade, buuutttt…December snuck up on me!  We had quite a bit of furniture already and then Target had an awesome sale on a 4-pack of room furniture which made it super cheap…so, we cheated!

My sister and I stayed up super late Christmas Eve and arranged all the rooms.  We had a ton of fun arranging everything, so we knew the girls would love it!  Christmas morning the big reveal!  They loved them!  The Barbie houses live in our living room *gasp*, but we enjoy watching the girls play with them!

So, if you are up for a bit of a challenge and hours of fun for your girls…be inspired to make a Barbie house!  (Online I saw tons of great ideas using cardboard boxes to make a house as well.)

*To find the free Barbie house plans go here – they were fantastic!  (By the way–these are big!  Each one is about 49.5 inches tall and 34 inches wide!)  We did opt to leave out the stairs just to give more room.

*A word to the wise–when you start gluing paper to the walls & floor…I thought just your normal crafting spray adhesive would work, but I was WRONG!!!  We switched and started using 3M automotive spray adhesive after two rooms.  It worked awesome!  (We have had to re-glue the two rooms we used ordinary craft spray adhesive on.)  We used my favorite fabric glue for the fabrics and ribbon — fabri-tac by beacon adhesives– it is quick dry—works wonderfully for rosettes!!

*I plan on the girls and I working on more decorations, etc. as time goes on…

Jaimi

A Special Birthday Celebration!!

Last night we celebrated a very special birthday at our house.  It was baby Ariel’s first birthday!  My middle daughter wanted this baby Ariel doll so badly for Christmas and she has kept her at her side since Christmas morning.  E has been planning Ariel’s birthday for quite some time.  However, she kept changing when her birthday actually was.  Well, yesterday E informed me that I needed to make a cake or brownies or something because Ariel was turning one.  We compromised with an ice cream birthday celebration.  So, mid-super bowl we gathered around the table and sang happy birthday to Ariel and watched as she “blew” out her candle,  “ate” her ice cream, and “opened” her gift.  E  gave Ariel a super sweet gift of jewelry and shoes!

Such super great memories made with a simple make-believe birthday party!  Isn’t the excitement of a child a most beautiful thing!!  Throw an impromptu doll or stuffed animal birthday party one of these days – they are amazingly stress free!!  And so much fun!!

Jaimi

Recipe Saturday is HERE!!!

Reblogged from Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Country Life:

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Finished product! Yep, that's a TX hot pad.

Cornbread is easy and fast. And really good! We practically lived on it during the kid raising years. Big Boss loved (and still does), my cornbread. Years ago, his grandparents came down to visit us in Texas, so I made cornbread for supper one night. Oh man did it smell good! It was passed around and everyone was digging in except for Gramps.

Read more… 952 more words

This facinating lady is my "neighbor" and I love reading her entries! Her daughter in laws are special people in my life and I have a huge soft spot for many of her grandchildren! She is a fantastic cook -- so I knew I just had to reblog this cornbread recipe! I also love her inside the cabinet storage tips!! I asked her if I didn't have a cast iron skillet (because I don't) if this recipe would work -- she said yes, you could use a regular round iron skillet or a 9x12 pan, but it won't be as crunchy. Hope you enjoy her post as much as I! Jaimi

Paint…Before and After…

I told you of our painting marathon.  Thought you might want to see pictures!  Although, I have to warn you, as much as I want a magazine ready home, I do not actually have one!

Let’s start with the girls’ room.  Here is the before –you know, one of those plastic bag paint treatments…in nursery colors…maybe not a good idea!  (But at the time it was such a great change from the dark brown paneling.)

After promising my middle daughter we would make a super cool print of this quote to frame for their “new room” so she would quite crying we chuckled as we painted over it about hand cutting the stencil — it was before the days of vinyl rub ons and the Cricut.

The purple covers where the quote used to be.

This is the opposite side of the room. We painted the face of the eaves surrounding the window purple.

Pink Pink Pink!!  Did I mention how terrible this paneling is to paint??!!  It will stay these colors for quite some time!  I had visions of making some new ultra fab curtains, but after putting these up they helped the walls so much they just might stay!

Ready for the bathroom??!!!  I went looking for a “before” picture and we painted it so long ago I would have had to scan in the picture!  So, I went with this one instead!  This bathroom is towards the top of our to do list, which is the only way I can handle it!

This is my oldest daughter practicing her "shaving" like daddy. Cute, huh?! But can you picture the yellow on 3 of the bathroom walls?! Definitely time for an update!

And now, the AFTER!!

All the walls and ceiling are covered with this ugly, slick, hard to paint wall board stuff.  Terrible.  But looking better with each coat of paint!  The red paint was left over from our kitchen.  Maybe wouldn’t have been my first choice, but okay with the result.  Only one wall is red, we painted the rest of the walls white.  I don’t usually love white, but it helps this small space!

Storage is a BIG issue in our bathroom, so my sister and I ran to a flea market and found this cute cabinet!  We will add doors and it will be perfect! It does dominate our small bathroom – but totally worth it!  Because we live so far from town I can’t just run to the store to buy cute containers for hair bands, head bands, lip gloss, sunglasses, etc.  so I am just using containers we already have for now.

OH!  I have to tell you about this awesome clearance find!  I found a clear shower curtain with mesh pockets all over it.  I hung it on the inside of the white shower curtain and filled the pockets with bath toys!  I am totally in love with it!  I have already decided I will be making a new one when this one wears out!

I tried to take a picture of our new warm beige colored hallway, but it was a bit difficult!  My husband installed a new light fixture in the hallway as well — amazing what a change that makes!!  I am ready to hang decorations, but so unsure of what I want to hang!  For me the hallway has always been a tough area to decorate!

As for the completely redone bathroom — I am hoping for a full reveal sometime soon!!

Do you have any great paint transformation stories?!  (Sometime I will tell you about our stairwell painting adventures…or nightmares…lol!)

Jaimi

Painting Marathon!!

Phewww!  What a week!  We have been home improving this week!  My very awesome hubby has been mudding and sanding new walls in our extremely improved bathroom.  Bleck.  (Only blecking the mudding and sanding!  Yay happy dance to the extremely improved bathroom!)  Then my sister and I spent two days painting – we painted 4 areas…quite impressive if you ask me!  And we live in an old farmhouse mind you, so painting isn’t such an easy chore!  First off – plaster and lathe *shudder*, weird slick wall board covering ceiling and walls in bathroom *super shudder*, and ridiculous paneling in my girls’ room *make me want to never paint again shudder*.

Want to hear about our amazing changes??!!

We painted our seriously in need of updating bathroom white with one wall deep red.  It spent about ten years being white and rubber duck blinding yellow.  TIME FOR A CHANGE!!!  (Why did I ever think that was a neat color?)  So bye bye duckies, hello way better!  Because all of the bathroom stuff is now all over the living room I am excited to re-organize the bathroom!  I do love to organize!!  And this room is in dire need of help!  3 girls and 1 mom who all love “accessories” equals a ton of stuff in the bathroom!!  The only thing possible to make me more excited than organizing this room is tearing down the walls and starting from scratch!

We painted the only walls in our entire house which have not been painted since we moved in.  A hallway was instantly transformed from boring white to a rich welcoming beige/tan.  My daughter likes to call it “boring beige” and gets tired of me always painting things “boring beige”.  But, I do like boring beige!  (Trust me we have enough color going on the walls NEED to be beige!)

We literally spent an entire day in the girls’ bedroom trying to change the walls from nursery green and yellow to bubble gum pink and k-state purple.  Amazing transformation…exhausting day!  Paneling.  That says it all!  When we finished we were a bit bummed because the seemingly bright beautiful pink dried to a not so cute coral pink.  Seriously, 7 hours for not so cute coral pink…  And a beautiful purple accent color which ended up not matching the pink so much…  Guess what??  Not changing the color now!  We will live with this until I forget again how much work it takes to paint the dreaded paneling!  (Took about 7 years to forget the pain of painting it nursery colors…How long do you think it will take this time??!!)

Drum roll please…the most exciting painting of all took place in our “new” and improved laundry room/bathroom!  About four years ago, before my dad was diagnosed with cancer, he helped us move our washer and dryer and expand a bathroom only big enough for a teeny tiny shower and toilet-with one step between the two.  (My dad made custom cabinet doors for a living, but had been a contractor for many years.  He was our resident handyman!)  We were relying on him heavily.  We tore down plaster and lathe, pulled up the floor, built some new walls…then our work came to an instant halt.  Well after working on it not much since then my hubby and I finally put on our big girl panties (Sorry Ryan) and decided we could do it!  We can finish this project!!  (I’m the resident cheerleader!)  So finally the new walls are finished and I am headed to put the last coat of paint on before I go to bed tonight this morning.  Tomorrow we embark on the laying tile adventure!! Oh, can you guess what color??  You got it!  Boring beige!  (A little different shade though!)

(I didn’t intend to get so windy – just stopped in to write a quick paragraph…  So if you made it all the way through this – THANK YOU!!)

Happy Painting!

Jaimi

Great Advice

Last night my husband and I enjoyed a date night with friends.  As much as we love our children it is great to go out without them once in a while.  Some of the best advice I was ever given was from our doctor.  Shortly after we had our first child he told us to go on a date once a month to remember we were a couple before we were parents.  What an idea!  Now we are the parents of three girls and it is even more important for our relationship to have some adult time.  We definitely have not had a date once a month, not even every six months, but just the overall philosophy has helped remind us we are Ryan and Jaimi, not just dad and mom.

Jaimi