This is a picture of one of four necklaces I made for my mom, sister and sister-in-law and gave to them on Christmas Eve. I made Christie one that is amber colored and gold, which I fell in love with but they only had one strand of the amber left and I thought it would look best with Christie's coloring (and it did!) I made the rest of ours this sort of iridescent green and silver color. I can't wait to wear it with something fun.
This is the picture we used for our cards this year, I think it shows their personalities pretty well. Happy Holidays!
Much Love and Joy,
Steve, Brooke, Max, Madeline& Henry
I love the necklaces from the Sundance catalog. I always make necklaces for gifts and forget how pretty simple can be....if I have time before the 24th, my mom, sister and sister-in-law will get something like this for Christmas. Time being the optimal word.
Okay, I am having a little pre-Christmas panic attack. I feel like all I have been doing this last month is shopping, shopping and more shopping and I am still not done! I cannot believe that Christmas is 4 days away and I barely have a voice (from the croup I caught from Max) and I am going to the Dr. tomorrow to be tested for strep, as my throat is still sore and everyone else has had it. Fun stuff.I feel like Henry looks in this picture, although my lips aren't as luscious and pouty looking. ;)
Just before we took pictures Madeline started crying because she wanted her blanckie to be in the picture. So Steve came out to save the day jumping around singing and dancing trying to get her to smile to no avail...until...
...he turned around dropped his pants and mooned them, yes, mooned them. They thought that it was the most shockingly funny thing they had ever seen and well, ...
...it worked! So next time your kids are grouchy just moon'em. Parenting tips from Brooke and Steve. Ha!
Here is a sneak peak at Mimi's room and an old $25 D.I. dresser we painted pale pink and put darling polka-dotted knobs on. Mimi added the bows to her curtain...decorating at such a young age. ;)
paint color on dresser: "milady" Behre (homedepot)
Pink knobs: Anthropologie
(they sell this brand at Hobby Lobby...who knew? Hobby Lobby is the same price, but the difference is that they will have 50% off sales. These knobs were $24 instead of $48.)
This isn't the exact knob on our dresser, but it is the same brand.
Here it is as promised...isn't it pretty? :) My sweet sister-in-law called me this evening to tell me how much she liked the tree and it made my day! Thank you!
Here is a view of the tree in our sun room as you walk in the front door...the yellow wall really isn't that yellow, my camera is just difficult when I am not shooting in actual daylight......oh and that monkey on the couch is Madeline-Belle being a total nerd. Speaking of nerds, the other day Max asked, "mom, does nerd mean that you are cute and funny?" I said yep, that's why I always call my kids nerds. ;)
I have 2 trees in my house, one traditional with the reds and greens and this one, which I have been working on. It is in my sun room, which is also in the process of being painted. It is a citrus tree and was originally my mom's idea. She dried a ton of oranges and grapefruits and thought they were so pretty you could hang them as ornaments. I fell in love with the idea and put it to work. The colors are gorgeous, yellow and coral/burnt orange. So pretty.
So here is a sneak peak at my citrus tree, I am dying to take a picture of it during the day and hope that my camera will do it justice. Stay tuned and I'll get a picture of the entire tree very soon.
I've gotta do a little T.M.I. sometimes. That is what keeps things interesting...why pretend like all is marvelous when we know life throws it's little curve balls here and there? Thank you to those of you who emailed me, you're awesome!!!
Now on to bigger an better things...like projects!!! Yipee! For now, I'm public! :) Until compelled to do otherwise. :)
Finally, we have Internet! Woo-hoo! Now I can post pics of the house and the beginnings of my many DIY /before & after projects.
There are so many in this house, from the 8 - yes - EIGHT!!! 1980's U-G-L-Y ceiling fans to the leaf print counter tops and stark white walls I will be busy for a long time (I am secretly so happy!).
The following is a picture of the linen closet in the hall...the best feature of this linen closet is the bottom drawer, which is actually a laundry shoot. I dare say this was the biggest selling point for Max and Mimi. In fact I found Max trying to go down it the other day, needless to say he got stuck. ;)
before
(I had already replaced the 2 main door handles, they did look like the ones on the drawers...classy)
after
view from the hall
My ancient mac laptop finally pooped out on me. :( So now all I have is my husbands laptop for a couple of hours. All my pics and stuff were on that computer, but hopefully we'll get a new one soon and I can transfer all that stuff over from our hard drive (I am hoping I don't loose any pictures!). Anyhow, the new house is coming along great.
We are in love with Kaysville, seriously it is a little like Mayberry. Everyone is so friendly, nice and outgoing. Max LOVES his school and I am really impressed with the curriculum. There are a ton of families with babies, toddlers and teenagers. Even the construction workers are clean cut looking high school kids. :) MUCH different than SLC. Steve and I definitely miss SLC, but we are only 20 minutes away at the most, so we go back often.
Last Friday we went to Costco and it made me sad to see all the people with their U of U paraphernalia on, I've noticed a lot of "Y" pride here so I think Steve and I are going to get a big UTE flag for our house to hang on game day... :) To all our friends in SLC, we love you and miss you! I've had the same dream the last 3 nights in a row, I look out my front window and there is Jenn Hein walking up to our door (with shoulder length hair no less???) so I'm thinking I need to invite our SLC friends up here just to say a real goodbye. xoxox to all of you!!!
We are in love with Kaysville, seriously it is a little like Mayberry. Everyone is so friendly, nice and outgoing. Max LOVES his school and I am really impressed with the curriculum. There are a ton of families with babies, toddlers and teenagers. Even the construction workers are clean cut looking high school kids. :) MUCH different than SLC. Steve and I definitely miss SLC, but we are only 20 minutes away at the most, so we go back often.
Last Friday we went to Costco and it made me sad to see all the people with their U of U paraphernalia on, I've noticed a lot of "Y" pride here so I think Steve and I are going to get a big UTE flag for our house to hang on game day... :) To all our friends in SLC, we love you and miss you! I've had the same dream the last 3 nights in a row, I look out my front window and there is Jenn Hein walking up to our door (with shoulder length hair no less???) so I'm thinking I need to invite our SLC friends up here just to say a real goodbye. xoxox to all of you!!!
Happy Halloween 2009!
...not at Steve, but at how young and cute he looks. :) Yes, isn't he sexy in his letterman's jacket? ha! He was captain of his football team and was voted Allstate for football...something...I forget. But apparently he was a big deal in his little town of Jerome, Id.
#59 BABY! ;) hee-hee (I found these on the same CD as our wedding pics.)
Here are our cheesy engagement photos. Oh my! Our photographer gave us some pretty rotten poses to do. I found this CD in a pile of old things I was going through as I pack.
I used to rub his head for good luck. ;)
What a cute little booty I once had...haaaaa...the days....
Steve and I are laughing at how lame this pose was.
And this one, wow...I love how fuzzy these photos are. This was top quality photo scanning for 2002. ;)
It is cold and snowy outside right now and this sweater looks divinely warm. It is a little pricey, $145. I am in love with it none-the-less! Ummm, talented sewing friend Susan, what'cha think about this? Are you getting any affordable inspirations? (wink-wink just teasing).
I think these felt cookies are so cute and good enough to eat! They are $10 for six and they last longer, look cuter and don't add pounds like the real thing. I think Mimi would just love these cookies to add to her kitchen play. They are from gingerblossoms who also makes other felt play food like scrambled eggs. So clever.
Finally a shirt for little girls with older brothers! I think my daughter would go crazy for this shirt and she'd feel cool wearing it with her brother and his dinosaur shirts. I found this on etsy (of course) for $16. Soooo cute! They also have robot shirts for girls.
I took these pictures last weekend and can't get enough of them. I posted them on my husbands facebook page as well. I love Max and Henry's picture. So far Henry is quite happy go lucky. After he has slept and has been fed he is just all smiles. :)
I loaded Henry into the car while my friend watched Max & Mimi the other day. I was on a hunt for boxes, I thought it would take forever driving from store to store picking up 5 boxes here and there. Well, I went to Costco first and asked them for boxes. The lady said she had a few, so I thought okay I'll go by wal-mart next...then she comes out with about 50 boxes for me!!!! Thank you Costco!
Yes, our 'older' home has some appliances to match. Now the fridge isn't as dated as the one above, but it's not lookin too new either. So I found this idea on design sponge. Can't decide if I like it or hate it...Steve hates it because his "handwriting is bad. " Ha!
Yippee! We just need to do an inspection, but it looked very clean so I am pretty sure all will check out! We had to go farther North to get a home with a decent amount of square footage and a big yard we liked within our humble price range. ;) 
I love it, the entire first floor has hardwood floors. It is 3150 sq. ft. (with about 800 sq. ft. unfinished in the basement) and on about a 1/3 of an acre. (we could never do that in SLC). I don't know what I will do with all the space but I am excited to find out. As my brother said, it is much better than "Molestation Manor". (our previous dream-first-home) hee-hee Now I finally have a place to decorate!
Here are some wonderful fabrics I found on a blog I frequent, portabello pixie. She is just amazing at what she creates.
This is a line of fabrics she designed, I just love them!
This is a random post, but I love this chair from Target....yes, Target! Who knew Target had such cute furniture? I didn't have any idea until I went to my friend Ingrid's house and saw the cutest chair in her living room and she said it was from Target. Ever since that day I go online occasionally to look at their new designs. Here is one of my favorites. I love that you can pull from one of the colors or use them all in a room.
This is a thank you post.
I love this room, just love it...no adore it. I have once again fallen in love with color. So thank you lotus-bleu, Caitlin and everyone else who makes this world more beautiful and pleasant to be in.
Steve and I put in an offer on this home last week that was accepted! This would be great news...except that I did some investigating on the neighborhood and found that the house 2 doors down was a private residence that housed boys who were going through rehabilitation for sexual offences....
...so needless to say we backed out of the offer this afternoon. :( As beautiful as this home is we decided not to put down roots in this neighborhood. I am so sad, so so so sad. It is spectacular inside, but nothing is worth putting our kids at risk.
It is on a third of an acre, and our lot boardered that of the boys home. :( I am going to erase these pictures, they make me too sad to look at.
So the question remains...will we ever find a home we like that we can afford?
ps, behind that stain glass door is the massive and beautiful mater suite. But now we know why this home was so affordable...it has been restored beautifully and we couldn't believe they were asking anything below $300k. Now to the next page and countless hours of searching for homes on the internet once again.
I bought these images yesterday on etsy at Land of Enchantment. I am in love with these wonderfully creepy Halloween tags...I am so excited!
Growing up I was never really a fan of Halloween, scary bloody costumes, horror films and lots and lots of candy (interspersed only occasionally with chocolate). I always thought it was a "boy" Holiday. It also meant that Summer was over and school/early morning seminary had begun. yuck to both. ;)
But since I married Steve it has grown on me. I went from "okay, okay I get it you like the Fall", when we were first married to "I can't wait for Fall and Halloween!!!"
There is so much fun stuff, you can almost create your own little charming/creepy world during the Halloween season. Above are some artists prints I found on Etsy. I just love these prints from The Decorated House.
