Pottery Barn Kids Photo Shoot

Last fall, Kate was asked to model for a Pottery Barn Kids photo shoot.
The shoot was for their new "Freeport" Boys Bedroom set coming out this summer.

I got my Pottery Barn Kids catalog this past weekend & saw this picture on page 57:

There's our Kate!
It was a really fun experience!

Click HERE to see her on the Pottery Barn Kids website
or
Click HERE to see the online catalog

Open House

For the past few months we have been talking about moving.

We have been in our current house for 5 and a half years & decided it was time to sell & buy something walking distance to the elementary schools.

Last Thursday we listed our house.
Thursday night we got an offer.
We countered & by Saturday afternoon we had officially sold our house.
We can't believe it happened so fast.
We were supposed to have an Open House on Sunday, but never needed to, so I thought I would post pictures of our house on here for you to see!
And, because I want to be able to show the girls what their house looked like because they are too young to remember.

Here is the front of our house:
Here is the kitchen:

(we gutted it & remodeled it when we first bought it)
Here is the downstairs bathroom:
Here is the dining room:
Here is the view of the family room from the dining room:
Here is the view of the family room from upstairs:
Here is the master bedroom:



Master Bath:
The girls RED bathroom:
Kate's room:

Claire's room:

Please note, my house is NEVER, EVER, EVER this clean
(unless people are coming over! haha!)

Backyard:


I will miss our neighborhood HOA ammenities.
Here is the Pool & Clubhouse (where I had Kate's 2nd Birthday Party)
The tennis courts:
The playground:
This house & neighborhood have held so many amazing memories for us.
But, we are excited for the next step...where ever that may be.
Did I mention that the escrow closes in 21 days?!?!
Did I mention that we haven't found a house to buy?!?!
Needless to say, the next month or two is going to be CRAZY!
Luckily, my parents are amazing & they said we can move in with them until we find a house to put an offer on. So, we are ordering a POD and we are going to store all of our stuff in that.

Please pray that the close of escrow goes smoothly.
Please pray for the right house to come on the market for us.
All of this uncertainty is WAY beyond my comfort level.
In the end, I know it will be worth it, but right now it is a jumble of emotions:
stress, excitement, fear of the unknown, etc.
But right now, I am TOTALLY.FREAKING.OUT.
So much to do & pack in so little time.

Thanks for coming to my Open House, listening to my ramblings & thanks for the prayers!

Epic Easter Bunny Fail.

Before you scroll down to see this year's Easter Bunny picture,
be sure to click HERE to see the Easter Bunny pictures from the last 3 years!
It will give you a nice preview of what to expect.

Okay, are you back?

It goes without saying that my girls don't like the Easter Bunny.

Here is the 2010 Epic Easter Bunny FAIL:
{click to enlarge}

Classic! I am a mean mommy & LOVE pictures like this.
My girls didn't disappoint me this year! ha!
We were quite the scene at the mall this afternoon.

I wish you could see the cute shirts I made them using my friend Julie's tutorial.

So, here they are up close (since you can't see them in the Easter Bunny picture:

I am pretty happy how they turned out considering this is the first thing I have sewn without any help at all!

Family Resemblance?

We think we finally found out who Kate looks like.

Last week, my mom found this old picture of my dad's mom
(Grandma Marge) who died when I was 5 years old.

We always said we don't know who Kate looks like.
Kate doesn't look like Kevin (but Claire sure does!)
She doesn't look like me (*maybe* a little bit?)
We have always thought she looked a little like my younger sister, Rebecca.
Who does Rebecca look like? Our Grandma Marge.

So, what do you think...does Kate look like Grandma Marge or what?
In my opinion, they have the same eyebrows, smile, dimples & face shape.
{I wonder if Grandma Marge had big gap in her front teeth (like Kate's) when she was a little girl?}

Signs of Spring

It was the first "official" weekend of Spring.
Here are some signs of Spring around our house...

Playing outside with short sleeves on:
Our daisy plant in full bloom:

A vase of Daffodils in my kitchen:
Sweet Tea from McDonald's...once Spring/Summer hits, I just can't resist the $1 drink
(this is only thing I get from McDonald's except when I get a Sausage Egg McMuffin *maybe* once a year). This is the only place I can get Sweet Tea in California!

Our apple tree in our backyard is starting to blossom:
Our lime tree has it's first buds:
Cherry blossoms in our front yard:
Green hills behind our house:
Because of all the beautiful green hills & blossoms, come allergies!
I didn't get allergies until my mid-20's. Not fun!

We also spent the weekend SPRING CLEANING!
I literally scrubbed & cleaned every inch of our baseboard this weekend.

And, I touched up paint throughout the house while Kevin touched up paint on the outside of our house:
Our house is the cleanest is has EVER been!
Let's see how long that lasts....
Watching March Madness....

My bracket is DONE. Shouldn't have picked Kansas to win the whole thing. Ouch.

One of my favorite things about the official arrival of Spring....
Only 12 more days until Spring Break!

Hope you had a good first weekend of Spring!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Being that I am part Irish, I LOVE St. Patrick's Day!

I couldn't wait to celebrate it today!
(Who am I kidding? I love any holiday or excuse to be festive!)

Here is how we celebrated this evening for St. Patty's Day 2010:

My Irish girls in green playing outside in the glorious 75 degree weather at 6 pm:
Kate was ALL about St. Ptty's Day.
She told me "Happy St. Patty's Day" about 50 times today.
And, she was so excited that everyone was wearing green today.
She may or may not have been upset that the dog wasn't wearing green.
Coloring Shamrock's:

I am not a fan of corned beef & cabbage, so here is my spin on St Patty's Day Dinner:

On the menu:

Guinness Stew from my friend Jen. Made in a crock pot (so easy!)
She hasn't posted the recipe on her blog, but she should (hint, hint)
Smashed & Loaded Red Potatoes (just kind of made them up...red potatoes with skins on, mashed with sour cream, green onions, bacon, milk & cheddar cheese. YUM!)
*side note* you can add green food dye to the potatoes, but because of last year on St. Patty's Day I didn't want to sway Kate from eating them.

Broccoli (because it is green)
Irish Soda Bread (recipe found here)
The entire meal in a pasta bowl:
Rainbow Cupcakes (for the girls)
Cupcake recipe found here.
Nom, Nom.
And of course, Green Beer!
Hope you had a great St. Patty's Day!

I am ending my night by filling out my March Madness Bracket!
Can't wait for the games to start tomorrow!

Here Comes the Sun

Claire's ready for Spring, are you?

I am especially excited about the forecast this week:
High's in the mid-70's?

Yes, Please!
Time to bust out the short sleeve shirts & flip flops (but first I need a pedicure...yikes!)

I Heart Faces: Bundled Up

The theme this week is "Bundled Up"

Since Spring is in full force here in California, I had to look through some of my pictures from when we were in Tahoe after Christmas.

I wanted to use about 10 pictures from this Post, but I can only enter one, so here is my entry:
I just love this picture of Kate & Beka walking up the snowy hill with their sleds.

Check out I heart faces for more entries!