Pictures of the pictures in my house.

Here they are. Random pictures of all the pictures and picture groupings in our house. There are lots. I feel like I've done things nicely but at the same time I do notice the abundance of pictures and snapshots that are in my house. The only thing I'm not showing on these is the hallway. I'm redoing the hallway so what's up right now won't be in a short a while. I need to work on getting pictures of my family outside of my kids and husband. I just have so many pics of my kids and love each stage that I want them surrounding me. I don't think it looks tacky but hey it might? Here it all is....




In Blakes room

In our room.

Coops room

Lots on the fridge


Again in our room
The guest bathroom

I left a few random picture's we have about but for the most part got pics of most of them. Here they are. Get ready for pictures galore.

Our Love Story

Our Love Story

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

My husband and I have been married for 8-1/2 years and dating for 12-1/2 years.

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

The first time we met, my best friend went to the same church as he did. We were 15 years old and it was a summer program we went to. Another friend of mine was with us and she was saying that she really thought he was cute. She had a guy he was friends with ask him if he liked her. (haha, so young and immature we were). He sends the guy back to tell her that he doesn't like her but that he thinks I'm pretty. whoa whoa, hold your horsies buddy. My friend likes you, that is so against the rules.
Nothing happened that day. About 2 months go by and we see each other again. He again asks me for my number. I did give it to him this time and called my friend and asked her if I was upsetting her because she liked him. She promised me she wasn't upset. (I still felt really bad, but in my defense she was dating someone and had moved on). He called me and we talked on the phone for hours. Months go by again and he ends up asking me to go with him to our Freshman (high school) formal. I accepted. But unfortunately between that day and the dance I started dating another guy. I know, horrible! Again, In my defense I ended up breaking up with the other guy before the dance. Julian and I went to the dance and had a great time. The next day he started dating another girl. (Seriously high school drama. You should probably know that I've only dated like 2-3 guys my entire life. Most really really short young relationships.) We didn't talk again until the summer before our Sophomore year of high school. He started calling me again. We started to "go out" AKA date. We have been together since then (minus the short one night break up we had on an angry fight night when we were 17 years old :). The rest is history from there. Marriage, new house, a few tough times, lots of love and happy times, babies, the works.

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

8-1/2 years :) Our 9 year anniversary is on June 21st 2012. Coming close to the 10 year mark :)
above is two different anniversary pics of us. I think the top is 6 years. I was prego with Cooper. The second is I believe our 5 year.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We were married at Holy family church in Tulsa. It was a big catholic wedding. The reception was at the petroleum club. It was the wedding of my dreams. The day went perfect, sunny, beautiful, filled with family and love. I couldn't have asked for more.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Haha. Old ones he called me "Poogis", honey, babe, Missy"
I call him "Babe, honey"

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
I love how much and how he genuinely he loves me and our babies.
I love that he's a super hard worker and he's so smart and goal driven.
I love how everyone loves his fun sense of humor. He can make just about anyone laugh and he's friends with everyone he meets.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

It was our 4th year dating anniversary August 11th 2002. We were Sophomores in College. He came to pick me up at my apartment and take me to dinner at the olive Garden (It was one of my favorite restaurants when I was younger). When he got there he seemed nervous and it didn't take but 5 minutes before he dropped to 1 knee to propose. (He had planned on waiting until after dinner at a park but he said he was sick to his stomach with nerves and couldn't wait). I of course said yes. We went to his families to show off the ring, I called my parents crying of course, then we went to dinner and then to the park and had a desert picnic and talked about our future. It was such a special day for us.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He is a campaign, dinner cooking, sweet card with a long heartfelt message and a sweet little gift to go with kind of guy.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Oh definitely sunset dinner on the beach, however I don't live anywhere near a beach so we settle for pop and a movie on the couch :)

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

I want a second honeymoon. We were young and scared of the world when we went on ours. We had no money and didn't know what we wanted to do and see at that point in our lives. We didn't relax like we should have. To top it off a hurricane effected our trip while on our honeymoon and we weren't able to go onto the beach the entire trip. It rained cats and dogs. I feel like we deserve a beautiful fun 2nd honeymoon. Don't get me wrong the first one was wonderful. But I think we need a second :)

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

Now that we have kids our plans are totally different. We want to spend this special holiday with them as well. We set aside a "Fake valentines day celebration" just for the two of us in the weeks surrounding and go grab dinner and a movie or something fun. On valentines day we plan to cook dinner, give the kids some special goodies and have a fun family night just us :)

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope just love and affection from my sweeties. All three of them.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Always talk about your disagreements, be open minded to each others point of views. Finish fights, don't hold off or wait. Love each other and thank God for your hubby daily. Work together, always being a team. Set aside time for you, Respect and appreciate one another.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.

I picked two :)

thanks for the poll comments

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my picture poll.

I have an over abundance of pictures in our house. I think I've done a decent job of displaying them nicely throughout but I have noticed there are an awful lot.
That's why I asked the question. I like most of you, love all our pictures. But I was curious if others felt differently when entering my home.

I plan on doing a picture post. I want to show you what prompted me to post that post. Ultimately I know its our home and if we enjoy tons of pictures everywhere than its fine. But I was just very curious what all of you thought.

Thanks again for the comments.

QUICK POLL/ PLEASE TAKE A SECOND TO LEAVE A COMMENT

POLL!!!

Is there such thing as having to many pictures (meaning snap shots) up in your house?

Tonight We are young, So let’s set the world on fire, We can burn brighter than the sun

We are young by the band named Fun!

Today I was on my way to work and this song came on the radio. My car tells the artist and name of most songs that come on the radio but this one only said "We are young". No artist.
I knew I had heard it somewhere but I couldn't put my finger on where?
It was very happy, uplifting and fun to sing along to.
I got to work and was singing it in my head all happily :) Then it hit me.
I don't watch Glee often but for some reason I felt like I'd heard this song on Glee once before. Sure enough I google it and yep, Glee did a cover of this song. I found out the name of the group and ended up listening to it with some co workers. We all love it now.

I decided that I should share it with you guys. Its happy and uplifting. Songs can make me feel good and pumped up. I'm definitely a mood person when it comes to music and I believe that it can help a mood or you can wallow if that's the mood your in.
So check this song out. I think you'll feel good after hearing it. I feel like its contagious!

ENJOY :)

http://youtu.be/Sv6dMFF_yts

Pinterest saving/costing me all sorts of money!

Pinterest. What a wonderful place I have become obsessed with for a while now. I have established more than 2-3 years worth of home improvement, renovation, upgrading, art projects, ect....
Don't get me wrong, I get great recipes, and fashion ideas and all sorts of hair styles and different fun things I can do also.

This sounds great doesn't it. All these awesome DIY projects that I can do for so much less. So many great ideas. The only problem is that I'm obsessed and I can't ever find the time or the money to do them all. There is way to much in my "To do to the house" list.
We live in a smaller home. Its our first house and we have lived here for nearly 8-1/2 years now. We don't intend on living in this house past another 2 years. We have already ripped up all the carpet and put down hard woods through the entire house. We repainted each and every wall, cleaned and repainted cabinets and have decorated throughout. Thus completely transforming the little place. However its not what I want it to be. I have all these things I want to do. So much that I see I can still fix up and change. So many art projects I could conjure up to add a little more character and pizazz.
One of the humongous ginormous things I'm wanting to do so badly it hurts is....... Redo the entire kitchen. Yes CRAZY! I know.
Let me set one thing straight though. The floor has nice tile we wouldn't be changing. The appliances are all updated and stainless and nice. The only (ha only) things I'm referring to changing is this list of things.
Sand and strip each cabinet and drawer and repaint white.
Get new counter tops (pricey considering we have quite a bit of counter space).
repaint the nook and kitchen
Add a new back splash in the kitchen
Add a window seat with cushions and pillows and get a new kitchen table
Add curtains and a rug to the nook
Redecorate all walls and counter tops.

Wow! Come on I know your all thinking it and sighing with the rush of way to much to do. Not to mention its all worth nothing but my happiness for about one to two years.
We have upgraded this house to the point that any additional upgrades are for us and we will never get our money back. We have already put to much into it.
I feel like I will be wasting money I could be putting back for a roomier newer home. That's what we should be doing with any extra money we have. But I live here. This is our house for I would say at least two more years. That's not that long right. WRONG. It feels like a while to me. Cooper will be nearly 5 years old, Blake nearly 3. We will hopefully be working on number 3. That's a ways off in my mind. That's a while to not do these things that I can't kick from my mind. I've been thinking about this for years now and each year I talk myself out of it. Which is probably best. I know I can do just some of the projects. The less pricey ones. But I'm sort of an all or nothing kind of girl. I want to do the full vision and not just half. I know that sounds so silly.

Pinterest is great. I love it, but at the same time its only giving me even more creativity than I had before. I've always been a creative person. But when given even more ideas and things I can tweak and make my own. I've gone into creative overload and nothing is good enough unless its redone and made exactly what I'm now visualizing.
I have to find a way to control the urge to constantly have new inexpensive and expensive pinterest projects.

And that's my confession for the week. I'M A PINTERAHOLIC! HELP!

8 months already!

Our sweet little Blakey love is already 8 months old.
She is getting so big and doing so much its insane.

Your crawling quickly and pulling up to standing. You even stand all by yourself for a while before falling over. Your walking while holding onto our hands (unsteadily).
Talking gibberish up a storm. Always smiling and giggling and talking to us.

You are wearing size 12-18 month pants and the same for shirts. You are in size 3 shoes and weigh around 21 lbs. You love your big brother and you don't like to be alone. When we walk out of the room for literally a second you are quickly on our heals crawling behind us wanting to be wherever we are.

You play so well with all your toys. Your favorite toy right now is your Minnie mouse doll we got you for Christmas. You drag her by her arm or leg all around the house.
You clap a really sloppy adorable clap and you wave but I don't think you realize your waving. You do the most hilarious leg arm flap crazy dance when you get in your bathtub. Its hilarious and adorable.
Still no teeth. Your going to be like your big brother and walk before you ever get your first tooth. That's fine with us, however you do it, it will be perfect.
You dance, you bob up and down and your little chubby bod is adorable when you dance :) I mean that in the nicest way :)

You striking a pose
Vogue!


Blakely is such a blessing. We are having so much fun watching her grow. She is the most cuddly loving child and she just forms right into you when we pick her up. So cuddly!

We love you so much sweetie! Happy 8 months!

Here's a pic of Cooper just because he's so dang cute.