Happy 4th of July!!!!

Itch To Pitch - week 3

last week i won the challenge, i guess my kids and i will be eating some Digiorno pizza. so excited cause that is our favorite kind of frozen pizza!

i thought i already posted this week but i checked and i hadn't hmmm very odd. anywho i have been busy organizing i love this challenge, especially with being pregnant i am full nesting mode, ask my hubby he has been shaking his head at me everyday. too bad that nesting doesn't apply to laundry in my case.

so last week i worked on my pantry. we have lived here just over a year although we didn't have cabinets until the middle of July last summer and my pantry has been cleared and out cleaned a lot since then it is just one of those areas we are constantly in and out of. hopefully this will last longer than usual. my pantry isn't a big walk in one like i dream of, but it is perfect for our kitchen and it is really deep so it will fit a ton of stuff

the befores:

top shelves

 

 

 

 

 

the bottom shelves. sorry the picture is totally not straight

 

 

 

 

 

 

the next 3 pics are just what was inside those 2 cabinets!

up at the very top are some bowls and stuff that i am not ready to part with but that i don't use often enough to justify having them in everyday reach. i actually have to get on a step stool to get these, which i am 5 foot 11 so they are high lol.

 

 

here are some after's:

i tried to keep everything in like categories by how we use them rice and pastas, lunch stuff, cans, baking, trash bags and refillable items ( storage bags, foil etc, that is all behind the crock pot)

one final look:

for more itch to pitch posts go see The Happy Housewife!! adn stayed tuned for next week i am finishing my kitchen.

my baby girl

last week i went to see my old OB it was SOOOO beyond fabulous being back at her office! she gave me a hug and spent a good amount of time with me and with through my entire pregnancy thus far. she scheduled me for lots of tests,and a ultrasound i was so excited she wanted good dates because she said i was measuring about 3 weeks ahead.

yesterday i went for that ultrasound and it was great, the tech spent a long time talking to me about every single thing. unlike my last one which i had to pry things out of the lady and she didn't even let me watch on the screen. I went alone and it was actually kind of cool, there was interesting people i saw in the waiting room (don't you love waiting rooms) there was a girl maybe 20 having a baby and she seriously had 25 people with her, they were able to fit 14 people in the room and the others waited, she was having a girl she was so excited although her boyfriend/ husband wanted a boy. anther couple were there with there 6 year old they found out hey were having a girl too ( i was waiting forever cause i got there a hour early by accident- i was told the wrong time) another lady was preggo with twins and was there with her BF turns out she was having the babies for her best friend- how awesome is that?! there was also a man there with his wife and he was about 50 and talked to EVERYONE in the area- he is the one who informed the waiting room about Michael Jackson.

so back to the ultrasound as soon as the lady put the wand to my belly she said "oh its a girl" yay! i believed the last lady but i never saw it for my self yesterday i did! it was so cool seeing her move around in there and i loved how she looked like a big ol baby. all my measurements were pretty off from my original date given ( my date with my lmp should have been in the middle of September but my first ultrasound showed the end) i was 26 weeks and 1 day yesterday and all of the measurements were putting me at least at 28 weeks and 5 days, she said my doctor will almost for sure change my date because even if the bay was measuring big she should not have measured that off. she already weight 2 pounds 8 ounces!  she said my new due date will probably be changed from the 30th to the 19th.

Family Room

we have lived here a full year now. our family room started very gross. take a look:

 

we worked really hard, filled in the wall, took out the yucky carpet, took those horrible blinds down, when we took out the carpet there was this ugly tile red floors

yes it was bad. so here is the first part of the redo when we moved in. John and I actually had to live in this room for a few weeks while we were getting the AC put in.

 

by the way i hate these curtains they are capri's which i totally know are not in style haha, but i needed something to cover the windows and these worked, it has been a year and i still haven't changed them out.

here is after we got the bed out:

 

although it looks better it is still not how i envisioned it. i am very happy with my collage wall, and i finally got some more pictures printed to finish it off. I also got that round table to do a cool thing with but i haven't got fabric to put over it because i want to switch the curtains first.  so here it is now, i love it this new way:

 

i love the couch on this wall rather than the TV because now i can find some things to hang over the couch, compared to TV because i couldn't figure out what to put to the sides of it

 

here is the TV now which is great because the glare is no more! so we can keep the curtains open most of the day.

 

 

 

a view of the photo collage and the table i have done nothing with HA! i am moving this rocking chair out of here i think but i am not sure what to put in its place

 

 

i love the TV here!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i moved my green big chair over to this area between the curtains and i love it! i found that lamp for $5 at a yard sale and it matches perfectly

Itch To Pitch- week 2

i have been meaning to post this since i did it last week but i have been busy trying to get this weeks going, and having people here most of the day for swim lessons.

so here it goes! This past week i did my entry way closet, it is supposed to be a coat closet although it doesn't get cold enough here to ever need a whole closet for coats. so instead i guess i have stored junk. here are the before's:

so the first task is to get everything out of the closet!

there was a lot of stuff in there and the picture does not even do it justice. those basket are full of stuff. there was holiday stuff, clearance gifts i had picked up, house decor etc etc etc....

i had this cool set of magnext that i got for $12.48 regularly $49.99, what a great gift for my son David he will love it!

i got all my holiday stuff into one tub, it is mostly things i decorate my little entry with since i don't generally decorate for many holidays other than Christmas.

 

 

 

ok so now for the final pictures of the after:

i love that the shelf fits in the closet sideways so much more convenient. i am not sure where to put these 2 bird cage candleholders in this house but i cant part with them yet cause i love them! anyhow i was very pleased with the final outcome.

the orange basket is one of car stuff that i take with me when i leave (not always only if i am gone for the most part of the day) it has a phone book, granola bars, umbrella, couple of movies for the kids, wipes etc. also i store certain snacks or juices in this closet cause the kids never look in here and they last longer that way.

oh and lastly, the stuff i pitched:

 

i love this challenge i cant wait until next week. i am working in my kitchen so be ready for that big reveal! for more itch to pitch ideas go here

Jake's 2nd birthday

so we celebrated Jake's party this weekend. He had a fun time i am sure of it. I bought him a little pool that he had fun playing in an it kept him from running in the gate of the big pool which was really nice for us. We did a low key party just a few friends and some family. i did really easy food a veggie tray, fruit, chips, hot dogs, and hot links. Normally i make all kinds of side salads and/or beans but i have been tired this pregnancy and just trying to keep it easy and affordable. Liz even made the cupcakes instead of buying a cake, perfect since she loves to bake!

Here are a few pics:

swimming with a buddy =)

 

after the piñata broke and John threw out all the candy

cupcake in one hand candy in the other...

Hannah loved them too

and playing with his new cow lawnmower.

 

A great day!!!!

Because I LOVE my hubby so much

i told him i would make him whatever he wanted for dinner tonight to celebrate Father's Day so this is what i made:

 

this is like the dinner i would never crave lol. beans and cornbread (i did draw the line and made pinto beans because Johnnie wanted butter beans GROSS!) and fried potatoes and fried okra

speaking of fried okra i made it for the first time. last year i was part of a veggie co-op and i got okra well i cut it up and froze it and never used it so it worked out perfect. John said it was really good and it looked good to me although i didn't eat it.

 

the beans and potatoes were good that is all i ate. John only like "real" cornbread which he likes to call it, it is not sweet what so ever blah. i like mine sweet with butter. anyhow it was fun getting to cook him something he really loves and that it turned out well.

for dessert we had peach pie with vanilla ice cream now that was good!

Johnnie!

I am SO glad i get to parent along side you. You are a great dad and our kids love you SO much. I hope you had a great day.

Friends

We love to have people over. When Johnnie and I were first married he didn't love it as much as me but for me growing up there was always a party, bbq, celebration going on so after 11 years of marriage and 5 babies and one more on the way he now loves it as much as i do (i think) and we tend to have a lot of stuff at our home. This weekend we had some friends over a BBQ, swimming and games. John and I are very blessed we really do have some great friends.

Since our AC was out for what seemed like forever we had kind of been in a funk lately (more me then him) it is hard when you are used to seeing people then spend 3 weeks stuck in one or two rooms of your house where the ac works. 

This year has been interesting to say the least we have moved into this great house but with that came some very unforeseen expenses that literally leave our checking account dry every pay period. let me just say it is not cheap to cool and heat this house and when you live in a town where it gets a 100+ degrees for 3-4 months of the year no AC is not a option, so lately entertaining has been on the back burner cause lets face it is not free to have a bunch of people over.

But this weekend we did one of the most ghetto things and invited our friends over and asked them to bring a side to share AND there own meat for there family. normally John and I would invite you over for a BBQ and provide the main dish and some sides too and maybe ask you to bring some thing small. Well it worked out great and no one seemed to mind. We will definitely be doing that again. i made a nice green salad, a big bowl of watermelon and cantaloupe, some cookies and drinks and everyone else brought the rest of the food. it took some of the stress off hosting and prepping too which is always nice. This also helps in dividing up the cost because we all know how expensive it can be to feed 20 people, and everyone brought what there family liked.

The kids swam for a bit then ran around the back yard and us adults played Mexican train game. There was 8 adults and 12 kids and it was fun and pretty low stress.

I find entertaining very easy and pretty low stress. I used to make a big deal out of every party or BBQ we had but as our families get bigger, people get more busy, finances get tighter entertaining does not have to be cut out. So here are some of my top tips for entertaining:

1. have people bring something- that sounds simple and it is. you don't have to fork over the bill and cook the entire meal from start to finish. and honestly most people like to bring something. things i tend to have others bring are desserts, breads, chips and dip, fruit. Not things that are too hard to make, and usually they can just pick up on the way to our house if they want. And sometimes i just say this is what i am making ___ what would you like to bring.
2. Entertaining with kids is fun but try not to get fancy, kids don't want to eat fancy appetizers, grilled lamb, and tons of different salads. they want to eat burgers, pizza or mac n cheese. Not to say kids don't like those things my kids like different things but it is easy to keep it simple when you are entertaining families.
3. There is nothing wrong with paper plates, plastic cups, and paper napkins. Most of our friends have larger families so since i don't have place setting for 20 generally we use paper plates. on occasion if we are just having one other family over, or are serving something more substantial than hot dogs, or pizza we will use regular plates. It helps with the clean up too.
4. work the grill. We grill year around here and i love it because my hubby does the main part of the meal and i just prep everything else and get the drinks together (which is almost always tea, sweet and unsweetened, most people like tea and much more affordable than sodas)
5. Relax- your friends just want to come over to get out of the house and spend time with friends so don't stress it is just a meal it doesn't have to be the best meal they ever had (although always a bonus if it is =))

i have many more so i will post again on this topic later this week but this post is already too long.

Library Day

one of the things i always looked forward to as a little girl was going to the library. my mom used to take me all the time, i loved to read. as a mom i haven't taken my kids nearly nearly enough. SO we are getting ready to go today, i am sure they will like it. We usually start our summer by going then we end up only going a couple of times, i think since we will be home schooling soon we need to really learn our library better. plus the kids are watching WAY too much TV lately and that is just not good parenting on my part. wish us luck hopefully Jake doesn't destroy the place HA!

Why I should not go to the store alone...

funny thing is i don't really like ice cream! oh and the carrots looked good, it balances the sweet HAHA!

Itch to pitch

today as i was reading through all the blogs i read on a daily basis i came across this post and i knew i had to join in. The happy housewife knew just what i needed for the summer! Since we plan to go nowhere this summer this should keep me plenty busy, well that and the fact all my kids are home indefinitely since we are soon starting on our homeschool adventure....

i actually started the de-cluttering last week so i am going to post a week early (no i am not a overachiever believe me HA!) We have 3 closets in our hall way a utility closet which houses our hot water heater, a toiletries closet and a linen closet. WELL they were in disarray and my hubby had kept saying i needed to move the cleaning supplies out of the utility one in case the shelf i had them all weighed down on decided to fall and the thing could start a fire... yay that was like months ago so last week was the week, well Thursday to be exact. it took me like 3 hours to clean and reorganize the 3 small closets and although no one ever looks in there i was so excited it was done. so here are the before's:

 

what you don't think it is that bad? well see that 3rd and 4th pic? that is my toiletries closet and once i took everything out this is how much stuff i had in there!

that is my problem at my house. everyone who knows me knows i like a clean house, really most would say it is kind of silly how much i enjoy a clean house and how much i cant stand a dirty house. well don't open a closet door my friends, because you never know what you may find! here is some pictures of the after:

i am using the utility closet for my vacuum (go figure it now fits!), brooms, mops etc. and a few items that belong there like light bulbs. flashlights etc.... my linen closet is now the linen closet and the toiletries space because i got rid of 3 trash bags of stuff! the picture of that one isn't too great cause it looks kind of bare now, i will take a better pic later. on the bottom i used a big crate and put all the toiletries and it all fit perfect! this cabinet is very deep so each shelf fits a ton of stuff. lastly is my new cleaning supplies closet. that white basket holds all the cleaning towels, i also put doubles and refills on the very top and the second shelf (which is the top one you can see) holds my day to day stuff. i am SO excited this is done! especially because i was able to fit all my cleaners that were under my cabinet that Jake had started getting in to.

i cant wait for next week!

Weekend Round up

so another Monday already! This weekend went by quick. Friday Jake had his 2 year old check up and we bought him some new shoes, have i mentioned the fact my kids has the fattest feet ever?! i was able to find him a pair at payless but i have never found him any there before so i was excited not to have to shell out $50 for stride rites double wide's.

Friday John was bbqing in a BBQ competition with some friends from work and so we went down there and hung out. the weather was in the 70's and PERFECT the kids ran around we ate and played. then we came home the baby went to bed and the big kids watched hotel for dogs.

Saturday Liz had a swim meet so i was up at 5 so she could get ready, luckily another mom offered to take her so i didn't have to haul all the kids out. my niece came over and watched the boys while i went to a luncheon at a friends church and then back to see John and the guys. here they are preparing there brisket for the judges:

 

this was the guys first BBQ competition and they have never cooked a brisket so they didn't have there hopes to high of winning anything. although i guess that brisket was pretty good because they took 3rd! out of 36 teams they were so excited!!!

i guess sleeping on a cot in the cold was worth it lol.....when John got home he crashed for like the remainder of the weekend. well he did take Liz to her swim meet on Sunday.

yesterday i just went to church and the grocery store and planned our meals. Pretty uneventful weekend for me.

tonight i will post those before/after pics of my closets i have been working on bet you cant wait HA!

Beautiful weather!

oh my gosh if you don't live in California this is the week you are missing out it is gorgeous here right now! it is very cool, especially since the months of May-September i am locked in my house in fear that i will melt because of the heat. well this week we even had rain!

John is in a BBQ competition this weekend (he is so excited it is really cute) it is his first one ever so the kids and i went down to the park where it is at and hung out for a couple of hours. the kids ran off some energy and i enjoyed the cool evening. i totally forgot a camera too bummer! the set up was like a mini version of ones we have watched on TV and it was funny to see all these grown adults so excited over meat. John's hopes are not to high on winning (there are like some professionals from out of town there who like travel to compete) but i am sure he will love the experience.

today Jake had his 2 year old check up and the kiddo is a tank! he weighs 36 pounds and is 35 inches tall. my little chubby boy. the doctor says his size is perfect so i am not worried about it he is a good size kid, very solid!

that is it around here the first week of summer vacation is over and it went ok. i got a few organizing projects done that i will post about ASAP!