Things That Make Me Happy...

... a steady stream of cherry limeade while on "vacation" in Missouri! I have had 5 route 44's in the last 4 days! Oh my - that's 220 oz. of cherry goodness! Yeah, so what, I'm on vacation! We have been having such a nice time with all our friends and family! I'll catch ya'll up on it next week. Headed back home tomorrow! Chat soon, Jen

Nuk Free Is The Way To Be!

Last night the dreaded, unthinkable happened!
Greta finally chewed through her last Nuk and had to give it up completely!!!

If you don't know Greta... here is the little back story on this.
G loves her Nuk! And when I say loves, I mean... has to have it almost all the time, freaks out, would die with out it, kind of love.

We have cut her back to nap time, bed time, and in the car... so Mommy doesn't drive off the road due to her screaming, and she has done pretty good with that. We know her brother has one and so we have just contemplated taking both of them away at the same time. But for now, we have told her he is still little and she is not.

When it comes to the Nuk, Greta also has this tendency to chew on it. I don't know if it's a bad habit like chewing on your nails or what?! But after she chews through them she just finds another! - Well as of late... we were down to THEE last one!

We had a talk with Greta and told her that when she chewed through that Nuk... that was it! It was the last Nuk and we were not buying another one. So this was it!!!

Fast forward to last night:
I was in Tuck's room putting him to bed when a scream rang out from Greta's room. This scream was followed my Daddy's low, sad, voice saying... "Mommy. You better come in here."

I walked in the room to find a teary eyed Greta laying on her bed. When I asked what was wrong, like a dramatic 16 year old, she just held up her chewed Nuk and laid back down.
Daddy had told her she could not go to bed with that Nuk for fear of her choking on it.

And so, that was it!
The era of the Nuk was gone in the blink of an eye...
and I was left probably as nervous and scared as Greta, wondering...

"What do we do now?!"
But, I am the parent and I know that my mood changes and affects the whole tone of our home. So with that...

"Giving Up The Nuk 101" began!

We have always talked about mailing her last Nuk to another baby who really needs a Nuk.
It is a Super Nanny trick where you decorate the envelope, have the child put the Nuk in there, then put it in the mail box to send it off. Later, you receive a toy or present for so selflessly giving your Nuk to a baby in need!

Here is a picture recap of thee most MONUMENTAL MOMENT in Greta's life to date...


Here she is, decorating her envelope.

As for then, she was all smiles and ready to become "a big girl!"
Here's her envelope all done and ready.
(yeah, when in a scramble all I could find were sponge bog stickers! - Boo.)As you can see, she decided to mail her Nuk to her cousin Paisley, just in case she lost hers some day. - too sweet! :)
Oh my gosh... there it goes.
The last time we will ever see this thing.
Ready but a smidge nervous to actually go bring it out to the mail box.
This picture almost made me cry for her.
One last look at the thing that has comforted her most since she was a baby.
Then they were off... headed out into the cold and the snow, just to mail that Nuk to Paisley.
And that was it!
Inside and ready to try going to bed with out it!

For the record:
Greta did a pretty good job falling asleep last night. But she did wake up at 3:00 am calling and crying for her Daddy. She was pretty upset that she didn't have her Nuk anymore and said she couldn't sleep with out it. So, like the good Daddy he is, Daddy crawled into bed with her to sooth her and calm her down. - he ended up falling asleep and staying with her for the night.

But, like we promised, Greta received exactly what she asked for for giving up her Nuk....

... a two and a half foot tall Buzz Lightyear pillow. Which she is completely in love with!

All in all, the whole experience wasn't as traumatic as I thought it might have been... so that is a good thing!

And if you don't mind, I'd like to leave a little note to my Greta J,

Greta girl,Mommy and Daddy could not be more PROUD of you for finally doing this!
We know that giving up things you love are never easy. We are just so thankful that you listened to us and you were able to overcome this fear and finally let go of the Nuk. You are growing up so fast my sweet girl. I will always cherish the memories I have of rocking you to sleep with that Nuk wedged tightly in your lips. You would always suck and suck on it just to sooth your colicky tummy.

We love you, we're proud of you, and we think you are definitely growing up into a wonderful little girl.

Chat later,

Mommy

P.S. - we are headed off to the great state of Missouri soon so you may not see me till next week! So have a great weekend! - and yes, feel free to wish us and Greta both a little luck on this 9 hour
"Nuk-less" drive!

P.P.S - if you want more great Greta moments...
just check out this post,this post, this post, or this post!

Things That Make Me Happy...

... a hubby that not only watches out for my well being, but my health too! :)

The hubby and I are back at incorporating a little bit of healthy eating and exercise into our lives.

I am sure you guys can relate... if it is not something you are consciously thinking about every day you tend to forget about a healthy lifestyle! Add kids, multiple jobs and remembering or even caring to eat healthy or exercise just flys out the window.

But, when the scale said that I had gained back 20 of the 30lbs. I had lost last year... we figured it was time!

So, no gimmicks, no contest, no cash prize to motivate us... just a sad sad number on the scale and pool days at grandma's house lurking around the corner!

Who knows... I am not very good at this! I might fail and be eating a whole box of Kempswiches by next week! (they are A.mazing and one of my many guilty pleasures!!!) lol
- But Grandma Jan would say words mean things... So...

I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN!

(get to a skinner version of me before I have to squeeze my butt into a bathing suite this summer!)

Here's to a GREAT... healthy... week ahead!!!

Chat later,

Jen

To The Capitol We Will Go!

Yesterday me, Loren, and the babes got the honor of taking our very first trip to our state capitol!

Remember this wrappin' up post which documented the victory of my brother in law winning his house seat for the city of Andover?!

Well, now that B is a fancy pants congressman... he was able to give us a glimpse into his world and a small dose of history as we were able tour the floors of the Minnesota State Capitol... VIP style! lol

Here is a little compilation of the 73 pictures I took yesterday....

Here we are on the stairs of the capitol! Can't see much of it... but it's there! And oh yeah, under construction as well.

Every where you looked your eyes were overwhelmed with beauty and the most intricate design.
Every square inch to the peek of the ceiling was hand painted and touched with detail. Absolutely no space was left bare. Every nook and cranny of that place was perfectly thought out and decorated to the nines!
And check out this chandelier! I think it would look perfect in my home as well... don't you?!
We were greeted with lots of American history.
And even some funny hats!
The babes couldn't get enough of all there was too look at... and needless to say all the space there was to run!
After walking around awhile, we were finally able to spend some time in the house room where Branden gets down to business! Can you imagine calling this place your work?! Beautiful!
And here is the proud Daddy/Congressman chillin' in his chair showin' Paisley the ropes.
And of course my babes had to give Uncle B's chair a spin!
I think Tuck's ready to cast his vote! lol
Loren was in his element! He loved soakin' up all that history...
... and I loved soakin' up all that time and a whole day off with him.
It was such a fun day! A great way to get out of the house and do something different. It's definitely not every day you can say that you went to the state capitol... but I am so glad we were able to make the trip and spend the day as a family.
All in all, we had a goofy... I mean GREAT day!
Thanks Jes, B, & Paisley for a super fun day!

What a great idea it was and I became even more proud of Branden just seeing him doing what he loves to do!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Chat next week,

Jen

Spring Is In The Air!

Call me an over achiever....
...but I already have whipped out some cute diddy's for April's sale up at the Basement!
And ohhh do I want to keep them!

Not only has the snow around us been melting and the temps getting close to 50... but I am working with greens, robins egg blue, and whites... all colors that are fresh and screaming spring!

My favorite piece that I actually worked on just last night was this adorable "Be Humble" sign.
I am in love with it!

I love the color, I love that it's a little reminder, and I love the painted barn/fence looking lumber! This sign was actually made from this wood.

Ah, don't you just want one?! I do!
And for that matter... if you really do, just email me! I can place an order for you.

And last but not least the final sign I worked on last night was this beauty...

Again... I love the color, and that wood... love it!

So there it is... spring in a box... or a crate rather!

And like usual, I was burnin' the midnight oil to get some of these done after the babes went to bed. Remember this post? - I knew paint in the hair would happen.
Well it came true last night... I was caught red handed... or whatever you would call this....

After I was ready for bed, Loren caught me comin' out of the bathroom lookin' like this... with paint in my hair!

Oh well, guess it comes with the territory!

Hope you all enjoyed the taste of spring we are whippin' up around here! And remember, if you can't wait till April's sale for a sign or something you've seen around here... just let me know!

Chat later,

Jen

Snoop Doggy Dog - And Baby Fever!

This is going to be a strange, random, and funny post... hence the title, right?!

I just had to share this story!

So yesterday, my sister Jes was at our house because she happens to be our nanny.
Well, while she was over she noticed a blue bowl next to our bed on my night stand table.
This bowl immediately sparked her interest!

Jes assumed that obviously a bowl next to our bed meant someone was most likely sick.
And if someone in our house was sick... maybe it was me... and if it was me, then that must have meant I was PREGNANT!

So my sister... or "Snoop Doggy Dog" as we will now call her... immediately went over to the bowl to investigate.

As later told by her... Jes said "I at first thought no, it can't be!" "Is Jenny pregnant?!"
"But then I thought maybe you guys had popcorn in bed the night before... so I ran my finger along the bottom of the bowl to check for grease and there was none in there!"

And then Jes turns to me and says... "So seriously! Are you pregnant???"

Ahahahaha!

At this point of her questioning I am laughing so hard!
You seriously ran your finger along the bottom of a bowl to check for grease?! I wonder if she smelt it to see if it smelt like puke! lol
I don't know why it is that people are waiting on a limb to hear that I am pregnant again?!
My Mom and sister both are constantly thinking "is she, is she?"

Well like I said last night Jes... NO I am NOT pregnant!
Monday night I had thee worst migraine. A migraine so bad that when I went to bed the room started to spin and I could have sworn I was going to throw up.

But with that funny story behind us and my sister getting dubbed with a new nickname...
I actually have to share something very sweet!

While rummaging through some photos on my computer I found a whole folder of long lost videos I had taken on my camera.
And low and behold, here is the video of the day Tuck started to take his very first steps!

This is where the baby fever actually comes in!
I can't believe my baby boy has gotten so big, so fast! It's probably because I am around him all the time that I don't really see the day to day changes but when I ran across this video and saw his chubby little self with his big drooling smile... I couldn't help but miss having a baby baby in the house.

Well... just check it out, you'll see what I mean...

Click on this YouTube link to see the video!

After watching this maybe some day I do want another baby! We'll see!
But for now... NO Jes, I am NOT!

Chat later,

Jen

The Cutest Cupcakes... EVER!

So, I've been planning Tuck's 2nd Birthday Party and coming up with fun ideas for the theme, colors for decorating, and so on and so forth.
Well, I really want to stick with a color scheme of red and robins egg blue and I thought just one of the cute ways I could pull that off was to add those colors in to my cupcakes!

Well, just so happened that a work friend of Loren's... which happens to be my uncle, Dave... was having his last day at Rebarfab on Friday of last week!
Kind of a bummer to have David leave... so I wanted to do something a little special to wish him luck on his new journey in life.
And what a win win that I got to practice my cupcake combo! Yeah!

Check out how cute they are!

So I started with your good ole' box cake mix!
Let's face it... I am not a total Martha Stewart!
Although I did doctor them up a bit.... extra coco and some cinnamon in the chocolate batter and just a tablespoon of almond extract in the vanilla ones. - just that little extra something to make your taste buds go "Mmmmm!"

After baking them I whipped up some fun robin's egg blue frosting...

By mixing 1 can of yellow and one can of white frosting I got just the right base. Then all I had to do was add about 8 drops of blue food coloring to get this...

The perfect "robins egg blue" color!

After it was mixed up, I shoved that frosting in my new favorite tool... my frosting gun!!!

Holy cow do I love that thing! I don't know how I got by so long with out one!
I actually got it this year after Christmas down the 75% off Christmas aisle at Target! And yes... the tag does say $4.48!!! HUGE GRIN!

Greta even thought the frosting gun was cool! Even though it was a gun... Tuck still kept coloring! lol

Anyways... once the cupcakes were cooled, I got to frosting and boy were they lookin' good!

Yum-O!
But even though these were initiated because of a test run... it was still about David and his last day at work and I wanted to make him feel special. So, I grabbed my card stock, a stamp, toothpicks, and some ruffled scissors and these were what I came up with to stick in the cupcakes!

They really turned out better than I had expected! Which is great news! Now I can make them and feel super confident having them for Tuck's Party!

So, so, CUTE!

I wish David the best of Luck at his new job and I am super excited to make another batch of these and show them off in person!
What about you gals? Cupcakes are all the rage lately... so have you made any that turned out super cute? Or what about another dessert that looked just as good as it tasted?!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!
Here's to the start of a great week ahead!

Chat later,

Jen

P.S. Hope you like the new, slightly wild, springy look to the blog!
I can just feel that spring is around the corner and I wanted to add a bright, fun, feel to the blog to remind us all to hang in there! The Minnesota snow will soon be GONE! Hooray!

Greta Says...

Greta: "Mom are you old?!"

Me: "Well, compared to you... yes, I guess I am old."

Me: "What made you ask that question?"

Greta: "Well, I guess maybe because you act old."

Greta: "Or because you look old!"

Oh gosh!

Out of the mouths of babes I tell ya'.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry!

Trying to reassure myself that I am not old and that kids just happen to say the darnedest things!

Or is it that kids just speak the truth? Call it the way they see it?

Even if 28 looks old to Greta, it probably looks pretty young to my Grandma!

And I'm hangin' on to that!

Hope you all are having a great Thursday!

Chat later,

Jen

Tuck-a-roo!

Over the last couple of days I have been in a world of brainstorming for Tuck's 2nd Birthday Party!
I love planning parties but not just any parties... theme parties!
When parties have a theme, a vision, a color scheme, they just tend to not only flow better but they excite the birthday babe and all the guests that come to help make a memory!
I can't say it enough... I LOVE planning parties!

Here's is the one picture that kind of captures the vision that's been inside of my head for 2 days now.
A 1950's Soda Shop...

But forget the party... I can hardly wrap my brain around my baby almost being two!!!
How can this be? How can it be that I don't have a baby baby in the house anymore?

After thinking about his party so much it made me really think about my boy... I realized I haven't posted or documented him in awhile.
Years from now I want my babes to read about themselves, about our family, about what they liked to do, and the memories we have made.

And when I think about my sweet Tuck I smile and my heart is full of all the wonderful things that make him who he is!

* He thinks every thing and every color is BLUE!
* He scrunches up his face and makes the cutest kitty noises.
* He calls knives "sharps."
* His favorite past time is pulling out all my pots and pans to cook OR jump off the coffee table!
* He hates is diaper being changed. He will run screaming like a girl till you chase him down, just to get him on his changing table!
* He can't say Greta so he calls his big sister "Ga!"
* His sister calls him Tuck-a-roo!
* He too has "Bieber Fever" and loves to dance to the song "Baby Baby" with her!
* He loves to eat! He is seriously the best eater!
* He runs everywhere he goes.
* His favorite things to watch are Barney, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo.
* He talks all the time! Always asking questions and saying the same thing over and over again.
* His bed time consists of Mommy and only Mommy wrapping him, rocking him, singing "you are my sunshine", tucking him in, praying over him, and finally giving him a kiss on the NOSE... has to be the nose. And this EXACT routine has to happen EVERY night! - crazy but kinda cute!
* His favorite juice is Apple.
* His favorite cereal is Life.
* He loves to wear his Dad's baseball caps.

That's my Tuck!

These are the things that make him who he is, right now, in this very moment.
These are the things we will one day look back at and smile and laugh about.
These are the things that make me realize my baby is not so much a baby anymore and I quite frankly don't want my babes to grow up anymore.

Well maybe grow up... but if we could just slow the process down a bit more it might be nice!

How about your babes?
They growin' up too fast?!
Don't forget to love them, cherish them, and save or document all the memories you can!

Life; this is our story.

Chat later,

Jen

P.S. - I'll keep you posted on some of the details of Tuck's party as they come up.
This is going to be a killer party!!!

Vendor Weekend & A Party!

Wow!
Wow, wow, wow am I exhausted!

This was one of the busiest and craziest weekends to date!
I have pretty much been running non stop since my feet hit the floor on Friday morning!

Let me tell you what I've been doing!

So, Friday night was the "Girls Night Out" at Emmanuel that I talked about.
It was my very first booth as a vendor... EVER! Like, me out there, all on my own, first booth, professional vendor, pimpin' Appleberry's Attic... EVER! - and it was sooo much fun!

Remember this post when I talked about how I felt like "I had arrived?!"
Well having your first ever vendor booth is another one of those moments that makes you feel like... "yeah, that's right! I've arrived!" "I am livin' my dream and lovin' it!!!"

Ok, enough talkin'. Check it out!
Check out my first ever Appleberry's Attic Booth...

It was such a surreal moment, but I enjoyed every minute of it!
And a big thanks to anyone that came out to the event to check out our booth!

Switching gears...
After working all day Saturday at the flooring store, Saturday night we went out with a huge group of friends to celebrate our friend Jamie turning 30!

Yeah 30!
That is a number that I am afraid is going to become quite popular in the years to come! I am at that stage in my life where not many more friends... including myself, have a lot of years left in their twenties!

But who better to go before me and let me know how it feels on the "other side" then my dear old friend James! - no punn intended with the old! lol

Anyways, James is one of the greatest, most loyal friends a girl could ask for and we had such a blast whoopin' it up like we were young again!

Switching gears again...
Finally, on Sunday we made our delivery to Louise's Basement.
The sale starts this Thursday, March 10th and runs till Sunday.
If you'd like to browse before you shop... check out the Basement Blog... or here are some pics we snapped during the loading process yesterday!

(this dresser/buffet is to die for! - seriosly the detail is beyond gorgeous!)

(this desk has great detail and plenty of storage. Just so, so, cute!)

(this blue mirror almost didn't make it to the sale! It almost found it's new home in Greta's room!)

(more signs!!!)

(and finally just some loading shots. boxes and piles of stuff!)

Well, that's it guys!

I am beat, I am tired, and I am feelin' like I need a break!
So that is just what I am going to do!

Sorry to say... but there will be no plans this week, no painting, no crafting, no nothin'!
I am turning off the creative side of my brain in hopes to catch up on some Greys Anatomy, play with my babes, take longer than a 5 minute shower, and quite possibly live on pizza and icecream!

Ohhh, the life!

Hope you enjoy your week too!

Chat later,

Jen