Big boy bed

Kamden is finally all potty trained and the major thing that pushed him to do it was he decided he wanted a big boy bed. He also requested to have a dinosaur room. Luckily my FAVORITE place in the world (Target) had a really cute dinosaur bedding set. Here is the big boy the first night in his room.

 I think he approves :)

Next up on my to-do list is to paint is room. I will post pictures of the finished product soon.



Family Picture Fail

I have had seriously the worst luck in trying to get family pictures taken this year. It's not enough that I am trying to manage the outfits of seven different people and coordinate schedules and all that jazz. Family picture day also equals one cranky husband. Dominic is cranky and mopes around the house all day whenever I want to do family pictures. He asks like I'm asking the world of him, which I think might be all guys, but still. I have two other children I need to worry about and then he turns into one too! The first time we decided to do family pictures was at the end of March. Earlier that day Dominic decided to make a trip into Vegas to get the kids a play house since it was the last day it was on sale. By the time he got home he was tired and cranky so that made getting ready so much worse. Well, I FINALLY got everyone ready and we were in the car on the way to the place and our photographer called to tell us her camera broke. That was something completely out of her hands but it still meant that I would have to get everything organized and everyone ready again?!?!?!

So fast forward about a month later and our photographer got a new camera and we were scheduled again for the end of April. I found a day that would work for everyone (I had to switch a day at work with someone else) and we were all set. And then the wind decided to rear its ugly head. I was talking with the photographer and was trying to be optimistic that the wind would die down so we got all dressed and get to the location but the wind was getting worse not better. We took a few shots and then we looked at them and the girls hair was sticking straight back from the wind. ANOTHER disaster. But when we got home I decided to try out the new camera that I got for my birthday and I made everyone pose for me. Here are a few picture that I got.

Isn't she absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!

 My pictures are no where near professional but, at least I got a few of all of us. And I decided to wait and see if I would have more luck at the end of the summer. Until then, this is as good as it gets.

Windows and Plumbing

We have finally done our first home improvement! Well second I guess. The first one was installing eight of these....

..the first night we moved in. But since then we haven't done much because, we are only fixing things up as we get the money to do so.

The previous owner were in the process of replacing the windows in the house but only got a few done. Luckily the two bedrooms by the master were done and the kitchen and dining room. But the master bedroom and Kamden's room had the old windows. And let me tell you, as soon as it started to get hot outside, the master bedroom was just as hot. It has three windows in there and the afternoon sun beats down on our room. The old single pane windows from 1991 were not giving us any relieve. It would not get any colder than 86 degrees in our room, that is with the two ceiling fans and an additional fan. So we had to use the money we were saving for upgrades on windows so we would survive the summer. Here are the old windows

and this is what the windows that the previous owners had replaced.

The stucco work that they did to the windows looks a lot nicer than the old boards don't you think. I'm not a huge fan of the lines in the window panes but, we are just going with the same kind of windows they already put in so that they aren't missed matched, and we don't have the money to waste replacing perfectly good windows.

Tah Dah!!

 Here are the new windows to the bedroom, they are still missing the stucco, that is gonna have to wait a little while now, because such as life goes, the day we were having the windows installed a plumbing problem came up! We found out about this problem shortly after we moved in but we were able to put it on the back burner and get by for now because our house had two septic tanks. But since it became a problem again, we decided to just go ahead and take care of it.

So, lucky us, we get to have the septic line re piped from the tank to our patio. Isn't that exciting! It stinks to have to spend the money on it, but it is something that needed to be done, and it will be a relief to not have to worry about it anymore. Hopefully our next udgrading project will be a little more exciting. :)





Penne with spicy Vodka Tomato Sauce

Penne with Spicy Vodka Tomato Sauce

Last night I make this dish. I first got the recipe from allrecipes.com a year or so a go.

 It was a huge success with the husband. The vodka makes it nice and spicy, but dont' worry, the alcohol cooks out. The last time I made it the kids thought it was too spicy so this time I only added a little vodka and then I made their plates. I then added the rest of the vodka and finished cooking it. This was a hit again and I will have to remember to keep it on my menu list.

Recipe:
  Ingredients:

• 1 pound uncooked penne pasta
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic: minced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vodka
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 (3.5 ounce) links sweet Italian sausage

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. In large skillet, hear oil over moderate heat. Remove casing from sausage and add to skillet. cook, breaking up the meat, until brown. Add garlic and red pepper and cook, stirring until garlic is golden brown.
3. Add tomatoes and salt; bring to boil. Reduce hear and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Add Vodka and cream and bring to boil. Reduce hear to low and add pasta, toss for 1 minute, stir in fresh parsley and serve!

May Day Dance

This year was Ashyn's first May Day dance and I have been so excited. I loved doing this tradition when I was younger and have been looking forward to her doing it since we moved out here.

I got there a little late and the bleachers were packed. I ended up sitting on the steps but it turned out to be the perfect spot because Ashlyn was right in front of me. She did soooo good. I was so proud of her.

Her class did a parachute dance with a little change up in the middle. I know that Ashlyn knew all her dance moves because she was about a half a count ahead of everyone else.

I guess that its better for her to be a half a count a head than behind. She has so much sass and knows how to shake it! lol It was so much fun to watch her and it made me a little emotional. My little girl is growing up.

Her aunt Cherish brought her some flowers after the dance and she was so happy.

Its FINALLY done...well almost

It has only taken me 5 months to get Ashlyn into her new room. Since we bought our house, she has been sleeping in the room next to her because I wanted to take my time to make her room nice. This is what it looked like when we moved in.

It was obviously a teenage girls room before. The Twilight them just wasn't working for what I wanted to do. So about two months ago I finally primed the room, and then it sat and sat and sat. About two weeks ago I decided it was about time I got up some ambition to finish it. I didn't realize how much of a job I was taking on.

I took Ashlyn's pillow case to the store to match the paint and decided on my colors. I started off with the yellow paint and it turned out perfect. Next was the "purple" paint. When I started to paint the purple it looked a little too pinkish but I thought it would dry the color I wanted. Being the impatient person that I am I decided to paint the whole thing and then let it dry. BIG MISTAKE! Even when it dried it was totally the wrong color, not a bad color, just not the color I had invisioned. So my dilemma was to either A. return the pink color I had bought for the stripe on the border and make it purple instead, or B. repaint the whole room again.  I decided that I was just gonna repaint over the pink color I had just done, if I didn't I know it would have bothered me everytime I entered Ashlyn's room. So I went back to the paint store and bought more paint, and quickly repainted the room before my husband noticed and tried to stop me. (Sorry Dom if you're reading this hehe)
Next it was time to paint on the boarder. This is my absolute favorite part of the room, even though the polka dots aren't perfect, I still LOVE how it turned out. I have even thought of high jacking her room for me instead. :) This is how it turned out.

I stil have plenty more to do in there. I need to make her some new curtains, a bed skirt, get things up on the wall, and maybe repaint her toy box. But for now, this is how it will be.

Look who's 3!!!!

We have been so busy this month Kamden birthday party was a little late. We had it at the sunset park in Vegas and invited a few friends over for some bbq.

Here is our birthday boy! He wanted a Thomas the Train Party

 A few of the party guests

 

Ashlyn with Shorty (her Grandpas dog)

Kamden really wanted a pinata but said he didn't want to share that candy and especially didn't want anyone but him to break it open. Once we got there he was okay with sharing. He didn't break it open, but I haven't heard anything about it so I guess he forgot in all of the excitement.

I made this cake in a hurry that morning so its nothing special.

It was SUPER windy at the park and a big gust of wind came up and blew the table cloth up and it knocked over the cake and most of the cupcakes!

:(

Good thing I hadn't set all the cupcakes out so there was still enough for all of the kids to have one.

It was also too windy to light the candle so here is Kam with his cupcake pretending to blow out the candle.

Enjoying his cupcake









He enjoyed all of his presents and hasn't stopped playing with them yet. Even though his birthday was a little late and not well planned. He still really enjoyed himself.