A Heart of Gold...Round 2

Rewind to June 2007...Aidyn made her first hair donation and was beyond proud of herself. I must admit, I played the part of the proud mama pretty well too. Well, here we are again and my sweet Aidyn has once again made my heart swell with pride. We went in today to get her hair cut off to donate. This time the donation is going to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. It only has to be 8 inches to donate and since she had that much, there was no time like the present!
Here she is before:Snip, snip, snip...
Look at that gorgeous hair!!

A cute new style...
And look at that adorable little girl! (Can you tell I'm just a little proud?!?!)

I love you Aidyn!

Happy Birthday Nolan!!

My little baby boy is 4 years old today! He had a fun day including his special request to have his buddy Hudson come over and play.
We went out for dinner tonight and Nolan's request was The Green Mill so he could have Mac-n-Cheese pizza. Yum!! When we got home it was time to open his presents.
He got one present open... and then Sean & Shirley called...
Nolan is talking to Shirley in this picture. Look at his face. Translation:
"What the hell is she talking about? Speed it up lady, I've got gifts to open here."

He got a dinosaur excavation game. Think 'Operation' only with dinosaur bones.
Here he is in his new swimming trunks and muscle shirt. So cute!

He had a great day and is thrilled to be 4 years old. Happy Birthday sweet Nolan!!

Basketball Season

Another season of basketball has come to an end. This last session was awesome though because Nolan was old enough to play. I LOVED having both kids in the the same activity at the same time!Nolan seemed to take to basketball pretty quickly. He did a decent job of listening to the coach and stayed pretty focused on the game.
Of course, he's still Nolan...See this picture? It looks like he's shooting a basket, right? Except notice where he is on the court...right in the middle. So what is he doing? He just threw the basketball at Aidyn's head! Luckily he missed and it is soaring just over her head, out of the frame of this picture. Nice.
My sweet Aidyn...
Here is a shot during the game. Notice how aggressive the blue team is? Ferocious is a good word.

The whole team...

Aidyn, Brendan & Nolan

Both kids had fun playing and really seemed to enjoy being on each others team. Good job guys!

NOW what are you doing??

This is a question my dear husband poses to me on a regular basis. He will come home to find paint samples taped all over the walls or the tub of spackling paste sitting out or when he drives into the garage he sees this...'Hmmm, interesting...that looks like our bathroom sink.'

'Why yes dear, it is!'

The 1/2 bath on the main level of our house was fine. Nothing really wrong with it, except it was ugly. Not like UGLY, ugly...just ugly enough to bother me. I knew it could be so much more.

Here is what it looked like less than 2 weeks ago...
Lavender with all the contractor specialties....ugly white towel bar

standard crystal faucet

brass light fixture with tulip glass
and this mess...whomever did this sealing job around the toilet base was either drunk, blind or possibly both.
So I did this. Wow, this looks 1000 times better! Why stop now??
So I tore off the towel bar and the giant mirror. Along with the light fixture...and vanity top. Oh, and the faucet too. Bye-bye!
A fresh coat of paint, some elbow grease, a dozen or so trips to Home Depot and VIOLA! A new bathroom!
Remember before:And after:
Before:
And after:
Before: After:
Before:

And After!!!
It's hard to get a comprehensive photo because the bathroom is so darn small. But you get the idea. It turned out great & I love how it looks! Next time you're over, stop by and use the facilities. You'll love it, I promise!

You did what?!?

I made butter. Yes, I did. OK, it's super easy so don't give me too much credit. I had some cream in the fridge that I needed to do something with since we don't go through too much cream in our house. Basically this is all you do. Get out your mixer. Pour in the cream and turn that baby on. I put plastic wrap over it so the cream doesn't splash everywhere. I had it on medium-high speed for about 7 minutes or so.

Let it go until the butter separates from the liquid. Strain the liquid off (save it to use as buttermilk!)
Smash it around to bring it all together and Viola! Fresh, homemade butter!

Super easy and kind of fun!

Getting ready for summer

Aidyn is a crafty kid. She loves to do any sort of arts and crafts. She'd do them all day, everyday. Here is her latest creation...a sun hat. A construction paper & tissue paper sun hat. She is ready for those warm summer rays. Aren't we all?