It's that time of the year...

Yup, Doug and I are getting older.

Today is my birthday-- tomorrow (next year!!) is Doug's birthday.

Do I feel older?  maybe.

Do I look older?  maybe.

Do I care?  Nope.

Because I got to sleep in this morning, so I'm feeling pretty great today :)

Get Your Flannel Now...

Hey everyone!  Hope you're all enjoying the Christmas holidays!  We sure are... in the prairies... where it's feeling a little bit chilly outside at the moment!  If you're feeling cold like I am, crafty (maybe a little bored), and are desiring to make some cute kids stuff... now is the time to order some cute flannel for your next project!  A couple of weeks ago I blogged about some of my favorite online fabric sites... and I put up the link to FlannelQueen.com.  They have a great selection of flannel to make kids things.  Well, if you order fabric  from Flannel Queen before December 31st, you can score 10% off your purchase by using the coupon code OURHOUSE.  And if you need a little more time to shop, the code NEWYR10 is good until January 31st.  Sweet, eh?

Here are a few prints I'm eyeing for some girly projects...

Love the large scale flowers in this print.  The colors are adorable!

Ginger Blossom Lei

How about this hot pink one?

Summer Song Pink Summer Damask

This would make one preppy little number...

Modern Argyle on Pink

There are also some really cute crochet flowers.  I love the aqua ones.  And for $4.00 (pack of 3), you can't go wrong.  They would be so cute on a blanket, a hat, or even a diaper bag.

And should I ever desire (or need) to make something for a cute little boy, here are a few great picks...

How cute is this?  It's on sale now for $7.00 a yard...

All Star Large Stars  Orange Green Blue

This one's pretty unique.  There are a few other great coordinating prints for a reversible blanket.

So cute!

Claire Bella II Blue Beads

I LOVE these counting monkeys.

Funky Monkey Counting Cream

These alligators are SO cute.  And you gotta love the price tag on this one $4.00 a yard.

Zoobies Alligators

Happy Shopping everyone! And thanks FlannelQueen for giving us all a great deal :)

It's beginning to look a lot like... pink eye?!

Yup, pink eye strikes again.  Caleb had it two weeks ago.  Now both kids have it.  Nice.  When you think about it, it's actually a pretty festive infection-- red watery eyes... green crusty boogers smeared all over the surrounding eye area... enough said.  Unfortunately, Caleb's allergic to the polysporin drops (this we discovered last time around) and wee little Emerson is too young to have them, so we are just supposed to wait it out!

But, it is actually looking a bit more like Christmas around here.  Remember my yet-to-do list from a while back?  Now that it's December 23rd, let's see what I can check off on the Christmas Countdown list!!!

1.  Building a gingerbread house-- Doug's pretty pumped about this one  Done.  Although it doesn't look pretty.  We unfortunately were stuck with the broken gingerbread house at the Toews/Loewen gingerbread building extravaganza.  Doug totally bailed on my half way through when the roof caved in.  I persevered.  She may not be pretty... but at least she's still standing!

2.  We need to take the kids skating (Emerson will remain in her stroller :)  This will occur once we arrive in Saskatchewan.  Taking a three year old skating for the first time is already a disaster in and of itself-- why not do it in freezing temperatures to make it really fun?  Let the games begin!


3.  I'd like to decorate Caleb's room with some of the ornaments he's created... since they're too scary for my tree.  Done.  Caleb's room is decorated-- complete with lights.  He is only allowed to have the lights on during nap time.  When it comes to night time, he knows better.  There would be severe consequences to turning on Christmas lights in the middle of the night.  severe.

Oh look.  It's alien angel. 

4.  A few more batches of Christmas cookies need to be made  Done.  They're gone.  I'm just too hungry when I'm home alone with the kids.

5.  Christmas shopping needs to be completed  Done and done.  They're also all wrapped and ready to go.  Don't even get me started on how painful and frustrating extremely fun it is to wrap gifts with a three year old HELPING you.  When I say helping, I mean grab the tape and run away every time I need it.  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

6.  I think we need to have a family Christmas movie night... possibly The Polar Express?  Nope.  But Caleb and I watched Ice Age tonight.  Kind of festive.  There's ice.

7.  Many more Christmas crafts will need to be accomplished.  Big fat no.

8.  And, I shall continue to enjoy many more Christmas beverages from Starbucks :)  Big fat YES!!!  Yesterday... Caramel Brule saved the day :)

And while I'm at it, I'll throw a cute little of picture of Emerson into the mix.

Here's my happy four (yes FOUR!) month girl-- pre-pink eye.

It only took me 3 1/2 years to get around to it...

But here it is!  A long LONG time ago I promised to post pictures of our condo when we had completed the renovations.  I never did.  But it's never too late, right?  Since I still don't have more pictures of our current house to blog about (that kitchen of mine.. it never stays clean long enough for me to take a couple of pictures!), I decided to dig these ones out of my photo archives and throw them up on the old blog.  Let me take you on a tour of our former condo!

The condo was a total gut job.  It was disgusting, and stinky, and rundown, and smelly, and... you get the picture.  It was also the first reno project Doug and I ever took on. We learned how to do a lot of things by practicing on this place :)  When we look back now, Doug and I often shake our heads and laugh at how little we knew.  Before the condo we were inexperienced in the art of laying flooring, tiling bathrooms, finish carpentry, installing light fixtures... but we figured it out!  Here are the before and afters-- room by room.

BEFORE: Kitchen

AFTER

Here's what we did: We refaced the existing cabinets with new doors-- built by my own handy husband!  We replaced 2 of the upper cabinets (the one with the mullion doors over the sink and the box holding the microwave) and made them higher than the other existing cabinets to make it look a little more custom.  New lighting, new flooring, new fridge (the other one broke down on us), new paint, new faucet!  The stain used on the doors in the kitchen is one of my favorites-- a nice rich deep brown that doesn't look too red.  Beautiful!

BEFORE: Living Room

AFTER

New paint, floors, crown, baseboards, and lighting.

BEFORE: Living Room/Dining Room

AFTER

Yup, we took out the half wall.

One of my favorite transformations in this room was the fireplace.  In the first living room "before" picture you'll notice that the tile was a nice forest green-- complimented by the brass fireplace grate.  I sanded, primed and painted the tile and then sprayed the brass components of the fireplace with matte black barbeque spray paint.  It was a $15 transformation that looked incredible!

BEFORE: Master Bedroom

AFTER

New paint, crown, and carpet!!

BEFORE: Ensuite Bathroom

AFTER

The dramatic bathroom vanity makeover was once again done by Doug!  I personally tiled the floor in this bathroom (and the other one too) when I was 7 months pregnant with Caleb.  I have a picture to prove it.  Definitely not the best picture I have of myself.

BEFORE: Second Bedroom (Nursery)

AFTER

And again-- pretty much everything was redone in here.
Heck, I even made those curtains!

BEFORE: Main Bathroom

AFTER

(I don't actually have a picture of this room... but if you can ignore cute little Caleb in his jolly jumper, you can see into the bathroom)

Wow, that was a long time ago.  We were sad to sell our first home, but were really excited about our new house (where we are now).  A few months after selling the condo we heard that the unit above ours had a fire-- the sprinklers kicked in and flooded the unit, ours, and the one below.  We were pretty thankful that we were no longer there... and a little sad to realize that all of our hard work was ruined.

Hope you all enjoyed this brief detour... now I just need to clean the kitchen!!

It was like, a totally rad night...

Our friends are turning 30 this month, so they decided we should all party in style... 80's style, that is :)

I immediately got on board and found myself the perfect pink sweater.

Doug was a late comer to the whole idea.  But suddenly I heard him shaving in the bathroom and running out the door to Value Village-- where he found these sweet purple wind pants.

Caleb normally loves his Uncle Erik.

But last night he freaked out every time he saw him.

I guess it's a good thing he's scared of men who look like this...

Jamie-- you really look it to the next level with those killer shoes.

Yup, I went home with this guy.

I took me forever to get the hairspray out my hair after the party.

The birthday couple!

Hey Jamie, do you want to come over later and do some aerobics with me?  Please wear that outfit.

Thanks for the fun party T&R!!

Just Girls

Emerson had her weekly photo shoot this afternoon.

This week she was sporting a cute little pink plaid number.

The plaid felt wintery and festive :)

And we added the boots, of course.

My little girl is starting to like the camera!

Emerson and I then spent the next half an hour lying under the Christmas tree talking to one another.  She really should have been napping, but we needed a little girl time.

Here she is talking to me and the camera.

Gotta love a little girl time :)

Just a little pre-Christmas Vacation...

We've been on the road this week... Doug had a few days off from work, so we packed up the kids and took a trip up the Sea to Sky.  The last time Doug and I did this we were child-free!  It's always fun to get out of town, and this trip felt especially Christmas-y with the snow and mountains!!

We spent a lot of time in the car over the past few days.  Both kids did awesome in the car.  Caleb chattered away in the backseat.  There wasn't a peep out of Emerson the entire trip.  Seriously.  The moment we hit the road she would fall asleep. 

Some classic car shots...

Doug dutifully kept his eyes on the road while I (annoyingly) snapped away.

First stop of the day... Shannon Falls.  Caleb was quite excited!

He was practically jumping for joy.

 Classic Emerson shot... stuck in her stroller.

Next stop.  Lunch.  Caleb amazed both Doug and I with his name writing skills.  I knew that he could write his first name-- when I say write I mean "kind of write all of the appropriate letters on the page in no particular order".  But we were shocked when he went on to write his last name... he only got stumped on the "W".   Totally picture worthy.

Our hotel room in Squamish.  Great deal, great place.  I only noticed Caleb about to fly in the background later on when I went through our pictures.  Apparently all semi-bouncy surfaces must be jumped on.  Immediately.

Then on to Whistler for the afternoon.  First stop-- Starbucks, of course.  Doug and I both had the usual.  Caleb tried the hot chocolate.

Emerson was the star of the show in the sling.  She was happy as a clam in there-- and everyone wanted to stop and take a peek.

Checking out the after-effects of the Olympics.

 

Caleb was quite excited to watch the skiers and snowboarders in action.  Maybe next year his Daddy can start with the lessons!

We found a large mirror in Lululemon and decided to take a family photo.  That task proved to be more difficult than expected.

Back in our room for the night.  Emerson was quite intrigued by the fireplace.

Caleb enjoyed his bowl of popcorn.  It started out on the couch.  But after I tried to sneak a handful...

It moved to his lap.

It was a short getaway-- we made our way home this morning because I had a dentist appointment (yuck!)  I'm still frozen as I type.  But taking short family trips like this are always fun.  And, it got us excited about our actual Christmas getaway-- just 10 more days!!