The Simple Life

organizing...

my little helpers as i organized and rotated all the cans in the cupboard. we made the trek to costco on monday night, to replenish the short term food storage in our house. food storage is essential. we can't rely on the stores to always keep stock on food. we have to rely on ourselves. we will not be without food for our little ones. food comes first. don't put yourself at risk, just think of it as your personal insurance. and again who needs toys when you have cans to stack and play with!?

family outing...

since i bought a pass for the fitness center at snow college, i got free tickets to one of their home basketball games...so we did this for our family home evening activity.

they played against the team from twin falls and got killed...go idaho! ha!

 

 

and this is how we kept jeremy entertained and from running onto the court. the last half was a bit of a struggle. we took turns holding him down!

 

got camo?? just noticed that he had an camo from head to toe! was not planned. poor kid. we grabbed whatever and left. and he never keeps shoes and socks on so we don't bother. 

 

right here right now...

this is what's on my desk at the moment. haven't showered yet. i'd like to get up early and shower and get ready first thing in the morning, however i'm not willing to take a cold shower! i don't know why but whoever takes the first shower it's super cold. then by the second or third, or after a batch of washing dishes (by hand) it gets hot. maybe we need a new water heater, or just an element. or insulation! ha! i don't know. the water is always super hot in the kitchen, and even the bathroom sink, just not the shower. any way, i clean first, then shower later. but not today. dishes are waiting. jeremy's sleeping. gulianna is at school. isabella and anthony snuck off to grandma cherrie's so i'm being productive. listing new items in my etsy shop, and getting orders ready to ship out. i LOVE having my scrapbook room! i'm doing what i love creating any thing! my soul desires to create always. 

the polka dot barn

feeling grateful today for growing my little business! just wanted to say thank you to all my customers! it makes me happy to create. i want to invite you to check out my "about page" on etsy. 

and since i need to get back to creating, i'll just copy and paste this from my profile page on etsy :)

i used to daydream back in high school of all the cool things i could be making if i wasn't sitting in class! now i have all the time in the world and i'm making use of it! i love to create and build things, design and dream. i do a little of everything from scrapbooking to sewing, painting, and reclaiming old things...all with my four little rascals by my side and the support of my loving husband. i love design and color, i love to mix and match everything from my artwork to decorating my home. it's hard to say what my exact "style" is...but when you see it, you just know it's ME! i don't follow rules, just my heart. i love anything vintage, industrial, modern, rustic, country...but what i love most is to mix it all TOGETHER! 

utah county trip...

the last time we went to civilization was end of november and first of december when we met my parents in salt lake! see...we really don't get out much.

first stop: fleaology in payson.

we love antique shopping!

i really wanted to buy this little truck for bro...but we passed, after all we just had christmas and spent a small fortune on their early broncos! it was sure neat and a great price too.

jenn's booth from 3 dotters is always the first one i go to! super cute vintage valentine display. we bought the gas can. (the one right behind the cute typewriter that i passed up!) necessities over wants, that is how you live the simple life. 

 

dthe girls got their faces  painted. isabella went first, she chose a butterfly. the lady did a good job painting!

ggulianna chose a swan, she said "that was the first thing i could think of!"

 

 

second stop: lunch at texas roadhouse!

 

third stop: finally...IKEA! this is actually what the kids were waiting for all day! and anthony's first time getting to play in the play area. he couldn't wait! and one full hour and a half of free babysitting! other than family, i believe ikea is the only other "babysitter" we've had. really.

 

in my shopping cart.

1. black and white striped fabric (that i've been needing forever now) to finish up curtains.

2. down comforter. much needed because i had finally thrown away our old one a few months ago after sewing it up multiple times to keep the feathers in!

3. wok. (i donated our last one, because it was super scratched up.)

4. mini striped bowls. 

5. a fold up box to keep the puzzles in.

6. mint plate set. (got lucky and found it in the clearance section, i already had a set of 2 plates, dessert plates and bowls from the last time i was there that i also found in the clearance!)

7. black and white striped blanket! splurged on this one...because i was frugal and did wait a whole year to buy it.

 

fourth stop: the "ice cream tower" ...at thanksgiving point. we always stop here for ice cream! love this place.

 

bathroom time with everyone!

 

 

and my kids always climb on the tower. 

  

monkey 1 and 2...

 

 

fifth stop...the disney store. because we did promise isa could pick out a disney princess coloring book "just like the one grandma bought for gulianna." 

first we had to eat at chick fil a. we love sitting at the little kids table. 

 

isabella's 5th birthday...

isabella is FIVE! she had a frozen birthday. i had asked her what kind of birthday she wanted and she didn't really know. she just wanted the same things that gulianna had at hers. that's all that she could remember. she did pout for a bit because she said i didn't pick up treat bags for everyone, but we already did that for her preschool. i guess i should have done it again for her "birthday party!" oops!

she was excited to open up the boxes that grandma and chelsey sent, i didn't open them up til we started setting things up otherwise anthony would have had her presents all ripped up in a second! isabella got cute mini princess books, a princess coloring roll/activity sheets and crayons, a polka dot shirt, all from grandma. she also sent 5 balloons with dollar bills inside each one, so i could blow them up and she could pop them! chelsey got her a cool tin robot, and she received bracelets and candy bars from georgia. we got her the princess cash register, and a pink & red dress that she wanted.

 

she wanted to put the candles on herself.

"i'm five!"

 

we went to papa murphy's to get some pizza, and i asked him if he could make a snowman one. here is her "olaf pizza." they gave it to her for free because it was her birthday!

her last day...

of being FOUR!

 she has been counting down and asking me every day since august. literally. i have to tell her when it's winter. when it's snowing. but as soon as we get the first snow fall and she sees those sparkly snowflakes fall down, she gets her hopes up and thinks it's her birthday. so the last 2 years i had to tell her...first school starts, then we have to celebrate all the holidays: halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, new year's AND THEN ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY!

today she went to preschool and brought peanut m&m's in hello kitty treat bags. they went on a field trip to the post office. she was so excited to take treats that she woke up early and got ready on her own. usually we have to wake her up a million times because she's out! (only on preschool days) if she would just go to bed on time! and every other day we try not to wake the beast :) she gets pretty grouchy.

she played outside with anthony. jumped on the trampoline. caused some usual mischief. and now she's begging to open the boxes that grandma and aunt chelsey sent in the mail! 

 

my dream bus...

since we've moved here to this quaint little historical town, i've had this dream to travel the open road. it's the perfect time. are kids are still young, we have minimized all of our debt to the basics. (home, power, water, + phone) well let me back it up for a bit. it's not my original idea, it was levi's. i'll give him the credit. but i then modified it to make it work for us. now we just need to put it to action. 

you see, before we actually moved here, we were looking for property. and we were nearing the end of not finding something that would work for us. so levi's other "option" was to put are stuff in storage and take the money we had saved and just go travel in an rv across the states. basically for 3 or 4 months, maybe longer until the money ran out.

and here was my response: and then what. so we have fun and live it up, but then in the end we are homeless! maybe something would have came up. or not. i just can't risk that much! i like to think that if we did do that we would have missed out on this opportunity here. who knows. i felt that we had moved so much in so little time, i was not going to risk anything for a place of security for my family. 

so now that we have it. we can go!

when we moved here i came across the love of my life. 

isn't this the most awesome-est vintage bus ever?! and it's pink. AND it has a wooden balcony in the back. i keep dreaming of this! i want it! i will get it! 

last year gulianna said "please, when are we going to get the pink bus? then when school is out you can pick me up, and i'll say, oh gotta go, my mom is here in my pink bus!" she has been wanting to ride a school bus since forever. and then both gulianna and isabella were dreaming of singing and dancing in the back on the "stage." 

do you see how perfect this is for us?

doesn't this make you want to pack up and be a hippy?! only we would be clean hippies and shower every day.

just think it will have enough seats for all of us. we can put a little kitchenette in the back and it's perfect to take camping and traveling! 

i have been numerous times to talk to the old guy that i think owns it, but i can't seem to catch him. i won't give up on the dream bus! 

gosh i LOVE it!

recovering...

i stayed up late last night searching my entire computer for birthday pictures. and family pictures that we took in 2012. and i can't find them??

i don't understand. my computer must have deleted them?

i tried to recover them using some program i just downloaded but it didn't pull up anything. only recent stuff that has been deleted.

i'm missing august, september, october, november of 2012 - which of course would include anthony's 2nd birthday, jeremy's birth, our fall family photos, halloween photos. plus i can't find photos from gulianna's birthday just from last august and her 1st grade pictures i took.

i don't understand! 

i'm hoping i have some of 2012 on levi's laptop, which is broken, but i can still access files. but for photos that were taken last august...where could they have gone? so disappointing. this is why i must blog daily now for fear of losing photos. and backing them up too.

my computer has been acting up again, and just shutting down and saying it's "dumping physical memory" does that mean it's erasing my photos? now i'm paranoid and trying to check all of them. if any one knows please let me know!

and we're back...

thought i would do a quick video for fun...

yep i sound weird as usual. and isa is growling the whole time. and i never fixed my eyeshadow. so don't mind that either!

happy new year...

2014! can you believe it?

we did some sparklers to ring in the new year.

and no one got burned!

 

happy 2014!

my one little word 2014...

 

 

my one little word for 2014 is FOCUS! (i used rhonna farrer's app)

rhonna designs

it came to me last month when i was reading this cool really old vintage book that my mom picked up for me at a thrift store. i want to FOCUS more on everything. my family, my faith, myself, my projects.

no wasting time. just doing.

*if you aren't familiar with a one little word, ali edwards started the movement! you simply pick one word that you want to focus on for the entire year.