Birthday Zoo

We went to the zoo on Levi's actual birthday. Having his party a little early allowed us to just have a low key/low stress day to enjoy our boy, so that's what we did. My mother has been asking to see these pictures, so here you go Mom.

It was very cold and we took it slow so we just covered about half the zoo. Which animal was Levi's favorite? The train and the playground. So we camped out at those two animals for quite a while/rode several times. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Post 28: Mudroom Wall

We moved into our house in February 2010, and I started brainstorming for this project shortly after that. After Pinterest launched and became widely used, I started finding lots of inspiration for this little project I wanted to tackle.

Here was my dilemma: our laundry room is also the walkway between the door to the garage (which is the door we use to enter the house 99% of the time; guests enter through the front door) and the rest of the house; meaning, it is a widely used, high-traffic area. It not only is a main source of traffic, but also used daily for laundry (I have a toddler, hel-lo), and up until a couple of weeks ago, it was the place we bathed my son every single day of his life (there's a huge tub-sink in there). I mentioned all of that to stress what a popular place this room is.



{Laundry room / walkway BEFORE}

You can see in the picture above that there is just a long blank wall on the left side of the room, and the doorway from the kitchen (there is a pocket door there, it stays open unless there is laundry going) and the door to the garage butt up against the wall so that there is no possible room to put a piece of furniture or any kind of organizational/functional anything there, without running into it every time you come or go. I really wanted a way to utilize this wall for storage or some kind of functional space. Our "landing strip" or "dumping post" for purses, diaper bags, and miscellaneous junk we bring in from the car was usually the kitchen table or island and it drove me insane. I wanted those things to have a "spot" out-of-site and not where we dine. The problem is now solved and it's beautiful!

Here is where my inspiration comes in. I saw a couple of these little projects in different posts on Young House Love, and the rest I found browsing Pinterest.

{Sources for 1, 2, 3}



 



{Sources for 4, 5}

I showed Tyler my inspiration pictures and he was on board and thought it was a good idea. After I pinched myself to make sure it wasn't a dream, I asked if we could do it that weekend and he said ok.......................(wait, WHAT?!) This was back in June and the reason it has taken me so long to share it, well, there is no good reason. It took me a good two months to get it painted and purchase a rug (yes, that's important) and take, upload, and edit some pictures.

We decided to go with bead board instead of doing the more craftsman-style option (which I do love) for 3 reasons:

1. There is really nothing about our house that is craftsman style

2. We couldn't just use 2x4s and paint the sheet rock because our walls are way over-textured (our painter called it a "Mexico house" and I absolutely agree - our drywall guys didn't listen)

3. Our cabinets throughout the house have a bead board panel so the bead board really works the best

 

The pictures will explain the rest:

 

{Before}

 

{Before}

 

 

 

{During Painting}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crock Pot Chicken and Noodles

I pinned this on Pinterest as a quick and easy weekday dinner, and that's exactly what it was. It was a great simple meal - good comfort food for cool weather. I made it for us one night, and the next two days my mom, brother, and I ate it for lunch until it was gone. We were getting ready for Levi's birthday party and my brother sent a text to ask if we needed fridge space -- offering to come eat the rest of the chicken and noodles. So, I guess it was good!

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 Cup butter (sliced)
42 oz chicken broth
pepper, to taste
Egg noodles

Instructions:
Place breasts and butter in crock pot (I threw mine in partially frozen). Combine soup, broth, pepper and pour over chicken. Cook on low 8-9 hours. An hour before serving, shred the chicken and add uncooked egg noodles. I had a 24oz bag of noodles and added about 3/4 of the bag. Add less if you like it soupy and more if you like it really thick.