pictures set to music

Nothing confirms how fast time goes by than looking at older pictures of your children.  Also, nothing makes you forget all the "bad" times that go along with being a parent like looking at older pictures of your children.

With this lovely digital age, I have been very bad about printing out pictures of the girls.  I have taken several pictures over the course of their short lives.  Fortunately, I have them all over the web so I know they will be available to print when I need them.

Yesterday I found a website (I know there are plenty out there) that let me select the pictures I wanted and put a music track behind them, making a sort of video.  I didn't have to do any of the transistions or fancy fades in the video.  The program on the website did it all for me.  So, I made three little videos.

One of the girls doing their silly little poses.  One of all Bella.  And, one of all Emily.

I really love them, even though they are very simple.  Since I don't have many photo albums to pull out to look back through all the pictures (one of these days I will get around to printing a lot of these photos), I can now just click the play button and it will show me most of my favorite pictures of the girls.

You can take a gander if you would like.  I have already posted these on Facebook, but I know some of you don't have a Facebook account.  Or, maybe we haven't become friends on Facebook...

Anyway,  here are the links to the videos:

Annabella

Emily

The girls being silly!

And, if you like them so much that you might want to view them again (yes, you mom!), then you can always find them on the side of my blog.  Just look where it says "My daughters".  The link is listed there.

photo shoot

Yesterday the girls and I were waiting for Daddy to get ready so we could go to the little carnival/fair that is in town. Of course they couldn't sit still. I figured I would break out the camera and take some pictures. These two are pretty goofy and started doing all sorts of poses for me.

Here are the best shots of what I took. Just click on the picture to take you to the set.

everything is painted!

Everything is painted except for the first room.  And, that is not likely to get painted.  It would look better, but moving everything in order to do it just seems like too much work!  That room is packed full of everything.

The house looks so different now.  I really don't know why it took so long for us to decide to paint.  If feels so much more homey and welcoming.  I love it!  Thankfully Jorge likes to paint.

The kitchen was last to be painted.  I'm still not sure about the color.  The green I had in my head is not what is on the wall.  But, picking out paint is not easy.  I figured once I get some things hanging on the wall, and just live with it for a while, it will grow on me.  Part of it is the cabinets.  The color of  the cabinets is not going well with the paint color.  Oh well.  I am definitely not having Jorge repaint.  And it isn't like we can change the cabinets.  You know if I could, I would.  :)

Well, you can view my old video here.

Now, take a look at how much different the house looks with paint on the walls.

I also appreciate the fact that you can lean on the wall and not feel like you are a walking chalkboard with chalk marks on you.

a little more pinterest

Lately I haven't been doing much Pinteresting.  I look daily, maybe pinning something here or there.  But, I haven't been that invested in it.  Unlike how I used to be.  Addicted!

But, a while back I found a project that looked pretty easy and interesting.  Yesterday, while we were at Home Depot, I found the items needed in order to do the project.  Love when that happens!

You just buy some sort of rubber outdoor mat, spray paint, and sand paper.

I forgot to take a picture of the mat before I painted it, but this is the back side of it.  The only difference is that this side is flat, where as the other side is rounded.

I sprayed two coats.  I'm not sure it was really needed, just thought it was better coverage.

I hung it on the wall and I really like the results. 

I needed something over that chair and this fits perfectly.

It sort of looks like a metal grate.  Take a closer look.  Mine doesn't look as metally as the one that I pinned.  I think I might go at it with the sand paper again.

I'm thinking about buying more and cutting out parts of the mat.  The kitchen is painted now and I need some wall decoration for it.  I think this might be a good solution.

*** 10 minute later update ***
I sanded it a bit more and it does look better!  Take a look. 

I guess I was just nervous about sanding too much paint off.  I needed to just go for it and do it.  I think this looks cool!

it is all looking a bit familiar

My Valentine's Day was pretty darn good.  And, I don't think it had anything to do with that day being Valentine's Day. 

Jorge's boss gave him the week off work.  He actually worked on Monday, but Tuesday he was off.  And, he will be off until next week.  It is nice having him around.

So, Tuesday we went to look for some flowers to plant in the empty pots that I had sitting on my front patio.  We ended up buying three new flowers and two shrub/bush things to sit by our front door.  It is looking really nice.

At night, the flowers close like they are sleeping.  Pretty odd.

We ended up making a trip to Aguascalientes yesterday and bought the brown pots that they are sitting in.  Once Jorge transplanted them, I started to realize that our house is looking more and more like how we spiffed up our house in Indy.

Notice the trees/shrubs on either side of the garage.  And, the chairs on the front patio are pretty much the same.

We also bought a new dining room table from Cantia a few weeks ago.  We had it delivered and it finally showed up on Tuesday! 

Only problem is that there is a corner that has some damage.  We called the store to let them know and we are waiting to hear back from them.  I assume they will come and get this one and bring us a new one.

Even this table that we just bought looks similar to the style of table we had in our house in Indy.  While I do miss that house, this one is coming along quite nicely!

My nice, big kitchen in Indy.  And, look!  There is Bentley!  I miss him, too!

We finally bought the paint for the kitchen yesterday.  Soon you will get to see the new and improved house tour!  I feel really proud and happy about the house.  It is nice to feel like it is home.

valentine's day

While we normally don't do much for Valentine's Day, I thought I would make some pink heart cookies.  The girls were really excited about it.

I took the opportunity to make more of those Soft Sugar Cookies that I mentioned a while back.  They are so good!  And, instead of making buttercream icing, I made cream cheese icing!  Oh, and I am very happy with the results!

These cookies come together so quickly.  And, the baking time is next to nothing.  I definitely think you should make some.  And soon!

The dough is pretty easy to work with.  I just kept checking to make sure I was rolling the dough the right thickness.

Here they are ready to go in the oven.

Don't over cook them!  You want them to be soft in the center.  These were just right.  I baked them for 7 minutes.

I halved the recipe from the link and, as you can see, it yields quite a bit of cookies!  (I need a cooling rack or two.  I use kitchen towels.  Oh well!)

I iced them with that oh-so-lovely cream cheese icing and popped some conversation hearts on some of them. 

I'm not sure I am going to be able to share them. :)  They are really, really good!

Happy Valentine's Day!

hello, again

There are some weeks when nothing seems worth blogging about.  Or, life starts getting crazy and I seem to not want to make time to post something.

Last week my work load was a bit heavy due to our month closing.  Every month I deal with end of month, but last week was particularly crazy!  Hey, that is job security, right?  I can't complain!

And, I have been trying to eat a bit better and started using the Wii Fit, again.  I am bound and determined to lose some weight.  Baby steps...

But, today I did something that I thought I would share with all of you. 

I was laying in bed last night and was thinking about making Colbie (our dog) a dog house.  And then an idea popped into my head!  I could use one of the totes that we have laying around to make him one.  Hey, he is a chihuahua.  Definitely small enough to fit into a tote.

So, that is exactly what I did today.  I cut a hole in the side to form a doorway. 

And, since I was putting his electric bed inside, I cut a hole in the back for the cord.

We have been having some crazy weather that past few days.  My lovely friend, Leslie, says they call this month Febrero Loco (crazy February).  We have been here 4 years now and I haven't ever experienced this crazy weather before.  It usually doesn't rain at all this month, but it has been raining the past 3 days.  Today is the first day that it has been dry.  These clouds look like they could rain on or dry day.  I hope they just pass on through.

And, because Colbie is oh-so-smart, he drags his blankets out and lets them all get wet.  So, I am drying his blankets for him.  I'm sure he will appreciate the dry days.

If you were curious, Colbie is a fan of Hello Kitty, too!

school recap!

I'm a day late, usually posting this on Friday, but I don't think I am going to get in trouble.  I haven't even been consistent with my Friday school recap postings.  So, I think it doesn't really matter when I post.

The girls have been gradually getting more and more into doing school.  Surprisingly, Emily asks to have school more than Bella does. 

Here are the girls drawing a picture of themselves  You already saw the finished product a few posts back.  Concentration was at an all time high!

We were learning about patterns the other day.  The patterns are very simple right now and they easily caught on.  They had to finish the pattern by coloring in the correct colors.

When we started a few months back, the I Can Cut workbook had them cutting simple straight lines, sometimes just one or two lines on a page.  Their cuts were pretty jagged.  Now, they are able to cut pretty straight lines and cut out an object with several different lines. 

Right now in all the books they are having the girls work on writing letters. They have introduced up to the number 8 or 9, but haven't had them practice writing them yet. So, while the girls can recognize their numbers, they haven't had much practice writing them. I printed out some worksheets that allowed them to practice.

The girls are progressing nicely.  If we can just keep the positive attitudes going, it will be great!