can't believe this is possible . . .

today our little miss turned five years old! i can't believe how big she is getting . . . little miss is such a sweet little girl. she is the best big sister . . . and her little sisters know that. they love her more than anything in the world! little miss got to spend her 5th birthday in missouri . . . without her mommy and daddy! it was a little weird not having the little girl that i share my birthday with here . . . but she wanted to have her birthday in missouri so . . . that's what she got to do. of course . . . her nana and pops gave her a birthday party that she will probably never forget!

happy birthday little miss! i hope you had a very special day . . . and i can't wait to see you tomorrow and give you lots of birthday kisses and hugs!

safe and sound . . .

sean and i are safe and sound . . . not worry free . . . but safe! yesterday we spent the morning getting important things loaded in the car or put upstairs and then headed for sean's sister's camp that is just a little south of baton rouge. we really didn't have plans of staying there other than for last night. so this afternoon we packed up and migrated north to vicksburg, ms. we are camped out in a hotel with many other evacuees with our eyes glued to the tv and the live local coverage on the web. thank goodness for technology! sean and i have seen so much weather coverage the past couple of days we feel pretty confident we could be meteorologists ourselves! if you want to keep up to date with live new orleans coverage . . . you can watch the local news right from your computer.

sean and i are safe . . . and sean's sister and her family are safe. they are with us at the hotel. but sean's brother and his wife and sean's parents decided to brave the storm and stay home. please keep them and the other's that were a little on the stubborn side in your thoughts and prayers tonight and tomorrow and hope for the best possible outcome!

dear mr. gustav . . .

can you please rethink your plan to visit the gulf coast? these 3 really cute little girls are expecting to have a playset when they return from their nana and pops' house in a few days . . . and if you decide to visit the big easy . . . then they aren't going to get that playset because they are going to make us leave town for the weekend. i was raised to be a polite person and so i am asking the nicest way possible! and quite honestly . . . i don't want to spend my birthday weekend having to evacuate from our house. if you could please take all of this into consideration . . . i know everyone here in new orleans would greatly appreciate it . . . not just me! (especially the elderly lady across the street who just 2 weeks ago got moved into her modular home that was delivered in april. yes . . . it took almost exactly 3 years from katrina to get into her new house!)

thank you for your time,
emily b.

fyi . . .

a diet rich in soy may lower your daughter's risk of breast cancer by 50%

New research shows that genistein, a chemical found in soy products, may help prevent breast cancer tumors from forming, says study author Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, Ph.D., a professor of oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "All girls between the ages of 5 and 18 may see a benefit-especially those whoe haven't yet gone through puberty." To protect your daugther, encourage her to add 4 to 20 mg of soy protein to her daily diet, which is about 2 to 8 ounces of tofu or 1 to 2 cups of soy milk.

(taken right out of the sept. 08 issue of family circle magazine)

show your love today . . .

well today is the day that design mom has officially declared as nie nie day! say an extra prayer for the family today and if you're feeling a little spendy . . . head on over to one of the awesome auctions!

leslie at a room somewhere is hosting my auction for me . . . and she has many other awesome things that are being auctioned off as well!

go here for directions on how leslie is conducting the auctions today and for links to each of the auctions she is hosting.

go here if you are interested in bidding on my contribution to the nie nie day auctions.

this and this is a list of other auctions starting today.

this is a site that has been set up by friends of the nielson's to keep up with the recovery and fundraising efforts that are going on around the country.

if you want to make a donation but don't want to participate in the auction click here:

if you can't donate or participate in the auctions today . . . please keep this family in your prayers. the upcoming months . . . and even possibly years is going to be very trying physically, emotionally, and financially. they have 4 super cute little ones that probably don't fully understand how serious all of this is. they are blessed to have wonderful family that have taken on the 4 littles ones to make sure they keep a stable life without their mommy and daddy. so today don't forget to say an extra prayer for the nielson's and their families!

you can help . . .

one of the first blogs i ever started reading was the nienie dialogues and it has remained my favorite since the first time i read it. it's always the last blog i read as i go thru my way too many feeds and always gives me a sense of inspiration. she is the mother of 4 young children and is always doing great craft projects . . . cooking wonderful meals for her family . . . and talking about the intense love that she has for her husband. she is a beautiful person . . . and thru the wonderful world of blogging . . . has opened up her life and shares it with others.

a couple of weeks ago . . . tragedy struck her family. she and her husband were involved in a plane crash. it's one of those things that you just can't understand . . . so you just do whatever you can to try and help.

design mom has officially declared tomorrow as nie nie day and has encouraged other bloggers to take part. there will be auctions going on all over the blog-o-sphere and i'm getting in on the action. tomorrow i will have something up for auction . . . but not here on my blog. i have decided to put a custom magnet board up for auction . . . all proceeds will straight to stephanie and her husband, christian. the auction will be at a room somewhere . . . another of my daily reads. first thing tomorrow . . . i will post a link to the auction.

i wanted to do something . . . their young family has a very long road of recovery ahead of them . . . which means medical bills literally could end up in the millions! the blogging world is such a wonderful thing . . . and this is a great way to reach your hand out and help someone in need.

if you want to keep yourself updated with their recovery . . . c jane (stephanie's sister) is posting updates on their recovery.

can't wait to show the girls . . .

this was the motivation . . . this, this, and this was inspiration.

and this is what i did to keep up with all of my girls stuff from school . . . crafts, party invites, notes, etc:

they are hanging right above our bar in the kitchen . . . the fridge will stay clean (ok . . . cleaner) now, each of my girls can proudly display her favorite masterpiece of the week, and i can keep track of supplies that are needed in each of their classes and upcoming birthday parties. love. it.

it's our goal to be a . . .

there is nothing simple about life with children . . . especially life with 4 children! sean and i are on a mission to simplify our life . . . so we can do exactly what the cover of this magazine says . . . stress less and make the most of every day! don't get me wrong . . . we don't go a day without being thankful for everything that god has given us. but at the same time . . . it's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and forget to stop and slow down once in a while. the first thing i have done to simplify . . . 4 contractor bags stuffed full of stuff! stuff that we used sometimes . . . or not at all . . . just stuff that we 100% didn't need. next on our list . . . consolidate our cell phone bill. sean and i both have a missouri cell phone number. sean also has a new orleans cell phone number and included on that account is a phone for one of his laborers. both accounts are with the same service provider . . . and the only thing it does is add about $150 each month to our expenses. pretty silly if you ask me. so . . . this week since i can meet sean at at&t without any wild children (thanks nana and pops!) we are going to get everything set up on 1 account and knock that extra $150 out of our monthly expenses! just think what all i could do with that extra $150 each month! just kidding . . . my dad's infamous story of need and want has finally sunk in, i think!

this was hard . . .

before:

the girls bring home a folder each week from nursery school with all of their coloring pages, paintings, crafts, etc . . . that was all of them from the 2 big girls for all of last school year. (well almost all of them . . . i had several stacked on my desk as well.)

after:

all of the girls now have their own art storage box to save their beautiful works of art in. even little brown eyes has one on the top of the stack sitting empty . . . just waiting to be filled when she starts school in a week and a half! and boy was it hard to sort thru all of the big girls' art . . . and decide what to keep and (gasp) what not to keep!

sure is quiet around here . . .

and yes i'm still smiling about that nana!

we met my mom and my aunt barb in memphis wednesday night and sent all 3 of the girls home with nana yesterday! they were so excited to go to nana and pops house they could hardly stand it . . . and not to mention ride in nana's super cool new car!

it was a nice surprise to come home to a nice and orderly house too . . .

ok . . . so i know that's not my house but it was a surprise to come home to that house being clean! it's usually just a scrambled mess from those 3 little girls that we sent with nana . . . but tuesday night little miss wanted to show her daddy how well she could decorate her house and i didn't realize she had done that until we got home last night. now if only i could get her to keep our real house that clean!

and in true nana fashion . . . i came home with lots of goodies! a new pair of shoes that she had bought for herself and they didn't fit . . . and luckily they fit me! lots of glassware that i can't wait to use! and awesome jars for my office organization that i plan to work on this week! oh . . . and that bag in front of the jars . . . tons and tons of knitting needles! now in my spare time (cracking myself up right now) i need to learn how to knit!

even sean came home with some goodies . . . part of my dad's beer stein collection!

and of course . . . how could she not send something home for the little guy!

last night sean worked outside on the playroom . . . that i haven't posted about but will do that soon! i got the house picked up. and then we went and ate dinner . . . all alone! now . . . i'm going to take a shower without anyone begging to take one with me! and i have lots of other things planned for the next week. . . but i'm not going to tell you because i have a feeling i might treat myself to a few really lazy days and my to do list won't be completed when the girls get home . . . and that is perfectly ok with me!

i don't know what to do with myself . . .

ok . . . i'm joking! i just read a magazine from start to finish upstairs on my bed in complete silence! i'm getting ready to take our crazy 4-legged family member outside for a 'potty-break' without brown eyes screaming for me to hold her because "yox-yox (interpreted: roxy) bite!" (and no roxy doesn't bite . . . has never bitten anyone. brown eyes is going thru a phase where she is terrified of all animals.) if they are all still asleep when i get back inside . . . then i really won't know what to do with myself! especially because my house is actually still clean from my 2 day cleaning spree and laundry is totally under control! (i think there might be a little nesting going on around this house!)

art is great . . .

little miss' teacher is a great artist and during the summer she does little art camps. so little miss, little shrimp and 3 of their friends have been having art camp the past 2 weeks. today was the last day and it was our turn to have it at our house. we have some awesome artwork that i am going to have framed and display on the wall so all of our visitors can see the work of our budding little artists!

monster's inc, milk, and crushed ice . . .

at this moment . . .

spoiling myself . . .

it's funny what you get excited about as you get older . . . or when you have 3 super messy little girls running around in the house!

i treated myself to this over the weekend:

and i treated myself to a new desk chair that i found on craig's list today. i have plans to make this a little more tutti fruity-ish in the near future. mayber sooner than later since there are plans in the works to unleash the 3 crazy little girls and send them to their nana and pops before school starts!

in case you are wondering . . . the steam mop is great! my floors are squeaky clean and all i used on them was water! how cool is that? and i don't have a nasty mop bucket and a nasty mop to rinse out!

and the vintage metal arm chair . . . i looked on ebay to see what they were selling for and i couldn't believe my eyes! i didn't even pay close to that for my chair . . . love it! now i just need to take a closer look and see what i'm in for when i'm ready to put my kind of fabric on it and paint it the color i want it to be. i like color . . . i need color . . . and i have a vision for this chair and let me tell you . . . it's going to be cute!

fun ideas . . .

i love when i get a magazine in the mail . . . and it actually has lots of cute ideas in it!

we travel a lot . . . so this is on the top of the to-do list for our next trip!

i have always wanted to do caramel apples with the girls . . . but they are so big and so messy and just not that little finger friendly! how cute and fun are these mini caramel apples?!

i am completely in love with this! all 3 of the girls will be in school in a few weeks and this is the perfect thing to keep all of their birthday invites and memos from school organized! i'm going to do one for each of the girls and hang them above the bar in the kitchen . . . it's on my to-do list for this week . . . so stay tuned for pics!

(everything pictured is from the sept 2008 issue of family fun magazine)

let the fighting begin . . .

3 little girls . . . 100 million baby dolls . . . and 1 super cute baby bed can only mean one thing . . . lots of arguing over who gets to use the bed and the new custom tutti fruity designs baby doll bedding!

the actual baby doll bed was mine when i was growing up and i'm so glad i have 3 little girls that love baby dolls and the bed is getting used again! my dad built the bed so it's nice to have something with meaning that the girls will love as much as i did!

it's probably about time . . .

to start getting ready for our little guy! i got rid of all of our avent bottles after little brown eyes was finished with them. most of them were from when little miss was a baby, so i thought it was time to pitch them. all of this scary talk about plastics had me rethinking bottle brands and i came across green to grow and i am sold! i am going to order a couple of the smaller bottles and see how we like them. since i breastfeed . . . i don't need a cabinet full of bottles so i don't mind paying the extra $ for bottles that will not harm our little guy. and not only are they free and clear of all of the yucky and scary chemicals . . . they are pretty cute to look at as well! i will post an update after he makes his appearance and we try them out for the first time!

because . . .

there are 3 little girls in this house that deserve something special and handmade from mom!
(check back soon to see what the finished project is)

this and that . . .

1. 100_7916, 2. 100_7846, 3. 100_7814, 4. 100_7860, 5. 100_7843, 6. 100_7809, 7. 100_7859, 8. 100_7840, 9. 100_7856, 10. 100_7836, 11. 100_7852, 12. 100_7816