Ella's First Mullet Cut

Today was a big first for Ella...her first hair cut. As most of you know, she doesn't have much hair on top but the hair in back is coming in pretty well, thus, The Mullet*. Matt is in love with her little baby hair/fuzz, but I decided it was time for a trim since I had to take Dylan in for a hair cut anyway. For all you fans of The Mullet, don't worry, it's still longer in the back but now it has a little shape to it :). At last, a hair style for Ella.

*Business in the front, Party in the back.

Mom Blogs

Apparently there's an official name for what I have here - a mom blog. My brother sent me this article - Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs Are the Blogs to Watch.

Bathroom Before & After's

We made some basic bathroom changes since we've moved in. Nothing involving a sledge hammer, but they make a big difference. In all three baths, we switched the carpet (ick) to linoleum or ceramic tile, added new bathroom fixtures (brushed nickel), installed new light fixtures (good bye brass), changed the mirrors, put in new countertops, backsplashs, and faucets (good bye 80's), and of course repainted them all. As you can see, I love blue in bathrooms and they all have the same basic materials (once I find something I like I stick with it!) and I wanted to keep things somewhat consistent throughout the house.

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After

Kids' Bath Before

Kids' Beth After
In the master bath and kids' bath, we put in this floor right after we moved in (actually the same floor we had in one of our bathroom's in our old house, so I knew I loved it!) Then a couple of months ago, I found this tile and knew right away it would be perfect in these bathrooms. It's funny to me how similar they are and they tie in the warm and cool tones in both bathrooms.
The tile.

1/2 Bath Before

1/2 Bath After

More bows!

Here's another post about hair bows...I guess we're getting pretty excited that Ella finally has some visible hair on the top of her head. Our friend Kara has starting making and selling baby girl hair clips, so I wanted to share her new website with you and help her get the word out. Ella is already the proud new owner of some clips from Rylee's Collection (named after Ross and Kara's little girl - she's the cutie on the website). The clips work great in Ella's hair/fuzz, they're adorable, and they're very reasonably priced. What else can you ask for?? Kara's sister, Deena, has also started designing her own jewelry line - Deena Marie Designs.

The Wedding Photos

Some of the wedding pictures are up on the photographer's blog for those of you interested in Brett & Kara or photography or weddings in general. Check them out here. The photographer, Leah Mullett, is a friend of Brett and Kara's and just does the photography thing on the side. This was actually her first wedding ever.

The Wedding.

Kara and Brett's wedding was last night. Everything went pretty smoothly, but it was a busy day! The other 3/4's of my house is fast asleep right now :).

The kids were adorable in their wedding attire, but Ella was a little sick so she wasn't her usual self. We ended up walking down the aisle all together as a family because it wasn't looking like either of the kids were going to walk down by themselves. Ella ended up sleeping on Matt's mom during the ceremony and Dylan sat with my parents and Uncle Kyle and Aunt Michelle.

Dylan provided a little comic relief near the end of the ceremony - the plan was for the little kids to walk out in the recessional with Uncle Chad (the Maid of Honor was singing a solo), so the other little flower girl Sophie got up to walk with Chad and then Dylan suddenly dashed out of his pew and yelled "Uncle Chad!" because he thought he was getting left behind.

A BIG thanks to my parents and Kyle and Michelle for shuttling the kids around all day and entertaining them before, during and after the ceremony and reception.

I'll post a few pictures now but I was too busy to take a lot, so I'll post more later if some good ones trickle in from other people.
I stole this picture from the photographer's blog.
Kara and me at the hair salon - Innovations in Holland.
Mommy and Ella getting ready at the church.
The Terpstra family minus Kara and the kids - Brett and Kara didn't see each other before the ceremony.
Dylan with the other flower girl Sophie, hanging out in the gym at the church.
This is classic Matt - trying to get in on the Bride and Groom's picture in the limo.
My two precious little ones at the reception.

Garage Sale Season

I did a little garage sale-ing with the kids this morning. I'm not a pro or anything, but it's nice to get out especially when the weather's nice. We found this Little Tikes car carrier for Dylan for $4, so that was our big find. Anyone else out there do a lot of garage sale-ing? Any pointers?

Wedding Week

Wedding Week is upon us. We kicked off the week last Saturday with Kara's bachelorette party - dinner at a friend's and then out to The BOB. Kara's friend Jenny had Bride-To-Be and Team Bride t-shirts made up for everyone which just added to the fun.
Today I helped out with the wedding flowers at Andicott. We put together the centerpieces for the reception (cute tins from Goodwill - 25 cents each! - filled with fresh flowers) along with flowers for the hoopa/arch and Kara's and the bridesmaids' bouquets.
Rehearsal is tomorrow, bachelor party is Friday night, and then the big day is Saturday!

Potty SUCCESS!

Yes, you read that right. We started another potty training attempt this weekend, and things are going much better this time around. I won't reveal all my potty secrets, but this attempt involves large quantities of Matchbox cars, Swedish fish, and a ceremonial/symbolic purging of all Size 6 diapers from the house. Dylan is actually telling us when he has to go (I can tell he hates it when we ask so we are trying to back off and let him tell us when he's ready), and he seems quite pleased with himself (both good signs!)

Today we had a major potty breakthrough - he has been completely dry all day, including a mall outing and naptime. I have a feeling we will be doing pull-ups at night for a while but staying dry during the day would be great.

I will spare you the rest of the graphic details. It's still early, so I don't want to get my hopes up too much but I think this will be the final attempt even if it takes a while to get to 100%. Thanks for caring about my kid's pee/poop! :)

Currently Googling...

...how to get vasoline out of hair

Just to add to the usual Monday fun, Ella decided to get into the Vasoline and smear it all over herself, the carpet, and Dylan's hair (we keep a jar of it in the diaper changing basket). Once everything was thoroughly smeared, Dylan then called me over from the other room. Brilliant. He got the worst of it and I gave him a bath, but as you can guess Vasoline doesn't come out too easily. It sounds like dish soap might be my next step. I have 4 days to clear this up before the wedding :)

Daytona Beach '08

Back from Florida yesterday. Here are a few pictures. The travel days were not much fun with the kids, but the rest of the time was great. We shared a condo with our friends Derk and Bethany and their little guy Jalen and Matt's parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles were also staying down there.

Now it's back to real life. Still reeling from Michael John's dismissal on Idol. One week until the wedding. Gearing up for another potty training try.