Southern Sunshine

Here are some picts from my phone for the month, since I haven't taken a single "pretty" photo since we've been here. 

I spent 5 yrs in a house afraid of putting holes in the walls of my house.  It physically pained me to do it.  I don't know why, I guess in the back of my mind I kept thinking "some day I'll have to sell this house and people won't want holes in the walls".

Well,  I'm here to tell you I've made up for it.  It's a rental, so who cares!  Also I have a limited amount of wall space in this house so I've been going for the eclectic look.  I always see it in picts of cottages and bungalows. Kinda cute huh?  It is a work in progress and nothing is in its final resting place but I like it so far.

 

The above pict is our "great room".  I only have 2 large walls in there.  And I'm saving one of the walls for a humungous canvas print (groupon).  Except I just can't decide which photo I want to blow up ginormous.  Got to pick that carefully if you go ginormous.

This is our entry way.  I suppose it's dedicated to my favorite place...The South (I found that plaque in a cutesy store in Wilmington) and more specifically Topsail.  Wish we were there with all you people.

 

Amaryllis had her first ballet class this week.  Long story short:  she pouted because she didn't have ballet shoes (I signed her up that morning and there was no time to get them).  We got some spares out of a random closet.  She was happy.  Then she pouted because her hair wasn't in a ponytail.  Fixed that.  Happy again.  Then she noticed the HUGE mirror wall and was obsessed with staring at herself (pouty face) while she took the corner of her petti skirt and dabbed at fake tears in her eyes (all while staring at herself and imagining who knows what tragedy in her mind).  I'll keep you posted on the next 6 weeks...

 

Kensington is slightly obsessed with wearing accessories.  She LOVES wearing hats (to the point of tantrums) and goggles and headbands and all types of jewelry.

This is our office.  We have matching desks and sit back to back.  Awwww, for cute.

I really like all the new Ikea furniture.  Nice clean look.

I bought some rugs online from Urban Outfitters.  They were cheap (as far as rugs go) and really make your room pop! So if you want a quick dash of color and cheer head over there and see all their other designs, they are so cute.  No I am not a paid sponsor.

This one is for my bathroom.

Entry way rug:

Kitchen:

I made the below paper rosettes.  I loved making them.  Probably because it's the only craft I've started and completed in 1 day.  It feels good to finish things instead of having them hang over you.

Speaking of hanging, I'm going to make a bunch of these (but bigger) and hang them in AV's room.  They look cute if you get doublesided printed paper.  Go to pinterest and type "paper rosette" and you'll see some cute picts of hanging ones.

 

In the morning Jake gets the girls up while I put on my  war-paint (as my dad says).  I hear the soft thud-thud-diaper-waddle and Kensington runs in with the biggest hug and loud fat-girl retarded laugh ever (sorry if that offends you but honestly it's the only way to describe it).  Then Amaryllis wanders in and says "oh is it time to put on your Hiccup?".  

I don't have the heart to tell her the word is "makeup".  

They both primp and powder, and I remember how I waited FOREVER to wear makeup.  I feel like I was just there.  Why?  Why do we want to grow up so badly?

 Per my facebook update, we had a traumatic night earlier in the week when Amaryllis told me she didn't want to sleep with puppy.  Traumatic for me, that is.  After 20 minutes of talking in my "puppy voice" and begging, cajoling, bribing, reasoning, etc, she politely said no thank you and said I could sleep with him.  I shut her door and cried, and put puppy on the table in the hallway.  As you will notice, I tried to make him look as sad and pathetic as possible.  It worked, because she ended up sneaking out and getting him later that evening.  I was relieved.

I'm sure the day is coming when she no longer needs puppy, so I need to brave up.  And I can assure you when that night comes, I will most likely have puppy in my bed and cry myself to sleep.

 On to a lighter subject, don't you love when your kids randomly just plop down and read?  I think it's so cute.  And I feel so proud--as if their desire to learn somehow reflects on my excellent parenting skills.  Even though I know that's hardly the case.

I snapped this random pict to show you the Target here has extremely large buggies.  Look how much room is between the girls feet and the buggy--it's like a semi truck.  They are surprisingly easy to push too!  All squeals and giggles when we first aboard the buggy in the parking lot (insert Kensington's mentally retarded fat-girl laugh).  

I won't tell you what the end of the buggy ride is like 1 hr later.  But you should read this article to catch my drift to this random blog post.  It really resonated with me and this period of my life.

It's hard.  The hard days are very hard.  But the sweet moments--putting on my Hiccup in the mornings, tucking puppy in at night, and every target trip and book read in between--is worth it with these 2 little ladies.