as quoted in the Sound of Music "I must have done something good"

I just got back from buying all of our Thanksgiving dinner in one fell swoop and I'm pretty sure this should qualify me as an official woman, or official housewife or at least for a lightning round of Super Market Sweep.

(Because that would be awesome. I've always wanted to be on that show.)

I am the biggest fan of Thanksgiving. Any holiday that is about family and has lots of food...food that is largely categorized in the carb and dessert sections of the food pyramid...is my favorite.

In our almost 5 years of marriage we have never not spent a Thanksgiving (or Christmas for that matter) away from our extended families. Jake's family is primarily in Oregon and mine is in Kentucky. This has always meant traveling a great distance on Thanksgiving and then doing it all again 3 weeks later. When we didn't have the boys it wasn't a big deal, but then the travel and the time changes became a little too much.

So we decided to just spend one major holiday a year with our extended families. Which means this year is our first year having a holiday without extended family.

And you know what? As much we love our extended families, we are SO excited to have this time as just our family.

We are so excited to build some of our own traditions. Like this:

Our grateful turkeys for our little turkeys. :)

Each little boy has a turkey with reasons why we are grateful for them, and a small gift to wake up to on Thanksgiving morning. 

The gifts (a soccer ball for Rhett and a new board book for Rad) are gifts that we can use as a family together. We feel that probably our greatest blessings are the Plan of Salvation and our family. And so since that is what we are most grateful for, we want to make our family a priority. So we plan on the "gifts" always being something that we do as a family to bring us closer together. 

And we are SO excited for the food!

Even though it's just us, we are still going all out with a full meal. 

We're planning on adding a few new things to our smorgasbord like this, and this, and this. 

We're going to see Frozen on Thanksgiving day and set up our VERY FIRST Christmas tree, which we are beyond excited about. Previous years we were in college and just didn't worry about it, and last year we were pretty house poor from just buying our house to afford one. And Jake and I are real Christmas tree kind of people, so yeah. I don't know why that last part really matters, but now you know. :)

But I think the reason I am most excited for this particular Thanksgiving, is that I am with my family. 

The family I am helping to create.

The family that I never understood I could love so much. 

The family that seriously drives me crazy some days because all three of my boys seem to have an unending list of needs. But I'll keep em. :)

The family that loves to wrestle and loves to play the Wii together and loves our walks to get the mail when dad comes home and the family that loves to pick little presents at the grocery store for each other (like the can of cream of mushroom soup Rhett so excitedly gave me the other day).

I keep thinking of what I am grateful for this year and all I can think of is my boys and my husband. 

Because really, if I didn't have them, blessings like good health, our home, our possessions...really wouldn't mean that much.

We have a good, perfectly imperfect life. 

I don't know how I deserve it, or what I did to be so blessed, but I think this sums it up.

"For here you are, standing there, loving me

Whether or not you should.

So somewhere in my youth or childhood

I must have done something good."

                              -Sound of Music

Happy happy happy happy Thanksgiving to all you wonderful friends!

great family moments brought to you by shopping carts

As I've been trying to keep up with organizing and printing our pictures, I've noticed we have quite a few pictures of our kiddos in shopping carts. 

(We also have a slightly ridiculous amount of selfies of Rhett, but that's a whole other post.) 

I realize that posting a montage of pictures of kids in shopping carts falls lands right up there with pictures of cats wearing moustaches, but whatever.

And I also realize that most of these were taken at Costco. We may have a membership there mostly for the free samples, large bags of pita chips, churros, the toy aisles, and how much we love dropping major bucks on diapers. Oh and how they always draw smiling faces on our receipt when we leave. Seriously, Rhett keeps those receipts till I can sneak them into the recycling.  

But I digress. Back to the totally not random post about my kids in shopping carts. 

And personally one of my favorite reasons for these pictures is Rad's facial expressions. 

They are legitimately some of the cutest out there. 

Caption? Anyone?

"...ITSY BISTY SPIDER! Sing MOM! SING NOW!" -Rhett (I sang. True story.) 

"No, really his head is THIS big! For real!" -Rhett 

"Let's see what's on Mom's to-do list...um pretty sure she would want me to eat it. Yeah. That's on there." -Rad

8 months of Rad

 

Ladies and Gentleman, we have finally reached 8 months with Rad. (Actually almost 9 months...)

He's thrilled.

And as the beloved second child, he doesn't get a monthly post like his brother did; and let's face it...it's nap time and I'm worn out and just want to show some cute pictures and call it good. 

 

Rad has a mad love of pickles.

And Oreos.

And the knobs on his dresser. He loves those the most.

But lest we forget. Not much makes him happier than sitting in the car.

Yes. This is what it looks like. Wake up to early in our house and we make you play in Mom's closet. (With the door open. Of course.)

 And probably the highlight of this month was Rad getting his fantastic helmet to help with the flat spot on the back of his head.

We call him mini Magneto. (From X-Men)

And lastly to make me feel better about this less than stellar tribute to our favorite 8 month old, 2 videos of his radness. 

You just keep trying to crawl Rad...we'll be here all year.

And that baby in the reflection? BEST. FRIEND. EVER.

4 projects to deep clean your house in 30 minutes or less

So if cleaning isn't your absolute favorite thing in the world to do then keep reading! This post is actually great for you.

And if you are a clean-o-maniatic and the scent of Windex makes your heart your heart go pitter pat, then is also a great post for you as well! 

I think most of us can tolerate cleaning on some level. But when someone mentions deep cleaning...we kind of cringe inside; and there are always a million reasons not to deep cleaning.

"Oh yeah...I have to....research armadillo diets..."

It's obviously true that some deep cleaning projects can take a decent amount of time, but today I want to share 4 super easy projects to deep clean your home that take 30 minutes of less. 

Project number 1: Cleaning your baseboards

Vacuuming and sweeping/mopping are kind of standard chores. 

But the poor baseboards often get neglected, even though they gather the same dirt that gets clean off the floors. 

The easiest way to clean your baseboards is to run a baby wipe along the top.

Gross, nasty, yuck. 

This really is such a simple task but you'll be amazed at what grime you wipe off. 

And sshhh, but I don't move any furniture when I do this. If I can't reach it, I don't clean it! 

Say it with me. "If I can't reach it, I don't clean it!!"

Project number 2: Cleaning around your door knobs

We have a very sticky fingered 3 year old so our doors get smudgy fast. 

I'm not talking about scrubbing your who door down, just take a magic eraser and wipe around the knobs and wherever else the doors are frequently touched.

If you're feeling really ambitious, use the eraser to wipe down and groves on the door.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

Project number 3: Your microwave

Speaking of lemons, using them to clean your microwave is awesome and super simple. 

I pretty sure Oprah taught me this trick, but fill a microwave save bowl full of water, add a few slices of lemon, and microwave it on high for 2ish minutes so that the steam created can loosen whatever lovely leftover food is stuck. The lemon slices leave it smelling nice and fresh and the steam helps with any excessive scrubbing. 

Project number 4: The blinds

We have white blinds and we live in AZ which means if we leave our windows open, our blinds gets nice and dusty. 

I freaking love this little duster from Swiffer.

The starter kit comes with 3 dust froo froos (what are they called?) and it took all 3 to clean our home, but it couldn't have been any easier. 

I just closed the blinds and ran the duster over them. 

That's it. 

So there you go! 

4 easy projects to deep clean your house in 30 minutes or less. 

They are super easy and don't require much time and most of them your kids could help with.

And I always try to remember it doesn't have to be perfect to be clean. 

Do I get all the dust off my blinds? Nope.

Do I wipe every door down? Nope. Some of them we don't use that often. 

Let's say it together.

"It doesn't have to be perfect to be clean!"

Rhett's Room: A Super Hero Reveal

Rhett's room has technically been done for a long long time...but I was too lazy to take pictures because that meant removing the lovely blanket hung in the window acting as a blackout panel. (Because good design always requires the blackout blankie.)

Shame. 

Anyway, there are still a few things I would change about the room, but Rhett pretty much thinks it's the coolest room ever so that's what matters right?

Yup yup. 

So now please put your hands together for the most super-super hero room EVER. 

When putting all the super hero pics next to each other I realize how crooked they are...hmmm.

So I know I said when I showed you all Rad's room, that I don't like themed kid's rooms and clearly I am eating my words. 

My defense is mostly that I'm thinking (hoping) that superhero's will last at least a few years and all the actual superhero stuff cost like nothing.

I'm really torn if my favorite part of the room is the light up sign, the bed spread or the metallic gold stripes. 

Rhett's favorite part is the swing and blessing every super hero in his prayers at night. 

"Pweese bless four (Thor), and Gween Lantern, and HULK (shouted) and Iron Man who's my best fweind..."

About 99% of Rhett's room was thrifted or DIYed so I'll do my best with a source list. 

Dresser and Night Stand: 

Thrifted 

$40

Painted in Benjamine Moore Old Navy

Free (already had)

Bed: DIYed with plans from Ana White

$30

Bed Spread: Custom made my my amazing friend Laura Davis.

$65 for materials including insert 

(If you want any custom work like the bed spread done contact Laura. She is AMAZING and her email is davisfam2003@gmail.com.)

Lamp: 

Ikea 

$10

Lamp Shade:

IKEA and DIYed

$5

Wood Bowl:

Thrifted

$3

POW SMASH BAM Light Up Sign: 

DIYed

$65

Super Hero Posters:

DIYed with Photoshop by my husband

$15 printing

Frames: 

IKEA

$30 (somewhere around there)

Hanging Swing:

Ikea

$65

Curtains: Target

$20

Wall Paint Color

$35

Minus $80 that we got when we sold Rhett's old baby dresser. 

Total: About $270

Considering we started from total scratch for the room I am thrilled with the total cost. 

I'll be back with a few super tutorials (OK maybe tutorials with pictures taken with an Iphone and you know, but still good tutorials)