I have an obsession...

I have a confession to make....

I CAN SIT ALL DAY AND LOOK UP DECORATING IDEAS!!!

It's kinda weird I know...but to me it's such eye candy that I can't pull myself away! So I thought I would share some of my "eye candy" with you.......

Here it is ... my inspiration for decoration..... maybe you will be inspired too!

Love the chandelier and colors of this beachy entry..

Ideas for Mackenzie's room.. love the bright colors

Entry ideas

I LOVE the slate floor .... 'don't know how practical it is in a bathroom - but it sure is purrrdy...

I have decided that a chandelier is a MUST in Mackenzie's next room redo.. and I LOVE the glass bedside table... just one thought though.. who cleans the fingerprints off of the mirror everyday?!

Oh beautiful kitchen... how are you?

This is truly my kitchen WINNER .. I love the counter tops and the white cabinets and the brushed silver accents... my heart is twitter pated for you...

The house that started it all... I fell HARD for this house when the movie "Father of the bride" came out. It has now become my quest in life to live in a house like it... what's funny is with all of the moving that my family does you would think that this wouldn't be such a difficult quest! However.. a colonial home with a beautiful drive through portico and basketball hoop in front of the detached garage is proving VERY difficult to find... I think I NEED to build........

I also have photo's saved on www.houzz.com - it's an AWSOME web sight if you are like me and love to look at decorating ideas - thank you Mrs. Roms for introducing me-

Poem by Mackenzie.......

A SONG.........

A song fills your heart with peace and quiet
That is all I need to know.......

Birds make music,
beautiful music

I like to sit outside and listen to the birds
It fills my heart with peace and quiet........

by
Mackenzie Barnard
Age 7 years old

A STAR IS BORN........

An ALLSTAR that is..... Jake was chosen to be on the All Star Lacamas Little league team this year......something to be very proud of ..... out of hundreds of Little League baseball players only 20+ of the best were chosen.... proud parents?!... I think so!


Jake is an awesome 1st baseman if I do say so myself!!

And below is Presley.. our token, super duper cute cheerleader...she could get the crowd going!!

ok,ok I know that this post is out of order since baseball ended in the 2nd week of July and Jake's party was on the 17th....but come on... aren't you proud of me for getting back into posting at all??!! :)

Jake's Birthday Bash......

My Boy..... he turned 11 on Friday.... I just keep thinking "How in the world do I have an 11 year old pre-teen?!?!!".....


He had a "camping" birthday party..... it was great fun.... just a few boys invited from school, his baseball team and family... 6 boys in all and let me tell you that is enough when you are combining boys, a campfire and a sleepover!!

Don't ya like my cake?? Complete with stars and a campfire and camp flag??!! For someone who is NOT very creative... I was pretty proud of myself!!

I kept saying to Todd "At what age do they actually sit and watch the birthday boy open up presents instead of crowding around and "helping" to open the presents!" Clearly... it's not at 10 or 11 years old!

Our backyard camp! I was happy with how it turned out.... the boys roasted hot dogs, then made s'mores next an exciting game of Flashlight tag followed by hanging out in the tent telling some awesome ghost stories.....

More pic's to come.... I could only upload x4 pics from picasa....so think of it like the next chapter in the book!

To Catch You Up.....

I'm not feeling overly creative... 'just thought I should update the blog with some new pics..... we've been pretty busy since my last post! This is always the HARDEST time of the year for me and my family...pretty much due to the RAIN!! Todd CAN'T STAND IT!!! I truly believe he suffers from SADD... which in turn makes the rest of us suffer from SADD ;)!! Thankfully this year we were able to get out of here for springbreak and enjoy some "sun time"...........

We went to Disneyland for 1 day....

We stayed in Palm Springs for 10 days... this is a view near out hotel room.... Actually ..... it's my backyard... I thought I would just share it with some people! ;)

Ahhh... palm trees and pools.... I love you.........

Favorite Christmas Pictures....

Here are some of my favorite Christmas pictures. They aren't in any great order ~ just posted as I found them! 'Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas....snow and all! :)


The picture above is of the Thomas crew (Josh, Lauren and Jonathan and my kids Jake and Mackenzie) my sister Amy and her kids were still flying up from Sacramento on Christmas day....

Here we are as Santa's helpers waiting for the Nash crowd at the airport ...thankfully I was put on standby at work so I could be with the gang and see my sister and her kids....gotta love those girls on L&D!

Mackenzie and her new bike Christmas morning....notice how DARK it is outside.....the kids woke us up at 0600 am....nice.

The tree before Christmas morning....anxiously awaiting excited kiddos!

There was sooo much snow on our back deck...it was absolutely beautiful with the lights shining...

Christmas eve at Grandma and Grandpa Barnards....we usually go to the Christmas eve service but it was cancelled this year.....due to the snow...it was missed, but we had fun anyway!

Winter Wonderland of 2008!

We made "gingerbread~ or ~ Graham cracker " houses on night we were all shut in from the snow....making the house was fun but eating the house was even BETTER!!

This was the first snow man we made....we hurried to make this guy because we were sure the snow was going to melt soon....little did we know that we would have WEEKS to make more!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas. For whatever reason I've had a hard time getting "into"the season this year. But after the snow yesterday the "Christmas feeling" is starting to invade my soul......and I like it. So here are a few of the seasons finest this far.........


The Tree. Do you like how Jake is teetering off the arm of the chair to hang an ornament? I was sure he was going to fall into the tree and knock the entire thing over. Lucky for him it didn't!

Mackenzie told "Santa's helper"... (which is who mall Santa's are to my kids because the "REAL" Santa can't be at all of these different locations taking pictures with kids when he has to get ready for the BIG DAY) that she would like "Biscuit" the moving horse you can sit on...you know the one that is like $150.00......the one that we DIDN'T get. AHHHHHH. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out...I'll keep you posted.

Aren't they cute?

SNOW! COLD!

I think this picture of the dog's first experience with snow is so funny! I love his snow beard....

Anyway...I hope the spirit catches you too....Merry Christmas.