Happy Birthday, Jenna!!! (March 26)

Jenna's birthday was Friday, March 26th.
My middle child is now 12...one more year til the teen years begin...BUT
if you were gauging it by attitude, oh. Well. Then she's already in her teen years...lol :)
Seriously.
I think she has more attitude than Haley, lately, and Haley is 14!!! LOL
But don't get me wrong...I love my girls ohhh sooooo very much. They brighten my day, just thinking of them!!

In honor of Jenna's bday, I am going to share some of my favorite pictures of her :)


Here is my baby Jenna. So weird how she looks NOTHING like this now. I mean, not even her nose, or her freckles...soooo not my baby anymore :(



Jenna & Jocelyn.
One of my favorites, because we don't see our Joce much anymore, we miss her something terrible! :(



Here's BOTH of my girls.
Way back when they didn't fight so much. Back when they actually played nice together.
Ahhhhhhhh...those were the days....



I took this pic of Jenna a couple summers back. It is my FAVORITE picture of her.
:)

I hope you had a super birthday, JenBen :)

The making of a beauty...

Today is Jenna's 12th Birthday.
She asked me to make her a layer cake. Oyyyyyy....
I beggggggged her if I could just make my usual cupcakes...lol...but they aren't really "usual".
I put my own little spin on them and make them beautiful and ohhh soooooo moist :)
ANYWAY, they are easy-peasy, so that is why I wanted to make them.
But, nooooooooooo...it's Jenna's birthday so I had to make what she wanted...ugh.... LOL :)

Then I caved and knew it wouldn't be so bad, since I got my new best friend from the UPS guy yesterday!!!

Here she is:


Ain't she GORGEOUS??? I so love her....

OK.
Back to Jenna's cake.

So, I thought, Hey...since I have this awesome, new toy...lol...I can pull off this layer cake thing!

I mixed up a cake mix, added my own stuff and fluff and made 2 - 9" round cakes.
Now, my Jenna is not a HUGE fan of a lot of frosting...so I whipped up some whipping cream with some powdered sugar until it formed sharp peaks. I used that as the filling for between the layers.





Yummmmmmmmmmm.....right?? lol
It looks like a big oreo cookie doesn't it??

OK.
So, Jenna's fave color is purple.
OH, I also went and bought her 12 purple balloons from the party store and a BIG Happy Birthday Cupcake mylar balloon...but Jackson already busted that one...that was a quick $10... :(

Back to the cake :)
Fave color=Purple. OK, got that covered.
So, I made up some purple frosting for her.



Would have been wayyyyy easier if I had one of those cake turntable thingys, or even a lazy susan, but we don't have one of those :(

I still pulled it off though!!



And of course, as a finishing touch, I put on my signature ribbons!!


Happy Birthday my beautiful Jenna Benna!! :)

My 3...well My 4, yesterday :)

The weather up here in Good Ol' Wisconsin has been BEAUTIFUL!!

mid 60s...just sooooo nice!!

So, we have been spending A LOTTA time outside. Our yard does look horrendous because of the gravel in our grass and the branches and yucky brown grass...

Then, of course, everything is brown and muddish...yuck :(

BUT we are thanking God for the breeze today, to help dry some stuff up, JUST IN TIME for it to snow this weekend!! YAYYYYY! Ummmm, yeah...no.

I DO love the snow, don't get me wrong, but only Nov-Feb. LOL.

ANYWAY--here are a few pics I got yesterday.

I am so sad because it took sooooooo much begging for me to get that pic of Jenna :( She is getting just like Haley and NOT EVER wanting her picture taken.

Then...there's Jackson. HA HA HA. Trying to get him to sit still and look at me for ONE SECOND is a NIGHTMARE! LOL.

But, it's a cute pic, non the less :)

$50 GREEN Smackers GiveAway :)

My friend Hope is giving away MORE stuff!
Check it out!!!!

http://threeboogers.blogspot.com/2010/03/hope-is.html

More "in-between" pics :)

We are DONE painting the dining room.
This room is the first room that people see when they visit us, so I am uber-happy that it is finally done. (well, almost...since the flooring has to wait a few months...)

OK, well let's get this party started...

Here is a pic of the small bathroom door and the ironing board storage.
Yes. This house is THAT OLD that it has an ironing board IN the wall!! LOL
It's actually kinda handy :)
And I got to pick out new hardware. I went with oil rubbed bronze. It actually looks just like plain ol' black...but has a kinda antique look to it.



This pic shows the teeny, tiny pantry doors and the coat closet.
The pantry storage used to be just a regular storage closet, but since I started stockpiling stuff (because I find super awesome deals...lol), I needed extra space to store everything.
And, everything that was in there was just clutter, so off to Goodwill it went :)


Here is just a pic of Jenna doing her homework. lol.
Well, it also shows the built-in shelf thingy...and part of the living room.
The living room and dining room are open to each other...oh yeah, and so is my kitchen.
Which is THE tiniest kitchen in the world! SO, I guess having a pretty big dining room makes up for that. But I do love my cozy little kitchen :)


And, speaking of my kitchen...since that got remodeled and painted a few years back...I just had to get some new stuff for it. You know...so it wouldn't feel left out :)
OK. I have ALWAYS decorated in a country/apple theme, but when we had to take everything off the walls in the dining room, I decided to just chuck it ALL in a box and Goodwill it. Time for a change.
Anyway, my kitchen is painted a dark red and red has always been my fave color. AND I bought this rug...

...at Target like 5 years ago, and I love how it's all different colors just meshed together.
I decided to NOT go with any sort of "theme" with decorating and just get all new stuff in ALL diff colors. :)
This brings us to my new dishes!!!!!
They were a tad pricey...but hey. It's my first REAL set of ALL matching dishes! No more hodgy podgy stuff :)
Well, I did have apple dishes...lol...but then I had other stuff and well, you all know I am done with the apple stuff...

Here they are :)


I so love them!! I only bought 5 place settings...but will get one more when I decide on which color to get.
I love love love my new Fiesta Ware!!! I got these at Kohl's...they were on sale for 40% off, plus I had a coupon for 20% off if you spend $100 or more. Yes...unfortunately even AFTER that 40% off, these were still over $100... :(
Yeah.
Dave wasn't tooooooo happy with that one, but he can never get mad at my smile :)
Hee hee...My husband rocks !!!

Since then (well, Sunday), I have gone to Target and bought ALL new kitchen towels, new oven mitts, a new untensil holder, new kid-friendly cups and bowls and a new Bread box.
Of course...all in different colors :)

Now...what to put on the walls in my dining room.....ugh.....