art gallery

guess what?! i actually manged to complete a project idea from pintrest. yes, there a a million more to go, but i am excited to share this one with you. i used a bunch (7 to be exact) of cheap-o frames from walmart to create a little art gallery for rotating out wall worthy art projects. i wanted to fill in some space in the dinning room, but since the wall-o-t's is also there, i felt like i needed to keep the frames pretty simple and classic. IF i wasn't competing with the wall-o-t's, i would have loved to add a splash of color by painting some old frames. but i scored with $3 and $5 frames at walmart! 

first i laid them all out on the floor to get the layout right. then i removed the backing and glass, so that i was just left with the frame. this was super easy, they pretty much fall apart. good for this project, not good if you want to really hang pictures in these frames. 

then i carefully hung them on the wall. they were pretty wobbly, so after they were all hung i used a level and some mounting tape to get them good and straight. 

 then i used mounting tape to attach little wooden clothespins to each frame space. 

add art work and voila! a classy and simple way to display and rotate all the masterpieces. i have not filled all my frames yet, and might put some photographs in a couple. really, the possibilities are endless. 

lily dog

we love our lily girl. she is such a loyal and patient friend. 

someone is certainly getting bigger! 

three, two, one...or almost.

last week coen had a couple friends over to play. these three boys are so cute! liko will be 2 in march, coen 3 in march, and robert is cruising at 1! they enjoyed a snack on the lanai, and even let me snap a couple pictures. thanks so much for playing liko and robert! 

l-o-v-e

just before valentine's day the photographer that we use was going to be on our side of the island and asked if she could come out to our house to shoot some "couples photography." of course we were into it, but it felt so weird to not have coen around (he was napping). we really love kahuku photography and think that if you are visiting us, or on the island (but that would be rude to not visit us while you were on the island) you should have them take some pictures of you (or your family, or your kids). you can check her out at, kahukuphotography.com

we tried really hard to be seriously romantic. but i just couldn't hold it together. i guess that is just who we are. full of funny. my favorite thing is that these were taken on our property, so cool. i love having these pictures, i am sure our grand-kids will think we were big dorks, but for sure they will know that we were in love...sweet love. 

laundry

yesterday was a big big day in our house. i actually sorted, washed, dried, put away & re-made all the laundry and bedding. did you hear me? i did it all in one day. that's right folks, for the next week we won't be sorting through a massive pile of clothes looking for that one item that may or may not be clean. i won't run down to the laundry room and have to re-start the washer of spoiled clothes...again. coen will have underwear to cover his biscuits for an entire week. and and and, our beds are supper snugly soft and clean. yea me! 

i know i am so tooting my own horn. but wes was so impressed he said, "you should blog about this." you see this is not my normal. i always intend to do it all , but is just never happens. and once the pile starts to gain elevation...i loose motivation. (thanks pinterest for these pics!) 

sometimes i think i would enjoy laundry more if i had a beautiful laundry room like this. but then i can think of a million other places in our house i would rather have fancy, places i actually like to be. 

and even though it is a chore, i realized yesterday that folding laundry is good therapy. if you have lots of laundry, then you have lots of time to slow down and think about things.

so yea, me! let it be known that february 20, 2012 was a good day in our house! 

jeffrey is two!

yesterday we got to celebrate jeffrey's jump into his second year of life. that's right, he's 2! jeffrey is our neighbor and it has been so fun to watch the boys grow up over the past {almost} year that we have lived next door. we opened up our house for the party and coen was such a great friend to share all his toys. i let him pick one thing to put away, that he didn't have to share. of course he picked his airplanes and he put them in the pantry. at one point i was looking for coen, and found him sitting in the pantry playing with his planes. that kid. he needs lots of encouragement to play with other kids. which is crazy to me, but we are working on it. anyway, the party was lovely. we ate lots of good food and lauren (jj's mom) made the most beautiful rainbow cake. can't wait to see what the next year holds for these little blonde boys. 

happy birthday sweet jeffrey! 

it can't be that bad

on thursday when i picked up coen from preschool i was able to sneak into the room and observe before he noticed me. my first thought was that he must actually be having fun since he was wearing a heart head band with heart antennas and reading a book with aunty tina. he may scream on drop off, but he is all smiles and eager to show me what he did once i return. we are working on a few tricks to make the mornings easier, i will share them once they are tested out a bit longer. 

this morning he climbed into our bed and preformed all his class songs. that right there made all the awful drop offs a little less, awful. 

be mine, valentine.

this year for valentines day i asked wes to skip out on buying flowers & chocolates. all i wanted was his company in dropping coen off at preschool. drop off is awful. a.w.f.u.l. and i just wanted someone to share it with. romantic? our morning got comical real quick, when i realized that in the chaos of loading a kicking, screaming child into the car against his will, i had forgotten to put shoes on myself. we pulled up to preschool and i jumped out barefoot, carried my still kicking and screaming child into his classroom and left him...yes, against his will. we headed out to find me some shoes, and took advantage of a very beautiful day in hilo. 

we grabbed breakfast from short & sweet bakery and headed out to honoli'i beach park for a morning picnic. it was so delightful. the surf was great, and there were about a million people surfing. but also we could see whales jumping out on the horizon. always cool. 

after our peaceful picnic we headed back to get the child. to our delight we found him sitting with his friends eating lunch. i desperately tried to get him to wear a valentine shirt to school today, but he picked up his china town shirt and said, "i just love china town, so i will wear this one." pick your battles. 

since our mornings are pretty rough, i saved our valentine for after preschool. our "love bug" was waiting in coen's car seat stuffed with news airplanes and holding a green {his fav color this week} shirt and the movie, cloudy with a chance of meatballs {a fav book, always}. i love "bugging" coen. 

okay, don't judge. our mornings are rough. preschool is rough. thankfully, coen seems to be adapting once i leave, but man oh man does he put on a show. incentive never hurts, so IF coen is good at preschool {no escaping, hitting teachers, talking naughty} we get to walk over to the worlds cutest candy shop and pick out three {cause he is almost three} pieces of candy. the best part is i get out of there for less than a dollar, and he only eats one piece, and then says he wants to save it for later. 

one highlight of my day was when coen gave me the valentine he made for me in school. having a teaching background, i really have a passion for the classroom. i loved so much that he go to go school today and have a valentine party. the best part of this card is that the picture was taken last week, and he isn't crying. this tells me that he really is calming down after i leave. i heart him. 

we came home for a nap, and then woke up and went through all his valentines from school. i am not sure who had more fun with this. coen also got to bring some art projects home, including his sad face from last week. 

to top off our fantastic family day, we headed up the the military camp at the volcano for some bowling and dinner. little bowling shoes are so adorable. 

i am blessed, loved and very tired.