i heart craigslist

today's awesome craigslist find - an old school desk with lift top for $20. the best part was that it was in the next neighborhood from my own, so i didn't even have to go very far to get it. this is going to be perfect for the boys' study/play room. i'm thinking I will paint the lift top in chalkboard paint and the rest of it in distressed white. can't wait!

thift store find

I paid a visit to my favorite thrift store last weekend and scored these adorable end tables. They are a matching set with so much character - I couldn't resist them. The best part is their price: $7.96 for both! With just a little paint and tlc, these will be a lovely addition to our home.

monday shtuff

hello, monday!

it's always great to wake up on a monday morning. 

i usually wake up startled because i look at the clock and it reads 7:34 {as was the scenario this morning}. we are usually out the door by 7:45, so it's pretty safe to say that 7:34 is late. i jump out of bed thinking it's going to be world war three to get these kids out of bed, fed and dressed. to my surprise, i find isaiah and mikey sitting on the sofa watching a pokemon show, completely dresssed {jackets, shoes, backpacks, lunch bags and all} and ready for school.

{theme to twilight zone playing in the background}

me: umm...you guys are dressed.

isaiah: yep.

me: did you brush?

isaiah: yep.

mikey: wanna see my teeth? {shoots me a big grin.}

me: did you eat breakfast?

isaiah: yeah. i had a blueberry waffle and mikey had cocoa puffs. 

me: umm...uh...umm..ok. {thinking up my speech that i'll recite when i'm awarded my mother of the year trophy} thanks, isaiah.

isaiah: don't worry, mom. you still have time. it's only 7:35.

my seven-year-old son is a better mother than i. 

this said seven-year-old also came home from school on friday and made a batch of his favorite peanut butter cup cookies to share with his brothers. again - a better mother than i.

while my son is taking care of my children, i busy myself with lots of fun crafting. this weekend, i made a bunch of reusable cloth baby wipes. i use cloth diapers for liam and wyatt, but never went all the way with cloth wipes, as well, though i always wanted to make some. i was motivated by my sister-in-law {and BIL}, who is expecting in march. her shower is this weeekend and i was super pleased to find on her gift registry that she is also planning to cloth diaper, and all the way down to the wipes. awesome in my book.

any-shways, when i saw that one of the things on her registry was washable flannel wipes...it was so on. i made a ton of them using the boys' receiving blankets and it costs me $free.99. my favorite price. also so comforting to know that the receiving blankets i've grown so attached to, since i've used them for all four of my boys, will now be wiping to bum of my sister-in-law's babe. anything for our island princess - or maybe anything for the sake of not having to spend any money. i'll stick with the first reason - it sounds better.

i cut the receiving blankets into 8x8 squares. i was able to get nine squares from one blanket.

see that sparkly new rotary cutter? i can't believe i went so long without one. i'm in love...and can only hope that my rotary cutter feels the same way about me. 

then i sewed the edges using the zigzag stich on my machine. 

this took some time. there were a lot of wipes. but since crafting, including sewing, is my therapy, it was no biggie. and i also realized my sewing machine could double as a head massager - i would rest my forehead on the front of the machine when my neck would start to cramp up, and the vibration would give my noggin a nice massage. awesome.

and, voila! stacks and stacks of washable flannel wipes. 

you'd be shocked how much those things cost if you buy them. search on amazon. but make sure you sit down for it, because it's a shocker. 

i also started making some t-shirt flowers to use for headbands and hair clips for my nieces. i really love the method i found on pinterest. i was intimidated with it as first because it uses a sewing machine, but it's really so simple and the flowers come out just how i like them - full and fluffy, but non-uniform. 

i made those flowers using one of isaiah's favorite t-shirts that had a hole in it. i hung onto the t-shirt because i loved its light blue color and knew that i'd be able to make use of it somehow. these flowers were perfect.

i had already chopped off the bottom of the shirt and part of the sleeves when isaiah saw me working with it. he swiped it from the table and, next thing i knew, he was wearing his favorite shirt again. who cares if it was a half top and one sleeve was chopped up? it was his favorite - poor guy. i consoled him by telling him that his baby girl cousins would be wearing his favorite t-shirt on their heads as flowers. and he bought it. 

lastly, i leave you with this colorful sight that sits on upon our kitchen counter.

we had just gone grocery shopping and the colors of the citrus was too pretty to not capture. 

ahh, simple joys. 

they are everywhere every day.

it's been a while, but linking up today with carissa at lowercase letters!

christmas already

i can't believe that christmas eve is just 8 days away! short of a case of wine to gift, we pretty much have all of our christmas shopping done. that's huge, because i'm usually running around like a madwoman on the morning of christmas eve trying to find those last minute gifts. i triple like that we got done early this year and i love that i was able to put some good thought into the presents. i hope everyone loves them!

in our house, christmas is all over the place. 

the stocking are hung.

the boys' nutcracker collection is on display. for some reason, they loooove these things. here are a few of my favorites.

yes, that's a clone trooper nutcracker. whodathunkit?

christmas cards are arriving.

shutterfly finally just shipped ours. i hope we can get them to everyone before christmas! hahah

the tree is up and trimmed (finally!) and i got a sneak peek of my christmas presents - and i must say, they are the best presents ever!

wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!

xoxo, the adams six-pack 

pumpkins and treats

honestly, i'm all halloweened out. i'm tired of the parties, the candy, the excitement. i just want things to mellow down. ha! then along comes thanksgiving and then, what?, christmas?! yeah, there shall be no mellowing down until january, un-thank you very much.

but i do need to get all of these obligatory halloween photos into our family diary...so here it goes.

carving pumpkins with daddy - whoop dee doo.

mikey's jack-o-lantern face that we he wanted daddy to carve out. umm...sorry, buddy. we aren't talented enough to carve out a comic strip.

not too shabby for freestyle carving, mister man.

ghost s'mores that we made for isaiah's classmates. thanks, pinterest!

real men get crafty.

life story binders

i'm the mom so that means i'm also the family historian. and it just makes sense for me to be the historian because, if left up to the mister, our family history would be tucked away between the driver's seat and center console of his car. 

i have TONS of random papers, report cards, particularly awesome school work, certificates, etc. that i've collected since isaiah started preschool when he was two. i've always just stuffed them into a folder in my file cabinet as they came through the door. but i'm starting to find that his folder is bursting at the seams and i've been thinking for a while now about how i can compile it all. 

i love to scrapbook, but that method of compilation is just not sensible nor practical. i'm a perfectionist when it comes to my crafting, so i've never even attempted to start a scrapbook or baby book for the kids because i just know it would never get done and i'd fall farther and farther behind. i don't have the time to sit scrapbook anymore.

i recently found an idea on pinterest for a life story binder. it's basically just a binder with a ton of sheet protectors and you just slip in all the papers that you want to hang onto. i've even seen it made with one binder per school year, which makes sense, but that would be way too many binders after four kids. i decided to just start a binder for each child and see how many years i can fit into a binder. 

i put isaiah's together this morning in about 30 minutes. i loved that. time is money, people. well, i guess not really since i don't make any money...but whatever.

i had fun and got a bit nostalgic while going through isaiah's papers and art. this kid has lived A LOT of life in just a short seven years. i can't wait to see what the future has in store for him.

his kindergarten "all about me" poster is tucked into the front cover. 

yes, i know the binder is pink. but i work with what i have on hand, friends. i wasn't going to go out and buy a new binder when i have a perfectly good {pink} binder sitting in my garage.

preschool photos.

preschool graduation photos and program.

kindergarten. i saved one of his homework packets and wasn't sure why at the time. now, i'm glad i did.

random art and crafts from kinder. 

awards and ribbons.

sports.

more sports.

and because life and grade school is not all rainbows and butterflies, i even saved one of those "notes home". 

i also started a life story binder for mikey.

and liam! that turtle is the first image he ever tried to color.

i'm happy i thought to save so many of these little things. and now i will surely continue to do so for all of my boys. childhood is fleeting. and soon enough, it will be over. these memory binders will be all we have to hold onto and remember their childhoods with. i hope that one day, when the boys get older, we can look through these books and they will see what a wholesome life we tried our very best to give them. and even though we are nowhere close to perfect parents and they will only remember how mean we were for not letting them go to their friend's house after school, we did everything we possibly could for them and loved them with all of our hearts.

the neiman marcus cookie

where do you keep your recipes? 

i have always just thrown mine into a drawer. now it seems i've accumulated so many that it's become a big mess in there and i can never find what i need. i've been thinking that it's time to do some recipe organizing, but i wasn't sure how i wanted to do it. 

i was able to stroll through michaels the other day, ALONE, which means i was able to rummage through all of the clearance bins. i found this cute recipe binder for $3 and the matching recipe cards for 60 cents a pack. so for $4.20, i will be able to organize my recipes and such into this cute binder, divided and all organized and stuff. don't be jealous of me and this long and tedious awesome and super cool project that i am about to dive into.

as i was going through the gazillion random pieces of paper, i found a recipe for "the neiman marcus cookie". i think i got it at our annual holiday cookie exchange last christmas, but i hadn't tried making them yet. 

little did i know that i would never look at chocolate chip cookies the same again after making a batch of this heavenly treat. i always thought i loved the texture and taste of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but i think the neiman marcus cookie, with its delicious hint of coffee, has changed my mind and heart forever. i have a new favorite. 

here's the recipe. go and try it. you know you want to. i even made it as an adorable recipe card that you can print as a 4x6. if this doesn't motivate you to get your own recipe binder started, i don't know what will.

that wreath

my poor yarn-wrapped wreath has been sitting around unfinished for so long that it was starting to be un-lovingly referred to as "that wreath".

it took some time to wrap the wreath with yarn, so i did it a little bit at a time whenever i had a few minutes to spare. once it finally got wrapped, it took forever to find a chunk of time to pull out all the felt, cut and roll the flowers and work some magic with the hot glue gun.

today, i was able to find time for all of the above, and even managed to get a hot glue burn on one of my toes {don't ask}, and finally finished that wreath.

all finished...only to find that i didn't have any ribbon to hang it with. well, i have lots of ribbon, but i didn't have any that looked nice with that wreath. so the b&w stripes are temporary. oh, and that mess of hot glue on the left is also temporary. {i didn't realize how not photo-ready that wreath was until i already photographed it. and i'm not doing it again, so you can just deal with it. haha

pretty rolled felt flowers


i couldn't decide between the deep red and the blue flowers. but i went with blue for contrast, since my front door is already a deep red color. and now i'm thinking it should have used deep red. sigh. indecision will be the death of me.

teacher appreciation week

the week of may 2-6 is teacher appreciation week, so don't forget to show your kids' teachers how much you appreciate them!

i know i do. i surely do not have the patience to educate my children the way that these wonderful people do. teachers are definitely of a different breed; one of love, kindness, and understanding.

so, we are saying 'thanks a latte' buy treating them to a latte! or whatever their fave drinky drink is from starbucks.

thanks to my friend, misty, for the idea and eighteen25 for the free printable!
i just had the image printed at costco as a 5x7 print and they came out lovely.

oh my cuteness

i took a stroll through michaels the other night ALONE and i can't even describe how wonderful that was. we had a rough time over dinner with liam and i just needed a moment to get away from my dear children and clear my head...while shopping. i was able to browse through the entire store {three times} and really get everything i needed without my little ankle biters rushing me and following me around. 

i got materials for a few projects that you'll probably be seeing sometime this week. but i wanted to share my most favoritest cute little finds from that evening. 

these super cute little sugar and cream containers. i love, love, love them. and they were only $1 each! i especially love how the cream container is shaped like a milk carton. and i'm sure these will get plenty of mileage because i often have friends over for coffee. i'm thinking of going back and getting a few more sets to save and give as gifts. they are just adorable. 

i hope everyone had a great weekend. me, not so much. i pulled a muscle in my back the other day and the pain in still lingering. i went to see the chiropractor, which helped a lot, but i'm still feeling the pain when i move certain ways. needless to say, all of our plans were cancelled and we've just been hanging out at home. which is also good because i've been able to get lots of housework done {even though i should be resting!}. it's a vicious cycle.

hello, spring!

i love spring. really. i've probably said before that i hate spring because isaiah and i suffer badly from allergies. but i didn't really mean it. i've figured out how to keep us medicated and as long as i wear my glasses all season, we're fine. so...i go back to loving spring, especially the month of april. why, you ask?  because there's my birthday, our wedding anniversary and easter, all jam-packed into one super fun (and super expensive, for the mister) month. yay.

with spring here (or kind of here, since we are expecting rain at the end of the week again) i felt the need for a springy wreath for my front door. this was easy peasy, because i had a wreath and fabric flowers that i made months ago, just sitting around and waiting to be put together. that i did, and here is my adorable new wreath that is now hanging on my front door. whoohoo.

i had all the materials for this cute little thing on hand. the wreath is from the dollar store. the yellow polka dot fabric is just scrap from scrap. like, literally. i bought a fat quarter of it from the scrap section at wal-mart. i used it for whatever it was i had planned for it, then the scraps from that project are what turned into these fabric flowers. and the tan, linen fabric is from an old square pillow case. isaiah and mikey were wrestling and mikey ended up with a bloody nose and bled on my pillow. darn kids! we can't have anything nice in this house, can we?! (i find myself saying that quite frequently.) i couldn't get the stain off, so i just cut it out and saved the fabric for projects. waste not, want not, people! 

little hands

liam and his little hands are constantly hard at work. he loves...no, really...LOVES puzzles of all sorts, shapes and sizes. earlier today, i was crafting a birthday banner for my niece and cut the lettering out with my cricut. he immediately went after the letters and my scraps and saw them as a brand, new puzzle. 

 i can't wait to see what these precious hands will create someday.
this made me remember another time when we were out for lunch...someplace that serves multi-colored tortilla chips. liam immediately saw this as a sorting exercise. :)

this little boy is always full of ideas and i can't wait to see what he'll surprise me with tomorrow.