Hooray for the Hutch!

The China Hutch Jamie ordered for Valentine's Day finally arrived!

It is such a beautiful complement to our table, and fills up a very empty room. (So much for my great idea to leave it bare so that we don't seem like pretentious North Easterners. Teehee!)

I'm an admittedly horrible interior designer. Every wall in our Houston home was bare for three years. I like stark simplicity. But, my taste is definitely not popular.

Since moving to Virginia I've realized I also like American Colonial and British East Indies styles...Can you say completely opposite of "stark simplicity?" Thus the more "ornate" dining room set.


Since I'm terrible at design, I looked up a couple of articles about the "correct" way to organize a display cabinet. I quickly realized that I don't have enough pieces for my hutch (this is where you start crying for me, "Oh you poor dear! How can you possibly live without a complete set of China?"). I don't have the serving dishes, the platters, tea pot, gravy boat. (You say: "No gravy boat! What a travesty!").

So I had to be a little creative. On the third shelf from left to right: there is a crystal candy dish from one of Jamie's work projects (it actually says Exxon Mobil on it), then the candlesticks that I got on clearance at Pottery Barn five years ago (they're turning green) and then the ice cream dishes (the previous owners of our home left them behind).

Since my taste stinks, maybe my friends who read this far will want to vote. Does it look horrible? Can you suggest a better way to organize it?


So now you're wondering how I can possibly not have enough China. All the boxed stuff you see is my "Christmas China." My mother-in-law buys a piece for us each year. SO, by time Christmas comes my hutch will rock!

Home Improvement

Good bye ugly pine trees! We will NOT miss you. Sadly the landscapers got to work so quickly that I didn't have time to snap a before shot.

The kids were fascinated by the "worker men" and wanted to watch. I thought the boys should mimic their heroes. Austin is in the yellow coat. He and his sister Emma are staying with us till Friday. He was a great sweeper and Gav was an awesome pile scooper.

The girls observed politely.

But they also got bored really quickly. So the backyard was a good option.

Here's the finished product. No overgrown trees blocking the front door. WAHOO!!

We replaced the trees with Camilia bushes. They have bright red blooms and thrive in the shade.

So much better!

What do David Beckham and Gavin have in common?

Great hair? Check.
Modeling skills? Check.

A fearless attitude? Check.

Some awesome fans? Check.

A great team? Check.

A little hottie who follows him around? Check. (I mean Laynie of course. Lol.)

Product placement? Check.

A rad goal dance. Check?

But Gavin has done one thing that David Beckham will never be able to do. He named is team. They are the (wait for it, wait for it....)

GIRAFFES!

I'm totally not kidding. The coach asked for ideas for team names and Gav's suggestion got the most votes. I'm sure we'll have more stories to tell about Gavin's first year of soccer later.

The Easter Haul

The Easter Bunny was extremely generous this year.

Gavin got a HUGE box of Legos and kits to build a helicopter and firetruck.

The Easter bunny hid a TON of eggs full of delicious snacks all over the basement. Laynie was not at ALL interested because...

She got trike.

It's WAY too big. But she could care less. She loves to sit on it and push all the irritating buttons. The princesses on top dance in a circle around the castle to horrible music. Horrible, irritating, twangy music.

Here is the firehouse with the Dalmatian (I built those because I am a Lego hog). Gavin and Jamie built this helicopter.

I have since built a truck and smaller helicopter. I love Legos and don't want to share.

Easter Egg Dye-saster

Saturday night was our annual Easter Egg Dying Event. And it was...so sad! I missed my nieces and nephews SO much. Especially my Bay! She loved to decorate eggs and was so meticulous and methodical in her dying. It was always so exciting to see the moment when she would decide that the egg was just the right shade. Bailey, I miss you!

Even though it's not as much fun without our cousins, we dyed the eggs anyway. Here are the awesome pictures.

Waiting, waiting. Can you tell I asked Laynie to say "cheese"?

Laynie put a tiara on this egg.

Gav wasn't thrilled about the "princess" egg dying kit. But, the castle was cool because "a knight in shining armor" lived there.

Gavin also dyed a blue egg that was named "plane" and a green egg named "frog." He also picked out all the blue bird stickers - because those are obviously more boyish - and put them on his and his dad's eggs. "Cause Dad and I like to fly."

In all the year's that I've dyed eggs, I've never had a disaster...until this year.

Yep. The entire cup of orange dye all over the floor and my feet and legs. Luckily my floor is "orange tinted" so it disappeared. No big deal.

Knight and Shining Armor

Gavin is a hero. Really. Laynie is always a damsel in distress (which is usually his fault), or a princess that needs rescuing, and sometimes she is even allowed to be the sidekick.

He is also incredibly creative. This week he made a Transformer Reindeer. He has a large stuffed animal reindeer that he strapped guns, syringe "lasers," wings, and all sorts of tools onto. The reindeer also wears sunglasses because he has "night vision."

So now that you've had a few moments to study his suit of armor, you'll notice his "cape." Yep, feety pajamas.

I love it. I love the way his mind works. He is so my child.