Bowling. And Underwear.

Sunday our friends invited us to go bowling, which we'd been wanting to do with Ingrid for some time.  We got a couple pitchers of beer, the kids ran around while we waited for our lane to open up, and we reminisced about the days of yore when bowling alleys were smoke filled.  (Ahh, the good ol' days.)

 They had shoes in Ingrid's size, it was pretty cute.

She had such a good time trying to roll the ball.  Otis had a harder time but he seemed to like it, too.  He just didn't want any help, and at one point his ball stopped mid-lane and we had to have the guy run down the alley and get it for us.  Ha!

zAnd in underwear news, we got some for Otis today.  He won't wear them, but we have them for when I decide to start.  I know you're supposed to wait for them to want to but I swear to god, Otis knows how to go on the potty, he just doesn't feel like it...So the underwear got played with today.  Many stuffed animals got to wear undies today.

I guess I should just think of in two years when he's totally potty trained and I can't even remember this time of having to work at it.  Right?

So much snow!!

We finally got dumped on!  I would've prefered to have this in December for Christmas, but what can you do?  It was so nice out the other day, just kept snowing but wasn't super cold.  The kids and I went outside to shovel and play, then our neighbors came over and played.  We made a snow fort, it turned out awesome!  Until Cody ran into it and knocked it down and Otis cried.

 When we're not outside, we are playing indoors, which means games (Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, the world's cutest game ever) and climbing, and going to the community center to play with toys we aren't sick of. 

 And in other news...Ingrid got glasses!  We went for her eye exam today and she was super psyched to get purple glasses.  I'm glad she's getting them now and not when she's 13 and all self concious.  And luckily one of her friends at school wears glasses so she won't be the only one.  She looks so cute in them!!

Moving Furniture Beats the Winter Blahs!

When I was a kid, it was completely normal to come home from school to find my mom had rearranged the furniture.  It never seemed like a strange thing to do.  I think I've talked about this before, how I know people that have had their furniture in the same place for like 30 years??  Insane.  Anyway, I had moved stuff around this summer and was pretty pleased with it.  But that was like months ago, so of course I got sick of it!  And the toys, ugh, the toys.  I thought with my Ikea shelves I had that problem covered, but then the toys exploded from their nice shelves into the dining room, where there just wasn't really room. 

 

So.  Today I took everything out of the living room, tried a few different places for the couch, hated all of them, talked to my mom on the phone for a bit, trying to brainstorm.  In the end, I came up with a wonky solution, but one that seems to work.  For now.  I angled the couch and made room for a play area behind the couch.  We now have a little play space in the living room, but it's kind of hidden so you don't really have to see all the junk.  Yay!

 Otis really loved it as soon as I was done.  He got out a book and sat himself right down.  Because he had room!  Success!

What I really want to do is move our cable to another space, which would really make things easier.  But until that happens, we'll live with this.  Which is fine.

 

**And can I just say how much I LOVE Ikea Expedit shelves??  Oh my god, just go to Pinterest and search for expedit and there are tons of great ideas!  I loved this one so much!  Such a good idea!**

Valentine's Crafts (and Other Random Pictures)

Ugh, we're in February...This is when I hate the midwest.  I'm sick of the snow, and the cold, and bundling up in a million layers.  This was Otis this morning:

All that just to get in the damn car.  His poor little redhead's skin gets all rosy and chapped in the cold weather so I have to try to cover as much as I can.  He got in the car and it must have been cozy, he passed right out.

So, we dream of Spring.  This is Ingrid's rendition of Spring, an apple tree, a bee, a girl with a spotted dog.  I love it.

 Random shot of Otis is another wonderful vintage find--we got this from Bug and Bear Vintage.  Love.

 Have you heard of mug cakes?  Shit.  There goes any chance of lessening my ass this winter. 

 And now, the Valentine's Craft.  I just love these super simple crafts.  It keeps the kids occupied and I have to admit, I had fun making one or two V-day hearts with them today.  We simply tore up pink and red paper, drew a heart on a piece of copy paper, and then used a glue stick to stick the colored pieces on.  Simple yet effective. 

Giveaway!

Hey guys!  There is an Applesauce Crafts giveaway over on my pal Becky's blog Preparing for Peanut.  A three pack of bibs AND a stuffed owl could be yours!  Check it out here!

Days Off

Ingrid has had some days off lately, mostly because I'm lazy, ha!  Last Friday she wanted to play with the babysitter, whom she hadn't seen in a month or so, so I let her stay home.  She had Monday off for MLK day, then Tuesday we had a HELLISHLY cold day, I can't believe we even had school!  It was -5.  Wind chill of -22.  For you Celsius peeps, that's -20 and -30!  Super freakin' cold, it was not fun.  I did not feel like bundling up two kids, driving and doing drop off, then getting Otis home, debundling him only to rebundle him a couple hours later.  So...we stayed in.

We did puzzles, we made a tent and the kids pretended to go camping in the living room.  We colored, we played with stuffed animals, we napped.  We watched Yo Gabba Gabba, which has seen a rise in popularity in our house over the past week.  

 Luckily the cold only lasted a bit, the next day we were back to normal frigid weather, which is about 7 degrees (-14C)  

Today I took Otis to the thrift store while Ingrid was in school, and on the way home we passed the Krispy Kreme.  Oh god, I used to love those things!  I haven't been there in years, so I had to stop.  Of course, right?  I can't fit in any of my pants and am constantly saying I need to get a gym membership again, but let's go eat 1000calories worth of donuts.  Jeez.  They were good.  Otis promptly fell asleep on the way home, leaving a drooly sticky mess all over himself.

 Oh, I forgot!  Yesterday we got the loveliest little care package from my friend Brooke in Ireland.  It even came in a cute box!  It had some little thrifted things for the kids, their favorite being a baby book in German about a bear that goes traveling in different things.  You can stick the bear in each mode of transportation.  They thought it was the coolest!  Thanks, Brooke and Pearl!

 Tomorrow is another day off, which means another day of...what?  I don't know how much more coloring and Gabba I can do, to be honest...

Cleaning my FACE with Olive Oil

Yep, I started the Oil Cleansing Method a few weeks ago and I'm completely floored how well it works!  Have you heard of it?  I found out about it from a mom's group on Facebook, someone mentioned it and I was intrigued.  I went to the trusty internet and found some really great links to read up on it. 

Basically, your face needs its natural oils to stay healthy and looking good.  Washing with chemicals strips away the oil and in turn, your face starts making more to make up for it.  Hence the dry skin/pimples cycle we are all probably familiar with.  So instead of chemicals, you use...oil.  The basic mixture is using castor oil and extra virgin olive oil, but there are lots of other oils you can use for different needs.  A good link I found was here, she tells you some good mixtures for problem skin and shows a video of herself doing it. 

My skin is usually just dry all the time.  I break out here and there, but I was constantly feeling tight and dry and itchy.  My quest in life had been to find the perfect moisturizer--something thick but not greasy, that stayed on my skin but didn't feel too heavy.  I didn't think it was possible. 

So I heard of the method and tried it one night.  I just used the olive oil at first, because I had it on hand.  You put a quarter size dollop in your palm, and use your fingers to rub the oil all over your face.  Really take your time and get it in the pores.  Then take two washcloths, get them super hot (but not enough to burn you, duh) and place them on your face to steam away the oil.  This is my favorite part!  I can just feel the pores opening and the oil dragging the crap away.  Then you wipe off your face, rinse the washcloths, and do it again.  You are left with bright, glowing, soft skin.  I don't even USE moisturizer anymore!  If I feel a bit tight, I take a tiny amount of my oil mixture and rub it in where I feel dry. 

OH MY GOD, you guys!  This is a life changer for me!  For one thing, I used to always "forget" to wash my face at night, waking up to smeared mascara and feeling pretty crappy.  But with this, I just love to take the time, I love how my skin feels afterward, it's like a mini-spa treatment I get to do by myself after the kids are in bed. 

Right now I am using a mixture of castor oil, extra virgin olive oil, and grapeseed oil, but I think I need to nix the castor oil.  I had been just using olive oil and grapeseed oil and after I added the castor oil it just seemed too harsh on my skin.  I think I'll just go back to the olive and grapeseed oils.

So basically, all you need is your oil, a bunch of washcloths, and hot water, and you will get this amazing skin!  I love it!  All in all I think it was pretty cheap, as the olive oil was $9 for a big bottle, which I used 4oz of, and a 4oz bottle of grapeseed oil was $4.  I think the avocado oil I looked at was way more expensive, like $12 for 4oz, but still!  With all the face washes I would try and moisturizers I had on hand, and they all cost $10 each...and didn't work.  I got a big pack of washcloths from Target, I think it was $5 for ten of them?  Or something cheap like that.  And I got a plastic pump bottle at Whole Foods that holds 8oz that was around $4. 

Seriously, read up on it!  It's awesome!  One of the crunchy hippy things I can really wrap my head around! 

House Tour

Have you ever seen the blog Life Made Lovely?  They have a great section of house tours that are so cool, just pictures of the rooms, showing little snippets into the lives of the owners.  I love seeing things like their collections of vintage things, or family pictures, or cool color combos.  One house had some vintage furniture that didn't match but it just worked.  Anyway, as I was going around my house today I was imagining what my pictures would look like.  And then I started laughing because I've been sick the past week and the kids were sick before that, so our house is a bit of a mess.  I did clean a little this morning, but still there are just piles of shit in every room.  Papers that need to go somewhere, pictures the kids have colored, old cds that found their way out into the dining room somehow.  Things just laying on any available surface...

So here is my house tour, complete with piles of shit.

All the meds from all the sickness going around!

I'm telling you, piles of junk.

Primrose from the store today.  Needed some fresh color!

Naughty horse in the corner.

Best Christmas present ever.  I love this doll house!

New artwork for our bedroom from tastesorangey on etsy. (they aren't crooked, I just had a strange angle.)

This is what I mean--picture hangers, earbuds, candles, boxes from our new phones, lotion, and a bottle of Vicodin.  There has to be a better place for this shit than on our dresser!

I can't wait until Ingrid can read these books!

Ingrid's broken dresser.  I hate this thing.

Ugliest sconces ever.

New artwork from Uncle Pat.

 And there it is.  The Liddle Family House Tour!  The more I see these pictures the more I hate the colors in our house.  I am totally fine with our room and the dining room, but every other room in our house is getting a paint job this year!! 

A Look Back

Totally stealing this from Bron's blog--what a great way to remember all we've been through this year!

JANUARY
Otis was getting to be more mobile and getting into EVERYTHING!

FEBRUARY
Otis learned how to walk!  And we enjoyed being back in Milwaukee, where we belong.

MARCH
We started, and finished, our house hunting.  It was so fast, and almost a year later we could not be more happy with the house we ended up with!!  Our neighborhood is amazing, our house is cozy, and we love to be homeowners!

APRIL
Busy month of going to the cottage for the first time of the year, our first baseball game of the season, and packing up our old house.

MAY
We moved into our new house!  Ingrid turned four! 

JUNE
We took our annual camping trip to Door County. Aunt Corie came to visit.  It was HOT.

JULY
It was still hot.  We spent lots of time outside and enjoyed our air conditioning while inside.  I had a craft fair and we harvested lots of zucchinis.  LOTS.

AUGUST
The kids and I visited my mom in Michigan!

SEPTEMBER
Ingrid started school and we went to see Obama on a dreary rainy day.  (Thank god it's not election season anymore, that got old.)

OCTOBER
Ingrid and Otis were cowboys for Halloween.

NOVEMBER
We had some great family pictures taken and we visited my sister in Michigan.  All of us, even Brendan!

DECEMBER
Otis turned TWO!  Hard to believe he's such a spunky little dude.  He talks as much as his sister and has a personality of his own, for sure. 

We have just had such a great year, I feel really lucky. 

This next year I hope to see Ingrid continuing to love school, I want to work more on our house projects, like painting the rooms colors that don't make me want to barf, and hopefully getting a patioo built in our backyard.  I hope the winter isn't too cold, the summer isn't too hot, and we continue to be happy and somewhat healthy (as I cough and sneeze all over the computer, ha!)  Happy New Year, everyone!