Most wonderful/frustrating time of year.

Well, it's that time of year again...time to decorate for the Holidays. I find myself loving and hating decorating for this time of year...because of what I said a few posts ago about being indecisive. And instead of having as long as I want to be indecisive, I have only a month! Why not decorate the same every year and do away with having to be indecisive, you might ask. Well, I have a curse that my Mother and both my sisters have...we can't do the same thing over and over, we have to move furniture every few months, we can't keep the same picture in the same place for years on end, we have to switch wall colors whenever we can afford to, or when we don't think our husbands will notice...etc.

Once I have my house decorated, I might post pictures. But I am going to post some pictures of things that I have been looking at for some new inspirations.

Like this fabulous tree! I love the sugared gum drops and lollipops on the tree and in the kitchen, no less! So so cute!

I LOVE this mirror wreath from West Elm...so many possibilities.

Cute idea for an Advent Calendar.

Love this frame for holding pretty greeting cards.

And if I could change the ornaments on my tree every year...which I have almost mastered doing...I would get a bunch of these hot air balloon ornaments from Anthropologie. Love them!

Happy Decorating!

Where was the architect?

Does this strike anyone else as completely strange, and inconvenient?! I think of all the times I fly up and down my stairs in my house, and can't help but think this is just an accident waiting to happen.

I wonder if the person who designed this thought it would start a trend?

Thanksgiving news

This last week we had a full weekend of celebrating Thanksgiving with Jarod and my family.

I didn't take any pictures...not doing so well with my new years resolution...I guess it's not the new year yet though.

It was great to have these two...Mark and Kristen back from Phoenix to celebrate with us, since they won't be back for Christmas.

They are also expecting baby no.1! We are all so stoked! (as my cousin Whitney says).

Congratulations you guys!

Love the lips

Happy Friday

I can hardly believe I am posting twice in one week!

I have been thinking it would be fun to do a post on decorating, since I love decorating. I love to look at pictures, talk about, think about, just pretty much anything with decorating.

So, you'd think I would take every opportunity to decorate. Well...no. The reason isn't so much that I am lazy, but that I am indecisive. I can't ever decide what color, or what fabric, etc. So, Oliver still has the same wall color, same bedding, same wall decal, even the same furniture arrangement...which is pretty hard to believe when you know my family.

WHen I decorate I get a lot of my ideas from inspiration. Now I never do exactly what I am inspired to do, because of budget, indecisiveness, or in the case of Will's room a rough ceiling...

THIS was my inspiration for Will's room, and I wanted to do the ceiling, but that meant I had to have smooth ceilings...which we don't have. So, instead I went for yellow and strips on the bedding and bed frames.

So, here are some pictures of some of my favorite nurseries...just because I think it's fun.

I love the giraffe on this wall.

I think this crib is so fun, but looks like it would cost a fortune.

Isn't this so sweet? I love this room I think the bed is hanging from the ceiling though and that would make me a bit nervous.

Love the ceiling in this one...as you can tell I love texture or paint on ceilings...too bad my whole house has rough ceilings.

Such a fun room for twins!

Love the wallpaper.

I LOVE this whole room, from the slant of the ceiling, to the light fixture, to the pillows on the floor!

Love the chairs and the chandelier.

Wish I had a big mirror like this one! SO many possibilities with something this fabulous!

Loving the colors.

Last but not least...if I had a little girl, I would have to do these wonderful pom poms on the ceiling!!! Sooo cute!

Have a happy Friday!

Life Lately

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. A few things have happened since the summer.

The best thing that happened was that we had our little Oliver Zenichi (after my Inoue Grandpa). He came 2 1/2 weeks early and still weighed 7lb. 11oz. I was so glad he came early! He has been the best little baby anyone could ask for.

Everyone has been asking how Will likes him. He really likes him, but is not overly excited either. He asks to hold him about once ever three days or so and when he does, he holds him for a few seconds and is done and off playing again. I think his favorite thing is having someone to sit with in the car, and Oliver's swing...which used to be Will's.

I also realized I hadn't posted a couple pictures from the end of the summer. We went to Chicago to see Thomas the Train...Will's favorite thing to talk about, other than Lightening McQueen. Here is a picture of me in horribly hot weather. I didn't realize how HUGE this place was, and wore a shoe with a bit of a heal...BAD idea when you are more than 7 months pregnant and hotter than hot and walking around a place that was more like Fair grounds than a museum...like it was advertised.

Jarod and Will with Thomas.

A couple days after we brought Oliver home from the hospital. The boys on our bed taking a nap. Such a fun new phase of life we are going in to.

This last week I took Will in to the Dr. to get an infected bum looked at. After a quick peek, the Dr. admitted him. I felt terrible, since I didn't think it was a big deal, and didn't take him until he was complaining of a sore bum. We ended up being there three days and he had to get minor surgery done. He was such a fabulous little patient and I was so glad. Thank you to all who prayed for us! I was going to take a picture of him in the hospital, because I figured he would think it was fun to see someday, but again, I am the bad Mother who rarely takes pictures. My new years resolution...I know a bit early...is to take more pictures.

So, there's a bit of an update. Maybe I should make a new years resolution to post more too.

The guy's trip to Ethiopia

A couple weeks ago, Jarod and Matt took a trip to Ethiopia to help Gary and Peg Ifft on a school. They were wanting to take a one room school house and make it into two rooms. So Jarod went as the mason and Matt went as the carpenter.

Here they are the morning after they arrived. On their way home from the airport, they stopped at this restaurant, owned by a good friend of Gary's (second from right).

Here they are on one of the first days on the job. At the end of the day, the men in the background would figure out their wages. They would get paid depending on how long they worked and how hard...reminded them of the Parable of the Laborers.

Here Matt and Jarod ate their fish that they were given. They thought they ate it pretty clean, until Peggy said, 'you better give the rest of that to someone', so they gave it to some children who ate the rest of it.

Matt on his coffee break. I love this face, because he doesn't like coffee, but Jarod said politely drank it every day.

This is the donkey cart that the man with the blue shirt would deliver materials on.

Here is Gary's 'taxi'. They ran out of gas while they were out this night and had to have someone bring them gas.

The same night, they were taking crutches to this little boy who had just had surgery on his one leg and the family couldn't afford crutches, so he had no way of getting around. Isn't he so sweet.

Here are the guys that they worked with all week.

Then they were able to go to church on Sunday. Peggy sent this picture to us and said, 'Here are your guys with their new Brothers'. So neat!