Organization = Happiness

I love organizing!!  Organizing to make life more beautiful or productive is even better!  So why not do both?  Well, it's all about having the time to do it...as we all know.  I finally stopped putting things off and just jumped in.  The problem now is that I don't want to stop.  Baby steps.

The biggest task I tackled was organizing my pictures and creating the "picture wall" I've been wanting forever.  This is just a start but if you saw it before you can understand what an improvement this is.

A view up close.  If you are a family member and I don't have a picture of you, please send some to me!

The second task I tackled was organizing our laundry room.  If you made a surprise visit to our house during the week, you would see coats, backpacks, homework, lunchboxes, purses, phones, sunglasses, etc all over the place.   It drove me crazy!

To organize the chaos, J installed this rack of hooks for me.  It has hooks on the top and bottom, and was placed low enough that Stetson can reach it.  Cassidy is just going to have to grow.  It is amazing how much "stuff" this thing can hold!

I also installed this "message center" with key hooks on the bottom.  We are constantly leaving notes and important papers that need to go to school, etc on top of the dryer so we won't forget them.  That is a thing of the past!  If we need our car keys, we can't miss the important messages above them.  Genius!

Organizing makes me so happy!!

The Green Machine

Stetson will now be known as "The Green Machine"!!  In his Kindergarten class, a sheet comes home each day and shows what "color" he received for the day.  The color is an indicator of his discipline:  green = great job, orange = warning, yellow = miss 5 minutes of recess, red = Mom/Dad called and miss 10 minutes of recess, and blue = Mom/Dad called and a trip to the Principal's office.

We are SO proud of our little guy!!  Look at his sheet for this entire 6 WEEK period!  This is quite an accomplishment!

To celebrate his hard work and achievement, Stetson was treated to dinner of his choice and a reward of his choice.  Any guesses on where we ate this evening?!  Yep...McDonald's!  After dinner we took him shopping for his reward.  He chose something awesome!!  A Yoda alarm clock!!

It is so fun to see Stetson be proud of himself!  Great job, Buddy!!

We had no trouble going to bed tonight.  With Yoda by his side, anything is possible!

CONGRATULATIONS, STETSON "THE GREEN MACHINE" SARRATT!!

Happy Birthday to Me

What a great birthday it has been!  Thank you all for the phone calls, texts, voicemail messages (sorry), etc I received today.  I am so blessed!

To celebrate my birthday this year, I have decided to just "take it easy".  There is no need for a meal out, or a party, or anything like that.  I just want to relax.  This morning Stetson had the brilliant idea to have a "PJ Party" tonight after work/school in honor of my day.  I couldn't have said it better myself!

So after getting home this evening, we all changed into our pajamas.  Ahhhhh...

There was quite a bit of excitement about this party, so this is what the scene REALLY looked like.  Seriously, no posing done here.

Even Daddy put on his pajamas!  He also cooked dinner and was the host of our little shin-dig.

Look at all the loot I got!  Thank you all!

Beautiful roses from my three most favorite people in the world!

They even sang "Happy Birthday" to me!

I had lots of help blowing out the candles too.

Check out this brownie mountain!  Heaven in a dish!

 

Daddy's not too big on sweets but I had two helpers who LOVED their job!  Be sure to notice Stetson's hands and mouth in this picture.  That's my boy!

Poor brownie mountain never had a chance in this house.

This has been the PERFECT birthday!  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Princess Party

Cassidy was invited to her first birthday party of one of her friends at school!  She was so excited, but mostly because it was a princess party! Princess Abigail invited Princess Cassidy to her Royal Celebration in honor of the 3rd year of her reign.  Princess attire required.

Introducing our little Princess...Princess Cassidy!

 Just for the record, I did not pose her. This is all work of her Royal Highness.

I was told that a Princess must wear her pink shoes to the party, not her heels.  Duly noted.

I was also told the following...

I felt honored to attend the Royal Celebration as well.  I was told that I was a girl so I could attend.  I informed Princess Cassidy that not only am I a girl, but I am Queen Jamie!

The Birthday Princess and Princess Cassidy.

Princess Olivia was there as well.

Caution...Princesses at play.

A Princess must have a snack as well.

Hmmm...could this be Prince Charming??

Magically, Princess Cassidy transformed into Sleeping Beauty as her carriage drove her away from the Royal Celebration.

It's not easy being a Princess.

Wordless Wednesday

They Arrived!

Poor Aunt Mo has had nothing but trouble getting Christmas presents to our house since we moved here.  Even though her gifts arrived in Dallas before Christmas, they weren't delivered until today.  That was just fine with the kids, though. Christmas keeps on coming!

Cassidy had a box with her name on it.

And Stetson was so excited to see his name on this BIG box!

Cassidy's box contained two gifts, though!  How exciting!

Meanwhile, Daddy had to help Stetson with his big box.  It contained a huge blue bag!

Back over to Cassidy now.  Her first gift was a Princess View Finder!!  Perfect!

The other box had other View Finder pictures.  She was so excited when she saw the goldfish one!

Now back over to Stetson.  He and Daddy finally got through all the boxes and bags to find two large red things.  What on earth are these?  Cassidy had to come take a look too.

It was two soccer goals!!  How cool is that?!

He's got his game face on and is ready to go!

Cassidy is ready to view each of her slide shows, which is precisely what she did!  Aunt Mo even got her a case to hold all of them.

Thanks, Aunt Mo and Marcy for getting the kiddos the perfect gifts!  You have made their day and it actually worked out well that they didn't arrive until today.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from our family to yours!!  We wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012!  Let's make it a great one!