Home Improvement - Tims Edition

After nine months with a "for sale by owner" sign in the yard, we finally broke down and met with a realtor. She quickly told us what we already knew... it's a total rip-off. The buyer ends up paying more because the seller has to raise their price to cover realtor fees. But that's exactly what we're going to do... raise our price. Sounds crazy to raise the price when we haven't been able to sell it for the lower price that we're asking... but we'll see.

Anyway, in light of the higher price, we decided to do a few home improvement projects in the hopes of selling it quickly for top dollar. So, we spent this weekend installing wood (laminate) floors and I have to say that I'm totally impressed with our "professional" job. And we didn't even argue while doing it... now that's really impressive.

Not too shabby, huh?

I've also been wanting to paint our front door for a while now. It's been looking pretty weathered. After painting it, we realize how terrible the handle looked so we had to replace that. One thing leads to another. I'm really pleased with it though... makes the front porch look much better. Now I just have to put some flowers out (that I'm sure I'll eventually kill) and people will be lining up to buy.

Chris is replacing the vinyl floor in the guest bathroom with tile and that should be the end of our projects for now. Why didn't we do all this earlier? It was super cheap since we did it ourselves and now I won't even get to enjoy it long (hopefully)!

We Love Sprinkles

Chris had to go out of town for work last week, so we decided to make him a Valentine's surprise...

I've told you that Reese and Tucker are really advanced for their age... but who'd have thought they could create such cute little treats?? I think we might have some culinary experts on our hands people... and believe me, they didn't get it from their mom!

Grammy made the kids the cutest little aprons and chef hats for Christmas. Perfect for pictures Grammy... thanks so much.

We headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for this messy little project. Thanks Grandma, I'm sure you'll be finding sprinkles all over your kitchen for months to come!

Emma was excited to show Reese and Tucker how it's done.

I thought they might just gobble their cookies up, but they actually sat and decorated with us...

Okay... so here's their masterpiece. So, maybe they aren't pastry chefs yet, but they do look awfully cute in the little hats!

Happy Valentine's Day Daddy!

Fingerpaint Frenzy

In an effort to find fun things to do indoors this winter, I bought the kids fingerpaints. Why didn't someone stop me? Seriously. I knew it would be a lot of work and really messy, but I thought the kids would love it so I put my OCDness aside for one afternoon. Well... one of them loved it. Can you guess which one?


Yep, you're right. It wasn't her. She HATED it. I thought she was over her "I don't like to get dirty" phase, but I guess not. She humored me for about 2 seconds and then freaked out about the paint on her hands. So... no pictures of Reese painting. I'll be sure to offer Miss Priss a paintbrush next time.

Tucker loved it of course. After all, he eats dirt, rubs food in his hair, and likes to suck on his big toe. He's all boy and thoroughly enjoys getting dirty.

Yes... he has it on his head, in his hair, all over his mouth, etc., etc., etc.

Here's his masterpiece. Who knows... he could be the next Picasso.

I've Been Busy

I'm a crafter... love to make things and be creative. Unfortunately, I don't have near enough time to indulge. I scrapbook when I can and I'm enjoying my new SCAL software for my Cricut. I wasn't totally sold on it at first b/c I couldn't get it to work right. Surprise, surprise. I've told you before, I'm technologically cursed. It's working great now though and I've already made a layout with it. I'm super pumped that I don't ever have to buy another Cricut cartrige again. I've found some great blogs and websites that have free clip art and fonts and I'm loving it!


I know what you're thinking... and yes, I'm just now finishing layouts from this summer. I told you, I don't get to do it as often as I'd like. Anyway... I love the sun, water splashes, and swirls on this one. This SCAL thing is going to be great!

Because I don't have enough hobbies, and I have way too much free time on my hands, I decided to start sewing. Chris got me a sewing machine for Christmas and I made my first project. I have like 4 babies showers this month so I decided to start easy... burp towels. Don't look too closely, I'm not seamstress yet! I've already given several away, but here are a few more that I made....


Not too shabby for my first go around. My diaper bag has seen better days, so that's my next project. I'll let you know how it goes.

O Christmas Tree

I'm one of those crazy Christmas fanatics who has way too many decorations and must put them all up every year. Chris says that 10 Rubbermaid's of decorations is way too many and is not at all excited about putting up Christmas lights. I think that's why he put all the Christmas stuff in storage when we put the house up for sale. I'm convinced that they were strategically placed at the very back and bottom of the heaping pile of boxes in All Storage. So sad.

Between that and having two small kids who are into everything, I decided to chill this Christmas. I opted for a skinny tree that could be tucked away in the corner of the room over my usual ginormous tree in the hopes that Reese and Tucker wouldn't notice it. And I decided not to spend 3 hours in the storage unit trying to pull everything else out. I'll just have to play lots of Christmas music and bake like crazy to get into the spirit this year.

I didn't know what to do with myself on Saturday when it only took 30 minutes to get the tree up. Reese and Tucker enjoyed helping. Tucker thought the bulbs were balls though and hurled them across the living room. Luckily no one was injured. Reese is quite the little helper and threw a major fit when we were done. She's like her Mom... more Christmas decorations please!

Reese concentrating so hard to get it just right.

Tucker on the other hand... just throwing it on there and watching it fall out the bottom of the tree.

It's been up for a few days now and they haven't knocked it over yet. I'm feeling optimistic. Christmas is going to be fun this year... I can already tell.

Scrap Weekend

Twice a year, I get together with some of my girlfriends and go to a place called Scrappin' Around the Corner in Denton. We spend the weekend eating, talking, eating, watching movies, eating, laughing, and best of all... scrapping! We started scrapping together a few years ago. It's started off as a hobby and now it's totally an obsession. Chris dreads our "family fun times" because he knows I'm going to take hundreds of pictures so I have some good ones to scrap. I'm always months behind and so look forward to these weekends where I can knock out tons of fun layouts. I always come back exhausted because we stay up all night... but it's always a blast.

This trip I had to finish up their first year scrapbooks before I could get started on the current stuff. Yes, they're 17 months old and I'm just now finishing their first year. I told you I stay months behind.

It was fun hanging out with you girls this weekend. Until next time... Go Eagles.

Pumpkin-Carving Fun

I'm pretty sure I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid. But after paying like 12 bucks for one at the pumpkin patch, I decided we were definitely carving this bad boy. When I told Chris we were carving a pumpkin on Thursday night, he was actually pretty excited about it. He loves projects... watch out 5th grade teachers, Reese and Tucker are going to have the best Science Fair projects! Anyway, he got to planning and decided to make this detailed, crazy pumpkin that said "Tims Twins 1st Halloween. We got everything ready and went to town...


Reese and Tucker just watched in amazement at first.


Reese wasn't at all interested in getting messy... she wanted nothing do with the guts.

But once Dad got it all cleaned out, she was way into "pretending" to help.

Yep, she's got it all over her face... caught her tryin' a little. Mmm tasty.

Tucker loved it all too... in fact, they both threw major fits when I made them get down to go take a bath. Such a mean mom.

That was pretty much it. They played in the pumpkin, pretending to scoop the guts out while we snapped pictures.

I'm not sure Chris understood what I meant when I said, "We're going to carve a pumpkin tonight." What I really meant was, "We're going to play and take pictures, and then leave you to finish the pumpkin." His excitement and enthusiasm turned into "Why am I in here doing this by myself again?" He modified his original plan a little...

I still think it turned out pretty cute though.

Grammy's Got Talent

Look at some of the fun clothes that Grammy made for Reese and Tucker. That's right, this isn't even all of them! She's so talented! Every time Reese wears one of her dresses, people comment on how adorable it is... and they just can't believe that Chris' mom made it! She's made some cute restaurant high chair covers for us too... we love them and use them all the time. Grammy really does "got talent."

Isn't she incredible?! The kids have outgrown most of their gifts from Grammy but she just agreed to help with Halloween costumes. I'm so excited. I totally need your help deciding on their costumes though. Here's what I'm thinking: Alice in Wonderland (Reese of course) and The Mad Hatter (Tucker), Dorothy and one of the Wizard of Oz characters (Chris says "no to ToTo... I'm sad b/c I think he'd make a pretty cute puppy dog), or Pebbles and Bamm Bamm. What do we all think? I think it would be hilarious to see Tucker as the Mad Hatter... in a crazy little suit with a top hat that I'll have to glue to his head. Send me your votes so Grammy can get started. So fun!