Another project and ice skating

This is the little reading nook in Alison and Lauren's room that wasn't really working anymore. We were finding it constantly cluttered in their room and we have a good deal of books for such a small shelf.

Here is a free book shelf we got- so I spruced it up with a little bit of paint and now it looks like this:

Ahh! Much better.

On another note- today, I took the girls ice skating. At first they were a bit nervous holding onto the sides, but it didn't take them long until they were on their own skating. They both fell down and wobbled quite a bit, but we had a great time.

Valentines Day-get ready!

I love this Valentine idea from Eat Drink Chic. A cozy picnic for two sounds like bliss. However, you could alter this idea for a family Valentine picnic.

In the spirit of Valentines day I wanted to share a couple chocolate recipes that I love (Valentines day= chocolate).

Chocolate Sauce

1/2 stick butter

3 squares Baker's semi-sweet chocolate

Combine in a small pot and stir until melted on low heat.

Then add 1 can sweetened condensed milk

This recipe is from my sister-in-law, Lia and I could just eat the whole thing!

Brownie Pudding

This recipe comes from one of my favorite cooks- Ina Garten. It's rich and a perfect crusty top with a molten chocolate middle. You can find the recipe here.

The Twin's Room

Bailey and Lilly have recently advanced to "big girl" beds. They finally discovered in December how to climb in and out of their cribs- hence the need for change. I spray painted their beds originally white and then changed my mind so now they're pink. My mom sewed their adorable quilts. My inspiration for their bedding was from here. They love their room and their new beds.

My newest project was taking these frames (which I spray painted white) and stapling fabric on the back and then hot gluing their letter onto the fabric. I think it creates a nice pop of color and modernizes the space. When my sisters were here they gave me the idea. Thanks!

Lilly

Bailey

We're all getting excited for Valentine's day- which means our table is covered with a plethora of paper crafting.

Lauren's Ice Cream Parlour Party

For Lauren's 6th Birthday we found a great inspirational idea for a party here. We decided to go all out with ice cream and toppings. The girls had fun playing a couple of games and creating their very own ice cream masterpieces. Happy Birthday Lauren- we love you!

Christmas 2010

We were fortunate to stay home for Christmas. My parents came to us and we had a great time with them. They picked up Alison first and flew to Nebraska where my sister Amy and her family just moved to and went to our nephew's baptism. Alison loved traveling and had a great time. Thanks mom and dad! This picture shows just how popular grandparents are when they have an Ipad.

Alison with her doll Ruthie and her new outfit.

The twins loved Christmas day with wearing princess shoes and painting.

We went over to my cousin David's house for Christmas Eve where we all had a great time together and celebrated cousin Heather's engagement to Pat and their upcoming summer wedding.

Lauren was so excited to get a harp from Santa. She loves to play it.

The Chair

O.k folks I know I have been absent for some time now from blog land and I am sorry. To make it up I thought I would send out a crazy amount of pictures of our life and all the Laverty happenings. So here we go-

This is the before shot of my $20 chair. I bought it knowing it needed to be reupholstered and updated. Steve helped me tremendously with strengthening the chair and upholstering.
After shot- I painted it a creamy white and found a grayish fabric for the chair. We love it! Not too bad for our first reupholstering job.
Here it is next to our Christmas tree.

Steve's 1/2 Marathon

Last weekend we took a short trip up to Bird in Hand, PA for Steve's 1/2 marathon and a tour of Amish country. We had a great time. We toured the Amish Village where the girls went in the old school house and had fun playing "school."

We were also happy Grandma and Papa could come with us on the trip. We saw a lot of these black buggys in the area since this is one of the modes of transportation for the Amish.

Here we all are waiting for our athlete to run through the finish.

Yeah! There he is- not the one in pink. Official time: 1:56:02

We are so proud of you Steve! Great job on the race.

Trick or Treat

We had a witch, an angel and two hula dancers ready for trick or treating.

Lilly and Baily are becoming quite independent and wanted to walk the neighborhood just like their big sisters.

Pumpkin Time

We all had a great time on a beautiful fall day at the pumpkin patch to collect some pumpkins before Halloween.

Hay ride

Bailey

At the pumpkin patch we also got to visit all sorts of farm animals like horses, sheep, and goats. The girls loved it.

October happenings

I've been a little behind in updating our blog.

Here are a few things that have been happening.

General Conference looked like this for lunch and President Monson's talk

then it looked like this:

Yes- we're working on reverence.

Alison working on homework and Lauren coloring

We had a great visit with Steve's mom- Grandma Muriel and Omar. Thanks for your delicious apple pie!

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend we went to D.C for a museum day. We had lunch at the sculpture garden and enjoyed the fountains.

National Gallery of Art (my favorite).

We also went to the American History Museum. We loved seeing Julia Child's kitchen and all her pots and pans.

The Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz- the girls were very excited.

We also ran the annual Potomac Street mile race. Alison and Lauren ran it together coming in under 10 minutes. Steve ran it in 6:47 (not bad for someone who is recovered from recent knee surgery) and Tracy 6:55. We all had a great time.

Alison and Lauren coming into the finish.