Around Our House This Week

Happy Friday everyone!! We have had a wonderful week around here! 

It started off rough, since Derek and I decided that it was a good idea to jump into a painting project two days after getting home from Christmas travels. We barely got things in order, before we broke out the paint roller. Thankfully, by Monday night we were so excited over the living room's new look that we didn't care how crazy the rest of the house was (or how high the laundry was piled)! 

So... I'm dying to share the big transformation!! 

Here's our living room before: 

The most recent before picture I had were the ones I took when we had just finished decorating! 

and after: 

We still need to hang things on the walls! :) 

I have spent the rest of the week trying to put everything back in order and cleaning! I've finally gotten all of the kids' toys put away and their rooms cleaned. Well... almost cleaned... I think Thomas gets a kick out of seeing how quickly he can mess up his room! :) 

In the process of all that, I've done a little bit of rearranging and some spring cleaning! 

One major change was moving the table and benches out of the little banquette in our kitchen and replacing it with a small play area for Anna-Kate and Thomas! I hated taking our eating nook away but to be honest, it just became a catch-all and was really cluttered. Plus, the kids LOVE being in their kitchen while I'm cooking, so it makes dinner time so much easier! 

Please excuse the crazy paint... the kitchen is on our list to update!

A major accomplishment I had this week was catching up on our laundry!! We have never been so behind on our laundry... it was bad! I took this picture on Thursday afternoon and I put the last load of clothes in the washing machine before I went to bed!

My second favorite thing I did this week was to break out my new cake pop maker and play with it! I made corn muffins, blueberry muffins, biscuits and french breakfast puffs! All but the breakfast puffs were from a mix, because I wanted to test out the machine first. I am hooked! Everything has turned out perfect and the kids are loving having little things that are easy for them to eat!

Last night I got really adventurous and I made omelets!! I was just testing it out, so they just had bacon bits and cheese. I can't wait to try more omelets out! 

These are made with one egg, a little milk, cheese, bacon bits, salt and pepper. I sprayed the holes first (not sure if that's necessary, but I was worried!) I just filled it up to the top and then shut the lid. Towards the end they started to whistle, which meant they were puffing up. I left mine in until the whistling slowed down (sorry, I didn't time it!) and then I took them out and they were perfect! 

I am so excited about these little omelets! Maybe, I can get the kids to eat these too!

Today, Thomas and I are enjoying a "lazy" day... just playing and relaxing. Hopefully we can get in a trip to the park this afternoon! Hope everyone has had a wonderful first week of 2012!