On our way out the door from getting my gym membership {did you feel the Earth stop moving for a second?} we were greeted with some lovely snowflakes! They were perfect for catching on our tongues! We had to stop and take a picture of the ones that landed in our hair!

Sunday afternoon we took a walk to the park. The kids have been begging to go to this park a few blocks away since we moved back. They call it the “train park” because it has a miniature train that you can climb on and play in. It was around 35 degrees but the sun was out so we obliged. We were, of course, the only people there, but they had a blast.

Valentine’s Day is not a huge deal at our house. We do let the kids make valentines for their friends if they want. Greg and I believe the love should be shared all year long, not just on Valentines Day. {You can read more of his thoughts here.} Anyway, this is a picture of my favorite cereal these days, Quaker Whole Hearts, that I just happened to be eating on the 14th. Yummy. Have you had them?

Even though we do not make a big deal about Valentine’s Day, it is a big deal when a friend spontaneously sends you chocolate in the mail! This was SO GOOD! Thank you Kristin!

I bought a 10 pack of canvases with grand ideas of finding creative ways of displaying photocopies of family pictures. So far, it hasn’t turned out exactly how I thought it would in my head. So, the experimenting will continue! And who doesn’t love an opportunity to play around with Mod Podge?

A few weeks ago, Greg found this dresser on Craigslist and bought it for $35. The previous owner told us it was made in the late 1800s. We’re not completely sure about that, but it is old. It smells old. Also, the dovetail drawer joints are handcarved. Greg tediously sanded, stained and distressed this old dresser and turned it into a lovely piece of furniture for our living room. He drilled a hole in the back and it sits under our wall-mounted tv and hides all the lovely electrical cords. It was a gift of labor & love.

Last night, Greg and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary at one of our favorite restaurants in the area, Meson Sabika. 15 years on the 22nd. What an adventure!

How was your week?

I decided to take a picture of a picture from my collection of vintage photographs. Whenever I go to an antique store or an estate sale, there are two things I look for – miniature glass bottles & family pictures.

The photograph above is the one I chose for this challenge.

Clearly it’s a family photograph. But what’s up with the handgun, fella? Really, your handgun was that important that you wanted it in your family photo.

Well, it turns out that I’m related to the fella in this photograph. I forgot that my parents gave me this picture for my collection.

The man is my great-grandfather, D.D. Mahaffey. That’s his second wife. I know what you’re thinking, but his first wife died of milksick {a sickness caused by drinking the milk of cows feeding on poisonous plants – I had to google that!}.

Now, let’s see if you can see any family resemblance. The picture on the left is my brother {don’t be mad at me brother!}

I see a similar shape of the face, and the deep set eyes. Now all that my brother is missing is the handgun…

I know, I’m a dork! But I’ve learned a lesson ~ don’t post pictures without doing a little bit of research ahead of time.

Have you read this book? My friend Katie let me borrow this book last fall. I know, that was months ago but I just found the notes that I wrote down stuck in another book I’m reading. It is an inspiring memoir of one lady pursuing her dream of attending Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“How many tears did I cry because I didn’t know what I wanted? ‘The sharper your knife,’ as Chef Savard had said, ‘the less you cry.’ For me, it also means to cut those things that get in the way of your passion and of living your life the way it’s meant to be lived.”

“Every woman should get herself two things: a good husband & a good set of knives. Bad husbands aren’t worth the trouble, and cheap knives aren’t worth the purchase.”

Here’s a quick glimpse into our week:

Any questions? I’m off the greet the plumbers!

I feel like things have calmed down a bit compared to the past few weeks which is nice. I had time to have lunch with a few friends and get caught up on some things that I have wanted to do around the house.

Also, Greg and I have started date nights again! So, last week we decided to check out a new Goodwill store that has opened up since we lived here the last time and we found some record albums to add to our sun room ceiling.

Eden saw them the next day and said to me, “Mom, what are these black things?”

Last week, we ordered these from Button Bird Designs Etsy shop. Angela is a dear friend who is uber-talented and when I saw these in her Etsy shop, I knew right away that we needed them for the blank wall above our kitchen sink. We love them!

Our windows are finally covered by Matilda from Ikea. All those imaginary creepers outside will have a hard time watching Property Brothers or House Hunters with us now!

Who out there dyes their own hair? Who out there has had gray hair since they were in their early 20s? Who out there thinks it’s acceptable for women under the age of 40 {hey, I’m not 40 yet!} to have gray hair? You know my plight then.

I cannot stop taking pictures of sunset trees.

My view. A little better than last week!

Our kids have been blessed with incredible preschools and Eden’s new one is just as great. She loves it! Her class is full of all girls, which is good because she is surrounded by boys at home. Today her class wore their PJs to school and sang a few songs at the end of class for the parents.

What’s she doing?

She’s patiently waiting for me to take some pictures then she can get back to work. You see, that’s my camera bag. My Nikon D100 a.k.a. Nanney, got tired of waiting for me to purchase one of the lovely camera bags from Kelly Moore or Jo Totes or Epiphanie that I’ve been coveting really wanting for the past year. Why wait when I had this amazing purse that was big enough for Nanney? The only thing it needed was some padding for protection. So, I spent some time on Etsy and came across this camera bag insert from DarbyMack Designs.{It looks like DarbyMack’s shop is on vacation right now, but make sure you stop back in when it opens next week!} A very affordable, padded insert with fun little pockets on the outside.

It was a perfect fit! Cynthia & Nanney are both happy.

Now, with that said, I would love to own one of these one day. It would hold Nanney & Mac {my MacBook Pro 17″} ~ which is one thing Cynthia has a hard time doing (shhh, don’t tell her I said that).

On a side note, yes, we cleverly name inanimate objects in our family. Cynthia sounds so much better than camera bag, right? Our cars have names too ~ which I’ll share in another post since this post is about Cynthia, and she tends to get jealous when the attention is not entirely directed towards her.

The kids have loved having some snow to play in {me too!!} and since we’ve been here it has snowed twice and has given them some time to play {and earn some allowance}!

Our friends, Ashley & Ryan are getting married this summer and I got a sneak peak at their wedding venue, Rialto Square Theater. Absolutely. Stunning.

Eden turned 5! We celebrated with lunch at Chick-fil-A. {Yes! Charlotte friends, we have them here but it’s about 20 minutes away.} Then she practiced painting her fingernails alone. Later that evening, her brothers took her to dinner at Johnny Rockets.

It has been a week of check-ups with the doctor! The State of Illinois requires a health exam by an Illinois doctor in order to attend public school, so we have been to the eye doctor and pediatrician this week. Between the 4 of them they received 11 booster shots! Poor Stone, after receiving his 2 shots and watching Eden get 5 shots, he almost passed out! I did my best to distract them by singing but once that first shot goes in, nothing matters anymore. The promise to treat each of them to a hot fudge sundae on the way home seemed to soothe the tears a little.

I am participating in Darcy’s Project 52 Photo Challenge where there are weekly photo challenge assignments. One photo a week for a year. If you would like to see my submissions, check out my Flickr page. Maybe you would like to join too? {iphoneography is completely fine with this challenge!}