I was going to send out Christmas cards

I truly was going to. I designed them about a week ago, then got super busy with work and stuff around the house and never had them printed. Now it's pretty much too late, right?

So I'm just going to post my quickly-thrown-together Christmas card here for everyone! Just pretend you were all on my mailing list!! lol

Breakfast at the Krogman's

Yesterday morning I got home from work around 8:00 am (14-hour overnights...fun stuff!) and the kids wanted donuts. I certainly didn't want to have to prepare and clean up a bunch of breakfast junk being as tired as I was, so I agreed. Fried, sugary goodness first thing in the morning...that's the way to a Krogman kid's heart!

I realize I've been posting a lot of b&w photos lately, and the main reason for that is because my kitchen/dining room creates the most God-awful color balance problems I've ever encountered. Maybe once I get the cupboards painted white it will be better, but for right now any pictures I take out there are just a big ol' hot mess. So you get black and white.





He's showing me his muscles.


Emmy was telling me secrets like, "You should poop on Daddy's head!" or "What if you pooped your pants?" Oh, preschool humor...








Crazy bed-head, no?






Peyton loves to teach Hudson stuff. She was reviewing flashcards with him at breakfast and it was so.stinking.cute. He would repeat whatever she said, "Square!" "Seven!" "Pig!" and then cheer. He was so proud of himself.




Yay Hudson!




And I have to share this just so I don't forget it:


This conversation litterally just happened...just 2 seconds ago. I can not believe the things that come out of my barely-4-year-old's mouth!!!
Peyton: Mom! Emmy hurt my finger! She wanted to play tug-of-war with the scissors and I got hurt!
Emmy: Well...I guess it wasn't my best idea, huh? Sorry. And I know what you're going to say, Peyton. 'Sorry doesn't make it better.' Well, it is better this time. You're fine.

Oh, man!

Christmas presents? Who needs those?

Hudson would be happy if I pushed this chair up to the sink on Christmas morning and let him splash to his heart's content. Who needs presents when you have a dirty dish rag and some murky water?

Sheesh, kid...you are so easy to please!

I get to lick the beaters!!!!

Whenever I bake anything, my girls fight for the beaters. Even when the batter/dough isn't GOOD to eat raw, they still grab for the beaters the second they stop spinning, ready to devour the raw eggs and butter.
Yesterday we made banana bread because both girls were home from school (snow day!!) and starting to get cabin fever. It was frustrating at the time, but Peyton was trying to sample every single ingredient. She started by taking little pinches of sugar, then she was licking the butter, and finally I had to get after her because she was trying to eat the over-ripe bananas that had been sitting in the cupboard untouched for several days!! I told her to knock it off, and she promptly told me "I don't even want to cook with you anyway!" and with a sassy flip of her hair she was off. What good is baking if you can't sample the ingredients, right?

I did happen to take a few pictures before she ran off. They're nothing astounding, but they are good memories.

I love baking with my girlies.

Emmy's Room!!

I'm so excited...Emerson's room is fiiiinally ready! (mostly)

We have had a carpenter working on Emerson's room since just before Thanksgiving. It actually came together pretty quickly, but I've been dying to paint and decorate her room since we moved in July. That's a long wait for this impatient DIY'er!
I've recently been itching for "Basement Man" (as we affectionately dubbed him) to wrap things up so I could get her room put together. Imagine my glee when I came home from work on Monday to find that he was done! Yeah!!

Remember what her "room" looked like before? 3 walls, no doorway, no closet...not really a room at all, right?



Well, now there is a hallway between the girls' rooms:


And Emmy's fantastic room is finished (minus a few minor things)!!








My next project will be the family room downstairs. I can't really afford to "do" anything major right now, but I am going to paint it. I also want to paint the downstairs bathroom because it is such a dark shade of green and it feels really cave-like. Stay tuned for those!!

Snow Day

The girls were playing Barbies together today and I snuck up on them to take a few pictures.
Aren't they precious?



NOT!! What may have looked like a sweet game of dolls was actually a huge brawl over who got to be which puppy...which Barbie was prettier...who should get to be the Mom...







Ahhh, sisterly love. Nothing else like it, is there?


Meanwhile, little brother had FINALLY fallen asleep. It's been a struggle lately to get him to nap! He wants to give it up already, but I absolutely will not allow it.
He cried/played in his room for over an hour today before finally giving in to his exhaustion.







Also, I just haaaave to share a few of the things I got at Ikea this weekend.
*IGNORE THE MESSES IN THE BACKGROUND, PLEASE!!*

My cute light: (I'll hide the cord eventually)



My cute mirror: (I'll put the power drill away eventually)



and my cute table (I'll paint the doors/trim white eventually):



Ahhh...the house is slowly becoming mine...it's starting to look the way I had envisioned.

And THIS ugliness is what's going on outside.
*note to self: bring Emmy's bike inside



I'm going through a big blogging dry spell. I have these from time to time, but I always bounce back. Please bear with me until I get my blogging mojo back, okay?

He ignored all the girlie influences...

I'm truly amazed that Hudson just instinctively knows that he should be playing with cars and trucks. I've never told him, "Dolls are for girls!" or "Boys play with tractors!"...his boyishness is just leading him that way. Isn't that funny?

Hudson has grown up around dressup clothes, fashion shows, iCarly, and more pink than most human beings can handle. But he still gravitates toward the typical boy toys. It's so fun to watch the differences between my girls and their baby brother.









Isn't it cute that the Doc Hudson is his favorite?


And not surprisingly at all, he spends the majority of his time with THIS ONE



and he's managed to come out with a gigantic vocabulary and a little bit of a stinker streak. ;c) Don't they look exactly alike in this photo?


Love 'em. I need to force myself to take more of these everyday photos.