Marvelous Pigs in Satin

Vintage Metal Dollhouse

Is there anything you can’t resist, even when you *know* you don’t have room for it in your house?

My Aunt Jodie gave this doll house to my girls.

It was her dollhouse when she was a girl. She saved it for her girls, but neither of them wanted it.

I admit, it’s kinda big, about 48 inches long and 18 inches high.

But I LOVE doll houses. So even though we already had 2, a Barbie dream house and a Melissa & Doug castle, I said I would be happy to have it.

At first, I admit, I didn’t love this house. It is made of tin and I stressed out about the younger kids bending or breaking it. But I decided to chill out. It’s sturdier than it looks, and I think already past the point of use that would make it attractive to collectors.

There are 2 things I just love about this doll house.

First, it came with tons of furniture. All the furniture isn’t to the same scale, but a lot is. The older girls spent hours arranging it. And they don’t care about scale.

Second, I love all the pretty painted details. (Check out the landscaping!)

This is the second story patio.

This is the nursery.

The horse is my favorite thing about the whole house.

The bathroom provides all necessary appointments, including “his” and “hers” towels. It also has a mystery stain in front of the toilet. Just like my house!

The master bedroom is luxurious. Seriously, that carpet looks plush!

Downstairs is a cheery utility room.

The kitchen has red checked curtains!

Check out the cherry wallpaper in the living/dining room! I have it on good authority that back in those days, if something was “cherry” that meant it was the best shiny new cool totally tricked-out thing. Sort of like “fine” or “sweet” when I was a kid. I do believe the current equivalent is “sick”. Go figure.

Last is the den.

It’s so cozy! Also, I looked up metal dollhouses online, and while I found many similar houses, none of them had a den. So that makes this house pretty unique!

Lots of fun for the girls (and me).

After some more internet searching, I’ve found that this doll house was made by Marx and is the Marxie Mansion, first made in 1961 and the biggest of all the tin litho houses. Most of the furniture is original! Cool.

I think the family is a smaller scale than the furniture, probably 1/16 or 1/18.

Tags: #vintage, 1960s, dollhouse, metal

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Categories fun stuff

The Scooter Pies are 5 Months Old!

12 Jan

Zeke And Skeeter

Skeeter weighs 17 pounds 4 ounces now.

Zeke weighs less.

They smile and laugh and babble at us. They are both ticklish.

Skeeter is pretty good at rolling from front to back, and stays content on the blanket for longer.

Zeke just fusses until someone flips him.

They are so cute, I think I might die almost every day from cuteness overload.

They got haircuts for the new year because their hairs were just too scraggly.

This is Zeke (left) and Skeeter (right) before the haircuts.

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Categories Twins, Zeke&Skeeter

Hey, Look at That, its 2016! In which I use alot of exclamation points!!!

12 Jan

I absolutely LOVE new beginnings and fresh starts.

A New Year is as fresh as it gets.

Don’t get me wrong, I make and work on goals all year round. But there is something magical to me in the new year. I feel like my potential is unlimited, and hey! look I made it through last year. That feels like a success

I started to type out my goals to share with you, but I got so bored I’m figuring you would be bored too. So instead, let’s just say I’m focusing on being healthy-

Spiritually Healthy , Physically Healthy, and Financially Healthy.

Also, I’m trying to be more mindful. More present. I am a person who loves to think and I think all the time about the past and the future. But my brain needs to be present for my kids more. a lot more. I have a serious Facebook/Pintrest addiction, too.

I vow to not check Facebook or Pintrest

during the hours of 3pm-9pm this year.

Because I should be looking at my kids instead. Yoga is helping me a little with meditation and I’m learning about what it means to be Mindful. I’m reading a book called

Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!

and it’s sister

Hands Free Life: Nine Habits for overcoming Distraction, Living Better, and Loving More by Rachel Macy Stafford.*

Also, guess what?! God is mindful! I discovered this cool verse last week while reading with the family.

Alma 26:37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

I was super excited that this thing that has been on my heart for awhile is in the scriptures. Just another nudge that, hey! I really should get better at this.

As a Family we started a non-negotiable Night-time routine. Beginning at 7:30 we flash clean the big play room and kitchen, do baths/PJs/brush teeth, lay out tomorrow’s clothes, read a chapter from the Book of Mormon, and have Family Prayer.

Routines make things happen!

Anyways, that is my Word for 2016:

Mindful!

It means I’m going to focus my efforts on being in the present moment. Interacting with my kiddie pies and Dear Husband instead of living in the dreamy future of Pintrest projects and the random click-bait of Facebook.

I think its gonna be good.

*Note: These are links to Amazon, but because I live in the unbelievable state of Missouri, they are not affiliate links. Residents of Missouri are not allowed to be affiliates because of Missouri tax laws which Amazon thinks are unfair. Sad day for me. I cannot be making sweet moneys on my blog with my favorite online retailer.

Tags: #newyeargoals

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Categories goals

Baby Bean is Officially 2

11 Jan

She is still a baby.

She is still the terror of the house.

She is still bent on destroying every thing we own. (That’s nail polish on her face.)

She is also just delightful. I love to play “This Little Piggy” with her toes while she giggles.

When she is going to get what she wants, she runs towards it with a “Ya-hoo!!”

She loves to play outside. She loves to pretend that she is a kitty.

She is very efficient with her language. Before the Scooter Pies were born, she mostly just pointed and yelled when she wanted something. This was effective, so she did not try anything else. After the Scooter Pies’ birth, Baby Bean discovered that she had to talk a little because she had to rely on someone besides Mom to get her what she wanted. She bumped up her language just enough to be understood by more of the family and halted there.

She calls both of the Scooter pies “Ant”. When we try to differentiate, she ignores us. All the big sisters are one name, “Na Na.”

She has several words that are actually whole sentences:

“Wa-doin?” Means “What are you doing?” If you answer this query, she will say “Oh.” In a very matter of fact way as if all is clear to her now. Then she will repeat her question. “Wa-do-in?” You can give the same answer. She will say, “Oh.” Again. And so it repeats.

She also says “Ont-ilk”

When you give her milk. She will say “Kankyouwelcome”

Crazy kid.

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Categories Baby Bean

Peach Pie is Ten

11 Jan

This girl is crazy sauce.

She has some rad creative skills, which I am loving watch unfold and develop.

She loves to be helpful and will come back multiple times to ask what else she can do to help me out.

She has a really nice singing voice, and she is brave enough to use it!

She is amazing and I love her.

She likes to ask questions that she already knows the answer to, which I need to be more patient about. I can’t figure out if she just likes to make certain sure of things, if it’s her way of making sure I’m paying attention, or if she just likes the feeling of hearing the answer she expected.

She always tells me that she loves me before she goes to bed. I used to suspect that this was a stalling technique, but now I’m convinced that she is totally sincere.

I’m really lucky to be mom to this super cute, kinda loud and tacky girl.

She is a lot like me that way.

for her birthday, she wanted everything sushi, so we made sushi rice crispy treats with Swedish fish for her birthday cake.

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Categories Peach Pie, Tamale Pie

Lazy Halloween Mom

11 Jan

For Halloween Banana Cream Pie wanted to be “a sloth in a tree”. Thanks, Diego. I think she was the cutest sloth ever, if face paint counts as enough of a costume. All the kids chimed in to convince her (since I was such a slacker. Also, in my defense, I thought she meant squirrel until the day of Halloween and I had gotten brown fabric, which was not the gray she wanted.)
Key Lime Pie was happy to be a fairy.

So fairy like she is.
Cherry Pie chose a costume from the dress up box that allowed her to wear a mustache.

Pumpkin Pie was Pocahontas. I sewed the brown shift out of flannel. She figured out the rest.

Blueberry Pie really wanted to be Corvo
He made a freaking awesome mask from cardboard. (I can appreciate the skill even though I prefer Corvo without the scary mask)

I really wanted to make him the skinny steampunk black trench coat. Really.

But I had to bow to reality. I did not have the hours to make that coat while taking care of 2-month old twins. I begged his forgiveness and have promised to make the coat next Halloween.

Instead He did a pretty convincing impression of one of my favorite TV characters ever:

Steve Urkel

We convinced Bean to be a horse so she could get candy. But immedieately when we got home, she wanted the costume off.

We had some fun with mustaches

  We even prepped a pumpkin for carving, but he never got a face.

Banana Cream Pie experienced scooping the gloop.

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Categories halloween

In Which I holler Uncle

10 Nov

For 3 and a half months I have been fighting a losing battle.

It’s been a roller coaster of hope and discouragement and deep exhaustion throughout.

The Scooter pies just aren’t good at nursing. I’ve realized none of my babies except Pumpkin Pie were. When I only had one baby, I could sit and feed them all day and it worked out ok. But with two, it just isn’t working.

Also the Dairy Queen’s cannot keep up. When Blueberry Pie was a baby, I could pump 2 overflowing 8 ounce bottles in about 10 minutes. Now, despite the fact that I’m eating double servings of oatmeal and peanuts every day as well as every other thing everyone has told me will boost milk production, I can only get about 2 ounces after half an hour of pumping. Maybe I’m too old. Maybe I’m too tired.

I also have 7 other children to take care of. I need to get off this crazy roller coaster ride.

And so I will be switching to feeding the twins formula, and stop trying to nurse them. And they will be alive and smart and fine.

I’m sad for me because I love the stage where I spend most of the day reading books and nursing babies.

But it’s just not workable any more.

This is as real as it gets.

❤ GlowWorm