Good friends are like stars...

...you don't always see them but you know they are there.  I know it's cheesy but it's true.  Four years ago my girlfriend Justine started at BDO, then she was just an acquaintance from the accounting program at GVSU.  Now I can't imagine my life without her.  In some ways, we're a lot alike - both from small towns, married to our high school sweethearts, crazy enough to work in public accounting (only one of us brave enough to stay), and both raising kiddos (and doodles) in this ever changing world.  We're also extremely different - she's sensitive (a hugger and a crier), loves manatees, likes fruity adult beverages, and thinks I'm strict.  I like my personal space, am not a fan of swimming in the ocean, love my vodka, and think she's way more patient than I ever could be.  When she and her husband sold their home in Kentwood and moved less than two miles from us, we were thrilled.  On the day I went back to work from maternity leave, she gave birth to her youngest son Alex.  He and Lily will start kindergarten together next fall - eek!

You'd think we'd see so much more of them now that they're close but life has it's way of making time speed by unaccounted for.  When I was at BDO, three whole desks separated the two of us.  If I needed to vent about work, the weather, or life, it wasn't much effort to stomp over to her cube and get her undivided attention.  She was with me the night I got a phone call from DU and fully supported my decision to leave BDO...even though it meant losing a co-worker.  She may have dropped the F bomb a couple of times.

So I didn't think twice about taking her boys for a couple of hours this week so she and her husband could get out of the house.  I know what's it like not to have your family (a source of free babysitting) around the corner.  I also know what it's like to have dinner alone without a four year old along for the ride.  And watching Lily have a blast with her friends will never get old.

Lily's new room!

When we first moved into our house, the thought of giving Lily the bedroom with a slider to the deck wasn't even a thought.  She didn't need that big bedroom - she'd survive in her little one with a little closet.  But she's not such a little person anymore so we thought we might as well ask her if she wanted to move into a bigger room.  She said no.  Ha.  Well.  You're doing it anyway.

The upstairs guest bedroom was a disaster.  It had awful crown molding along the ceiling, water spots on the ceiling, nails all over the wall, and the windows all needed to be painted too.  In December on my time off I thought I'd knock out painting the windows, the ceiling, and the walls.  I only got as far as priming the windows before I was ready to give it up and call a painter.  Especially once Mike put a hammer through the wall - not once - but twice trying to take all of the nails out of the wall.  So that bedroom has sat there for months a complete and utter unusable mess.  It finally started to eat at me.  I was determined to get it done and get Lily moved in there whether she wanted to or not.

So I finished painting the windows, ceilings, and walls in about a week.  A huge thanks to my parents who entertained Lily while we slapped on a couple coats of paint over Easter weekend and then took her overnight for a couple of days so we could put closet shelving in, hang window treatments, and move the entire contents of her bedroom from one room to another.  And a huge thank you to my husband who puts up with my "crazy" DIY ideas.

I didn't hate the color of the room before, a grayish blue, that seemed to bring the water right inside.  I did hate the oak colored windows and unfinished trim.  Either way everything had to be painted.  Lily wanted pink walls but we negotiated pink comforter and curtains for the leftover gray paint we had in a five gallon bucket from the basement remodel.

See how there's snow on the ground?  That's because I started this back in December.

The windows are primed!

First coat of wall paint is done!

And finally everything is moved in!

See how there's still snow on the ground?  These pictures were taken in April.  FML.

I'm excited for Lily to come home tomorrow and see her new room!

Hoppy Easter Everybunny

Easter seems to be when my Pinterest fail rate hits the top.  One of Lily's teachers was dying Easter eggs in shaving cream and food coloring and pointed me to Pinterest for the concoction.  Unfortunately, it didn't work so well for us this year.  Too much shaving cream and not enough food coloring made the swirled eggs so pale we ended up dunking them all back into the good ole vinegar dye.

Growing up, I loved spending the holidays with all of my cousins.  As we got older and our own families started to grow, we decided to start alternating every other year and every other holiday which meant we started seeing each other less and less.  Then babies got into the mix and our gatherings got larger and larger but still not often enough.  My ever so smart cousin Karrie suggested we do Easter together this year even though it was an "off" year.  To make it work and not throw everyone off, we got together on a beautiful Saturday to celebrate with everyone that was able to make it.

These two couldn't wait to get out and hunt eggs.  

They were conspiring so well together to get down those steps without anyone seeing.  Nothing like a little cousin rivalry when we actually let them loose on the eggs - including stiff arming each other across the yard.   

Then there's nothing like a little friendly competition blowing up balloons...

....and hunting for adult Easter eggs.  Wait - they're filled with what????

Not for you little one.

On Easter Sunday we enjoyed the beautiful weather that was bestowed upon us before Jack Frost decided to reappear today.

What a difference a week makes in Michigan.  My Easter flowers want nothing to do with that white business outside.

Four years old

That just can't be!  I swear I just had her. I mean - I still remember that whole birth experience.  Very vividly I might add.

We started Lily's birthday celebration in Disney so when we returned we had a low key dinner with both sets of Grandparents and of course a fabulous Frozen cake.