Bedrooms finally complete!!

Patrick finished the kid's beds a couple weeks ago and I finally got the furniture arranged the way I wanted it and the accessories and decor up!! Here are a few pics of both rooms!!

Bryan has the blue madras quilt with car sheeting- we left the stips on his wall because they went really well with the car sheeting we found!

Emma has the pink madras quilt and butterfly sheeting- we re-painted the room pink to match her new bedding and I hand painted the butterflies on her wall

(Emma looking thrilled that I'm taking a pic of her room!)

Bryan sings his ABCs!!

So impressed with Bryan, he is barely 21 months old and has mastered his ABCs...his BIG SISTER is so proud (oh, and so are his parents!)!!

Emma's First Day at SMG!!

Today is Emma's first day at St. Maria Goretti...she was so excited to be starting "real school"!! She did great...walked right into class, hugged her teacher, put her stuff away, found the seat with her name and never even looked back!! We are so excited to join this wonderful community and have already started to get to know some wonderful families -it will be exciting to see our kids grow up together!! Cannot wait to hear about her day when I pick her up!!

Home Improvement Projects...

We had two big home improvement projects going on at the same time and I am happy to report they are finally complete (with the exception of finishing the rails for Bryan's bed). The first project was the kitchen- I love the set up of our kitchen and I love the cabinets but I just wanted to bring in some new color since we had lots of browns and whites in the house. We repainted all the cabinets white (or Patrick repainted them) then we added pulls (which hopefully will keep the white cabinets from getting as dirty!), next we painted the mocha brown walls a grey-blue and finally we tore out the old brown colored back-splash (which meant the sheeet rock had to come out too and be replaced) and we re-tiled it with a navy blue subway tile. The entire project cost us just a little over $100 although a lot of the supplies came discounted or free from Sherwin Williams :) I really like the new colors it brings into the house, really seems to brighten things up!! Now I'm ready to start finding some accessories to decorate the kitchen with!! The second project was the kid's rooms- Emma has had a lime green colored room since we moved in when she was 18 mo. old and she has continued to ask us for something pink in her room...so we painted her room pink! Next Patrick made new beds for both kids- yes, he made the beds (the design is from Pottery Barn) and they turned out great and cost us only $70 per bed rather than the $600 you would pay at Pottery Barn. And last but not least, we picked up some new bedding from Pottery Barn Kids- both kids got the Madras bedding (Emma's has the pinks and purples, Bryan has the reds and blues) and then Emma got butterfly sheets and Bryan got car sheets! Here are a few pics that I took on my phone along the way!!

(I haven't had a chance to take a pic of Bryan's bed yet but it's the same except it's painted navy-blue!)

Stein Mart Commercial

Beautiful pool at the hotel!

TV in the hotel mirror- told Patrick I want one for my bathroom :)!!

These are not the outfits they selected for me but just a couple that I tried on!

If you read my earlier post you know I had auditioned for a commercial and ad compaign for Stein Mart...well I got it and I'm currently in Florida for the commercial shoot! It has been such an awesome experience so far, so different than anything I've ever done before but SO COOL!! I flew into Orlando on Tuesday morning and spent most of Tuesday trying on clothes with wardrobe consultants and styling the outfits for the director, producers and Stein Mart executives...it was funny which colors and styles they thought I looked good in. Patrick flew in Tuesday night and we got to spend the day together on Wednesday. Since I'm so tall and since we are shooting fall commercials they only had sample sizes and most sample sizes are not "longs/talls" so I had to do a little bit of shopping on Wednesday to find some skinny jeans and shoes....although we went to every store at two malls looking for black boots and skinny black jeans it was fun to be shopping when I wasn't the one having to shell out the money!! Patrick and I also got to spend some time at the pool and catch a movie and dinner before he headed back home early this morning (Thursday). The commercial shoot is tomorrow but I got to go to the studio today to try on a couple more outfits and it was so neat to see how it all works, and I was amazed at how many people it takes to film a commercial!! Here are a couple pics, a few were taken by the Stein Mart PR people at the fitting on Tuesday, and hopefully I'll get a snap a few tomorrow at the shoot!! I miss my kiddos but have really enjoyed this awesome experience!!

Lake House!

This past weekend the McMahon clan stayed out on Lake Fork (at Patrick's Aunt & Uncle's lake house). They have a fun house on a beautiful piece on property right on the lake. The kids were super excited that Aunt Chelsey and Uncle Brandon were in town, as well as Brandon's younger sister Lauren. They were also excited to get to go fishing!! We spent the weekend just hanging out, swimming, fishing, and enjoying good food and each other's company!!!

Group shots at lunch time!

Emma and her Aunts!!

The kids patiently waiting to fish (thank you Amy for letting us borrow the life-jackets!!)

Bryan and his first fish of the day!

Emma and her first fish of the day!!

Bryan and Nana going for a walk!

Emma and Nana enjoying S'MORES!!

A mommy post!

So rare that I post something not kid-related but here I'm doing it for a second time in the past couple months! One of my favorite stores to buy "work" clothing at is Stein Mart and I got an email that they were doing an open casting call for their Fall/Winter TV Commercial. They offered a $500 gift certificate (plus a free trip to Florida for the commercial shoot!) for those who are selected...so I though "what the heck" and I submitted a photo (the one above). I got a phone call about a week ago and was told that I was selected for a call-back with the director. The call-backs are this Sunday and I am beyond nervous...I have never done anything like this and I have no idea what to expect! It would be super cool to be in a national TV commercial, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up! However it goes on Sunday I'm sure it will be a really cool experience!!