It's Official I Have No Pride !!! Mandi Made me Do It.

Ok, so here's the situation.  I have lived in my house for nearly 9 years now in Beautiful Boise, Idaho.   I LOVE my house.  Most of my house - except for this one particular room - THE FAMILY ROOM!   From here on out I will be lovingly referring to the room as "The Man Cave".  

It is dark,  It is 20 X 20  (super grande) , It has three walls made of bricks (why??? I ask you) ,  It has one  remaining wall that is paneled.  It has these awesome blinds that cover the mini-a-ture windows! It does have darling pictures of my kiddos in it however!!! 

 In one corner are two desks people - that isn't OK for those of you that are wondering why I just called you people.  I work from home and it is needful but NOT Ok. 

There is a solution to all of this  but it requires a brain that has an eye for crap -  I know just the girl!    Have you ever ran across a sweet ole blog called Vintage Revivals.  Well, I have been stalking Mandi for sometime now and she is pure amazingness and she's a little spit fire of a gal to.  She's doing this AH-mazing giveaway where she will come to your house and makeover one of your rooms.  I think we will all agree that I need her to come and makeover "The Man Cave".  Mandi, this is the part where I kinda make my self sound needy -  I need your skillz girl -  in a bad bad way!  I've seen you turn crap into craptastic so many times - you're blowin my mind on a weekly basis.  Come to my house,  I can sew and I WILL help you - My Hubby has a garage full of tools that we could put to good use. 

OHHHH OH and did you see this sweet baby?  It is a family heirloom you know -  Let's make er over - whad-ya say!!! 

I Love your Guts big time!   JEN

OHHH p.s. I live a mile from the D.I. - I know!!!  I know!! 
p.p.s to my family who is very confused right now - don't worry Mandi completely understands this blog - all I need you to do is vote for me -  Tell your friends and neighbors to vote for me and do it STAT!!  I appreciate ya!!!xoxoxoxo

Click Here to vote for me and then go down to number 120 -Jen Holyoak and click the star - you can vote 5 times - Do It - Do it!!  

OH and just because I have to redeem my pride a tad bit and because my sisters have been dying to see my new piece of furniture -  Here is "MY" room/living room - thank the heavens above that this is the first room you see and not the Family room. 

Heart on Sleeve

If you know me then you know that like my Mom I wear my heart on my sleeve.  My emotions are very close to the surface and lets just say poker face and Jen they don't go together.

I'm actually not really embarressed by this and I've always loved it about my own Mom.

You can tell right away if you look at her what she is thinking!

So, without further ado - I present to you this weeks Heart on Sleeve Moments - since you weren't here to see them yourself.

Gavin in his big brothers shirt and his Dad's hat.  He melted me the minute he walked into the room in this. He's growing up way to fast and I have to run the Ragnar before I can have another baby.  I love this spunky little guy.

I know, again with the baby!   I went to get him up from his nap and I found him sleeping with glove on hand!

This girl radiates the light of Christ out of every pore.  To me she does.  She's going into the 6th grade next year and here in Boise that is middle school.  I'm not Ok with that and it has been keeping me up for nights on end.  Is it Ok to Home school one of your children.  You think I'm kidding!  I'm not. 

80's day at school.   OHHHHH I wore that!  Yes, I did, and I rocked it too!  Dad used to say , "how is it that you put half a bottle of hairspray in your bangs and didn't even finish drying the back of your hair?" OHH Dad I wish you could have saved me from my ugly 80's self.   When dressing my kids I realized how much of the 80's are back.   Skinny jeans, leg warmers, leggings, converse (they never really left)!  I find so much joy in seeing my kids do things fun like this.  Life is fun!

I wish you could see this picture better.  Can you even tell that it is my Zander man up there in the front of that gym?  Zander got the character trait award at school last week for Kindness and Compassion.  It comes as no surprise at all to me.  He IS his fathers child.  All the way! Kindness just bubbles out of his ears. What a blessing it is to have a Dad that is Kind and Compassionate. A Dad that you can model your life after. What a blessing it is to have a child that at 5 years old knows how to be kind to all around him.  

Thanks for letting me share.

love you!

Getting Ready for the Big V-Day & Some Show & Tell

I just thought I would share this super cute idea that I found. Hello, this just makes giving Valentines sooo so much more fun. Don't my kiddos look super duper cute too! I edited the pictures in Picnik - if you don't know picnik - well , you should - it is soo easy and super fun to use. I even upgraded to premium membership because i love it so much and now when I say that I LOVE YOU more than Picnik you will know that the love I have for you is big time love. Right? Right! So , with that being said -   I LOVE YOU more than Picnik - infact I love you more than Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting! Yikes!! Tis True!!!

*Oh and don't forget to imagine the big ole sucker we will stick in their hand for their classmates!

OK, now for some Show & Tell! 

For my birthday this year my good lookin hubby made me this beautiful dresser.  It's amazing - just like him!

Oh and I just wanted to share a picture of the blanket I just finished for Paige's teacher.  She just had a baby boy.  Thomas James.   I'm loving the little doggy! 

Here's my V-day decor! 

 Kar, if you read this - possesion is 9/10ths of the law -  Right!  

Karen made most of the stuff you see in this picture and she said to display it at my house while she was out of town - she wanted someone to enjoy it!  Thanks lady!  You might not get it back.

xoxoxooxo ,  JEN