Look at this

Ty's fun summer 'do. Uncle Kai was giving him a hair cut while he was in town and somehow we all decided to leave the 'hawk. Then Leah's been wanting to do fun hair colors ever since the last day of school when a boy came with painted hair. So we got a can of hair color spray. SUPER fun! It makes me want to get a can of Manic Panic and keep the blue true till we ditch the Mohawk. Andy Cosgrove is the one to thank for the awesome fancy pics.



And I swear this one is like having a premonition. Seriously, just stare at it. Soak it in, analyze it..... What are they! 15? The way he's got his arm around her, all protective like, and his 'look how mean I am' face. And her sweet smile, is very, 'check out my tough boyfriend!'. I truly believe this picture is worth at least 1000 words.

Aubree's new blanket!

I am so excited to have finally finished Aubree's bed spread. I knew I wanted to make this for her before I was even pregnant. I got a Jo-Ann (fabric and craft store) flier in the mail, way back when we lived in Idaho and Ty was younger than Aubree is now. There was this gorgeous blanket on the cover of the flier and I absolutely fell in love with it. Eventually I went and hunted down all the fabrics I wanted for the quilt top. This labor of love has been in the works for around 3 years! I had all the strips cut out and a good portion of them sewn together by the time we got pregnant and moved to Washington. That's where all work on the blanket took a turn and stopped all together. There just wasn't time or energy to sew after a huge move, chasing a barely 2 year old Ty, and trying to hang on to that single thread of sanity that was keeping me from totally losing it during a surprisingly difficult pregnancy.

Anyway, another baby and another new state later! I finally have had the time and ability to sew again. I put all the blocks together and headed back to Jo-Ann to pick out the boarder and backing fabric for my then almost 2 year old girl who's been in a big girl bed for 6 months with no bed spread! I am so happy to have finished and even better, she really likes it. It goes perfectly with her room - that I did not design specifically with the blanket in mind.

Isn't it awesome? : )

If you're ever

If you're ever looking for a way to ruin a perfectly good day, I've got a suggestion. Go stand in one of Target's wonderfully lighted dressing rooms baring all to the mirror god, and try on bathing suit after bathing suit. I guarantee it's a recipe for disaster. Humph.

Cheap, Not Easy, Awesome

While the kids and I were in San Diego visiting the PB's and helping with Chelsea's Wedding, Daddy was at home working super hard on spiffying up our itty bitty kitchen. I am very pleased to say that it turned out amazing!

Here is the evolution:

When we moved in, open space to the dining room and a 'portable' dishwasher - not as cool as it sounds. ; P


Framing the wall in to create Ty's room. And a great picture of the dish washing situation.


Whala! A wall so Ty can have his own room and get some rest.


Time for paint! Although it took a loooooong time to get ready. We had to take down the boarder around the top of the kitchen and eating area. I swear some one super glued that damn thing on. Holy crap, my arms got a work out! We're lucky we all survived that ordeal, whew.


Ahhh, so pretty! (See the boarder on the floor??? GRRRR)


Check out the new INSTALLED dishwasher!! No more wheeling that huge thing through the kitchen to hook it up to the sink, and unhook the microwave, and make sure nobody needs to get anything in there while you do it. I love craigslist.


AND, a new flat top stove (so that I will actually clean it!). Again, craigslist, I love you. And Gramma Nan gave us these awesome finds for Christmas. We are so lucky!


And now, for the pics you've all been waiting for...... I know how hard it's been for you to sleep and I'm sorry I've kept you awake for so long. So, here you go!



Isn't it gorgeous? Now it's a cute little kitchen instead of a crappy little kitchen. Gramma P got us the cute cafe' curtains for Christmas. They go perfectly!


Justin painted the cupboards white, replaced all the hinges and knobs. We got a prefab counter top for about $60 bucks or something awesome like that. The granite sink was on sale for around 50% off, and we got the cheapest faucet that matched the new knobs, I think it was about $45! How crazy is that? Then we splurged $20 on the tumbled marble back splash. LOL


Aren't you glad I didn't empty the sink before snapping the shot??


Close up of the counter and back splash.


Another great change was moving the microwave up over the stove. No we didn't go get a fancy new one that belongs over the stove. We kept with the penny pinching theme and just stuck the one we had up there. It's too high and it sticks out! But it works and I can just reach it, and now we actually have some counter space.



Thanks for touring our kitchen. Bye!

<3

** This was supposed to be posted on 4/27 but I clicked save instead of publish!**

I *heart* my family. Daddy and the kids are upstairs, making books together. Writing and illustrating their own books. Wow. I love it, and at the same time, kinda get sad that he's better at doing those kind of activities with them than I am. Isn't that my job? Oh well, it's getting done. And that makes me happy!

Bliss

I wish blogger came with a scratch and sniff feature. I want to share the sweet smell of the air out side my house with everyone in the world. The way the flowers all blend in the humid air, is blissful. It's a thick rich sweet smell. It's like candy for your smeller.

Aubree said kitty cat! Just like that. Outta no-where. She's said tiddelee for so long, I may have heard a kittelee in there a few times. But now she can say kitty! Her speech has grown by leaps and bounds in the last month or so. It's amazing to witness. A recent favorite of mine has been her new awareness of flip flops, and the way she struggles a bit to slowly get out 'shloop shlop'.

Our Stillwater native neighbors took us on a sweet turtle hunt last week. We went to Lake McKusik with all the kids. It's only about a 5 min drive from our house. It's gorgeous and green with trees and misc. growth. There are tall long legged birds wading through the shallow shores. And bright colored birds chasing little birds catching bugs. And turtles! Big ones and little ones, fast ones and slow ones, slimy ones and snapping ones. We had so much fun. Leah and Owens Dad brought a butterfly net attached to a broom handle and caught us 6 of the suckers! The kids were in heaven. We brought them all home and borrowed a little plastic pool, dumped in the pond scum, some rocks for sunning, twigs and reeds for shelter and wha-lah! Turtle sanctuary. When Auntie Dev and Uncle Kai got in town, we took them to release the turtles back in the lake. What an awesome adventure.

Some Pics

Here is Aubree in her Great Gramma's Great Grandma's rocking chair!


Aubree with her fav Birthday Gifts from the PB's.


Grandad and Ty havin' some guy time.

I was so busy this trip with Chelsea's wedding (which was great if I haven't mentioned) that I didn't have the energy to take the kids to the beach. It's just wrong to visit San Diego and not hit the beach. I was feeling pretty lousy about it. Uncle Jon came to the rescue and took them to the beach! Ty was going to fall apart if that hadn't happened. They had such a good time. What lucky kids these are to have such a great family!

Hello out there.

In case you were wondering, we didn't fall off the face of the planet - just the Internet. The kids and I left for San Diego on the 17th. We flew out of the little terminal and it was awesome. I don't ever want to fly a major airline again! Justin got a pass to walk us to the plane, and everyone was helpful through security. It makes me think I might be willing to fly with the kids by myself again someday. We are heading home today. The 10 day trip has been fun, but proven to be a bit too long for the kids. That's not really a surprise. Ty has been ready to go home and play with Daddy for a few days now. Aubree misses her pets a lot. I miss Daddy too. We've been here so long I'm starting to forget him!

We finally got to see my Gramma and Grampa on Sunday. The kids were fighting to sit in their Great Gramma's Great Granny's rocking chair. It was great! There have been times in the past when they would not sit in the chair for anything. So we all ran to get the camera's. I'll post pics after we get home and settled. So, in about 3 weeks.

Daddy's been remodeling the kitchen while we're away. I'm excited and nervous to see it. We're doing the cheapest remodel we could manage. Just a little something to spruce it up so it's more fun to be in. It's so small, I think it will be much more enjoyable to cram yourself in there if it at least looks good.

I hope I have the energy to write about Chelsea and Jason's Wedding sometime this week. I cried so much! I'm such a crier. I was so happy for them and so honored to be included. It rocked.

Alright, Ta Ta For Now.