Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Kids Crafts {8th edition}

A couple of recent crafts for the kids in my life...

Crayon rolls
 I'm planning on using these for birthday party gifts and the football one is for Sawyer...I'm thinking a reward for the potty training days.


Onesie dress and matching headband

Giraffe taggie

Stencil paper football onesie

Nursing cover
Bow tie toddler shirt

Monday, February 27, 2012

In Recent News {2}

The other day Sawyer asked for a snack while we were in the kitchen.  I asked him to wait until I was finished then I would get him a bowl of cereal.  When I turned around to help him I found he had retrieved his own bowl...


I figured why not


Here's my sweetie being pretty in purple:




The other night we had a church fellowship event.  Kyle gave the kids a bath while I got ready.  When we got to the event I looked at Sawyer and much to my surprise he had his shoes on the wrong feet (yes Kyle put them on) and Nora's jeans on!  My 2 year old son was wearing size 6 month girl jeans with pink stitching.  They hung low on his bum and high around the ankles (think capris), but he rocked them all evening!


I've been enjoying some rare moments.  One day this week Nora woke up early from her nap, but she wasn't quite ready to wake up.  She fell asleep on me and I soaked in the snuggles.

We had a busy weekend so the bathroom did not change much, but all the nails have been removed and all the debris has been cleaned.  It's now a blank slate waiting for dry wall...which should go up next weekend.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

My favorite time of day

At night when the doors are locked, all the family members are safe inside, and the lights are dimmed.  Sawyer is sleeping.  I nurse Nora for the final time while Kyle and I get to talk and catch up after a hectic day.  Both tired and weary together we lay Nora in her crib and check on Sawyer.  Some nights we laugh at his chosen sleeping position, cover him back up to stay warm for the night, stare and marvel at the two blessings the Lord has provided, give him a hug and kiss because our love is overflowing, or just revel in the stillness that only comes during slumber.




Yes, that is a book on his pillow, what can I say he loves books :)

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The fun begins {Bathroom Remodel}

We haven't tackled any big renovations in the last six months...so I was getting the itch and Kyle {reluctantly} agreed to begin the next project.  Besides the kitchen remodel this will be our largest renovation to date.  It is our main bathroom (i.e. kids bathroom).

Step 1: Demolition

Here's what the bathroom has looked like since the day we moved in until this past Saturday:



wood paneling, peeling wallpaper, horribly laid peel'n'stick tile, water damage

outdated lighting, old vanity, rusty sink, no proper mirror

peeling wallpaper, and trim, rusty vent
Because the bathroom is in such poor shape we are taking everything out and starting over.  The only things that are staying are the bathtub, tile, and toilet.  All of those things are in good condition and neutral colors so we figured it wasn't worth changing them.

shower area
Kyle in action
This is going to be an ongoing weekend project.  So, Kyle spent Saturday demolishing the disaster.  I didn't think this room could look any worse, but I was wrong.  Here's what it looks like after day 1.

Bye-bye vanity, flooring, paneling, and dry wall


Still have a little cleaning up to do :)
For anyone who has done home renovations you know there is always a surprise.  And this bathroom didn't disappoint.  As Kyle removed the vanity he discovered the vanity (which we knew was custom built with the house) was placed over the stair well down to the basement...so that means about 4 feet of the bathroom floor has a slope.  Not sure if that makes since, but whatever vanity we buy for the bathroom will have to be retrofit (think cutting 1/2 of the bottom off) specifically for this space.  Initially we wanted to do a dark wood vanity with open shelving at the bottom, but with this development that won't be possible.

Stairwell that must be covered by the vanity
On a positive note we had 1 good surprise...there was drywall behind the paneling and it's still in good shape...so one less wall for Kyle to have to drywall.

I'm sure there will be lots more surprises to come...stay tuned

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

ABC's Brought to you by Sawyer

This probably won't interest anyone except the grandparents, but we think it's pretty cute.

Sawyer saying the ABC's.  First he repeats it then he leads me through a rendition.  He gets a little distracted in the middle, but he comes back strong.  My favorite part is near the end when he says "W."


Sunday, February 19, 2012

My Valentine Sweeties

Look at my valentine sweeties all dressed in red.  They were in the mood to show some love!

laughing together

giving kisses

and hugs

 We don't do much for Valentine's Day, but I love to put together little gifts.  Kyle got some Mt. Dew (that's his love language :) I got some beautiful flowers.  Sawyer got a book and suckers.  He also got some dried cranberries...the boy LOVES raisins so we decided to expand his dried fruit horizons.  Nora received a book, her first box of mum-mums, a few baby food pouches, and a handy-dandy reusable spoon for the baby pouches.  Should simplify feeding her when we're on the go.

showing Nora how to open gifts

reading their new books

more opening

looks like she approves of the food
We spent the evening at home as a family.  Fondue is a special tradition for our family so Kyle made us a wonderful cheese fondue for dinner.  Then once Sawyer went to sleep we also indulged in some chocolate fondue.  Yummy!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Birdy Baby Shower {yellow & gray}

A couple in our Young Married's group at church is having a baby so I helped put together a shower for her.  They don't know the gender of the baby so I thought yellow and gray would be a perfect color combo for the gender neutral event.  It was a luncheon following church and we had soup and salad with cupcakes for dessert.  We bypassed the games and did a little Q and A with the mom-to-be.  Here are some pictures from the event:



Dessert and drink table


Gift table (before all the gifts arrived :)

Table Centerpieces




Food Table

Mom-to-be opening her gifts

Some of the guests chatting it up

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

First Bites

On February 11th we decided it was time for Nora to take her first bites of food (not counting the orange slice she sucked on :)

Kyle peeled the avocado.  I smashed it up.  Kyle grabbed the camera.  I put it on the spoon.  Nora quickly grabbed the spoon out of my hand.  After wrestling it out of her grasp I held her hands down and stuck it in her mouth.  She was quite bewildered and by the looks of her face she didn't enjoy the taste.  But she successfully ate 3 spoonfuls and kept it all down. She probably would have eaten more but we had our fun for the day.  We'll try again soon...and by that I mean probably next week.  Have I mentioned I hate doing the baby food thing?







Oh and Sawyer was very intrigued by the fanfare so he asked for a bite.  We happily obliged.  Here was his reaction: