Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Do you dream in Chocolate?

I do.
Henry will, too.
That's cuz his room is now a nice, rich chocolate brown.

(Originally Jack's room--when we moved in)

That's right, the room of requirement has been completed (mostly)!

(notice the dresser in the wall? it's hiding access to the under-stairs closet. It was just an open doorway when we got there--not kid-friendly and a little creepy)

The process started only a few months after we moved in. Jack got sick of the peeling wallpaper trim during his nap (he was still 2 and taking naps at that point) and decided to peel large swathes of if from the wall. I finished that process by November but we decided to forestall further "improvements" until we had completed more urgent matters.

(The awesome border went most of the way around the room. Even across the doors and into the shelves. Sweet)

Fast forward to October of 2008. Henry was due in a month and we'd moved Jack into Sheridan's larger (and no longer purple) room. Mission: Renovation was about to begin!
Except I was 8 months preggo and had no desire to move around the house, let alone tackle major renovation. Sigh.
Fast forward to January. Henry:born. I was getting no sleep due to our 2 month old bundle of joy, so I decided to tackle room improvement to get the kid into his own space. Starting at the top makes most sense, right?
So, I scraped off the popcorn ceiling in a day. Even cleaned up! Lookin' good! (well, the drywall/mud look was MUCH nicer than the popcorn).
It took a few weekends to get the ceiling mostly smooth, and then I spent over a month trying to get primer to stick to it! What!?! The issues that crop up during "home improvement" are enough to make me want to strip rooms down to studs!

(Mmmmm. Chocolate. The room is a bit full right now with bed, crib, and rocking chair...but it's way cooler than it used to be. Check out the fabulous beadboard T installed--not easy when no walls are square!)

Anyway, after a far more drawn-out process than we'd dreamed possible, the room is complete! Tyler busted his booty putting in the beadboard. I got to use a variety of his power tools (table saw, jigsaw, nail gun, miter box, and of course drills) but failed at the circular saw (you were wrong about my abilities, Beth!). We'll have to try that one again next time! I also got to use a bunch of my favorite drywall compound to even out the upper walls--but the wall texture in this house is another post.

(see the door to under the stairs? Only a thin seam...T did a great job making it blend)

So, here she is. No more funky border. Yes, the paint is chocolate brown (a little lighter and far less burgundy than it appears in these picts). We still have the linens and stuff to do, but we'll call her good!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Saturday is a Special Day

Now that Henry's room is basically finished (still a few details to attend to, but we'll have pictures up soonish) our Saturdays have become much more enjoyable. No more painting trim or beadboard, no more finicky cuts to make or things to nail down...we now have Saturdays to do regular up-keepy things in the house and yard, to wash cars or (gasp!) do fun family things. 

Yesterday we did a little house/yard upkeep and some family fun as well. We took our kiddos
 on their first hike and picnic!
Lest you get too excited, we took them up Rock Canyon--which is more of a meander than it is a hike, and we didn't get pics of the picnic. But is was a coolish, cloudy day which is far more enjoyable for hiking with kids than a blisteringly hot, sunny day (since each of us lugged a kid the entire time).  And it is still so beautiful here since the sun hasn't yet scorched all life of the landscape. It was comfortable weather and green and beautiful! We probably only hiked 1/2 mile, but Jack did great (other than trying to pick up every rock in his path to throw toward the river...or the flowers...or the canyon walls...). Sheridan rode on Tyler's back the first half...until we took a rest and she face-planted while in the hiking pack *ouch*. Henry was tired, but (unlike the other kids when they were babies) he wouldn't sleep while in the snuggly. Sigh. He did enjoy stretching out while we had our picnic lunch! 
Hikes like these remind me that Utah really can conform to my Washingtonian standards of beauty...but you do have to search out the more verdant areas! The kids are already asking for another hike (after Sheridan reminds us that she "fell down in the backpack and got an owie!"). 

Sunday, May 10, 2009

If you build it, they will come...

the kiddos, that is.

Tyler put this bad boy together in March when the weather was GORGEOUS. 70 degree heaven. It took about 10 hours (started Friday night in the garage, since the night temps were COLD and finished Saturday afternoon out back), many power tools, and occasionally help from yours truly.
The next weekend it snowed.
It's nice again, though, so now the kids are all over it, all the time.

Just not when I'm taking picture, apparently.

And so they grow...


'Sup.
Henry is now 5.5 months old.

That stuff coming out of his mouth is rice cereal.

Yup, his first introduction to solids was today. He's growing up too fast!!!

(Yeah, and despite the drooling out of cereal, he ate more than he spit out. Henry seemed a little unsure of it, but was willing to eat. I guess that's why he's still on the charts for his weight).

It's mine...all mine!

warning: this is an excessively long post. grab your popcorn and get comfortable, folks. maybe use the bathroom first.
Alrighty? then here we go!Ok, I have to admit...THIS MOTHER'S DAY ROCKED!!!

It doesn't hurt that we kicked off festivities a day early--the more time for the family to cater to my every whim, the better, right? Yeah, it was all about ME this weekend, and boy, did I revel in it!

Um, ok. So, we've been working on a variety of projects around the house, but this weekend is generally the "safety zone" for planting--late enough that the frost doesn't kill but early enough that the heat doesn't destroy the fragile little transplants. Friday the kiddos and I ventured out to purchase our veggies of choice and survived the experience. Really, any shopping trip that doesn't contain several tantrums from Sheridan is considered a success! The one downer was that I couldn't lift the large, HEAVY bags of compost (I generally would've tried, but the old sciatic nerve had been acting up for the days prior and I was NOT interested in exacerbating the issues...) so we had to purchase those Saturday AM. Sigh. I hate it when my body doesn't cooperate with my grand plans. The older I get and more babies I carry the more it tends toward uncooperativeness (is that a word?). But we were talking about planting a garden (I wasn't very explicit about that, I know...).

Right. Planting a garden. You may remember posts last June that dealt with my nemisis, Morning Glory aka Devil Weed (that's what I call it around here. "Morning Glory" is far too nice a name...and really "Devil Weed" is far more appropriate to say around the kiddos than the words going through my mind as I try to rip that nasty, twisted, pernicious root out of my soil). Ok, so this year there is FAR less devil weed, although you never really get rid of it in my 'hood. Time to get on the gardening horse...so T and I spent 2 or 3 hours digging up the garden area (well, 1/2 of the area...it's too big for beginners like us!) and working in some nice, rich poo. Uh, I mean compost (it sure smelled like poo...). Jack and Sheridan spent the whole time finding the MANY worms and showing them to us and to each other. Again, success was had since Sheridan didn't put any in her mouth! Sheridan was trying to help the worms in Jack's hands by offering them dirt--huge clods of thick dirt that were bigger than she was. She kept talking about her "cute wittle wormies". She didn't want to go slide on the slide because of the wormies (she wanted to look at her buggies...). It was really cute.
We planted a ton of plants and are hoping that at least one or two work out.
Tyler treated us to dinner at Nicolitalia's, an East Coast style pizzeria. We both thought it tasted a ton like boardwalk pizza--the kind of greasy, delicious, fattening stuff most akin to the pizza you'd buy in Ocean City, NJ at the Boardwalk. And then, wonder of wonders, they had CANOLLI! For those non-Easterners, a canolli is a fried tube of dough that is stuffed with sweetened cream (marscapone?) and dusted with powdered suger. If you're lucky, there's some kind of chocolate involved. Well, these canolli were TO DIE FOR!!! Worth every last calorie. Better than some I've had in NJ. HEAVEN!!!!

Jack went to bed so excited he said he couldn't sleep. "Mother's Day is my favorite holiday! I can't wait to give you your present!" Wha...? This is the same 4 year old that regularly screams "Nooo! I want Daddy!"?

Um, and then I painted beadboard in Henry's future room, but that's another post.
Today rocked. I got to sleep in until 9er (Henry did want to eat around 4 am, but that's it) when the kiddos finally woke me up to come feast on belgian waffles with strawberries and cream. Sheridan couldn't wait to give me her gift. It was a purple baby doll, her dream (Tyler tried to talk her out of it, but she's pretty stubborn and had been talking about getting me one for weeks). Jack wanted to get me a movie so I finally got Enchanted (I'm pretty stoked about that, but the baby is WAY more funny). Henry got me a cookie sheet. Tyler got me a NEW CAMERA (finally moving up from the 3.2 megapixel one that has done the job but...yeah, it was time to upgrade).
Church went well. The kids were better than they've been in months. That's lucky since we got there late and none of the families I normally sit by had any space for us (my heart dropped when I realized that and I figured I'd be farming the kids out one by one as the chaos enveloped our pew). Jack got up to sing with the other kids and was ADORABLE! They sang a song about mothers (go figure, huh?) and when the words said "I love you" he signed it and pointed to me. Not subtly, either. Ah, yeah, I got a little misty-eyed. Then he came back to his seat and announced "I love you sooo much, Mama!" and gave me a big hug. I was in Mama heaven!
T pulled together a Freakin' Delicious dinner (grilled steak, sauted mushrooms, baked potato fries and green beans) and we had a family walk. I got to talk to my mom and wish my big bro a happy birthday. Kids went to bed well and now I'm blogging...yes, truly a fantabulous weekend! Thank, Ty!