Paisley's 1st Birthday

Dear Munchie,
You are such an easy going baby.  You rarely get upset or sad and you are so sweet and smiley.  You are such a daddy's girl and he loves every minute of it.  You just learned how to crawl about a month ago, so you aren't close to walking yet.  This just shows how easy going you are.  You are so patient and laid back.  You did so well with physical therapy this last year for your torticollis--your head leanined to one side.  You are all done with therapy now and we are glad.  You didn't mind going at all, but it is nice to know that you hold your head straight up now and we won't need to worry about it any more. 
You got your nick name because you always put everything in your mouth...even if it isn't food...and even if it is something you can choke on (unfortunately).  So we all call you munch or munchie or muncho or muncho-via...you get the idea.  Aunt Christine thinks that is so silly that we call you that, and still laughs every time she comes to visit and hears us call you munchie. 
You have been sleeping through the night since you were only 6 weeks old...thank you so much!  You take a big long nap during the middle of the day while Bridger and Macie are gone at school, and I am able to get a lot of things done.  You love helping me with laundry, you throw everything on the floor that I have just folded, and I tell you "No" and you smile and throw some more things on the floor.  You think it is great fun and I generally wait to do laundry until you are taking a nap now!  You are a little turkey!
We love you so much and are so thankful to have you as part of our family!  Happy Birthday!

Time out from Vinyl...Time for me to enjoy my kids

I have been unbelievable busy with my little vinyl business the last 3 months.  When I started this I honestly just thought it would be awesome for Jay to spend the money for me to have a little side business, when secretly I thought it wouldn't go anywhere, but I could have all the vinyl I ever wanted.  It is amazing what moving so many times has done to make a business grow.  We have people calling us from all most all the wards that we have lived in wanting vinyl...sometimes at all hours!  Then we put together a website and things got even more busy.  I generally get about 15-20 orders a week on top of that I was doing 6 wards super saturdays, and I did three craft fairs.  I went a little crazy, but I just kept thinking that I really loved what I do.  I had a hard time at night after working several hours (like anywhere from 7-16 hours a day for six days in a row for the last three months).  Plus I was being asked to take family pictures for people that I adored, so I didn't want to turn them down.  I was completely overwhelmed I was struggling with not being able to feel like a mom.  Even though I was home, I didn't feel like I was really a stay at home mom. 

I was toying with the idea of taking the last two weeks of December off, and last night was the final push to take the remainder of the month off.  (Don't worry for those of you that have ordered, I will finish up your things this week...I planned on that from the time I made this decision...plus it is some of my Christmas money!)

I had been working in the office again for several hours yesterday and Paisley's favorite thing to do while I am working is dump out the garbage can in the office (so it is mostly just paper and vinyl stuff) and that intertains her for several hours a day.  I let her do it and then clean it up when I am done each night.  Well I put her to bed around 7:30 and she was asleep in just minutes.  I had gone back in her room atleast three times in the next 30 minutes or so to put things away and she was just sound asleep.   Then Jay got home at 8:30 with a movie and we all got ready for bed and were laying in our room waiting for him to finish checking his email (he has an online business too) and all of a sudden Paisley started screaming.  This is our very melow child, so this was very out of character for her.  I thought it was strange and was thinking I should go check on her, when I could here Jay coming down the hall to see what was going on.  Bridger went with him and came running back in the room saying he thought Paisley was sick because dad says he thinks she wants to throw up.  I got up to see what was going on, and took her into the bathroom.  I could tell she wasn't acting normal and I told him I thought she might have something in her mouth.  Every couple of seconds she would get really big eyes and fling her arms around and then she was fine.  We got out a flash light and looked in her mouth and sure enough there was something in it.  When we would lay her on her back to try to get at it, then it would block her airway.  I could tell it was a peice of plastic of some sort, and we would try to get it out it wouldn't move.  We tried getting out and several times over a couple of minutes and she kept gagging on it and throwing up, and every time we would try to get at it again, she couldn't breathe. 

I told Jay to call 911, she was screaming this whole time too, any time she could breathe she was screaming.  Jay told them what was going on and I said a silent prayer to my Father in Heaven for help as the dispatcher was sending out an ambulance.  I just kept thinking I didn't want what ever was in her mouth to permantley get stuck in her throat.  I turned her over one last time and grabbed at the peice of plastic one more time and got it out.  Jay let the dispatcher know and they had the ambulance turn around.

Then we all let out a sigh of relief and Jay, me, Bridger and Macie all started sobbing.  (Emy had fallen asleep during all of this)  I cried off and on for a good hour or two and just kept thinking that we were so lucky she was okay.  I was so greatful that she was able to get our attention and let us know something was wrong.  Earlier that day I had opened up a package of paper and she had gotten part of the plastic wrapper in her mouth.  I have no idea how long she had it in her mouth, but we feel so blessed that she is okay.  I couldn't have imagined what would have happened had it been once we had all fallen asleep for the night.  I am thankful to my Father in Heaven for the wonderful children that I have been blessed with and that he watches over and protects us. 

One thing that was funny, not at the time though, was we were all in our PJ's (also known as underware) when we were on the phone with 911.  I yelled to Bridger to go and grab me my PJ's (a T-shirt and shorts), he had been gone for a while and so I called his name again.  He came running to the bathroom just pushing his arm through his sleeve.  I said go get my pajamas, he said "It's okay, I don't want pajamas, I want to wear clothes, is this okay?"  As he motions to the shirt that he is wearing.  I said I need pajamas!!   He then caught on and ran and got my PJs, and then I sent him to get something for Jay to wear.  I could just imagine opening the door to the paramedics in our undies...it would have been priceless!

Some Secrets are just too hard to keep...Baby #5 is on the way!

So we planned on waiting until Christmas to tell our families that we were pregnant, but Jay only made it about 2 days with his family and then he figured that he could tell all sorts of people after that as long as it ended with "don't tell Janae's parents".  I don't think his mom believed him though.  I asked him if she was excited when he told her and he said that she didn't really say much, then the next day when we were at the doctor appointment she called and said "well is she pregnant"?  Jay said, "yes" thinking I just told you this yesterday, and then we got the response we wanted.   I thought it was pretty funny. 

I made it a few weeks and then decided that I could tell my parents on my dad's 60th birthday (Happy Birthday Daddy-O).  That was about a week and a half ago, and I haven't been feeling the greatest, plus I have been the busiest ever with my vinyl business, so I haven't had the chance to post our exciting news.
I have felt sick all day long, but one day (hopefully in the next 3-4 weeks) I will feel much better. 

The other morning Macie was laying by me in bed and I said that I didn't feel very good.  She looked at me and said "Mom, does that baby in there (as she pointed to my stomach) have a diaper on?"  I giggled and said "nope".  She thought for a minute and said, "Maybe that is why your tummy hurts all the time".   I laughed pretty hard.  Then tried to convince her she will be old enough to change the baby's diaper when it is born...she didn't go for that.

Well the secret is out...blame my husband...I was totally fine until waiting until Christmas!

Emy Turns 3 (a few weeks ago)

It has been a crazy few weeks, so I have been late posting these pictures.

Emy turned three the end of September.  For dinner we had a pizza party and we each got to make our own individual pizza.  (the kids thought this was great)

Any time we asked her what she wanted for her birthday present she would always say,
"I was a barbie car so I can go places"
It was so cute, she was super excited to finally get her car...now she can really go places I guess.

Here she is with her barbie.  Later that night she talked Jay into putting the barbies hair into a pony tail like hers.  I was quite impressed at how well he did.

Emy is so much fun.  She is super tall, people always asks us if her and Macie are twins, and when I let them know they are almost two years apart they can't believe it.  She has always talked so well for her age too.  She is super smart and knows so much for her age. 
She is silly, and likes to have fun.  She loves playing with Bridger and Macie and gets sad when they go somewhere without her.  We have lots of fun together though when they are gone at school and she often sits right next to me and looks up and me and says, "I like you".  It makes me smile every time!! 
She loves to open and close the garage door, and if someone else does it before she gets the chance, we have to close the door and start all over, or she won't leave the house...it is awesome when we are in a hurry to have to go through that process!  She loves to be with me in the office and always tries to help me do my vinyl projects.
She is such a good little girl and we love every minute with her!  

Share the Love

I loved conference and the uplighting talks that were given.  We started our own "warm fuzzy jar" with our little family.  I have been wanting to teach our kids about service and this will be such a great way to do it.  We decided that each night at the dinner table we will each tell what we did to serve someone else that day.  We will write on on a strip of paper and then put it in our jar. {I have plans to decorate it of course...so I will post some pictures later how it turns out}

Today I was getting Macie dressed for school and she was falling apart because her clothes didn't match.  I reassured her that jeans go with anything.  She was crying and throwing her clothes all over the living room refusing to put them on.  She wanted pink pants to match her pink shirt!!  I let her know that her pink pants were dirty and jeans really do go with anything.  I was getting Paisley dressed while all of this was going on and I was trying to tell her that no one wears all pink pants with an all pink shirt...it would just look goofy.  She yelled YES THEY DO!!  and I said no they don't...trust me!  She said, Well, Paisley is!  And I looked down at what I was putting on Paisley and just started to laugh...it was an all pink shirt and all pink pants.  I am such an AWESOME mom!   We both laughed and later (after Dora of course) she must have decided that her jeans would work.

So over the weekend I made a little blog button for my vinyl website.  It would be awesome if you wanted to put it on your blog!  (It is over there on the right hand side of the page) I am actually offering a 25% off coupon right now if you want to post it on your blog then email me back where you did it, I will email you back with a coupon code just because after all, I am an AWESOME mom!
If you need directions of how to post it on your blog, then go here
I just made some super cute monograms too that you can check out here too. 

Now I better go use my time wisely and keep working on my stuff for the craft fairs...the first one is only about 2 1/2 weeks away.

Picture Taking...{but not of my family}

So last weekend I was asked to take pictures of two different families.  It was a lot of fun and I was so excited about how they turned out (so were they)!
Go check them out here

Only Macie

{this is a post that when Macie is older and reads this she is going to wish I wouldn't have written it...but it was just too funny and I don't want to forget it...but I must warn you...it is a little bit gross}

Macie was potty trained with no problem last year, however she won't wipe...EVER.  Well today she came over to the table and Jay and I were talking.

It went a little like this:

Me: Macie are you poopy?

Macie: I don't think so

Me: Well something stinks, let me see your panties

Macie: WELL,  I did not do anything

Me: Let me see them then

Macie: (as she is checking her underware) WHOA!  I did not see that coming!!

Me and Jay then busted up laughing.  Kids are so funny!

Jay Enlarged

So tonight as we were cleaning up dinner we decided to play the quiet game. Jay was unloading the dishwasher and inserted some glasses under his shirt, and then turned around to

the kids and said "Quiet game staaaaarrrrtttting (as he was turning around) NOW!!" Needless to say he won. Bridger got a side ache from laughing so hard and I couldn't breathe. It was pretty funny! Then all the kids had to give it a try.

                                  

Macie is trying to steal Bridgers cups and he is pushing her away.

Emy couldn't quite figure out how to have them stay in place.

And Macie, well she didn't have any thing on but her underware {are you surprised!}. I promise I do get my kids dressed every day and most days I get them redressed several times throughout the day.  So she just had to make do with out a shirt.

If you haven't  read "200 Mississippi", then you should read it.  Jay is such a kid...and sometimes he is maybe a little more of a teenager.  He keeps us laughing!  He is so funny, to bad some times he has to act all grown up and be serious.  {but I am thankful for the serious times too!}

New Family Picture

We did some family pictures over the weekend and I have been playing around with Photoshop and was able to make this fun little layout. I also cropped out Paisley's face and put a happier face on her body. I was pretty surprised I was able to make it all work and actually look okay.
I still am absolutely loving my wonderful camera!! And now I am loving my recent purchase of photoshop...I never would have bought it, but I ended up needing it for my vinyl business.
I have had lots of fun taking pictures of my own family as well as my brother and sister's families. I have even drummed up a little business and I get to take a couple of my friends family pictures in the next couple of weeks. I am completely an ametour, but hey...I am also cheap! Besides, it really has been fun to see the end results.

this is how the picture used to look


and I put this cute little face on Paisley's body


and came up with this

Here are some more pictures that I made into a photo collage on the picnik website. It is just so much easier to load on thing, then trying to load several. I have learned that it is so quick and easy to load the pictures from my picture editor {I use picasa}, then sitting and waiting for several minutes with the blog picture loader.

 

200 mississippi

 

I am glad that I married a man who will always be a kid at heart. Tonight as I was getting ready for bed, Jay was in the bath tub holding a straw. I asked him if he had been drinking his bath water, and he said, "no, but I can breath under water for four minutes". He said it so matter of factly it made me laugh. I told him I didn't believe him, so he did it again and I ran for the camera. He got to about 200 mississippi!!

 

Summer Catch up...or Ketchup

 

One day I will sit down and get up to date with what happened over the summer, but just thinking of doing that reminded me of this funny picture. I was working in the office the other day and I could hear Emy giggling, I decided to go see what was so funny. I guess she really likes Ketchup! I thought it was pretty funny too, but tried really hard to seem so sad that she would waste the food like that, but then I had to turn around so she couldn't see me laughing.

Paisley

 

She is getting so big! I just had to post this picture that I found when I down loaded my pics just now.

Back To School

So the other day while I was sitting at the chiropractor I was reading an article about how to get your children to talk about their day at school. I thought it was really interesting and felt bad that I hadn't asked Bridger more questions earlier that day when he got home. So I decided I would try it out on him the next afternoon. It when a little like this:

Me: {remembering the wording in the article} So tell me three things about your day {this is suppossed to get them to "really" talk and open up}

Bridger: Why?

Me: {sad, thinking stupid article} because I want to know

Bridger: Uh, I don't know

Me: {remembering the next thing the article said to ask} tell me your favorite part of the day

Bridger: Recess

Me: Well, what did you like about school {putting a lot of emphasis on the word "school"}

Bridger: I already told you...recess {then off he ran to a more exciting place, probably thinking what is with my mom!!}


Oh the joys of communication!

Macie gets home soon...we will see how this little article works on her (today is her first day back at pre-school).

 

Macie's interview update:

Me: How was school?

Macie:.......

Me: Tell me three things you did today?

Macie: Nothin'

Me: You didn't do anything?

Macie: Oh, I know, I picked up, came home and rode the bus

Me: Good Job Mace! That was three things! Did you do anything else?

Macie: Nope.

Macie + Bee sting = 911

Today Macie came to me and said "Mom this itches I need a band aid" I turned around to see what she was taking about and touched her arm where she was pointing to and it was super hot and super swollen. I asked her if she got bit by a bug and she said yes. I called Jay because her arm was so swollen and I didn't know what had bit her. Her arm was about twice the size of her other arm. We decided to call the Dr to see what they suggested to do and I got put right to the nurses voice mail. So I called the next best thing...my mom. We had decided to just watch it and see if she did okay and then all of a sudden she said her throat hurt, and then immediately she started to make noises like she was clearing her throat. Her eyes got all big and teary and I could tell she was scared. I told my mom what was happening and she asked if I needed to call 911 and I said I didn't think so and then Macie just kept make more noises like it was hard for her to breath. I asked her if she could breath and she shook her head "no". So I told my mom I was calling an ambulance and she said she would be right over. I called 911 and began to explain what was happening and just then I could hear someone knocking on the door. It was our neighbor, Blayne, and I opened the door and just yelled, "Blayne, Macie can't breathe!!" But just as quickly as she started having trouble breathing it started to get better. I let the 911 dispatcher know that I thought she was okay but they said that they would still send an ambulance to check her over. They said to watch for the ambulance and if things got worse to call right back. They wanted me to send someone out to the street to flag the ambulance down too, so I sent Bridger outside to wait for it. He had no clue what was going on because during all of this I had three of my sisters kids here plus my neighbors daughter over and they were all playing the wii. It all happened so quickly I didn't get the chance to let them know anything was wrong. Bridger walked outside to the street to wait for the ambulance and asked me why they were coming. I let him know that Macie was having problems breathing but was okay now. He just said okay and it didn't even seem to phase him.
Macie was doing fine at this point, but she wouldn't talk so I knew she still didn't fell the greatest. The fire truck and ambulance pulled up and I took her out to them and we climbed in the ambulance to have her checked out. (Poor Blayne...I left him holding Paisley, who was screaming, and he had 6 other little kids running around to watch)

The paramedic listened to her breathing and he said that she had a strider (which he then explained meant trouble with her breathing). He wanted to have her monitored at the hospital to make sure that she was okay because he said he didn't know if her allergic reaction was over with or not, so to be safe he wanted to take her to the hospital to be monitored for a little while. He asked her what happened and she told him that she got stung by a bee. She had been playing outside about a half an hour earlier and I had no clue she had been stung. (Later that day she told me that when it happened she just cried a little bit but kept on playing!!)

My parents showed up and relieved Blayne of our crying baby and watched all the other kids while Macie and I headed to the hospital in the ambulance.

They checked her over and I explained what had happened. The doctor was so nice, I was feeling so embarrassed that I had called 911 and he told me that I did the right thing and that she needed to be monitored. He said that with allergic reactions breathing problems can happen so quickly that you need to get help fast.

The doctor prescribed a steroid to help with the swelling in her arm and prescribed and epi pen so if she ever gets stung again we can give her a shot to help with her breathing. That will relieve some of my worry if it ever happens again, so hopefully I never forget it!!

I still can't believe how fast it all happened. From when she asked for a band aid till I called 911 was maybe about 90 seconds. It was just so scary!!

I asked her tonight what to do if she ever gets stung again and she said go tell my mom. I still can't believe that she didn't let me know when it happened. She is a tough little girl!! I am so glad she is okay!

You can kind of see how swollen her arm is in this picture

 

Chocolate Milk...MMMMM

The kids made their own chocolate milk the other night and this was the end result.

Things I've Learned This Summer

So far this summer I have learned that:

1. I can successfully take all four kids some where by myself and not want to pretend they belong to someone else. They have all grown up so much over the last few months and they are turning in to great listeners...some are already great listeners (Macie), some are evolving (Bridger), and some are still in their own little world (Emy), and sweet little Paisley is just along for the ride.

2. Flip flops are now called floppers. We bought the kids all some flip flops and any time we would ask them to go put on their shoes Emy would tell everyone to put on their "flip flop floppers" and soon it just turned into to floppers. Now all of us, parents included, call their shoes floppers.

3. I have learned that even though twisting Macie's hair is super cute, it isn't a permanent hair do. This I should have known better, but I twisted her hair the week before Easter (all week long too...might I add). Once we do this to her hair she won't let me touch it for a good couple of weeks...I can't blame her though, it takes forever. Well I left it in too long (way too long), and when we finally took it out it took about 2 hours. She hated it (and me) by the time I was done.

4. I have been reminded of my love for yard work. We didn't do anything with our yard (weeds) last year and this year we have finally started. We have our front flower beds in and lots of trees in the back yard. We had two dump loads of gigantic bolders dumped in our back yard, so our next plan is to put those all in place and mix several truck loads of soil pep in our flower beds in the back yard (that makes weeding so much easier). Then one day we will work on putting in the grass! Hopefully sooner than later!

5. I have found that I look foward to Wednesdays. This is the day Jay and I mow lawns all day long (we are up to 34 lawns now). It is actually nice to get outside all day and not worry about my little kids running in the road or falling off of something or running inside to go potty (the kids not me...well, sometimes me) or fixing food all day long (I swear my little kids eat all the time). It is just nice to listen to my music and think without interuptions. Then when I am all done, it is so fun to see how excited my kids are when I get to Grandma's to pick them up.

6. I have learned that the anticipation of waiting for my garden to grow is sometimes hard to stand. I am so excited to see how it will turn out. I wish that a few months ago I had learned about square foot gardening (thanks Jodi for the info), but that will have to wait till next year.

It has been a great summer so far and hopefully I will continue to learn new things each day. I love my little kids so much and each day I am reminded how lucky I am to be their mom. They are so fun and make me laugh all the time.

Vinyl Website...finally!!

I teamed up with Mary who has an organizational blog and she is hosting a vinyl lettering challenge to help me kick off the completion of my website. Click here to read the details for entering the challenge to earn free vinyl lettering...well you will have to scroll down a bit to read to initial entry about the challenge. The challenge ends tomorrow...so hurry and submit your idea of how you would use vinyl.

I also have a coupon for my website to recieve 35% off of your entire order...no minimum purchase!! The coupon code is 35OFF

Go to my website to check out everything that I have spent endless hours on creating....really endless hours...from my head to the website is about 10-20 minutes per item...and I have over 500 different products. They have turned out really cute and I still have lots more things in my head to get on the website to remember to check back. This is the link to the website http://www.thoughtsinvinyl.com/

Click on the Order Now tab to see all the fun things that I have designed or click on the Idea Gallery tab to see things other people have ordered for fun new ideas. Remember if you want your picture in the idea gallery email me the picture and I will get it posted, that way we can all see how cute your ideas turned out!!

Another Milestone

Bridger turned 7 years old yesterday. It is hard to believe that we have a seven year old!! He was so cute this year. All he wanted for his birthday was to go to Leo's. Jay and I mowed lawns all day yesterday (that's right 32 lawns in all...so yes...all day) so we took him to Leo's tonight. It was pretty fun. He loved the arcade, and so did his dad!

All in all it was a fun night for all of us. Bridger has wanted to go there for so long and we kept putting it off, so he was so happy for today to arrive. He was such a trooper yesterday with us being gone mowing lawns. He was totally fine hanging out at Grandma's. When we got done mowing lawns Uncle Kirk and bought Chinese (one of Bridger's favorites) and a birthday cake so we had a little birthday dinner and cake with all of them. Bridger was thrilled, and I was glad that he has so many people that love him and wanted to make sure he got spoiled that day. We have a cake to fix for him too, but we will probably do it this weekend.

He even got a really fun present from his aunt Robin...she gave him a new cousin! She had baby boy #5 on his birthday. Bridger was pretty excited that they share a birthday. He also shares his birthday with his great grandpa Judy.

He is such a good little guy and we are so proud of him. He is a hard worker (when he chooses to be) and love to make people smile. He loves to talk and talk and talk and has a very hard time when we challenge him with the quiet game, it is pretty funny to watch him try to be quiet for very long! You would think with all his sisters that he would maybe be a little girly, but instead he has his sisters playing with guns and power rangers. He is such a good big brother and we are so proud of him and happy to have him in our family. He loves music and loves to dance (most of the time in just his undies). He is so smart and helpful too. Lots of times if I need to remember to do something I will tell him and sure enough he reminds me to get it done. We love him so much and wouldn't trade him for anything. We are so blessed to have him in our family and thrilled that our little girls have such a great big brother.

Here are a couple of our favorite pictures over the years.

This is one of our favorite pictures of Bridger and Macie. They were so cute together when they were little. They are still good friends and Macie falls apart every time her brother leaves to go play with a friend.

This was Bridger's favorite Halloween costume. He wore this just about every day for over a year. It was so cute on him!

I just had to add this picture in too....every time I turn my back the kids get into something. He just wanted to paint!!

After a Hard Days Work...

We have LOVED our nice weather we have had the last three days. Our kids have loved being outside and running around in the yard all day...and when 8pm rolls around Jay and I are loving it too.

They fell asleep watching a show in our room.

Jay came to get me to show me how Macie fell asleep and I told him to run and get the camera, and in the two minutes it took to get the camera, Emy had climbed up by Macie and fell asleep too.

Fun Spring Crafts

I have made a few spring crafts these last few weeks and I thought they turned out pretty cute.
This one no longer exists...thanks to Emy! She has successfully peeled off the vinyl and paper. Lately she spends a lot of her "free" time in the office cutting up things I need and peeling vinyl off of crafts or just the big rolls of vinyl that I have. If I ever leave anything unattended she gets out the tweezers and starts pulling letters off of the vinyl that I am working on. She is such a little turkey!

I made these blocks with my sister this week. One side says spring and the other says summer. After she left I redid the spring side on my blocks. I am just not a bright-colored person...it just looked so out of place in my house.

this is how it looks now:


this is how it used to look:

and this is the other side of the blocks:


I have also made a couple of these cute little cubes. I did one for easter and one for spring. I have since changed the spring one a little bit...thanks to Emy! Each side of the cube has a different peice of paper and a different picture or word. They turned out pretty cute and were fun to make. I did an easter one with my sister and a spring one with the old young women's presidency. They all got released from their callings a few months ago and I was left in with the new presidency. We try to get together every month and have lunch and the last two times we have made a craft too. We will have plenty more crafts to make too...a new cube for each season or holiday and maybe one with just family words on it too.
(I borrowed this picture...I haven't taken a picture of mine yet)

We had a couple new girls come into Young Women's and this was their birthday present (a magnet board) that I made for them. It goes with this years theme. I think they turned out pretty cute too. I hope the new beehives liked them!

Bedroom Make Over

So I convinced Jay to let me redo Bridger's bedroom as long as I agreed I couldn't repaint it for at least 5 years!
I bought some new fabric and made him a bed spread that I think he could live with until he left the house when he was older...at least that was my goal.
We painted over the orange and navy stripes in his room with lime green and left the light blue at the top. Then I had a great idea of using red vinyl instead of a chair rail to separate the two colors. It looks just like paint, but we didn't have the head ache of taping off the wall and trying to achieve a straight line. It was so easy to do too! I have sold some "vinyl chair rail" to a couple of other people after they saw his room. I was really happy with the end result. I am still needing to make pillow cases...but that will have to wait for another day.

Any time I have a project that I am working on I lay awake at night trying to think of how to do it. Well, I wanted to put up some vinyl on the walls in the kids rooms and I couldn't decide what to do. I wanted to give it character and I wanted to use some graphics that I had bought. I brainstormed for several days and I am so happy with what I came up with. I did some in each of the kids rooms.

 

 

I enlarged the bottom picture to show that I put the girls names in the leaves on the branch.

All in all I had fun redecorating Bridgers room and he is very happy with it. Jay was a great help repainting his room and picking helping me pick out the fabric for the blanket...he pretty much just went along with anything I picked...which made the process quick and easy. He is such a great help and so supportive of my crazy ideas!

Diaper Duty

You know those stinky diapers that make you wish you had potty trained your two year old last month...well tonight was the BIG one of all big ones.
We have learned that apple juice and Emy are not a good combination. Well we bought some juice the other day and hid it in the garage, in an awesome hiding spot right by the door. It took all of one trip of coming back inside the house for the kids to find it. Well today Macie wanted some juice, so I filled up her sippy cup with the forbidden juice from the garage. I made Emy some other juice (not diarrhea causing) and they were both content. It was apparent tonight that Macie shared her juice.
We all kept telling Emy she was stinky and she would just give us her cute little smile where she tips her head to one side and shrivels up her nose, and then she would go bouncing off.
Macie kept saying, "she smells like a skunk and skunks are stinky".
Well needless to say our cute little two year old is soaking in the bath tub and her clothes are soaking in the washer.


On a more pleasant note...Emy has grown 2 1/2 inches in three months!! She is so tall. Every where we take her people think she is so much older than she really is. She is taller than a lot of kids that are a year older than her. Today I saw her with someone that was her same age and she was a good head taller. It will be so fun to see how different all of our kids turn out...we have quite the gene pool.

the end...of dancing

At the beginning of the school year we decided to enroll Macie in a dance class. We thought she needed an outing each week and she was always dancing around the house and has loved moving to the beat of music ever since she could walk, so we thought it would be the perfect fit.
She did great the first couple of weeks, then slowly and slowly she lost more and more interest each week. I had paid for her dance costume, so we wanted her to stay in for the recital, but it wasn't looking good. She didn't like the dancing any more. She would just scoot herself around on the gym floor while all the other girls danced, I would try bribing her with a treat after class or a trip to the store if she would just practice with the other girls. After a couple months of this, I decided that as soon as they had their first recital we would be done.
Saturday was her recital and she did great! She agreed to dance if she never had to do it again and if we would take her to Speedi Mart to buy some pink gum. I was surprised at how well she did considering her lack of interest and participation in practice. She is glad to be done and has reminded me at least once a day since then that she never has to go to dance again.

She sure looked cute in her dance outfit though!!