Monday, December 20, 2010

A great day!

I truly have felt loved today. There have been so many people to make me feel special on my birthday, starting this morning with cards and presents from my family. My girls are so thoughtful and cute. I just feel so blessed to call them my daughters. And what can I say about my husband? He did small things throughout the day that just really made me know he was thinking of me and made me feel very loved. Then I never check Facebook, but I got lots of birthday wishes there and phone calls from family near and far. A friend from church stopped by and gave a really sweet gift, and I even got carolers at our door who took a break from their Christmas carols to wish me a happy birthday. It was wonderful! Nikki wrote me this note in church yesterday, and it just made me laugh:

"Dear, Mom
I wish you a happy Almost late birthday. I hope you have a good last day working. when are you going to give your job to Kelly?

Love, Nikki
P.S. merry cristmis too!"

For Family Night Activity





The kids saw Julie's Elf Yourself video, and they wanted to do it for our family night activity tonight. We had so much fun finding the craziest pictures of each other we could.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

These kids make me laugh

Yesterday morning I asked Hannah if she had completed her morning jobs. She said she had. "Did you do your hair?" (It was clear to me that she hadn't.) She gave a weak kind of yes. "Did you brush it?" She gave this huge sigh and said with disgust, "I have to brush it every day!"

Yesterday I told Ryan to come lay down so I could change his diaper, but he said, "Daddy did it!" Sweetheart, your daddy has been gone for five days. Once a week just doesn't cut it for diaper changes.

Nikki asked me one day this week if I would crochet a little kite for Hannah's Christmas present from her. Umm, okay, I told her I would see what I could do. A little later she came and whispered in my ear that when I was finished I should just go put it in the orange gift bag under the tree that said To: Hannah, From: Nikki.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

2010



If you can't see the video, try this link.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Pre-gingerbread houses...



Decorating a gingerbread house is one of my favorite traditions at Christmas-time. Nikki decorated one at school last week made out of graham crackers, and Hannah asked if we could do that for a school activity, too. Of course, but she couldn't wait through the weekend until the next school day. So, on Saturday Nikki got to make her second one this year, and this doesn't count as a real gingerbread house to me. I still plan on making a gingerbread house (not a graham cracker house) before Christmas gets here. For some reason, I don't think the girls have a problem with that. Ryan didn't care about putting the house together, he just wanted the candy!

School clothes?

This is how I found Hannah when I came to see how her work was coming along the other day. Hmm... Maybe I should turn up the heat? It has been really cold lately, although when I think about the pictures my friend in Montreal posted on her blog -- 3 feet of snow on their patio furniture -- I think I have nothing to complain about. I just might do it anyway! I don't like to be cold, and I don't think Hannah does either!

Thursday, December 09, 2010

I'm here...

No, I haven't crashed my tank of a van yet, and Hannah and I haven't pulled each other's hair out ... yet. Ha Ha! I keep thinking I need to update the blog, but when?! Nikki was in a Christmas concert at school tonight. It was really cute. Hopefully I'll have a chance to post the pictures of it tomorrow. I think I know the songs just as well as she does with how much she has been singing them around the house this past week.

Hannah is doing really well with the homeschooling. She works so hard and is just a wonderful girl. I love having this time with her, and Ryan does, too! All day long he asks, "What's Hannah doing?" It's really cute.

Okay, I'm ready for bed. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures up tomorrow, but in the meantime... things are going well.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Changes...

So, now that our third child is two years old, we are finally owners of a minivan. While having Ryan backhand Hannah in the face any time he thought she was encroaching on his space was a great motivator to make the upgrade, sad to say it wasn't the catalyst. A few weeks ago Nate was sitting at a stoplight and some guy slammed into the back of him. Nate thinks he was texting because his explanation of what happened didn't make any sense. Thankfully none of the kids were with him, as the impact was hard enough to deploy both airbags and give Nate a pretty sore neck for a few days. Nate is going to be traveling for quite a bit the next few months, so we were thinking we would just try it out as a one-car family for a while. But he found a really good deal on a used Honda Odyssey. He has been keeping tabs on what's on the market for a while because we knew this would be our next big purchase, and we thought we would wait until the spring to save up what we needed to pay for one. We were excited when this van checked out to be in fairly good condition. Anyway, we are really grateful that we could get it now, even though I feel like I'm driving a tank after driving a Honda Civic for so long!

The really big change will come next week. I'm going to start homeschooling Hannah for a variety of reasons. When the thought first crossed my mind that I could just homeschool Hannah and leave Nikki in school, I was pretty surprised by the idea. I tried to homeschool Hannah for a little bit in the first grade and failed miserably with it, so I know it is because of a lot of prayer and inspiration that I can honestly say I am excited about this. I think it will be so good for her, and I am looking forward to having some time to focus just on her. I ordered a book of art lessons and it came in the mail yesterday. I asked her if I could be a student along with her and go through the book, too. It looks like a lot of fun! My dad and my sister are great artists, and I've always wished I could be, too. I know you can't teach talent, but I can at least have fun trying. So, I'm sure I will lose my mind here over the next few months. What a ride this life is!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Nikki, Nikki, NIKKI!

We were heading out the door last night, and Hannah called out as she walked into the kitchen, "Umm, Mom, I don't think we can go to gymnastics tonight!" This was the lovely sight she saw. Clearly, Ryan doesn't have that much artistic talent yet - he even had earrings painted on. What is all over him? Fingernail polish. Yep. I only took a picture because one day I hope to be able to laugh at it, and it's really not so bad this morning as it was last night. On the upside, Nikki did admit to doing it the first time I asked about what happened. That's an improvement, maybe she has been listening a little bit to me. Also, it just so happened to be children's fingernail polish that wiped off of his body with just a warm washcloth. She is so lucky!! I'm not sure if the shirt can be salvaged, though, and it is one of Ryan's favorites. He loves the monkey on it. We'll see how it comes out in the laundry today, but I am no good with stains.

Friday, November 05, 2010

Nikki's Monster Story



This one made me laugh. I'll transcribe it for you....

by Nikki Robbins
If I took a monster to school... He would either do his homework quietly... or... eat the principle. And then I would take him home and .... Eat, sleep, play with my monster at home so he doesn't eat anyone. And what do you think he would do next.... Yep he'd play piano! So he would wake up my baby brother. And then mom would come and take that monster and put it in the trash can. But when Mom is sleeping I would sneak outside in to the dark at 10:00 pm. I would get my monster and tuck it under my bed just in time. I love my monster. the end

Monday, November 01, 2010

October in Review...

Well, we have been doing lots of fun things throughout October that I have been taking pictures of, I just haven't been posting them on the blog. So, instead of trying to find the time to give each activity its own post like I should have done, I'm just going to slap them up here in this post and be pleased that I did it before next Halloween.

 We started out October with a Spurting Spider. Only he didn't spurt at us because I didn't want it to leak before Nate got home from work and stuck it in the fridge. Well, a smart person would realize that the Jell-o inside the cake will harden if you do that, and therefore won't ooze out when you cut it. But I'm not that smart.
 


 This was a ghost party the girls decided they wanted to have. When I told Nikki that we didn't have any sheets that she could cut up to make ghost costumes out of, they just jumped into pillowcases. Then they turned out the lights and went crazy.
Painting pumpkins. Always a favorite.
 Carving pumpkins. Nate was out of town, so there was no question whose pumpkin was the best this year. Of course, I would have beat him anyway. :)
 Halloween lunch -- mummy faces and apple bites.

 Halloween sprinkles on cupcakes (well, it was really muffins with cool whip on top because I had already made muffins that day, and somehow I convinced the girls it was good enough)

 Jell-O Jigglers (and yes, my kitchen has been a wreck for most of the month -- I couldn't avoid showing it in most of these pictures)
 Haunted gingerbread houses

 Ryan had more fun cleaning up than decorating the graham crackers
Caramel apples

Decorated cookies
And Ryan got sick as we were helping set up for our party at church Saturday night. That didn't stop Hannah and Nikki from having fun at the Trunk-or-treat, though.
The nicest witch and prettiest devil around




Okay, I'm impressed if you made it this far!

Can we postpone Halloween?

 Poor baby. He wanted nothing to do with Halloween, except for the lollipops. Can we just get everyone to dress up next weekend so he can have some fun, too?

Monday, October 18, 2010

Cute baby

I have some more pictures that I'll try to get around to uploading sometime soon. This is just a video that I think is cute because, well, I think my baby is cute. It's a perfect example of how he yells when he says anything, and it has his cute little laugh when he's proud of himself at the end.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Mom

For some reason I was just really missing Mom this morning. Sometimes it just hits me that it would be really nice to pick up the phone and talk to her. Maybe it's because last Sunday was her birthday. Maybe because I was thinking about how Hannah's love for Halloween is much like hers. I really don't know what triggered it today. This picture was not even taken at Halloween, though. She would just do crazy things like that. Love you, Mom.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Hmm...


Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Nate's on a spending spree!


I got such a good laugh tonight, I just had to write it down. I know I've mentioned before how cheap frugal Nate is. Well, I think last night he was doing something in the kitchen and had a run-in with my broken whisk. It has a spoke that keeps popping out, and I just have been pushing it back in for quite some time. So, when he got home from work today, he gave me a set of 3 whisks that he bought for me today. So sweet! I was really happy that he would do that for me. Then, he said, "Well, I think they should last. I didn't get them at the Dollar Store at least. I'm learning not to be so cheap anymore."

Oh, well where did you get them?

"K-Mart!"

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Scary witch

For some reason, Hannah absolutely LOVES Halloween. I don't understand why. I like cute pumpkins and friendly decorations, but I really don't like to be scared. I guess I haven't collected enough Halloween decorations for her taste because she decided she wants to make a new decoration each day of October. She even got a head start and already made this life-size witch for our front door. Every time I walk around the corner, or come down the stairs in the dark this thing scares me to pieces. I catch a glimpse of this dark silhouette standing at the door, and I jump every time. I wonder what would happen if I hung it up on her closet door! :)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Laundry or ...

This one is for Kellee. My excuse for avoiding laundry this week had nothing to do with making improvements to the house. This was a book that definitely topped doing any housework. Nate's just glad that I've finished it and Book 2 hasn't come in to the library for me yet. It's a fantasy novel, and I know you like those, Kellee -- if only you had some extra time these days! I thought it was a really fun and captivating read. The author is a professor at BYU and lives in Orem, which I thought was fun since I went to BYU and I lived in Orem. :)  It had some "Oceans 11" kind of elements along with some mystical powers thrown in with some great action scenes. (Now we see why I'm not a writer, with sentences like that!) Okay, now I guess I'll go sort my Mt. Washmore.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

What do you think?

So, really these pictures are for my own good. I plan to come back often and remind myself that we really have come a long way on this house since we moved in. However, I do need some advice on my light fixture over the kitchen table, so feel free to just skip to the bottom if you need the shortened version of this post.

First, the kitchen cabinets. It's a bit ridiculous how long it took me to finish painting these, and add on top of that the fact that I still hate them and can't wait to replace them... well, I'm just glad this is done.

I don't think anyone who did not have the pleasure of scraping grime off of these cabinet doors with a razor blade and then sanding off still more grime can fully understand my loathing of these cabinets. Anyway, moving on!

The kitchen walls (which you already saw in the cabinet pictures, but I'm posting these anyway)...
I've been pretty wishy-washy on what I think of the color I painted the kitchen walls. The lighting in that room is terrible, so I need something light. But I'm just afraid of extending that color into the living room and then deciding I really hate it.

Now, I have to post a before picture of the chandelier I just hung up over the table. I thought I had a good picture of it, but this is all I can find. You can kind of see it on the left side of the picture hanging in the formal dining room. It was an ugly brass monster, and I wanted to spray paint it to have an antique brass finish.
(this ugly foyer leads me to posting this finished picture of it)

Okay, so here is a better look at the chandelier. This is my question: What do you think of this color? Well, I'm not sure the coloring on the computer will come out very well. This isn't exactly the finish I was expecting, but you know there are no labels on spray paint cans of what color it is. Looking at the tops did not help me much in this situation. I also bought some black spray paint, so if you think this is ugly feel free to say so. I have to take it back down anyway because I forgot to put the nut back on the chain that holds the cover up against the ceiling. And yes, I have to replace some of the lightbulbs, too.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Ryan, 2 years old...




This little boy brings so much joy to our family. We are so grateful to have him. Here are a couple of things I want to remember about him as he is beginning his third year of life.

He won't go to sleep without socks on. If I forget, you can believe before his bedroom door has been closed for 5 minutes, he will be calling for his socks.

Apple juice is banned from our house because he won't eat or drink anything else if it is around. He has been  drinking milk a lot better since I tried giving it to him in a regular cup with no lid, but after two spills at lunch today he got the sippy cup back.

The girls call him a parrot because he tries to repeat EVERYTHING he hears. He can't say the "s" sound yet, and well, he actually has an aversion to most consonants. Sometimes he'll repeat a word and completely leave out all the consonants. It's enough to usually get his point across, though.

He's got the cutest smile, gets so excited over the smallest things, and will laugh at the tiniest provocation. When he gets tickled with something he has done, he will break out in this really funny George McFly "ah, ah, ah." I wish I knew how to type that sound. I can't help but laugh every time I hear it.

His favorite movie is Baby Galileo, no matter how much Nikki tries to convince him otherwise. He also likes watching Pink Panther cartoons on hulu.com.


If he wakes up from a nap grumpy, I can either offer him chocolate or take him outside, and he'll perk right up.

Even though he is sleeping in a "big bed" now (and still loving it), he won't get off of the bed by himself. He calls for us until we come to get him.

He loves going to Nursery at church, but he gets really upset if I try to take him or pick him up. It has to be Nate. He's so funny about his little routines.

The other day he walked up to me with his hand out and said, "Here you are." So I opened my hand, and he proceeded to drop in a wounded fly. I only had enough time to see that it was a black living thing before I screamed and dropped it. I almost scared him, but when I saw what it was I laughed so hard, which made him think he did something really great. Can you believe he caught a fly? What a boy!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

15-Minute Makeover


Well, taking down the wallpaper in the kitchen led to texturing and painting the walls. But after that I didn't walk into my kitchen feeling like things were fresh and new enough, so that led to taking down the nasty chandelier. I haven't decided what chandelier I want to put there yet, so I just temporarily installed the fixture that will eventually go in the living room (when I pick out the chandelier I want). But that still didn't produce a nice enough feeling in the kitchen because I still need to paint the trim, and then I realized that it never would be enough because of my awful cabinets. SO, I'm now in the middle of painting the cabinets in the kitchen, and I think it will make me feel really good to have it done. I would feel great if I could just replace the cabinets, but the voice of reason has finally won in my mind and I'll paint these and wait for a couple of years for what I really want.

All of that, just to explain why I needed a quick project to make me feel like I actually accomplished at least ONE thing last week. Okay, I'll admit this really isn't finished either because I want to paint the fireplace a dark brown... when I'm finished with the kitchen. :) You know, I haven't completely finished a single room in this house yet. I think maybe some of Hannah's ADHD is either rubbing off on me, or she got it from me!

Anyway, I wonder if you can even see the difference in these before & after shots!


Can't see it? Well, I painted the screen in front of the fireplace. I think these pictures just illustrate so clearly how much decorating help I need! What am I supposed to do with all of those cords? (Get rid of the TV!!) I'm hoping the dark brown will hide them a little bit.

Typical evening at our house...


Here's Hannah, willing and happy to do the dishes after supper.

And here's Nikki ...
claiming she has reading homework to finish (on a Sunday evening), so she can't help in the kitchen. Sorry, Nikki, I know you don't have any homework tonight!

Finally...



Three days before she started 2nd grade, this girl finally lost her first tooth! She couldn't have been more excited. Unfortunately, she wasn't so impressed with the tooth fairy. Of course it took a few days for the tooth fairy to find time in her busy schedule (or maybe room in her crazy brain to remember) to come. Then, I think Nikki was hoping for a little bit more in response to her note. But she asked the tooth fairy to bring her gum and dollars. Since when did she have the right to make requests from the tooth fairy? Well, maybe since she took such good care of her teeth that they wouldn't fall out she probably did deserve a little better treatment. Well, there will be plenty more opportunities for her to worm out something good from the tooth fairy in the future.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

So much that I could blog about......but so much sleep that I need to catch up on!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Happy birthday, Ryan!!

Ryan's birthday was yesterday, and we had his party tonight. Can you guess how old he is?

His cousin, Lexi, also has a birthday this week, and she was sweet enough to agree to having their parties together. I love birthdays with the cousins! So easy to plan, and the kids have so much fun together!

I'm still not sure why he didn't want to eat his cake and ice cream on the table. Can't you hear him saying, "Cheese!" Oh, he's a cutie.