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.

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.

Hmm...

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!"

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! :)

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.

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.

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!

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!