Kitchen table/chairs

I have been sanding, priming, and painting a dining room table and chairs. I am thrilled to have a different set that doesn't have ratan backed chairs, missing arms, and missing screws. This cream set has been great but, went better in my old house in the red kitchen.

This set has been great and has lasted seven years now...pretty good for car primer, paint and fabric. So, when this set was given to us, I knew it was my chance for my black table. It is very solid but had some problems with the finish and some wear.

The new (I love family hand-me downs) table set makes me just giddy! I explained and posted tons of pictures on my design blog. I just wanted to show everyone what I've been working on and why I haven't posted for a little while. I've been busy priming and painting. I've only been working on projects for the house and for myself. I'm learning new things about myself through all of this. I feel like this is a new time in my life and I'm learning to say no and to slow down. I took two weeks to do this and didn't push myself. This is something really new for me but, I am really happy with the outcome.

Abbie's Easy Bake Oven

Abbie got an easy bake overn for her birthday. She is my little "foodie" because she loves to help me in the kitchen but, more importantly because she likes to eat. I know what you are thinking...no way..she's too skinny but, I assure you she eats more than the boys! She can't even wait until my visiting teachers are gone before she has to come ask for a snack. She can't wait, she's hungry! So funny! I think everytime my V.T.'s come over they probably think I don't feed her. (good thing they know better) She loves food so this was a fun birthday idea!

She was so thrilled to make her first cake. She got this on her birthday and immediately wanted to bake something. Come to find out, you have to buy a 100 watt lightbulb, no white lite, or soft lite bulbs but a purly clear bulb. Needless to say, we didn't have this specialty bulb lying around so we had to get it when we went to the grocery store. Who knew?!?

She was so excited while it was baking that she was dancing around singing. This unfortunately made the cake fall. It was flat as a pancake in the middle. LOL She didn't mind and told me it would taste the same. I agreed yet took the teaching moment to explain how cakes can fall if you are bounding around. When the second cake was baking, she made sure the boys didn't bounce around and it turned out better.

While the second one was baking, she went and got dressed. Thus the wardrobe change. Twelve minutes is a long time to wait so during the second bake time, she decided she had time to get dressed before she ate her delicatessen's.

Abbie, I am so glad that you love your birthday present! I still can't believe you are five and going to start kindergarten this fall. Thanks for sharing a bite of your yummy cake...you did great!

Easter Outfits

This is the kids easter outfits. We didn't put them in their easter baskets this year because we were going out of town and conference was the weekend of easter. So, one less thing to pack. I love doing new church clothes at this time of year. Such fun colors! Every year I try to match the boys and Abbie. It's not easy since, the boys refuse to do pink. Hee Hee Of course, by this time of year the boys have grown so tall that they need longer church pants. I think before long, I will have to buy Isaac new church pants more often, because he's growing so tall!

So handsome!

So cute!

My other handsome little man!

I love how I found the same shirts for the boys with different ties. That way, they are different, yet similar! Love that!

I love all three of you...kisses for all!

Turning Five!

Our baby girl turned five on Thursday. Yep, that's our tax day baby! Our beautiful NOW 5 year old! We can't believe she's five and Reed even had her convinced that she had to be good or else he wouldn't allow her to turn five, she'd have to stay four forever. On wednesday(the day before her birthday) she asked dad if she had been good enough to be five. Reed finally relented and said that she could turn five. She gave him the biggest hug ever before she ran down the hall giggling to bed. So cute!! Love ya Abbie!

She posed for a few birthday pictures before she went to preschool. She was excited to take cupcakes to her class! Every Thursday they get to take something for show and tell....I bet you couldn't guess what she wanted to take......

CHOCOLATE CHIP!!! AGAIN !!!!

The only thing Abbie would tell me she wanted for her birthday cake was to be a "stacked circle cake thing". She wouldn't even tell me what flavor. So, I kept asking and finally had to guess that she would love a chocolate cake with funfetti icing. I did the writing in green because it's her favorite color.

Her cousin gave her the new favorite movie, Princess and the frog. Abbie hadn't seen it yet and was really excited!

I know you can't see what the gift is but you could see how excited she was. This blurry item in the picture is her first Barbie. It's Aurora, sleeping beauty and she was sure excited, if you couldn't tell!! LOL

Abbie wouldn't specify a theme she wanted for her birthday so we did a garden party because all she wanted was a green party. This was the best thing I could think of to do with "green" as the only jumping off point.

When I asked her what she wanted for her special birthday dinner all she would say is that she wanted avocados and tomatoes. So, I asked if she wanted to do grilled chicken sandwiches with these "special" items on it. She was thrilled. I know, what now 5 year old, wants only vegetables for her birthday dinner but, that's my little foodie (that's what I call her because she loves all kinds of food and can eat more than the boys!) for ya! Great choice for food, it was SO yummy!

I made the candle votives and decorated for the "garden" themed party. The food was super yummy and the decoration were really fun and you can see more here.

Abbie we love you so much and are excited to see you growing into such a fun, beautiful young lady!

Love ya, Mom and Dad

Some Sunshine

We enjoyed the afternoon in the sunshine!

My little blue eyed boy!

Isaac showing off his other tooth he lost. He feels quite rich now that he's gotten money from the tooth fairy for two teeth.

We spent a few nice hours outside. The sun finally peaked it's head out of the clouds and melted the snow. The boys let me take a few cute pictures of them while they were eating their snack this afternoon. I guess that's the only time they'll sit still long enough to let their mom take a picture of them. Love you both!

Jacob's Due Date

Yesterday was our official due date for Jacob. It feels really surreal. This is the due date that the doctors finally came up with as the "best educated guess". All I know is that I didn't want to deal with it. As you can tell by the pictures...I kept myself busy. I don't know if I was wanting to be in denial that it really was that day or just wanting to get through the day and get something positive accomplished. I hope I am not setting myself up for a disaster later..emotionally. This all started with the pantry. Everytime I went into the pantry it made me think "I REALLY need to organize this mess." but, it just didn't get done. The pregnancy was physically exhausting especially with the excess fluid and I really did only the basic housework. So a little spring cleaning was nice.

It started in the pantry, then onto the white cupboard. Then it progressed to the linen closet, walk-in closet, bathroom cupboards and black hutch. If you look at the picture of the drawer (sorry it's a little blurry) you will notice there is hardly anything left. All of the old bills needed to be shredded and shred I did. After talking to Reed on the phone at work. He made me promise I wouldn't touch his boxes. LOL He laughed as he told me that he was a little afraid of what I would do...if there would be anything left. So, I stopped once I got the main floor of the house spring cleaned. Reed was proud of me and it felt good to get so much accomplished. My mom even joked with me (on the phone) that once I was done with my house...I could come to hers.

So on the more serious side of things, I am really sad that this day has come and we don't have a baby to hold. I miss him and wish he was still here with us. But, I am going to try to do positive things when things become hard. I am going to try to work through them by doing things. I hope I am not running away from this by doing things like cleaning but, I feel like I am just trying to work through them. It felt good to get so much accomplished that had bugged me for so long and I am so thankful I have the energy now to actually do them.
I miss you Jacob and took many moments to think about you. I will always treasure the moments we had with you. I love you! -Mom

EaSter fUn

The kids and I colored eggs before we left to Grand Junction. We picked Reed up from work and left from there to go to Colorado for Easter. Earlier in the day we colored eggs and went to an Easter Egg hunt. We had a really fun time coloring eggs but, wish Reed was there to color some of the camoflouge eggs from the kit we bought. He would have loved this kit!

The kids and myself went to the Easter Egg Hunt at my work. It was bad weather so the hunt was moved inside. The kids gathered in a square around the eggs and candy. Isaac had to go in a different room for his age group, luckily my coworker had kids the same age and took him with them. They had a great time and got WAY too much candy!

We spent Conference/Easter morning playing conference bingo but, the kids ate more candy than stayed on their game boards.

In the afternoon we went over to the cousins house to have an Easter Egg Hunt.

Each family had a prize egg. Abbie found the cousins prize egg and won a large hand decorated cookie!

So Yummy!!

The boys were serious egg hunters!

After the easter egg hunt the kids played on a huge pile of dirt next door. They had a great time playing with cousins and sliding down the hill.

My neice had gotten a jump rope for Easter and was eager to show us all. It was a long rope so Reed and her showed us their skills. It was really funny to watch.

It was a really fun Easter. It was laid back and fun..which was perfect!!