Reupholstery

Ug.

Here's something you may not know about me: I'm kind of a perfectionist.

Oh, you did know that? :) Okay, fine - so the peanut butter and jelly have to go to the very edge of the bread. So what? So my spice cupboard is organized alphabetically and my clothes are organized by color. That's TOTALLY normal.

And I have almost no desire to sit in this chair I spent HOURS reupholstering. I neglected my children for this chair. I sweated and occasionally cursed in my head for this chair.

It did not turn out perfect.

Despite taking about 10,000 pictures as I took the original chair apart, apparently I took pictures of all the wrong parts - parts I thought would be difficult and I would want to remember later, I didn't need to remember because they were easier than I thought they would be. Other parts I didn't even think about ended up nearly killing me.

But it WAS my first upholstery project ever, so cut me some slack! (Yes, I was talking to myself...)

So, here is the final product:

Before:

 After:

I realize, looking at these pictures, that it's not an extreme change in terms of color and such, but now there's a pattern and I got the thing for free off the street, so I wanted to make it my own. The whole project cost me about 50 bucks (with lots of fabric left over actually) including buying a staple gun, so that's a pretty good deal for a brand new chair.

Also, now I know I will never do this again. :)

Okay, I might do this again, but with a MUCH easier chair.

7 months and crawling...

And as of today, climbing stairs. And pulling himself to standing. And turning on the fan on the fireplace (not unsafe, but definitely annoying).

And charming the socks of everyone he meets. :)

 He is just so stinkin' cute!

And look at those curls! They are getting more curly as his hair gets longer and fills in - I LOVE it! (Even if it means I no longer have curly hair because he STOLE IT!)

Sometimes I forget how young he still is. At the grocery store, he was sitting in the front like this big kid and the cashier asked how old he was. I said seven months and she said "oh, he's just a little guy!" I thought, "oh yeah, I guess he is still a baby." Maybe it's his constant alertness or that ever present smile or just something in his personality, but he seems older to me. I love it and hate it all at once. :)

Fishing with grandpa

A couple of weeks ago, Lindsey and her two littles were here for a few days, so we went fishing with Grandpa and Grandma. There is a little fishing pond up in the mountains that we went to.

The kids had a blast and guess who caught the first TWO fish?

Karly.

With a little princess fishing pole. In fact all 6 fish that were caught were with either the princess pole or the Cars fishing pole. Forget the adult, fancy, probably expensive poles. :)

Karly had never been fishing before, but we got her reel out into the water for her and after a little while she said "I think I caught a fish!" We were like "yeah, right. It's her first time, she doesn't know. Silly girl."  OR silly mom and dad. She totally had one and reeled it in all by herself...at which point we believed her. :)

 Catching her first fish...

 Look at her reaction in the next 2 pictures: you'd think my snake, worm, anything-touching daughter wouldn't have any problem with a fish. :)

 Graham catching his first fish.

 Me trying to catch my first fish EVER. (I sort of did. Nate cast the reel and held it until a fish bit and then I reeled it in - does that count?)

 Snack time. :)

So you pay per inch of fish at this little pond, and since we ended up with 6 fish, it ended up costing quite bit. Thanks Dan and Kippy for some of the most expensive fish you've ever bought! :)

Petting Zoo

I need to make dinner, but I'm going to try to get a few recent outings recorded on here.

In July, we went to a nearby petting zoo with some friends from our ward. I'll let the pictures talk for themselves.

Match

 I guess they both like to beat up dad.

(Did you like my use of "match" in the title? Get it? The kids match AND they won the match. I'm so very clever, aren't I?)

5 months....and 6 months....almost 7 months...

It's been a busy summer, give me a break people! Here are the pictures (which I did manage to take on his "month"days - just didn't post them)!

5 Months

 And 6 Months

Apparently I like the long sleeve shirt, shorts combo. :)

Little man currently has 4 teeth, and just got over a case of croup. That was fun.

He is crawling (just started!)  - though I kinda miss his inch worm crawl (see below)

Along with crawling, he is trying desperately to climb up the stairs. Guess I better start teaching him how to crawl down them too....

He completely adores his sister and dad - he just stares at them like he's in awe of the amazing things they can do. :) He likes me too, especially if he's sad and/or needs to snuggle.

These three make me happy. (BTW, Karly apparently thinks I'm taking a picture and is posing for me. Nerd bomber.)

Monster baby

Tanner's cousin Chase was born in May, about a month early. I had wanted to get pictures of the two together since they were only 3 months apart, since we did the same thing with Karly and her 2 cousins close in age. They were all pretty close to the same size. 

Not so much here. 

Granted, Chase was a premie and they are 3 months apart where Karly, Graham and Adrienne are only a few weeks apart. But STILL. My baby looks massive. 

And just for further comparison, we had Harper hang out by the boys. 

She's 19 months. 

 I'm sure before we know it, these little guys will be running around as our little search and destroy team.

My poor dad

My dad was in town for business last week, so he came Friday and Saturday to spend some time with us.

I don't think he'll ever come again.

I can't say I blame him really.

First, we watched a movie Friday night that he had already seen and kept him up until midnight.

Then Saturday, we made him work on our patio with us for like 8 hours. In the hottest day on record for June 23rd in Colorado. AND we didn't even make him lunch. He had to go inside and find something to eat on his own.

He didn't even get to spend the day playing with his grandkids which is - I'm sure - what he would prefer to have been doing. By the time we were done cutting pavers, he was so tired, he just laid on the floor.

Then, we went to dinner at a yummy Mexican place. And HE paid, even though Father's Day AND his birthday were earlier in the week (AND he helped with our patio for like 8 hours!)

AND THEN to top it all off, I told the waitress it was his birthday and he got subjected to this:

AND I posted this totally embarrassing video on my blog for the whole world to see!

Plus, I totally harassed him about being almost 60.

And I didn't even get up when he left Sunday morning to make sure he got breakfast and got out okay.

Needless to say, even though we loved his help and just loved having him around for a couple of days, it might be the last time he comes to visit. Poor guy.

The Birds

My friend Becki posted a hilarious blog post about birds living in their porch light. I laughed.

Then I realized we had birds living in our chimney. I wasn't laughing anymore.

THEN the birds had baby birds. And I really wasn't laughing.

THEN they decided to teach their baby birds to fly. And one of them sucked at it. And landed in our fireplace. And stayed there for HOURS.

 Can you see it? 

Karly rushed into the backyard where we were working and said "There's a bird in the fire place! Hurry, we have to get it out before it gets in our house!"

Nate was hoping it would just die of gas inhalation or something. I knew Karly would be traumatized for life if that happened. So we put a sheet in front of the fireplace, opened the doors and helped the bird fly into the sheet, where we carefully took it outside.

It sat on the ground. Hopped a little. Squawked a lot.

Eventually it hopped into our neighbors yard, but we never did see the bird fly away. We did, however, see our neighbors dog chasing something in their yard and hear a lot of loud bird sqwaking. Crap.

Note to self: put a grate or SOMETHING over the top of the chimney. 

4 months! And teeth. No exclamation mark for that one.

Once again, a little late, but I took these on his 4 monthday. :) 

 Can we talk about this boy for a minute? He's 16 pounds - 71%, 25 3/4 inches - 79%. Have you seen my husband and me? Or our other child? We are not in the upper percentages around here, especially for height! How did I get such a big boy?!? Look at those legs! (okay, okay, he got the legs from me, for sure).

Also, he has teeth. Two of them.

 They are MUCH bigger than this picture now. And they hurt me. We're working on figuring out how to still eat, but not actually eat mommy. Nate calls him our vampire baby.

I am starting to think his due date was like a MONTH off and he cooked in me WAY too long. :)

He is SO funny. He is a very observant child. This was at the pool. He looks so jealous.

 And here he's watching basketball. Just one of the guys.

 Wanna know the comment I get most often? He looks like an old man, just sitting there!

So not only is he HUGE, and has teeth, he's also getting mobile.

He was on the pillow. And yes, he is asleep in that picture, not passed out from suffocation - I checked. And then took a picture. He slept like that for a good 30 minutes.

And look what he did today! (over and over) Guess I can't just leave him on the bed anymore...

He has tried rice cereal 3 times and hates it every time. In fact, he will let me sort of  get a few bites in, but if I keep trying, he spits it out. He literally purses his lips and spits. Stinker.

I moved him to his own room today (and nearly cried) and we are going to start trying sleep training (I will for sure cry). He has actually gone to sleep on his own a few times, which Karly never did, so I'm hopeful it will go well. Wish us luck!

She's THREE!

A few nights ago I was looking at pictures and videos from when Karly was a baby. Kinda crazy that she's 3 now.

I love that girl. My relationship with her is so up and down (very mother/daughter, right?). One minute, I am amazed at how smart she is, how funny and sweet and helpful. The next, I'm tempted to lock her in her room because she's making me so crazy!

Here are some updates on this silly girl, who makes us laugh every day:

She is such a water chicken. She for sure won't put her head under water, she hates getting splashed, and really won't play in the water unless someone is playing with her. BUT she loves going to the pool. Go figure. Swimming lessons maybe?

This story needs a little background. Karly's favorite color is blue. It has been for months. She almost always chooses blue over pink. So we ordered her a balance bike for her birthday. We got her a blue one since it's her favorite color and Tanner can ride it too - score! Two days before it came, she said "someday I will have a bike and go riding with my daddy" Sweet, I thought. So I asked her what color of bike she wanted TOTALLY thinking she would say blue. "I want pink with princesses on it." Crap.

So the bike comes:

If you can't tell what she is saying, she says "But I thought I wanted a pink bike!" Little turd.

Here she is practicing with daddy (love this picture!)

Another funny moment:
One night we got McDonalds for dinner (gasp!) and Karly didn't eat all her fries (gasp!). The next morning she woke up before us and we didn't want to get up (gasp!) so she went downstairs on her own. Nate came down stairs to see this:  

She looked up at Nate and said "Oh hi dad. I'm just eating my fries." What a goof.

She loves playing with Tanner and daddy...

 ...and being the center of attention. :)

When we first looked at this house, my father-in-law was with us and was walking around the backyard with Karly. When they got back into the car, Dan said "Karly, what do you want to ask your mom?" To which Karly said: 

"Mommy, please can I have a doggy?" 

Dan thought she would forget. I knew she wouldn't. I may never forgive him for that. :) 

For now, we'll babysit Jake from time to time. Maybe I'll get more used to the idea of a dog...

She still loves her rocks and pennies. In fact, her punishment when she does something wrong now is that we take away a penny. It cracks me up how upset it makes her. 

If for no other reason,  our purchase of this house was justified for the backyard. She didn't play in it quite as much when it was cold, but once it warmed up, she has been out there every day. She loves it. I love it too. :) 

 She is, for the most part, such a mellow child. One Sunday in church, she spent a good 35 minutes flipping through the pages of a hymn book. She will sit for several minutes flipping through the scriptures. Wierd? Yes. Awesome? Definitely. Do I need to teach her to read? Probably. She loves being read to. I think she's going to be a total book worm.

Hello, Kim Jr. :) 

This girl is the queen of bedtime stall tactics. "I need a drink. I have to go potty. I need a hug and kiss." And on and on. Her favorite, though, is "I don't like my bed." At least we thought it was just a stall tactic until this: 

That's her sleeping on a blanket on her floor, instead of in her bed. 

And now she has started sleeping in our guest bed - a queen sized pillow top mattress. She never uses that excuse and does't come get in our bed anymore. Maybe she really did just hate her bed...

Still, she is really good at avoiding sleep. This was on the way home from grandma and grandpa's at like 9:30 PM: 

She also LOVES to sing. And she learns lyrics really quickly. One day we were in the grocery store and she started singing "I have died every day, waiting for you. Darlin' don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years." All I could think was "do I listen to that song THAT much?! She does it with a lot of songs though. And she's got GREAT pitch. :) We have this great video of her singing A Thousand Years, but I can't get it off Nate's phone for some reason. Sometimes I hate technology. If I figure it out, I'll post it. 

She is constantly saying the funniest things too. The other day I kept getting frustrated with her for different things, so she says "Mommy, why can't you be happy like daddy?" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 

Another one (she'll hate me for this one someday): Up until this event, Nate would take her to the bathroom in public places. They were in the restroom and Karly went and then Nate had to go. There was another guy in there washing his hands, so Nate just let Karly stay in the stall with him. He started peeing and Karly goes "Woah, that's a lotta lotta pee!" The guy washing his hands kind of chuckled and Nate was grateful that was all she said...UNTIL she said "Woah, that's a really long tail! Like a seahorse!" Needless to say, the guy washing his hands busted up and Nate no longer takes Karly to the restroom. 

She is incessantly asking "WHY". Yep, she's one of those kids. Nate can handle it a lot longer than I can. After about 5 whys I finally either say "Just because" or give some really long, drawn out answer that I know she won't understand,  knowing she will stop asking after that. I'm so impatient. :) 

I sure love this little cutie!