Christian & Robyn Green Family

More regular stuff...

2012-01-22T20:23:00.002-05:00

My bathroom likes like this:

After re-tiling the floor and priming the walls last summer, we stalled for a few months, trying to decide just how far to take this rennovation. The cabinets are pretty ugly (golden oak! no molding! weird proportions!), but well built and expensive to replace. This weekend, I decided to paint them and see if that helped. If it did, great! If it didn't, we wouldn't have wasted much time or money and then at least we could move on. I chose a really dark black-brown (Called bittersweet chocolate...reminds me of brownies). So far, it looks great! I'm surprised just how much better it all looks.Here's a sneak peak at our grand plan. I should be done in a day or two, and then I can post pictures, and the plan for the rest of the room.

Yesterday, we were invited to go sledding with another family in the ward. However, Indiana is completely flat and we had a hard time finding a hill! We finally settled on a hill by the YMCA--barely bigger than our backyard hill in our Michigan place, but it did the job.

Braving the mighty hill:

Rachel, the snow bear:

Christian, right before attacking me...

( He would like me to point out that he is covered in snow because I threw it at him. In other words, I instigated the attack.)

Daddy, giving Aaron a "lift."

The sled-train...

A pretty fun day:)

Regular stuff.

2012-01-15T22:34:00.005-05:00

A few things I've been thinking about lately:

~I've been bitten by the organization bug (don't worry--I'll feel better soon.) I just really want to clean something! I made a list of the areas of the house that bug me most, or the places I'm most likely to leave junk, and I've been tackling them one by one. That means that as of Friday, the floor under my kids' beds is cleaner than yours. Until tomorrow, probably.

~I've also been bitten by the "I want to make something pretty" bug, but I'm trying to suppress that one since it contradicts the "I'm sick of spending money" feeling I've had since Christmas. I might paint something this week, though. We'll see.

~I'll be teaching a beginning sign language class starting this Tuesday. I'm a bit nervous--but only because I've had a lot of people express interest in coming, and I usually have a bit of a learning curve when it comes to public speaking in a new setting. I'm happy to finally move forward on the class, though.

~Also, for lack of more interpreters, I've had to step up my skills lately. I am the Sacrament meeting interpreter every week, the whole hour. In my last ward, we never did a full meeting, and we would switch off weeks enough that nobody felt over burdened. It leaves me pretty wiped out (as I head to Primary, which is pretty demanding, too) but I'm excited to see my sign skills improving. Now to work on the technical skills...

~We have a bit of a bed-wetting problem that up until now, we dealt with by using pull-ups every night. Lately, the kids have decided they're done with pull-ups. I'm doing a lot of laundry. And waking up a lot at night. On the flip side, the kids are doing much better and feeling better about themselves. (Hannah would like to point out that she is not the one with the problem.)

~The kids had a snow day on Friday. It was the first real day of snow we've had all winter. I can't quite figure out why school was cancelled, since it really wasn't that bad outside, but the kids didn't mind.

~Christian is dieting again. Its been two weeks, and he's down 10 lbs. He's strict about calories and recording everything! We're getting creative about fun, satisfying, low cal foods. And he eats a ton of celery.

~Mario Kart is becoming a bit of an addiction around here.

Vacation antics

2012-01-09T12:39:00.000-05:00

I'm seriously tempted to avoid a vacation blog post by linking to DeAnn's very thorough post here. But that's probably cheating.

After the Christmas high, we were in serious need of some down time, so we rested and kept things simple at home for a day or two. I also used the time to hit the gym as often as possible in a vain attempt to counteract the damage of two weeks of Green family gluttony.

On Wednesday night, Jonathan and DeAnn and kids arrived. Thankfully, by then the house was at least mostly put back together:) We watched a lot of football and basketball (Go BYU! And anyone who once played for BYU!). We played a lot of games, including a new one called "Ticket to Ride: Europe." Isaac discovered our Nerf gun and shot Christian in the forhead while standing on our upstairs balcony.

The kids took full advantage of the basement and the beanbags. It was so nice to be able to shut a door on all their noise!

On Saturday, we got a babysitter and went out to lunch with DeAnn's old neighbor (from when she lived her 5 years ago) Stephanie Snowberger and her husband, Devin. Fun times had by all. Plus, we saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and came home to a fairly calm house (by "calm" I mean the babysitter wasn't tearing her hair out).

For Christmas Eve, we let the kids stay up (although Aaron twice asked to go to bed early) and watch old Muppet movies (mahna mahna). We had a nice spread of rice pudding, guacamole, spinach dip, chips, onion dip, lil smokies, latkes (the kids wouldn't try them), cookies, fun soda pop and this orange egg nog drink that's kind of a tradition, candy, and more. We realized that without intending to, spending New Years' together is an accidental tradition for Jonathan's family and mine. Despite several moves, we've spent the last 7 New Years' together.

The next day we were up early for church. I decided that the only people up that early on New Year's morning were Mormons heading to church and partiers who hadn't yet gone to bed. DeAnn and I got a nice nap that afternoon.

The big girls had a basement sleepover that night.

The cousins left Monday morning, and we spent the remainder of the day putting the house back together.

That night, when I put Aaron to bed, he said, "I love both of you." "Both of me?" I asked. "You and Natalie."

Tuesday was spent letting the kids get all their "to-much party" crabiness out before heading back to school on Wednesday. Thank goodness for routine again!

10 years and counting

2012-01-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

Our anniversary came and went without the final installment of our story (more here, here, here, and here). I was too busy having a date-day with Christian!

10 years ago, in the weeks leading up to our wedding, I remember expecting to be hit by pre-wedding nerves. One night I was out with Christian, and I asked him if he felt nervous about getting married. He probably thought I had some worries of my own to confess. What I really wanted to talk about was how right it felt to be planning our wedding, and how ready I was to move on the the next step. It all just felt very natural.

We spent the night before our wedding hanging out with Christian's brothers, Adam and Jonathan, and Adam's wife, Jennie (DeAnn stayed home, very pregnant with Megan, her 2nd). We caught a late night showing of Lord of the Rings (the first), which ended around 2 am on my wedding day. Because it was way past our self-imposed curfew, Christian's brothers drove me home. About 5 hours later, I was up getting dressed, styled and made up by my roommates, waiting for Christian and his Dad to come pick me up and head to Mt Timpanogos temple. Because of a mix-up meeting up with my Dad, I honestly thought I'd have to get married in something other than my wedding dress, but thankfully it all worked out.

With Dad and Marianne:

Shotgun wedding:

Just kidding. That's my nephew, Spencer:)

With my Mom and siblings:

With Christian's parents:

With just my little sister, Dana:

Funny how Christian is as much taller than me as I was taller than my 8 yr old sister...

The group shot:

We don't have very many pictures from the day, not as many as I'd like, but it was a very happy day. Seriously, we have only 2 pictures of just Christian and me (the one at the top of the page, in which my Mom wanted a picture of the arches, and we just happened to be standing under them, and this lovely one below. Yes, folks, that's it. Just these two. The rest we had to share with someone else's lovely face.)

We celebrated with a late afternoon luncheon at Christian's parent's home, in place of a full-blown reception, and I hear we had really awesome food.

We also had a very laid back open house at my home in Washington.

Flash forward 10 years...we've both graduated from BYU, helped run a start-up family business and a "not for profit design service", lived in 5 states, owned 3 homes, had a roommate for 3 years (Christian's brother, James, lived with us in Provo), had 4 wonderful kids, watched those kids morph from helpless babies to real live people who can actually clean a bathroom and read a book...and we certainly have a lot of fun. While we certainly have had some difficult experiences, there's always a lot of laughter in our house!

Christian stayed home from work all day. We had a nice time working and reminiscing together. We celebrated by cashing in a gift card to Eddi Merlot's (a restaurant so fancy-shmancy, I seriously stressed about what to wear), and feasted on a shared meal of beef tenderloin. We also shared a bottle of fake bubbly to celebrate the occassion!

You better like this or else.

2012-01-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

For a DIYer like me, there's a certain amount of payoff I get with the finished product...and people's reaction to it. This year, we decided to finally wrap up the basement project, literally--not only were we done with the drama of the moldy ceiling, we decided to make the basement functional as the main family Christmas present. Thankfully, the kids thought it was an awesome Christmas gift! So, while there are one or two details to finish up, I guess you could call this the official "After" post of what is now probably the most dramatic DIY project I've ever done. And you better think its as awesome as I do.

The Before:

(See what they taught me in design school?)

I don't have a proper before shot, but picture a windowless basement, two rooms separated by French doors. White walls in the main space, weird lime green in the other. About 1/3 as many lights as you'd expect in the space. And no staircase railing, since the previous owners broke it on their way out. Zero functional space (but a decent size).

The Middle:

Last June our ceiling in the smaller green room came down thanks to some water damage. Lovely drywall ground into the carpet, exposed pipes and electrical, and mold.

We kept the electrical work all in the family. Grandpa Green was in town to help, and Daddy's taught the girls, and my sister, Dana, who was visiting at the time, a bit about wiring.

And Now:

The main room is for toys, the kids' computer, and gaming.

We used this post from Infarrantly Creative as inspiration to make these framed game boards, which just might be the coolest addition. We stayed up until 3 am on Christmas Eve Eve (or Christmas Adam, as some say, since Adam came before Eve). We plan on collected older versions of the games, and using higher quality wood next time.

Instead of doing major electrical work, we're supplementing the light in the main room with these friendly tree-lamps.

Still to do--replace the bannister! And notice the white spot on the walls? We still have some touch-ups to do. The last owners had a wet bar here. Took the bar, left the water pipe sticking out of the wall. Thanks.

Thanks, Martha Stewart via Home Depot, for useful toy storage.

The furniture is all a collection of stuff we already had and stuff we've been given through the years. The little game table is a hand me down from my friend, Jessica, and the maps were purchased and laminated a few years ago to track Chrisian's business trip through Asia.

We're calling this room the bean bag room. Grandpa Green helped us fix up the lighting during his visit in September. We later installed a dimmer switch. We removed the french doors to open up the space. Plus, the doors swung the wrong way, making the light switch useless. We plan on purchasing a new tv and a few more extra-large bean bags as time goes on. They're super comfortable!

This picture clip hanger is something I picked up from Ikea last summer--wish I had bought a few more. Its awesome! I have another one we used in our last kitchen, but I haven't found it since the move. It will go in the big room, above the kids' toys.

The color is Autumn Haze, ripped off from The House of Smiths' house color pallete. I love it. I think having the right color on the wall made almost as much difference as the improved lighting!

I think I'm so impressed with this renovation because it took a completely useless, stupid space and made it completely function and inviting. Its really a fun place to be. Plus, we did it for relatively little money. Only a few repairs (some DIY, so hired out), paint, and a few pieces of decor!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T20:20:00.003-05:00

Our top 10 moments from 2011:

10: Kids start 4th (Hannah, 9), 2nd (Rachel, 7), 1st (Nathan, 6)...and preschool (Aaron, 4)

9: Trips back to Michigan for Ultimate Frisbee and friends!

8: Learning new DIY skills--for fun and necessity

7: A long visit from Aunt Dana in September

6: Mom broke her foot jumping on the trampoline with the kids!

5: Celebrating two family weddings...Welcome Courtney and Racheal!

4: Fixing up the basement--we're happy to have the ceiling off the floor! Plus, it was a fun Christmas surprise for the kids :)

3: A 30-hour cross-country drive to visit family in Washington, Utah, and Idaho.

2: A Green family reunion in Bear Lake (and wake-boarding for the first time)

#1: Moved to Indiana--new friends, new opportunities!

It's been a big year for us! We're always thankful to end the year with the reminder of all we have to be thankful for, plus lots of good family time.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year, and thanks for being our friends!

Pretty big deal

2011-12-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

Guess how my kids feel about snow?

So far we've only had a few inches...Even I can get excited about that!

Things are a bit odd around here...

2011-11-20T22:04:00.000-05:00

We've had a few extra *special* happenings around here...

First off, Hannah was sent home from school Wednesday because she threw up in the school cafeteria. The next day, in an apparently unrelated chain of events, her left eye began to redden and swell shut. After a quick trip to the doctor, we learned that she has cellulitis, and she began a rather miserable round of antibiotics. I kept her home from school, both because she wasn't feeling well, and I didn't want her to face a bunch of curious kids pointing and laughing.

Admittedly, not her best week.

In other news, the kids had their yearly Primary program today. I'm in the presidency, so I helped coordinate the program, including lots of practices. This afternoon, when it was Aaron's turn to the pulpit, he decided to ignore the script and say whatever he felt like saying. I think it was his version of bearing a testimony, and if I wasn't laughing so hard I might have written it down. I do remember his mentioning his wonderful parents.

Also, in his prayer tonight Aaron thanked Heavenly Father that he hates Nathan.

Speaking of Nathan, he just finished a round of basketball, which he loved. However, this is the only semi-descent photo of him I could get. He's the one making the whole-body silly face.

another installment...

2011-11-13T21:19:00.007-05:00

I'm long over-due to post another installment in the riveting story of how Christian and I got together. This time, I have pictures. (The rest of the story can be found here, here, and here...)

So, we were dating in September. Being clueless in the guy-department (I was, not Christian), we had a few minor snags, but nothing too major. After only a few weeks, we both knew the marriage was a-coming, but Christian was ready first. He seriously tried to talk about setting a date after only 2 or 3 weeks of dating. I held him off. I really enjoyed dating and didn't want to feel rushed. I even told him that while I didn't see myself marrying anyone else, I wasn't ready for him to ask me yet. (So of course he went ring-shopping).

Another week went by. The real changing point for me happened at his parent's house. They lived nearby, in Salem, Utah, and we visited regularly. We went for dinner, sitting in the backyard with nearly all of the family, talking, and I though, "I want to be part of this." Sound corny? (And Green family--don't get too cocky...I didn't really know you yet!). That night, I told Christian I was ready for him to propose.

We entered that oh, so awkward "engaged to be engaged" period...and eventually had a mini-proposal/agreement, with Christian down on one knee in my apartment one afternoon so we could go ahead with the business of setting a date. We kept it private, though...the "real" proposal would come later.

And by "later," I mean like the following weekend. Christian planned a nice dinner at his parents' house and invited my roommates and his. If you are familiar with BYU roommate traditions, when one roommate gets engaged, they are supposed to provide a steak dinner for the other roommates. Steak was on the menu that night. His younger siblings, Peter and Bethany, dressed up in black and white and served dinner. While everyone else cleaned up, Christian and I went on a walk, where he proposed officially and gave me the ring.

This week, while de-junking, I ran across a bunch of our un-used engagement photos. Most of these were taken by Christian's brother, Daniel, and his wife, Jeni. They should not serve as a good reference for anyone deciding to take engagement photos:

The"Hey, look--We're hanging out in a tree!" pose--

Trying to look serious...

Keeping a very proper distance between us...

The "pull"

The "Chin-rest"--

One of these things is slightly larger than the other...

Because everyone wants to see our tongues...

And, finally--our first Halloween together as Tony the Tiger and his Frosted Flake:

She's so vain!

2011-11-10T11:34:00.003-05:00

Rachel would be the first to tell you that's she's a pretty girl with pretty hair. She isn't one bit shy is that area :) Her long hair had become a bit inconvenient--what with all the food and toys that regular got caught up in it. We decided that after Halloween (we needed long hair for her Cinderella look) we'd get it cut. Fortunately, it was long enough (with inches to spare) to donate to locks of love.

Here is the "before":

The "during":

And a few "After" shots:

I kind of love it!

Halloween, 2011

2011-11-10T11:25:00.006-05:00

This year for Halloween, I had ...

Ginny Weasley (we even died her hair red!)

a princess (had to get 2 years out of the dress I stressed over last year...)

a hot dog!

A dragon!

and a pink, cuddle, scruffy bear!

Christian and I went up to Michigan for a pirate-themed murder mystery dinner, but I didn't take any pictures! Christian made a fantastic pirate--he had a wig and a sword and everything!

Enough pictures....let's go!

Teaching by example

2011-10-30T14:33:00.003-04:00

Monday night we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and have Family Home Evening outside. We all piled on to the trampoline for songs, prayer, and a brief lesson (its really hard for kids to listen reverently on a tramp...they just wanna bounce!). For an activity, we decided to play "monster." Two people lay down in the center of the trampoline and tried to drag everyone else down into a pile. As we played a few rounds of this game, I couldn't help thinking (and saying) that someone would get hurt if we weren't careful. We finished up and started sending the kids in. Rachel and I stayed to jump a bit, and Daddy stayed to try to "get" us again. Only Rachel and I were on the tramp, but Daddy's has long arms, so it was kind of scary. I came pretty close to stepping on Rachel at one point, in my attempt to avoid Daddy's reach, and ended up falling in a heap next to Rachel. We both felt a little bruised up. Or more than that. I had a really hard time walking in the house. That night it only got worse...So in the morning I headed down to the local Redi-med (giggling all the way--what kind of grown-up gets injured on a trampoline). The verdict? A real-live broken bone (1st in my life), and a gift of crutches (which I'm too clumsy to use) and this gorgeous new shoe.

Oh, and I got a week of being lazy out of it...and 5 more weeks of wanting to do more than I can while I wait for it to heal up.

Hannah's 9th

2011-10-30T12:52:00.005-04:00

October started out with a party~ Hannah turned 9 over General Conference weekend (the 1st weekend of the month). We celebrated by having a mother/daughter date for a mani-pedi. The lady was so nice--she painted flowers on Hannah's hands and feet for a special birthday treat.

I loved giving my daughter a gift that allowed me to be pampered for an hour:) Afterwards, we had a special "crazy cafe" dinner (we ordered mystery items off a menu, which included cups, silverware, and Hannah's favorite foods).

And then we did this to her:

Hannah has been asking for months to have her face smashed in a cake. After watching her, the other kids (except Nathan) wanted to give it a try:

(Rachel, with a bit of pie crust in her teeth)

We finished off the night with a real cake, some baths, and presents!

Picts from the past

2011-10-09T08:58:00.004-04:00

We're having some computer problems, limiting my access to photos and documents...but the positive side is that I found some photos I thought had been lost. Picasa is weird sometimes. Anyway, I wanted to share (especially in case I lose them again!)

These are from the day Aaron was born, back in North Carolina. My sweet sister-in-law Marcy was taking care of the 3 older kids. I just love these pictures of the girls meeting their new brother :)

The List

2011-09-27T15:33:00.004-04:00

Here's a list of projects its about time I finish...

For Free:

1.Hang the shelf/hanger in the entry hall *

2.Paint the girls' bookshelf

3.Paint the girls' bedside table

4.Fill the frames in the stairway photo collage

5.Sand the cabinets/tub frame in the master bathroom

6.Re-hang blinds in the girls' room *

7.Prime the basement walls

8.Arrange a craft room in 4th bedroom

9.prime master bedroom

10.decorate for fall/Halloween

11.decorate entry hall

For some $:

12.call the drywall guy

13.clean the basement carpet

14.new ceiling fan/light in master bedroom

15.paint master bathroom/bedroom

16.B&B in master bathroom

17.new lights for bathroom

18.costumes?

20 projects I ought to do/can do right away....aside from my normal Mommy-life, and before getting to the more expensive stuff, light built-ins for the basement and a redo of the kids' bathroom. This is the never ending house...

Update: *=done!

This and that...and that...and that

2011-09-25T20:39:00.008-04:00

September has been a little of this and that...

This work tearing off wallpaper in the kitchen (and scrubbing walls):

This fine example of taxidermy, as seen in the cabin rented for a women's retreat with the women of my ward:

That kid using my ipod at the "boring" water park:

That weekend we drove to Lake Michigan for one last burst of summer:

This kid's 4th birthday (and the construction of a truly awesome working-train cake, with a tunnel):

That super-cool haircut:

And a bit of family drama, that resulted in a fun vacation with my sister (including her 18th birthday):

(modelling the outfit my kids bought for her. Hannah wanted to give Dana a prank present, but Dana actually loved it)

This new fancy-shmancy dishwasher,which makes me more excited than I can say (it actually cleans dishes!!!!)

It has also included a quick visit with Grandpa Green,

(That's bbq sauce, not blood. Doesn't it kind of look like blood?)

a basement project to add some light to the room (before replacing the ceiling...Hey, maybe I'm not happy about the ceiling coming down, but I'm happy about the light),

and a new project in the master bathroom, which has already transformed it from being a brown cave of gloom. More to come on that...eventually.

1st Date

2011-09-17T20:23:00.002-04:00

Welcome to another installment of the Christian and Robyn story. The last time I posted, I talked about how I spent the summer in Washington and kept up a friendship with Christian online and on the phone. We planned our first date over the phone a week or so before I flew back to Utah.

Christian picked me up from the airport wearing a new shirt (red, plaid) and holding a bunch of flowers. He had borrowed his father's (much nicer) car to drive me back to Provo and help me get moved in. In the car, he had a cooler with some bubbly (sparkling grape juice) and fancy goblets to celebrate my homecoming. I remember thinking a lot about what it would be like to see him again, after our friendship had advanced so much without being face to face--but it wasn't awkward.

We drove down to Provo, checked into my apartment, and then headed down to Salem for a group date at his parent's house.

The plan was to play volleyball in the backyard and then have bbq (Christian hasn't changed much through the years...its always a bbq). The only problem is that Christian was doing the cooking, and I wasn't sure if I should help him or stay with the party. So I stayed with the party. When it was time to eat, I had no idea where he was! So, I just picked a seat around the large picnic tables. The other couples sort of filled in around me. The problem was that I was the only single, and the couples left another single seat across the table from me, not next to me. To this day Christian gives me a hard time about not sitting next to him on our first date, but it was NOT MY FAULT! Probably the best part of the evening was helping clean up afterwards, because we actually were together.

After that, we hung out a lot. My roommate called him my boyfriend, but it took me a while to warm up to the title.

(Because this post needs some pictures)

We had a quesadilla picnic at the park, rode tandem bicycles down the Provo River Trail (with a staged picnic half-way down),

went fake trick-or-treating, did a murder mystery dinner, hosted dinner for Christian's younger siblings, rode canoes on Salem Pond again...I asked Christian to list a few other fun dates we had, but he said that's a dangerous question (because, while he remembers a lot of dates from his younger years, but doesn't always remember who they were with. The first two dates he listed weren't with me:).

Sometime between all these fun dates, school, and work schedules, we started having a conversation that went something like this:

Christian: So, what do you think about December 21? That's my parent's anniversary...

Me: We've been dating for like a week.

Christian: So, I ought to schedule the temple soon...

Me: We've been dating for two weeks.

Christian: I went ring shopping.

Me: Is it pretty?

While I was fairly sure I'd eventually marry this guy, it took me a while (we're talking, like, three whole weeks!) to decide I was ready. Thankfully, he was willing to wait (did I mention we only dated 3 weeks?)...

Boys (and kids) and their toys

2011-09-01T15:42:00.007-04:00

Last Saturday Christian had the opportunity to help out with a community fundraiser--You know, totally a self-sacrificing, give up a Saturday kind of activity.

A go-kart race?

That kind of fundraiser is so much cooler than the wrapping paper one my kids are doing for school right now. (Speaking of which--anyone want overpriced wrapping paper?)

Christian's company sponsored a go-kart for a local fundraiser. Members of his team spent hours, every week for several weeks prepping for the event, but Christian was grabbed last minute for his brute strength.

Hannah went with him early, and we joined him later in the morning. The kids loved watching the excitement, eating donuts, helping wipe down the kart after races,

and stayed close to the kart to be sure and catch an opportunity to drive it...Which they all did.

Mad etc. Vacation: Bear Lake

2011-08-25T20:23:00.002-04:00

Imagine 9 siblings+ spouses, 1 Grandpa, 1 uncle, 2 aunts, and 20+ cousins (age 11 and under) living for a week in a cabin. Jealous? You should be, because we had a blast!

We spent a big chunk of the week alternating between hanging out at the beach and boating

or using the jet skis.

Unfortunately, many of us didn't use sufficient sunscreen on the first day, so we spent the rest of the week nursing nasty sunburns!

The kids loved the sand...

and the tubes...

Most of the kids tried wake boarding.

Rachel got a bit scared once she was out in the water, attached to the board and decided she just wanted to go swimming, but Hannah tried it twice and even got up once.

Uncle Peter was a huge help while the kids played around.

Aaron and Nathan were pretty content to ride the boat. Grandpa let them drive the boat, too! And both boys tried tubing, and had a blast.

We spent one day visiting the town of Paris, Idaho.

We toured the Paris Tabernacle and played a quick game of frisbee (we never go anywhere anymore without a frisbee on hand).

Some of the cousins :)

Then we took a short, pretty hike up to some springs.

During the week, we enjoyed game nights, a campfire and smores,

a birthday celebration for all the kids, and cake for Isaac's 4th birthday, and thoroughly enjoyed being together.

Thanks to everyone who came, and especially those who helped put it all together!

And yes, I can finally stop posting about my summer vacation now.

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Vacation, Part 2

2011-08-24T11:24:00.007-04:00

I have to hurry and finish posting about this vacation!

We spent the remainder of our time in Washington playing with cousins. We visited a petting zoo, had a few sleep-overs, and did a nice breakfast together.

I loved seeing the kids play together in my Mom's backyard, the way I used to play with my brothers when I was a kid.

I drove to Utah on my own. The kids did pretty well, and we stayed one night in a hotel to break it up. Once in Utah, I spent a day with my Dad.

We did some of the usual Utah stuff--Temple Square, a little hike in Brighton--

as well as attempt swimming in his neighborhood pool. Since it was raining, with lightning, that didn't last long. The kids really enjoyed getting reacquainted with all their grandparents this summer!

The next day, I got to visit with the Rowley's!

I knew Anna and her family during the one year they lived in Michigan. She has a gorgeous family, plus a new baby, and Hannah and Aaron especially missed their friends Paige

and Boston.

We spent most of the day together, talking, visiting the local splash park, and painting rocks.

We also got to see a re-creation of the Up house, built near Anna's house:

After that, we needed a break! We drove down to Salem to spend the rest of the week with Christian's dad. We had two mostly unscheduled days to play and rest.

I got to see my cousin, Shelly--see her new home in Provo, and meet her son (almost 1 year old).

I also got to spend some time with my old roommates, Joy, Sharilyn, and Sarah. We had an afternoon to play at Joy's home (for C Jane followers, she literally lives right around the corner from Retro house). Our kids are close in age and had fun together.

And then Christian flew into town. We had some fun family dinners, a huge shopping trip to prep for Bear Lake,

and the Mt. Timp hike he posted about.

The only things I didn't get done, but intended to, was a trip to Jamba Juice, Deseret Book and the distribution center, and a visit with my younger brother (he was too busy with friends...Boo). I think getting back to Utah every once in a while is really good for me!

Ode to Dana

2011-08-15T09:07:00.000-04:00

This is my sister, Dana.

Dana is almost 18, and starting her senior year of high school this fall. She was in Kindergarten when I left for college. I really don't get to see her very often (maybe once a year, if I'm lucky), so one of my favorite things about my summer trip was getting to spend a week with her.

She's sort of the brown-eyed, brown-haired, way cooler version of me, minus 13 years.

One thing I like about Dana is that she doesn't let a silly thing like standing in a lake stop her from texting with her friends.

And I like that she makes awesome silly faces, behaves like a kid,

and happens to like my kids.

Even goats love her.

Its a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad trip: part 1

2011-08-14T20:33:00.001-04:00

I haven't been home to Washington since my brother got married 6 years ago. With Christian's family reunion scheduled for Bear Lake, we decided it was time to make the drive. I was very concerned about the trip, understandably, and how our kids would do. We drove straight through, 36 hours in the car, adding several new states to my list of places visited...and decided that the Dakotas are probably unnecessary, and would make the drive much shorter and more pleasant if they could be nicely removed from the map. And maybe a bit of Nebraska...

Our kids surprised me by doing remarkably well. We had the help of 2 DVD players, some books on CD, and sedatives. Just kidding about the sedatives.

I had a pretty long list of things to do while in Washington. I wanted to do all the fun touristy things with the kids, as well as meet up with friends and have the kids meet their Rushton cousins, who they had only met briefly...as babies.

(Me and my kid sister, Dana)

(She generously put her life on hold to hang out with me during the week.)

We arrived on Sunday, and I enjoyed going back to the ward I grew up in, even though it has almost completely changed. That afternoon we took the kids to Mukilteo beach to enjoy the very typical Seattle summer weather (i.e. cold, damp, and cloudy...but pretty!)

beach loot

Christian could only stay one day before flying back home for work, so we packed Monday with some downtown activities. Seattle has one of the best Aquariums I've seen (OK, I've seen two. Baltimore's is kind of boring). The kids enjoyed the shallow pools full of sea cucumbers, sea sponges, and crabs. They could touch it all.

My kids ran through the place so fast!

We had a picnic on the pier before heading over to the Pacific Science Center, which wasn't as cool as I remember, but we enjoyed the Science of Fear exhibit, where the kids got to videotape themselves falling--and see their own reaction.

Seeing dinosaurs...

And dressing up as them...

Rachel, our resident bug lover, held this huge roach...

And a close-up:

Confusing Christian

2011-08-12T17:08:00.003-04:00

This is part 2 of the BYU success story--otherwise knows as How I Met my Husband, leading up to our 10 year anniversary.

Part one: BYU success story

Christian and I spent most of July e-mailing back and forth. I saved a bunch of them, and they're pretty funny. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that there was Something Happening between us, but I wasn't sure yet how I felt about that. I was simply enjoying the friendly, sometimes flirty, nature of our conversations. I know I was driving him crazy. I tell him all the time that if I stayed in Utah that summer, things might not have worked out between us because I was so bad at relationships. What he didn't know was that summer I had no working internet connection at my Mom's house. In order to sustain this e-mail friendship, I had to find a way to reach a computer (at the library, a friends' house), so I think the level of effort I put into it shows that I was interested. Sometime into the summer, we began discussing the possibility of a visit.

Christian and I had good friends, Joy and Joey, who had met and started dating around the time we met and started...being friends (not dating). Joy lived in Washington, near me, and was planning on spending fall semester in London before serving a mission. She didn't expect to be back at BYU for 2 years, which was particularly concerning for Joey (who really just wanted a decent chance to change her mind). Christian decided that it was his duty to drive Joey to Washington so that he and Joy could spend some time together...and, you know, maybe I could go down and hang out with them. So, at the end of July, I met Christian and Joey at Joy's house, where we spent the weekend enjoying the best of Washington.

We hiked in Issaquah, picnicked in the Arboretum,

rode a ferry, and took a walk on the beach.

(I love this picture, because it shows Christian trying to stand next to me...and leaning quite a bit)

During this weekend, I thought seriously about whether or not I was interested in dating Christian. I decided I wasn't. Joy passed this message on to Christian as gently as she could (while on the ferry), and then told me she had talked with him...and I immediately began to second guess myself.

I spent the rest of the weekend thinking that maybe I was interested, after all...and thinking that I was behaving in a more encouraging manner (which I wasn't). We had quite a bit of time to ourselves, since we were giving Joy and Joey time to themselves, including what could have been a very romantic walk on the beach, if I had let him hold my hand, which I didn't. Before leaving, Christian mentioned maybe talking on the phone over the next few weeks before school started and the only thing I said was that between our work schedules, it might be hard to find a time. I didn't mean to be discouraging, but yeah, I kind of was.

Anyway, poor Christian drove back to Utah with no encouragement from me. Boo.

I did one thing right. I sent him an e-mail before he got home, and called him the next day. After that, we called more than e-mailing. He even called me at work sometimes (Fred Meyer, home and auto department) to save me from boredom. We talked all the time, and it became apparent that our little friendship had become more. I remember our first phone conversation, after his little trip, when he talked about how his mother had taught all his sisters-in-law to cut their husband's hair and how his mother had made quilts for all her children as wedding gifts--and he described his to me. I thought it was an interesting topic for us to discuss--probably way more indicative of how he was feeling than he intended it to be. (Especially since we still hadn't gone on a real date).

That August, I decided that I needed to bring up the topic of marriage at home. While I was hardly ready to get engaged yet, I knew that if I let something develop with Christian, I had to be serious about it.

**Sidenote--I knew Christian was serious about marriage for a few reasons. First of all, he told me he was. He was almost 4 years older than me, which at the time seemed like a lot. Also, he had a certain encounter with Elder Charles Didier, who was visiting Christian's family while his father served as Stake President. Elder Didier mentioned that he go married in his late twenties. Christian jokingly told him that he would follow in footsteps and wait a while for marriage, but Elder Didier told him in no uncertain terms to be serious about marriage. Christian stopped by my apartment after that conversation and told me, "I'm trying!"

Before heading to school that Fall, I had a conversation with my Mom about what she would do if I got married, and scheduled my first date with Christian.

P.S. Jo(e)y were married 6 months after us--she went to London, but came back to Provo for Joey before deciding whether or not to serve a mission. Christian and I still claim to be very influential in getting them together:)

When the going gets tough...

2011-08-02T08:42:00.000-04:00

My younger brother Peter and I left our home base at 4:30 am this Monday to go hike Mt. Timpanogos. Our problem was that the summer has been so wet and snowy that about 2 miles into the hike, we encountered a spot where the trail was washed out and in it's place were large snow packs. We weren't sure how stable the snow was, so we decided to turn around. We left proud that we had conquered the easy parts - that we kept going until the going got tough...

Peter and I

The Conquerer and his beastly yell...

2011-07-24T15:31:00.000-04:00

I'm currently in the middle of three weeks of vacation, making it challenging to keep up with the blog world, but I wanted to stop for a minute and give a quick glimpse of what we're up to.

Basically we're driving a lot.

Oh, there's other stuff, too. But we left last Friday and drove straight through to Washington--37 hours. The kids surprised me by how well they behaved, aside from requesting more potty stops that I wanted. So now we're here, hanging out at my Mom's house, squeezing in as much playtime and sightseeing as we can. Christian stayed until Monday and then flew back to work. He'll join us later on for the end of the vacation.

Here's just a taste, in pictures, of why I like Seattle (even if I never want to live here again--but that's not really Seattle's fault).

(hanging with cousins at the Aquarium)

(Yes, that's on octopus)

(People swim in 70 degree weather? Really?)

(Cute aunt Dana)

See you soon for a more!

Happy Dance

2011-07-14T19:01:00.003-04:00

It's done! It's done!

I finally finished the bathroom! (And it looks pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Which I do.)

And here it is (in all its regular camera-glory. No natural light ever reaches this room, and its really small, so getting a good picture is REALLY hard. You'll just have to stop by and see it in person)

Molding--done (and it makes such a difference!)

Mirror--framed (only took me three tries--I kept using the wrong adhesive! Note to self: use white bathroom silicone)

Accessories--thank you Target, Goodwill, and spray paint. (And Deseret Book, although I'm not sure the bathroom is the best place for the temple picture, so it might find a home elsewhere)

New sink and faucet, painted cabinet, repaired toilet, green (Cyprus Grass, by Glidden) paint copied from House of Smiths...

It all adds up to a happy wife :)
(and seriously, I'm so glad that when I get home from vacation, I'll have one less project staring me in the face)

BYU success story

2011-07-10T19:52:00.000-04:00

Bear with me--I'm about to get sentimental.

Christian and I this time of year, 10 years ago. We met, officially, playing ultimate frisbee at a park in Provo, where I played a mediocre game but miraculously caught a pass from him, to score a point. He thought it was a nice catch, and thought that I might be, too.

(In reality, we had spoken before. His sister-in-law's (Jeni's) sister, Lora Jean, had lived in my apartment and had recently moved a few doors down. Christian called a few times to ask her out. He'd ask for her phone number, and once I went down and knocked on her door to get her info).

I thought that, in honor of my impending 10th anniversary, it might be nice to dig out some old, pre-digital photos of the old days, and share a bit of our story.

First off, here's a little about the 19/barely 20 yr old me: I was taking art classes at BYU. I had finished my sophomore year, and decided to stay for Spring term. My sophomore year was fun--really fun! Go apt 23!--and I think it bugs Christian when I rave about it, but really, that was the year I gained independence, confidence, and a few special experiences that helped me grow up and be ready to be a real-live adult. And get married the next year (spoiler!). I loved being an interior design student, because I got to watch tv while doing homework (drawing pretty pictures) while my roommates stressed about writing papers and reading huge books (I did a bit of that, too...don't think I was a slacker).

(Blow-drying an oil paint assignment in the morning before class.)

I love looking back on some of my artwork, especially since I feel pretty far removed from that life now. I also had really fun, smart, fantastic roommates--5 of them--and met some wonderful people. We had this cool photo wall in our place, called the Wok Wall. We literally had a wok and made people pose for a picture with it when anyone new came by our place.

Anyway, I stayed for Spring term, decided to play frisbee, and met Christian.

(Posing for the Wok Wall in his Tigger suit)

He wasn't taking classes at the time, but was a student and had majored in about 5 different subjects during his time there. He had lived in the ward the year before, and moved out when I moved in. That Spring, he moved back with his brother, James, so he knew several people in the ward and was called into the Elders' quorum presidency. While dividing up the girls for home teaching assignments, he picked me (cuz I was a great catch), another roommate because she played the cello, and another one because she was fun. True revelation at work!

That Spring term, he was a very diligent home teacher. He washed our dishes. He cooked for us (even breakfast!). He took this group photo of my Spring term roommates.

During Finals, he took my whole apartment out to dinner. I discovered that both me and my roommate fit inside his Tigger suit. For my 20th birthday, he arranged a surprise ice cream shin dig up at Rock Creek Park. He arranged a musical number, performed by the ladies of Apt. 23. He taught us how to bang hollow tubes (Boom-wackers) on our heads to the tune of "I Am A Child of God." He took us canoeing on Salem Pond, but deliberately planned so that he and I would be in separate boats.

But we didn't date.

Good times, good times.

After Spring term, I went home for the summer. After helping me clean the apartment, Christian let me (and my roommate, Joy) stay at his parent's house for the night before flying home the next day. That night, I met most of his (large) family. I remember feeling very intimidated. At home, my social life slowed down a lot, so I depended on e-mails from Christian (some of which he wrote with a Spanish-Fork accent).

That's our history, as of this time 10 years ago. The really good stuff comes soon...

Summer So Far

2011-07-10T16:55:00.000-04:00

While summer is supposed to be a time of lazy days and sleeping in, my kids seem incapable of sleeping past 6:30 (I'm not), and we've actually packed quite a bit into our 3 weeks of summer so far (especially if you include all the tv we watch--so busy!).

I drove the kids up to Michigan again so that Rachel to play with her best friend, Madison, so is also deaf.

The kids just finished up a round of swim classes--mornings, 4 days a week for 2 weeks. Fortunately, they've paid off. The kids are swimming really well. I'm trying to get them ready for Grandpa's new boat. (Sorry, no pictures...but indoor pool pictures rarely turn out that well)

Rachel took a dance camp last week. She's been wanted to try ballet for a while, and this was supposed to be an easy to way to see if it would work for her. Unfortunately, the camp was held during the week Christian left for a work trip, so it was somewhat more painful than expected (juggling kids and interpreting), but she enjoyed it enough that I think we'll try again. She has pretty poor balance, but she can hear the music and enjoys all things girly.

Rachel likes girly things...and worms.

Nathan celebrated his 6th birthday with friends--his first party! And lost his first tooth a month later in Utah.

Coming up: A crazy cross-country trip to visit family :)

Its a sign!

2011-06-19T09:39:00.000-04:00

This is one of those how-to projects that you'll never be able to replicate. Sorry.

A few years ago, Christian helped manage a family business, producing fancy-shmancy wood products. Seriously, that was their business plan. We came out of it with a lot of wooden signs, and I'm slowly putting them to good use.

The first one finished started with this carved pine board. I began by using colored stains to paint in the floral details, but...I left it out and one of my kids spilled green stain all over it.

(I forgot to take a before picture, but thankfully we had 2. Imagine this, with green stain covering that nice unfinished beadboard...Also, I painted one of these, but my sister-in-law, Annelise, did one, too. I honestly can't remember which is which, so I don't know whose work I painted over!!)

And so it sat for a year or two. I couldn't possibly sand it down enough to get the green out, so I decided to try something bold (Bold, that is, considering Christian is usually against painting over good quality wood).

I used a few coats of spray primer (it took a lot to cover the green and get in all the corners), caulked the wood seams for a clean look, and spray painted it white. Then, to copy a blog trend, I used a tinted glaze to highlight the carving.

Its pretty simple--I got a quart of glaze, custom tinted at the store, and painted it heavily over the white. As I painted, I wiped it off with a damp cloth, and then wiped it again with a dry, soft cloth. The glaze stayed in all the carved out details. (I think, if I could start over, I might use less glaze, because it stuck to the white surface a bit, as well as the carving). I spray painted the hooks (from gold to oil rubbed bronze). We put it in our laundry room to hold aprons, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me every day. I can see it from the kitchen and family room, and it looks so friendly!

The other little project I had was to update a Family Home Evening chart. This is another thing that we have had for years, but never used. Christian made it with 7 assignments (2 prayers, song, treat, lesson, scripture, activity) and made hearts with the girls' names on them to hang from the pegs. Once we had boys, it became obsolete, plus we could never decide how to fill all the assignments. So, in an effort to finally use what we have, I tackled the name pieces. I filled in the names with wood putty, sanded them well, and primed and painted them off white.

I cut off the raffia and retied them with brown and white ribbon.

I ordered vinyl with our names to replace the engraved names and make them all uniform (expect, for some reason, they made Daddy's name smaller than the rest. I think its kind of funny.)

For now, we won't use the 2nd prayer assignment...but I'll probably make a blank hanging shape for visitors or friends.

A distressing floor

2011-06-18T10:45:00.000-04:00

This is an older post I'm just now getting around to posting (I waited for better pictures). I think I've decided that most of my posts might leave you disinclined to buy a home, so after this, I'll try to post something successful!

So, in an effort to finish the entry hall, we decided to refinish the golden oak wood floors. On a Saturday morning, we rented a belt sander and got to work. And realized it wasn't working.

See, its actually kind of tricky to sand evenly, and we ended up with a bunch of grooves all over, perpendicular to the wood grain. Yikes!

So, while pondering what to do about it, we decided to go ahead and stain it and see if the dark stain would cover our imperfections. We started late at night, since there's no way to avoid walking over this particular spot during the day, and stained it a dark mahogany.

It looked red. Really, really red. And it didn't cover our original mistake.

What to do?

We lightly sanded it down, and tried staining it in a darker color.

And...we give up. We'll eventually replace our splotchy, tri-colored distressing (I mean "distressed," right?) floor, but I figure it can wait a while. We didn't bother sealing the stain, but we have priced out new floors, and we'll get around to it after we recover from this week or so of staining excitement!

Something's not quite right

2011-06-12T18:34:00.000-04:00

Apparently something less than fun happened when we were out of town. This afternoon I walked downstairs and found this:

Yep. Water damage--bad enough to collapse the ceiling (and yeah, it fell on some projects and, since I had recently gone through my college art portfolio, some of my drawings, as well).

So, guess what we'll be fixing up next? At least it will be really easily to improve the lighting (you know, since the ceiling is out of the way and all).

(While prepping for the plumber, we ripped off most of the rest of the ceiling. We are trying to decide how much of a priority it is to put it all back together again!)

A wedding

2011-06-10T19:59:00.010-04:00

The whole reason for our trip to Utah (aside from my birthday) was the wedding of these two awesome people.

(Don't you love her dress?)

Peter (Christian's youngest brother) and Courtney were married Saturday, June 4th at the Salt Lake temple. As always, one of the best parts of a wedding is getting to catch up with this huge, crazy family. A few siblings were missing, unfortunately, but we got to see a lot of them (hey, there's 13 in all...we have to be happy with 8 or 9 at a time!).

We attempted to get a nice picture of Christian and me on the temple grounds, but had a bit of interference.

So we edited him out

Peter and Courtney were glowing as they came out of the temple. I snapped a few pictures while we waited for the doorway to free up for pictures (By the way, I think it was pure inspiration to have 2 identical doorways/stairways at the back of the temple...Somebody had to know that tons of brides would want pictures at the same time in the same place. It was also somewhat amusing to count the number of bridal parties milling around temple square that day).

Afterwards, we headed to the Joseph Smith Building for a luncheon, and then had some free time. On our way to the car, we ran into some good friends from Michigan...who know live in Utah, and have had a new baby since we last saw them! What a nice surprise to see the Rowley's!

That afternoon, we went to a few homes on the Parade of Homes tour. One was very close to where my sister-in-law wants to build a home, and it was fun to think about what they might have soon, and the other was two doors down from the home Christian mostly grew up in. Here's the view up and down the mountain he had from that house:

That evening, there was a reception in Provo. It was a beautiful evening for...more pictures!

The boys (5 of the 9 brothers, plus Daddy)

Here are Christian's amazing sisters:

Wait, now here they all are:

Catherine and baby Alice:

My talented sister-in-law, Annelise, signing:

And my sweet nieces, helping carry the train:

My father-in-law:

Brother-in-law, Adam, and my new neice, Eliza:

My niece, Lucy, holding the bouquet:

Cutting the cake:

Sending them off with sparklers:

(Side-note: Courtney is Jimmer's cousin. My sister-in-law had a small basketball and "I love Jimmer" shirt close by, ready for an autograph, but he didn't show up. I can say that I met his aunt and uncle, and they are very nice!)

I played around with a few of these pictures on Piknik, and came up with these--I thought they were kind of cool:

Original of a stream by the Conference center:

Tweaked:

I thought it was just all so well done--and loved spending the (short) time with the family. I really married into a wonderful family!

A Newcomer

2011-06-09T20:37:00.000-04:00

We held off as long as possible...but after a frightening day driving home from Visiting Teaching, in the rain with no windshield wipers and both the check engine and check transmission lights flashing, we decided to replace our red van with this:

We're so grateful to have something reliable again! I've forgotten what it was like to have a radio...and a smooth drive...and wipers! So many things to be grateful for...

RIP, red van. Now if we can just figure out how to get rid of you...

I guess its official

2011-06-08T21:44:00.000-04:00

I guess its official--This sign proves it. Indiana is our home!

The most awesome time of year!

2011-06-07T21:06:00.001-04:00

(aside from Christmas. Maybe.)

Late Spring and early fall are my favorite times of year. Why? Because they're gorgeous, and perfectly warm without being too obnoxiously warm, but also...I like Spring time because there's a nice stretch between Mother's Day and my birthday that I claim as special. (No other birthdays in our immediate family intrude on this stretch of time). I also really like my birthday because it is evenly spaced with Christmas. I like to spread out the fun.

This year, I got to spend my birthday weekend in Utah! I'm sure this will take up more than one post, but here's a start:

Christian and I flew out of Indianapolis early Friday morning. An awesome friend from Kalamazoo (one of my YW from a few years back!) came down to watch our kids for the weekend. I feared for her life, but she lived--and even seemed happy and sane when we came home. We started our trip with a quick trip on campus to the BYU bookstore to check out some BYU gear (again, happy birthday to me!). Then, we picked up my brother, Kevin, from the library and met my Dad for lunch in Provo, followed by some mall-crawling (while Christian watched X-Men with his brothers). I met up with DeAnn and we headed to Daddy's salon in Spanish Fork (what a perk, right? A father-in-law with a salon?!) for a new haircut and style, plus a spa pedicure and mini-mani. We were there for over 2 hours--totally worth it! Christian was a bit shocked by my bright pink nails!

Apparently I didn't pull out my camera at all that day. Sorry! That night, the Green clan met up at my sister-in-law, Jennie's home/parent's home for a big dinner/musical night/embarrassing story exchange. I met my soon to be new SIL, Rachael. She'll marry Daniel in two weeks, but I won't be able to go, so it was good to meet her!

Saturday was filled with wedding goodness, so it deserves its own post!

How to Install Crown Molding...our way

2011-05-22T09:58:00.000-04:00

Just a few finishing touches for the bathroom...I'm getting excited! (Both because it looks awesome, and I really want to take it off my "to do" list!)

So, in our house, here's how we do crown molding.

Step 1: buy white trim weeks before it is needed (who knew it would take so long to get around to it?). Leave it in the garage. $10

Step 2: Buy a miter saw. Hey, at $170, it was a good deal! And he's wanted one for a long time!

Step 3: Buy a car load of wood--so much wood, in fact, that I require help loading and have a very unsafe drive home with my Kindergartner in the front seat. ($50-plus a new drill, since we can't find the old one)

Step 3.4: Bring out Littlest Pet Shop and play on the new wood.

Step 4: Build a table. Because you can't use the saw safely without a solid work surface. Plus, we've wanted one for a long time. 2 hours. (The kids loved helping).

Plus, we have enough stuff to build two more tables.

Notice the height? It is scaled for Christian, not me. I'll have to use a step stool to reach the top. On the flip side, the kids won't be able to reach anything up there, either. Totally a man table.

What was the table for, you ask? And what does this have to do with crown molding? Hang on a minute...

Step 5: What was this post about again? Oh, yeah--crown molding. We haven't gotten there yet. We realized that our bathroom walls aren't square, and the angles aren't simple, so we'll let you know when we figure it out...Since I'm not so good at tutorials, though, here's a good one: ThriftyDecorChick does crown molding (Except that for our little space, the angle isn't 45 degrees...Be grateful if it works for you!)

Identity Crisis

2011-05-22T09:43:00.000-04:00

My blog is having an identity crisis.

I am an avid blog-stalker, and I love writing posts...in my head. Actually writing them in Blogger? Much harder. Plus, as much as I love reading craft blogs, cooking, blogs, design blogs, and Mommy blogs, my life is pretty much smack in the middle. So I blog a little about everything--

My problem is that I'm bored, and I kind of think that people aren't looking at my blog because of its identity crisis.

Now, I know that I should treat blogging like a journal, and do it for posterity and all that. I get it. I don't scrapbook, and I did't do baby books, and for the most part this works for me. What I need to know is, does it bug anyone that my blog doesn't really seem to know what it is? (Plus, there's procrastination. Completing a project is fun, but writing about it weeks afterwards isn't.)

The other part to this blogging-boredom, which has been coming on for a while, is this move. This latest move was really, really hard. And we can conceivable have another one in another year or two, and then more after that. Posterity or not, I don't want to be a bummed out blogger all the time.

So, I'm trying to get back in to it. Most of what I have planned to write about is project related, because I am excited about some of the things I'm working on. But I love my kids, and they're pretty cute, so I'll write about them, too. I guess I'm just asking---Do you mind? And do you care?

All dolled up

2011-05-16T10:52:00.004-04:00

My latest project (having nothing at all to do with the house):

I found a solid wood doll cradle at my local Goodwill for $3. I figured for that price, it was worth experimenting!

I started by giving it a thorough sanding. I patched with wood filler and sanded again.

I primed and painted it white--and realized that some of the scratches, dents, etc. just wouldn't go away, so I decided to work with it.

I cut a piece of foam to fit inside, and covered it with an old t-shirt using hot glue. I thought about sewing something, but laziness won that debate.

At the craft store, I picked up a polka dot stencil, some glaze medium, purple craft paint, and tulle. I mixed the paint with a pearl medium, and used the dot stencil on both ends.

After it dried, I added some glaze medium to the paint mix and glazed all the edges.

I also used the stencil brush to add a scallop detail around the heart cut-out and along the sides.

Then, for the finishing detail, I added a tulle skirt along the bottom. First, I cut the tulle 3x's as long as the cradle. Using hot glue, I attached both ends and middle of the tulle strip to the underside of the cradle.

I continued pinching the tulle and gluing the middle of each section until it looked nice and full. I did two rows of tulle on each side--One was white with white dots, one was purple with white dots. I finished it by using staples, so it was secure.

I think it makes a pretty cute bed for my very girlie-girl and her doll!

DIP vs. DIY

2011-05-16T09:46:00.004-04:00

(As in, "do it professionally")

Before: (Or during--since we've already ripped off most of the wallpaper, leaving only a few dangly pieces that were too high for us to reach--picture emerald green stripes. And we put in the carpet.)

This is the age of "If they can do, I can too...and cheaper" or "Why should I pay them for something I can do myself" and usually I agree. Having recently gone in way over my head on home renovations, I'm here to say-sometimes its okay to pay. We have a super-tall stairwell (with wallpaper) and I knew that to do it myself would be to risk breaking my neck. My neighbor suggested using her painter (yes, my neighbor has a painter AND a handyman), and I told myself that if could do if for less than a *certain* amount of money, I'd go ahead and contract it out. I'm glad I did. Not only did he agree to do more than I originally planned on (he's doing the upstairs hall, too), for the amount I was willing to spend, I've already seen that he does a much better job than I do. (I thought I had spackled so the walls would be ready for paint, and then he showed me just how much his crew did to get it really, really ready for paint. Plus the wallpaper is already gone, with much less mess than I would have made.)

Granted, its still way cheaper to do it myself, and I probably will for most things. I'm just saying--it's worth it to me to know that this project will be done TODAY, not by me, and done well. Its actually a huge relief, and I'm willing to pay for it.

Official "Afters" to come...And I have big plans for a picture collage wall!

What's green and pink and speckled all over?

2011-05-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

My bathroom!

We're in the midst of yet another project--one that I'm really excited about!
I know I wavered back and forth about adding trim to the hallway, and eventually decided against it...but I thought that the small main level bathroom would be the perfect place to try it out!
I don't have a good beginning photo of this bathroom, but I have this shot red living room, to give you an idea of the color.

Intense, right?

I'll save the details for the final reveal...but here's a few in process shots. (spackling, gluing, nailing, caulking, paint...oh, my!)

Here's what we've learned so far:

*Nail gun and compressor--totally worth it! We borrowed one to start, and ended up buying our own because we know we'll use it.

*Starting the bathroom was a good idea. Its a small space, and we are only (most likely) trimming out two walls, so its a good place to practice.

*Board and Batten (hearafter refered to as B&B) is really simple--and its beautiful! Totally doable and totally worth it! After our last few home improvement projects, its so nice for it to work out!

*On a more practical note, its a really good idea to spackle and sand the wall between vertical slats--it makes the wall texture much smoother to match the MDF. Oh, and caulking is a good idea to cover gaps between the wall and wood, but it isn't necessary everywhere, and too much is not so good!

There's also been a little of this:

(new installed faucet on new installed sink--pretty!)

(cutting molding)

and this:

and a whole lot of dust:)

This project (typical, I know) has taken much longer than expected, but we're nearly finished, so I'll post an official "After" soon--but here's a teaser:

I'm still pondering the decor details, but the basics are nearly done!

(That's the old sink, hanging out in the garage)

Easter--Wahoo!

2011-05-08T22:53:00.007-04:00

Once again, we made the (short) trek to Ohio over the Easter weekend. Christian had both Friday and Monday off, so we drove up Thursday evening (and came back Monday, hoping to get some work down around the house...ha!)

We had a fun, and surprisingly productive weekend! On Friday, the kids built Green Funland (a tradition) and we took the kids swimming. Saturday morning, we headed over to the church for a pancake breakfast/egg hunt.

Afterwards, we spent an afternoon outside.

The Dad's cut down some trees, cleared some shrubs, and built a trampoline.

The kids helped a bit and played in the "swimming hole" (i.e. puddle, Green lake, or mud pit). At first we told them no, you can't get wet...Then we allowed them to wade in...

Then they rolled up their pant legs...

Then they dove in with their clothes on....

Then Isaac stripped down to his diaper (I'm free!)...

And then I gave in and let them use their swimsuits.

DeAnn fed us amazing food like black bean soup and burritos and cookies and funeral (resurrection?) potatoes.

We also worked on a craft project for the girls' rooms...We spray painted plywood panels, and the girls created a set of 3 paintings to hang.

For the first time ever, we made the drive home without any potty breaks:)

Thanks for another fun weekend!

Spring Break (and other stuff)

2011-04-17T17:31:00.007-04:00

For Spring Break, we spent a day in Michigan, hanging out with old friends. I took the boys to the AirZoo, where they had a new helicopter that the kids could play in.

We met some friends at the downtown library for a Lego-day. The library filled a room with Legos and the kids (even Hannah, who said she didn't want to go) spent almost 2 hours building.

We had our first visitor's travel down from Michigan. The Shumways came for dinner. For dessert, we planned on doing Fondue, but decided to make it extreme and use our chocolate fountain (which we have never successfully used before).

It was messy, and took some major tweaking (cream? milk? oil? more chocolate?) to get it to work (for about 5 minutes), but I don't think anyone minded--it was pretty entertaining.

And, of course, there was some general tom-foolery.

And I totally forgot to blog about Christian's adventure in February...He returned to Michigan to participate in a dodgle ball tournament (a scout fundraiser). He and some friends put together a very competitive team, and ended up winning the adult division...and then coming in second to the teens.

He got a cool ribbon!

Dodge-ball--its not just for grade school anymore. Apparently.

How I Choose Paint Colors:

2011-04-10T20:20:00.000-04:00

(the Imperfectionista way)

Wow. Home ownership is not for the faint of heart. We've been finishing the walls, hanging curtains, refinishing (or attempting to) the hardwood floors in the entry, and so many other things. Eventually we'll hang some pictures.

Our goal was to start and finish one space at a time. We've already messed that up by starting on at least 3 rooms at the same time, but enough about that. Our focus right now is on finishing the entry hall so that when people come to the door, at least initially it looks like our home is put together. Ha.

I mentioned before that we started out with floral and striped wallpaper, which we immediately removed. Later, we debated adding beadboard or board and batten, but since that would likely involved changing the molding, we decided to remove the chair rail. It was at an odd height, anyway. That lead to sanding, spackling, and more sanding and more spackling,

and the craziest dust storm all over the house (since it didn't occur to us until too late that we should hang sheets of the doorways to control the mess).

During all this, I was trying to decide...what color?

I yearn for white molding, really. I promised myself a while ago that the next home I purchased would have white trim, but it just wasn't going to happen this time. I want white for its crisp and clean look, and also...it makes choosing paint so much easier! Our trim right now is actually not bad--it isn't the cheap orangy-yellow stuff we had in our last place. But....It still really affects the colors I choose for the walls.

The first room I worked on in this house was the front room-the room that we hope will stay clean and nice for when people drop by. It started red, and I painted it a nice mid-tone neutral beige. At the time, I picked out a hallway color, too. As we worked on the hallway, I painted a test square on the wall, and hated it. It looked pink! Flesh colored! Eeew! That led to this:

Paint swatches everywhere! I browsed my favorite design blog, found out the colors they used, and ran to the store (again and again and again) to find the paint chip or, sometimes, to buy a tester-size sample. Of course, all the blogs I saw online had different lighting, white trim, and totally didn't work. I tried every color I already had that might work, plus some testers I had purchased before I chose the first color. (I know, I know--how many shades of tan are there, really?) None of the colors worked on all the walls--They changed so much between each time of day! It was making me crazy! Everyone had a different opinion....

Eventually I decided, and I'm happy with my choice. But after all the craziness, what did I decide?

I went with the original color, and maybe learned a lesson about doubting myself.

(It doesn't look fleshy at all).

Next up: adventures in refinishing floors...and then maybe I'll post a Before and After. I'm excited for any of the projects of my list to reach "after"!

April's Fool: Take 7

2011-04-03T10:43:00.006-04:00

Rachel is 7!

(This is the mandatory "brag about my child" post)

I am so amazed when I think about the last seven years, and how far she has come. Rachel has had her implant for 4 years, and is taking and signing quite well. She loves school, has adjusted really well to being the only deaf kid in her new school, and is reading at (and sometimes above) grade level. This is huge, considering English is in some ways her second language, and most deaf people really struggle with reading. She is also writing well--with good English grammar. She has deaf and hearing friends, and insists on being included socially wherever she goes. She participates in Primary, and loves to sing Primary songs. Rachel has a strong stubborn streak, which can be frustrating at times, but also fuels her progress. Perhaps most important, Rachel is happy.

(Flaunting her birthday-cowgirl get-up)

Rachel's birthday is April 1st--April Fools day :) My brother in law, who shares this birthday, has warned me NOT to mess with her birthday, so we don't...too much. Lately, we've tried to find some silly ways to celebrate her birthday to go along with April Fools' day (without doing shaving cream or cardboard cakes). This year, we served lunch at the Crazy Cafe.

I used a free online printable, but changed it some to fit our needs. Christian came home for lunch to celebrate with us. The menu has items letter A-G, with corresponding girly items (like Cinderella and American Girls). I had a master list that said which item corresponded to which food or utensil.

The kids chose 2 items for an appetizer and 4 for the main lunch. Nathan about had a fit when he realized he had to eat macaroni and cheese without a fork, but most of the kids followed Daddy's example, and dug in with their hands. Only Aaron ordered a fork with his noodles :)

After lunch, we did cake and ice cream and presents before Christian hurried back to work, and the rest of the afternoon was spent playing with the new things. That night we had a pizza and a movie night with popcorn and candy.

I don't have the greatest pictures from yesterday, since the kids weren't interested in slowing down long enough to smile for the camera, but I did find this old picture of Rachel from when she was a baby. I love this, because she just looks so fragile and sweet. She really did have all that hair! In the picture, she is 2 months old, but still weighs only 7 lbs. She couldn't really hold her head up, so we had to prop her up and take a quick picture. It was shortly after this picture was taken that the doctors got serious about her weight and I stopped breastfeeding.

In her 7 years, she has had 5 surgeries, moved 4 times and lived in5 states, and, quite frankly, is having a very blessed life.

Hello, Spring

2011-03-31T16:50:00.002-04:00

I'm so desperate to put away snow gear, but I hear we might need it this weekend. So, instead of doing that, I made a little something happy (with a grapevine wreath, some silk flowers, and a little hot glue).

2011-03-29T09:58:00.002-04:00

When Aaron woke up this morning, the first thing he said to me was, "I'm a super spy--You can't see me." I tried to give him a hug and he said, "No! You can't see me!" After pretending not to be able to see him for a few minutes, he asked, "Mom, do you love me?" I said of course, I loved him. His reply? "That's because I'm a frog."

Yeah, that must be it.

I love this kid, and his crazy imagination!

The Practice House: Status Update

2011-03-15T22:30:00.002-04:00

So.

Four weeks.

That's how long we've been here...Unbelievable!

I thought it was about time I give a little house tour. You know, show what we've done, what needs to be done, and ask for a bit of advice.

So here goes.

The entry hall:

One of the first thing we did after buying this house was to rip out some rather dated wallpaper, but we're still working on getting all the glue off. We also debated back and forth about adding beadboard or molding, but I think we've decided for now to do the simplest thing--rip out the existing chair rail, spackle, and paint. (Currently, we have dust everywhere!)

(Can't decide on paint!)

We really need to get this done, so that when people stop by it doesn't look like such a construction zone around here!

(Kids at work...They loved scrubbing walls for about 10 minutes.)

The living room:

When we moved in it was red, with gold accents (We're talking Chinese restaurant-red).

This was the first room we had primed and painted, and we replaced the hanging Tiffany-style chandelier with a regular old light fixture. We're still working on replacing the switch plates (we'll replace the gold ones with something a bit more...normal) and hanging pictures. For now, most of the artwork hangs out in this room until I get more walls painted and decide on permanent homes for pictures. (In real life the color isn't so golden...its actually a very nice neutral. I really wanted to put white beadboard across the back wall, but that will have to wait)

The main-level bathroom:

Again, think Chinese restaurant colors. I primed the walls, and have selected a color, but we need to replace the gold Hollywood lights, paint the cabinet, and possibly replace the countertop, before I can finish the walls. On hold for now, but will need to be done soon so that visitors won't think we're more shabby than chic.

The kitchen:

Hurrah! We discovered that we can remove the wallpaper, and its coat of brown textured paint, with the simple combination of varnish remover, wallpaper remover, hot water, scrubbing, and perhaps a bit of sanding. We've started enough to know it can be done, but haven't worked on it since we discovered how hard it would be. Plus, we started 10 other projects at the same time. Eventually, we'll paint the cabinets (the nice countertops clash with the golden oak finish), hopefully do something with the lighting (Did you see the crazy flourescent light box in the photo?!), and add window treatments. I might make them, which would be exciting.

The laundry room/pantry:

A basic, functional room in seafoam green, with a nice white patch where the old owners had removed a shelf.

One morning, sick of half-finished projects, I decided to tackle the pantry. I emptied it (making a huge mess in my kitchen), repainted the shelves white, painted the walls a nice green,

and replaced all the food, in an organized fashion. Eventually, we'll paint the rest of the walls and probably add some hooks or shelving for the broom, mop, aprons, and such. See my pretty new washer and drier? That's cuz the people who bought our house wanted the old ones that didn't work very well. I guess I should thank them!

We obviously need to work on tidying up the space, and we'll get to it, I swear. Eventually.

That's it for now. I'll show the rest of the goodness later on. The girls' room has some great potential, and our master bedroom/bathroom is a cave--a big, brown cave. Help! Anyone want to come visit? And help?

The big question is...I really, really want white trim. The trim in this house is actually decent quality, pretty wood trim and I don't think I should change it. But--could I maybe change it in some rooms? Like--the girl's room? Or the master bedroom? Or a bathroom? And would painting over trim and-or windows (which are wood) hurt the value of the house?

Magnificent Mile

2011-03-13T20:19:00.005-04:00

One perk from Christian's days of travelling for work--free hotel nights! He had one last free night (before he lost his Diamond Member status) to use at any Hilton hotel, and we chose to use it last weekend. The Wesels were nice enough to take our kids for the night, so we could drive to Chicago, visit the temple, and have a mini-vacation.

It was so nice to get away! Our hotel was downtown right on the Magnificent Mile with a lake view. We enjoyed a walk around the city at night,

dinner at Giordano's (for real Chicago-stuffed pizza),

another walk the next morning out on the Navy pier,

and-perhaps one of my favorite parts--we found a Jamba Juice! I just haven't found anything like Jamba juice anywhere after moving East, so I bought a jumbo size for the drive home.

While watching my kids, Jessica ran a blood drive at church and Christian made me get over my fear of needles and donate for the first time. It really wasn't bad, and I got a special 1st-timer pin. I do hate needles, though. Really. But I guess I can put up with a needle prick for a good cause.

Since moving here, I've gone back to Michigan all but one weekend, and we plan on going back next weekend for frisbee....Our house is suffering a bit from the inattention, so we'll have to pick a weekend soon to stay in town...but I enjoyed our time at the temple, and I'm so glad we're close enough to friends to still have something like a social life!

Welcome to Indiana!

2011-03-04T13:21:00.001-05:00

Moving is very surreal to me--I'm always amazed just how much stuff we have, just how complicated it is to pick up your life and change, and I'm always amazed just how life goes on and can feel normal. After all, while the state, town, home, school, ward, grocery store, library, YMCA, etc. all change, the basic family stays the same. The view might change, but the substance of every day life stays remarkably the same. Trust me--I've done this a lot.

We've been here for 2 weeks. Our house is taking shape. We bought a semi-fixer upper, and are constantly revising our plans for it. It really has potential, but for the first few days I was a bit overwhelmed at everything that ought to be done. We're missing switch plates and a bannister; the only working appliance when we moved in was the dishwasher. At the same time, we have nearly new solid surface countertops, tile floors (one of which needs to be torn out at some point), and built-in bookshelves. So far, we have started painted (with mixed success, as is usual for me), ripping off wallpaper (makes our house look worse than it is, but I swear it has to get worse before it gets better), replaced most of the appliances (again, with mixed results--I'll get to that later), and replaced the carpet (upstairs only), and started replacing outdated light fixtures (We kept bumping into the ugly hanging chandelier in the room we are not using as a dining room). We have unpacked probably half of the boxes, or more, but have hardly touched the basement, including most of the toys, and are still trying to work out where everything goes. Our kitchen is a work in progress. I plan on blogging about our renovation projects in more detail as we go along.
One of my favorite little moving stories is something we like to call, "Measure twice, rip out once." Knowing that we needed nearly all new appliance, I spent the last few weeks in Michigan hunting down deals. Because we needed things soon, I didn't have any luck finding super-good second-hand deals, but I did find a clearanced fridge at The Home Depot that looked like it might work. I had a pretty good idea of what I was willing to spend and what I could get for that amount of $. The fridge was available immediately and was within the budget. I had measured, checked the measurements, and wrote down the info on a scrap piece of paper. I'm not so good with details. I know I checked the height in the store, but when we got it in place, it was 1/2 in too high! What to do?!

And a closeup:

The solution was fairly simple, if somewhat destructive--Since we cared more about the fridge than about the cabinets, we tore out the cabinets. Six screws later, our fridge fit (although it was still an inch or two deeper than it should have been), and we have much more space on top than we did before! At some point I'm sure we'll come up with an attractive solution, but for now, we have a fridge and life is good.

So that's it for now, but watch for more updates coming soon on what I like to call "the practice house." Why? Because we probably won't be here for the long haul, given our track record, and this place will give us lots of "practice", testing our skills and refining what we actually want in a house, before we finally find a place to stay.

Dude, my friends are crazy!

2011-02-27T22:44:00.007-05:00

When you open your house to throw a party for the Greens, fun (and silliness) ensues...

The Bishop and Christian get cozy...

Christian and the Bishop pretend to be thugs...

Cute babies and laughter...

Two of the cutest girls ever...

Um...

What a doll!

The doll's Mom...

Hey, look--normal people!
The hostess with the mostest... (Jessica, in purple)
The photographer...(Well, at least she can take great pictures of other people...)
Hi, Val!
Aaron (with a bowl on his head) vs. Stevensen
Girls vs. Stevensen (They sure look happy to shoot him)(FYI: Stevensen is one of the two Haitian boys from my Sunday School class,

and one of hte many reasons I will miss teaching that class. When I met him a year ago, he spoke almost no English at all.)

Nice, Nathan. I guess its hard to be polite when there so much good food.
Aw, sweet, right? Nope. Rather than a kiss, he licked my face!

Thanks, Kzoo, for a fabulous three years, and fabulous parties. Give me a reason to make the drive and come visit!

Packing it in...

2011-02-22T16:49:00.006-05:00

We crammed in as many fun activities as we could before leaving.
Christian took the girls to the school Daddy/daughter dance on Friday night. Here is a shot of their hair---
Another hair shot--Rachel spent Saturday playing with her good friend, Madison. They went to McDonalds AND Jungle Joes--a pretty amazing playday for a couple of good friends.
On Sunday, the Wesel's hosted an open house for us, featuring tons of good food (PB Snickers cupcakes, and more) and a constant flow of good friends. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera...so I have to wait for my friends to post pictures.
We also invited friends over on both Sunday and Monday nights for games and talking. We had to use up every last minute enjoying our friends!

On Monday, I ran the Valentine's Day Party at Rachel's school. I didn't volunteer for it, and tried to get out of it, but somehow I ended up running this class party while movers were at my house, packing boxes. We played Valentine's pictionary and pin the kiss on the frog, made a huge Valentine for the teacher, and made Hershey-kiss roses. Since there is a nut allergy in the class, I spent the last normal night in my home baking allergy-friendly, pink Valentine's Day cookies for all the kids.
Then, the movers showed up and started packing up our life. I was amazed both by how much stuff we had and how quickly they boxed it all up.I was blessed to have several friends help clean up the house. In the past I haven't let people come help, but...I just had to let them help, and I'm so grateful I did. The work went so much faster, and was way less stressful!
Hannah took one last opportunity to run around the neighborhood and say goodbye to friends.We love KalamaZion! (And we'll come back often)

KalamaZion Ultimate Frisbee

2011-02-18T23:29:00.008-05:00

So, one of the things I've loved the most about Kalamazoo is the weekly Ultimate Frisbee game I started with a friend 18 months ago. We originally got it together to help fellowship a mutual friend from Venezuela (cousin of a neighbor) who didn't speak much English. He was in Kalamazoo for the first 6 weeks and then went back to Venezuela - we kept it going because it was a good opportunity to hang out with people and, of course, it's a blast.

My friend Annette Shumway recently spent a couple of hours standing in the snow documenting one of our Saturday morning Frisbee outings. Yes, we play rain, snow or shine...

Pre-game warm ups...

Choosing teams...

The kick-off (toss-off??)...

First you need to be able to see around me...

Rainbow fingers strikes again...

Perfect form...

Arms length on defense - my arm's length...

"THREEEEEE, OONNNEEEEE, UUULTIMAAAATE!!!"

Making the tough catch...

and the tough throw...

Preston and Mike decided I was the fall guy - I decided to take them with me...

Friends again...

Boxing Day...

2011-02-14T15:37:00.009-05:00

So, I'll admit that having professional movers do the boxing takes away some of the sadness that attends moving, but those sad moving feelings hadn't really set in for me until today anyway so I can't fully appreciate how sad I would've been if I had had to pack and move.

That being said, I have known about the timing of this move for a couple of weeks and in anticipation of moving, a lot of people pitched in to make our last weekend in Michigan a lot of fun. Here's my schedule from this last weekend:

Fri, 7:00 - 8:30 PM: Daddy/Daughter Dance with Hannah and Rachel (lots of jumping...and fair amount of sweating too...)

Sat, 7:00 - 8:00 AM: Shovel and clean the church

8:00 - 10:00 AM: Leadership Training Meeting at church

10:00 - 10:15 AM: Doughnuts at the Bishop's office

10:30 - 12:15 PM: Ultimate Frisbee in the snow (Annette Shumway took about 400 pictures, the last game was diving catches only...)

12:30 - 2:00 PM: EQ Bowling Activity (I snuck Nathan along, though neither one of us broke 100)

7:00 - 10:15 PM: Contra-dancing (half the people from frisbee came too...)

10:30 - 11:30 PM: Root beer floats at Olde Peninsula (Yum....)

Sun, 7:00 - 11:30 AM: Church meetings (lots of good-byes...)

12:00 - 4:30 PM: Open House at the Wesels (lots more good-byes, this time with excellent food on hand...)

6:00 - 10:00 PM: Game Night with the Lillroses - Liar's Dice (apparently the younger generation still can't lie well since Kirk and Annette Lillrose won every game)

Dear Diary--

2011-02-06T19:36:00.005-05:00

We're counting down the days until the move, and trying to cram in as many fun, Michigan-ish things as we can.
Last week, Christian invited our family over for dinner at our friends, the Linkfield's. I'm grateful that Christian doesn't feel the need to wait for an invitation! Rachel was hooked on their dogs...the dogs that are more like horses. We appreciated some good chatting time.
This Sunday, we invited over our friends, the Johnsons (and didn't take any pictures). We have a rather long list of people we must hang out with before we leave, and we're trying hard to get to everyone. If we don't get to someone, I apologize...and promise to come back sometime soon to play!
We had a bit of snow this week. The weather-people had a grand time coming up for storm names, like "Snowmageddon", and for once they were right (sort of). They were right in that we got snow, and had 2 days off from school. I don't think we really got that much (although the piles lining our driveway are nearly as tall as I am), and we really shouldn't have had the 2nd day off. It was pretty cold and windy, though, so it was bad enough.
We used the second day off from school to head to down to Indiana and do some work on the house. We waited about 6 hours for the water to get turned on, and discovered that the microwave doesn't work and the stove isn't hooked up. Our best attempts at avoiding fast food failed. We also discovered that the kids are great at ripping down wallpaper (I should have known--destruction is totally their thing). In the coming weeks, I'll have some pretty major design-advice questions for ya'll--I hope you're creative and can help! The kids enjoyed having a "sleep-over" at the new place.
On Saturday, I met a few friends at the local paint your own pottery place for a few hours of (surprisingly stressful) painting and chatting. I let Hannah come along--she painted a bunny and dragonfly, and I did a plate and mini ladybug.
I taught what I think is my last Sunday School class today. I almost cried (I'm such a messy crier, I avoid it whenever possible). I love my Sunday School class! Honestly, I don't feel like it was that long ago that I was their age (although it really was). I teach the 14-17 year olds, and we have a good, diverse group. From the two Haitian boys I've watched learn English and get comfortable talking and participating in class, to the boy who wants to get baptized but has to wait for parental permission, to the kids I play frisbee with or pay to watch my kids....I know them all, and its a good group. I'll miss them.
This coming week will be filled with cleaning, organizing, cramming social time, planning an RS lesson and Valentine's Day class party, and savoring the last "normal" week as a Michigan resident...
(Hey, friends...if you don't hear from me, call! I want to get together!)

I guess its really happening...

2011-01-30T21:19:00.006-05:00

So...we bought a house.

This move as been months in the making. It has gone on so long, in fact, that I often wondered why we were actually doing it! We love it here in Michigan! Then, Christmas break ended, he went back to the regular gone-all-week work schedule, and then Christian spent a week in Mexico, and I remembered what it was like for the last few years to be on my own so much. So here we go, on to another state...hoping to save some $, get back on a routine, and see Daddy a little more often.

Last September, when we first accepted the job in Indiana, Christian and I headed down to check out homes for sale. I wasn't very impressed. I felt like in order to get a good replacement for the home we are in now, I would have to spend much more money than I was willing to, or give up the neighborhood, yard space, basement...We found a short-sale home that wasn't in great condition, but it was in a good neighborhood, on a cul-de-sac (like we are now...its so nice with kids), and it had good potential. We also knew that short sales could take lots of time...and we were fine hanging out in Michigan while the bank processed everything!

In November I started to panic and decided I didn't want the house--right when the bank approved the sale. So--I changed my mind again.

We were right--it took a full 4 months from first making an offer to finally owning the home. We took the kids down on Friday to show them around--They loved it! They told us we were the best parents ever. Seeing them run around the home, get excited about their closets and the counter tops and cabinets, made me feel much better about the move. I can actually picture my family in the home now.

We still have a lot of work to do. We will actually move into the new place in about 2 weeks, and in the meantime we hope to paint, remove wallpaper, replace carpet, and perhaps fix tile...plus we need new appliances and window treatments (and we'll have to do all this while living a few hours away and getting our current house ready to pack up...). Its a big job, and I'm worried about getting it all done...and I'm hoping desperately that Indiana-folk are as fun and nice and wonderful as Michigan-folks. We're trying to cram in a lot of fun over the next few weeks, on top of everything else, and we're already planning when we'll come back to visit (I don't want to miss out on baby showers, girls' nights, birthday parties, frisbee...).

Here are a few pictures of our new place, before we start any fixing-up:
I expect to see a lot of this over after the move:(climbing on bookshelves...)(wrestling on the floor...)

Please, Michigan friends--don't hate us because we're moving!

2011-01-19T19:55:00.004-05:00

Me: canning vegetable soup and chicken, battling with the kids over bedtime, and cleaning house to be ready for an appraisal first thing tomorrow morning.
Christian: in Mexico, "working," as evidenced by pictures like these...

And then this happened...

2011-01-09T07:20:00.002-05:00

(Aaron and his cousin, Isaac)
This was one of those "I can't believe you did this, but you look so cute!" kind of moments, and yes, they did this by themselves.

Christmas: Take 3 (and final--whew!)

2011-01-07T12:49:00.008-05:00

My family left on Christmas day (Saturday afternoon), and we took a nice break on Sunday. Slept in, took it easy...Monday morning we planned on driving to Ohio. We found out that we needed to get a 3rd appraisal (did I mention we're selling our house? Boo.) and, because we were heading out of town, we scheduled it for early Monday morning. You must imagine the disastrous post-Christmas state of our house. Christian and I woke up early to clean (and even do some touch-up painting!) to get everything ready for the appraisal, and ready for a week in Ohio. We were lucky to leave the house before noon, but we did it! Still no word on the appraisal--still crossing our fingers.We had an Eastern-US Green Family Reunion in Ohio; Jonathan and DeAnn (+ 4 kids), Adam and Jennie (+4.5 kids), and our crowd of 6. Fortunately, everyone gets along really well. The kids did really well, and I love it that my kids are such good friends with their cousins. I really love to see the older cousins play with the younger ones (the big boys introduced Nathan to legos and helped us all navigate the Wii). However, most of the cousins + Hannah got sick with the flu over the week, which was a little exhausting for us all and inhibited some of our play time. We still managed to spend a fun afternoon at a very cool sledding hill; visit the John Johnson farm and the nativity display at the Kirtland Visitor's Center (hundreds of nativities, gathered from all over the world, of all shapes and sizes--very beautiful!); (Jacob, dressed as King Herod)visit Amish country (I love the horse-drawn carriages!) and a cheese factory;play lazer tag as a family (even Aaron and the little guys got to play! They didn't leave the vests on long enough to take pictures, though); see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (I loved it!) and other movies via Netflix at home; take multiple trips to Walmart daily; eat more than we should (as per usual); and play games and talk after the kids went to bed. Jennie, DeAnn...did I forget anything? Good times, good times. Thanks, Jonathan and DeAnn, for hosting!(That's Natalie, Jennie, and DeAnn...and Christian's arm, giving DeAnn a mouthful of whip cream)
We had a blast this Christmas! Our vacation time was so busy, we were a little relieved to head home and get back to a routine! This week, we've had 3 showings for our home, and we managed to put away all our Christmas decorations. The house feels so clean and open!
I'm not even thinking about New Years' resolutions yet. Maybe I'll make some Presidents' Day resolutions. I might feel ready to take on a new project by then!

Christmas 2010: Take 2

2011-01-04T19:00:00.001-05:00

We live out East. My family lives out West. I don't see them much. This is why I gave up my Friday night to drive 6 hours (round trip) (driving until 4:00 am) to pick up my Mom, sister Dana, and brother Kevin from O'Hare in Chicago so they could spend the week before Christmas with me.
Good thing it was worth it.We had a pretty busy week--and I started the whole thing off by playing frisbee in the snow (yay for free babysitting!), dragging them along to the ward party (and asking them to help set up tables), and getting the flu. Thankfully, that last one only applied to me, but it left me out of commission from Saturday night to Monday morning. In retrospect, it wasn't a terrible way to start the vacation because it left me with very little appetite for several days, even though my Mom was cooking some of her specialties. (My appetite has since returned in full force, just in case you were worried) I felt awful about sending them to church without me, skipping the
musical number I was supposed to help out with, and overall being a very lame host. However, my kids enjoyed the intense bonding time with relatives they don't see very often.We spent the the week doing the usual Christmas prep--shopping, wrapping, baking, movie-watching, etc. My kids enjoyed beating up on their uncle. Kevin quickly learned the signs for "hurt," "no," and "don't." Later on in the week, he expanded his sign vocabulary to "Don't hit me with the blue dinosaur." My kids loved having family in town!We had a fun Christmas Eve. In the morning, we dragged Kevin along to a special session of Ultimate Frisbee in the snow, and then returned home for some massive baking. After assembling plates of goodies, he headed out caroling and adding to the overall Christmas calorie count of some of our friends and their families. We returned home for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of burgers and rice pudding. We acted out the Christmas story (Dana played a shepherd, Rachel is always Mary because she thinks its funny to put a doll up her shirt). We let the kids open one present before bed.
(the boys thought their new pjs' gave them special spider man/toy story powers)(Kevin gave Hannah a ride to bed)Dana was excited for all the stuff that happens after the kids go to bed--who wouldn't be? We totally forgot to leave Santa a plate of cookies, but we'll send him a thank-you note to make up for it.
One special tradition we have--we use our baby gate to lock the kids in the hallway so they don't sneak out to the tree to open presents before we're ready. I think its pretty funny.
We enjoyed our Christmas a lot, and I'm glad my family could come. I had a blast playing Just Dance, watching my kids beat up on them/bond with them, and felt a little less disconnected with my west coast family. I drove them back to the airport Christmas afternoon, and spent the next day recovering before our next adventure....
(Saying goodbye)

Christmas: Take 1

2011-01-02T10:43:00.005-05:00

We finished up the last week of school with a snow day (or rather, a cold day, since we didn't have that much snow, but there was a bitter wind chill) and a round of illness--'tis the season! I really have to count my blessings, because my kids really don't get sick very often. Poor Hannah only had a day and a half of school that week, and even missed her classroom holiday party.

Nathan's class had a very sweet holiday musical program (I was so impressed that his teacher had no fear of saying "Merry Christmas"). On Thursday I ran the holiday party in Rachel's class (her teacher was afraid of "Merry Christmas"--or merry any other holiday. Our party theme was "snow.") (making snowman ornaments)

Her party was a lot of work, and I think it went okay, and my good friend Jessica helped with my kids so I could go. The best part was that I sent Hannah to school that day, but got a call on my way out the door that I needed to come pick her up from school because she still felt sick. I was late to the party I was in charge of, and I left my sick-ish kid with Jessica, but otherwise the day went smoothly. Ha.
In other related Christmas news, I make these cute snowmen out of wood and paper scraps and Mod Podge.
Hannah preformed in her Christmas piano recital (and will now take a short break from piano).
And--we attended a fun "Ugly Sweater" party, and posed for pictures a la Awkward Family Photos.(Aren't my friends cool?)

O Christmas Tree!

2010-12-17T20:31:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas!
We've actually had our tree up for 2 weeks already, and this year I got my way--with white lights! I love it! Christian did something else really nice for me...He built an 8 inch stand for the tree, so its taller. I love it because it helps fill up the room. The girls loved helping, too.
I really love our tree, and one of my favorite things about it is that nearly everything (ornaments, tree skirt, garland) is homemade. My friend hosted an ornament exchange party a few weeks ago, and my talented friends made some beautiful ornaments. I made these cute plaques made from paint sticks, spray paint, and printables (I stole the idea from this site).

#$@$#$@##$%^$%

2010-12-06T19:38:00.004-05:00

Christian said it was okay to do a post without pictures.

I just wanted to say that I am in way over my head this Christmas season--and this blog is one of the last things on a very long list. Between the regular day to day stuff, and all the pressure I feel to give the kids a good Christmas (not give them stuff, give them a good experience), babysitting a few hours everyday, helping with parties at church and school, thinking about the craziness of hosting family for Christmas, crafting (cuz I can't help myself), and, oh yeah, MOVING!!!!! I'm a little stressed. We've had a ton of showings (but no offers) and each one seems to be at an incredibly inconvenient time. Like on Saturday, when we had a showing scheduled one hour before we had an appointment for family pictures. We were able to get the house nice and clean and move up our appointment one hour (can you imagine trying to maintain 4 kids for an hour away from home???!!!), and as we left our house, I thought...For this one moment, we are the perfect family! Clean kids, clean house...nevermind that I didn't last, and wasn't likely to ever be repeated!

Pictures, posts, and good stuff to come...but bear with me while I get my life in order!

mR. TurKey'S BirThdAy

2010-12-04T10:09:00.003-05:00

Hannah declared Thanksgiving this year "Mr. Turkey's Birthday" (which we celebrate by eating him). The kids spent the morning making party hats for themselves and their toys. I spent the morning cutting huge amounts of vegetables to make my favorite stuffing and Christian's special cheesy potatoes. Christian spent the morning getting completely muddy and sore playing in the Turkey Bowl.

Early in the afternoon we shared Thanksgiving dinner with our friends the Michaleks, and 2 boys from my Sunday School class. Valerie's home is gorgeous, and the dinner was fabulous!

Afterward, we played lots of games as the post-dinner food stupor wore off...

What's going on here?

2010-12-02T18:14:00.004-05:00

Guess what I saw my boys doing the other day?
Dancing!
Ball-room dancing, too. I'm not sure what they've been watching on tv, but they were waltzing and twirling. I must say, Nathan was more into it than Aaron, but it sure was cute!

Show me a sign...of gratitude

2010-11-25T08:20:00.001-05:00

Just in time for Thanksgiving--a craft! Just what you needed!

A week ago, I was madly cleaning my home (we listed the home--its for sale. Boo), a good friend showed up to help. She didn't call ahead--I probably would have lied and told her I didn't need help. Instead, she made room for me in her very busy schedule and it made a big difference.

To say thanks, and to celebrate the season, I made this (one for me, one for my friend):

Here's a quick tutorial: (not the greatest quality pictures---I was in a hurry. I'll update with better ones soon, but I wanted to get this up...)

First, I found some chipboard letters and painted them off-white (I used spray paint)
Then, I mod-podged the letters with fall-colored paper and sanded the edges. I used distressing ink on the edges.
I cut a scrap piece of MDF down to fit the letters and painted it with some leftover brown paint.

I was actually very careful about spacing the letters, and glued them with regular craft glue.

I cut drilled two holes and laced some cord (stapled to the back, right behind the letters so the staples didn't poke through). I used small clothespins, spray painted the same color as the base of the letters.

The plan is to use this to display pictures of things we are thankful for. Unfortunately, I gave away the finished sign--the one that actually has picture hangers attached-- and you get a picture of it sitting on my craft room floor, waiting for picture hangers :)

Can you believe it?!

2010-11-11T12:43:00.005-05:00

I have NO good pictures from Halloween!
After all fuss, and all the time spent making (or for once, buying) costumes, doing hair, and whatever else, I totally slacked on taking pictures. Part of the problem is that I sort of accidentally ended up being Room Mom for Rachel's class, which meant I missed the costume parade at the other kids' school (Rachel attends a different elementary school). And the whole, Halloween on Sunday situation (annoying).
Anyway, Rachel's class party was a hit! We played some games, decorated cookies, and made these cute little handprint ghosts.
Rachel has been asking to be Cinderella for Halloween for at least a year. I bought a pattern, but them I ran across this awesome pattern-less tutorial on MakeItAndLoveIt.blogspot.com, and decided to try it. I ended up making 2 full dresses, each with their own flaws, but its good enough that she felt pretty special.
Hannah was a pumpkin--I bought her costume, but made a headband with leaves. Nathan was a hotdog--I bought his, too, but it was actually a dog costume from Target, and I added straps so it would stay put. Aaron was a dinosaur, but I'm not really sure he was into it. I went to the ward trunk-or-treat wearing an Indian sari (Christian brought it back from one of his trips to India for me) with a black wig to make me look Indian...and decided that black REALLY isn't my color. Christian loaned his pink teddy bear costume to a friend, and instead, rigged up a large empty pictures frame with a strap over his shoulders (so his face was centered in the empty picture spot) and a label that read "Masterpiece." Yup, that was my idea. Sorry, no pictures. Lame.

worker-man wannabe

2010-11-10T09:52:00.004-05:00

There's a new home being built just around the corner from me. My boys love to watch the trucks and hear the loud equipment, especially when the big wood chippers were cutting down trees on the lot. Nathan and Aaron both say they want to be unspecified "worker-men" when they grow up. I love it because they can be amused for hours just watching men work. When the carpet guys were here, my boys sat and watched for hours. I just thought it was adorable. Funny, but they aren't quite as interested in watching me do housework :)

Mixed up days

2010-11-05T13:31:00.006-04:00

I just realized I hadn't posted about this yet!(Yes, that's storytime on our couch...in the garage.)
Ever notice how projects and home improvement can turn everything upside down? Such has been the case around here. In an effort to get our home ready for sale (boo--I know, I know), we replaced our carpet. Our old flooring was loop-pile berber, in a light, mottled grayish color. It, and the original paint colors, dated our home, making it look about 10 years older than it really is. While we kept the carpet in the basement, where it is in better condition and doesn't bother be nearly as much, we replaced the carpet on the 1st floor.
It was a huge process to empty out all our bedrooms, closets, and living room so the installers could do their work. We did a lot of crazy rearranging, including putting all 4 kids in the basement bedroom for a week or so (after we started moving furniture, we learned that the installation was delayed 5 days!!)
One of the best things was having my boys completely entertained for hours. They loved watching the installers at work!And now...we love it! Its gorgeous, matched our colors, and feels so nice and soft! I don't think I realized what a big difference it would make.
However, its been 2 weeks, and our piano is still in the kitchen, and the couch is still in the garage. The girls are sleeping in the basement, too (we repainted their bedroom last week). We are being really careful to only move back things we are willing to keep clean, and I love having the bedrooms so much less cluttered...and pretty! I didn't really just how big a difference pretty carpet would make! We've been hanging out on the floor a lot lately...who needs a couch?

My name is Aaron

2010-10-29T16:22:00.002-04:00

...and if I ever forget, all I have to do is look in the mirror.

Rachel spent Sunday morning doodling on her brother. This including 3 sun-shapes, in strategic places on his chest (if you know what I mean).

a Halloween copy-cat craft

2010-10-29T09:00:00.001-04:00

Have you seen the specimen art all over blogland lately? (here's a picture) I really wanted to make some, but eventually realize how time consuming it would be without a cricut, or other cutesy paper cutter. So, I went did what any lazy crafter would do...and bought something.
I found some adorable 3-D stickers at Michaels, and using only MDF and scrapbook paper I already had, came up with this:
Here's a close-up of the bottom part:

twinners!

2010-10-28T21:52:00.004-04:00

My good friend and Sister-in-law, Marcy, had twin boys last Spring. Being the super with-it crafter that I am, I hurried up and, 6-ish months later, made these name signs and matching picture frame. I found this adorable paper kit for boys, and it had images of everything boys like to get into (robots, superheros, cowboys, animals, sports, outer space, etc.). Since Marcy didn't have a theme for her boys, I used as many different images as I could. The K is one of my favorites--Superman!

Farm day

2010-10-27T08:39:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago we had the chance to head up north and visit a real dairy farm. My friend, Kasey, invited us all up to her parents farm, where we filled a day checking out the cows, playing games, hay-riding (?), checking out pumpkins, fishing, playing in the barn, petting animals, climbing a hay-bale mountain, and enjoying a bon-fire. Here come tons of pictures!
I think Megan looks like Legolas, from Lord of the Rings.Kasey's kids, Gibson and Stella.
Can they ever be serious?
Seeing as I don't fish, this nice boy helped teach my kids!
Hannah caught one of the biggest they'd ever seen in that small pond!
While fishing, one of the kids caught a crawfish. The Dads were wondering whether or not it would actually hurt to be pinched by the critter--Ted decided to find out. Um--it hurts. Anyone surprised?
This cow is less than a day old!
Poor Megan! She looked so cute at the farm, and then got cow poo splattered all over her nice jacket!

And that's not even half my pictures...

Hannah's birthday bash

2010-10-26T20:11:00.005-04:00

I know. Seriously, its time for me to get my blog caught up.

Children's birthday parties scare me. Like, hide under a my covers and pretend they don't exist-kind of scared. Really. After Hannah's 6th birthday party (which involved 2 kids in a physical fight and accidentally serving one kid a food she was allergic to, in addition to loosing Rachel for about 30 minutes), I told the kids we'd only do parties every other year. And since I'm a total cheapskate, I didn't do parties for the boys' last year, giving me a complete year off!
Rachel's party last Spring went well. I stressed about it for a long time, but it ended up a hit. That gave me confidence to proceed with Hannah's party.
And---parties are still very stressful (Christian finds this amusing), but her party was a big success. No fighting, no allergies (I didn't invite any kids with known allergies...)--just a lot of well behaved, fun girls. I think I might like parties more as the kids get older.
As the girls arrived, I had them draw with fabric crayons on a plain white birthday t-shirt for Hannah.
Then, we played a few rounds of Apples to Apples, Jr. Next up--Christian led the kids in decorating their own personal pizzas (which we burnt in the oven...thankfully, lots of kids didn't like crust anyway, and we made an extra pizza...). While the pizzas baked, we made friendship bracelets using an American Girl pattern. You can see an example in the middle of the tray. Its really simple--just cotton cording, knots, and fun beads. I didn't realize that girls this age aren't completely comfortable tying knots yet, but with a little help it all worked out. The girls loved personalizing their bracelets. We finished up with pizza and a brownie sundaes.
Good times :)

Hannah's baptism

2010-10-24T11:42:00.005-04:00

Turning 8 means...time for baptism! Hannah was so happy to have family come--Grandpa, Peter, Bethany, Jonathan, DeAnn, and cousins. She was baptized with her friend, Madelyn Johnson, who turned 8 a week after Hannah. She wore a dress made by her Grandma Sylvia--I wore it 21 years ago at my baptism. Afterwards, she couldn't stop smiling! I couldn't get a good picture because she was so giddy! She is very excited to go to Activty Day Girls now, and has already started looking through the book and doing some of the activities.

Green family gluttony

2010-10-19T08:04:00.001-04:00

I have about 10 posts to write to catch up on all that we've been doing lately, but first--I just had a seriously crazy-fun weekend. Hannah was baptized Saturday morning, and we had a bunch of family come into town. Jonathan and DeAnn and co. drove in Thursday night, and Daddy, Peter, and Bethany came early Saturday morning.
So. Much. Fun.
I love being related to cool people.We kept the kids home from school on Friday to hang out with their cousins. The morning was spent making messes and cramming in a bunch of playtime. We spent the afternoon at a nearby park playing frisbee.Saturday was busy--the good kind of busy. Daddy, Bethany and Peter arrived at 5:00 am, and the kids were up and ready to play with them about an hour after they got to sleep. Hannah was baptized in the morning, followed by soccer for the 3 oldest kids. Afterwards, the guys headed out grocery shopping for what might be the biggest/craziest meal we've hosted, ever. And that's saying something. Jonathan thought it might be fun to do Saturday night dinner like New Year's Eve, which was basically an excuse to pick up any and every kind of fun food imaginable. We had beef/chicken/pork kabobs, veggie kabobs, plank-grilled trout, crab cakes, coconut shrimp, jalapeno poppers, artichoke-spinach dip, macaroni and cheese (for the kids), caramel apples, croissants, fruit and dip, chocolate milk, apple cider, and the amazing egg nog/orange juice drink...did I forget something? (Christian gets his amazing food skills from his Daddy) I loved turning the kitchen over to the guys--even though I still haven't worked up the courage to clean up after it all. I'm still in a food-daze.
We played a long game of frisbee to work it off, and ended the night with a game of "If/Then."Unfortunately, due to normal life, everyone had to leave pretty early on Sunday. We're so glad they could come! And we're already looking forward to the next massive shin-dig after Christmas...

I must be old...

2010-10-04T17:01:00.004-04:00

...because I have an 8-year-old!

Hannah turned 8 last weekend (at our house, General Conference = birthday, every time)--what a girl! We had a small celebration on Sunday, but I think this will be the birthday that goes on and on and on. Her party will be on Saturday, and the following weekend is her baptism--with a bunch of family coming into town.

So--Sunday morning we started with her favorite breakfast (omlettes, with all the fixings), and presents! I got some really good deals on a small digital camera, a small Disney MP3 player (which actually doesn't work so well), a wizardology code book, a babysitters' club book, some bracelets and a skirt. (I haven't done much couponing lately, but let me tell you--we usuall spend only $30 per kid per birthday, and all that loot came in around that much, so...go me!). She was pretty pleased. She spent much of her morning wearing the skirt, organizing her bracelets, listening to music, and taking pictures of everything while writing a letter in code to her friend, Paige, who moved away last summer. She also shared very nicely with her siblings.

What kid doesn't love having General Conference on their birthday? We put Aaron down for a nap and had the 3 older ones listen to the 1st Sunday session (kept them attentive by braiding their hair and giving them print-outs).

She loved getting lots of phone calls from family!

We ended the day with a cake. A very special cake. I'd say it was something of an upside-down trifle. We wanted it to be a pumpkin with mouse filling, but we ended up just piling on as much mouse and candy as we could... So yeah. Did I mention I failed the Wilton cake decorating classes?

I'd just like to say here that Hannah is a fabulous girl. She loves to take care of people, which makes her a great big sister and babysitter. She cooks, she creates and crafts, and is friendly with everyone.

Happy birthday, Hannah!

Aaron's 3rd birthday

2010-10-01T10:07:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday to our littlest monster!
Aaron turned 3 in September. We had a simple celebration with a few gifts
(I think he likes them!

(Exploring his new plane--it spins!)
And the most kid-friendly cake I could come up with...although he still mostly just ate the frosting. And we can't quite figure out why he plugged his ears while blowing out his candles...(maybe he didn't like our singing).
Happy Birthday, funny kid!

Things that make you think...

2010-09-22T22:15:00.002-04:00

I just read this while blog-stalking a new blog:

"Why would we (or anyone else) suddenly be tempted to sell a house into which we had invested years of effort and sacrifice? I think the answer may have more to do with mortality than with fickleness. There's something deeply chilling about thinking that you may have put your life into something like its final order. Finishing the dining room was like turning the last page of a good book: oh, no, what will we do now? As long as there is bare Sheetrock somewhere, you don't have to confront the thought that everything eventually comes to an end. I rebuilt the inside of my closet a dozen years ago, but I still haven't painted it, and very possibly never will. The closer you get your house to what you think you want it to be, the less power it has to pull you forward through life. That's why you leave the kitchen tiles ungrouted." -Excerpted from Sheetrock & Shellac: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement, by David Owen.

So maybe I'll never get around to "stage 2" after all!

Super Redo: Part 1

2010-09-22T07:29:00.001-04:00

I've mentioned before that I am something of a blogging addict--not that I blog so often (we all know I don't), but I spend way too much time surfing/stalking my favorite blogs and am forever adding to my dream/to-do list. Have you ever seen a cute/easy idea, and thought--I could totally do that myself! Just to find out, it wasn't nearly as "easy" as advertised? Yeah, it happens. A lot. Needless to say, when I mentioned to Christian that I thought we ought to do a little update on our master bath, and that I thought it would make a big impact with a little bit of $, he was a bit hesitant. I don't have the greatest track record for completing projects and staying on budget...

Here is the blog link that started it all...courtesy of Impatiently Praying for Patience. The amazing thing is that it wasn't really that hard (although there are a few things I'd do differently if I ever do this again) and it really cost very little. We're talking $15. For what I think is a pretty big change.
So here's the first--and cheapest stage. We may never get to stage 2, but just in case, I'll call this stage 1.
Ready for pictures? (I'll do the reveal first, and then, if you're still with me, I'll give you the how-I-did-it)
The before (as messy as it gets)
The after (keeping it real--all I did was paint and clean-up--sort of)I just wanted to show what a big change the simple update did--probably a far bigger change the the more expensive stage 2...
Stage 2, if it ever happens, involves changing out the hollywood lights for newer, pretty lights, possibly changing faucets (not likely--those suckers are expensive!), painting, and finding a cute large basket to go in the cabinet opening and a smaller cute basket to house our lotions, etc on the countertop.
First off, we took a little trip to what my boys call, The Man Store (aka Home Depot). I found their cheapest 4 inch molding (less than a $ per sq foot) and cut it down to approximate size (it comes in 15 ft lengths).
*Here's my first problem--we have a saw at home, but it doesn't have a long table. We might have had more accurate measurements had we cut it correctly at the store.
*Also, the trim was painted white, but we all know (and I didn't realize at the time) that white paint is not the same as primer. My paint didn't cover the glossy white as well as I'd hoped. Next time, I'd use a tinted primer. In the end, though, it all worked out.
A note on color--I had intended to use black, but Christian pointed out that nothing in our house is black, so he suggested the pre-mixed (and therefore cheaper) kona brown. It worked so well! It's dark enough to have contrast and elegance like black does, but is much warmer. Also, we used liquid nails for mirrors to attach it to the mirror, but we had some problems with it pulling away at the corners, so there are some gaps. Next time, I'll either assemble the molding before gluing it down, or find a way to clamp it to the mirror. We used painter's tape to hold it in place, but it dries quickly. When caulking over the gaps, I used post-it notes to keep the paint and caulk off the mirror--it worked beautifully!
After the mirror, we moved on to the cabinets. I lightly sanded and primed the bases--including all of the face frame. If I was going to do all the work, I wanted to do it well. Or as well as this imperfectionista does any project. :)
Here's what it looked like after the first coat:Scary, huh? It was about this time that Christian came to me, very concerned, wondering if we'd done something wrong. I assured him that it would look fine with another few coats, but this is also why I'd use a tinted primer next time. Scary purple cabinets--not really my thing.
I'd love some advice on finishing this off!

A Very Harry Summer

2010-09-13T21:30:00.001-04:00

So, I mentioned before that Hannah likes to use my Ipod to listen to downloaded books. I used to worry about her not reading challenging books, or trying any new books, so we tried this as a way to introduce her to new books. This summer, she "read" the first 3 HP books. She paused for a while, thinking that she'd be too scared by the 4th book, but eventually decided to start, and we convinced her to read along with the Ipod. She read for hours this week--and watched far less tv! Near the end of the book, she misplaced the Ipod and finished reading on her own. So--she finally graduated from assisted Ipod reading and has started reading the 5th book, all on her own! Let me remind ya'll, she's 7...

Just for Kicks...

2010-09-13T08:18:00.001-04:00

This Fall, we have Nathan, Rachel, and Hannah doing soccer. Hannah was a little reluctant to try it until I told her I'd buy her new shoes (cleats)...and then she was all on board. Rachel and Hannah are on the same team--the purple Wild Angels. Nathan plays on a little 5-yr-old beginners team. Both teams had their first game on Saturday, and it rained the entire time! Fortunately, the kids were excited and there were no complaints. The girls' team creamed the other team 5-1, but Nathan's team suffered a devastating loss. Or something like that. I love to see Hannah feeling more comfortable and confident with her new sport.

Let me just address a few deaf issues for a minute here. Have you ever considered how important the ability to hear is to performance on a team sport? I interpret it all for Rachel of course, but she's usually just a little behind the crowd because of the interpreting delay. And, of course, I had not idea how many soccer terms I just didn't know how to sign. I showed up for the first practice and realized I didn't know how to sign goal, goalie, defense, offense, score....all useful soccer terms. I figured know how to sign "kick" and "ball" would be sufficient...Wrong! Rachel is improving each week--she's catching on to how the game is played. She's fast, but not very coordinated and has horrible balance (balance is associated with the inner ear). At first, whenever she tried to kick the ball she'd fall over. Funny? Yeah, I thought so, too. Now, she's getting better and doesn't fall as often. I've been very pleased by how her team and included her, and are patient with her learning process. She played defense for half of Saturday's game, and enjoyed it--Hopefully with practice, she can learn a new skill!

Back to School!

2010-09-12T21:07:00.005-04:00

We were all very ready this year for the start of school. This is how I felt after the long summer break:
Ready, but apparently clueless about how busy the school year can be. This first week back was jam-packed with activity!

We tried for 1st day of school pictures, but struggled...
There, that's better!
Hannah is in 3rd grade, Rachel is in 1st, and Nathan started afternoon Kindergarten.
On the girls' first day, I got to take Aaron and Nathan in to visit Nathan's classroom and meet his teacher. Both boys loved it, and I had a hard time convincing Aaron that he couldn't go with Nathan on the bus the next day!
We also did our yearly-ish Marking of the Growth Chart. Doesn't she look like an opinionated kid?

Summer Wrap-up!

2010-09-11T22:18:00.001-04:00

I made it! It's the last day of summer!
We finished out our summer with a few more trips to the beach (anyone surprised?) including some nasty sunburns because SOMEBODY forgot sunscreen (again). Fortunately, I was burned worse than the kids.
Our good friend Kasey hosted a Back to School party, which ended in rides on their 4-wheeler... (Hannah wants one for her birthday).

And, of course, Saturday morning games of Ultimate Frisbee, while the kids entertain themselves at the park. With good weather, there's usually a good pack of kids to keep each other busy.

And finally, we spent the morning of Labor Day on a family bike ride down the Portage trail...in occasional rain!

We also have a few home improvement projects in the works...I think Christian might have to ground me from craft blogs, because I have this tendency to see something I like and start way more projects than I can finish...(I'm currently painted molding, mod-podging letters, finishing necklaces, lusting after Fall, Halloween, and Christmas crafts I'd like to do and realizing that eventually I need to clean my house. We've lost 4 library books and a movie while I spend my free time crafting...)

Coming up...the much anticipated start of school!