More of a Home

Today I finished most of the decorating in our front room. It's so nice to finally have things up on the wall. (The family picture is really old, but our newer, still two years outdated one was oriented the wrong direction.  We are getting a new one soon anyway.)

I somewhat had this same grouping in our other house, but it hadn't been up for very long.  And there is one more picture on there now.  Sorry to disappoint anyone hoping to see a name on the baby's magnetic photo board.  Nate and I both have one to put on there, but for the time being, they don't quite match.  Kind of a problem.  They almost do, but not close enough to call it good. 

I got the idea for this sign from my sister Melanie.  I think she got the idea from esty, which is a great place to go to steal great ideas.  Anyway, you use everyday object to spell words.  The guy at the one hour photo made my day by asking if they were professional photos.  It made me feel good that he thought they were good enough to ask that question (for their copyright reasons, I'm sure).  I have a non-DSLR camera that I fight with all the time and don't really know how to use.  And to give credit, I didn't photograph the "E."  Melanie did, but let me use her file.  If you can't tell, the "W" is my church shoes, the first "B" is a pearl necklace I have, and the second "B" is the top of my gate (turned sideways).  The "E" is the swirly metal end of something Melanie has, maybe an easel.  I am going to put pictures in the two other mat openings on each side.  I'm thinking I will put a picture of Nate and I on the left and a picture of all the kids on the right.

This is a small section of wall by our sliding doors that go to the backyard.  The table is there on the right.  I got the unfinished shelves at Michaels and Natalie and Kelton helped me paint them black.

Closer up view.  I actually made everything on this wall, at least in part.  Including the candles.

Despite how this picture looks, these little crazies didn't really survive the day being neglected by their mother.  Fighting/crying levels were much higher than usual today.  But now I'm done, so we can play more tomorrow.

Church Callings

Just a quick update on my church callings:  After a little over three years of playing the organ, I got released last week.  When asked about playing the organ by a member of the bishopric a little while ago, I did mention that it was going to be a bit difficult, mostly for Nate, once we had this new baby plus our other three fairly young kids.  Some moms have to manage their little kids by themselves during sacrament all the time, but dads aren't as used to it, mostly because they don't do it at home all day long.  Nate barely survived by himself with Damon as a newborn and Kelton as a crazy two year old.  And really, it only worked for me because Damon was bottle fed from really early on.  So, now with two crazy boys who like to fight and bother each other, and a soon to be newborn baby (Natalie is always really good), it was time for me to rejoin them.  I didn't mind playing the organ at all.  I will miss the quiet of sitting alone on the stand for the beginning and end of the meeting.  But it will also be nice to not be worried about not being able to help Nate keep the kids quiet, especially during the Sacrament.  (Or chasing my escaped two year old (Damon) across the front of the stand during the sacrament.  He was ever so nicely repetitively yelling, "NO, MOMMA!" the whole time I tried to catch up with him.)

Today was my first time sitting with my family for all of sacrament meeting since Kelton was about a year old.  I think having me there on the bench for the first 25 minutes of the meeting threw my boys off a bit.  They weren't very good.  It is going to take some re-adjusting/re-training. 

Also, this evening was the third time I have held choir practice.  I was called to be the choir director back in January or February.  But, along with being super not excited about it, I had morning sickeness hit at about the same time.  That pretty much took me out of commission for a few months.  Then we had a few months of crazieness in buying our new house, setting the other house up as a rental, and moving/settling in to the new house.  Once that was all finished, I was able to find some music for the choir to sing and then figure out a time when we would be able to meet.  Our church meetings start at 8:00 a.m. and we share the building with three other wards, plus one more ward that meets in a school because we can't do five blocks in our small building on Sunday, but they still use the building for all other purposes.  So, finding a time for choir practice when people would actually come was a bit challenging.  We meet from 6:00-7:00 p.m.

But we are underway now.  This calling is a bit different for me.  I am way more used to being the one behind the piano.  And directing a choir is different from just conducting the music.  But I am slowly figuring it out and it seems to be going okay.  Hopefully the choir members feel the same way.  We even almost have one song ready to sing.

Ultrasound

I had another ultrasound a little more than a week ago.  Everything still looks really good.  And the baby is still a girl.  :)

Profile view

Hand

(I'm pretty sure the oval is a top view of her head)

I like this one with her arm and hand up across her face.

Marble jars

About a month ago I decided we needed to do something about some bad behavior around here.  The kids were being disobedient, complaining when asked to do things, and were not being nice to each other in words or actions.  And, as a result, I was not noticing or praising any of their good behavior because I was so frustrated by the bad.  So I decided to institute a marble jar system.  (This is not original at all, and I'm sure many of you have done it too.)  Simply put, you do something nice, or obey mom and dad, etc... and you get a marble.  You do any of the bad behaviors and you lose a marble.

Here are their jars about a week after starting.  I didn't tell them they had to choose a certain color, but Natalie wanted to be blue, Kelton wanted to be green, and Damon decided each time what color he wanted.

I must say, I had no idea the power that these little marbles would hold.  It was truly amazing.  I heard Kelton stop and nicely ask Damon to "share" his own toys with him (instead of grabbing, yelling "that's mine!", hitting, crying... you get the idea) and Natalie was a lot more cooperative (overly so at times) about doing homework, putting her shoes away, etc.  They were always looking for ways to get marbles.  Which resulted in everyone being a lot nicer and happier, myself included.  And, it was nice for me to be able to notice all the good things that they do.  And it is amazing how positive reinforcement encourages more positive behavior.  I just know that as a parent I will a lot of times get stuck in a rut of just getting upset with all the "bad" behavior and then I end up grumpy all the time.  So, these jars really helped me too. 

Over the weeks, we were not as dilligent as the first week or so.  But we've tried to get back on track.  Today the marble jars were full.  Natalie's was all the way full and Kelton's was only five or so marbles behind, so I figured we would get all their rewards on the same day.

I let each of them choose what they wanted to earn when the jars were full.  (I did guide their choices a bit by making suggestions.)  Natalie wanted ice cream from McDonalds and to play in the Playplace.  Kelton wanted one of those big balls you always see in the isle at Walmart.  Damon is a little too young to understand the whole concept, but he did understand some.  He really loved being able to put marbles in his jar and did realize that he got them for doing good things.  But he loves ice cream, so we decided his reward would be the same as Natalie's.

Here they are with their rewards.

I couldn't choose just one picture of Damon.  Each one was just so indicative of his cute personality.  Such a happy kid.

Kelton had to choose the exact ball that Damon got on his birthday so that they would each have the same one.  I couldn't even sway him with the balls that had the dots all over them.  He was so happy. 

And I did feel a little silly taking a picture of him with his ball in the middle of Walmart. Other people were probably thinking my poor kids were so deprived for this to be a big enough thing to pull out the camera. :)

The marble jars are now empty and we are starting the whole thing again.  The kids just need to choose a new reward.

Lost toenail

Just as a warning... this post might be gross or kind of weird to some of you... but it's for my personal record keeping.

Back before I met Nate, he had a reoccuring issue with an ingrown toenail on his big toe.  He went to the podiatrist a few different times to have it taken care of, but it then grew back with a fungal infection.  When I met Nate, he told me that his toenail had fallen off once and that it was about to fall off again "any day now."  That was about nine years ago and I have never seen his toenail fall off.  Until about two weeks ago.  So, he decided it was time to just go in and have the podiatrist kill the root so it wouldn't grow back again and he wouldn't have to mess with it anymore.  He went in at the end of May and had it taken care of.  (Don't worry, I didn't take any gross pictures.  It wasn't that gross anyway.)

(Just a note:  my house is around 82 degrees and my kids still wrap up in their blankets. I can't imagine.) 

 Now Nate has a whole care routine he has to do twice a day for a few more days.  I think he is ready for it to be done with.  I'm interrested to see what his toe will look like once it is all healed and doesn't have a toenail anymore.

We have some Color!

We've lived in our new house for about two and a half months, which is by far long enough for all of the blank walls to start driving me crazy.  Today was the day to do something about that.  I painted our breakfast bar/sink island, Nate installed curtain rods, and I hung curtains.  And just to note, the curtains and paint are exactly the same color, but it doesn't appear that way in the pictures.  The paint reflected the flash too much--it's really a deep red like the curtains.

Here are some before and after photos from different angles.

BEFORE

From living room looking into the dining area

AFTER

BEFORE

Dining area

AFTER

BEFORE

(from dining area looking into living room)

AFTER

(I still need to hem the curtains...)

View from in the kichen looking out over the sink.

The kitchen and living room are open to each other, so I needed to be able to do the same color scheme throughout. Once I get things hung on the wall they will be in the same colors: black, red, and silver (I have stainless steel appliances). I have some wall decorations that have silver metal on them. That's where the silver will come in. And I will probably use some black and white photos. Hopefully I can get that all figured out soon because the pictures on the wall are what I am really missing.  But it is nice to finally have some color.

Miss Natalie is 7!

Today was Natalie's seventh birthday.  Natalie got a special treat this morning.  Her Grandma and Grandpa Webb stayed at our house last night, so they were here this morning to sing Happy Birthday with us and watch her open presents.  They also took all of us to Olive Garden (Natalie's favorite place to eat) last night to celebrate Natalie's birthday.  Natalie's been so excited to open her presents for a long time.  Here are a few pictures.

And the winner was... or at least the one that got the loudest reaction...

A box of Lucky Charms.  (That either makes me a really good mom, or a really bad one.)  I never buy Lucky Charms or any equivalent.  On a 1 to 10 scale of good breakfast foods, Lucky Charms fall somewhere around -2.  I don't really feel that fortified sugar qualifies as a meal.  So, I guess it's a good thing my kids have birthdays when they can ask for things like Lucky Charms.  And yes, she's been asking for months to have this for her birthday.  She also asked for it for Christmas, but apparently Santa is not as nice as I am.  Natalie also got some new shirts, flip flops, 2 DS games (Super Princess Peach and Starfy), an umbrella (her request), a couple of card games, and a Color Wonder Lightbrush paint set.

Grandma and Grandpa Webb got Natalie a few pairs of earrings.  She's only had one pair of earrings for the past few years.  She was so happy to get some more options.

Grandma and Grandpa Burgess sent Natalie some money so she could pick out her own present.  We took her to the store tonight so she could shop.  She had so much fun looking around at everything knowing she could pick something out.  She was having a really hard time choosing until she found a Tinkerbell jewelery/music box.  She knew that was what she wanted.  At home, she loved putting her new earrings in her new jewelery box.

Today was also the last day of school.  Natalie was so excited for them to fall on the same day.  I think a lot of times her birthday falls just after school gets out for the summer so her birthday doesn't really get recognized at school.  I took popsicles in for her class.  Her school requires that all food brought in be store bought.  After two years you think I would be over this, but it still makes me grumpy.  So if you want to bring in cake, is costs about $15-$20 instead of a few dollars to make one.  So, since it is so hot outside, we decided that popsicles were all around a better option.  Anyway, Natalie was excited that we came into her class, and the whole class enjoyed eating the popsicles.

When Natalie got home, she got to see her cake.  She had requested a Silvermist (from the Tinkerbell movies) cake.  I didn't feel like doing a frosting transfer, so I came up with another idea.  And usually I feel like my cakes look better in the pictures because you can't see the flaws, but this one definitely looked better in person.  The swirly lines were a lot smoother looking.

This was her reaction to the cake.  She later told me that seeing her cake was one of her favorite parts of the day.  And she could not wait to take that toy off the top.  But I made her anyway.

Happy Birthday Natalie!

A little Makeover

I am so excited to be having another baby girl, especially since it's been over 7 years since I've had one.  And heaven help me, I have so many things I want to make for her.  I've learned how to make a lot of cute baby girl stuff during my years of having baby boys. 

Anyway...  here is the baby bouncer I used for both of my boys.  It's so ugly.  The design is ugly, the colors are ugly, and I just never really liked it. But it was cheap and I wasn't willing to pay more for cuter fabric.

However, Baby Girl needs something better.  So, thanks to a craft blog I love (she makes you feel like you can make anything...), I decided I could fix it.  The blog author re-covered a carseat.  I figured this would be about the same, but a lot easier.  Basically, you unpick ALL the seams (yes, it takes forever) and then use the fabric as a pattern and reuse the inner padding.  Here's my finished project:

Waaaay better, right?

Unfortunately, I am stuck with the lime green buckles and blue/green frame.  Replacement buckles were $2 each and I'm sure I could have found paint that would have stayed on the metal, but it would have been expensive for the small amount I needed.  The point was for this project to be cheap.  After all, a new bouncer is only like $25.  My total cost to re-do this one was about $3--for the fabric.  The cute circle material was on clearance for $2 per yard.  (I am going back on Monday to buy some more to make a matching blanket.  I hope it is still there!)  Stay tuned, there will be lots more baby girl projects to come...

Little allergy sufferer

Look at Damon in these pictures.  (had to specify a child because apparently if the camera comes out, everyone has to get in front of it)

Damon's eyes are so puffy and swollen.  It looks worse in person.  For the past few days it has been apparent that Damon has seasonal allergies.  I get them too and I've noticed that he seems to be having the same symptoms as me.  My eyes have been over-the-top itchy the past few days.  Damon has been rubbing his eyes red.  And he's been rubbing his nose, because it itches too.

Tonight right before bed, the puffiness flared up and I went to Walmart to see if there was anything I could give a 2 year old for allergies.  I found one thing--childrens' Zyrtec.  Hopefully it works.  Poor kid looks so miserable.

Plug-be-gone

I think the technical term is "pacifier," but most people have their own name for it.  In our house it is a "plug."  And on Sunday night, we did the unthinkable... we took it away from Damon.  I've done this with three kids and each time I wonder who it is more emotionally difficult for... the child or the parents.  I really didn't want to take it away, but our cut off is two years old.  And we are ready for Damon to be in a toddler bed but needed to get rid of the plug in a contained environment (crib) where he couldn't just get up and walk out because he was upset. 

We employed a technic that failed miserably with Kelton.  We cut the tip of the plug off.

 (We did this when we took it away from Kelton and it made him extremely mad. He would throw it out of the crib then cry for it and then repeat the cycle. It made him so mad that he threw up, and we had to just make it vanish and deal with the crying. It took about a week before he was back to normal without his plug.)

At bedtime we gave Damon the cut plug and said, "Uh, oh... pluggie is broken."  (Damon adds "ie" to the end of nouns he is fond of, and we end up using his words)

Damon laughed.  He thought it was funny!  He repeated a few times "pluggie broken" as a statement of fact, with no sadness in his voice.  We let him hold it in his crib and he went to sleep like normal.  I couldn't believe it.  It was too easy.

But then he woke up at about 11:00 and was inconsolable.  He never once asked for his plug, but I think that was what the problem was.  I think he wakes up during the night and reaches around until he finds his plug and that's how he falls back asleep.  But that didn't work tonight.  And maybe he was awake for a different reason entirely, but the timing was pretty coincidental for it not to be caused by the loss of the plug.

Nap the next day... no problems at all.  At one point as I was putting him down, I could tell he was about to ask for it, but instead I heard him quietly mutter, "broken."  I didn't even give it to him.

Bedtime last night... He said "pluggie broken,"  like he was reminding me.  We went right to sleep and had no troubles.  Same with his nap today.  He actually didn't even mention the broken plug.

So really, this has been a very easy transition.  I think if Damon could describe what has happened with his plug he would say something like, "Well, my plug broke.  It's actually kind of funny because I can stick my finger all the way through it now.  And it looks funny.  I can't use it anymore because it just wouldn't work.  So what do I care if I don't have it anymore.  It's useless."  That really has been his attitude.  It's been great!  Now on to the toddler bed and moving into the "boys" room.  Can't wait to see how Kelton and Damon handle falling asleep in the same room in beds they can both get out of.



Damon is Two!

Damon's second birthday was yesterday.  He had fun opening and playing with presents.  Poor kid didn't have a real exciting day because he had a pretty sick momma.  But we took him to the zoo today to make up for it.

Damon loved his Mickey Mouse blanket from Grandma and Grandpa Burgess.

He gave it a big hug when he got it out of the paper.

He also loved his singing Mickey Mouse card from Grandma and Grandpa Webb.  It sings the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themesong.  He played with it for a long time.  I think from now on we might just buy all of our kids a singing card for their birthdays.  They seem to like them as much as any present.

He also got two Thomas trains, one from us and one from Grandma/pa Burgess.

We got Damon a trampoline for his birthday.  (Grandma and Grandpa Webb contributed as their present to him.)  This is not something we would normally buy for a birthday since it is a big purchase.  But ours died a while back and our kids have really missed it.  We have been intending to replace it.  We didn't really know what to get Damon for his birthday and he jumps on everything, so this seemed to be a great time to get one.  He was too small to ever enjoy the other one we had.  You can see that he was really excited.

Kelton wanted in on the camera action.  Such a cute little face.  :)

I had what I would call my first ever cake catastrophe.  First of all it is kind of hard to have a steady hand when you are sick and shaky.  But I can't blame it on that.  Everything was going just fine until I tried to put my frozen buttercream transfers on.  They would not work.  The "2" was really big and not in a nice solid piece (like the picture of Mickey) and I was afraid that was going to be a problem.  Actually it would have been fine, except that I think my frosting consistency was wrong.  I think it wasn't stiff enough.  It made it really easy to fill in the transfer, but made it really difficult for it to freeze hard enough to transfer to the cake.  It just melted too fast when I took it out of the freezer and I couldn't get it off the paper.  (My house being 82 degrees may have been a factor too.)  You can see that it got really messed up and I ended up freehanding on the whole bottom half of the "2."  I had the same issues with getting Mickey to come off.  Luckily it was just his legs and not his face so it ended up okay.  Oh, and I found the little Minnie figure at the 99 Cent only store and had to put it on because he loves Minnie Mouse.

Damon needed help blowing out his candles.  Actually, daddy needed some help too.  We won't mention that it took him about three tries to get the candles to go out.  I think he was starting to wonder if they were trick candles.  It was kind of funny to see the flames just keep bending over and not go out.

Happy Birthday to our sweet Damon!!!  He is just so sweet and cute and I'm glad he doesn't get sick of me squeezing and kissing on him... because I do it all the time.  He is just such a happy natured kid.  It's easy to get him to smile, even if he is crying.  We love having him around!

Mud

Maybe I am just tired, but I was laughing from the very beginning of this conversation...

(story setup--my 4 and 6 year olds are playing out back, which is all dirt.  Natalie comes inside...)

Natalie:  "Mom, we need mud.  So can we turn on the hose outside?"

She then protested after being told no by both parents and said  "But spit is just not enough water to make mud!"

(It is also interresting to notice that they are not jumping on the new trampoline out back, but are using it as shade to play under.  It is almost 100 degrees out there today.)

It's a...

...Baby!!!

I had an ultrasound today (16 weeks) and... the baby looks just fine. 

In the middle of the night last night, Kelton woke up throwing up.  My appointment for the ultrasound was early this morning.  We had arranged to take the boys over to a friend's house so we could go to the ultrasound.  However we didn't want to bring stomach flu to someone else's house, and children, so Nate ended up staying home with the boys and I went by myself.  That wasn't real fun for either of us.   It was a huge relief to find out that everything looks okay.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, Natalie screamed very loudly at the news that she was finally going to get a sister!  We are excited for this new baby girl!