Family Photos

My family was very patronizing today and let me take pictures of them. Here are a few that turned out well. Everyone behaved well and were rewarded with french fries when we were done.  Gotta love bribery.

  I loved these old doors. The building was only about a mile form our house. The girls all voluntarily stuck their hands in their pockets. I thought it was so cute.

 Brynny loves to pose, can you tell? I also lover her toothless smile. Poor kid can't bite down on anything.

 Syd is getting so big and grown-up. Isn't she beautiful? I adore her red hair. The side-ponytail was her idea and she was really digging it.

 My little munchkin. She was so cooperative. We had her shouting things like "Marshmallows, cheese!" Then we tried to get her to say "Pickle princess" and she told us "No, no pickle princess, just pickles".

 Family shot. We had to set the camera up on a tripod then I hit the timer and ran for it. It was pretty far away so the girls counted down for me. I made it! Whew.

 

I love these group shots of the girls. They really are pretty good friends most of the time. Claire's expression pretty much says how she felt about being squeezed like that.

  

 Syd took this shot. The camera was on a tripod and she got to push the button. If you disregard the receding hairline and double chin, we look just like we did 12 years ago, right? I can't believe we have been married for 12 years. I love my family!

Playing Catch-Up

So it has been forever since I have posted. I guess I have been too busy living life lately. So here is a list of what we have been up to:

• Shawn and I went to Mexico. We had such a great time and got very tan. I have a post halfway finsihed. Hopefully I will get around to finishing that soon. 
• We had Halloween. Syd was a white ninja, Brynn was a black fairy, and Claire was a frog. Halloween made quite an impression on Claire. She has been telling everyone for weeks now that she was a frog for Halloween and got a bucket of candy. Good times.
• Syd and Brynn are both losing teeth like crazy. Neither of them can eat apples. 
• Claire had a bad cold last week. It resulted in some breathing treatments like we had to do here. Not as bad as last time but still not fun. She is on the mend now.
• Brynn got whatever yuck Clarie had. She has completely lost her voice and it is killing her to not be able to talk. She sound like a froggy.
• Shawn and I have started exercising in earnest lately. We joined a Crossfit gym and are loving it! Our workout on Friday went as follows: 100 pull-up, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-up, 100 squats. Today we are sore everywhere. I honestly have not had this much fun working in years. 
• I have sworn off surfing craft blogs. They just make me feel incompetent as a homemaker and a mother. Don't get me wrong, I still love to craft, I have even done some fun things lately, but I am so over comparing myself to those perfect people out there. Take me as I am, people.
• I spent the afternoon learning interesting facts about the red fox for a report SYd is doing in school. Did you know that the average life-span of a red fox is only 2-4 years? 
• Exciting family gossip: Jake and Shanna are having a baby boy in March! I cannot wait to be an aunt again. Shanna is 5 months pregnant and barely showing. Sigh. I console myself with the fact that I am all done. Ha! Bart and Katie are moving to Georgia and have just bought their first home. Guys, I am genuinely excited for you, but just so you know I will not be visiting you in the summertime. The humidity would kill me. Christmas at your house next year?
• We took Syd in for some official allergy testing. She was pretty much allergic to everything we had her tested for: peanuts, walnuts, pecans, cashews, green peas(weird, huh?), dogs, and cats. This really doesn't change anything but at least now we know these things for sure. We now are the proud owners of 4 more epi-pens and under orders to keep the cat out of Syd's room. She was kind of devastated about this because the two of them love to sleep together. At least the poor kid doesn't know what she is missing the the nut department.
• We had a muskrat fall into one of our window-wells last week. It scared the crap out of me with all it's scratching at the window. We put a 2x4 down there with it and in crawled out. The girls were both sad when our visitor left. Muskrats are lots bigger than I thought. We are talking cat-size. 
• Shawn spent the last two weekends at a Woodbadge training for scouts. He got a new neckerchief and some new patches so it was a success. Actually he said it was really good and educational, plus he got to camp outside in November.
• Shawn and I are re-watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". If all of you vampire fans out there want a good vampire story, watch Buffy. Seriously, Edward has nothing on Angel.
• I sometimes hate Blogger because it is hard to maneuver in. Pretend that the picture is where you would think it should be.
• I have been feeling super-content and happy lately. My family still does not pick up their socks and there is still laundry all over the couch all the time, but things are good! I love my family and I am also the proud owner of a new pair of happy pants. What more could a girl ask for? I promise more pictures next time. Love to all of you!

Kitchen Cabinets!

So here we go. Here is the story of how we refinished our kitchen cabinets. If you don't care just scroll down to the bottom and you can see the "after" pictures.

Here is the before: Lots of wood paneling and darkness going on.

We took everything out of the cupboards and I realized that I have creepy old-cabin cupboards.

So after sanding we got to work priming the interior. There are lots of surfaces in cupboards. There may have been some cursing at this point. I don't know, Shawn was talking under his breath.

Such a happy helper.

The cabinets are all done here. We let them cure for 3 days. We used oil based paint because it is more durable. I tell you I will never take latex paint for granted again. Oil paint is a bear to work with. Two weeks later and I still have paint on my arms. But I can clean my cabinets all they want and that paint is not coming off.

One coat of primer, 2 coats of paint, and 3 days to cure later. . . we put everything back in the cupboards. Hooray! No more making toast on a cutting board by the front door. It was the only plug I could find.


Here are all the cabinet fronts sitting out in the garage. Now here is a story just so you feel bad for me. Each cabinet door is a little different. The grooves on the front of the door line up with each other, so each door has to go back where it came off of. There are 32 cabinet doors. We had to make a map of what door went where. They were laid out in specific order. I was the only one that was allowed to move a door for any reason. Remarkably, we were able to keep them all in order.
After: Ahhhhh! I love it! We spray painted all the hardware (handles, hinges, even the screws) with a metallic brushed bronze spray paint. I antiqued the doors by sanding the edges and grooves then wiping them down with a glaze. I am really happy with the outcome.
Next we will replace the counter tops and get a new floor and paint the walls. By "next" I mean in the year ahead when we get the $$.

If anyone is interested, here are some great tutorials I read over and over to help me out.

Starter Home to Dream Home blog
Recaptured Charm-glazing
Nora's blog

Some advice:
Don't go into this thinking it will be a weekend job. This took me 2 1/2 weeks of intense work. I spent on average 6-8 hours a day on this. We did take weekends off to let the paint cure. My dad also helped out almost every day for hours, and Shawn helped out too (I have awesome liners in all my cupboards thanks to him. Thanks baby!)

Use oil-based paint. It was a pain but I am not afraid to abuse the cabinets a little. They get lots of abuse anyway. That paint is on there!

Pick one pair of clothes to ruin. I wasn't thinking the first day and was wearing my favorite running pants when I started. Now they are my favorite painting pants.

Find some suckers to help you. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Shawn and Dad. I cannot thank you enough. I would still be sitting on my kitchen floor crying if is wasn't for all the help these two fantastic guys gave me.

Hope you like it! Now I am off to Mexico. Adios!

An update

I finally decided to download pictures from my computer. It has been a while. Here is what we have been up to:

We got a bike seat for Claire. She loves it! Now we can go on family bike rides.

I took a Indian cooking class where I learned how to make chicken curry and naan. Super yummy, and fun!



Shawn's family was all in town a couple of weeks ago and came to church with us. Then they all came back to our house for rolls. Again, super yummy and fun.


Bonnie and Kurt have moved to Seattle so Kurt can attend pharmacy school there. We miss them. We are already planning a visit for next summer.


Jon won the roll eating contest with 8 rolls. It was a truly proud moment.



Syd and Brynn headed back to school a couple of weeks ago. Syd is in 4th grade and Brynn is in 2nd grade. We get to go to a brand new school this year. It is very exciting. Hooray for the big yellow bus!


Thumbs up for school!


We have also been super busy painting our kitchen cabinets. You have to wait for pictures of that until I am ready to do the final reveal. It is going to be fantastic! We also were part of the support crew for my dad this past weekend as he rode the LOTOJA for the fourth year in a row. Pictures to come. I hope all is well with you!

Garden Thoughts

So I came to a realization this summer: Yard work is not my thing. I don't really enjoy the heat of summer, (OK, I hate being hot in a serious way) so going out into it to dig, prune,weed, etc. is not something I enjoy. So this realization begs the question: why the hell would I want to size up and own a bigger piece of land?! I fear I am going to have to face this question someday. I have always had dreams of owning a full acre and having chickens, goats, and a huge garden. I'm starting to think that this might be an unrealistic dream. My .3 acre is really about all I can handle.I am not great at the gardening thing. There are only two things that I can consistently grow with success. So here are a few pictures of them.


My mom used to plant marigolds all the time when we were growing up. I kind of hated them. I thought they stunk. I still think they stink, but the fact is, they are easy to grow. So they are the flower I go back to year after year. They always grow and thrive. And actually I have become quite fond of them.



I love fresh tomatoes still warm from the garden. Again this is something that I can grow with relatively consistent success. We have 4 tomato plants this year (my neighbor has 32!) and all are doing well, even after one had a fairly serious run-in with the tiller.
The cherry tomatoes are starting to turn red and I can't wait to eat them. I love how they pop in your mouth.BTW- I didn't even notice there was a grasshopper in this picture until after I took it. Sneaky little guy!
That's all. How are all of your garden's doing this summer?
PS- I canned 51 pints of beets today. That may have a little to do with my pessimism toward gardens tonight. :)

Happy Birthday to My Girls!

Syd and Brynn both had their birthdays this month. Syd turned 9 and Brynn turned 7. My big girls!

For Syd's b-day we took a friend with us to Build-A-Bear in Salt Lake. They all has a great time making and naming their new friends. Later on we had a little party for Syd. She got some new clothes,an Origami set,a bow and arrow, a subscription to Ranger Rick (thanks B & K) and HER OWN ROOM! We did some switching around downstairs and Syd now has a room all to herself. That meant that Claire moved downstairs and is bunking with Brynn now. Such grownup girls I have!Time to open presents!

Build a Bear Fun. I did think it was funny that not one of them chose to get a bear.

Bow and arrow from Grandma Julie

Outside of the Build-A-Bear Workshop at the Gateway.

For Brynn’s birthday we went to Toy Story 3. It was really good. Brynn said her favorite presents were her Zhu Zhu pet and a pool she got. The pool holds 150 gallons of water and has been put to very good use in the past week.

Pipsqueak the Zhu Zhu Pet.

Cute shirts from Aunt Robyn. Thank you!

Blowing out her candle. She really wanted a number "7" candle this year.

Hooray for a pool!

We had a fun month with all the birthday partying. Happy birthday, girls!

Dance and Tae Kwon Do Videos - See post below for details