Nap Time

Apparently Walmart was too much for Carter today. He kept asking to go home and lay down in his own bed. Good thing I was already planning on buying some pillows, because we just moved him to the back of the cart and let him lay down. It only took him about 15 minutes to let his eyes close and he napped through the entire rest of the shopping and the drive home.

Snow Day!!!

We went up to the Rim last weekend to get in some play time in the snow. Carter had a much better experience this time because of the mittens. He was able to play for much longer just because he could touch the snow.

We built a snow man; ate some snow; made snow angels; watched Tarra's dog, Monster, romp around; and the boys played with giant shards of frozen puddle. We had such a good time, it was a great way to spend the day and get in some quality time with each other.

Getting Back to Blogging and a Photo Mishap

Due to an unforseen problem with Google+, it's going to take me awhile to get back to blogging. When I joined Google+ it automatically created a photo album with all the pictures I had ever posted on my blog. Well I didn't want that album, it was kind of random because it was a compilation of home improvement projects, baby pictures, and any other photo I might have put in a blog post.  So I deleted it.

Now that I've come back to my blog I've discovered that deleting that photo album has deleted all the source files for the pictures in all of my blog posts. Hence, the black boxes with exclamation points all over my old posts. I've done some research and there's no way for Google+ to restore the deleted photos. This same thing happened to a lot of other bloggers. So sad.

So it will take me some time to get all the photos re-uploaded and added to the old blog posts. I'd like to have the whole thing intact so that I can use it as a journal record at some point. I will try and get some regular posts done in the mean time.

I've got a good one about an office/guest room that should be coming shortly. I just need to get the pictures taken. That's it for now. Thanks for bearing with me.

Ready, Set, Go! with Carter and David

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The Fourth Room...

Okay, so here's the thing...I have a tiny house, I LOVE our house, but there's no bones about it, it's tiny.  So when people ask about our house and I tell them it's 1300 square feet, 4 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms, I usually hear, "What?!? 4 bedrooms?  Where's the fourth bedroom?"

So here is the the story of The Fourth Room...

Once upon a time, there was a little family, a daddy, a mommy, and 1 super adorable baby boy.  They bought a little house for their little family and moved all their stuff in.  But where, oh where, to put all that extra stuff that never has a home.  "I know, we'll put it all in that other room down the hall.  You know, the one those crazy people who lived here before us painted dark blue and sponge painted?  We don't need to do anything in there for awhile, so we'll just put all our extra stuff in there for now."  I don't remember who said this exactly, but it was said nonetheless.

Time passed and the little family started fixing up their little house.  Painting here and there, new floors in the front room and hallway, but they only ever ventured into that fourth room to find a "temporary" spot for something they didn't really have a spot for.

The mommy and daddy were trying to share the same office for awhile, but with a fish tank and two computer desks it was starting to get crowded in there.  And the mommy didn't have a place she could do anything with all of her craft stuff.  So they decided it was time to change the fourth room into another office.  One office for each of them, because they each had a lot of stuff for their respective hobbies and nobody was able to work on anything.

That's the story of the fourth room, and here are the pictures of the story thus far...

 This is the view from the hallway.  Nice paint job, no?

And the wallpaper border?  Somebody really liked sports. (*gag*)



We took the doors off the closet and I moved all those boxes out.

This was taken after I had gone through this stuff for the hundredth time and had gotten rid of even more.

After Leland got the support framing in place.  Sorry there are no "in progress" pictures.  He textured and primed it on Saturday with Trent, and before I got home on Monday he was already almost finished with painting the yellow.  He's THAT good!

 

The "dry fit" of the countertop desk.  We got a piece of countertop for FREE leftover from somebody's work (I'm not telling who, hehe) and Leland cut it down to size.  The holes were already in there for cords/cables, etc which is nice because the iMac will be in here and all the cords can go through the holes!



And here is that cute baby boy I mentioned earlier.

This desk is so strong it can hold all 25 lbs. of this massive kid.  Love that smile!

So Leland and Trent are going to run an electrical outlet so I have power and also put in a light on the same switch as the light on the ceiling fan so I have can "frighten away the ghosts of so many years ago with a little ILLUMINATION!"  (Sorry, I couldn't resist the Phantom reference when talking about illumination.)

The reasoning behind the built-in closet desk is that these rooms are 10x10, which doesn't leave room for much else.  We have a daybed for guests (Thanks Melgozas!) and a bookcase and tv stand as well.  I couldn't figure out where to put a desk and I didn't want to get rid of any furniture.  I think I'm going to put a curtain in front of the desk opening so that it can be hidden away from guests who stay with us.

I'm still waffling on a paint color for the walls in the rest of the room.  I don't want it to be major league girly because we may have to combine offices in the future when another baby comes along and needs that other room.  On the other hand, it's just paint and it could be changed in the event of offices combining.

I've been thinking about either a light sage green OR a muted heather purple.  Thoughts?

Linen Closets are so...GRRR!

Doesn't it always seem like your linen closet always needs an overhaul?  Mine does.

And I've been on a bit of an organizing/decorating the house kick recently and reading blogs like this, and this that sometimes have pictures of projects that they've done in their homes.  I just like reading about what other people have done.  I don't usually get great ideas by myself.  I'm a copier.  I see what someone else has done and then twist it to fit what I need.

So when I saw the most recent Better Homes and Gardens special publication (it's all about storage, organization, and decorating in small spaces...like my house) and saw a photo of a beautiful linen closet all clean and organized with bins and dividers I thought, "THAT'S my next project!"

Here's the cover in case anyone wants to go buy it.  It was $5.99 and totally worth it in my opinion.

This is the first page I flipped to (and the inspiration for this project) while I was in line at Walmart to check out. I actually ran back into the Walmart to pick out some bins I had seen earlier while Leland unloaded our groceries. I knew I liked those bins for a reason.

Our hall linen closet is smallish; it fits in between Carter's room and the 2nd bathroom in the hallway.  I feel lucky to have a linen closet, since neither of our apartments had a big enough storage area for all the linens to have a home.  I like it when things have a "home" that way they don't float around my house from one flat surface to another.  You know what I'm talking about if you've ever been to my house.

So here's the {almost} finished product!  I still need to get labels made and slipped in to the slots of all the bins and I still need to find a basket that will fit on the floor inside the closet for towels, but it was a serious improvement to all the random stacks of stuff that had been unceremoniously shoved into this closet just so it wasn't out where people could see it (another of my less than favorable traits, when people come over I hide my clutter instead of actually doing something about it...eek!).  But hopefully now that won't happen anymore.  Because I won't want to mess up all the work I did in here.  It's SO much better!

2010 In Review

I put together a little slideshow of our 2010.  It actually includes the end of 2009, but that was some really important stuff, so I put it in.  I hope you enjoy it!  (P.S.  I love having a Mac, it made putting this together so easy!)

Click here to watch it on YouTube!

Watched Over

I just wanted to quickly share an experience I had over the weekend.  Leland and I were going to a Christmas get-together with his cousins on Saturday night.  My parents were going to be watching Carter for us and we met up with them at my grandparents' house where my mom and dad were putting up the Christmas tree.  The party was a potluck and so we had our crockpot with us and we brought it in to keep it plugged in until it was time to leave for the party.  It ended up getting plugged in on the island and I made a mental note to not let Carter go into the kitchen so that he wouldn't pull on the cord and have a hot crockpot fall on him.

My dad had gone downstairs, we thought with Carter in tow, and the rest of us were sitting and chatting in the front room.  I don't know how else to describe it other than I suddenly knew Carter was not with my dad, but was in the kitchen about to pull the crockpot down on himself.  I jumped up and ran into the kitchen just in time to grab him as he was standing and reaching for the crockpot cord.

My heart was pounding, of course, and I just held him tight because I knew how hurt he would have been if he had pulled that crockpot off the counter.  My mom said something about my "great Spidey-sense" which got me thinking.  That wasn't me; that was a prompting from the Holy Ghost watching over my little family and keeping my little dude safe.

Anyone who knows me won't be surprised when I tell you that I'm crying as I write this.  I am so grateful for the power of the Holy Ghost in my life; I know I am being watched over and that my little family is, as well.

Another year...

A year has gone by since I wrote my last anniversary post.  I just reread it to reminisce and remember what was going through my mind at this point last year.

Last year on our anniversary:

• We were pregnant (hugely pregnant) with exactly one month left to our baby's due date.  Though we didn't know it at the time, we would be in the hospital exactly one month after our anniversary to have labor induced and have our little one join the world.  What a journey it has been since then!  I love being a mom and I know Leland loves being a dad (since I'm writing this alone I will put that in for him).  Carter has blessed our lives and even though struggles have arisen from the stress of parenthood, I'm thankful to know I have a partner I can count on while we raise our son.

• We were getting ready to close on our house.  While reading last year's anniversary post, I saw that I had written we were hoping to close on our house the following week.  Well, that didn't happen.  But we did evenutally close on our house (while in the hospital being induced, sheesh!).  We love our little house and we (and by we, I mean Leland) have put a lot of work into it to make it our own.  It's funny to look back on all the worrying and stress we let bother us last year and to realize how un-stressed we are now that we are settled in our home.

This past year has been more of a discovery for us as we've learned that love is infinite.  I didn't know I could love as much as I do.  My love for my family has grown exponentially since I became a mother.  Every day I love Leland and Carter more than I did the day before.  It's not always the way it is in the movies or in books (sometimes it is) but I climb into bed at the end of every day knowing I have an awesome sweetheart and the coolest kid around who both love me.

Thankful: Post #1

I am thankful for:

• an awesome husband who put up with my crazy over this whole weekend.  He helped me with the heavy lifting and kept our son Friday night and ALL DAY Saturday so I could focus on Ashley's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party.  I am thankful for him and I love him SO MUCH!
• everyone who made Ashley's Bridal Shower possible.  I couldn't have done it without:
• Terri and Dave for the letting us invade their beautiful home and throw a big party in their backyard
• Myrna, Tina, D Jo, Lawanna, Angie, Karolann, Nicole, Terri, and Corrinne for help with the food, the food prep, the setting up, the teacup shopping, and everything else
• The Men: Leland, David, Tyler, Dave, and my dad, Scott for picking up/dropping off tables, setting up tables and chairs, and waiting around for me to give them one more thing to do
• My mom, Lisa, and my Aunt Linda for all their help with floral arrangements, because I suck at it, and for doing all the kitchen stuff during the shower so I could play hostess
• my husband, Leland (again) for painting and installing our baseboards after the awesome job he did on our floor (and thanks to everyone else who came and did flooring and painting at our house, it looks amazing and I love it!)
• my parents, brothers, and Aunt Linda who held or kept an eye on Carter on Sunday so I could have a peaceful Sacrament Meeting and eat my lunch at the luncheon after the baby blessing

I think that's a pretty good start to my "thankful" posts.  Three cheers for GRATITUDE!  Hip-hip-hooray!  Hip-hip-hooray!  Hip-hip-hooray!

Up to the challenge?

I've seen a lot of "Challenge" posts recently, all trying to get us to focus on being grateful and whatnot.  Well, I'll admit it, I'm not always so focused on the "gratitude"; unless, of course, I'm pointing out someone else's lack thereof.

So, I'll take your challenge (whoever YOU are).  Let's see if I can manage to get the word "thank" (or any of its siblings) in all of my posts from now on.  I'll attempt to do short daily posts, I hate it when I have to write long ones, 'cause nobody wants to read all that.

Forgot to blog about my birthday...

The other day I hooked up my camera to the computer to upload the latest in Carter cuteness.  And what did I find?  A bunch of pictures of my birthday evening that I forgot to blog about.  Guh!

So here's the skinny:  back in September was my birthday.  It actually fell on a Friday so we went out on the actual day.  And I got dinner AND a movie.  I felt pretty special because we never do both anymore.

We had a great time at Black Angus (I was in the mood for some meat and it's not as if Leland would ever turn down steak.  I mean, really?) and then we went to see a movie (come to think of it, I can't remember what movie it was).  All I can remember at the moment is that I laughed hysterically throughout the entire movie.  I'm talking, side-splitting, cheeks hurting, falling over in your seat laughter.

I've just spent about 10 minutes looking for the name of movies that were still showing in September, but none of them are ringing a bell.  How about we use the comments to guess which movie Leland and I saw on my birthday?  I'm sure I'll recognize it if one of you guesses it.

I asked Leland to take a picture of us, but he didn't want to be in it.  So I asked him to take a picture of me.  And he proceeded to keep hitting the button every 5 seconds while I was trying to get situated.

You've also got to love the leftover food on plates and take out box in the foreground.

Then our server was walking by, so I asked if she'd take one of both of us.  That's what he gets for taking weird pictures of me!

Carter's First Haircut

I know, I know, you're wondering why we would give Carter a haircut, when he's got so few hairs to begin with.  Well, he was starting to get this crazy old man look going on around the ears and the back of his head was all full and normal looking while the rest was just hairless (with the exception of a few crazy long ones that stuck out at odd angles).

So Grandma Lawanna busted out the clippers and we gave him his first buzz cut.  He loved it!  No crying or nervousness whatsoever.  Just a bunch of smiles and giggles!  Yay!

 

Before

Getting situated in the cape.

Wondering why we were holding his head like that.

"Hey, that tickles! Do it again!"

"This is fun, mom!"

"hehehe"

Almost done!

"Thanks, Grandma.  Let's do that again sometime, okay?"

All finished!

Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!

Halloween is such a fun time of year. I love being able to dress up and feel like a kid again.

This past Wednesday we went to Tyler and Angie's ward party which was pretty fun. Angie also posted some pictures here. Carter was dressed as Charlie Brown and I was wearing my black cat ears.

Then on Friday for work I decided to wear my black cats ears for fun.  A couple of us coordiated and we all wore cat/tiger ears together.  We couldn't quite tell if the chiefs wer amused by our "costumes" but it seemed like they were.

Ashley came into town for Halloween weekend.  Friday night we went to an author interview and book signing at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale (we also brought along Uncle Lincoln).  It was "interesting" to say the least.  The author being interviewed was a little (well, a lot) preachy with her leftist, I-thought-abou-boycotting-Arizona, I-heart-Obama ideals.  So we got out of there and finished up the evening with dinner at Charleston's where we all had soup and salad with those yummy croissants.

Ashley brought us costumes (AWESOME!) so we could dress up together for the Trunk-or-Treat party at my parents' church building.  She's got to go home before Halloween night *sad face* but at least we got some fun Halloween stuff in.

Ashley curled my hair for the occasion (cuz I'm kind of clutzy with a curling iron).  We both said it felt like high school again, giggling and doing each others' hair.

Wood Flooring - Part 3 and Painting!

The flooring was finished two weeks ago...Leland got it all done in four days!  Wednesday he started with his dad and got half the living room done.  Then on Thursday Leland and some cousins and brothers finished the living room.  Friday night the majority of the hall was done, but the tricky, angled portion of the hallway started becoming a patience-drainer, so Leland took a break and finished the hall and the laundry closet on Saturday morning with his dad.  Yay!  I love my new wood floors, they are so much cleaner than that nasty old carpet (I'm pretty sure it was original to the 10 year old house).  And Carter's feet aren't black anymore (Can you imagine how dirty carpet would have to be to leave the tops of his feet black from crawling? Yuck!)

The finished hallway - it looks so cool on the angle like that!

And then we finally picked a paint color (Well, I finally picked a paint color) after 4 different samples painted on the wall.  Here's the thing:

Color #1 was a nice creamy color with a smidge of yellow in it.  But in large quantities it would've look white or cream, not yellow like I wanted.

I picked Color #2 thinking it was a smidge more yellow than Sample #1 without being overpowering.  But it looked like a post-it on the wall.

So my mom and I stopped by Lowe's again last Saturday to pick out two samples since this one-at-a-time thing wasn't working out.  I kept looking at the paint chips and I couldn't figure out why Colors # 1 and 2 looked so different on my wall when the paint chips were so close.  So I got another 1/2 pint of Color #2 and a 1/2 pint sample of a third color that was more taupe and not really yellow at all, just to see what it looked like next to the green in my kitchen.  Apparently whoever mixed my first sample of Color #2 did it wrong.  When I got home I opened them both up and the paint in the containers looked so different!  I painted the two new samples on the wall and was able to decide on Color #2, Winter Wheat by Olympic.

Tuesday night Leland painted the kitchen all by himself, I was wrestling our little one and getting him fed and ready for bed.  And there's not a ton of room in the kitchen, it would've been crowded with us both painting in there together.

And last night (Thursday), my dad came over to help us start in on the living room.  The three of us worked for about an hour and a half and got most of the living room done.  I love this new paint color!  It's much better than that ugly light pink the previous owners had throughout almost the entire house.

He's a climber...

Look at him balancing his feet on the bar across the bottom of the high chair. Crazy kid!

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The Great Wood Flooring Project - Part 2

The project picked up on Thursday night where it had left off.  On Wednesday night, Leland and David (his dad) were able to get about half the living room done (like 8 feet of flooring).  Thursday night started with me running to get pizza and beverages for the worker bees that were coming over.  We had Trent, Mikey, Bryan, Tara (Bryan's girlfriend), Ryan (Bryan's friend), and Tyler with Little David and Jeremy.  We had lots of fun chatting and eating pizza from Hungry Howie's.  I was busy doing a little cleaning (because my house is always messy) and taking care of Carter and the other kids so I didn't get any pictures until they were almost finished for the night.


Leland and Tyler started clearing the carpet, padding, and tack strips in the hallway.

 

Here's some of the progress in the living room.

 

Ryan, Bryan, and Tara relaxing.

 

Just about to reach tonight's goal: Flooring into the mouth of the hallway. Yay!

 

Some more carpet removal.

 

Taken this morning, the finished living room.

 

The Great Wood Flooring Project - Part 1

One of the major projects we've been wanting to do in our new house is the flooring.  The carpet, which we believe is original to our ten year old home, is super gross and pulling away from the walls in some places.  We had it professionally cleaned right before we moved in because we were bringing home a new baby and the previous owners had owned two large dogs.  Six months later the stains were showing again and it looked worse than before.

Well we finally have the money to put in new laminate wood (thanks to Leland's employer deciding to cancel everyone's 401k).  We'd already decided on a stain color at Ikea so Leland went today and picked it up.  We had planned on getting the floors prepped over the next couple of days and starting in over the weekend, but my husband, ever the motivated (more like impatient) man decided he wanted to get started tonight.  And my father-in-law (the great man that he is) decided he'd come help Leland out.

So I whipped out my camera and began the arduous task (not really, but I have to be involved somehow) of documenting The Great Wood Flooring Project.

Leland and David begin the tile removal.  Not a fun job.

One of the tiles had been sealed in with Liquid Nail, which made the removal a little bit trickier.

The rest of the the living room before carpet removal.

Finishing up the tile removal, it only took them about 30 minutes to get it all out.

The TV area before.  The TV is covered because bits of tile were flying EVERYWHERE!

The men had to make a quick run the Home Depot for a few more supplies so I captured their progress.

Taken from the back door, you can see where they've removed some of the baseboards and pulled up a little carpet.

Carter was allowed back in after the tile stopped flying.  Then he was locked safely in his high chair.

And one more baby photo for good measure.

Laying the first line of wood.  YAY!

Here's some of tonight's progress but I'm sure they'll get even more done before they call it quits for the night.

What a great start to this project!  I can't wait to see it all done.  Yay for new floors!