New House

I FINALLY got around to putting the before/after pictures of our house on here, now that we've lived here for 2 months!!

This is Lauren's room before - pirates aren't really our thing :)

During (don't ever ask me to help remove wallpaper, I've had enough)



And now - we did the same thing we had in her room before with the walls, but with different colors.

We still haven't finished putting stuff up on her walls yet, but we do have one of these flower stickers on each wall, courtesy of my awesome friend Julie who made them for me :)

Living room after we took out the carpet

Living room now (still not done decorating, but I guess that's how every room is)

This was a closet in the living room - I never got a chance to take a picture of it, because we tore it out about 15 minutes after we got the keys.

I'm really glad we got rid of the closet, because it makes the living room/entryway feel so much bigger.

Kitchen before - awesome cabinets

Kitchen now - Bryan painted the cabinets cream with a chocolate glaze, new countertops, new appliances, tiled the backsplash, and put can lights in the ceiling and these 2 pendant lights in over the bar with matching chandelier over the table. He did a lot of work in here.

You can see some of the family room here, this is the hand rail that matched the kitchen cabinets

Bryan sanded and refinished the handrail to match the wood floors and we put in new carpet

More pictures of the family room and the fireplace (and Lo taking measurements)

Refinished the mantle, took out the ugly tile around the fireplace and replaced it with the same tile that's on our backsplash in the kitchen.

Mya's room beforeHer room now - we put chair rail all around the room 12 inches apart to make this super cute border, and here's another cute addition from Julie with the stickers.

We still have so much to do - we haven't done the bathrooms or our bedroom yet, but some of that should be coming this Christmas, but we love New House!!!

We made cupcakes the other day, and Lauren couldn't wait to start eating them.

We started out with one....

But as you can see, she doesn't like to eat messy things with her hands, so she was having a hard time eating it. I tried breaking it apart, thinking it would make it easier for her. She then started crying because I broke her cupcake, but she wouldn't eat it. So, since it was my fault, I gave her another one. I thought that I would just eat the broken one, but I was mistaken - apprently no one was going to eat the broken one.

This is a video of the conversation we had about the cupcakes. I'm sure it's boring to all of you, but I thought it was hilarious. Notice that there are now not 2, but 3 cupcakes in front of Lauren. I tried to get one for myself, but she told me it was hers. But at the end of the video, she finally did decide that it was OK for Mommy to have one. And good thing, because it's no fun to watch someone eat the cupcakes that you made, frosted, and sprinkled, and you can't even eat one.

Aaagh!

I know I posted a lot today, but I'm writing this to get some frustration out. It's 9:39 pm and we've been trying to get Lauren to bed since 8:10. This is the kid who up until the last few nights has gladly trotted off to bed at 8:00 sharp with a kiss and a hug and an I love you, and then we wouldn't hear from her until 9:00 the next morning. We took the binky away on Friday, and it's actually gotten progressively worse and worse since then. What should we do?????? She is just in her room screaming for mommy or daddy to come lay with her. It's so sad, and I'm at my wit's end. It took almost an hour and a half to get her to take a nap today, and I finally gave up and let her sleep in her "big chair" (one of those little kid sopha things that folds out). She is beyond any reason, and I'm beyond solutions. She never tried to get out of bed until tonight, and now she's up every 2 minutes trying to open her door.
I know this will pass and we just need to Supernanny our way through this, but as I'm listening to her scream, writing this is the only thing keeping me from going insane.

The Tutu

We went to Garnder Village on Saturday to get pictures of the girls taken in their Halloween costumes. My mom and sister came, and since it was the Wee Witches weekend, we walked around and had lunch and just kind of hung out. I didn't get any good ones of the girls in their constumes - I was too busy wrastlin' Lo most of the time. But I did get this one at lunch - she's eating a cookie, but she doesn't like getting her hands messy, so she was eating it with no hands. I think that's my fault :)

They were playing music right where we were eating lunch, and Lauren would go out in the middle of everyone and shake her stuff - everyone was getting such a kick out of her. But then a Backyardigans song came on, which was great until it got over, and then the world ended. All in all it was a really fun day, and I recommend that everyone take their kids next year -we had a fabulous time.

I've been wanting to get Lauren a tutu for a while now, and we got one at Gardner Village, which, of course, she wears all the time. I don't even care, because it's so cute! That night we went to Italian Village for dinner and she was entertaining everyone with her shakin' it skills in the waiting room. Don't look too close, she has a runny nose and it's nasty.
Lo insisted that everyone sit in the "big chair"
Mya does not like the big chair

Pumpkin Patch

I've been telling Lauren that we're going to a pumpkin patch for a while now. So now pumpkins are no longer just pumpkins - they're all pumpkin patches. We finally went last Friday, and she had so much fun picking out her own pumpkin!

Here she is looking at all the pumpkin patches.
Here is her pumpkin - which rode in the car with us on the way to the mall, and then went through the mall with us as well. Sometimes you just give up. Mother of the year, right here.

Hangin' with the cousins

Mya and her cousin Jones who's only 6 weeks older than her. They're going to be the best of friends, whether they like it or not :). This is on her blessing day, and we finally got some pictures of the kids together. I don't know why we hadn't taken any until now - thanks Holly!

My niece Lexi - I can't believe she's 5 and in Kindergarten!
Will - he's 3 and is hilarious!
Another one of Jones - he's such a stud! He's the happiest baby in the world!

J- I accept your tag!

Here Jess, I accepted your "4's" tag. You're supposed to put on the 4th picture from the 4th folder on your computer. My computer goes alphabetically, so this is the picture. It's of Lauren when she was maybe 4 months old, I'm not exactly sure. Back when all I did was look at her all day long and take pictures of her. This is a totally random picture, and it was kind of fun to see what the 4th picture in the 4th folder was. I was nervous it was going to be a car part or some other odd thing that Bryan has taken as a memory frozen in time - like random pictures of walls or the dog :). Makes me realize how much Lauren and Mya look alike!! Except Lo was just bald, and Mya has as my father-in-law put it today "male pattern baldness". It's true, I can't argue.

Anyway, I tag anyone who wants to do this - good times, good times.

Another Post Today - Memory With Me

My friend Amy had this on her blog and I thought it was a cute idea.

First, leave a comment on my blog about a memory that you have with me, then do this on your blog and I'll leave a memory I have with you.

Have fun!

I've been tagged!!

I've been tagged by Amy to write 6 querky things about myself, so here goes!

1. My cupboards in my kitchen are super organized - I mean to a fault. The white dinner plates have to go on top of the brown dinner plates, and they can't be mixed up - they just can't!!

2. I hate the sound of Bryan's jaw popping when he eats, and when I'm pregnant it's OK to tell him that it bugs me, but when I'm not pregnant I have to be nice and pretend that I'm not extremely annoyed.

3. I do my laundry in the same order every week - cold whites, light colors, darks, warm whites, towels, and then blankets/sheets, whatever else needs to be washed. But I HAVE to do it in the same order. A little OCD? I think so.

4. I have to have all of my clothes on white hangers and facing the same way. This is kind of strange, but I know I'm not alone in this one.

5. I have to get ready in a certain order or I forget to do things. For instance, if I don't Q-tip my ears right when I get out of the shower, then I feel like my whole routine is thrown off and I'll probably forget to do something else like put on deoderant. My routine is very important, because I need deoderant.

6. When I eat dinner, I pick the thing that tastes the best and save it for my last bite. Then my last bite is the taste left in my mouth and I'm happy, but if I eat something else then I'm a little disappointed that my last bite wasn't the yummiest.

And now you know how weird I really am!!

I tag Shara, Jess, Jennie, Heidi and anyone else who reads this!

Lo's B-Day

Just a few pictures of Lauren's birthday. She had so much fun, and everyone gave her such cute presents and she loves them all! She's had so much fun playing with everything!

Hyrum & Amina gave her Rock N' Roll Elmo, which was definitely the favorite present of the night. It was the first thing she opened and she wouldn't put it down to open anything else. I had to open the rest and just show her what they were.
My sister made this awesome Uniqua cupcake cake, and yes, it tasted as good as it looked!
She very much enjoyed the frosting

Tribute to Lauren

Today is Lo's second b-day, so I just wanted to give her a little shout out from Mommy!

LAUREN

Loves her daddy, singing, outside, being a big sister, fruit snacks, cheese, Backyardigans, taking baths in Mommy's big tubby, her big girl bed, trains, airplanes, dollies, playing with her cousins or any kids that will play with her, taking care of Mya, doing "curlies" with her hair, lotion, prayers, "New House", her family, and so many other things that I don't have time to list.

Has a mean streak like no other, but most of the time is the sweetest, happiest little 2-year old I've ever met. I love hearing "I love you, too", "Thanks, Mom", "You OK?", "Where's my daddy? We gotta go find him", "I'm 2!!", and I love having "conversations" with her. I love hearing her sing I am a Child of God because she knows each and every word. I love how she loves her cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents so much she can hardly stand it. I love her happy dance when she gets excited over little things like lunch or refilling her sippy cup. I love how she prays and tries to speed through it as fast as she can because she's impatient like her mom.

I just love my Lo, and we're so blessed to have her as part of our family. Happy birthday!!