love, love, love. (part 1)

I like Valentine's Day, a lot.  Not because of roses and chocolates.  In fact, the four stores I had to go to last night, that all had rows and piles of flowers and chocolates and little cardboard displays of Valentines day cards, kind of made me depressed.  Mostly men, looking stressed, trying to find the perfect bouquet of cheap red roses that look just like all the other ones... I don't like that part of the holiday.  The truth is, this day is so much more fun with kids.  And I told Paul, I want it do be a family love day for as long as possible.  I wont think about the day that is years off where my kids would rather be on dates than with me!

Paul had the day off because he's working Saturday, so it was even better.  When the kids got up I told them that it was Valentines day and that meant we were going to hug and kiss as much as possible today.  They both just stood there.  So I grabbed each of them and gave them big hugs and lots of kisses.  When I let go off Garrett, he threw his arms around me and gave me another big hug.

Paul and Addie went and got us all donuts for breakfast.  While we were eating, Addie started kissing Garrett's arm, and when he tried to get away, she chased him and kissed his back.  Then she walked back to her donut and kissed the plate.  Good.  She has the right idea.

Next up was an afternoon picnic at the beach.  It was the perfect day for the beach.  Sunny, warm, perfect breeze, not many people there, and the four of us all together.  This wasn't Addie's first trip to the beach, but it was her first trip since she started walking.  And wow, she hates sand on her feet, we quickly learned.  Quite the opposite of Garrett, who, within a couple of minutes had his shoes off, and was laying in it, sliding in it, and throwing handfuls of it all over himself.

She was ok if she was on the blanket.

She inched her toes to the edge...

Took one step off, and was right back on!

 While Dad and Addie cuddled on the blanket, Garrett and I played and played and played...

We must have filled the bucket a dozen times so Garrett could destroy it when we were done.

And we played frisbee.

Addie warmed up to the sand idea, as long as she could stay on the blanket.

 Garrett climbed the mountain of sand to get to the ocean on the way in, and he wanted to do it again to get out.  He kept saying, "Yay ME!" as he'd get higher and higher.  Once he made it to the top, he slid down the other side on his belly.

The beach always wipes the kids out.  See that skittle on her dress?  It's amazing how something she doesn't even eat can make such a mess on her face!

The kids stripped down on the porch and ran to the tub.  I hate sand in the house!  After a quick bath, they both slept for OVER FOUR HOURS!

It was such a fun morning and afternoon.  I'll finish up the day tomorrow.

Addie's room: The super mini makeover.

Since Addie was old enough to grip things and sit up, she's been grabbing at the little shelf above her changing table.  There were always things being pulled off of it, and not enough space for the lotion, tissues, q-tips and little things I liked to keep at hand.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed it was really tilted.  I tried to adjust it, and realized that the screw hole was stripped on one side.  So my plan was to replace that shelf with something cute, something with a little space to keep a few small items, and something less heavy/dangerous.  We already lost one tooth in that corner of the room, we didn't want to give up another.  Deciding to replace that shelf made me think about how much I hate, and have always hated the maroon blackout curtain and the brown wall.  The paint colors were selected because one wall was already brown so we left it, and the tan was leftover from other walls in the house.  As hard as I tried to make the tiny room feel cute and little girly, I've always felt like it was a dark, depressing, old person room.  So I dug through my fabric bin to see if I had any lighter fabrics to make a curtain.  I went to home depot and bought two sample containers of light pink paint ($2.94 each), and I went to work.

I bought the peg board at Lowe's for about $5.00.  I already had the paint on hand, as well as the shelf, basket, bucket, and everything else on the board.  It's busy, but fun.  It has the perfect amount of storage space, and even though Addie can reach stuff, there's nothing I worry about her getting a hold of, or being hurt by.    

I measured the wall and taped the lines evenly, then painted every other section pink.  Surprisingly, two coats of this light color covered the dark brown just fine.  And I really love how it looks.  I decided against the wreath and green frame that had been on the wall, but kept the name banner.  I used fabric I had in my scrap bin, as well as embroidery hoops that I got on sale on black friday for a Christmas project I never got around to.  Really simple project and I like the fun pops of color.

I got rid of Addie's crib mobile around the time that I should have gotten rid of the shelf.  As soon as she could pull herself up to standing, she could pull on the mobile because it was one that clipped to the crib.  I was sad to get rid of it because Garrett has a car/plane mobile hanging from his ceiling and he still likes it.  So, I found a skinny wreath in my craft box (dollar store), strung pom poms on fishing line, (I also did this over the curtain and peg board, too), made a mini pennant banner out of matching fabric scraps, and strung two birds on that I took off the old mobile and I was done!  It hangs from the ceiling, and I even had my high jumper Garrett test it and it can't be reached for a long time.

I planned to paint the book shelf that held blankets, extra sheets and changing pad covers, but I broke it when I tried to take the back of it off to paint.  To tell you the truth I wasn't even a tiny bit sad about this because it was really, really old, and it was one of those pressed plywood shelves with laminate stickers made to look like wood.  The only tears that were shed were tears of joy as I watched Paul carry it to the dumpster as I planned my trip to Ikea.  I know in another post I mentioned my $20.00 budget for this room, and if you don't count my Ikea splurge, I was $1.00 under.  But this beauty was $50.00 and fortunately I'd just gotten my blow money for the month.  It's so cute.  Much smaller than the last one, but it's all the room needed.

Oh, and this fun yellow rug may have found it's way into my cart at Ikea, too.  10 bucks!  Oh how I hate the carpet underneath it.

I made the curtain out of stuff I had.  It's about as simple as curtains come, but it's close enough to the crib that it gets 'adjusted' often by little hands so I didn't want ruffles or a lot of extra flowing fabric.  I got blackout fabric at Hobby Lobby to hang behind it on a tension rod. I think it was $5.00 a yard but it was 30% off.  The banner was made by tracing a cup over and over on fabric scraps, cutting them out and folding them in half over bakers twine and gluing.  The pom poms are also strung on fishing line.  If you make these, double the fishing line so the pom poms don't slide.  I had pom poms on hand, and the fishing line was from Big 5, less than $2.00 for like a gabillion yards.

I love the brown polka dot sheet, and she has a light pink chevron one that we switch back and forth from.  Both from Target.  They have a lot of fun new crib sheets.  I bought these during our 2 weeks of hell in December when they both had coughs so bad that it resulted in gagging/throwing up.  I was happy to spend $20.00 on sheets when it saved me from literally doing laundry around the clock.

I also took off the ribbons I'd tied around the baskets and replaced them with burlap and lace, leftover from Addie's birthday.

I hung the bird houses on the wall because I lost shelf space.

I gave both kids a picture of themselves for Christmas, so I threw that above the light switch, and I was done!

I like it.  Lighter and brighter, but dark enough for nap time.

Here are a few of the before pictures that I took a couple weeks before she was born.

Now, on to the guest room...

Project 365: 30-39

January 30- Addie had her first real adjustment at the chiropractor.  She saw her Grandma get adjusted first and she started to cry before it was even her turn.  The adjust went fine, but she'd seen enough of this guy by the time we were leaving.  (10 days later, I'm happy to report that the day time fussiness has stopped and she's sleeping later in the morning.)

January 31- Garrett's going through a little phase right now, 3 weeks and counting, where he fights bedtime every night.  We've found a solution.  He gets to take all the stuffed animals he wants to bed with him, as well as a sippy cup of water.  He always has about 10 in there with him, including 2 that are bigger than him.  I go in a few minutes later and take them all out once he's fast asleep.

February 1- A peg board I'm working on for Addie's wall.  Room makeover pictures coming soon.

February 2- We heard a lot of rumbling in the parking lot this morning and Garrett and I found the cause.  The parking lot was full of Harley motorcycles.  And in the middle of the parking lot, all the owners were decked out in Harley jackets and gear, about to go into a funeral.  I think because I see 'traditional' funeral goers on a daily basis, I love the look of a 'non-traditional' crowd paying their respects.

February 3- A budding friendship at our Super Bowl party.

February 4- My mother in law has high hopes of getting some cute Valentine's Day pictures of Addie and these hearts.  We all helped write on them...we'll see how it goes. Or if it goes...

February 5- We're at a critical time on our lives where we need to find replacements/fill-ins for both kids' snuggle buggles.  The two we have are so dirty and so warn out.

February 6- The kids got a lot of duplicate toys for their birthdays and Christmas.  I keep thinking we need to get rid of some (and we do), but most days I'm thankful for two strollers, two shopping carts, two train sets... I'll teach them to share later.

February 7- This was a good day for Garrett.  I had two friends stop by, and Grandma White babysat while I went to an appointment.  There was a lot of cooking and entertaining going on in the play kitchen.  I love how he uses a hot pad to open the oven door.  Such a careful chef.

February 8- It was hailing so bad this morning.  Garrett took advantage of the storm and turned the hail into blue raspberry snow cones!

February: The shortest month that always feels like the longest.

1.  Have you ever heard of or been to the Winchester mansion? (or Winchester Mystery House?)  It's near San Francisco.  I visited it years ago on a choir tour when I was in high school.  The owner of the home had never ending construction going on the house.  Up until the day she died, something was being renovated or added on.  And it wasn't normal.  Like, a staircase that would lead to nothing, a door that would open to a wall, etc.

I sometimes feel like this, but on a much smaller budget, and a little less crazy.  I never feel like our home is 'done'.  I love changing things up, moving furniture, adding or taking away decorations, spray painting old stuff, etc.  I know Paul feels like it will never end (and it might not), but regular changes, even little ones, stop me from feeling bored and sad.  Right now I'm working on Addie's room and two walls of photos.  After that, the guest room and our room.  I gave myself a $20 budget for Addie's room and so far I've spent just over $14.  Pictures coming soon.  Maybe I'll post before and after pictures so you can be as surprised as I am with how easy it is to freshen things up on a budget.  And on the photo walls, a $0 budget.  I'm only using pictures, frames and spray paint that I already have on hand.

2.  I'm dedicating this month to vegetables.  My kids need to eat more vegetables.  Spinach and zucchini are our new best friends.  They are the two least strong tasting vegetables when mixed with something else, (in my opinion).  I used to use spinach a lot, but then just stopped remembering to use it as much.  I'm determined this month to make it a habit.  This week we've had spinach smoothies and spinach scrambled eggs.  Both huge successes! (ugly but good.)  I'm thinking mashed potatoes, pasta sauce (I've added pureed or shredded carrots a lot to pasta sauce, but I'm going to start adding more greens.)  Maybe even french toast.  And I'm fully armed and ready to read 'Green Eggs and Ham' at breakfast if I can't get the egg thing to work on a regular basis.

And here's how I make a smoothie for two.  I use a magic bullet and love it.
- 6-8 frozen strawberries
- sometimes frozen peach slices or mango when it's on sale, and then a couple less strawberries
- 2-3 spoonfuls of greek honey yogurt.  (Trader Joe's sells a really yummy honey greek.)
- about 3/4 cup fresh spinach ( I use Trader Joe's organic)
- 1/2 a banana
- I thin it out so it'll blend well with a little V8 splash.  (I don't always buy this stuff, orange or apple juice work fine too. But V8 makes me feel better about myself because there's vegis in it, so they say.)

3.  We watched the Super Bowl with Paul's family and a couple of Paul's friends. Both spouses of the friends are pregnant, well one for sure, the other, maybe... but anyway, us girls talked a lot about morning sickness and baby names.  After we got home and put the kids to bed, Paul and I somehow got talking about baby names, and how we don't need to have this conversation again for a really long time (if ever).  Fast forward an hour, we have a girl first name but no middle name, and five boy names.  Five. One he likes and I don't, one I like and he doesn't, and three that we agree on.  And strangely enough, the three we both like all start with 'G', and we don't know if we want two G names in the family.  Then we reminded each other, again, that we don't need to worry about that right now, and we went to bed.  (Sidenote: Really, how do people have more than two kids?  The laundry, the space, the clutter, the lack of sleep, the expense.  Bravo all of you 3 or mores out there.)

4.  I've been on the hunt for new 'snuggle buggles' for the kids.  I don't know if I'll be able to trick them, but I can't keep sewing these things back together.  And the fur on Addie's is so matted down that if she drags it outside for even a second, it's become impossible to pick or wash the leaves and dirt out.  This is a tough one, I'm sure you care so I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Snuggle buggle laundry day is a bad day for everyone.

5.  Addie is saying new words everyday (so is Garrett), but Addie really surprises me with how well she communicates.  She's no where close to putting words together, (except for 'Hi Dad'), but she's a smart girl and a great communicator.  She always says "Yeah" when you ask her if she wants something, even if she doesn't want it.  She says "Mama" once politely, and if I don't respond it gets a little louder, then turns to stomping in rhythm, "Mama, MaMa, MAMA!"  When you ask her how old she is, she says, "two."  Then it becomes a game, "no you're one!"  "two!"  "no One!!"  "Twoooo!!"  Garrett's version of 'Chocolate Milk' would probably be spelled like this: Cha-led-a-led-a-led-a Melk.  That's pretty much the only thing he asks for specifically, aside from hot dogs and bananas, and juice, but chocolate milk is daily, several times a day.  Now Addie says it anytime she sees anything being eaten or taken out of the fridge, but she only says the "led-a-led-a-led-a" part, she thinks it means, "I'll have what you're having."  Other words I've noticed her saying are: more, done, no, toot, Bapa, bye-bye, hot, arm, baby, and a couple days ago I think she said "Manti Te'o" after I'd watched a Ronaiah Tuiasosopo interview, but I think that one may have just been in my head.

6.  Last week I walked in to get Garrett and found him half way out of his crib.  It caught me off guard and my natural reaction scared him.  The last time this happened we both scared each other enough that it bought me another year of having him sleep in his crib with no escape attempts, here's hoping for another year of not needing to convert to the toddler bed.  (I might let him upgrade when he starts kindergarten.)

Addie's new hair-do.  A little future gymnast. And lookin' cool.