Hey Tooth Fairy!

Bryant lost his first tooth!!! We're all super excited for the Tooth Fairy's arrival... I wonder what she'll bring him.

A Before and After: Kitchen

He worked like crazy yesterday and got all the walls up... now I just need to tape and mud so we can get to work on the rest of it!

In honor of all the hard work we've (mostly Ethan) been putting into our bathroom, I figured I revisit another project of ours... the kitchen.

This is what it was like when we moved in. I posted about it once before, but can't seem to find that post. No biggie. Its strange to remember all that honey colored wood in our before:

The first picture above shows these barstools as they were when we bought the house, this one below is the first transformation I concocted for them. A big improvement if for no other reason than that they were now wipeable with a plastic cover.

And this is their current state. Painted and recovered to match our new look...

This wall before was plain white with nothing on it... oh, except our garbage can, can't forget that! We painted the walls this lovely shade of gray. Hung these floating shelves which add SO much dimension to the space. I even spray painted my ceiling fan (though the knobs are still wood grain, I need to take care of that!)! I also made the roman shade for the window. It isn't perfect, but its much better than those cheap blinds we had before. The table has our recycling bins under it and adds a little extra space when I need it.
This is probably my favorite remedy we came up with... check out our new faucet and light fixture! Major upgrade!
The only thing I would change is the appliance color. I really didn't think painting the cabinets white was a great idea since it would might clash with the appliances, but I needed to change those cabinets and we were quite limited with what we could do, due to our lovely vomit pattern counter tops. I really love the change. I love the hardware we chose. We got a good deal too, check ebay if you're ever buying hardware for your cabinets, its a lot less expensive than Home Depot or Lowe's.
There are still some minor things to do, but for now, this is the after:

Question: Chores

We are trying to implement a more organized system to get our kids more involved in taking care of the house, so I'd like to pose this question to all you blogging friends...

What chores do your kids do?

I feel like I need an addendum to the question, do they do it well? do you have to supervise the entire time? are mine the only kids who complain about having to do even the tiniest bit of work? ;) Do they have daily, weekly, monthly chores (how often do they rotate)?

It seems like just like me, they need something new to motivate them every now and then... I would LOVE to hear what works for you. Or maybe what you remember from when you were a kid, what worked for your parents...

The Phantom Menace

Last Sunday we (finally) watched Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace for our family movie night. The kids were very excited and have been ever since. Some of that excitement has made me giggle:

When the movie title appeared on screen and we all read The Phantom Menace, Jonas shouted out in his silliest voice, "OH! Like Dennis the Menace! Get it?" And laughed and laughed and laughed.

We told the kids that for spring break we were going to go up to Nauvoo. Jonas and Levi were super excited that we were going to Naboo! "Maybe we'll see Padme!"

Despite our efforts to clarify, last night at dinner we had the funniest conversation... we were eating orange chicken and rice (yum!) and Bryant was saying that we should move to Japan because then we could have rice for every meal (he really likes rice). Jonas responded that maybe we'd go through Japan on our way to Naboo.

The conversation followed a winding course through the globe (and star systems?) that reminded me of that scene in While You Were Sleeping where the family is all around the dinner table and talking about the most random things, "

Alan Ladd wasn´t tall. Marshal Dillon was six-foot-five. Well, we all know who Lucy´s type is. These mashed potatoes are so creamy. You like brunettes. I could never make a good pot roast. You need good beef. Argentina has great beef, beef and nazis. John Wayne was tall. Spain has good beef. Cesar Romero wasn't tall."

You should definitely go watch that movie this weekend, one of my favorites!!! Anyway... our conversation went a little something like this,

Levi: "And I could dress up like Padme!"

Jonas: "Is Navoo, I mean, Nauvoo, an island?"

Bryant: "If we went to Puerto Rico that would be scary. That's where the Chupacabra lives."

Mom: "No, Jonas Nauvoo isn't an island."

Bryant: "Its in Illinoi. I mean Illi-noise. That's in the United States. New Jersey would be scary too. The Jersey Devil is there."

Mom: "Isn't there a pro sports team that is the Devils?"

Dad: "The Red Devils. Is that where they're from?"

Levi: "I don't ever want to go to Old Jersey."

Mom: "Oh I wish we had a video camera rolling to record this conversation!!!"

Happy Valentines day to one super girl.

I just wanted to hijack the blog and let my wife know in a very public setting that I love her a ton.

She's the best.

Love you girl.

eta: I tried to capture the screen shot of Ethan's surprise hijacking so it can be immortalized. :) Thanks again babe. I love you.

Demo Baby

I realized how much my man needs to work during our lovely February Freeze (see below) and what better project than ripping out a bathroom?

The before:

Lovely, right? I'm not sure if anything will be able to live up to our old, ugly white painted paneling lined walls and our brownish tile. The whole room used to be lined with big white rope, it was beyond words.

He doesn't look it, but he really is much happier than he was just sitting around reading about the Jazz and playing wii. :)
This is what we found under the paneling...

Awww... nothing beats demolition. Give me a hammer, a pry bar, some safety glasses and I'm a happy camper.
Now we have a big project on our hands, but we're excited with our plans! It should turn our beautiful, though if it doesn't we won't be posting pictures. We've never tiled before, any pointers? We've heard reports of varying degrees of difficulty, some say its terrible and a shower surround is a terrible first project, others say its a piece of cake. I'm hoping we at least feel like its somewhere in the middle. :)

To be continued...

I realized that I haven't put any of my after pictures up of my house... I'll try to get it clean so I can take some pictures to post. We've done a lot of work around here.

February Freeze

I'm happy to report we have a week of 70+ degree weather here in A-town! Although, who am I kidding? We loved being iced in for the week.

For those of you thinking, "'Iced in' in Texas?!" Let me tell you, 6 inches of snow and a week of well below freezing temperatures is enough to shut down most of our fair city. We had at least an inch of ice covering the entire road, yes, all of them. The city only owns 3 trucks for snow removal/ice melt! Those 3 trucks worked around the clock on two roads all week! The rest of us were lucky enough to stay home.
They even closed the base down all week. We were lucky enough to have this guy to keep us company!

We played way too much computer and wii, but had so much fun doing it.

We did go a little stir crazy, which resulted in many wrestling matches, but what do you expect with a house full of little boys?
Oh, and Dad was awesome and built us a fire... he even braved the roads (just a very short way) to buy some marshmallows and hot dogs for roasting.
Some of us didn't feel confined enough, so we looked for more drastic measures.

70 degrees, we'll take it. But what a fabulous time was our February Freeze!

Happy Together

Does anything bring more happiness to your heart than spending family time happily together?

Ya, me neither. Its the best.

The Power of One

I don't usually post stuff like this on here, but thought I'd help them reach their goal. Feel free to post it to your blog or facebook page too.

The new Strength of Youth Media for 2011 has been posted on the Mormon Messages for Youth YouTube. The General Young Men's Presidency has set a goal of having one video clip in particular reach 100,000 hits in the next 2 1/2 weeks. It is about Junior Reyes, from Florida, who was the only young man in his branch. He decided he needed to "open his mouth" and start inviting his friends to church. That friend told a friend, who told a friend and the group grew rapidly and these young men are on fire with sharing the gospel.

Curve Ball

Just when we thought we might have things figured out, life throws a curve ball our way. Without going into details (because the details are pretty much unknown at this point), can I just ask for your thoughts/prayers/whatever you feel good about in our behalf?

Nothing to be worried about, we just have to step into the darkness and we don't know which direction we should be facing. We know the Lord has a plan, we'd just like some assistance in finding it and being at peace with it. Ever felt that way?

Much thanks. I'm sure as we learn more, I'll be able to share more, but in the meantime, thanks for your support. :)

Weekend Update

Well, I hope y'all are staying warm wherever you are. We're really excited to finally be out of the teens today (woohoo we're at 23 degrees!). Hopefully life will be able to get back to "normal" soon. Since the kids and hubby have been home all week I haven't really had a chance to use the computer much. I've been wanting to update our blog for a while... so here you go!

I took these pictures of the kids and don't have any fancy editing software that I can combine photos, so you get each one with all its quirks. At least they have character!

The kids are being so great lately, they play well together for the most part. They're really nice to include everyone in a lot of their play as well. We haven't had a many fits and meltdowns as we used to, maybe because mom hasn't been have as many? Or is it the other way around? It always come back to the chicken and the egg, doesn't it?
We've been having a family game night on Thursday each week. And we have family movie night each Sunday, if the kids are reverent at church. Those that don't earn it have to go to bed while the rest of us watch a movie... its made for a lot more reverence on the Woody bench at church! I have loved having some planned fun with the kids. It so great to spend quality time together and I love that my kids love it!
They are all growing up so fast! I can hardly believe how time just flies on by. We are SO blessed to have each of these special people in our family!!!
Bolton: Well you had an update on him not too long ago, but he has changed since then already! Not only is he crawling, but he is now pulling himself up to stand and moving his feet a little bit once he's up holding onto things. Yesterday he climbed his whole body up onto a lego box (about 8-9 inches tall) while trying to reach one of Eliza's toys. He tumbled off it and felt pretty sad.
As you can see, he loves meal time! I recently was having a difficult time getting him to really eat when I decided to try one of my sweet mom-in-love's tips to give baby his own spoon... he was thrilled! And he ate much better that meal.
Getting plenty messy in the course thereof...
He still loves to play with anyone who will give him a smile. Jonas and Bryant both take him up or down the stairs and play with him if I need to get something done (like blog ;)). He's quite a little head banger too. When the other kids are in bed and its just Ethan, Bolton and me, he just sings and dances for 30 minutes straight.
And lest you think its all sunshine and roses, he gets upset too. Not very often and he's quite easy to calm, but he's finding his little voice to let us know he's unhappy with things. Most often he only gets this way if he wants something or someone to play with.
Eliza: She is a talker. I don't know if its because Levi was so far behind or if she is really just a good talker, but wow! She talks and talks and we understand most everything she says, unless she's doing her whiny baby voice, then we don't understand anything she says...

She recently started adopting a phrase that I use countless times a day, "the boys" and "guys." I'll tell her she's silly and she'll say, "I'm not silly, you're silly. Daddy's silly. Bolton's silly. The boys are silly." Or if she needs help sometimes she'll yell, "Hey guys! Somebody get me down!" She has the cutest little voice too, its just so funny to hear!
I put her down for her nap one day with a shirt and skirt on, when she got up she had a pair of jammies on too, the shirt over her shirt, the pants under the skirt. Then she put on her boots and jacket. She was quite the sight to be seen. She definitely has an opinion about what she wears. I love it.

The last few weeks I've been feeling terrible because everytime anyone starts to sing "I Am a Child of God" she starts to cry, "No, not that song! I don't want to take a nap!" It makes me feel bad that I've ruined that song for her. So, we've been singing other songs at naptime/bedtime. Last night though, I asked her what she wanted to sing, she didn't know, so I started one she usually requests, "No! Not that song!" So I started another, then another, then another... nothing was right. So I told her that I would count to 5 and she could tell me what she wanted to sing or I wasn't going to sing. At the end of the count, she just raised her shoulders in and "I don't know" way and so I said goodnight.

A few minutes later I heard her standing at her door singing, "I am a, I am a, I am a dah" over and over. So I went in and put her back in bed and asked her what she wanted me to sing. She said it again and I figured out that it was I Am a Child of God. She let me sing the whole song to her and it was so sweet!

I also love that she just thinks she's one of the boys. She plays Star Wars with them, she plays Mario with them, she wrestles and jumps just like she's one of them. She has so much fun when they come home from school. And they are so great to let her play with them. Levi especially, he loves being a big brother. They have so much fun chasing each other. He loves to take her blanket and run away, she chases him and they laugh and laugh. Levi wanted me to take this picture the other day, it makes me smile.
Levi: This little guy has grown up the most lately, in my opinion. His speech is so much improved, he's just happier and easier to be with. Of course, he's still Levi and that means he's still very head strong, but he is just so pleasant most of the time.

He likes school, but I have the hardest time convincing him to get ready for school every morning. He likes it except for nap time. I really have a hard time with full day pre-k and kindergarten... the only reason its full day is because its basically daycare, they spend the afternoon at recess and taking a nap. What's the point of that?! I think he doesn't like his teacher a lot either, but he loves her assistant teacher, thankfully! She's great!
He's such a loving little guy, throughout the day, he just randomly pops out, "I love you, Mom!" But don't be offended if you tell him you love him and he says, " I don't love you, I like you." He saves his love for mom and dad exclusively these days.

He loves playing with his siblings and is learning more about compromise than he'd like to. He's a big personality, with a big voice and a big heart.
Jonas: He really likes school and is loving learning to read. I wish you could all see the look on his face when he reads a new word or finishes a book. He is struggling a bit with reading, but is getting more comfortable and confident. I'm afraid he's got second child syndrome, since his big brother excels at a lot of things, he doesn't think he's any good at them. He's got a quite the brain for problem solving and number though. Its fun to see how different my kids are.
Jo continues to keep us laughing. He is the life of the party (and you know its always a party at our house). He is really being helpful with Bolton and Eliza lately. He is also learning how to clean up (its about time!) and will do it quickly with the right incentive. He has a major sweet tooth and isn't a fan of the infrequent treats we're having lately. He wants something sweet after lunch, dinner, and breakfast if I'd let him! His laugh is like his daddy's, very contagious. I'll have to post a video of us watching Home Alone at Christmas time, its hilarious! Just this photo is enough to bring a smile to my face, though.
Bryant: My goodness, I can hardly believe how grown up this guy is! He just read Harry Potter 4 on his own! Yep, my 7 year old just read a book that was over 700 pages! He loves to read and feels so grown up that gets to stay up later than the other kids to read. He's also reading the Book of Mormon with his dad in preparation for his baptism in a couple months. Its amazing to listen to them talking as they read, he understands a lot. He also talks a lot... it drives Ethan crazy sometimes, after each verse, B will say, "Hey Dad..." and talk about something totally unrelated. Ethan and I went on a date the other night, we drove around town for an hour just chatting and it was so nice to not have any interruptions from our little conversationalist.
He is such a fabulous helper with the house and kids. Just this morning the kids were begging for breakfast, Ethan was peeling himself away from the covers and going out to help them when he saw Bryant taking care of it. What a sweetheart!
He is developing quite the habit of playing video games, much to my chagrin. But its a good motivator and he gets a lot of joy from it. He and his dad bond over Mario, its great fun.
Ethan: My cute hubby is such a hard worker. He sees a lot of patients every day. Then he comes home and helps with the house and kids. Then he takes on additional projects like mending fences, building things for our home, trimming trees... you get the idea. It was probably a welcome rest when he had oral surgery (in preparation for an implant) a couple weeks ago and had to take it easy for a few days. I don't know who I'm kidding the man loves to work and goes crazy if he has "nothing" to do for a couple days.
I remain busy with trying to keep my house clean, my family fed and happy, and my sanity in tact (trying being the operative word here). I set some goals for myself that I'm working on, I'll have to post about them sometime... and I'm currently doing 14 Days of Valentine's for my kids and hubby. I realized that Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. I love love and expressing it to my family is the best! Yes, showing them I love them all year is awesome, but the kids especially love the special gifts, notes, treats they're getting right now.

Whew! I have a big family... hope you are doing well and staying warm!