Updates

Wow it's been a while.  We've been really busy with the house, Cameron's sister got married, Cameron's other sister had a baby, Cameron's brother's wife had a baby, Erin graduated from preschool, Reagan is almost crawling and has six teeth, I had a nephew speak at his farewell, etc. etc.  It has been a whirlwind of activity here at our house.  I'll just post about our home this post.  So we bought a house and we love it.  It has been a ton of work, but I really like doing it and it's OURS!!  We closed and moved in about three weeks after that.  So during that three weeks, thanks to the help of two of my wonderful friends and my family, we fixed it up a little.  It's amazing what paint can do no?  Now, before I start, let me tell you these people loved their colors.  If they found a color they liked, they stuck with it.  Drapes, carpet, walls, light fixtures, vent covers, outlet covers, it was all the same color.

Here's the boys' room before. I didn't get a picture of the floor, but it was pretty torn up.  It's a wood floor, so I sanded and filled holes and sanded and sanded and stained and sealed and it turned out really nice.  There was a big waterstain on the other wall that I didn't get a picture of, but after sanding and painting, you'd never know.

Here's the boys room after.  I stuck with a blue, just much lighter and more calming.  Floor looks good huh!

Here is the fireplace before.  The whole living room was this turquoise color.  They had big heavy turquoise drapes hanging.  I didn't get a pic because they were the first to go.  It really opened things up.  The fireplace and carpet and walls and...well, you get the picture, it all matched.

I need to get a better picture of the after fireplace.  This is the only after I could find.  We just painted it white.  Looks so much better.  I have plans to get rid of the brass in the fireplace.  I think I'll just paint it an oil rubbed bronze or something.

This is the girls' room.  I know, right?  My friend MaryKate called it the drug room.  It was just so bright and...green.  I just don't have the words.

This is the after.  We painted it a fun purple that changes as the light hits it.  It even makes the lime green carpet not seem so bad.

The hallway before.  Nice turquoise that was in the rest of the house. 

Hallway after.  We painted it a grey and I tore up the carpet and refinished the floors here too.  We have a carpet remnant down right now because I need to lacquer it a couple more times.  Just haven't had the time.

Living room before.  See the pretty butterfly insets to the right?  They had them all over the living room and kitchen.  I didn't love them, and when my friend Julie said she could just see the mom telling her kids to go catch butterflies so they could mount them, I just couldn't keep them without thinking of all the dead butterflies.  Out they went.

Living room after.  We decided to do the board and batten treatment in the living and dining rooms and I LOVE it!!  I still need to caulk and paint.  Sigh...

Here's the kitchen before.  A green that looked dirty to me and I didn't love.

Kitchen after.  We went with a yellow.  Love how it makes my kitchen sunny.  I also really love my aluminum cabinets.  They are so fun.  I also don't believe in taking the cereal and milk off the counters apparently.

This is my BIG window above my sink.  The thing I love most about our house is the windows, I think.  We have lots of big, sunny windows all over the place.  I wanted this cafe' style curtain that was fairly sheer so the light could still come in.

Our room before.  Don'tcha love the pink?  I sure didn't.  Luckily, Cameron's aunt was moving just as we were and she didn't want the carpet from where she moved into.  We took it and re carpeted our room and the whole downstairs.  Thank you fairy God-Aunt!! 

This is our room after.  I don't have a headboard, so I created one with these fun stick on dots.  I need to make a little green throw now with some green pillows.  The wall color is a nice neutral sand.

Here's the dining area before.  There were some big, heavy floral drapes here and we totally tore. them. down.  We also thought since there was wood floors throughout most of the house, there would be wood floors under this carpet.  Not so much.  Now, before I give you an after of the dining room, I also got a new table and chairs.  We found the table on KSL and the chairs I got from DI and Savers.  I'll show you my work on them too.

This is my before...

...and my blue after!

Before...I didn't want my chairs to match, can you tell?

After

Before

After.  Love the orange!!

Before...we got these two chairs at Savers for $2.00 each.  NICE!!!

After.  I put the material on the two end chairs and only Cameron and I get to eat on them. 

I didn't get the before of this guy.  He was the last one I found to complete my collection.  He was a wily one, but I finally found him.  He was just wood color before.

I didn't get a before of the table, but this is after the primer.  It was a darker wood.  It even has three extra leaves.  Hooray!

Here's the before again, just to remind you.

and the after.  I.  LOVE.  THEM.  You can't see it, but I took the cupboards out on the upper right side of the before picture and just left it open.  That's where all our dishes are now and I think it's great.  Oh, and do you see what was under the carpet?  It's not bad at all, but not a permanent solution in my mind.  I'm still thinking about what to do there. We've been so, so blessed in this venture and we're just loving it!!  Hooray!

Mother's Day

You know, I feel like Mother's Day has this expectation to it.  Breakfast in bed, wonderful children, presents, meals made for you, etc. etc.  After Mother's Day this year, I got on some blogs and read how wonderful the day was for everyone.  Let me tell you how my Mother's Day went.
The kids gave me breakfast in bed which consisted of an apple and lots of candy.  Liam gave me his gift which was a recipe book his class had made.  Erin gave me her gift of bubble bath.  Then the fighting over whose gift was better began.
Cameron is sick and after telling him for a week he needed to go to the doctor, he finally decided that he felt bad enough he would go on Sunday.  The InstaCare place didn't open until 1:00, so I decided to just take the kids to church with me. It all went okay until sacrament meeting and the two older kids got up to sing a song with the primary.  Owen wanted to go up too and I was trying to convince him to stay and watch them with me when he started to scream "NO!", over and over and over again at the top of his lungs.  Can I just say I have never been able to sit and watch my kids sing a song in sacrament, because one or the other of my children tends to freak out right beforehand.  Anyway, out into the foyer Owen, Reagan and I go.
I am trying to calm Reagan down whilst wrestling with Owen.  I finally give up on Owen and let him go and focus on Reagan.  Owen is running all over which bugs the heck out of me because our cardinal rule at church is that if we have to go out into the foyer, you have to sit on mom or dad's lap the whole time.  There's no running around.  Anyway, he's opening doors and opens the sacrament door.  My older two see this and come out and say "What's going on?  Can we sit out here too?"  Thinking it would be a little better than being loud and rambunctious in front of our brand new ward, I tell them they can sit out with us if they will just sit and listen.  Ha!
Liam and Erin decide they need to go to the bathroom.  It is usually our rule that we go before sacrament and not during.  But, I am outnumbered, so I let them go.  Owen decides he needs to go too.  They leave and I try and console Reagan.  Liam comes back and says "Mom, Owen needs your help.  He needs wiped and he's in the men's bathroom!"  I tell Liam I can not go into the Men's room and he will have to help Owen.  Two minutes later, Liam is back saying "Okay mom, I took him into the women's room, so you can go help him now."
Sigh.  I tell Liam, I will go help him, but you need to sit RIGHT HERE and watch Reagan.  Okay?  "Okay mom!" 
Off I go in search of Owen.  I find him, pants and underwear around his ankles, hopping around the hallway outside of the bathroom with some nice guy saying "Where's your mommy?"  I growled "He's mine."  and whisked him into the bathroom.  Cleaned him up and back to Liam, Erin and Reagan.  I find Reagan precariously perched on the couch in the foyer with nary a sibling to be found.  Deep breaths.  To make a long story short, this story ends with Owen and I wrestling down on the floor in the foyer, Reagan crying and the other two running around.  I packed them up and left while the closing prayer was being said.  Walking to the car in a torrential downpour, the kids bemoaned how wet they were getting, but at that point, I didn't care.  We got home, I put them in their rooms with strict instructions not to get off their beds and went downstairs to the wails of four upset children.
THAT is how my mother's day was.  It didn't sparkle and I had no wonderful spiritual awakenings about my children, but I suppose it is apt that my Mother's day was a wreck.  Isn't that how it is a lot of the time for Moms?  We're doing our best and that's what we can do right?  Maybe next year it will be all aglow with love and happiness.  I won't hold my breath though.

Songs

I know I haven't been on here for a long time.  We've been busy because we bought a house!!  I know, right?  I'm so very excited about it.  It needs a little TLC, but nothing huge.  Just cosmetic stuff.  You can bet I'll be putting some befores and afters on here.  I'll post more about that later.  We're  busy packing and all that fun stuff right now.
I just wanted to write this down before I forgot.  Each of my children have had a song that they love when they are babies.  The "one song" that gets them to stop crying, even if it's just for a minute.

Liam's was Rock a Bye:
Rock a bye
Don't you cry,
We are going to grammies.
Up the hill,
By the mill,
To see the baby lammies.

Erin's song was Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam:
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for him each day.
In every way try to please Him, at home, at school, at play.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I'll be a sunbeam for him.

Owen's song was Mother Tell Me the Story (I don't know if that is the real name.)
Mother tell me the story that I love to hear,
tell me of heaven and why I came here.
Mother tell how you love me and gently speak,
and then I'll go to sleep.

Reagan has found her song.  It is...wait for it...The Oscar Mayer Bologna Song...oh yeah baby!
My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R
My bologna has a second name, it's M-A-Y-E-R
I love to eat it every day, and if you ask me why I'll say:
That Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!
Sometimes I'll change the last line to: Be-cause M-O-M  L-O-V-E-S  R-E-A-G-A-N.

Just didn't want to forget the calming down songs.

Random Liam

Last week I woke up to Liam standing by the side of my bed saying "Mom, I'm really sorry I did this, but..."  Yeah, not a good way to wake up.  He told me he tried to microwave a muffin so it "could be chewy".  He put it in the microwave for 3 minutes.  Black smoke came billowing out and permeated throughout my whole house.  I took him to school, took Erin to school and rented a carpet cleaner.  I cleaned  the floors, walls, counters, everything.  It was early spring cleaning at my house.  I lit candles, I baked cookies, I made a fragrant dinner, Nothing helped.  I did get some Glade plug-ins, and it helped a little.  I can still smell it.  Especially in the stairway.  It is a lot better than it was though.  So because of Liam, we are the owners of a new microwave.  I told him he owes us two microwaves, since this is the second one he broke...he laughed.  The first one he pulled down off our microwave cart while he was trying to climb up.  Luckily, he didn't get hurt.

Here is a conversation I had with Liam in the car on the way to his eye appointment yesterday.
Liam: Mom, where's Mount Everest?
Me:  Nepal, do you know where that is?
L: No.
M: Do you know where India is?
L: Nope.
M: China?
L:  Oh yeah!
M: Well, it's kind of by China.
L:  Oh...I think I would like to climb it one day.
M:  That would be good.  You know, you'll need Oxygen for that.  You can't breathe very good that high up.
L:  That would be okay...Mom?  Is it above the clouds?
M: Yes.  It's really high
L:  Where are the clouds? Are they in the middle of space and Earth?
M: No, they're in Earth's atmosphere.  They keep moisture in so it can rain remember?
L:  Oh yeah.  Mom?  Are there any clouds in space?
M:  Nope, there's nothing in space.  Just cold, darkness.
L: Why?
M: I'm not sure.
L:  Mom, is Pluto a planet?
M: Not anymore.  The scientists decided it was too little to be a planet remember.
L:  Pluto was my favorite planet mom.
M:  I know.  Sorry bud.  Maybe it will be a planet again one day.
L:  What is the smallest planet now mom?
M:  Um...I don't know, maybe Mercury or Venus would be my guess.
L: Is Mercury really hot mom?
M:  Yup, because it's right by the sun.
L:  How about Venus?
M:  Actually, Venus is hotter than Mercury because it has clouds that trap the heat inside the planet and it can't get out so it just gets hotter and hotter.
L:  Oh...What's the next planet mom?
M: Earth.
L: And we're not too hot or too cold.  Heavenly Father did a good job mom.
M:  He sure did.  Aren't you glad to have the seasons?
L:  Yeah.  Mom?  If our atmosphere is filled with Oxygen and other stuff, is Oxygen blue?
M:  I don't think so, but I don't know.  Why?
L:  Well, our sky is blue.  Why is the sky blue mom?
M: (Explanation of light particles reflecting blue, etc.)
L:  Mom?  I'm going to make a mountain one day and name it Big Grassy Mountain because it will have grass all over it and you can roll all the way down it.
M:  Cool bud.  That sounds fun.
L:  Mom?  I'm going to go back to my imagination now okay? 

Speaking of his eye appointment, he is DONE with the patch!!  Hooray and Yippee and Woo Hoo!!  Good job buddy.  It took three years, but we're done.  Way to stick with it.  I told him we could have a patch burning party.  He's pretty excited.

Sigh

I am in a funk.  I have so, so much to do and zero desire to do any of it.  I need to clean my house, do my laundry, cut squares out for a quilt, clean out the van, exercise, drop kids off, pick kids up, get treats for school, manage Liam's star of the week stuff, do homework, feed family...(three times a day, I mean really?  Why can't they eat just once a day.  So much easier!)  Feed the baby, change the baby, make sure baby is happy, stop fights, teach kids to pick up, be kind, not fight, play nicely, touch gently, make bed, clean bathroom, do dishes, get dressed, do hair, makeup, try and be cute (sort of given up on that lately), make dinner, go shopping, remind husband to pay hospital bills, sign letters, fax letters, dress kids, take Liam to eye appointment, take Reagan to shots appointment, etc.  And then it starts over tomorrow.  So, my question is, how do you do it?  I feel like I am barely treading water (and half drowning at that) and I don't have anything extra.  Just the basic stuff to do.  I don't have any huge trials, just my mundane little ones, (which, I am thankful for). I have always, always had a hard time justifying myself to the Lord.  I even have a hard time even going to Him with my problems because they seem so very insignificant compared to the trials of others.  I know all the pat answers that my problems matter to Him just as much as anyone else's, blah, blah, but I can't make myself believe it.  I know everyone is hurting and everyone is having trials of their own, so I feel like I need to buck up and carry on.  How do I get out of my hole and take care of myself, let alone others as I am commissioned to do?  My sweet mother-in-law takes my children once a week so we can go to a standing appointment we have, but that eats me up with guilt.  They are my kids, I should be taking care of them and not pawning them off on my family.  I should be this and I should be that...when can I accept myself for what I am?  I will keep searching for my answer and tomorrow will be a better day.

He's Three!

Owen turned 3 last month.  Happy Birthday to my little guy!  I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he decided on a "bird one".  I found a cute cut out cake for a duck, showed it to him, he liked it, so we went with that one.  He decided he wanted a "green bird one", thus, we had a gangrenous duck cake for his 3rd birthday.  He was excited all day and whenever someone would tell him Happy Birthday, he would tell the person Happy Birthday back.  He didn't quite get that it was just his day.

 

 See how happy he was.  This is the best normal smile I got.  The rest were just cheese!

  

Our lovely duck cakes.

 

See what I mean about the cheese?

 

Happy Birthday my cute buddy.  He's such a snuggler and loves to be hugged and loved.  He has one volume...loud.  He is going, going, going from the moment he gets up in the morning to the minute he falls asleep at night.  Always busy, always something to do.  He loves his little sister Reagie (though, he's starting to call her Reagan now, kind of sad.), his big sister "N" and his big brother "ee-um".  He and Erin are quite a pair when they are getting along.  They play so fun together.  He told me this morning that he loves me the best.  I said "You'll always love me the best huh, and not any silly girls?"  He said "Yeah, mom."  You heard it here.  A promise is a promise, right??  Love you buddy!

Three down...one to go.

Owen is potty trained!!  Hoo to the Ray!  I think Heavenly Father knew I couldn't handle one more thing and so He whispered to Owen that he needed to train himself, because that's what happened.  One day he just decided to do it.  He's trained through the night and everything.  Yay for my little boy.  He's getting too old.  We just had him the other day right?  Now he's 3.  Pics of the party yet to come.