Summer List 2012: Art Day

Every time I have the urge to purge all my scrapbooking stuff, we do a craft like this, and then I'm so happy I have it all. This project didn't cost me a thing! And it kept the girls busy for a couple of hours. And then a couple of more hours playing with them!

 Yes, our little friend Grayce is at our house again. Her little sister is sick sick so we offered to have Graycie over for a day long playdate. The girls are in hog heaven. I'm wondering at what point they will get tired of playing together. Thankfully it hasn't happened yet!

 I saw this cute little craft on my friend Erin's blog. She made owls using empty toilet paper rolls. We took it a step further and decided to add butterflies and ladybugs to the mix. Thanks for the idea Erin!

Addysen's: An Owl and A Butterfly

Elodie's: 2 Owls

Graycie's: A Butterfly and A Ladybug

EK's new trick...

It's funny (now) how a few months ago EK wasn't even crawling. And while we weren't really concerned that she was well over a year and not crawling, there was still that little doubt in the back of my mind that forced me to make an appointment to see her pediatrician. And thankfully everything was fine. She just wasn't interested. But now she is majorly interested. She is getting in to everything, standing on her own, and walking when you hold her hands. In the last few days she has started taking multiple steps. The most is about 7 or 8 on her own.

We are all so proud of her...and she knows it! 

{These pictures don't show it but lots of times she will stand up in the middle of the floor and start walking. We say "Stand up Evie and walk!" and she will!}

Summer 2012 List: Sidewalk Paint

We had a lunchdate at Chick Fil A with Melissa and her girls yesterday. We brought Grayce home with us. The girls play really well together but because EK was napping I was in need of a quiet activity. Which is why our Summer List always comes in handy! The best part about sidewalk paint is I always have what I need to make it and it's super quick to pull together. The girls loved it and it kept them out on the patio for a bit.

When you least expect it...

Elodie is turning 8 in September. Which means I've been on the hunt for a Baptism dress since...last year!  I have pinned quite a few that I love and have so enjoyed looking at all the different styles. It's like wedding dress shopping all over again! In the last week I have felt the urgency to finally narrow it down and purchase her dress. I knew it needed to be done in the next week or 2 so that we could do her photoshoot so I could mail out her invitations 2 weeks prior to her baptism. And depending on how long it took for the dress to be shipped...it was at the top of my list!

We went to Kohl's today. Christopher needed some new jeans. As usual, we made our rounds through the whole store. Our last stop was the girls section. I was looking through the clearance section when Elodie came up to me with a white dress in her hand. "Look Mom, this could be my Baptism Dress!" She was so excited about her find. It wasn't until I looked at the price tag that I got excited!

Regular Price $98. Clearanced for $7. PLUS, we had a 30% off coupon!

I'll admit that compared to some of the ones I had pinned, this one wasn't as pretty as those. But once we got it home and Elodie tried it on...it was perfect! And she loves it! And did I mention we paid less than 5 bucks for this dress! All of the ones I had looked at online were atleast $55!

I would say we were definitely meant to go to Kohl's today!

I was so tempted to take more detailed pictures with my camera but I will save those for a date closer to Elodie's baptism!

She has her interview with the Bishop tomorrow morning. Christopher also spent some time with her this morning reviewing some of the things she will talk to the Bishop about. She is so excited to be baptized!

1351 post later...

It was bound to happen. And last night it did. I was uploading pictures to a post on my blog and a pop up showed up saying I had reached my picture upload limit. I'm actually surprised it took this long....but it's happened. And I can't post anymore pictures until I upgrade my memory through blogger. So far I've only found that I have to pay a monthly subscription for my extra memory. I don't really want to pay. Even if it is just $2.50 a month. Thoughts? Has this happened to you? Not sure where to go from here. I do know I'll be lost if I can't post pictures on my blog! Even this feels weird.... {Thanks for all the tips and suggestions I got via email and facebook. I fixed it and everything is back to normal! WHEW!}

EK's new trick...

It seems like lately Evyn is doing new things left and right...I can barely keep up. She is definitely not the same little baby who was content to sit and watch everyone around her. She is all over the place now and I know it won't be long before she is walking!

First Talk

Addysen gave her first talk in Primary and she did a great job! No stage fright, talked right in to the microphone, and repeated everything I said. At the end I said "in the name of Jesus Christ..." and instead of repeating and finishing with Amen, she just said Amen in to the mic. We are so proud of her! Her talk was on ways we can show Heavenly Father respect at church. One of the ways we listed was putting your trash in the garbage and if you see trash on the floor you pick it up and throw it away. When I went to go get Addysen from class after church, her teacher told me that when they went to the bathroom Addysen saw a bunch of paper towels on the floor. She immediately walked over and picked up all the towels and threw them in the garbage. Her teacher said she was so proud of Addysen and how well she listened to her own talk. Addysen was pretty proud of herself too. Chris slipped in and video'd Addysen's talk. I am so happy we have this!

POTD 2012 Week 28

-The girls love to play yahtzee and are surprisingly really good. They caught on quickly and we play the adult version with them. It's a great math tool for Elodie and Addysen knows which number is which. -I took this picture of Ginger and texted it to Chris with the caption "The definition of a house dog"- she is spoiled rotten. -We had an art day with paints one day. -The girls waiting for the ice cream truck...sadly he never came by. We heard his music but missed him. I drove the girls around the subdivision trying to find him but we had no luck...another day for sure. -Cow Appreciation Day at Chick Fil A. -Checking more task off our list of to do's.... It's starting to feel more and more like home. -We got a ton of rain today. We had promised the girls we would take them swimming but because of the rain we couldn't go. Playing in the rain was just as fun. We had the girls showered and in their pj's at 4pm. My idea of a great Saturday afternoon!

You had me at Free....

A few weeks ago I took the girls to Chick Fil A for lunch. We don't go too often. It's expensive, Chris isn't the hugest fan as he thinks the portions are too small, and in general I try to keep from eating out at all during the week. If we do go, it's a fun place for a lunch date with friends, especially during the school year when Elodie is in school and I don't have to pay for a ton of food. Even then I usually pack fruit and applesauce from home because I don't want to pay for it. I am cheap, what else can I say. But it's summer, and I had a little leftover grocery money, so I surprised the girls and we went. When we got there we saw that Cow Appreciation day was on the 13th of July. If you dressed up like a cow you got a free meal! FREE FOOD? I'm in! The girls were so excited about the idea of dressing up-Elodie even marked it on her calendar and put it as a reminder in my phone. We invited some of our cousins for a lunch date and we cashed in on our free meals! It was surprisingly not busy while we were there. It helped that we went at 11am. All the kids had such a fun time running around like cows, meeting the cow mascot, and getting free little prizes. We had a nice day and may or may not have convinced Chris to meet us again for dinner. It was either that or mac and cheese. I don't typically cook on Friday nights.

Evyn Kate was looking around at all the crazies dressed like cows. The real crazies were the ones who came dressed in normal clothes and paid full price for their meals!

And at this point EK was pretty overwhelmed by all US crazies that she was very upset...

Yes, the girls are ears are blue...ish. We ran out of black ink, had to use blue ink, and then colored over them. 

EK happy'd up when she realized she didn't have to be a cow anymore and got to take her spots off...and eat the tape. 

Then she saw the cow.....

Photo Book

I finally made time to finish up Evyn's first year book. I ordered it yesterday and can't wait to get it in the mail! I'm so happy I did this. I've said it before but I really wish I would have done something similar with the other girls. Of course they are not without tons of pictures at each month but there is something about the same outfit, hair piece, backdrop that really shows off how much Evyn changed in one year. We love this girl!

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1 month later.

We have been in our new house for a little over one month. Along with normal summer business we have stayed busy checking off our "To Do In Our New House" list.

We started in Addysen's room.
Then moved to Elodie's room.

And just a little bit ago tackled our family/dining/kitchen. It was a big task but surprisingly once we got started, it wasn't as time consuming as we thought it would be. We painted everything in 2 days and then did a board and batten wall a few days later.

For our first big home project, we are really pleased with how it turned out. I am planning to do the same board and batten wall in our front room. I don't plan on covering it up at all so it will be more of a focal point in the room.

I knew from the very beginning that I wanted the walls in this room blue. We found out quickly that finding the right color blue was going to be tricky. I wanted a blue that wasn't too blue, had a bit of gray in it, and because we were doing a big room I didn't want it to be too bright.  We tried 5 different colors before we found the perfect color. We did spend a few days with 5 different shades of blue on our wall. It's amazing how different blue looks throughout the day. You could find me and Chris sitting at our dining room table just staring at the wall at different times of the day...finding the right color blue was the most time consuming part. Once we had that decided, everything else went really smoothly. The one we picked is the second color from the left and then the 4th from the left too.

I documented our progress via instagram...

Once we finished the painting we started on the board and batten. I will say that the main reason this project was so simple is because 1. I have an engineer for a husband who drew up the measurements in Auto CAD...right down to the outlet behind the tv. 2. Home Depot did all the cuts for us with the exception of a few we did at home. and 3. We borrowed Chris' dad's power saw and electric nail gun! 

The next step is decorating which mostly consist of hanging pictures that have been in boxes for over a year and doing a photo gallery on the ledge of the board and batten. I just put that picture up to see how well the frames would sit on the ledge.

It feels good to be checking things off our list. To see things in my head come out exactly how we invision it.

The next project on my list is the girls bathroom followed by the guest room. My mom is coming at the beginning of September and I want that room ready for when she gets here.

EK's New Trick..