house update

We close on the house Wednesday morning! We move in after June 11th. YEAH

inspired

Waiting to move has been slightly torturous, and the end is not so near. To pass my time, and entertain my brain I have been doing a little shopping. I was really excited to find some fabric for my kitchen. Not sure if you can see it, but the background of this fabric(brown on brown stripe) matched my ottoman that was recovered last spring. LOVE IT! My biggest problem with houses that have open floor plans is "flow". How do you get all the rooms on the main level to look good when it is all used differently, but there is no beginning and end to the actual room(does that make sense?) Anyways, this fabric has most of the colors from my family room-minus orange, but that is ok. It has a totally different feel(more shabby than whatever you call the family room fabric-traditional?) I have no idea what I am going to do with it. Maybe make a roman shade, maybe cover the top of a bench, or placemats. Not sure, but it has me inspired.

blank canvas

Starting to work on Mother's Day gifts and Teachers gifts for the end of the year. A little frustrated because I don't really have a work space at this moment. I spread out on the floor and I only have a potion of my craft supplies. I have to improvise a little and let go of some of my perfectionist ways when it comes to these projects. That is actually a good exercise for me I suppose. I tend to over think a lot of my things which keeps me from actually getting them done. Some things can be just good enough.

stories

I have been sifting through papers and such, trying to get organized to start packing soon. I finally dug to the bottom of a file box and found the journal I've been keeping about the kids. I was feeling pretty bad that the last entry was in June of last year. A lot has happened this year and I haven't kept very good track(although the blog might count as record keeping-right?) So I will make sure to continue to write down the funny things they say, and write about what silly things we see them do. I read some of the entries at the dinner table tonight and we had a great time with it. Holden loves to hear about what he was like when he was a baby. Here's a cute one.


5/16/07 While in Des Moines Holden weighed himself on Grandpa's scale. He got off and asked if I wanted to weigh my toes too.

Photos by Holden

Holden grabs the camera any chance he gets-here is what he captured today

one of about 3 thousand pieces of paper we have scattered around the house
don't mess with me! I'm watching Dancing with The Stars. Cat Tail- the total waste of money Webkinz. But he is a great snuggler.

Holden's alter ego Rafael. Love those toes!!

lets pretend

With the weather being so ridiculous the past several weeks, we have taken to building our own vacation props. This is our mountain. We lay on the bed and look up at it. We gaze up at the clear blue sky, pretend we are in a field of wild flowers. It has been a long winter.

Bumble Bee

Asher has been carrying this transformer around for the last two weeks. He has three items with him at all times. A cement truck, bumble bee and a blue ninja from the arcade. He basically goes into hysterics if one is missing. I guess bumble felt good on his face the other night when he was falling asleep.

Thanks Uncle Matt

Todd's brother was in town this weekend with his fiance Lisa. He ended up getting the flu and we never really had a chance to visit with him. When I took the boys over to Grammy's house today they each came home with a "ninja sword" that Uncle Matt made them. Cool! They are a very big hit-literally :)

more good news

Congrats to Uncle Matt and Lisa-they are engaged!!!

Cream Cheese Toast Art

Holden has hit a crafty high, and is now using toast as a medium for his art. "Look mom, a Rhino!" Love it. He is also into freezing water in cups. And the other day I found him pouring frozen veggies and ground flax seed into water for a science experiment. Every time I turn around he is basically into something that he just HAS to use. I haven't heard about other kids doing this-it seems to be only mine that like to make gargantuan messes. Case in point, my children are the ONLY ones muddy after playground time at the Y. There are a million little boys out there, and mine are the ones with mud blocks for shoes. And my conclusion is that other boys respect their mothers. Mine have no idea that they are supposed to listen and then follow their mother's directions. I have seriously told them 5 thousand times to only play in the mud with crocs on, and only at home! The other day I got a rare glimpse into my four year olds head. Todd and I were telling him that Daddy was going out of town for a couple of days. He started to cheer. We asked him why he was so happy. He explained that Todd leaving meant no one would be yelling at him for a couple of days. Oh really? I asked him what about his mom, doesn't she yell at him? He looked at me like that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard, he seemed slightly confused, and maybe even like he was searching his brain for what that might sound like. I yell ALL the time people! All I ever do is yell, my voice is raised 90% of the day. HE NEVER HEARS ME. Todd and I didn't really know who should more concerned. Him for having kids who love to see him leave, or me. My running around "teaching"(ranting and yelling) all day seems to only scare the neighbors. Maybe they're next door in Time Out and trying to gain some self controll because they hit their brother, and they probably don't even have a brother. UGH!! Asher uses cheeks as his canvas!

I'm back (but I never went anywhere!)

Don't you think it's about time I leave a new post. Thank you Bobbi Joe for getting me off my lazy behind :) I have some good news. We finally bought a house(pictures to come later) I am sooo happy this process is all over. And praise God that now I can move on and out of this lovely little townhouse. We are super excited about the neighborhood(lots of kids) and the location and school district are great as well. The house isn't really what I had in mind. But I have learned a lot in this whole process and the one thing I know now is it's good enough and I can celebrate just that. It will be a great house for my family and that is all that really matters. I am looking forward to having another home to make "real" memories in(as opposed to not real in a rental ?) and Lord knows I need some projects(to entertain my sleepy brain) Home Depot here I come!!



The kids are great(pictures to come soon ) Holden is really into cutting paper at the moment. I have tried to have a "green"talk with him, but he doesn't seem to have an environmental bone in his body. We are going through A LOT of paper. It is all over the playroom floor all the time. He is also into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(TMNT) He is the red ninja turtle. Asher is the blue ninja turtle. They are taking it very seriously. Todd has found the movies opening song on You Tube and they jump around grunting and chopping at each other-I'm out. I have however purchased the action figures with the mutating goo, not sure what I was thinking. My little blue ninja is doing great. He is showing some interest in the potty. We bought some Thomas underwear that he is very excited about. He has great determination, but not always the skills to back it up. He is going to be a fierce little dude when it all catches up with him.

Ok, gotta go. Todd and I are are doing well. Todd was in Texas last weekend at a Nascar race and he is looking forward to getting on his Harley soon. I am doing a lot of the same things I always do, and I 'm not really sure what that is. I am taking a class at church for the next several weeks, and stating to plan our summer calendar. For the most part the kids have me running in circles and we are feeling impatient about the cold weather. All we want to do is play at the park and have picnics! Oh-and a couple of you will love this. I volunteered to be the Membership VP for MOMS Club( I can hear you cringing)