Mother's Day

Yep, still catching up! If you read my previous post you know things were quite chaotic on Mother's day weekend. It was SO NICE to spend the day with my mom though. I don't think we've spent a mother's day together since I left home in 1994. I had Allen take a few quick pictures before we went to church:

{I tried to crop out the fact that my undergarments were hanging out in every group picture he took - he somehow managed to miss this!}

The YM were in charge of the MD treat for all the women in the ward AND for teaching all the primary classes for the women in our ward (quite a huge undertaking considering how huge our primary is and the number of women who teach in our ward). Al was quite busy at church handling all of this. It was nice to get a break from Primary (I teach the 8 year olds) and get to go to all the meetings with my mom.

After church we were able to squeeze in a short nap while Allen graciously handled making dinner for all of us - lettuce wraps (my favorite) and sweet and sour chicken/rice. Delicious! My kiddos showered me with a pile of homemade cards and gifts (so my favorite!) that I will treasure. Allen brought my roses and a beautiful necklace I have been coveting. The kids picked out a watch for me. My mom bought me some fun(!!) home decor items for my bedroom. I felt completely spoiled.

It goes without saying that my children are my hearts treasure and fulfill my life in ways I never dreamed possible. I owe all that I am to my dear mother who is a continuous blessing in my life!

And just for fun, this is a little MD survey Carter filled out about me at church:

My mom's favorite food is: fondue

I like it when my mom makes: fondue

My mom is prettiest when: she's at church

My mom always says: good job

My mom is really good at: cooking

My mom is the best because: she loves me

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Whew! What a crazy, crazy couple of weeks it has been! Along with all the end of school year activities we have had going on, we also moved into our new house. It has taken me awhile to recover from it all. We only have 2 weeks of school left here so the next couple of weeks are crazy busy too but I knew I needed to do an update on our move.

My parents were so, so, so kind and came down to help us move. We had done a lot of packing/moving/unpacking before they got here so we thought we were in great shape for the move. I had moved over and unpacked the entire kitchen, most of the office and all of our closets. My parents arrived on Tuesday afternoon and my dad immediately got to work hauling loads of stuff over to our new house. Wednesday was much the same with Al and my dad working late into the night. My mom helped with the kids and helped me pack boxes and gave me several MUCH needed pep talks. Really, I was a mess with this move.

By Thursday morning we only had the bare necessities at the house plus all of our furniture. We had a bunch of guys coming from the ward to help us with the furniture that night. My dad and I worked like crazy all day getting things set up for the moving crew and moving over the stuff from the garage. That night the crew arrived and started hauling the furniture over. As they were dropping off the first load my dad pulled me aside and said he thought he was having a kidney stone attack and needed to go to the emergency room. Crazy! Al and a couple guys immediately gave my dad a blessing and then he and I hurried off to the ER. My poor mom was left to deal with the mess of the house and the kids who were desperate to go to bed.

We spent many hours in the ER Thursday night and they finally sent my dad home with pain medication and instruction to let the stone pass on its own. We pulled in at about 3:00 a.m. Watching my dad suffer in so much pain was HORRIBLE and something I hope to never have to experience again.

Friday was another crazy day as Al and I spent the day hauling more junk out of the house and cleaning before we returned the truck. We literally fell into bed at 8:00 p.m. and slept for 11 hours straight.

Saturday my dad still had not passed the kidney stone and was in a lot of pain again so we took him back to the ER. Once again they sent him home with MORE pain meds and the promise that the stone would pass within 24 hours.

By Monday the stone had still not passed and my dad was in extreme pain again. We took him back to the ER that morning and they finally checked him into the hospital to meet with a urologist. It was a really frustrating situation for everyone since he had been in and out of the ER so much with no real relief. They finally scheduled him for surgery for Tuesday to get the stone out and get his kidney functionality back to normal.

My poor parents were finally able to leave on Thursday morning after letting my dad recover for a day. Even with all the trauma with my dad, we are so grateful they were able to come and help us. It was a huge blessing to have them here with us and their help was invaluable getting us moved.

We are still living in a sea of boxes but every day gets a little bit better. In hindsight it would have been better to move once school was out since there is SO much going on the next few weeks. The best news is that we survived yet another move. Doing this move our selves gave me a HUGE appreciation for being professionally moved. It also motivated me to dejunk some of our stuff (like the TWENTY bins of kids clothes I've been hanging onto "just in case").

Again, a big thanks to my parents for all their help and support and for all those who helped us here as well!

First Grade Day at the Zoo

I'm still trying to get caught up on my blogging! A couple weeks ago was first grade day at the zoo for Carter's school. The weather was gorgeous and we got to hang out with our friends all day! The school was very laid back about things - parents could pick up their child and spend the day together and then get them back on the bus in time to leave. We spent the day with some friends from our ward and had a great time.

Here are a few pictures:

The first graders (Carter, Grace and Tyler):

Group shot (Carter, Grace, Tyler, Makenna, Addie, Abby):


Carter and Tyler climbed on every rock or climbed every tree they could find:

Makenna and her BFF Abby. These two are ADORABLE together:We have a zoo pass that we use pretty frequently but usually only spend a couple hours at a time at the zoo. It was really fun to have the entire day there and leisurely play and walk through the zoo!

Piano Recital

Carter's first piano recital was over the weekend. He worked really hard to memorize his piece and has improved a lot this year. Carter REALLY loves piano. I never have to ask him to practice and he usually stops at the piano several times a day and plays, outside of his regular practicing. I am so happy that he seems to really love to play. For the recital he chose to play the main theme from Star Wars. Unfortunately, part of the original video was cut off so I had him replay his song after the recital. There is LOTS of background noise but you get the general idea.



Carter also has a VERY fun piano teacher. She always has some fun contest going as a way to motivate her students. All winter she has been offering "music bucks" as a way to earn points towards a prize. The students earned bucks for practicing, doing theory, doing flashcards, attending a musical performance, memorizing, etc. Carter was extra motivated when she told him he could work towards some Star Wars Lego figurines:

With his teacher (and my good friend):



After the recital with Grandma:We are very proud of how hard Carter has worked this year in piano and look forward to many more musical performances in his future!

Mother's Day Lunch

Friday Carter's school had a Mother's Day lunch. Once again, I took my mom and we "enjoyed" lunch with Carter. The food was...interesting. They tried to make some fancy cafeteria food but it didn't really translate on a large scale. We still had fun seeing him with his classmates and having lunch together.

With my mom:

With some friends:

Mother's Day Tea

Last Wednesday was the Mother's Day Tea and concert and Makenna's school. It was such a cute little program and the kids did such a great job with the decorations and gifts. Here's a cute little video of one of the songs her class sang:

My mom was able to come with me to the tea and had fun seeing Makenna and her classmates. A few pictures:

Each place setting had this setup:
A mother's day card, a decorated flowerpot with flower pen and a placemat that included some questions the teacher's asked the kids about their moms with the responses. Here are Makenna's responses about me:

Q: Why did God make mothers?

A: So they will look beautiful

Q: Why did God give you your mother and not some other mother?

A: So she'll love me forever

Q: What kind of little girl was your mom?

A: I think when she was like 5 or 6, at Halloween time, there was an Earthquake! Grandpa had to go save everybody in the earthquake {true story but has nothing to do with my childhood}

Q: What does your mom like to do in her spare time?

A: She likes to play games with the family

It was a fun morning and start to the Mother's Day festivities around here.

Purse Dump

I was searching the fabulous and inspirational Stacy Julian's blog for some organizational ideas when I came across this idea. She challenged her blog readers to dump out their purses and take a picture of the contents. I decided to play along as I think it's a fun snapshop of life-right-now kind of thing.


My purse: LOVE this purse I got this spring at Old Navy. Get a compliment on it almost every day and people often ask if it's from Anthropologie!


Other contents:
Diaper and wipes
Gymboree Coupons
Book Fair wish list for Carter
Fabric scrap for MBR that I carry with me at all times just in case I see something that might match
Wallet overflowing with receipts - as usual
My favorite Nutrogena hand cream
Checkbook & Pocket calendar
Pens
Lipgloss
Tampon (sorry!)
Yummy Orbit Pena Colada Gum (my favorite)
Go Phone
Keys
Blue Tooth
Addie's bow from her outfit 2 days ago
iPhone
Point and Shoot Camera
Sunglasses


And just for fun, one of Makenna's purses:
Misc. "credit cards"
Princess Mirror
Random Pink Panther toy (no idea where it came from)
Lipgloss
Hand Sanitizer
Extra keys
2 bracelets
Sunglasses
Ring
Cupcake necklace from her bday party
Trader Joe's kids club stickers
Fake phone
Ring
Binoculars from Build-A-Bear
Mini version of A Christmas Carol book


Ah the treasures of a 5 year old!

Unsettled

Today I was talking to a friend in my ward about our upcoming move. She asked me if the move was stressing me out. I told her that it isn't really stressing me out. While I don't want the move to drag out for a long time, we are lucky that we don't have a have-to-be-out date for this house. We will move over bit by bit over the next two weeks.

Then she asked if all the moving around we do makes me feel unsettled or unsatisfied with life. I thought about it for a moment and then told her no. She asked me how that was possible. So I told her that if I waited to be settled to be happy I would have been waiting and unhappy for the last 9 years. I also told her that I was single for a long time and pretty much hated the last couple years of my single life. Meeting and marrying Allen was such a blessing and I TRULY feel that with him by my side I can do anything. I know the life that we have chosen is not for everyone. Half of the time I wonder what the heck we're doing and yearn to have permanent residence somewhere. But for right now we know this is right and I feel so blessed to have a wonderful man by my side to work through the joys and trials of mortal life. He is my best friend, my soul mate and my perfect match in every way. I never dreamed that someone so perfect for me actually existed, let alone that we would find each other.

What a poignant conversation for me to have today, on our 9th anniversary. Happy Anniversary sweetheart! I love you! {To Eternity and Beyond!}

Happy Things

ETA: I've been mean to post a big THANK YOU for all your kind comments on our bedroom! You guys are the best!!

I recently found a blog written by a mom of SIX kids. She is creative, busy, organized and a bit intimidating. And she blogs 25-40 times PER MONTH. Holy cow. She's my kind of blogger though. She blogs about everything from her kids' activities to her home improvement projects and everything in between. It is motivating me to be a better blogger. Sometimes I think that no one wants to hear the day to day antics about my life and family but after reading her blog and thinking about it, I don't really care. This blog is for my family history so I should put a bit more of our history down as it is happening.

So never mind that I am hosting the end of season soccer party at my house tonight and have tons to do to prepare OR that I'm moving in less than a week - I'm blogging anyway!

On to my happy things:

1. I went to bed early last night (well, early for me) and woke up wide awake at 3:45 a.m. I decided to get up and got to scrapbook for 3 hours this morning!! I am caught up on my 365 book! Woot!

2. Our new house has a much different floor plan and we are losing our designated office. The first room in the new house is supposed to be split between a formal living room/dining room. We have no formal dining room so half of the room is going to become our office. Knowing that it is the first thing people will now see coming into our home, I have been searching high and low to find some new office furniture to replace our mismatched stuff we've had for years. We were about to purchase this set:

We have been trying to decide between two sets and had finally decided Friday night to go with this one. On Saturday morning a friend stopped by and mentioned that she had been out garage sale-ing. I asked if she had found anything great and she replied that she had seen a gorgeous Pottery Barn desk at a sale in our new neighborhood that she wished she needed. I asked her the details and immediately hopped in the car {in my pajamas no less} to go see this desk set.

The people selling the set were a couple about to retire and trying to downsize so they can move to a retirement community in Peoria, AZ. Seriously, what are the chances?!? They are hoping to move into our old ward boundaries (they are not LDS). They were so nice and we talked for a long time about AZ and I hooked them up with my amazing realtor who helped us sell our house.

And then I bought their desk set!! Here is my beauty sitting in the garage waiting to go to the new house:

The set includes the desk, hutch and TWO matching filing cabinets (the hutch will be centered and filing cabs obviously moved from underneath when we get settled). I got it for a fraction of what we were planning to pay for the above set and a TINY fraction of the original price. Such a score!!! It is perfect and 100% my style!

3. Probably the happiest thing on my list is that my mom and dad are coming here next week to help us move. Huge, huge, huge blessing. They will be here Tues-Sun which also means they will get to see Carter's first piano recital, attend Makenna's preschool Mother's Day Tea and Carter's Mother's Day Lunch. And I know my parents well enough to know that their help will be invaluable!

From Drab to Fab(ish)

Good News: Everything for our Master Bedroom redo is DONE. Did it take me long enough?

Bad News: You don't get to see it pulled together

Good News: We are moving!

Bad News: We are moving!

Ok, so after searching for a house for months we finally found a great house in our ward AND our school district!! It has been stressing me out so I'm so glad that part is finally done. Except that means that I now have to do the actual move. The home is three years old but has never been lived in (!!!) so it is new, and clean and beautiful.

So just when I had all the stuff for our bedroom done, we are moving so I am not hanging anything on the walls. I do want to share some pictures of the bedroom furniture. Decorating is a looooong process for me. I'm picky, I'm on a budget and I'm indecisive. Two years ago I decided to start looking for new bedding since that pretty much sets the tone for a room. I had an idea in mind but could not find what I wanted. I even priced out having custom bedding made to get exactly what I wanted but it was pretty cost prohibitive. This past fall I decided to make do with some bedding that I found and liked a lot but did not LOVE. Our bedroom set was one of the first big purchases we made after we got married. We got the nicest set we could afford at the time and I liked for about 7 years. My style evolved some and I decided the cottage-y look isn't really my style but we had a NICE bedroom set that I couldn't justify replacing.

Here is a look at the furniture before:

The white furniture just melts into the white walls and it looked so blah.

I knew that if I was going to go out and purchase a new bedroom set I would choose a black set. I just love black furniture so I started doing tons of research about refinishing the furniture. Allen was really skeptical at first but I knew we could make it look great if we were careful. We picked a weekend where we had nothing else going on and turned our garage into a paint shop. We lined the floor with cardboard and draped plastic over everything in the garage. I did a ton of research on paint and found a Behr paint at Home Depot that had the primer mixed in with the paint and had a smooth but hard finish. We purchased a paint sprayer and went to town. The paint sprayer is what made this project fast and our finish nearly perfect. We sprayed the first coat and then let it dry for a couple of days. There were a few drips that had to be sanded out before we applied the second coat. We let the second coat dry for about a week before we moved it back into our room and then we let it dry inside for a few more days before we put the drawers back in. Having our room torn up for a couple of weeks was not ideal but the end result was worth it!

In the meantime, I kept searching for bedding and found my DREAM bedding at Anthropologie. It was a bit of a splurge but after searching for bedding for 2 years I decided it was worth it. It took a couple of months to get all the pieces since a couple things were out of stock but I impatiently waited to get it all.

So here it is:

{B&W duvet and Euro shams from Anthropologie; black ruffle pillow and white gathered pillow from Kohl's; teal floral pillow made by moi; sheets from BB&B}

One of the dressers:To minimize the cottage style I decided to replace all the wood knobs with glass ones. Again, I did a lot of shopping around for these and finally purchased these off of ebay for $1.25 each (compared to $6 each at local stores). Just pretend you can't see the lovely fingerprints up there that I am clearly too lazy to clean and rephotograph here.

I didn't make any of the bedding except for the floral pillow. I saw a tutorial for this pillow on a quilting blog and she made it seem so simple. Not. This stinking pillow took me hours to put together. I LOVE it but doubt I would ever take the time to make another one.

So there's a little sneak peek of the bedroom. I LOVE it and I'm so glad we decided to take the leap to paint the furniture. It feels so much more grown up and sophisticated to me now. I have some more really fun things to share about the room and can't wait to get settled in the new house so I can get it finished up and share!

Easter Festivities

I love springtime, Easter and General Conference and it was fun to wrap them up into one weekend this year. I had a hard time deciding which traditions to do - our Easter or Conference traditions but the Easter traditions won out this time.

During the week we had our Easter Family Home Evening and made a cute craft depicting the resurrection that I found on Sugardoodle. We also made bird nest treats to share with some friends:
Because of our soccer schedule this year we missed both the community and ward organized egg hunts this year. It was a bummer. We decorated our eggs on Saturday morning before conference started and we all had a really good time. Al and I always disagree about how many eggs to color and we did about 2 dozen this year. The kids could have easily done double that but then what do you do with that many eggs afterward? Addie got really into it and loved dropping the eggs in and then fishing them out after they were done dying.

Sunday morning the kids were up bright and early to see what the bunny left for them. I cut way down on the candy this year since we generally trying to cut the junk out of our diet and the kids didn't seem to mind. They still had plenty of candy to eat before breakfast!

Carter:

Makenna:

Addison:

We also had multiple egg hunts in the backyard with the kids. I think we hid and hunted 6 different times and had to get pretty creative hiding eggs in our desert landscaping. The kids truly never got bored with it.
After watching both sessions of conference we joined some friends from our ward for a delicious Easter dinner (best turkey I've EVER had!). I didn't actually buy Easter clothes for my kids because there was no church on Sunday but they wore some of their new spring clothes anyway and looked so cute!

We had a wonderful weekend together and are so grateful for our Savior, his atonement and for the prophet and the inspired words of General Conference.

Addie's Injury

You might want to skip this post if you have a weak stomach. For real.

Last Thursday I was running on my treadmill while my girls were upstairs watching the Disney channel. I often run while they are awake (2-3 times a week) and they know not to come near the treadmill. Most mornings I pop in my headphones and rock out while I'm running but for whatever reason I decided to watch the Today show instead. This turned out to be an inspired decision!

About 20 minutes into my run Addie came downstairs and was playing behind the treadmill. She started screaming and I turned around to see her hand caught under the treadmill belt. I have no idea what she was doing to get it under there but I jumped off the treadmill and pulled her hand out. Had my headphones been in, I probably would not have heard her! Poor, poor baby. The skin on her middle finger was hanging off where it had been rubbed away by the treadmill. A huge blister was already forming where the skin had been. It looked awful. I immediately called Allen and my pediatrician. The Ped told me to keep it clean and bandaged and to call if it showed signs of infection. It's been a rough week with that little finger. She hates wearing a bandaid and having it washed so I'm constantly having to fight her to keep it clean. I can also tell it hurts because she cries if she bumps it or uses it for anything.

And here it is a week later:

This picture really doesn't do it justice. It looks about 100 times worse and grosser than this picture represents. I do have to say that it is kind of fascinating to watch her little finger heal. The human body is really amazing. Needless to say, I've made a firm commitment to never run on my treadmill again when she is awake.

Our Spring Break in Pictures

Never mind that we've been home for almost 2 weeks, I've got to get this documented!

We had a really fun spring break visiting my parents in Colorado. We left on Friday night and drove to Denver and made it in a record 5 1/2 hours. Allen unexpectedly flew to Boise on Saturday morning to attend the funeral of one of his cousins who passed away earlier in the week.

The weather was really beautiful on Saturday and we played outside, had a picnic at the park and went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks with the kids.

{Carter collecting bugs in the front yard}

On Sunday we attended Sacrament meeting at my parents ward and then drove out to the airport to pick up Allen from his Boise flight, have a late lunch at Chile's and then drive him back for his departing flight to ABQ. It was a crazy weekend for him but I know he was so grateful that he was able to go to the funeral and support his family.

Sunday night we got a babysitter for the kids so I could go to an adult fireside where my mom was speaking. She did a wonderful job and it is always nice to spend alone time with my parents.

{My mom and Miss A after the fireside having a snack together!}

Monday morning we had grand plans until we found that everything we were thinking about doing was closed on Mondays (pump it up, a museum, a bakery, etc.) so we were scrambling to find something to do. Luckily my mom remembered how fun the Hammond's candy factory tour is. We were fascinated watching them hand make all of the candy they sell and then picked out some fun treats in their gift shop afterward. Unfortunately I forgot my camera but we had a really fun time. We stopped at a park on the way home for another sunshiney picnic.

Tuesday my parents were so kind to keep my kids for the morning (and a lot of the afternoon) while I shopped with my friend Kayla, had lunch and then shopped some more on my own. Kayla and I both share the love of all things home decorating so she was a fun person to bounce ideas off of while I gathered a few more things for our bedroom. She took me to some fun local boutiques and then we had lunch at Garbanzo's (HEAVEN!) and then I did some more shopping after she went home. While I was living it up, my parents took the kids to the library for books and story time, out to lunch and to the Littleton Historical Museum for the afternoon. They had a wonderful time and apparently Addison wailed and was furious when my parents made her leave the museum to come home. {Need to get pics from my mom of this day too!}

Wednesday was St. Patrick's day and the kids woke up to find a fun treasure hunt set up by Lucky the Leprechaun. They found their treats and then proceeded to eat most of the chocolate coins before breakfast!

We had shamrock pancakes, green scrambled eggs and green milk for breakfast. The eggs grossed out the kids but they were still eaten.

My parents had some things they needed to do with their mission responsibilities and were off for the day so we packed up and headed up to my friend Melissa's house for the afternoon. Melissa was VERY gracious to host us since her 2 1/2 year old broke his leg the previous night, they were at the ER until late AND she is uncomfortably pregnant. The kids got to play, Melissa and I visited for hours and she made us an amazingly delicious lunch! Thanks so much Melissa! Always so much fun to spend time together!

{Makenna and Melissa's darling daughter Isabel}

That evening my parents took us out to dinner.

Thursday my mom took us to a super fun place called the Makery. It is a bakery that specializes in cake decorating classes and experiences for kids. It was SO fun. The kids got to pick out a flavor of cake and then had a little lesson on decorating styles and cake tips. Then they got to work on their own cakes. It was a great learning experience for the kids to get to do something they've never done before. The created their very own masterpieces and while not the prettiest cakes in town, they loved them. The cakes themselves were delicious though!{Addie was just there for the cupcakes}

{The finished products:}

That afternoon my mom and I did a bit of shopping while my dad hung out with the kids in the yard, etc. I picked up Allen from the airport on Thursday night and we snuck off to finally see The Blindside. Most people have already seen it but I have to say it was the best movie I've seen in forever. LOVED it.

Friday morning we woke up to a CRAZY spring snow storm. The kids were so excited so we bundled up in some makeshift snow clothes and played like crazy for an hour or so. The big kids loved it, Addie, not so much. {Addie loves the snow/cold about as much as her mom}

That afternoon we braved the CRAZY roads and went to lunch to celebrate my dad's birthday. We spent the afternoon playing board games, doing puzzles and watching movies all cozy inside. That evening my parents watched the kids while we went to dinner with our friends the Crockett's. It was great and there is never enough time together. We wanted to stay out longer but the road's were horrible so we headed home. {Littleton got 12 inches of snow on Friday!}

Saturday morning we headed out for ABQ. We were planning to leave early in the morning to make it home for Carter's soccer game but the roads were horrible so we waited until it warmed up a bit and the snow started to melt off. I'm glad we waited because even with more clear roads we saw two huge accidents and several smaller ones on our way home. We made it home safe and sound {though NOT in record time this time around}.

Overall we had a fun, relaxing and perfect spring break. There were plenty of activities planned, puzzles put together, board games played, movies watched, books read, craft projects created, quality time spent and memories made! Thanks mom and dad!