Konnor's eyes

He has got some interesting eyes. They are still blue, but there is a light blue halo around the iris's.

These 2 pictures are probably the best at showing the halo. 

Chloe

This rocking chair, that is for Konnor, seems to be the place that she falls asleep the most.

Lot's brother came over to get some stuff and his son was watching Special Agent Oso. So guess who also had to watch?

Epic Room Makeover!

Mandy at Vintage Revivals is doing another Epic Room Makeover and it is bigger and better this year. So take a look at the room in our house that I think is in major need of a do-over, the drab dining room. 

This is the uninspiring view from the kitchen. This room is just so brown and having carpet in a dining room is just gross. It hides most stains, which is the major problem. I would love to put any type of hard flooring in here. I also hate to vacuum and since my daughter is always spilling something, (it is goldfish ground into the carpet this week) a hard floor is needed.

I have also been dieing to paint mt table and chairs. Coming up with a color and time are the 2 major road blocks though. The table is a pressed laminate, I think, so there is that issue as well.

Turn just to your left and you see this monstrosity:

The "lovely" computer desk. We bought this because I wanted a corner desk with storage. Oh, it has storage all right, and it is all visible. I did not realize how large this thing is. It gets constantly piled with stuff. The bookcase to the right is a left over from my college days, 8 years ago. It is functional, sure, but it is plain and ugly, and overflowing. We like to read in this house.

And here comes the hallway that leads to a bathroom and the master bedroom. All I can say is plain. The only thing that distinguishes this part of the room is the hole in the wall, oh, and the "boob" light. What?! You don't know what a boob light is? Here, let me show you:

Now that you will never look at another one of these standard lights again, let's continue the tour of the room.

Here is the other overloaded-leftover-from-college-bookcase. I just love that the previous owners decided to paint the walls different colors and didn't leave any when they left. 2 walls are a softer, dingy yellow color and the other look like white that was mixed with a few drops of the leftover yellow paint from the other walls. And it is matte paint. And my kids like to color on everything that is not paper. So, matte paint + kids = very hard to clean walls.

Now on to the other monstrosity in the room, the non-functioning fireplace.

Want to know the worst part about this thing? See all the wood pieces on it? They are not screwed down. They were cut to sort of fit and then placed there. The rocks on the bottom make it so hard to vacuum around and I have to pull out the attachments to get around it. Remember how I hate to vacuum? Well, I really hate to have to pull those attachments out because then I feel that I better take the vacuum around everything in the room. While I am doing that, I notice that the baseboards could use a good cleaning and I should probably get all those cobwebs out and the fan dusted and my collection of bells should really be dusted and the silver ones should be cleaned properly and the curtains really could use a wash. So then a quick cleaning turns into a day long event.

Anywayyyyy, on to more pictures and less about my ocd when it comes to cleaning.

When we moved in almost 4 years ago, none of the windows had curtains so I hightailed it over to Home Fabrics and found this material for $1 a yard. I could not pass that up. The only thing is that I whipped those curtains out fast and didn't measure twice, cut once. I didn't cut them long enough and had to add some yellow fabric to the bottom. I also went the cheap route with the rod and have lived to regret it. That window needs at least an 84 inch rod and I bought one that is barely bigger than that. The curtains are somewhat heavy and are opened and closed on a daily basis. That is up until a few weeks ago. I went to open the curtains and they fell down on my head! The left side has pulled out of the wall, even with the use of anchors. Needless to say, these babies stay shut 100% of the time now.

We are almost done, I promise.

Up next is the too small, squeaky, ugly, not centered ceiling fan. I probably would have replaced this with a regular light as soon as we moved in, but we don't have central air and this room faces southwest and gets a ton of sun, so the only way to somewhat cool it off is with the ceiling fan.

Last, there is this tile that sits in front of the sliding glass door. It is a weird texture so it always looks dirty and it is crooked. This room was built in the 80's and the floor is not level, so nothing put on it is level. That is the biggest reason, other than $, that we have not ripped out the carpet and tile. We are afraid of what is under there.

And there you have it, the thrown together dining room that I have no idea how to transform. I think this room is in need of an EXTREME Room Makeover. Nothing short of a miracle Mandy could make it look good, so please vote for me over at Vintage Revivals starting September 7th. Voting ends on September 14th.

Don't worry if you forget. I WILL be reminding you:)

Konnor's Laugh

Konnor thought it was funny to have an otter pop in his mouth. We thought it was funny that he was laughing and thought you all would also enjoy it.

Chloe

Things I never could have even dreamed that I would say to our kids

This is going to be an ongoing post. I expect to add to this post about weekly, if not more :) Enjoy what we have said to the kids, some of them many, many times.


1. Stop washing your hands.

2. No, you do NOT need to go to the bathroom. (Said about 30 seconds after a certain little girl just went to the bathroom)

3. Please stop "helping" mommy clean.

4. Drake, stop drawing smiley faces on Chloe!

5. Drake: "Where does this go mom?" Me: "Ask Chloe."  That was said while the kids were unloading the dishwasher.

6. Please don't change Konnor's diaper unless I am there to help you.

7. No more cheese sticks! (The kids, especially Chloe, can eat 4 or 5 a day. They went through a 24 pack in just under a week).

8. Don't bite Champ! (My sister's big dog)

9.  Please don't share you food with me.

10. Chloe, ask for help when you go to the bathroom. (Let's just say that the brown stuff on the wall may or may not be chocolate. Cleaning the walls with a disinfectant wipe has become one of her daily chores)

11. Chloe, you can't play on the slip n slide naked.Or jump on the trampoline naked. Or take the garbage outside when you are naked. Sensing a theme here?

12. Please don't take a nap right now.

13. Don't try to catch  a bee. Chloe did this once. She caught it. And it stung her.

Mysterious bumps...

Drake developed a lump on the back of his knee back in April that just looked bad:

I took him to the doctor, who wasn't quite sure what it was, so they made an appointment for us to see a radiologist to get an ultrasound taken. They said it was just a cyst, but in a weird place. There is no blood flow to it and no pain or tenderness. It doesn't bother Drake at all, but the doctor felt it wise to refer us to an orthopedist to further check it out, just because Drake is so young to be getting this type of cyst and wants to make sure that once it is removed/drained that it will not make another appearance some day.  

After several appointments with the orthopedist, and an MRI, it was determined that the cyst is a pocket of joint fluid that has leaked from Drake's knee. It has been 4 months and still does not bother him in any way. If it gets suddenly bigger, we will go back in and Drake will have to have surgery to remove it, since just draining it will not guarantee that it won't happen again.

Brownies in the car...

Loose teeth!

I had to make one of these pillows for the tooth fairy today because. . . 

  

 DRAKE LOST HIS 1st TOOTH TODAY!!!!!

 It was completely unexpected. He told us last night that he could wiggle one of his teeth, but it was not wiggling very much, so we figured it would be by the end of the week. Well, around 2 o'clock today, he showed me his tooth that he pulled out all by himself. It probably didn't hurt that he had been wiggling the tooth with his tongue all day and we made hamburgers for lunch.

Our Kids

We sure love this bunch of goofy goobers!

Not what they were made for

I am pretty sure that Jenga blocks were not meant to be domino's, but you play with what you have right?

They have the whole bed...

and they end up sleeping like this the whole night:

That is a queen sized air mattress, by the way.

Playing at Grandma's House

Last weekend, we took a trip to Utah to visit, as the kids call her, Great Grandma. She took us to a kids place called Jungle Jim's. It is kinda like Leo's Place, but wayyyyyyyy better. Chloe was able to go on all the rides, and she did. Her favorite was the roller coaster type ride. Drake's favorite were the bumper cars. It wasn't too busy, so the kids were able to ride several times in a row.

Waiting to ride the coaster. The is the one ride Drake refused to go on. They both went on the swings, tough. We were kinda surprised Drake went on them willingly.

He is not having any fun at all is he?

Couch Cushion Forts

I think the title is self explanatory.

Konnor 3 months

Konnor is now 13 pounds, 4 ounces and 24 inches long. He is still longer than he is fat, so he is heavier than he looks. This is also why he has spent about 3 weeks in 3-6 month size clothes. I have had to move him to 6-9 month cloths. He is now sleeping through the night, around 10:30 to 7:30 each night. 

He smiles really easily and is laughing more each day. He also still loves his baths, but he is getting so big that I am going to have to buy one of those bath slings and move him to the tub. He loves to stretch during his baths and that makes it super hard to hold on to him in the sink. I also don't want him to bang his head on the sides of the sink. We have had several close calls lately. And sadly, he has lost most of his hair. He isn't bald, but he is getting there.

This was the best picture I could get of Konnor before the battery died again. I have since found the charger. The blurry leg with have to suffice. His legs are always going, especially that left leg.

Whoopie Days Parade

About a week ago, we went to the Pioneer Day parade. Our camera battery was dead and I couldn't find the charger, again, so here are a few pictures that my sister got with her new camera. Konnor spent most of the parade sleeping, so there are no pictures of him. Sorry Grandparents:(

He knew Kacey was trying to take a picture, so he predictably refused to look at her.

Chloe has no problem having her picture taken. By the way, this is what a little girl with pig tails in her hair and a hat on looks like. Just thought you would like to know.

Abby and Chloe

I was able to back the van up to the street so the kids could play in the back while we were waiting for the parade to reach us.