Baby Blaze!!

On November 27th, my brother and sister-in-law had their first kid. His name is Blaze and he is super, freakin' cute! He came over for a visit the other weekend so his cousins and uncle could have a chance to meet him. They like him too. Here are some pictures of their first meeting along with their thoughts.

"I like to hold him. I like to see his eyes. I like him open his eyes up. I like to like his little toes."

"I thought he was cute and his hair was fluffy. His eyes were blue. And I liked his bear clothes. I like his little handies. They are so cute."

"I thought he was so cute. I liked it when he looked at me. I like his little feet"

"I thought he was really cute. I like him a lot. He's really little. I tried not to bite through my lip, I was so excited. And I decided I'm going to kiss him on top of his head every time I see him because that's what my Papa would do when he would visit us and Blaze is named after my Papa."

"Should have....sent a ...poet. Can't...find...words."

I've seen him since and he's even cuter. I don't think my lip is going last. I'm pretty sure his cuteness is going to make me bite right through it!

School Picture Progression

I know school pictures aren't the best quality and whatnot, but I love getting them for this very reason. My dad also got them every year and kept them in the same frame, in order. It was fun/embarrassing to look at them when we added our new pictures for the year. I plan on doing the same with my kids. And I plan on sharing that fun/embarrassment with you. I think Eli's pictures have turned out great. Perhaps I'll stop posting them when he hits middle school and they start getting bad!

Preschool '08-'09

Kindergarten '09-'10

First Grade '10-'11

Second Grade '11-'12

I think he's getting more handsome with age, even with the missing teeth!

It's okay. I'm allowed to do this. I'm an adult.

There's this cool road near our house that no one drives on and it leads down to a huge field. We've gone there a few times to play and lately, Noah and I will take a walk there while the other two are at school. The last time we went, I really wanted to just let our umbrella stroller roll down the hill to see what would happen to it. It was amusing enough that I brought my camera with me when we went today and captured the action. Here it is:

The Start

I promise Noah is not in the stroller. I had to hold him back. He kept wanting to catch the stroller. That would have ruined the whole experience.

I'm impressed by the stroller's course correction. It straightened out all on it's own.

Can you still see it?

And it finally crashed.

A close-up of the crash

Finally, I let Noah go after it.

The stroller didn't go very fast, but it did go far. I think next time, I'll take my double jogging stroller. It rolls a lot faster and smoother. Maybe I can make it to the grass.

Pics of the Faves

Noah asked me to take this picture of him while he was crying. Strange boy!

I'm a professional designer now

Or maybe I just pretend to be one. When we bought our house, I knew what the first project would be...painting the "Crazy Orange Bathroom". That's what I lovingly called the upstairs bathroom that the kids use. I called it that because it was crazy orange! It's the kind of intense color that can give you a headache if you look at it too long. So, it had to go right away. And it did. We actually repainted it in October, but I didn't completely finish it until today (meaning I just hung up the painting and took the pictures this afternoon). So now I get to post the pictures and you can see the crazy color.

Now let's remind everyone what it looked like before

The orange color actually kind of goes with the orange circles on the shower curtain. It's not a terrible color in small doses, but a whole bathroom of it is too much.

Now, the Reveal

There should be a nice white hand towel hanging there, but it was laundry day and it needed to be washed.
Isn't the color so much better? I love blue and this is such a nice, calm blue-green. I got it by finding a paint chip that was exactly the same color as the blue circles on the curtain and then I got a shade lighter. It ended up looking just like the circles, so I'm glad I when lighter, otherwise it would have been too dark. I got some fun red bathroom stuff--rug, soap dispenser, toothbrush holder, and garbage can. I changed the towel holders and toilet paper holder. (I only did that because I lost some of the screws to the original stuff when I took them down to paint.) Then I hung up some simple pictures I had painted a while ago to go with the curtain. And finally, I changed the light fixture. The picture of it is really dark. I should have put the flash on. It's actually nice and bright and I love it!

The project isn't completely finished. I plan to put a frame around the mirror and re-stain the vanity a darker brown, but that won't happen for a while. Don't worry, I'll take pictures of that too. For now, I'm very happy with my first room make-over.

And just so you know, the previous owners happen to be good friends of ours. I told the person who originally picked out the orange color that I thought it was a crazy color and it was getting painted over first. When it was all done, I showed her the bathroom and she really liked it! And she agreed that it was better than the orange.

Design Success!!

Maybe Halloween should be every week

Last night for dinner we had quesadillas with salad on the side. The rule in our family is if you don't eat your dinner, you don't get any dessert. Noah didn't eat all his lettuce and threw his plate away with the lettuce still stuck on it (don't worry, we were using paper plates and the lettuce was stuck with ranch). When he threw the plate away, he knew Halloween candy was for dessert, but he said he wasn't going to finish.

Naturally, as Eli and Leah were picking out their allotted number of candies, Noah started to put up a big stink because he wanted some candy too. I reminded him that he didn't finish his dinner and that he wasn't allowed to have any candy. He started to fuss even more and exclaimed that he wanted to finish his lettuce. I then reminded him that it was in the garbage and it was too late.

So, while my back was turned, Noah reached into the garbage, took out his plate and finished the lettuce that was still on it. I guess he followed the rule, so he got some Halloween candy.

Tonight at dinner, Noah made sure to eat all his food before throwing it away.

Halloween Costume Review

Noah The Piewick (this is how he says pirate)

Leah

She dressed up for preschool and the trunk-or-treat as a ballerina...

but, then she switched to her witch costume for trick-or-treat.

Eli, Dracula's Son

The cape was the only sewing I had to do this year!!

Mike, an Occupy Wallstreet Protester

If you don't know what that is, look it up.

Fortunately, this costume isn't as permanent as last year's.

The Gang

Trunk or Treat

In our neighborhood, there's a trunk-or-treat every year. This was our first year participating. Honestly, I don't know why we have it because we live in a safe neighborhood, and it was originally created for those people who don't feel safe trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. But I guess people like it so, we decided to give it a go this year too. The way it works is people drive to the church, open their trunks, decorate them (if they want to), and the kids, in their costumes, walk around the parking lot collecting candy from each car. It goes really fast, so some kids make more than one round and collect lots of candy. Eli told us he made 3 rounds. His bag was clearly heavier than Leah's and Noah's. I'm not sure how that happened. I didn't walk around with them. I was a bit occupied at our trunk.

That's my head in the trunk. I got this idea from my brother who did it a few years ago. I just improved it a bit. I took a large cloak we have and covered the opening of the trunk. Then I folded the back seats down, climbed into the trunk from the back seat, and poked my head out. Mike helped decorate the trunk with spiders and snakes to add to the creepiness. It was really fun scaring the kids that came by and making the parents laugh.

And if you look closely, you'll see a white container filled with rocks. What's that for, you ask? Well, in a very witchy voice, I offered the kids a rock if they scratched my nose for me. Kids like rocks, right? There were quite a few children too afraid to do it. Some were almost too afraid to take a piece of candy from Mike, who was sitting next to me. But there were also quite a few who were brave enough to scratch my nose and get a rock. There were two or three kids who gave my nose a squeeze. I didn't like that too much. Perhaps next year, I should be a head with an arm so, I can squeeze the kids back!

Super Cutesy

My sister-in-law is having a baby in December and she had a baby shower last weekend. I'm so glad because I've been wanting to make a diaper cake for a while, so I made one for her. I think they are really cute and I wanted to give it a shot. There are different styles, but I got instructions for the one I liked best from this site. I put my own personality into it and this is what I came up with:

I layered three colors of ribbon and glued them in the back, but not to the diapers so I wouldn't ruin any. I cut colored scrapbook paper with fancy scissors and just laid them in between the layers. I got the little bear at Walmart for a dollar and just tied some ribbon around his neck. Then I hot glued white buttons on the front. I love hot glue!! The hardest part of the whole project was deciding what was the cutest way to do it. So many choices.

I think this is about the fourth cutest thing I've ever made. Can you guess what the first three cutest things are?

Exciting update!

We bought a townhouse!!

We are so glad to not be renting any more! Apartment life was getting old, so we decided we needed a change. We bought a townhouse just around the corner from our apartment and just moved about two weeks ago. So stay tuned for future posts about house updates and decorating projects. My list is long, but I'm excited to tackle it. I've already painted a bathroom and changed some light fixtures. Don't worry, I've taken before and after pictures. But you have to give me some time to post them. I haven't gotten all unpacked just yet. We've been here for two weeks and we have just a few boxes left to unpack.

We already unpacked Eli so he could go to school, much to his disappointment. I think he would have been happy sitting in a big box for a little more time. As for the other two, it's just easier to leave in their box. They get into less trouble that way.

Something funny from Leah's party

My friend, Esther, helped me out during Leah's party. She also took almost all the pictures during the fun. She took these and I just had to share them. These are totally going to show up in the slide show that will be played during her wedding reception some day!