July Crafty Project #2

Look what I made!!

This project took me 9 long months and lots of pain to complete, but it was totally worth it!!  Naomi Lillian was born on July 16th (the day after Noah's birthday) at 5:53am.  She weighed 9 lbs. 1 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long.  I expected her to be a bit bigger than that, but I guess for most people, a 9 pound baby is pretty big.  She has lots of dark brown hair on the back of her head and light, sandy colored peach fuzz in the front.  I wonder what color it will end up being.  Here are a bunch of cute pictures of her from her first few days:

This the the shirt Mike wore on Monday.  We were saving it specifically for when I went into labor.  I had him throw it on really quick before going to the hospital.  There's nothing wrong with a little bit of humor when you're in pain, right?

See all the hair?

I love this picture.  It really puts things into perspective for me!  And the face Leah's making is pretty funny.

She loves her Daddy and Mike is already wrapped around her finger.

All dressed to go home.



Pics of the Faves

According to Leah, this "umbrella has parachute-like features."

Happy belated 4th of July

I wasn't feeling good on the 4th, so I didn't take any pictures.  Fortunately, our neighborhood/ward had a little party on Saturday.  I was involved in quite a bit of it, so I had Mike take some pictures. 

I did some face painting and got to paint all three kids.  Leah was a butt, though, and wouldn't let me take her picture.  She got an ice cream cone on her face, in case you were wondering what she picked.

There was a little bike parade for the kids.  Our kids decorated their scooters with fun stuff from the dollar store.  Just a point of interest, the fun, sparkly stuff going up Eli's scooter is a nine-foot garland that he picked out.  He thought it was so cool that it was nine feet long.  He was amazed it was even taller than Daddy.  I hope he keeps it on for a while.  It would be cool to see how long it lasts.

 These two wanted to be in the front of the parade.

Noah wanted to be in the middle, near a mom he really likes.

June Crafty Project #2/July Crafty Project #1

I kind of started this project on the last day of June and finished it in July.  So it falls in both months.  But really, I think I started it more in November when I actually purchase the piece of furniture and started to change it.  It doesn't really matter.  It's done and I love it.  Let me show it to you.

I bought this old dresser off the classified ads online.  I'm pretty sure I paid too much for it, but it was the perfect size!  I started by removing the top three drawers and the divider between the left two drawers.  That divider was just a small piece of wood, so it wasn't hard to take out.  Then I cut some thin wood to make a bottom for both sections in order to make them like little cubbies.  I drilled some 1 inch holes in the back to put component cords through.  And that's where I stopped for a long time.  You should know that, if you've been to my house in the past several months.  We've been using it at a TV stand for that long.  Then I finally figured out what color to paint it and the I FINALLY got the paint and did it. 

Here's what it looks like now:

The stupid flash on the camera makes it look like it's just blue.  It's not.  It's a really cool shade of dark bluish-green.  I know that's not every one's favorite color, but it's one of mine.  This is more what the color actually looks like.

Here it is again with the stupid flash, but you can see where I got the idea for the color...from the rug by the front door.  That's actually where all the colors for the living room are going to come from.  I have a flower pot this same blue-green color and two more that are the green color.  The couches and side table are dark brown.  I want to paint the walls a nice boring cream color like the carpet and that one big flower on the rug.  All the metal finishes will be brushed nickel/silver.  All the wood trim, book case, desk, and picture frames will be white.  I hope to find more interesting things in the green and blue-green to put in the living room.  And all of that came from this one rug.  See how easy it is????  The only hard part is finding all the stuff that's the right color and building and painting the furniture and finding the time to do the shopping and funding all of these projects!!

I think it's worth it though.  This little TV stand currently holds the cable box, all the kid DVDs and all of the VHS tapes (yes we have and use a VCR) we own, which is quite a lot.  The paint was $13 and the knobs were about $2.50 a piece at Walmart of all places!  I'm not telling how much the actual dresser was because I paid too much for it, but it's solid wood, so it should last a while. 

Now, onto the next project.  I was really hoping this one would put me into labor, but it didn't.  Perhaps the next one will!!!

The Harvest

I have this super great, little garden box in my back yard.  I planted some veggies in there back in May and hoped something would grow.  Now I have giant plants back there and some are even starting to produce edible things.  I have one cherry tomato plant that is crazy big.  I call it the tree.  It's taller than Noah.  It might even be taller than Leah.  Anyway, yesterday, I got to enjoy the first cherry tomato of the season.  Here is it:

I was kind enough to slice off a bit of it to give to one of my hired hands.  I loved it.  He didn't.  He spit his part out.  I won't be sharing any tomatos with him again!

I just have to say that gardening is so rewarding.  I didn't quite get it until I got my own garden.  I love it.  I even love going out there every morning to water my "little planties".  And I will admit that maybe I talk to the plants, sometimes, maybe, every day.