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