We have some Color!

We've lived in our new house for about two and a half months, which is by far long enough for all of the blank walls to start driving me crazy.  Today was the day to do something about that.  I painted our breakfast bar/sink island, Nate installed curtain rods, and I hung curtains.  And just to note, the curtains and paint are exactly the same color, but it doesn't appear that way in the pictures.  The paint reflected the flash too much--it's really a deep red like the curtains.

Here are some before and after photos from different angles.

BEFORE

From living room looking into the dining area

AFTER

BEFORE

Dining area

AFTER

BEFORE

(from dining area looking into living room)

AFTER

(I still need to hem the curtains...)

View from in the kichen looking out over the sink.

The kitchen and living room are open to each other, so I needed to be able to do the same color scheme throughout. Once I get things hung on the wall they will be in the same colors: black, red, and silver (I have stainless steel appliances). I have some wall decorations that have silver metal on them. That's where the silver will come in. And I will probably use some black and white photos. Hopefully I can get that all figured out soon because the pictures on the wall are what I am really missing.  But it is nice to finally have some color.

Miss Natalie is 7!

Today was Natalie's seventh birthday.  Natalie got a special treat this morning.  Her Grandma and Grandpa Webb stayed at our house last night, so they were here this morning to sing Happy Birthday with us and watch her open presents.  They also took all of us to Olive Garden (Natalie's favorite place to eat) last night to celebrate Natalie's birthday.  Natalie's been so excited to open her presents for a long time.  Here are a few pictures.

And the winner was... or at least the one that got the loudest reaction...

A box of Lucky Charms.  (That either makes me a really good mom, or a really bad one.)  I never buy Lucky Charms or any equivalent.  On a 1 to 10 scale of good breakfast foods, Lucky Charms fall somewhere around -2.  I don't really feel that fortified sugar qualifies as a meal.  So, I guess it's a good thing my kids have birthdays when they can ask for things like Lucky Charms.  And yes, she's been asking for months to have this for her birthday.  She also asked for it for Christmas, but apparently Santa is not as nice as I am.  Natalie also got some new shirts, flip flops, 2 DS games (Super Princess Peach and Starfy), an umbrella (her request), a couple of card games, and a Color Wonder Lightbrush paint set.

Grandma and Grandpa Webb got Natalie a few pairs of earrings.  She's only had one pair of earrings for the past few years.  She was so happy to get some more options.

Grandma and Grandpa Burgess sent Natalie some money so she could pick out her own present.  We took her to the store tonight so she could shop.  She had so much fun looking around at everything knowing she could pick something out.  She was having a really hard time choosing until she found a Tinkerbell jewelery/music box.  She knew that was what she wanted.  At home, she loved putting her new earrings in her new jewelery box.

Today was also the last day of school.  Natalie was so excited for them to fall on the same day.  I think a lot of times her birthday falls just after school gets out for the summer so her birthday doesn't really get recognized at school.  I took popsicles in for her class.  Her school requires that all food brought in be store bought.  After two years you think I would be over this, but it still makes me grumpy.  So if you want to bring in cake, is costs about $15-$20 instead of a few dollars to make one.  So, since it is so hot outside, we decided that popsicles were all around a better option.  Anyway, Natalie was excited that we came into her class, and the whole class enjoyed eating the popsicles.

When Natalie got home, she got to see her cake.  She had requested a Silvermist (from the Tinkerbell movies) cake.  I didn't feel like doing a frosting transfer, so I came up with another idea.  And usually I feel like my cakes look better in the pictures because you can't see the flaws, but this one definitely looked better in person.  The swirly lines were a lot smoother looking.

This was her reaction to the cake.  She later told me that seeing her cake was one of her favorite parts of the day.  And she could not wait to take that toy off the top.  But I made her anyway.

Happy Birthday Natalie!

A little Makeover

I am so excited to be having another baby girl, especially since it's been over 7 years since I've had one.  And heaven help me, I have so many things I want to make for her.  I've learned how to make a lot of cute baby girl stuff during my years of having baby boys. 

Anyway...  here is the baby bouncer I used for both of my boys.  It's so ugly.  The design is ugly, the colors are ugly, and I just never really liked it. But it was cheap and I wasn't willing to pay more for cuter fabric.

However, Baby Girl needs something better.  So, thanks to a craft blog I love (she makes you feel like you can make anything...), I decided I could fix it.  The blog author re-covered a carseat.  I figured this would be about the same, but a lot easier.  Basically, you unpick ALL the seams (yes, it takes forever) and then use the fabric as a pattern and reuse the inner padding.  Here's my finished project:

Waaaay better, right?

Unfortunately, I am stuck with the lime green buckles and blue/green frame.  Replacement buckles were $2 each and I'm sure I could have found paint that would have stayed on the metal, but it would have been expensive for the small amount I needed.  The point was for this project to be cheap.  After all, a new bouncer is only like $25.  My total cost to re-do this one was about $3--for the fabric.  The cute circle material was on clearance for $2 per yard.  (I am going back on Monday to buy some more to make a matching blanket.  I hope it is still there!)  Stay tuned, there will be lots more baby girl projects to come...

Little allergy sufferer

Look at Damon in these pictures.  (had to specify a child because apparently if the camera comes out, everyone has to get in front of it)

Damon's eyes are so puffy and swollen.  It looks worse in person.  For the past few days it has been apparent that Damon has seasonal allergies.  I get them too and I've noticed that he seems to be having the same symptoms as me.  My eyes have been over-the-top itchy the past few days.  Damon has been rubbing his eyes red.  And he's been rubbing his nose, because it itches too.

Tonight right before bed, the puffiness flared up and I went to Walmart to see if there was anything I could give a 2 year old for allergies.  I found one thing--childrens' Zyrtec.  Hopefully it works.  Poor kid looks so miserable.

Plug-be-gone

I think the technical term is "pacifier," but most people have their own name for it.  In our house it is a "plug."  And on Sunday night, we did the unthinkable... we took it away from Damon.  I've done this with three kids and each time I wonder who it is more emotionally difficult for... the child or the parents.  I really didn't want to take it away, but our cut off is two years old.  And we are ready for Damon to be in a toddler bed but needed to get rid of the plug in a contained environment (crib) where he couldn't just get up and walk out because he was upset. 

We employed a technic that failed miserably with Kelton.  We cut the tip of the plug off.

 (We did this when we took it away from Kelton and it made him extremely mad. He would throw it out of the crib then cry for it and then repeat the cycle. It made him so mad that he threw up, and we had to just make it vanish and deal with the crying. It took about a week before he was back to normal without his plug.)

At bedtime we gave Damon the cut plug and said, "Uh, oh... pluggie is broken."  (Damon adds "ie" to the end of nouns he is fond of, and we end up using his words)

Damon laughed.  He thought it was funny!  He repeated a few times "pluggie broken" as a statement of fact, with no sadness in his voice.  We let him hold it in his crib and he went to sleep like normal.  I couldn't believe it.  It was too easy.

But then he woke up at about 11:00 and was inconsolable.  He never once asked for his plug, but I think that was what the problem was.  I think he wakes up during the night and reaches around until he finds his plug and that's how he falls back asleep.  But that didn't work tonight.  And maybe he was awake for a different reason entirely, but the timing was pretty coincidental for it not to be caused by the loss of the plug.

Nap the next day... no problems at all.  At one point as I was putting him down, I could tell he was about to ask for it, but instead I heard him quietly mutter, "broken."  I didn't even give it to him.

Bedtime last night... He said "pluggie broken,"  like he was reminding me.  We went right to sleep and had no troubles.  Same with his nap today.  He actually didn't even mention the broken plug.

So really, this has been a very easy transition.  I think if Damon could describe what has happened with his plug he would say something like, "Well, my plug broke.  It's actually kind of funny because I can stick my finger all the way through it now.  And it looks funny.  I can't use it anymore because it just wouldn't work.  So what do I care if I don't have it anymore.  It's useless."  That really has been his attitude.  It's been great!  Now on to the toddler bed and moving into the "boys" room.  Can't wait to see how Kelton and Damon handle falling asleep in the same room in beds they can both get out of.