Dump Cake

I've been thinking about my dad a lot this week.  And lately, the things that make me miss him most are the things I realize were the "last time" I'd get to do that with him.

For instance, we went to Tito Macaroni's at the Coeur D'Alene Resort last Friday night for dinner.  It is inside a resort building that has a handful of charming little stores and a couple of restaurants surrounding a sitting area in the middle.  After dinner, as we meandered around the little shops, we paused by the sitting area and let the boys run around for a minute.  As we were standing there, Brian said: "Do you realize that the last time we were here, your dad was hiding from the boys behind that planter?"  My heart sank.  It wasn't any big thing, but the ONE time my parents were able to come to see us up in CDA (to help us move into our home), we went walking around those shops with them.  And in dad's true fashion, he took advantage of EVERY opportunity to play with they boys - playing hide & seek in the shopping center.  I miss those playful moments, as I know my kids do.

Tonight we went to dinner at Caruso's Deli.  As we were devouring our fare, Brian again says: "I think the last time I was here was when your parents were with us."  Again, my heart sank.  I HATE that I have experienced any "last times" with my dad.  I miss him so much.  It breaks my heart that he won't be coming up for any visits to play with my kiddos and see where we live.  I would love to share so much with him about our lives up here.   I am super excited that my mom is coming up for a visit in less than a week, yet I wish it were different.  I wish I could turn back the clock to that week that they were supposed to come for Kimball's birthday in October, and somehow change that event that changed my life forever.  And they would both still have come up to celebrate that weekend, and would both be coming next week.  What fun we would have.

I will make my mom a dump cake for her birthday when she comes because I know that dad would just LOVE to make her one last dutch oven cobbler.  Miss you dad.  Happy Birthday mom.

Slowly but surely

To all those who are loyally following my epic journey to a home without pink walls, here are a few tidbits I think you'll enjoy.

I finally finished Sloan's room.  Well, actually I finished it about a month and a half ago, but I am now proudly posting it for your viewing pleasure.  I LOVE it!  It is painted in almost exactly the same way we had her room in Boise painted (I loved it that much).  She loves it too (or atleast that's the impression I get from her toddler squeals when she walks into her room.  It's either enjoyment, or gas.).

Pretty cute, huh? :)

And exciting tidbit number two:

I am FINALLY painting...well....everything else.  Including our favorite pink-spongey walls.  They will VERY SOON be a distant fuzzy memory.  Today I painted the upstairs hallway (almost complete - tonight I just have to do the ceiling cutting in and the left side of the stairwell).  I LOVE IT!  I love the color I chose (Behr Ultra "coconut shell - UL140-5, incase you wanted to copy me).  I originally wanted to hire a painter to do this gigantor of a project, but it was, of course, too expensive.  I think it will be a difficult feet to accomplish it all myself, but if I think of it 1 room at a time, instead of painting almost the entire freaking house, it isn't so insurmountable.  It will more than likely take me several weeks to complete, but I am a determined person.  I will keep posting my progress, and I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labors.  You could even come admire it in person; it will be that good!  You can say, when my home is featured in some luxurious and elite home publication, I was there and it IS fabulous! :)

(here is the hall from a couple of different angles.  The lighting makes it hard to see the color well, but you get the idea.  I'm not a professional photographer, geez...I can't be the best at EVERYTHING!)  :)

Oh, and one last bit of advice for anyone taking on a painting project:  I love Behr paint (from Home Depot)...but now I LUUUVVV Behr ultra paint.  It is the one with the paint & primer in one.  It is lots thicker than even the regular Behr (which is quite thick to begin with) and went on incredibly!  I only need to do a quick touch-up 2nd coat and that will be it!  When I went this dark in our living room in Boise (it was a similar dark brown), it took 2 coats of primer, plus 2 or 3 coats of paint to cover.  This is a little more expensive than the regular Behr, but I will end up using less paint this way and will save $$ in the long run.  Yay.  Try it!

Stages.

We're going to label this a mental wellness post (for MY mental wellness; I am going to get some pent up motherly frustrations off my chest).

So, let me start off by saying that I have three of THE MOST amazing children EVER.  I really do.  I love them so much.  They are constantly amazing me with their imaginations and talents.

But.......

you know when your kid seems to be acting really naughty and people tell you "it's a phase"? Well, I am experiencing that phenomenon currently...with all three.  They are each going through one of "THOSE" phases and my patience is getting hit with a triple whammy.

Sloan, at 18 months, is going through the BUSY AND GETTING INTO EVERYTHING phase, along with the TOO YOUNG TO REALLY UNDERSTAND WHEN SHE'S DOING SOMETHING WRONG phase.  This one, out of the three children's current stages, frustrates me the least.  I have experienced this stage before with my boys and, although LONG and tiresome, is dying down slightly.  Hallelujah.

Noah, at age 3, is going through the WHINEY/CRYING toddler phase, as well as probably my least favorite, the ARGUING ABOUT EVERYTHING phase.  I could tell him this: "Noah, please go and eat 10 Laffy Taffys and then take this $100 and buy whatever toys you want" and I would hear this in response: "I don't want to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  It doesn't matter what we ask/say/plead, he will argue it.  I understand that this is probably another way he is trying to fight for his independence and learn his boundaries, but it is SO maddening.  I really need a refresher in Love & Logic.  Yelling just seems to egg him on.

Kimball, at age 6, has completely turned off his ears to my voice.  He does not listen. EVER.  This stage is extremely frustrating because, in his particular case, it has lasted for about 3 years.  His began at the very stage Noah is at right now, but it hasn't faded.  It has varied slightly in severity, but is not improving.  I am also drifting into unknown territory with him.  Since he is my oldest, I don't know what to expect.  Will this fade, or get worse?  I think I know the answer to that, but I'll pretend I don't.

I love my kids, and I HATE that I'm not appreciating them right now.  They really are pretty great.  I am extremely lucky to be able to look at them and know that they are MY kids.  That is quite incredible.

So, here's to motherhood.  It's not always pretty, but it's what I signed up for.  And for all the difficult stages, tantrums, stains, bruises, runny noses and frustrations of it all, I do get some pretty fantastic job perks in return: kisses, hugs, spontaneous I love you's, kids-getting-along-moments, and those amazing, deep belly, contagious kid-laughs that make it all worth it.

Mmmmm......foam cake.....

I FINALLY DID IT!  I signed on MONTHS ago to tackle the making-of-the-foam-birthday-pencil-cake for our ward's primary and can - with a grateful sigh - say I am done!  It took me pretty much all day, but it is pretty freaking great if I say so myself.  I LOVED the foam birthday pencil cake we had in our primary growing up, and each birthday friend chose a pencil "candle" off the top of the cake.  I opened my big mouth about it at one of our primary presidency meetings told them how cute it was, and then said - no big deal - it'll be easy to make..................famous last words.  I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.  :)  Hopefully the primary kids will totally dig it, even though it means they will be getting only a very ho-hum pencil as their gift.  Happy Birthday kiddos!

for your viewing pleasure: a 2-dimensional 360 degree view of my creation.

CLOUDY WITH....MEATBALLS

Hi! I just posted some great deals on my Purse Strings blog...but the BEST one is for the DVD Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs.  CHECK IT OUT!!!!!!!!!

BUILDING CHARACTER.

Today I helped my boys build some character.  It started out as a "fun" project that Noah & I could do together before Kimball got home from school.  It turned into something else entirely.
I had my boys seperate beans.  That's right.  I had a very large hurricane vase filled (to the brim) with alternating layers of dried beans; black beans, white beans, kidney beans, and split peas.  But, I had other visions for this vase, so I needed to lose the beans.  But instead of just tossing the beans (what if I change my mind again and want my beans back??? I've done that before. This isn't the first time I am getting rid of bean stripes) I decided that it would be a quick thing we could whip out in a snap - 1/2 hour tops.  2 HOURS LATER..... It took just over 2 hours to seperate all the beans.
I feel bad as I look at the picture I took of the boys doing this project and look at the misery in their little faces, and yet I feel it is a right of passage for me as a mom to be able to pass on such horrible, tedious, laborous tasks.  I remember vividly being given jobs that made completely no sense to me at all, and yet I'm sure helped me build character.  So, in a way, I am doing my boys a favor.  They'll thank me later.  You're welcome, guys.

Love, mom.

R & R.....and R.

We got home from Boise on Saturday evening.  Plenty of time to get all of our luggage and Christmas spoils unpacked, get church bags ready, clothes picked out, and kids bathed for church on Sunday, right?  Probably.  But we didn't.  We did put away all of our luggage on Saturday night.  That's it.  We spent Sunday at home.  We all really needed a day off.  I have some guilt, but I also have a lot of excitement for everything we got done today.  We hung more decorations in our house today than in the previous 4 months combined, as well as enjoyed NAPS and some fun Wii time.  Thus the R&R...and R.  Rest, relaxation, and redecorating!

A black iron candle-holder and my super-professional looking artwork on the weird triangular wall above our dining area.

A close-up of my homemade artwork.  I LOVE how it turned out.  I just took some pictures of a tree in my front yard and played with photo software to invert their colors.  The picture makes the colors look a little more vibrant than they actually are...it is much better in person.  You should come for a visit just to see this.

 A metal scroll thing above the front door (see how tall that space is...and you wonder why I haven't painted it yet. Luckily, I am calling the painter TOMORROW!!!) and my new AWESOME wooden candle sticks on the soffit (again...ignore the horrible pink sponge-painting by the talented previous homeowners). I got these pillar holders @ Pottery Barn for 75% off - which makes them even more glorious!

Sconces hung in our 1/2 bath adorned with the flowers I bought in Boise @ Real Deals.

I love decorating, and I am so glad I finally have had some ideas about what to do in this wonderfully drab blank canvas I call home.  Hopefully in the next month I will get the living room, family room, kitchen and hallways painted and will share that delight with you then.  My home is finally feeilng a little more like home.  :)

A VERY MERRY PUKEFEST

Gross title, huh? That is how I am going to start my jolly Christmas post off? Yup.  Don't get me wrong, our holiday wasn't ALL bad.  Here's a short summary of our Christmas and New Years holidays in good ol' down-home Boise.

We drove down from Coeur d'Alene on Sunday the 20th - which I never really look forward to driving for 8 hours, but I especially HATED this drive.  Sloan threw up 4 times in the car.  Yuck.  What sucked about it most, besides the obvious guilt I felt about my sweet baby having to go through that, was that we were all confined to the car to endure it with her.  Poor little girl.  And poor us.  Luckily, she felt much better when she was finally released from the prison of the car and was able to enjoy some play-time at Grammie's house before bedtime.  Another unfortunate reality of this yuckiness was that the rest of us got it too.  Kimball and me on Tuesday in the middle of the night into Wednesday, Noah on Thursday and Brian on Friday.  Ugh.  Puke-fest at Grammies.  Needless to say, it kindof ruined any plans we made for that week.  Our Christmas eve dinner we planned to enjoy with my brother's family got postponed until Christmas night, then postponed again until Saturday night (Helen had by this point received her gift of strep throat), and postponed again until finally we were able to gather on Sunday night.  Geez.  I must say, though, that I actually enjoyed having my Christmas "ruined" by sickness.  That's how I felt this year, atleast.  With feeling more or less NOT like celebrating this year, the sicknesses gave us a great excuse to lay low and take Christmas easy this year.  It made Dad's absense less obvious when the festivities weren't so grand.  All in all, we did enjoy our Christmas.  Everyone seemed to like their gifts and everyone was happy, despite the yucks.

Kimball, Noah & Sloan sporting their new GRAMMIE JAMMIES!

I love capturing their surprised faces as they open their treasures. Sweet kids.

Have I told you how GIRLY Sloan is? . She couldn't get enough of her twin babies Santa brought.

For those of you who know Brian, you know that he seldomly smiles for pictures.  So of course, I couldn't help but post this rare glimpse of him looking so cheerful.  Look at that beard.  Impressive, no?  I don't love facial hair, but he did grow an impressive beard.  And as a special New Years surprise for me - it was GONE when I walked in from an errand on Friday.  Yay.

We were able to stay in Boise through New Years and were finally able to spend some fun time with friends and family. Tuesday we got to visit John & Sarah and kids.  Boy do my kids miss their cousins.  We sure took living so close to them all for granted.  Wednesday night we went bowling @ the SUB with Bryan & Helen on which was awesome (kudos to Oscar-boy for getting THIRD out of all of us)!  (Did I mention that we had planned on bowling on Tuesday night, except that Grammie had come down with our plague that day...it's the most efficient illness I've seen work it's magic in a long time.  Sorry Grammie.)  Then we went to dinner @ the Beanery with Grammie after bowling.  Yum.  I LOVE the Beanery!!!!!  Thursday night we played games and had appetizers and munchies for dinner.  Really fun.  Thanks to our families and also our friends for a mostly-enjoyable two weeks in Boise.  Maybe next year we can look forward to a more traditional and festive celebration, but this year I appreciated the quiet time with my loved ones. 

Happy New Year!!!!