And I quote

Just a few funny quotes from the kids this week

we were sitting at the dinner table this week and out of the blue madi says: "when I grow up, I want to be a waitress!"

I think I can officially say that I have failed her.

Earlier this week I was hounding madi and tyce to pick up their room, (can you tell this is a reoccurring theme in our family?). By the fifth time I had herded them back into their room to finish the job as I was breathing threats I don't even remember at the moment (thankfully), I remember being fully committed to following through with said threats.

About 5 minutes later madi says : Well, I picked up my stuff, and i recommended tyce pick up his stuff.

Apparently someone took me seriously. I wish all I had to do was recommend something and it would happen.....wouldn't that be nice!

Tyce and I had this conversation the other day

ME: tyce you need to wash your hands and go put your toys away ( you may read this nicely,...but it was not said in my nice voice. I have a tried and true "mom voice" that gets me results...I do not use it sparingly I'm afraid!)

Tyce: shrugging his shoulders....that doesn't make any sense!

So true, in fact I can't think of a single thing I have done raising kids that makes any sense at all. For instance, why do I allow madi stickers in the car, they end up plastered eternally on the inside window every time! Why are we in such a rush to teach our kids to write their names? Now various pieces of furniture are tagged "madi" all over the house! I let tyce color with markers.. I know it was a moment of thoughtlessness, he colored all over hali's face, and then she ate a green marker! I actually captured that one on my phone, it was pretty amazing! You are right tyce, it doesn't make any sense, not even a little.

A few to remember

I just wanted to post a few pictures of us lately, or at least of the kids. Tyce has become quite the little talker these days and he has learned a few good one-liners from madi that are pretty funny. For instance, the other day I was getting on him about picking up his toys in his room
Me: Tyce, you need to put all your clothes back in your drawers if they are clean, and in the dirty clothes hamper if they are not
Tyce: That doesn't make any sense!

Funny, I thought I was being pretty clear.

Hali and madi are BFF"s. I am so glad they have each other's back since tyce gor 2 swords and a bow and arrow for his birthday. Hali got a shield. I had to give her a little protection at least.
I overheard this conversation between Mark and Madi when we were over at my mom's house
Madi: wow grandma, who painted this chair of yours
Mark: it's not painted madi, not everyone paints every piece of furniture in their house, just your mom

I would like to think he was paying me a compliment, but I am not entirely sure.

I just did this wedding cake for my brother-in-law's wedding last weekend. When I got to the reception I put flowers on top and around it as well but I don't have a picture of that yet. I am just relieved the darn thing turned out and stayed in one piece!!! I think I am retiring my wedding cake skills after this

Halloween

Hallowen snuck up on me this year. Infact, everything is sneaking up on me this year it feels like. It was a fun year for dressing up though. A few weeks ago I was at the mall and saw this adorable little cupcake costume for Hali and it was on sale......the stars aligned!! And right next to it was a little hamburger costume that I thought tyce would get a kick out of (which he did). So I brought them home and the kids were so excited! Except for madi, I wasn't sure what she wanted to be so I didn't pick up anything for her and she was very disapointed. She decided to be a hot dog to go along with our entre and dessert ( she wanted me to be a milk shake and mark to be french fries). I gave it a few weeks and, wait for it...wait for it.....she changed her mind and decided she wanted to be rapunzel. Fine. On her birthday, grandma and grandpa christensen got her a rapunzel wigg, without knowing that was her current halloween obsession, which only spurred the fire. So, rapunzel and her "meal" were all happy with their costumes and mom was happy she hadn't bought the hot dog costume!

What a cute little cupcake!

I know, I know, the worst camera know to mankind is in my possesion, but, come black friday you will all be amazed at my photography!

Preschool!

This is madi on her first day of preschool! She looks so old to me I can't believe she will be in kinder next year, and frankly I am terrified! I feel like I am flying below the radar right now. The only commitment I have is a few hours a week of preschool. We can go when we want to go, we can stay out late, we can go on a trip anytime. Next year will be a rude awakening. The bus comes to our house and 7 AM!!!! Yikes! I am not ready for all of that! I love having madi here with me all day (except during naptimes when she doesn't take a nap, my free time is gone!).

Here we are at Miss Angies taking a litle tour of the preschool.

Metaphorically speaking

I am right in the middle of re-upholstering a couch and I have learned a few lessons I would like to share. I have decided that re-upholstery is like motherhood, it sounds like a great idea, you know you will be so glad you did it in the end...but the first fifteen minutes you realize just how much work you have created for yourself. I should have known this when Mark was hauling said couch into our bedroom and turned and looked me straight in the eye and said "I want no part of this". (what? the couch or the kids?) I shrugged it off and decided he was exaggerating...it wouldn't be that bad! Well, he was right, it is that bad. But, ever the supportive husband, when I told him I wanted to throw in the towel and take my $10 couch to the dump he said "oh no you don't, you are going to learn a lesson here, you are finishing that couch!" Apparently, he is getting a little tired of running to goodwill for me to pick up a desk, a chair, a couch, a...... you get the idea. So I am going to get through this the way I get through everything.....with a bag of liccorice!

"Nice Will"

A few weeks ago I made a quick decision to run into Goodwill on my way to the grocery store and I hit the jackpot! I found the above deskwith hutch for $15!! Of course when I bought it was a light oak color, but not for long! I painted it white to match my bedroom because as you know my bedroom/office/workout room/craft room was getting a little cluttered and needed a makeover! I also got two uphostered chairs, a few vases that I also painted (you cannot bring furniture or accesories into my home without it being attacked by a can or two of primer and spray paint. It is a fact of life my husband has come to deal with and accept...in that order!). Anyway, I was so excited! I had been looking for a desk with a hutch and 2 chairs I could reupholster for months and the price tage made it "the One" for me! You can't beat $6 a chair! So the next day madi asked: Mom, will we be going to "Nicewill" again today?
I chuckeled and said, yes...."will" has been very nice to us lately hasn't he?

Here is a before of the chair

And the after. Not quite done in this picture but you get the idea. I had to paint the legs (I had to paint someting on this chair!!) but the whole thing came together easier than I had expected.

Found this old fram for $1 and used some scrap fabric I had to make a bow holder. This picture was taken before I glazed it to make some of the details stand out.

This is a rocking chair I inherited from Mark's aunt and uncle. It was a light oak. I got a new rocker/recliner when hali was born and wanted to play around with this chair so I painted it green, glazed it to make the details stand out and then recovered the cushions with black and white tualle (sp?). I donated it to our church's mother's lounge becasue we have way more mother's than chairs in their!

Like I said before, I gave my room a little makeover and painted these black sidetables and dresser white to match my bedding. I love how it turned out, it looks so clean and fresh! Note* this picture was not staged, excuse the clutter!

So...if you were wondering what I have been doing at naptimes and in the evening......there you go. And thanks again "Will" we think you are super nice!!

Fair!

I have a guilty confession to make .........I am a total fair junkie!! I love the fair! Luckily Mark likes it as much as I do so we go every year. It has been fun to take the kids as they get older and can more fully appreciate the wonders that exist in this magical place. The rides, the food, the animals. every time I think of the fair I mentally sing Templeton's S'morgasbored song from Charlottes Web. you know the one. Anyway, here is a picture of the kids in Carnie Heaven!

They were smiling here but they hadn't even had an elephant ear yet!

Hali's Birthday Bash!

It is so funny when you get a one year old in a front facing carseat..they look so little!! Hali loves to face forward now!

Some of theses pictures are so blury I don't know what happened! This was hali's party. We had a "MILK and COOKIES" theme to celebrate the introduction of the previously prohibited milk category in her limited diet. That was a mouthful! I had different kinds of milk and cookies and then I made a big cookie cake. She loved it!

I made these for each of the kids, they were little chocolate milk's with tags that said "I heart Milk"

It was a fun party. First birthdays are my favorite! I will say I was cookied out afterwards. I think we all were!

Hali is 1!!

I can't believe my baby is one today!! With each child it seems to go faster and faster and I enjoy it more and more. This is Hali today when we were getting ready to go swimming. She loves the water, so I thought it might be something she would have fun doing today. We are celebrating on Sunday with family so I will post pictures then of the party. Hali has been such a wonderful addition to our family. She is so happy and fun-loving you can't help but smile when she is around. She loves to swim, drink, eat and play with madi and tyce. She is standing up and has taken a step or two on her own but prefers to crawl to what she wants. She can say mama and dada, and moo like a cow! But mostly she grunts or screams to get our attention! She is just such a blessing, we are so glad to have her! We love you Hali!!

Madi had this swimsuit and we compared pictures of the two of them and they look so much alike! In fact, I was telling Mark what a horrible job I have done of taking pictures of Hali and he suggested we duplicate some of madi's pictures for Hali's baby book! Nice. I can see that one backfiring.

This is a picture from the 4th of July, I made madi and hali skirts to wear but madi didn't want to cooperate for the camera so here is Hali in her "ruffle freedom skirt "as I call it! Frankly I am just glad it turned out because I didn't have a pattern and I was finishing them up late the night before because that's what crazy, sleep deprived mothers do......in case you were wondering.

Summer Fun!

Madi loves her little sister! Her new favorite thing to play with Hali is dress-up ( suprise, suprise!). This is Hali, I mean tinkerbell, in her first photo shoot.

Even tyce got in on the fun. I sent this text to Mark while he was at work in an attempt to get him home early and save his only son. It worked!!

Such a pretty little fairy!

Now you all have a mental picture of Hali in her swimsuit. This is why summer is my favorite season, baby girls in swimsuits are a tourist attraction for sure! (Never mind her huge diaper, I forgot to get a swim diaper before we went swimming and poor Hali had to deal with the consequences!). We love summer!

Pre-School Graduation

Madi had pre-school graduation the end of June and I am finally posting pictures! She really isn't graduating, she still has one more year, but she was excited about it anyway. She loved pre-school! It was fun to watch her learn and grow so much in one year. She can write most of the alphabet and her name. In fact, she has even tagged some of our furniture...how fun for me!

This is her class. She loved all the new friends she made.

Wedding Flowers

I recently did the flowers for a wedding of some friends here in royal. She used mostly calla Lilly's and it turned out really simple and elegant. Above is the bridal bouquet.

I love the look of this swirling arrangement. We decided to add this arrangement in at the last minute and I am so glad we did, it went well with the look they were going for.

I love arranging with white and green hydrangeas, could be my favorite flower right now.

Don't be fooled by how simple this arrangement looks. I all but had to weld these babies to the bottom of the vase to keep them from floating up, and even that didn't work! It was high stress there for a while but finally I came up with a solution and it was so much easier than what I initially had experimented with. I dropped clear marbles in the center of the flower and weighted them down that way. Simple is always best...I hope I remember that next time! I do love how this turned out. Also, a little tip: if you do an arrangement like this, use distilled water so you don't get air bubbles on your flowers.

Pictures

These pictures demonstrate why there are not more pictures on my blog. I am a horrible photographer. Luckily my subjects are patient with me, for the most part

I love this picture of Hali. This is the face she makes when she sees me! How lucky for me!