End of summer/House update

Wow. I feel like things are finally starting to slow down now. Our house is starting to feel more like "home", and overall I think we are happy with the way things are going lately. Everyone is doing good. Adam still has his cast on. He had it x-rayed 2 weeks ago and it wasn't healed so he gave Adam 1 more month and then we will see. If it isn't all the way healed this time...surgery it is. wish us luck. :)
So Noah is doing great too. He is such a fun little guy. Adam called him a ham tonight and I thought that described him perfectly. He just has so much personality and is all boy. Last night we roasted marshmallows and all he could say was, "That was a pretty awesome fire huh Dad?" he didn't really like the marshmallows but he was great at roasting them. :)



I don't know if this is funny to everyone but we laughed, and then gave Noah the..."We don't say that and Heavenly Father doesn't like it when we say those words..." talk. But the other night he kept playing in the cat food and Adam told him to stop because he'd already fed the cats. He turned to Adam and said, "Are you serious Dad?" and Adam said..."yes Noah, I'm serious. Leave it alone." Noah turned around and was so serious, stomped his foot and said, "Well I'm pissed off!" ha ha. Holy cow. I don't know where this kid comes up with this stuff. I guess it shocks me even more how appropriate he uses his phrases. He hasn't used any more naughty words lately so we're making progress. :)

This is my naughty little man...:) hee hee. He's like a monkey. He "just wanted candy mom!"


Just a day at the fair; Noah loved his turkey leg :)



Mady is doing good. She's started dance and she loves it! I can't believe how much better she's caught on this year. She just "gets it", and I think it's so much more fun for her. Her teacher is awesome too. She's great with these little girls. Mady also started pre-school which she was very excited about. Her entire day seems to go better when she's in school. She really seems to thrive with the structure. I can't believe that she will be 5 next summer and could start school. crazy. I don't think we will start her until the following year, but I just can't believe how fast time goes.
After a night at the Rexburg fair :) she was very excited to get her face painted.

The state fair

so sweet..


As for me, I have been busy working and getting our house together. We finally got most of the upstairs painted. We're doing Mady's room this week. But we've emptied out the garage and organized the storage room. It's nice to feel like we can really make this HOME and feel some permanence. So I'll finish this off with some before and after pictures:
This was the sun room. If you can see it was really red, almost pinkish with bad texturing.


So we re-textured and painted; that's also with the new carpet. Like it much better.

This was the kitchen. Every wall was this yellow...like mustard. You can also see where we ripped out a section of cupboards. it opens it up so much more. Adam needs to fix that for me still :)


So we did the bead board tan and the top a deep red...Love it.


This was the main bathroom, very plain.

So much better!!!


This room is our front living room/sitting room, whatever. very plain...and it was a DISASTER. That's where every thing sat as we found spots for it.

Finally cleaned up and some paint.

Then finally some decorations. :) Somehow putting your stuff on the wall makes a WORLD of difference when it comes to making it feel like home.


Anyhow...sorry long post with lots of pics. Since it took a couple days to finish this post...Mady and I went to the dentist yesterday. It was her 1st time so I was nervous, but she got her picture taken and put on the board of "kids with NO cavities". She was so good and excited. :)

with her bag of goodies

So there you have it, my goal is to keep up better then this! :)

Oh where to begin....

I have never went so long without blogging! Moving into a house has been quite the time consuming adventure! So I Will up-date and recap with pictures and if it gets too long you can quit reading or maybe I will have to split it up into 2 posts. We'll see.

So my grandma came in June and was here for the kids birthday. That was lots of fun and we can't wait to see her again. I just felt bad that her last week here was spend constantly packing and cleaning, and packing...but she was lots of help with the kids.


The House: Well the house has been kind of a nightmare. I love the house...it just came with problems that we didn't foresee. We were there for about a week when I kept smelling this vague urine smell. We even threw the cats in a bathroom for a few days because we thought it was them. NOPE! carpet guy came over with a black light and it was disgusting! He said there was more pee in that carpet then he had seen in 15 years.


So hard to think the owners weren't aware of it like everyone says. So we ripped it out, treated the floors and replaced 1100 sq ft of carpet. At least it's done and clean.

Now we just have tons of painting, un-packing, decorating to do and just finding a place for everything! It will take time, but it's coming along. Oh and LOTS of yard work. I hate weeds! So much overgrowth that I don't think we're really going to get a handle on it until we can just rip it all out and start over next year! I'll have to post pictures of the house as we get rooms finished.

Summer has been fun. As usual Mady loved the 4th of July and all the fireworks. She's an adrenaline junkie and pyro like her dad.

Noah on the other hand just wanted to hide under the covers on my lap and ask to go inside. :) He's so funny sometimes.

We've spent lots of days at the spray park. Noah is finally warming up to it and Mady is brave enough to go down the slides by herself this year.



However...I did yell at a couple kids one day. This kid came down the slide about 2 seconds behind Mady and knocked her clear out onto the concrete. I didn't even think if his parents were there, but I would have loved for them to say something. Those bigger kids need to watch for the littler ones. Anyhow...Mady has done pretty good in gymnastics. She'll start dance and pre-school in a few weeks which she is SUPER excited for. We also braved the drive-in for the first time with both kids. Went great. Kids went right to bed in the back after Despicable Me. It was fun, but reminded me how old I am and why I don't stay up that late anymore!

It was so good to see Kara and the kids! Wish Chant could have been here but we're so excited to see him soon! Adam really misses him. Noah and Porter are so cute together.


Speaking of Noah...

he finished his little Toddler Lab in July. He had lots of fun. he is getting so big and surprising us every day with the crazy sentences he puts together. Complete 8-10 word sentences that are so funny. it's crazy to hear the workings of a 2 yr olds mind so clearly. Hilarious. He's such a fun little guy.


We did have a neat fire at the INL that gave me some neat pictures I had to add.


Anyhow...This last weekend we went to Twin Falls to spend the weekend with Adam's mom and Rick and go to a Family Reunion. We got there late Friday night and I woke up Saturday just feeling kind of yucky. Then as we get on the hwy to go the reunion, Mady yelled from the backseat, "Mom! I need a bucket!" Well guess what? we didn't just have one laying around in the car and Adam couldn't pull over on the hwy fast enough. So the poor girl puked all over the car and me. Once we stopped she was done...and soaked. So we turned around and went back. She puked most of the day and so I sent Adam and Noah on their way to the reunion. Well that night Adam woke up in the middle of the night puking his guts out. He felt better in the morning and Sunday turned out to be a little better. we went to the park and the kids played in the pool at the house.


I finally enjoyed my mother-in-laws yummy food! But it was a relief to get home. It wasn't quite the vacation we'd planned, but maybe next time.


That night we went to my niece, Ashton's birthday party

that ended us in the ER. Adam decided to try out Craig's motor bike that is huge and fast. well he popped the clutch and to make a long story short he broke his wrist and we ended up at the hospital. To make things even better...he broke one of the worst bones. We went to the orthopedic surgeon today and he described the break to us: It's a bone that is mostly cartilage and so when it's a clean break like that the blood supply is low and so it is really slow to heal. sometimes up to 3 months and sometimes not at all!!! So then you have to go in and put a screw in it to force it together. So he kind of gave us the option... try the cast for 6 weeks, x-ray it and see if there's any progress. If not...surgery. OR we can just do the surgery from the start and get it over with. Adam chose the cast because of the OFF CHANCE we won't have to pay for surgery. but then we take the chance of having that dumb thing on for like 3 months too. Did I mention it's his right hand and that he's right handed? Really crappy given all the work we still need done on the house. What would you do??? I'm torn between the cost of surgery but just wanting to guarantee that it's healed in 4-6 weeks. decisions...decisions...It's been kind of a hard couple of months on us and I'm really hoping there's some sunshine around the corner. But above all else I'm grateful for Adam and my beautiful, healthy kids. I guess I just need to focus more on that and less on my pity party.

One funny thing about Noah- when Adam wrecked I saw it out the window and ran for the door, but as I was going out Noah came running in and just peeked around the door to the outside and yelled, "I'm going in. Dad! I'm going to go in, cuz I'm really scared, ok?!" That was actually pretty hilarious. it took some convincing to get him to let me out. Anyhow... if anyone is still reading this... I hope all is well!

Birthday Bash!

So the kids had a wonderful birthday. Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who sent cards and thoughts their way. It was great to have our family & friends there to celebrate with us! So Friday I went over to my friend JaLayn's house so our kiddos could play while I decorated the cake. They wanted Mickey Mouse...so this is what we ended up with.

It wasn't perfect. And it definitely had flaws...but if your not looking super close ha ha...it turned out really good. And the kids were super excited. Not bad for my first attempt.

Friday was also Noah's birthday. HE's 2!! I can't believe it. That night I checked the weather and it said "chance of rain" "windy" etc...of course. So after making salads and cleaning my house, we stayed up until 2 a.m decorating the garage but it turned out cute. Adam put Mady's bike together and Noah's little car, while me and Jamie decorated. Thank goodness she came...Adam wouldn't have helped. lol.



Anyhow, the next morning was kind of crappy. So we ran our last minute errands and then about 45 min before the party the sun came up and it was super nice. figures. So we got pizza and everyone brought salads. It was a yummy lunch. The kids played outside and then we did the pinata, cake and presents. Our kids were super spoiled! It was tons of fun for them.






Mady was pooped out that night!


Just a funny picture of Noah. I posted it on facebook, but for those who missed it...
all I could think was...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON! J/K! HE HE!

Lots of preparation!

1st on the list- The kids birthday party! Trying to get everything done and ready for Saturday. Thanks to everyone whose let us know they are coming, I know they are just little kids, but it means a lot to have you guys make the effort and be there! We filled the pinata last night and the goody bags for the kids. Who in the heck has ever heard of a pull string pinata? Apparently that's what I bought. The kids take turns pulling the strings and one of the strings open a trap door. Weird. But Mady' REALLY wants mickey mouse, so I can't exactly take it back. Oh well. We filled it and taped up some parts, and cut the strings off so they can beat the crap out of it! ha ha. Mady is super excited.



2nd on my list- packing. UGH! SO not looking forward to it. We're only moving a couple blocks away, but it doesn't take away all the hard work. Hopefully we will be able to start moving some stuff next week and painting, even though we aren't set to close until the 15th. Lots of work ahead of us. Luckily we have quite a bit of family willing to help.

3rd- FACE BOOK!! not really preparation...but on my list of to-do's. I just started a page and wow. so confusing. so not like blogging. I'm still not sure I get the hang of it. But I do love my blog and I like making it cute and personal. I think a lot more people see face book though. I don't know...we will try it out and see how it works.

Well, my Grandma is here from Minnesota. We haven't seen her in 3 yrs! It's been way to long and it's great to have her here. Anyhow... hope all is well for everyone else!

Discouraged

I'm usually very up-beat with my postings, but for some reason tonight I feel pretty discouraged and almost sad. I feel like I have to get it out or something. But you know when your a kid and you dream about being a mom and having kids? Well, I guess I thought I was going to be this perfect mom. I remember taking mental notes of things my mom did and other moms. Some things I wanted to continue and some I didn't. I also thought I would have these well-behaved, well-spoken, respectful children. So how come today I've become a mom I'm not so proud of and my children hate each other? ok. I might be exaggerating. I don't always feel like a bad mom, but looking back on today I feel like I disciplined my children and lost my temper most of the day. 90% of the time it seems that my kids don't even like each other. They are just plain MEAN to each other. Tonight Mady was in the recliner and they were fighting. I didn't even say anything, I figured at some point they had to figure out how to resolve things without me playing referee all the time. He pushed Mady, so she poked his eye, screaming started, he pulled her hair, she pushed him off the chair and then he got up, took his shoe off and threw it at her head! It's NUTS! and so discouraging. Noah's even started hitting US when he gets mad, and Mady just screams at the top of her lungs. It's hard not to wander what I'm doing wrong. I do have a STRONG resolve to slow down, take a deep breath, pray, count to 10...just whatever it takes to find patience and be a better mom. I know when I don't have patience they seem to be WORSE. So that is my resolution at the end of this day. AHHH!
Anyhow... on a better note, everyone is doing well. I haven't blogged forever because we have been super busy! We are buying a house! YEA! Here in town, which is great that we get to keep Mady in this school district where she has made so much progress. Big selling point for us, however we won't close until the middle of June. Noah has started Toddler Lab and he loves it. I almost cried watching him. He is such a big boy. The speech therapist that used to work with Mady is in Toddler Lab working with another kid, but she remembered Noah. She came up to me and told me how well he talks and comprehends. She was shocked that he wasn't even 2 yet. She just said that he comes up with the craziest things, which is true. His biggest thing lately is, "Why?" to everything. And when you answer he says, "Oh really?" and he tells everyone, "I love your stinkin guts!". Even one of my co-workers that came over to my house to borrow a book. LOL. Well other then that I am working on their birthday party! I can't believe it. Oh and one other happy note! ECLIPSE is coming out. 3rd movie in my Twilight obsession. So excited. Midnight showing on June 29th!
Anyhow...just a couple cute pics of the kids to remind me that despite everything, they can look so innocent!
ONE nice day at the park, enjoyed it too, since it's suppose to be 45 degrees tomorrow.