A teaser of the house

When we bought the house the dining area had carpet. Not so much a long term option with little ones around, so we decided that we would rip out the carpet and replace it with some cheap laminate flooring, just something to get us through.

Well, one thing led to another and before we knew it we were tiling the dining room, kitchen, laundry room and entry ways.

Before: the view from the front door:

 The vinyl in the kitchen:

 And the entryways (please notice the trashed carpet between the two...that led us to a decision you will see in just a minute).

First we ripped out the carpet we didn't want and did the prep work:

 With Kendree's help of course!

Here's Ronnie working on the entry ways.  We decided to have the tile connect the two, so you could walk to and from both doors on tile (A trick I learned from my parents.  You can get to any door in their house on tile).

We tiled into the laundry room as well (it is just off the kitchen).

 Then we decided that it made sense to be able to walk from the kitchen to the dining area on tile (previously the vinyl stopped right at the wall and end of the cabinet.

 And of course the entire dining area.

Obviously, these pictures are pre-grout.  Be assured that the tile is now completely grouted.  I'll be sure to give you the final, final pictures when we do the house tour.

Also, when I say we, I really mean Ronnie's dad, his cousin Michael and Ronnie.  I was on kid patrol and was virtually no help at all.

A little follow up

First, the ipod is found!  I guess I was blaming the wrong child, since I found it in the bottom most crevice of the couch while looking for a missing DVD remote and Kendree doesn't really get on the couch yet.  Never mind that I am POSITIVE I already looked there!

Second, and not because it is less important, remember how my brother got married?  And people asked for pictures, and I never got them up here?  That would be because 1. I am possibly the worst at remembering to take pictures and 2. my camera was still in the shop for the wedding. 

I have one picture to share of Easton and Alayna outside the temple:

For other pictures, of you know, the wedding couple, you'll have to visit my sister's blog.

Kendree - 14 months

At least this one is semi-on time!

At 14 months Kendree:

• Has a tooth that has broken through!  Her bottom left.  We first felt the very tip on April 1st, and it has taken its sweet time since then.  We can just barely see the entire top.
• Seems to be at least progressing towards walking.  She will try to balance on her own throughout the day and is braver at taking steps in between two objects.
• Loves her silver sparkly shoes.  If I don't put them on her in the morning, she'll bring them over to me as soon as she finds them.
• Doesn't really seem to have any new words or signs this month...she's perfecting her whine though!
• Takes one nap a day.
• Is weaned! (3 days after going cold turkey, she slept through the night!)
• Loves her daddy and will crawl to the garage door and say "dada, dada, dada" over and over if she feels like she hasn't seen him recently enough.
• Loves any food we put in front of her, except cold lunch meat.
• Drinks milk, water and VERY watered down juice without showing much preference.
• Hates having her diaper changed. It is a wrestling match every time.

Hanging out around the house:

 Now she sees mom's camera

 Practicing with the walker:

 Found these on the ipod (it is found!) they are of Kendree at 13 months.

A Product I LOVE

I don't talk a lot about products, just the ones I really, really love.

One of those is the Signing Time DVDs.

Both my kids sign (Easton still), and both of my kids LOVE the DVDs.

It is their 10th anniversary, so for the next two days, you can get single DVDs for $10 each (limit 10).

This is a FANTASTIC deal.

So, I thought I would share.

Want more of my thoughts on the product?  Start with the Baby Signing Time DVDs for kids 3 and under, they are much more entertaining for the little ones, then as your kid starts to get older (between 2 and 3) add to your collection starting with Signing Time Series One Vol. 3.  It will have some repeat signs from the Baby Signing Time DVDs but the Silly Pizza Song alone is worth your money.  Then continue to add to your collection and enjoy communicating with your child and less tantrums.  For reals.

P.S. I think they must be having significantly more traffic than normal on their site, so be patient.

A little catch up on Easton

A month ago, we went with some friends to the children's section of the Wyoming State Museum. 

Somehow, Easton ended up as the pillow for two girls on the cot.

 And he continued to stay there...

 And stay there.  At least we knew where they all were!

 This is where Easton prefers to watch television....

And this is the face he gives when mama makes him move back.  Life is hard.

The little stinker

Normally that title designates that this post would be about Easton.

But no.

This one is about the Kenny-girl.

And my lost ipod.

Like, really lost ipod.

The last time Ronnie and I both saw it was Sunday after church. It was on the floor of the living room (I know, not the safest keeping place, but Easton had been playing with it before church and in the rush to get out the door, nothing was done with it).

Since then we have been scouring the house.

Every drawer, every toy bin, every crevice, every cupboard.

And underneath EVERYTHING (even the dishwasher, fridge and stove).

I've gone through every trash can except the kitchen trash (next on my to-do list) and we've shined a light with a mirror down every heat vent.

Please tell me you have some secret place that I haven't covered.

Kendree - 13 months

I know, I know.  I am almost a month late on this one....such is life when you are moving I guess.

At 13 months Kendree:

• Is cruising on everything she can get her hands on.  She has no qualms with using strangers if they are useful to get to her end game.
• Wants to do what big brother is doing...always
• Loves ALL food, especially from mom or dad's plate.
• Is taking two naps a day, but is looking like she may be transitioning to one a day.
• Is still not sleeping through the night...getting up once a night to nurse.
• Nurses to sleep at night.
• Loves to wrestle!  Sometimes other little kids don't quite understand what the heck she is trying to do.
• Still has absolutely no teeth!
• Wears size 3 shoes and is still in 12 and 12-18 month clothes.  Mama hasn't had a chance to get out the wardrobe change with the move, so she is squeezing into everything (shirts, that is).
• Is starting to show a little "toddler-ness" and lets you know when she is unhappy about you taking away something, etc.
• Says this (dis), ball (ba), Easton (kinda like eh-eh) (in addition to the words she was saying last month).
• Signs bread and cheese and we are working hard on please and thank you.
• Wears her hair in a ponytail on top every day to keep those long ones from getting in her eyes.
• Is as usual, lighting up our family!

Hanging out with Daddy.

Pointing, and probably saying "dis."

 At this point she was done with the camera but I wanted to try and get a picture of how long the hair in front was getting.


 So now, she wears her hair like the picture below...

I would have several more pictures, but a little one year old has lost my ipod, so we'll have to wait on those for now.

Sisters, Sisters

There is no doubt that Erc and I are sisters.  In fact, most ask us if we are twins....although not very recently now that we aren't out and about together very much.

When you are a truly devoted sister, you get married just 7 weeks apart.

And then you buy houses within 6 weeks of each other.
Erc's house:

 Our house:

I think the next milestone I'd like to hit with Erc is for us to become millionaires within about  two months of each other.

Sound good Erc?

It was bound to happen

Let the record show that our family went three years, three months and nine days after having children to get an ear infection. 

Boo.

Kenny-girl is not a happy camper (although already doing loads better since starting antibiotics).

Easton remains the ear infection proof one (knock on wood).

Add that to the sore throats and hacking coughs and we are one sorry mess!

At least we have moving into our new house this weekend to pick up our spirits {squeal!}.

See how I'm trying to look past all of the crappy stuff about moving with two sick kids, there?  I'm attempting to trick myself, we'll see how it goes.

Let's take the load off of our own shoulders, shall we?

A good friend and I were talking the other day.

The conversation turned to how sometimes we place ridiculous amounts of pressure on ourselves.

She talked about how she was debating whether to ramp up her photography business again, and the time/effort that goes into all that she does with it.  I talked about the many good things I seem to have pulling on my time. I discussed how I would much rather see her darling little boy and her life on her blog in only semi-edited (or straight out of the camera) pictures instead of no posts with zero pictures, but that I understand the pressure that she feels for the pictures on her blog to be perfect.

People know she is a photographer, so she wants every picture "out there" to represent her craft.  Similarly, people know I make homemade cards and so I feel that if I can't send a handmade card, then I better just not send anything to them at all.  This happened just last month.  I was out of handmade birthday cards, and family birthdays were coming up, so you know what I did?  I sent a store bought card {gasp!}.  Guess what else?  No one died.

Seriously.

The world kept on turning.

The birthday girls received a handwritten card through snail mail and everything was okay.

And you know what?  It felt kinda good.

So here's to taking that burden off of our shoulders.

Buy a card.
Post an unedited picture.
Give some one a store bought gift.
Make a frozen lasagna.
Have less than seven side dishes when you feed the missionaries.

I think we'll all be happier when we do.

March Madness

Apparently, I am one of those people.

The people who actually watch March Madness games in the middle of the day.

Games between two teams I have never watched in my entire life.

Just because Ronnie has one team on his bracket and I have the other on mine.

Darn competitiveness.

More Crafts

If you read the kids blog you saw a picture of Kendree at her party where she looked like this:

 And here's a shot where you can see the crown a little better.

For the purpose of documenting/sharing, I thought I would let you know how I made it all. 

Tutu: made using the rolls of tulle that you can buy at Hobby Lobby in alternating colors.  Tutorial can be found here, although instead of messing with elastic, I just used one of those skinny headbands as the base.

Shirt: Onesie purchased at Hobby Lobby.  Fabric was from my stash, but originally purchased at Wal-mart.  I used Heat N' Bond light and then zigzag stitched around the outside.

Crown: Used the tutorial here, but thought I had a better chance of keeping something on top of her head, instead of around it (didn't seem to help at all, bytheway).  I altered the pattern slightly by centering it in on the rectangle sheets of felt you buy at any craft store and then making the sides extend to the edge of the rectangle.  The two ends were then sewn together to create the circle.  Elastic was stapled to each side, just like a party hat.  I also did not use two different colors of felt and stitched the "1" on top of the outside layer of felt instead of cutting open the number (as shown in the tutorial). 

Whew, feels good to have that in a place where I you can find it if I you need it.

Kendree's Birthday Party

We celebrated Kendree's birthday on Saturday, the 19th of February.  We were happy to host both sets of Grandparents and the local aunts and uncles at our house.

Obviously, Kendree was thrilled to be the birthday girl!

Aunt Sassy took care of all of the present opening and Kendree loved it.

Easton was a very good boy during the present opening and only played with things after Kendree had moved on to the next item.  The corn popper was a particular favorite.

I just loved this shot of Kendree crawling in her tutu.

Then, while we ate lunch, Kendree chilled with various family members.  Here she is with Grandpa Wyo.

After lunch, it was time for CAKE!  Easton helped to blow out the candle...

And then Kendree got to dig in!

The final result:

Next, we had a quick sink bath...

and then posed for some pictures!

Grandpa and Grandma Wyo

The whole clan that traveled over from Laramie

Grandma and the Kenny-girl.

Kenny and Sassy playing games with braces and glasses.

Thanks to everyone who came...it was a great party and we had a great time!