Big News #2

As I told Todd, "It's either a girl, or a boy with no weiner." :)

The kids are coming home to a pink party after school!

Big News #1

Todd passed the bar!!!!!!!!! Big News #2 coming Tuesday...

"Talent" Show

Top row: Stephanie, Mandy, Jaclyn, Valerie

Bottom row: Amber, Janica, me, Cori

very front: Maggie

We had a ward talent show today, and Sophie, Todd and myself participated. Sophie did the same clogging routing to "Dancing Queen that she did at the county fair. Todd played guitar and sang "Love of a Lifetime" by Firehouse (but his video wouldn't load up for some reason, and he didn't want it posted anyway). I got a group of women together and taught them "Thriller" - and let me tell you, it was not easy to find maternity red leather(ish) pants, I had to make them maternity by myself :) Enjoy!:

Thriller:

Dancing Queen:

Old Kitchen, New Look

I wish I had a good before picture, but I don't, so imagine this: Green cupboards, mustard-yellow countertops, and torn white wallpaper with little blue and pink flowers on it.

When we were first looking at houses 8+ years ago, the kitchen in this one was a big turnoff for me. The yard and other things won me over, but I've spent the last 8 years not loving the kitchen. I tried to make it work. I figured the countertops were non-negotiable, so I better work around them. So I found a complimentary green to paint on the cupboards (which were previously white) and went over the old wallpaper with a more neutral tan color and a border that tied the green and yellow together. Within a month of so of re-wallpapering, it was ripped, and I had no extra wallpaper to try to repair it. So it stayed. For probably 6 or 7 years.

In my recent home improvement project binge, I couldn't help but tackle the mess I called my kitchen. Several weeks earlier, I'd gotten sick of the wallpaper on the walls and tried to remove it, but found the original flowered disaster was really put on there well. As a result, the walls were covered in pieces of ripped wallpaper in some parts and bare in others. It stayed like that till I finally worked up the motivation to fix it all. Not an easy job! So with the walls finally cleaned and primed, I decided to change the cupboards and counters all at the same time.

My inspiration was this picture of a kitchen I found on the internet:

My very helpful children:

My not-so-helpful children:

My best before picture is just before I started on the counters, but remember, used to be green cupboards and ripped, dated wallpaper:here's another before pic I found:
After a few days, about $50, and every last ounce of elbow grease in me, here is the "after" picture:

Still thinking about doing some kind of decorative thing on the walls and rustic-ing up of the cupboards like in the inspiration picture, but for now I'm tired, so it stays.

A close-up of the countertop treatment (a faux granite look with 6 layers of sealant on it - that was a stinky job!):

Time to take a 3 day nap.

Nesting - Or How I Went From Needing a Bed and Dresser to Re-doing My Entire Kitchen

I'm about halfway through my pregnancy now (there's a formal announcement for anyone who didn't already know) and am feeling the nesting instinct like crazy. It happens to me every time. With Claire's pregnancy I spent the last couple of months hauling big concrete blocks around for some poor-man's landscaping. This time, we're feeling a desire for change. For the last few months I've been nesting mentally in my dream house. But since that won't be near enough in the future for us, we're looking at another house in our neighborhood (Spencer's house, for those who know them). Hoping it would be possible, but we have a lot of financial unknowns lurking with Todd switching careers and all that. But in the meantime, we either have to make it work here, or I'll be sprucing it up for a possible future sale. Anyone know anyone who's in the market for a house in Monmouth - let me know! So here's what I've been busy with in the last little while:

Got a hand-me-down daybed, repainted and assembled it for Claire, subsequently getting rid of the old futon that was in this spot. We passed on the mattress to a friend and Todd gets credit for chopping the frame into firewood.

Got a hand-me-down dresser (thanks Shar!), repaired a broken spot and hauled it down to Sophie's room

Took Sophie's old dresser, primed and painted it and put it in Claire's room/the office

Peeled old wallpaper and primed Janelle's half of their room. Brooke has not felt the desire to clean her half yet, so I'm not going to paint it.

Since I already had the primer out I figured I might as well touch up some trim around the house.

The hallway was looking a little dingy and dirty too, so it needed some priming and painting.

Primed the bathroom door which had previously been painted the same color as the wall - big mistake, it did not look pretty.

Being already in the de-wallpapering and priming mode, I went ahead and did the same in the kitchen, which desperately needed a change.

I was working in the kitchen anyway, so I took the opportunity to clean behind the fridge (for some reason, a clean back of the fridge becomes very important to me during every pregnancy).

If I have the option now to change the wallcolor, I didn't want to be limited by the cupboards, so I decided I should paint them all too. So far I've just removed the cupboard doors, but I've got big plans for them. And obviously I've got to do SOMETHING about my old mustardy countertop.

Still to do: paint in the twins' room (at least half of it), paint over the primer in the hallway, on the trim, and on the bathroom door, paint the kitchen walls and cupboards, and plan and carry out countertop replacement or resurfacing.

Todd suggested if I run out of things to do, I can move all the concrete from the backyard to the front and vice versa :)

First Day of School!

We're sad to see the summer end, but at the same time we're excited about beginning a new school year. I welcome in the change in seasons and the chance to get back into a routine. Happy Fall!