Improvements

One of the things we have talked about since we got married and started dreaming of owning our own house is being able to do whatever we want to it. Paint, tear down walls, re-paint, whatever we feel like doing. Or not doing.

We've been in our house for 3 months now and in the last couple weeks we've started doing some things to the house. It started with a little paint. The trim through most of the house is dark 1970's wood, we've been talking about painting it white since we looked at the house the first time.
When I started painting the trim in the living room we were amazed at what a huge difference it made, it totally brightened up the room. I just wish I'd taken some before pictures!

When Andy saw how awesome that looked he decided to work on the hall, so we painted the hallway and a couple doors last Saturday. Which made another huge difference! The hallway has always been SO dark, and the white trim has brightened it way up, I can't wait to paint the other doors.

{before}

 

{after}

THEN...this week my Dad came over to do some tile work for us. There was just some old linoleum in the entry and the hall bathroom, so we wanted those areas to be updated a little with tile, and we also decided at the last minute to have the walls around the bathtub tiled, I'm so so glad we decided to do that!
In the bathroom we still need to paint the trim and the door, but we did get the trim in the entry and along the stairs painted.

{bathroom before}

{after}

{entry before (sort of, I forgot to take a picture before the old flooring was pulled out)}

  {after}

We love it all and can't wait to get a few more projects done in the next couple months!

So...we pretty much love owning a house and getting to decide what to do with it!

Another small project I did last week was paint the big mirror in the dining room. It was a gold color I didn't care for, so I painted it red. I've wanted to paint it for years, and now that I have I LOVE it! It just looks perfect in there.

Fun Run

Last week the boys and I went to Fun Run with Josiah and Kris. It's one of the places with inflatable slides, but it also had a little town set up that the kids could play in all the buildings and an arcade and a toddlers only room.

 

The boys LOVED it! I only wish it was closer to us! we spent a couple hours there and when we left they were begging to go back.

Jack was a little nervous about it at first and cried the first two times I took him down the slide, but after that he loved it, and went down the Lighting McQueen slide over and over again.

They're still talking about it and can't wait til we can go back. For two or three days after we went Jack asked if we were going to Fun Run, every time we left the house! We'll for sure be going back, the boys want Daddy to come with us next time though, I agree!

Birthday weekend

It's been 10 days since Andy's birthday, I just keep forgetting to post about it.

He was able to take his birthday off work, so we had a nice long, relaxing weekend. Earlier in the week I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he had a few ideas but I couldn't decide which to do. So we had a birthday dinner every night that week. It was very yummy, not very healthy since all of his special dinner ideas are things we don't do often because they're heavier meals. The week after we scaled back and had light meals! It sort of balanced it out... : )

On his birthday we went and picked out a new BBQ, and he spent most of the afternoon putting it together, it was a fun day though, just hanging out at home.

On Saturday we went to Costco and a few other places down in "the city". It was fun, and busy, and the boys were so happy they didn't have to take naps!

One of the things the boys got for Christmas from Andy's parents was a set of star wars cookie cutters, so for Andy's birthday dessert the boys and I made him star wars sugar cookies, they were pretty cute.

I've never had much luck getting sugar cookies just right, usually I roll them too thin then they end up crispy. Lucky for us this time they were just right! And Avery and Jack had a blast cutting out star wars characters.

I think Andy had a nice weekend, he got some new star wars items for his collection (NOT toys :) ), a new game for the PS3 and some nice things from his family members. I think year 28 has started well for him! 

Birthday video

Yesterday was Andy's Birthday, I'll post more on that later. we've had a fun birthday week with lots of yummy food and being lazy! : ) We like birthdays a lot a round here!

Today is his brother Chris' birthday. So we had the boys make this little video for him this morning. Jack was being a little turkey the whole time, we practiced before I turned the camera on, but he chose to be silly and go off script : ) I love his funny little smile, like he knows he's about to be crazy. : )

We've watched this a bunch already today, we love it!

Sweet 4 year old.

Today while I was doing some dinner prep Avery was following me around, like 10 inches from me at all times - talking non stop.
After I tripped over him a couple times I asked him in my best trying-not-to-be-annoyed-mom-voice "why are you following me around?"
He looked up and me and said "because I like you."

Yes, he's sweet. But I could still use a little more space.

I do hope he always likes me this much!

Purex Crystals

We'll now take a break in our regularly scheduled posts of adorable kids and the fun things they do to tell you about a new product I'm trying :)

The other day I got an adorable little bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener in the mail to try out. Luckily it came on laundry day so I could use it right away. 

I really liked it, the first load of laundry I did with it the smell was so strong it made our whole house smell like a spring breeze. Not necessarily bad, but I didn't put as much in the next load! As a bonus my package came with a coupon to get a full sized bottle for free, so we'll be trying out the lavender blossom scent next. 

We're still in the deciding process, as to whether or not this will make our clothes feel clean and fresh for longer, but it's fun to try new things. If you want to learn more about Purex Crystals and get a coupon click here :)

our reader

Avery has known the alphabet and the sounds that each letter makes for quite a while, we just haven't really sat down much to teach him to read. For Christmas we got him a Dick and Jane book, he likes it and it's pretty simple but there are still lots of silent letters that confuse him, as well as mixing short and long letter sounds. Every time I ask him if he wants to read it he would get a little grumpy and say it was too hard.

I heard about the Bob Books and was able to borrow some from my sister-in-law. Avery's first time looking at them was this morning, he sat down and read the first book. Alone. It was awesome. Then he picked up three more after that and read them, too. It was so cool, he needed help with some things at first, but he just took off and loved it.

I can't believe how big and smart he's getting, he can also write all of our names along with last name, all the numbers. He loves having me write something and then copying it, he catches onto things so quickly it's amazing.

Kindergarten registration starts in 3 weeks, I just can't believe he's actually starting school this year. I thought I'd have a lot more time before that happened, isn't he still a baby?! I know he'll love it though, it's me I'm worried about! :)

I spy...

He loves hiding, almost as much as wearing his batman suit with his spider man slippers. :)

February

Apparently I never take pictures anymore. oops.

We've been getting complaints that I'm not blogging enough...so here's a post with some random pictures.

For Valentine's Day we...I actually don't remember. I did have a failed attempt at chocolate dipped marshmallows. I didn't think they could be bad, but the semi-sweet chocolate was not good. Next time I'll make sure to use milk chocolate. They looked cute though, and I suppose the little boys like them.

Avery was very excited this year to take valentines to all his preschool classmates. I thought it would be fun to have him make them. It took a long time. We worked on them for like 4 days, but he did everything by himself. He cut out the hearts (after I drew them for him) and glued them on the cards, and wrote his name in them, they were very cute. He thinks cutting hearts out is pretty neat, some times his free hand hearts look a little like circles, but we love them.

Next year we will buy valentine cards. :)

The boys also got special doorbell ditched valentine treats, chocolate covered animal crackers.

We often babysit for various family members during mutual, one night we had lots of kids over. After they've all run crazy through the house for a while we bribe them with treats. We haven't gotten a complain yet!

Avery and Jack love playing dress up with the cousins, and a favorite is always scooby doo. I love listening to them stay in character, shouting things "Hurry, Fred!" or "wait for me, Daphne!". It's so cute!
They're always sad when the cousins leave.