It Is So Cold In Minnesota!!!

We've managed to keep ourselves warm here in the cold of late - today at 12noon it was -8 (and I think we're in the warm part of the state). I don't know if it ever got any warmer than that or not, and we didn't venture out to feel. But I suspect it probably stayed right around there. It was such a pretty sunshine-y day too! The kids and the adults in this house are starting to get cabin fever - we're all pretty much driving each other crazy these days! I was just commenting last night how I was really wanting some snow for Thanksgiving - a mere 2 months ago - and now I can't wait for no snow and some warmer weather (not over 80 degrees though).

So we had a birthday party for Olivia and Zachary on Saturday. We'll have to post some pictures that other people took because in the excitement of it all Scott and I never remember to take any pictures! Someday we'll wish we had. Lucky for us, Grandpa and Grandma LOVE to take a lot of pictures! The kids had a blast at their party. Lots of kids as usual, and lots of noise and running and playing. Maddie had a pretty tough day though - thanks to teething! So a fun time wasn't had by her! It ended with her having a full melt-down and finally screaming herself to sleep after everybody left. Poor baby - we hate to make them cry to sleep, but we just didn't know what else to do for her by that point!

Maddie's had a not-so-fun couple of months. Just before Christmas she got sick - then recovered, but decided that she needed to maintain that "Mommy needs to hold me all the time" closeness. So that's been kind of tough. And then all the kids got the stomach flu right after New Year's, so not fun. And then sometime during then she started teething again too. So if not a sore bottom, then extremely fussy, or crying if Mama's not holding her, or crying about every little thing, and after a little while nothing makes it any better. I discovered that she's cut a couple of bottom middle teeth and then some of the molars came through. Painful times. The good news about this is she's been feeling better starting Tuesday! Yea!!! So now I am not required to carry her at all times (although a lot still), but she has also developed this wonderful and fun personality, which is a great reward for putting up with all the teething. So we've been giggling and playing and she loves it when I chase her around the house and catch her or tickle her. It's been a good time - I'm hoping this "phase" will last a long time, if it is even a phase...

posted by Elena

Mid-December Pictures

Yes, I know these are a bit late, but gotta include a few Christmas pictures in here!

We called my mom over one afternoon to take our family Christmas picture for the card. All was fine until my mom got ready to snap the pictures. Olivia would NOT cooperate for anything! It was so frustrating! She would hide her face and whine every time we tried. So we gave up for that day. It was then that Livi decided that maybe we could go ahead and take the picture, but Scott and I were frustrated enough by that point that we were like, forget it. So we didn't do pictures that day. This is what we got that day:

It's really pretty funny looking at it now!
Don't we all look so happy and festive?!?
Like, yea, Merry Christmas (grumble)...

So then the next day, Scott's parents were coming up to celebrate Scott's birthday, and we asked them if they wouldn't mind helping us out a bit. Just how many adults does it take to get three children to cooperate for a simple little picture? But Olivia was much better behaved this time around, and Zach and Maddie did pretty well, even though they were both tired and nearing nap-time. So we took a few pictures and chose this one:

Our Christmas tree

The tree looked like this the day before Thanksgiving. By Christmas, it looked very different. The beads and lights looked like they could maybe fall off if touched just so. And the ornaments kept moving from branch to branch. Strangely enough, the decorations near the top of the tree never shifted or moved even once. Wonder what happened to the bottom half of the tree? Thankfully, the tree never fell down, which was something that we worried about from time to time. One good tug is all it would have taken. The kids were sad when we put the decorations away, but such is life. Until next year.

posted by Elena

Random Pictures

These two were just playing so good and having so much fun!!!

A couple of years ago, Olivia was given this little rocking chair. Maddie has decided that it's the greatest thing in the world! She loves to climb into it, but can't get out of it yet! It's so funny to see her crawl into there, sit down and rock for a bit, and then when she's done screams and fusses until somebody helps her out.

Notice all the beads that she has to wear most of the time when she's playing.

Even Olivia can carry her out of the chair to "safety."
Maddie doesn't always appreciate the help.

posted by Elena

Kitchen Makeover

So, another "little project" that I worked on was our kitchen. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that bad, but I just didn't particularly care for it! As you can see below, the walls were all white with a pink flower border (I am NOT a pink-flower-border-type of person) and the ceiling had wallpaper of little pink and blue flowers. My idea was to scrape all that off and then repaint my kitchen a darker yellow with sunflowers for a theme. So in late August I started scraping off the border. I discovered something with this: wallpaper installed by professionals does not come off as easily as the pre-pasted borders that I typically use. So it took me weeks of working here and there to get the border off. It really got to a point where come hell or high water it was going to get done! I was on a mission. So I finally got the border off. Then the ceiling, which turned out to be contact paper that had been glued over a textured ceiling. Why anybody decided to do this is beyond me, but that's what it was. So it took me a few weeks of scraping that off, then sanding the ceiling. What a dusty mess that turned out to be! I was about to throw in the towel then! But I got it done. And we also had to replace the kitchen light because I got a little carried away with the sanding and the sand-block flew out of my hand and shattered the light! Oops!

Then I had to take a break for a few weeks once I had it all bare white. After spending weeks up on a ladder working above my head, my rotator cuff said, "enough," so needed to rest that up a bit. Who'd have thought? But, it was driving me crazy and I had this uncontrollable urge to get the job finished. So I painted the ceiling first. That actually was a very easy thing to do, and only took me a couple of hours to prime and paint. Then I waited almost a week and decided to tackle the walls. So I put up this special tape that says you can put it on newly painted surfaces and painted the walls. That took a bit longer, but it got completed. Then time to take off the tape, and with the tape came off part of the newly painted ceiling. So after a minor meltdown and a few days break, I re-primed and re-painted the ceiling, this time not taping the walls or anything. Then I got the sunflower border up, cleaned up, and FINALLY was finished with this small project at the end of October! HAL-LE-LU-JAH!!!

BEFORE PICTURES

AFTER PICTURES

I was pretty pleased with the final result. Though I have to admit, if I had known up front just how much time and energy and trouble it would be, I think I would have learned to love what was already up when we moved in. But I am just so glad that it's finished!

Summer 2008: I'm going to try to finish up my entryway
and paint the living room and dining room!
Can't wait to get those done!

posted by Elena

Children's Room Makeovers

When we moved into our house 2 years ago, every single wall in our house (except the bathrooms) were painted white. On the to-do list was painting and adding some color and character to some of the rooms. But then life happens and those projects go on the back burner. So this past August I decided to finally get around to it.


Zach's room was done first: he didn't have a lot of input into the color and design, but he was so excited with the finished product:

I painted and picked out and put up the border and wall decorations, Scott picked out and installed the carpeting. Zach was really one happy little boy.

Then Olivia's room: I actually asked her for some input. She decided that she wanted purple and then helped me pick out the butterfly theme for the border and decorations. So I painted the room. Her reply? "I don't like this; I want pink!" Well, too late now, kiddo! Then a couple days later the border and decor went up on the walls, and true to Olivia-fashion: "I don't like butterflies!" Arghh!!! Guess next time we do this project in like 10 years or so, she can do it!

The color turned out just a little darker than I had anticipated, but I still liked it. But still, Olivia does not particularly care for it... Just the other day, I was cleaning out some of the boxes in our basement and packing things up to give away. Well, she found a couple of little knick-knacks to add to her shelves, so I let her have them and put them up in her room. And then I overheard her saying, with awe in her voice:
"Oh, look at my room! It's soooo... PURPLE!"
It was absolutely hilarious!


Summer 2008: Madeline's room

posted by Elena

"Olivia, nap time," says Elena to Olivia in a different room.
pause
"Olivia, nap time," she repeats.
pause
"I'm a princess," comes back from the other room.

"OK, all princesses need to take naps now."

"I don't want to be a princess anymore."


We've had some bad cases of the throw up bug. All over everything. Zach is pretty much over it and to his credit has gotten really good about recognizing the symptoms and making it to the trash. Olivia and Maddie, not so much.