A little project ... and 600 posts!

I just noticed that this is my 600th post. Cool. That's amazing, especially considering I have been posting only a few times a month these days.

Anyway, when Paul and I got married, the only piece of furniture he had to contribute was this ugly dresser:

It's a short dresser, so you'd think it would be perfect in a kid's room ... but since it was originally on a boat, the drawers are too hard for kids to open.

Oh, and I need to back up. I guess Paul did come into the marriage with this hum-dinger of a chair:

Reminds me of elementary school, but it doesn't bother him. When we can stomach dishing out money, we'll both get new office chairs. (He uses that and I use an exercise ball.) And when I mentioned to him about his lack of furniture, he reminded me that he did bring that nice desk behind him, too. (Which is a whole other source of "contention" -- if it's even strong enough to be called contention -- since the keyboard tray falls off if you touch it wrong -- aka it falls 3x per day -- which drives me NUTS, but is apparently my fault since I've made him move the furniture a few times and relocate the keyboard to the opposite side of the desk. But I digress ...)

Anyway, Becca has been using this little dresser, and I saw at a boutique that they had put fabric on the front of a dresser to make it look nicer. So we decided to try it. Turns out Becca and I have VERY different taste. I wanted something colorful with blue in it. We found the perfect fabric, but since it was from a "Young Women's" line, she wouldn't touch it, because she is no longer a Young Woman. Sigh. Fabric store worker, you didn't help by telling us that tidbit ...

So we FINALLY found something we agreed on (at the third fabric store!) and got to work. I still would like more color, but I think this is a huge improvement from where we were:

Now Becca is making matching pillows and will take them all off to college next month so I don't have to look at the poor dresser anymore. :)

For Rebecca

For my sister Rebecca, who loves to brush her teeth more than anyone I know. Here are a couple of cute kids brushing their teeth:

Without Shayla we would probably forget to brush Austin's teeth half the time. Good thing she takes care of her little brother and teaches him lots of good things, even when it's not time for "baby school." :)

Salem Pond

It seems when we have company we head to Salem Pond. It's just a fun place to go! So Ryan brought his family into town last month and we headed to Salem Pond. My kids had a BLAST! There is nothing better than running Grandpa's remote-control boats; helping row a boat; playing on the playground with cousins; and getting a little wet!

Ryan and his girls boat racing

Remote-control boats were Tyler's favorite part of the day

Shayla and Zach got to go out first with Grandpa

When the first boat returned, Austin walked over and got in by himself, so Grandpa took him for a ride

The kids got paddles and loved rowing

This girl is too cute!

Austin loved the slide and did it so many times all by himself

Josie was my favorite part! What a cutie!

Camp JJ

My boys got to go to Cub Scout day camp recently (Camp Jeremiah Johnson), and they had a blast! Tyler lucked out beyond belief. Most boys go when they're Wolves and Bears, and that's it. (They go to Webelos Woods when they're in Webelos.) Well, our ward invites the boys who are about to turn 8 to go with them ... so Tyler got to go the first time when he was 7. Then he went again at 8 and 9. That was lucky. But throw in this year and he's just extremely lucky! We had a boy (who we had already paid for) not show up for scout camp, so I went home and got Tyler to come with us. I figured if we had already paid then someone should have some fun! He was thrilled and it was fun to be up there with both of our boys again. Paul took the day off of work and we headed out for some cub scouting adventures:

Zach making Native American game

Tyler making Native American game

Tyler and Zachary doing archery -- always a favorite!

Mini trek in the heat -- at least the boys thought it was a blast!

Tyler throwing a ball -- the rafts are another favorite

Next year neither of my boys will go, so I think Paul and I will skip a year as well. (I've now been four or five years in a row ... or maybe more since I've lost track. I guess that happens when you're going on seven years in cub scouts. :)

Summer yum

What is the best part about summer? POPSICLES!!!

Not so little anymore

My baby is growing up. I am always amazed when I walk in and find things like this:

Yes, he got his own bowl and spoon, his own cereal and poured the milk by himself. Seriously?! I had no idea he could even carry the milk, let alone pour it without much of a mess.

He's playing more and more with his siblings and got really mad when Shayla stopped playing air hockey with him:

(I had to post the pic of him in his diaper, because it's just so darn cute!)

And one day recently I walked in to find him at the garbage doing this:

He is not a fan of fruits and veggies. In fact, no matter how I cut an apple (slices, matchsticks, skin or none), he will not eat them! But bananas? He's always loved them. Well, apparently when he was eating this banana he noticed those tiny brown specks in the center and decided to get them out. So he grabbed a spoon, opened the garbage and started digging. Look at the disgust on his face in the last picture -- he was not going to eat those brown things! Needless to say, by the time he got all the brown specks out the banana was gone. He hasn't eaten a banana since that day. Aw, shucks!

Wowzers ... how did July get here?

Apparently summertime fun does not include blogging! I couldn't believe when I looked and saw that I haven't blogged in more than a month. We haven't even been busy ... except for trying to stay good and lazy. At least that's my goal for the summer. Amazing how even when trying to be lazy we've got lots going on. I guess them's the hazards of having five kids and a husband in both working and doing school full time.

Where to even begin? Well, my sweet, adorable, kind-hearted, amazing daughter turned 6. She is adorable! She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake cake since she already had a figurine of Strawberry and her cat. Perfect! I found an easy way to make a strawberry cake, and viola -- finished cake in about 10 minutes. Not bad, eh? (She loved it, and that's the only thing I care about. :)

 

 

Somehow I always manage to spoil this girl for her birthday. This year I got her two things I thought were perfect. One of my friends growing up had one of these, and I LOVED it! Shayla has had a lot of fun with it:

 

The other perfect gift just fell into my hands the day before her birthday. It was donated to our ward yard sale and brought to my attention. I bought it before the yard sale even began, and I got a steal of a deal. She was THRILLED and LOVES it:

 (By the way, it didn't come with furniture, so today when I saw one at a yard sale I was going to see if I could get them to sell me just the furniture. Turns out it was already sold -- for 5X what I paid for ours!!!)

And of course we had to get her a Lazy Town to watch with Grandpa:

For Shayla's birthday party we had a pajama party. We thought it was a fun idea. However, one of the little girls kept mentioning over and over how weird it was to be in her pajamas mid-morning. She even asked her mom to drive her across the street so nobody would see her. Silly kids. Anyway, I had Becca draw a princess (who she forgot to draw smiling ... ?!!) and the girls decorated their own crowns to try to pin on the princess. It's so funny to watch kids cheat blindfold games -- they're so inconspicuous. Here are Austin and Shayla's attempts:

The evening of Shayla's birthday was her dance performance. Oh, man! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE watching my little girl in dance. Is there anything cuter?

 

What a fun day! And she's already 11 months away from the next one. :)