A Whole Lot of Birthdays and Some Chocolate

As you may recall, The Boy had the audacity to be born on his cousin's birthday, right during her birthday party. So rude! Therefore, the consequence is that we celebrate the birthdays together, but Miss B. gets to choose the location and food. This year, we went to Chili's.


As always, The Boy's just happy for a little attention.


The cousins discovering the various properties of crayons.


Back at Miss B.'s house, eating the scrumptious chocolate birthday cake her mother made. Note the tentative first bite.


The second bite wasn't quite so tentative.


And then, he thoroughly enjoyed the cake, rubbing some onto his face to save for later.


Not a single crumb will go untasted!


The plate looks yummy too!


Happy birthday to MEEEE!

I'm glad that The Hub's mom insisted on The Boy trying some cake. That was too hilarious.


Anyway, a week or so later, The Hub bought me a king size bar of Hershey's chocolate--reward for a very trying day. I ate about half of it that night (bad Momma!), wrapped it up, and absentmindedly left it on the end table in the living room.

The Boy discovered it the next morning.

Ha ha! Silly Momma. You let me find chocolate!


Let this be a lesson to you: Always put the chocolate away!

I'm so glad he's getting to an age where I can caption his pictures--I love it when the little personality shows up. In other news, The Boy's got seven teeth now and is apparently in a rush to get them in--he's cutting three at a time right now.

Now for the current events. (I really should blog more often.)
For instance, there's nothing like a little drama in life to remind you that sometimes, life just HAPPENS. Unfortunately, last week The Boy got his finger shut in a door, removing the tip. There was no screaming, but there was plenty of the red stuff between said door and the couch, where I was napping when The Boy found me. (I told The Hub later, "Welcome to the CSI cleanup crew.") Anyway, I could tell that it was more than I could handle, so I bundled The Boy and the girls into the van and took off for the emergency room. (It was Saturday afternoon and The Hub was out of town on business. He may or may not have fielded a mildly hysterical call from me as I reviewed the carnage. Blech.) The girls were fantastically well-behaved and calm and we got put on the fast track, since his finger never stopped bleeding, so we were in and out of the ER in an hour. I do believe the Lord extended us some tender mercies there.

The Boy's doing just fine--the bandages and washings and preventative antibiotics haven't slowed him down one bit--but we are taking suggestions for nicknames once his finger is completely healed.
So far we have:
1. Stumpy
2. Stubby
3. Mr. Funky Finger
4. The Nail-less Wonder
Leave your vote in the comments section!
I'll post pictures of his finger once it's completely healed.


This week, The Eldest has had the audacity to maintain that she is allowed to continue growing older. The Hub and I have resigned ourselves to this fact and decided to throw her a little party.

We had coloring and games and a craft (a winter fairy made from pipe cleaners) and presents and FOOD. Since The Eldest is awesome, I was able to talk her into having baked apples with ice cream and mulled cider instead of cupcakes and soda. How cool is that?

We didn't get pictures of everyone, but here are some of The Eldest's Primary friends.


Miss B., The Eldest and Miss Bubbly's cousin, surrounded by party aftermath (there may have been closely supervised fun with party poppers).


The Eldest riding the present that rendered her speechless.
Oh yes, we are awesome parents.


Birthday loot.


More birthday loot!

According to the feedback I got, everyone had a wonderful time!

There. I'm now all caught up, and Christmas hasn't happened yet! Of course, there's the extended family Christmas Family Home Evening tonight, The Eldest's actual birthday tomorrow, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's coming up, but RIGHT NOW, at this very MOMENT, I am caught up. Hurrah.

Becoming a Grown-up, or Why I Love Hobby Lobby

Circumstances have conspired against me, and so I find myself home from church for the second time in two weeks (last week it was Miss Bubbly's fault--she and her stomach were having a serious disagreement), this time because my upset stomach and raw throat are not socially acceptable. The Boy stays with me, and is asleep, and so I find myself with a little time to blog.



We start them early with the literary love around here. Note the upside-down children's version of Helen Keller's biography. I don't think anyone in the family has read it in its entirety, but we sure do like looking at it! Also, note the cute feet tucked under his posterior. Love them. This is a picture I will trot out fifteen years from now when he has big, stinky teenage feet so that I may sigh with nostalgia.



And this was the result of him noticing that I had the camera out. Are all babies such camera fiends at this age? I don't remember the girls being this way. Also, in my defense, his sister dressed him. I think.

. . .

Have you noticed that sucking on chocolate is very soothing for a sore throat? I have. In fact, I'm noticing it right now.

. . .

To motivate ourselves to get all the dang boxes unpacked and all the major cosmetic changes made, The Hub and I decided to throw a thank you/housewarming party yesterday. Thus, Friday was full of hanging pictures and breaking down boxes for recycling, among other things. Happily, no one ever said "Why did we hang on to this?" I hereby say that we've purged all the non-essentials from our lives. For the moment.

Anyway. This is what we did:

In the kitchen, we covered the pale, stained laminate countertop with some fake wood contact paper. We intend to remodel someday, but this will hold us until we do. I like how the darker wood tones down the "look at me" quality of the gold tile backsplash. Also, I spray painted the baker's rack black. It used to be forest green with brass accents.


This is a napkin holder from Hobby Lobby that I've had my eye on for MONTHS now. It was finally marked down 50%, so I splurged. I love it! More on Hobby Lobby and finding my grown up style later.


The focus of this photo is what you DON'T see--the brick hearth. For our early Christmas present, my fabulous mother-in-law made a cushion to cover said hearth so that crawling/almost-walking little people wouldn't fall down and bash themselves on it. It has saved The Boy's head more than once, I'm pleased to report. And it provides extra seating when we have company! A win all around.


The Hub didn't like our stuck-to-the-walls furniture arrangement, so he shuffled a few things around until he liked it. I like it too. It doesn't feel cut off from the living room, but it makes the family room feel a little more open. Also, see the picture of the Bountiful Temple? Yep, that went up on Friday too. We were busy little bees, I tell you. Totally worth it.


See this awesome clock on the mantel, next to the harvest angel/harvest fairy from Hobby Lobby? Here, let me get you in closer.


Only marginally better--I'm wretched at focusing sometimes. But notice the lovely detail! The autumn leaves and winding twigs! The Hub bought me this clock as a housewarming present. Didn't he do a good job? Yes, yes, he did. (His housewarming present is the HD satellite tv subscription--it's the gift that keeps on giving.)


This is the living room, which serves as our library and my office (which is surprisingly clean at the moment). The cheap bookshelves will be replaced with a not-quite built in set in the next year or so, and the empty area will be filled with comfy furniture on which to sit whilst enjoying a novel. The blank frame should be filled in soon with a family picture--I'm very excited for it. And the white leaves on the tree will eventually be painted red and orange and yellow. I'm a very big fan of fall--can you tell?



My side of our room. (The Hub can blog about his own side if he wants.) Do you see what I have hanging on the wall? ALL of my scarves and shawls and hats! I love them, and I love being able to hang them up this way. Between that and the jewelry tree on my dresser and the gargoyle blanket on the bed and my pre-Raphelite prints on the wall (not pictured), this is looking like a place where I live. Oh, and the numerous books stacked under the nightstand. That would definitely be me as well.


This is the newly dubbed "Room of Requirement." Harry Potter fans will understand that reference. I never thought I would be so happy to give up a garage for a room that is a sewing/crafting room, a homeschooling room, and a general mayhem room. The girls love to go out there and play for hours. It is bliss.

I love my house!

. . .

Before we bought the house, The Hub and I used to talk about the future when we would be "grown ups." This was code for when we bought a house, which presupposed that The Hub would also have a professional career with an actual salary. We have been very fortunate this year to become grown ups, to embark on the part of life we've been planning for and imagining for many, many years.

However, in the previous years of impermanence, I never felt inclined to truly make a home of whatever apartment/space we were living in. We'd mark it as ours with family photos and favorite artwork, of course, but it was very hard to want to do anything significant, because who knew if it would fit in the next place we lived? And we could never paint walls--at least not as much as I wanted to.

But here and there, I'd gather a few things for "someday." The day when we would live in a place that was ours. It happened, more often than not, that I'd jettison those things that I had gathered because they didn't seem to fit in with my personal style. In fact, as long-time readers of this blog can attest, I spent many years figuring out WHAT my personal style was. Clothing-wise, I still haven't figured it out. But now that we're in a place of our own, where I feel free expressing myself through my home, I realize that I love fall. I love trees, I love leaves, I love deep red, sky blue, pine tree green, mahogany brown, and even yellow and orange in small amounts. I love the smell of nutmeg and cinnamon and allspice. As The Hub's clock attests, my passion for the season has made it easy for him to get me spot-on gifts. I've always considered people who have always known what they love and surrounded themselves with it truly grown up--I'm happy to join their ranks.

How does this tie in to Hobby Lobby? Well, the clock is from Pier 1, but the other accessories that I have really loved I've found at Hobby Lobby. In addition to supporting my crafting addiction, the buyers/designers/powers that be at the store have figured out what I love and they offer it to me, often with a 40% off coupon. How perfect is that?

. . .

Long post, isn't it? Just a little more, and then I'll be done.

There's something about owning something that makes you want to mark it as yours. I always put my initials on my most favorite erasers in grade school. Ranchers brand their cows. Rich people put their initials on EVERYTHING--handkerchiefs, cuff links, towels, wrought iron front gates, various downtown or university buildings.

We've had our trusty van for five years now, and I thought it was high time I set it apart from the other beige minivans in the Walmart parking lot. So I tattooed the car. On both sides.



Now that we have a house, I've claimed ownership too, using a sign that was a wedding gift. It used to hang on The Hub's grandparents' cabin. (I also tried to fix the apostrophe placement, with little success. Just know that the house belongs to all the people in it, not just the one.)


And that, as they say, is that.

The Boy Got a Haircut

So The Hub decided in keeping with his new, grownup job, he needs to keep his hair trimmed and neat. That's my job, so we took care of that last night. The baby's hair had been bugging me for a while, so we trimmed his, too.

Voila!

He thought the buzzer was really, really interesting. I'm going to do my best to encourage that attitude, I think.



Isn't he a handsome fellow?



Here he contemplates the scene from our back window.



His two sisters are enjoying the crisp morning before I call them in for homeschooling.



Which means I should stop blogging and start teaching, I suppose. Also, *someone* needs to clean the fingerprints off the back window. They just happen to be at little girl height. Hmmmmm....

In Which I Ask For Money--But Not For Me!

That last post was a doozy, wasn't it? So many good things happened all at once and I just couldn't bear to break it into separate posts!

Anyway, you all know that Miss Bubbly has diabetes, right? Right. And you all know that I'm not terribly fond of JDRF's rather negative attitude, right? Right. Well, that doesn't mean I won't support them. In fact, the whole fam is participating in the Walk to Cure Diabetes in a couple of weeks. Miss Bubbly's endo asked us to participate and I couldn't say no. Part of the point of the walk is to gather donations for research towards a cure, and, more importantly, towards making LIVING with diabetes easier. Now THAT I can support.

So if you happen to find a spare couple of bucks that you could throw towards a donation, that would be great. You *might* even receive a hand-written thank you note from the adorable diabetic herself.

In Which There Is Progress On All Fronts

The painting is done! Well, barring a few touch ups and a color correction in the girls' bathroom, it's done.

On the door to the green bathroom (also referred to as the girls' bathroom, the kids' bathroom, and the guest bathroom), you will find this sign. I wanted to make sure the bathroom was clearly labeled.


THIS is the green bathroom. The green actually goes pretty well with the shower curtain (left behind by the heirs), but it tends to *glow*. In fact, when The Eldest first used the bathroom after I had finished painting, she said something along the lines of "Cool! My skin looks green in here!"




We knocked out the last remnant of purple awfulness this weekend. I think the bathroom looks lovely in blue and brown, and the shower curtain from Walmart certainly helps.




This is my room! Excuse the mess. I love the dark green--it makes the room feel soothing and cozy. Well, to me, anyway. The Hub's still getting used to it.


As a compromise, we painted this wall all brown, to "take a break" from the green. The closet doors would be closed, but they're broken. The shiny gold curtains (one is in the picture), used over the patio doors in the apartment, will be replacing them.


Here's the red wall! And a silly Afton at our "new" dining table. I love that table. So big! So sturdy! The green baker's rack will be spray painted black as soon as I have time.


I'm likin' the red. I think it works.


The Room of Requirement (formerly known as the homeschooling room), with the help of many in-laws and an extended family FHE, is now blue. Hurrah!


It's not the bastion of learning I want it to be, but we're getting there! Homeschooling resumes tomorrow. Sewing resumed Thursday, when I decided that my bedroom sorely needed curtains.


And that's enough about the house for now. It consumes a goodly portion of my free time--my reading time has been cut in half--but it is SO worth it. On the to-do list for next weekend: wash the cars and start working on the yard.

In the meantime, The Boy has not quit developing. He's a seasoned crawler at this point, but more importantly, he's started cruising along furniture. It's his second-favorite mode of transportation. His first favorite is me--on my hip, in my arms, whatever.

So I took this picture because I loved the contrast of small child and big boot.


Two seconds later, I had this:

The kid is SPEEDY!

Here's one of my favorite faces. He's snorting. It's hilarious.


More cute baby!


It's not totally apparent here, but The Boy adores his sisters. And they love entertaining him, even if their form of entertainment is to yell, loudly, their favorite songs in an attempt to calm him down.



In other news, The Hub and I have/are starting new jobs. I started mine three weeks ago--I'm a private in-home tutor to three students through a tutoring company. It's only a couple of hours a night a few nights a week, and the money ain't bad. More importantly, and somewhat surprisingly, it's something I really enjoy. Three students is a bit much for me--two of them are once a week, but the third is three days one week, no days the next week. She comes in waves. Anyway.... It's nice to feel like I'm contributing to our finances, but I truly enjoy helping these students improve.

THE HUB, on the other hand, IS A REAL GROWNUP WITH A REAL, GROWNUP JOB! On Monday, he starts with LDS Employment Services. Here's an excerpt of the farewell email he wrote to his coworkers on Friday, describing what he'll be doing:

"They [the employment center] are implementing some new services, and I have been invited to come in and help them incorporate mental health services and build relationships with area job training programs so that we can help people who have been in long-term unemployment situations get back on their feet. Outside of a pilot program that has been running in Salt Lake City, this is the first place that the church is attempting the program, and I get to come in from the ground up. The intention is to run a successful program and help it get started in the other 114 employment centers around the country. I am very excited."

There will be some travel, obviously--The Hub's responsible for the training in our region--but there will be the excellent benefits and the much-prayed-for increase to his salary, allowing us to finally pay our debts. As we were looking over these past seven years of sacrifice and learning, it became so very apparent how involved the Lord was in every detail, every decision, every trial and experience that we've had. Sometimes we would get frustrated when the timing would, for no obvious reason, be slowed down, but The Hub was in the absolute PERFECT position to take this job exactly when he did. It also helps that he FINISHED the copious amount of hours required for licensing last Tuesday. Oh yes he did! And he couldn't stop grinning for two days straight.

So there are a lot of new, happy things going on in our life right now, we're busier than ever, and we are loving it!