Sunday, August 31, 2008

TRANSFORMING INTO PINK

Charli really wanted to help with painting.
So I gave her the roller
before it had paint on it.
She had fun, even with no paint on the roller

Good bye Wizard of Oz, blue sky and green rolling hills

Hello Pink walls!!!

Charli and Daddy painting her room

She missed the wall

Can you tell?

The pink is really coming along

And I am actually doing okay with the idea of a pink room

We do have a girl after all

And she is soooo into princesses, ponies, strawberry short cake

So it really is fitting.

This is just a preview of what is to come. Soon there will be polka dots, new curtains, furniture, lighting and accessories.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

POLKA DOTS



So here is the concept we are going for, for Charli's new updated room. We are going to paint her walls a light pink, white trim on the windows and base boards, and polka dots all around. I love these different size and color polka dots in this picture!!!

I cleared Charli's room out and just her big furniture is left. We are going to break down her bed, which is a crib that converts into a toddler bed, that she is just getting too long for. Chad is going to be building a bunk bed that will replace the toddler bed.

Tomorrow is clean the walls and prep the room day. Saturday is prime and paint day. And Sunday and Monday are finishing touches day. We both have Monday off so, my goal is to have everything painted and back to normal by the time Tuesday rolls around.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

A wonderful reminder.....


On Being A Mom

By Anna Quindlen



All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.

What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.

Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One boy is toilet trained at 3, his brother at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow.

I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month-old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.

Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the Remember-When-Mom-Did Hall of Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language-mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, What did you get wrong? (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts.

It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

Thank you, Jenna for posting this amazing reminder of what is really important in life, when raising children. I was very touched by this and I hope others who read this are too.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

3 * 4 * 5

We have 3 birthday's coming up this month and next month.
I am on a big personalized shirt kick,
and the end result always turns out
cuter than I had expected.
Skyla, Charli and Evelyn
are the lucky recipients!!!

Here are the back of the shirts.

It really is so easy and so fun to make.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

CHARLI'S NEW PAD!!!

So I came up with a crazy idea today to completely redue Charil's room. We are going to paint her walls a light pink with white trim and different shades of pink, white, black and red polka dots, different sizes. I think I will paint the polka dots like a border around her room almost like a chair rail border. She is upgrading to a twin size bed in September from her toddler bed. Her room is currently painted blue and green. The blue is the sky and the green is rolling hills to resemble the hills in the Wizard of Oz. My original goal with her room was to paint Wizard of Oz murals all around. Well I was 9 mths prego when we painted and I had this grand idea that it would all get accomplished and I would have all this time after Charli was born to finish. Well needless to say Charli is turning 4 in less than a month and the murals have never been completed and never will. So we are starting over with a more fun kid theme that i think she will really like. Once we start I will for sure post some pictures of the progress. I am soooooo excited for this new and fun change.

LOTS OF NEW STUFF!!!

There seems to be lots of things going on in my life all at once. Some good and some I am having to get used to.

* I am still liking my new hair style. It is really easy to do and seems to stay cute for the whole day. That is a big bonus, given that I have kids in my house all day and by the end of the day I don't feel so pretty. The only thing I am not so much liking is that not all my hair will go up. The hair at the back of my neck is pretty short and will not stay up. But otherwise I am able to bobbie pin the majority up and get it out of my face.

*I recently purchased a set of alphabet and number cookie cutters. I was so excited when these two things were delivered. I am starting curriculum with the kids next week. We will be learning a letter a week. I can cut out sandwiches, quesadilla's, cookies or whatever else to coordinate with the letter or number that we are currently learning. I am also planning to make #4 cookies to have at Charli's 4th birthday party.

*Speaking of Charli's upcoming birthday. I have not quite come to terms with the fact that Charli is turning 4 soon. Which means that she is that much closer to going to Kindergarten. We won't even go there. I just get emotional when I think about that. Anyway's Charli's past birthday parties have always been held at Bama's house. It has always been such a great location for her birthday. Well we have had some family changes as of late and it seemed aparent to me that maybe we should change the location of her party this year. I decided that a local park here in Paradise would be a good new location for this year. While I know Charli is fine with the new plan I am having to come to terms with this. Change is just hard sometimes.

*One of the gifts Charli is getting for her birthday is a big girl bed. She is soooooo excited about it and asks me on a regular basis when she is getting her bed and when is it going to be her birthday. I have hung a calendar in her room and every day she crosses off a day to count down to her birthday and her party. It is some what helping but it is just so hard to wait when you are 3 yr old. In Charli's words " mom it is going to take a hundred years!!!"
Once she gets her new bed there will be no more crib, and Charli will offically be a big girl and not a baby anymore. All you mom's know what I mean. I am having a hard time with this one as well.

* We are planning to add to our family as soon as possible. Charli keeps telling me that she has the baby in her tummy and do I have one in mine. I tell her I don't have one yet but hopefully soon. She does go back and forth about wanting a brother or a sister. Usually she says she wants a sister and she is going to name it Charli just like her. So we shall see.

Monday, August 4, 2008

NEEDING MEAL IDEAS

I need help!!! In the meal planning department that is. I feel like I am in a rut as far as what to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It seems we have been eating the same meals every week and I am buying the same groceries every week. I know we need to change it up a bit in our house. So I am asking for any and all ideas for new and exciting meals. Tell me what you and your family eat and what your family meals are. I am open to any suggestions.

Friday, August 1, 2008

NEW HAIRSTYLE


I got a new hair cut today, and totally went off on a limb. I will be the first to admit that I am not daring with my hair. I wish I was more outgoing but for some reason I have never been able to get up the courage to just go all out and get a really fun haircut. Jenna cut her hair a while back and was so carefree about it. I really wish I was more like that. Sometimes I feel like my hair is a extention of my body and just can't bear to part with it. But today I took the plundge!!! I have really been liking the new trendy A-line hairstyles. So today I told Marianne, my stylist that I was really wanting an A-line hair cut. She is just so amazing and I just love her, I think that is why I have stayed with her for 8 yrs now. If you are looking for a new stylist I highly recommend her!!! She just knows me and my personality. She know that I am conservative with my hair. I think she was amazed that I got such a haircut today. Marianne you really are amazing and one of the most amazing people I know. I love you!!!