Basement!

Challenge: bring trim down the stairs into the basement.The Clarks are pretty much the coolest people ever. Not only did Chay install all of our trim, but April took the kids while he was doing it so that Jeff and I could go on a date. Love them!

A nail gun makes the job about a thousand times faster. Never again will I hold up crown moulding and fumble with a nail with one hand, while trying to hammer the nail in with the other hand. No. A nail gun is the way to go. Wish I'd learned that about four rooms ago.

Dremels are AWESOME. And dangerous.The smell of new carpet is so good.
We pulled the recliner out of storage. The kids had a blast rocking, putting the footrest out, putting it back in, etc. Okay, so Michael and Faith had a blast. Lauren would pretty much prefer to not be on it.
I think we're done with home improvement projects for a while - at least until the weather is warmer, when we have a fence to put in, a patio to build, grapes to plant....

Birthday Girl!

Faith turned three yesterday. Her birthday has been kind of a week-long affair, with celebrations with both extended families, as well as our own immediate family. Last Sunday we went down to Jeff's parents' house and had cake while watching the Super Bowl. She REALLY wanted a "horsey" cake after seeing these pillars in my cake closet.
(No, that isn't ALL cake. The bottom is actually a cake dummy. Only the top is cake.)

She woke up yesterday morning and informed me that she was three. Then she proceeded to want three of everything all day "because I'm three." She wanted three ponytails in her hair, three pancakes for breakfast, etc. It was pretty funny.

I've never made much of a big deal for birthdays before, but really, it's like their very own holiday. So I want to make them special. This year I let Faith choose what we had for breakfast. Then we had Kenzie and Julia over for lunch, which was mac and cheese, veggies and ranch, and cake for dessert. (Thanks for coming, April. It was so fun!) Of course, I didn't get a single photo of the three of them.When Michael came home from school we gave her some birthday presents. Michael gave her a little Strawberry Shortcake doll that has cute dresses and accessories, and a book of "Stories for Three-Year-Olds." She was really excited. Jeff and I gave her a dollhouse, which has been a big hit. She wants to play with it constantly. Actually, she wants to play with Strawberry Shortcake in the dollhouse constantly, so it's really cute.
We went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner that night. Isn't that the look of a happy girl?
Tomorrow we are going to Gunnison for a Hansen family quarterly activity. We will have cake again. Faith is crazy about ladybugs and flowers, so here's what we came up with.I can't believe she's already three. She is so much fun, so darling, and so frustrating all at once. She makes me want to scream one moment and then hug her the next. She definitely has her own ideas and opinions. She's spicy and sweet, and pretty much the funnest 3-year-old I know!

HAIR!!!!

It took over a year, but I was finally able to get Lauren's hair into a little tiny pigtail for church on Sunday.

things I laughed at lately

I was trying to get the kids to clean up the living room (we go through this routine several times a day), and Faith was standing off to the side shaking her hips back and forth like she was dancing. After I reminded her (AGAIN) that we were supposed to be cleaning up, she said, "Let's just do this instead."

Today we had Family Home Evening (yes, a day late - story of my life lately), and we were talking about our bodies and how we take care of them. I asked Michael to tell us why our bodies are so important. He said that they are important because if we didn't have them, then when we ate food, it would fall all over the place. True.

Then Faith piped up, "This is the best body I ever had!"

The other day I was eating a fudge popsicle. Faith asked for a bite, so I gave her one. She ran out of the room. Not 10 seconds later, she was back. "How 'bout I have two bites?"

Faith is always saying she is hungry, but when it's time to eat, she won't touch her food. The other day she asked for a cookie and I told her no. I told her that if she was hungry, she should eat her lunch. She started pretending to eat a cookie and said, "This is the best cookie I never had!"

exciting news

Lots of exciting news around our house. First is that Jeff is almost finished with the sheetrock! Yay!! He actually thought he WAS done, but then realized that he didn't finish all of it around the window. So he has a few more hours of work to do this week before exciting news number two comes.

Which is, that the mudding and taping will happen starting on the 31st! I'm thrilled that we are finally to this point. I am SO tired of remodeling. The contractor said it will take about 4 days. Then we can prime, paint, hang crown moulding, install carpeting, install the other trim, and move the furniture back in. My goal is to have the family room finished and functioning by Valentine's Day. Of course, the original goal was Halloween, so my goals are usually pretty flexible.

Exciting news number three is that Lauren is starting to stand on her own. Today she stood up in the middle of the floor all by herself, and balanced on her own (while drinking out of a sippy cup, no less), for about 10 seconds before she lost her balance. She'll be walking very soon.

Exciting news number four is that I did 39 push-ups in one minute. I'm quite proud of myself, especially since Jeff could *only* do 36. And yes, these were "real" push-ups, on my toes.

And exciting news number five is that I followed a prompting and just might have set up a part-time job during the summer helping a lady do wedding cakes. More about it later. I'm seriously falling asleep as I type.

What I'm loving lately

Lately, I've been loving the bright colors in this crib.Seriously, love that pink and orange blanket that my mom made for Lauren. And the flannel sheet is pretty cool too.

I'm loving marshmallows and powdered sugar, because I finally got around to making my own fondant, and it was sooo easy, and sooooooo much better-tasting than the store-bought stuff. Faith and I made a "princess cake" just for fun. (I found your card, April. Thank you.)
And I have totally been loving Lauren FINALLY getting a little more hair. I'm thinking I should style it like this all the time.
I'm loving this racetrack that my parents gave to Michael for Christmas. Michael could seriously spend all day playing with it. He and Jeff have set up a system where they keep track of how many times each of his cars makes it through the loop, and then they rank them. It's neat that he can totally entertain himself doing this. It really fits his slightly OCD personality. (Did I say slightly OCD? That's kind of an understatement.)
I'm loving Faith's dress-up outfits. I wish I could find the photo of her in her princess dress, her snowboots, and her bicycle helmet, crouched behind the piano bench with a Nerf gun. But I can't. So you'll have to settle for this one.
And finally, I'm loving this:
Our new Ninja blender. It's awesome. It purees squash like nobody's business (we puree a lot of squash for Michael, and I've never had a blender that actually did it well). Jeff was skeptical and didn't want to pay that much for a blender, but an unexpected gift card to Target softened the blow. Love it.

Posted in the wrong place...

I don't usually post my cakes on this blog. I just put them on the other site. But this one has been taking up a LOT of time lately, and I'm so happy with the final result. Just have to share:Those snowflakes took FOREVER to make. But I absolutely love how they turned out.

Okay, Jeff. I'm back to real life now. I'll get caught up on the laundry today. Right after I finish that transcription file and get the kids fed and run those errands and do that pilates class at the gym.