Home Decor on a Budget.

It has been awhile since my last post. I guess having sick kids doesn't leave much time for other things (beloved blogs included). It also didn't help that after the kids recovered, Dan got sick too, and then me a couple days later. Yuck! Hopefully that is all behind us and we will be able to enjoy our trip to the beach this coming week.

I did however manage to be creative during the sickness slum. I just can't help it! It is who I am. And I LOVE being me!
Last week during the heat wave the kids and I escaped in the air conditioned car and went to Goodwill (One of my favorite places to shop!) and Walmart (another favorite). I found some great treasures and was in heaven! Maybe it was just the air conditioning...NAH I found some great stuff! Check em' out!

two adorable RED kiddie stools
$2.00 each

a 5 strand ivy garland (still had the $29.00 craft store tag)
And I got it for 2.99!

Totally Rad and Totally Red clay pot
I love this jewel!
It was only $4.00!

A random black tray
$1.00

Worn out white shelf
$6.99

Well these things may not look like much to you but to me they are wonderful! Look what happens with a little imagination....

TA DAH!

The ivy and the clay pot now sit atop my plant shelf in the living room.

A fresh coat of black paint, modge podge fabric to the bottom, a little distressing to the edges and wha lah! I intended this for a guest tray to hold extra shampoo, Q-tips and such but it has been adopted as a stuffed animal/doll bed. Hey! Now why didn't I think of that?

A few cans of .98 cent spray paint from walmart and some trinkets I had make for a pretty nice coat rack by the front door. I also spray painted my shoe rack to match. Don't they look great!

The two red kiddie stools are in the kitchen so that Kiera and Ethan have somthing to stand on when they feel inclined to help mommy with dinner or make cookies. I will probably end up stenciling their names on them, cutting their names out in vinyl and having them put their foot prints on them, or something like that....but until then I just wanted to show you that you don't have to spend a whole lot to create something fun and cute. I spent a total of $22.00 at Goodwill and that included two t-shirts that I bought for Ethan for $1.99/each.
Have fun creating!

The silver lining.

This past weekend was great. We relaxed and enjoyed the nice weather. But as soon as Monday came around the kids weren't doing very well. Kiera woke up in the morning with a fever and said her tummy hurt. Ethan was fine until he woke up from his nap and he too had the fever. I really hate it when my babies are sick. I feel so helpless and wish I could make everything all better.

However there is one thing I cherish when those sick days do come. When my babies are sick are the few times I get to cuddle and hold my babies like I did when they were newborns. I don't get to do much of that these days since the kids are much, much too busy to sit still and rock with mommy. Somehow when I sit there holding my babies and just rock in the quiet; it all makes up for the loss of sleep, yucky messes, and crying. I love the cuddle time that sickness brings.


The good news is that Kiera is fully recovered and we are just waiting for Ethan to catch up with her. It looks like he is at the tail end of this bug, so that is good.

Good news! and Show and Tell!

I am so happy to announce that Ryan Stockdale is getting the surgery he has been waiting for. The communities of the Treasure Valley and the Save Ryan Stockdale facebook fundraisers pulled together for him and were able to raise over $90,000.00 for him! We are so happy that this was able to happen and will continue to keep him and his family in our prayers as they go on this next journey.

But on a different note, I wanted to share some of the projects I have been working on and have finished this past month. I was able to a lot of them during the week of scout camp while Dan was gone.
Since I was getting ready to send a couple of them off in the mail, I decided I'd better take some pictures. I got most of the ideas from the Make It and Love It blog. I love her blog! If you ever get the chance you should check it out.

Baby Teething Rings

Nursing Blanket

Covered Wipes Case

Binky Leash

Baby Boys Nursing Blanket Clips

Covered Wipes Case

Girls Hair Clip #1

Girls Hair Clip #2

Baby Girl Nursing Blanket Clips

Binky Leash

Help Save Ryan Stockdale!

Help Save Ryan Stockdale

If some of you have been following me on facebook you'll know a little bit about this. A dear friend of mine is in need of all our help. He and his family have been denied by insurance 4 times to receive a surgery that could save this mans life. So they attempted one last and final time to appeal to the company that he worked for and they had the final say on whether they'd pay for that surgery. It has been a long and hard journey for this family but worst of all...

SURGERY WAS DENIED!!! We have raised over $5000.00 so far and we need to get to $100,000. This surgery is the ONLY chance this man has. Without it he as a 0% chance. I want to thank those who have donated and supported Ryan Stockdale through this tough time. Please consider donating if you haven't yet. Even just a few dollars would help him. Please Please Please help Ryan. He deserves to live and his family needs their daddy. Click on the link below to donate to the Stockdales.

Read his story here http://www.kivitv.com/Global/story.asp?s=10646858

We spend $20.00 to go to the movies or go out for dinner. Lets put that money towards a very worthy cause. If we all pitch in we can save this man's life.

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Company BBQ

This past Saturday the kids and I went to Dan's company barbecue without him (He was still traveling back from scout camp that day). The food was great and kids had a blast with all the activities. Kiera loved being with her cousins Florence and Kaleb and rarely left their side. One of the activities set up was a giant blow up slide. The kids spent most of the time going down that thing and had so much fun! I took Ethan on it once myself and was surprised at how many times the kids went down that thing. Climbing to the top was tiring!

Lets do that again!

Kiera and Ethan also enjoyed the ponies! Kiera went on them last year and knew exactly what to do this time. She went on a couple times since the line was almost non-existent this year. Yea!

Ethan also got a chance to ride. This was his first time on a horse (a real one!) but he did great and wasn't scared at all! If they have the ponies next year it will be fun to see him try it again.


Kiera hid behind me in this picture. It was getting close to nap time and she wasn't going to cooperate this time. Oh well . We had lots of fun, and mom was the only on who got burnt. I should have put sunscreen on at the same time I did the kids. I won't complain though. It was a beautiful day! The only thing missing was Dan. We are so happy to have him home again!

A new week

So this week has gone much better than last Wednesday did. I haven't had any more instances with honey jars or watermelon. Instead, the issue lies elsewhere (I mean that literally too). Nights have been very dull and quiet around here lately. Dan has been gone all week for scout camp. He won't be back til Saturday and it is still only Thursday. I just wish this week would end!

I have had a couple friends though who have been "the wind beneath my wings" so to speak (one friend in particular).When I've gotten to the point that I just need a time out, they've stepped in. I wanted to say thank you to them. You know who you are. Thank you so much for watching the kids for me and letting me have a couple hours to myself to unwind. You don't know how many times you've been there at just the right time, and have made my day so much brighter! Thank You!

I have also decided that I would not make a good single mother. I think I would loose my mind. I know I could probably pull it off if I HAD too but I am so grateful that I don't. I love my husband and appreciate all he does for us. I miss being able to talk about my day to him when he comes home. I hope he is enjoying his time at scout camp and look forward to when he comes home again.

Until then, it is lots of playing outside, craft projects, tiny field trips, and popcicles to keep the troops happy. Enjoy the rest of your week everyone, and if you get an itch for company my door is always open.

The little things

Today I wanted to write some of the little things that I know one day I will miss, but right now sometimes wish were over. Some of you young moms can probably can relate. Last week was a...lets say, tough one for me. I was on edge a lot and everything the kids did during the day drove me nuts! Wednesday was particularly memorable (to put it nicely). All day long it seemed nothing got done. I could swear the kids just followed behind me undoing everything I did. I picked up the books off the floor and put them on the shelf. The books were back on the floor. I just put the cushions back on the couch. The cushions were back on the floor. I just put trash in the trash can. That same trash was back out on the floor. On and on and on and on...

I would tell the kids to come in to eat...nothing happened. I told them to follow me to get their diaper changed... Nothing happened. I asked them to stop whining...nothing changed.

Dan had mutual that night so he was quickly off, which didn't help my I NEED A BREAK situation.

Finally I decided I'd had enough. I NEEDED a break. I blocked the kitchen off, turned on a movie for the kids and went into my craft room for a few minutes. And I mean only a few minutes. 5 tops. I came back out and was happy to hear quiet. No fighting, no whining, no toilet seat clanking...mmmmm yeah! But wait....it is much too quiet....take a few more steps...turn the corner....WHAT IN THE WORLD!!! The quiet was not due to a spontaneous nap party, or them enjoying the movie. Instead, I come to find that the quiet was due to immense concentration and an abundance of artistic freedom.

The children had managed to get into the kitchen that I had earlier blocked off, gotten onto the kitchen table and had created an abstract collage with the rocks belonging to my bamboo plant. Ethan had also managed to get a slice of watermelon to munch on. I guess being artistic makes one hungry. The largest masterpiece I found however was on my beige couch. Each child held a plastic jar of honey (no longer full mind you) and now that honey was cascading down in all directions,forms and designs.

Kiera's hair was plastered to her head and her shirt to her belly. One of their socks (I don't know whose) was saturated and propped up in some sort of sculpture. Ethan's red watermelon juice added to the composition of the piece and he too had the clothes to match.

Needless to say, I was horrified! Baths and bedtime happened instantly and I spent the evening trying to get that goey, sticky mess cleaned up. Thank goodness for my steam vac!
The room is still a little sticky in places but for the most part you can't tell anything happened. I know someday I will be able to look back and laugh at these experiences, but for now I will have to get through them one sticky step at a time...

I would love to hear some similar mom stories. It is always nice to know we're not alone out there.


On a lighter note, I have had some fun times too. Recently those times seem to be due to sunnier warm weather! Days like that show themselves now and again over here and we like to take advantage of them every chance we get.
For some reason I really love this first picture. I know it is just a couple of empty chairs but for me it remindes me of how little time we have here and how fast it seems to go by. My babies aren't going to be babies for very long and I am going to miss these days (honey covered couches and all).


I love watching the kids in the backyard. They love to explore and are always finding things to show me. In this one Ethan found a dead clover flower. Glad to see my weed n' feed worked!

The garbage truck was going around our neighborhood in the morning and I caught the kids peeking through the holes in the fence to see what the camotion was all about. I love this picture!!!!

We really need to get a sandbox when we have our own house. Ethan loves to dig and I know sand would brush off so much easier than garden soil does.

Say Cheese!

Fireworks

The evening of the 4th we celebrated with the traditional family BBQ and night time fireworks. The kids were so anxious to watch them, but I think Dan was even more anxious to set them off. Both Kiera and Ethan had no problems with the noises and Ethan just sat and watched in awe!
This was our first time celebrating the 4th here in Marysville and we were amazed at how many fireworks there were! Mortars are not illegal here and so everyone was setting off firework that I'm only used to seeing done for special shows! It literally sounded like we were at war! It was very impressive! I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July! And mom Happy Birthday!

Neighborhood fire

A sad and scary thing happened on the fourth of July too. A house in our neighborhood caught on fire. Luckily no one was inside and they were able to recover photo albums and the family pets. They believe it was started by fireworks, and I wouldn't be surprised considering it was the 4th.
The fire department had a very difficult time putting the flames out and the fire spread sooo fast! The cedar shingles didn't help out much either. It was sad to watch someone else's home burn like that. I am so grateful for the blessings that I have.

These are a few pictures I took after the fire was out and cleaned up later that afternoon. The second story is completely destroyed and the family is not permitted to enter the home at all.

Halloween too?

The day of the fourth was very busy not only did we go to the Disney train in Seattle and taste a little of Christmas but we also had a little bit of Halloween too. Dan's mom brought up all her boys' old Halloween costumes to distribute amongst the grand kids. The kids had lots of fun dressing up and trying them on. Here are a couple pictures of the fun.

Even Grandpa Glenn got in on the fun.
Doesn't he make a great knight in shining armor?

Christmas in July

This past weekend we celebrated the fourth of July but the day of the fourth in some ways we celebrated Christmas. We made our way to Seattle and saw the Disney Tour Train. They have been making their way accross the country and Seattle happened to be one of their stops. Disney is making another movie A Christmas Carol and it comes out around Christmas time this year.



Here's Dan and Ethan making our way to the train. The kids have never been on a real train before and this was exciting for them. It was especially exciting for Kiera. She looked forward to it from the time she found out we were going.


In one of the train cars there were a ton of flat panel TV screens with scenes from the movie showing you how they did the animation. It was fun to see and the detail put into it was amazing.


The animation for this movie was done similar to that of Monster House where there were actual actors, but they wore special suits so that their motions could be changed to digital animation. But in this movie the animation was taken one step further and the features of those particular actors were incorporated into the animated characters. Scrooge is played by Jim Carey. He isn't one of my favorite actors but he did a great job as Scrooge.

These are pictures of clay models of the faces for Scrooge and Bob Cratchit. These were later taken by the digital artists and transferred into the computer. Pretty cool huh?

Before and after getting on the train we were greeted by these carolers. They walked up and down singing Christmas carols. Both Dan and I thought they did a great job. However I felt sorry for them having to wear those costumes! They must have been dying from the heat!


The last train car was decorated with Christmas dinner and a cozy fireplace. I hoped to get a family picture at one point but Kiera was too busy hanging out with her cousin Florence to do anything with mom and dad. So here's one of just Dan, Ethan and I.
All the kids got stick on tattoos from the crew members as they were leaving the train. They were two candy canes in the shape of a heart. Kiera loved it, and is still showing it off. I wonder how long it will last.
We had fun and are glad that we went. After the train they had a giant blow-up theatre where they showed the movie preview in 3-D. The best part was that is was totally free! and it is something Kiera will remember for a long time.