April 2016 - Week 1

We just had a normal week around here, so not too many pictures.  Katelyn was excited to be back at School after a week off for Easter Break.

Kyle spent last Saturday morning working on demo for one of our bathtubs.  He will be working on the upstairs one tomorrow.  The contractor is scheduled to come on Tuesday to start work!

Kyle hard at work.  I thought I had more pics of him doing demo.  Sorry it is so blurry.

This morning, after a quick trip to the Library, it had started raining, so I let Madison and Brooklyn run around in it for a little while.  They thought it was great.  Katelyn wanted to stay in the garage with me or be under an umbrella.

That's all I've got.  Short & sweet.

San Diego Zoo & March 2016 - Week 3

Our big excitement for this month was a short trip down to San Diego to take a trip to the zoo.  This was our Christmas present from my mom & step-dad.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids really enjoyed it as it was their first visit to that zoo.  We drove down on Sunday afternoon and stayed the night down there so we could be at the zoo on time the next morning.

This is all for 1 night.  We do not travel lightly. . . .

When we first arrived at the zoo, we took a 45 minutes bus tour around most of the park.

Cousins!

Madison the navigator

Kyle and I took a picture by this statue when we were dating.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it to upload it.  But someday, we will be able to compare the photos.  Probably 11 years apart.

I have been working on a couple small projects for the girls bathroom.  I made plaques with their initials to hang above their new towel hooks.  We had a towel bar before, but it was hard for them to get their towels on and off.  I also made another hair bow hanger.  Our hair bow collection with 3 girls gets a little crazy.  We have now lined up someone to redo our bathtubs and shower surrounds in about 3 weeks.  So you will be seeing more on that in coming weeks.

The one on the far left is the new one.  It matches the headband holder I made last year, although you can't really see that as it is so full.

Here are a couple more random pictures:

Katelyn wrote a story about fairies.  She is really enjoying writing stories, letters, and journaling lately.

 

Here is a video of Madison chatting & playing that I forgot to post last week.  It is a little long, but she dances towards the end of it.

Cute Quotes & Quick Stories:
- "Maybe one day, Mommy, you will see me on TV as President.  But I still also want to be a teacher and a scientist."  - Katelyn
- Madison managed to climb into the full bath tub by herself - with shorts and shoes still on.

Stair Railing & Life - March 2016 Week 1

Kyle and I have been hard at work on some more minor projects for the house the last few weeks.  One thing that we tackled was the stair railing.  It was oak colored and reflected the style when the house was built (1990).  It got dirty way to easy and just needed to be updated, so after some pinterest research, we purchased some gel stain and I got to work.  It wasn't too hard of a project, but the stain was supposed to dry overnight and we had to do 3 coats and then 4 days before the top coat could go (which needed 2 coats).  Therefore, the plastic stayed up for over a week. I was beyond ready for it to come down.

This is the original look.  This is what our entry normally looks like because Tornado Madison can't leave our storage bins alone.

All taped and ready to sand & stain.

This is what it looks like on the bottom of the railing, so a lot of taping went into this job.

After the first coat of stain

First Coat

This is what your hands look like when your cheapo gloves break inside the sock you are using to stain.

The final result!  We really like it with our living room furniture & decor.  Of course the day I take the final picture it is raining outside, so the lighting is pretty poor here.

Next project coming up . . . maybe the downstairs & upstairs bathtubs?  We shall see. . .


Grandma called one morning to say that her electricity was out and she needed to bake a cake for something.  So she came over and of course the girls had to help.

Someone got ahold of my phone and took a bunch of pictures (like 16) inside the Vans store while I was trying on shoes.  Here is one that Brooklyn snapped of Madison.  (Yes, this was the best one available, most of them were of wall displays.)

One of my goals for this year is to get better at braiding the girls hair.  It has never been something I have done much of.  I have been trying to get some practice in.  Brooklyn likes having 'Anna Braids' (from the movie Frozen).

We gave the girls chalk paint for Christmas, but we hadn't used it yet because I wanted nice weather, a day when nothing else was planned, all the girls to be in a good mood, etc.  They have thoroughly enjoyed using it.  Although it can get a little tricky when little sister is around.

Madison walked around with the brown paint and her water for most of the morning.

Katelyn's flowers.

Sunny Days in February & Garage Organization

I am struggling a little with the flow of this new weekly blogging format.  I like the topical posts that I used to do better, because I felt they were probably more interesting to follow along with than just a weekly update of 'here is what we did this week.'  However, it is much easier to make sure I actually stay on top of the blogging when I do a weekly post on around the same day each week.  So please (if anyone is reading this ;-) ) bare with me while I try to get the flow of this down and figure out what is best.


We have been having some wonderful weather the past few weeks (possibly even too warm), so I am trying to get the kiddos outdoors a little more.  The unfortunate part of that means more baths/showers (not my favorite part of parenting), but I guess it is worth it, right?  Katelyn doesn't have school on Mondays and Fridays, so on the very rare occasion where I'm not working and we don't have appointments, I try to do something fun with them.  Last week we went to the park on Friday.  There happened to be another girl from Katelyn's class there that day too, so Katelyn had a blast.

Lunch Time!

On Saturday, we had a work day in the garage.  We bought some new shelving and moved some things around so that the kids will hopefully have better access to their toys.  Before it was just all in one huge tub and finding balls/helmets/toys could be difficult.  It was beautiful outside and we pretty much spent the whole day in the front yard. 

We love chalk at our house.

The finished product

 I might still pick up some more baskets and we need to get rid of a few basketball (I think 5 is too many), but I am really like it so far.  Our hope is that the bikes will stay far enough to the right so that they don't block everything else.  Fingers crossed.

On Tuesday, Katelyn celebrated 100's day at school.  She had to bring in 100 snack items (she picked marshmallows) and she had to turn in a project of her choice last week that included 100 items on it.  After looking through some ideas on Pinterest, she decided to make a skittles rainbow.

The highlight of my week was that they opened a new Hobby Lobby less than 10 minutes from our house on Monday!  So, of course, I had to go this morning with my mom to check it out.  Brooklyn thought these flowering trees in the parking lot were cool and wanted to go stand by one. 

The sun was a little bright . . .

Funnies of the week:
- I found an ice pack in the trash the other morning when making lunches and I asked Katelyn why it was in the trash.  "It's not cold," she said.  Evidently she thought that because it was no longer cold, it was broken.  I promptly took it out and put it in the freezer.
- Why is it that the only time flip flops fly off a kids foot while riding a scooter is when you are in the middle of a 5 lane road?  This of course happened to Brooklyn (aka Speed Racer) while walking to Katelyn's bus stop yesterday afternoon.