Piece of Cake!!

So! I had been wanting to try my hand at reupholstering for a WHILE now... Yes, I'm totally one of those 50 year old stay at home wives that watches "Trading Spaces" and HGTV... trapped in a 21 year old's body! Everytime I see them remake an old ugly chair/couch into something cool I've ALWAYS wanted to try it! So when I came across this hideously ugly chair I knew it could only get BETTER with me trying!

So I waited until we moved to actually do it. I went and got this totally chic fire engine red corduroy material. I got 4 yards, though I actually only used 3.

Here's the before picture:



And after:




The chair is going in the kids' library corner in their room. I still haven't taken pictures of the condo becuase I'm not done hanging shelves and pictures, and I need to wait on the fabric I ordered for the kids room to come in.

So... there's your preview! :)

Halloween Costumes!!

As most people know, Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday!! I love it for several reasons... Mostly because it's all fun, no real burden of cooking/cleaning/stressing out. The kids LOVE to dress up and it's a very creative holiday, which I am great at! It has so many fun activities... pumpkin hunting at the pumpkin patch, bobbing for apples, making halloween cupcakes (my own personal tradition), and decorating the house in black and orange....

Now I know there are some Christians that consider the holiday a celebration of the "antichrist." I don't... I think you get what you put into it. If you base the holiday on scaring kids, dressing up as morbid creatures or killers, focussing on the negative, you'll only have those memories. Instead, I'd rather my kids remember it for the celebration of fall, celebration of family and innocent fun, and for getting to dress totally silly for a day.

So! Here's a trip down memory lane for me with my babies on Halloween. On Caleb's first Halloween he was a duck. He was only 4 months old, but I remember taking him to Alexxa's dance class dressed up in his duck costume. He was fussy because he was hot, so I ended up taking it off of him anyway. That year Alexxa was a cheerleader. She was SO cute, she used my pom-pons from my cheering days and had a blast. She looked SO cute. We took them to our church for their big festival with a bunch of jumpers, Caleb was tucked in his little stroller and a million blankets while Alexxa went wild in the jumpers, she had a BLAST! Here are a couple pictures of them that year:

The following year, we didn't have Alexxa. (We alternate each holiday every year). But Caleb was Pablo (the penguin from the Backyardigans), and Seth was a Rooster. Brian took Caleb trick-or-treating while me and Lily handed out candy at home, (she was only 3 weeks old..aww..) She had a little sleeper and hat that said, "Baby's First Halloween!" I'll go find a few pictures:

So THIS year, I'm SO excited, The kids are all getting older AND we have Alexxa! So Alexxa had been teetering between being a bumble bee, Princess Belle, and Butterfly... I showed her some examples of each costume as to what I could make and she decided she would be, (and I quote), a "Fairy butterfly-Princess!" I said, "no problem!" (all the while I'm staring at my patterns thinking.. 'how the heck am I going to do that?!') Well, I'm essentially a PRO at seeing a design online that is SUPER expensive and creating my own version for MUCH less. I googled around and found the perfect ideas. She actually had an expensive looking wing/want/tiara combo my mom gave her for Valentine's day one year, so we're set there. I'm going to working with a bunch of tulle, glitter and silk flowers to really dress her up! It's going to a lot of fun!!

On to the boys... Seth and Caleb are BEST FRIENDS... so it's only fitting that their costumes relate! DeAnna and I are SOOOO tired of the "Mider-man" (Spiderman) phase, that we were racking our brains trying to come up with something simple for the boys. A few months ago DeAnna bought "Toy Story," on DVD because it was on sale... Well now Seth is obsessed with "Wooood-y," so it was great when Seth said he wanted to be Woody for Halloween. I googled "Buzz Lighyear Costumes" to see if I could snatch an idea and make it, when I came across the licensed outfit sold at the Disney Outlet store for only $9.99!! It was originally $39.50, so I snatched it up! It ended up being a little over $20 with shipping, which is just PERFECT! I would have easily spent that much in materials if I made it, so that saved me a ton of time!! The next day I was looking at classifieds and ran across the exact disney version of Woody's costume and DeAnna bought it for only $22, shipped! So, check, check! THey're done! :)

Then comes Lily. She's going to be a little over a year on Halloween... I had originally thought to make her a fruit, (Strawberry, apple, banana, grapes, etc) but that's boring. Then I thought maybe a cute little spider... And now I'm thinking of maybe a Pumpkin or Flower... I want to keep it simple but really adorable (and most importantly: warm!)... So as I go fabric shopping for the kids' new room I'm going to keep an eye out for inspiration for her! I CAN'T WAIT... Until next time! :)

Ahh... sigh...

I feel so blessed. Everyday I get up and just thank God for all the many, many blessings he's given to me and my family. I so thankful for the steady job Brian has, the fortunately can provide for our family. I'm so thankful for the wonderful parents and amazing family I have. I know that no matter what, I can always count on them. I'm also so thankful for the friends that I've had for years that I can always count on to be excited for me when good things happen as well as will be sad with me when things aren't going our way...

It's amazing how much having children and learning what real responsiblities can change a person. That isn't to say that all people that have children grow up right away... heck, I know I'm not "grown up," but I can say that having my babies and my husband really puts everthing in perspective. Suddenly, designer purses didn't mean as much to me as having a reliable double stroller. And in moments that I think back at how important I made such material things, I feel a mixture of embarrassment and ignorance... shortly after, I feel proud that I'm able to see the difference.. now.

I am almost thankful for the trials God gives me. Whether it be trying to have the right optimism in a situation, or whether it be waiting on his answers for life changing decisions... I find comfort in knowing that I can always lean on God. I remember, as a child, how distant I felt God was from me. I always believed in "God", but I never felt like I knew him... or like I could talk to him without feeling ashamed of my sins. At this point, I feel like the sooner I point them out to myself and Him, the more comforted I am with the situation I'm in. I'm sure this looks like rambling by this point, but it totally makes sense to me...

Well, I don't really know what the point of my blog was tonight, I was just feeling enlightened on that aspect as I was cleaning and unpacking. Sometimes when I allow my mind to wander so far as to trying to understand God's grace, I get so overwhelmed by His vast-ness I lose all track of what I'm doing and I just can't wrap my mind around His Greatness. He's beyond anything I could imagine or understand... and sometimes I think He's better left as that in my mind than me trying to completely understand... Ahh sigh, I'm going to watch a documentary with Brian then head to bed, so Night! :)

New 'do!

So today I got a new hair cut! I have been needing one for a while, and I finally made it a priority and got it done! I have the most amazing hair stylist in Albuquerque! She's at Ultimate Changes and her name is Rae Toledo... I bet she gets the majority (ok that's an exaggeration) of her business from me recommending her to people! She's my amazing "find" in Albuquerque, I just love how awesome she is at cutting hair.. and she always does EXACTLY what I ask her to do!

So I've been keeping my hair short for a while (mostly because I'm too impatient to actually let it GROW... and also because Rae always has a great idea to do with my hair and just tell her to run wild lol,) so I've had the "wedge" also called the "Pob," (Posh Spice 'Bob') and different variations of it for a while so I was kind of bored with it... so we decided to do an assymetrical 'do. The left side is about 2 inches longer than the right side of my face... I love it. Well.. see for yourself!

Before^

After ^

I love it.. I think I may add a little blonde to one side, we'll see.

Today we didn't get as much accomplished as I hoped. Brian was exhausted and we both got hair cuts today so we just sort of hung out at home. We're still getting the house together... but we'll get it finished soon. Welp, that's all for now! :)

YAY!!!

We got the condo! Which is just perfect for us! I love it... Because Lily and Caleb are going to share a room, I'm starting to redecorate in a modern/chic gender neutral theme, and I'm so excited. With Alexxa starting school and me starting to work we'll most likely only get her 2 days a week and she'll probably only spend the night one night a week.. It's horrible and we hate it, but her mom won't let us have weekends with her because she is off weekends... But she also get to see her every night when she gets off, so we're just waiting for her to let us know when we can have her... It sucks so bad. But because we'll barely have her, I got the kids a trundle bed so we can just pull it out when we have her and save room the rest of the week.

I'm going with this type of theme:




And this one:



I'm looking for cool fabrics and frames than I can tie together, it's been fun. I love to decorate!

Pictures!!

Ok, this blog is officially boring. I need to add some pics, so Here I go!
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This picture was taken 8/10/08, I can't belive how old they look!!

This picture was taken on my cell phone at church last week. Caleb and Seth are in the same class (for now! In 3 months Seth will move into the 3 year old room). They love being in the same class!

The Big Day!

Today we find out if we got the condo! I'm really dying to hear... It's been weird staying at my sister's... I'm really into having my own place/own things/own kitchen/own everything... I organize everything and I'm ready to have all my stuff back that's locked in a PODS unit and just start fresh. This whole ordeal has been SUCH a mess, some days I can't believe it's come to this point... But then I think about how much worse it could be and I'm just happy that so far God has provided an out for us everytime.

So I submitted Brian's application yesterday. The only reason we wouldn't get it is because we JUST found out about something on my credit, (an old apartment showed up for $1000), so as soon as we found out about it we set up payment arrangements, and I'm hoping that they will accept us even with a collection on me. I am still trying to find out what exactly it was for, it was so random! So pray that we get it!

Yesterday was an adventure and a half.... I took the kids to Cottonwood Mall while Brian slept (because he works graveyards), and in the Mall they had this Babysitting thing... It's a really cool little area... It's only $6/hr per child for an HOUR, so I let the kids play there for an hour while I walked around SOLO at the mall.. lol.. I never go alone so it was cool. I got a cute shirt at Old Navy and just browsed around everywhere.. I NEVER go into Eddie Bauer, but for some reason I did and I saw a bunch of shirts that would fit Brian really well! He has a hard time because his shoulders are so broad and his waist is really narrow... But I found him a bunch of polos so we went home, and I came home and woke Brian up. Caleb fell asleep for a while and when Brian got dressed I told him about the shirts he might like, and of course we HAD to go get them THAT day lol... SO we all went BACK to the mall and bought them. We looked for shoes for him too, but we couldn't agree on any. Later on, we watched The Mole as the kids slept lol.. FUN STUFF!

Today is going to be GREAT! We'll have Lexx for the next few days and not seeing her for a week and a half has been MURDER for us! I miss her so much... In fact, a couple weeks ago Brian and I were discussing a transfer with his job in a couple years and after seeing how much I missed her, I just don't know if we could move away from her. Especially with how incredibly attached Caleb is to her... and Lily will be soon. I guess we'll see!

Also, Lily is now standing by herself! YAY! She stands and then cautfiously sits down, it's SO cute! She's going to be running around with Caleb any minute!! :)

Pineapple Express...

First of all, the movie was awesome. It had some hysterical stupid comedy... and I think Seth Rogan is an incredible writer! It was more gory and gruesome than the trailers led me to think... But it was good!!

So, I went with my sister and her friend, Nick. We got there and it was pretty busy.... so I sat down and the previews started... Soon after this elderly couple (he was pushing 90, no kidding!!) sat down next to me.. Then she whipped out this BIG bag full of food.. I couldn't recognize the smell but it's what I imagine liver and onions smelling like.. it was gag-worthy!! I was so grossed out. She even brought a loaf of bread, a giant bag of her own popcorn and drinks! I wanted to say something, but then the old man said, "What are we seeing?" and she said, "What do you think we're seeing?" and he didn't say anything back... lol.. it was sad!! So I just moved over and left my sister to smell it, LOL!

So yeah, eventful evening.... Off to bed!!

We have a silly girl!!

Lily woke up before Caleb did during nap time, so her and I went upstairs to play until Caleb woke up... I was tickling her and snorting on her neck and all of a sudden she started licking my nose! Hehehe.. She's so silly! So I grabbed my camera and got a video of it!

So today I went to wal mart and saw that the Graco Comfort Sport was on sale. I'd never looked anything up about it, but it was orignally MUCH higher priced than the Cosco Scenera... So I bought it instead. I had a hard time installing it and then hopped on my trusty www.car-seat.org to read about it and apparently it SUCKS! Lol! I guess a lot of people had a hard time rear facing very long because their children would outgrow the seat so fast.. so I'm waiting for Brian to get up so we can go exchange it... Yay.. not. Lol!

We've been busy!!

So Brian was in Kansas for a week for work... he had to go for training for his journeyman. I've been at my sister's all week. We still won't know if we got the condo until tomorrow.. I'm praying we do!!

We've been surprisingly busy here. Especially with the car-fiasco. So, when Brian was gone he left his car at work. When we drove 45 minutes to where it was, the battery was completely dead. Brian has "no idea how it happened" lol... Suure... So we called AAA. Our card was expired, so I renewed it. Because the car was DEAD we had to call Pop-A-Lock to unlock it so we could pop the hood and jump it. So that took an hour... So rather than wait around, I went to this weird little thrift store down the road. I found the COOLEST chair ever to try to reupholster for the first time!! I'm so excited... Brian thinks it's disgusting, but duh.. He doesn't have the creative eye I do! LOL!!

So they finally broke into the car, we jumped it and headed home. When we got to my sister's house, this old man, maybe 70 years old, was sitting on her couches. Apparently he was buying her couches off of craigslist (she was sick of them) so he was waiting for his wife to get there with the big suburban they own. After talking to this elderly couple I felt SO bad for them. The reason they were buying new couches was because their roof caved in from water damage from a flood. So they were renting a place until their house was fixed and needed ALL new furniture because of the damage done. Well, 6 HOURS later they left, which completely ruined Brian's "day off" (because he didn't have to work until 11 PM)... But after hearing all that they had been through, I didn't really mind. She was running so late because she fell into water (and was wearing a cast) so she had to cut it off to get over here... On her way to the house her car kept over heating... It was just so sad, and they were SO nice! So I'm glad they got a start on their new furniture... I'll be praying them for sure!

So now my sister is couchless lol.. We went to sofa mart last night and she got a cool leather set.. It's going to be great for her house. She is "sick of hand me downs" lol so this is awesome!

Today we're going to have a busy day. I'm going to go to church while Brian sleeps from working grave yard. Then go to wal mart and get a Cosco Scenera car seat for Brian's car for Lily. We were going to wait until she's forward facing to buy a new car seat for her in Brian's car, but we decided to keep her RF as long as possible and we won't be in his car very often, so we're going this route... It'll also be a good seat to keep around as an extra seat.

Then we're going to look at the condo and go to dinner when Brian wakes up. he still hasn't seen the inside of it, so I think he's going to love it!