Child of Mine

So, I've mentioned before that Mia likes to sleep under Lexsi's bed.  It's a weird pattern.  Tonight, Lex was crying at the door a little while after we put the girls to bed, so we came upstairs to investigate.  It turns out that Mia crawled under Lexsi's bed, then laid on her back and used her feet to lift Lexsi's mattress up and down while Lex was on it.  I asked Mia why she was doing that, and she responded, "Bad choice!" I told her that, yes, it WAS a bad choice, and she needed to stay in her own bed.

After getting them back to bed I shook my head and laughed, wondering where this little punky child came from!  All of a sudden I had a memory come to mind that I had completely forgotten about--- of myself as a child, when I shared bunk beds with Meggin.  She had the top bunk and I had the bottom, and I distinctly remember laying on my back and using my feet to lift the mattress on her top bunk bed while she tried to go to sleep.  She never appreciated it, and I thought I was hilarious.  When I remembered this, I burst out laughing, and have been amused by it ever since.  Mia is me.  Completely.  We both have learned how to rile up our older sisters, and we both think we're hilarious.  I'd like to believe I don't bug my sister as much now as I did when I was a kid, but who knows?  I can fully admit that I tend to say and do punky things and then think I'm hilarious for them!

So, yeah... I've definitely had my moments where I've questioned where Mia came from-- she is a handful!  And now I have my absolute answer... she's me.  A mini version of me.  So I deserve to deal with any antics she sends my way 100%.  She is hilarious and punky and I adore her!

Projects

If you know me at all, you know I love projects.  One of the reasons I was excited about the house we bought a little over a year ago was because I saw the potential it had.  It takes time to get things done the way you like them, but it's definitely worth it in the end!  In the past couple months we've gotten some projects done around here (some big, some small), and it's been pretty awesome!

I always knew I wanted the back wall of my master bedroom to be painted with some sort of design, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  One day I decided to just go for it, which is typical for me!  I bought some painter's tape, taped off a design, and painted it with paint I had on hand!  As usual, I didn't consult DJ first, and as usual he was very complimentary of my design decision.  I'm blessed to have him around-- he's super tolerant!  So here are the before and afters: 

In the spring, I decided I really wanted another rocking chair before Pyper was born.  We have a big recliner/rocking chair in our upstairs living room which is super comfortable, but we only have a couch and loveseat in our basement living room, and I really wanted a rocking chair since DJ and I spend our time down there in the evenings once the girls are in bed and inevitably I'm going to want to rock Pyper down there some times.  I wanted a little rocker, and didn't really want a glider.  I had a glider with Lexsi and it broke really fast.  Well lucky me, I found this rocking chair online for only $5 from someone here in Brigham!  It's a whole lot like a rocking chair my mom had when I was a kid, which I kind of loved.  I took the back and seat off and brought them down to my mom's house, and she recovered them for me!  I paid about $25 for the fabric and new padding, so in total I only paid $30 for this super cute rocking chair!  I love it!

This last and most recent project was by far the biggest and most time consuming of our recent projects, and I feel super gushy about it!  When I moved into my house, the upstairs living room was carpeted, the walls were all beige and the railing and hand railing to the stairs were honey oak... not my fave:

Before we moved in, we painted all the upstairs walls except the two going downstairs, because we didn't have an extension ladder to be able to reach all the way to the top.  If you know me at all, you can imagine how much it drove me crazy to see those two walls the ugly beige for over a year when everything else was a nice dark grey!  Yuck.  Last summer or fall some time, I decided to get to work on the railing.  I painted all the spindles white, and it was a good start:

Shortly after, DJ stained the top and end post of the railing to match our kitchen counters, and it looked even better!  Then he ripped up the carpet and installed new flooring, so things were moving right along:

Unfortunately, with DJ being the head coach of three different sports, he doesn't get a lot of time during the school year to do home improvement projects.  I have told him numerous times that the reason he doesn't work in the summers is so he can work for me, and he's such a good sport about that!  As I already mentioned, he's super tolerant of my ideas, and is happy to jump in and help make them happen!  I decided at some point during the past year that I really wanted the wall going downstairs to be planked.  I figured it would make a good focal wall, and fits in well with the overall design feeling in our home.  So a couple weeks ago, we went to Lowe's and bought a whole bunch of plywood (8 sheets I believe, but I think we only ended up needing around 5?).  We brought it home and DJ cut the planks into the size I requested.  I spent a couple afternoons white washing all the planks.  I also decided that, for variety's sake, I'd "blue wash" some of the planks using the blue paint we have on our big wall in our living and dining room.  I'm SO glad I did!  I think it adds serious visual interest.  After the planks were all painted DJ installed them.  We had to buy an air compressor and nail gun for this project, and totally blessed out when we found what we were looking for on sale for only $50!  We also had to get an extension ladder.  The cost of the tools we purchased ended up being more than that cost of the wood to do the wall, but that's totally okay cause now we have the tools for other projects.  That's just part of owning a home-- accumulating tools and supplies for home improvement!  In the end, the wall turned out just how I wanted it to... I'm obsessed!  It's so awesome to have the space finished, and see my ideas become realities!

 This is the bottom of the stairs:

One day I want to refinish the stairs so that the step is wood, stained the same dark brown as the railing, and the rise is painted white.  For now, though, with toddlers and another baby on the way, carpet is just a safer finish so we're sticking with that!  I love this space so much!

Major Catch-Up

I feel like every post I write is either a pregnancy post or includes something about "Catch-Up."  Welcome to real life, I suppose!  Since things are going to be busy the next couple weeks and then I'm having a baby, I really needed to get these pictures up so I don't fall behind with Pyper and her birth story and pictures!

Just because my girls are cute, and I LOVE that they're so close in age and are best friends!

Our driveway is a 2.5 car width driveway, but only 1.5 widths of that is paved, the last portion is gravel.  Unfortunately, that means weed grow up through that section of the driveway.  The girls have taken to calling it "the woods" and like to go sit under the tree in there.  Since this picture was taken, we have sprayed the weeds and invested in a weed whacker.  Ha!

I found Lex reading the Bible one day:

We bought Lex a little golf club set and during golf season DJ would take her out during practice (he's the head golf coach) and let her hit around.  She loved it so much!  

I bought the girls goggles for summer, and naturally they needed to wear them around the house.  Which was awesome.

And Mia needed to wear hers to the store.  Also awesome.

Just the cutest 1-year-old around!

I got the girls new beach towels, which happen to be HUGE, so they use them to lay on and to cover up with:

We went out for ice cream after the Payson Temple open house, and Lex insisted she wanted pink ice cream.  I was not interested in anything but chocolate, so her Daddy, being the awesome guy he is, chose a pink ice cream to share with her!

A little cousin Play-Doh time!

For my birthday I made a chocolate and regular swirled cheesecake with chocolate ganache and Oreo's... it was divine!  My mom was a little put out with me that I made my own birthday dessert, but there you go.

In May, Mia moved from her crib to a toddler bed.  I never planned on moving her out of a crib this young, but one night she figured out how to climb out and fell to the floor (while DJ and I were gone and Ranee' was home with the girls, which is kinda funny), so we decided for her safety to take the front rail off the bed.  Lexsi moved to a toddler bed when she was about 17 months old and had zero issues with the transition.  Mia is a little more adventurous than Lex, so it took a little bit for her to get used to it.  The first night she fell asleep in the middle of the room, but the second night she only had to be put back in bed once and then stayed there.  These days, she sleeps under Lexsi's bed or her own bed at least half of the time.  It's a little weird... I think she wants to be close to Lexsi, and likes the feeling of being closed in, so she just crawls under a bed to sleep.  Whatever makes her happy I guess!

The girlies reading books to each other:

My sweet tiny girl:

We went to Lovell the last week of May, which was awesome!  I was worried I wouldn't make it there this summer since I'm having a baby right in the middle, but luckily DJ got done with school before Memorial Day, so we got to make the trip!  My girls had an absolute blast with all the family there!

We took Lex to visit Mammie's parents' and sister's graves, and she thought it was the coolest thing ever!

We gave the girls ice cream cones for the first time ever... they ate the ice cream off the top and then stopped.  They didn't seem to understand that they could eat the cone too.

Lex shared a room with Savanna, and developed an obsession with covering herself with pillows (???):

When we got back to Brigham, my mom came up with Josh's 3 girls to visit and we went to the pool!

The next weekend Josh and Kristen got married, which was great!  I went down on Thursday evening to help my mom get everything ready (the wedding was in her back yard on Saturday morning), and DJ came with the girls on the day of the wedding.  It was a big job to put it all together in a day, but we did it and I think it turned out well!  I'm just glad these two and their 6 kids got to be together!

Mia sharing a drink with Grandma Kaiser:

Meg came in for the wedding, and she and her kids stayed for about a week in Provo.  Lexsi and Annie had such a great time together!  They played together nicely for hours every day without fighting or being bossy or mean... it was awesome!

Since my girls love being outside so much, I bought them a water table to play with this summer!  So far it's been a hit.

We spend time outside in swimsuits playing with water nearly every day.  And of course we need frozen treats to help stay cool!

Mia is my fruit girl, and will try any new fruit I give her!  It's awesome having a child who loves fresh produce as much as I do!

Mia and Cosmo:

Girlies cooling off with popsicles:

We went to Bear Lake last Monday, and it was the perfect day for it!  There were less people there than I've ever seen before, the temperature was awesome, the water was warm, and the girls had an absolute blast digging on the beach!  They didn't want to leave!  We'll go up one more time before I have this baby, since after she's born I won't be able to get in the water up to my incision, because it will obviously need to heal more before I'm submerged in water-- particularly lake water.  But we'll probably still go back after she's born at least once and I'll just be careful to stay dry.  We love Bear Lake too much to stay away! 

These girls are the very best.  They have their moments where they fight (like, wrestle each other fight), but generally they are the best of friends!  I love how close they are in age, and I love that Pyper and Mia will be just as close in age!  Having babies so close together is wild, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

For literally at least 20 years, I've wanted a covered swing.  This week, my dream came true!  We bought a swing and put it on our back patio, so now we have a super comfortable spot to sit and watch the girls while they play in the yard!

And that's it for now.  Hopefully I'll stay caught up a little better, but I'm not holding my breath... haha!