Snow Fun!

My kids love playing in the snow! A week ago Sunday we had massive amounts of snow fall. The kids were so excited and told them that after we ate dinner they could go outside and play. They built an awesome snowman! Isabelle rolled that huge bottom ball all by herself! Ben did the head and Matt did the middle. I was super impressed! Afterwards they had a snowball fight. Matt's snowballs were more of the bowling ball size variety. I kept warning him to be careful, but the snow was pretty soft so it didn't hurt anyone. They had SO much stinkin' fun!

A Big Boy Room For Ben

I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this project Matt and I have undertaken! It makes me smile and gives me warm fuzzies and I can spend all day in this room and stare around and just smile. It's Ben's new room. If you have ever been to our house you know what I am talking about when I say Ben's room is small! It is small and narrow and feels more like a big closet. But it is his room and he loves having it be his own. His furniture has always fit so awkwardly & his bed was too long to place lengthwise against the back wall. it has been a point of frustration for me & I have always hated his room. But now.....it is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here it is! Haha! Just kidding, this is Isabelle's room and Ben temporarily got the top bunk. Feel for the boy, he had to sleep in a pink room!
We decided that a loft bed would be perfect for his room and so we custom built him one. His original bed was the bottom of a bunk bed, it didn't look bad, it just didn't fit good. So we took apart both beds and salvaged wood to build the new bed. We only had to buy a few pieces of wood...so nice!

Matt really got into this project, so it definitely got rolling fast!
See how narrow his room is???

The kids are inspecting the frame. It was torture for them to not be allowed in while mom & dad were working.

We got all of the slats (salvaged!) screwed in place.

And then we built the ladder. That was pretty tricky, but "What's gonna work? Teamwork!" I know you love my feet, I was taking a break =) I wish I had painted my toes...hmmm...another day!

Here is the frame, rail, and ladder & partial priming. It's a mess, but yeah we did let him sleep on it.

I had to putty and sand the walls too.

He is one happy boy!!!!!

But just wait until you see the final pictures...they are amazing!!!!!!!!!

my "new" chair

So a couple of christmas's ago my sister-in-law Abby bought me these cute flannel fabrics. I LOVE them & think they are so cute! Plus they are totally me! I haven't been able to figure out what to do with them because they are so cute & I wanted to do a cool project with them. Well I found something to do with the brown one with the pink roses, but not the blue...if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them!

Isn't it so pretty???

Well I was thinking my desk chair needed a facelift...it was too boring for me. Soooooo.....

What do you think????I am loving it and want to paint my desk that bright pink and scuff it up a bit. Matt says I can't do that until this summer when school is out. He is worried I won't be able to finish in a weekend and then won't have a place to do my homework...yes father...
So this summer that is my plan...I can't wait!

FLAT STANLEY RETURNS!!!!!

In Isabelle's class they had to pick a relative who lived in a different city, state, or country to send Flat Stanley to. They are learning about sending letters and wanted to learn about places where other people live. They read the Flat Stanley books, apparently he was hit over the head by a bulletin board and became flat, so now he can mail himself in an envelope and visit his friends!
Isabelle sent her Flat Stanley to California to visit Grandma Bonnie! He had a spectacular visit and here he is returned back to Isabelle.

He visited a book store and found a book for Isabelle that has her name on it! She absolutely adores these fairy books & is constantly checking them out of the library! She was so so so so so so so excited that Flat Stanley brought her one for her very own!

Here she is with all of her pictures and postcards. I wish I had taken some pictures of the pictures cause they were so cute. But they are at school right now on their classes giant U.S. map. There are pictures with my mom's dog Molly & Erin's bird Jack. Flat Stanley also visited another first grade class and Disneyland! What a lucky Flat Stanley!

Isabelle is very happy to see Flat Stanley again. I think she missed him!

Check out her loot! She even got California Golden Poppy seeds! We will have to plant these in the spring! Ok so see the cute pink mickey bracelet??? Funny story...Isabelle has a rainbow colored bracelet that looks very similar except the beads are just balls and not mickey heads. When we went to Disneyland with my Mom Isabelle got excited when she saw these because she has one almost like it. Well apparently my mom has been dying to buy her one of these mickey ones, but hasn't had a good excuse. So when they were at Disneyland with Flat Stanley, Heather told my mom that she thinks Flat Stanley really wants to buy Isabelle that mickey bracelet. My mom perked up and said that she thinks she is right! And so Flat Stanley brought Isabelle her mickey bracelet! She was so excited to finally have a good excuse to get Isabelle this bracelet! And yes, she LOVES it!

Three Men and Two Little Kids.

My "little" brother Andrew came up to visit with his friends Alex and Eddy! It was So much fun having him visit!!!!!!
The kids loved it and were so sad when they had to leave!
(I love Andrew's smile here...it totally looks like my dad's!)

But Andrew will be visiting us again shortly...more on that later...

Sharing is Caring.

Matt and I have always been so grateful that our kids are such good friends and get along so well! They are truly each other's best friend! They were playing with the lite brite the other day and I was amazed by what I saw...

They were constantly in each others way...and they didn't care!

They shared & were so nice to each other.

Ben looks a little irritated in this picture, but he was just talking....

Oh how I love my kids!!!

The end result...

Scooby dooby doo!!!!!

(So after I took these pictures they did have a little tiff...so they aren't perfect! But for the most part they got along and let each other be in the way!)

bathroom round 2

Our bathroom is on it's way up! We started redoing the floor and are replacing the sink. It has been a long process, but so worth it!

Here is our ugly linoleum...I've seen worse, but still..it's ugly!

Here is our cracked sink, I have always been worried about it leaking, it hasn't and thankfully now it never will =)

Yup, our toilet is in the bathtub! Here is the subfloor we laid. I actually thought it looked really pretty and wished we could have kept it, but oh well. More pictures will follow....See the yellow walls, I loved them! But I needed a change in there & am deeply and madly in love with the new color! And our floor looks amazing!

Stay tuned for more pictures...

Isabelle Hair & Spelling

Isabelle has been begging me to cut her hair. I haven't wanted to but the ends were so damaged that it was a pain to comb through! So one morning before school I told her that if sshe was super fast getting dressed then I would cut it. And boy was she fast! Here is how long her hair was before....

And here is the end result! She was totally loving it!!!!

I love how she gets a little sassy when I take pictures!

So...Isabelle has been struggling with spelling. She absolutely adores her spelling teacher Miss Whittle & since she has not been doing so well they were going to place her in another group. She was devastated and in tears. She had to improve on her next test to be able to stay in Miss Whittle's group. So we worked really hard that week & this is what she came home with...

A perfect score!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was ecstatic! She came up to me and said "Mom, you are going to scream when I show you this!" And scream I did! It was very exciting! She said that when Miss Whittle was passing out the tests that she said that Isabelle gets a really huge high five and she gets to pick out two stickers fromt he prize box! I'm so glad she made a big deal out of it, cause it was truly a big deal to Is.

She has had a couple of ups and downs with her spelling since, but mostly ups! I think my little girl is on her way to be a spelling champ!