The Girls' Room

The only before picture I have of the girls' room is from when I first walked through the house.  So here's their room about a month before we bought the house:

That's a queen sized bed - it's a smallish room.  The previous owners sure loved their orange!

We painted the walls and had the carpet replaced before we moved in.  Girly-A had been sleeping in her crib-turned-toddler-bed, but I didn't think we really needed to set that up again, so she just got her mattress on the floor for a few weeks  months. :)  The girls had a big double-wide dresser in here at one point, but I knew it wasn't going to work in the long run - too big for such a small room - so I trucked it downstairs and the mess finally motivated me to get going on my grand plans to modify our bunkbeds. 

 So here it is!  It was clean one day for about a minute, so I took pictures super fast.  :)  I chopped the legs down on the bottom bed to make the whole thing lower, and built a new footboard for the top bed for easy access.  The headboard on the top bed is the original, tied into the bottom bunk in the back corner and a leg-extension there by the window which goes down to the floor and is screwed to the bottom beds' frame for extra stability.  [Nice run on sentence, eh?]  The little reading lights are from Ikea.  I had to drive to Utah to get them, but it was worth it. (j/k - I was there for my brothers wedding, not Ikea's lighting options!)

I made the stair case bookshelf out of scraps in my garage.  Ugh, working with scraps is obnoxious.  But at least it's free!!  The kids helped with the painting:

 We painted the shelf, attached it to the bed and filled it with books and stuff.  Girly-A gets the top bunk and loves it.  :)  See??  Remember the balusters in the living room?  I made that little round table for K-lady with one of them.  It's pretty useless - kind of wobbly and too small for much.  But it holds the chalk for the chalkboard. :)

The wonky tree is a vinyl set from Target - I modified it as I put it up to make it go over the chalkboard; hence the wonkiness.  The chalkboard was a cheapo mirror from a Family Dollar - chalkboard spray paint was a big improvement.  And that's K-lady's reading nook next to her bed, taken over, as usual, by stuffed animals.  

We bought them a new dresser - I actually bought new wood furniture.  And nearly choked on the price tag for a cheaply-built-MDF dresser.  But it fit the space, and I don't like building drawers.  They scare me.   

The butterflies were cut out of cardstock w/ the cricut.  They were attached w/ glue dots, but the changing humidity made them fall off -- it was kind of funny to see 'dead' butterflies all over the floor, window blinds and bunkbeds.  I got out my little hand staple gun and made sure they wouldn't fall off again.  A nice headache for the next time we decide to paint. :)

The best part of the room?  Definitely the cute girls who share it.  

K-lady is 10!

My sweet K-lady is 10 years old now.  We spread her special day out over a week so we could fit in as much partying as possible.  Okay, as much partying as I could take.  She probably could have gone for a bit more.  :)  So the day of her birthday, we had a few other things already on the calendar, but she and I had a little shopping date and she got her ears pierced!  What a grown up!!

Then a week later we did her breakfast in bed - french toast, strawberries & whipped cream with a side of fruit smoothie, kiwi and pop tart. :)  Later that day we had friends over for her party!!!!  We only do parties every other year because I'm a little over the top (Joseph puts up with all my drama for about a month beforehand as I make things WAY more complicated than they need to be...).  :)  Anyway, K-lady wanted a movie party this year, so we found a little internet inspiration and ran with it!

 

This was supposed to sit outside w/ a 'red carpet' but it was raining, so it sat in the entry instead. :)  Did you know Adobe Acrobat can print your files tiled across pages to make big posters out of 8.5x11 pages??  I loved it!

We started out with movie charades - these kids are funny.  Then we moved on to a little paper craft (making stars), photo 'booth' (cardstock-and-kabob stick props), lunch (pizza & chips & fruit), and headed down to the 'theater' (family room w/ lights off, blinds drawn)  :)

They 'bought' the treats @ the concessions stand (K-lady LOVED playing cashier) with Movie Money they earned playing charades, making crafts and eating the healthy portion of lunch. :)  Then they watched The Lorax for 86 minutes of blissful peace, then back upstairs for 'autograph books' -- they each got copies of the pictures we'd taken & decorated their own little books and signed them for each other.  Then presents, cake, ice cream and we were done!!!

Thank you thank you Heidi and Joseph for all your awesome help!!!!!!!!!!!
And as for K-lady....
She is the best oldest sister I could ask for - J-boy and Girly-A don't know how lucky they are to have such a sweet big sister.  She's is Girly-A's second momma, and J-boy's favorite playmate.  She's anxious to do good and be good, and I love that part of her personality.  This year she's started playing the violin in school orchestra, she's enjoying her [mandatory] piano lessons much more, and she's taking gymnastics.  She swims like a fish, and devours books like a bibliosaurus. (that's a book-hungry-dinosaur from one of our silly children's songs albums in case you aren't familiar with the term)   :)  We've been reading chapter books aloud - a couple of chapters a week when bedtime occurs early enough to allow it.  K-lady inevitably sneaks the book away to her room at some point to read ahead, but she happily snuggles up on my bed with her brother and sister for the next installment of reading-aloud, even if it's stuff she's already read.
When she was younger she was so worried about being a big kid - she used to shy away from holding my hand in public, or saying, "I love you!" when I'd drop her off at school.  But she's grown out of that (or youthened out of it???)  Now she's okay with all of that stuff.  I'm not sure what changed, but it seems like she's more settled in her skin as a kid (albeit a double-digits-nearly-pre-teen-kid!), and more willing to enjoy those little kid moments.  I love that.
I love her.  She's a keeper.

School Days

School started too early this year!  The kids started school while I was filling in at Joseph's office so it was a crazy time.  I have nothing but utmost respect for working mothers - that is one hard lifestyle!!!  I'm grateful I get to be a stay-at-home-mom most of the time.  It's so good to be there to drop off and pick up and run around, but most importantly BE HOME with them.  

So here they are - squinting into the early morning light with rather unflattering pictures, but I did actually take them on the first day of school!!!  

Yow!  How did I get a FOURTH grader??!!

 Do you like J-boy's Christmas green-and-red socks with his sandals??  He's always had his own sense of style....

 Little Girly-A is doing preschool at a sweet local Christian church MWF for 3 hours in the morning.  She's loving it.  We got out K-lady's 4T clothes that had been in storage for 5 years, and seeing Girly-A wear K-lady's clothes to preschool (the same ones K-lady wore to her preschool!) is sending me into crazy flashbacks.  I thought K-lady was such a big girl when she was 4 going to preschool (probably because I had a 2 year old and was pregnant at the time...).  But Girly-A is such a little half-pint to me.  Makes me think that maybe I've been making K-lady grow up way faster than she needed to.  Time to slow that down for sure!!!  

 Grandpa and Grandma L made the 2-hour-one-way drive to go to the kids school for Grandparents Day.

We all did little art projects and ice cream the school supplied.  It was a smashing success.

 J-boy had specifically requested that they bring him some goat milk - he was terribly pleased that they remembered!  We had strawberry- and chocolate-flavored goat milk for a snack as soon as we got home, then sent Grandma and Grandpa on their way back home - they had to get home and milk those goats again!!  :) 

The REAL big day!

 Here she is!  (Whew!  I was feeling like a wedding planner at this point.)  We had a wonderful day celebrating K-lady's baptism.  Here she is outside our church building...

 Daddy baptized and confirmed her a member of the church - the picture above is right before they went into the water.  We baptize by immersion to represent being washed clean of sins and being reborn as a child of God.  As part of the ordinance, we make covenants with God.  We promise to take care of each other and try our best to be good people.  God promises to bless us with His Spirit.

This is probably much too personal and serious for a blog, but I felt so humbled and honored as I watched my daughter and husband participate in this ordinance.  I felt like our family got a little closer to being together forever.  It made me catch my breath.  It was beautiful.

 Of course best friends must be present for such a wonderful occasion!  (don't they look like fire and ice?)  :)

And wonderful family and friends made it extra special.  I did not in a million years expect all these people to come!  2 Grandpa's, 1 Grandma, 3 Aunts, 2 Uncles, 10 cousins (I got to meet that sweet-as-sugar baby up there for the first time)!!  All driving 2-3 hours to get here, and seemed quite happy about it, too (which was even more amazing to me!)

 And wonderful friends-that-might-as-well-be-family, too.  I still can't believe they came - wonderful ladies!

There were FOUR kids baptized that day!  Quite a shock for our little congregation - the entire chapel was FULL for the meeting.

 Then everyone (40 people!) came over to our little house for a ham dinner - Dad, Joseph and Doug figured out how to glaze the ham with just a little help from Heidi and the instructions. :)  It was so fun - the kids just ran around and the adults chatted.  It was a great way to celebrate together!

These last pictures are from my little 'photo shoot' with K-lady a week or two beforehand.  We went to a lovely park here in town and caught some beautiful late afternoon light and had fun - though K-lady didn't have as much fun as I (NO MORE PICTURES, MOM!).  But I just couldn't quit - I loved being able to catch these moments.  My little K-lady is a wonderful person - I can't wait to see what she does with the rest of her life.  She is kind and caring, and gently negotiates and maneuvers her siblings (as a big sister and mother, I can say with good authority that these are essential skills for a happy home).  She is anxious to do the right thing and tries to do good.  She loves to laugh, is cautious in new situations, but quickly adjusts and adapts.  And lest you think she is too good to be true, she's also sassy.  She hates showing affection in public, and is quite concerned that her friends might be within hearing distance when I say, "Bye!  I love you!" as she gets out of the car at school in the morning, and absolutely refuses to acknowledge my expressions of affection.  :)  But I'll take the cold prickles along with the warm fuzzies, 'cause that's how most people are packaged, anyway.

We love you, K-lady!

Eight Years in Seven Minutes

My fabulous friend Heidi introduced me to this video site - very easy - I threw this together pretty quickly for K-lady, and I love the end result. ;)

The Party

We decided to party on the 18th - seemed like a good day. :)  K-lady invited a few friends (I made her keep it small because I'd been feeling like my brain might explode), and we had a good time.  My wonderful dad arrived the night before for the weekend's goodness, and our wonderful friends Heidi and Doug & their girls came down for the weekend. (please forgive the huge long post and overload of pictures - Heidi took pictures for me, and I love them all!) :)

K-lady wanted a rock star party, but, like I said before, I was in danger of loosing my mind if the party got too big, so we kept it relatively simple (none of that build-a-stage-and-bring-out-the-drum-set-and-karaoke-stuff).   I also had a little mini-personal-crisis about getting too carried away in the fluff of a party, and not remembering the importance of this birthday (in our church children are baptized when they are old enough to be accountable - 8 years old - so it's the beginning of making covenants with God - that's pretty important to us.)  In the end we decided a party would make K-lady happy, and not building a rock star stage would make me happy.  :)  Win-win.

Some of the girls, waiting for a few more guests to arrive.

Decorating their cardboard 'guitars' (crafty/gluey/sequiny/glittery things like this are so nice with girls.  They spent FOREVER getting their guitars just. right.  J-boy and his little buddy were too busy using their guitars as  nunchucks to bother with much decorating)  :)  The girls took these home instead of goody bags.

 

Monkey here was quite happy blowing bubbles while the girls decorated and the boys nunchucked.

 Then we headed inside for some nail polish - it was so fun having the dad's around!  They helped paint the girls' nails. :)

K-lady insisted on helping every other girl paint their nails first, THEN and only then would she allow her nails to be painted.  She was a sweet little hostess.

Another dose of uber-processed-foods for dinner - The dad's took care of making dinner (K-lady had requested cheese and pepperoni pizza, more dorritos, chicken nuggets and mini-sodas.  I really hope these things are appealing because they are rare in our home and she's a kid.  She will grow out of that, right???).  

 Dad helped me put up the decorations. It was so fun having him there!  

It kind of looks like she's sipping that soda in a worshipful way, doesn't it??  :)  (she really was in heaven to have her very own little can) 

And if the food by itself wasn't enough to make your tummy ache, how about a game of twister right afterwards???

Back to the kitchen for cake and candles and wishes and presents and ice cream (yes, all at once, we were a little crunched for time there at the end). 

She bestowed a huge hug on each gift giver.

And the girls rocked out a little right at the end.  :)