My boys don’t match exactly too often, but when they do, it makes me laugh and remember all the identical dresses that my mom dressed me and Amy in. Amy wore those dresses for forever!
Here are the matchy matchy boys getting ready to go swimming at the Madsen’s:
Cute eh?
We have finished our first bag of popsicles, I love summer–
On Tuesday while I was in the Midst of Painting, Aunt Cat came down and spoiled the boys rotten. I was grateful for the help with the boys, as it allowed me to get a little bit further in my painting project. The boys had a great time, and she bought them a few new toys. Tucker has been saving for a robot, but Cat found one for a great price, and it has not been put down since we got it. And Truman got a new motorcycle, ball and snake.
We love you Cat, thanks for coming down to help with the project, and spoiling the boys rotten.
No I am NOT pregnant, but we do have a new member of our family, I would like to introduce (Drum Roll Please):
The Green Machine
Toph starts his job in SLC tommorrow, and we thought it might be nice to have a second car so we wouldn’t have to wake the boys up at the crack of dawn to drive Toph to the bus station.
Toph’s co-worker was selling this beauty, and now we are the proud owners of our new truck.
As you can see the boys love it,
especially the tommy lift in the back
I am sad not to be a one car family anymore, but grateful for the convenience that comes from having two cars.
Last year when we moved in (Yes, we hit our year mark on Memorial Day Weekend, can you believe it?) we repainted everything in our PG house. Everything was white. Everything. I needed a little bit of color and spice in my life, so we repainted everything. My husband didn’t, and I don’t think still, understands my reasoning of repainting the ceilings white, but it was so nice to make our home our own.
We’ll I have been saving up since last year to repaint our kitchen, and the paint finally went on sale, and I had enough money, so last weekend the project began and only just finished on Friday.
You can see the process I went through, I promised a few friends I would post the pictures, so they could see the process, and repeat some of it. I must be honest in saying though that it was a TON or work, so when you do it, stock up on prepared food. It was the only way our family survived with out a fully functioning kitchen, as you will soon see what a mess it became–
Here is the before pics of our kitchen:
The kitchen ceiling had not been painted yet, so we started there (doesn’t it look nice? Thanks hubba!):
(We removed the food, doors and the hardware) Then I sanded everything, with a little help from Tuck, before he left for Logan:
I did a test run, oops, too brown, it looked almost purple. I shed a few tears, then went back to home depot to see if they could remix and add more black to it:
A few hours later here is my test door, much better:
Painted the Primer:
It is hard to see in the pictures, but then I painted a buttercreamy yellow color on the cabinet faces:
Followed by the pooh brown color(a few coats):
Finally the Black:
I distressed it:
Then did a walnut stain:
Followed by a clearcoat, a few layers. Now that the inside cabinet units were done, I started on the faces in the garage, sorry no pics of those, it was the same process.
In the meantime, we did not have any kitchen furniture, and the boys stood around a chair to eat, at first they thought it was fun, but then it got old, see the looks on their faces:
After the cabinets were done, we started on the walls. I had found a color that I love the sample of, called brookside moss, after I got it up on the walls though, I was overwhelmed by the intensity of Yellow in the paint.
So back to home depot to have them remix it. we tried it out again, and it still wasn’t right, so we added more brown, and then it was right, here is the first and the last color, The picture doesn’t show the real color very well though.
It was perfect, and here is how everything turned out:
Again, the pictures do not show the true color, but I hope you get the idea, it it sure nice to be done with this HUGE project!
It took alot longer than I had anticipated. I think that is because I ran out of clear coat, had to change the color of the paint to make it “just right”, and a few other minor things. I have no excuse for my nit-pickyness, but I think that it might have something to do with my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Lambert, who engrained this message in our little heads: “If you can’t find time to do it right, how are you going to find time to do it again?” This is a message that has stuck with me thru my many years since 5th grade, and as I was painting everything, I truely did think I have got to do this right this time, I don’t want to live in this mess again!
It has been almost a week since my last post! I have been so SUPER busy this week, and been focused on so many things (especially my latest home improvement project–the kitchen) that I have not taken the time to post! I have made MANY mental notes for specific Blogs, and hence the reason for so many posts today!
This weekend has been a very lonely weekend for me, you see my husband took Tuck and Tru up visit their Grandma and Grandpa Phillips. They left on Saturday Morning and are returning on Monday Afternoon/Evening. While they were gone, it was my job (and my choice) to repaint the kitchen cupboards. This has been a task that I have wanted to do for a long time, since we moved into our house last year, so I was grateful for my husband for taking the boys so I could finish this task in a reasonable amount of time, (instead of me trying to paint over the next month, while all our kitchen stuff is piled in our front room). But I have missed the little pitter patter of their feet. I have missed my husband joking with me as I paint everything 3 times. I miss hearing the words Mom and Hubba.
I am excited for my kitchen cabinets to be painted and finished, but I am more excited to see my sweet husband and boys again. The depth of my love runs deep. It is not material things that matter in life, it is our family and our relationships that matter most.For that reason, I am pumped to see them tomorrow. I love you My boys!
On Thursday afternoon, Tucker and his friend Andy decided they wanted to have a Star Wars Party after seeing a display at the Post Office. Tucker really enjoyed his cousin Annabelle’s Star Wars Birthday party a few weeks ago(see previous post), but mostly his interest in Star Wars peaked when he was introduced to C-3PO and RTD2 (I don’t know if I spelled those right-) They are robots, and really cool ones in the eyes of a 4 year old. He likes the idea of the Good Guys getting the Bad Guys, but mostly it is the robots that intrigue him in Star Wars.
Well since Andy would be at our house all day on Friday,I thought, “We could plan the party today, have it on Friday, and the boys will be so happy to be working towards something they really want for the next two days. So the planning began.
I asked the boys what they wanted to do at their party, and they said they wanted to have a Star Wars Cake and “have activities” and Build a Rocket. I thought, great, great and great! Nothing makes a Mama Happier than Happy Children. So we planned ourselves a party.
)We were on our way to Target to return a few things, so we began our search there. Our party must have been meant to be, because waiting for us in the dollar bins were 3 yes 3 Star Wars Sippie Cups. Tuck, Andy and Truman all got one.
Then came the difficult part. the cake.
I thought, we can just make a regular cake, and call it a star wars cake, or maybe use chocolate frosting with the star sprinkles and call it intergalactic or something, and the boys would be good, but no. They had a vision of a GRAND cake. We search the bakery department, but to no luck. They described it to me, it was going to be something special, something like I had never seen before, from the description of it. Since the perfect cake was not there, we decided to look around and see what else they had there at Target, and move on to our next item. The Rocket.
What is any good rocket built out of? Boxes of course, with a touch of imagination. We asked a nice target lady if she had any boxes to build a rocket out of, and after a smile of glee, she gave us two boxes that fit nicely in the Trunk of our little car.
My job for the party was the activities, we came back and printed off a few coloring pictures off the internet, and decided to play “Luke, Luke, Darth Vader” (Duck, Duck Goose).
Now we only had the cake to worry about. We went down to the storage room to see if we could find any inspiration there, found a cookie mix that the boys agreed upon, and made a cookie cake. After seeing many beautifully decorated cakes, and the big deal about the perfect cake, I was grateful for such a simple solution. Now all that was left, was to wait until Friday for the party to begin.
On Friday, Tucker and Truman were pumped when they realized what that day would hold. They were up and dressed early, and Andy arrived early as well, so we began our day. I had a few errands to run, including buying paint at Home Depot, before the party could get started.
We arrived at home Depot, and while we were there, we decided that another big box would be wonderful addition for our rocket. We searched the store until we found an old Lawn mower box, that was proclaimed to be perfect for our rocket.
We got the paint and head back to the car with our perfect box. The only problem was, the afore mentioned box, was bigger than the trunk of our car. But we were not leaving with out our box, now that we had found it, it was an important part of our party.
That is when I remembered the Bungie Cords in our Trunk, Thinking of the many times Toph had strapped things in, I tried to remember how he had done it. After a little bit of awkwardness while I tried to hold the box and strap it in, we were set. I loaded the boys, and we were off to our house, anxious for the Star Wars Party To begin.
Tucker and Andy wanted to invite there friends Andrea and Austin to come over to celebrate with them. Austin wasn’t able to come, but Andrea did. She arrived, just as we were beginning the rockets assembly and painting. The party was a success, the boys had fun planning and participating in the party. And it was complete with the boys dressing up Andy was Darth Vader, Truman was Yorda, and Tucker decided he wanted to be the red ranger instead of Luke, but it was an incredible party. I was proud of the boys for working so hard to complete a goal. What good kids I have been blessed with!
Andrea Painting so Carefully, she was such a good painter that she had like one dot of paint on her hand!:
Andy mixing the paint:
Tucker concentrating so hard, so that the rocket will be perfect…
Truman on the other hand, is a little more free spirited, take a look at that hair!
They named this part of the ship “The Motherboard”. Don’t ask me why they know such words.
3….2….1… Blast off!
Truman is inside driving the Rocket when they blast off!
Truman is going thru a phase, at least I hope it is a phase….he has been really into mixing different foods together. This morning for breakfast he mixed oatmeal, milk and golden grahams. Now that is not so bad, but a few days ago he mixed his fruit smoothie with spagetti-o’s together. Now that was not so good.
The Women of Steel Triathlon was honestly an amazing event for me. It was a very personal thing, and a wonderfully life changing event. It was an awesome goal to accomplish, and renewed my vision for myself.
For the event, I have been training for since February with two good friends, Diana and Jamie. Those are the darling ladies you will see in the pictures.
The Ladies:
I am ready:
Getting ready for the competition to start:
(if you are looking for me, I am at the end 🙂 )
Getting my final instructions:
Swimming:
The Biking Portion:
Starting the 5K:
Sprinting to the finish line:
Thumbs up for finishing:
We all completed the race:
Look how tough we look with our “Body Markings”:
The Results site:
http://www.milliseconds.com/ResultsIndividual.php?varParticipantRecID=88&varRaceID=925
Professional Photographer (Zazoosh):
http://www.zazoosh.com/events/searchPhotos/34?evtId=34&query=4570&x=0&y=0