Yet Another Home Improvement Project

We have been working on our kitchen since we moved in. This is what we've done so far:

-changed the pink mini-blinds to white stylish ones
-painted the whole room
-took down some sweet florescent lights and put in can lights
-ripped out carpet and linoleum and put in hardwood floor
-replaced the stove/oven
-added a built in microwave
-refaced all of the cabinets doors and drawers
-new faucet
-crown molding on the top of the cabinets
-replaced the pink tile around the fireplace with travertine
-built a mantle
-added a cool light over the kitchen table
-AND NOW WE HAVE DONE OUR BACKSPLASH!!!

Honestly, I don't think there's much else to do besides replacing the dishwasher and fridge (we really want a black fridge, but don't get us started on that!) and the countertops. I don't mind the countertop at all so we're in no hurry. We probably won't do anything with it unless it gets ruined. With three children, that's a serious possibility, but for now, I think we might be done. Here's some pictures of our new backsplash.

hmmm... those look like roses on the counter... could it be? YES!!! Ben bought me flowers for no reason at all. Just another reason my husband is better than yours.

Why I use a straightener

It takes about an hour for me to do my hair--that includes washing, drying, and straightening. People have asked me, "well, can't you just use a hair drying and BLOW it straight?" Gee, I hadn't thought of that! Oh wait, you don't have curly hair, you don't understand! So, for all of you who think that I should just use my hair dryer and save myself 35 minutes (give or take) of hair styling time that could be used doing more important things... THIS IS WHY I MUST USE A STRAIGHTENER.

Hair dryer                                              vs.                                               Straightener

The REAL Food Network Star

Tyler LOVES too cook. When I make dinner, he always asks if he can help. He's even learning fractions with measuring cups! He helped me make dinner last night and you can tell that he watches way too much Food Network. He sprinkles the kosher salt on the food in a circle and uses his hand to waft the smell to his face. It's hilarious. Ben and I both learned how to cook at a very young age from our mothers. I know men that would starve--or live on sandwiches--if their wives didn't cook for them. Tyler's going to be a master chef before he hits middle school!

Nicole saw Tyler cooking and immediately had to help too. She pretty much only wants to help when he's helping. She worships him and wants to be just like him. Hopefully she'll pick up some technique while she's copying Tyler.

My Picture Taking Days Are Numbered

This is what happens when I try to take a picture of Tori:

"Oh look! The camera! I'm so HAPPY!!!"

"Okay, that's enough for you, I want the camera now."

"No? You're telling me NO? That's it, I'm going to scowl at you so your pictures won't be cute. Take that!!"

"You'd better give me the camera NOW or I'm going to get REALLY pissed."

Another amazing craft project

Okay. I'm really excited about this one. On one side of these blocks it says Happy Harvest and on the other side it says Merry Christmas!! In a few months when Christmas comes around, all I have to do is flip them around (and maybe a little rearranging) and I have a super cute Christmas decoration too! My mom's friend has a commercial vinyl lettering machine so we painted the blocks orange and then put the letters on. I'm thrilled with how they turned out.

New hair... or is it?

Okay, so I have a reddish tint to my hair naturally. I don't like it. I don't want it there. I try to cover it up with dye but it keeps coming back. I try to dye it "ash" based colors with a green tint to try to neutralize the red, but it doesn't seem to help. A girl at Sally's helped me pick out the perfect dye to cover up the red in my hair. Here is my hair before the dye:

Are you ready to see the great "red free" hair I have now!?!?!?!? I know you are. Here it is!! Yeah, I know. It's exactly the same color. That girl was full of CRAP. Sigh. At least my gray is covered.

Glitter Pumpkins - Conference Project #1

This is what I did this morning for my conference project. I have this terrible habit of falling asleep or zoning out if I don't have something to do with my hands. I think they turned out great!!! I found the pumpkins, glitter, and glue at Michaels. I saw these in the October 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living. It was easy, fun, and I'm thrilled with the result! Now my kids want to decorate their pumpkins with glitter. Wish me luck with that one!!

Nicole is 4!!!!

I would love to do a bunch of pictures of Nicole growing up and show everyone how cute she is now and how scary she looked when she was born, but there are too many to choose from so here's a summary of Nicole's 4th birthday:

7:30 am - wake up and open new clothes from Grandma Debbi.
7:35 am - run around the house giggling because she has new clothes.
7:45 am - finally into her new clothes and ready for breakfast.










8:00 am - eating coco puffs mixed with captain crunch (her favorite breakfast)
8:45 am - she remembers that Uncle David and Aunt Sara sent her a box. We absolutely must open it right this second or we might explode. It's a barbie and some movies. She's in love with the Barbie but doesn't care about the movies because she doesn't know what they are.
9:00 am - off to preschool where we receive a crown with "jewels" on it. We're feeling pretty special.










10:00 am - birthday party at preschool. Daddy made a yellow cake and mommy put green sprinkles in the shape of hearts (per Nicole's request).
12:00 pm - home from school and off to Safeway to pick up her Barbie birthday cake. Meanwhile, we have to tell everyone we pass that it's her birthday and she's 4 now.







12:30 pm - lunch that includes plain pasta, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and capri sun. Her favorite. I decide to give her vitamins because proper nutrition just isn't going to happen today.
12:35 pm - I'm running around like a crazy person trying to put up pink streamers and balloons for the birthday girl.
1:00 pm - Lia Belle and Grace come over (in full costume) for the Barbie birthday party.
3:00 pm - Party's over and Nicole now has more jewelry for her non-existent jewelry box that was supposed to get here a few days ago from Target.com and mom is sweating bullets!
4:00 pm - The UPS guy shows up with the jewelry box. Whew!!
4:01 pm - I put the jewelry box on my bed and try to find the wrapping paper so that this whole mess can be behind me. then I hear her yelling, "Mom! You don't have to buy me a jewelry box any more! I just found one!" Sigh. So much for my big moment of "greatest mom ever". Oh well, she loves it, that's the most important part.
5:00 pm - We're all too full of cake to eat anything for dinner. More vitamins.
6:30 pm - Grandma Belva, Grandpa Wiley, Grandma Lisa, and Grandpa John all show up for the family birthday party. We have presents galore, MORE chocolate cake with pink sprinkles and vanilla ice cream. (I wrote exactly what she wanted)







8:00 pm - Nicole goes to bed and says, "Mom, I had 3 birthdays today. First I was 4, then I was 5, and now I'm 6!!!" Carefully explaining that she's still only 4 leaves a confused look on her face, so I tell her she can be as old as she wants tonight, but tomorrow she has to be 4 again. This compromise seems to satisfy her.

She's the greatest little girl that a mother could ask for. I don't know what I'd do without her and I never in a million years thought that a child could be so maddening, cute, and funny, all at the same time. Thanks for being such a good girl, Coley.

p.s. I may have also given Tori a piece of cake :-)