These Past Weeks

This post has been a long time coming, so no more snoring on my blog (you know who you are.... ;) I've been trying to compile all the pictures, a heck of a task I'll say. I started writing this post last weekend, and the week just got away from me as well! When you read it, remember this is from the view point of the 29th of October. Enjoy

So this past week was pretty crazy, Lester was out in the field from Monday until Friday and so to keep myself insanely busy, I decided to hurry up and make the kids costumes. I chose a cute princess dress for Madison and Corben decided to be a cowboy. His was easy, brown felt chaps and vest -- DONE! Maddie's proved to be a little more challenging but I prevailed with my trusty sewing machine. Here is Madison's dress (mind you, it's all wrinkled because it was worn for 3 hours Saturday night at our Ward Trunk or Treat.) I was afraid she wouldn't wear it at all, but after she saw another little girl in a "pree-ee" dress, she kept in on. Whew..... almost spent my time sewing for a dress to hang in the closet. I love how it turned out, although I had to temporarily bring the hem up about 4 1/2 inches and even that wasn't quite enough. Oh well, she'll grow into it! :) Corben looked great and he had more fun with a switchblade comb that went with Lester's costume than he did with his play gun. Who would have known? This picture is actually from Halloween, and instead of a switchblade, he's got a sword--what can I say, it grew!



















Lester rocked the party with his costume and wig....everyone laughed and thought it was great! I figured I should dress the part with him (and for lack of coming up with a better costume) and went as an '80's girl. I had fun with it, my favorite part was finding the black stirrup pants! Classic!!! So many people mentioned how they dressed exactly like that too!
Here are some other cute pictures of Corben and Maddie and their adventures this past week:Madison is perusing the party city costume catalog. Both her and Corben scoured those pages for quite a while over 2-3 days until it finally came unstapled. Here are the kids before bed, Madison has started climbing into bed with Corben and pretending to go to sleep with him for about 1 minute. After that, she tries to find more books to read and toys to drag out instead of getting into her crib.










A few weeks ago, Corben had the bright idea to clear off the bottom shelf of the book shelves and make little beds for him and Maddie. I snapped these pictures a couple days ago and caught them in the act again. Maddie fits pretty good, but Corben looks a little cramped.
Here's another shot of Maddie's "flash" picture. She knows the flash is coming and prepares her eyes for the bright light. It almost looks like she's winking!
Check out those lashes!! She definitely gets those from her Daddy. On a funny note, she found this hat in her room and has been wearing it for the past 3-4 days, but she has to put it on herself. It's funny, because when you want them to wear the hat they won't.......oh well!

Corben was so excited this week, he got a package from his Meme and Poppy--and a brand new, Meme-made shirt! He looks so handsome in it, and he was so thrilled with it, he had to wear it to school the very next day. His comment was, I'm going to wear this to school tomorrow, and the to church on Sunday, and the next Sunday, and the Sunday after that too. Pretty much every Sunday!" I think he LOVES it! Thank you Meme! :)

A Forever Fan of the Beatles!!!

Two weeks ago we went to a fabulous concert and saw this Tribute Band to the Beatles. I've actually seen them four times now (twice at Ricks and once at the Y) and they are truly an awesome tribute to one of the best bands/musicians EVER. ***** A MUST SEE PERFORMANCE! Check here for concert dates and if they come your way, GO!! You won't be sorry. Here's just a taste of their performance for your viewing pleasure.

I LOVE THE BEATLES!!!

Maddie's New Dress and Chair

Madison got a new dress made by her Meme in California and it is just darling. Meme even made a cute little purse that matches. We did a little photo shoot in the front yard the other day while it was overcast.

I love the mischevious look in her eyes here..
















She just started doing this "fake" smile for pictures, and her left eye does this little squinty thing.

Love the dress, THANK-YOU Meme. We love you!! xoxoxoxo


Up until a few days ago, Madison would lounge in her old infant bouncer seat. It was one of those that had the vibrate/music options and was kind of bouncy. I can't really complain, I got it for 3$ on ebay while we were in Germany. ANYways...she loved that seat and it had been duct taped/camera taped several times but was pretty much trashworthy. So I'd been looking for a cute chair for her to replace it, and found this one in all places but an Avon catalog. Go figure---need some mascara, skin so soft, creme and an inflatable pink lounge chair. Perfect! Well, the design and inflatables could be a little more fine tuned, but Madison likes it just fine. Me? I wish the cover fit better and was more snug. But at least I was able to throw away my 3$ bouncy chair! :)Happy Lounging Maddie :)

C'est Fini!

Well project kitchen is now finished.....tah-dah! We actually finished it on Saturday, but I neglected to get the pictures downloaded and so forth. Here is the result:

It really only took the two days, the longest part was the painting. The chair rail was super easy, and I guess it does help when you're able to borrow the right tools from friends. I'm thrilled with the way it turned out!

I also included close ups of my Polish pottery. I love my plates and wish I could get back to Poland to buy soooo much more! I LOVE IT!

I've already started on the next painting project, and have one wall in the family room done. Once everything is painted, I'll give the grand tour!

Project -- KITCHEN

So for quite some time now since we've moved into our house (over a year now) I've been wanting to get all the rooms painted. To date the children's rooms and their bathroom are complete and I'll post pictures of those after I finish painting everything else, watch for a tour of the house! I've been pondering, flip-flopping and changing my mind about colors for the kitchen/breakfast nook and the entry/family room/hall for about 3 months now. I couldn't decide, then I'd pick a color and change my mind again. That's really easy to do if anyone of you have painted before--> You think you have the perfect color, then you look at the color selection at HD or Lowes, and all of a sudden the color isn't right. I did finally find my colors, and today was the day-bought paint and supplies and BOOM the kitchen is almost done. Here is what it looked like before:This picture is actually before we moved in, but the paint was the same up until today, flat and blah. If you look at the post below with Madison in pigtails, there is also a closer shot of the boring walls. Here is phase one of painting......the top half of the eating area and rest of the kitchen:Here I am working on the trim, we opted not to spend a million hours taping everything, so I had the job of cutting in around the baseboards and windows. Such fun! On to phase two:
I love the contrast of the bottom color, it's called clam chowder. I love the cool names of paint! [Please excuse the table and chairs, Lester would be horrified to know that they are on the blog, he can't stand our table and costco chairs. I personally don't mind, the kids can't harm them, since they're indestructible! Functional, and yes a little plain, but it will work until the kids are a little older.....anywhoo back to the project!] Phase three comes tomorrow, we're putting up a chair rail. Can't wait for it to be done. Stand by for the finished product...coming soon!