Monday, November 30, 2009

Painting Our House


So in case you hadn't heard, Jeremy and I are in the process of buying a house in Lebanon. We are totally excited about owning our own home and desperately need the extra space with a new baby on the way. It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home with a huge backyard, that is already fenced! Unfortunately the kitchen was painted this horrid turquoise color. So we got permission to go in and start our painting even though we haven't technically closed yet. (That is a whole other, long, story!)
I didn't realize that I haven't taken a full room shot since painting, but here you can see some of the improvement. I will post another blog with completed photos, when I get that far! Jeremy and I painted these bright walls with a primer first. Then Mom and Julie helped me add the new colors. It is hard to tell in these pics but the main color is actually a pale green, Mountain Haze to be exact!
This is the other side of the kitchen/dining room.
My sister had the great idea of painting that half wall the beautiful dark green that I loved so much, but knew would be too dark to paint the whole kitchen with. We also painted the garage door and the 3rd bedroom and bathroom door frames with it. Oh yeah, and the blades of the ceiling fan! Every room has a ceiling fan.

Baby's room was a real dingy looking white with woodsy stickers on it. Jeremy scraped the stickers off for me!
Jeremy, Mom and I painted the wainscoting a warm brown and the ceiling and upper walls a creamy tan. It looks so much cleaner and cozy now. You can't really tell what I did in this picture, but every other panel is painted flat or glossy. It is still the same color, but it adds just a little bit more interest to the room. I saw this technique at a friend of Jeremy's once and fell in love with it. I couldn't wait to buy a house so I could try it for myself. The ceiling fan blades are also the glossy brown.
On to Kaden's room! I was so excited to do this room and you will see why in just a moment!
Jeremy and I started off by painting the whole room, walls, ceiling, doors, frames and ceiling fan blades, a happy 'Tropical Pool' blue.
Then the fun began! I am making Kaden a quilt for either his birthday or Christmas (Probably Christmas because I probably won't be done before his birthday!) that has cute frogs on it. So we turned his room into a whimsical froggy play land! Mom and Tiffany came and spent a day with me to create this amazing transformation.
Kaden was quite impressed and was full of smiles and 'Oooohhhh' s!
First we drew the scenes on the walls then we started painting. Tiffany and I learned a lot that day! Mom is a wonderful artist and had lots to teach us. Tiffany was much braver than I, she jumped right in and you would never know that she hadn't painted before! She has a wonderful natural talent. I on the other hand have always been timid about doing things like this, that I don't know I can do well, but I also jumped in and didn't do too bad!
Oh, I forgot one of the most important parts! I don't draw... So I had a some help! My cousin Brittany is a wonderful artist and she drew this sweet frog who looks like he is having the time of his life! She also drew some frog eyes and a tree which we put on a transparency and projected onto the wall so we could trace them! They might not have turned out exactly as she had imagined as unfortunately the day I chose to paint was her sister's birthday so she was unable to come help. But I love the finished product and am VERY thankful for her help!
Tiffany painted this sweet frog.
The other wonderfully talented artist that helped me out was a student of Jeremy's. Pearl drew this frog on the lily pad, the one Kaden is sitting next too, and another leaning against a couple of palm trees. I don't know what I would have done without these ladies help!
Mom painted most of the frogs ( and a whole lot more!) while Tiffany and I did filler stuff like water, sand and plants!
These two frogs hiding behind the door, I traced straight from the fabric that will be on Kaden's quilt. I was even brave enough to attempt my hand at painting the frog jumping into the water. And looking at this picture it even looks like I did a decent job!
Mom added the clouds in as a finishing touch.
Here are the last two frogs. The frog eyes are peeking up at the 'cool frog' leaning against the trees. Of course these pictures aren't exactly taken to scale!
When we get everything set up this will be the view as you sit in the living room! I am excited that people will get a glimpse of the froggy paradise when they come to visit! I can't wait to show it all off, it just makes me happy to walk in and look.
We will be putting carpet in both of the kids' rooms too. So those pictures will have to go on the next blog.

Thanks to Dion (a friend of Jeremy's) for the use of his painting drop cloths!

Monday, November 16, 2009

11 Months

Yikes! My son is going to be a year old next month!
He is giggling, not throwing a fit! :)
Running for the camera! He doesn't do much walking... it is mostly just flat out running from one place to the next. Which includes lots of falling!
Reach!
I just thought this one was cute!
Gosh he is looking so much like a little boy and losing a lot of his baby look. Thankfully he hasn't lost all of his baby fat cheeks!

A Day at the Pool.

While they were down for their visit Lily insisted that she really, really needed to swim in the motel pool. Kaden loves to swim so we obliged, of course that meant that I had to swim too...
Lily went to change her clothes first (we changed in the pool bathroom) and while she did that we sat on the side of the pool. Which just about drove Kaden crazy. He was twisting and squirming trying so hard to get down and crawl into the pool. But since I was still fully clothed, I had no desire to go in after him. So he fussed until Lily came out and I was able to get him all ready to swim.
Mama we're swimming!
Of course the first thing Kaden does when he gets in any water is splash like a mad man!
It doesn't even bother him when he splashes his face.
Of course that is probably because he is just as likely to stick his face into the water for a 'drink'.
Sometimes he comes up coughing,
but it sure doesn't slow him down any.
I thought after a time or two he wouldn't think that was much fun anymore... I was wrong.
We also spent some time walking laps in the hot (warm bath temp) tub.
When it was time to get out he wanted to crawl over and join Lily in the big pool. Sorry kiddo!

Grandma and Papa Wells come to visit.

Grandma and Papa Wells came to visit at the end of October and this time they brought Lily with them. Lily didn't have a fishy experience like Emma, but she did try to pinch her finger off in a chair.

Papa and Kaden show their affection by 'bonk, bonk-ing'.
Kaden already liked to head butt people and things, but Papa encouraged it. He would say 'Bonk bonk' to Kaden and Kaden would bump heads with him... He even tries to do it when they call on the web cam.

Oh how he loves to read!
Grandma got him a book subscription of his very own!
You are lucky if you can read all the words before he turns the page on you.
Kaden and Grandma getting some snuggles.
Lily was so much fun! She followed him around and cleaned up all of his messes so he could make them all over again!
Please can I have your apple Papa?

Check Me Out!

Get ready for another blog rush. You would think I would just take a few minutes and do these when I take the pictures, but no. I like to wait until I have a ton to do then spend lots of time working on them. :)
Who me?
In Kaden's world nothing should be on the coffee table. He walks in a circle around it tossing everything onto the floor.

Kaden drinks so much water! Hopefully we can keep him in that habit. :) And he always drinks his sippy cup with his left hand, other than that he seems to be right handed.

He has gotten so tall he can see out the screen door window now.

I'm already in trouble! This particular day Kaden ate a piece of Raisin Toast and two waffles. Another day he ate some cocoa puffs and 4, yeah that's right, FOUR pancakes. I hate to imagine what he will put away as a teen...

One day Kaden was watching his cousin Lily stack the coasters yet again after he tossed them all over the floor. Next thing we knew he was stacking them all by himself. It was fun to watch him concentrate, and he did it so well too. It wasn't like he got lucky or anything, he knew exactly what he wanted to do, and could just do it.

So now not only does he 'help' with the dishes, but he discovered that after he knocked this piece of Tupperware over he could stand on it and get stuff off of the counter. And he is so incredibly fast! I turn to the sink to rinse off another dish and by the time I turn back around he is pulling stuff off of the counter. Now I have to be careful what I put in the dishwasher... I usually have a pile of stuff off to the side of the sink that I put in right before I close it!

Just in case you were wondering. We had another baby appointment the other day. Baby's heart rate was 158 and she was moving around like crazy! We get to go in for our 20 week ultrasound on December 2nd and see if I am right about her being a girl! I can't wait.