What we are up to...

Wyatt's favorite spot to watch movies...he doesn't even mess up the pillows!

1st day of Preschool, where he said to me "Mommy, you just stay in the car, I'll go up to the door by myself." Ummm...stay in the car and cry my eyes out, you mean? How in the heck is he this old already?!!

If you see us and we look slightly dusty, this is why. I talked Mark into the idea of repainting finally, and it turned into this...scraping the orange peel texture off of some of the walls. Which is surprisingly not as fun as it sounds! More pictures to come...

Spirited

Wyatt about gave me a heart attack in Walmart today. Seriously, this child. We made it through grocery shopping with no major meltdowns, a feat with a one and four year old in the shopping cart. 1 trip to the potty, 2 bananas, 1 donut and 1 hour later, and we were ready to pay. Yay! My favorite part of the experience of shopping with toddlers. I would rather have my fingernails ripped off. One by one.

So I am unloading groceries as fast as I can onto the conveyer belt and Jaxson is playing with the little toys in the register isle. (P.S. I would love to get my hands on whoever made those little cell phones and cameras and decided to put them at the point in the store where parents are the most worn down and desperate- I think we have about 12 of those little beauties floating around the house.) I usually leave wyatt strapped in at this point, but he had wiggled out of the buckle and I was afraid he was going to fall on his head trying to reach the candy. So...I let him down on the floor to play with Jaxson. Both boys were sitting there playing with the cameras and phones while I unloaded the rest of the loot.

I had a big bag of dog food on the bottom of my cart, and the elderly man who was checking my groceries couldn't get his hand scanner to work. So he was trying to lift the bag to the register, and I took about 5 seconds to help him. 5 seconds!! All of the sudden, the nice lady behind me was like, "ummm, your son just ran off, he was heading to the exit". I look down. There is Jaxson, still playing. Wyatt is no where to be seen. I took off at a dead run through walmart (I still can't see him), I ran through carts and people around the door to the exits and see him just RUNNING for all he is worth through the double doors. I caught him just as his feet hit the parking lot of busy cars. AAAAAAHHHH! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I think I was close to doing both. So I carry him kicking and screaming back to the check stand (where I had left my groceries and Jaxson) to pay for our stuff and get the heck out of there. Sweaty and near tears, I'm trying to pay one handed as I hold a squirming-like-crazy Wyatt under my other arm, and the nice elderly man working the register goes "He sure is spirited." Uhhhh...yeah.

Random videos and a picture of a really harry pirate

So, I meant to post this one in July...but we can still be patriotic in August, right?!

And then Wyatt (of course) was not to be outdone by his brother, so he had to show off his latest accomplishment: jumping (okay, really stepping off of) the cable box in our yard - many, many times. I never wanted an electrical/cable box in our yard and was sad when we ended up having one. I was wrong to feel that way, apparently. The boys love that thing and play on it almost as much as their swing set. Dang it, who cares if it's ugly! I love his face in this video, but this can't be a good sign from him, can it? Maybe we shouldn't be encouraging him and clapping for him as he falls on his face...

And I've decided to finish off this post with a picture of a dog in an eye patch (left over from the pirate party), because I am guessing that most of you haven't seen a dog wearing one of these before. So here you go:

Doesn't he look so happy?

A Pirate's Life For Me

Summer's Hottest New Lip Color

So, have you been looking for that perfect shade to accent your summer pout? Look no further, Wyatt has discovered it for you! It's actually sidewalk chalk...shhhhh! No one ever has to know.

To apply, follow these simple steps:

1. Select a color (Wyatt is shown here wearing Hot Pink)

2. Eat the chalk (the aftertaste is bad, but the color stays on great!)

3. Run like crazy from your mom while eating the said chalk and voila - flawless lips.

This boy gives us a run for our money, but he sure has a good time doing it!!

Take A Few Minutes...

to read this wonderful talk. Mark's sister Cami spoke at Women's Conference at BYU this year, and her talk was so uplifting and inspiring. It made me want to do better in my marriage, work harder to look for ways to serve others and to find a way to better hear and recognize the promptings of the Spirit. I loved hearing her talk at the conference, and again re-reading it today. Take five minutes out of your day to read it!

http://saratogarushes.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-womens-conference-talk.html

Bedroom Makeover On A Budget

I have been tired of our bedroom furniture for a long time and have been just ITCHING to paint it! It was all that santa fe, mexican pine wood. I didn't take a before shot, but here is pretty much what my dresser looked like:

I painted it with flat, interior paint from Walmart (13 bucks a gallon), distressed and antiqued it, and stained the top. I also replaced the hardware with some bin pulls I found on ebay for $1.50 a pull. The hardware was a BEASTLY project - by far the worst part of refinishing this dresser. Those things are stapled in there instead of screwed, so I pretty much had to claw them out one by one. And Mark had to put the new stuff on - not fun on this dresser, but at least it is done! Here's what it looks like now:

I did the night stands in the same paint (they were the same wood as the dresser) and decided to leave the dang hardware on there. It will just have to stay there until it bugs me enough to rip it out and replace it:

And then came the headboard. I like bright colors, and I decided I wanted to paint it a bright robin's egg blue. I think people thought I was a little crazy, and I was freaking out a little bit as I was painting it, but I ended up loving it (luckily!). The bedding was a steal on Overstock, and my talented mother-in-law/seamstress made the pillows. I almost bought the same quilt we had for the last 5 years and totally wore out from Pottery Barn, but my friend Hillary talked me out of it. It's so nice to have a change, and a cheap one!