Loose Ends, Tied

As promised, here are the completed "wallpaper cut-outs turned art". I think they pulled it all together. And Gunnar is thrilled, which is really all that matters!

2 more days til the paint comes out again! Ahahahaha, I must be nuts!

Bride Wars Movie Review

We had a group of 4 last night. Chicks, ready for a flick! Bonus, the theater that we frequent now hosts 2fer $10 Tuesdays. Gotta love that, cheaper than a matinee. It's like the every other TUESDAY movie night was fated, written in the stars...

The movie pick was just for laughs, but turned out being a whole lot cuter than I expected. Candace Bergman was LOL funny, she was the wedding planner...hilarious! Both lead actresses did an awesome job. Loved the pranks. Loved the little girl flashbacks. Fun for all. I def recommend, just don't take your hubby, he won't get it.

Food Love

The only thing better than this Aloha Chicken Salad from Rumbi? Eating it with a friend that I don't see often enough! ...while our boys and girls, respectively, are getting to know each other. We need to do it more often.

You can't give water from an empty well ladies, you have to take care of you too. Sometimes friends are the best therapy of all. And food.

Giggly Girl Zone

Savi's Birthday PJ and Movie night
She chose Red Velvet Cupcakes, red dye anyone?

They were very sweet and let the little sister be one of the girls

Cute friends!

More cute friends!

Savannah has a great little group of friends! They played and had pizza, icecream and cake, opened presents, and then watched Spiderwick Chronicles (which was a bit scary for some of our guests, but they had fun hiding under their blankets and squealing).

I am so grateful that she has developed such great friendships and am really excited to see them grow up together.

"Eat A Mommy"

A few years ago I heard all kinds of buzz about soybeans and how great for your heart they were. I felt like it would be a great veggie to add to our diets. So, I went to my local grocery store and picked up a frozen bag of shelled edamame. Full of gusto, I prepared them with my next meal...along with some chicken breast and brown rice. I was feeling really healthy. As I sat down and began to eat, ewwww, they were so gross! Yucky texture and kind of a fishy aftertaste...I couldn't stomach them....and could hardly expect my kids to.

Over the next few years I heard things here and there about the benefits of having this superfood in your diet and thought, "yeah, I tried, I REALLY TRIED, but I can't eat that stuff."

So, when my friend Maren mentioned to me that Costco carries portioned microwave ready Edamame, that her KIDS love, I scoffed. She is a healthy rockstar of a Mom who seems to know what tastes good though, as evidenced by the oreo truffles she created and shared at our recent neighborhood Bake-Off! Turns out I happened upon said product last time I was there and thought, well the return policy here is awesome...I'll give it another try.

I'm so glad I did! This stuff comes in the shell (helps maintain a nice texture), in a microwave safe container. All you have to do is stab a hole in the top, nuke it for 3 minutes, a little salt on top, and YUM! They taste nutty and my kids think they're like lima beans. They love to pull the edamame from the shells (that part is inedible). They ate a ton! And now I have another veggie to add to Gunnar's list that he'll actually eat. :) If you live near a Costco check it out in the freezer section.

Sydney says, "NUM, Eat A Mommy!"

Rites of Passage

At our house, when you turn 8, it's a big deal.

You are suddenly old enough to decide whether you will be baptized, whether you will pierce your ears (if you are a girl - sorry Gunnar, you don't get this option). And Mom deems you responsible enough to hold your own library card.

We decided that since all of these things are pretty exciting we would space them out a bit so we don't have emotional overload. (see previous post) Last Friday we picked up the library card and used it for the first time. The baptism will happen in 2 weeks. And TODAY was the Piercing day!

We were going to do it ON her birthday (this Saturday) but I checked with the salon last week (just to be sure we didn't have a put-out b-day girl) and the lady who pierces works M-Th only...and there was NO WAY she was waiting until after her birthday! Savannah and I planned that after school I would pick her up and go to the local salon to have it done. She was adamant that it not take place at the mall jewelry store, in case she needed to scream or cry, she didn't want hoardes of spectators.

She was a bit jumpy on the drive over and said she had butterflies. She got a little nervous and was about to cry as the lady loaded the studs (she chose blue, her fave color, also matches her eyes) into the gun and talked to her about caring for the piercings. So we talked to her for a couple minutes and changed the subject until she calmed down. We had them pierce both ears at once so it would be over as quickly as possible. She didn't scream or cry, but it was hard on the Mom to see her little lobes swell up.

We're both glad it's over and done with. A little Tylenol goes a long way! She can't get enough of the mirror this afternoon.

Tomorrow she's having a "movie and pizza night" with 4 of her friends. Saturday she has a Jr Jazz game, then we'll celebrate and do family gifts that evening. Spoiled, I tell you.

Happy WEEK of Birthday Sweet Savi Girl!

Community Service

Right after the New Year began I left the house for a few hours with my sister to visit her friend, an old college roommate. We had a nice time and upon our return we had dinner with Chris and the kids and began preparing to get the kids in bed. Part of the bedtime routine involves ME walking around and picking up stray toys, discarded socks, blankets used for forts, etc while the kids are brushing teeth and changing into PJs. It was at this time that I noticed a HOLE in the wall. It was almost a perfect 3 " circle, about a foot from the ground.

I hollered to Chris, "Do you know how this HUGE HOLE got in this wall?" (This is not a normal occurance in our house.) He tells me Savannah put it there, and I should ask her about it.

Well, of late Savannah has been on somewhat of an emotional roller-coaster with those emotions running really close to the surface....so I could imagine what might have happened. I questioned her and she said that Dad and Gunnar were playing a computer game and wouldn't let her in the office, so she started kicking the wall because she was mad she was missing the end of the game. I then asked her the question I ALWAYS ask, "HOW DID THAT WORK FOR YOU?" Her answer, "Not very well.." Later Chris filled in the blanks and said she was throwing a raging tantrum that could compete with ANY 2 year old, complete with wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I was completely in shock, and took the "I can't believe you would damage our house, I'm so disappointed in you" tack. This alone is the worst punishment for Savannah, because she is a pleaser...but she needed something more. I wanted to think about it and told her she would have a punishment to pay for the crime/damage to the house, but I hadn't figured out what it would be yet, and we'd talk about it more the next day. (Also terrifying to her, imagining all the things it COULD be.)

As we were saying our family prayer a thought popped into my head. Better than banning her from playdates with friends that week (which is really more of a punsihment for ME) how about some way that she can serve her time, and help others?? Hmmmm.

Community service in it's truest sense. She was sentenced to 5 days of serving her brother by reading to him for 30 minutes each day from any book HE wanted. She did not have a say, she could not complain, she just had to do her time. It turned out great, in fact she was happy to do it the first couple of days, then she required more coersion. And Gunnar and I reaped the benefits...usually I am the one reading to him. If Savannah ever does, she always chooses the book, and he's not a huge Hannah Montana fan so he doesn't enjoy her book choices as much. Go figure.

I think this is a worthy form of punishment, modeled after our Nation's justice system to boot. Hey, it could be worse, she's not picking up trash from the highway or breaking rocks!

Call it what it is

January in Utah is generally the same. We have several weeks of "inversion" where the cold air, along with the yuck is trapped in the valley. This picture is taken from the mountains, compliments of Chris' latest hiking adventure. He hiked Grandeur Peak on Friday and was able to get up above it all.

It's funny to me that the weathermen in Utah don't like to call this what it is. They use words like HAZE or even FOG. Of course this is not human-caused, it's nothing we can control...we just have to wait for the next system to come and blow it on through. Right.

Come on people, THIS is good old fashioned SMOG.

Finishing Touches - Girly Style

One of the locals, she says "UPPIE" alot.
My own local WHO. I hear she used to live in Whoville and was BFFs with the Grinch.
The curtains. With the little touch of black (the rod) that Oprah swears each room needs. OK, well I just happened to have that lying around. Recycling is good for the planet.

Savannah's shelves of 'stuff'. Water, lotion for the hands, various trinkets. Would you believe she keeps band-aids up there? She became hysterical when we suggested she might not need a first aid kit in bed. She loves her Ikea flower light!

The re-upholstered desk chair! I put a clear vinyl over the fabric so I shouldn't have to REre-upholster anytime soon. Savi picked out the fabric.

Love the flower add-heres, from MomMom. So cheery! The big plush daisies were from last Easter, and I found those cute plush roses at the $ spot at Targeeeee, this week. I think a V-Day item.

Fun girly-dots. I think they make the room look carbonated. I LOVE carbonation!

Yes, we carbonated the dresser IN the closet too. This WAS our changing table, but Syndey is too huge (3 ft tall as of last Monday folks!) and we change her on the floor now....But, hey, we're recycling some more. Always a good thing.

The primping place. Mini-carbonated. :)

It is so nice to have these functional, organized, happy rooms. And happy kids to boot!

Finishing Touches - Boy Style

All tucked in and SO happy.
No girly fixture here, and Dad even stuck some constellations
up on the ceiling.

I found these cool planet and star wall stickers, perfect colors!

As cute as they are, we've been a bit nervous about the Sports Ball wallpaper cutouts from MomMom (they're really permanent and we're not fans of wallpaper removal)....My NEW plan is to buy some artist canvases, 16x20s, paint them green and wallpaper them onto the canvas, that way it's moveable art! We'll hang them above the baseball bat pegs (see below) and on the other side of the dresser. But that's THIS week's project. :)

Backpack center. (So we can do homework at our desks!) That Nutcracker WAS a Christmas decoration that Gunnar could not part with. Turns out, it's the perfect door stopper. Who knew?

The desk is still 'slightly' tacky, so we're not putting much on or in it at the moment...

So, that's it for now. I'll post the Sports Murals once they're completed and up on the walls!

Project Zone

Who in their right mind paints a ceiling any color other than white? (this one is yellow, if you can't tell) Oh, and that light fixture? Gone.
Sadly, the camo fighter jets and helis don't match with that girly headboard...we're gonna fix THAT!

This is where we started

Caterpillar Green is the happiest of colors! Don't YOU think so?

We're doing the legs of the headboard (waiting to be upholstered) too.

Getting there...
Upholstered, ta da!
Headboard, meet bed.

This is the current progress on Gunnar's room. He's bummed that we can't put everything up on the walls yet because we're waiting on the paint to cure. But after priming walls and the ceiling, two coats of white, then two coats of blue, not to mention the green, I feel like he should be happy to be sleeping in his bed again.

Once both rooms are totally put together, I'll post the finished product!

I need to rest now.

Winner's Circle

WE WON!
The only girl on the court ALL night.
The Half-time show.
Running in circles. She did this the whole hour....
Future baller?

Crush-tastic!

Gunnar had a secret last week...but he REALLY wanted to share it. He was standing right next to his friend, "Princess A.", and says

"We have a crush on each other".

Looking at Princess A., she confirms with a big smile and an enthusiastic nod of the head. And so it begins. A friend, who also happens to be a girl. For those of you who may be concerned about what I am or am not encouraging at this tender age, I simply said that it is GREAT to have good friends, girl or boy! (and Princess A.'s Mom feels the same..)

Since then drawings and notes and other various trinkets have made their way to and from school. Big grins and fun playdates are the norm. Twitterpation doesn't only happen in the Spring. Apparently.

Operation: Will ANYONE Notice??

We've had several beta fish over the last 7-8 years. The most recent one was blue, and was named Violet Beauregard by the kids. We have had it for about 4 years, which is the longest living of the fish thus far.

Around Christmas, I noticed that the fish wasn't as active and the water was looking cloudy although I had changed the water recently. I cleaned the little tank out again and hoped for the best, but, as I was cleaning it out I noticed the fish's body had a bend in it.

As I continued to check on him every day I noticed he wasn't eating the pellets I put in, 2 per day. I felt really bad just watching him starve himself day after day. And I started thinking, does anyone ever SEE this fish but me? Would anyone notice if one day it were gone?

Unwilling to watch this fish starve to death, on a Monday morning after the kids were at school, I ran a glass of COLD water, and euthanized the poor thing. It only took a few seconds before his little fishy mouth stopped moving, then I waited to make sure he wouldn't resuscitate in the warm sewer only to be eaten by a rat or something worse, and flushed him. I then threw out his tank and food. I've decided I'm done with the fishy pet thing....especially because it seems nobody else cares. I decided not to say anything to Chris or the kids and see how long it takes for anyone to notice....I waited, and waited, and waited.

Just as I suspected, nobody mentioned a thing. I finally asked Chris on Sunday night (just shy of a week, fishless) and he admitted he hadn't noticed. The kids still haven't, and it's been 10 days. The funny thing is when I mentioned this to my friend last night she told me that Gunnar was just telling her kids about his pet fish 2 days ago. So, maybe as long as they THINK they still have a pet, we don't actually have to own one. Now, that's MY kind of pet!

Milestones...

Now that she's 2, she's ready for the Big Girl Bed! Our Sydney Bear loves being BIG. She has been in her new bed with big girl sheets for 2 nights, and 2 naps, and LOVES it! (to the joyous relief of her Mommy)

We moved the girls into the bunkbed room, that was their brother's. We bought new bedding and moved the girly wall unit in, we even painted the wall looking out to the street PINK! We have to wait on the finishing touches a few more days until the paint cures, but they already love the changes.

In the meantime, I'm also fixing up the BOY room next door. More to come on that later....

It's MY party!

Sydney had such a nice birthday! We ordered PEE-PEE, I know that doesn't sound appetizing to you, but it's PIZZA. :) We opened presents, then we had cherry chip cake ala pepto colored frosting along with rainbow sherbet and cookie dough icecream. She still doesn't really like cake, but she loves her EYE-EYE, she had a little of both flavors!

She was a hoot opening presents. She had to do it HERself, and kept walking around the room to get away from her siblings who couldn't resist helping her. In the picture above with Gunnar, he was asking for a Thank You Hug for her twin dollies and she was openly rebuffing him! The Hello Kitty tent was a big hit, as you can see, she was trying to play in it while Dad was still setting it up.

While singing to her at cake time she sand "Happy Birthday TO ME!" She is gaining vocabulary SO fast, and it was a great moment to catch on video! So, now we have a full-fledged two year old!