Beatlemania!

Clayton had his second grade concert this week. The theme of their concert was 'The Beatles'. It was the cutest concert I've ever been to (and I think all of his concerts are pretty cute)! The kids were told that they could dress in 60's attire to help them get into the mood of the concert. Since we don't have a lot (or any) 60's stuff around here, I went to Goodwill and fashioned this outfit for him. I spent $1 for the whole thing:

I used an old pair of jeans that he already had but never wore with some scrap fabric for the pants, the shirt was from Goodwill ($.50) that I turned inside out and hemmed so it would fit him more snug, and the vest was made from another Goodwill shirt (another $.50) with scrap fabric sewn to it to make the fringe. I used that same scrap fabric to piece together his headpiece and the sunglasses were a pair that he already owned. If you look closely at it you can see the bazillion mistakes I made, but from this vantage point - and at the concert - it looks dang awesome! I'm trying to convince him that this would also be a very cool Halloween costume!

On to the good stuff. When we walked in to the concert, I turned the camera on to snap a few pictures and soon realized that my batteries were dying! YIKES! I was having a small panic attack. So, in order to conserve the batteries I took zero pictures before the concert. Then, once it started I only took video of portions of each song (**I got most of each song, but not all**). I wanted to get as many of the songs as possible and if that meant not getting the end of each song, I was willing to risk it. I did get the last song in its entirety, so that's good.
One more thing. As I was recording, Josie was sitting next to me. She was constantly trying to climb into my lap. I say this because you will see the camera jump and jolt at certain points because she kept bumping my elbow - hard - in her attempt to get up on my lap. When she finally succeeded in getting up there, she kept messing with the camera itself. So I apologize now if these videos make you slightly sea-sick (hopefully it's not too bad though!).
A few things to note: 1. Watch the girl standing next to Clayton. She's fairly entertaining. 2. The big kids dressed in dark glasses and jackets are the 4th graders who were being 'bodyguards'. They took their jobs very seriously. Cute. 3. You can tell when Clayton doesn't know the songs so well because he touches his face or scratches his hair. A lot.
Without further ado, I present, Beatle-mania:
I enjoyed this concert immensly. I realize that, most likely, only grandparents and aunts and uncles will be watching these videos (especially after my glowing review about how shakey they were) but watch at least one. They're not long and the sight of several 7 & 8 year olds singing the Beatles is sure to put a smile on your face. I'm so proud of my little hippie. I have Beatle-mania for sure!

This is why...

...you shouldn't wrestle with your brother after bedtime...in the dark:

Clayton, in the dark, with the bedpost - 1

Noah's eye - 0

(**We didn't realize this had happened until the next morning. Noah was very defensive of Clayton because he didn't want him to get in trouble. Neither of them got in trouble - other than a stern talking-to. We figure, boys will be boys and Noah's black eye is the reminder - at least for now - that wrestling in the dark is probably not the best idea.**)



Sammie Laughing!

I took this video today. Sammie gets some pretty good belly laughs lately and they are the BEST! This isn't actually the greatest video, I started taping at the point where peekaboo with Noah was starting to loose it's novelty. Still, it's pretty cute to watch her startle when he pops up (you can't see him, but I bet you can tell when he surprises her) and I dare you not to smile and chuckle when you hear her sweet laugh!
(**Ignore my cluttered counters, I need to have a serious talk with my housekeeper, she's been slacking off lately.**)

Valentine's Day

This year I wanted to start our Valentine's celebrating a little early (I do love holidays). I'd seen on websites and Pinterest how people had bought and decorated mailboxes so that family members could leave each other love notes in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day. I love the idea of love notes, but didn't want to spend the money on mailboxes that I wasn't going to bother saving for a whole year. So we made envelopes that we strung up as a garland above the fireplace.

I loved doing this, it's officially a tradition now! The kids would get so excited to write notes (at first). They tapered off as the days passed, but they continued to love checking their mailboxes everyday to see what notes I'd written them. Most of the time it was a note, but sometimes it was directions to a little treat. On Valentine's Day, their envelopes told them where to look to find their special Valentines.

On Valentine's morning, I woke up a little early to prepare a special breakfast. I'd found this recipe on Our Best Bites for oven pancakes with fruit topping. So delicious (and easy). I only wish I had a heart shaped muffin tin (perhaps next year).

They were a HIT (especially to my kids, who usually get to choose between cereal or toast and yogurt for breakfast)!

I'm trying to watch what I eat, but I couldn't resist eating a few of these bad boys myself. Yum!

My boys' current obsession is Pokemon. They can't get enough of all things Pokemon. They were both ecstatic to find that they got new Pokemon cards (but only if they agreed to be my Valentine's first)! 

I love these cute early morning pictures!

Josie got a new outfit for Valentine's Day. New pink and red leggings with a beautiful 'Pincess' skirt. I think it was the first time in...goodness, I can't even think of how long...that she didn't change her clothes at nap time! Success!

Because Sammie is a baby and doesn't really care, she got to wear Josie's old Valentine's day outfit. Here's Josie in this outfit at 10 months:

And here's my Sammie in the same outfit at 5 months (it's so wild to me that Sammie is the same size at 5 months that Josie was at 10. What a big girl!):

I can't believe how sweet and beautiful this little girl is.

Finally, Clayton came home from school with this poem. It still makes me smile to see it. My boys are best friends always. Sure they fight and get angry at each other, but at the end of the day, they are two peas in a pod. It makes my heart so happy. I hope and pray that they are like this always!

Our day was fun and special. I love doing little things for my family to let them know how much I love them and how great I think they are. Yes, this is a cheesy and overly commercial holiday, but we had a great one and I hope you did too!

Purple!

I love our house. It's beautiful and spacious and has a lot of really nice details, but ever since we moved in I knew that we needed to paint. We got the wallpaper off the entry way and got that painted, got the orange out of our family room and repainted it two lovely shades of blue, and got all the kids' rooms painted. Next up, the dining room.

Now, you may wonder why it takes me so long to get my house painted. I know people who move into a place and paint every single wall right away. I'm not like that for two reasons: 1. It takes me a while in a place to figure out my game plan. I'm not a natural decorator. I need to live somewhere for a while and get my bearings before I can decide which direction I want to go. 2. I HATE TO PAINT! Seriously, all of you who love it, why?? The finished product - certainly. The actual process, no way. So those of you who love to paint, I still have a few other rooms that need painting. Feel free to come over and do it for me.

I knew that I wanted something bold and attention-getting in the dining room. The bottom 3rd of that room is white and I intended to leave it that way so I knew that I wanted to be bold with the top. I'd done red before and I was over that so I knew that wasn't the winner. I actually wanted purple pretty bad but I didn't want Justin to hate it. So I got a few samples and taped them to the wall. A few shades of green, a few shades of gold, a burnt orange, and my purple. Justin didn't like the purple at first, but I wore him down (as any good wife would do) and he caved. I could do purple.

My mom was coming out for the weekend so I decided I'd wait for her to get here before I started. She's one of those crazies who actually doesn't mind it so I thought I'd let her help me (and let Justin off the hook since he likes painting about as much as I do). On Saturday my mom suggested that I get started while she watched the kids and then we could finish up that evening once they went to bed.

Sounded good to me so I got to work. Justin, being the good guy that he is, got on his painting clothes and pitched in. This is how I know he loves me. He used one of his precious days off (well, he had to work that night, but still he could have been sleeping) to help me paint our dining room purple. A color he doesn't even love by the way. Yep, we're gonna be married forever.

Anyway, with his help it took WAY less time then I thought it would. My mom ended up not even having to chip in and we got the whole thing done by 9:00 at night. In the end, once it was all up, I L.O.V.E. it! It's even better than I imagined. I can now see how that room is going to come together (it's gorgeous in my head). But (in the words of Levar Burton), don't take MY word for it:

This one is during the light of day. It looks kind of black, but it's not.

 This was after only one coat which is why it looks super purple (plus I think my flash was on).

 This is actually a pretty good idea of the color. Really eggplant. Love it!

 I especially love how it pops with the white of the bottom of the wall and the molding.

 Josie also loves that the room is purple.

Next up on my painting agenda: our toy room. I have the color already picked out (and actually put a little sample paint up on the wall). It's going to be green. It's a nice shade that looks especially lovely when you're standing in the toy room looking into our dining room. I have it on my to do list in the next week or so. Who wants to come help?

Just like Sissy...

Josie at 7 months old:

 Sammie at 5 months old:

I put this outfit on Sammie today and it brought back fun memories of sewing this little top with my friend Mindi. We made them for our baby girls (who are not such babies anymore). This is the one that I (very disgustingly) sewed my finger to.


As I was looking at these pictures of my two sweet little girls I was noticing that (at least to me) they don't seem to look too much alike. I was also noticing just how badly Sammie needed a haircut. She has such cute long hair, but the problem is that it's only cute and long on the sides. The back is pretty sparse and thin (like old man hair). So it's pretty uneven and I can't really do anything with it. So I made the executive decision...Sammie got her first haircut today. It's not the best haircut (I did make one kinda bummer mistake), but she's a baby and it's hard to cut little baby hair - especially around the ears.

So all things considered, I think I did a pretty good job. I think it looks so much better. I'm hoping now that as it grows it'll come in evenly all around and she won't need another haircut for a few years.

So what do you think, do Josie and Sammie look alike? Completely different? Equally cute (this one's rhetorical btw)? Love these sweet girls!

What Happens in Vegas...

...ends up on this blog (but only when I remember to take pictures). A couple of weeks ago we went to Vegas for my sister's wedding. Noah, Josie, Sammie, and myself were there for two weeks, Clayton was there for one week, and Justin was only able to be there for three days (but it's better than nothing so we were happy with that)! It was a really fun, loud, and busy vacation. We laughed a lot, ate a TON (I think I hit all my favs), slept a little, and basically just had a really good time together. I didn't photograph all of it, but I did take a few pictures. I am going to limit my narrative of what I was able to photograph.
Getting ready to board the plane. I was super nervous to fly by myself with three kids (I've never flown by myself with more than one) but they did AMAZING! Seriously, not one problem, not one cry, not one illness. L.U.C.K.Y.

My mom and Jo.

 My dad made these "telescopes" for the kids and Josie loved them (even if she didn't quite understand how to use them correctly).

 My dad also made this cart.

 It was designed to be hooked up to their largest dog, Maynerd.

 Unfortunately there were a few kinks in the system and Maynerd kept slipping out of his harness.

 It's okay though, Grampa (or "Pumpah" as Josie calls him) was able to drag them around.

 He also designed this cart to be hooked up to his bike.

 The kids had a great time riding around the neighborhood in style!

The weather was so perfect while we were there. I brought sweaters for all my kids but we really didn't need them much (ahhh, Vegas winter). My kids spent almost every day outdoors. They were so happy (and I loved it too)!

This is Max. He's my sister's son and I LOVE HIM! He's so fun and cute. I already miss his cute face.

My mom had been saving large boxes for a while knowing that when the grandkids came out they might like to have Grampa help them build forts. Inspired!

Noah LOVES forts. This was one of the highlights of the trip for him (that, and riding the escalator at the mall - go figure).

The kids got to meet and get to know their soon to be Uncle Zach. (See the tents in the room? That's where all the older grandkids slept. The three girls in the "princess" tent and the three boys in the "hero" tent. It was fun and the kids had a ball but it made for a lot of late nights.)

He's a lot of fun. A perfect match for Ashley!

Clayton arrived a few days after me and the littles. He also loved the fort.

Naps were hard to come by in Vegas, so we took them where we could!

Can't forget my sweet Sammie and the oldest bouncy seat on the planet!

The boys having some downtime with the iPad.

The younger cousins all enjoyed bathing together. I think this picture is hilarious. Max is having the time of his life splashing; Josie and Ella not so much.

One night my parents threw a "boy" party and a "girl" party. The parties started out with a joint hot dog roast and s'more extravaganza by the fire pit.

Check out that messy s'more face!

After the food the girls headed back into the house for mani's and pedi's and all things princess and girlie while the boys stayed outside for star-gazing and scary story telling. I wasn't there but from what I heard, it was a huge hit!

The wedding day! The main event! Ashley looked gorgeous.

The soon to be married couple on their way to the temple.

A little make-up touch up.

My handsome first born waiting for Aunt Ash and Uncle Zach at the temple.

The Larsons!

After the sealing ceremony, we headed over to the church to wait for the ring ceremony, and then the reception. One of the most genius things about this wedding (in my opinion) was that they had made wedding coloring books for the kids. They had word searches with the flower girl and ring bearer's names, wedding word scrambles, and tons of pictures to color. Again, GENIUS!

One of the best things was that Gil, Missy, Jared, and Abby were able to come down for the reception. It'd been forever since we'd seen them and it was so great to spend time with them and hang out in such a fun and festive setting. (This is apparently Clayton's new 'smile' face. Not sure what he's doing, but he does it a lot.)

Clayton with Missy and Abby. I don't remember the last time we saw Abby (or Missy) but Abby has gotten SO big (Missy hasn't). She was a baby last time we saw her and this time she was a little girl with personality to spare. I have to say, I have the best neices and nephews - they are all so fun!

Father and son (and sad granddaughter).

Speaking of sad granddaughter...

This is how Josie pouts. She does this and we can't help but laugh at her.

She finally fell asleep and that seemed to remedy the situation!

We grabbed a few family pics since we were all dudded up. This one is my favorite. I love all the kids' expressions (so classic). We're posed, but everyone is just being who they are.

Love this one too. Particularly my boy's faces. If anyone has any tips for getting normal, natural happy expressions out of kids in pictures I'd love to hear them!

The day after the wedding Justin and Clayton had to go back to South Bend and back to work and school. We were definitely sad to see them go, but I was glad that we got another week with family and friends. I don't think we did anything spectacular that last week. More eating, a few get togethers with friends and family, and a lot of time spent hanging out with Anisha, Kerstin, Mom, and Grandma Schmidt. It was really relaxing. Overall we had a wonderful vacation and I was sad to leave. Things I miss most: My family, the weather (oh, the weather), and all the yummy Mexican food.
Leaving Las Vegas.

 We'll be back...eventually.