see ya, 2009

isn't she the little mommy in the making? minus the binky, of course.

notice her painted table and chairs...finished them yesterday. i'm sick of painting.

SOOO......almost-happy new year!

here are some of my favorite posts from this past year. thanks to all of you who read my blog...it's nice to know there's someone on the other end of all these ramblings.

let's get to know rory

my second quilt

chicken with peanut sauce and noodles -yum!

star wars finger puppets

re-fashioned toddler sweatshirt

cassy's baby shower

felt food

dora couch makeover

sadie's minnie mouse party

diy headboard

and last, but certainly not least...

kitchen is done!

goings on...

sorry, did i make you drool? didn't mean to. i got this amazing book from my mother in law for christmas, and just had to try out the technique! you make a big batch of dough (no kneading!), let it rise, store it in the fridge, and cut off bits whenever you want some bread! uh, yeah...my kind of bread making! it can last for weeks in the fridge. how awesome. it was delicious. we downed one of the baguettes in about 5 minutes, no problem. sadie kept saying "bea bea bea". that means she liked it too.

it's our tradition to have new years eve with the watsons, i think we're going on our fifth year now? i wanted to make bruschetta, so i think i'll whip some of these bad boys up tomorrow for that. yum!

my sister joanna went off to BYU yesterday for school. :( jo, janae, and i made a quick trip up to ikea on monday for some essentials. i got this ca-ute table and chair set for the playroom, and am in the process of painting it to match the kitchen. (the blue-green color) sadie loves sitting on the chairs and looking at her books. i need to get some plates for her so we can serve up some "food" on the table. today she made me fried eggs, with broccoli. (hmm) she also fed her baby doll some apple. the baby doll wasn't as responsive as i was, so she gave that up pretty quick.

mostly, we've been laying low and enjoying the time together! rory has this week off from work. i keep trying to hint to him to finish some honey do's, but he's fixated on his new computer parts. oh well!

i got out the maternity clothes yesterday, can't believe it's already time to break those out! my pants still fit, and shirts as well, but i'm in that awkward stage where you just kinda look plump. grr! haha. we're SOOOOO excited to find out the sex in about 2 weeks. then i can start planning the nursery, etc. although if it's another girl, i'll basically leave it alone.

we've been looking for toddler beds for the sadester. i can't quite wrap my head around her not being in a crib. but she'll be ready for one sooner than i think....at least we want her transitioned before the baby comes...is that too ambitious? mommas who have done this....advice?! please! help!

rory and i went to see sherlock holmes with the watsons last night, we liked it a lot! we're seeing riverdance on friday with my parents, too! and star trek on imax on saturday! most of these were christmas gifts, btw. we're going to be all dated out by the end of the week. lol.

anyways, that's what's been going down over here. stay tuned soon for that awesome giveaway i hinted at while back! i'll post it on friday, that way i'll start the new year with a bang!

play kitchen materials

sooo, you want the rundown?

here's where i got everything...and as good a price list as i can do....i'll break it down as best i can...as best as i can remember, at least!

(i'm horrible at saving receipts!)

lumber- 2 4'x8' pieces of 3/4 inch plywood-$70

flourescent light-$10 light box and switch-$4? (dad?) wood for frame-scrap-free!
bowl for sink-found at goodwill for $2
faucet-2 dowels, one was 2", one was 1 3/4 inch-$5 for both
great outdoors poster-$6 from michaels, on sale for half off
plexiglas-free from rory's work (or did he just take it?)

knobs for cupboard doors-$2 each from lowe's
handles for fridge and oven-$8 each from home depot
hooks above stove-$1.50 per pack from OSH
hinges-5 packs at $3 each-$15 total

 
black knobs for oven-from OSH, four plastic at $1 each, one larger ceramic one at $2
plexiglas-free, nicked by Rory
burners-plastic door handle protector thingies, from lowe's-$2.50 each black
plastic spray paint for burners-$5

magnetic paint-$23 from lowe's (for a quart)

wire baskets for storage-from 99 cent store, $8 total

 
paint-all kelly moore, all paint i had on hand, free! i did purchase one quart of white, since i was out-$12
we used screws we had on hand, and my dad had all the tools handy...so nothing was spent on that stuff. lucky me!

grand total: $200....we love that this one is custom, with fun touches and personality, and will hopefully end up being a family heirloom that our grandkids will one day play with.

hey, we can dream, right?

by the way...

....our christmas was great! i didn't post yesterday because my camera died so i charged it but then forgot to take pictures. horrible, i know! i saw lots of people taking pictures, so hopefully they will send me some! (nora, mom?) the two here are the few i got.

we started off our morning at 6 am for stockings at my parents house. sadie did really well waking up that early, the monkey helped. hehe.

then we opened santa presents!


sadie got this fun scooter...she has had this bruise on her cheek for the past week...we have no idea where it came from! poor thing looks like she got into a fight with her scooter and it won. (which, incidentally, did happen later)

THEN we headed up for breakfast with rory's family (18 people visiting!), and presents there. the paper was flying! phew! we got some wonderful gifts, including a new drill for rory, bread making things for me, and a dolly and wooden cookies for sadie.

THEN....we drove back down to my parents house for presents there. we take turns opening one present at a time, and with 11 people opening, it takes awhile. we were opening presents until 2 pm, with a short break for lunch. we also got some great presents, including a paid for date night, baby sitting once a month this year from my parents, and more dollies for sadie! I also got some wool felt...


...that i can't wait to play with! and lots of fun fabric. :D happy jessica!

so... THEN we stopped by our house to "show" sadie the kitchen. (really she watched rory and my dad move it in, and then got mad when we wouldn't let her touch it. some still tacky paint)
my family tagged along to see her reaction, my dad most excited of all, of course!

THEN...we headed BACK up to rory's family's for their traditional christmas dinner, and had fun chatting and playing with new toys. poor sadie hadn't gotten any naps, besides the 15 minute car rides back and forth, so we ended up going home to put her down at her normal time. poor baby! holidays are hard for bebes.

THEN...i went over to my parents house to see what was going on and we played this dumb game, the moment of truth, where it has a lie detector in the game, and it said i was lying when i said i had never yelled at a telemarketer, but i HAVEN'T! stupid game. i realize this post is becoming very strange, and commend you if you've made it this far.

hope you had a merry christmas too! or happy holidays!

play kitchen=DONE!

we finished the kitchen with time to spare...alright, christmas eve afternoon. so not much time to spare, but it was done, anyways.

here it is! in all it's painted, handled, glory!

here, please notice (and make a big deal out of for my dad's sake, hehe), the light behind the window, oops, i mean the sun shining on our mountain/lake view. didn't you know we totally live on a lake? you can see a little more about the light in this post here. it ended up looking AWESOME, and sadie loves flicking the switch on and off. (my dad installed and wired the light up to a lightswitch on the side of the fridge.)

side note:

A HUGE super duper THANK YOU to my dad for helping me with this project. i literally couldn't have done it without him. it would be two boards screwed together and i would have cried and given up the first night. so THANKS dad! you're the best! he really likes my blog and (secretly) loves to hear your comments about the kitchen. hehe. so give him some props!

a cute little broom my grandpa found and gave to sadie. so cute! thanks, gramps!
do you see the tiny red magnet on the fridge? we did end up using the magnetic paint for the fridge...but had to do like 10 coats for it to really work, not the three suggested on the can. my advice would be, stir WELL, or get the store to shake it for you in their shaking machine, and apply a lot of coats! it only works with thin magnets too, but it works! we're planning on getting some abc magnets for her. :D

here is our favorite part, the oven. it turned out pretty dang cool, if i do say so myself. see the "hot" wire on the bottom? my dad bent some thick wire, painted it red, drilled holes in the back, and stuck the ends in the holes. instant heating wire! the knobs were just black cabinet knobs, and the burners are those plastic things you can put behind your door so that the door handle doesn't bust a hole in your wall. we just painted them black and stuck them on! you can barely see the magnetic latch we attached here, under the top edge. those are cheap and essential! we put them on the cupboard, and fridge as well.

the knobs twist and turn, although sadie first tried pulling on them. she got a little frustrated when nothing happened! hehe

pulling some cookies out of the oven...a cute set my mother in law got her for christmas!

here's our cupboard for the essentials...

and the fridge full of food!

yum!

 
and our faucet. one of a kind! we bought a couple dowels, and my dad turned them on his lathe until we liked the look, then we drilled a hole for the spout, glued it in, and then sanded it down on his power sander until we liked how it looked. cool, eh?

let me know if you have any questions about how we did things, and i'm planning on making a materials list soon!


thanks for taking a peek!

featured on Oh Dee Doh!

merry christmas

(our card was made by this talented lady...won them in a giveaway!)

IT BEGAN IN A MANGER
by Max Lucado

THE NOISE and the bustle began earlier than usual in the village. As night gave way to dawn, people were already on the streets. Vendors were positioning themselves on the corners of the most heavily traveled avenues. Store owners were unlocking the doors to their shops.

Children were awakened by the excited barking of the street dogs and the complaints of donkeys pulling carts.

The owner of the inn had awakened earlier than most in the town. After all, the inn was full, all the beds taken. Every available mat or blanket had been put to use. Soon all the customers would be stirring and there would be a lot of work to do.

One’s imagination is kindled thinking about the conversation of the innkeeper and his family at the breakfast table. Did anyone mention the arrival of the young couple the night before? Did anyone comment on the pregnancy of the girl on the donkey? Perhaps. Perhaps someone raised the subject. But, at best, it was raised, not discussed. There was nothing that novel about them. They were, possibly, one of several families turned away that night.

Besides, who had time to talk about them when there was so much excitement in the air? Augustus did the economy of Bethlehem a favor when he decreed that a census should be taken. Who could remember when such commerce had hit the village?

No, it is doubtful that anyone mentioned the couple’s arrival or wondered about the condition of the girl. They were too busy. The day was upon them. The day’s bread had to be made. The morning’s chores had to be done. There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred.

God had entered the world as a baby.

Yet, were someone to chance upon the sheep stable on the outskirts of Bethlehem that morning, what a peculiar scene they would behold.

The stable stinks like all stables do. The stench of urine, dung, and sheep reeks pungently in the air. The ground is hard, the hay scarce. Cobwebs cling to the ceiling and a mouse scurries across the dirt floor.

A more lowly place of birth could not exist.

Off to one side sit a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him—so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.

Near the young mother sits the weary father. If anyone is dozing, he is. He can’t remember the last time he sat down. And now that the excitement has subsided a bit, now that Mary and the baby are comfortable, he leans against the wall of the stable and feels his eyes grow heavy. He still hasn’t figured it all out. The mystery of the event still puzzles him. But he hasn’t the energy to wrestle with the questions. What’s important is that the baby is fine and that Mary is safe. As sleep comes, he remembers the name the angel told him to use . . . Jesus. "We will call him Jesus."

Wide awake is Mary. My, how young she looks! Her head rests on the soft leather of Joseph’s saddle. The pain has been eclipsed by wonder. She looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty. At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. She can’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God. So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel, “His kingdom will never end.”

He looks anything but a king. His face is prunish and red. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. And he is absolutely dependent upon Mary for his well-being.

Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.

She touches the face of the infant-God. How long was your journey!

This baby had overlooked the universe. These rags keeping him warm were the robes of eternity. His golden throne room had been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pen. And worshiping angels had been replaced with kind but bewildered shepherds.

Meanwhile, the city hums. The merchants are unaware that God has visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold. And the people would scoff at anyone who told them the Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager on the outskirts of their village. They were all too busy to consider the possibility.

Those who missed His Majesty’s arrival that night missed it not because of evil acts or malice; no, they missed it because they simply weren’t looking.

a few sadie-isms

...the other day we went driving to look at lights with my family, and sadie would say,"whoa" or "wow" every time we'd see a house with lights. uh...cutest thing ever!

...somehow this little stinker shoves her binky down INTO her footed pj's sometime during the night (or early morning), and it ends up down by her foot. what a weirdo! haha. but only her right foot, so far.

...says,"WHEE" anytime she's going for a ride on something....a shopping cart, my back, her horsie rocker.

...this girl LOVES her food. right after she's done eating a meal, she'll walk up to the pantry, point, and say,"nack nack nack". she's been known to eat two bananas for breakfast. (well, that was an accident, when rory and i took turns with her one day during breakfast, and neither of us knew the other had already given her a banana. but she ate both!)

...says either "nanny" or "lala" depending on if she wants to watch handy manny or charlie and lola. lately she's been on a "nanny" kick. (i would rather she not learn pooh bear's name quite yet....i can just see her shouting that out during church or something)

...has 12 teeth now...just two came in these last two weeks, poor thing. she likes to have her teeth brushed now, at least. it's so much nicer than holding her down and prying her jaw open while she's screaming.

...can put things back when we ask her to. (wonder how long that will last...)

...loves to "help" sort and fold her laundry. really, she likes to mess up any pile i make...so i have to be FAST. she loves to collect her socks and hide them behind her crib too.

...is the biggest flirt you've ever seen. if someone at the store says hello to her or says something about how she's cute, she'll give a huge grin, bat her eyelashes, and turn on the charm! she pretty much has all the workers at our post office wrapped around her finger.

happy news

so, i guess you heard the news? har har. yep, i'm pregnant! we're way excited for this new little one, due june 24th. so the new baby and sadie will be about 22 1/2 months apart, if this one is born on time. hopefully my future kiddos will be more prompt than sadie was. (she was 11 days late) we find out the sex of the baby in the middle of january, and can't wait! we are SOO not the wait-til-the-baby comes kind of people. patience is not our virtue.

and don't worry, i still plan on blogging with two kids...just hope i can keep it up! this pregnancy sucked away some of my creative juices, but slowly they're coming back.

some OTHER fun things in the works:

play kitchen pictures coming soon...it's almost done!

FUN giveaway after christmas...this one is pretty cool! (if i do say so myself)

and etc random bits of my life that this blog is made of.

oh, and THANK YOU for all the sweet words! i appreciate every single one of them. for reals!

you guys are awesome!

christmas dress, redux

kitchen progress

this is what you last saw...

...obviously we (me, I) started painting!

what do you think?

most of the painting is done! woo hoo! just the oven left. we're painting it silver. can i just say, i adore the stripes? i actually hopped up and down with excitement after pulling the tape off. ha ha. i should have taken pictures of that, and the handy little trick that helps you get perfect stripes. darn! i will try to show you anyways, when i paint the oven, maybe. later.

the paint colors were mainly determined by what we had left from painting our house. hehe. hence, the stripes are sadie's room color, and the fridge is our kitchen and living room color. the white was our trim and ceiling color.

can't beat free fifty free! (yuk yuk, sorry)

then there are all the little things that need to be done, re-attaching the doors, plexiglas, knobs, handles, window, etc. then, stocking it with all her goodies! which, are wrapped and under the tree, so we will have to wait for christmas for the action photos! :D

the good news is, i've finished another big present, and am ALMOST done with a whole slew of presents i've been working on. so that's a relief. i freaked out yesterday, realizing there was only a week left.

then rory had the nerve to say,"well maybe you should have started working on them sooner".

i calmly did NOT throw my paint roller at him, took deep breaths, ignored him, and kept painting.

we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

...with sadie's christmas dress!

tada! says sadie.

these are the best pictures i got. she's not so much for the standing still lately, and it's too cold and wet to wander outside. i had to sacrifice my cell phone in order to get anything decent. the things we do for a picture! oh well!

i made it from my mom's pattern. (which she informed me she did not make, she altered. whatevs, it was awesome)

i think it looks adorable! just a couple of tweaks and a hem and it'll be ready. just can't decide what to make for her hair, bow wise. i have some fabric left....hmm....

thanks for all the play kitchen love! we've finished the building...now for the sanding and spackling and then painting! i seriously can't wait to see it finished!

as of this morning...

...this is what we have!

me and my dad are a lot alike. we tend to obsess over projects until they are done. hence, we have worked on this kitchen 7.5 hours since yesterday morning. hah hah. wow. we are crazy or something.


case in point: my dad came up with this clever idea to light up the window (and outdoorsy picture i plan to put up behind it), with a flourescent light hung up behind the back. it also ended up straightening out the back piece which curved a tad so my dad was happy about that too.

win win......win. (if you're an office fan)

this is where we were last night, and you can kinda see the light coming through our hole-window. cute no?
for the oven, i had this set of cooling racks i picked up at the dollar store, and we screwed in some tiny pieces of wood on the sides to form the racks. fun!

today we cut out and put in the door of the oven...rory is in charge of the plexiglas. can't wait for that! and our handles. we had to special order them, meh.

we picked up some magnetic latches from the hardware store for about 89 cents each, to keep our doors closed. simple, cheap, and that little *thwunk* is so satisfying when you close them!

so, we have the fridge door in, missing one hinge (lost in my parents garage, probably never to be seen again), the sink, window piece is cut and ready, and doors for the sink cabinet are ready and waiting for hinges. next step: finishing the sanding and spackling and then it's time to paint! i THINK i know what i'm gonna do...i hope it ends up looking like it does in my head. we will see!

i'm also up to my ears in christmas shopping and gift making and cookie making. no wonder the holidays go by so fast!

getting there...

my dad called me this morning. "I have a few hours, want to come over and work on the kitchen?"

"can mom watch sadie? yes? i'm there!"

so this is what we got done. it's going pretty quickly! obviously, on the right is the fridge/freezer, and on the left is the oven, in the middle will be the sink, with a cabinet underneath. i plan to make a window above the sink, and a shelf above the oven. i have to figure out what i want to paint it though...it's hard! no clue. any suggestions? i don't want to use primary/bright colors. i think i will be painting the oven silver, but not the fridge...and i have plans for the "wall". so excited!

rough

it may not look like much, but here is the start of sadie's play kitchen!

my dad was awesome enough to help me cut and measure and attach wood together this afternoon until we got this! it may not look like much, but i'm soo excited to have this project started. hopefully we can work on it again soon...so it can be done for christmas! i'll keep ya posted on the progress, un-pretty as it may be.

molly monkey

well, she's finished!

i spent afternoon nap finishing her up and working on another present, too...i guess it finally hit me that christmas is in two weeks and i'm running out of time to procrastinate! darn.

here's where i found the pattern.

oh christmas tree..

oh christmas tree,


oh christmas tree!

thy presents are so tempting...

(do not fear, i stopped her from opening it. barely.)

why my mom rocks

i called my mom yesterday, griping and moaning about sadie's christmas dress.

my "practice dress" was....let's just say, i'm not going to be showing that one off. i was inspired by this dress and these dresses, but didn't have a pattern or idea of how to make it.

mom to the rescue! she MADE me a pattern last night. yes, MADE!


while she baby sat sadie! well, she was asleep for part of it. (company christmas dinner for rory and i)

so here's the fabric. can't wait! hope i don't royally mess up. at least i know a good seamstress nearby who knows exactly how it's supposed to go together. :D