3 years ago today, Tate decided to finally grace us with his presence. This little man was 4 days overdue, not that that's a lot compared to some overdue babies, but it was plenty for me! We are so thankful this boy is in our family, he is such a fun blessing.
Tate is our funny, outgoing, inquisitive boy. He is always doing something or on the go. When he does take a few moments to sit, he likes to watch his favorite movies 'Despicable Me' and 'Wreck it Ralph'. I love watching Tate play because he has the sweetest imagination. He will play bad guys out on the trampoline kicking them down. When he's playing in the bath, he always has some elaborate game he's playing with his cars. He goes to daycare with girls so he's got a soft side too, playing house and dress up.
Tate is also very independent. It seems with each child, they get more independent faster! He likes to do his stuff without any help. For the most part, I'm completely OK with that, with a few exceptions. Like brushing teeth. He hates to have me help, but I hate to let him do it himself! He's also graduated from diapers which makes us so happy. But he's not liking underwear. Every morning he asks if he can stay in his "unders". Sorry, buddy. When we asked him how old he was turning for his birthday he kept saying 1 because that would mean he could still wear diapers. Smart kid.
We are so thankful for this boy in our family. He knows how to give some of the best cuddles and kisses. Half way through the night, we'll wake up to him snuggled in bed with us. And when he wakes up he has the cutest "good morning" grin! He loves going to Nursery and singing the songs. During Sacrament meeting, he's always asking if it's nursery time yet. He's a social guy and has many friends in his nursery and our neighborhood. We know this little guy is a special gift from our Father in Heaven.
Tate, we hope you had a wonderful birthday and know how loved you are. Have fun being 3!!
*Sorry, I couldn't get any of his pictures to load to the blog*
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
Flooring Part 2: Before and After
I didn't get the greatest "before" pictures because it was kind of an afterthought. But hopefully you'll get the idea.
Before: Linoleum by the front door and carpet in the living room. Our carpet just didn't look great anymore. After 6 years of kids and many spills, dirt, snow, etc. it just wouldn't bounce back.
After: Love the look of the laminate wood. It actually opens up the space and makes our living room seem much bigger. It's so easy to clean too, just sweep really quickly.
Another shot of the living room. We were lucky and had these rugs from our house in Alabama. They fit the colors of our house very well and worked well with the small space.
Before: The dining room had the same linoleum from the kitchen, front entry, and mudroom. When we built the house, it was an upgrade to have linoleum in the dining room. We knew there was no way we could have carpet where little kids would eat and SPILL so we upgraded to linoleum.
After: The linoleum was a good choice and lived through many spills and messes. But the new floor looks so good!
I didn't get a "before" picture of the kitchen, but you can imagine how much better this looks than before! I love how our cabinets and appliances look against the color of the floor.
Before: The hallway. Not the greatest of shots, but this is the area with the worst wear and stains.
After: No more gross carpet! It looks so great. We still need to get a runner rug because as kids run into the house from the garage, they slip a little.
We are so glad our project is mostly done. We still need to put the baseboards back on and finish the hall closet so we can put all its contents back. But we are so pleased with how well the whole floor turned out. I am very thankful for a husband who loves to work and learn new skills. He did an amazing job with all the angles in the kitchen. I am very grateful for children who were eager to help and did a great job listening and working hard. Some of my best memories are doing family projects whether it was the family garden or painting the kitchen or cutting wood. I am thankful my parents taught me the value of hard work and accomplishment and we are trying to teach our children the same. I think we can all be proud of how well our flooring adventure turned out!
Before: Linoleum by the front door and carpet in the living room. Our carpet just didn't look great anymore. After 6 years of kids and many spills, dirt, snow, etc. it just wouldn't bounce back.
After: Love the look of the laminate wood. It actually opens up the space and makes our living room seem much bigger. It's so easy to clean too, just sweep really quickly.
Another shot of the living room. We were lucky and had these rugs from our house in Alabama. They fit the colors of our house very well and worked well with the small space.
Before: The dining room had the same linoleum from the kitchen, front entry, and mudroom. When we built the house, it was an upgrade to have linoleum in the dining room. We knew there was no way we could have carpet where little kids would eat and SPILL so we upgraded to linoleum.
After: The linoleum was a good choice and lived through many spills and messes. But the new floor looks so good!
I didn't get a "before" picture of the kitchen, but you can imagine how much better this looks than before! I love how our cabinets and appliances look against the color of the floor.
Before: The hallway. Not the greatest of shots, but this is the area with the worst wear and stains.
After: No more gross carpet! It looks so great. We still need to get a runner rug because as kids run into the house from the garage, they slip a little.
We are so glad our project is mostly done. We still need to put the baseboards back on and finish the hall closet so we can put all its contents back. But we are so pleased with how well the whole floor turned out. I am very thankful for a husband who loves to work and learn new skills. He did an amazing job with all the angles in the kitchen. I am very grateful for children who were eager to help and did a great job listening and working hard. Some of my best memories are doing family projects whether it was the family garden or painting the kitchen or cutting wood. I am thankful my parents taught me the value of hard work and accomplishment and we are trying to teach our children the same. I think we can all be proud of how well our flooring adventure turned out!
Flooring Part 1
I'm gonna post our flooring adventure in more than one post. Our undertaking of new flooring has been quite a project for our family.
We decided to tear out all the flooring on the main level: all carpet and linoleum. The linoleum was the hardest part but luckily we had many helpers.
Ellie loved helping the most I think. She worked side by side Spencer doing whatever he asked her to do. She got pretty good at taking heavy scraps and pulling staples.
Tate loved using the hammer even though it wasn't at the most helpful of times. But he made sure to do it himself, we couldn't help at all
The worst part of our project was pulling flooring from the mudroom and front entry. They were just small spaces and it was hard to maneuver tools and bodies.
The next section we tackled was the kitchen; it was a beast! We had to do it over the space of several days. But once again, our kids were more than willing to help. Sometimes too willing and they got in the way! They really liked using the pry bar to pull up the floor pieces. Only having so many tools caused a problem in the sharing department.But eventually they worked it out and worked well together.
This is the dining room the kids are working in. Tate loved using the Cat's Paw tool and sort of got the idea of it.
Ellie got pretty good at pulling out the staples from the under-lament. Which was just fine because this was the most annoying part.
Ayden did a good job bouncing around helping each of us. He would pull scraps out to the backyard or help Tate with a piece of floor.
After awhile, Tate got bored of helping and found better things to do: playing shooting game with the baseball bat and the hose sprayer from outside. Whatever works!
This is the living after Spencer pulled out all the carpet. Luckily, he had the day off work on Friday and was able to get a good chunk of the work done. I came home from work to no carpet. It was a happy sight for me because I've hated our gross carpet for quite a while.
We decided to tear out all the flooring on the main level: all carpet and linoleum. The linoleum was the hardest part but luckily we had many helpers.
Tate loved using the hammer even though it wasn't at the most helpful of times. But he made sure to do it himself, we couldn't help at all
The worst part of our project was pulling flooring from the mudroom and front entry. They were just small spaces and it was hard to maneuver tools and bodies.
The next section we tackled was the kitchen; it was a beast! We had to do it over the space of several days. But once again, our kids were more than willing to help. Sometimes too willing and they got in the way! They really liked using the pry bar to pull up the floor pieces. Only having so many tools caused a problem in the sharing department.But eventually they worked it out and worked well together.
This is the dining room the kids are working in. Tate loved using the Cat's Paw tool and sort of got the idea of it.
Ellie got pretty good at pulling out the staples from the under-lament. Which was just fine because this was the most annoying part.
Ayden did a good job bouncing around helping each of us. He would pull scraps out to the backyard or help Tate with a piece of floor.
After awhile, Tate got bored of helping and found better things to do: playing shooting game with the baseball bat and the hose sprayer from outside. Whatever works!
This is the living after Spencer pulled out all the carpet. Luckily, he had the day off work on Friday and was able to get a good chunk of the work done. I came home from work to no carpet. It was a happy sight for me because I've hated our gross carpet for quite a while.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Long Time
So we are alive, I just haven't been good at updating my blog. Life as usual is busy. We are in the middle of a flooring project on our main level. We are tearing out all the flooring to put in laminate wood floors. I'm very excited for the finished project, but the stuff in the middle is getting old! We decided to do it ourselves, really is there another way? And it's hard work tearing out the under lament and pulling all staples out. We've been doing it as a family and it's been fun seeing the kids work hard and feel proud of themselves. We hope to have it done this weekend, fingers crossed.
The kids are all doing well. We've had beautiful weather the past few days so they are getting plenty of time outside. They start Spring Break next week, but are leaving a little early tonight to start it. Ayden and Ellie get to go camping with my sister Katie and her family. Originally, we were all going to go, but then we needed this weekend for the floors. So Katie is being awesome and letting my kids tag a long without us. We'll see how she survives!
Tate will get to go Nana and Grandpa Shaw's house on Friday and do an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday. I love that we have supportive family that will literally take my kids so we can do our crazy project. Thank you.
I'll post pictures of our finished floors and other updates of the kids as soon as this is all over.
The kids are all doing well. We've had beautiful weather the past few days so they are getting plenty of time outside. They start Spring Break next week, but are leaving a little early tonight to start it. Ayden and Ellie get to go camping with my sister Katie and her family. Originally, we were all going to go, but then we needed this weekend for the floors. So Katie is being awesome and letting my kids tag a long without us. We'll see how she survives!
Tate will get to go Nana and Grandpa Shaw's house on Friday and do an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday. I love that we have supportive family that will literally take my kids so we can do our crazy project. Thank you.
I'll post pictures of our finished floors and other updates of the kids as soon as this is all over.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Meghan's Visit
Our friend Meghan came to visit this past weekend. She was attending a BYU Gymnastics reunion, but was kind enough to make some time for us! We loved having her visit, Brian and Bo we missed you.
The kids had a lot of fun playing with Meghan.
Meghan had a reunion with teammates from the BYU gymnastics team and a few of them went to the Creamery afterward. I asked if she had the BYU Mint brownies, and she gave me this incredulous look and goes "oh my gosh, I didn't!" So we decided to make some at home. Ellie got to help and she felt so special because Meghan helped her.
Meghan, I miss you already! Thanks for coming to see us and hopefully we'll make it out to see you and your family soon!
The kids had a lot of fun playing with Meghan.
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| Tate thought this was hilarious |
I got to have plenty of time to just catch up with Meghan. It's been a year and half since we last saw each other. So just visiting was fun.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Happy "Balemtime's" Days
Or at least that's how the little one says it! The kids have had fun preparing their valentines for their friends and I had fun making some for their teachers. I got this idea from a recipe book and its super easy. I made Sweetie Pie Pops.
You make little pies on a stick, so easy and so cute! Here's the finished project for their teachers. I thought they turned out really cute
And my little ones have had a great day with their school parties and looking through their valentines from friends. Ayden called me at work to tell me he got a special one from the girl liked! Here's our Valentine to you: Hope it's a wonderful day spent with those you love!
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| kisses all around! |
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