Projects

I thought maybe when we moved out here to Casper that our lives would slow down more, nope. It seems like it's doubled in crazy days. I really tried hard to have a goal of finishing all my unfinished projects and things I'd started on last year by the end of January.  Seeing as that is tomorrow, it probably wont happen, but I'll shoot for February! 

Mike is in Alaska right now.  He was gone on a job before that as well.  Alaska was supposed to be Monday to Monday, but now we have no clue when he'll be home.  He said it was -26 degrees just a couple nights ago, and he was out in that weather for a long time.  I need to remember when I'm a little stressed here in my warm comfortable home, I can think of what he's doing for us and be very grateful for what I have.

 Thanks to Grandma Letham, Grandma Phister, and Mike... I have a new piano and LOVE IT!!

 This is my new on-going project.  To learn how to play it!  I'm teaching myself right now, then when I can't do that anymore, I'll take lessons.  So far, its been so fun and relaxing.

(I made the temple picture above in a fun class with a bunch of ladies last month!)

 

 I bought this armoire from a friend and painted it black.  This was quite time consuming, thanks for helping Mikey! 

My Hand-Made Curtains!

 

 

 When Susan and I picked them out, we were thinking a couple days and we'd have some beautiful curtains.  Oh my, was I wrong!  It took me days to finish one panel, and I spent a lot of time on them.  But they were worth it. I still have two more panels to make for the sliding glass door on the other side of the room, but for now, I feel accomplished!

I love how long they are!

It feels so good to make someone like this myself.

My birthday clock from Susan.  I spray painted it black (it was a rusty looking yuck color) and painted the hands red.  I'm still in the process of getting vinyl lettering to surround it saying, "Time doth softly sweetly glide, when there's love at home."  One thing at a time! (of course I need to remember that saying in the future!)

  I just started putting together some red in the room.  I wasn't for sure if I still wanted the red accent around the house anymore, but I decided yes I do!

Its not pretty, but just a reminder for me that we got a free old treadmill from Mike's boss.  Yah!  I love having it here so we don't need to go out to a gym and worry about babysitting and all that stuff.  It was so time consuming (in Green River)!  

Mike and I are doing a fitness challenge thing of our own with Ty and Rachel for the year.  I wasn't consistent at all with working out, but since I've been doing it more, if feels so good!  I'm lame and I mostly do Taebo and pilates at home with videos. The kids have been doing them with me too so its actually been fun.  Lets see how we do this year!!

Sequoi's Stitches & Zelda Nemo

Our Daughter Sequoia.  This girl is something else.  We just love having her around.  She is full of life, that is for sure.  If I ask her to do something, she'll almost yell, "I AM!" with her best scowl.  She said she had to go potty today and was slowly making her way.  So I said, "Hurry, run, run, hurray!"  She turned to me and said the classic, "I AM!" then whispered with a scowl and a shake of the head, "Mom.  We don't run.  We don't run in the house.  I'm going."  And walked slowly away.  Oh our hands are definitely full.  Love every bit of her.

Anyways, just a few days ago this happened...

I was so excited that her "friend" Carter was back to visit!  (She only talks about him with me and Linc) Lincoln was having a good time with him too.  So anyways, they all started racing back and forth from the living room to her bedroom.  I was in the kitchen when I heard a crash and then a scream. As I came running she walked out of her bedroom with blood dripping down her face.  Immediately we called Daddy (first time for him being in town when emergency happens, so happy about that!) and he came to take us to the hospital.

Perfect how it all worked out.  My visiting teachers were coming over at 10:30, so at 9:30 I called one of them and she (Beth) lovely took care of Lincoln while we took Quoi in.  Then another friend (Hollie) picked him up and took him to school for us.  Love my friends! 


We got right in and got a room.  They all loved Quoi. And they said she was the best kid they'd given stitches to. She only cried when they injected the lidocaine.  During the stitches, we didn't even have to hold her down.  She was a pro:)  We left the hospital with 3 stitches and seriously only got 2 blocks away and she pulled one of them out!  Little girl!!  So we went back (:  They let us in again very fast, and since she was still numb, they did one more stitch and we were out within 20 min. Before we left, a nurse had a good stern talking to her and this little girl hasn't come close to touching them since.

She got to go out to eat with Mommy and Daddy and get her promised chocolate ice cream.

Good news:  We have a new addition to our family!   

Zelda Nemo. We love him.

Pre-cut Quoia face;) 

And what darling faces they have.  They are so excited to have a "pet."

This has been the bulk of my time lately. I've been working on getting my mom a website and FB page setup for her purses. It feels good to finally get something up and going for her.

She was NOT happy about me using her blankie as a background.  (But you can always cheer her up by letting her wear Lincoln's clothes!:)

Oh how we love these crazy munchkins!  Lincoln is a funny little kid (:

(And yes by the way he does something on underneath!)

Happy Birthday Lincoln! (and Mommy)

Lincoln had such a great birthday!  Before school, the three of us made his cake pops.  It most certainly did NOT turn out the way I would have expected, but it was still fun to make them with the kids.  I didn't read until we were in the process of decorating that you need to use candy coating, not frosting.  Whoops!  But what a fun mess it was making his Spiderman Cakes:) 

The frosting just drooped everywhere.  On hands, table, tray, tongue:)

Then Lincoln got to go to school and have a mini birthday party with his friends.  Since we couldn't bring anything home-made, Lincoln picked out some cool Spiderman toothpicks to go on his treats.  It was an even more special day for him because Mom and Sequoia got to stay the whole time with him at school. I don't know who loved it more, Lincoln having us there, or Quoi getting to play and participate with all the big kids.

(Sorry!  Terrible phone pics!!)

Since it was his day, I let the kids play at the Science Zone for about a half an hour after school.  And then we went to the library for a while. Those are two of his favorite places. We got home and had some delicious Mac and Cheese for dinner, birthday boy's choice. We got to Skype with Grandma Phister and Uncle Ty Ty while Lincoln opened up his birthday presents.  That was fun for them to see as well. And he was so excited to have them watch! Then we had Lincoln's friend, Carter, from across the street, and his Mom and little twin sisters come over for some cake and ice cream.  Lincoln got to try out his cool Spiderman webbing from Anna and Cory on Carter.  They loved it.  Then when that ran out, they filled it with water.  It was a lot of fun.

Daddy wasn't able to come home until later that night, so when he did we had Lincoln open his present from us.  A Spiderman watch.  He was so excited!  And so happy for Daddy to put it on.

 This is what most of the house looked like by the end of the night.  Looks like Spiderman had a great time too:)  It was seriously still in the carpet days later.  But definitely worth it:)

My birthday was the day before and one of the best birthdays I've had.  Most things went very smooth and I got to relax, and best of all, Mike came home after work and I thought he was going to scouts.  But he let me choose if I wanted him to go to scouts, or come shopping with me and the kids.  I selfishly choose shopping but had a great time in the process!  And the best part was Mike didn't rush me once!  I got 2 pairs of jeans, one pair from my mom (thank you!) and a big clock from Susan (thank you!).  I just love my very own day every single year:)

And Lincoln loved his very own day as well.  He is 4 and so big!  Oh, and I forgot.  A few months ago he started saying, "I don't like bananas.  No thank (ssank) you.  When I'm 4 I'll like bananas."  Every time he'd say that when I offered him one.  So on the big day, me and Sissy gave him a banana.  He took a bite and actually ate it.  (That boy is seriously pickier than me!) Of course by his face he looked like it was dirt in his mouth, but he swallowed and said, "See, I like them now." So proud Buddy!  I just love how he'd always say that though!!  "When I'm 4..."

New Year with Grandma and Grandpa Goodman

 We had a wonderful and unexpected New Years.  Grandpa and Grandma Goodman flew out to see us a few days before the new year. It was a much needed visit.  Mike had been gone on a job a couple days after Christmas so I loved having real adults to get to talk to, and I was just being a grouch that week.  Mike ended up getting home just a day after they got here and got to stay home the rest of the weekend.  The kids just loved getting to play with them!  Gary let Susan and I go shopping and run some errands while he watched the kids on Friday morning. We had a great time.  We also picked out the perfect fabric to make curtains for my dining and living rooms. Susan was amazed we actually like the same thing:)  It wasn't my intention to make my own curtains, but I had looked everywhere and hadn't found the perfect ones.  Then we saw the fabric.  Loved!  So that's my next project to work on hopefully soon. I'm excited to see how they will look!  Thanks for shopping with me Susan!

Later that same afternoon, me and the kids got to take Grandma and Grandpa to one of our favorite places here in Casper.  The Science Zone!  We all had a blast!  I think maybe Grandpa had an even funner time than the kids did:)  It is a mini science museum for children. I love it!  They have so many cool ideas and a lot of hands on things for the kids to do.  And a toddler section for little ones as well, which they don't play in long, but I'm glad its there. We hope we will get to take Daddy there one day too!  

Grandma and I played with the bubbles longer than the kids:)

 

They have a really cool Zoo Section of turtles, snakes, birds, iguanas, lizards, bunnies, fish, spiders! and more.

This toy is one of their favorites.  Lincoln can play on it forever making different ways to slide the marble down.

 


 

 

 

They also got to come with us to some friends of ours, the Larsen's, to celebrate the New Year.  We had a blast.  They had so much yummy food, the kids played great with the other ones, and we played games.  It was a great beginning to the new year at 9pm.  Perfect:)  We also played a game where you put a cookie on your nose/eye and without using your hands you have to get the cookie into your mouth.  Yep, I pretty much dominated:)  It was nice to celebrate earlier, because by the time midnight did roll around, we were all back home snuggled up playing Canasta.  Perfect weekend.  We just loved having them here.  It was sad to see them go, but love that it is so convenient to fly back and forth, so hopefully we will see them again soon!