A Year

My sweet, happy, determined, Wesley is a year old today. We are so grateful that he is part of our family!

-Wesley loves the ABC song and requests it by saying, "A's!"
       I am not making it up, he loves the letter "W". Whenever we get to that point in the song he smiles big and sometimes chimes in "DUB!" He also says "gog" (dog), "Hi!", and "momma", and "dadda". He has been known to say the word "More" as well.
-Wesley loves having a breakfast shake in the morning. He usually has two. He also loves anything sweet. Seriously, this kid can spot refined sugar from a mile away.
-He loves waving "bye bye" to the school bus every morning. I am not allowed to shut the door until the bus is completely out of sight. He will scream and push the door back open if I try.
-He loves playing with his brother and sisters. Every day they take turns being his favorite. They all make him giggle like crazy.
-Wesley has a strange obsession with emptying all of the ziploc bags on to the kitchen floor about a hundred times a day.
-Wesley can take up to 4 steps right now, but LOVES pushing around his little walker toy. He uses that to get himself around quickly.
-Wesley bonks. He bonks in his high chair, he bonks in his car seat, he bonks in his bed.
-Wesley has already had three haircuts in his short life. No lie.

We LOVE our little Wesley.

The Scars of the Man

Brady wrote a book at preschool. He dictated his story to his preschool teacher, she wrote it down, and he illustrated it. (I don't think I have mentioned enough how much I love his preschool teachers.)

Once there was a man. He lived where there was quiet and peace.

But then it was so loud, he thought a lion came by.

But then it was loud, he saw a zebra come by.

 But then it was peace and quiet again.

But then the sun was shining and he stood right under it.

Then his wife came by. 

Then he went back to his home. His wife and him lived happy in his home. 

Brady's Thoughts: The man thought he liked the quiet and peace. Then it got loud and the animals were around him. He thought he didn't like the noise, but then it was quiet again and he was alone. That made him sad. When his wife came he was happy to not be alone again.

Stripes!

I caught a serious painting bug. Sean says it seems to coincide with the sudden energy I have since recuperating from my gall bladder surgery. I want to paint everything!
I recently did stripes in our family room. I received some tips from a friend who had done stripes herself, and I thought I would share.

First step: Choose colors. Paint your wall the base color and let dry.
Second step: Measure your wall from floor to ceiling. Mine was 96 inches from floor to ceiling.
               Decide how many stripes you want. I wanted 6.
               Divide the total inches of the wall by the number of stripes that you want. I got 16 inches.
          *It is much easier to measure out even numbers, so play around with it a little and try to get as close as possible to an inch mark.

Third Step: Measure and cut a cardboard box or cereal box to the number of inches that you decided on. I taped the folds on the box so it would be sturdy.
                    

Fourth step: Start at the floor and use your box as your guide. Do not start at the stop of your baseboard, start at the floor for your first stripe. Use a pencil to trace the top of the box. Move along the wall until you have your entire line. Occasionally I would get out my tape measure and measure my lines to make sure everything was staying even.
For your second line, line the bottom of your box guide up with the line you created and start again. Make sure to take your time and line everything up.
Continue moving up the wall until it is all done.

Fifth step: Tape! You will want to tape the edge of the adjacent walls to make sure that your stripes do not bleed on to them.
                Tape around windows, fire places, etc. If your stripe next to the ceiling will be painted, tape off the edge of the ceiling as well.
                The stripe closest to the floor will be your base coat color. Take your "lock tape" and line the tape up JUST UNDERNEATH the first pencil line from the floor all the way across the wall. Take your time to line it up and make sure you can see the entire pencil line.
For the next line, place the tape directly ABOVE the entire pencil line.
Your third line the tape will be just UNDERNEATH the pencil line again. Continue that pattern up the wall.

Sixth Step: Take a paint brush or sponge brush and paint a line of your base coat color over your tape. This will cover your pencil markings and seal your tape so it WILL NOT BLEED. Don't skip this step. It gives you nice, crisp lines.

Seventh Step: Paint your stripes! Remember that you start with your color on the second stripe up from the ground. Doing these three stripes took me less than a half gallon of paint.

Final Step: When you are done painting your stripes, remove your tape while the paint is still wet. If you don't, the paint will dry on to the tape and pull it up when you take the tape off.

It really was not hard, and I love the results!

(Sorry about the quality of the pictures. I have to paint at night while my kids are in bed. :) )

Ewe Are Scary!

On the way home from an activity tonight, the girls and I were listening to the radio. A commercial came on for a new movie about Jack and the Beanstalk. At the end of the commercial the announcer said that the movie was rated PG-13.

Me: "Jack and the Beanstalk is PG-13?? What? Are they going to turn 'Mary had a little lamb' into a PG-13 movie too??"

Bethanie: "The evil lamb that followed Mary- everywhere... dun, dun, dun, dunnnnnn."

Been Crafting

I have a few different projects that I am working on. I guess I caught a crafting bug. Somehow everything in my living room has ended up being really dark in color. I needed something lighter. This will do for now.

I started with a 2 pack of 16 in x 20 in canvases, on sale for under $5. I got a yard of batting and a yard of burlap. Those were a total of $7.  I purchased 3 colors of $0.50 acrylic paint. I also used my husbands drill, two screws, and his staple gun. :)

I used the two screws to connect the two canvases I used tape to arrange a design on my burlap, traced the design, then painted in the squares.
I stapled the batting on to the canvases, then covered with the burlap. Voila! Mostly pleased. :)

Valentine's Day!

This is it! The day. I don't think I have ever thought about Valentine's day this much in my entire life. I warned my kids that the Valentines stopped today. I will make sure to still tell them that I love them though. The next two weeks will be spent doing a family sugar detox. : P

Sean got the kids a variety of Gertrude Hawk chocolates. He got me roses, and Gertrude Hawk dark chocolate salted caramels. YES! 

I got Sean some Reese's hearts and a BIG card. It was two feet tall. :)

Valentine- Day #13

S'more Mix. YUM!

Valentine- Day #12

Surprise! Kimmy's Here!

Aunt Kimmy decided to surprise my kids and come for a week. They had no clue she and Brylee would be visiting. They all gave us great reactions. Because they were all spread throughout the house when she arrived, we were able to get 4 separate reactions from them.

This is a (blurry) pic of Aunt Kimmy and Brylee enjoying their airheads with the rest of us.

Valentine- Day #11

Kimmy and Brylee got Valentine's too today!

Valentine- Day #10

Anniversary of His Birth

We celebrated Brady today. This day started like this;
Brady: "Dad, you are the goodest dad in the whole wide world."
Me: "Brady, that was so nice of you to say."
Brady: " Well, actually mom, he is the goodest dad to me, but in the whole wide world Heavenly Father is probably the very best dad."

Yeah, my sweet little thinker, Brady, is a joy in our home.

Brady LOVES pre-school. He likes hanging out with his sisters and his best friends, Gabe and Isabelle. He also loves dressing up. I mean he LOVES it. We have been to the grocery store many times with Brady sporting his superman cape, Ironman costume, or Captain America mask and shield.
On Sundays he refuses to go to church without a tie on. He also insists on wearing his sport coat.

Brady is looking forward to starting kindergarten this year and learning how to read.

Valentine- Day #9

Valentine- Day #8

I made apple pockets for their treat today. I knew my kids would ask me what "apple of my eye" meant, so I looked it up to be sure I had it right. ;)

Meaning:

Someone whom you cherish above all others.

Example:

My youngest daughter, Cherie is the apple of my eye.

Did you know?

The original meaning of this phrase refers to the eye’s pupil. As something integral for sight, it is certainly something much valued.

Not the prettiest dessert you've ever seen, but they tasted good. :)

Birthday Requests

Brady: "Maybe for my birthday you should get me a credit card!"

Valentine- Day #7

Half way through and I am having fun. They are just little notes, but my family is loving them. Don't tell Sean that I told you, but he is getting so excited about his daily surprise. :)

Sadie Saves the Day

This morning Wesley was doing the usual, causing trouble and getting in to everything. He was in the bathroom with me while I was doing the girls' hair.
He decided to pull the hot straightening iron down from the counter by grabbing the cord. Sadie stepped in and grabbed the iron before it hit Wesley, in the process burning every one of her fingers on her left hand.
What a super hero she is.

Valentine- Day #6

Valentines- Day #5

Valentines - Day #4

A Reputation

I thought I wrote a post about this, but apparently never did. A few months ago Sean went to northern CA on a business trip. While there, the rental car he was driving was broken in to and his laptop was stolen from the trunk. Brady now is very suspicious of anyone from California.

Yesterday's conversation proves that he still has strong feelings about the state.

Bethanie: "Dad, which state are the 49ers from?"
Sean: "California."
Brady (With wide eyes): "Are the 49ers all robbers?!"

Valentines Day #3

This is about the time that my family caught on to the fact that this will be a daily thing until Valentine's Day. I am having fun writing the little notes to each person on the back.

Will You Be My Valentine? Day #2

While they enjoyed the homemade cinnamon rolls, they all had a very hard time trying to pronounce that word. ;)

Operation: I LOVE winter!

I usually have a bad case of the winter blues in January and February. The cold, dirty snow, and dead trees just don't do it for me. I decided that this year I was going to fight the blues. What better way than to celebrate love??
February 1st is the official start to a full on war on winter blues. I really am trying to keep things simple. I would not be able to follow through with something completely elaborate. So, if you are looking for something pinterest worthy, my humblest apologies.
Found on the other side of the little cards are individual notes to my family members with things that I love about them. This will continue on until February 14. The bonus? It fulfills requirements for one of my Personal Progress experiences for church!
I am wishing you all a LOVELY February, full of hearts and pink. :)