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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Years!!!

Happy New Years Eve!!!! 

Hope everybody has a safe and happy New Year's Eve :)  We are having a low key one around here.  We will be hanging around the house and breaking out my boys' new Xbox 360 Kinnect.  Today is not only New Year's Eve....it is also my Chasey-boy's ninth birthday <3 <3 <3.  I can. not. believe it!  He is growing up so very very fast. 

Such a good lookin kid!  
Happy Birthday my sweetheart!  


Wanna deeper peek into our lives?  I just thought the following was funny.  Brent and I got into a little tiff this afternoon and ended up resolving it via text message.  Does anybody else argue like this?  I think we are total nerds.  He's going to kill me for posting this.  haha!  

Let me preface this with basically, he just hurt my feelings....no need for anymore detail than that ;) 

Here goes:  

Brent:  I just felt like you were taking something simple and turning it into all kind of drama.  You know I love you and I always do my best to take care of all of you.  When you start pouting and saying ....., I thought that was melodramatic and a little juvenile.  When I stated as such, you wanted to go tit for tat and make it worse.   You always want me to apologize and I do, but sometimes if you would just pause for a second instead of trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill, there wouldn't be as much drama as there is.  We have a great life.  We have healthy kids and we love each other.  Why do we need manufactured drama?  If I get a tone you don't like , maybe you could say "Hey calm down, it's no big deal" ....and if you said it in a non-rude tone, then I would correct myself.  But coming back at me with a silly, rude comment exacerbates the problem and doesn't help.  If I'm not responding like an adult then you need to. Same goes for me with you.  


Anna:  When you behave a certain way to me, when you are short tempered and act like you don't have time for my "foolishness" or what have you, it makes me feel pain. No matter what your intents are, or excuses are, it still hurts.  I never try to make something more out of a situation than it is.  I just react to the pain I am feeling.  

Brent:  If I get all rude and such, if you don't stay calm and act like the adult then I will have a harder time correcting myself. If you join in with my rude-ness, then the problem will only get worse in the moment.  I love you and didn't mean to make you upset but you upset me too.  

Anna:  You're right, it's just hard when you've hurt my feelings and I want you to realize that you've hurt me.  but instead I get more hurt feelings because you take my reaction as an attack on you.  

Brent:  I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, I'm talking about how you react to it.  How your feelings get hurt is a part of who you are and has nothing to do with me.  I need to be more cognizant of your feelings as always.  I just need sometimes when I get short with you, for you to let me know directly instead of immediately taking it personally and letting your claws out.  

Anna:  Yeah, I know, you are right....but it is really hard though.  It's hard to control a reaction to someone else upsetting you.  Just like you say that if I don't react meanly to you being mean to me, then you won't react back to my reaction.  The thing you are telling me to do is because you are trying to keep yourself from having to do that very same thing.  It's a two way street.  It would be much easier on both of us if you just wouldn't be nasty in the first place.  But yes, I agree that if either of us is unable to control ourselves, the other should make an effort to be the bigger person instead of perpetuating the argument.  But then what if we both aren't able to control ourselves?  lol

Brent:  That's what happened today, we didn't control ourselves.  I will do better.  I understand I get frustrated and get angry.  I love you and will work on being better.  

Anna:  I love you too and I feel a lot better now too :)  





Am I a lucky lady or what?  I mean he was a total butt-hole to me earlier, but I come off as the mean one in this conversation.  He really is a great guy.   Are we just dorks or what?  Not what you would expect out of a "fight"  In fact....we don't really fight, we debate.  We are like a couple of nerds debating...haha! 

I don't know why I thought to share this, but I thought it would at least be entertaining. 

Have a Happy Newyear!!!




Friday, December 30, 2011

excited!!!

I'm really excited to start working on Isla's bed!  We went to Lowes today to start piecing together everything I'm going to need and pricing things, etc.  I have my list of the tools I'm going to buy and I found the wood I need, and now I'm just looking for the right fabric.  I'm just in LOVE with the stuff over at tonic living.  The prices seem pretty decent too....especially if I were to just buy a bunch of small bits for pillows, etc.  I'm still at a loss, however, to find the right fabrics for Isla's bed.  I think I'm going to try to sneak over to Jo-ann's and see if I can find anything good over there.  I always have the hardest time finding the "thing" I have in my head.  I guess that's why I usually resort to making my own stuff....but to make my own patterned fabric might be a little beyond me.  (I have seen it done though, so you never know ...hehehe)  I have been searching for this for months now...but never really with the intention to buy in the moment.  We'll see....  I also have been looking for good ways to somehow treat said fabric so that my child (children...cause you know they will all be all over it) won't destroy it.  I'm almost tempted to just paint over it with polyurethane....Ha!  would that be crazy?  It might make her bed a bit crunchy, I suppose...but then again, it wouldn't be on the part of the bed she would be sleeping on.  Maybe I need to test that and see how it works?  I did find a website for some stuff that is supposed to be better than Scotch-guard.  It's called Ultra Guard Fabric Protection .  Any of you guys heard of that before?  It's just really expensive....not so expensive that I couldn't swing it if I had to....but to the point where it had better work like a charm if I'm paying that for it!   I just don't want this thing to be ruined in a matter of weeks.  Any ideas? 

Anyways, that's all we are up to today.  The kids have been playing outside in the backyard on their new playground that Santa brought them ;).  And I've been lost in my head thinking about making this bed.

I'm also excited about this weekend too!  Tomorrow is my sweetheart, Chase's ninth birthday.  I can not believe he will be NINE!  Where did the time go!  Love that boy :)  He has requested that I make turkey burgers and a cheesecake for his birthday.  Better get cracking on that cheesecake tonight....cause they aren't any good if they are still warm.  And then we are going to have a family new years day party for him over at my in-laws.  And then after that (a few weeks after that...), he will get to have a sleepover with a bunch of his friends (this year he has requested like nine boys...yikes! Let's hope some of them can't make it, because I don't have the heart to turn him down).  Last time they all decided they wanted to be shirt-less (I don't know why???) And they all were running like a stampeded back and forth from my son's room to the kitchen.  It was a shirt-less little boy stampede.  I felt like I was on a safari. At least they didn't try to take off their pants!  Maybe this year I can get them to keep their clothes on ;)  Lucky kid...his birthday always drags on for weeks. 

Well, I will back soon with more boring stuff to talk about.  Much love to those of you who might actually read this xoxoxoxo!!!! 

Anna

Thursday, December 29, 2011

wanna see my next project:?

Hey!!!!  look look, I'm  posting again after just one day!  WHOOOO! 

okay, well...today is another slow day.  The kiddies are out of school and it just makes everything seem like I don't need to be in a rush to do it.  I even let my eight-year-old (gonna be nine in two days, yikes!) make lunch for everybody.  But I guess we could all use a few days of slowly moving around the house.  And the plus side is that we will all be sick of it soon and glad to get back to school, and the daily grind. 

I recently had an amazing surprise birthday party for turning the big 3-0.  It was so incredible.  I cried and nearly fell to my knees they surprised me so badly.  LOVE the people in my life :)  I am truly blessed.  Well anyways, I got a compound miter saw from my mom and my sister (AWESOME).  I also got a nail gun and a bunch of gift certificates to Lowes.  Also, with Christmas, I think I have like 250 bucks to spend there.  (it's what I asked for...and you'll see why in a moment).

I have been following the blog, ana-white.com , and I've been dying to try some of the plans she has.  In fact, I have a whole slew of stuff I want to do....but, in moderation's sake, I've decided to stick to one thing that I've been obsessing over and it's an actual need opposed to a want. 

Isla doesn't have a bed.  She has two mattresses stacked on top of each other on the floor.  I've held off on buying one for her because I wanted to build one.  Now I can!!!! yipeeee!!!  I actually didn't choose a plan from ana white , I made one up!  you want to see it?  I did a goofy little 3-d sketch on google sketch-up .  This is the general idea.....it will look a lot better in real life. 

okay....so the whole thing, I mean the back and the boards that go all the way around the front, will be upholstered, there won't be any exposed wood at all.  The pink part in the middle will be diamond tufted.  I'm not so sure the color scheme will be as it is in the picture.  I think I'm going to go for pink all over and then a different color or a pattern for the diamond tufted part.  The general theme is pink and white, though.  I'm so excited.  I have this thing completely worked out in my head, and the best part is that it is going to look crrrraaaazy expensive, and not cost me a thing ;)  thanks to my gift cards!  lol.  But even if I did have to pay for it, it isn't going to be that expensive.  I can't wait to get started.  If this one goes well, I'm going to go ahead and make a repeat one for my Sophie (even though she won't be sleeping in it for another year or so), but then they will have matching beds!  Anyways, I will let you all know how it goes!  Can you guys send me some positive thoughts that I don't get started and then completely drop the idea...haha!  Well, I'm going to try to prove myself wrong :) 

Let's hope I can remember to post again tomorrow.  Have a great one!

xoxo
~Anna

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

another thing I started but didn't see through.....

Oh, my blog.... well that was a big fat fail, huh!  This is what I would call a typical "Anna" situation.  I am waaay over-ambitious with just about everything I do, and then I start all kinds of projects and then go full force on them for a short period of time and then,....completely drop it!  Like this blog.  I haven't posted since October.  I'm not so reliable with this thing, huh.  Well, I think I'm going to try to turn this into an online journal of sorts....so I don't feel the pressure to post pictures all the time and actually have something "worthwhile" to blog about.  Maybe then it can morph into what I really wanted it to be.  Another lesson in moderation.  I'm constantly reminded of the council I once received to not "run faster than I am able."  Boy, that's me in a nutshell.  Just picture the little kid on easter with so much excitement that they eat their whole easter basket in ten minutes....and then throw up all night.  That is so me....  anyways....

Today has been a lazy lazy day ( that was fun to type since the z is missing on my keyboard and I had to stick my finger in a little hole three times).  I have desperately been trying to get some organization (ahhh..again with the z) in my household since christmas.   But, we were so scattered and busy during christmas, I really have been wanting to just sit....which is sort of what I have been doing.  I have done a lot of work, but with the kids home for break, they are constantly running around trashing the place.  It gets soooo frustrating.  It takes a lot of concentration and self-redirecting to keep myself from getting into an emotional funk.  Going to the gym helps a lot with that, but I haven't even been there in about a week, week and a half.  But!  I am determined to get this place in order....ALL the way!  not just the places where people see when they come over.  I mean EVERY room, finished and DONE.  You don't realize how much work that is.  One word to almost completely describe my kids as a collective would be.....DESTRUCTIVE.  There is so much putty-ing, and painting and fixing holes in the walls and little finishing (like quarter-round) things to do after we've mostly fixed something my kids have destroyed.  This place is a never-ending construction site.

This morning, I spent an hour scrubbing poo spots out of my daughter's rug in her room, because she had a "wedgie" with her diaper....and well,  everything went, when she "went"... on my floor.  And then she walked in it and tracked it all over and then painted some on the wall for good measure.  So....that was fun... And I think I've swept my floors in my house twice today, and they currently look like I haven't swept them in over a week (well, if it were someone else's house)  If I didn't sweep for a week here, I think we might be wading across the room instead of walking.  And we've already had to trash like three different Christmas presents...already!  Because they have been broken. 

Is it just me?  Do I just not know some disciplinary trick to get my kids to not destroy things.  To not just toss their trash in the middle of the floor?  I punish, I yell (I try not to, but let's be honest...) I make them pick up everything I see them throw.....they just don't care...or forget or .....who knows, they have a lot of excuses.  I seriously work my tail off and I feel like it's just for nothing....because I blink and then it's right back where it was before I started.  I'm sure part of it is that I'm just "off" because the kids are home and we've been so busy.  I'm just ready to get back to normal and then I can start chipping away at the clutter and refining my schedule around here to try and cut these little destruct-o's off at the pass.  I need to start doing yoga...

anyways, if you actually read all of that....love you so much, you really care :)  because that must have been horribly un-entertaining, ha!  Have a great day and I'm going to try and post again tomorrow....we'll see ;)

Thursday, October 27, 2011

what a girl will do for a tutu...

Hey all...
I have not been keeping up with the blog like I thought I would.  Sorry, for any of you who are interested and  actually want me to write on it.  Our whole house has had the HARDEST time getting well this fall.  I think I've pretty much been sick for a whole month.  Right now I'm in the throws of a bronchitis-sinus infection-ear infection....but I am getting better!  ...slooowly.  The rest of the house had a lovely stomach virus...not the "worst" kind of stomach virus you can get (if you get my drift) but one that nobody wants to get for sure....and that's all I'm going to say about that because I'm sure you don't want to hear any more.  Well, anyways, the rest of the house didn't catch my nasty sickness and I didn't catch theirs....weird!  But nonetheless we have all been sick. 

Amidst all of this sickness (well mine anyhow....everybody else is better now.  YES!), I've been trying to get Halloween costumes made and get ready for what is one of the biggest holidays of the year in our family.  First comes Christmas, then Halloween, then Easter...and then I want to say, fourth of july?  poor Thanksgiving gets no love around here...even though it's always been one of my favorites.  I've made both of my girls these amazing tutu dresses.  Isla is going to be a ballerina and Sophie is a ladybug.  I almost finished Isla's last night.  She just needs her straps sewn on...and I am close to finishing Sophie's as well...but I ran out of supplies, so I"ve got to get some more stuff today.  I will post again and show you all their lovely dresses very soon.  The boys are dressing up as very easy buy at the store Frankenstein and Dracula (another YES!). 

So today....I'm feeling sick as a dog.  I was up half the night, and look incredibly haggard.  I rolled out of bed, threw some clothes on Isla...pulled her hair back (which was crunchy with what I'm guessing was her cereal from this morning...lovely), and grabbed Sophie out of bed (no diaper change or anything), and rolled out to take Isla to preschool arriving 10 minutes late.  Pretty picture I'm painting right?  It was one of those days.  So I get there and all of these parents are walking in to the preschool....and all of these kids have on Halloween costumes?  What the!  Hoooooly CRAP!  her preschool Halloween parade was today.  She would have been devastated to be the only one with no costume!  First of all....let me set the record strait, there was no note sent home, nothing!  The teacher said that it was in the newsletter, but that's it.  So it really wasn't my fault....that's my story and I'm sticking to it!  So it's 9:15-ish.  The parade starts at 9:30.  I raced home grabbed her costume and a bunch of safety pins while I left the girls in the car.  We raced back to the school.  I parked in the middle of the drive by the front door!  (I had no shame at this point) I threw her costume on over her clothes (which consisted of a t-shirt and some leopard print pants--she was stylin) I basically pinned it on her and we ran in moments before they started their parade.....and we sat there with all of the other well dressed perfectly coiffed parents with me looking like death and trying to use my hand to cover the baby's bottom so nobody could see her huge diaper.  We made it though.  And I have the picture for her to look back at and say...wow, look at me, I was so cute.  That is what makes it all worth while....because she really won't remember this.  But she will remember that I would always put forth the effort and made it happen.   But one thing I will say :)  She had the cutest, most elaborate costume in the place...minus the leopard pants you could see peeking out from under.   And just because I have been going on and on about this costume...I'll give you a sneek peek.  But keep in mind that it's not all the way done, so stay tuned for a better picture :) 
they are a little blurry



okay this one is a lot blurry

lol....leopard pants!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Back Yard Blues

Hello!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend.  The weather was just incredible!  It's just starting to get cool here and with the turn of seasons brings so much excitement in the air.  I just find it intoxicating.  It gets me all excited for sweaters and hot coa coa and sitting by a fire on a chilly night.  I just LOVE it.  This is the time of year that I really wish we had a backyard that was suitable for all of the lovely outdoor fall festivities that I dream of....
 So this brings me to the topic of my back yard....let me tell you about my back yard!
When we built our home eons ago, I naturally assumed that the back yard would come with the front yard...kind of a package, well once we were all done and closed on our house I saw that they hadn't done anything with our back yard.  It was WOODS.  Well, since we've lived here, we have cleared it, and it's grown back, and then we've cleared it...and it's grown back...(repeat a few more times) and then you have it.  We have no excuse, but when ever we've gotten the money together to sod it and fix it up, something else has come up and the money has had to go to that.  It just seems the one thing we can never get taken care of.  Now granted, since we've moved in, we've increased our brood from 1 to 4 children....and our house itself has been in a constant flux of being broken and then fixed (repeat and then repeat and then repeat...you get my drift)....so you can see why the backyard has been neglected.

It's times like now that I really start to feel the fire under my feet to get working on the back yard.  I'm pretty desperate to have a cozy back yard with an amazing fire to roast marshmallows under a blanket.  We do Halloween at our house every year, and how I would love to fix it up for our family :)  Here are some pictures of what I have planned.  Hopefully, someday I can turn it into a reality.
I just love these lights...I want lights all around my back yard...you will find it a theme.  
 

We must have a tire swing also....my babies NEED a tire swing :)


My dream outdoor fire area


and then this takes the cake, I just love this...fire on one side of the yard and this on the other :)


no back yard is complete without a hammock


a few more things that I am smitten with...


Source: None via Anna on Pinterest

Source: lonnymag.com via Anna on Pinterest

this WILL happen...I'm going to make one of these even if it takes till I'm 80 to finish.


Source: etsy.com via Anna on Pinterest

So there you have it, now let's just see if I can make it happen....not to mention the garden and kid's playground I have planned for out there too, lol.  I'll keep you guys posted.  For now, I may have to just get a 20 dollar metal fire pit from Lowes and go hang out in the underbrush with some sticks and marshmallows, HA!

oh, and all of these images are from Pinterest  you can click the image to see the origin of the picture.  Don't you just LOVE Pinterest!

Friday, September 30, 2011

terrible twos are gonna kill me


She looks so sweet and innocent doesn't she......well, think again!  I love her, adore her, worship the ground she walks on and all that stuff....but lately I've been beginning to wonder if tiny robots have taken over her body and turned her into a little terror machine.  I can't blink without her doing something catastrophic around here. 

Yesterday....she refused to take a nap and instead removed the stuffing from one of her stuffed animals and covered her room in it.  I spent a good hour and a half going back and forth with her locking the door and then me picking the lock, putting her back in bed and leaving her door open....then she would get up and close it and lock it and we'd start all over again.  She colored the whole kitchen floor with markers and her entire body....thank GOD for washable markers!!!!  She also decided to disassemble her night light in her bedroom ( that has to come out now) and then passed out on the floor right in front of the light socket.  (during one of these locked door episodes).  I freaked, I thought she had electrocuted herself.....so I woke her up and then of course she was just fine.  She had just decided to knock out asleep in that spot in all of 30 seconds since she had locked the door.  So of course, she slept for 30 seconds, which to her is her nap, which means....she WILL NOT go back to sleep.  Oh what a day I had with her yesterday. 

on to today... first thing when I wake up, she's in the crib with the baby, dumped out a sandwich bag of crushed pringles into the crib (from somebody's lunch that they didn't finish I suppose??? I have no idea where she got it) and was feeding them to the baby.  Which causes me to freak because the baby will choke on those!   We ran errands for most of the day after that, but as soon as we got home, I pulled her out of the car and let her walk into the house while I went around to the other side to get the baby out and in that fast of a time, she had locked me and the baby out of the house!  I had already unloaded all of my "gear" before I got the kids out, so my purse with the keys in it was inside already.  I stood outside for 10 or 15 minutes at least (well, that might be an exaggeration, but it seemed like for. ev. er.) with her playing with the locks on the door until she decided (or figured out how?) to let us in.  Then she proceeded to run to my bathroom and lock me out of there.  By the time I picked the lock, I found her with all of my jewelry strung out all over the place and her trying to open some of my new disposable contact lenses!  Really though, I was just thankful she wasn't eating the toothpaste....again! (I've had to put that stuff under lock and key).  So, anyways,  I got her some crayons and a huge piece of paper to color on and decided to do another post on le blog here.
 Aaaaaand now she's on the counter in the cabinets having herself some cookies and chips! 
ooooh wait, now she's setting my car alarm off with my key chain thing-a-ma-bob. 
and now she's unrolling a roll of cellophane paper I just bought.
and now she's back in my bathroom....ugh

I'll bet you're thinking.....quit typing and go take care of the kid!!   well, I am, I am....it's taken me awhile to type this. 

The bad thing is that this is just a small fraction of the things she gets into....it's just what she was doing at the moment I was typing this....and then some of the stuff that really bugged me from earlier today and yesterday. 

I guess I'm just venting...and hoping she grows out of this SOON.  None of the others were this bad (at least it doesn't seem like it)  but then again, I didn't have a baby when any of the others were two either.  Anybody else been through this?  I think I might go crazy around here!

But I will say, at the end of the day it's all worth it when she curls up in my lap and says "I wuv you mom"  :)

anywhooo, tis time to engage her in something else before she burns my house down
xoxo

 And yes....those are her shoes in the freezer.....and no I didn't put them there..


 I do love her :)

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Beginning....


Okay....so today I am starting a blog....

I've been wanting to do this for awhile and so here goes. I'm not sure if anybody will actually read this, but I find it's important to have a record of our lives and let's face it, facebook doesn't cut it!

Today everybody is still sick! The baby has a rough cough, I'm just starting to get better (except my ears are popping like cr
azy) Cole has the croup and Isla is getting over pink eye and a horrible cough. So we are all on the mend, and now poor Brent is starting to get sick.

It's been one thing after another around here. We just got back from an 8 day trip to St. Louis (no kids! well...we brought the baby). But for a week before that I was not allowed to walk for a week because I
sprained my ankle pretty badly....yeah, one false step and our lives were a disaster for a whole week. I stepped from the grass to the concrete, and crunch! Sprained ankle. So that was the first two weeks of September....and now ever since we've been home, we've all been sick. And of course, mama's got it the worst. Let's hope October is a little more hum drum :) I'm so excited for the fall to hit!

Well, okay! How was that? good first post? maybe
? I need to add a picture....okay, here you go:


My four sweet babies all dirty and playing on the floor Saturday morning. Love them :)