Goodbye August!

First off all, I want to thank [or maybe curse] Loni and Danielle for posting about Pinterest this morning. As if I didn't look through too many blogs and obsess about making/doing things to the house too much already, now I have a whoooole website to spend hours and hours and hours on looking at more pictures. Augh!


And second, people are so annoying! We rent our house from Steven's parents and pretty much everytime somebody finds out that we live in the house Steven grew up in, they assume it was given to us. No, we don't pay as much as his parents could be getting but we don't live here for free. I'm so sick of hearing about it, I feel like I should get a shirt made. Definitely a con about living in a small city.


Now to the highlights of my day:


I came across this blog yesterday or the day before [I can't keep track, they're all linked up and I just click away] with the cutest little bottle vases, of course I had to recreate them!

I'm not the best spray painter but practice makes perfect!

 If I ever get around to painting the last kitchen wall, I want to put up a few shelves and these will go on them.

And today I scored big time, finally! I've been going to Goodwill looking for chairs for a few months, its way too hot to go to yard sales this time of year, but I kept lucking out until...

!!!!!

Now I just need to decide what color to paint them.

When Steven and I first moved in together, we lived in a tiny studio in the backyard of our friends' house. What a simpler time. :) Anyway, we didn't have a table [there was no room] and I told him I'd always wanted one like Monica's on Friends, different chairs that are all different colors. He shot that down real quick. But its not up to him, what does he know about decorating?! I like the idea of having different looking chairs, but I think I'll paint them all the same color. We'll see.


Yay to tomorrow being September... almost to the cool months. I can't wait to go on walks and take the kids outside to play. Two of my favorite things about fall are the scented candles and holiday-flavored creamers. Plus all the fun Holidays and decorations! Exciting.


The kids went down for naps and bed without screaming- that's rare these days! They must've gotten worn out at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Bowling! So fun, even though I'm horrible.

Today I finished painting, thank goodness! I took down his old shelf with all the stuffed animals. Ugh stuffed animals, how'd we end up with so many? I've never bought a single one!

Only one set of blinds is up so far, we went to my parents house after Home Depot then when we got home Steven was too tired, so he'll do it tomorrow.

[This picture had me so confused, it looks like something's dripping down on the wall so I went back there and there was nothing... then I realized its the gross reflection from the closet mirror. I can't keep those things clean for anything.]

I also ordered the border today. I wanted to look around town for it first but of course, nothing! I wish it was two weeks from now so they were already starting on his bed, I'm soo excited! Then once his bed is done, we can hang new shelves. Then once all that's done, I'll shut up about the whole thing! :)


The other day I posted a picture of Rian with a big silly grin. It looked just like a picture I had in my head of me when I was little so I looked through my album today at my parents'. I found the picture but I'm wearing a hat in it and its covering part of my face, but I found another one:

Twins!

I always brush the kids teeth then let them brush- last night while she was brushing, I took out my hairbrush and brushed her hair. Tonight while she was brushing, she opened the drawer and handed me the hairbrush. My heart melted. As I was brushing her hair, I thought about her growing up... I hope we always stay close. I say that all the time, I don't know why I worry about it. I'll probably be jealous when she has her first real best friend haha.


She's loved food since the beginning, she never refused anything but homemade peas and green beans, she'd eat them out of jars though. Besides that, she's been a perfect eater. But lately she's gotten picky! She didn't eat her pear the other day and her apple today, this is the girl that used to scream at me if there was no fruit on her plate. How does that happen? So weird. I got some diaper samples in the mail and two of them were size 5, lately I've noticed when she's just in a diaper one of her butt cheeks is always hanging out so I wasn't surprised that they fit perfect. Size 5! Geez, Aiden was in a 3 til he was potty trained. I love her chunkiess, to me she's thinned out a lot though.

People ask us all the time if the kids are twins.

I like this picture, even though she's laughing, she didn't want me to take anymore pictures so she kept trying to cover the camera with her blanket.

And last... a video of Rian doing a puzzle. And her cute little "I did it!" at the end, I love when she says that.

I'm so lame.

Haha I almost titled my post "Day 7"- too used to my other one!


Steven's parents asked if the kids could spend the night tonight, they've been  gone for two hours and I'm soooooo bored. The house is clean, laundry is done and there are no errands. And I'm reading the most boring book right now. The Carrie Diaries, about Carrie from Sex and the City when she was a teenager. I bought it 3, maybe 4 weeks ago and I'm only half-way done. Usually I go through books so fast because I can't put them down. I have to finish it... just not right now.


Steven is finishing something on his Jeep, I don't know how he can stand to be out there, it is so hot and disgusting. Why do we live here? I'd love to move somewhere with nicer weather and with tons of green, green, green! But green usually means high humidity, ew! We always talk about moving to Colorado, I'd probably end up hating it though because I'd be freezing. Every place has its downfalls.


Reality is, we'll never move. I could never take the kids away from their grandparents. We always lived far away from my grandparents except when I was really little, too little to remember. Grandpa R died when my mom was 17 and Grandma R when I was 7 or 8. Grandma Sue died five days before I turned 11 and Papa just passed away, November 2009. I love that my kids can see their grandparents whenever and as often as they want. If we ever want or need a sitter, its a given that 1 out of the 4 can do it. We also all go to the same church. Sad part is, only one out of their 4 cousins lives in town.


We're supposed to go to this bowling thing for Steven's work tonight but its not til 9... I know I'm getting old because I think that is so late! He'll probably already be in bed. This post is so random and pointless, I just have nothing else to do. I guess I'll watch tv, there's so much stuff on the dvr and I'm so weird, for some reason it bothers me when there's anything less than '60 hours available' and right now we only have 28 hours available. AUGH!

Got a cute picture for Rian's room this morning

Redoing Aiden's room.

I've been wanting to redo Aiden's room for a long time now. And since Steven's building him a twin bed which will require new bedding, this is the perfect time to get started. In one of the last posts in my other blog, I wrote about painting a wall in Aiden's room with chalkboard paint so on Monday, I did!

Before the first use, when it looked so pretty!

They love it!

One thing though, Rian wrote on the regular wall [painted with semi-gloss paint] and it wiped right off. I have to use a little elbow grease to wipe off the chalk board paint. So had I known, I would've just used regular semi-gloss black because its less expensive.


Next step is to repaint the top of that wall and the other three walls, ugh. I bought this frame for the living room last week:

 and it didn't "go" so I was going to return it... then lightbulb! My inspiration for Aiden's room since we already have the black wall, why not do the rest of the walls this turquoise color.

I want to put a black and white checkered border over the line the black and turquoise paint will meet.


I already have teal bins for his bookshelf on the way, they'll replace the navy blue ones. So teal walls, with pops of turquoise, orange [and maybe keeping lime green] around the room.

I'm a big boy

Aiden said LOTS of funny stuff when he was two but this coming year things are about to get hilarious.


He saw a picture of me with a huge pregnant belly and looked so concerned as he asked, "Is that your belly button hanging, Momma? What happened to your belly button?" At bathtime he was sitting on the edge and he told me he was at the beach. :)


Today we finger painted for the first time. Thank goodness for nontoxic stuff because of course the first thing Rian did was taste it and she wasn't pleased! She didn't want to paint but Aiden loved it. Can't wait to have artwork all over. Afterwards we colored. Yesterday the pediatrician drew a circle and had him do one too, he got the pen and in one stroke started making huge circles all over, scribbling but in circle motions- which I guess is what he was supposed to do. So he's all about circles now. I drew one for him and he traced it. Tracing is such a good starting skill for drawing and writing, I was impressed.


We also played Memory, he did soo well with six cards but when I added two more, he was lost. Funny how his little mind works. He's been so bossy and independent lately. He has to do everything for himself and if I call him my baby he says "No I'm a big boy." :(


Yesterday I got the kids each 3 pairs of Carter's jammies [Aiden's are 3-piece sets] for only $38 and saved myself $103! Love good deals.

Looking back

On Sunday when we went to my parents house, I asked my Dad if he could plug in their old hard-drive so I could look at pictures from Aiden's birth [I also took it home with me so they're now on my computer!] I love looking at old pictures- I got teary-eyed and laughed a lot.

Picking my teeth.

I wish I knew what we were talking about!

I took this on my Mom's camera and haven't seen it since. Pregnant with Aiden.

 

 I didn't notice my belly at first!

My baby shower

This makes me laugh!

This is when I was at 10cm and I had to wait for the doctor to finish his c-section. The pressure was horrible and for some reason I thought if I held my butt, it'd help. That stupid oxygen mask was so annoying!

The first picture of me and my baby.

[I love it, regardless of how fat I look- omg!]

Aiden spent his whole first day on my chest, skin to skin is such an amazing feeling with your brandnew baby.
[I totally got sideburns when I was pregnant!]

Hahaha what a little old man

:)

The first picture I took with Rian. I was only about 12 weeks when I got my belly with her.

There are a ton more, mostly of Aiden. We didn't have the internet til he was almost one so I'd load all my pictures to my Mom's computer then it crashed. Thank God they were able to get everything back!

Aiden is three!

Our baby's a big boy, three-years-old. We went to the San Diego Zoo and beach last weekend for his birthday instead of having a party, but Saturday we did have family over to celebrate his day. He wanted a robot theme this year, I was so happy he told me himself!

So excited!

His cake :)

He was so excited, he couldn't even eat! He had so much fun unwrapping presents. He was so funny, if it was clothes he'd just throw it and keep digging into stuff. The card Grandma and Grandpa got him played music and he loved it! He kept opening it and his mouth was open like he was in awe.

I've never been able to sing "Happy Birthday" to my kids. Everytime we start it, I get all choked up... one of these days I'll be able to! Blowing the candle out is the part Aiden's been waiting for for weeks.

Nobody else but Rachel wanted a cupcake so we just set it in front of the kids and let them dig in. They don't usually eat a whole lot of sugar but it was a special occassion!

5:12am, officially a big boy.

[Every year I give the kids a kiss on their birth time.]

8.21.11

Steven wanted to reanact their first picture

Three-year well-check

[28 1/2lbs, 37in]

Another year, another blog.

I've been a "blogger" for quite awhile now, since 2002 I've had a livejournal. I stopped writing in it for a few years until I had Aiden, then I'd go to it every now and then and write down stuff I wanted to remember, I was so bad at it.

Last year I made a blogspot account to follow one of my friend's blogs, I didn't realize I didn't need an actual blog to do it. So it sat for a few days and I thought about doing a "Project 365"... that's what my blog S+R=A&R started out as, I'd post a picture daily with a caption underneath. As the year went on, I started actually writing about our days and a bunch of other random things. I love that blog.

Yesterday was my 365th day... I was done. And I pouted. Going back to the beginning and looking at how much my kids have changed is so awesome. So I decided to make another blog. I don't think it'll be a daily thing, we'll see. I'm also not sure about the name, I thought it was kind of catchy, playing off the magazine "Better Homes and Gardens" because I also like posting crafts and things I do around the house. I'll keep playing with the name.