My favorite stage (first installment)

Lindy is 15 months old, and I must admit, from about 9 months to now has been my favorite stage by far! A friend of mine (Kristin) did a blog post recently just with a bunch of movies of her little boy, and I thought it was fun to watch what he's doing instead of just reading about it, so here's Lindy at 9-15 months doing some of my favorite things. I've tried to make the clips short, but there are still waaayyyy too many of them to post on one posting. So be warned, that you're going to be bombarded with videos of my kid if you follow this blog over the next little while.

I realize this is a lot of video to ask you to watch, so feel free not to. I just wanted to have a bunch of my favorites in one place, and thought the grandparents might enjoy them.

Momma Dadda - yes that's brown sugar in her stroller to make it heavy enough for her to push.

Hot - don't know why she says it like this, but it makes me laugh every time.

Steam Roller

Leading the Music (does this during church or during any song played by her toys).

Walking- she did this all on her own too - just waddled in with the blanket covering her head completely. It reminds me of the part in E.T. when he's dressed up as a ghost for Halloween - same kind of waddle-walk.

Stay tuned, more Lindy to come...

The Chairs of Doom/Awesome

Ok... so our good friend Wendy moved into a house in Alpine a long time ago, but has been rearranging some things and opted to get rid of some chairs that belonged to her great grandmother (I think?) which she was going to reupholster, but never got around to it.

Now I understand why NO ONE should ever "get around" to reupholstering a chair. Actually... I'm really glad I did it, but I must say it is not for the faint of heart or for those with full-time jobs, or a house that they want to keep looking orderly. Instead, I spent all of my free evenings while Brett was at work pulling out staples (this took a surprising amount of time), making a complete mess of my mother's house where we were living, diligently taking pictures and writing notes to myself, picking fabric, cutting fabric, and then stapling (and hot gluing in parts... shhhh) this chair back together over a few months. Not to mention the sewing involved in the seat cushion and the back, some of which I had never done before - thank you YouTube!

I'm not going to do a tutorial because I think there's already good stuff out there. Here's the blog that I mostly used - although with some "winging it" here and there when it didn't apply (no pun intended).

The only thing I'm going to mention specifically is that the backs of the original chairs were stuffed with what I assume was horse hair... I'm going to continue calling it horse hair... It must be horse hair...If it's something else... I'm very afraid  - which was then wrapped in batting making a tube. My process was much more obnoxious (but less disgusting) since I disemboweled a huge body pillow/headboard that Brett made me when we were engaged. He had it stuffed with tiny bits of foam from this warehouse in SLC, which was really cheap and worked great for the pillow, but I tell you I HATE that stuff! It got everywhere! Lindy was finding it on the floor in every room and would stuff it in her mouth thinking it was cheese. I don't know how much she swallowed, but I know I caught her from chocking too many times to count. I tried to just wrap it in batting like the horse hair was, but it would NOT stay in place. So I opted for sewing little tubes which I then had to stuff the foam into with a plunger handle. Besides pulling out the staples it was the most time consuming and definitely the most frustrating part - trying to get it packed tightly, but evenly, and not too tightly, or it's hard as a rock... etc.

There are a bunch of mistakes, but I think most are small enough that the average Jo wouldn't notice them. I notice them because I was face to face with this monster for days on end.

So here it is... the before (of both chairs) and after (one done... one to paint and reassemble).

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Am I proud of myself and this chair? Yes! Yes I am! A little too much probably, which means it will likely sustain a horrible grape juice attack all too soon just so I can be humbled. This is currently the only non-kitchen chair that we have (except that rocking chair I redid, but it's in the baby's room). So if you come over, you can sit in it!

Lindy's First B-Day

Picture stolen from Uncle Ted's Blog

We had a whirlwind day for Lindy... our camera was packed, so I didn't many good pics on the actual day,  but here's how the day went.

She woke up and had some special birthday oatmeal (it may have just been her normal oatmeal, but just go with it).

She got to hang out with her awesome cousin, Casey, while "the guys" loaded all our stuff onto many trailers.

She had a great morning nap (yes... even on her birthday).

She participated in the Boren family Easter Egg Hunt!

She had her first cake - carrot cake to go with the rabbit ears and cream cheese frosting. She "tickled" the frosting for a while first, she's not a big dive in to something unfamiliar type person, but she did end up eating a good chunk of the cake. Mostly she was distracted by the rocket balloons that the other cousins (and Grandma Reesa) were launching all over the yard.

Then she went down for her afternoon nap while her parents abandoned went ahead of her to the new house to unpack.

Grandma Reesa and Papa Phil brought her to the new house for dinner time (which we shared with Grandma Marilyn and Gramps too!). And finally got to open her presents. This year's take includes:

• 1st Year Memory Book - the pictures below take FOREVER to load, so go fold some laundry while you wait.

Click here to view this photo book larger

• Hand-made and hand-quilted blanket from Mom and Grandma Reesa (you may recall that I started this before she was born... there's been a lot going on since then).

 

This was called a piano key border. Mom and I decided to quilt every other rectangle, which made them kind of pop out every other one - a fun effect in my opinion.

The quilting is actually pretty cool, although you can't see it very well. It's dragonflies and 2 different butterflies, plus little "flight patterns." I couldn't get a good picture of the bugs, but here's a closeup of a loop-the-loop.

 

• Blocks

Her tongue is out... this must require serious concentration.

• Stacking cups toy

 

The cups click together to make differently sized balls - clever!

Here comes Godzilla!

• Push toy - which apparently was pretty cheaply made and will be returned... sad day.

The next day (Easter Sunday) she got to spend time with the Groneman clan, including a new cousin!

I'd say she had a pretty great day!

Rocking Chair Redo

I should re-title this, "Another project that I'm glad I finished before Lindy gets mobile and more demanding."

Our new house is our new obsession, and I admit I'm completely addicted to KSL classifieds looking for deals on awesome items that we'll need for our new house. We haven't accumulated much furniture (junk and textbooks, yes... furniture, no), so I've been looking on KSL for things that we need and that also could provide me with opportunities to learn new things. Behold... my first re-upholstery project!

BEFORE: $10 Rocking Chair from a lady in AF.

 

AFTER: New fabric, new batting, a bit of sanding, & 2 coats of spray paint

After all this, I decided the seat needed MORE padding. So I bought a square of chair foam and redid the bottom, which will be much more comfy (not pictured because I took the chair apart again after these photos so that it could be stowed under the bed until we move).

The pictures make it look better than it is :) I'm definitely an amateur - there's lots of wrinkles and puckers around the edges, but it will work, and it was my first project of this type.

(It seems like a few of my friends have been re-upholstering stuff lately, but I promise I decided to do this way before even reading about other people's crafty pursuits).

The Fattest Quiet Book Ever!

 Does my quiet book make me look fat? In this case... yes... 

I bet you've been wondering what I've been working on for the last, um... 6 months. This is it! Of course it hasn't been a non-stop project, I took plenty of breaks - but it HAS been a non-stop mess. Thank you to Brett and my Mom for looking the other way as I left the sewing machine and a number of scraps of felt and string all over our dining table for 6 months.

Welp... here it is!

I made the cover out of a pair of jeans (pocket and button/button hole waist band included), and a cream colored bag that already had handles on it. It doesn't really match the innards of the book, but it's sturdy material, and I think it works.

The inside cover has a big green pocket that I plan on putting crayons and paper in. The first page is the "clock" page - my kids are going to know how to read a normal clock. I can't tell you how many times I had to take cell phones away in middle school because they "had to check what time it was" on their digital phone instead of the clock on the wall. Erg!

Apple tree page. I added numbers to the apples, in case that's handy someday... why not?

 Ok... this is probably my personal favorite. Each fish and the hook has a magnet. I don't know why fishing with magnets is so fun...  It's also good for learning how to do a drawstring and tying a bow.

 

Gum ball colors! You have to match the word with the colored gumball, and to the outlines inside the machine. This page was surprisingly long in the making with all the embroidery.

Flower buttons - the "vase" is also a pocket for holding them when they're not on the button centers.

Tic-Tac-Toe. The balls were felt stickers that I stuck onto craft foam and cut out. Easier and more durable than felt, I thought. And adds a little bit of sportiness to the book.

Counting bead thingy... My mom's book had one of these, and it never occurred to me that it was for counting - I just pushed the beads around or skipped that page.

Shoe tying and buckling. I bought these pairs of shoes at DI for $2 total, cut off the thick soles, and then sewed them on to the book. They don't look perfect, but they'll work. Sure they'll probably have Velcro all their lives, but why not hope for more?

One of my favorite pages in my Mom's quiet book was a weaving page... don't know why, it just was. I thought it kind of looked like a picnic blanket, so...

I made a dinner set, to practice how to set the table. These are stowed under the woven blanket.

This page kept me up at night, trying to figure out how I wanted to do it. It's supposed to be a caterpillar with letters making up the body. Each piece is double sided so that there are more letters to choose from - one side has the full alphabet, and I made more vowels and common consonants on the other side. But they're all mixed up, so the kiddos will have to do a lot of searching anyway. The trunk is just a big pocket with a zipper for all the pieces. The "cool" part is that each piece has a magnet inside, and the background has a couple small metal shingles behind the fabric for them to stick to. So they're kind of like refrigerator letter magnets.

Noah's Ark - the only semi-churchy page. There are entire books with spiritual themes, but... mine isn't one of them. I bought the finger puppets at IKEA (and then ran out of the store as quickly as I could manage through the maze - I hate that place). There are 10 puppets... this is partly why the book is sooooo fat, that boat is bulging.

Obese hair - just like me! The top of the braid between the two ribbon bows is already done and sewn down, but the rest can be loosened for practice. The front of her dress is a pocket for elastics.

I saw this online, and just really liked it - don't know why... They're supposed to be carrots, beets, and onions - all of which I like. The "dirt" is just a flap so that I can get the veggies back down through the holes.

Also saw this online, although I added some things like a loop over a handle for the upper door and a hook for the lower door. Who knew there were so many different types of closures to practice. And behind the doors are...

More finger puppets - handmade this time.

Last page... I was going to do a Mr. Potato Head, but found this idea instead. The felt circles are sewn down, and the purple pocket (on the inner sides of the cover again), is full of felt shapes.

I liked that there's a lot more room for creativity with this than with the classic Mr. Potato Head. You can do whatever you want! And if the pieces get lost, you can always make more, or different ones depending on what you need.

The End!

I pinned almost all of this from other people's blogs on Pinterest - if you want to see the original inspiration pages, go there.

We bought a house!

Cross-posted from my Google+ account. 

[If you haven't joined already, you know you will eventually, so you might as well do it now]

We bought a house today. If you've been following our occasional updates, it's none of the ones you may know about. This was a weird very sudden thing that popped up a few days ago. Not a short-sale, so we put an offer on it, and we got a response back today that it's ours. The house is empty, so we just need to wait for the paperwork stuff and for the previous owner (an investor) to own the house for 90 days before he can officially sell it. That puts us at March 15th 'til it can be ours (Okay, okay, it won't be ours. Lets be honest. That won't happen for years and years).

It's um . . . beautiful. 0.28 acres. Big back yard [Probably too much yard work -- yuck]. 3278 square feet total in the house. Unfinished basement, but its actually well on its way to being finished. The basement is mostly sheet-rocked already.

View Larger Map

Yep. We're ridiculously far into debt now. But we're sure excited about this house.

Hurry up and wait

We're at the wait stage now -- on a couple of items.

School:

We decided to say 'no' to Duke University and really hope to get into the University of Utah.  I'd love to go to either school, but it just makes sense with the massive price tag difference without the scholarship to choose the U of U.  I should be able to get a job in Nursing Informatics with either school, so that's not an issue at all.  We're hoping to hear back from them sooner than later (It still likely won't be for months) but we do have some back-up schools in mind to apply for should the U not work out.  So we wait...


House:

Personally, I like the house in the
second-to-the-right spot.  You?

Some of you already know we put offers on a few short-sale houses.  It sounds like one of the original three is still a viable option, but we found out yesterday that we are "the offer into the bank" on the one house and are in a "very good position" on that one. Our real-estate agent sounds very optimistic about us getting that one.   However, the latest question-mark in the puzzle is that the day before yesterday (before we found out that other stuff), another house popped up that Katie has had her eye on since we started looking at houses.  We could never see it because there was a pending sale.  As of 2 days ago, it was re-posted online as "Sale Failed."  I guess the buyer backed out for some reason.  We jumped on it to look at it yesterday and we like it.  We put an offer on it right then and there.  Without getting into the boring details of some "stuff" that has to happen, because this house already went under the short-sale review in the bank, this offer could be processed very speedily -- possibly getting back to us even before the offer on the other house we made mid-December.  If we end up buying that house, we'll of course cancel our other offer and let the next offer in line behind us for that house take it.  And so goes the short-sale game.  Right now, we just wait...

House 1: (Our original offer)	House 2: (The one we put an offer on yesterday)
Pros: Slightly bigger house 2/3 of the house is finished space (2 floors finished + unfinished basement). Unfinished basement to add to. 4 bedrooms (space for the kids to run amok in for a while until we finish a downstairs family room) A bigger/nicer master bedroom/bathroom/walk-in-closet Huge kitchen/cupboard space/pantry	Pros: Great looking yard. Landscaped. Sprinklers. 0.25 acres. Unfinished basement to add to. Everything is on the main level – bedrooms, laundry, kitchen, family room. NO BLASTED HOA FEE (unknown on the other one)! Bar in the kitchen (the kind you can put benches up to)
Cons: Unfinished back yard (UG!) 0.14 acres. More expensive for utilities for a 2-story (basement + 2 floors) house? Unknown HOA fee status.	Cons: Only ½ of the house space is finished (2-level, with the basement mostly unfinished) Currently only one “living area.” We'd have to finish a basement family room area for kids to run amok in. While it's a decent sized kitchen, it's nothing like the other one.