Farmhouse Bed Frames

I put off posting pictures of the bed frames I built becasue I wanted to be able to finish up my boys room before the baby came and take before and after shots to post as well.
But as with most eveything in my life, things aren't going according to plan.
The beds are built and painted now and we were just about to put orders in for new mattresses when one of our vehicles decided to die.  So now mattress money gets funneled to new car fund and the beds will just have to wait. 
In the meantime I can at least show off my handy work so far.

This was right before I painted them white.

Irrelevant side tangent*
Notice the garage door near the bottom, the paint is a little speckled.
We received a notice from our HOA claiming we were in violation for the condition of our garage door and that it needed to be fixed or legal action would be taken!  Sheesh....are you serious?

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review Jan 14-20

• Back in December Dylan's fourth grade school class was supposed to put on their version of the nutcracker, but the director got ill and the play was postponed to until this week.  Dylan was cast as a Russian Baker. 

He did a great job!

I accidentally left our cameras SD card in the computer and didn't realize it until I went to snap some pictures and the camera wouldn't work.  I quickly grabbed Derik's phone from him and tried to record some video of his performance instead, only to discover I wasn't recording after all.  It just wasn't my night!  Thankfully a friend gave me a copy of the photo's she took as well as some video her husband shot. 

• Both Alivia and Dylan came home with awards from school.  Alivia's award was for being an excellent student.  Dylan got an award for being kind and thoughtful towards others.  Nothing makes me happier than to have something positive to reward my kids for.  
• I whipped up a delicious batch of Blackened Cajun Chicken Alfredo for dinner this weekend.  I forgot to make some bread, so I sent the Mr. to the store to grab some garlic bread.  I'm not sure what they put on that garlic bread but a couple of hours after I ate it, I had some pretty intense and consistent contractions  for about 3 hours.  It was in those few hours I remembered just exactly how birthing a child feels and I was renewed in my efforts to not rush having this baby! 
• Some how I managed to miss the fact that my Dr. is expecting.  She saw me on Friday and a half hour later she was in the OR having a C-section of her own.  I'm not sure who will deliver my baby now, but my Dr said she'd be back to work in a week and plans on delivering me...That's a wonder woman for you. 
• I finished deep cleaning our house so now I hope to have a week of relaxing in store.   I have a whole bunch of things I want to get sewn, so I'm hoping that's what I'll get to spend my time doing.   I learned however that the kids are out of school on Monday so I'll have a little less time (for myself) than I thought.

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review Jan. 7-13

• Derik gave me an android virgin mobile phone for Christmas, only we never activated it as a phone, I just used it as a internet tablet.  The kids love playing with my new phone (that's not really a phone at all) and it's always kind of fun to see the pictures they snap on it.  Alivia captured this photo of Isaac and I think it might be one of my favorite pictures of him.   They had it on some strange color mode of course and his face is blown out, but there is just something about this picture I love. 

• She of course than gave him control of the camera so he could grab a few glamor shots of her. 

• The Mr. and I took the kids to the Houston Museum of Natural History the day before school started back up.  Our kids were actually fairly well behaved and we all had a good time looking around at all the museum had to offer.  Dylan's favorite part of the museum was the Paleontology section (of course).

• Alivia's favorite part of the trip was our time spent in the butterfly garden.

• After we finished with the Museum we all went out to dinner at Luigi Pizza.  It's a little mom and pop pizza place in Downtown Houston.  Dylan, Derik and I ordered pizza slices and the kids shared fries, spaghetti with meatballs and bread sticks.  The pizza was pretty fantastic and it was fun to get out and try somewhere new.  
• We polished off the night with an ice cream cone from Sonic, which might I add was probably Isaac's favorite part of our entire adventure.

• The kids finally went back to school.  For some reason the Christmas break felt more like eternity than 2 weeks to me. 
• I decided to do a little "spring cleaning" once the kids were back at school.  So I set to work Wednesday afternoon.  I felt so happy to be able to get things cleaned up and organized.  What I didn't realize is that while I was scrubbing and vacuuming, my littlest child was entertaining himself by submerging my new "phone that isn't a phone" into a cup of water.   I of course was oblivious to his misdeeds.  Hours later I found my phone lying on the stairs.  I went to turn it on and it wouldn't.  I thought it strange since I had a full charge on it earlier, but chalked it up to the fact that Isaac must have burned through the charge playing with it.  So I plugged it in and charged it!  Bless my poor idiotic heart, I had no idea it was full of water in the inside.  Needless to say I no longer have a "phone, that's not a phone".  BOO!!!
• A sweet sister from my ward threw me a diaper and wipes shower.  I was totally taken back at how many sisters in the ward came and showered me with diapers and wipes.  What a blessing their generosity will be for our family.  The decorations for the shower were oh-so-cute and the food was delicious, I am so lucky to have such great friends and sisters.  I took my camera but had such a great time relaxing and socializing I forgot to take any pictures.  
• I had a growth ultrasound on Friday.  The last few ultrasounds have showed the baby being small (like in the 60th percentile).  I was taken a back when the ultrasound tech after a minute or two of observing the baby asked how big my other babies were?  There was something in her tone that made me wonder why she was asking, so I told her my last was 9 pounds 1 ounce.  She then told me the baby was measuring way ahead of schedule.  Her first measurements put the baby at 7 pounds 7 ounces, but her second set of measurements put the baby at 8 pounds 5 ounces.  She laughed and said she was going to stop measuring before things kept getting bigger.  I have heard that ultrasounds are really unreliable when your as far along as I am, but the tech seemed to think things were accurate, and so I'm trying to prepare myself to have a 10 pound baby. 
• I finally finished building my boys their new bed frames.  I painted them this weekend so now we just need to get the mattresses ordered so I can complete that project.  I'll be posting pictures of the beds on my personal blog.
• A very kind couple from our neighborhood had us over for dinner Saturday night.  The food was so good and they were really great hosts.  It was fun to get to know them.  I'm glad they reached out and invited us over.  They have a boy that is just a little younger than Dylan so it made it extra nice to get to know them all a little better. 

2012 Wrap Up

The kids have been home from school for two weeks now, and I'm waddling my way through my ninth month of pregnancy.  Between the two I don't have not accomplished much. 

• Our friends kindly invited us over Christmas eve night.  I'm glad they did, because the holidays feel so lonely out here with no one to share them with.  We had a great time and the kids got to act out the story of the birth of our savior.  When we got home the kids each got to open a new pair of Christmas jammies before heading off to bed.  

• Santa always does a superb job of surprising everyone and this year was no different.  My kids were spoiled rotten.   Christmas morning there was a room stuffed full of gifts and overflowing stockings.  
• Dylan finally got his dream Lego set (the Ninjago Dragon), he got books, a snazzy Sunday outfit, Nano Bugs, and a Wii Lego Batman game.

• Alivia got a "real fur" dog that she packs around everywhere, it barks and responds to being petted.  She got a huge and fancy barbie doll house, a new barbie, books, lots of things to color, her own girlie Lego set, and a my little pony.

• Isaac got a bouncing donkey that he can jump on, a basketball set (which he calls ball basket) a baseball bat and ball, a stuffed Perry, and wooden building blocks.

• The Mr was lucky enough to receive new socks and undies, a new razor, as well as an ironing board.  Isn't he just so lucky?  He also got a remote control helicopter that the kids all think is the coolest thing ever.  

• I specifically told Santa I didn't want gifts this year, since I am in the middle of a few expensive DIY projects and I'd rather spend the money that way, but he snuck a few gifts in for me anyways. 

• I also finally finished a project for the Mr that I started four years earlier.  First year ever I had a real and personal gift for him...How sad on my part.  I used my Silhouette machine to make labels for each and every marathon as well as the date and his finishing times.  It turned out pretty great I thought. Now he can hang his picture frame of accomplishments where ever he wants. 

• I also got a brand new niece Christmas day.  I'm so tickled for my brother and his wife, I only wish I was still just 20 minutes away from them all.

• Derik and I took the kids for one last trip out to sea world before our annual passes expired. We had two separate incidents where something from the road was thrown straight into our car, thankfully Derik was driving and didn't over react or over corrrect, (because I know I would have) and we arrived safe and sound, minus losing our front grill to a big chunk of flying tire.  The first time we went to Sea World last year, we focused on the animal shows, so this time around we tried to get as many rides in as possible.  We went to our 3 favorite shows and spent the rest of the time riding amusement ride.  Since I'm in no condition to be riding rides, Derik took the kids and I stood in lines for the show, it worked out pretty well and we got to do everything we wanted.  Winter decided to arrive here in Houston and I thought we were going to freeze to death come about 7:00.  The bitter cold wet winds bit right through our flimsy jackets.  But we all survived and had a great time. 

• I'm quite the holiday scrooge and New Years in no exception.  We watched a family movie and then I sent the kids to bed.  The Mr. and I retired to our beds as well.  I would have been fine sleeping through the new year but New Years in Texas is a BIG deal and everyone (and I literally mean everyone) shoots off fireworks for hours on end, and they aren't sparklers or whistling Pete's, but fireworks that pack some serious explosive power.  There were times I swore the neighbors were going to blow up our home or theirs. 

• 2012 was a good year.  Here's to hoping 2013 is even better.