Monsoon Season

It is Monsoon season here in New Mexico. I LOVE it. A nice change and crazy rain. Here is a video its not really a Monsoon but its lots of rain. We just sit and watch it. Alexander wanted to take the "surf boards" out into the back yard (kickboards) sorry not happening today (at least Daniel has given in yet).

Our latest Purchase

We brought this home yesterday. Thats right we joined the minivan club. Daniel thinks its time for a midlife crisis. It has taken me since we sold the murano (last December) until now to be on board completely with the minivan. With a bumper seat, 2 year old giant car seat and a new born car seat it just fits the bill better than any other vehicle. Plus the back windows go down and the middle car seats slide over for easy access. Oh and its a Mazda to calm Daniel's nerves.

Alexander is growing up

Alexander gave his first talk in Primary yesterday and he did so well! Daniel wrote the talk for him and helped him to read it. What a good dad. He is growing up so fast (Alexander) He spoke so clearly and didn't get shy. We practiced a lot before hand.

Eva did ok yesterday. I sat with her in nursery the whole time because she has a long memory and I will just leave a little sooner each time (just like when she first started going) I have until the new baby comes to get her going to nursery again. I can't do a new born and a 2 year old the whole way through church, it will be torture.

Baby update

No baby yet which is normal and good. I had to go get another ultrasound today to make sure the baby wasn't too huge. To explain his size she said he was going to be one of the bigger boys in the class but not the class bully. He is measuring for size in the 70% which is good. She said they are only concerned when the babies are in the 90% so things are great here. She said so far he weighs 5 and a half lbs. All I know is this baby HAS to come before September 1st because if he is already going to be big I don't want him to be the kid born on the first of september who doesn't get to start school until next year.

Here is his profile


His Hand.

Nap time

It is currently nap time. My time to relax and the children's time to get some much needed rest. Usually I hear screams of bloody murder (this has happened since our trip to Utah) Eva usually screams for 20 minutes into the nap and finally goes to sleep Alexander just lays there in bed whether he is going to sleep or not. Today was totally different. We had our lunch down stairs in the kitchen. Then I told them it was nap time. Eva starts screaming at the table but gets down and runs upstairs crying. Alexander grabs all his cars and runs upstairs. I dealt with Dolce and put things away (took me 5 minutes) I went upstairs and there was silence. They were in their beds ready for nap time!!! No crying just ready. I went to say sleep tight and they both said bye see you later. YAY. This will probably never happen again but I can enjoy it for one day. This was what I found yesterday when nap time was over:

Her baby

Eva with Bear

Eva has a baby now. Its a teddy bear I think from my mother close to when bubba was born? It had a little teddy bear on it and Alexander and Eva fought over it so much that we cut the little bear off and Eva got the big one. She carries it everywhere now. This just started last week. He always has stinky diapers and is constantly hungry :) She even puts it down for naps. Funny she makes the bear takes naps but screams bloody murder when I put her down for one.

The only problem is yesterday she went to give him a bath. That didn't work out so well.

Kids Room

The furniture is all in and I am happy. It needs styling like some wall art and organization of toys but they LOVE their beds. Alexander kept saying thank you for my new painted bed all day yesterday. I think I might need a different head board for Alexander's bed so that it looks more uniform but that might not happen until I find one. I am excited to accessorize this space (with unbreakable objects mind you) Next I really think I need to work on new baby's space. He is coming in just a few weeks or more who knows really but I need to be prepared. This week and probably next will be dedicated to getting his space ready and his stuff ready and hospital bags and kids bags etc.

An eventful Saturday

It has been eventful day for me perhaps not for Daniel and the children. Yesterday at my doctor's appointment I learned that my glucose test came back abnormal and I am anemic and the baby is measuring at 35 weeks instead of the actual 32 weeks that I am. I was horrified about the diabetic thing just because with my other two pregnancy's everything was completely normal. So I had to do this horrible 3 hour test today. I went in at 7 am with no food. They took blood then made me drink the drink of sugar (luckily it was the fruit punch and not the orange this time) Then I was to wait one hour to get my blood taken. I love my lab because they let me leave during the hour "Just be back by this exact time" so today I went to garage sales and Target in between without any children. That was actually a treat for me (the shopping). I went back the second time and as soon as they took the blood I got dizzy and they made me go lay down at the lab. Then I went to Target. Then I got my blood taken and the vein kept disappearing so they had to poke a lot. After that garage sales again.

Finally they took my blood for the last time!! I was doing ok kind of dizzy and I just wanted to get some food because it was 1030 at that time. So I drove to the nearest subway and got my signature Italian BMT and I almost passed out while ordering. He kept having to repeat himself. So I sat there all by myself and ate the sandwich to make sure I didn't crash on the way home. That was an ordeal.

However the good news is we got some projects done today after all that!!

These are from Garage sales,
they are stepping stools for the bathrooms for the kids
I love wooden ones but I don't like the finish so they are changing color.
I got one for $1 and the other for $2 they are solid

These are old kitchen chairs that I don't like so they are getting some color

This is Alexander's bed that I wanted to match Eva's bed so they both turned white

We primed all the items that need to be primed before the baby comes (hopefully) with oil based primer.

what a messy space I make

You might be wondering what the kids were doing while we were priming:


Daniel got out the sprinkler that shoots out balls and they LOVED it. What a good dad keeping them entertained and in sight.

Then they were sun tanning:

No sunburns here.

Now I will spray paint and then move furniture into the kids room (FINALLY). This makes me very happy. Having projects floating around in my head makes me NUTS. I still haven't chosen a color or fabric for those two nice chairs. But in due time. The kids beds have been on my mind for 5 months now.

Anyway here are my favorite things I got at the garage sales today:

This was $1 can you guess what it is?
It is going to be painted and probably customized for the theme of Eva's Christmas gifts this year.
Its Christmas in July


Then I found these:

The top two are photographs and the last one is a water color. The photographer was there and selling them for $2 each. PERFECT original art! They are 8x10. I LOVE the hummingbird photo. He said he waited in his backyard for 30 minutes just to get this shot. He informed me that New Mexico is a BIG bird watching state.

Anyway that was our Saturday (and its only 4pm)

Miriam

The weekend is over. YAY

We had talks in church yesterday and it made me do nothing all week long. They are done now thank goodness. I love the learning opportunity it gives me and I love hearing Daniel's talks but either than that they are not my favorite thing to do. I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack while sitting in church and I kept having contractions from the stress. I didn't do any projects all weekend because I was sitting thinking I should work on my talk the whole time. Oh Well.
We went to the mall late Saturday to pick up some shoes I had ordered (yes Alexander is in his pj's) We let them ride the carousel and Alexander said it was "SOO FUN". Daniel got to go golfing on Saturday. I like when he goes because he does not go much anymore and its something he enjoys.

I feel like our to-do list for before this baby comes is so HUGE. Its not really I am getting all the pre-baby prep done (thank goodness I know what I need) but its hot and dry here so sleeping at night is becoming a chore for me which is making everything else more difficult. We have decided we want to get the whole house done before this baby comes. We still have to put down the floors and stairs. It can happen but my ability to do things is limited. Oh and EVA is a drama queen. Her terrible twoness is getting worse and worse. I knew it was coming but I wasn't really wanting it to come. The Utah trip offset it very much. She won't take naps anymore which makes her REALLY GROUCHY. She has decided she doesn't like nursery anymore (this is an unbearable thing for me I love the freedom to sit alone or with Daniel in Church its my "me" time for the week) Luckily I have Alexander. He is so well behaved now and helpful so it makes life better. I know or hope that Eva will get over her terrible twos and threes and be nice like Alexander some day. He went through it too so its just a part of life. Now I have to go do something to make the day a success. Bye for now.

Miriam

We found it

Daniel kept digging and digging to find the spriket. No luck look how far he dug. So we finally called the plumber people who installed it. They came out and of course they found it after 2 minutes (I think it helped that daniel already dug up so much. The guy knew where it
wasn't. So now we get a sprinkler system and yard. Yay.


Here are some pictures from our little family fourth of July on the Sunday night in our backyard. There were A LOT of big fireworks in our neighborhood. It reminded us of New Years in Iceland (no joking there were sooo many big and maybe illegal fireworks from our neighbors)
Eva officially hates fireworks! I had to put a movie on in the office upstairs and turn up the volume so that she would stop crying. She thought it was many monsters. So we were outside enjoying it and lighting the little ones off for Alexander and she was upstairs on the couch watching Anastasia.

I LOVE these

While in Utah we were on the look out for barstools. Well we didn't have to look very far thanks Kathryn.

I love them. I need to find better covers to protect that weaving from the monsters. While at IKEA Daniel kept saying we needed to go find some chair covers but I didn't understand why and he couldn't remember either but we remembered while driving home. Sad. Oh well these will have to do until I find some more. I love the covers they just aren't big enough. I love these barstools. We will definitely use them in this house. Don't worry we will take really good care of them while they reside with us.

BIG project complete

This project has nothing to do with the house or babies or anything like that. Here is a little peek at what it is. I will wait until they get out to post them


update: these were Maliana's wedding invites. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to do them and she liked them too :)

happy 4th of July

Kitchen Bliss

Our kitchen is DONE. We might upgrade appliances but not anytime soon so here it is.




It looks so empty still but Daniel likes the empty counter tops a lot.

The powder room

Our powder room or downstairs bath is almost finished I just need to find a new mirror that I actually like. Here are the few simple things in there. I love the color in there.

The rug is IKEA

The oil painting is one I found at a garage sale. Its a lakescape. I LOVE waterscapes. I have been looking everywhere for original art because I just love original art. I love prints too though. I painted the frame black and distressed to modernize it.

The little towel has corral on it its just from Ross.

I am looking for an oval mirror with a nice frame on it. There was an oval mirror without a frame but that now lives in the garage in storage.

I think I need to put some more art in there. Daniel had an idea for a picture that we currently have but I am just not sure about it. Its one from their last trip to boundry waters. I think he is a little crazy for the request :)

It was father's day?

I don't think it has registered for me that it was father's day. I felt bad for Daniel and gave him gifts throughout the week prior to father's day because I knew I couldn't hide anything in the truck seeing as he was the one loading it. Here is one of the things I got him. Its just a collage picture of him and the kids

I don't know where to hang it. I also got him this one. I didn't pick it up until after we got back from Utah so I still haven't framed it. Its a Guam Memorium or whatever you want to call it. He really liked it and wants me to frame it so he can stick it in his office. I actually like the Guam one a lot its a good little memory of our time there.
Oh and he is going to get a BBQ. We still have to go choose one. This will be his third Father's Day BBQ. We are keeping up quite the tradition. I stilll can't even believe its July 2010 where have all the years gone. It was Daniel's 5th Father's day ( I think )

Ikea

I love Ikea. Besides visiting family Ikea is the only other thing we did in Utah and that was pushing it. We went in the afternoon we all drove back from Bear Lake (we were all exhausted but I didn't see another opening in the trip). Kristen was very generous and watched Eva and Alexander. It worked out well because Eva started screaming when she saw we were getting in the car again. So Daniel and I actually went to Ikea all alone and it was GREAT. Anyway we got all the things on our list here are some of the things just sitting around not getting put away because I am still exhausted and lucky if the dishes get done (all the laundry is done YAY)
We were not planning on getting a rug there but kept our eyes open. I found one I kind of loved so we got it. Its going to go in the living room and help that room well actually become a room and not a dumping ground for randoms.

We got a tv stand that is still completely in its box (see right above the rug). That wasn't planned either but we found the perfect one and well the next Ikea trip isn't until the next time we go to Utah or Denver builds its own.
Can you guess what these are? I just need some wood screws and they are ready to be hung

When we were at the reunion Daniel discovered he likes contemporary so we got some ideas from the house we were staying in like these rugs in our masterbath (we now have 4 bathroom rugs just in the master bath)


I decided to replace the two bedside tables with the Ikea ones. I decided this a few months ago when Eva made the lamp go crashing down twice in two days. They looked good but were too small for the lamps. These ones are much sturdier.

I am working on the kids room also (who am I kidding I am working on every room). I have painted Eva's new twin bed white and plan to do the same with Alexander's (I am just waiting on the energy to recharge in well me) I was going to do a boy and girl comforter both in white but IKEA HAD NONE! So I went with a brighter summer approach and got these two comforter colors in the nautical stripes. I love them!

Then I got 6 of these cloth boxes for the up and coming baby because that is happening sooner than I even think.
Then we just got other random things like cookies :) I can't wait for these things to go up. I am finding my main dilemma in my new house is the huge walls and lack of art to go up. Luckily my mother gave me some nice wall decor that I need to put together in wall arrangements.

Miriam