The Nursery/Toy Room

We have a sitting room off the master bedroom that was Luke's nursery up until he turned one. Since then it's been a toy room/disaster area that we've never decorated or bothered with. I'm not a big believer in decorating rooms for babies. What's the point? They only sleep in there. I slapped a couple of pictures of all the kids as babies on the wall and that was it. However, I'm still bored, bored, bored and tired of knitting and sewing and reading. I risked the unpleasantness of five Braxton Hicks an hour and decided to do something with the nursery. I found some vinyl polka dots online at a reasonable price and figured they wouldn't be too labor intensive or time consuming to put up. It took two days to do two walls thanks to kids underfoot and too many contractions. But today I finally finished. Now I need to start cleaning out all the toys and chucking them in the basement, get Matt to bring the crib up, haul Luke's clothes upstairs to make room for baby clothes and find the baby swing. I think I'll print some 5x7 pictures of each kids' baby blessing photo and hang them from ribbons off a decorative bar over the dresser and redo the kid collages: find new frames, including one for the new baby. But that's it. The room is too small and all the furniture takes up too much room to do anything else to decorate it. Someday I want to take out the big window and put in french doors to the backyard and patio and make it a pleasant sitting room. That's only like two years away! Yippee!

Cowboys

Gramma Sue and Papa just got back from a business trip to China and brought the boys some "real" cowboy hats. I laughed--who knew that real cowboy hats come from China now, too?

I still spend a lot of time on the couch and get bored, so here's another project I've finished. I made a baby bath mat/diaper changing pad out of a towel folded in half with batting between, quilted around the animals, tied, and then added a button hole edging. I made a cute frog one too, for another lady in the ward and this one is for my sister-in-law. Thanks Mom, for the idea (she brought me a fun lion one).

A Couple Random Things:

1. Yesterday I overheard Paul tell a neighbor kid: "Moms are always grumpy." I was quick to jump in and say that wasn't true. "Oh, I meant pregnant moms. Pregnant moms are always grumpy." Ouch, that still includes me.

2. Elyse is the shining star in her her class this week, which means she gets to take in something everyday to share with the class, like facts about herself, her favorite poem, facts on her favorite subject, etc. Fridays they can bring in whatever they want and she decided to bring in Luke. I had to go take a test at the lab, so Matt told me over lunch how it went. Luke sang "Once there was a snowman" and "Popcorn popping." (Elyse was surprised to learn that none of her friends at school knew these songs. "You mean those are church songs?" she asked me on Thursday.) The teacher and classmates got to ask her a bunch of questions about her brother. Someone asked, "What does he like to do?" To which Luke shouted with great gusto: "Poop!" Yes, we're still potty training and it's a big deal to him. "Humongous poop!" I guess that word is hilarious to a classroom full of second graders and Luke was a big hit. Someone asked what his favorite word is: "Weird!" With more giggles as a result.

3. I saw a license plate today that read: ObeyMe. Not surprisingly it was a woman driving a mini van. That gave me the giggles.

4. Yesterday I finished my service project for the baby. In an attempt to get over being dissapointed about having a boy, I decided to do something nice for him. I went to the store and picked out a pattern and yarn and knitted an outfit to bring him home in from the hospital. While still sad I'll never have another girl, I did think a lot about this kid while knitting my evenings away and I'm a little more excited about him finally getting here. The biggest thing I've ever knitted before was a hot pad and a leprosy bandage. I'm amazed at what you can learn from the internet. Anytime I got stuck on the pattern directions or on how to do a stitch I'd never heard of before, I'd find a video on how to do it just by using google. I think my grandmother and great-grandmother would be proud of me. He'll probably only wear it once and then it'll fall apart the first time I wash it, but I don't care. It was good therapy.

8 Things Tag

Since life is pretty blah right now and I haven't done one of these tags in a while, I thought I'd fill one out from a friend's blogsite: 8 favorite TV shows... America's Funniest Videos Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee--she drives me nuts, but her quick meal ideas are sometimes pretty good. Unwrapped--can you tell I watch the Food Network? Pysch The Office The Mentalist Sponge Bob 8 things I look forward to..... 1. Real email from a real person 2. A package in the mail. 3. Friday lunch at Quiznos 4. Crawling into my own bed after vacation 5. Not being pregnant anymore--ever again! 6. Bedtime almost every day 7. Summer when the kids are out of school 8. This sounds like I'm suicidal, but I'm not: Dying after I've lived a long life. I don't like tests, and while I like being here, I can't wait for this one to be overwith. Can't wait to not have mortal failings and weaknesses and just hang out with Matt for eternity. 8 favorite places to eat.... 1. Hello Sushi--best sushi in town 2. Gengi's--you visit me, I'll take you there, my treat. You'll love it! 3. Quiznos 4. Qdoba 5. Uno's Pizza 6. Arby's is a new find--they've got great deli sandwhiches and sandwhiches are my favorite food. Who knew? I thought they only had those disgusting roast beef sandwhich things. 7. The Roof in Salt Lake City 8. Red Robin--once again, I love sandwhiches and they have the best burgers. 8 things on my wishlist.... 1.A dust devil broom with built in vacuum 2. A new bladder that works better than my shriveled, loose one that has to go more often than my two year olds. 3. Get my verciose vein behind my leg removed--I hate it! 4. A cabinet to put all the piano music in--my piano bench is about to break open. 5. After Matt finishes building my food storage room in the basement (current project), take out the basement bathroom no one uses and add a long counter and shelves for a new craft area. 6. My own library 7. Blueberry bushes, a peach tree, and a pear tree 8. Add on to our deck 8 Favorite Movies... 1. Pride & Prejudice (A&E version) 2. Persuasion with Ciarin Hinds 3. You've Got Mail 4. How to Steal a Million with Audry Hepburn and Peter O'Toole (Her Roman Holiday is a close second) 5. It's a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart 6. What's Up Doc? with Barbara Streisand "That is a person names Unice?"--cracks me up every time. 7. I'd like to say almost any Cary Grant movie, but I love Arsenic and Old Lace and Father Goose. 8. I also like the Ocean's 11-13. What a cast and Matt Damon plays such a goofy cutie. That was way more than 8 movies, wasn't it?

Bath Time

Without question, Luke's favorite time of day is bath time. He loves water and to pass some of the time while his siblings are at school, he gets a bath or shower almost every day. He'll even poke me over and over during morning cartoon/snooze time and ask, "Bath time? Bath time?" He beat me into my bathroom this morning, stripped down, and hid in the cupboard to scare me when I came in.

And his favorite toys in the shower are the back scrubber and the squeegee. Here he is cleaning up after the shower is over.

A Fun Visit

I had my parents here from Utah from Thursday until today. We had a great lazy time shopping, eating out, and taking the kids to the Children's Museum. I love having them visit. Luke warmed up to them in an instant and by the last morning was following Gramma everwhere she went and wanted her to follow him everywhere too--including his trips to the bathroom. Saturday we had a boys day/girls day. Matt and Granpa took the boys to a monster truck rally downtown. Matt caught a free T-shirt thrown by the driver of Paul's favorite car, which fit Paul perfectly. And Luke, surprisingly, wasn't scared of the loud noises. The girls, meanwhile, went to the grand opening of a new Michael's and also found an Easter dress for Elyse. I think she felt pretty mature and grown up to be out shopping with Gramma. Thanks Mom and Dad. I miss you guys. So glad you're coming back in June.

Overheard:

Matt put the kids to bed Saturday night and after prayers, I heard Luke's little voice say: "Dad no hair!" And the next morning I caught Matt rubbing his receding hairline in the mirror. Luke did it again at Sunday lunch at Gramma and Papa's house. He stood on Matt's lap and pointed to his Dad's head, "Dad, no hair!" To which Matt exclaimed, "I do too have hair. It's farther up." And then Luke pointed to the bald spot in the back, too. "No. Dad, no hair." Needless to say, Matt didn't find this as funny as I did.