Secret Project! - Afters

Yep. I'm finally posting them! I'm taking a serious risk here that Jeff will NOT check the blog between now and when he boards his plane to come home in a few hours. Let me just preface this post by saying that this has been the least fulfilling "secret" project I've ever done! I was hoping to do it while Jeff was gone out of town this week, and he would come home not knowing anything about it. But he looked at the blog while he was gone (which was a possibility I was fully aware of when I posted. I just really didn't think he would!), then he called on Wednesday night and talked to the kids. He thinks I painted the girls' rooms since I've been painting stuff lately. So he asked Sarah what color her room was, and she started telling him all about what I've been doing! I stopped her before she said too much, but I don't know how much he heard, or understood. So I don't know how surprised he'll be when he gets home, but at least he has no idea what the colors are...

I did not paint the girls' room, by the way. I did, however move Audrey in with Sarah, and painted Audrey's old room. It's no longer a bedroom. It's a much more useful and much cooler room now.

Here's a hint.



I finally found a good place to put these framed prints! I really love where they are now. And I love this room!

Now this picture's not that great, but you get the idea.

Here's my new comfy bench. I made the big long cushion, and all the pillows.

Here's one more before picture I forgot to post.

And the after: The last thing left for this part is some magazine holders for all the Scientific American magazines, Ensigns and Friends. I wasn't willing to spend $10 per holder at Walmart, so I'm waiting until I find something more perfect and less expensive. I wouldn't mind putting a small shelf in there on the left and putting the board games on it. But I have to find one that fits first.

And here is Sarah's room (now Sarah's and Audrey's room) after. I didn't really do anything to it other than get rid of the bookshelf, and move Audrey's stuff in. I'll make it all pretty and cool later. The main change with this project was the new library. The girls really like sharing a room so far. We'll see how long it lasts before Audrey starts getting on Sarah's nerves. So far so good!



The kids love the new library. They go in, grab a book, sit at a table and read! I'd say it was a good idea. Wanna know the best part about this project? It was free! Well, almost anyway. Almost every single thing I used to change up this room came from our house. It's all stuff I already had, including the paint! And the paint only cost me $5 when I bought it ("oops" paint from Lowe's). I already had all the fabric and embellishments for the pillows. I had the boxes for the closet. They were plastic milk crates that I covered with fabric to match the bench cushion. I had the kiddie tables and chairs already. I just moved them from the basement, where they've been enduring constant abuse and misuse since we moved in. The bookshelf was in the garage with some empty boxes on it. We got it for free from one of our neighbor's family members. The paintings were hanging in the hallway, and I never liked that placement for them to begin with. Now I love where they are. The framed Proclamation to the Family was hanging in our family room downstairs, but didn't match with the other colors. Now it goes perfectly. The only thing I bought new, specifically for this project, was the plaque that says "Library, Shhh..." And that, I bought at Walmart for slightly less than $4. Then I stained it the same color I stained the tables, painted the lettering, and attached the ribbon. I even already had the hook that I put on the door. Now, the only thing left is the magazine holders. What do you think?

Secret Project!

Here are the befores:

Audrey's room.


Sarah's room.
You're just dying of curiosity, aren't you? It's pretty much finished, but I want to put some last little touches on before posting the afters.

And by the way, this is what happens to my kitchen when I take the day "off" to work on a project.

"Look, Mom, Ants!"Nice...

Judge Ye Not.

I was at the grocery store picking a watermelon this afternoon with Alex and Sarah when we noticed a lady watching us. She was obviously waiting until I was finished so she could pick her own watermelon. I began thumping from one melon to another, and when I heard one I liked, I picked it up and put it to my ear. After giving it a good thump, I decided I liked what I heard and placed it in the basket with Sarah. Throughout this approximately 15 second process, I noticed the expression on the woman's face go from quizzical to condescending. If I could read her thoughts, they would have said something like, "yeah, right. Like you have any idea what you're doing." Or "yeah, right. Like knocking on a few melons is going to get you a good one." She literally rolled her eyes at me as I left. I thought to myself, "Go ahead and laugh lady. I'll be laughing the entire time it takes me to eat this delicious, perfectly ripe and juicy watermelon, while you go on guessing which ones are good or not for the rest of your life! I know exactly what I'm doing here." You see, after I left, I noticed her look around the box without touching anything, grab one out and put it in her cart. There's no way she could tell just by looking whether the melon was ready or not. Well, here's to you watermelon lady! Hope yours is just as scrumptious! Now the only thing that would have made my watermelon even better is the $0.19/lb I would have spent on it if I had gone to Wangsgard's instead of the $0.33/lb I spent at Smith's!

Happy Samoan Flag Day!

July 23 is Samoan Flag Day. With July 24 being Pioneer day, and Samoa being a smaller, seldom well known but beautiful asset to the United States, many people probably don't even know that July 23 is Flag day in Samoa. Well it is! So here's to Samoa! Anyone want to go visit?

Summer Vacation - 2009

***WARNING: A blogging backlog causes a backup of pictures and information. Since I've been incredibly busy lately, this post, and the few that follow, cover all the way back to the boys' birthday. So there are a LOT of pictures, and a TON of information. Just be forewarned.***

Our summer vacation this year followed a three week stint of Jeff being gone out of town on business. It was a much needed respite for me. We went to Washington this year because, if you can believe it, my 10-year high school reunion was this year! We got up early on Friday, and drove a total of 14 hours up to Bonney Lake. We stayed with Keith and Janet for the first couple of nights because Janet was gracious enough to offer to watch our little rugrats while Jeff and I attended my reunion on Saturday night.

Washington, here we come! Audrey played peek-a-boo to pass part of the time.

Pretty soon, Lucas got in on the action. But Alex was too cool for that.

Here are Jeff and I all dolled up and ready to go to the reunion.


And I had to include this one. Audrey snacked on some Chips Ahoy cookies after church on Sunday. Then she just couldn't stay awake. She fell asleep with chocolate all over her mouth, still clinging tightly to the bag of cookies!

Keith and Janet apparently had some pretty cool toys! These Power Rangers action figures made great substitutes for Voltron ones. They were definitely a favorite of the trip.

Sunday night, we had a barbecue at Grandpa and Grandma Tracy's place. Here are a few of my favorites from that night.






Alex had been eyeing Audrey's watermelon for a while. He finally asked her for some, and she eagerly obliged. Although I think she inadvertently dropped it in his lap. He didn't seem to mind.

Monday. The day of exploration. First was the chicken coop. We went inside to say hello to the chickens. They were all very excited about it... at first.

Once they saw the chickens come out of their little lair (the box they go in to lay their eggs) squawking, they decided it wasn't so cool anymore. Notice the sheer fright on Lucas's face in this picture. They bolted out of there just as fast as they could saying, "Scary in there. Scary in there."


Next, we made our way to the barn. The grass was just so tall.


I actually climbed all the way up to the loft where the zip line still sits. It was a little scary. That barn is pretty old and the wood looks it in some places. I was afraid to venture out to the edge for fear of the wood giving way and me falling to the ground on top of Jeff and the kids.


Audrey got a little distracted on the way back.


Then it was on to the creek! I guess it's become quite the popular little hike since I was a kid. They keep the trail nice and mowed down nowadays.

We made it!

Posing for Mama.

It was really cold water, but Sarah insisted on playing in it anyway. She got pretty soaked.

Audrey was perfectly content playing in the sand on the bank.

After the creek, it was time to go back to Grandma's house for some playing with cousins (second cousins)...

...Lunch...

...and naps!

After a while, and before another barbecue, we decided to go pick some pie cherries from the tree by the chicken coop. The kids really got into that and practically filled all their little buckets.



We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights. Each morning, Grandma made us some kind of hot breakfast. Being that it's collectively my family's favorite meal of the day, we were all in heaven! She was so sweet to make sure everyone always had enough to eat.

And Alex will probably kill me for this one later, but I just HAD to include these! He knew I was taking pictures, and he was perfectly willing to show me his funniest faces while sitting on the potty. Hey, it's not my fault he left the door open!





After breakfast on Tuesday, it was off to the Seattle Aquarium. This picture was taken by some random guy who probably didn't realize I had three other kids running around there somewhere. But I guess it was nice to actually be IN a picture instead of taking it. And Audrey really was enthralled by what was swimming around behind that big piece of glass.

Lucas was, too.

We took so many pictures on this trip, and it's hard to whittle them down to just the good ones. There were so many good ones. But here are some of my favorites from the aquarium.




We met Jeff's cousins Pam and Susie (sorry if I spelled it wrong) there, along with Pam's three kids. One of the exhibit attendants was kind enough to take this picture of all of us.



After the aquarium, it was back to Pam's house for a pizza lunch, and more fun playing with second cousins. I'm really glad we got to do this part because it was a ton of fun talking with Pam and Suzie there. It was hard to really communicate much at the aquarium because we all had kids we were trying to keep an eye on. It was very crowded that day. So we got to chatting and got to know them a little better there. We can't wait to see Pam and the kids down here in another few weeks!


Pam's youngest, Sophie, must have been thirsty. She found a little plastic spoon on the ground and started shoveling in the pool water! That little one has the biggest, cutest personality I've ever seen in a child so young! She's really a hoot. Very cute. (Pam, I made her stop after I snapped the picture. That pool water was pretty dirty!)


All the kids had fun picking dandelions and distributing them to the adults all afternoon as a symbol of their undying love and affection. Here's Sarah's pick.

I don't know what it is with my boys and driving. But somehow, everywhere we go, they always find something to "drive." The tractor at my Grandpa's house, the motorcycle at Pam's house, the toy car... I hope this isn't a sign of their eagerness to drive when they're teenagers.


Wednesday was Mud Mountain Dam day. We woke up to yet another hot breakfast, then the kids took the table scraps out to feed the chickens with Grandpa.


Here they all are watching them eat from outside the gate.

Apparently, chickens aren't so scary when there's a fence in between!

Here's Grandpa showing the kids his cool "scarecrow" owl that hoots and turns its head.

After a relaxing morning on the farm, we were off to Mud Mountain Dam to meet Rae Lea, Ashley (my cousin Jake's wife) and my cousin Josh's girlfriend. It's not so much a dam as it is a park with a water feature and lots of playground equipment. Here are some of my favorites from that trip.






They had so much fun there, they all zonked within 5 minutes of being in the car!

After that, we headed back to Keith and Janet's house for our last night before we headed home. The girls were absolutely infatuated with Megan. They all really loved her.

Thursday. The drive home. Goodbye, beautiful Washington! Here's the sun rising on Mount Rainier.


Jeff thought it was funny to try and be halfway in this picture. He said he could see the camera screen in the rear view mirror. But hey. What else are we supposed to do to keep entertained on a 14 hour drive home?

Washington was beautiful and fun. Unfortunately, this is what most of the drive home looked like.
Pretty boring, huh? But we're back now! And it's so nice to be home.