A Mom Thing

I have the cutest child. I really do. His name is Caeden. Since his name means "Spirit of Battle" we have all sorts of nicknames, the most common being, "The Spartan", dubbed to him by his Uncle Reece. 

I remember when Caeden was born all of the nurses went on about "how cute" he was. I looked at them and asked, "Tell me the truth, is he really cute, or are you just saying that because that's what you're supposed to say about babies?" They assured me that he was the cutest, but what can you expect? It's in their job description to be nice. Seriously though. He's the cutest. 

Sometimes, he cries. He's like, a baby. Sometimes, I can't get him to stop crying. That is when I do what all "normal" moms do; I take pictures of him crying. Here are some from earlier this week:  

I've been trying to get the face above on camera forEVer. It's so hilarious! The camera seems to get his attention pretty quickly and then he chills out. 

 Then we have what my family calls a "Bed Party". This is where everyone sits on mom and dad's bed and we all hang out. 

Isn't he the cutest? 

The Best Man

Meet my husband. 

His name is Nathanael and he is the most patient, loving, hard-working dude you will ever meet.

I met him about a week after I moved to Missouri. I saw him and asked my sister, who "that beautiful boy" was. Long story short, he ended up coming to our family's New Year's Eve party.

Have you heard of dream boards? I made one that night after he left. It looked like this:

It was my "plan" to swoop my husband up and trick him into marrying me. It worked :) You'll see more of him later I'm sure. 

About him: 

• He's from Missouri. To be more specific, he was born 1.8 miles from where we live now. In a trailer. [insert trailer joke here]
• He was home schooled.  
• He served an LDS Mission in Mesa, Arizona.
• He is an apprentice electrician.
• He can fix/build pretty much anything!
• He doesn't like eggs. Which is too bad for him because I guess that means he doesn't get any chicken eggs when I start raising them. 
• He lets me do whatever I want. Really. Could he stop me? hee hee hee :)

Let it Snow?

At least, I kind of hope it is! When it's cold, I like there to be snow. Not that I like to be in the snow, I just like to look at it. With that said, look what is coming our way:

Snow, please, maybe? Are you excited? I'm excited. How do you prep for a Winter storm? 

Since we heat our house primarily with wood stove (we got ourselves a couple of electric heaters until we can get a bigger stove), I spent the morning dragging in armloads of wood. Keep it toasty!

 Obviously, soup is a must on a day like today. Broccoli cheese get in my mouth!

 I don't know about anyone else, but I don't plan on leaving the house for the rest of the day/tomorrow. Hopefully, Missouri gets some snow!

Critter Problems

Once upon a time there was a snake in our house. 

He's not happy about holding it/posing for a picture

Once upon another time there was a snake outside our house. 

Once upon another other time there was a knocking in the attic. 

Weird, right? The first time I heard it I thought it was the sweet little Spartan playing in his crib. The second time I heard it I was holding him. I thought, "Hey, maybe it's a squirrel with a nut!" Nathanael said, "Maybe it's a woodpecker." Most everyone else just eluded that my house is haunted/I might die. 

Then yesterday, I found these: 

What say we now?!

I also found these scattered around outside our back door. 

I think they are chicken feathers. Except we don't have chickens. I like to pretend I have an animal friend, but really, as my friend said, it's more of a threat than an offering of friendship. Yikes!

This is a Life Blog.

This is a life blog. Because I have one. Sort of. Really! Mostly I started this blog just for me. I have a blog for our awesome house and my semi-awesome furniture-upcycle addiction, but nothing for like, me. So here I am. Rock me like a hurrican'! No, don't. I don't like hurricanes. Either way, you can love it or leave it!

I was born in Long Beach, California (shout out to my homies!) but my family moved to Provo, Utah when I was four-ish. As a result, Provo is the city I claim, though I'm not sure it can really count as a "real city". More on that later. 


I moved to Missouri two years ago today (Happy Anniversary to me!), got married four months later, got pregnant two seconds later, bought a house two months after that, and however many months later, baby came along. 

Living in rural Missouri presents about 13,249,000 challenges for one who grew up in a city, albeit a fake city. I still have my "townie tendencies", like wearing high heels even though my driveway is made of gravel, dressing up to "go to town", and wearing pink because I can. I can't wait to share! 

PS. This is just the most recent/decent picture of me. Missouri looks nothing like the ocean. It's in the Midwest, guys. 

Lately I've Been Trippin'

The past couple weeks we've been tripping with my family. We stopped in Utah (where I got to celebrate my birthday!) on our way to California for Reece's graduation from Marine Corps boot camp. We had a lot of fun seeing friends and family who were able to make time to see us. and we are so proud of our Marine!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] After the graduation ceremony[/caption]

Here are a few pics from our short stop at Mission Beach.

Anyway, before we left, we painted our kitchen and dining room floors. Yes! We did! I looooooove them!

[caption id="attachment_1204" align="aligncenter" width="731"] See that awful cement pad? We have no idea why it's there. It goes all the way down through the floor to the ground outside. Now it blends![/caption]

We used a porch and floor polyurethane tint-able oil-based paint by Glidden.  So awesome! Because the polyurethane is already in the paint, your paint doesn't yellow! I might have to re-do Caeden's room because his turquoise floor (we used a latex paint) got a yellow tint as soon as I put a poly coat on it. Boo!

I also chalked my fridge! With colored chalkboard paint! I had some leftover from a project and was all, hey! Paint the fridge!

It's currently the only Christmas "decoration" we have up right now...we haven't had time to put up a Christmas tree yet! Stay tuned for more kitchen awesome-ness happening soon!

Once Upon a Time...

Remember how, once upon a time, I started this really awesome project for some real life clients then never showed you how it turned out? 

I totally forgot to take a picture after it was done! I know right? SO. The lovely Lacey's sent one to me and I am so grateful! 

Here she is:

I love how it turned out! Their inspiration for the table came from this table I did this past summer:

The process is really simple:

1. Sand the table top to the bare wood
2. Stain the table with your favorite stain
3. Stencil the table in your favorite color

That's it! Thank you, Lacey's, for letting me makeover your table! 

Thanks for reading!

Winner of the Colored Chalkboard Giveaway!

I didn't post much about this giveaway...as soon as I told you about it I went on a family trip to see my brother graduate from Marine boot camp. Here he is with our mom:

Anyway, that's why I've been slacking. Without anymore nonsense, the winner of the Colored Chalkboard Giveaway is...Megan!

Congratulations, Megan! Contact me (by commenting on this post, or sending an email) within 48 hours to claim your colored chalkboard! Yay, you!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!

Turning 25 Bucket List

Sometimes turning 25 freaks me out. Other times I'm all, "I'm going to own this twenty-five ish..." and then I wonder how one owns being twenty-five. I decided to make a list of 25 things to do the year I am twenty-five.

1. Raise some chicks. Like, chickens. 


2. Finish an interior decorating course.


3. Learn how to use a nail gun without being afraid.


4. Learn to change the oil in my jeep.


5. Use a chainsaw.


6. Wake up baby and with Honeypie and take him to look at stars.


7. Build somethin' cool.


8. Plant a food garden.


9. Plant a flower garden.


10. Go camping.


11. Dye my hair. Maybe :)


12. Write a new song.


13. Go to the zoo. In Nebraska!


14. Be a "Women Build" or "One-day Build" volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.


15. Get my CCW before I can't anymore. Oh ps Missouri friends; I have a class scheduled for January 12, 2013 at nine. If you want in, let me know. Guns and ammo provided!


16. Understand politics. As of now, my 13 and 12 year old sisters know more about politics than I do. WuuT?


17. Build a snowman. If it snows this year. The first year I moved to Missouri I'm pretty sure there were at least three blizzards and countless "snow advisory" warnings. There was so.much.snow. Last year? I swear it only snowed once and it was only half an inch. I was totally okay with that because I didn't want to run around being pregnant/with a newborn in the snow. Also, the last time I think I built a snowman was in high school at my high school, during lunch. I told my friends not to kick it down like they wanted to...but they did. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!


18. Make money for a mini moo! if you don't know what those are you should. LOOK!
    
    [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="360"] This Jersey cow is grown![/caption]


19. Be able to do 40 "man" push ups. I used to be able to do that. It WILL happen again.


20. Get a new puppy and make sure it never gets run over by a truck. *@#%&#!


21. Fill the frames on our wall with pictures.


22. Paint our stairs.
    
    [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450"] lyrical stairs. i love them.[/caption]


23. Paint the outside of our house. I'm thinking along the lines of gray. White attracts too many bugs, and I can't have a pink house. 


24. Learn alternative/natural/home medicine


25. Get our food storage done. You know, for the zombie apocalypse.

Colored Chalkboard Giveaway

I've been a slacker lately, but we have a giveaway! It's this cute little colored chalkboard with a distressed white frame. I used to hate chalkboards simply because I hate chalk, but discovered a trick thanks to Pinterest: if you get your chalk wet it doesn't make a gross sound! 

This would be a cheap {aka free} and cute Christmas gift for a little girl or for yourself! 

Anyone in the continental U.S. can enter. I will ship the chalkboard to you if you win. If you live locally I will deliver it. 

Here are the rules: 

1. “Follow Us” through email—it’s on the right side of the page! If you do not have a blogger profile or follow the blog anonymously you must leave an email address in the comment box. {required}
2. “Like” our Facebook page {required} for a second entry.
3. “Post” a comment with at the bottom of this post letting me know that you have followed the blog through email and liked our page, or if you just did one. 
4. Check back on December 11, 2012 to see who won!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Remember, if you "Follow Us" and "Like" our Facebook page you get two entries. Good luck!

Inspire: Yellow

Traditional Nightstands And Bedside Tables design by Home Depot

Inspire: Chevron

Eclectic Chairs design by Etsy

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