Re-do of my bookshelf

Here's my project of the week: Turning my ugly, old, white bookshelf into something sweet. I was inspired by this cool blog. Let me know what you think!

Before:

(One thing I learned from this project is to take a good before picture. Let me just tell you that I have owned these bookshelves since I was 12. They've been in every apartment we have ever had, and they've always been white. But after 15 years, white starts looking a little grimy....)

First, I had to take the back off the bookcase. It was easy to remove the little nails and cart it downstairs, where I mod-podged some cool wrapping paper (from Walmart, $3) onto it. Mod-podging that large of a surface was tricky, so I cut the paper into smaller squares. It still ended up with wrinkles, but it will be covered mostly by books anyway, so I'm not too worried about it.

Next, I spray painted the body of the bookshelf. It was just one of those cheap, plastic coated plywood bookshelves to begin with, so I wasn't too worried about ruining it with spray paint. In fact, I love spray paint because it's cheap and can totally transform something. After about 4 coats, plus a coat of polyurethane to keep it from scratching, it was finished.

Nailed the mod-podged back onto the newly black bookshelf, and Voila!

To be honest, I'm sad to put books on it now. I think it is so cute!

Three Already?

I cannot believe it's been three years since this:

Kate brings such joy into our lives. She is HAPPY all the time, even when she's grouchy, she still has a touch of her inner happiness that shines through. Sometimes she can't quite contain this happiness, and she it comes out in the form of a dance.

Kate and Anna are best friends. They love playing together, snuggling on the couch watching movies, and pretending to be grown-up mommies taking their babies places. They know how to push each other's buttons, but they also know how to serve and show gratitude for one another.

Kate doesn't usually walk to get where she wants to go. She flits about on her toes.

Kate cannot handle being upbraided. Her spirit is so tender. The other night Travis was joking with her while she was pretending to be a dog. He commanded her "SIT!" in a rough voice, and she burst into tears. She doesn't get into trouble very often, which is good because we really have no idea how to discipline her. Every time-out ends with some cuddle time on Mommy's lap.

It took Kate a while to learn to smile with her eyes open.

Kate knows how to work the system. She has learned that if Anna is throwing a fit about something (which happens often), Kate can politely ask "please" and will usually get it. She even tricked Trav one night by asking to stay up late to "watch basketball" with him.

Kate LOVES nursery. Since I'm the nursery coordinator in our ward, I buy snacks for the nursery each week. She loves helping me pick them out and then tells Anna "These are for my nursery friends."

Every morning the first thing out of Kate's mouth is "I want guffast (breakfast)." Every night the last thing out of Kate's mouth is "I want milkie."

Kate's nickname in our family is Kater-Gator.

Kate is very attached to her pink blanket. She can't sleep without it, and she seeks it out when she needs comfort.

Kate gives the best hugs. She kind of hugs your head and squeezes REALLY tight. Let's you know she loves ya.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! We are so blessed to have you in our family! We love you!

My New Hobby

Sewing has become my new hobby, thanks to a wonderful Enrichment activity in our ward. That's where I learned to make these aprons:

And here's my new nursing cover. The other one was just a test run, I guess, because this one turned out much better!
Taggie Blanket for Eve

Matching 4th of July dresses for the girls. Do you love how Kate has learned to pose for photos?

Seriously, I am loving sewing, which is totally out of character for me. When I was in high school, I sort of disdained homemaking activities, especially sewing. Now I love it because the end result turns out so cute! I'm taking orders if you want anything shown here :)

The Reveal

Now that Eve is 7 months old, I have finally finished decorating her room. Here's the big reveal:

I'm not in love with the dresser. It's a hand-me-down from T's sister. Maybe I just need to get new handles...

I made the square wall art mod-podging scrapbook paper onto canvas.

If I get really motivated, I may paint/recover this chair. I've just never done that kind of thing.

I made these wall hangings! The frames are from the dollar store, and I used Photoshop and this kit to do the design. I love that I got to pick the exact colors I wanted.

Honestly, the most expensive part of doing Eve's room was probably the baskets under her crib to hold toys. Everything else was a yard sale find, from the dollar store, or Walmart (curtains). Now on to the rest of my house!

Fabulous Fourth

The fourth of July is our favorite family holiday. This year we went to the Balloon Festival and parade in Provo, then went swimming at my parents' house, and then came back here for a block party and fireworks. It was so fun! I love summer!
Kate walking back from the parade with my parents. They're so nice to come down at 5 am to watch the balloons and the parade with us!

Anna with my grandma Kaye at the parade. It sprinkled on us for a minute, but luckily Grandma was prepared. Then she made some joke about "I hate to rain on your parade....." :)

Our favorite tradition is going to the Balloon Festival in Provo each 4th of July. We love to see the balloons fill up with air and then take off. They seemed so close this year during the competitions. We loved it!

T and his girls at the balloon festival.

We made our own flag for FHE the week of the fourth. The kids loved this activity.We still have handprints on the driveway, but we'll treasure them when we're old, right?

June Post

The first weekend of June we snuck down to St. George b/c T had some work down there. We had a great time at the splash park and spent a fun day with our good friends the Millers who have moved there. (Thanks again for letting us stay at your place!) On Saturday we took the kids to Zion National Park. It was amazing! So beautiful. Also amazing was how our kids actually did some of the hikes. I think we're going to have to make this a family tradition!

We got to hike behind a waterfall. How cool is that?

Kate at the splash park. This is a decent picture, but it still does not capture the JOY she had playing there. Sometimes I wish that I could be Kate, for the happiness she gets from life.
Kate went to summer camp for two weeks in June. It was kind of like preschool, but they only did fun stuff and everything focused on jungle animals. She loved it, and now whenever we make a craft she says, "Just like summer camp." This is her with the snake she made, and her giant jungle leaf.

We had lots of fun with my long time BFF Kristi and her kids when they visited from Texas. We went to Wheeler Farm and saw fun animals. Who knows why I didn't take a picture with just the kids....

This is Eve with Ivy, Kristi's baby. They're six weeks apart. Anna and Kristi's oldest (Gwen) are only 4 days apart. You know you're really best friends when you have your babies on the same schedule!

Anna took her first dance class with the Youth Arts Festival at the end of the month. She's a born dancer. At the end of every class the teacher did Goodbye Train, where each kid got to go across the stage by herself, dancing however she wanted. Anna was always the most flamboyant of the dancers, with skips, leaps, gallops, and funky arms. It was so fun to watch her learn something new like that. I knew that any photo of her performance wouldn't turn out, so this is her with her little class waiting to go on stage.

I'm Going There Someday

A few months back we went to the Draper Temple open house. Anna fell in love with it. Ever since she's been telling us that is where she is going to get married. So, one Sunday on our way to a family function, we stopped at the Draper Temple to let her see the outside, since we couldn't do that at the open house. Well, they actually lock the gates on Sunday so we couldn't go right up to the temple, but she loved walking around and looking at it.

Anna is really a bright spirit in our home. She picks things up so quickly, especially gospel principles. I am grateful for Primary because it teaches her so much. She'll come home and tell us what they talked about and then we have the chance to explain it better or reinforce some things with her. She even "plays" primary: she tells Kate "You be Sister Black (primary pianist), and I'll be Sister Murray (primary chorister)." Then she leads the music while Kate pounds on the piano. So funny! I love how Anna tries hard to be helpful and is extraordinarily kind to her sisters. She is getting to be a big kid now, not a toddler and hardly even a preschooler anymore. She has learned the value of obeying rules and it makes it so much easier to be her parents. I'm one lucky mom!

I wish the best for all my girls, and of course that includes receiving the blessings of the temple. I'm happy that Anna already wants that for herself as well. I think I'm going to frame this picture and put it in her room so she can have a reminder of that goal.

The Best is Yet to Be

Travis and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 20. We went horseback riding at Sundance, which was incredible. It was pouring rain for the first half of our ride, but that just sort of added to the fun.

I am so lucky to be married to Trav. He is kind, funny, thoughtful, and is a great husband and dad. He tries to do the right thing in all that he does. He puts me and the kids ahead of his needs ALL THE TIME. Like how he lets me sleep in AND take naps on the weekends. And how he makes dinner every Sunday. And how he takes the baby during church so that I can pay attention to my meetings. I love him so much!

It's funny how those early days of our marriage seem so far away now. We lived a different life back when we were still going to school, living in the basement apartment on Bryan Ave, and eating Chicken Voila for dinner each night. (I did not come into the marriage with culinary skills. Or really, any skills. Who knows why he married me.) We've made it through some tough times together, and now we're in the raising young kids phase of life. The more time I spend with him and with our little family the more I realize how blessed I am. I look forward to the road ahead. The best is yet to be!

Look What I Can Do!

Eve is growing up so quickly! She's almost 7 months old already and has really been a lot of fun lately with the things she is learning. Her little hands are always reaching for things, and those things immediately end up in her mouth. She even ate some of Kate's Nutella sandwich yesterday while we weren't looking! Eve has mastered the art of sitting up:


and loves eating baby foods. Her favorite is carrots.

We're still working on staying clean.