Gus, 11 months

Seriously?! Where does the time go? Why does it have to go so quickly? I don't like it. Can I have my baby back?

Love you Tiny G!

We've been busy.

We spent a few fantastic days in a faraway state to celebrate a first communion and hang with the fam. We had a fantastic time!

Right before we got in the car this happened:

I walked in from the garage and found him this way. The camera happened to be close by and I couldn't resist. He didn't seem to mind the spicy hot, hot tamales. In fact, he ate many....

J foolin' around. Always.

P learned to ride this:

Even T got involved in the fun. Thank goodness for helmets!

Tiny G didn't seem to thrilled with this trick....

Then, the big boys got to go to see some horses. Shhh...we snuck in very stealthily in the mini-van...with our fabulous tour guide. P was thrilled and wanted to stay and look at all the horses. He was amazed. We even got to see brand new babes.

I'm not sure who was more excited about being there. The kids or me....

A story in photos

P: Look mom, Gus can stand!

G: Look mom, I'm standing. And a little freaked out...

P: See, he's doing it. And I'm smiling for the camera.

P: Okay, stop grabbing my ear, Gus.

P: Can you take a step, Gus?

P: Did you have too much to drink, Gus? Too much Benadryl?

G: Give me a hug...

Okay, seriously cute photo.

P: We're falling over...

G: I'm going to bite your face now. Don't worry, it will only hurt for a minute. I've just got one tooth. And it's little....but it's sharp.

G: Ha, ha. Now we're going to wrestle. Two points for a take down.

G: What's that you have over there, Jack?

G: Back off P-town. Jack-Jack's got food!

G: Seriously, I'm outta here. There are snacks around.

G: Dude, let go! I need food!

Seriously, I may blow this one up to poster size. Freakin' cute. Can you tell they are brothers? Ummm....yeah.

Freebie chair, downer post, beware.

You know how you've got projects that are just waiting for you....that's what this was. It was just waiting. I wanted to do it, but I knew it was going to take time and I like projects that are done in a jiffy. But, it was a freebie! A friend of mine grabbed it out of someone's garbage and gave it to me. What a great friend! I love a good dumpster find!

I wasn't worried about the tufting. Piece of cake. Not worried about the color or fabric choice. Got it. I was FREAKING out about the cushion! I had no idea what to do. I really should learn to make a cover for it. Really, I know I should, but I was so nervous about it, I was thinking about including the cushion with the bottom of the chair and not make it removable...

So, one afternoon I After I carefully started taking the chair apart. Nice and easy, pulling staples, paying attention to details....ALL FOR NOTHING...yep. That's right. I started taking it apart and found that the leg was cracked in half and inside the chair the wood was rotting and I'm pretty sure an animal made a home inside at some point.

I'm so sad for the chair. My first chair that could not be rescued. Breaks my heart a little.

Little stand, no patience.

Apparently brown things find a home with me. I really wanted to add some color to our home. So I painted this thing yellow....but ran out of paint half-way through and it was nap time and I couldn't go and get more, but I had a ton of white, so that's what I did...yep. White. WHITE, WHITE, WHITE. Okay?!

I had no more patience for this to dry then I do for anything else.

The yellow and brown came through when I sanded things, so that turned out great. I love how bright it is. It is currently housing our insane amount of children's movies. I'm not sure if it fits the space, but I like the idea.

Go ahead, ask me about the blue chair....it used to be black. Now it is Behr Tropical Breeze. Seriously, I can't get enough of that color. I heart Behr Tropical Breeze...if I say it enough maybe a free gallon will appear on my doorstep....

The white is the always trusty Rustoleum Semi-Gloss White. Love that stuff. I too would like for a zillion cans to magically appear on my doorstep.

Or this:

I wish my kids could read, then they would know what to get me for mother's day. Or, our anniversary is the day after....wish hubs read this too....

Oh, this wasn't about what I WANT or NEED, this is about an ugly cabinet transformed into something glorious and useful....

Before: Ug.

After: Gorg.

Used the last pull from my set of 6 for $4.97 and found the knobs on the work bench...I have no idea where they came from, but they work. I think I'm going to distress it a little more.....

Mom Ramblings #9

1.  I love my kids, but if one of them asks me to wipe their bottom again, walks through my flowers, or fights over a stinkin' McDonald's toy again, I may lose it.

2. Tiny G has 4 teeth coming in, cut, bleeding gums.... needless to say, we have about 4 diarrhea diapers a day, he chews on my cheek, he is loaded with tylenol and I may or may not have given him benadryl to get him to sleep a little last night.

3. I'm not going to lie - number three got deleted because I'm not ready to go there....you'll know when I am.

4. I keep trying to go clothes and shoe shopping for myself with all three boys in tow. I must be absolutely nutty.

5. Dandelions are the bane of my summer existence. I can't stand them. I need a new tactic. Anyone got any ideas? We have a huge field behind us and live on top of a hill. The windiest spot in the state.

6. If I change one more thing in my house, I may be a single mother.

7. I better stop changing things. Guess I can't change another poopy diaper. Seriously. Ohmygawd.

8. I need a new swimsuit. Where do people buy them? I haven't gotten a real one in many, many years. I will tell you I won't be in a teensy-tiny teeny-weenie yellow polka dot bikini, I have had three kids, you know. And to those of you that have had three or more kids and can wear that bikini - you suck. Yeah for you!

9. I didn't skip 9 this time :)

10. Today is Earth Day. Hurray for the Earth. Be good to it. Hurray to Target for giving out a free reusable tote. Hurray for me remembering to bring it every time we go. Which we all know is every other day - if you don't go that often you are so lying!

11. That's it.

We're so vain.

The other day the boys helped me take this mirror from this:

Okay, HORRIBLE photo. But you get the idea. Beadboard in the background for the unfinished bookshelf and hutch (that has no home because we moved the desk!). Changing table, dresser and mirror in the reflection of the gold mirror that I painted for a neighbor...poor garage floor....moving on...

This time I took the back off the mirror and painted because it was screwed on. Sometimes I don't mess with it and I'll just cover the mirror or spray right on the mirror and remove the paint with a razor and nail polish remover. I told you I am loving crisp white...

To this:

J looks like he's working really hard. He's not. He's pouting. Yes, that is a decorated mask that P is wearing. He wears it all the time. That, or Tom's old ski goggles. Not kidding. And, he also wore those sweatpants and ratty t-shirt for class pictures at school. That's my boy.

Here's how I imagine the conversation went down:

P: Do it like this.
J: How can I take orders from someone wearing a sparkly kitty mask?
P: Just do it.

Dresser, take 3.

Remember this dresser?

Dreammmyyy....

(Please ignore that ugly green hat with the big fat G on it. I don't know who it belongs to!?)

Well, I found my own dresser. That's right. It's mine.....so far....

No? You don't like it? Yeah. But how about now?

The dresser was $9.99. The handles were on clearance at Target for $4.97 for 6 about a month ago. I got them, knowing that I could use them sometime.

First I tried to use some stripper on the top. Did not work very well. Then I got out the palm sander. Worked better, but not great. Then. I brought out the big guns. The belt sander. I'm not crazy about the belt sander because even with the lightest touch and the finest paper it grinds things up. But, apparently this top needed it. Because it worked wonders. After the belt sander I used the palm sander to smooth things over and put on a thick coat of Ebony stain. Uhh...that's still drying....

After I slapped on some Behr Tropical Breeze in Satin, I took that palm sander with a 150 grit paper (I should have used 220) and ran it all over the dresser.

Two things I should have done differently. One - waited longer than 5 minutes before trying to sand it and two - used a finer sand paper on the palm sander. I got some scrapes that I didn't want that would not have shown up if I had done those two things. Me and my impatience...

I am pretty proud of the way this one turned out!

Linking to:

Power of Paint