The worst project ever

This seriously was the worst.project.ever.

At least Dan proclaimed that it was. But the end result was so worth it.

First, I need to give a little background. My Dad owns a ranch and when he bought it from the previous owner, everything stayed in the old ranch house. So my dad had the task of going through all the stuff and deciding what was junk, what could be sold to the antique shops, and what he wanted to keep. Once he sifted through everything and had it down to the main stuff that wasn't junk, he was kind enough to ask us (my mom and all us kids) if there was anything that we wanted.

And this little beauty was among the things that I chose.

Ok, so it wasn't really a beauty....yet, but I could see some real potential.

And the best part is the steps can swing in the stool so it looks like.... this:

Now, tell me that is not cool. I mean, I would have LOVED to have a stool like this when I was a kid.

But as you can see, it was not in the greatest shape. It is quite old after all.


A close-up of it's condition. If you look closely, someone even painted carrots in the two corners.

Now, I know you are thinking that the stool doesn't seem that big so it couldn't have been that bad. Why did we proclaim it to be the worst project EVER? Well, I should have remembered from this summer when we refinished our table and chairs, that anything that has round legs is just, well, it just stinks. Dan says that after sanding those blasted chairs this summer, he will never refinish chairs again. Next time we are just buying new ones. It's just not worth it.

Well, this time I thought I was being smart. I told him that we were not going through the hassle of sanding. We were going to strip the paint. I had just stripped something prior to starting this project and LOVED it. It was so fun. If you have never stripped something, you really should.

Anyway, so we started stripping. But quickly realized that it was going to take FOREVER to scrape the 20 layers of paint. I kid you not. There were SO many layers of paint. And I don't know if it was because the paint was 50 years old or what, but it was a pain. Nowhere near as pleasant as my first stripping experience.

So we scraped and scraped and scraped. And scraped some more. Did I mention we scraped? Well we did. We literally scraped for days. We had to take turns because we would get so burned out. I really thought I would never see the end of this project.

And I have to be quite honest. Dan did more scraping than me. There is something to say for men and their elbow grease. They really can just do a better job at things like this. I would scrape forever and still not do even half as much as Dan could. He was just better at it. And well, I was ok with it. :)

So once we finally had the 20th layer of paint off. It was on to the painting. I debated over what colors to use. I just couldn't decide. Should the colors match my kitchen, the bathroom, did it have to match anything? I just couldn't decide.

And this is what I ended up with:

It took Alayna all of thirty seconds to declare this stool as hers.

And why not? She already knows how to put the steps up...

and down.

So, what do you think? Not to shabby for the worst project ever, huh?

Little Gems

Lately, I feel like I have been wanting time to slow down a little. Alayna is learning so much and it has been so fun to watch her grow. But just as soon as she learns one thing, it's on to the next. You moms out there know what I mean. So I want to write down some of the cute things she is doing lately, because I know I will blink and she will have outgrown them and gone on to the next thing.

Here's some of her little gems:

* Alayna can say the "j" sound when saying some words, like Jordan. Actually, that may be the only "j" word she can say correctly. (You better feel pretty special Uncle Jordy.) But when she is jumping on the bed, she'll say, "Mommy, I shumping!" And my personal favorite. Her jammies are her "shammies." And boy does she LOVE her shammies. It's a battle to get them off of her and dressed for the day. If she had it her way, she would stay in her shammies all. day. long.

* She has already outgrown this next one, but it was one of my favorites as well. She loves horses or horseys. They are one of her favorite animals. Only they were sorseys, not horseys. Now, she just says orseys.

* Right now we are working on colors. Her favorite color is blue. I think it's because it was the first color that I introduced to her. So now she'll point at something and say, "Ook. (look) Blue!" And she will sign the color blue at the same time. She is actually pretty good at finding blue things. Now we just need her to move on to the other colors.

* When she is trying to get by someone she will say, "Scuse me. Sorry." It is to die for.

* My last little gem has to do with myself. Nothing to do with what I did, but what someone said to me. Alayna and I went to get our hair cut the other day (We had her's trimmed and mine cut...but I'll tell you more about that later.) and the girl that cut my hair said to me, "So, are you a REAL cowgirl? And is your husband a REAL cowboy?" I had to laugh. It was soooo funny. I have never had someone ask me that before, but she found out we moved from Wyoming and then mentioned that we were both wearing cowboy boots.

Yes. Indeed Dan and I were both wearing boots. If you remember, I got Dan a pair for graduation and I have had mine for a few years now. I LOVE my boots. They seriously are so comfy and I think they are pretty darn cute. Not to mention, they are red.

Anyway, I laughed and told her that no, we are not "real" cowboys and cowgirls. Then she said, "But you were wearing your boots with jeans." Ha. This girl was cracking me up. I told her that in our defense, Dan grew up working on his uncles' ranches and that my dad owns a ranch that has horses on it (although, they're not ours), but it is not a working ranch. We like to ride our 4 wheelers and go camping and bbq. So that's as close as we get. I think she was a bit disappointed.

All day I couldn't stop chuckling to my self. "Are you a REAL cowgirl..."

What do you do when you have a bare wall....

that needs a little something, but that something can't cost a lot of moolah?

Well, you make a collage of pictures using old frames.

Add a little spray paint that matches your decor, sand them some and wala!

I was so excited when the inspiration of making a collage of pictures came to me because I would always feel guilty putting the "old" family picture in the picture box to sit when the current family picture replaced it. I felt like, I payed good money to get those pictures taken and even if they are a little bit out of date, I still want to display them and this was perfect for that.

On a separate wall that you will see in my upcoming house tour post, there are our current family pictures, but this wall was dedicated to the past. If you look close you will see that there are pictures of Alayna when she was a baby and some wedding pictures as well as our family pics from years past.

This picture really doesn't do the colors of the frames justice. The lighting is kind of off, but I LOVE the way it turned out. Who would have known that dollar store frames could look so good?



A few close ups so you can see the colors a little better (even though they still look a little different in person, but you get the idea).

Another year older and wiser too

We celebrated Dan's birthday on the 15th. With him working the night shift on his actual birthday, we celebrated over a couple of days.

But whether you are 31 or 5, you can't wait until the next day to open your gifts. Even if you have just been working for 14 hours through the night.

So here he is the morning of his birthday opening his present with Alayna's assistance.

He definitely got some things he had asked for and a few surprises thrown in here and there. Turned out to be perfect.

The following day we went to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate.

And getting ready to blow out the candles. Better hurry! It took forever to light all 31 candles and not because that's a lot or he's old or anything, just because the lighter was being difficult. (Side note: Dan had to actually remind me how many candles should be on his cake. Oops. You mean you aren't turning 30 for the second time? I thought after 30 you just stayed the same age?)

Notice my little helper that claimed the lighter as hers. In this picture it actually looks like she is lighting some of the candles, but I assure you. She is not. Heck I can't even figure out how to work the darn thing half the time.)

Alayna was on the other side of the cake helping Daddy blow the candles out.

And here we have Alayna modeling in front of the signs that we made Daddy and she hung up all on her own. Notice they are just her height.

Happy Birthday, Dan! We love you more and more everyday!

The waiting is over

I have been waiting to do this project for a year at least.

While living in Casper I had decided that I wanted some old windows to make some crafts with. So, one day I got on craigslist to see what I could find. I really had no idea how to go about finding them, but within minutes I was calling a lady that said she had some for free and that I could pick them up anytime.

Well, it really was my lucky day. My dad happened to be in town with his truck. And since he loves me, he offered to help me pick them up and then store them out in the barn on his ranch.

Fast forward a year to right before we were moving. Well I guess my dad's generosity ran out because he told me that I could either take my windows with me to Arizona or they were going to the dump. :)

After pleading (and I mean pleading) my case with Dan, they were finally loaded in truck among our other belongings.

Then it was once I got all my Christmas decorations out, that I realized I needed pull out my window project. I was setting up the nativity that my Grammy gave me when I realized the camel wouldn't fit with the rest of the nativity. With our old entertainment center biting the dust, there was nowhere big enough for my nativity to fit. And as you will see in a minute, it would be a crime to not display the beautiful nativity that my Grammy gave me.

So I told Dan, "It's time to make the window table." He was a little hesitant considering I already had three projects that I was working on out in the garage. In fact. I think he said, "You know, most people work on one project at a time." But I told him it was a must. It was for the sake of the nativity. Plus, I needed something to keep me occupied while he worked the night shift.

So after the fiasco of my table legs first being out of stock at our local Home Depot, then getting delivered to New York City, then delivered to a kind lady (that I talked to on the phone) in Washington state, and finally two weeks later made it to my front porch, I was finally able to end up with this:

Pretty cute, huh. I absolutely LOVE it! There were moments where I was a little worried that it wouldn't turn out as cute as I imagined, but it is perfect. Exactly what I wanted.

And best of all. The camel is reunited with the rest of the nativity. Phew. I can rest at ease now that's it's a week before Christmas....

What day is it anyway?

With Dan's work schedule being so completely different than ever before, I find myself getting my days of the week mixed up. In fact, most of the time I don't even have any idea what day it is. I actually have to stop and think about it.

I never realized how a person's schedule could entirely alter how I view the days of the week. Before moving here, I could honestly say that Friday was my favorite day of the week. It meant the end of me being "on my own without Dan" and the start of two full days together. Now, since Dan technically doesn't have "weekends" I find that I seem to value other days of of the week. It changes from week to week since he doesn't always have the same days off. Of course the entire week that he has off is my absolute favorite, but the other weeks, it just depends.

I keep reminding myself just because Dan has the day off, doesn't mean that everyone else does. In my mind I think of his days off like Saturdays. And on the flip side, I expect everything to be open on Saturdays, because sometimes Dan isn't home so it is just another day of the week to us. It's really quite weird.

So then I got to thinking. Does everyone have a favorite day of the week?

Checked one thing off his to-do list

I think I have mentioned before that the friends we stayed with while looking for a place to live are from Laramie and I knew them when I was growing up. They moved here several years ago and now we live just 15 minutes away.

It has been so great getting to know each other again and re-living childhood memories. Everytime I walk into their house, I see something else that reminds me of when I was little and I say, "I remember this..." I bet it's getting kind of annoying, but it's such a blast.

So anyway, while living with them, we had some great food. Roberta is a great cook and makes a lot of homemade things such as homemade pickles. Not too long after staying with them, Dan informed me that there were a few things that I needed to learn how to do:

1) Make homemade pickles

2) Can (they have really good canned beans and canned chicken. )

Well, I have secretly (or maybe not so secretly) been wanting to learn how to can more things. (I canned my first batch of Jam, with my mother-n-law's help, back in September). So when Roberta asked if I wanted to learn how to can beans (and then later chicken), I was quick to oblige. I actually was ecstatic.

So with the help of Roberta and Annie (Roberta's daughter, who also lives here) I was able to learn. It was so much fun and I think I could maybe, possibly do it on my own next time. It was that easy.

The fruits of our labor. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?

The big move

Just feelin' like I need to document that we did in fact actually move.

With the chaos of of life, I failed to really talk much about our move.

But here's some pictures to prove that we did move 1000 miles away from Laramie.

The mountain of boxes in the living room of our old apartment.

Us just minutes before we headed out. There were at least three people taking pictures of this momentous occasion. :)

The big truck. Dan offered to let me drive this beast, but I politely declined.

Can you blame me?

25 months

I love that the toddler stage is in full swing at our house. It means that every picture I take accurately depicts the "busy-ness" of our two-year-old. There are so many dimensions to each picture, it seriously cracks me up. Gone are the days where I just take a simple picture of her. Instead I get a hilariously funny picture of Alayna in the car seat with her hat, sunglasses, and horsey saying, "CHEESE!" I mean, this pictures is just so...Alayna. I love it.I really am just enjoying this age. I read on someone's blog that instead of calling it the terrible twos, they call it the "terrific twos" and I really would have to agree. I am just LOVING this age. It probably is one of my favorites (although I am sure that I have said that about every age thus far, but never mind that...) . And I am loving that I get to have lots of one on one time with her. Just me and her. No one else. It really is the best. (Just for the record. We love it when daddy is home too.)

But I have to mention the fact that our daddy's girl is becoming somewhat of a mommy's girl. Finally, she has seen the light. Just kidding. Daddy still is cool when he is home, but I am loving the fact that sometimes I get picked over Dan. This all started right after we moved here. I don't know if it was because Dan was gone a lot in the beginning for training and Alayna was punishing him for not being around or what. Whatever the reason is, I'll take it.

Now on to some more pics of our busy two-year-old.

This is the type of picture that is common around here. Her head is cut off due to the fact that she is running as fast as she can toward the camera. In her inside out shirt (that she insisted on putting on herself) nonetheless.

Showin' off her boots.

Why is it that she wouldn't wear them on Halloween?

Ah, kids.

Here she's showin' off her big girl panties. You can't tell, but there is a birdie on the front. We're all about birdies around here. And by we, I mean Alayna.

I told her to put her hands on her hips and this is what I got. Close enough.

Need I point out the hair that is half done. Rest assured that is was "done" at one point during the day.

I have a feeling now that she's a panty wearing girl, I might be seeing this a fair amount. Funny how it doesn't seem to bother her.

And by the way, potty training is going extremely well. It has gone much smoother than I ever dared to hope. We've practically got a potty trained girl on our hands.

My cleaning lady saying, "CHEESE!"

I love that she gets decked out in two pairs of shoes and an orange beaded necklace, just to clean the bathrooms with me. The life of a two-year-old. Gotta love it.

Well, that's all for now.

How to Trick or Treat while in the middle of a move

Well, you might say that traditionally, Halloween was a bust this year. But I happen to think that it actually turned out pretty dang awesome. There were some unexpected twists and turns, but ultimately, we had a grand time.

Originally we were thinking that 13 days was plenty of time to find a place to live, move in, and unpack Alayna's Halloween costume, but it turned out we were wrong.

So the day before Halloween, we ventured over to Annie's garage (where all of our stuff was stored) and climbed over the mountains of boxes searching for the box with Alayna's cowgirl pants.

After a good 40 minutes of climbing, lifting, opening, and searching only to come up empty handed, we decided to go to plan B.

Plan B: Forgo the pants and use a denim overall jumper. We gathered all of the clothing items needed for our little cowgirl. (Luckily the rest of her stuff was unpacked.)

Hat. Check.

Shirt. Check.

Boots. Check.

Jumper. Check.

Everything was good until little miss independent decided she didn't want to be a cowgirl. We got all of her outfit on for about 30 seconds, but no matter what we did, there was no convincing her that it was going to stay on.

Somebody woke up from her nap on the wrong side of the crib and was having none of it. For some reason the only thing she would wear were her Halloween candy corn pants.

So it was on to plan C. With no official costume, and no family nearby to trick or treat at, we decided to trick or treat in the house (going room to room) in her Halloween outfit.

Side Note: This really is the way to do it. No fussing with costumes, no cold outdoors and bundling up, no driving from house to house. It's all done in the comfort of your own home.


Anyway, on to the pictures.

A shot of her candy corn pants that served as her "Halloween costume".

Here she is ready to go Trick or Treating. Can you tell she is a teeny bit excited?

Walking to the first door.

Knock. Knock.

Trick or Treat.

Putting the candy in her bucket.

Checking out her candy.

It didn't take long for her to get the process down.

Dan and I alternated between being the "person at home" and the parent taking her to the doors. Each room had a different candy so it wasn't all the same. After going around to each room twice, she had plenty.

Seriously, it was so fun and with out the hassle of going around the neighborhood. Although, next year I don't know if we'll be able to get by with this version of trick or treating, but it wasn't bad for being in the middle of a move. :)

He's a good one

You know you have an amazing husband when he is willing to do anything to please his daughter.

Such as: put on dress-up earrings, hold his purse, and declare it "potty time" or "party time". At our house they are one and the same right now. Potty time is party time and we get to blow the party blowers, pop bubbles and, open prizes (when a certain little two year old goes on the potty).

Bless Dan's heart, I came out of the bedroom to this scene the other day and I just could not resist taking a picture. He was doing everything he could think of to entertain Alayna while she used the potty.Immediately following the first picture, came the response in this second picture. You can bet there was a little complaining and those pretty pink earring promptly came off.

There are so many things about this picture that make me laugh...like Dan's jewelry, Alayna on the potty, the entire toy box dumped out and Woody just chillin' on the couch.

But you can bet that there are two things that I couldn't be prouder about. 1. A little girl that is doing AWESOME at potty training. 2. An AMAZING husband who will do anything to make his girls happy (aka: play dress-up with Alayna, and help me potty train. I needed a little break from potty time. :)