Father's Day

Yes I know it's been over a month since Father's Day but I still wanted to post about it. I was so excited for Father's Day this year. Brad is such a good daddy to Cooper and I couldn't wait to make him know it! I wanted Cooper to make something for Brad now that he is older and actually can. I had seen these magnet board stands on Pick Your Plum awhile before Father's Day and knew right then I was going to do it for Brad and my dad. I painted the wood and cut the vinyl with my Cricut. I then had Cooper write a note to them on the bottom. I got the great idea from my friend Jenni to have Cooper make magnets. I let him color on a piece a paper. Then I glued them and turned them into magnets. I was really happy with how they turned out. I know they look great on both of their desks at work.

Cooper writing his notes....Cooper with a permanent marker is terrifying!

The finished product......who knew scribble could be so cute!

On Brad's desk at work
Close up of the magnets

Last year I got Brad some books for Cooper about he and dad. I figured I would keep with this tradition. These are the 3 I got. I also got one on why boys needs dads but that wasn't a picture book. Lately these are Cooper's favorite books to read at bedtime.




I am so happy that Brad is the father of my children. He really is an amazing daddy. Cooper loves him more than anything. He loves when he gets home from work and they play hard until bedtime. Brad is the fun one but also knows when to discipline. We both completely agree on how to parent and it makes it easy. We work as a team. I couldn't ask for a better daddy for Cooper!

Painting

I had wanted to get Cooper some dot paints. We used them all the time when I taught preschool. The Easter bunny brought them in Cooper's basket. It took me awhile to get them out but when I did Cooper loved them. He had a blast. They are so much nicer than finger painting because it doesn't not make nearly as big of a mess. We had to take them away however when Cooper started eating the paint. Yes he dyed his mouth blue and green. Maybe that is why they are for ages 3+. Oh well that doesn't stop us!

(We did this like 2 months ago and some how this never got posted)

downstairs bathroom project

So amongst my updates I have been doing around the house my biggest (most time consuming) project was the downstairs bathroom. I really have never done anything in this room. I had a random rug and garbage can just thrown in there. The only personalized thing was a picture of Cooper. It was just a tiny beige/white claustrophobic room. My friend had done a design like what I wanted in her nursery. It seemed easy enough so I decided to tackle it. Brad is so sweet and just goes with it. He does get his input in it however. I had an idea on the color but we went together to get paint swatches and he helped me decide on the color. I purchased all the supplies in advance and then 2 Saturdays ago we decided to dive in and do it.



Brad taped off all the edges and took the hardware off the wall. Since we were replacing the hardware he also puttied the holes. Then it was my turn. I just started taping squares and rectangles randomly all over. I didn't measure or anything. It took a couple of hours but wasn't nearly as bad as I had it expected it to be.

Next Brad did a technique he had heard about. You paint over the tape and seal it with the base coat. This is supposed to prevent leakage. Around the edge he used a brush and that worked. On the wall he used and roller and that didn't work. More on that in a minute.

Next I painted a couple coats of gray.

This project ended up taking most of the day. Cooper was so good why we did this. He sat in his high chair for a bit and watched me paint. He even tried helping out with the tape :)

The fumes were pretty strong so we couldn't leave the door shut....but we didn't want Cooper touching the paint so this is what we resorted to.


I was so happy with the color I couldn't wait to tear off the paint and see my finished product. Well as I was tearing the tape off my worst fear happened. The gray had leaked really bad under the tape. Remember when I said the painting the base coat with the roller didn't work? So after I took all the tape down I had to go back and touch up EVER SINGLE place where it had leaked. It was pretty much every line. It took forever and I was so frustrated. It still doesn't look great if you look really closely. But it was the best I could do with the situation. Other than that fiasco I am really happy with the finished product.

The best feature of the bathroom by far!!!

I still haven't decided if I want to add another color in the bathroom with the accents. I have the wall to the left of the vanity that I want to hang a shelf or something on. But I need to think a little more about what I want to do with it.

Project Laundry Room

So my laundry has been driving me nuts! It is small, cramped and just felt cluttered. We have been talking about putting in a cabinet above the washer and dryer since we moved in. But we have never gotten around to it. Then I got thinking about it decided why do we need a cabinet I could just buy a shelf.

So the other day I was at Ikea and found this shelf for $30. It was a steal so I bought it and Brad installed it the right as I got home. I love that we are the same with wanting to get things done and put away so there aren't incomplete projects laying all over the place. Cooper was right along side daddy with a screw driver helping! I'm sad I didn't get a picture of it!

It is amazing how much better the laundry room feels. It is hard to tell from the pictures but it really is a huge difference!!! Cooper can't reach the laundry soap and dump it every where, there is more room, and the laundry baskets don't have to be on top of the washer and dryer. We have had this hamper since we got married. Brad used to use it in "his" bathroom before we made his bathroom Coopers bathroom and started sharing "my" bathroom. But we haven't been using it since then so this was a perfect spot for it. We usually undress Cooper downstairs so just take his dirty clothes directly into the laundry room. Now we have somewhere to put them other than just a laundry basket on top of the dryer.

Of course being me I had to make the laundry room cuter too! I have been on this crazy crafting spree lately. I just LOVE making stuff. I found this idea on a blog and knew I had to make one. But I didn't love the one I found so I made it my own. I am so happy with how it turned out. I just love it! We were constantly looking for the keys between Brad's work bag, my purse, the diaper bag, coats, the counter, etc. and now it isn't a problem. The laundry room was a perfect place for it so the second we walk in the garage we can hang up our keys!

I made this saying with my Cricut. I put it up and realized it wasn't centered.......I don't even know how that happened. So I had to add the bird afterwards to even it out. I don't know yet if I love the bird or not.

I found these letters at Hobby Lobby. I had wanted to put the word "wash" up for awhile. I couldn't decided what color so just went with the same blue as I did on the key holder.

The laundry room feels so much better now and makes doing laundry more enjoyable! It still feels a little "white" so we will see if I end up painting the walls or something fun :)

time . out . bench

So we have been needing a place for "Time Out" lately. I have wanted to get a time out bench since Cooper was little. I saw one once and knew that I had to make one. A couple of weeks ago I discovered a new unfinished crafts store Poppyseed Projects. When I was there I saw this adorable bench. They have so many cute things there. There are stepping stools that look along the same lines as this bench. I am going to get them and put them in the downstairs bathroom and Cooper's bathroom. ****I just redid Cooper's bathroom and I am redoing the downstairs bathroom and will post that as soon as it is finished**** I love that I am able to paint the bench and stools however I want. It is perfect! I had the bench for a couple of weeks before I actually painted it because I could not decide what color to do. I am putting it on a wall in the kitchen. I wanted it somewhere that it can be seen, used frequently, and not in the way. Cooper loved the bench from the second I brought it home. He uses it for everything..... not just time out. I haven't decided if this is a good thing or a bad thing that he loves it so much.

I decided to go with a mustard yellow. I can't do anymore green in my house....I have a ton. I really was thinking like a turquoise color but it doesn't go with anything downstairs. So I settled on yellow. First I painted the bench yellow. Then I sanded it down to make it look antiqued. Then I stained it over the paint. This made the sanded areas nice and dark, it also gave the yellow a darker color. To finish it off I put a couple coats of a poly acrylic just to seal it and give it a protective layer. I am really happy with how it turned out. It adds some color to my downstairs but isn't too loud.

Cooper still loves his bench. Good thing I got it finished because we have had to use it quite a few times today. Ah the joys of a toddler!

Ugly Sweaters.......Yes Please!

This year for our ward Christmas party I decided that I wanted us to wear ugly sweaters. We have always wanted to do an ugly sweater Christmas party but have never gotten around to it. So I figured this would be fun instead. The adventure started out with a trip to the D.I. My friend Nikki had already made she and her husband ugly sweaters so she joined me on my quest. I found my sweater almost as soon as we got there. It was AMAZING!!!!!! Brad and Cooper on the other hand were a lot harder. I found an okay one for Cooper but then decided I would make Brads completely from scratch. My initial plan was to find ugly sweaters and bring them home and give them a little spin and make them even uglier. Mine however didn't need a thing added to it. Cooper's I just added some bells to make it a little more Christmasy and added an awesome turtle neck!

After hitting up the D.I., the dollar store, and Walmart we headed home to get started. Nikki needed to add some things to their sweaters so we made a day out of it.

Here is Nikki and Me crafting away

We had to make two lasagnas and breadsticks for the Christmas party so I put Brad in charge of the breadsticks because I ran out of time :)

Here is Cooper helping daddy mix the dough. I bought Cooper this baking set form Tupperware so he has a little spatula and whisk just like daddy!
Such good little cooks!

I bought Cooper this snowman headband for him to wear to the party. He absolutely loves headbands and hats so it was right down his alley. He just hung out around the house with it on.

Once the lasagnas, breadsticks, and sweaters were done we got ready to head out. Well so I thought. As we were getting ready to go I got my blurry vision and started getting a migraine. I was so bummed! I had looked forward to the Christmas party all week long. I decided just to go anyways and see how I felt. Well needless to say we didn't stay very long. I got so nauseous and couldn't eat anything! Cooper was crazy and Brad was having to chase him around with no help. We left after being there not even an hour. My whole day of shopping and crafting didn't really pay off because we didn't even get to show them off at all. We came home and I died on the couch and Brad being the AMAZING husband and daddy he is, got Cooper ready and put down for bed. After sleeping for a little bit I woke up and felt much better. I was starving at this point so Brad went out and got me a hot dog from the gas station, chips, and a V-8 splash. Weird cravings but they sounded delicious!


You can tell I am starting to not feel well here. I even bought me a white turtle neck but didn't feel good enough to deal with it. The best part about the picture is that Cooper's mouth is full with a breadstick!


The best part of my sweater is the back.....It has a pie sitting in the window seal with lace as the curtain. Priceless! I lent it out and haven't gotten it back yet or I would post a picture! Oh and it has a metal spoon and fork on the front near the top!

Craft-tastic!

So I have been doing a lot of crafts lately. Mostly for holiday decorating. I really enjoy crafting. I get so much pride in saying that I made something or seeing it in my house and knowing the work that was put into it. Here are some of my recents.

Here is my most favorite wreath that I have made. It has nothing to do with the holidays but it is what has been on my door for the past month. I am really sad I have to take it down to put up my Halloween wreath!

The next crafts are from The Wood Connection. If you have never been there you HAVE to go! It is amazing! They have all these different ideas for every holiday and even just for day to day stuff. I have made some things for just normal decorating but these are things that I made for Fall/Halloween.







I bought the blocks for my next decoration off Pick Your Plum. Then I decorated them with the paper and put the vinyl on.

I didn't post all of our decorations because that would be boring. I just wanted to share the new stuff that I made for this year. We get so excited to decorate for the holidays around our house. It is so fun getting the decorations out and remembering what we have. It puts us in the mood and makes us excited for the holiday seasons. Our home now feels all ready for fall!

4th of July

I hope that everyone had an awesome 4th of July! I know we did. It all started on Saturday. We had a BBQ and had a bunch of friends over. It was a blast! In total we had 16 adults and 7 kids/babies. It was so much fun. We grilled and just stuffed ourselves full. We played Mexican horseshoes and then did fireworks. I had a lot of fun getting ready for the BBQ. I wanted to be really festive this year. Since I have had Cooper I have wanted to make every holiday fun and start new traditions. I really want us to have 4th of July shirts. I looked around and just couldn't find any that I loved. So I decided why not make them. I really love how they turned out! I made mine a little more girly than the boys.

Next I really wanted our house to be cute for the 4th. I made a few crafts because I didn't have anything. The HOME was from a craft group I did, the star and firecrackers are from a craft day my neighbor had, and the rest I just did (stole some ideas from blogs). I even made the food festive for the occasion.


I was so happy with the turn out we had. It made for a really fun night! We stayed up late doing fireworks. I was worried my neighbors were going to hate me. But we had 3 other couples who live in my neighborhood so we could share the blame if someone complained :) Even Cooper got to stay up for fireworks. One of our friends babies was sleeping in his room so I couldn't lay him down. He actually really liked watching the fireworks. Indiana even got to join in on the excitement. They both ended up on my lap and I was perfectly fine with that. Brad and one other guy were in charge of the firework show. Everyone brought fireworks so we had a lot to do. We splurged and bought one of the huge pack of fireworks. I about died when Brad said we were spending so much on fireworks because I am good with just pop-its and sparklers. But the show was fun! One of our neighbors was doing the huge ones in the sky so we got to enjoy their show too!




On the actual 4th we didn't do much. We tried running some errands but a lot of places that we needed to go were closed. I had us wear our matching shirts out for the day. Brad informed me we were "That" family. He made fun of me and couldn't believe I was okay with us matching. But he didn't complain and wore his shirt happily :) We had decided just to stay home and relax. We made homemade ice cream in a ball and invited my brother Chase, his girl friend Kaitlin and my adorable nephew Holden over. We grilled and played basketball. Then once it got dark we went out with our neighbors and enjoyed more fireworks. It was a fun 4th!

My ADORABLE nephew

Made ice cream in this ball....it was fun and delicious!!!