before and after photos...

some photos...

the kitchen before..
after... with the light airy Havana Cream (yeah, I am a little obsessed with the very cool names for the paints)

kitchen into dining room BEFORE:
and AFTER: the combo of Havana Cream, in the kitchen, then Rhythmic Blue in the dining room, with one wall of Dry Sea Grass...

Boring living room BEFORE:
warm, inviting living room, AFTER...

looking from the living room to the dining room...

the boys' room...AFTER

and the girls' room AFTER

Down the hallway (please ignore the lights. :) Mike had agreed to change them now that we have painted. :) YAY!!)

So there you have some shots! :)

catching up on my photos a day...

then I will probably get around to posting some before and after pics of the painting, even though we still need to put our pictures back up and get some window treatments. :)

day 58 {27 feb 2010}

My photos all this day were of the paint,

so here you have the Living Room post Dry Sea Grass painted walls. :)

LOVE iT!

day 59 {28 feb 2010}

Dad and 3 of the kids reading in MY bed. LOL!!

Funny thing, just a little before this all 4 kids were in there, and they were discussing how a while ago we would have Saturday morning snuggles in our bed and how we all fit. Clearly we DO NOT any more. S and I are not even in the bed and there is no room for us. I guess we need to get a king size bed. :)

day 59 {28 feb 2010}

Little S, sick again, she has had a rough month. (or two) I feel so badly for her. First, in Jan, she was sick and throwing up, then around Valentine's Day she had pink eye, and then she had this trowing up thing again. It only lasted about 2 days, but she was so sad and pathetic. This was her third nap this day.

(on a photographic note: this is a straight out of the camera shot.

I love the light and I just didn't want to do a thing to it to mess it up, so no photoshop editing.)

day 60 {01 mar 2010}

the beginning of two days full of changing out all the old yellowish outlets and light switches to new bright white ones. The new ones look so pretty! Yes, I did it myself, Mike just had to help me with one set of lights that I couldn't get the wires out of. We have a handful of lights that are controlled by two different switches (ie, the dining room has two switches, one on each side of the room by each doorway, but they control the same lights), well, those switches are just a stitch complicated, and it took me a while to figure the first set out because the old switches were VERY old and did not look like the new ones completely. I had to fiddle with the wires and then do a trial and error type on off on off with the lights to be sure they worked (both lights). This was when I decided that I was sick and tired of running back in and out of the garage to flip the breaker switch, test the lights, then back out to the garage to switch the breaker off, then change the next set of switches, etc. With that wise choice (or not so wise), I saved myself some time, but got myself jolted about 3 times. They didn't really hurt, mostly it was just funny. I did most of this while D was sleeping, so I didn't have to worry about him trying to "help" by sticking a screw driver in the outlet and getting himself jolted (which would have been dangerous). In fact when I did all the outlets I did have my breaker off, it was just when I was doing the lights. :) I am a genius, I know!! LOL!! I love my new light switches and outlets.

day 61 {02 mar 2010}

D has been sick this week, just with a nasty cold, sinuses thing. He has those red, sick eyes. He has been a bit out of sorts. Just second before this picture he was sobbing. Mid bawls, he blurts out, "I want to play wiss you itouch, Mommy." I calmly told him, mid snappping some pictures of his tantrum (poor thing), that crying and throwing fits are NOT the way to get to play with my itouch. So he quickly changed his approach... Smiling and talking all sweetly, here is, totally begging to play "wiss you itouch, pwease, mommy."

day 61 {02 mar 2010}

And because he is my baby, and is pretty spoiled, I totally gave in. The boy is sure happy!

day 62 {031 mar 2010}

S feeling a bit better.

And I can't believe she let me take her picture. She normally fights me and won't hold still.

I don't want to whine too much on here, or have a pity party for myself... but I will just say, there has been about 1 day in the last three weeks that I have all three of my school aged kids in school, the rest of the time, someone has been home and sick. Today, however, everyone was back at school. I can't wait for spring and for everyone to be healthy longer than a day or so!

a coupla of painting photos! :)

Although we are so not finished!! We are so so happy and only have one area we are still working on. Paint chip photos are snagged off the Behr site... keep in mind that colors vary just a bit from computer to computer, so what you see may not be what it really looks like.

Here are a few pre painting photos...

Here is our white living room corner.

our boring ol' living room, about to become the warm, inviting, rich, Dry Sea Grass...

The entry way, hall, and stairs are Winter Garden, and the Bathroom in Castle Stone.

(as shown above)

kitchen, where I tore down the wall paper about a year and a half ago, and left us with messy scratched up dry wall.

And the corner of the previously messy kitchen walls. Here it is all patched up, textured, and primed, ready for my happy, light, airy, Havana Cream (shown below).

Now, here are some mid way photos...

J and D's room partially painted, UT Jazz blue and Castle Stone.

(shown below, in reality it is a bit brighter on the walls.)

The girls' room partially done, with Water Sprout & Pixie Dust.

(shown below-with a look alike pinkie/purple)

our bookshelf (please don't mind the messy shelf--that is what happens when the kids have chores to clean the living room, I only get in there and straighten out the books once a month or so) in the corner, with our new living room paint.

(Better photos to come.)

Now everything has not quite gone perfectly...Our living room and dining room share a wall, so we just decided to paint both rooms completely Dry Sea grass, while we LOVE it in the living room, the lighting is just different enough in the dining room that it looks a touch mustardy and a bit too dark, which we don't really love so much. hahaa! So I have been choosing new colors for 3 walls in the dining room. They painted the first coat of the cool, light Ice Folly (shown below), which I chose today, and I wasn't quite happy with it--just not blue enough. So tomorrow, instead of painting the second coat of Ice Folly, they are going to paint the second coat with Rhythmic Blue. They are very kind to deal with my painting diva attitude. And I hope that leaves me happy and LOVING it. :)

Our painters have been AWESOME!! and we have been so lucky to have them do the job they are doing. They even sprayed all our ceilings and painted all our doors and frames, and floor boards that needed painting. They painted all of those a color called Swiss Coffee, it is and off white with a little warm hue to it. It looks so fabulous and they have done a great job!

My sweet A was sick most of this week with a fever, ear infection, swollen tonsils, sore throat, and head aches. She has inherited ONE of Mike's awful tonsils (the other one appears to be normal), so when she starts getting sick her tonsils are almost always the first to feel it, poor thing. Although I must admit having her home for a few days this week has REALLY helped me. She is always really great with D, so she has been a big help keeping him out of the paint and downstairs. She's been on antibiotics now for about 24 hours and is doing quite a bit better...I snapped a few shots of her today... I just love this girl!!

Sheesh!! Sorry for the LONG post. It has just been a crazy week. I even have a fun and sweet story about D's nursery class this last week... but that will have to save for another day. :)

pictures and painting :)

So our normal week has quickly been turned upside down, but in a very good way. We have had an opportunity present itself to us for getting our interior upstairs rooms painted at a really good deal! We are thrilled! I have wanted to do it for about a year now, but have always just felt so overwhelmed by it. So for the last two days Mike and I have been looked at paint chips, buying up a ton of samples and getting swatches painted on our walls, in addition to getting our kitchen, which I tore the wallpaper down over a year ago, textured and prepared for paint. :) WAHOO!!! I am just a little overwhelmed, as it has happened so fast, but then again, sometimes it is just better to bite the bullet and get it done. :) I am excited for the new colors, but also nervous, as white is just safe...boring, but safe!

day 51 {20 feb 2010}

just another sunset this last week. Mike is obsessed with them and has "threatened" (Mike style) if I don't take more pictures of the sunsets. I think it is because he is at work normally when the sun goes down, so he doesn't see them as often as I do. LOL!

I saturated the colors a bit in photoshop and the ocean looks a little too violet here, it must have compressed weird, but in my photoshop it is a deep blue. :)

day 52 {21 feb 2010}

A discovered her scrapbook for her 1st year.

She had such a good time looking through it. She laughed right out loud when she was reading it.

I even teared up when she told me, "Mom, when I read the things in here, it is like you are talking to me; I can hear your voice in my head."

And that, my friends, is why I scrapbook!

day 53 {22 feb 2010}

I brought home a gajillion swatches that I liked (remember, I am a love color). Mike quickly vetoed MOST of the ones I brought home. He wanted to stay more traditional and warm. These are the paint chips Mike narrowed it down to, then I got to help him decide which ones we'd paint on the wall.

day 54 {23 feb 2010}

All the colors are a little richer than they appear here...

These are the swatches we had painted today on our wall, so we could watch how the light changed the way they looked throughout the day! Two of these colors will be chosen: one for the dining room/living room and then one the entry/stairs/hallway. All the ceilings will be white, and then we are going to add white crown molding to the ceiling and around the doorways, and then white baseboards in the living room. The kitchen is going to be painted a happy, light, creamy yellow, which I am so thrilled about. It will brighten up the room and I will LOVE it!

stay tuned for more pictures as the house gets worked on. They told me that the kitchen, dining room, living room, and hallway will be finished by Thursday afternoon, then they will probably start working on the kids rooms. SWEET! :)

photos: 14 feb - 18 feb

day 45 {14 feb 2010)

Mike asked for Valentine's Day homemade bread. The kids were thrilled.

D actually sat right in front of the oven as it was cooking saying, "dat mells gooood!"

IT smelled delicious as it baked.

day 46 {15 feb 2010)

The kids decided they wanted to have a dance party,

I went in to take some pics and found A sitting on her bed reading, not dancing.

day 47 {16 feb 2010)

D was helping me with the dishes (we had about 2 breakfast bowls in the sink that were dirty). I left him alone in there for just a minute, and when I came back he had moved all the clean kids' dishes from the cupboard into the sink. LOL!! He was so proud of himself "helpin wash dishes, mom." Oh well!

day 48 {17 feb 2010)

Made my daughter come out and pose for me. She was not all that thrilled at first...hee hee!

day 48 {17 feb 2010)

Here is my dd, A, giving me a bit of a dirty look! :)

day 48 {17 feb 2010)

she warmed up a little bit.

day 49 {18 feb 2010}

Playing with bokeh, which I am by no means a pro, but I was just too anxious to play to set up a good background. If you look carefully in the photo, you can see little hearts...they are normally circles of light in the out of focused part, but I learned how to play with a lens cover type thingy to make the circles turn to different shapes, I just played with hearts. Some day I will do something REALLY cool with this.

day 50 {19 feb 2010}

D examining his sisters' outdoor treasures. We have been loving the sun this week.

day 50 {19 feb 2010}

I love my zoom!! that I can sneak right in a get close ups when they are far away. :)

day 50 {19 feb 2010}

and they have no idea that I am snapping photos.

day 50 {19 feb 2010}

a quick shot of J while he was busy playing GI Joe/Star Wars with our neighbor.

We have had a surprise week of sunshine. It has been so so nice, I think it has tricked up all to thinking that spring is here. We need it. :) The kids have totally enjoyed the freedom they get outside. Although, it ties me up a bit more; our backyard is not safe enough for my little D to go outside without grown up supervision. We have loved it! Now if we could just keep the pink eye at bay and if my stupid sinuses would clear up for good!

Basketball

J and A are playing basketball this winter. They love it... here are some photos from the game last Saturday...

all day 44 {13 feb 2010)

A's first basketball game ever.

This was her pose about 75% of the game.

She did get the ball once or twice, and miraculously I got a picture of her passing.

J's mad basketball skills--shooting.

J's mad basketball skills--guarding.

J's mad basketball skills--dribbling.

S watching her brother and sister.

She is always so excited to get a little older, so she can participate.

D was itching to get out there to play a little basketball with the big kids.

D and S watching the game with their big sister, while A was getting a rest.

D decided it was OK to sit with his brother on the bench while he was out.

They both had tons of fun and Mike and I were pretty impressed with their first game. :) Thanks Ryan, for being their coach and helping them have fun and learn the game.