Crazy

David’s parents were here the end of last week to do some babysitting for us while we went out with our friend and her husband for her 30th birthday; then they continued on to the Hills for some skiing.  While they were here, they mentioned that when they came back through they would be willing to take the girls for a couple of days.  David and I will be headed that way soon, and then we'll be leaving from there for our vacation.  I wasn’t sure if that was the best idea since we would be leaving them for 8-9 days during our vacation.  After talking it over with David, and knowing that we would be with them for at least 3 days over the coming weekend, I decided it would work out all right.  Bria really wanted to go with them too. When was the decision made?  After grandpa and grandma stopped on their way through.  Talk about last minute!  That isn’t like me.  This way, I will (hopefully) feel more organized in getting things ready for our vacation.  Now I have a couple of days to straighten up the house, have it stay that way, and get everything packed without being interrupted.

Forts

It has not been that cold this winter, but it still seems like the girls have been inside a lot.  That probably isn’t actually true, even though it feels that way.  Most of the girls’ time inside results in the building of forts.  Every cushion of the couch is removed and every blanket is unfolded.

The forts never look the same, but always result in the same mess.  You would never know that they had a whole basement full of toys, because it seems like they never spend any time playing down there.  It is more fun for them to make a mess of the living room than it is to play with toys.  I must say though, they are pretty good about cleaning up the mess every day (sometimes even twice a day).

Bentley’s other favorite activity is to “make supper”.  Although she has a whole kitchen set and food toys galore, her “making supper” consists of using every magnetic item she has (letters and other magnets) as food and books as plates.  Every day, all the magnets from the door in the kitchen are scattered in the living room; as well as every book.

Needless to say, I love the days the girls can get outside and play.  I am tired of the messes, even if they are good fun for the kids.  Confession: a messy house stresses me out.  Did I mention that all the work that each girl puts into their favorite activity makes them more prone to fighting with each other when something is messed up by the other.  Second confession: I am tired of playing referee. 

Teaching your children to get along, to be kind and loving to others (especially a sibling), showing them the importance of sharing and respecting each others’ hard work, and not running to me over every little incident, takes a lot of work.  It makes for a very tired mommy.  Thank goodness daddy comes home every day and jumps right in to help.  What a great man!  I could never do this without him.  God knew what he was doing when he brought us together.  It is a great partnership.

Projects Completed

Throughout the fall and winter, we have slowly been completing the projects that we started this summer.  Sorry if some of these things have already been posted.  I couldn’t remember if I posted pictures or comments or both as the projects got done.

The front door is completely finished (sometime in October).  I painted it while David and the girls were gone for a few days.  David hung the screen door sometime after that.  It is so nice to have a door that doesn’t have a cold breeze coming through it when a northwest wind blows.  The door also clears the inside floor when it is opened so we can have a rug in front of it.

It is hard to tell from this picture, but the inside of the door is a dark red.

The outside of the door is a dark blue, and the screen door is cream.  The dark blue matches the shutters on the windows and the cream matches the trim (or will once the outside of the house is repainted).

This fall, we also painted our bedroom and master bathroom, except for the wall that where the window was replaced in the bathroom.  After David finished off all of the interior sheet rock and mudding, we finally painted it and hung blinds and curtains.

The wall is no longer a mixture of maroon paint and white primer.  Yeah!

A few weeks ago, I finally decided what colors I wanted to paint the kitchen and the bathroom on the main floor.  When we were in RC last week, we picked up the paint; that way, we can paint those areas whenever we have time.  The kitchen needed to be painted, especially where we replaced the window (same with the bathroom).  If we were going to paint any of these remodeled walls, the whole room would need to be painted to match the new color.  Yesterday when David woke up, he decided it was time to paint the area in the kitchen affected by the new window.

This area is actually above the basement stairs which made it difficult to paint.  Previously the wall was a medium tone tan.  Now it is a dark gray.  Unfortunately, we don’t have time to paint the rest of the kitchen; but at least we have the wall that was half primed and half painted tan covered with new gray paint.  I guess some other weekend, we will wake up and decide to tackle the rest of it.

We have not started to paint the main floor bathroom either, but it will get done some day.  At least we have the paint on hand to get them completed when we find the time.  It feels good to have fresh paint in most of the house.  The kitchen and bathroom are the only rooms in the house that we haven’t painted.

Upcoming Vacation

David and I have been talking about taking a trip to Hawaii for our 10th Anniversary for a while.  Last week we made it a reality.  In one month we will be headed to the island of Oahu, just the two of us.  The grandparents will watch the girls while we get some time away from all the busyness.  For me there is no better way to celebrate an anniversary (I love to travel). 

We will be taking our vacation before our actual anniversary (coming in September), but that is because we want to go someplace warm while it is cold here.  Also, Bria will be starting school this fall which will make it more difficult to get away during the school year.

Bria has heard us talking about going and is already excited to go stay with her grandparents.  It doesn't seem to bother her that we will be leaving.  We will see how the she handles it when we actually go.  We have yet to see how Bentley will do.  She has not stayed with the grandparents for more than three or four days at a time.  They both really want to travel in an airplane so they may be a little upset that they aren't getting to fly.

I can hardly wait (good thing we didn't book it any sooner).  The weather here has finally turned to the freezing snowy winter we are used to which makes it that much more exciting to get away.  There is nothing like having something to look forward to to keep me motivated to get things done here.

If I Could Only Take a Picture…

Right now my two girls are playing so nicely together.  They are talking quietly, Bria was showing Bentley a shape book, and I think they are actually sharing a tent (probably playing house).  Taking a picture destroys the moment because it distracts them from what they are doing. Some of their games I can only speculate about because if I interrupted in any way we would lose the moment—playing together nicely would be completely over, they would insist on sitting with me while I type this, then they would start fighting about something. 

Their behavior is not at all what I would expect, especially considering that grandpa and grandma just left a little while ago.  Generally after company leaves the girls think they need just as much one-on-one attention as they had before, but can’t get all they want from me.  Bentley actually wanted to go home with grandpa and grandma instead of staying here.  It is amazing how much those two love their grandparents, and from what I can tell the feeling is mutual.

Changes

After all of the Christmas travels, we knew it would be time to make some changes to Bentley’s sleeping arrangements.  It was time to move Bentley from her crib to a regular bed.  The girls’ room poses some problems, however.  We had to consider the limited space, the patio door with an easy to open handle (not to mention it is on the second floor and the deck doesn’t have stairs).  What type of bed would work best, do we want to put the girls in the same bed, and so much more before we could make a decision.  After rearranging the furniture several times, we did finally decide to have the girls share a full size bed.  That still gave us room for the dresser and we even moved Bria’s chest of drawers out of the closet and in front of the patio door.  We still have a few things on the walls that need to be moved.  Over all the process is complete.

We knew with the girls sharing a bed that there would be some fighting, laughing, and unknown disturbances.  We also wondered if Bentley would climb out of bed whenever she pleased.  It has already been several nights and they seem to be adjusting pretty well.  The first nigh, David had to go in several times to settle them down or to settle a disagreement; the second night we went in a fewer number of times, and last night we only had to go in to find lost animals (that they sleep with).

The girls in their new bed.  (We just moved one up from a room in the basement and moved Bria’s twin bed down.)

The other change is that both girls got hair cuts today.  This was Bentley’s first hair cut, and she was worried that it would hurt.  Bria has been asking to get hers cut for a while now; she gets tired of all the snarls, so she went first to show Bentley how easy it was.  It definitely made Bentley less afraid.  She ended up doing a great job despite all the distractions in the salon that she kept turning her head to see.

Bentley getting her hair cut.

The girls with their shorter hair.  Bentley only had an inch or two cut off.  Bria had probably eight to ten inches cut off.

Their hair will be more manageable, hopefully.

Christmas #3

I haven’t had time to post anything about our final Christmas celebration, which was at my family’s house over New Year’s weekend.  The weather is so nice today I sent the girls outside so I would have a few moments to update the blog.

As I just said, New Year’s was when we celebrated Christmas with my family.  The whole family was there, we played lots of games, and opened lots of presents.  With my family, there is never a shortage of gifts or food.

David looking at the stockings for our family.  Mom decided to put our stockings on top of bags filled with our stocking stuffers since she can never get everything in the stockings anyway.

The piles of presents which are not even completely passed out.  Also, my parents, brother, and youngest sister already exchanged their gifts on Christmas so this was just what was left.  My mom really loves giving.  Not only does she give to her family, neighbors, church family, etc., but she also makes sure that several needy families in other countries receive gifts of chickens, goats, etc. (through World Vision) in the girls’ names.  That is a wonderful tradition that I hope my girls will learn to appreciate as they get older.

My sister brought their kitten again (her name is Razzy), which the girls love; it is the only cat that will let the girls come near her (my parents have two cats also).  Razzy had a great time playing with the tissue and wrapping paper that was left on the floor.  She even buried herself in it, then Bentley decided to copy her.

Razzy in the paper.

You can hardly see her, but Bentley is under the paper trying to copy Razzy.

My mom has a little wooden sleigh that holds a couple of snowmen, and it seems every Christmas one of the girls has to climb into it.  Bria has gotten too big, and honestly Bentley is probably to big too, but she still sat in it anyway.  (This will have to be the last year or it is not going to make it through another Christmas.)

The sleigh is just her size.

Now that I have caught up all the Christmas posts, it is on to the next thing.