Jana's Visit and Projects!

My sister, Jana, came up for the weekend and we decided that we would do a few projects around the house. Most of these projects should have been done months ago but I never got around to them. Thanks for all your help Jana!

Blair and Aiden cuddling with Jana after their nap.


Say Cheese! Blair is such a cheesier!

Easton whining. He was sick all weekend...

Cute pic of Aiden.



Project #1: Spray paint brown picture frames black.

I forgot to take a before picture but here's a picture of them right after they got sprayed.


Finally black picture frames to match the rest of the black picture frames in the living room. They have been brown and hanging in the living room since we moved in.



Project #2: Rice paper guest bathroom window.

I've been meaning to do this since my family came and visited back in July. Oops! Now our guests can take showers and go to the bathroom without fear of our neighbors looking in on them.

Apparently these three thought Jana needed some help! Good thing Easton was busy watching a movie upstairs because I don't think there would have been room for one more!

Finished project!


Project #3: Painting a wall in Easton's room.


Taping.
Is there a secret when it comes to taping a wall? We have textured walls so that might be the problem but we thought we taped really well but unfortunately we had a few surprises when we took the tape off.

All ready to paint!

Cutting in

First coat.
The guy at home depot said we definitely would only need a quart of paint for one wall. Does this look good? How about done? We hardly had enough to cover the wall... Nathan got home right when we finished so I asked him to go and get us another quart of paint.

Second coat.
If you look closely you can see some lighter spots all over the wall.

Third and final coat.
I didn't get a very good picture of this one but it looked pretty good when we were finished.

Easton's room is space themed so we decided to splatter glow in the dark paint on the wall to look like stars/space.

Here's what it looks like in the dark. The picture's not as good as it is in person but you get the idea.

Last but not least we stuck plants on his wall.

Finished project with his furniture back in his room.

I'm bad at remembering to post pictures of projects in rooms so here's Easton's whole room...

Pic of his bed. I made the small pillow for him.


It is hard to see this picture but Gramma Sue made the curtains. Easton got the space ship from Grandma Gretch for his 3rd birthday and that is what started the space theme for his bedroom.


Another angle. Gramma Sue made the bulletin board. I really should have gotten a close up of it because it's really cute! She also made a pillow case that matches the bulletin board. It's on his bed but you can't really see it.

Another angle. I'm thinking of painting his dresser but I haven't decided yet. I made the space shapes on top of the dresser when I made his pillow. His moon light is pretty cool. It goes through all the phases of the moon.


Project #4: Painting living room end tables.

Sanding top of table and taking them apart.

One of the tables had dents in it from our move so I sanded it down and my sister filled them with wood filler. After it dried I sanded it again.

Priming the tables.

I forgot to take pictures of when we painted and sealed it.

Finished table.

Like I said earlier I tend to forget to take pictures after a project is completed. So here are some pictures of my living room with the finished end tables.

Sue helped me (okay she did most of it) make curtains for the living room. She also made coordinating curtains for the office which is just off the living room but of course I forgot to take a picture. I still need to make decorative pillows but who knows when I'll get to that.

Another angle of the living room.

And since I'm on a roll posting pictures of other projects that have been done in the past here are pictures of the kids playroom (I actually took these pictures a long time ago but just forgot to post them):

Sue of course made the curtains, bench pad, and the pillows.


Different angle of playroom.

Another angle. Nathan made the bench and Sue made the pad for the bench along with the pillows.

Another angle. I really need to do something with this very big white wall. I have a few ideas but haven't decided just yet what I'm going to do.

Pics from visiting Sled family

I finally figured out how to download pictures from my camera so here are the pictures I took while at my sisters.

The boys (Aaron, Easton, and Aiden) enjoying a movie.

Blair's first Jamba! She loved it!

Easton with his Jamba!

We brought pizza along for dinner.

The boys enjoying their Jamba and pizza!

Victoria Gardens

Silly pic

Just playing around with my camera:

Blair

Easton

Aaron

Aiden

Jana

Visiting Sled Family

The kids and I took a short trip down to Southern California to see my sister and her two kids. I got a new camera for Christmas, but I'm still in the process of trying to figure everything out so for now I only have video's from my old camera to upload and the lovely picture of my sister that she took of herself.

Video of Blair dancing with Auntie Jana:

Video of the boys rock'n out:

The day before we left we went grocery shopping and grabbed a few things for Nathan while we were gone and some snacks for our car ride. I brought some bags in and then went back to the car to grab the milk. When I came back I found Blair being a little helper.

Video of Blair putting away the groceries:

Christmas Time!

Christmas was a little different for us this year since Nathan had to work all day and night Christmas Eve (started at 6am) and didn't get off until noon Christmas day. Things felt a little off and weird for me (I'm sure the kids had no idea) but overall it turned out really well.

Easton painting Christmas ornaments.

On Christmas Eve we watched a movie and then the kids opened their pjs. We got the pjs while we were in San Francisco visiting China Town a few months ago. Aren't they cute in their Chinese pjs? After the movie we got ready for bed and I thought it would be fun to have a sleep over in mommy's and daddy's room, since Nathan was gone, but after wrestling two karate kids jumping on the bed for over a half hour it was time to break up the party and send everyone to their own room. It would have been fun if I wasn't so tired and exhausted. Yes, I know I'm a party pooper!

Easton thought he was a ninja and had to do some karate moves.

And Blair of course had to get in on the action too!

Video of Easton doing some fancy moves:

Christmas morning I decided it would be nice to have cinnamon rolls (I was probably just craving them) but since I have been so tired I really didn't want to make them so I just bought some. I'm really glad that I didn't go to all that work since they weren't a big hit with my kids. Easton took one look at them and said he didn't like them (wouldn't even try it) and Blair just poked at hers with a fork (weird since this girl eats basically anything). I enjoyed every bite!

Since Nathan didn't get off work until noon I really didn't think it would be fair to the kids to have to look at their gifts all morning and not be able to open them so Nathan and I decided before hand that we wouldn't do gifts until the kids got up from their naps (kind of like waking up Christmas morning right?). I didn't want to do it right when Nathan got home because it would be right before nap time and who wants to open their gifts and not be able to play with them because they have to go and take a nap? Again not fair. Easton knew that it would be Christmas when he woke up so I wanted there to be something for him and Blair to open/play with. So they got their stockings when they woke up. They were super excited and it kept them busy for most of the morning.

Blair woke up first around 8:30.


And then Easton around 9:00.

Finally Nathan got home and after lunch it was nap time. Blair and Nathan both took naps but Easton of course didn't. He surprised me though by staying in his room the whole time. It was a good thing since I was bringing all the gifts out to the living room and we have windows upstairs that overlooks the living room. Easton was pretty excited when he came out of his room and saw all the gifts waiting for him.

Gift from Auntie Kim. Easton and Blair love them.

Gift from Gramma Sue and Grandpa Layne. They are roll up chalk boards.

Easton writing "thanks". His "s" is backwards but overall his writing is pretty good.
Side note: I think it's funny. Easton calls his grandpa, "Grandpa Layne Kelsey". It isn't Grandpa Layne or Grandpa Kelsey but Grandpa Layne Kelsey.

They also got pillow cases. Blair had another idea for hers though...

Video of Easton and Blair checking out the bug G&G Kelsey got Easton:

Doctor set from Grandma Gretch and Grandpa Jerry. Easton refers to himself as Dr. Easton now. He and Blair have fun looking into our ears and mouth. Easton: "Let me look in your ear. ummm...very good ears!"


"Blair's princess tent" as Easton refers to it as. From G&G Uehling.


Hippo game from Gma Whiting. Easton is obsessed with this game. He would play it all day if we let him.


Vaccum from Gma Whiting. Blair loves this but so does Easton. They fight over it!

The kids also got saving bonds from Gpa Whiting and Gma Sharon.

I forgot to get pictures of their other gifts but Blair got a kitchen set with fake food and Easton got a remote control car and the mario kart wii game with the wii car (picture below). Easton loves the blow up car but has a hard time playing the game.

Thank you to all the grandparents for their generous gifts. The kids love all of their gifts! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Field Trip and Singing

Easton's preschool class went to a Christmas tree farm for a field trip. They got to listen to a story, play in the hay castle (it had a fun slide for the kids to slide on), ride on some reindeer, play some musical instruments, and ride on a sleigh ride. Nathan had the day off so Blair stayed home with Daddy and I got to hang out with just Easton. It was nice to have some one on one time with him. It was really cold but everyone had a good time.

Hay Castle with slide. This was Easton's favorite!

Riding the reindeer.


Video of Easton playing with the musical instruments:

Easton on the sleigh ride. Too bad the sun was behind him.

After the tree farm the class decided to head over to candy cane lane and lolly pop lane to check out the lights. Of course it was during the day so it wasn't as cool as it would have been at night all lit up. I convinced Nathan to take us back later that night so we could see all the houses lit up. It was really cold but luckily we brought some hot chocolate along so we stayed relatively warm.

Easton in front of one of the houses.

Example of what most of the houses looked like.

Lastly Easton's preschool class learned some Christmas songs and when I went to pick him up on Friday they were all ringing bells and singing. It was really cute and I wish I would have had my camera but unfortunately I didn't because I didn't know they were going to be singing. I can't remember all the songs they were singing but I had Easton sing a couple of them so I could get it on video. I thought the grandparents might enjoy them.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He does some random stuff in the middle but eventually I get him back on track.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!