Making Some #%&*# Pasta

Hello! Look at me, updating our family blog again.

Here's what our kitchen looks like. I staged this photo just for you, including that box of tupperware that I've been meaning to sort out for.....three months? Gretchen crafted this seat herself.


Like this look? You can match it yourself with bulk paper towels and TP at Costco. Simply leave them in the corner of your kitchen for a week while you figure out where the h you're going to fit them, then see what happens! Easy peasy! (You can add it to your pinterest account under "Decorating Ideas")

I handed Gretchen another fudgesicle on the way to pick up Ella on Wednesday. By the time we got to school she was (of course) covered in melted chocolate goodness. The teacher on duty said, "I swear every time I see that kid she's covered in something." Yes, yes she is. After brushing her teeth tonight her cheeks were still smeared in something red. And I'm not sure what we ate that was red today. Colby and I both had to send her back twice to "try again" to get her face clean.

After church last week Colby pulled out his pasta roller.



Ella helped.



My old dish rack helped.



Gretchen helped.



And I helped eat it. It was good. We had leftovers, but they didn't last very long. They got all et up. It also took a long time. I'm not sure how pasta ever really took off. "Hey guys, I have this idea. We'll take dough, roll it out really thin. It'll take about three hours to make enough for all of us. Then they'll all be gone in 10 minutes!" "Brilliant! Let's do it!"

BECAUSE ELLA DOES NOT READ THIS BLOG...
EMBARRASSING STORY ALERT!!!!
Ella and I were sitting at the dining room table working on homework when she dropped this little nugget on me...
Ella: I think K likes me.
Me: What makes you say that, sweetie?
Ella: (Giggles hysterically, covers her mouth Harajuku-girl-style) I can't say! (giggle) I can't say right now!
Me: Ok....
three minutes pass
Ella: Well, you know what I said about...K? (giggle)
Me: Yes....
Ella: We sort of held hands!!!!
Me: How did that happen?
Ella: Um, well, it was 'silent reading' time, and we were sitting next to eachother...
Me: Yes....
Ella: And he put his hand on my knee, and then we held hands!!!! But under the table. Because we didn't want anyone else to see.
Me: !!!!!!!!
Ella: I know!

She brought home his number so they can plan a playdate. Colby is not pleased.

And now here's another embarrassing story. But mostly embarrassing for me. Ella dropped something on the floor the other day and said, "Oh da.....Oh mom! I almost said a bad word! The D word. Not the D-U-M-B word, the bad word that YOU say...."

I'm such a good mom. And don't tell Ella I told you that story. That's right, I'm gossiping about my own daughter AND teaching her how to swear on one blog entry. Woo hoo!

Hey Look! We're Still Here!

Hello loved ones. It's been a LONG TIME. Things are finally getting back to a "normal" level or busy instead of a "GOGOGOGOGORIGHTNOW-5DEADLINES-PAINTTHEHOUSE-MOVE-HOMEWORK-UNPACK-CHRISTMAS-TRIP-FUNERAL-TRIP-FUNERAL-SCIENCEFAIRPROJECT?-OMGKILLMENOW" busy. I'm almost recovered. I've been spending my Sunday afternoons either rocking back & forth in the corner muttering to myself or sleeping. But now I'm feeling almost like a regular person again, and I can commit to a blog post! Hooray!!!!

So we'll have to do a little bit of the online-house-tour at a time. Right now there's about 3 square feet of our house that is presentable. So you get a shot of the outside. Look at how cute that architectural detail is! The sweet little story-book roofline is pretty much what sold me on the house. Well, that and and the other awesome things, some of which we are still discovering (like daffodils, iris and tulips coming up in the yard. Awwwww!).



Most of you already know, but we are now Dog People. We take our new dog everywhere. But seriously, LOOK AT THIS FACE.


Can you blame us? She is amazing. Hannah is a six year old English Bulldog. We like to call her "The Most Expensive Free Dog In The History of Free Dogs". But she is 90% recovered from her ear surgery (you can see the stitches and sad nastyness in some of these earlier pictures). And right now she has NO OUTSTANDING VET APPOINTMENTS!!!! That means we won't have to go see our friends at A+ Animal Hospital on a weekly basis anymore! (We heart you, Animal Hospital! But we like having a healthy dog even MORE! THANKS for getting her there!)

I love her so much.


Not enough to make out with her like Gretchen though....



Here's a picture of her from today. Ears all better. But oh so tired.


And here she is with Gretchen & her BFF playing dress ups. I think we may have a whole new William Wegman project coming on... She LOVES DRESS UP!!!


Colby took Ella to her school's "Sweetheart Dance". Oh, and bonus, here's a shot of the finished birch trees in the dining room. AND the amazingly awesome mid-century teak dining set that I scored at Savers. (One of the great things about Reno is that no one here has really caught on to the mid-century modern trend. So you can get stuff like this at thrift stores FOR SO CHEAP. Seriously. I'm in love with Reno Thrift Stores. But don't let the word get out. I don't want all the hipsters from the Bay Area coming over. Let's keep Reno SECRETLY AWESOME.)

Oh yeah, the point of that story is that Colby took Ella to the Sweetheart Dance.


Ella wants to be a photographer when she grows up so that she can take pictures of her friend who will be a movie star. (This makes me so happy.) To assist her in reaching her dreams, I gave her my old camera. She is a GREAT photographer. Just look at the portrait she took of Colby & I on our anniversary. (This is before we dropped them off at Auntie Amber's house so we could go party.)



We're slowly getting things set up. The weather has been so nice lately, I pulled my beloved hammock out of the garage and strung it up between the cherry tree and the plumb tree.


Hilarity ensued.


(Don't worry, she was laughing the whole time)

Gretchen at the river this afternoon. Rockin' Aunt Adrianne's early 80's era hand-me-down.


That's it for now! I hope y'all are doing well!

Church Bells

Sorry we've been MIA this past couple of weeks....

• We have now been homeowners for 9 days. Woo hoo!
• You can hear church bells chime from our house. They're so pretty!
  
• We're 90% done with the painting. So far we've painted the dining room, living room, most the hallway and the 3 bedrooms.
• Why yes, I AM tired...
  
• My fingernails will never ever ever be paint free again, my skin looks and feels like sandpaper from paint exposure, being scrubbed clean & more paint exposure. You'd think I'd learn to wear gloves or something....
  
• Did you know that Home Depot carries Martha Stewart paint? I didn't want to love it. I really didn't. But oh that Martha! Every color was perfection!
  
• I had Ella take a bunch of pictures of our finished painting, but then I left the camera hanging in the coat closet. You know, cause I'm awesome like that...
• Colby pulled up the carpet in the 3 bedrooms and the floor is BEAUTIFUL!!! I don't think it's ever been exposed. I'm giddy, I'm so excited. I think we just need to maybe put a coat of something on it. SO AWESOME.
  
• WE HAVE A NEW WASHER AND DRIER!!!! We got it at the Pre-Black-Friday sale. It stacks. It chimes. It washes clothes without leaving lint behind (curses apartment laundromat! I scorn you!)
• We bought a fridge off craigs list, so hopefully this week we'll also HAVE A NEW FRIDGE WITH AN ICEMAKER! HOORAY! (I never believe in a craigslist purchase until I actually have the item in my hands. But still, kind of excited!)
• We also have a new baby niece! Lucy Marie is awesome and tiny and we hope she starts to sleep more so that Auntie Amber can remember what more than 3 hours of sleep at a time is like.
• Gretchen likes to "pet the baby".
• Cousin Kate doesn't want you to hold the baby if you're her mom. She started crying, broken hearted while her mom held Lucy, "I TRUSTED YOU!!!" (Meghan, she trusted you!)

I think that's about it for now. My head has been spinning with all the things to do, get done, work projects coming up, Christmas, Ack. But it's all good. All good, my friends. And I'm going to bed at 8:30 tonight.

In the spirit of the season...

I love Halloween. Seriously love it. Gretchen is right there with me (she says she likes "scary things". You know, unless they're too scary.) And like every year, we've not got a ridiculously thorough collection of pumpkins and have been to the pumpkin patch more than our fair share. So for our Family Night last Monday we went again.

Gretchen amidst the pumpkins.





While we were at the 'patch, we saw some friends and I had them take a picture of me & Colby. I think, not counting our wedding pictures, we now have about five pictures of just the two of us...






We love visiting the piggies. But we knew better than to attempt the corn maze.


Want to know what's awesome about Reno? I mean besides the fact that we can go almost anywhere in town and see friends there (Home Depot, Target, Pumpkin Patch, etc.) NEVADA DAY!!!! Nevada Day is when we celebrate the awesomeness that is our state (Remember, only in Nevada can you do your grocery shopping AND your gambling in one location!) and we celebrate Nevada Day by closing the schools and work. If you're lucky, your friends will have a birthday party and you'll get to go bowling for the first time. And if you're really lucky, they'll have toddle sized bowling shoes. OMG TODDLER SIZED BOWLING SHOES! SWOON!!!






Since we're hopefully closing on the new house in 3 weeks, I'm trying to get a jump on everything Christmas. So this afternoon we had our annual Christmas Ornament Photo Shoot. It started off with a bang.

EVIL EYE. Big sisters. Humph.

But, like all our photo shoots, if you take enough pictures, maybe ONE will turn out great. I think this one's it:

I'll photoshop out the background so you can't tell it was taken in front of our tv "backdrop". (Last year I had to explain to my friends at the Costco Photo Center that I didn't have a photo release for the portraits because they were TAKEN IN FRONT OF THE TV. They didn't believe me.)

Ok, I know this is a long post this week, but I'm almost done. 2 thing to tell you:

1. We won the class pumpkin contest! R2D2 beat out the impressive Angry Birds display (which really, I feel a little bit guilty about. I secretly think theirs was better... But theirs didn't have the sound effects...)

2. We helped clean the church yesterday morning. Gretchen & Ella were with a lovely older child who was helping them clean all the chalkboards. They finished that & then played in the nursery. Just as I finished up the bathroom, I found a surprise. The shredded paper had been emptied from the church clerk's office, and it filled a whole garbage can. Gretchen discovered it first and decided to "decorate for a party". There was shredded paper DOWN THE WHOLE HALLWAY. And a giant pile in the nursery. Where she'd dumped it and then thrown handfuls in the air. And danced in it. It was everywhere, even her hair. But luckily it vacuumed up pretty quick (Though there were some tears. She didn't understand why we couldn't just leave her party decorations there....)

Have a wonderful Halloween!!!
And we love you Grandpa Conrad! Ella's been carrying around the little teddy bear he gave her since Friday.

Whoa.

Sooner than any of us expected, sooner than I thought possible, so soon that I'm freaking out. FREAKING. OUT....we will be moving from this view.....


(don't be jealous... graffiti compliments of the Window Crayons I got on sale at Target)


....to this view:



Yes my friends, that there is our own backyard. Our own swath of grass, watered with our own set of real sprinklers. Welcome to what hopefully will be our new home in approx. 4 weeks. Unless I freak out about it again and Colby calls the whole thing off.

(Mom, you may not want to look at these pictures. It might just stress you out. We'll just show you all the "after" ones....)

As you walk in the front door, you'll see the beautiful foyer.
THINGS THAT WILL STAY: Awesome light fixture. Awesome tile. Awesome door.
THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE: Fort Knox style iron work over all doors and windows, green carpet, amber glass in door. (Hey Angela & Amber, want to help me replace that glass with something lovely? Any ideas?)


Here's the first room we'll welcome you in to. Take a seat in our BRAND NEW LIVING ROOM!!!
THINGS THAT WILL STAY: Fabulous speakers (to compliment our ridiculously huge tv, white walls
THINGS THAT WILL GO: Wood paneling (it's kind of thin and cheap, otherwise I would totally keep it), carpet (wood floors under there, people!!!) and possibly the white fireplace color. Any ideas? Any suggestions?


Come in! Come in! Here's another view of the living room.
(I'm seriously considering keeping the window treatment. Cause that is fantastic.)



Wait, does your dining room have a WINDOW SEAT???? Yes, yes it does.


Here's the girls room. I love the wallpaper, but I think we're going to repaint. I'll keep the cute shutter window covering, but take out the other one. I really like that light fixture. I think I'll keep it too. The floors will hopefully be restored to the hardwood that lies in wait under the carpet. (Ella is fighting to keep the teal carpet. Anyone on her side?)


And her is (dum Dum DUM) MY OFFICE!!!! For the first time EVER EVER EVER I will have my own space to work in! No more bedroom/livingroom/office for me! Woo hoo!!!! And yes, I WILL be keeping that flocked wallpaper, decorative eagle over the closet and the shelves thankyouverymuch. I'm afraid the amber window covering is falling apart, so it will have to go. (sniff). Carpet will also be removed to make way for wood floors here too.


Here's the kitchen.... Can you guess what year it was remodeled? Go ahead, guess...


And here's the piece de resistance.... OUR ONLY SLIGHTLY CREEPY BASEMENT!!!! It doesn't have any windows, but who needs windows when you have a FULL SIZE FIREPLACE!!!! At the brilliant suggestion of Angela & Lismarie, I think we're going to install a sola tube through the kitchen down to the basement to get some natural light in the space. Off the basement is an additional storage room. That's where YOU'LL be sleeping when you come visit. You're welcome. Perfect for all your makeout-party needs (right Adrianne?)



So yeah. Freak out, so excited, cutest house on cutest street, in such good condition, adorable and wonderful, loveitloveitloveit, wait, what are we doing? This is all happening so fast! AHHHHHHHH. (And repeat.)

Ok, now we're going to stop that fun little thought train and show you these OMG SO CUTE cakes that we made for the Harvest Fest Cake Walk. Fabulous Julie gave me a huge bag of leftover supplies to decorate them with. SO FUN, right? (That's a spider, by the way. What, you can't tell?)



We also carved an R2D2 pumkin with Ella's class. You can't tell in this picture, but it has lights in it and a Star Wars soundtrack playing behind it.



The Harvest Fest was SO FUN. There were lamas, people. LAMAS.


It was very exciting.

That's what we're up to. (insert another random freakout here.) What are your plans for the week?

Newish Things

Turns out if you dare Ella to take a crazy picture showing her snaggle tooth, she'll oblige. But only if she can also do the patented Ella-Crazy-Eyes. And guess what. SNAGGLE TOOTH IS GONE! Peace out, snaggle tooth.



FASHION ALERT!!!
Gretchen has bangs! I think I forgot to tell you that. She wanted me to cut her hair "short like a boy", but I just. couldn't. do it. So bangs were our compromise. (Amy Smith, oldest friend, dear friend, I remember an angsty teenage conversation that we should never cut our daughter's hair like a boy. I remember!) For weeks before the bang conversion, she was in a super tom-boy phase. But now she's busting out the white princess dress and pink heart glasses. On a THURSDAY! So life is sparkles and makeup again! (Colby had to confiscate the Hello Kitty glitter lip gloss from her bed this week. Yeah, we don't know what it's like to live in moderation. We're either demanding to be called "Buddy" and dressing in all camo, or sleeping in jewelry and putting on our "bedtime lip gloss".)

Gretchen wants what Gretchen wants. Come on, you should know that by NOW.



We got to see Grandma Anita & Grandpa Dennis on Friday, along with GGpa and GAunt Belva. We had a pizza party to celebrate. Awesome times, my friends. And no matter how much complaining you hear, you should ALWAYS make a BBQ Chicken Pizza. Cause dude, that is good.

So what are you up to?

You Don't Know Everything!

"You don't know everything..... (pause)....only Jesus does."

That's what Gretchen's new favorite saying is. So far she's told that to (as far as I know), me, her Dad, her beloved Auntie Meghan, the primary presidency and her preschool teacher. That I know of. For all I know, there's more victims. That's my girl, spreading the good news of the Gospel one little attitude at a time.

Here's a picture of our Sweet Little Missionary posing in the cape we made for her friend's birthday. It was a Super Hero Party, and his mom said he didn't have a cape. So we were happy to oblige....



TA DA!!!! (Note the awesome bed head, Belle Princess pj's and double fisted pickles. The word you're looking for is "CLASSY".)



Happy Birthday to our wonderful, sweet, darling Ella! You'll notice that she's not showing her teeth in any pictures this week. Yes, the tooth drama continues. I've tried in vain to get a shot of her snaggle tooth, hanging SIDEWAYS in the front of her mouth, but she's too fast. The other teeth are already coming in behind it, so it's making it especially hard to wiggle now. I told her that if she doesn't get it out in the next 20 minutes, we're pulling it out. I've HAD IT!

But Tuesday (Birthday Day) I was a lot nicer. We celebrated her birthday by going to Red Robin (her request). It was pretty low key because the Saturday before we'd hosted a Tie Dye Birthday Extravaganza for her and 14 of her closest friends. Did you hear that? We did tie-dye with about 16 small children. Oh, and yes, I AM crazy. But it was mostly super fun, and everything we dyed turned out so so pretty! Just in case you were wondering, we also...
-Played "Pick Pocket Tag" (google it, I'm too lazy to explain it...)
-Had a "Freeze Dance Off" (everyone won)
-Had a Dress-Up-Relay-Race (Every kid pulled a costume or accessory out of a bag and had to do a loop around the yard with it. My favorite were the Mohawk wigs and the high heels)
-Busted open our home-made pinata of a happy yellow star and....
-Took NO PICTURES OR VIDEO because I was too busy being crazy party hostess the whole time. SO SAD NOW!!!

But at least I got this little gem before Tuesday Birthday Hamburgers. Awwww...



And this one too.... AaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwWWWWW!


And I don't have any more cute pics of Ella on her birthday because she thinks it's funny to make faces like this. Awww, come on! (I'm not sure if you can see the mocking in her eyes. "Take of picture of me with my face like this. Come on mom!!!")


She really is sweet though. Instead of saying "What? That's it?" when she ripped through her 3 presents in 5 seconds, instead she said, "Wow! That didn't take me long! I'm really good at opening presents fast!" And instead of saying, "What? You got me checkers and a DSI MATH GAME? For real?" She said, "Wow! I can use this to practice for Game Club!" and "Can I play the math game now? Or is it time for bed?" Oh sweet girl!

So what's up with you?