Girly Stuff

I finished painting baby's room and people have been asking what green I chose. It's hard to describe in words, so here ya go. I didn't want to show it till the room was all decorated cute (which might never happen), but this will at least give you an idea. (that's the crib bedding i got earlier just so you can see the color scheme) I had a hard time choosing the green! Even when I finished the first coat, I was doubting myself and thinking I would start over again. I like it now though. So for anyone that's interested, this is my trick (I learned from Amber :) I go to Benjamen Moore Paints and they have huge canvas paint samples. They cost $5 a canvas, BUT you can return them (as long as you don't bend them). I take them home and tape them up on the wall. That's how I picked my living room color too. I think it's too hard to judge from a tiny paint card.

Anyways, remember that mountaineering class Braydan was in? Well, it got over last week. (Yay!!) His final exam was Thursday and he passed!

The picture is of him doing first aid on a guy bleeding to death from a bear attack. (They made it very realistic with actors and everything)

One guy in the class got sick from looking at all the fake blood :) I shouldn't laugh cause that would probably be me too! Anyways, while he was gone on those nights, my friend and I worked on more girly projects. We discoverd that her baby moniter reaches to my house, so I went over every night after putting Kaleb to sleep and we had fun.

I made this sign and it was pretty easy (thanks sammy!) Hopefully I don't change her name or I'll be in trouble. I also painted my old shadow box white.

And made bows! They look easy, but it took me like 2 hours to make my first 2!

Happy "Boo"-rthday Braydan!

Braydan turned 26 yesterday! A quarter of a century old!! (i know, we're still young'ns) I was excited his birthday was on a Saturday so we could do something fun, but ironically, we didn't do much. I think that's kinda what he wanted---just to relax from his crazy week!!! I made him french toast for breakfast (yuck!) and he requested Thai food for lunch and hot dogs for dinner. Yes, hot dogs. Double yuck!! I got off easy this year giving him a gift card to REI. I also thought of giving him a pet of some sort, but didn't know what. So, that morning we went to the pet store. I really limited him by saying NO!!!! to almost everything.

He had a pet rat once and loved him.

He also had lizards, snakes, guinea pigs, birds, turtles, bunnies, frogs, dogs, and cats. With me coming from a farm, I think between the both of us we've had every pet at one time.

He was set on getting a $100 tortoise, but then we figured out how much it would cost for the tank and lights and everything and it would be another $200! We ended up leaving with two goldfish :) (for Kaleb). He decided he's going to build his own terrarium.

That night was our friend's yearly Halloween party. We went as a hillbilly bride and groom (get it??? cause I'm pregnant :) Sorry my belly didn't make it in the picture, but you can imagine it.

Oddly, our cousins Butch and JoDean ended up at the same party! A double wedding! Weird! We had fun sharing family pictures and drinking moonshine. Ha, ha. (Braydan played up his part the whole night with Butch and it was funny cause he's usually quiet in groups). Here's some of my other favorite costumes:

The frozen mountain climbers and Buzz.

Sam, this picture is payback for the books :)

Happy Birthday Braydan! You are an awesome husband, daddy, friend, and I love you mucho!

Reptile Zoo

Saturday was our Super-Saturday craft mania day. It was lots of fun, but I can't show off my project cause it's someone's Christmas present :)

While I was gone all day, Braydan took Kaleb to the reptile zoo and they were both in heaven.

Kaleb found a stool and carried it around with him the whole time so he could step up and see the lovely creatures.

His favorite were the turtles cause he got to touch them lots.

He was really funny walking by the crocodiles. He covered his eyes with his hands and wouldn't look. What a weird kid.

At home he's obsessed with "crocs" as he calls them.

They also had a big anaconda that kinda freaked him out. And a two headed turtle.

Anyway, I'm glad they went and not me :) I would've covered my eyes the whole time. Ha, ha.

A Fork In The Road . . .

Well I guess it's just a possible fork in the road, but still very much on my mind because we have to decide by the end of the year! Yipes! Braydan's company bid on a 2.8 billion dollar project in Salt Lake . One of the bosses is putting a team together and asked Braydan to join them. The project would be for a year (I'm guessing longer cause there's always delays). It starts spring of 2010. The pay is DOUBLE what he makes now. The money is assuming workers fly home to Seattle every weekend (but that won't work for me :) So . . . that means either renting in Utah for a year and paying our mortgage too, renting out our house and renting in Utah, selling our house and moving down there, or not doing it! There's lots of what ifs about it. Braydan has talked about going to Law School at BYU after he gets his P.E. lisence, but what if he can't get in and what if he changes his mind? It's almost two years away, but what if the housing market is still bad and we can't sell our house? What if I die from moving AGAIN?!!! I'm very serious about that one (we've moved 6 times since we got married) And what if I die going from a house back to an apartment (w/ two kids!) I love it here - - my home, my neighbors, my ward, yes . . even the weather!! (okay maybe not all the time with that one, but most of the time). Braydan is still in adventure mode and thinks it would be a good opportunity. I said "no way" at first, but am I crazy to say that? This has helped me to write it all down. Anyways, what would you do?

A Certain Shade of Green

I got started on baby's room this week and finished painting the trim and doors. I thought it would take a day, but it always takes longer than I think. I guess one day I got distracted. I had left-over paint on my brush, but didn't feel like going down to wash it out so I turned around and started painting my cedar chest!!! (I know Mom, don't freak out) It's from my Grandma and is really nice, but it was a light wood color with gold handles and legs (from the 50's - - kinda ugly). I should've taken a before picture. Anyways, my little distraction turned into a project. I like how it turned out and now it will match the room at least.
So now that the room is completely white, I need to decide a color! Got any suggestions. I want it green, but there's lots of cute greens. Here's some I've been looking at. What's your favorite? Try and ignore all the other cute stuff in the room and just look at the paint.

I just threw the last one for fun. I feel bad for that baby ;)

A gripe and some gratitude

So, I probably could gripe about more things, but after watching conference, I better focus on the positives :) . . . . But before I do that, I better get this gripe off my chest:

While you've all been feeling so bad for Braydan cause he has a mean wife, it's actually the other way around : ) A few months ago, he and his friend Wes made a goal to climb the highest peaks in Washington, starting with Mt.Reiner in March. Since then, I've heard nothing but climbing this and climbing that. Now they're both in a mountaineering first aid class two nights a week! They don't get home till after 10. Tuesday is class, Wednesday is YW/ YM where I don't really see him either unless it's combined, and then Thursday is class again! Ughh! So there is my gripe. I guess the good thing about it is that it's got him to buy a gym pass and workout regularly. Maybe I'm just jealous cause I definitely won't be climbing a mountain in March! (especially as I'm eating a snickers bar while I type :)

Okay, on to my gratitudes. #1 has to be Conference. What was your favorites? I loved Elder Perry's about Thoreau!! (i'm an english nerdy) I really needed a reminder about simplifying life and focusing on what's most important. I know I make myself frazzled over silly things that don't matter.

#2 Friday night was Phantom!!!! This is walking up to the theater in the rain.

I tried so hard to finish the book before that night, but was a few pages short. It did help me enjoy the play more! I've always loved the music, but I never connected how genius Andrew Loyd is to take that novel and carry the plot out with music! Genius, genius. I don't get how people can do that. Anyways, I know you all thought I was going on a romantic date with Braydan to it, but nope. It was a girls night out. (Sorry for the retarded picture but that's all I got)I tried to convince him how cool it would be, but he thinks operas are dumb. (this one isn't even like a real opera!) In case any of you get a chance, the Paramount Theater is awesome!

It was really dark in there, but I did sneak a few shots of how fancy it is. People were pretty glammed up. We were sitting in the balcony high up , so we couldn't see as good as I wanted, but the music was divine.

I went home after and listened to my CD and was disappointed cause they weren't as good as the actors! They had the coolest special effects too. Okay, okay, i could go on and on. But I was very impressed and enjoyed myself.

#3 I know a few of you are in YW too, so I'll just share this idea real quick cause the girls loved it. Wednesday night was our Daddy Daughter Derby activity. We'd been planning for a while and didn't know for sure how it would go, but it turned out fun. The girls built their pinewood derby cars with their dads and they came up with some pretty creative ideas. After our dinner, we raced them and it was intense.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm grateful for more things too, but I've got work to do! I'm starting to paint the trim in baby girly's room. Adios amigos. Have a good week~

I just have to add this funny video of Kaleb. ( i love my new v.camera Helena, thank you!) He has funny sounds for animals.

Is it just me?

Is it just me or does anyone else (pregnant ladies) get this awesome water mark from doing the dishes?

Is it just me or do I look bigger than I did with Kaleb? (The first one is when I'm 8 months pregnant with Kaleb. The other one is NOW! I'm in trouble I think.)

Is it just me or does anyone else's toddler hit everybody? Aghh!! The worst part is after he hits, he knows he's in trouble and will be really sweet and pat my face saying "soft" and give me kisses.

Is it just me or does anyone else lose their temple recommend?!! Yes it's embarrassing. But since someone announced it in church yesterday, I figure why not share that on my blog.

Is it just us, or does anyone else count a trip to Walmart as a date? (Because I lost my recommend and couldn't do our temple date, we tried to go to the hockey game in Everett. We were too late for that, so we ended up going to Walmart. Braydan was over-joyed.)

Is it just me or has anyone else tried the awesome new Family Search website? Just from working a couple hours, we already have 13 names temple ready!!!! One of them is Braydan's Grandpa Barrett who, for some reason, wasn't sealed to his parents. Another cool one is a family on his side that needs all their work done and they're from a tiny town in Wales where Braydan served on his mission. We used to be really into family history last year, but we got kinda burned out when we needed Ancestry.com and it cost $200/year for a membership. Now, since the church redid everything, you can find out right away if the temple work has been done. So much easier! (Best of all, I found out there's Eliza's on both sides of our families!)

Is it just me or does anyone else want to give up on trying to get a good family picture? This one the lighting is all wrong and if you look close, I have a death grip on Kaleb's hands to keep them away from his mouth. (I know Amber, we should just splurge and actually go somewhere and do it :)
Is it just me or do I have the funniest boy who likes to chase bugs? I know it's gross. (the video is kinda long, but you can fast forward if you want) ((and just ignore my robe!!!)AND finally, is it just me or does anyone else get excited to watch Dancing with the Stars???? I don't know who I'm going for this time. It makes me want to take a ballroom dance class with Braydan everytime I watch it, but I know that's a joke :) I took a dance class in college and it was so fun. There were twice as many girls as guys, but besides that . . . .