Kitchen table redo

Over Thanksgiving break we re-did our kitchen table and chairs. This table was given to us by my in-laws. It wasn't in the 'worst' condition, but not the best either. We sanded it down, painted it with some heavy duty primer and paint and I love the finished product. Someday, my walls won't be white and it will be perfect for a little breakfast nook!

We followed this tutorial EXACTLY! The primer and paint brand needed to be pretty durable to stand up to our family and toddlers. So far it is doing awesome and holding up well.

The chairs were in the worst shape, but I used some gray chalk paint and they turned out pretty well!

Here are some before and after pictures.

I had a little shelf that really didn't have a particular place. I painted it up to match the chairs and table runner. I have new plan that will be finished in the summer, but this is perfect while I wait.

Don't you just love the phone jack!! haha...

I love DIY projects, especially ones that make a big difference to make me love my little apartment. We learned a ton doing this project and I feel even more confident when I have to paint other furniture around my house. It did cause a little chaos in our little routine. The paint has to cure for a long time so we ate on our living room floor for a little over a week and Madison wasn't allowed in the kitchen, however, I think it was worth it. I love it!

Madison is 2!

She finally turned two! This has been a long time coming. We have been waiting and waiting. I feel like she has been two for months, I guess she is youngers then I think she is.

Anyway... Her birthday was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. A lot of projects were going on, but we still made time to make a cake and decorate it. She even helped! She picked out the yellow frosting and sprinkled the sprinkles on top. Blowing out the candles is still a work in progress!

Madison is one of the smartest and goofiest little two year olds you will ever meet. She has billions of quirks that we just love (i.e. flapping her arms, drinking tons of water), NEVER stops talking or singing, but then is also shy and scared in the most random of situations.

Some little tidbits about Madison.

*Knows all of her colors. We started working on them around July and she became OBSESSED! Honestly it is an old trick now, but she loves that she can add a color adjective to objects. (green cup, white car, purple coat, etc.)

*I asked her what her favorite show was and she said  "Daniel Tigerhood" (close Madi). She is seriously crazy about this show and loves all the songs. I have to be careful not to sing a song when she is in a bad mood or else she will whine and whine until I turn the TV on.

*We have been working on the game Memory, which we call match. It has also been a very long process, but the other day she showed real promise and was able to keep her attention span up and remember where a few matches were! She knows all the different professions that are on the other side of the card such as: teacher, officer, actor, athlete, zookeeper, cook, nurse, doctor, and MORE. Seriously, she knows every one. She loves flash card type things.  

*All songs are basically her favorite, when I sing her a new song she will look at me with her huge eyes without blinking taking the words and actions in. However, her favorites right now are: Twinkle Little Star, I am Child of God, I Love to See the Temple, Jingle Bells, and any theme from Daniel Tiger. She has quite the number of songs in her arsenal.

*Is obsessed with her friend Collin..... (and she will add Mia after a pause). Seriously he is all we talk about. If I want to get out the door in a hurry, all I have to do is tell her we are going to see Collin.

* The other day I was having a 'little freak out' over dinner. My husband and I were discussing something and she said "Calm down Mommy!". It was quite hilarious. She loves anything her daddy says: "Thanks Bro", "Awesome", "Got him", "Nice", "Oh goodness", "Seriously".

*She is that greatest sleeper. Sleeps all night, and still takes a 3 hour nap or more most all days.

*Loves to pray! We are working on being reverent during the whole prayer, but she likes being thankful for things that she knows what we are talking about. If we say missionaries, she adds all our missionaries' names in. (Benson, Abilee, Scottie, and Logan... she even adds Elders who are our Iowa missionaries.)

*She loves a good routine and kind of gets thrown out of wack without it. (we need to work on that). We have to do the same thing before bed, before nap, after nap, and when we get in the car. It is a tad exhausting if I forget. I hope that this is normal for her age, because I also want to teach her not to be particular which I think is a necessary quality in a growing family. (especially if you are the oldest).

I could probably go on and on about my favorite Madison, but I should quit. Enjoy the pictures of Madi being Madi!

Oh... and it is getting pretty darn cold here in Iowa. Bundling up is a necessity. We hope we survive!

Happy Birthday Madison!

Fruitloop Necklaces

Madison finally did it! She was able to string the fruit loops on the necklace all by herself. We have been working on this activity daily for about 2 weeks. The first time it just turned into a sorting by color activity, which was great, but I wanted something that would challenge her. She doesn't like things that take concentration, require detail, or anything where she needs to stay still for a bit. (i.e. coloring and puzzles.) I wanted an activity that would to help her focus, calm down, and practice some fine motor skills.

Everyday I poured about 20 fruit loops on the table and helped her string them on yarn. When she got all of them on the yarn she was allowed to eat them. At first, I held the yarn (I taped the end!!) while she worked on putting the fruit loop on. Just recently I have given her control of the yarn and she has gotten quite good at it. I learned that if I talk her through it, saying things such as: 'so close', 'find the hole', or 'pull', she was able to concentrate better and be successful. Once she got in the rhythm of doing a couple she was able to continue to finish the rest. I am now can even to do some dishes while she works on her daily necklace. Every once in a while I hear her tell herself to 'calm down'. :)

Just had to get a close up of her cute little fingers and her current favorite shirt!

All finished!!!!

So excited to eat her necklace

We still have days where it is just too much concentration for an almost 2 year old and we have to put it away, but usually she can finish all the fruit loops. I am so proud of her (and myself) for being consistent and becoming successful at a hard thing!

Babies and leaves

It has been beautiful here! We had just the right amount of cold days and warm days to keep the leaves on the trees making the scenery breathtaking. We had a little photoshoot one day after church to show off a couple of Fall dresses I finished right before Jordyn was born and to take advantage of the beautiful outdoors. I am still learning with this new camera. (a few are with my phone from the week before, you can tell by the different bow that Madison is wearing) Every once in a while I get a really good picture!

Enjoy my sweet girls!

Octoberish things

October really may be the best month. Iowa's October has been BEAUTIFUL! The leaves change and actually stay changed for a while before falling off the trees, the weather isn't terribly cold, and of course Halloween and all the other Autumn evens. This little quote was quite the trendy little happening a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to stick it on the blog anyway. It really is the perfect quote for October and describes my feeling perfectly as this month is coming to a close. Plus, not a lot of people can say that they have the same connection to Anne as I do. I have the middle name AND red hair to prove it.

My mother came this month. We played really hard. Madison got more attention she ever dreamed was possible and had a few days of meltdowns after "mama manner" left. We have finally adjusted back to real life it seems. I still haven't adjusted though. I don't know if I can say I have had more fun in my whole life. We crafted, decorated my home, played with babies, and talked and talked and talked. I can't even adequately explain the amount of fun my mother and I have. We had to do a little parenting back home over Facetime, but I really don't get my mother to myself like that ever! It makes me excited for the next time I have a baby and she flies out......... haha. Living away from family, I do have to say my fair share of goodbyes, but dropping her off definitely made it to the top 3 or 4, right along with saying goodbye to Provo and the few people that I love there.

While she was here, we took a little field trip to Wilson's Orchard! We road 'Old Bessie' the tractor, wandered in the orchards, and picked apples. The new little update on my phone put together a little video of the day. I thought it was cute.

 

We threw a little Halloween party for a few friends. I should have taken more pictures, but I did get some of us all eating the doughnut from the string. The little kids did way better then I thought they would they tried their hardest! I would like to point out that I won my division and Jordan lost his.

 Our little dancing butterfly!

A young man in our stake was doing an eagle project and wanted some help. It was the perfect outing for a Saturday morning. Madison loves any freedom she can get running outside, plus I was able to try out a new Halloween bow. Good thing I have little girls because I LOVE bows!

Our ward threw a little Halloween Party complete with a chili cookoff, costume contest, and trunk or treat. We were sick this whole week so my days were a little slow and I had plenty of time to come up with super fun trunk decorations. I have been wanting a good dance party and I finally just threw my own. Jordan looks like this costume was way to easy for him.  Because our party was in the morning, with the sun, our car could have been seen from space.

Costumes for the girls were pretty simple. I was given a little Snow White costume when Madi was born, but she never fit into it because she was born after Halloween. Jordyn was the perfect baby for it! I planned to use it before she was born, and just jokingly prayed for a dark haired newborn. Prayers are answered.

Madison's costume was causing me a little bit of stress before. The pattern I was following was too big and I wasn't liking it at all. I finally found a tutorial on Pinterest and made it work. I ended up loving it. Everybody said that she looked like she loved her costume. To be honest, I am not sure she always remembered she had it on. However, when you run around flapping your arms anyway, a butterfly costume makes it look more normal. Gotta love quirky, crazy Madi.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Life with a newborn

Our little Jordyn is almost 5 weeks. She is getting close to the end of the newborn stage. It is really sad, but also really exciting. All she has been doing is sleeping. She is starting to wake up... kind of.....

I have gotten extremely lucky with my newborns so far. They are excellent night sleepers. I thought Madison was good, but Jordyn is a champ. She wakes up once between 3 and 4 and then gets up at 7 to start our day. Madi didn't think she had to nurse any more then Jordyn, but Madi had a serious blowout problem that would wake her and everybody else up in the whole house. Jordyn doesn't seem to have that problem. However, Jordyn does cry out and grunt a lot! I have to set a rule to wait two minutes with consistent crying because I tend to want to get up the second she cries out. Then she just ends up falling asleep within a couple of seconds of nursing.

When Jordyn was just a few days old, Camille and I took a few newborn snaps of her. Usually babies are asleep during these, Jordyn still has hardly been awake as along as she was while we were trying to take these pictures. She does not like to be messed with while she is dreaming. Oh well... we got a few cute shots of her. Here are some of my favorite!

Madison is also adjusting, slowly but surely. She loves baby Jordyn and after asking for water, the very next thing she checks for every morning is baby Jordyn. "Hiii Jordyn", is basically what Jordyn and I hear all day. Madi has gotten into a "mine" phase. All the blankets, toys, binkies, and car seats are hers. Poor girl.