Bye, Bye Ugly Green Faux Marble

Ok, so little by little, starting with this major paint job (THANK YOU, MIKE & JESS!) Josh and I (mostly I) are trying to de-‘90’s our house.  Mostly that has meant getting rid of awful kitchen wallpaper, and just as bad shiny brass ceiling fixtures.  And, eventually (although not so much b/c of a 90’s vibe, and more because of general wear and tear), we’re going to replace the carpet, too. 

Anyway, one of the bad ‘90’s fixtures was the green faux marble fan in our master bedroom.  It is just generally not real attractive, and it looked even worse when we painted our bedroom a green that it seriously didn’t match.  Anyway, I forgot to take a before picture (so excited to get that thing off my ceiling), but I managed to find this picture, which actually has the EXACT same pattern on the fan blades- only our’s didn’t have a globe in the middle, but 3 lights instead.  Anyway… feast your eyes:

Yeah, not so much!!  Being more practical than I am, Josh really saw no reason to spend money on a fan when this one was working really well.  AND THEN… it stopped working!  Two of the lights just started blowing every bulb we put in them.  It was way too dark in our room, so we just HAD to buy a new one… I was bummed, as you can imagine! ;)

One trip to Menards later, and Josh and I came home with a new fan and fixture, with no green faux marble in sight!  We had to wait for a time we were both home and it was daylight (no small feat in our house, we’re never all home during the day).  But we finally found time on President’s Day, and got our new fan hung.  Not a great pic because it was dark by the time I could take one, but here she is:

 

Oil-rubbed bronze and cherry, MUCH better than weird dark nickel/silver and faux green/grey marble!!  I LOVE it! 

And, just for fun… Laney decided to play in the box while we were installing it (she was not happy about being kicked out of the bedroom, but somehow she just couldn’t handle the “sit only on the bed”). 

Before she realized I was taking a picture… After she noticed me… little turd!  She’s going to hate having her picture taken, just like her Daddy!

And then the never-fails reverse psychology kicked in- “No peeking over that box!  Don’t you do it…”

Anyway… so that’s way more info than anyone needed on a bedroom fan… but I’m QUITE excited to be rid of that old fan!  And the new one doesn’t hang down as far, so it makes our ceiling look taller!  Up next… the hallway fixture, the entryway fixture, the living room fan, the carpet, the kitchen floor… just don’t tell Josh! ;) 

Snow Days!

Well, if you live in MO, you know we’ve been having some fun winter weather the past couple of days!  Friday ended up being an early release day for CPS, and Monday was a total snow day because of another storm system that came through (although I’m thinking calling school Monday might have been a bit overly-cautious, but I’m not complaining- I needed the day at home after a training all day Saturday and the Super Bowl party on Saturday!).  Anyway, being a school employee definitely has benefits during the winter, and Laney and I had a couple of extra days at home! 

Friday, I picked her up right before naptime, so we both got to take a nap, then headed outside to play.  Friday morning Laney discovered footprints (or “footprincesses” as she calls them) as we were walking to the van, because Daddy had already been out, so there were his footprints around our van.  So when we headed back out that afternoon to play, she was mostly interested in making footprints in the fresh snow.  But who doesn’t love that?!

Making footprints…

Apparently, making footprints is quite the accomplishment… this is “ta-daaa!”  Love the Gym Bus training with the hands in the air!

 

It was nice and wet snow, so we headed to the backyard to make a snowman… not much snow, so it was a little one!  But she was quite interested in the whole process.  We ran out of attention span before we got to the smile, so we had to just draw one in!  And Isa was mostly interested in knocking the snowman over… but oh well!

Cheese-ing with the snowman!

So, I didn’t take a single picture at the Super Bowl party.  We had our normal MHBC Youth party at the Scott’s house, and it was a great time, but I just didn’t get out the camera.  Was fun to see the Saints (gotta love pulling for the underdogs, plus Chase Daniel is on the team) win.  Was not fun to lose my cell phone, so that’s not cool… hoping it shows up somewhere! 

It was an exhausting weekend, and by the end of it Josh and I (and Laney) were fighting colds.  So I was QUITE relieved when Monday was a snow day!  Laney and I both slept in until after 9, and then enjoyed a lazy day at home!  It was weird kind of snow, because it was just warm enough to keep the roads clear, but it snowed ALL DAY LONG.  A good day to stay warm and inside! :) 

And what better way to spend a day inside than watching Cinderella… dressed up as Cinderella, of course! :)

Later, we had to switch to Snow White dresses, and make some coffee and lemonade in her little kitchen!

She’s very realistic- stirring up the coffee!

And, apparently, Snow White dresses are appropriate for wear anywhere!  I opened the door to see if it was still snowing, and that was the first time she noticed it was snowing.  So she raced right out!

Checking out the “footprincesses” that princess shoes make!  She pretty quickly discovered that princess shoes+snow=seriously cold feet!

So she switched making footprints for eating the snow!

Later, we bundled up and headed outside for some real playing in the snow…

More eating snow… got to work on how to CHOOSE the snow we eat- she was not picky enough for Mommy, and thus ended up with some wood chips on her tongue!  Gross…

 

Climbed right into Isa’s house, which would be where the wood chips came from!  Notice Truman in the doorway- peeking out, NOT interested in actually COMING out! 

After the woodchip incident, she was a little more interested in feeding the snow to Isa…

…who decided that licking the snow was not nearly as interesting as licking Laney’s face!

 

Last time it snowed, Laney discovered throwing snowballs (or “meatballs,” as she calls them).  Nothing like the look of joy as she throws it all of 2 feet ahead of her! 

This weather is right up Miss Isabelle’s alley, being a cold weather dog and all.  She can’t figure out why we don’t just stay outside all day and play with her!  We certainly had fun with her while we were out there, though!

Just love evergreens with snow…

Ok, so I’ve been going on and on about how good Laney has been about her big girl bed.  Should have known that it would come back to bite me!  Monday I put her to bed for her nap around 1:00/1:30.  She sang to herself and talked for awhile, and then it got quiet.  I was watching a movie and doing laundry in the living room, and I heard a few bumps from her room, but I figured it was just her rolling over and hitting the wall.  But then about 3:00, I heard a weird tapping noise.  So, I headed down the hall to peek in on her, just to make sure.  Yeah, this is what I found:

With the addition of her stuck back behind the rocking chair, behind the blinds, looking out at the snow in the front yard!!  The noise I’d heard was the blinds hitting the wall.  Apparently, Miss Laney had been occupying herself in her room for an hour and a half, and knew to keep it pretty quiet so I had no idea!  Notice the shelf on the changing table is empty, after I just carefully arranged all of the bibs, burp rags, and blankets in baskets last week, to be ready for Audrey.  Those were dumped all over the floor, the few toys in her closet were all over the floor (clearly)… and Miss Laney was just having a grand ol’ time!  Nice…

So, anyway, I put on my best stern Mommy voice and we had a lovely chat about staying in bed and sleeping when it’s naptime, and she ended up going to sleep (after some serious crying).  And when she woke up (or when I woke her up at 5, since she got to bed so late and I didn’t want her sleeping too late), we immediately cleaned her room up.  Hopefully that will help with future desires to get out of bed.  And, apparently, I need to hook the baby monitor up again so I can have a better idea of what’s actually going on in there!   I thought we got off a little too easily with the whole big girl bed switch!!  Smart little kid, she knew to keep it quiet!  I get the feeling we’re in for quite a ride in the next few (or 18) years!!

Fun Pics & Fun Weekend!

This weekend we got to celebrate my mom’s birthday!  We actually had a day that we could all come and celebrate, without anyone having a meeting, or having to go home to go to bed early, or any rush at all, which was WONDERFUL!  So Josh & I brought out our games, and we just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.  We played a little Killer Uno before dinner, and then we had an awesome dinner- pork loin, salad, cheesy potatoes and green beans.  All cooked by Ruth, who did a great job, especially with a create-your-own-marinade that she just made up! :)  And, of course, it was followed by Italian Creme Cake and ice cream!!  Also delicious… might have had a slightly high blood sugar after that… ;)

Anyway, didn’t take tons of pictures, but here’s one of the birthday girl with all of the candles lit-- 

 

Laney was a FAN of the cake… and the two helpings of ice cream she had later!

 

So, while she was there, Ellen finished this thing called a baby pod, and, since there were no babies around, Ellen thought she’d try it out on Nala… Nala had other ideas! :)

 

Anyway, after dinner we played Apples to Apples, which is a really fun game that isn’t terribly competitive, but is just funny and makes everyone laugh.  When it was so late that MIss Laney was having trouble functioning, we finally had to call it a night and head home!  But we had a great time!  And happy birthday to Mom!! :)

The rest of this post is kind of random… but just some fun pics from the last few weeks (I’ve been playing with our new camera!!!).  Mostly they’re of Elena, because Josh complains when I take pictures of him, and you can only have so many pictures of your pets!! ;)  Anyway, here goes…

Girl’s gotta have princess shoes to be good at coloring…

  Just thought this was adorable… she loves this “dress” (i.e. NIGHTGOWN)… and it goes with princess shoes (what doesn’t?!).

 

Headed out to Grandma & Grandpa Price’s… love the upside down sunglasses!  And, you can’t really tell here, but the pigtails and ladybug bow really completed the look!

 

A closer shot… what a ham!

So, the big news in Laney’s world is her move to a big girl bed!!  Daddy built it for her Saturday morning, so she’d have plenty of time to get used to sleeping in it before Miss Audrey arrives to take over the crib!  This is Saturday’s nap… clearly, it didn’t take long for her to get used to it!

 

She looks so big in that big girl bed!!

Actually, the big girl bed is going better than I could possibly have expected!  She loves it, and passes right out in it.  The first time when she napped in it I opened the door once to see her sliding out of it to go do something else, and just said “Nope, when it’s time for bed, we stay in our bed.” put her back in and closed the door.  Since then, we haven’t had any problems.  She still fusses when she doesn’t want to take a nap, but no more than she did in her crib.  So, the baby bed is a definite go!  One more step to being ready for 2 little girls!!   

 

Still working on getting Laney’s newest vocal performances on video… but I’m sure it’ll happen, she’s certainly not afraid of performing!! Wonder where she gets that from…

 

P.S. For all of my blogging friends who hate dealing with Blooger’s picture uploader, I’ve found a new toy—it’s called Windows Live Writer.  It’s awesome, because you just drag and drop the pictures in when and where you want to, type around it, and do all of the formatting (it has a few cool borders for pics, lets you crop or change color on pics), then you publish it all at once.  And when I published this one (I’m editing it to add this), and it took less than 5 minutes for the pics & text to upload.  Anyway, just a heads up, try it!  We’re using it at work now, so I’ve gotten really familiar with it, and I love using it with this blog!!  Oh, and if you download it- it tries to make you download a bunch of stuff, but you can uncheck them so it’s only Writer.  Enjoy!