More Painting (aka What were they Thinking???)

Of all the rooms that we're painting, only one was really, really ugly. Most of them were just not our taste. Katy's room, however...ugly ugly ugly!
This is the picture they put on the MLS when selling the house. It shows a bit of the orange, but doesn't fully capture how awful it was.


Why, oh why, would you do this? Somebody went out, bought this color, and painted two walls with it. At no point along the way did they say "hmm, maybe this is a bad idea"?

Now it's a nice pretty pink. Katy chose it. She likes pink. A lot.

We're going to paint over the peach with an even lighter pink. It will be so pretty!






Okay, so this room isn't necessarily ugly, but it sure is boring. The walls are actually a very pale blue. Not right for a fun playroom!

I was disappointed when I finished and it was this dark. I wanted a more fun, bright turquoise color.

So I was happy the next day when we came back and it looked like this! I plan on doing the opposite wall in this same shade, and the other two in a coordinating shade of green. Someday we'll change the carpet, but probably not until our kids are older and less dirty & gross.

So, I've worked hard, and this is all I've gotten done. Sigh. Still need to finish the playroom, finish Katy's room, and do all of our bedroom, the boys' bedroom, and the office. Hopefully I stay excited long enough to get it all done!

Let the fun begin!

We got the keys to the house yesterday! Woo-hoo! Now comes the fun (and hard) part!

This is what we started with. I am NOT a fan of yellow. So last night Dan put the kids to bed while I spent about 3.5 hours working on the kitchen. I always forget how long it takes to tape everything. I think that's the worst part of painting.


I went back over this morning after dropping David off at school and finished up the kitchen paint (I had to get more tape to finish the edges). This is how it looks now! We plan on changing so very many things as time & finances allow. First will be the floor, then door hardware, counter tops, stove, etc. We'll get it looking really nice eventually, but for now I think the green makes a huge difference!

Now we just have to paint the office, 3 bedrooms, and playroom. I would have started on something else this morning if I'd had time, but Katy got up at 6:45 this morning. She usually gets up between 7:30 and 8. So she was rather difficult. She cried most of the drive back to the apartment because she ripped her paper cup. She was able to verbalize that she was sad because her paper cup ripped when she took it off her elbow, but not able to comprehend that it didn't matter and we would get her another one as soon as we got home. Silly girl.

The Various Startings of School

Well, when you have a kindergartner you don't just get one first day of school. This year we had three different days! Here they are!


The real, official first day of school was September 2nd. David got to go, Ryan didn't yet. Look how cool and composed David is. I guess this is the fourth different school he's gone to, this is old hat to him!

I saw a blog where the lady had cut out big numbers of the grade the kids were in to hold up in their first day of school pictures. I thought about doing that. But this is what we ended up with instead! So Ryan doesn't get to do anything (I suppose I could have had him do the sign for "k"...), and he'll run out of fingers for grades 11 and 12. But he might not really want to do it at that point anyway...




First day of school, take two! On the second day of school for David Ryan got to go for part of the day. It was called their "smart start," and they got to do fun things and have ice cream!
So excited about school!
Waiting to go in. I guess his face was getting tired from all the pictures...
Katy wanted her picture taken, too. I guess it's hard to not be the center of attention when you're so used to it! And what's up with her hair trying to escape the ponytail already?




And finally, Ryan's first real day of school. He gets to go all day! Yeah, Evergreen School District has decided to have the kindergartners go on A track (Mondays, Thursdays, and some Wednesdays) or B track (Tuesdays, Fridays, and the other Wednesdays) instead of Morning or Afternoon. It's to save on transportation costs. I'm still undecided about how much I like it. Today is awesome, with both boys at school all day! But tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday Ryan has to hang out with us the whole day. At least I'm not having to drive to the school and back three times a day! And Ryan is really excited about getting to eat lunch at school.

Look at all those school supplies they wanted! It sure added up!

So now Katy and I have lots of girl time! This morning I asked her what she wanted to do for girl time, and she said "Watch d-d-Dora (can't convince her that it's just called Dora)!" I told her that she probably could. Then she told me "You play on the puter, Mommy." I guess she's figured out that I'm more likely to let her keep watching TV if I'm occupied. Silly girl!

Preview...

I spent all that time updating the blog, only to get a bit behind again. The past week has been David's first day of school, Ryan's "Smart Start" (first half day to be assigned a teacher), my birthday, and Ryan's first full day of school (he goes all day M, Th, and some W). I have lots of pictures to post! But Katy and I are going to a lunch group that starts in 1 minute, so I'll have to just do quick preview. Today is Ryan's first day of all day kindergarten, and I don't think I've ever seen him more excited in his entire life! Look at that grin!

Blog Ketchup #7 - Girly Girl!

You know how sometimes you look forward to something for a long time, then it doesn't live up to your expectation? Having a girl isn't like that. It is SO much fun! And so different than having a boy. I'm sure I reinforce some of her girly behaviors, but I couldn't mold her to the extreme that she is.


I like to keep Halloween costumes in the dress up clothes so they can get some more use. Recently Katy discovered her Tinkerbell costume from last year (it's been in her closet the whole time we've lived here, but apparently she didn't notice...), and she really likes wearing it!

So here she is, being Tinkerbell, playing with a pink castle. And not just that, but setting up the table and chairs and putting the people in them! Not long before this picture, it was all in the closet put away. She did this all by herself!

Seriously, the boys have never done anything like this. I dont' know what I expected her to do with them, but I certainly didn't see her doing this at 2 years old. Such a little homemaker!

And please disregard the princess' birth mark. Somebody clearly messed up when painting her eyes, but thought it was good enough to sell anyways. I briefly considered taking it back, but didn't think it was worth returning the whole entire castle for one problem on the princess. So apparently this toy is also teaching us the worthwhile message of accepting others' differences...

Blog Ketchup to be done by Dan - Crabbing!

My grandpa took Dan, David, Ryan, and my cousin Randy with 2 of his boys crabbing a couple weeks ago! Now that I'm all motivated to update the blog I will have to assign this post to him!

He sure likes it when my motivation means more work for him...

Blog Ketchup #5 - Morrill-Style Camping!

I took a break in catching up the blog, and forgot to get back to it. That happens a lot to housework around here, too.

So last month when we were at my parents' house the boys & I went "camping." We slept in sleeping bags in a tent, so it counts. True, we didn't leave civilization (or my parents' yard...), but this is as much as I'm willing to do at this point. The kids are just too dumb right now to take somewhere where there are so many ways to get seriously hurt or lost.

David & Ryan started out VERY EXCITED! I, not so much, but an amazing mother such as I has to make sacrifices sometimes!

Here's Ryan, smiling nicely...

Here's David...um...what's wrong with him? Apparently we need to work on our "smile for a picture" skills...

See, I was there too! I realized there hasn't been a picture of me in like 12 posts. That's what happens when you're always the one holding the camera. The only pictures of you include your arms stretched out in the corners.

Here is how far we went on our camping trip. I must say, camping is much less miserable with a kitchen and a bathroom so close!


Anyhow, I tucked the boys in, then went inside to hang out until my bedtime. I imagined them being too excited to sleep and was just going to let them enjoy the experience.

Then David came in crying. They were out there thinking of all the bad things that could happen to them. They were, in particular, worried about an earthquake opening the ground under them. No why would they worry about that?

When we were setting up the tent they were talking about how a tornado could come and blow it away. I told them we don't have tornadoes here, we have earthquakes. Good going, mommy!

So I ended up reading between them until my bedtime.

And we all woke up with the sun.

Hopefully that got it out of their systems and we won't have to do that for a long time!

a break in the catch up, and a glimse into my crazy brain...

David just helped Katy wash her hands. What did that make him?

A sister assister!

Okay, so apparently assister isn't a word. Assist, assisted, assistance, but not assister. I still think it's funny!

Blog Ketchup #4 - A Trip to the Beach!

A friend from our ward here in Vancouver has been organizing a walking group every Monday this summer. But it's not just a boring walk-around-the-neighborhood walking group, we've checked out several fun trails! And this one was especially fun because it ended with a trip to the beach! Who knew there was such a great beach only 15 minutes from our apartment?

Well, the walking part came first. We just walked for a ways, then turned around to go back (the parking is right by the beach). We waited too long before turning around, and the kids were getting tired and hot and cranky (me too, but we'll blame them). So they started demanding turns in the stroller. Katy was happy to walk for a little while, but her little legs tired quickly. Ryan wasn't ready to walk again, so we piled her on top!
This picture cracks me up! Ryan frequently does the open-mouth-instead-of-smiling face, but this is the first time I've seen Katy do it. It's great that I caught them making the same face at the same time!

All crankiness was quickly forgotten once we got to the beach! These are three happy kiddos!

Ryan, whom we sometimes affectionately call The Gross, enjoyed playing with the sand. Ew.

Some other kids had worked hard at digging a pool close to the water, and it looked so nasty. So of course we wanted to play in it a lot. Then we built things out of sand - there's an octopus right behind Ryan, then a starfish and fishy next to him. And there's Katy, being quite immodest in the back.

Katy Mermaid! She actually thought this was really cool, despite the grimace on her face!


So, we're really happy to have discovered the beach! I saw several people there with off leash dogs (despite the signs saying not to), so we went back a few days later with Molly. She LOVED it! We brought the ball launcher and had her play fetch in the water. What a way to wear out a pup! I didn't take any pictures that day, though. I figured I had enough to worry about.

Blog Ketchup #3 - Ryan's New Trick!

We discovered this summer that Ryan has the ability to roll his tummy! He keeps trying to teach me, but I think it must be one of those things like wiggling your ears that only some people can do. I make him show me all the time, it always cracks me up! This isn't even all that great an example of him doing it, he seems kind of distracted for some reason...

Blog Ketchup #2 - Water Fun!

We've done some really fun water things this summer! In addition to swimming in the apartment pool, we've visited the beach (which will be a separate post later!) and 2 fountains.

This first one was down in Sherwood (I think...it's been over a month, and my memory is starting to fail in my old age...). We had a fun get-together with my grandparents and some extended family. The fountain was super cool! Half was just water, half had sand AND water! I don't know why I didn't get more pictures, but at least I got one with all three kids. They sure loved playing there!




A few days later we went with some friends to a fountain in downtown Portland (I just almost said Salt Lake! I wonder when I'll get used to being here...). I tried to get a pic of the three kids playing, and here it is (with Reece thrown in for a bit of color!)! They're all moving in different directions!
It was a super fun fountain to play at, especially since I didn't think too hard about the potential for injury. Lots of little stairs with water running down them could cause a big owie. Looking at these pictures makes me wonder why I wasn't more nervous! Here I caught David climbing up them, with Ryan already at the top. Ily is standing right there, hopefully she'd have at least nipped dangerous behavior in the bud...

Katy was far less brave, which was just fine with me! She enjoyed just walking around and kneeling down in the shallow water.

I stuck the kids on the side of the stairs (Ryan's the only one in much water) to try and get a cute group shot. Well, they tried...
and the harder they tried, the more incredibly awkward it got....

Hmm, guess it's time to give up. Oh well!

It was a really fun day. We're lucky to have the Murdocks as friends, it seems like Ily is always coming up with fun things to do! Yesterday we had a playdate at their house, and the kids all had a really good time! Then we tried to make them clean up, and all 8 of us got pretty cranky. But we won't focus on the negative...

Blog Ketchup #1 - Ryan's birthday!

I've been pretty sporadic with my blogging lately, and I'm feeling the need to go back and fill in some gaps. There were several days I took lots of pictures with the intent to blog, then...well...life happened. So since this is the closest thing to a journal I have, I'm going back to fill in what I missed in July & August!

First up, Rynan's birthday. I actually did blog on his birthday (7/16) about getting the free slurpees on 7/11, but not about his birthday! What a rude mommy!

Here's the happy birthday boy at his birthday party! I haven't done a great job lately of planning parties. I've swung quite a ways from the first few years of way overdone parties! For Ryan's birthday this year we had 3 friends (and their siblings & moms) come swimming with us! I was a little nervous about Heritage Green kicking us out or something because we're only supposed to have 2 guests. But one family also lives in the complex, so we really only had 6 extra people between the two families.

From left to right as best as possible with a group shot - Nicole & Peter, Ryan & David, Spencer, Rebecca, & Benson, Micah, and Rebecca (Nicole & Peter's mom). Reece, Ily, and Katy must've been in the little pool at the time. Ryan had so much fun! He really felt like it was his special day, even without a huge production!

Later that night doing presents with the family. Look how excited Katy is! This is the first birthday we've had since she had hers a month & a half earlier. So she knows how exciting all these presents are!

Woo-hoo! Some Bakugan things!

Katy found out that birthdays aren't quite so exciting when they aren't yours. That was a rough concept to learn!

A week later Ryan got his present from Grandma & Grandpa Morrill. I told them he wanted some small Bakugan. Well, they didn't get him any! Instead, they took the concept and got him so really awesome Bakugan things - most exciting to him is this blankey. To understand how much he likes it, you first have to know that he has a Nemo blankey (just a yard of Nemo fleece) that he's had since the summer he turned 1 and is quite bonded to. He likes to have it directly on him, under his bedding. Well, the first night with the Bakugan blankey he changed the order - it now goes Bakugan blankey, Nemo blankey, THEN comforter (I don't usually use top sheets on their beds, they seem more hassle than they're worth when they frequently end up shoved down at the bottom of the bed). I thought maybe it was a novelty thing and he'd soon revert to Nemo. Well, it's been over a month now, and Bakugan still wins out! He sure loves it!