Happy Valentine's

Here are some more projects from my Photoshop class.

The point of this one is to use "masks." The pictures are masked - meaning they are "covered up" in some spots.

I made this "S" by following a tutorial that someone wrote online. VERY cool.

I loved doing that "S" tutorial so I decided to do one of my own. I love how the letters are shining!

I made this poster for a poster contest. The winning poster would be displayed at the college. I don't think I won, though, because they haven't contacted me. There were a ton of entries.

This was a really simple one but I like it.

I really like this one! I call it "Apple Sauce." Lizzy and a friend are exploring our kitchen counter. I even edited the toaster oven so it doesn't look as stained as it really is.

Will Baby Jordan Please Stand Up

Jordan is officially standing. Wow. This is the new love of his life. He doesn't care about toys anymore. He just wants to stand up. He stands up in his crib now. He can reach the door knob, too!

Jordan is a whole head taller than Lizzy was at this age. In fact, Morgan says that he is only 4 or 5 inches shorter than Lizzy right now. Lizzy is 20 months older than Jordan. Jordan is taller than his baby gate. Shesh!

We fixed a few holes on our walls. This is Lizzy helping all on her own.

A lady in our ward came by to give me a little "welcome to the committee" chocolate truffle box. I put it on the counter - one of the few places where it is safe. I was excited to enjoy them later. I then proceeded to make dinner. After just a little bit that alarm in my head started blaring, "It's too quiet! Imminent disaster! Warning! Warning!" So I walked around the counter and found this:

Remember the good old days when Lizzy couldn't reach the counter? Or push the chair over so she could reach what was in the middle of the counter?

We read a verse from the Book of Mormon with Elizabeth every night as part of the bed time routine. The idea is that she repeats what we say. One night Morgan started, "And it came to pass…" Then Lizzy sweetly repeated, "Poopy pants…"

She is starting to play "mommy" with Jordan. When Jordan was sitting in the high chair a few days ago Lizzy asked him, "Want food?" without waiting for an answer she said, "okay." She walked to the cupboard, turned back and said, "Juice? okay." After she opened the cupboard she found a can of apple sauce. She turned to Jordan, "Want apple sauce? okay."

Lizzy has some yucky cough medicine that the doctor gave her. She won't take it because she knows it's disgusting, I'm sure. So we devised a plan. We offer her a little bowl of marshmallows and she is more than willing to take her medicine. It wouldn't be worth it to me. Maybe if you offered me a brownie… =)

When The Children Are Asleep I'll Dream With You

First: Project Assemble Desk

When we first got married we had this ugly little wood desk that we used to put the computer on. Pretty soon we upgraded to a half card table. Here is a picture from last October with our handy little faithful computer desk:

We liked that card table desk especially because Morgan and I could sit next to each other and do homework. Now that our two children also like to sit next to us and our table cannot accommodate all of the computer equipment (ie: Morgan's work laptop with essential second monitor and my school laptop and our printer) we saw that it was needful to acquire a larger desk. Yes we are a techie computer family.

So I researched and browsed for weeks and finally found the best deal for a gorgeous home office set. We had to assemble every little part of the desk, which I think accounted for the fantastic low price. After the kids went to sleep Morgan and I would pull out a box and start a major assembly project. There were 6 boxes. It took Morgan and I about 15 hours (30 total!) over several days to assemble the entire thing. Here is Morgan working on our lateral file. I was helping too, just taking a picture at the moment. =P

I still do not have a picture of our desk all set up because this room is in a bit of disarray. So here is a picture of what it looks like. I especially like the round corners and the storage space in the hutch. We keep all of the crayons up there.

Next: Project Flush the Fish

One of the rooms in our basement had a wallpaper border of TROUT when we moved in. It was one of those things that just yelled "REPLACE ME!" We found out, however, that removing wallpaper is EXTREMELY tedious and time consuming. And unfortunately the entire bottom half of the wall had wallpaper that also had to be removed. We didn't finish removing it all before the missionaries moved in to our basement. So they were studying in that room with half ripped down wallpaper, so we had to halt the removal. Just a couple weeks ago, though, the missionaries decided to do service for us and they removed all the wallpaper for us. They moved their study desks into the play room. (Occasionally we would hear a ball bounce or a toy piano chime during study time.)

This is the picture of the same fish wallpaper border that is still in the downstairs bathroom. These fish will just have to swim around for a while longer.

Apparently after you remove wallpaper it isn't necessarily all "removed." There were tiny impossible spots along with gashes and other blemishes all over the dry wall. Not a pretty room. So we needed to get it fixed. We had to hire someone to come do a few really bad fixes for us. Then we went to get primer and paint and all those essential painting tools. I never intended on spending money doing this… I just intended on making the fishy room inhabitable. Obviously I didn't use any foresight starting this project that wasn't really suppose to be a project in the first place.

We ended up leaving the top half of the wall the same pretty marble white and painting the bottom half olive green. We found a pretty wallpaper border that would blend the two. After a overcoming a few catastrophes this is how the room turned out. Not too bad. Don't be fooled… it wasn't this nice and pretty the whole time.

I looked at hundreds of wallpaper borders and I fell in love with this one:

Little did our sweet sleeping children know. Yes, I think Lizzy is picking her nose.

Next: Project Pink Beads

They don't have very many clocks in our church building, and that drives me crazy! So I made this watch. I'm so happy with how it turned out! It's super pretty. And if you are considering making a watch like this because you think it will be cheaper than buying one already made - think again.

Mommy is an Angel and Daddy is a Gingerbread Man

I had a fun conversation with Jessie in the middle of the night last night. We talked a lot about funny things that our kids do. I love to think about how cute our kids are. I try to remember fun moments so I can write them down.

Lizzy is NOT potty trained yet.

I walk past the bathroom one day and I see this scene.

Lizzy has been playing pretend with her new tea cup set. She's also started to play pretend with her baby dolls. The one above, for example, has poopy diapers every day. Each time the baby doll is poopy she needs to be completely undressed and re-diapered. I always have to help, too. As if I don't have enough poopy diapers to change already. I feel a bit silly changing pretend poopy diapers with my daughter who also has daily (real and stinky) poopy diapers. If she gets really good at it, maybe I will let her change Jordan's diapers. ;-)

Lizzy is going to town with her talking. She can say the things that she wants, and she's starting to put short sentences together. She'll say "I want that" and "baby sleeping." She will copy what she hears us say. She'll say "silly baby" and "poor baby" and "I got it!" I also never realized that I ALWAYS say "HEY!"… until Lizzy started saying it all the time.

I can't get over how beautiful Lizzy is and how cute Jordan is. Jordan is so squishy and kissable. His cheeks are so soft that I love to nibble at them. Jordan is army crawling all over the house now. Sometimes he will get up on his knees and bounce back and forth like he's getting ready to move, then plop on his tummy and start pulling his little squishy body across the floor.

When Lizzy was Jordan's age she would always get excited whenever we offered her a pen or spoon and then she would play with it for a long time. Jordan, however, will play with a toy for only a little while and get bored with it. He'll find something interesting, like that vibrating toothbrush. He'll play with it for a short while and then get bored with it. Then when we show it to him later he will simply ignore it.

We have this adorable book that my dad gave to us called "Princess Penelope Takes Charge." It is about a girl who gets a baby brother named Dexter. By the end of the book Penelope loves to play with Dexter. The last page shows Penelope and all her stuffed animal friends looking at cute little Dexter sleeping in his crib. Lizzy, like Penelope, gets excited about her brother. Lizzy will open the door to Jordan's room, turn on the light, and yell, "Hi baby!" Jordan will look up at her from his crib and SMILE! Lizzy will stand there and talk to him in her own little language telling him all about her day and he will roll around and keep smiling at her. He's a good little listener.

Jordan loves to watch Elizabeth. He will try to scoot over to her and play with whatever toy she is playing with. Lizzy will get mad, of course, but she is learning to give him toys so he can play too. Sometimes Lizzy will give Jordan a big hug. Jordan hates this. He starts whimpering, wiggling and yelling. It's really funny. Lizzy is very free with her hugs for Jordan, but acts rather like Jordan when we try to give her a hug.

Lizzy loves to play with her little wood animal puzzle. There are 6 little pieces and each has a handle. She has designated the lamb to be "mommy." She will come to wherever I am to hand me the lamb. I have to hold it or keep it near me. I can't put it back in the living room or give it back to her or put it back on the wood puzzle board. The horse is "baby." Jordan therefore must hold on to his horse piece. Jordan cannot give me his piece nor is he allowed to play with the "mommy" piece.

She also gave assignments to a few Christmas ornaments. I am happy to say that "Mommy" was the pretty white angel with wings and a halo. "Daddy" was a colorful gingerbread man holding a candy cane. The candy cane ornament was eaten. It only lasted about 4 minutes on the tree.

Christmas with Mom, Dad and Emily

This was such an awesome Christmas! My parents and Emily came to visit. It was fantastic! We've been looking forward to having them come and we were super sad when they had to leave. I will always remember this Christmas. =)

Lots of fun things happened these last couple weeks. Here is Jordan with his first "free style" serving of apple sauce. We did this while Katie and Caleb were visiting, so they got to see the fun mess. It was so awesome to see Katie and Caleb. They are going to be parents of TWINS in not too long. This Katie has always been destined for greatness.

The kids LOVED playing with Emily and my parents. Emily would run after Lizzy and squeal with her and have a blast. Lizzy likes to copy what Emily does and wear her jewelry and fuzzy socks. =)

Lizzy loved all her presents! Here she is wearing the tutu from Jessie. She calls it "choo-choo," as in "choo-choo train." I personally don't see the resemblance. She loves her new play dishes. She lines them all up in a line, then moves to another spot and lines them up in a different line as shown in the picture. When she woke up this morning she wasted no time in starting a tea party on her sleepy parent's bed.

We got Lizzy a sparkly green princess dress that is suppose to be the princess dress from "The Princess and the Frog." It is so pretty! It leaves sparkles EVERYWHERE. If Lizzy were to commit a crime in this dress then she would be nabbed pretty quick. This is not such a great shot of the pretty dress, however, because she insisted on wearing her "choo-choo."

Jordan and my mom hit it off right away. He would laugh and be really happy when she'd hold him. Jordan would fall asleep in her arms - even in church! Holy cow!

Lizzy loves books and loves stories to be read to her. My dad, of course, is the expert in this area. So Lizzy enjoyed sitting on her grandpa's lap and reading story after story.

I was itching to go to JoAnn Fabrics for a few weeks. I decided to wait for Mom to come because we'd both enjoy the trip. I found the perfect fabric for my winter curtains!! Blue fabric with white snowflakes and SPARKLY silver stripes. I tried doing a double layer with another fabric peaking out from the bottom of the blue fabric. It's a white fabric with fancy blue snowflakes. These curtains took a LOT longer to do than the Thanksgiving curtains because of the two layers. I'm thrilled with how they've turned out!

By the way, I signed up for JoAnn Fabric's email list and they send me coupons often. Those coupons have saved me TONS of money. Sometimes they send 5 coupons at a time - great savings!

I've been waiting to buy a pretty Christmas wreathe for a few years now. We found this one at Walmart for only $15! It is shiny on the tips of the poinsettia flowers and pine cones. It's so beautiful!

I've been SOO excited to get a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas this year. =) My parents got it for me. I've been WAITING for it. Several times in the last few months I've thought… "Now if I had my Kitchen Aid already then this would be a lot easier!" And NOW I finally have it! waaahooo! Morgan was teasing me because he thought I would want to open it before Christmas. Silly him - what would ever make him think that?

Childhood

Jordan can get really giggly. I LOVE that sound! I love to hear his happy little laugh. He loves when I put my head into his tummy and shake. He grabs on to my hair and laughs and laughs. This is Emmie playing with Jordan at Thanksgiving at Janelle's house.

Why are babies about 6 times as lovable when they are sleeping?

"Jordan, sweetie…"

"it's time to eat your vegetables."

Jordan's skin is so white and soft. He's in the 95% for his height. His head is small, so he's overall a slim little guy. He likes to put his finger in his mouth and put it to the side. He's so adorable.

When Jordan cries Lizzy walks up to him and sings him the ABC's. It's so cute. ABC's are very important to Lizzy. When she wakes up in the middle of the night she screams "Mommy! Mommy! ABC's! ABC's!" So a song or two of ABC's quiets her down for the rest of the night.

We keep the DVD's on the top shelf. Lizzy's favorite is Elmo. She's grown tired of Finding Nemo, go figure. I, however, prefer Nemo over Elmo. And SHREK! We loved the 4th one! Actually Morgan and I watched it together when the kids went to sleep. The lights were off and the Christmas tree lights were on. It was quite romantic.

Morgan and I were talking about a few things that we remember from our childhood. I remember that I told some crazy stories. They were completely made up, but I told them anyway. It didn't seem like lying or anything, I was just telling a story. haha.

One time I remember sitting on the bench swing with an adult, I think it was Toni. We were looking at the birds and trees in our neighbor's yard. Toni said, "Are those crows?" I don't know why I decided to do this, but I responded, "No, it's a new kind of bird that they've found. The scientists just discovered it." Of course Toni knew I was full of it, but I had no idea. "Are you sure? They look about the size of crows." Toni was a good sport to play along. "Well, this new bird is about the size of a crow." Why did I completely make this up? Because I really didn't know the answer? So I faked it…? Maybe.

When I was in Mrs. Stine's class I was 6 or 7 years old. There were two other students along with me that were identified as good readers. So we were given chapter books to read from the library. The books were maybe 90 pages long and didn't have many pictures. We were suppose to give oral reports about our books when we were done. So each day during reading time I would open my book and read. I didn't know, however, that you were suppose to continue reading where you left off the last time. So each day I started reading from the very beginning. I didn't know how they expected me to read the entire book, and it wasn't very interesting with no pictures. So I wasn't too excited about this chapter book. Anyways, later on came the day when I was suppose to give my little report about the book. The other 2 kids gave their report and then I stood up in front of the class - everyone was sitting on the floor looking up at me. Quite casually I gave my little book report. My imagination conjured up a story for me and I told the story about some kids playing on the playground with a big beach ball. The beach ball, however, got stolen by some dark stranger. So the kids had to find out who took the ball. In the end the kids found the ball and all was good. I remember the teacher asking me some question and I answered it with no problem. Then I sat down while everyone clapped for me. And I never thought about it again. Nobody else had any idea that I was just blowing hot air. If the teacher knew that I had fudged that report, she never let on. Morgan assures me, however, that the teacher must have known.

I've seen other kids just sort of make up stories. I wasn't trying to be bad or anything, but the story just came out. haha.

Magic

I think it is a bit funny that my Photoshop textbook refers to some of the program's functions as "magic." I wonder what the programmers that spent the last couple years trying to code these healing tools think of that.