"i do it!"

elijah is trying so hard to be a big boy and assert his independence. the most common phrase out of his mouth these days is a variation on the theme: "I DO IT!". he says this in response to any offer of help and any attack on his two-year-old capabilities. most of the time, i can let him do whatever it is that he's wanting to do on his own (brushing his teeth, putting his shirt on, climbing into his carseat, etc.) but sometimes, i just can't. i try to make sure he's still involved in the process, even if he can't do the bulk of the task, though that doesn't always pacify him. it's a stage that all kids go through and we're working through it but that knowledge doesn't make the day to day drudgery of it any easier...

poolside.

on saturday afternoon, while little lucy slept in the shade, we enjoyed the cool, sparkling water at john's cousin's house. elijah finally warmed up to the water, jumping and splashing and refusing to get out despite his uncontrollable shivers. he was so brave, letting john throw him up in the air and down into the water. it was the perfect compliment to a summers day!

kiddos.

kiddos.
i have kiddos.
crazy.

scenes from daily life

adjusting to life as four...instead of three.
laundry. lots of laundry.
a stubborn little boy. aged two. definitely trying his mommy's patience on a minute to minute basis.
a sweet little girl that likes to sleep. working on the whole eating thing. still.
more laundry. milk soaking through every layer. tired of smelling like spoiled milk.
not enough sleep. can't close my eyes...because of the wonder.
wondering at the blessing of it all.
a daughter.
a son.
a husband that loves me in spite of my distinct aroma and lack of clean clothes.
life is good.

kymber is one!

since i posted pictures from kendall's birthday celebration, i figured i'd better post pictures from kymber's too! as you can see, she had a fantastic time; that girl is such a ham, which is why we love her so much! happy birthday kymber!

an introduction...

lucy kate anaya

little lucy made her way into our world early in the morning on the 9th of may. she weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. she is absolutely beautiful in every way; we're soaking up these precious new moments with her and couldn't be more blessed.

stories and more pictures to come...

and now, for the nursery

putting this nursery together has been an ongoing project for the past few months. the first part of the project was getting elijah out of it and into his big boy room. that was accomplished back in january, thankfully without much pomp and circumstance. i didn't want to repaint the room but i did want to make it a little different for this baby. so...to make it easier on myself, i went with the same basic color scheme as elijah's big boy room (except the greens are different) with an alphabet border (it's really hard to see in these pictures). the bedding i have picked out (from target) is super sweet with polka dots and abc's. (note: it's not currently on the bed...i actually haven't bought it yet). anyways...here's a peek at what we've done so far. there's still a few things that i'd like to do...but i'm in no hurry since the baby won't be sleeping in here for the first few months anyways (we have a bassinet in our room). i'm actually considering moving the chair (a wonderful loaner from our neighbors...THANK YOU!) into our room too so that i can nurse in it during those frequent middle of the night feedings. we'll see. there's also a couple chinese lanterns that need to be hung from the ceiling and a print or two i'm going to order from etsy.com with the baby's name/inital. super cute.

enjoy the pictures!




so...that's it!

elijah's big boy room...

elijah's big boy room is complete! well...almost. there's a few finishing touches we want to do before it's truly done (painting dirt and motorcycles on the wall...putting up some wall stickers and frames/canvases as well as mounting some shelves for "special things")...but for the most part...it's finished! hooray! and i loveLoveLOVE the way it turned out.

here's corie helping me tape...such a HUGE help that was. she actually did most of it...i just did a measly little section in the corner. THANK YOU CORIE!

the next set of pictures are of john finishing up the green stripe. when i envisioned having vertical stripes in elijah's room...i did not envision the hassle it would be to put them on there. i can't find the first picture i took...of the way it looked originally...but you get the idea.





just in case you want to torture yourself and do stripes on your wall...here's how we (john) did it. after taping two colors (red and brown went up first), he came through with a narrow brush and painted the first coat, staying away from the taped edges. then, even before the first coat had dried, he took painters chalking and smeared a thin coat along the edge of the tape. apparently, this fills in the bumps and lumps left by the texturing and prevents the paint from seeping under the tape. he then quickly painted on a nice, thick second coat of paint, this time covering the chalking. as soon as the second coat was up, he quickly pulled the tape off the wall (we used masking tape. john thinks it works way better than blue painters tape...plus...it's cheaper.) leaving a beautifully straight line. he did the red and brown stripes a couple weekends ago and then we taped and painted the green stripe yesterday. he didn't have to paint the blue stripe since the walls were originally painted blue anyways. kinda handy. so...like i said, it was a huge undertaking but thankfully john doesn't mind painting...he actually enjoys it...especially since he didn't have to do the prep work of taping (again...thanks to corie!).






yesterday evening, we headed up I-5 to the IKEA in west sacramento. have i ever mentioned how much i LOVE ikea? mmhmm...a wonderful, wonderful place. we, of course, spent way too much time there...but enjoyed ourselves nonetheless...though i was thoroughly tuckered out by the end of our trip. we were able to get elijah's bed and a little side table as well as a few accessories for his room. some of the fun treasures we found? a little igloo tent (for only $10! not sure if that will stay in his room though...if it becomes a nap time distraction, it might have to be moved), a bright green hanging mesh cubby thingy (for socks, big boy underwares, toys and such), a mat with lots of roads for driving his cars and some pillows for his bed. there were several other things i wanted to get but we decided to save those things for another trip. (though i did get some fun do-das for the nursery...pictures of that to come soon).

all in all...i really like the way it looks. obviously, it will never be as clean or as organized as it is in the pictures, but oh well...it is a little boy's room after all.