Summer Stuff

Well, it's been a busy summer, I can't believe it's almost over. It's been too busy for me to sit down and go through the thousands and thousands (literally) of photos Jess has taken this summer, and pick out my favourites to upload here but I think I'm finally ready to give it a shot.

I'll start with a few random pictures I like and then I'll talk about our camping trip to Cold Lake.

First off, here's what happens when you leave the kids alone and they're being really really quiet...

First, he was mad that I took his markers away from him:

Then he laughed when I started laughing:

And then he proudly showed me all his artwork on his belly:

Jess' "little" brother Spencer came to visit us a few times. It's not every uncle who will dress up in a pink cape to play with his nieces and nephews...

We went to Fort Edmonton Park a few times because Hudson is at that age where trains are the coolest thing ever. Here's the train we rode on:

And Hudson's face when we climbed on board:

It was a rainy day but it wasn't pouring and we still had a good time...despite the duelling pipe bands marching around the park. We happened to be there on their annual Celtic celebration and there were about a dozen bagpipe bands marching around, each one playing a different tune. I found it quite entertaining but Jess was less than impressed!

June Happenings

I just want to post some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

We've finally gotten some nice summery weather and the kids have been outside a lot. Yesterday, Maira was playing by herself with the sidewalk chalk and I noticed that she had drawn a little chalk house for her polly pockets, with beds and other furniture. Very cute.

Hudson loves trains and farm animals so now that Fort Edmonton Park is open, I've been taking him and Maira there whenever I can. The first time I took him, he talked about it for days. He was thrilled to ride a "big choo-choo", ride on a big horse, and pet the goats and pigs. He absolutely loves it there. Here we are on the "big choo-choo":

And here are my little cowboy and cowgirl riding the ponies:

And here they are playing at the old playground they have there:

We also rode on the rides they have at the old 30's style carnival:

Lots of fun, they really love going there.

Another thing that happened last week is the Awards Ceremony at Shae's school. She received an award for excellence in her Construction class, as well as a medal and certificate for earning Honours with Distinction (90+ average). I was so proud of her!

Lots of smart girls at her school!

Scripture Graffiti, a Beautiful T-Shirt Redesign, and a Walk in the Woods

I may or may not be getting slightly carried away with decorating my home with vinyl. I've been feeling overwhelmed lately at my new church calling (I was sustained today: I'm the new primary president in my ward) and I found some comfort in this scripture from Isaiah:

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

And so, I decided to put it up on the wall in my dining room:

You can call it scripture graffiti, I call it inspirational decor. : )

We just got back from a great little family reunion in Raymond last week. I don't have any pictures to post from it. Even though everyone else was taking pictures the whole time, I never thought to pull out my camera. Oops. But, we did get a professional photographer to take our picture so I'll post those when they come back.

But while we were down there, Jess' sister Bee gave Shae a t-shirt that was too small for her, thinking it might fit Shae (I think it was Bee, or was it Caley?) Anyways, Shae's into embellishing t-shirts lately, this was her third one, I believe, and I couldn't believe how beautiful it turned out! She did it completely on her own, I just came down to my craft room one day and there it was, all done. I'm not sure how she's going to wash it since the sparkles are glued onto the flowers, but we'll see!

She also made the turquoise bracelet, following this tutorial, and that too, just appeared. I sent her the link for the tutorial, thinking it would interest her, and the next thing I knew, there it was!

Edmonton is beautiful right now, all green, with all the fruit trees in bloom. We decided to go on a walk to the off-leash park yesterday and we all had a great time, especially Howie. Hudson spent most of the time collecting as many sticks as he could:

Connor didn't want to go at first, he said it would be too BORING but we had to keep reminding him while we were there to stop having fun, this was all supposed to be boring!

When we were in the woods, I saw this great log that I thought would make a really cute picture of the kids so I asked them to all sit on it. BUT, we never did get a single picture with them all looking at the camera. Especially since Hudson decided too soon that he was ready to get down and Connor had a little meltdown. Oh well! At least it made me laugh to look at the pictures afterwards!

The light of the early evening was beautiful and trees were sending out their fluffy seeds so thick that in places it looked like snow. Now if only there hadn't been any mosquitoes, it would have been perfect.

Laundry Room Makeover AKA I Hate Wallpaper

I've been noticing a lot of laundry room makeovers lately. I like the idea of beautifying a place you spend so much time in but since I have more of a laundry closet than a laundry room, I've never given my own space much thought.

But then, a couple of months ago, I had the idea of transforming my laundry closet/room with wallpaper and I got really excited.

Unfortunately, wallpaper was both more expensive and WAY harder to apply than I had expected. But, despite that, I am very very happy with the end result and I'm glad I did it. Just please, lock me up in a padded cell if I ever talk about trying to apply my own wallpaper ever again.

So, here are a few before shots of my dated, messy, and frankly, ugly, laundry room:

See that Gap plastic bag sitting on the washer? That's my garbage where I put the lint I pull out of the dryer. Not pretty but it did the job.
I had tried to cuten up the place with that laundry room sign but it's so high, no one ever sees it.
On the right wall, we had started measuring our kids once or twice a year. This was something I wanted to keep but I had an idea to make it way cuter.

....And now....the "After":

This is the same sign that was hanging above the doors, repainted and hung in a more visible spot. I also used vinyl lettering this time instead of trying to paint the letters by hand like I did on the last one.

I put my laundry detergent into some pretty jars so I wouldn't have any ugly detergent boxes to look at on my new shelf. And again, vinyl lettering on the jars.

Here's my new measuring wall: a fence board, painted and labelled with inches, like a big giant ruler.

This is a new drying rack I bought at Ikea, it folds down or extends out, depending on whether you're using it. I used to just hang dry things on the edge of a laundry basket sitting on top of the washing machine. This is so much prettier.

I already had a couple of antique pieces that had been displayed elsewhere in the house, which were perfect for this space: a washboard and an old iron.

(If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see evidence of my wallpaper issues. See how I couldn't get the two pieces to line up perfectly and there's a gap? Also, you can see in the corner, some of the many, many wrinkles in the paper. As soon as I applied the paste, the paper bunched up and wrinkled and stretched and I could not, for the life of me, get it to lie flat. Soooo frustrating!)

I also repurposed the white basket on the shelf from elsewhere in the house to be my new, much prettier, lint garbage.

With some new paint on the cupboards and some new handles, along with the wallpaper, and many many hours of work, the space looks completely different. I love it!!!

And, in a completely unrelated topic, this is a shot of my goofy boys, pretending to be cowboys. Hudson is such a little mimic, he does everything Connor and Maira do and I thought his attempt at a cowboy costume like Connor's was pretty hilarious.