Hayden's Room!

We finished! We decided to paint Hayden's room a light violet. We wanted it girly but not too crazy. I think it turned out perfect. Of course, pictures never do look the same as the real deal, but you get a good idea. It's a change but a subtle change. Hayden kept saying "It's so pretty!" That works for me.

The before shots:

Hayden helping:

The finished product:

Hayden and Carl seeing it for the first time since it was done:

I wonder what room we are going to do next? :)

My Hero

It's summertime. Well, I guess summertime is coming to an end, but it's still hot outside, and with heat brings flies and lots of them. We don't own a fly swatter. We should. They cost about $.50 at the store. But in reality, we don't need one. I have my own fly killer. His name is Carl. When he was growing up his mother taught him the neat little trick of filling up a big cup full of suds, hovering under a fly who has landed on the ceiling, and ever so gently, push the cup up to the ceiling causing the fly to swoop downward and into the cup of suds, making escape impossible.


This is why I married a tall man.
genius.

Ella the Fairy (For My Mom)

Ella really is such a good dog and puts up with a lot of our nonsense, like this picture below. She's the best!

We have been pretty proud of her lately. I have finally decided that it is time I had a decent nights sleep and be able to stretch as much as I wanted in my own bed without a dog in my way.

She takes up a lot of space for such a small thing. I know what you are thinking, "you should have thrown her in a crate a long time ago at night. Easy fix." And I know, I really should have, but it never happened. It has been 5 1/2 years since we got Ella and she has slept in our bed about 99.9% of that time. We are crazy. But I think we have made a break through. We couldn't take it anymore, we needed space, so a couple of nights ago, when Ella wouldn't go to the foot of the bed because the fan was on and she was being a little whimpy(cold) Carl took control, made her a bed on the floor and put her there. We waited. We waited and waited. I was expecting her to whine and pace the floor like she has done before when she wasn't on the bed. She didn't do that. She stayed like a good girl. The whole night. It was glorious! And she did it the next night. A breakthrough for sure! We might not know how to handle all this new found freedom and stretching room!

So now we've got the space thing under control, if only I could control her snoring....that still seems to wake me up...

For you, Mom:

Just Call Me the Weather Girl

I cannot lie.
Whenever I see this:

I get very excited.
I have always loved storms. Always, since I can remember. I lived a lot of my life in Oklahoma, so you kind of have to be a fan of storms because if you're not, then you might be considered weird. :) just kidding. I don't know if that's really true, but most people you talk to from there will tell you that storms can be pretty amazing. Even scary. But we won't get into the scary parts today.
When a storm would be coming, my family would run outside like a moth to a flame. Even with hail falling, my brothers would run down the street screaming. Often times, my mom and I would hop in the car with the video camera and go shoot the storm from afar, just in case we saw any real action, or a tornado. We never did catch a tornado with our camera. That would have been amazingly terrifying.
I now live in Utah. Storms don't happen near as much as they do in Oklahoma, but we get an occasional good thunderstorm. Today was a pretty good one.
(I will have it known that I never wish harm or damage to anyone or their property.)
The past couple of days have been exciting weather. Nothing too crazy, but enough. Hayden has been fun to have around in a good rain storm. She loves to sit on the porch and watch with me. And I appreciate her humoring me.

Hayden standing in the raining jumping excitedly.

It rained a lot in a short amount of time. I'm so happy we got our retaining wall up or all that rain would have been in our yard! (you can see our boulders in about the middle going right)

And this is just awesome. You can't really tell, but this is Ella holding on for dear life in the wind.

I was so excited about today's storm that I let Hayden stay up an hour past her normal nap time to watch it with me. I know~CRAZY!

This is just a silly video of Hayden and Ella getting blown away.

So, the moral of the story is that I like thunderstorms.
The End

Painting Part 2

We have decided to paint. Again. The baseboards and doors were fun and we are still kind of working on those, but we decided we were up for another challenge. The kitchen. And Hayden's room (where we are still working on finishing her doors and baseboards). But first the kitchen.

So this is what we have been doing for the past 2 days:

Because he's cute.

For anyone who has been to our house, you would know that everything was painted beige. EVERYTHING (hence the painting of the baseboards and doors. Beige can be a pretty boring color to stare at everyday. So we wanted some fun and a little umph. So we went with blue. Bold but not terribly crazy. I hope.

(I realize the pictures are a little blurred but I didn't want to turn the flash on because it made the color seem very very blue, but in reality, it's just very blue :)

Tada!

I love it but I think anytime you take beige and add any kind of color to it, it takes some getting used to.

Up next: HAYDEN'S ROOM!

Rocky Mountain Love

We went to Colorado last weekend and had a wonderful, amazing, great, fun, relaxing time. Every time I go there, I come home wondering why we don't live there? It's beautiful! Carl's sister lives in Parker, just south of Denver and it is gorgeous. Maybe I like it because the air is so clean and it's so open, or maybe it's because there is a huge prairie dog field near their house. For whatever reason, I love it.

The main reason for our visit:

This cute girl (our niece) was getting baptized and we wanted to be there for the big day. It was so special and we are so proud of her for making that decision. We love you!

It was nice to hang out with Laurel (carl's sis) and her family and enjoy our time at their beautiful home. We wish we could see them more often. They have such a sweet family. Plus it's so fun to see Hayden interact with her cousins!

While we were in Colorado, Carl's parents had invited us to stay with them a couple of days in Breckenridge at their timeshare. Who are we to pass that up? I had been there once with Mom and Dad McCain 2 years ago when Hayden was just a baby, but Carl had never been. It was fun to show him the cool ski town. A few highlights would include:

1. Everyday we had a huge bubble bath in the big jet tub.


2. Teaching Hayden how to play pool.

3. Eating Crepes.


4. Eating fondue :)

5. Grandma saving us all by calming down a rambunctious Hayden, while trying to eat fondue.

6. Sitting in or jumping into the hot tub.

7. Uncle Carl protecting the girls from the Beast.


8. A good game of Apples to Apples :)


9. Our 2 little foxes that would come out everyday to say hi.

Of course being with family is always so comforting. Thanks, Mom and Dad McCain for inviting us to come with you! We love you!

Here are just a couple of videos having fun: