The Kids Rooms

The kids' rooms were our first "decorating" project in our house. Ella's was first because I had an idea I wanted to do for hers, and since she was still sleeping in our room it made it easy that she wouldn't be displaced. We painted the walls (green) and ceiling (white) and then added wainscoting and a chair rail. Sounds easy enough, right?? The wainscoting was more difficult to attach to the wall then we expected. We spent several late nights smashing our fingers with hammers. We even think Brody picked up a few things he heard while asleep across the hall. While driving in the car one day he said out of no where - "Dang it! My finger!" It made us laugh. Anyway, after the panelling was put up the chair rail was really easy and made the room look much better. Thank goodness for laser levelers and miter saws! We have to return part of her ceiling fan (the light ended up not working). Lowe's is letting us just bring back the light though instead of taking the whole fan down. So when we get the new light up the only thing left is putting stuff on her walls. I like the idea of her name on the wall, but I thought E-L-L-A would look a little plain, so I am making pillow letters that are a little bigger and have more detail to jazz it up. I have a couple of other things for the walls too, but we are waiting for the letters to decide where they'll go. Once those are done I will add more pictures, but for now I wanted to share what it looks like!

Brody's room was a little harder. We weren't as motivated to paint or do anything to involved. We found a Cars border and wall stickers that don't mess up your paint and thought he'd love it! We finally got it put up (again a big shout out to laser levels!) and the other Cars on the wall and it looks so cute! I had a hard time getting into it, thinking it wouldn't go or it may look cheesy - but I am so over it! Brody loves it. He loves to name all the Cars and he can look from his bed and see them all, it keeps him occupied when he should be taking a nap but isn't! I love seeing all the color in his room. I still need to do a valance - but am debating on what colors (black and white or something to match his bedding). All in all, it was cute and pretty inexpensive. We figured he'd be into something else in a few years and we could change the decorating then.

Fun Family Times

We had a very fun May! We got lots of visits with family. First my Grandma and Grandpa came, then my sister Amy and her husband Will and then Brandon's family came to play! Here are a few pictures of us having fun with them.

Grandpa riding the tractor.

Great Grandma and Grandma feeding Brody all sorts of junk at the baseball game!

Amy, Will, my mom and Ella watching the baseball game.

Brody running through the splash park at our swimming pool.

Stephanie & Ella on Memorial Day.

Grandma with Ella at the baseball game.

The whole family at the JFK memorial in Downtown Dallas.

Brandon Michael Burton

Thanks Kristin for the tag!

1. Who is your man? Brandon
2. How long have you been together? Almost 6 years
3. How long dated? We usually tell strangers who ask this about 6 months - but the truth is 5 weeks. Engaged? We were engaged for about 6 months (we don't consider it a lie - we just include our engagement in the amount of time we dated.
4. How old is your man? 28
5. Who eats more? Depends - if it has sugar in it then definitely me.

6. Who said "I love you" first? It was really cheesy - Brandon said something sweet and then I think I asked him - "Does that mean you love me?"
7. Who is taller? Brandon
8. Who sings better? I don't know - neither of us is too bad I guess.

9. Who is smarter? Probably depends on the subject - but his dad says I am the smartest girl he knows.
10. Who's temper is worse? Definitely me.
11. Who does the laundry? Me, unless Brandon is out of underwear and then he'll do his own.
12. Who does the dishes? Me. Brody does help put silverware away though.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me - just like Kristin I have to sleep on my right side and face the outside.
14. Who pays the bills? I do. Brandon has very little idea how much is in our bank account.
15. Who has bigger feet? Brandon
16. Who has longer hair? Me.
17. Who is better with the computer? Brandon, but I'm not too bad either.
18. Who mows the lawn? Brandon does. See picture above - We bought a riding lawn mower and he loves it!
19. Who cooks dinner? Me - but Brandon does all the BBQ-ing.
20. Who drives when you are together? Brandon. He knows his way around better.
21. Who pays when you go out? Brandon. I never have cash - I like it in the bank.

22. Who is most stubborn? We are both pretty stubborn.
23. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? We will both do it, but not quickly.

24. Whose parents do you see the most? Right now we see my parents more.
25. Who kissed who first? Brandon
26. Who asked who out? Brandon asked me out.
27. Who proposed? Brandon did.
28. Who is more sensitive? Depends on what it is about - more often me.
29. Who has more friends? I have more friends that I see, but Brandon keeps in touch with people from his past way better than me.

30. Who has more siblings? Equal.
31. Who wears the pants in the family? I think we share them.

Now I'll tag Lindsey, Rachel & Erin

They said it would happen...

I'll spare you the pictures for this post - they weren't pretty! Everyone that has had kids will probably read this and just laugh at me and remember the time when there kids did it - but still it is the worst thing EVER! ...

Brody is now in his big boy bed and does pretty well. If he doesn't want to sleep I don't really care as long as he stays in his room and is quiet. Today he was up there and then I heard him in the playroom. I went upstairs to put him back in his room and when I grabbed his hand I felt it first ... POOP - everywhere! He probably didn't want to be in his room because it stunk! He has NEVER showed an interest in taking his clothes off until today. He removed his shorts, and his poopy diaper (also another first). That alone would have probably been okay if he hadn't stepped in the poop and then continued to walk around the room. Since I obviously didn't see it happening this is all how I guessed it could have happened. He doesn't like being dirty, so I think he must have tried to clean his feet off and thats how his hands got dirty. So I found little Brody poopy footprints all over his room and a path to the playroom. I found books with poopy fingerprints and poor Mr. Potato head will never be the same. His sheets and pillows and comforter were all dirty too.

I lost it. I know I didn't react how I should have - but bear in mind it was poop all over my new carpet. Brody got put into the tub (after I removed all the bath toys so I didn't have to clean them again) and scrubbed down. I kept asking him why he took his diaper off and he just looked at me and then looked down and cried. I was so angry. I spent forty five minutes scrubbing poop out of carpet and I have a pile of laundry now that is at least 3 if not 4 loads. Ordinarily I wouldn't really care about some extra laundry, but we are having family come in town tomorrow and I already had a list of more things to do than usual. It just made it all the more irritating.

After it was all cleaned up I pulled out some big boy underwear and explained that poop belongs in a diaper or in the toilet and if he'd like to poop in the toilet he could wear the big boy underwear. That seemed to make him happy. We'll see. I just hope this is the only time this happens.

One out of 100

Until now I had been using my doctor in California to refill some perscriptions for me, but finally he cut me off. So, I had to get myself established out here with a doctor and I went in on Tuesday thinking it would be a quick visit. It was relatively short, however he noticed I hadn't had a tetnus booster in 11 years. Darn it. I don't mind needles at all, I don't mind getting shots - but I HATE the tetnus shot. I remember the last 2 I got because of how awful I felt the next couple of days. In first grade I couldn't move my arm for what felt like forever (I did get to miss school though) and in 1997 I remember my arm looked as if I had been hit by a baseball and had a severe bruise that had its own temprature several degrees hotter than the rest of my body. But, I took the shot anyway hoping for the best. So far it is the worst yet (in my limited opinion). I started throwing up at 3:00 in the morning and proceeded to continue until after 6:00 am. So gross. I hate throwing up. Brandon was gone, and for some reason when no one is there with you it just seems worse than it is. The information sheet they gave me about the shot says 1 in 100 people will have a reaction like I did. Go figure I'd be the lucky one!

Miss Ella at 4 Months

Weighed in at 13 lbs 1/2 oz - a big surprise to mom who thought she seemed more chubby than that.
Length: 24 3/4 inches - 6 1/4 inches more than her birth length!
Head: 41.5 cm - don't know what that equates to, but most likely big like the rest of her family.
Shoe Size: Most size 1s are still too big - others that have had girl babies is this normal? For awhile I was afraid she might be a dwarf because her feet aren't growing! By this age Brody was well into in size 2's.
Hobbies: Blowing bubbles (seen in picture below), playing with her fish on the swing and the giraffe on the floor gym.
Talents: Being a makeshift parking lot for all her brothers cars.
Notable Achievements: sleeps 10-12 hours at night, can roll over both ways (tummy to back and back to tummy)
Bad Habits: sucking thumb (although mom doesn't think so since it makes her happy...and it is so cute to watch!)
Goals for the future: Growing more hair for mom to play with, sitting up without help and eating solid foods.

Our Happy Little Girl!

Our Potty Success!

Since Easter when Brody got his potty chair he will occassionally say "wanna sit on potty." We've had him sit on it, but more often than not he wants his clothes on so not much happens. But tonight he asked to sit on the potty and he was getting ready for bed so we took his diaper off and sat him on the potty to read his bedtime story. He sat there listening to the story for awhile and then I heard it ... he peed! I immediately made a big deal out of it - to which he looked at me like I was some sort of freak and went on talking about his book. We had been playing yesterday and today with some big boys and he saw them use the potty, so I am wondering if it helped him want to try. I am glad he is starting to "get it" - although who knows if he'll even care tomorrow!

We also recently set up his big boy bed. He has taken naps in it, but when I put him in it at night he climbed out and fixed the sheets and blankets and put the pillows and shams back where they belonged. When I walked in his room he was sitting on the bed reading books. I was too lazy to keep putting him back in bed and laying with him does nothing to help the situation, so I just put him in the crib and he went right to sleep. I just thought it was funny to walk in and see that he liked his bed made and didn't want to have it messed up to sleep in. I took his picture in it and he looks so small. It makes me a little sad (but happy too) to see my little boy doing all these new big boy things.