Firsts

Anderson has been a self-made vegetarian since birth. He hates meat and won't even eat a chicken nugget (not for me at least). So we've started to "bribe" him with things just so he will at least take a few bites, in hopes that once he actually tastes it, he will like it. So, our standby bribes are, if you take 3 bites you can take a bath (works every time!), if you take a bite dad will get the trains out, and on this day he got his first hand stirred milkshake. My Grandma Minnie always made hand stirred milkshakes, so we are high maintenance around here when it comes to those. He loved his first milkshake.
Anderson also got his first tie for church, or as Tim calls it, his first "peepie wiper" (it's a bit long but the selection at the thrift store isn't that promising). I have been looking forever and can't find one that fits him, so oh well. He is focused on another intense episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He now sings along with the songs and can do the roll call by himself.

Minnie turned 7 months the other day and has just gotten her first tooth, and can now pull herself up. The other day I was hanging Andy's shirts up and had some hangers on his mini couch in his room. Minnie pulled her self up and cruised right on over to get the hangers. Her head barely clears the big couch down stairs which she has just started pulling herself up on.

She's pretty funny and a good baby. Her hair kills me.

Projects

I tried to put Minnie's hair in a pony tail the other day...it was so cute while it lasted! I've been in the mood for projects so we decided to get them done while we still want to.

When you walk in from the garage at my house, you walk into the laundry room. The back wall has nothing on it, and I've seen a version of this before. I've seen molding (kinda like a chair rail) butted up against itself to make a rail. Then you put hooks on it and kids names above them so each person has their own hook. Since this is where you walk in, you can hang your stuff and have it ready when you leave. So this is the beginning. These are doors from an old armoir we had (which has finally bit the dust and all of it's parts have been reused). Tim cut them down to fit. Now I have to finish spackling the holes and gaps and then paint it. Then I'll use some old door knobs that we are replacing, paint them, and screw them on for hooks. So this project will basically cost me whatever the paint to spray the knobs costs.I would use something I already have but I'm all out! Later I'll put the finished product...hopefully it looks good and works.

Finally I feel like our room is done, because it's always the last one we get to. I love these things above the bed! They are my new favorite thing. We got the idea from one of my mom's Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine. Basically you use an outdoor rubber mat as a stencil. My mom gave us some left over wood, we stained it, put the mat over it, and spray painted the blue. The mat was $6 at Ross, the stain was $4, spray paint $3 and the wood was free! The best part is you can do whatever color you want to match the room.

When we lived in Glendale we covered our headboard with some brown silk my mom gave us (If any of you know good old Renee, she is quite the bargain shopper--and my sisters and I always come home with something new). We just had it sitting on the floor, so we finally stuck a few boards underneath it to raise it up. The curtains were $2 a yard fabric at Home Fabrics (way cheaper than Joann's, even with the coupon). We have a bay window so I needed 10 yards of fabric! I was too lazy to line them so I made smaller panels of a left over white sheet that was tearing and put them on a tension rod that is hidden by the blind valence. It does the job and makes it as dark as possible in there, not that we could sleep past 6 am even if we wanted to. I've got a few more projects I want to try. Let's hope the motivation stays a little bit so I can finish them. Thank goodness for Tim who will help me too!