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!

The Greatest Invention of all Time

This is the greatest carpet cleaner of all time. It's called Folex, it's about $5, and it does wonders. Last night I was finishing painting my hallway (which has been in the works for like 6 months) and I had a few drops spill of paint on the carpet. The folex took it right off. Then, I had the extention pole screwed into the roller handle, and as I was rolling, the handle broke. So, the roller dropped on the carpet and then bounced. Tim and I ran and grabbed this stuff and started pouring it on. It got full on paint out of my carpet! It has gotten kool-aid (the red kind) out of my couch, and almost anything I've ever tried. They used to sell it at Wal-Mart, but I can't find it there anymore. It is at Lowe's in the cleaning aisle! Get it while you can!

Minnie is a full fledged crawler as you can see. This is in the very corner of our family room, which is usually blocked by a huge ottoman, and some how, she gets there and just chills under the table. She is getting fast and I have to watch her around stairs, and bathrooms, and everything else. She even stood up today by pulling herself up. She fell down pretty quick, but she is moving way to quickly for me. Something that is not moving quick enough is this dang baby food stuff. One of the most frustrating times of being a mom is mealtime!! Oh man. For about 4 weeks now I've been feeding Minnie baby food, and just in the last few days she has finally learned to eat it. But, forget about her opening her mouth. I feel like I do a song and dance, while shaking a toy, just so she'll open her mouth and I can get a spoonful in there.

Sometimes you just gotta take a picture before church because they just look so dang cute.

Anderson loves Minnie and is always wanting to kiss her and hug her and always says, "Hi Minnie! Doing?" (he means what are you doing). He even tries to keep her from going where she shouldn't (because he is really good at doing that).

So for a couple months now Andy has been fully potty trained. The accidents are few are far between! But for some reason, he sometimes does this same thing when he wakes up. He has a rug in his room with different color squares. So he'll get up, take his pants and undies off, and pee in one specific blue square. Usually, he'll come in without pants on and say "Uh Oh" and we go in his room and sure enough, the square is wet. This time, he managed to get his undies back on. Impressive right? This kid gives us a run for our money! I think Heavenly Father knows our challenges because Minnie is the best baby, and Andy is well, let's just say my sister says if she had him first, she would probably not have anymore.

It's official, I am no longer putting bows and clips in Minnie's hair to look cute or distinguish the fact that she is a girl (because apparently when people ask they don't see the bright pink shirt). They are now for taming that mane! I know what you're thinking, oh poor me who has a baby girl with so much hair that you HAVE to put it back. Sorry, it's the truth.

6 Months

Minnie had her 6 month appointment today. She is 14 lbs and 15 ounces and starting to thin out a bit. She is in the 90th percentile for height and everything looks good. I have to take her to the Cardiologist in October for a follow up and if her clogged tear duct doesn't clear up in a couple months we'll have to fix it. It took both of us to hold Minnie down to check her nose and ears because she is so dang WIGGLY! Same thing with the shot. At least she took a good nap later.

Family Pictures

My sister in law Brandi was in town and took our family pictures a few days ago (Thanks Brandi). They turned out so good. It was sooo hot. For those of you who know me well, one of the Coombs curses is sweating. So I had a couple of washcloths strategically placed under my arms so I didn't have sweaty pit shirt in my pictures. Gross right. So we got some good ones and Brandi had to photoshop Andy's forehead (from the iron incident). Of course this morning, the scab fell off and it looks almost as good as new. Two days too late I guess. Minnie has learned how to crawl, sit up, and sit up from laying down this week. Way too soon for me.