Kate's Veil

So we are smack dab in the middle of another pre-wedding week (sister-in-law Bekah) and the pictures were just finished from Paul and Kate's wedding.  So I have been spending nap time looking at them over and over because oh my gosh my brother got married and I was there (most of the time) and it was just so wonderful and beautiful!  

Kate and her mom invited my mom and myself to go cake tasting with her a few months before the wedding.  We also got to go to the winery where the wedding was and help pick the wine that they would serve.  Then we helped her pick out a hair piece and since that place was right across from the bridal shop they let her take the piece and try it on with her dress.  So I also got to see her dress!  It was great to get to spend some time with her since I feel like I don't know her that well and they live so far away!  Anyway, they brought out a birdcage veil for her to try with her dress and it was so pretty, but also $50 (or so) and I looked at it and figured I could make the same thing for a lot less.  So when we were down in Winnemucca in June I talked to Kate about it to see what she was looking for exactly and offered to make her a veil.  I wasn't sure at the time if she wanted me to make it or if she preferred to buy the one from the store (which I wanted to buy for her if she did, to give her a little something for taking great pictures of the kids this spring!)  

Kate's mom found her mother's veil and took it off the hairpiece it was attached to, washed it and passed it on to me.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little panicky holding onto an old piece of veil and needing to turn it into exactly what Kate wanted.  I felt a little bit of pressure to not mess things up!  The veil came to me in a perfect circle which made it really easy to work with.  It only took me a few minutes to gather the back of the veil and sew it onto a small hair comb.  There were a few holes in the veil and fortunately I had just bought a really heavy duty stiff thread for mending our tent that was exactly the color of the veil.  I tied tiny knots around the holes pulling the veil back together and hopefully looking like it did originally.  

When the veil was taken off the original hair piece there was a big white spot where the veil was gathered together.  This spot sat right toward the front of the veil and would be very visible.  I showed it to Kate and she really liked the veil, then I showed her my idea of covering the white spot with some thread I had that looks like peacock feathers (peacock was the theme of the wedding), she loved it!  So the morning of the wedding I attached the little blue bit of feathery thread over the white spot on the veil, I think the whole thing only took me maybe 20 minutes to fix up but I think it turned out great, she seemed to really like it and I think it's very special to wear this piece that was her Grandma's (I wore my Grandma's hairpiece in our wedding too).  She even mentioned in her program that I had made the veil for her. And since everything I did was tied on it could be taken apart and used in a different way in the future, if somebody wanted too. 

It turned out to be a very pretty and unique piece!

~photo credit: ginnytaylorphotography

Thanks Kate for letting me be a part of your day in this special way!  

Bye Bye MiMI, MiMi Bye Bye

When Dietrich was born I had decided that I would try to avoid giving him a pacifier, because I had read that they can interfere with nursing.  But by day three my mom said just give him one, and oh the freedom!  No longer was he nursing every 30 seconds for 45 minutes at time!  And since he nursed until he was almost 18 months I can safely assume it did not interfere with his nursing.  We called it his Binky.

I thought his first word was "mama" and it sounded like "mimi" and then I realized that he was saying binky, not mama.  Henceforth we called that plug in his face a MiMi.

 When Lenorah was born he was two and he still had a MiMi, and I knew he was getting too old, but he didn't sleep well and then I had a new baby and so we made it a bed/naptime only thing.  We watched an Elmo video where they sang "bye, bye binky, binky bye bye" and I switched it to MiMi and I would sing it to him whenever he wanted it during the day and the transition to sleeping time only was easy.  And now he is just shy of 3 1/2 years old and you can go ahead and judge me for letting him still have a MiMi because I judge me and have totally caught myself judging other little kids who still have one and are younger than Dietrich, which I rationalize by saying you don't see his in public, womp womp.  I'm a bad person :(  We all have our things, things that we allow our children to do, continue to do, secretly do (heck, some of us have things we do ourselves that we would never want anyone to know about!) bottles, blankies, binkys, thumbs, sometimes they just love them so much and it is so hard to break their tiny little hearts and say "hey, I gave you this, you fell in love, and now I'm taking it away."  So last week we started the countdown, which might have been just as much for my benefit as his, 7 days with MiMi, 6, 2, 1 more night with MiMi...  

Yesterday was the day, I picked him up from preschool and we headed to the store.  We went straight to the toy section and I let him pick out whatever toy he wanted.  He fell in love with a Thomas the train and track, and I threw in some train cars because trains are more fun with cars and he is about to give up his best friend!

Then he handed this bag with his last two MiMi's to the cashier and he did it like it was no big deal, here is my best friend I have Thomas now.  The cashier was awesome, asking him "are you a big boy now?" "Yes I have Thomas the Train!"

 He was totally fine and we walked out of the store and I wanted to burst into tears!  Partly because yes giving them up for a toy is not that hard but how is he really going to feel about it at bedtime, and also I just made him give away his best friend, and I somehow let my three year old still have a binky, and also he is not a baby anymore, blubber blubber in the parking lot.

He did great, he loves the train, he asked me twice where his MiMi was but he wasn't even upset when I reminded him he used them to get his new Thomas toy.  At bedtime he was a little sad, but mostly because he was tired, and he laid down with Thomas and he fell asleep without his MiMi.  It wasn't a great night of sleep, he woke up four times crying, but he never once asked for his MiMi and this morning he woke up and said he slept all night without it!  Yay you! So we did it, and it will be a few days I'm sure before he is sleeping easily through the night again, but that is okay, it is his best friend that he is missing after all.

This one is for Paul and Kate

I tried to post this all last week but for some reason this website wasn't working.  I'm so glad it's back up, there is much to talk about!

My little brother got married!  It’s been almost three weeks ago and I just haven’t felt able to write about it until now.  It was a fun crazy week and weekend and I think it took me a long time to process it all.  Plus it always makes me super sad when my brother and Kate leave and this time we don’t know when we will see them again.  For sure next spring/summer when we go to visit but that is a LONG time from now…

Paul and Kate arrived the weekend before the wedding and we were busy getting things ready (painting the house, cleaning, etc.)  On Tuesday Uncle Steven and Una arrived and I met everyone in Ione.  Unfortunately, Bryce missed out because of work, that pesky work!  We spent Wednesday playing on the pontoon at the lake and then the kids and I rushed back to Spokane to really get going on the festivities!  I spent Thursday cleaning while Darby watched the kids and Uncle Steven and Una showed up in the evening.  We took a fun walk to the park and relaxed a bit.  Friday we woke up running, picked up tuxes and made it to the rehearsal at 1:00.  Then we had dinner at 3:00 and stayed at the NoLi Brewery until late in the evening visiting with all the friends and family.

Of course the day of the wedding was crazy!  While Paul and Bryce ran around town picking up beer and other last minute items I took in the flower girl dress and finished the veil.  Then I found a dress for Aunt Dana, bathed the kids and got everybody dressed.  After discovering that the ties for the tuxes were the wrong color I called the dress shop and tux shop and got that straightened out.  We arrived early at the wedding site so that we could help with set up and be ready for pictures.

Everything was beautiful and went perfectly.  They had a really amazing day.  And since Paul told such wonderful stories at my wedding I was ready to tell some on him, I thought this would be a fun way to remember pretty close to what I said in my toast, but since I didn't write it down I'm sure it's not exactly what I said…

“I can’t believe we are here at my little brother’s wedding!  It’s especially amazing to me because I spent most of my life believing I was an only child. It’s true.  I’m almost six years older than Paul and I always wanted a sibling.  I used to ask my mom, ‘is there a baby in your belly yet?’ And finally I got a brother, but since I wanted a sister that was a disappointment.  

The fun thing about being so much older than your little brother is that I remember his whole life, although that may not be so great for him.  I got to help him learn to ride a bicycle, and then he surpassed me and learned to ride a unicycle.  I saved his life several times.  Once he fell off the top of a big toy at the park and I grabbed him, he still cried but I saved him from falling!  If you are from Ione you know the pond at Box Canyon Dam where everybody swims.  Paul wasn’t quite big enough to swim to the dock by himself yet so he had a paddle board.  And he had just gotten new snorkel gear for his birthday.  I could not wait to use the snorkel gear but mom said he got to first since it was his.  Out by the dock he lost his paddle board and it kept floating away from him.  He started to panic and pulled off the snorkel gear, I jumped in and saved him.  That snorkel gear is still at the bottom of the pond and I never got to use it! 

When I was little I would lay on the floor drawing, like most little girls I thought I would grow up to be an artist.  I adored my little brother but he would grab my pictures and rip them up!  I always thought he was just being a mean little sibling but then he grew up to be an amazing artist so really he was just ripping my pictures up because they were terrible.  

Last night at the rehearsal dinner Paul was telling us about all of his attributes.  In high school he worked in a machine shop learning to weld, and then he started the shop on fire.  He’s really great at helping out around the house, and then he started the orange bridge on fire.  And then he became a firefighter!  

If you  have been around Paul for more than 30 seconds you know that he is hilarious!  Even when things are really sad.  After Dad died we were all laying in bed and Paul was telling us about how he wishes there was something to sleep in besides boxer shorts.  They get all twisted up and when you get out of bed they rip.  All I could imagine was my brother leaping out of bed like a super hero, his boxers ripping off!  I can still remember my mom in the morning we were laying there crying and Paul got out of bed, through her tears she said ‘don’t rip your boxers.’  

Kate has been around forever, I just kind of always knew who she was.  I was gone to college when her and Paul dated in Junior High so I didn’t really get to know her then.  She worked at the Dam with my mom and I would hear all about Kate and everything that was going on with her through Mom.  Mom could not have been more thrilled when they started dating.  They dated long distance while Kate was still in college and Paul was in Winnemucca but it worked out that they were both home over Labor Day weekend.  All of my friends from college were here visiting and Paul and Kate came over.  She must have been kind of nervous because she drank a lot of wine and blamed it on my fish bowl wine glasses, so Kate, beware of fish bowl wine classes, because they lead you to Paul I guess!  

Paul I am so proud of you, the work you do, and who you have become.  I am so happy that you found a great girl who is willing to move to Winnemucca with you. Kate,  I am so happy to have you in our family, obviously my mom loves you, and my dad loved you too.”

I had a dream the other night about the wedding and I woke up thinking oh good all that craziness was just a dream, but then I remembered that the wedding is over and it made me sad.  It was such a fun time and fun times end all too soon it seems!  Congratulations Paul and Kate we love you!!!

The final reveal!

I realize now that I probably should have been blogging about this through the whole process because now I have so much to tell you and oh so many pictures!  When we moved in the home inspector told us that the T1-11 siding that is on the house was recalled at some point but ours had not been replaced.  We could see where previous owners had not kept up on the paint and the bottom of the siding was rotting away.  But it was a small thing to worry about at the time we were buying the house, and even still, the deal we got was worth the need for new siding.  Finally, we decided this summer was the summer to replace the bad siding and paint the house, so of course we will start with the obligatory BEFORE pictures:

Front:

Back:

East side:

 We started in June with Bryce slaving away on removing bad siding.  And of course under the bad siding was.....MORE bad siding!  Yay!  So he had to put up new plywood in those spots and cover it with new T1-11 siding.  And then I had to paint it.  This first picture is the back of the house where we did not have to do any new siding, but still had to prep.  I especially love this picture because at this point the house was about 7 different colors between the original, old, and new siding, and the four different colors I painted on the house to try and decide what the new color would be!

Of course Dietrich helped with the pressure washing

We strive to look our best when working outside...

 And always make children help

 Here you can see the original siding that was under the siding we had when we moved in.

 I painted and painted and painted, I stood on the roof of this giant house and painted.

 I painted in the hot hot sun, in the dark, and today I painted in the rain.

 I wanted to make sure our fruit and veggie box made it to our house! A little purple duct tape (it's still there, but under the beautiful new siding).

 The back was the first side done and it was pretty exciting to see the new color!

 After replacing the bad siding on the sides of the house and the chimneys Bryce moved to the front.  When he removed the trim around the front windows he discovered that the sill plates under the window were rotten.  We had a window company come and estimate new windows, $500-$700, so we decided to take out the old windows VERY CAREFULLY, replace the sill plates, and put the windows back in, VERY CAREFULLY.

 Of course Bryce was successful, although it was incredibly scary...to me anyway.  This lovely scaffolding lived in front of the house for far too long, but then Bryce put up beautiful new lap siding on the front of the house.  Bryce helped me choose a totally different color for the lap siding, which made me very nervous at first, but the guy at the paint store said the colors went together well and I decided, it's just paint, I could do it again if I HAD too...

In case you were wondering, this is what happens when you try to paint with a three year old around.  Green paint on my fresh brown paint...

I took this picture because I was so proud of myself for moving the ladder from one side of the house to the front and setting it back up.  It wasn't pretty and I may have hurt myself, but I did it.  Only this once, after this I tried to only paint when Bryce was around to move the ladder for me.  Or if I only had to slide it around not totally move it.

After months of siding and painting, bruised shins from standing on ladders, Bryce needing to see a physical therapist (hence the backbrace) and paint permanently adhered to my skin, we thought we were done!

After Back:

East side, West side

The shed, so cute!

And Finally, after one small color change above the garage we are DONE! (you know other than the front porch needs painted and the red door isn't really the right red now...)

So finally, here it is!  

This goes down as the LONGEST most difficult project in the history of Our House.  Bryce spent weekends and evenings whenever we were home working on the siding, putting up trim and still to come, new gutters.  Grammy and Darby watched children so I could paint for hours, I woke up at 6 many mornings to paint before the kids woke up, and sometimes I watched them play from the top of a ladder and asked them to help "paint" with water and their own paintbrushes. Today our neighbor told us the house has "never looked better" I couldn't agree more!

A morning in the life....

I know so many people with one child around the age of Lenorah 18 months-ish.  If it's their first they are all talking about the second baby, and I was too when Dietrich was 18 months old, because I was three months pregnant with Lenorah.  Everyone told me that two years apart is the perfect distance between kids and when Lenorah was first born I remember telling people, having two isn't as hard as I thought it would be!

And then she started moving...

And it got harder.

Then she decided to potty train herself at 16 months old and while everyone told me how amazing and wonderful this is, they were not running a baby to a toilet every ten minutes because suddenly her favorite word is "potty" and if she says it you have to take her there!

Sometimes I wonder in the afternoon why I am dragging so much, why am I so tired?  I feel like I get enough sleep (most of the time), and by the time nap time for Lenorah rolls around I want a nap myself.  But maybe it's because every moment of my day goes something like this.

I sit down to eat breakfast.  "Mom I need more waffle."  I get up and get more waffle and some juice so I won't have to get up again. Sit down, one bite, "juice" I didn't get juice for Lenorah.  Up again.  "Potty!"  Jump up and RUN Lenorah to the bathroom.  Where she plays around, up and down, tells me to sit on the toilet, laughs, stands up and runs away.  I sit down, another couple of bites. "Potty!" Jump up and run to the bathroom again.  Lenorah slams lid down on toilet, apparently she doesn't want to go.  Back to breakfast, another few bites.  "Potty!" I run to the bathroom...again...Lenorah refuses to potty...again.  Back to kitchen.

Dietrich and Lenorah are now playing in the bathroom when I hear "poop!" and then Dietrich yells "Her pooped!"  And while I clean poop up off the floor Dietrich is yelling "one, two, three, fifteen poops! Say good job counting mom!" "good job counting Dietrich."  I clean up the floor and Lenorah.  The dog also joins us in the bathroom because if there is any sort of commotion she has to be there investigating and licking your face.  So I wash my hands and go back to the kitchen and finally finish my last bite of breakfast.

Thankfully not every day includes poop on the floor...only the really special days.  So when you think about having that second baby close to the first, just think about all the great quality time you get to spend with your bathroom.  While sitting on the bathroom floor waiting for both children to use their respective potties, Bryce peaked in on me and I looked up at him and said "I live here."  So if you are looking for me, I'm probably in a bathroom, somewhere, with two kids...

Bryce turns 30

         August has been the busiest month of our lives, ever.  I feel like I am coming out of some sort of crazy marathon like fog and just starting to sort through all of the fun craziness that has happened during the last few weeks.  My brother Paul and Kate got married, we had company and festivities and family and parties, and there is so much that I couldn't even start with all of that.  So instead I am going to go out of order and start with the last thing we did which was celebrate Bryce's 30th birthday this past weekend!  Shawna, Bob, and Abigail arrived on Friday afternoon and then Saturday afternoon I helped host a bridal shower for my sister-in-law Bekah at our house. Then on Sunday we celebrated Bryce's big day with a very HOT back yard BBQ.

 I made this giant birthday cake and the frosting turned out beautifully!  Finally!  Cake success!

 Dietrich of course had to help open a present.  Little kids at birthday parties are so awesome, nobody gets as excited about gifts that aren't anything they could possibly want, and cake!  Oh my gosh there is cake!

 Bryce got these awesome suspenders from his sister...

 And then we hung out around the fire late into the night.

It was a crazy busy weekend but so much fun.  Such a great way to end our busy summer!