Cardboard and Corduroy

There's nothing like playing with a nice big box.

It's fun to color on and hide in, but most importantly it makes a great home for my girls' "babies" (i.e. every stuffed animal in the house...they have all had their turn.)Justin and I were discussing how many sets of furniture we remember having growing up compared to how many we have had since being married. My parents still have furniture that they got shortly after being married...given it has had a complete makeover thanks to Vicki and I, but still. The point- It seems like things like furniture just don't last as long as they used to...or we just don't make them last.

Due to the new need of a couch in the basement, we had to get new furniture for our living room. The girls love spinning on the round swivel chair. After the last fiasco of a couch we bought, I HATE that stupid thing and Justin won't let me forget that I picked it out, we decided to be more careful with our choice this time. So far so good.

Who Asked Me?

I bought Charlee a shirt a while back. As soon as I saw it, I thought of Chuck. It was perfect for her. When I brought it home and showed her, she was super excited and loved it. She immediately wanted to put it on. When Syd saw it, she kinda giggled and said it looked sort of like a boy shirt...but it's still cute Charlee. (the shirt is a blue plaid)
That was the end of it for Charlee. The next few weeks went by and she wasn't picking it out to wear. I started picking it out for her. On those days she would take extra long to get dressed and would do so while pouting the whole time.
A few days ago she had to wear it again. When I picked her up out of Gold's daycare, she informed me that she liked the shirt now. Why the sudden change? The girls working in the daycare told Charlee how cute her shirt was. I have told her over and over how cute this shirt is on her, but apparently my opinion doesn't count.

Basement

This project began on Nov. 7, 2009. All the wood was sent through a window by lots of little helpers...and a couple big helpers.

Almost all of the wood sitting in the corner that is now Sydnee's bedroom. Part of the framing up.

The master himself...oh yeah, and Justin. hehe

Seriously though, we owe a HUGE, GINORMOUS thank you to Josh. He spent a lot of time in our basement the past 6 months.

Sydnee's room after drywall was done...just waiting for texture.

We started priming last Sat. The girls had a blast helping. We all were covered in paint by the end of it.

If you look close, you can see Charlee's white freckles.

Priming is finished! YAY!

Justin called me on Tuesday as I was starting to paint the colors on the walls and informed me that the carpet was to be installed the next morning so we had to finish painting that day. After 11 hours of painting I was DONE. We made it to bed at 2:30 that night. If it wasn't for my friend Abbey helping out, it would have been later. Although, I blame her for the following mess:

She was distracting me with conversation when I stepped off the step stool and directly into a can of paint. It was pretty awesome...and a quick way to paint my toenails. :)

I just painted Sydnee's room yesterday because we were waiting for her bedding to get here before picking colors. I really like how it has turned out so far. Sydnee wasn't one bit scared about sleeping in the basement alone...the first day her bed was set up, she slept in it.

There will be more pics to come as we get all the little finish work done. I am so excited about having extra room in our house...too bad I have to clean more now too.

Easter

We headed North for the Easter weekend. The roads were terrible in places and it made for a long drive, but it was great because we got to stop in Casper and meet little Kade for the first time. He is quite the little chunk. Char couldn't get enough of him, she kept wanting to hold him.We also got to meet the latest addition to the family, Brinlee. On Sat. we painted eggs while we watched General Conference. I think we colored close to 5 dozen eggs...good thing Justin likes deviled eggs so well. ;)

On Easter morning the girls could hardly wait to go find eggs and their baskets. Charlee wasn't waiting around for anyone.

Charlee found her basket.

Sydnee found the most money eggs, but Chuck found the biggest one...$10.

Once Justee found her basket, she tore into it...

...her chocolate bunny didn't have a chance.

Syd found her basket last...the Easter Bunny hid it too close to a heater vent and her chocolate bunny had to go into the freezer for a while. The girls found eggs with puzzle pieces in them and had fun putting the puzzle together.

It was a busy but fun weekend...it always seems like we never have enough time when we visit...too many people to see and places to go.

Char's Bday

I am going to be a little out of order with my blogging...Char's birthday and then Easter.
Char had a great birthday. She got some great presents from her sisters and Grandparents. She really wanted a pillow pet, but ordering wasn't done early enough so I guess that will have to wait. The balloon rocket thing she got from Gma and Gpa Hyde was her favorite thing she said...I have to admit, it was probably mine too. :)

...lighting the candles

blowing out the candles...

Those trick candles called for a little help, but the finally got them to stay out. (until Sydnee re lit one the next day while a babysitter was over and threw it away in the bathroom garbage can and started a small fire that melted the garbage can...Don't worry, she put it out by dumping it all in the toilet...too bad that clogged the toilet pretty badly. Dang her.)

Chuck and her Daddy Charlee is quite the funny girl. She is our shy girl, and yet once she warms up to someone, she can talk and talk. She likes to dance and be silly and gets really loud when she is having fun. I think she is my most stubborn child. She doesn't like to say she's sorry, but she is usually pretty laid back and easy to make happy. She is pretty sensitive too...not about getting in trouble, I feel like she doesn't really care too much about that, but she hates to see anything or anyone get hurt. She is still pretty hard to understand even at 5 years of age, but she is getting better. She can make all the correct sounds, but you have to slow her down or she is just kinda lazy with pronunciation. She loves cheeseburgers, pickles, and mac and cheese (m&c was her bday dinner request.) She just started soccer and is liking it so far.

Look Who's 5!

It is hard to believe our Chuck is 5 years old already. She is such a sweet girl. I could go on and on about Char, but I better just go spend some time with the birthday girl and save the blogging for another day.

Charlee picked a cat cake this year...she wanted it to look like my parents cat, Caramel. I think it's pretty close. ;)