A little mardi gras?

This is the second time recently that I have needed a few grocery items, stopped in at our neighborhood grocery store, and found free "holiday" balloons leftover from the previous day.

Of course, the girls picked the biggest ones...

And of course, Gloria loves the "Badooos."

A work in progress...

The nightsands!
I am SO thankful and SO fortunate that my Dad was here when they arrived and helped me greatly with the assembly. I was in way over my head...and I really don't like assembling things in the first place! Thanks SO much, Dad!!!

The waitress

At mealtime yesterday, Mariana turns to me and says:

"Mommy, you are like a waitress. You brought our food. You brought the drinks...and the ketchup and mustard. You are like our waitress."

Uh, yeah.
No, most of the time I really enjoy serving my family and the occasional guests we have, even if it means never sitting down for a full meal. However, yesterday was one of those days where I was feeling it...how could she tell?

Ash Wednesday

Turn away from sin and believe in the gospel.

A week!

I cannot believe it has been a week since I posted! What a week!

I was sick last week, then we hosted both our parents for the annual BVCL benefit where we actually bought a table this year...wohoo! It was really nice and we really enjoyed having our families here with us.

My parents stayed the weekend, and we had a very sick Gloria Friday night and Saturday with 102 fever. She was truly pitiful. We were actually glad when she started screaming and ordering us all around again!!!

Then, Saturday my sister and her family were in town touring our local university for my nephew who is currently a senior in high school, and we celebrated my other nephew's birthday which was that same day.

Wow...so here are some photos!


She got on here all by herself and even pedaled half a stroke backwards until her foot wouldn't reach!










Happy Birthday, Jared!

I got my nightstands in and will be working on those for the next couple of weeks too! And Ash Wednesday starts Lent tomorrow....so much to do!!!

Mow

This is one of Gloria's many new words. In particular, this one refers to a kitty. It's so cute! She really has the "ow" sound down and actually enjoys saying it loudly when someone around her gets an ouchie. One of her favorite words is WOW which she says over and over in the car sometimes as she marvels at the scenery passing her by. She is really having a verbal explosion these days. Austin keeps asking me, "Are you writing all of these words down?" (nope! ;-0)

And speaking of explosions...she is up to 14 teeth that have poked through. 2 more I-teeth to go and she will only have her 2 year molars left! In the words of Gloria, "Woooowwww!"

Finished!

I finished the headboard! Actually it has been finished and airing out in the garage for a few weeks now. We just brought it in today. Yay!


I still really wish I had a before picture. I just wasn't thinking about it 3 1/3 years ago when I was 9 months pregnant! This is the best I can do. Picture 4 panels of a similar shape to the inner carvings in this photo and a similar but more swirly carving within all made to look like wood out of a resin-like plastic material.

I pulled those panels off which left a big piece of plywood between the two posts. I sanded the old stain off the posts. That is where it sat for 3 years. I covered the plywood with wainscoat and topped it with a trim piece. Then I stained and varnished the whole thing. Total project cost was under $100. Not bad!



Ta da! Now for some matching nightstands....