From a guy who got a C in Woodshop

This whole project started because I found a tutorial online for some cute, but inexpensive DIY bookcases. I showed Ben, he loved the idea so he got started.

Here's our bookcase before

Our living room before

The bookcases after!!

Ben went a little over board, and of course he's a perfectionist. It may have taken a lot longer than expected, but look at these babies, I can't complain!

We went in a little bit of a different direction than the tutorial, but used the same basic idea. We "dressed up" our cheap particle board bookcases and made them into something beautiful. We combined the look of about 5 different bookcases and Ben added some custom touches.

He custom built the base to match our cabinet we got off of craigslist.

After!
Most of our stuff is used, we've fixed up just about everything in here.
I don't know what it would be like to buy something and just set it out. The idea sounds nice, but this way we get exactly what we want, and don't spend too much in the process.

Desk: Craigslist - painted and a new knob
Chair: Goodwill - painted, distressed, and reupholstered
Bookcases: Craigslist - added beadboard, trim, base, beefed up shelves and painted
End table: Goodwill - cleaned up
Coffee table: Craigslist - cleaned up
Clock: Goodwill - cleaned up

Most of the stuff on the shelves is also Goodwill. Ben's been buying books there for years, and I've been collecting "stuff" the last few months to put on the bookcases. Yes, you heard that right, MONTHS, we've had these in the works since Thanksgiving.

We've got a few more projects in the works, so stay posted.

Yo-Yo Ma - Bach Cello Suite 1 III. Courante

Painting to Music

It looks like he painted to some death metal, but it was actually Bach!

(I posted the piece above)

Eli's favorite color is Red, so that explains the majority of the picture.

It was interesting to see how he really listened to the music, and moved his brush as if he were playing music. Long strokes during the smooth sections, and short dots for the staccato. He loved doing this activity and we'll definitely do it again soon.

Pillow Fun

Why is this their favorite pass time?

I swear, we own tons of toys!

Eli using the camera

Feats

Lilly finally figured out how to get on and

off Cargo by herself. I can't tell you how

much time this will save me, she always

wants up, then down, then back up again.

Now she can climb to her hearts content.

Silly Lilly

Lilly wanted me to spin her around in the office chair (the coolest toy we own) and she was having so much fun I just had to snap some pictures. This is a great example of the super cool stuff we do while Eli's at preschool.

Lilly doing a little dance!

You might remember this skirt from a few months ago. I originally made it a dress, but didn't really love it. Yesterday I converted it into a skirt and love how it came out.

Having a little rest after all of the excitement.

Snow Day

Newport Aquarium

We went to the Newport Aquarium on Friday and had a blast. Eli loved all of the different sea life and brought home a new stuffed animal to add to his collection. Snowy is a white seal pup and is best friends with another recent addition, a chameleon.
It was cold, but sunny so after the aquarium we headed over to the beach, ran around on the sand and watched the sunset.
I was worried Eli would have a hard time with 6 hours in the car in one day, but he did great.
I can wait until summer, and all of the adventures we'll have!

NW Children's Festival

The day after

The day after always looks worse.
As bad as it looks, Eli doesn't seem to mind. He still avoids chewing with his front teeth, so I have to cut up all of his food, but other than that he's acting just fine. I'm glad his teeth survived, I've heard so many horror stories about boys knocking out their front teeth. I'm glad to have avoided a long, painful and expensive adventure this time around.

Boys

Eli loves to throw rocks in water, and of course he ended up in the water.
Good thing it was a nice day because he ran around Rood Bridge Park for about an hour with no pants on! He had no problem with this, in fact I think he would prefer to always go without pants.

Today Eli tripped and fell in the parking lot at preschool. He knocked his 2 front teeth loose and we had our first emergency trip to the dentist. His teeth should be fine, we'll just have to watch for discoloration over the next week or so to make sure the nerve wasn't damaged. Of course he wouldn't let me take a good picture of him, but you can see his mouth pretty good in this one.

John Deere

Eli turned 4 on Saturday with a John Deere birthday party.

We played pin the wheel on the tractor.

Lilly's with her consolation gift, ducks are her favorite.

Eli had a lot of help from friends checking out his new stuff!

It got a little crazy, maybe we should have opened presents on the floor.

The inside of the cake was lemon and white cake dyed green, got to keep up with the John Deere theme.

Sterling advising Eli on his Birthday wish!

Even the chickens gave Eli a birthday present. This is the first egg we've had from them, and it came on Eli's birthday. Eli went out to check for eggs, just like we've done daily for the last 2 weeks. Eli was ecstatic to find and egg, and couldn't wait to eat it for lunch. I think we decided Penny was the gift giver.

The cake was a hit, everyone wanted the slice with the tractor on it!

A Bath with a View

After getting cold and muddy outside, Lilly moved to a more comfortable viewing area.

Chickens

Goldie

Ginger

Penny

The Coup

We have 3 happy chickens!

We've been thinking about getting chickens for awhile, and when we heard the Carrolls were getting rid of theirs we jumped at the opportunity.

Eli loves "gathering" them. He lets them out in the yard and then puts them away again. He always want to take care of them, unfortunately chickens don't need a whole lot of taking care of. These are definitely well cared for chickens, they are fed, watered and herded around the yard several times a day!

Thank you Carrolls for this great experience you've given our family!

Toddler

Lilly is growing so fast I can hardly keep up. She doesn't look like a little baby anymore, she's a toddler! She learned how to open the pantry this week and I keep finding canned food all over the house. It feels like we just went through this with Eli, I guess we're starting it all over again with Lilly!

She babbles to herself all day, no one has any idea what she's talking about, but she's very expressive. She's saying quite a few words now like:

Mama

Dahdah (Daddy)

DaDa (doll or baby)

shoes

cracker

cheese

Baba

Bock Bock (Chickens)

Eli

LaLaLa (Lilly)

Santa

Hi

Bye

UhOh

Cargo

GoGo (she wants to go somewhere)

Eye

She has a few animal sounds down like:

Dog

Bear

Bird

Fish

Chicken

Elephant

She also puts her finger up to her lips and Shushes people when her baby is going to sleep!

She's a lot like Eli about performing for anyone. If I try to get her to say anything she won't make a sound, but she'll spontaneously say/do things on her own. We've been practicing body parts, like "Where's your nose", and she always points to the wrong thing. I saw her in the corner once, and she was not only pointing to the right parts, but naming all of them. I think she knows a lot more than she's letting on!

Eli was the same way, we tried to teach him sign language but he'd never do it in front of us. We'd say "do you want more?" and you'd see his hands start to do the sign and then he'd quickly put them flat down on his tray and stare at you blankly. Later we'd see him practicing all the signs when he thought no one was looking.

I was hoping Lilly was going to be a cooperative child, but the signs aren't looking good!

Snuggle Bugs

Sleepy Hiker

My brother just found this picture he took during a hike we went on this summer. It's so funny because Ben did this same thing on the first hike we ever went on together. 5 miles into Eagle Creek Ben declared he was tired, sat down, leaned up against a rock, and went to sleep. Eli didn't actually go to sleep, but he had to "take a little rest" on this rock!