Anderson Family: June 2011

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Girls Bedroom Makeover

I'm so excited to share my girls bedroom makeover. I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't. They used to share a queen bed, but Shelby is a very active sleeper. She would roll around so much in her sleep that almost every night Darcy would wake up crying because Shelby was on top of her or had kicked her. I knew we needed to do something when one night Darcy was fussing before bed and said, "I don't want to go to bed. I don't like Shelby's legs!"

So I decided we needed to put them in separate beds so Darcy and I could get some sleep at night.

The only problem was that their bedroom is pretty small and there wasn't really room in there for two beds and two dressers. So I decided to build new beds that combined the bed and dresser into one.

I looked online and found some pictures of captain's beds that I liked and decided to give it a shot. James has been so busy at work lately that I figured I would just do what I could on my own. So I designed the beds and figured out all the measurements and cuts I'd need to make. James double checked my work and made a couple of improvements and we were ready to go. This is the first project I have fully designed on my own, so I was a little nervous that it might not come together like I hoped, but luckily it turned out great.

I had so much fun building them. I couldn't cut the full sheets of plywood by myself so I had James help me with those cuts, but other than that, I did almost all of it on my own. It took me about 2 weeks of full time work to finish the beds. It was so satisfying to see them take shape and turn out well. The beds have been done for a couple of weeks now, but I had to wait until we got the new bedspreads to post the pictures.

The girls were excited to be on their beds when I was taking pictures of them.

I told James that I wanted to go over to Papa and Grams house to use their scroll saw to cut out names for the girls. Instead James came home with a scroll saw of our own... He couldn't pass up the chance to get a new tool. So with our scroll saw I cut out these names for the girls. They picked the color to paint them.

Here is a closer shot of the bookshelf headboard. And below you can see the little flower table I made with the scraps that were leftover from the beds. I didn't want all the wood to go to waste and clutter up our garage.

The top of the table is shaped and painted like a flower

I also built the little step stools out of the scraps I had leftover. The beds ended up being so tall that I knew Darcy wouldn't be able to get in and out of them without something to step on. She loves the little stairs as you can see.

I think one of the favorite features for the kids is the fort I build along the back side of the bed. The drawers only take up half of the bed, so I made doors so the kids could go under their beds or store things under them. They play under there all the time with their little flashlights.

Here's a shot of Darcy standing next to the beds...you can see they are as tall as she is. We put a swimming noodle under the sheets by the edge of the bed to help keep her from falling out of the bed. So far it has worked really well.

It was a super fun project to design and build. The girls love their new beds and have had so much fun putting things in their bookshelves and playing in their forts.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Making Progress

I'm so excited to report that we are making progress on our basement! Yesterday we had a framing party and Chris, Joe, Matt, Jared, and Papa show up to help us. We worked for several hours together and had a great time. This was my first experience framing, so it was fun for me to try something new. Thankfully Chris is super experienced and told me exactly what to do. Chris and I worked on laying out the chalk lines for the walls around the perimeter of the basement and then worked on building the furdowns around the AC/Heat Ducts. Here's the furdown that I helped build.

The rest of the guys were building the perimeter walls. We still have a lot of work to do, but it is fun to be making progress on it.

I thought I'd add some pictures from our fishing trip we did a couple of weeks ago. We went to a pond in Pleasant Grove and had a fun time catching lots of fish. Each of the kids caught at least a couple of them. I thought it was cute when Darcy sat down next to Dallin while he was fishing.

Here is Dallin with a fish on.

And here is one of the fish we caught. I know they are tiny fish, but they are still fun to catch.

Four little chickies...

We had our first casualty this week. Our little black chickens fell prey to a neighborhood dog. Rest in peace Thunderbolt. :(

Funny Quotes

Darcy came up to me the other day with a permanent marker and said, "Mom, is it okay if I use this pregnant marker to draw a picture?" January 2012
Darcy was in a bubble bath the other day having a great time. She made a beard out of bubbles and put bubbles on her head to make herself look like Santa. When it was time to clean off the bubbles I parted the bubbles to get down to the clear water and she said, "Oh, I didn't know there was water down there!" December 2011
Darcy calls hangnails or snags on her nails "Pinchies". She says "Mom, can you get this pinchie off my toe?"
Whenever we do something fun Darcy always says, "Lets to dat adain." I love her little voice when she says it.
Every morning Cody comes into my room while I'm still in bed and tells me, "Mom, it's light outside. It's time to get up." To which I reply, "Okay, let me get dressed." So now when Cody is getting dressed and I call to him his response is, "I'm getting my dressed on!" I love it. No more getting dressed at our house...its now know as "getting our dressed on".
I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast sometimes. Cody calls them Smoot Moolies, so that has become the name for them at our house. The other day when I was making a smoot moolie Cody asked if he could help me make it. I said he could so he jumped up on the counter and picked up a banana. He proceed to peel it and then handed me the peel and said,"Here's the armpit mom." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I asked him what it was called. He said, "The armpit...you know the thing that the banana is in." November 2009
This afternoon when we were driving to the store I had a funny conversation with Cody. “Does Matt have a house?” Cody asked. “Well, Matt is here to buy a new house.” I replied. “Ooooo, that sounds fun!”Cody said. About a minute passes and then he says “How is he going to carry it?” I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. “I think he needs a big rope.” Cody said, happy that he figured out a good solution to the problem. I just love Cody…he keeps me laughing all the time. January 21, 2010
I was really tired one afternoon so I flopped down on the couch and said, "I'm pooped out!" Cody came over and snuggled up to me on the couch and said, "I'm having poop time too!" July 2009
When I told the kids that James was going to be going to California, Cody sat up straight and excitedly said, "Like Lightening McQueen! He went to California!" October 2009
The other day James said to Cody, "How's my buddy?" Cody got a very serious look on his face and said, "Name's Tody!" (He still can't pronounce C's very well.) The only things he will let us call him, other than his name, is big boy or funny kid.
When we were first potty training Cody he said he needed to go to the bathroom during sacrament meeting at church. So I took him to the bathroom and sure enough he did his business in the toilet. This was one of the first times he ever did poops in the toilet so he was really excited. When we walked back into sacrament meeting (we were sitting near the front of the chapel) he loudly proclamed "Daddy, I did giant poops in the toilet!" December 2008
Cody comes up with cute names for things. Mostly because he has troubles prononcing some of his letters. Some of my favorite names are "Daddy's Toke-Toke" for Coke, "Dr. Seuse" for Dr. Pepper, the "lurnal" for urinal, and "peanutbutter jam" for peanutbutter mixed with honey in a bowl.
Shelby had a hard time saying her G's when she was little. So we were working with her on how to say Grandma. She could make a growling sound pretty well, so we we had her growl then say grandma, so she used her best growling voice to say "GRRRR AMA"
The sun was shining in Cody's eyes the other day and he pointed at it and said, "Mommy, that circle is burnin' my eyes!" January 2009
Heres a list of funny words our kids have come up with for things: Fwaps (Cody's word for patting Darcy's back), bednight snacks, square noodles (ramen noodles), peeps, giant poops, dishwasher (Cody says this is where we wash clothes), low-low (lawn mower), regular grandma (Shelby's way of describing the difference between Great Grandma and her (regular) Grandma, oopadaisy (Shelby)
When we were building our house Shelby and Dallin spent a lot of time here with me working on it. One day when I was putting up the finish trim I couldn't find the hammer. I was looking all over for it and just didn't have any luck finding it. Shelby (2 yrs old) made two fists with her little hands and said, "It's okay Mommy, you can use my bammers!" November 2005
When Dallin was 1 yr old, he used to love making car noises. His favorite noise to make was the sound of tires screeching and then a crash. So EVERY time we would apply the brakes in the car we would hear his little voice from the back seat..."errrr kshhhh"
When Dallin was about 3 years old, he always liked to sit between James and I on the couch. But his way of saying it was cute. He would say "Can I sit in the tween of you?"
When Dallin was about 4 years old, I let him and Shelby skip naps because we needed to go somewhere. As we were driving on the road Dallin said, "Wow, look at all these people who are skipping naps too!" I guess he thought everyone had naps during the afternoon! Summer 2005