When Life Gives You Lemons...

We've all heard the saying: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In our case, it is more like "when life floods your basement, paint while the furniture is already moved out of the room." I had seen an awesome idea on my friend's blog that I had a been wanting to try, and we had plenty of paint from doing the kitchen, so we got to work. Here is how the super-fab wall was created.

We started with a white wall and taped up the squares.

 Then we painted using all four colors from one paint swatch. We already had two from our kitchen, so we just picked up sample bottles of the other colors.

And then we removed the tape, and Presto! Super-fab squares!

It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times

"We don't have anything going on today- why don't we finish painting the kitchen?" The words that started quite the eventful weekend. And so we painted- we had already started the living room/great room area, and we decided to finish off. The paint adds so much, and together with our newly tiled backsplash, it makes the whole room awesome. We were working hard on the painting and Josh and Abby were amusing themselves with watching TV (I know- what outstanding parenting, right?). We discussed how great our house looks with all the painting we have done. Anywho- we finished up the painting (here is a sort-of-lame snapshot from my phone)

and I proceeded to work on final touch ups on the grout from our backsplash project. Steve took the kids downstairs to play in the toy room, and I heard the words "Umm... honey..."

And that is where the "worst of times" part comes in. The basement was flooded. Now, it wasn't a foot or more of water in the whole basement, but there was a couple inches of water on the bathroom floor, and some mighty squishy, soggy carpet throughout the family room and toy room. The cause? Josh + several handfuls of toilet paper in the toilet. Fortunately it was clean water. So after scrambling to find a shop vac, several fans, and a babysitter, we got to work pulling up carpet and sucking up gallons and GALLONS of water. Not exactly how we planned on spending the remainder of our Saturday. Thanks to some fantastic neighbors we hefted the soaking wet carpet out the window to the yard, where we spread it out on some totes and chairs to dry. After having 6 or 7 fans blowing until Tuesday morning, things finally dried out inside. And thankfully it didn't rain while the carpet was outside. Another neighbor (who happens to be a carpet installation guy) came and stretched our carpet back out and got everything put back together. Thank heavens that is over! And, since all the furniture was moved out of the room, we decided we may as well paint the family room with the extra paint from upstairs.

So more pictures may be coming up. And hopefully this painting project goes much more smoothly.

Weekend Warriors

Since we weren't going anywhere for General Conference weekend, we decided to take on a DIY project we've been wanting to do for a while- tile the kitchen backsplash.
Here are some before shots:

There is a new product out there called the SimpleMat. It replaces the thinset or mortar. You just peel off the back, then stick it right to the wall. Peel off the front cover and stick the tile straight to it. Easy breezy.
Well, easier than handling the mess. Makes the tile application part very quick.
Here's a few in-progress pictures- before the grouting.

And here are the after shots- we still have a bit of finishing work to do, but not bad for a day's work. (We stayed up till 3:00 am doing the grouting so we could do it while the kids were asleep.)

Bathtime Fun

Sometimes getting Josh to take a bath is a bit of a battle. I found this great idea online and decided to give it a try- shaving cream bath paint. Just take some cheap shaving cream, add a couple drops of food coloring, mix together, and put it in a muffin tin. Presto! Washable bath paint. 

 

I gave him a basting brush and he went to work.

 It was a great success. He liked helping wash it off just as much as he liked painting, so it was a double bonus. Note- the red paint did leave a little behind- but just one squirt of bathroom cleaner and a swipe with a washcloth took care of it.

Popcorn Popping by Josh

In case you haven't smiled yet today, this should do the trick. :)

May the Force Run With You

Since the Disneyland 5K started at 6:45 AM, the kids and I slept right through it. So I will turn the keyboard over to Steve to tell you all about it. :)

(This is Steve now...just in case you were wondering...)

Kristen's mom Kim and I ran the Disneyland 5K race. She had been wanting to do it for a long time, and finally broke down and registered. This being the case, I decided to run with her, so we justified taking the trip.

The run was centered on the re-opening of the newly remodeled Star Tours ride, so everything about the race had to do with Star Wars. It was great! 5,000 runners made their way in and out and through and behind Disneyland and California Adventureland. We had trained all summer to maintain stamina and a steady pace, but with that many people walking and all the stopping for photo opportunities we honestly didn't need to train for this. Oh well. We're in shape now.

Here we are at the beginning of the race close to the Convention Center.

 Just a quick snap of the throngs of people "running" with us.

 We saw a guy wearing a "Team Scott" shirt, so of course we had to take his picture.

 Kim and me with Daisy and Pluto as we ran through Toon Town.

 Here is the 1 mile mark!

 Photo opportunity with a group of Jedis.

 The line for the storm troopers was long, but definitely worth the wait!

 How can you pass this photo opp up?

 Here's proof that we weren't last (which was what Kim was afraid of) or even CLOSE to last.

Storm Trooper Donald, Darth Goofy, Obi-Wan Mickey, and Princess Minnie Leia waiting for us close to the finish line.
We had a great time, and are considering making this a family tradition. Maybe next time more of us...ahem...will run.

(Kristen again) Well as you can see, it was quite the memorable experience. My dad even got up early to go cheer them along. But somebody had to stay with the sleeping kids, right? Especially if we wanted them to be happy during the 10-hour car trip back home... Who knows. Maybe next year we can stick the kids in the jogging stroller and join my mom and Steve.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Thanks to the fact that my mom has been wanting to run the Disneyland 5K that they have over Labor Day Weekend, we took a family trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. We left on Wednesday, stayed the night in Primm, NV, and arrived just before lunchtime on Thursday.

(Yes- my eyes are totally closed in the picture. Oh well.)

We strapped both kids in the jogging stroller we borrowed from my sister (thanks a million Michelle) and, together with my parents, decided to brave the crowds on the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day.

Fortunately, the crowds were nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. We walked into the park, and the first character we met was Pluto. Josh wasn't sure what to think, but we dragged him up to take a picture anyway. He will thank me later, right?

We had a great time. Josh really enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. Steve enjoyed it too! This picture doesn't show Josh's enthusiasm, but he was too busy looking at all the pictures of Buzz and the "green guys" to smile for the camera. He rode on the "laser" ride 4 times!

We were worried about how Abby would hold up at the park, but we didn't need to. She was happy as could be.

 Day 2 we started at the park right at opening. We met Goofy and decided to snap a picture, even if the kids weren't very into it. Again, they will thank us later.

My sister also loaned us a Tinkerbell costume for Abby and gave us instructions to find Tinkerbell first thing so the lines wouldn't be too long to take a picture with her.

Next we headed to Fantasyland, and Josh absolutely loved the Dumbo ride. He was grinning the whole time, and when he got off he kept saying "I was flying Mommy!"

On a sidenote: I am SO glad my parents were with us. We were able to do the Baby Swap- which means that 2 of us would go on a "grown up" ride and the other 2 would stay with the kids. Then you could get a Baby Swap pass that lets the 2 who stayed with the kids skip ahead in line. Pretty sweet deal. It meant we didn't stand in lines very long, which was great.

 Anyway- we took Josh on the Teacup ride and he loved it. He just kept looking around at everything with this same look:

 I think that look is called "wonder".

A few more stops. The Small World ride (Josh calls it the Dancing Kids Boat Ride), which- by the way- they have updated to included several Disney characters in "Small World" style. Pretty fun.

 Then we stopped by Toon Town and Josh looked around for a while. He got to drive Goofy's car, which was pretty exciting.

After Toon Town, we watched the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies Show, which is a MUST SEE if you are in Disneyland. I don't have pictures, and I can't describe it well enough to do it justice. It is four guys playing bluegrass music on fiddles, banjos, etc. And it is Hilarious.

Then we headed to California Adventureland. And of course, we took pictures with Lightning McQueen. Josh was pretty excited. He really wanted to ride in the McQueen car. I can't wait for the Radiator Springs part of the park to be finished. Next time we go, Josh will just plain freak out.

 Another highlight of the trip, of course, was the corndogs. My sister described them as "heavenly" and she was absolutely right. I'm going to have to wait at least a couple weeks before I eat a microwaved corndog again.

 One of the best sights to see during the second day was this:

 Josh napping in the stroller! Yay! The kids were both really good. Of course they had their moments where they were sad and tired. But that is expected of a three-year-old and a one-year-old!

Saturday morning, Steve and my mom participated in the Disneyland 5K. There will be a whole separate blog for that one.

I am so glad we had the chance to go as a family. That is what really makes Disneyland the happiest place on earth- being there with your family and seeing the look of wonder and pure joy on your kids faces. I know you can get that look in other places, but we are glad we made the trip.