Missed Pictures

Just a few random things...

 

One Sunday Dancy messed herself at church and I didn't have a change of clothes for her in the diaper bag. Only one of Tom's shirts. Tommy thought it was awesome that Dancy was wearing his shirt.

 

Nope, not from my garden. The green zucchini was given to me and that's actually a golden zucchini next to it. I scored 8 of them at a garage sale for 3 for $1! Yum! Tom and Katie didn't take interest in  zucchinis until my mom gave me some in September. They ate them then because I told them, "Remember, these are the zucchinis from Grandma's garden that she gave to you." So we love zucchini now because it's Grandma's zucchini.

 

And Grandma, Tom has a new hiding place to play hide-and-seek with you when you come to visit again.

 

Katie generally sleeps like this. Or on the very edge of her bed where any slight movement sends her thumping onto the floor.

 

After playing outside one day, I came in and set Dancy down to go to the bathroom. She cried and screamed and I thought she was just acting in the bad habit she picked up (it was a month of that and thankfully it's over). But then she stopped. And when I came out of the bathroom, I found my sweet little thumbsucker asleep. Yep, just that fast.

 

We started feeding Dancy Cheerios a month ago just shy of 4 months old. I've never started a baby on food that early! Breastfeeding has become frustrating for both of us, though, and that was the only solution to getting her satisfied. Tom and Katie love feeding her Cheerios after I breastfeed her now.

 

Yum!

 

Wedding Weekend

Remember a month and a half ago when we went to Colorado for Lorinda's wedding and for me to decorate her cake? Well here it is:)

 

We played Ryan's awesome board game Superhero book with him the one morning we got to see him.

 

 

Shad had this brilliant idea for an anniversary dinner: "Hey, you wanna go somewhere that would be gross, but a lot of fun?" "Ooooh! I'm intrigued! What do you have in mind?" Any Colorado people wanna take a guess before I tell you where we went?

 

Casa Bonita.

 

 

It was worse than I remembered. Gross doesn't even describe it. No self-respecting person should ever eat that food, and I will never make that mistake again. Vile and disgusting. Gosh, I wanted to vomit.

 

But Shad was right about the fun. They had flashers for sale!

 

But we didn't buy any. We're not into that sort of thing.

 

The kids really liked the water fountain out front, and Tom's into shaking his head when he's really excited and wants to be silly for pictures.

 

Katie was ever determined to pull the cooler that's almost her size.

 

Look!! There's an N on the sign! I've hated these signs ever since they first went up...5 or 6 years ago? All-America City is grammatically incorrect. Congratulations, Aurora. You're finally educated!

 

We took the kids to play at Expo Park one evening and this cute little girl adopted Katie. Aw, they were best friends! It was so fun watching them run and play and do everything together.

 

And there she goes again, dragging a bag behind her all the time.

 

Oh, hey! Katie found a marker in Ryan's room one morning. Thank goodness it didn't get anywhere but on her. Unless if Dan says otherwise, and we're sorry:) Katie is an artist.

Summer Painting

We painted 4 rooms this summer. Did we lose our minds? Maybe just a little bit. The real crazy part was when we bought the paint in...April, I think...and Shad thought we could do all the painting before Dancy was born. Psh! Say hello to 6 weeks of 56 hours at work...

 

Anyway, the too dark with little natural light dining room before:

 

And after:

 

Garage entryway:

 

I asked Shad, "So how many canaries do you think it took to make these three gallons of Canary Song?"  We spent a few seconds making wood chipper sound effects:) The whole dining room area took us a week. 3 colors of paint, 2 coats each, every weeknight after the kids went to bed (9-11 or midnight). We made the hour glass pillars with a stencil (created by Shad with a flattened Special K box) and loads of tape.

 

No real before picture for the living room. It was just white walls. Shad did have to fix a spot of drywall. Story behind that is that two of the brothers that previously inhabited our home were wrestling and the younger brother's head went into the wall. Shad had to ask youtube how to match the texture. We ended up still having furniture in front of that spot anyway!

 

And here's our After:

 

We painted the brown the same days as we were using it in the dining room. It was a 5 gallon bucket we scored on clearance for $30!

 

The upstairs guest bedroom needed some serious wall help. I did an internet search to learn how to remove wallpaper glue. Diluted fabric softener and a sponge, in case you were wondering.

 

This is above a window frame. I can only imagine that the boys sat around with a push pin when they were bored. How else to you explain that above a window? There were actually holes like that all over the walls. Would you believe it if I told you it took over an hour to do the spackling? Oh, and they had a dart board without a back. Lovely.

 

Yuck.

 

Yuck.

 

And yuck.

 

Ah, serenity!

 

Beautiful, clean serenity!

 

Garage sale:)

 

I'm actually pretty envious of the guest room now. My room will get attention next year after we replace the a/c unit.

 

Downstairs bathroom. We love the blue!

 

So glad to be done painting for the year! The next big house project will be to clean all the carpet before Thanksgiving guests arrive.

I Feel the Need...

The need for speed!  Who doesn't love Top Gun, right?  Then who doesn't love going to a Top Gun WEDDING?!  And decorating the cake for it, on top of that.  Last weekend, we got to drive to Colorado, yet again this summer, for my dear friend, Lorinda's wedding.  Lorinda and I taught English together in China. We didn't know each other beforehand, and we only lived together for about 4 weeks before I transferred to a different suburb, but we've loved each other ever since. Guess that's what happens when you have to cuddle with each other to stay warm! Yeah, that happened. Cold winter in China.

Anyway, Lorinda is one of those people who had relationships, but didn't really believe in love. She said she'd never get married.

How cool is this invitation?

 



So I was really excited when she called to ask me to make her wedding cake...that is, I was excited after I felt certain that this was a real thing.  She asked for an F-14 Tomcat with a couple sheet cakes on the side. Here's how it came together:

 

I started with 2 9x13 cakes--one for the base shape, and one for cutting.

 

 

I cut two graham crackers to form the tail wings. That's what they're called, right?



 

Oreos for the jets. I have some leftover fireworks from the 4th of July and thought it'd be really cool to stick sparklers in the jets and light them, but I forgot to pack them.

 

I'm happy with the way it turned out, even with slight imperfections. What cake doesn't have some?

 

Keeping with the aviation/Top Gun theme, the wedding ceremony was in Hangar 61, a hangar from the old Stapleton Airport that was converted into a church.

 

There's the hangar. I mean, church.

 

The wedding party walked down the aisle to the Top Gun Anthem, then Lorinda walked down to an orchestrated version of "Take My Breath Away."  Shad asked me if I knew whether she would wearing a regular wedding dress or a jazzed up flight suit. It was a wedding dress.

 

We had Dancy with us (Tom and Katie were at my parents' house), and she was great! She saved up her poo all day (the ceremony was at 2) until during the vows. So it breached the bounds of her diaper and flooded onto her clothes and mine. We spent the rest of the ceremony in the bathroom cleaning up. Luckily, I had a change of clothes in the van. I don't normally go prepared with spare clothes for myself, though I should.

 

The reception was at The Spirit of Flight Center in Erie, CO. That is a really cool little museum dedicated to flight. They had restored airplane engines, bomb parts, German planes, cameras, oxygen tanks, etc.

 

A dismantled airplane outside the museum. Never seen that before. We couldn't help but think, "No disassemble! No disassemble!" Short Circuit, anyone?

 

This plane was in the movie Hot Shots. It was unclear to me whether this is the actual plane, or the same kind of plane used in the movie.

 

Me with Lorinda and David Showe

 

"Oh, wait! We forgot to be Chinese!"

 

How cool is this? David's groomsmen got him these kegs burned with the flight names of characters from Top Gun--Maverick, Goose, Iceman and Hollywood.

 

"Up there with the best of the best."