Projects, Projects! Before and After

So Yesterday I decided since Dale ACTUALLY had a Saturday off that I wanted to go to Goodwill! I have been wanting to go for a while but since I never had Dale with me I wasn't even gonna chance it!

So we get to Goodwill and I see the posters "50% off Sale July 17th"

MY LUCKY DAY!!!!

So we go in and i was thinking it would end up like it always does.. never really finding what I want.. until I saw this baby....

The most UGLY/BEAUTIFUL piece of furniture ever!

It was exactly what I was looking for! I have been looking for something with this kind of shape for quite a few months and everything I saw was always over 100bucks and I never wanted to fork out that much just to redo it.

Again, MY LUCKY DAY!!

I paid less than half of that for this beauty.

I couldn't figure out what to do with it but I figured i would sand it down while I was in the process of thinking.

Girls room?

Our room?

Entertainment center?

I finally decided that the area we needed it most was right under our TV!

Then onto deciding the color... I had a hard time..

Red?

Green?

Grey?

Finally I figured that we probably wouldn't want a big piece like that to be so red that it would drown out the rest of the room so BLUE it was!

I found the color I wanted at Wal-Mart kilzed it and painted it until almost 1in the morning! I let it dry overnight and we put it in our family room this morning and this is how it turned out...

I am so IN LOVE with this set up!

Of all the projects I have finished in the last couple weeks I am MOST proud of this!

It livens up the whole room, hides toys and electronic cords and makes the room feel "Homey"

I just want to squeal!!

Blue Eyed Boy Meets A Brown Eyed Girl

I started writing this post last Sunday and I could never get the words right. I am not blessed with the ability to put my thoughts down on paper (or a blog) and make it understandable to the average human. So I am starting over and I hope by simplifying it it comes out the right way!

Yesterday Dale and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! We made it pretty low key because JUST Dale and I are headed to Vegas next week for 4 days and we didn't want to bug more babysitters and shove the girls away when we are going to be leaving them on Monday but luckily we got a last minute babysitter and we went to a cheap lunch and a movie! (Go see Despicable Me HILARIOUS!)

I was trying to write a big post about how Dale has bettered me in so many ways but I couldn't find the right words. So in that simple sentence, there it is!

He has brought me out of my shell, taught me how to stick up for myself more and has made me feel so much more confident in myself.

Everyone says that they have the best husband in the world. I think that is true of every ones husband. They have the husband that suits them best, the person that "completes them" for lack of a better phrase. And with the risk of sounding super cheesy.

Dale truly is my perfect match. He is the perfect husband for ME.
(Ya I know, SUPER cheesy!)

I Love you Dale. Cant wait to see what gets shoved our way in the next 5 years!

These Legs Are Made For Walking

Yep you guessed it! Mak is WALKING!!

She is taking about 7 steps at a time!!

By the time I think to get the camera she is so tired so the amount of STABLE steps goes down a bit but she is already trying to navigate herself instead of just walking to and from Mommy and Daddy!

She is so cute!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com
I told dale that by the time we get back from our trip to Vegas next week for our anniversary, she will be walking all by herself and we will have missed it!
He didn't like that very much......

A Busy Bee

I have been project crazy lately. My White walls with nothing on them, my white curtains hanging there lacking color (or just horribly colored) having nothing in my house organized with everything we have having no real place to get put.

Can you see how this would be driving me insane? Ya....

So I am not even sure when, I think it was a little over a  week ago I started waking up and getting stuff done! The entire upstairs needed re-doing so before I even went downstairs to see my girls or eat or anything I started working on everything upstairs! I couldn't go downstairs because I KNEW that if I did the girls would see me I would start having fun with them, sit down to relax and never get up. Nothing would have gotten done!

So, first up was cleaning the bathrooms! My nose hairs are still burned from the bleach! (too much?) It might take another week to get my sense of smell back. But after I sanitized the bathroom I organized it. Then I organized the girls old clothes and found Riley's old clothes that now fit Mak (18 month clothes people!!!!!!) I am sure some of you are losing interest with all these details (if you hadn't already lost interest at the first sentence) so to shorten it up I ORGANIZED MY BUTT OF!!!

Upstairs was lookin' fantastic so i did the same to the downstairs bathroom! I felt so accomplished and that was just day one!

The next day I did the same thing! Wake up, don't let the girls see you and WORK! Dishes, laundry, vacuum....

It felt AWESOME!

My house would not be complete until I got something on my walls though.... My sister was going to help me with this since DECORATING is an area in which I LACK talent but I got a fire underneath me doing the rest and I just couldn't help myself! (Hey Jamie, feel free to critique this and come over and put it where it SHOULD go!) So I spent all yesterday afternoon in our HOT garage spray painting picture frames! This morning I actually got them up on the wall!!!!

It looks like this.....

and this....

So I starting looking at the horribly colored curtains in my family room. They were SUPPOSED to turn out dark grey but they turned out light gray with white spots. It wasn't the first time i had dyed something but it was the first time with my washer and it turned out horrible! I knew I couldn't use my washer for it again but I had another set of curtains I needed to get done for my bedroom so I spent SO much time in a hot nasty sticky kitchen boiling water to pour into a plastic bucket to dye my bedroom curtains THIS.......

GREEN!

I know its a horrible picture but I couldn't get the color to look even close to what they actually look like in a picture so I had to darken it up! yuck!

But you get the gist! Its really actually pretty in real life. Again, they didn't turn out perfect but they are a lot better than my grey ones! and they look cool with my bedding and green pillows!

That's what I have done so far! I have SO much more on my list to do but its gonna have to wait! I need to spend some more quality time with the girls and less time worrying about my projects!

But now I have enough stuff done that my house feels a little more like home and and I have less clutter in my life!

I have a "new" couch though that I need to clean and try to find (or make) a slip cover for and then I will be SO happy with my family room!! (anybody have an upholstery cleaner I could borrow? Also anyone have skills in making slip covers or re-upholstering???? I NEED YOU!)

Why

Right now I have 3 pots on my stove trying to boil water at the same time. I am trying to fill up a giant plastic tub so that I can dye my bedroom curtains.....

Why do I do this to myself???

Day Trip

Yesterday we took a last minute trip up to Payson with my sister Jamie and her kids to play in Christopher Creek. Jamie invited us on Thursday night and luckily Dale was able to get the day off last minute!

It was so nice to be in cooler weather for a day! There was a nice breeze almost the entire time and of course there was the cold creek to play in! We definitely needed this little break!

Dale and I were both able to spend some time with just Riley Bug and Mak had tons of fun crawling around in the cool grass and splashing around in the shallow parts of the creek!

Also, I was able to bring my new camera and really put it to use! It was around 1 o'clock by the time we got in the creek so the sun was right above us so it was a little different figuring out how to use the setting on the camera to my benefit but I have to say again...

I LOVE THE CAMERA!

I got it JUST in time!!

So here are my favorite pictures of the girls...

(there are a lot!)

Dale and I think she looks so grown up in this picture! She doesn't look just like shes 4. I love watching them grow up but why does it have to go so fast!!

This is one of my favorite pictures!

"DADDY DONT TRY TO MAKE ME WALK I JUST WANT YOU TO HOLD ME!!!"

Yep Im chubby! I like food!

Chubby and PROUD!

What IS this thing called nature? What is this green stuff? I'm gonna touch it!

Eh, The thighs speak for themselves..

Hey! I'm an adorable girl named Riley Bug but I was having WAY to much fun for my mom to catch up with me and get pictures!

(She had SO much fun!)

Just TRY to resist kissing thse cheecks Mommy and Daddy!

SERIOUSLY just TRY!

What the HECK did you just do to me?? What is this cold stuff?? I'm not sure I'm a fan!

Umm, she is cute... That's all.

Mom and Dad Why don't you bring me here more often??

See I had fun! I enjoyed getting out of the heat and exploring the creek with Riley and figuring out a few things about my camera! I have TONS to learn but I am so excited to!

Dale enjoyed helping our nephew catch a BUNCH of crawdads, laying in the hammock with Riley while guessing cloud shapes with Riley and exploring the creek with Riley!

I WANT TO GO BACK!!

My New Love

I'm sorry Dale. I have a new love. Its this guy right here!
You have to admit, he is rather beautiful.
Also,
he takes amazing pictures!

One day I will find out how to give you the attention you deserve but I will be holding hands with this guy a lot.

This might scare you and this might be OK with you but only time will tell.

I am so excited that Dale let me get a new camera! His only rule was that I sold the other one first.
(Thank you Craigslist!)

It was kind of an ordeal at the store last night trying to actually purchase this thing but everything worked out and I brought it home and have been playing with it ever since!

No more camera that I cant figure out! That means I might actually post more pictures up here that I actually took! YAY

The present she will have until she dies...

This is Tuck the turtle.

Well technically he or she is a tortoise but either way...

This is Tuck.

(ya I know we are really creative over here at the whipple household)

Tuck is an African Spurred Tortoise.

His life span is 50 to 80 years.

This "little" thing, depending on its gender which you cant tell until its 3 years old, can get to about 150 lbs.

Right now it MIGHT weigh a pound.

It will eventually have residence in our backyard and will eat 4 heads of lettuce a day...

I am gonna have to grow my own garden just for this thing. Riley got her own kids tough camera for her birthday and she has put it to great use especially taking pictures of this thing! She is pretty dang talented. You should see all the awesome pictures she has gotten of him!

(i promise i wont put them all up here)

Anyway, one of the settings on the camera is to put borders around the subject. Without any coaching at all she found the heart and took a picture of Tuck!

She is really cute.

It pretty much describes the feelings she has for him though. Since she got him she wants to be home almost all of the time just so she can watch him burrow and crawl and eat. I wonder when the novelty will wear off. She normally loses interest in things in one day and it has been just over a week and he still seems brand new to her. Every time he opens his eyes and starts crawling around its like she is seeing him do it for the first time!

Ahhh Love......

So where did this thing come from??

My brothers.....

My brother Steve is a reptile enthusiast and plans on breeding a bunch of different reptiles. He has a lizard at his house (2 doors down) that Riley cant get enough of! She could spend just as much time looking at that thing as she can at Tuck. So my brothers Steve and Damon thought it would be a good idea, for her birthday, to get her something to have fun with at home.

(that I wouldnt go crazy trying to take care of. in a couple years i will be able to handle more but right now he is prettyy simple)

This thing is gonna take A LOT of work as it gets bigger but Riley loves him.

To be honest everyone in this house has become pretty attached to him!

We all think he is pretty cool and we are glad that my brothers got her such an outrageous gift!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

THIS ADORABLE CUTIE........ Just took three steps...

ALL BY HERSELF!!!

One at a time obviously but its a start!!

I am OK with it taking her a while to pin it down completely but she is already completing this step sooner than I would like her to anyway so might as well encourage it as much as she wants me to!!

After the third step, every time I would stand her up she would throw herself to the ground so I am not gonna push it!

I will let her do it at her own pace but I am still excited to see her growing up!!

We went to the doctor today for this ones 9month (really 10 month) appointment and here are her stats!

Weight: 19lbs 12oz 50th%

Height: 28 1/4in 50th%

Head Circumference: 45cm 75th% (that was no surprise! HA)

She also had to do the hemoglobin check and her iron levels are PERFECT!

She is an adorable Chubba-Love!

also: check out all the posts below... i have been on a blogging frenzy. it has taken me a bit for motivation but i have so much to blog about. our lives have exploded apparently

One Big Birthday!

Riley Bug is Now FOUR!!

Her Birthday turned out awesome and she had a really fun day!!

She kept saying though that she was three and wouldn't be 4 until her party!!

I think she is smart.

Her party went off, but I cant say without a hitch!

I didn't start baking, what was supposed to be a 2 layer cake, until 2 hours before the party.

I was decorating it until almost 430 and everyone got there at 4!

Side note to family: When did you start showing up on time to things?

Haha

My Best friend Jessica Was sooo awesome though and since I didn't have time to make any cupcakes she spent the whole day before baking and decorating 40 cupcakes!!

Ya she is pretty awesome!!

Check out her Blog!

ANYWAY!

Here is the happy birthday girl!

Of course after all the work I did on the decorations I didn't think to get a "Real" picture of it all! But at least I got a somewhat decent picture of the cake with some of the finished stuff in the background!
The cake I made from
SCRATCH!!!
If any of you know me you know this doesn't happen!
I wasn't blessed with many domestic skills and certainly not ones in the baking arena but everyone that tasted it loved it! I guess it was OK! ;)
It had Oreo halves as polka dots. The insides didn't go to waste.. I put blue food coloring in the leftovers and made a few more polka dots on it!

She LOVED all of her presents!
It really was like Christmas for her!
Big Family=Lots of presents!
(Even if I tried to tell people they didn't have to!!)



After the party buzz wore off she was able to really enjoy ALL her presents!
A couple times she told us she wasn't 4 yet and so we said "All right if you aren't 4 we will have to take all your presents away!"
That ended her issues!!

Her biggest present out of all of them was an African Spurred Tortoise.
The thing will grow to over 100lbs.
Her Uncle Damon and Stephen had fun surprising her with that!
I will post about that later!

Happy Birthday Bug! We love you so much! You add so much spice to our lives everyday! No day is ever boring or routine with you! You keep us guessing and you are the most personable little human I have ever met! No one can resist your charms, your eyes or your smile! You are the best big sister and Mak just adores you!!
I cant wait to watch you grow up!

P.S We went to the doctor for her 4yr appointment! Poor girls got 4 shots! She handled it like a champ! She is just over three feet tall and she has FINALLY broken the 30lb barrier!! (34lbs) I asked about her height... She is average height and proportionate so STOP TEASING THE POOR GIRL!! Haha

And the winner is!

MAKENNA!!!

For the wackiest face in a picture!

So I know this is a funny picture...

All sorts of things going on!

Squinting because my dumb flash,

Trying to smile,

Really wanting Mommy to just pick me up DANG IT!

But this picture perfectly shows off Maks 3 adorable teeth!

Mak cut tooth number 3! (her top right) I have the exact date written down somewhere but I cant find it anywhere.... Hmmmm

Anyway, SHES CUTE!

That's all!

Edit:

June 11th.... Thats when her third tooth came in!

Wow

I have a handful of things to blog about nowadays but I cant seem to get the motivation to do it!

Maybe Soon!

I hope!

Its BIRTHDAY Time!

What do these.....+ These.....
+ This

Equal?????

A very colorful birthday party for a

VERY

Colorful Four Year Old!!!

I still have a couple more things to do... I plan on tying a ribbon around the drinking cups just to make them more "Fancy" like Riley wants and then I am going to take those flowers and put them in these.....

These were from the dollar section at Target but they were originally popcorn cups!

They were bright yellow with popcorn written across it with pictures of pop corn all over them! They were the perfect height for me to stick the flowers in so I decided I would spray paint them since I had the perfect colors at home already! I think they turned out perfect. Maybe I will add a ribbon around those too just to give them a little something extra!

This is going to be a fun birthday for Riley Bug!

She is so excited about everything she has seen! She keeps begging for it to be her birthday!!

Why do birthdays take so long to get here!! I cant imagine being a four year old and having to wait for anything let alone your "Fancy" Birthday!!

What About Bob

This is Bob.

He is lovingly named by his previous owner. We thought it fit, so we stuck with it!

This is the story of Bob.

Bob was bought one day by a very handsome man that needed Bob to take him to and from work everyday. Its a long drive so the buyers made sure Bob would serve them well for a while. He passed the test and became a member of the family.

Bob worked hard for 2 years before he couldn't take it anymore.

Bob started crying a lot. So to make him happy the handsome man had to replace a couple

parts. Bob was happy and kept on going for a little while longer until there was nothing he could do any more!

Bobs life had ended......

Or so the handsome man thought!

The handsome man after seeing a sad Bob parked in the same sad spot and no funds to get him fixed decided he would sell Bob to someone who could take proper care of him.

The handsome man ALMOST sold Bob but when the handsome man decided to move Bob to clean him he had a thought.....

"What if I tried to start Bob up just to see what could happen?"

Well The handsome man did just that and guess what happened?

BOB SPRANG TO LIFE!

It was short lived but this filled the handsome man with hope!

So the handsome mans wife called to find someone who was a doctor for Bobs kind and found someone who her father knew who would take a look at Bob.

The handsome mans wife was very very anxious to have a car again.... She didn't much care for being stuck at home all day everyday because the handsome man had no other way to work and has the worst schedule known to man....

Anyway,

After a day of waiting we get a call form the friend who is doctoring Bob and find out he only needed a battery charge and a MAJOR tune-up to run like he did when the handsome man first bought him! It was music to the handsome mans (and his wife's) ears!

Another day later and the handsome man has his own way to work and the handsome mans wife has her freedom back!!

Bob still needs a little work but not all hope is lost!

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end!

Long story short: WE HAVE TWO CARS AGAIN AND I AM SOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!

Friday Movie Fun!

Today was the first day of Summer Movie Fun!

It is Riley's favorite time of year!

Well, MAYBE a few things top it! ha

She LOVES movies and she LOVES the hanging out at the splash pad afterwards!!

We did this for the first time last year with a bunch of my siblings and their kids and Riley had so much fun we will never stop!

Today's movie was Charlotte's Web!

Such a cute movie! Even Dale and I loved it!

Riley has been asking for these movies since the last ones ended! I am so happy we can finally do it again!

Here is the fun after the movie....

She LOVES her Little Miss cousin with all her heart! They found each other the second they got out of the cars and were un-separable through the entire thing!
Even after we headed to the splash pad!

NOTICE:THIGHS

We were worried about how Mak would handle the movie....

She did AWESOME!

She even fell asleep through the 1st 15 minutes of the movie!

She is a champ!

And she loves getting cold water splashed all over her!

Even by some obnoxious kids there that thought it would be fun to smack the water in her face repeatedly!

I wanted to body check the kids but I had to keep reminding myself that it was a public place and no other babies were there and we were sort of monopolizing one of the fountains...

BUT STILL! WATCH YOUR KIDS PEOPLE!!

K I am done with that.

But besides that ALL of us had a really fun time!

Its so nice to get out of the house sometimes!!