Mother's Day

I only have one photo from Mother's Day. But I thought I should document the day since it was pretty fabulous. (My friend Liz Dawson said we should do Mother's Day monthly. I'm liking that idea! ;) My mother's day celebration started the night before when Troy told me he would be getting up to feed Gray ALL night. Now that was the best gift in all the world right there. I probably should have gotten up in the night to pump, but I couldn't make myself. Staying in bed was too wonderful.

When I did get up the next morning, I was greeted with breakfast in bed and a cute little four year old wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. Troy is becoming quite the omelet maker! My meal was delicious. Don't worry I didn't drink ALL that juice. Those were my beverage choices, I shared the remainder with everyone else.

We decided we'd all go to church that day. Gray was just shy of two weeks only on Mother's Day. So when I showed up at church, lots of people couldn't believe I was there. I think they thought I was crazy and I probably am. But my reasoning was as follows A- Troy had no meetings and therefore could help me get the kids ready for church. Big plus! B- I couldn't miss Jackson's first time performing a song with the Primary in Sacrament meeting. (Story below) and C- We are moving so soon and I couldn't bare missing my last few weeks of church. Too many people to see and visit with.

When it came time for the primary kids to sing, Jackson was pretty nervous about going to the front of the chapel. I told him I would take him up there. I got him to the stand and told him to join the rest of the kids. He got as far as where the Bishop was sitting and froze. He was turning to come back to me when Bishop Francis said, "Here Jackson come stand right by me." So Jackson stood in front of the Bishop by himself while all the other kids stood on the other side of the stand singing "I Often Go Walking." Jackson looked down during the whole song, frowning most of the time but he sang a few words. When the song ended the Bishop told him he could go back to his seat. Jackson folded his arms and started running from the stand. About halfway to our bench he yelled (yes yelled) "I don't want to go up there ever again!" Ha ha. I thought it was pretty funny. Jackson however, was not in the least bit amused.

Overall it was a fantastic day. I am so grateful for the three little children I've been blessed with. (I'm still getting used to saying that- I have three kids. You'd think after a month it would have sunk in. Nope, not yet.) My children are such a blessing in my life. So grateful to be a mother. And so grateful for my own wonderful mother.

This year we made hand/footprint Mother's Day cards for our moms. I made one for myself too. I love seeing those two hands and that little foot. So cute. I love Clara's stubby fingered handprint (hers was by far the hardest to do, she wanted to keep her hand in a fist the whole time. We had pink paint everywhere.) I also love how huge Gray's footprint is. He has the longest feet. They're the cutest.

Crafty Goodness

Turns out I have all sorts of unpublished posts lying around. I started this one months ago to record some of the projects I'd been working on. Back in January I got in a crazy nesting mood and started decorating like crazy. Funny that I decided to do all that just a few months before moving. Even though I probably took on too many projects and was a little crazy because of it, I did get a lot done.

I painted our wingback chair.
With latex paint. Like the kind you use for the wall. Crazy I know. I found a tutorial on pinterest. I mixed the paint with fabric medium and did THREE very tedious coats and voila! Painted chair. We got this chair from my Grandparents when we got married and it is exactly 26 years old. I thought it would like a makeover. I am in love with the color. And it only cost me about $10! However, the fabric is kind of rough. This is much to Troy's dismay as he adores this chair. I'm not sure how or why Troy and the chair got so attached, but their love for each other is real. He's pretty sure I've ruined his chair and doesn't sit in it much now... whoops. So I told him someday I'll buy him a new one...

I painted our leather couch. With spray paint. It's specifically for vinyl and fabric, intended for car interiors. This idea was also found on pinterest. Initially it looked fabulous and I was thrilled. But as the weeks went on, it started to crack and then flake with movement. So basically, it's a good idea to paint your couch if you aren't ever going to sit on it.... but that kind of defeats the purpose so we'll just call this a pinterest fail and not talk about the $60 spent in paint that I will never get back. You win some, you lose some I suppose.

My mom came in February and helped me cover many throw pillows. Six to be exact. I love throw pillows! They make me so happy every time I see them. They certainly have brightened up our family room.

I inherited an old atlas from my grandparents. I love maps! So I cut it up and made about a hundred map cards. I had so much fun making them and now I have lots on hand when I need a card. I learned to love homemade cards from my mom. (She makes the cutest cards.) So now, when all I have is a store bought card I feel kind of bad sending it. This is silly of course. But now you know how the inner workings of my brain operate. Not so logical sometimes.

Dining room picture wall. I had a stack of frames I'd bought at garage sales that needed some love. So I painted some and cleaned the rest and started printing pictures. The big one is a reprint of the Declaration of Independence Troy bought when he was in Philadelphia last year. The smaller black and white picture is of the Bountiful Tabernacle. I inherited that one from my Great Grandma Mabey and it reminds me of her every time I see it. And the gold plate has a quote from President Uchtdorf stamped on it. I love stamped plates you know.

My entry way photo wall I did ages ago, but I never really wrote about it, so I figured I would now. Troy and I had so much fun picking out old photos of our grandparents and great grandparents to feature on this wall. I got the idea from my sister-in-law Suz. She has something similar in her home. I like having these old pictures as a reminder of the great people in our families who have come before us and blessed our lives so much. Jackson thinks it is beyond awesome that his Great Great Grandpa Bushman was a cowboy. (See the yellow frame top left.)

And lastly, a few months ago I decided it would be a great idea to buy all sorts of scrap wood from the bargain bin at Home Depot. I had it hanging out in the garage and then I decided to make a bunch of subway-art-ish signs. I might have gone a little overboard with decorating my house in signs... but I love them. There is no end to great quotes, especially now that Pinterest exists, and so I have plenty of material for my subway signs and my stamped plates. It's a cheap way to appease my crafting obsession. :)

Our Arizona Home

Before we started packing I took some pictures of our Arizona home. We have seriously loved this house. So many great things have happened while we've lived here. I'm sure we'll miss it.

Entry way.

These are retro pictures of our grandparents and great grandparents.

Family room.

Family room picture wall above the couch.

Kids' bathroom. We thought it was best they be in the tub for this picture. Ha.

Hallway leading to the kids' bedrooms. This is typically what it looked like. Jackson's room crazy messy with Clara eager to find new toys.

Clara's room. (Which I never completely finished decorating. Oh well. Better luck at the next house.)

Jackson's room. As I said, it's pretty much always this messy unless it's bedtime. :)

Troy keeps Jackson's room decorated with any BYU posters he can get his hands on. He says posters are a vital component of any young boy room's decor. ;)

Our bedroom. We're going to miss having such a spacious luxury suite. It's been awesome.

  Master bath.

Kitchen.

Family room off the kitchen. This is where we typically congregate when we have people over. Don't mind our collection of painted furniture. (P.S. don't paint your leather couch. Turns out it doesn't work. Ours is a flaky mess. Pinterest fail.)

Dining room.

Dining room picture wall. 

Our glorious backyard. Usually it is a little greener than this. We're still recovering from our winter freeze.

Jackson adores his playhouse. We are praying it fits on the moving truck.

Back patio. This is where Jackson rides his bike and Troy and I sit on the patio chairs when it's not too hot. We love it out there.

Goodbye little house! You've been good to us.

DIY Newborn Shoot for Gray

All at once I realized I would need to get going on a birth announcement if I wanted to get them out before graduation. So one morning I set up an amateur newborn shoot for Gray one morning. I really don't have the equipment or the know how to do this sort of thing, but they turned out okay considering our time line. I used BYU props from Jackson's room. The boys will be sharing eventually so I thought it would be fun to have some BYU baby pictures of gray to hang on the wall eventually.

Jackson ended up joining me for the photo shoot and asked that his Iron Man toy be included as well. Jackson's reasoning was that Gray had given him the toy so Gray probably wanted to play with it and have it be in the pictures. (We gave Jackson and Clara each a gift from Gray when we brought him home from the hospital. Anything to encourage sibling love ;)

I love how the announcements turned out. I had a few different vouchers to Tiny Prints and Shutterfly so I ended up making two different announcements as it was cheaper that way. Hooray for baby Gray's arrival!

Front of first announcement.

 Back of first announcement.