sleep schedule

i've been meaning to write about this,

but i was waiting to see how it worked

and then it got lost in the whole moving - new house situation. 

brette only takes one nap a day.

we changed her schedule in august at only 14 months old.

i thought it was too young to only take one nap,

but at the time i was working more to help cover someone else's

maternity leave and we were hauling brette over to spend mid-day

with jaime, madeline and eden.

i had to actually wake her up from her nap in the morning

to get to work on time

and then i think she was excited to see me in the afternoons

and it was hard to put her down.

not like brette at all.

so we tried something new.

no nap in the morning,

eat an early lunch and

then nap time around 12:30.

it clicked.

even though i was hoping to make it

to 18 months before transitioning to one nap,

brette was ready for it.

she sleeps between two and three hours everyday.

i have to admit, i really love it.

it frees up more of my day and its a lot easier to plan around.

the only downside is,

if she doesn't take a good nap

she is a bear by bedtime.

but in those instances, i usually scooch 

bedtime up by 30 minutes. 

but the majority of the time,

this new schedule works excellent.

breakfast: 8:00

lunch: 11:30

nap: 12:30

snack: 4:00

dinner: 6:30

bedtime: 8:00

 

boo bash

h a p p y

h a l l o w e e n

we went back to longview for halloween,

for the third year in a row.

its so cute to watch the parade of kids

and the neighbors do a really great job

of decorating their houses.

plus i get to spend the evening with 

three of the cutest girls in the whole world.

 

my dad stayed home and gave out candy.

he didn't get one trick-or-treater.

what's up with that?

  

and i get a gold star for the day.

i dressed up at work

(three blind mice)

AND

with my family.

(little red riding hood, grandmother and the big bad wolf)

 

trick or treat, 

smell my feet,

give me something good to eat 

your damn candy.

 

hope you had a fun night

with lots of chocolate.

and yes, those are full-size snickers.

apparently some people are ballin'. 

halloween 2013
halloween 2012
halloween 2011

applebutter

every few years my whole family gets together 

to make applebutter.

i can't share the recipe because the 

elders in the family have not past it down... yet.

but i would never make it on my own anyway

because for real, it takes a couple if witch's kettles,

silver dollars, a weird homemade wooden paddle,

40lbs of sugar and like 7 bushels of apples.

who has that lying around?

its a big group effort.

lots of peeling, coring,

stirring and canning.

but its so worth it.

besides, it gives us a good excuse to hang out together,

carry on a family tradition and get in a little day drinking.

what's better than that?

 

that's not even all the apples.

  
B downing a WHOLE apple while watching us peel.
 

a little cooler racing.

 

 

 

time out from beer pong so mimi could change eden.

 

 

arm candy and paper cup wine.

 

 

 

pepsi pong.

 

 

and at the end of the day,

every family was able to take home

T E N jars.

and yes, i do take bribes.

 

progress - month one

 even leia is ready to move in, but

things are going a little slower than i would like 

at our homestead. 

we have a wall knocked down to open up the 

kitchen to the dining room and

we have the popcorn ceiling scraped off. 

we have also torn down the huge light in the kitchen,

added cans and a fixture over an island,

that has yet to be ordered.

a guy is at our house right now spraying the ceilings and 

ronnie hopes to have them painted this weekend. 

the day before yesterday we ordered flooring and it should

be here in a few weeks.

in the mean time, we would like to get the upstairs trim painted,

take down the wallpaper in brette's bathroom

and get brette's room painted. 

then we can have the carpet and wood floors installed

and (fingers crossed) move in.

that still leaves us with painting the kitchen cabinets,

installing a kitchen island, painting all the trim downstairs,

fixing/painting all the rooms downstairs and tiling the laundry room.

 whew.

i have to keep reminding myself that

its a marathon, not a sprint.

these are the wood floors we ordered.

we are saving $$$ by having ronnie install them.

i would have preferred to just have a team of guys come in a knock it out,

but i can't argue with a better price tag.

our original idea was to replace all the carpet in the house, 

but since the previous owners had just replaced two out of the four bedrooms,

we decided to just match their carpet and finish the other two rooms.

the grey carpet to the right is the one we are matching.

this is the wall that came down.

it separates the kitchen from the dinning room,

which also flows into the living room.

so by opening this up,

i can see all the way through to the front of the house.

 same wall, from the other side.

i'm now standing the dining room

 cale and ronnie just getting started.

 

 it ended up being a bitch to take down

because there was electric, plumbing and return air in the wall.

of course, i pick the one wall that has all three.

ronnie loved me.

 and here it is all done.

we still have to wrap the beam in cedar to make it match

the beams in our living room,

but it made a huge difference in the house already.

the huge light below we took down.

it was my job and fairly easy.

it really opened up the height of the kitchen.

we also took down the pendant in the bay window.

its supposed to go over a kitchen table,

but we have opted to add an island instead.

we're adding different pendants centered over the island 

to allow the kitchen to feel bigger and more open.

good thing i know an amazing electrician. 

we are having a bit of trouble finding an island to order.

they are either crazy expensive,

too big for our space or 

are not made to eat at.

if you have an idea of a place to look, send it my way.

i want something rustic looking. 

we are planning to paint our cabinets green,

so my dream would for it to look like reclaimed barn wood.

 these are two of my favorites, but one is expensive and the other

you can't eat at. wah wah.

so anyway, 

that's where we are at.

i promise to keep the updates coming,

s l o w l y  but surely.