Lots to be thankful for

We, Williams (well, 3 out of the 4 families), gathered in the Northwest for a very wetThanksgiving.  Aaron's mom and dad flew up from Provo and Brant and the kids drove down from Vancover.  We had a full house for four fun, rainy days.

I must admit it was my best turkey yet.  And I'm not really a big fan of turkey.  I think it had to do with it being free, after taking advantage of some sale by Fred Meyer.  Who could complain about a 21 lb free turkey?

Cotton didn't. Too bad the kid never got any.

The long weekend was low key and relaxing, as always.

Kids played card games, watched movies and battled in video games.

The little boys tried battling with light sabors but  one would be whacked in the face and in tears within seconds.   They tried playing trains but one would knock down the bridge so the other would gather all the trains to take to another room.  They tried playing with the castle but one  would lock the other boy's knight in the dungeon and a tantrum would ensue.   Cooperative play was not their forte this time around.  Give it some time and they'll be best of friends.

Dad got some "backyard birding" in, along with one quick trip to the pond down the street.

We went for a walk the one afternoon it wasn't raining.  Jonah protected us from all the attacking trees.

Let him out and this kid's happy.

Mother & son.

My cute, kissy face.

This boy will never hold your hand, like Lucas always did.  He must be free & unencumbered!

The kids made place cards with glitter, stickers, markers and whatever else they would find...

...while Jonah wrangled dinosaurs.

The girls convinced Grandma, Lucas and I to go Black Friday shopping.  We convinced them to wait at least until 6am to leave.  Target here we come!

We took some family pictures but none of them turned out too swell.  For whatever reason, Lucas never quite looks like himself.  It's so goofy. He gets it from his mother.  Sorry, honey.  Do I really look like that?!

Brant and the kids.  Can you tell who was not in the mood to get his picture taken?  He cracks me up.

By Saturday, we all retired to our own corners for some quiet time.  Mom and Dad flew home and Brant & Co. went back north.

I am always sad when holidays end and I get in a funk.  Luckily Christmas is right around the corner and we'll be off to Arizona in no time.  I'm halfway done with my Christmas shopping, the tree is up and Polar Express Radio is playing on Pandora.

Happy Holidays!

If at first you don't succeed...

...try, try, and try again.  And in some cases, try yet again.  In my mind these next few house projects were going to go a lot smoother than they actually did.   I mean, I just wanted to paint, stencil (which I already knew how to do) a wall and stain just a few pieces of wood. 

Anything that could go wrong, did and everything I could mess up, I did.

Here is the before...taken from the MSL listing.  Nice, but too dark for me.  

 
Step one, I painted the front wall white and then stenciled over with grey.  In the first attempt my stencil paint wasn't covering well and they all came out uneven.  About 3 stencil sections in, I just repainted with white, bought a little higher grade paint, due to a great sale, and started over.  But this time about 4-5 sections done, I realized I was off kilter and slanting sideways.  If I kept going, my pattern would be completely off by the time I crossed the wall.
Yep, repainted again. A third time I re-stenciled, straight and as thick as I could without the paint bleeding under the stencil.  But as I got going, I realized I just wasn't going to get good coverage over the white paint.  So, I ended up HAND painting each quatrafoil by hand.  I just went over what I had painted with the foam roller with a small paintbrush. Yep, by hand.  Each and every one. Tedious?  Long?  Yes.  But I also have to admit, I ended up finding is calming and meditative.  I would paint while Jonah was down for his nap or the kids had gone to bed and it was a slow and nice mindless activity.  I would just let my mind wander, or listen to conference talks or Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on my phone.  I found myself really enjoying the monotony and quiet time.

So, a few attempts and a few weeks later, I ended up with what was supposed to be a simple and easy wall.  I keep telling myself it was worth it.

Next I wanted to tackle the banister.  The light oak is nice but not the look I was going for.  And again, I thought this was going to be straight forward and simple.

All I needed to do was sand down the wood and then stain or paint it.  The tops of the railing and the banister, I sanded down clear to the bare wood so it would take a stain and the rest I just sanded down to prime and paint. Simple enough. Except for all the curving parts and little areas I couldn't get with the electric sander. T.e.d.i.o.u.s. Then once I finally sanded everything down and stained, the results came out blotchy and uneven.  Not the look I was going for.  So, I sanded down again and used a wood conditioner to help even out the tone. And again, a blotchy, uneven finish. 
I must admit there were a few times I had to walk away, take a break for a few days, a week and then go back to tackle it.  My frustration level was high especially after the stenciled wall.  Plus, the stain kept running down the spindles of the banister, so I would have to clean that up, and in many spots, sand it down, prime and repaint it.  Finally after my third try of sanding everything down to bare wood, I just said good enough. 

And now that's it's done, I really like it.  It looks so different from the before.

I need to sand down a few parts of this front part and repaint but I'm just being picky now.

The stain came out pretty even the third time around, even though I wanted it slightly darker.  But I got what I got and I am not doing it again. :)  I slapped on a few coats of lacquer and called it good.

And in true Natalie form, I still have some stuff to do before I can label this project finished.  We still need to borrow a super tall ladder from our neighbor to get the high stuff, but I'm waiting for Aaron to take charge of that.   :)

I just keep my eyes low and bask in what I what I have finished.

Before...

 
After...

Next comes wall hangings.  But right now I need a break from the entryway.  I'm finishing up the painting of the family room today and another project will be hanging on the wall before the week is out.  One that makes me laugh every time I walk by it.  Stay tuned...

11.7.11

Amazing week in Arizona.  Not only did I get 5 days of sun, 5 days of being with family, but I got to be with my Amanda and Geoff at the birth of their second daughter.

My little sister was originally due on Oct 31st, which is a little uncanny because their first daughter was born on Oct 31st four years earlier.  (We have a holiday thing going on. My sister Amanda was born on Christmas, my sister Genet was born on the 4th of July, and my niece Katherine was born on Halloween. And last and maybe least, I was born on May 19th. The date that sometimes falls on Arbor Day, for those not in the know:)

I was coming out on Nov 5th to help with the recovery and basically to play with the new baby.  But the kid was determined to wait for me to come.  I arrived on November 5th with still no baby.  So Sunday the 6th, Amanda went in to get slowly induced.  But when she got to hospital Sunday night, she was already underway.  Things progressed faster than she thought and so Monday morning we got a call saying my mom and I had better get our little selves down to the hospital cause this baby was a comin'.   We dropped Jonah and Katherine at a friend's home and off we went.  Running from the parking lot, we made it to the birth with ten minutes to spare. 

I have to admit, I 've never been at a birth from that angle before.  Aah-mazing.  And moving.  And a miracle. And awful.  Truly there is no dignity in child birth.  But Amanda was strong and beautiful even though the birth was much more difficult than her last.  Thank you for letting be there!!

After an hour of pushing and coming out face up, little baby Genevieve arrived looking like she had been in a street fight. 

November 7, 2011
9:37 am, 7lbs 13 oz and 21.5 in

Proud papa of two beautiful girls.

So much dark hair!

Katherine, Amanda and Geoff's 4 year old, was anxiously waiting for news of her new baby.   I called to let the sitter know all was well and when we would be coming to get the kids.  Cristen said as soon as she told Katherine her baby sister had arrived, she knelt on the floor and bawled.  What a sweetie!
Now Katherine might look innocent in these pictures, but she was quite possessive of her "Baby Genevieve."  She had many rules...no, laws for those who wanted to even think about approaching her baby.  At four years old, this girl knows she is The Big Sister and wants to be in charge of everything Genevieve related.  Amanda had to remind her many times who the mother actually was in this family.

She will teach Genevieve all things princess in no time.

Jonah said the baby was, "SO cute!"  But quickly lost interest in favor of the rubber gloves found on the wall in the recovery room. 

Once she was home, he would whisper to her and want to hold her.  Of course, all by himself. And got mad at me if I tried to save her head from falling backwards and that I had the audacity to actually touch the baby while she was in her arms. 

Amanda was doing great, sore and tired, but hanging in there and just so excited to be blessed with this perfect, new child after 4 years of trying.

Aren't those lips amazing?

She actually looks close to a smile.

Yes. I took almost over 100 pictures of the week together.  I couldn't help myself. :)

Genevieve looks exactly like Katherine.  Those girls are definitely sisters.

I know I was there to help clean and cook and help with Katherine, but I just couldn't help myself from snuggling with this sweet girl for hours on end.  She comforts a place in me that aches from not being able to have more babies of my own.  I love being an aunt and claiming that adorable baby as part mine!  Thanks for sharing, Katherine!  I know it was difficult. :)

I can't wait to go back at Christmas time and see how much she has grown.

A Semi-Decorated Halloween

I'm not one to decorate for holidays other than Christmas. Don't know why.  Just never really made the effort or wanted the expense. But this year I signed up to decorate a door at the church for trick or treating in the hallways.  Never done that before.  (In past years we just stood by others who had decorated their trunk for 'trunk-or-treating' and passed out candy with them. No one was the wiser.)
But we couldn't fake it this year, so I decided I would buy some Halloween props to decorate, and then afterward I put them up in our door for actual trick-or-treaters we were told actually come through our neighborhood.

No. Nothing spectacular. But it's a start. Holiday decorations are things that grow a little each year. Buy at the after-holiday super sales or adapt something else to make it "theme-y." Thinking I went from one little stuffed witch my mom sent to my college dorms to a few bats and skeletons, I've made good beginnings.
I cut out a little colony of bats...

...and a little family of mice...

...and made a black feather wreath... (Aaron saw me making that and secretly prayed that wasn't for the house.  Super relieved when I told him it was just for Halloween. :)

... added a few glittery spiders Jonah couldn't keep his hands off of...

...and a few hanging skeletons.  Cute and simple.

As for costumes, Jonah was a gnome again this year.  My costume-creativity just wasn't flowing and since I had most of everything on hand from last year, why make it difficult?

I did look for black rubber boots to wear but had a hard time finding ones without flames or dogs or dragons.   I ran to Walmart and found blacks boots perfect for a garden gnome.  But when we put them on Saturday for our ward party, they disintegrated in 20 minutes.

Literally. They just fell apart.  In 20 minutes.

Have you ever seen anything like that?!?

Anyway, I took those back for a refund and bought some great reds ones at Fred Meyer.  They're big so they should last a year or two.

Jonah was NOT pleased about the beard.  Everything else was great, but the beard had to go.  So I took a few pictures and then it was retired for the rest of the night.

A picture of all our group, minus the purple princess, Sarah.

Lucas has always loved to dress up.  He lived in costume from age 3 to 6. So he decided last Thursday he wanted to make a ranger costume, as in a huntsman from the Ranger's Apprentice books he is reading right now.  This boy has quite the imagination and knew exactly what he wanted.  And since he didn't have school on Friday due to conferences and I really only had him to dress, we made it our project.  I l.o.v.e. working with him on stuff like this.  It was quite the collaborative effort and he loved the end results so I was happy.

We took a grey sheet and sewed a hooded cloak, cut out vinyl for a tunic, boot covers and archery arm protectors, snagged some old black gloves and cut off the fingers, and added a Jedi belt we got from years ago.  He looked fierce and we got to make together. Love it!

Hope your had a Happy Halloween!