An ottoman redo

I LOVE our ottoman. The cushions come off, and there are 2 huge storage areas underneath. The problem was that the upholstery was torn in numerous places (thank you, kids and cats!), and it looked horrendous. I was seriously embarrassed for people to come over and see it. Derk told me to just trash it and buy a new one. But I love that thing! I store our movies in one side and our blankets in the other side. I'd have nowhere to put those things if I didn't have that storage, so I really wanted to keep it.

So, I figured why not ask my mother-in-law to help me redo it while she was in town for Kyrie's baptism! She knows how to do pretty much everything under the sun (seriously, she even made her own tooth to save on dental costs!). So off we went to the fabric store. After a lot of searching, I finally found the perfect fabric. It ended up costing around $50 to cover the whole thing, but that's a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing it would have been. And now it has my own personal touch. I think it turned out awesome!

Before
(sorry about the awful glare from the lamp!)

After!

My mother-in-law helped me do the base, and I did the cushions completely on my own. The base fabric matches the lightest square in our rug, and the cushion fabric is an exact match of our couches, the red wall and the lightest square in the rug as well. It's still not quite done yet. Underneath the cushions, I stapled the fabric on, and I want to do something to cover up the staples. I'm not sure what yet, though. I'll have to walk around JoAnns to get some inspiration.

Here's a close-up of the cushion fabric. The stripes are raised and feel almost like a corduroy type of fabric.

Thanks for your help, Mom! You're awesome!!

Sweet siblings

I've been having a hard time getting Kyrie to focus during school time the past few days. Asher and Bri always distract her, and it just makes things really tricky. Normally we sit at the table with my laptop and do her school work. Her work isn't all online, but there are still lesson helps that I typically use. Today, though, I decided to just work straight from the books and set Asher and Bri up on a DVD on my laptop. I put them in Asher's room so Kyrie wouldn't be distracted. I just went in to check on them, and this is what I found:

They fell asleep together. And Asher is snuggled up with the blanket I crocheted for him while I was pregnant. It just melted my heart. I love these kiddos.

I just had to speak his language!

I have been working with Asher for a long time to help him learn his letters. We were doing a preschool with some friends from church up until we moved last May, but he just wasn't very interested then. When Kyrie and I started homeschooling at the beginning of this school year, I started including Asher. I printed off letter pages and worked with him. I thought he'd love to do school like his big sister. But that was always a fight, too. So for the past few months, I backed off completely, until I realized that he'll be starting Kindergarten this fall. By the time Kyrie started Kindergarten, she was reading. I know every child is different, but I also know that Asher is capable of learning his letters and should know them by now.

So anyway, I turned to the internet, as I typically do when I need advice. And I found 2 products that I am indebted to for the rest of my life!!!

Superhero ABC book and the Letter Factory DVD

He BEGS to read that Superhero book. We read it at least twice every day and then again for his bedtime story. And he loves to watch the movie (he's watched it twice today already). The best part is that he has no idea he's even learning. It's so funny because I'll ask him if he wants to work on his letters, and he'll glare at me and say no. But then I rephrase it and ask him if he wants to read his new Superhero book or watch the Letter Factory movie, and he gets super excited. He went from not being able to recognize any letters to being able to recognize 6 within the last week. I'm just thrilled! I highly, highly recommend these products. The book obviously won't be something a girl would enjoy, but the DVD is something any kid would like.

Family Night

Tonight for family night, we decided to go miniature golfing. Kyrie has been begging to go again for a few months, so she was very excited when we told her we were going. While I was paying for the golf round, I noticed a coupon near the register for the restaurant they have there. The deal was way too good to pass up, so that's what we did for dinner. They were offering a large 1 topping pizza, 8 wings, 12 breadsticks with dipping sauce, a large salad and 4 sodas all for just $22! We couldn't believe it. By the time the pizza came out, we were too stuffed and ended up taking the entire thing home. :)

The kids were having too much fun to cooperate for pictures, but I managed to get a few (you can click on the picture collage to enlarge it).

Another lost tooth

Kyrie lost tooth #10 last night. Is that a lot for an 8 year old? It sure sounds like a lot to me! But the dentist said it's normal for kids to lose teeth quickly, because when one falls out, the ones around it get wiggly very easily.

Anyway, it's become a ritual for Kyrie to write letters to the Tooth Fairy. Her letter this time was hysterical!


You can click on the picture to make it bigger. Just in case that won't work for you, here's what it says:

Dear Tooth Fairy Tooth #10
If you can please give me a thousand dollars
Anyway if you can't I understand
Cencearly, Kyrie

I die from the cuteness! I actually hadn't seen the letter until Derk showed it to me. I remined him before bed to be Tooth Fairy, and then I heard him and his parents cracking up, calling to me to come see the letter. That Tooth Fairy thought the letter was so cute that she left Kyrie $5 for that tooth! In the morning, Kyrie came running out to tell me she'd gotten $5. I told her how cool that was, then she proceeded to say, "Yeah, but I asked her for a thousand!" lol! So then I told her that would have been awesome and that I'd pull out my own tooth for that much money! ;)

This letter will be saved forever and ever. She actually ended up seeing it on top of my dresser, got very sad and said the Tooth Fairy must not be real after all since I had the letter. I told her the Tooth Fairy let me keep it since it was such a cute letter. I hope she still believes for a while longer because it's ridiculously fun to play Tooth Fairy.

Kyrie's 8th birthday and baptism!

I cannot believe Kyrie is already 8. That just sounds way too old. And it makes ME feel way too old to have an 8 year old! ;) Her birthday was pretty crazy this year. On her actual birthday, we kept things really low-key. We had almost Derk's entire side of the family coming down for her baptism that weekend, and she wanted to wait for them to celebrate. So her actual birthday we spent at home, and we made Fettuccine Alfredo, per Kyrie's request. She did open a couple of gifts -- a package from my mom, and then Derk and I got her a new bed and nightstand.

Late that night (or should I say early the next morning), Derk's parents arrived. Friday we went and did a little shopping. Kyrie got some gift cards for her birthday and wanted to go spend them. Friday evening, Jessica and her boyfriend Mike came down from Phoenix to spend the weekend with us. We had a fun time hanging out and playing games.

Saturday was pure chaos! Kyrie's baptism (for those of you who don't know, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, children aren't baptized until age 8, which is the age of accountability -- click HERE for more details, and scroll down to "Little Children and Baptism") was scheduled for 2pm, then we had her party scheduled for 4:00. I don't know what we were thinking! Actually, I'm pretty sure we weren't thinking. Anyhow, I ran around like a crazy person all morning trying to get everything ready. Meanwhile, we were waiting for Derk's brother, Drew, his wife and their 2 girls to come into town for the baptism. Around 10am, I realized they'd forgotten about the time change (we're an hour ahead), so that's when the praying started! I wanted them to be there so badly and kept praying and praying that they wouldn't miss it. They were due to arrive around 2:30, so we hoped we could stall the baptism until then.

My mother-in-law made Kyrie a white dress to wear after the baptism. She made my wedding dress, the blessing dress both Kyrie and Cambria were blessed in and Asher's blessing outfit, so I thought it was only fitting that I ask her to make this dress as well. It turned out so beautiful! I helped Kyrie get all dressed and ready, then we were in a mad rush to get to the church.

This is the front of her program I made

And here's the inside
(click on the picture, and it'll be large enough to read)

We'd done the opening song, opening prayer, Jessica sang a beautiful song (to hear the song, click HERE -- this is NOT Jessica, it's just a Youtube video I found-- and to read the lyrics click HERE) and my talk on baptism, then I went in and helped Kyrie change into the baptism jumper. I tried to take as long as I could, both because I was savoring this special moment with her and also because Drew and Rebecca still weren't there. I led Kyrie to the baptismal font, and Derk was already in the water waiting for her. She was literally walking down the steps to the font when Jean (my mother-in-law) said Drew and Rebecca had called and said they were in the church parking lot! Talk about "in the nick of time"!!

After the baptism, Grandma Stephens insisted we get some family pictures. I'm so glad we did!

Kyrie in her beautiful dress


My 3 rugrats!


Our family


Drew (Derk's brother), Rebecca, Abigail and Lauren


4 generations!


Scott and Jean, Derk and I, Drew and Rebecca, Jessica and Mike


Asher and Abbie--
the cutest little 4.5 year old cousins you ever did see!


The whole Stephens Crew


This picture is special because Derk performed the baptism
and Scott performed the confirmation


We sure love this girl!

After the baptism, we headed (okay, rushed) back to our house to get ready for Kyrie's birthday party. We had a house full! There were 19 people here total, including Kyrie's friends and Derk's grandparents. Crazy, but way fun. Kyrie wanted an ice cream cake this year, which took me off the hook for making the cake. I was a little bummed at first, but it ended up being a blessing because I wouldn't have had time anyway. Here are some pictures from her party!

The rest of the weekend passed in a blur. We had so much fun, and I was so busy that I pretty much forgot to take any pictures. We had everyone staying at our house, which was once again super crazy but super fun at the same time. We stayed up late every night playing games, went to Chuck E. Cheese one night, went to the park, did lots of playing on the trampoline, enjoyed good food and, most importantly, enjoyed great company!

Making our house our home -- Part 5

This little project has been on my To Do list for quite some time now. I went out with a friend today, and we ended up stopping at JoAnns. I actually remembered to look for the fabric for this project, and I found exactly what I wanted! I was so stoked! (The bathroom will be repainted, hopefully this week, so it'll look even better once that's done!)

Before
(notice the ugly shower head)

After
(no more ugly shower head!)