Ours Girls are here!!!!

WE HAVE CHICKENS! We've been wanting to get them ever since we moved into our house. They call our ward the "chicken ward". Apparently the previous bishop asked the ward members to do a few things to be better prepared...have a wood stove, a garden, fruit trees and CHICKENS! So we just had to get some so we could fit in. Alan is almost done building their new home, it looks like a mini red barn. I love it, pictures of that when it's done.
We had agreed that 4 chickens would be a good number but when it came down to it I just couldn't resist them. The kids and I brought home 6 chickens, one for each of us. We have 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes named Oreo (Tanner) and Sally (Tate), 2 Barred Rocks named Chickita (Taylor) and Black Mambo (Alan), 2 Buff Orpingtons named Hazel (Tallula) and Henrietta (Karina).
We decided to get month old chicks instead of day old chicks because they're healthier and have a better life expectancy. So they're a little gangly, we joke that we've adopted a bunch of teenagers. Some of them already have very distinct personalities. Not surprisingly Alan's chicken is a trouble maker and riles everyone up. Tanner's is quite the explorer and Lula and mine are sweet and love to be held. Tate's has a little disability (he has a fifth toe). Taylor's comes right to her. We can already tell them all apart and it's starting out to be a great adventure!
By August we'll have 4-6 big brown eggs a day from our little family of chickens, can't wait!

Clam Digging

My brave, adventurous husband decided to take all 4 of our kids clam digging in Ocean Shores last weekend. I wasn't able to go due to a photo shoot...darn (she says sarcastically)! I think he can now say they had a good time since it's a week behind him. The lack of sleep is what did him in. Tent camping isn't really Princess Lula's "thing", so she kept him up most of the night. The clam digging went great and they brought home a bucket full. Apparently the beach was packed with people but there were plenty of clams for everyone. Tate was the spotter and Taylor, Tanner and Alan were the diggers. Tanner wouldn't touch the clams so Taylor had to pick them all up and put them in the nets. Once they got home, Alan steamed them out of their shells and froze them. We'll make some clam chowder later and can it in my new pressure canner!








These last few pictures are courtesy of Tate. He got ahold of the camera and snapped off a ton of hilareous pictures.

Happy GREEN Day!!!

CAN'T PINCH ME!



We had our annual GREEN dinner last night since Alan had the day off. We had Alan's friend Dan and his son Easton over which was fun. This dinner is always so weird to me. When I cook there's usually a theme. Like if we're having tacos I'll make guacamole and salsa to go with it or if it's a roast we'll have potatoes and a steamed vegetable. Hamburgers would have a side like chips and corn on the cob. They GO together. Our green dinner never makes sense but oh well! The kids pick out a bunch of things they can think of that's green and we cook it all up.
This year we brought back last years favorite shepherds pie (green mashed potatoes on top), paired that with a side of asparagus and chips and guacamole. To drink we had green Gatorade. We followed that up with mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.
Today I have had the pleasure of changing 2 green poopy diapers so far and it is only 3:00 in the afternoon. GOOD TIMES!

Pine Wood Derby 2010

Tanner's sweet car! His scout leaders named it The Phantom.






Well this years derby proved to be a learning experience. Tanner built the car all by himself this year and it looked AMAZING. Looks don't always win though. His car didn't do to great and he really struggled to be a good sport. He was near tears a few times. I felt so bad for him but I just left him alone until it was all over. I had to take him out in the foyer and let him cry it out for a few minutes. Then we talked about it being hard to loose but it's important to try to have fun and be happy for the person who wins. It's a tough lesson to learn when your a competitive little 9 year old. I will admit that he comes from two VERY competitive parents. One who will remain nameless has been known to throw a board game a time or two!

The Yard

Our yard is in as bad of shape as the house was. It hasn't been high on the priority list of things to get done around here so it's just this huge eye sore for us and for the whole neighborhood. We've been having some amazingly beautiful days and I can feel spring coming. I really want my kids to be able to run and play and explore our property. We also really want to plant a garden this year. Thanks to Alan's wonderful brother Scott it looks like we'll be able to do all of that this year! He dropped of a CAT dozer to our house today and Alan spent 6 straight hours in that thing. I don't have the done pictures yet because he didn't finish until it was dark. I'll post those later. Really it just looks like a giant pit of mud but I can see the vision! I'm so excited!!!


This is Scott giving Alan driving lessons. There in the garden on the side of the house here.

Alan's all ready to rock and roll.

First he pulled up these nasty boards left over from the nasty dog run that held 8 dogs.



As soon as Scott left Alan found the ONLY mud pit in the entire yard and proceeded to get himself stuck for 2 hours. It took the winch on the Jeep, a snatch block and our very helpful neighbor to get him out. There was absolutely no hardpack under the 10,000 pound dozer. This picture doesn't do it justice he had the dozer sunk more than halfway under. This picture was after he got out and the hole filled up.

Me in the Jeep working the winch. These are seriously my favorite pair of shoes. I Lurve them!

Here's a before picture.

Hard at work knocking down the weeds and leveling the yard.

Painting 101

I sometimes get asked for advise on repainting furniture or cabinets. I thought I would write it all down in a blog post so it's handy for anyone who might need it. By posting this I am not saying I am an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I have however refinished 4 kitchens 4 bathrooms and countless pieces of furniture so I'll share the knowledge I do have.

PREP WORK


This will probably be the most time consuming part of your project.

- CLEAN. You want to thoroughly clean the item with soap and hot water. Be extra diligent if it's kitchen cabinets, they tend to have a grease build up you want to really get out.
- SAND. If the item has any rough spots, chipping paint, etc. you will want to sand them out. I hate sanding so I try to avoid it at all cost. Sometimes you just have to though.
-DEGLOSSER. I believe this is the greatest invention of my time...no joke. This stuff is amazing. You just take an old rag and wipe it on your item. Don't wipe it off, just let it dry. If you want you can do it again and again. This will prep the piece for primer, no sanding necessary. I almost never sand anymore thanks to this stuff. Yay for DeGlosser!!!

PRIMER

All I'm going to say is...YES!!! Primer is your friend. It doesn't matter if you paint it on or spray it on, just do it.

PAINTING



There are a few options as far as paint goes.

- PAINT AND PAINTBRUSH. Chose a favorite satin or semi-gloss paint and a REALLY good paintbrush. I can not stress the importance of a REALLY good paintbrush enough. My favorite is Purdy. It can be a bit of an investment but it is worth it. You will get nice even coverage with no brush strokes if you use a good brush. This is how I paint 90% of my projects.
- SPRAY PAINT. This is a great option because you get really good even coverage...if you do it right. Don't get ahead of yourself and lay it on thick. You want to do multiple light coats to get the best finished product. The downside to spay paint is that it can get very expensive. I spray paint my small projects or anything metal or plastic. I don't have a favorite brand but you'll want to use a good name brand not the $.99 Wal-mart can. That stuff is junk!!!! Buy the good stuff and you'll be fine.
- PAINT SPRAYER. This is probably the best option although it's the one I use the least. My husband is the master paint sprayer and I don't go there! He has spayed 2 out of the four kitchens we have re-done and the coverage is wonderful. We don't like to break it out for small projects because clean up is kind of a pain but sometimes it's just worth it. You can rent a paint sprayer for pretty cheap if you don't own one.

FINISHING

I do a few things to my finished projects.

DISTRESSING - You can do this a few different ways. You can rub wax on your project in the areas that you want to sand later so that the paint comes off easy and controlled. Or you can do like I do and just bust out the sander and go to work. I think it's a bit of an art that you learn the more you do. I've had my share of bad distress jobs. You can take it to next level and bang your piece up with chain or a screw driver. Distressing is a GREAT way to cover up you mistakes as well!

ANTIQUE GLAZE - I love this stuff. I've glazed cabinets and furniture alike. I've found a method that works after lots of trial and error. I like to brush the glaze on, then I wipe it right back off with an rag. That's it. Pretty simple but I used to try to rag it on, then rag it off and it always looked yucky.


POLY - I use a poly acrylic because it's specifically states that it is works on paint. The poly urethane didn't mention paint. You can probably use it but I didn't want to take a chance. Someone else who knows, feel free to chime in. Choose the finish that suits your needs: matte, satin or gloss. Again I just brush the poly on with a GOOD brush and let it dry. You can do additional coats for extra protection.


Now your done! Enjoy!

Is it to late?

Hope you had a Happy Valentines Day...


I know it's late but Alan has had 5 days off of work and that always turns my schedule upside down. The kids have had the last 5 days off of school as well and it's been a great long weekend! I had a wonderful birthday on Sunday with Alan, the kids, my parents and my sisters family. Tomorrow it's back to reality.