Drained

Some days I just get tired. Tired of my kids throwing tantrums, tired of being an emotional wreck... Today I'm tired. It's a daily battle with Hailey. She's more like me that I would like to admit and so our personalities clash... often. I love that little girl so much, but sometimes she is a mean moody mess- like today. And some days it just gets to me so much that I'm on the verge of tears- like today. But really that's nothing new for me lately. It's been almost 7 weeks since everything happened and it doesn't take much for me to get emotional.

But there was a small miracle that happened. I got Hailey to nap- seriously she's asleep on the couch right now. And of course Nanners is down for her nap too. So this mamma is going to nap too and hopefully wake up to a better afternoon.

A day in the crazy life at the Olsen's

The minute that Tim comes home craziness explodes. The girls run to their daddy, which is awesome of course, but it's loud very rambunctious lol. And both of the girls crawl all over Tim like he's a jungle gym

Now this section is appropriately titled:

Why my kids only get crayons

(or those color wonder markers that only mark on the special paper)
This is my ottoman that goes w/ my regular furniture. Yep that's crayon in multiple colors all over it. I almost wanted to strangle her. and by her I mean Hailey.

Yes that's my pretty ottoman and that's crayon all over it... 1 day after I finished it... grrrr.. and yes it was all over each leg. And the magic eraser just faded it.

My swagger wagon

So we're finally licensed, insured, and completely legal!! Ahhh so nice.
And if you haven't ever seen this video check it out- it's hilarious! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4

Flower crafts

Figured I could show a few pics of the mess I made while making over a hundred of these hair clips. This is what my dining room table area looked like for a few days. Of course I could only keep the flowers on the floor while Hannah was sleeping, lol. Just a few up close pics that I took This was what my flowers looked like displayed at Whitney's booth this last weekend.

My big 3 year old!!

Sorry this is all going to be backwards a bit- explanation is at the end of the post. It's late and I'm too tired to fix it. I kept her friend party pretty simple. Balloons everywhere.

This was the first main group of people that showed up. I had a "fairy wing" craft. I actually kept it pretty cheap by getting most everything at the dollar store. This was probably the most quiet time and most of the kiddos had fun doing it. I made a pattern and cut it out and then the kids could decorate it however they wanted and then the idea was to pin it into their shirts. Got the idea from pinterest here: http://brandyscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/09/tinkerbell-tea-party.html. Thank goodness for others who are far more crafty and creative than I am.

The rest are at Hailey's family party. Hannah loved the box, lol. I don't know why we even spend so much money on presents sometimes cause kids always like the simple stuff- like boxes!

Hailey got all sorts of cool princess/ fairy dress up stuff and accessories at both parties. Guess she's officially a big girl now.

I seriously can't believe that Hailey is 3 now. It's absolutely crazy. This year we had 2 parties for her. 1 with family cause there's a lot of us in town here and 1 with friends. And it's a good thing that we separated the 2 because there's no way Tim's grandparents- who are both 80+ years old- would have been able to handle the crazy madness that was Hailey's friend party. So here's a bunch of pics. Enjoy- kind of jumbled because they're from both parties.

Furniture experiments

Ok so a quick run down of what's been going on. A friend and I switched tables. We both got them for free and decided what the heck. This is a gorgeous old table with tons of character. The only problem I have with it now is that I'm not 100% in love with the color- at least in my dining room. I think it needs to be darker, and it's supposed to be- but the lighting make it look too washed out against the gray walls. But I'm going to have to live with it until spring time when I can get outside and redo it.

See what I'm talking about character- see those beautiful curves- ahhh I love it!

Ah and of course my not so favorite chairs.

Black they went- not too bad black. Still not my fav, but they definitely work until I can get some more cheap ones and redo them.

Ahhh remember this one??

K you can't really see it in the pic. The girlies were super duper excited to sit on it together. And nice smiles!

Better pic- repainted and new fabric. Not the best wrap job- it was my first- but hey I can only get better from here =)

Now this piece is a good ol laminate tv stand from Wally world that Tim and I got from our wedding- well wedding money bought it. And when we moved into our new house it sat in storage for 6 months... with masking tape over the drawer and it pulled the laminate off. I've been dying to do something to it. Tim really wanted to buy another one. I don't blame him. But I wanted to try to fix it first.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And I'm in love with how it goes in my living room.

And finally my hutch. Another free piece we've had for a few years. See a common them here?? We've had an overload of wood colored pieces. And I'm talking complete overload. Especially with our wood floors. Tim is a "wood-colored" furniture kind of guy. He would rather that I keep everything the same or just fix it and restain it. I told him that he would come home one day and it would be painted, lol, so get ready for it. I'm horrible with before pics. Trying to get better, but the hutch is the piece in the back. And that's my friend Whitney- here's her blog again- http://www.whitneyvintage.blogspot.com/ she really is amazing.

And ta-da---- Here's my new hutch. Painted black and I was able to use the existing hardware. Just spray painted them with this gorgeous hammered spray that I've used around the house already on various fixtures. I'm so IN LOVE with this. And people that have come in can't believe it's the same piece. To be honest I can't either. Still have a few other furniture pieces to finish. They're already painted, but need fabric seat and some modge podge designs added. Will post pics when finished cause those are great indoor winter projects for me to tackle.

Busy little bees

Ok... it's been way too long since I've posted last. I'm a bit horrible at that right now and I need to do better. Life has been super busy. I think part of me has been trying to stay extra busy so I don't have to think about all of the bad stuff that has happened... well I guess I can't really say all of the bad stuff... I guess I should say "the" bad thing. So anyways I've learned how to sew. Nothing special yet. I had a stack of about 10 or so items that have been waiting to be mended for oh, a year or so, so I tackled that. Then a few others things needing to be fixed have come up so I've done that too.

Then I bought a paint sprayer and have been refinishing pieces in my home. My awesome and uber talented friend Whitney helped me with my hutch and some chairs and then I got inspired and bought my own spray gun. Ah-ma-zing is all I can say- those things are awesome and such a time saver. She's started up a blog recently showcasing her beautiful pieces- which of course are for sale- http://www.whitneyvintage.blogspot.com/ . Check it out! Same friend recently did her first craft show and had asked me to make some flower hair clips for her to sell... so I did... 0ver 100 in a little over a week and I was pooped after doing that. I've been thinking about trying to sell them around town and possibly online now so hopefully I'll get the motivation for that.

Then I've been super busy with church and family.... and my lil monster turned 3- what the heck and where on earth did time go?!! She had a birthday party with family and then this year I threw her a bday party with friends. Yep it was a mad house for an hour with a million little kidlets running around, but it was so worth it. Hailey had a blast.

We also managed to get out to Scarywood again this year. Soooo much better than the 1st year we went, which was 2 years ago. They really do a great job with that out there. Long lines were sucky ducky of course, but oh well. And we remembered to bundle up good- I think I had 4 layers on, lol- so I was nice and toasty warm this time too.

And finally Tim's Buick- aka the beast- that he's had since before I met him-8+ years ago- finally "crapped" out. Luckily we were able to sell it to Pull and save and at least get a little money out of it. And then we bought a van... awesome steal of a deal too. $4500 2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette at 75K miles and it's in fab shape. Not my fav color/ design, but I couldn't pass up that price, etc. And actually it runs great and had some mom-friendly features that I love.... sooo I'm a pretty happy mama. But I wasn't happy with the van until last night... when we finally got it back from the mechanics. See the day that we bought it I went to get it licensed, etc. and the thing wouldn't pass emissions. And no I'm not joking. So we took it straight to the mechanics and over 2 weeks later we got it back... and our bill is going to be around $1000. Not joking again. It turns out that something was wrong with the CAM sensor and then when investigating that our mechanic discovered that the gaskets were bad on the outside and if they fail on the inside then it would ruin the engine. So overall I'll take $1000 over $4-5000 any day, which is what it would have cost for a new engine.

Ok that's a run down of the past few weeks. And besides me being extra emotional lately things are pretty darn good. I consider myself to be pretty tough emotionally... well not anymore. Doesn't take much to make me tear up and it really weirds me out. For the most part I feel like I've handled things fairly well. That is until some dumbstick tells me to be thankful for the children that I do have. I seriously want to punch them in the face when I hear that. Of course I'm thankful for my girls, my amazing hubby, and so many other things that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I'm not blind to all of these things. But I also can't ignore the pain that I've felt. But something that really hits straight to the core is when someone says that they are due in April... it's seriously just cuts straight to my heart. I just pray that I'm able to handle this ok when this next April comes around. I know that we're going to have more children, but to be completely honest I'm a little scared. Scared for it to happen again. I know that it's always a possibility, but going through that again is a very scary thought. Sorry I feel like a pity party right now. Please ignore this if it bothers you. I sometimes use this blog for more of a venting session than I should. Now I promise to post a few good ones w/ pics of what's been going on lately.