The Karren Review

Wholesale Furniture Broker Website Review

2011-06-15T20:49:00.001-07:00

I Came across a nice site tonight while blog hopping, http://www.gowfb.com. It is a place that has awesome furniture at reasonable prices. Best part is, they are running a deal to have FREE shipping (within 2-4 weeks to boot!) and NO TAX! The price you see is the price you will pay.

Anyway, since the rain has finally stopped and the sun has been shining the girls and I have been spending a lot of time outside. I have found myself wishing I had an outdoor glider for me to place in the shade while the swim and play on the swing set. That is the first thing I looked for and I found a beautiful one and it was even made in MT! :)

Isn't it beautiful?!?!

Since the weather is warm and the basement is so cool, we spend our inside hours down there as often as we can, we don't have a rocking chair down there, so putting the baby down for naps and nursing her is sometimes a challenge. So I went to look at recliners/gliders/rocking chairs...Well, I shouldn't have because now I REALLY want one! They have a bunch on the site: http://www.gowfb.com/fabric-recliners/c/2

Don't you just want to watch a movie in this chair below?

Anyway, I could stay on this site and drool for hours. I appreciate the final price being the price listed. I hope I get to go furniture shopping really soon!

This is my honest review of WFB. I was not compensated for this review, just hoping to be the winner of the $500 GC blog giveaway they are hosting, check it out:http://wholesale-furniture-stores.blogspot.com/2011/06/vancouver-canucks-blogging-contest-500.html

Arby's shake giveaway

2011-01-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

Why not eh? I'd go for a free shake anytime!

http://ourwhiskeylullaby.blogspot.com/2010/12/arby-shake-giveaway.html

Another very cool giveaway!

2011-01-19T14:16:00.001-08:00

Check out this giveaway! What a great idea. Pocket Referee!

http://www.placeforevery-thing.com/apps/blog/show/5767404-the-pocket-referee-review-giveaway

Awesome idea!

2011-01-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

My 2 year old can't reach the light switches...I really want to win one of these for the toy room!!!!

http://www.letsjustgiveitaway.com/2011/01/kidswitch-revewi.html?showComment=1295474522995_AIe9_BEAn6k-rxOLxsfIE3kezYgS25NiND4kXnlSAe5KktcAufUwea1CuvP42Tz6V3RQtpozV3CSYIoF4Pbp4ASIUTSef2uRzgwJ9d7XASS4mkn8CHMjmRnBs0616wCfSk8Tue85yHTINx7g-lBhP0eJflciQGQCgXPjrThknrjtLCu3WyHsbA9AT57c4QukUwckkiNo_FHmFYG5f7ZM2FrXTXHS2oKqOWYi2YkgD7L4aA3qRUCOmxA5yjTxgp43d7qoE-drW8e7gQKxRmc-mEw4gGdK5d2OuAQ7jT9Zfuaodlc3HRLZj9-zj0Yjm8fYN31Ewy5u-hZ4MiUL4j6f7t1Jaqd4vbGlmP9VFc4WSRL-0jsR2hU__9GhI8nbsIoHSAX3oU6se9qVyYZ9U2j-zzvktIhRv42WgV-0O7hGLX5X99SheGFjTPvZCsZ2xcw0syMnSXomIs3u82LBGsXmB97xBGK9dwQw_9Pgj1KZxbk9-ipaJ5VwFd1_w-rpIEnfWPrdSYfTDtCR#c3836529404512483301

Blog giveaway that I entered!

2011-01-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

Ohh! I hope I win this! These are adorable!

http://www.mommyrantings.com/2010/12/lots-to-say-baby-products-review-and.html

5-8 year old Cheer Camp

2010-06-18T08:00:00.001-07:00

Here is a cheer that I was able to record of the girls just before their parents arrived.

The girls picked up the cheers very quickly. They also learned 4 other cheers, a 1 minute dance, 3 jumps, some basic cheer skills, and they had a moment to shine when they did their own special trick for the whole audience. It was a great day! They did even better at the actual performance!

A really long time since an update

2010-05-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I posted and updated. Yikes! Our computer blew up and we lost so much! We had almost everything backed up on our external hard drive, but not the last 3 months worth of pictures. Very very sad. Here is our latest family picture.

I hope to update the blog soon with more pictures if I can find anymore!

Aprons

2010-01-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I made a lot of aprons. This green one was for my Mom.

A set of 4 matching ones for my sister and her 3 daughters!

Then a matching set for me and my girls!

I love aprons!

2010-01-19T11:07:00.000-08:00

Great Grandma Rees (Ryan's Grandma) made the girls each a few outfits for Christmas. We took a couple of pictures one morning before heading to church.

She is so talented! Thanks Grandma!

Note: Evie's shirt is already dirty and it had been on her less than an hour! Crazy active girl!

So cute!

Once there was a snowman

2010-01-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

We had some nice 30 degree weather last week and took the opportunity to go outside and build a snowman...well the snow wasn't the sticky kind, so we just made a snowman volcano instead. Last year for Christmas Grandma Karren made us a snowman kit that had all of the cool pieces in it to dress our snowman! So fun!

Hannah gets a hair cut

2010-01-19T11:01:00.000-08:00

Hannah got her hair cut last week. It was too long and not holding any curl...It was her 3rd haircut in her life (not counting the one she tried to do on herself a few weeks ago) This was her before.

I got talking to the hair lady and didn't take any during pictures....woops

But here is one of her at the end. She kept saying, "I am so brave Mom! Look at me! I am so brave!" Over and over again.

Doing YOGA!

2010-01-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

Ryan and I have been on an exercise/diet routine for the last 4 weeks called P90x. Yesterday it was Yoga day. Hannah is such a motivator, in the morning she will say, "Lets get our exercise shoes on, come on Mom!" Here is a cute video of them trying to do what the instructor says. Each time we do it, Hannah gets better at it. Ryan got a 5 minute video of her last night, which is too long to post, but she did a really good job. Pretty cute!

Hannah makes it about 10 minutes into each workout before she says she is too sore and stops... Evie makes it about 30 seconds before her attention is gone. :)

Christmas!

2010-01-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is in backwards order...I can never remember which way you are supposed to download them. :) Here are some Christmas Highlights.

Great Grandma Rees (Ryan's Grandma) slaved for many hours making some adorable outfits for the girls. Evie gave them all a hug, she loved them very much! Thanks Grandma Rees.

Grandma Karren (Ryan's Mom) Made the girls a Karren Kids Theater! She made it all! She made puppets to act out the nativity and made Hannah some dinosaur puppets. She even sent some that we can sew together ourselves. So much fun to act out the nativity with these puppets! Thanks Grandma for all your hard work and hours of sewing!

To the average person this may look like a mini whopper...but to Evie it was the highlight of Christmas Morning at Grandma and Grandpa Clayton's house! Her face was priceless. We got it on video too. She was so excited about the whopper that she just started hollering, MINE! MINE! Ha ha! Pretty cute!

Here are the girls after setting up the Christmas tree in early December. This is about the 10th picture I took...not a single picture had both of them standing still and smiling... oh well.

We had a great Christmas and these are just a few highlights we got mostly videos that are too large to post onto blogger.

Cooking Class!

2009-11-22T13:54:00.000-08:00

My friend Heidi told me about a free cooking class. They had dinner, childcare and it was awesome! I learned a ton and came back with a million great recipes! Here is our teacher Marilyn May! The class was on Thursday and lasted 4 weeks. It was so much fun! She was so creative.

Here are a couple of the participants. (L to R) Dawn, Me, and Karen. Not pictured: Heidi, Alisha, Marilyn and Shanna. Oh man we had a great time. Especially the last class. We had a blast! We made ice cream in a bag and it was one of the funniest things we had ever done. Ice was everywhere by the time Heidi and Karen were done. HA ha. Just makes me laugh thinking about it! Ha ha ha. Ok, I realize it isn't that funny for anyone who wasn't there, but to those of you reading this that were there...I bet you are cracking up! I am so sad it is over.

An old friend

2009-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

While I was home for Halloween, an old friend from High School came to town too. Nate and I had a great time catching up. We went out to CC's and got pie and ice cream. It was great to get together as it had been 7 years since we had seen each other! Man, I am so short!

Halloween Day

2009-11-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

We got to go to Glendive for Halloween. We dropped in to see Grandma Margie and Grandpa Jerry (my BFF Darci's parents). They loaded us up with the candy! Then we ran across the street to see Marge another favorite lady from my childhood.Aunt Kenzie, Aunt Kenna, Blake and Baylee took the girls and Roby and Christi out trick or treating. I love being so close to home!

Why small towns rock..

2009-11-22T13:37:00.000-08:00

Miles City Rocks! The Library put on a costume parade. They seriously shut down main street and let the kids and their parents walk down the middle of main street with people along the sides for a costume parade. We walked about 4 blocks. We were last in the parade because Evie's little legs are so short. They also got unfocused when I stopped holding their hands to take a picture, so my friend Heidi had to guide them forward.

Here are all the kids at the end of the parade. They gave us bags of candy, they were filled with good stuff, they even had extra ones, so the librarian gave one to me and Heidi. Sweet!
Tired... after the parade.

Girls Night Out

2009-11-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

We had Mary Kay facials at my house for a Girls Night Out activity last month. I didn't remember to take a picture until almost everyone was gone. :( But here are the last three peeps that were there. (left to right) Karen, Carilee, and Heidi. It was fun and we all got done up so nicely. Thanks for coming everyone!

New Car

2009-11-22T13:28:00.001-08:00

We traded in our envoy for a different car. We are doing a thing called the "Total Money Makeover" Where you try to eliminate all of your debt in 3-5 years without getting any extra jobs, just using your current income differently. One of the tips is, "If you can't pay it off in a year...get rid of it!" So we turned in our Envoy and were able to pay straight cash for this car, eliminating our monthly car payment. We now get to roll the old car payment into school loan debts. It is a 2004 (same year as the Envoy was) Buick Le Sabre. It has a nice leather interior and it was well maintained. It is very stable and we are very happy about our change overall. It makes hunting a little inconvenient, but everything else has worked out so far.

Out for a walk

2009-11-22T13:20:00.001-08:00

Fall has been so good to us this year. It has been very nice with very little snow and a lot of nice 50 degree temps. We have been doing a lot of walking with our new friends! Kylan, Hannah, Talan, and Evie fit perfectly in our mega yellow wagon. It takes both Heidi and me to pull the darn thing anywhere :) We like to walk to the Reynolds grocery store, the park, and sometimes just around the block a few times, for a little exercise.

We LOVE our new friends and so glad that they only live a block away! We would die without them!

Primary Trunk or Treat Party!

2009-10-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Early Halloween!

Tonight we went to a church trunk or treat party. It was very fun! Here is a picture of Evie with her really cute Trick or Treat Bag that Grandma Karren made for her. She wanted out of her right when we got home.

At the party she was dressed as a "Beagle puppy" She is looking down in this picture and actually looks like a dog. We went to the store with her costume on and the greeter said, We don't allow animals in here, unless they are service animals...She was suprised when I turned around and it was my child. HA HA! Pretty convincing though!
Hannah was a Teradactile (which they aren't called anymore, they are now classified as a Teranadon.) Anyway. Hannah is way into dinosaurs right now, thanks to a new show on PBS called Dinosaur Train. She wanted to be "Tiny the Teranadon...the flying creature" which she will tell you that exact description if you ask. Here she is flying around like a Teranadon. She ran all around that building a million times, "flying in her imagination" as she would say.

Here she is at home after the party. She is in the process of flapping her wings. This was a homemade costume, which I think is very apparent, but we had fun making it together.

The best part of then night is that Hannah was selected as one of the winners of the costume contest! She was so excited when they called her name. She ran around in circles flapping her wings. She won a free Frosty from Wendy's (That is what she is holding in the picture below). It was hard to get Hannah to take her costume off, but eventually she did only after I promised her that she could wear it again on Saturday the real Halloween and go trick or treating with her aunts! She is very excited!

It was such a fun activity. Hannah quickly got the hang of trick or treat and thank you. It was past Evie's bed time so she was hardly walking, she was pretty tired when we got home, well, until she saw all the candy that she got! Then she went wild. So fun!

It is offcial...doughnuts make me happy

2009-10-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

I just need to announce it to the world: Doughnuts make me so happy! Yum!

Thanks to Carolyn, Carilee, Rhonda, Denise, and Cynthia for a fantastic primary halloween party with lots of doughnuts! Also thanks for the extra 3 that you let me take home. I am enjoying one right now as I blog. :)

Nice....or not!

2009-10-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

I had just gotten Evie out of the tub, dried off, hair brushed, and was headed back in to get Hannah out when I decided to put Evie's towel away first. All of the sudden I hear the girls giggling. I walk around the bathroom corner to see this:

It was pretty funny, but I didn't laugh or smile, I just gave her "the look" they both stopped laughing and got the uh-oh I am in trouble look on their faces. I said what happened? Evie said, "Sorry, fall." (that is when I snapped the picture!) Then I started laughing and they both started to laugh. Pretty cute...but not fun to re-dress her!

Photo Shoot

2009-10-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hannah and I had our own little photo shoot while Evie was napping one saturday afternoon. Here is me:

Hannah let me do her hair! I told her she was too cute not to take pictures of her. (she liked that)
" Mom, are we done yet?"

This is how most of the pictures turned out, she jumps out of the shot when I ask her to say cheese. We had fun anyway!

Pumpkins!

2009-10-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Clayton grew 2 white pumpkins for the girls to carve out this year. Here they are after we picked them. Evie couldn't hold it, it weighed half of her!

Here is Hannah trying to pick it, it weighted a little much for her.
Dad and the girls carved them one night. Hannah thought she was so funny to look like she had a pumpkin head in this picture!

Again, Evie had a hard time lifting it, but it was fun to watch her get disgusted at the pumpkin insides.

Thanks for the pumpkins Grandpa and Grandma Clayton!

Trip to Crane

2009-10-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

On Thursday while we were in Glendive for Homecoming, the girls and I went to Crane to spend the day with Grandma Karren. The girls had fun playing the piano. We went to the treasure store and ran a few other errands.

Grandma Karren always has something fun planned for us to do when we go out there. She is so creative. We made carmel apples and decorated them. They were yummy and fun to make.
We met up with Grandpa Karren for lunch at Taco Johns. Any day that has Grandma & Grandpa Karren and Potato Oles is definately a good day!

In fact it wore Hannah right out! Don't worry I pulled over to take this photo!

We love our short little trips to visit our family!

Home for Homecoming!

2009-10-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

Living so close is fun as we get to go home for some fun things! This year the girls and I went To Glendive for Homecoming. My sister MacKenzie was in the Royalty and she was so beautiful each day! Here she is in the homecoming parade waving to us!

Hannah's ears are extra sensitive, even when the drums were 5 blocks away, she started to cry saying it was too loud, I could hardly hear them. I came prepared with Ryan's shooting muffs to cover her little ears. It seemed to work. Although she wasn't happy at first, she soon realized that these ear thingys were helpful. :)

I love parades! We got some good treats and Evie had the best seat in the house. Grandpa on the other hand had very sticky hair after Evie was finished with her treats.

Thanks for letting us come visit!

More of Evie!

2009-10-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

The girls were playing hide and seek and it was Evie's turn to count. She always turns her head against the wall and counts to 4. Hannah hardly gets out of the room before Evie turns around and says, "fow ya!" her way of saying, "found ya!"It is pretty cute, so I caught her counting in the corner.

Ah ha! Caught saying "fow ya!" My friend Jeana found this cute outfit at a yard sale last weekned along with several other cute clothes and hats. Thanks Jeana!

Here is Evie singing her ABC's!

Evie can count to ten!

2009-10-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

I have really been working with Evie in trying to stay focused for more than 10 seconds. It paid off the other day when she counted to 10 for the first time...The video is really bouncy because Evie loves to grab the camera and Hannah was bouncing on my other arm. But it gets the jist in there. She can count better than this video if she doesn't get distracted, which is easy for her.

She turned 18 months old yesterday. She growing so much. I want to help her learn, but have a hard time keeping her attention. we have been working on counting to ten and working on animal sounds. Despite all of our efforts, every animal still says tweet, tweet. We will get it figured out eventually. ;)

Modest is Hottest

2009-09-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Today I took the girls for a bike ride to Albertsons to get some milk. It was chilly when we left so I bundled the girls up and I wore pants instead of shorts like I normally do. My pants kept getting caught in the chain guard because it is missing a small piece. So I rolled my pant leg up on that side to just above me knee. Once Hannah noticed, she said, "Mom, you need to put your pant leg down please. You need to be modest."

I laughed and said, but Hannah I need to roll it up so it won't get stuck in the bike. She said, "Mom, I know sometimes it isn't fun all the time, but modest is hottest! Put your pant leg down now please!" I started to day, Hannah this is different. She interrupted me with, "Do you need a flick, I am counting to 3. 1, 2 What could I do? I certainly didn't want a flick from the buckled in 3 year old in the bike trailer that really couldn't get out to flick me...but it was a good lesson. I told her she was right and I did put my pant leg down. I just continued the rest of the ride home with my pants getting stuck on the broken chain guard.

(I say that pretty much verbatim to her when she doesn't want to put clothes on). It was pretty funny. Acording to Hannah...Modest is Hottest!

Hannah turns 3!

2009-09-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

On 9-19-06 at 7:01 am Hannah Faith Karren joined our family. She weighed in at 6lbs 15 ounces and we had a bugger of a time getting her here! It was a week long labor which we were sent home from the hospital 4 times for lack of progression over the week. They sent us home at 1 am on the 19th because my water hadn't broken and I was only dilated to a 1...we came back 2 hours later and I was dilated to a 10! After 2 1/2 hours of pushing she was finally born and my water had to be popped by the doctor afterwards. This photo below was taken when she was 8 hours old at the hospital.

Hannah's first week at home and styling!

Here is Hannah at her 1st birthday at my parents house, we were up visiting family in MT.

Hannah the morning of her 2nd birthday!

She chose to go swimming for her birthday at the big indoor pool in Kamas, UT.

Here is a current picture of Hannah that I snapped last week. She is growing up so fast and is so smart!

She had her cousins from Billings: Lydia and Dallin, and her cousin from Texas: Toria come to her birthday party. We had cake, ice cream, dress-ups, and a pinata.

Here is Hannah with most of her birthday loot. She was sure spoiled by grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles this year!

Hannah chose to go bowling this year for her birthday...I wasn't smart enough to take the camera, but she loved it and had a score of 63! She loves to read, dance to Dora music, sing, ride in the bike trailer, go on walks in the stroller, go to the park, swim, play with friends, practice spelling words, build words with foam letters, play learning games on the computer, and make Evie laugh. We are so glad she is part of our family! She has such a personality. She isn't shy one bit, she is always asking people to be her best friend, and shows everyone in the store her owies.

I wrote down some funny things she has said this year that I wanted to share:

Last week she was singing "I am a Child of God" The line where it says, "Has given me an earthly home" She sang: "has given me a nursery home"

Recently Hannah and Ryan were talking and Ryan asked what her nose was for, she said: for smelling Scentsys. Then he asked what her hands were for, she said: for taking toys from other kids!

She got a wind up monkey that had cymbals that clapped together from Grandma Karren. When we got home, she said, "Oh Mom, I love my crapping monkey!" supposed to be clappin not crappin.

I was tickling Hannah and she stopped laughing and said, "Stop, you little punk!" (She gets that from me...)

She was licking her finger and touching her eye, I asked her what she was doing, she said, " Just putting in my contacts" A few minutes later, she came in with her hand over her eye and said, "OH NO! I think I just lost my contact!, oh never mind, it is just folded...got it!"

She is so fun! We love her and can't imagine life without her!

New Website!

2009-09-10T17:28:00.001-07:00

I have sold quite a few nursing covers this last week. I hung some up for sale in a local, maternity, kids clothing, consignment store. Way fun! Today I built the owner of that store a a very simple website, it took most of the day, but I was happy with the end result! Best part, it was under $1.50 for the whole year! Now she can list her business on http://www.milescity.com/ and hopefully that will get more business for the nursing covers! Check out the site at www.serendipitynook.info/ Let me know if you see any typos or other errors. She just wanted something that listed hours and the type of things that they sell as it is hard to update the ever changing inventory. Tell me what you think or any suggestions! Thanks friends and family! Love you all!

Good times in Crane!

2009-09-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

Visit to Grandma and Grandpa Karren's house! We went the early part of August and had a great time. We met Bryson, Sarah, Lydia and Dallin for a weekend of fun and a trip to the fair.

The kids had fun playing dress up and they painted a wagon with Grandma, got insturments to play a parade for the "Dads" when they got home from shooting.

Hannah loved the wedding dress and accesories.

Here they are painting the wagon. That is one brave grandma!

Here is Evie in a elmo costume, it was so cute, I had to post a picture.

Hannah was so excited for the fair. We had recorded a commercial for the Billings fair and she asked to watch it over and over and over again. She was so excited. So we geared up for the fair, got there, parked, paid, got in and Hannah was so excited until there were balloons popping everywhere and it was too loud. She cried and screamed and covered her ears. It was so sad. I finally got her some cotton candy and we found a "quiet place" She was talking to Ryan on the phone telling him that she didn't want to ride any rides, she wanted to stay in a a quiet place. It was so cute. Just when I got her brave enough to pass the popping balloons and ride on a ride, (which I KNOW she would have loved) one of those blow up hammers popped right by her face. Bad news!

Poor Hannah

Our girls!

2009-09-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

We just got our camera back from the repair shop...and wanted to snap a few pictures to make sure it was working right.

This was an hour past bedtime, I was suprised I got this good of a shot.

PS: It is supposed to be a soft focus picture, my lense doesn't need cleaning. ha ha.

1st day of work!

2009-09-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Monday, was my first day of work! I haven't been to work in over 3 years!

Ryan's office (Fish Wildlife and Parks) offered me a random hours to help out the front office during the hunting season. They have arranged it with Ryan's schedule so he can be home working, while I am at the office working, so we don't have to pay for daycare. It worked out great! I am really excited. It was a fun day, I learned a lot about deer, licenses, and what Ryan does. I am looking forward to Friday when I get to go back in!

New Sidewalks

2009-08-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

Here is some more catching up from July. On July 20th we poured our new concrete (remember the concrete obsolete post from forever ago...yeah we finished it up 2 months later!) Before we poured the concrete, I made a "time capsule" of sorts. It was a picture of us, with who we are and what we are doing and an explanation about us. On the other side it was top headlines for 2009 and the average costs of everyday items. Our printer was out of ink, except for red (bummer) so it was a little brighter than we wanted it to be. But I laminated it (thanks for my laminater Dad and Mom, I use it all the time). We put it right under our hand prints, maybe someone will find it someday.

This is what it looked like while it was drying. Our old sidewalks were tilted towards the house which wasn't great news when it rained.

We got to do the fun put your hands in the concrete and become immortalized forever! Well, maybe not immortalized, but cool none the less. Evie did great on hers.

We had to do Hannah's twice. She said it was too cool to not squish it with her fingers.

The concrete guy got here at 6:45 am! He took up the whole road.

We had the concrete guy who operated the truck (standing by the rocks), our very concrete experienced neighbor Jim, his son JJ (not pictured), Ryan, and Elder Fischer and Elder House. It started looking like rain, which would have been very bad news. Jim said, Carli, your job is to go pray that the rain will hold off for at least 3 more hours. I told him that if we had the faith and asked God to hold the rain off He would. So Jim prayed and I prayed too...and you know what, 3 hours and 10 minutes later, it poured! The concrete had just enough time to gets it's form. Jim is now talking with the missionaries. ;)

Our cool immortalized hand prints after they had dried. Not a very good picture, it looks better in real life...come over and see!

Avon Basket Giveaway!

2009-08-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

My sister's sister-in-law sells Avon and is having a giveaway. It is easy to enter, just go to this link http://getting2knowheidiisgr8.blogspot.com/ and read the directions. Can't hurt to try to win it! It sounds pretty awesome! Check it out!

Dede, Katie, Mayli, and Maddie come to visit!

2009-08-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

The week before our family reunion, my sister Dede and her girls drove up to ID and met my brother Caleb who was returning home from BYU-I for the semester. We went swimming at the froggy pool (free wading pool in town with a cool frog slide). The girls loved it! It was nice to have them here and spend the night with us one night.

Hannah missed her cousins so much and keeps asking when Mayli and Katie could come back again. Before they left, they answered her question and said, Maybe next year. Ha ha. so cute!
Here the girls are dancing to Dora music in the basement watching their reflections in the TV.

So fun to have them here for a little while. We sure missed them.

Family Reunion

2009-08-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

Still trying to catch up! At the end of July and the first 2 days of August, we went to a family reunion on my (Carli's) side of the family. We went to Sawtelle Mountain Resort in Island Park, ID. We had a lot of free time, here Dad and the girls are just hanging out waiting for the white elephant gift exchange to begin. We had to wake Hannah up from a nap so she wouldn't miss the pinata she had been waiting for all month (she wanted to hold it on her lap the whole way up! She was so excited!) She was VERY GRUMPY and was pouting in this picture. Here is the infamous pinata Hannah wanted so bad. She finally quite whining and crying just before it was her turn to hit it. We bought it on clearance after the 4th of July and it was so hard for her not to play with it for those long 4 weeks. She was a little protective at first, but hit it pretty good. The little blue vest thingy she is wearing was what she got during the white elephant exchange game. There were 30 wrapped presents on the table and she got to be the first to pick. She tried to pick the one wrapped in Christmas paper (but we had brought that one and I didn't want that item back) so I told her to pick a different one. She picked this blue smock thing. She LOVED it! She wore it to bed, and a few days even after we got home. It was pretty funny!

Here are a few of us at the campfire that my brother Caleb started. It was fun to get together with family, it isn't often that we get to see all of them, especially in one place.

Mostly everyone stayed in one of 2 big bunkhouses. It was the lowest level of the motel and it was just like 6 motel rooms with all the walls knocked out and 20 beds! It was pretty fun. Ryan, the girls and I got our own motel room, because our kids don't sleep well away from their own beds and they would have kept everyone up all night. And they would have, they cried most of the 1st night and none of us got sleep.

Guest Bedroom (catching up from July)

2009-08-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

We got busy doing some more updates and I didn't update my blog for several weeks. Here are a few posts about what we have been doing.

This is our guest room downstairs, (before the sellers moved out) It was a better picture of before than what I had.

Here is a after the sellers moved out and Hannah and Grandma Karren were having a sleepover in the downstairs bedroom. Nice carpet eh? Good ol wood paneling was all over this house!
We removed the carpet and are replacing it with some blue Berber next week. We painted the paneling white and have plans to paint the yellow walls the same blue as our bedroom. Although the yellow is near the color of Evie's room, it is very old (70's) and they have the trim and everything else painted yellow too. TOOOO much yellow for one room.

I am going to try to make my own free-hanging headboard out of padding, some old bead board leather, and spray glue. I saw it and directions in a magazine. Hopefully it will turn out as good as the magazines looks.

Not going so good!

2009-08-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well, the counter tops aren't going as easy as I thought they would. The website I heard the idea from didn't have any of the issues that I am having. I picked out a cool hammered look can of spray paint. We thought it would look really cool when done. So I prepped, primed and then painted. Here is my cool color I chose:

Well, this is what it looked like out of the can. Scroll back up, now scroll back down...that looks black, not hammered charcoal. Right?

So we took it back to Walmart and picked out a new can. This time we decided to go with a "stone" look. So I got a nice tan color that I would do the kitchen counter tops in. It came out of the can really blotchy.

Bummer. I used the whole can for this little area. I am not thinking this is going to work for me. I am going to try to hand paint it and get a marbled look since the stone look didn't' work for me. Or I might just rip off the laminate and buy a new piece or counter top for $15.

I am not giving up yet. Stay posted. ;)

New project!

2009-08-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago, my Mother-in-law found a few blogs where people were painting their countertops and sealing them with a polyurethane clear top coat. I wanted to try it on my small countertop in my laundry room....so tonight I am giving it a shot! I found the stuff for 1/2 today at ACE. Here is a before.

Here is an up close picture, whatever I do can't be much worse, right?
Alright, no going back now! I have primed it and will apply the paint later tonight....cross your fingers this really works!I am headed to walmart right now to get the "granite" paint.

I am so nervous!

DISHWASHER!

2009-08-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have a DISHWASHER! On Thursday Ryan had the day off, so he went to Ace and bought me a new dishwasher. It was quite a pain to install as he had to cut cupboards out, the bottom part of the counter top off, and replace the 1960's plumbing system we had under the sink! It was a lot of work, but soooooooooworth it in my opinion! I love not doing the dishes by hand, they take only a few minutes instead of 45 minutes. Every time I unload the dishwasher, Hannah says, (in her excited voice) wow, the dishes are so clean! It is the best invention ever! I love my new dishwasher. I would post a picture but our camera died...yes the new one we bought 5 months ago...grrr. Here is one from online, except ours is white.

Couldn't be happier!

Our latest project

2009-08-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

We completely ripped out the dated basement kitchen last month; even the floor! It had a classic 1941 Kelvinator fridge, a stove from the 60's and the counter tops were from early 60's as well. Yikes! I guess it wasn't so bad, but it smelled awful down there! Now that is scary!

Slowly getting better....

After alot of hours and paint, we are almost done with the update. I am still working on sewing the curtains and we need to finish the floor (still trying to decide between painting it with concrete paint or layering it with vinyl tile.)

We got all of the furniture in this room for free! Both chairs, the desk, a locker (you can't see) for Ryan's guns, people were just giving these things away! All in all we think it looks a lot better, but can't wait to finish the floor.

Much better...we think anyway! Can't wait to finish the floor!

Hannah's attends her 1st birthday party for a friend

2009-07-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hannah attended her friend's 3rd birthday party. He is a little boy from church, named Stockton. They get along really well. They colored, had cake and ice cream, played at the park, played games, went swimming in the free wading pool with the cool frog slide, and played with all of Stockton's new toys! Hannah said it was the best day ever! The birthday boy is in red behind Hannah looking at his presents.

Here is a picture of all the kids that came. Most of the people were his cousins, but there were a few from church that were invited too. Note, Hannah is the only one without shoes...despite my persistent hollering for her to keep her shoes on.

As I am posting this, Hannah is saying to me, oh that was so fun, lets go back to Stockton's party right now please. ha ha! She gave him a bubble gun and extra bubbles. It was pretty fun!

Evie's room

2009-07-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

We spent the entire last week doing more updates on the house. Ryan was home and boy we got a lot done! Here is a before picture of Evie's room (this is with the sellers furniture) It was a bright green, which didn't look too bad until you took out all the furniture....it was too green!

Here is an after picture of the same corner of the room after I painted it. You can tell that I didn't go into the closet, it is still green.

Here is another corner of the room before on the day we moved in. Again, it didn't look too bad until you turned around and had a big green wall staring at you.

Ahhh...now that is a baby room. The color of yellow was called "optimistic yellow" nice eh? I made little curtains to cover up the changing table shelves and it looks better with everything covered up.

I was very happy with how it turned out. This room gets so much sun during the day, it is so bright in there and it just feels like you are surrounded by the sunshine in there! Love it!

2009-07-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

I was folding laundry in the living room today when I went to help Hannah play a game on the computer. When I came out, Evie had gotten herself dressed in Hannah's big girl underwear. She had it on her head and both of her arms, so I helped her put on her pants. Pretty funny.

Then Hannah saw my reaction and wanted me to laugh at her, so she put some on herself too.
Then this video of Evie was so cute I wanted to share it.

4th of July

2009-07-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

This year we had an awesome 4th of July! Grandma Karren came over for a sleepover party on the 3rd. We watched a movie (Dora) and had 2 different kinds of chips and diest pepsi. The girls got to stay up late and they loved it! I covered the couch with a blanket for grease stain preventing...it worked. ;)

Then it was time for the sleepover part. Down in our basement, Grandma aired up her air mattress and Hannah got her blankets, pillow and little lamb and it was bound to be the best sleep over party ever...until Hannah was "too sick" aka too scared to sleep downstairs and not in her bed. It was pretty funny she got 2 tries, but didn't quite make it either time.
The next morning we got up and headed to Billings. We had a very fun-memory filled drive up where we learned alot about each other, shaved cows, and powerlines. When we got to Billings we did some fun shopping. My first time ever to Hobby Lobby, then a visit to JoAnns, Michaels, and Home depot. The girls were incredibly good and we found awesome deals everywhere we went. Didn't pay full price for anything. I love those days!

Here is a picture of Hannah and Dallin in the bike trailer (is that what they are called?) Bryson took them for a little ride and Lydia rode her bike without her training wheels. Very fun! Hannah was so happy!

Then we had the best 4th of July BBQ on record. So tasty. Dallin was sleeping, but the rest of us saved him some...don't worry.

The cooks...and darn good ones!

It was a really fun day. We got home around 8 pm and Ryan got to come home for a day and a half which made it even better! Mary, Evie and I watched fireworks, while Ryan took Hannah back home because the fireworks were too loud. Grandma stayed the night with us again and Hannah tried to sleep downstairs, but this time it was "too hot" down there to sleep (it was like 15 degrees cooler downstairs than upstairs...silly). Grandma came to church with us. It was a really fun weekend.

My very first pie!

2009-07-07T13:33:00.003-07:00

Today I made my first ever pie! I hope it would make Grandma Santa proud! She was the pie master. It is strawberry rhubarb, which I don't think anything with rhubarb in it can taste good, but my uncle Brad says it is his favorite. The lattice top probably would have been more equal if I didn't have my sweet 2 year old helper, who insisted she needed a turn with the pastry cutter. oh well....dont even know if it will taste good.

All baked up and ready to take to Brad and Jerri's house!

A quick update about how the pie turned out, I stand corrected....a pie with rhubarb in it, can taste good, as long as it has strawberries! It thickened up good and BJ said it was just perfect! Jerri liked it too and the others that tried it said it tasted good. Of course....they could have just been being nice. ;) Sorry about the video, I will have to try to get it to work on blogger video.

Swimming at the Oasis

2009-07-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went swimming at the Oasis here in miles City, it was much cleaner and warmer than I expected. It was so much fun and the girls got to go for free. It was nice to have Ryan home for the afternoon so he could come with us.

Swimming with Dad

We met up with the Hrubes' and had fun with Jerri, Kylie, Blake, Bailey, Robi, and Christi. Although I forgot about the camera until just before we were about to leave. So I only got pictures with the kids.
Jerri and her two new little ones. It was a fun day!

Mom is too slow

2009-06-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

I was putting Evie to bed tonight and when Hannah came in and asked for some milk. I said she needed to wait her turn and I would get her some as soon as I put Evie down....Well I guess I was too slow, because when I came around the kitchen corner, this is what I saw:

I said, Hannah! What are you doing? She said like it was so obvious, "Getting some milk, mom was too slow." I was just at awe that she was able to lift the milk off the top shelf of the fridge and get her sippy cup from the counter. Ms. Independent (self proclaimed) then said, "Mom, I need you to clean up this mess please."

Oh Hannah, it is a good thing she is cute...or else!

One heck of a yard sale!

2009-06-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

On Thursday there was a yard sale just a few blocks from our house the girls and I wandered over for a peek....EVERYTHING was 25 cents! Everything! Desks, chairs, toys, clothes, everything! It rocked! I got both of these life jackets for the girls for 25 cents each! Such a deal!

We wanted to go swimming at "the beach" as Hannah calls Spotted Eagle, but Hannah threw up, so we decided to stay home and rest. The girls wore them around the house all day, so funny!

Later in the day, I was on the computer and suddenly heard feet kicking and Evie hollering. She had bent over to get her kitty and had fallen and couldn't get up. It was really funny. I am going to try to get it on video tomorrow.

Fascinating Food

2009-06-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

Hannah is so funny. She loves to play with her food. We were making some salsa with olives in it and she put them on her fingers and laughed so hard. She thought it was so funny and was sure that she was the first kid ever to figure this cool trick out.

Thumbs up for olives!

This is my favorite, the other day I gave her a handful of grapes, then I asked her to pick up Evie's Kitty for me, she tried but her hands were too full of grapes, so she stuffed them all in her mouth...creating this funny face!

Such a character!

Thank Heaven for Grandparents and Aunts

2009-06-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

We were having a great time at the reception on Friday night, but it was 9:30 pm and the cake hadn't been cut yet. The girls were DONE and wanted to go home and go to bed, but Hannah was so sad because she loves cake as much as I do. Grandpa and Grandma Clayton promised Hannah they could go buy a cake of her own and she could pick anyone she wanted. Just as we were leaving the reception, Aunt Kenzie drove up and due to it being her friends birthday, they had Dora party hats...which instantly made Hannah feel better after they gave her one. They headed to the store and this is the cake Hannah picked out.

It looked just like a mini wedding cake and it was $5 to boot! Thank goodness for Grandmas and Grandpas that are willing to buy a $5 cake just to appease a 2 year old! Grandma even found some candles for her to blow out and Grandpa lit them for her.

It was a really good cake. She took 4 bites and said, "Now I can go to bed, Grandpa you cover it so it won't get gross and I will eat it for breakfast" Then she walked down the stairs towards her bed. She did eat it for breakfast the next morning.

Good times at the Glendive Flea Market

2009-06-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

I went to Glendive on Friday for a wedding reception. On Saturday morning Mom, Hannah, Evie and I hit the yard sales, the attic, and the mini flea market. The flea market was pretty small, but I got this really cute planter to put in our front flower bed. It needs a little work, but I thought it was so cute!

The mail lady said she liked them...

Good find!

Nasty Bug

2009-06-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

Oh Yuck! I was closing the curtains last night and wasn't really looking at what I was doing, and touched something that didn't feel like curtains! Well it certainly wasn't part of my curtains, it was this NASTY bug! He doesn't look big here, but he was HUGE!

Oh so gross. Ryan was gone so I had to take care of this nasty just touched bug on my own. After washing my hand several times with the hottest water I could stand (not even sure why, not like it is poisonous or anything....or is it?) It took me over a minute to stop saying Gross! Yuck! When I finally got over my bug yuckness, I tried to slip him onto a notebook of mine, so he could live. He put up a fight and I threatened to smash him...he just let go. I put him outside and told him never to come back or he would be a gonner. I hope he listens...yucky!

My new cousins

2009-06-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Meet my new cousins! Here Hannah and Evie are dancing to Dora Music with thier new cousins in our unfinished basement. Christy Ann is 7 and Robison (who we call Robi) is 8. Robi and Christy are the newest members of the Hrubes family (My aunt Jerri and uncle Brad) They are from Hati orignally. Sweet, energetic, and they LOVE Dora. They have a blast together every time we get together. They only live 5 minutes away from our new house in Miles City. We love being so close to family!

After the dancing wore them out, we made some popcorn and watched Dora saves friendship day with our big stuffed Dora (Thanks Celeste, the big Dora is always a hit at our house!) We had fun until Evie stepped in everyone's bowl of popcorn and threw it all over the blanket...then she had to go to bed and the rest of us had fun!

So glad that they are part of the family now. So fun! They are so sweet and are so grateful for anything that you give them. I got to watch them while their Mom and Dad were out doing a church calling for an hour. They are still trying to learn my name, as they have been thrown a whole family of names in the last 2 weeks. I think we got it today when they figured out that the first part of my name is just like a Car. They think it is so funny to call me Car and crack up each time they do.

Having fun at the park

2009-06-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a typical outing to the park with the Karren Family Hannah spends most of the time telling the other kids what to play, invites all the "friends" to slide with her and then heads to the swing the rest of the time we are there.

This is how an outing to the park ends. Hannah refusing to get out of the swing. Note the expression on her face (that is her about to throw a fit face) Then we make her a deal if she gets out of the swing she can do something she really likes to do. She agrees to it if we push her one more time. So she gets to be pushed one more time and then....

She throws a fit anyway and we have to drag her away while the other kids are feeling so bad for her and the other parents are dreading when they have to leave the park because they know that they will have to face the same tantrum.

Ahhhh parenting

When we got home and the tears stopped, we took some photos with the girls in front of our house.

So cute! I love these 3!

It was nice to spend some time together before Ryan left again.

New Project

2009-06-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Our latest project...ripping out the old slanted sidewalks and replacing them with new ones.

Ryan rented a jack hammer from ACE and destroyed all of our sidewalks.

I was actually OK with this as the sidewalks were tilted towards the house causing water

to leak into the basement...not good. Plus Ryan was going to be home for 5 days and

be able to rip out and re-pour all of the sidewalks before he left for his next training.

Well.....he got called out by work and had to leave the next day

leaving us with broken up concrete all over the place!

Before Ryan left, he was able to lay out this lovely broken up concrete path in the backyard.

it covered up the foot path we had made in the grass and looks great!

When he returns home, he is planning on burying each slab of concrete so it is a safe

walking path for me and the girls....so sweet!

He is doing a great job. Wish the project wasn't on hold.

2009-06-08T15:09:00.001-07:00

The walls in the kitchen used to be covered in wallpaper that was white with light blue flowers. It was very dated as the curtains were too. I tore off the wallpaper and used tissue paper to texture the wall. I got a fun little vinyl lettering that says Bon Appetit and I put that up. The room turned out just as I wanted it to!

Here is a before picture of the kitchen before the sellers moved out.

Here is a middle photo, of the walls painted, but the cupboards not.

And finally the after picture. It really updates the house and although I have a lot more cupboards to do, it will look good when I am through.

Sweet pictures

2009-06-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite moments from Grandpa's funeral was to see this happening.
Dakota (one of our cousins) is a little boy with downs syndrome. The 2 had never met before. During the closing of the casket, Evie was being squirmy, so I put her down on the floor. Just before the prayer started, Dakota bent over and picked Evie up.
(I had an eye on them and a hand nearby just incase)
She looked up at him and they just gazed at each other.

Then...

They just cuddled. She gave him a big hug and he gave her one back. You can see her little hand just grasping onto his shirt. They hugged for 30 seconds...the longest Evie has ever sat still.

They kept each other quiet by hugging for the entire prayer!

Until the very end...when Dakota announced very loudly...

"EWW Baby went poo poo, stinky!"

It was really sweet and a treasured moment that I will never forget!

2009-06-08T14:50:00.000-07:00

Poor sick Hannah. She is feeling better now, but was very sick for almost 2 weeks! She hasn't thrown up in over 24 hours...so I hope that trend continues. ;)

Blogging

2009-05-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

To the tune of baby bumble bee

I am setting up my first lil' blog (ok I know it doesnt really work but go with it)
Wont my Sisters and Mom and Inlaws be so proud of me
I am setting up my first lil blog
Ouch I have been here for an hour and still havent figured it out...just kidding

Fun I am officially a blogger!

Wahoo!

I would like to dedicate this first post to Cherilyn Dede and Mary. Those are the blogging masters And to Celeste too who recently joined the blogging world too.

Now I really need to go do the dishes before Ryan gets back.