How to Test a Marriage...

Tell your husband the baby's room is going to have an argyle wall.  Just see what happens!  Haha!  Darin actually took the news in stride and never actually complained at all.  It wasn't 'til it was over that he repeatedly stated how much it sucked to do!  In all honesty, he had the crappiest part of the whole project.  Painting is no big deal.  Measuring and laying the whole thing out on the wall, that's a much bigger undertaking and was completely Darin's project.

So, here's the wall, from beginning to end.

Tape wall.  This goes without saying, but Evie was in the pic, so I had to
throw it in there.  Sorry Kas.

Paint walls.  In this case, grey.

Have your husband, or someone who's good with measuring and straight lines,
measure and lay everything out.  

Tape off diamonds.

Paint.  First Kasi and I "sealed" the tape lines with a coat of grey.  Worked great.

Paint some more!  This bad boy took 4 coats of yellow and
3 coats of orange.

Let dry for about 20 minutes and peel off tape.

Become annoyed 99% of the touch ups you have to do are because
of the grey paint peeling.  Argh.

After touch ups.  Thanks again, Darin!  He did this while Kasi & I took down
Christmas decorations.  That was his idea.  

Lay out dashed lines with chalk first.

Use a "make your own stencil" kit from Martha Steward to...
"make your own stencil" and then proceed to stencil dashed lines over chalk line.

Go back in fill in the stencils we couldn't get close enough to the wall to do.

Complete touch ups and stand back and admire finished product!!!!  

We love it, but it was a TON of work and I wouldn't want to do it again.  And I know Darin wouldn't want to do it again.  (Oh, and I was involved in all steps of this project, for the most part, but am not in any pics because I'm taking them.  I didn't pull the "I'm pregnant and therefore disabled" card.)

Here are the two pages we used to figure out how to do this:

Design Dazzle blog

diy design blog  

Now, to continue to decorate....!

New Tricks

Well, Evie has been on the move for a few weeks now and is adding more and more tricks to her daily routine.  

She's upped her knowledge since this video was taken, but it's cute nonetheless.

Yesterday she wanted to take the laundry out of the washing machine and put it in the dryer by herself. She needed a little help with the pants and sweatshirts, but other than that, did a great job!  And just so you know, it's about 5 steps for a 14 month old in between the washer and dryer.  Mommy's little helper!

Please excuse the outfit.  When we went out later in the day she had on plain black leggings and a normal coat!  The green leggings were given to us and after trying them on and deciding they definitely don't work, she was too anxious to get her day started to change them!  And the sweatshirt...well, it's cold!  Whatever.

Love my little girl!

Houston, we have a walker.

Little Miss Evie took her first steps at the end of November.  And didn't take any more until the end of December.  But, with a little over a week of walking under her belt, she's almost a pro!  It's been a blast to watch, but seriously, hearing the little "slap, slap" of her hands on the tile floor was a nice warning of where she was and where she was going.  Now she just shows up if I'm in the other room for a few seconds and I'm amazed because I thought she was a quick crawler!  Can't imagine what it's going to be like when she runs...which she just tried out today.  Ha!

These first two videos were taken on December 30th.  One month from the last time she took a step.

And this one was taken today, January 4th.  She's showing off by carrying something in each hand.  And in her mouth, of course.  

Being a mom is so much fun.  Most days.  Ha!

 

Christmas 2012

Well, this Christmas was quite a bit more exciting than last Christmas was.  And it lasted a whole lot longer too.  Christmas Eve was very low key until we went to church at 5:00.  Evie did pretty good for her first time sitting through a service--awake.  We came prepared with snacks, books not normally available to her (she tears them up) and Kitty, her favorite stuffed animal.  Should've known the circle of paper that goes around the candle for the end of the service would be enough to entertain her almost the whole time.  Well, that and the baby who was sitting in his car seat in the row ahead of us.  She grabbed onto the handle a few times and gave him a few shakes.  He has two older brothers, so I'm sure he's used to it.  

After we got home from church we ate supper really quick and then started opening presents.  Evie had a huge pile and we knew if we didn't start opening on Christmas Eve we'd never get finished on Christmas Day.  Thank goodness we did.  She opened many new toys and lots of clothes, but the present that got the biggest (and best, for us) reaction was this huge 5' Santa decoration my mom made.  She started it about 20 years ago and hated making it so much she quit and put it under the bed.  Where it stayed--til this winter.  She didn't enjoy making it any more than she did the first time around, but at least it's done.  She was feeling pretty crafty since finding and becoming obsessed with Pinterest, I guess it was time for Santa to make his exit from the Johnson house.  Anyway...Evie was scared of it and it was pretty funny.  We originally had it sitting on the couch and she came pretty close to the terrified screams she gave when she saw the "real" Santa.  Eventually we hung it up on the entertainment center and she was still leery of it, but got used to it being there.  The next day she didn't have a problem with it at all and would wave at it.

Christmas morning we "opened" our stockings and started opening presents.  And we opened presents until 3pm, with a few naps and breaks for breakfast and lunch thrown in.  Next year, even with the same amount of gifts, it won't take this long because she'll be an experienced present opener!  This year present opening required quite a bit of direction.  But, it was a good time, nonetheless.

Evie has been enjoying all of her new toys, but probably not as much as we have been enjoying watching her play with them and figure them out.  I still find it so amazing that just last Christmas she had slept for hours and hours and hours.  And, although that does sound appealing at times (ha!), it's so much more fun now!  It was a very merry Christmas.