Oil-FREAKING-based paint.

I have 3 main colors for all of my big projects, black blue and red. The first can of red paint looked nothing like it said it should, it seemed like it was watered down, super crappy, so I took it back and got a different brand. The ONLY other kind they had ended up being oil based (which I didn't notice when I bought it) My black and blue are water based. All my big things that need black are done, and I only have the top of one side of the truck to do in blue. currently between the two I'd do one color, wash my brush and do the other color while the first dried.
So today with my new vibrant red paint, I started painting away during Danton's nap. Blue first, wash my brush, go on to red.
WOW this red paint coated VERY well only small sections even NEED a second coat. But I noticed it wasn't drying very fast. So I washed my bush so I could to the FINAL coat of blue. Only to find out that I was using oil based paint and I have NO mineral spirits, OR acetone. BAH!
I MAY have salvaged the brush, I did find an oil solvent chemical, but there was not much. I'll see what it's like after it dries. It's soft, but still red.
Anyway, I had to STOP (grrr) in the middle of Danton's nap. If I had realized it was oil based I'd have put it back, however if I new how well it painted I would have kept it and just got a chemical to clean it with. If I had been prepared I could have gotten almost ALL of my red painting done durring Dantons Nap, and had the truck with it's final coat. But now, I have to wait till I can go to wal mart (which is hard when you are a one car family...we sold the truck on Saturday and we are currently between cars) and I have to buy another brush and some mineral spirits. *sigh* oh well.
Oh one other thing just so you know oil based takes 2-4 times LONGER to dry. So in the mean time it's a good thing I can lock my laundry room, cause this is what it looks like.
Oh, and my hands are VERY red from attempting to clean the brush.
On a happy note, I got some more pictures of Danton yesterday. He likes Daddy's "scary" shirts. When he wears them Danton goes "AH! Scary" Well he saw Daddy's scary shirt in the laundry yesterday before I got it in the wash and insisted on wearing it.

This last weekend

I think I don't have much to blog about, and then I upload the pictures on the computer and all of a sudden i could have 4 different blogs. Boy having a camera makes a difference.
Saturday I was throwing a baby shower for a friend of mine. Granny and Papa invited Lydia to go to a pancake breakfast with Santa.Mark decided to go too and take Danton. (brave soul) He thought I could use the time to get ready for the shower with out the kids. And BOY was he RIGHT. It was awesome. And I had more to do then I realized. He got home just a few mins before guests started arriving. Just enough time to put Danton in bed and split.

I wanted to let the kids decorate cookies this year, so that is what we did for FHE yesterday. We had Tithing settlement on Sunday and Bishop gave us 3 pictures of the new temple in Kansas City, one for the family and one for each of the kids. So for FHE first we talked about the new temple and why they were building it, and then we framed them and hung them in their rooms. Then it was COOKIE TIME. I frosted them and gave them the sprinkles. *DUMP* One of their decorated cookies had enough sprinkles to share with 2 others. They each did two, and that pretty much took nearly the whole batch. :) We were a little late with the camera so we didn't get any decorating in action pics (also it was over very quickly) But we did get some of the after product. And finally some project pictures. This is Danton's truck, it's on it's side cause the paint was drying. I finally figured out a simple sturdy way to attach the steering wheel and still have it spin. So I still have to cut out the wheel, paint the front, add the flames (oh yes, FLAMES) and attach the wheel.
I expected the truck to be a big project, but not Lydia's kitchen. But when you end up having 4 BIG wood projects to do for Christmas with NO wood working experience and minimal tools, it takes a while. Lydia's kitchen will take a little more explaining, so I'll save that for another post.

Christmas "to do's "

I have really out done my self as far as abmitions go this year for Christmas. I'm making almost EVERY present for my kids, and one for Mark. But I also have other "projects" on my "to do before Christmas" list. I gotta say it's a good thing I start when I did, cause where I stand now, I will have time to finish things, with out being rushed, which is good. When you rush a project, it never turns out as good. Let me give you teh run down of my list.

repair tree onraments
repair count down calendar
repair white board
paint Dantons truck toy box
detail paint toy box
paint lydia's frigde, oven, and microwave/cabnit
detail lydia's kitchen
repair buildings for Danton's town
Paint buildings for dantons town
clean Dantons trucks and tractors
cut out and sew one of Marks gifts
figure out what to do for Christmas eve presents
make Christmas eve presents
sew two more stockings, one for Danton and one for #3 since I'll need it next year anyway
...and...is that all? The list looks smaller written down then in my head.
Oh I have my Activity day on Tuesday, I need to make an example craft to show the girls how to make theirs.
lots of painting and sewing
oh yeah, and wrap everything. DONE.
I'll take pictures next week of my BIG projects for the kids so you can see where all my spare time has gone in the last 3 weeks. :)

new camera--YAY!

I got my camera in the mail yesterday. It wasn't suppose to be here till today, so I was very excited. I haven't had a good camera since june. I LOVE this new one. It's amazing how much they can improve on a camera in 3 years.
The kids had just as much fun getting their pictures taken as I did playing with it.
this is my favorite:


So since I'm in the midst of TONS of Christmas projects, you can expect to see pictures and explanations soon. AND I don't think I ever said this, maybe i did, but my new calling is activity days with 8 and 9 year olds. SO FUN. We are having a combined Christmas activity with the older group next week for our Christmas activity. We are going to make a little manger scene and I'll post pictures of that too. Cute, simple, and kid proof...mostly...kind of. :)

Thankful for the mess

I have taken to locking the bathroom door while I shower if Danton is awake. I try to shower when he is asleep, but that just doesn't always work. When I'm done, I always expect trouble. So I put on a movie for Danton and Lydia, I thought this might actually work this time cause Danton was GLUED. He won't quite sit for a movie yet, but this looked promising.
I came out of the shower to find Lydia in the same spot, a quiet house, and no Danton....oh boy. I noticed the Laundry room door was open...oh boy. We keep the bar stools in there to keep him from climbing on to the counters. He was sitting on the bar stool in front of my shelf with my dry food on it. Beans, rice, pasta. Any open package was now scattered on the floor. I did get a video, but I have to fill up the rest of my disc before I can upload it.
As I was cleaning the mess all I thought was how thankful I was for it. Thankful that is was all dry goods, not stuff from the fridge, and it was on tile, not carpet. Thankful that I had an excuse to get rid of some of the whole wheat pasta that tastes gross. Thankful that I have enough food storage that I didn't have to clean all the dirt out and keep the stuff on the floor. Thankful for a smart healthy strong boy who not only is able to make a mess, but is smart enough to know WHEN to make a mess. There is always something to be thankful for.

LEGO Temple FHE

Last night just before FHE the kids were playing with their legos. We have been using our imaginations with legos a lot lately. We are pretty limited with our selection, but we have managed to make guns, houses, deer, dogs, birds, castles, towers, and many other things that didn't resemble at all what we said they were.
We have been talking a lot about temples lately to Lydia. Showing her how pretty they are and how important they are. So I had the idea to make lego temples. I started by telling the story about the SLT temple corner stones. And how they had to be buried, then when they were uncovered they found a crack. All the while animating the story with the legos. Then we built the rest of the temple REALLY slow cause it took 40 years to build. Then we even found the PERFECT Angel Moroni lego piece. It was yellow and had a circle coming off the side which we pretended was his trumpet. Worked great.
Then her favorite story was about the Nauvoo temple And the sisters crushing their china to make the walls sparkle. Well I knew Lydia didn't know what China was, so I explained it as really pretty plates. So we made lego plates, pretended to eat off of them, they were VERY pretty you know, then we SMASHED out plates on the ground and used the broken pieces to build the temple walls. She REALLY liked smashing the plates. :) BUt it was fun, and Danton got involved also.

It's about time.

I have been really bad about blogging now that I don't have a camera. Hopefully we will get one soon but it all really depends on what happens with the truck. Basically someone hit our truck a couple weeks ago and we are still waiting on the check from the insurance. Can't decide if we want to fix it or sell it.
Anyway, Marisa just sent me a couple CD's full of pics of my kids from when she was here. So I figured I'd post a few now, and a few later, and get my favorite ones up. I found one of Danton that I'm going to print big and frame it. But we didn't get a good one like that of Lydia. Well maybe we did, I'll have to look again. There are a LOT of pictures.

In OTHER news. Danton went poop on the potty for the first and second time yesterday. BIG STEP. He has only gone pee ONCE and that was several months ago. He was sitting in his high chair and said he was pooey. (He usually tells me after he is done) Then I noticed that he wasn't done, he was just starting, so I asked him if he wanted to go poop on the potty he said "uh-huh" so I ran with him to the bathroom, I wiped him up, but I could tell I was taking too long cause he started to fuss. I realized he was HOLDING IT!!! As soon as I sat him on the potty he finished. He liked flushing the potty (a little too much) and washing his hands, and he REALLY liked his sucker. I was super excited. Then just before bed time he did it again. so he got to stay up cause he was eating a sucker. Which was great, cause that also meant that he slept in till 6:30!!!!! WAHOO!!
This is the picture that is going up on my wall. He is just so CUTE!
Lydia on the other hand still gets up a freakin 5 like clock work. No matter how late I keep her up at night. I really despise day light savings. I have threatened to take her new blanket away if she doesn't stay in bed, she lost it yesterday. But today I asked her to go back to bed cause her body needed more rest, and she did. She didn't sleep but as least I got to stay in bed a little longer. She came out of her room at 6:20, so I told her she could have her blanket back.
Oh and with me I got my new calling in our new ward. I'm the Acitivty Day Leader for the 8 and 9 year olds. I don't even have to teach a class! We have an activity twice a month! It's so fun, and I'm so excited about it. :)