Reanne's Dresser

My dad owns some rental properties.  Every once in a while there are things that are left when renters leave the place.  (In this case, tenants left pretty much everything after a drug bust.)  An old, beat up, wood dresser was left and I claimed it.  I forgot to take a picture of it before I started working on it.  But it was really beat up...white paint chipped, broken bottom, stickers all over it.  It had a lot of dings so I thought the best look would be to antique it.

After trying to strip the paint and not succeeding, I sanded the paint off.  I put a few more dings in it in the process.  Oh well.  Then I painted it, sanded it again where I wanted to age it, and then put a wood stain over the top of the whole thing.  I wiped the stain off, put new knobs on and lined the inside with paper.  I thought the end result was pretty good and it will go perfect in Reanne's room whenever we get our new house.

The first picture is nearest the actual color.

Dinner Surprise

My kids are generally not big helpers around the house.  When I ask them to do something I usually get groans and sighs.  Tonight I was in the middle of making spaghetti when Sierra asked if she could set the table.  "Sure," I said, without even looking around.  She asked me a few times what should go on the table and I told her the usual.  "Plates, forks and water bottles."  At one point I finally turned around and saw Sierra's table.  It made me smile.

There were place mats, a full set of silverware and some fake flowers she grabbed from the bathroom.  Reanne added a sign on the flowers that said thanks for coming, as well as fortunes for each of our plates.  Spaghetti tasted a lot better than usual tonight.

Sunbeam

It's official.  All my children are out of nursery.  Grant went in to the Sunbeam class last week.  He wasn't excited about it, but he also did pretty well.  (It helps that his teacher is his friend's mom.)  It's not a huge milestone, but there are certain things that seem bigger to me.  It was a huge deal when my first child went into Sunbeams.  Now it seems a big deal that my last is going.  There is even this tiny, minuscule part of my brain that says to me...perhaps he shouldn't be the last?  That part of my brain is way too crazy for me to listen to though.

Christmas 2011

This year for Christmas both boys were surprised with some wheels.

Both boys were pretty happy.  (I think especially the older one.)