Old Mother Hubbard

Ok, I've been bad about posting about the projects I'm working on lately. Part of the problem is I didn't work on many notable projects for a while. (Cleaning, dishes, laundry, etc. don't count as projects.)
Well I decided to tackle a huge project that will take me months to do even with assistance. A while ago I got some free cabinets from the owner of a design blog I follow. (Link here) She ripped them out of her kitchen and offered them up for free! They are nice solid oak cabinets that originally had a dark stain and had been painted an off-white color. Rather than add more layers of paint to the already thick layers of paint on the cabinets, I decided to remove it as best I could.
Here is our stash of cupboards on our back porch. Maybe I can get it cleared off in time for summer so we can spend hot afternoons playing out there.

First I tried using a sander. It sanded through the paint alright, but it rounded parts that weren't supposed to be rounded and it was impossible to get inside the details without ruining them. Here is a picture of the sanding results. See how it doesn't sand evenly and all the paint is still in the grooves and edges? Yeah, that's a problem.

So I decided to call in the stripper. Paint stripper, that is. I rounded up all the supplies and safety precautions from the local hardware store: Safety goggles, painting mask, special gloves, plastic stripping tool, abrasive pads, and mineral spirits. (What a family friendly post! Strippers, tools, and spirits!)

I set up shop on the front porch during Joshua's nap and got to work. (The above picture is after working for two hours and cleaning up most of the paint.) I may or may not have looked like a mad scientist with all my gear on, but I have no photographic proof, so you can't prove it. Here is a cool picture I took after I put the first coat of stripper on the first cupboard door. Can you tell which one has bubbled up?

I learned a few things during my first stripping session paint stripping experience. You really need to slop that stuff on the paint for it to work well. When the directions say to wait 15 minutes before testing a spot, they don't take into account that you live in an arid climate and are working in the warm sun. Some areas just won't want to come off no matter what you do, so it's a good thing you're painting these anyway. You will still need to sand some spots. Last but not least: this project may take you the rest of the year. 

All in all it was fun, and it was wonderful to be out in the nice weather today. I think I may have even gained a few freckles, if that's even possible. 

Snoozing

Today I gave Joshua some graham crackers while I made him some mac & cheese with hot dogs (kraft has some with veggie pasta to make me feel like I am feeding my child healthy foods!). When he was done with the crackers but the mac & cheese wasn't done yet, he started cranking about being in his high chair with no food. Then he quietly sat there watching and I thought "uh oh, he's getting tired. I better get this food in him and put him down for a nap. Wouldn't it be funny if he fell asleep in his high chair some day?" So I started feeding him the mac & cheese and, I kid you not, halfway through the little ikea bowl of food, he turns his head to the side and was out like a light.
Such a sleepy guy.

Cell Phone Usage

Joshua does this with more than just phones. Anything he is pretending is a phone will go on top of his head while he jabbers about stuff. It's ridiculously cute. We don't let him play with our phones much so anything that looks similar to a phone (or not at all) will go on top of his head.

Happy Belated, Joshua

We went to Colorado to visit my grandma on Joshua's birthday, so we didn't end up celebrating then. Then we had travel and new years to do. We didn't end up celebrating his birthday until the 15th! I'm really really starting to think we will celebrate his half-birthdays because two days after Christmas is just a busy time! We shall see.
To celebrate we just had immediate family over (those that could come...those that couldn't are permanently on our bad list) for dinner and had some cake, too. Here are some select pictures of that evening.

For some reason blogger insists that this picture should be sideways. It isn't sideways on my camera or in my folder on the computer. This is his cake. I made what my family calls "crater cake." It's just the chocolate cake recipe on hershey's cocoa powder boxes. For some reason the middle always falls. I also added some strawberry flavoring and half a bottle of red food coloring, but it didn't really taste like strawberry or look like red velvet cake. It was still yummy though. It had strawberries between the layers, and a butter frosting (I forgot to buy cream cheese the day before).

 The birthday boy with his new toy wooden lobster. Thank you Grandma! (One of the pegs came loose so I will have to glue it and probably set it on a high shelf until he is old enough to be careful with it, but it is such a cool toy!)

 We stripped him down to his diaper in case he got super messy.

 He didn't get very messy. He is a pretty neat eater, considering.

 All washed up and in his pjs playing with the cousins again.

 Uncle Daniel was thrilled to be there, and had a really great time.

 Dave played/supervised the kiddos in the nursery. He also helped them not get out every single toy that Joshua owns...or at least he put them away when they did. ;)

 Aiden chased panda everywhere and tried to get her to chase him everywhere. She was so worn out by the end of the night! Thanks Aiden!

 Like father, like son...playing on their new iphones for most of the party.

Cake Belly

Here is a video of Joshua eating his cake. I won't be offended if you don't watch the whole thing. I videoed most of it for my record and for relatives.

Christmas 2012

It's about time!
We went to New Mexico for a week for Christmas this year. We drove down, stayed 7 days, and drove back. It was a good time and amount of time to be there, but that town sure is more interesting and fun when it's not freezing cold with snow everywhere. Unless you have an all-day babysitter loads of money to spend on skiing, then it's a blast...but we didn't and don't, and didn't. We also drove up to my grandmother's house in Colorado for a day so she could meet Joshua.
Ok, it was actually a really fun trip, but I'm just home-sick for warm, sunny New Mexico. Here are some select pictures with captions from our trip. There are more on my facebook page under the "Christmas in NM" album.

 We took Joshua sledding at Pinon Elementary on Christmas Eve. He had a fun time until he got hungry and tired (maybe half an hour).

 This is just a really great capture. It's his excited face! He is so excited for Christmas!

 He had started pulling up on things right before we left for NM, but perfected it in NM.

 Coming over to investigate again. I just couldn't not include this picture, he's just so cute!

 I surprised Dave and Joshua with matching pjs that we opened on Christmas Eve, wore to bed, and changed back into after church.

 Oh, yeah, I made myself some, too. Definitely a new tradition! It was so fun! (Next year I will make them fit right, though.)

 Joshua had fun was somewhat interested in Skippy Scooter, and Scooter was actually interested in him, too, which he wasn't too sure about. Monkey usually gets up and leaves if Joshua comes near.

 We tromped through the snow one day to get some fresh air for a while. We took all my favorite cut-through short-cuts and visited some of my favorite parks, even though they don't look anything like they used to. (Ridgecrest to Brighton, Brighton to Kimberly, Kimberly to Rover Park, Rover Park to Aragon, Shirlane to Submarine park and back)

 Joshua liked playing Grandma's (his great grandma) piano just as much as he likes playing ours.

 We tried to get a 4 generation picture, but really, none of them have all of us looking at the camera unobstructed and smiling. Oh well. :) It adds character to them.

I made a double batch of my cousin's ginger bread recipe and made enough forms for 4 ginger bread houses and a ginger bread and lots of ginger bread cookies. It took me all evening to make the bread, and then we didn't make the houses until 2 days later. It was a lot of work, but fun. I don't think I'll ever double the recipe again. I had to have my dad stir it because I wasn't strong enough. Maybe if we do ginger bread cookies as friend/neighbor gifts next year...
We also went ice skating, but I didn't get any pictures of that.
And then last but not least.........







We got Chili Works!...Twice!!!!! oh yum. I got a Sausage Red Cheese (Shrek) both times because it's the most delicious thing ever made. I wish I had a recipe for their red chili sauce.

First Fat Lip

We discovered (were introduced to) a cool play area in one of the malls that is built more for younger children. Actually they have a rule about height limits for the children playing there, but every time I've been there, there have been several larger children breaking the rule. Oh well.
Joshua loves to crawl around on the cushy carpeting, slap the different plastic animals around the room, crawl through the tunnels, and spin the thing-a-ma-bobs on the wall. His absolute favorite thing to do while we are there is to make a break for it. I sure wish that area had a gate.
Since the cushy carpeting is so cushy, there is a slight ramp to the tiled rest-of-the-mall. On one of his escape attempts he tripped over his hands and face planted into the tile. Like any face/head wound, there was a lot of blood, but after forced cuddling and some apple juice from the sippy cup, he was ready to show off for the camera:

The next day, it looked super infected (splitting your lip on the tile in a mall...ew, the germs...) but didn't seem to bother him one bit. I think I ended up putting some sort of sanitizer or neosporin on it that day to hopefully ward off infection. Hard to do on a lip.

 See, quite a happy busted lip guy.

Another moment

(Disclaimer...no nyquil tonight) Tonight I made a quick run to the grocery store for some necessities. I checked out the manager special section when I was done shopping to see if there were any great deals. I got a few items and headed to check out. Since I was only getting a few things, I had one of those small carrying baskets on my arm. When I went to put it on the conveyor belt, I noticed that the hand with the basket had a big ol' box of Rogain in it. I have no clue where it came from or how it got in my hand! No, I didn't buy it. But the clerk and I had a good laugh about it.