My Honey's Special Day

31 years ago today, my Sweetheart was born. I can't believe I'm married to someone in his thirties.
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Here are 31 additional things about my Sous Chef:

1. Kraig loves children. He was ready for another baby a long time before I was.
2. He always said he wanted 12 kids but has parred that number down in thinking of my sanity. Bless him!
3. Kraig loves to sleep.
4. He loves things clean and orderly.
5. Clutter drives him bananas, but he allows me my little areas of chaos--like my desk.
6. Clutter on top of the microwave might drive him to insanity--another area I'm responsible for.
7. He claims he can clean the entire house in 2 hours. I'm pretty sure that's without the kids at home.
8. He's very generous with his time and loves to serve.
9. Kraig works most Sundays, so he can't come to church with our family, but he's very faithful in his temple attendance.
10. He passed his Certified Sous Chef exam this week.
11. The next day he worked in his kitchen as a Chef, thus completing one more of his "100 things to do before I die."
12. Kraig is a very sensitive guy. He tears up often, which I love.
13. He buys me flowers after an argument.
14. He loves to sing and is a great dancer.
15. He started listening to books on tape on his 40 minute drive to work.
16. Kraig's currently listening his way through the Harry Potter series again. He's never listened to/read book 6, even though I've made him listen to book 7 multiple times.
17. Kraig plans on retiring when he's 55 so that we can serve missions together.
18. One of Kraig's favorite past times is water skiing.
19. Since we left Utah 2.5 years ago, Kraig's been water skiing only one time.
20. Kraig drives an old green Dodge Caravan to work.
21. He says he turned in his "Man card" the day we sold his Rodeo and bought our first minivan.
22. Kraig cooks us a big breakfast almost every morning.
23. Even though he's around food all day long, it's not unusual for him to go an entire work day without eating another meal.
24. He loves to tinker around in the garage.
25. Kraig loves to take things apart, fix them, and put them together again. This only works sometimes :)
26. Kraig works hard for our family so that I can stay at home with our children and spend his money.
27. Kraig loves real Christmas trees. I don't think he'll ever let me buy a fake one.
28. Every morning Kraig pretends to be asleep so the kids can come in and wake him with their hugs and kisses.
29. He likes non-traditional names like Tucker and Kyra for our children.
30. Kraig loves rootbeer floats.
31. I'm his best friend.

Happy Birthday, Sous Chef! I love you!

The Glitter Incident of 2009

I stayed in bed a few extra minutes this morning, only to awake to my 4 year old and my 2 year old and three bottles of glitter, happily enjoying themselves make a huge mess.

Oh, and FYI, glitter doesn't vacuum up.

Face Lift

I have no decorating ability at all. None. It's not one of my gifts and as much as I try, it's not one I've been able to cultivate.

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Thankfully, I've got friends who have the touch. I try and glean from them as much knowledge and style as I can.

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I was having a few high school friends over after Thanksgiving so I asked my dear friend Erika to come and help me stage my house so it would look like the decor I have made sense. She did a fabulous job working with my garage sale finds, arranging photos, and declutting my clutter. She also offered to help me realize one of my long-planned projects and volunteered to paint a wall for me. WooHoo! Here are a few photos of the before and afters:

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Wow, looking at this wall now makes me wonder how I lasted so long with no color in this room. The piano had already been moved when I snapped the photo, but it used to be to the left of the roll top desk.

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In progress. That's my cute friend Erika peeking out from behind the china hutch. She and her husband Josh made a short work of the wall and decorating and were finished in 2 1/2 hours. Amazing!

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The completed wall before the furniture was rearranged.

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We moved the piano across the room to make room for these beauties:

I found these antique screens at a yard sale in my neighborhood and paid $1 each. I removed the copper screens because they were painted on and horribly tarnished. These frames were actually the inspiration for the whole rearrange and paint job. I needed to find some way to work them into the decor, but as I had it before there was no cohesiveness with them.

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The third screen frame ended up above my kitchen pass through window. I intend to hang our family scripture in vinyl lettering inside the panes.

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I am SO pleased with how the whole project turned out. I love the navy blue wall. I'm still trying to sell Kraig on the cool antique, distressed (and cheap) frames, but overall he's thrilled with the change too.

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Thanks, Josh and Erika, for all your help!