When I grow up....

I had the opportunity to do some more "professional" window painting the other day at a fast food place here in town and it was probably the most enjoyable experience to date. No freezing weather, no high ladders...yes it was mighty nice. And to top it all off, I was the main attraction for all the kids in the play place. Forget dinner, forget the jungle gym, I had about 10 kids with their noses pressed to the glass watching me paint. I'll agree, it's pretty mesmerizing watching white paint be slathered on in fluid strokes over glass. 2 girls in particular stayed near me for the majority of their outing, and I'll admit I was kind of flattered. They kept tapping on the glass and giving me thumbs up and telling their friends what I was painting. In my bloated-head state of mind I imagined them saying to themselves, "When I grow up, I want to paint windows at fast food restaurants." And I thought back to them in my head, "Yes, yes, yes, anything is possible if you set your mind to it." Only joking...

I'll post more close up pictures on the glass canvas blog, but here are a few of what it looks like. To be honest, I don't like it that much, but they dictated a large part of what they wanted painted. Like those ducks and bunnies (a promotion they are having). And no, I did not choose to paint "75 cent burgers every day". The rest was up to me, with their constraint of wanting it to be "cutesy" and "springy", so I think I nailed that. :)

It happened

Gwen really did turn one this week, it wasn't just my imagination. We had a fun time celebrating her and having an excuse to eat cake. On her actual birthday we put a candle in her french toast in the morning. She wasn't too sure about it. Luckily big brother Miles was there to step in and help. He then became the most jealous I have ever seen him. He cried and cried for a candle in his french toast, so I gave in. When he kept crying because he wanted to be sung to, I had to draw the line. :)




We spent the beautiful day outside and went on walks and had a picnic with friends. Gwen had her first taste of PB&J and was a messy fan.




Later that night we walked around and got some ice cream and took it to the park.



"Hey kids, look at mommy!"

On Sunday, we celebrated by having our Rexburg family and my niece (actual family:) over for dinner, cake and ice cream and presents. Gwen has a major ear infection, so I guess that's her excuse, but man was she grumpy. The doctor found her ear infection at her 1 year check up. He also found that she's still in the high 90 percentile's for all measurements. True Garner baby. :) Her latest accomplishment is learning how to climb up and down stairs and up and down anything else she can climb. Miles wasn't a climber, so this is new territory for me.

I'm sure everyone has seen some version of the rainbow cake by now somewhere on the internet. I saw it a while ago and just fell in love, so I decided to make it for her birthday and run with a rainbow/colors theme. Not that she really cared, but I sure enjoyed myself! We ate homemade Cafe Rio salad and "rainbow kabobs". I saw the streamers on pinterest (easiest streamers of all time) and found the "tablecloth" at the DI. It was actually a fitted sheet, but nothing a little hemming can't fix right? Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

First Real Job

About a week or so ago, my efforts to paint windows came to fruition. I'd contacted a car dealership in town back around Valentine's day and the manager there was one of the nicest I'd talked to. He immediately agreed to let me paint later on in the year. I was stunned, but so excited and grateful...also a little skeptical that he agreed to readily and I wondered if it would really happen. But I stayed on top of it and earlier this month I painted their windows for a huge tent sale they are having later on. An actual paying job. Nice. It took me two nights to finish because come to find out, painting in 30 degrees and below with the wind blowing, on the highest step of a ladder isn't all that pleasant. The paint started peeling off as I was painting because of the coldness, so I had to stretch it out a little. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. There are still a bunch of imperfections that I can see, but I learned some big lessons when it comes to painting on a ladder and lettering. Harder than it seems. Just so there is no confusion, I didn't paint the same thing twice. They wanted the same design on different sides of the building, so the two that say "Tent Sale" with a big tent over it, are similar, but not the same. Sorry to slow you down. :) I wasn't able to take pictures of it until today and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were advertising the sale on the marquee with my design! Very flattering indeed.

I can't believe this is happening this week!

"Gwen is turning 1 one Thursday!" I say to myself.
"Really?" I question, "Are you sure?"

I'm baffled at how fast the first year goes, even though it seems like she's always been a part of our lives. Did we ever just have one child? How can it really be that just a year ago, Gwen was a chubby 9lb 3oz helpless baby, and now she's forming all sorts of opinions, learning new things everyday and walking everywhere? I think I must have blinked. Some of her latest accomplishments include:
Walking everywhere with confidence
"Folding" her arms for prayers
Thinking that every animal growls
Pointing when she hears something, like birds outside
Throwing full on tantrums, complete with screaming, throwing her head back and going limp.
Knowing when things are hot and "signing" it
Initiating Peek-a-boo
Testing out the "point and grunt" method

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude that she is our "Baby Gwen", as Miles still affectionately calls her. When she was still in my tummy, I could just sense what a sweet spirit Miss Gwendalyn Louise had. And although she is surely gaining some spunk and giving us a little grief (can the "terrible twos" start at one?), she is definitely my sweet girl. We plan on having our Rexburg family over for dinner and cake on Sunday to celebrate. Following is a sequence of my favorite pictures of Gwen from her first year. Scrolling through these pictures is about as fast as it has seemed to go to me. Crazy, crazy. Happy Birthday baby girl!

The Big 5-0!

Richie's mom turned 50 this week, and his sister Makenna threw her an awesome surprise party! We took a quick trip down over the weekend for the occasion and had a blast as usual. I was feeling like I needed a break. The monotony of life was getting to me and this was just what the doctor ordered. Now I don't mind the day-to-day as much. We'll see how long that lasts. :) Although it was only for a few days, I'm amazed at how quickly we all miss our beds and routine. Here's a few pictures from the trip. Miles was in heaven playing with his uncles, he helped wash cars and Richie washed all the windows for his mom's bday present.

Shark Tooth!

Miles really enjoys "Land Before Time" and is always talking about "Shark Tooth", so we were pretty excited that the museum in Idaho Falls was hosting "Sue" the most complete T-Rex to date. I can't believe we've never taken advantage of the museum until now! It was pretty cool. Miles was a little scared by some of the realistic statues and taxidermied animals etc. but he talked about it the rest of the day, so I think it was a hit! They had lots of hands on stuff for little kids, especially in the children's discovery area. Of course Miles found the kitchen first and was telling everyone it was time for dinner. :) Wonder where he gets that from? That evening, we had some friends over and watched "Night at the Museum". What a great way to spend the day. Miles was battling croup and Gwen was just plain ornery this week, (found out later she had Roseola) so it was nice to do something that made everyone happy. Here's a few pictures from our adventure.