A special day!

May 12, 2014 begins new a new world at the Glass house. Today marks a change in mommy's title. I'm not longer an interpreter at HCC but stay at home mom. I will still be freelancing to keep my credentials up for interpreting. I'm (we all) are entering a new season. It's very exciting but a little nervous too. As we began our morning,  even though technically summer, we slept a little later than normal, enjoyed some breakfast, and worked our way to putting a puzzle together.

Thankfully HB took a nice long nap so we could focus on it. We worked to find the straight edges and matching trees, sky, water, castle, etc. she's getting better and better. We have very little attention and can't be still but she did it! 

This past year she as been at Truitt Memorialschool. It's only three days a week for half a day. I think socially it has been good for her, although she's not always been great at getting the academic stuff. Wee will continue to work  through the summer as will we will begin homeschooling in the fall. Another new and exciting adventure!!

Here's some updated pictures...bc we've added another baby since my last post . 

Where to begin....

The cutest peacock at Halloween!

As everyone can see I'm way behind on the literary review of the Glass family's life. KG is becoming a little person more and more everyday. Her true little drama personality is shining through faster as we approach 2 years old. Things we are working on the most are not having a fit when she doesn't get her way, and trying to remember "yes/no ma'am or yes/no sir". When you ask her a question she responds with a precious "Oookaaay". Bless her, she's a little country. She can drag a syllable out for days. Although the ok is the cutest thing ever, she must be taught her manners. So after she says "oookaaay", we respond with "yes ma'am". She corrects herself and gets what she was asked. She has a great command of please and thank you. It won't be long on the yes/no ma'am/sir.

She is to the point where she repeats everything you say. I said shoot the other day, and she said it right back to me. Ryan and I are on our toes. It makes you realize what words you say in a day. I've been amazed the command of the English language she has before two. She is GREAT with possessive usage. She tells you what or who everything belongs to...down to our socks. And now that she can say most people in our lives names, everything belongs to someone! This week, she has to know where everyone is. Most people are at home in her eyes, but some are at work. 

We adopted a dog several months ago, and he has quickly won his way into KG's heart. She loves Gerdie, but she is very large in KG's eyes. Ollie is just her size. She thinks Ahh-eee (as she calls him) should sit in her lap all the time. Ollie goes to work everyday with Ryan, so he rides in her lap in the car seat.

She enjoys putting other people's shoes on and trying to walk around.

We had a wonderful Christmas! KG dressed her own Christmas tree in her room. She was very proud. She loved giving Jesus, Mary, and Joseph kisses. She wanted to help with everything! Her favorite place is the kitchen and we were able to get some cute pictures of her at Granny's helping with desserts.

   

Every Tuesday, Nonna and KG go to story time at the library. There are lots of friends for KG, but the fun part is they are brought by their grandparents. These grandparents are all my mom's age, and most of them have been friends for a long time. So it's a great social hour for KG and my mom. The librarians are so special, and I'm so thankful for that opportunity for them. She learns songs and they read several books. Our friend that KG loves and talks about often is Ford Payne. His mom, Jennifer, and I grew up together, and our moms have been best friends for a long time too. So it's only natural that the bond between our families continues. Ford has come to play several times, and KG has attached herself to him. Sometimes she will bring me the ipad and asked for a picture of Ford. It's supper sweet!



Braden Kelly, friend from Story time.



So a funny story! A guy that Ryan grew up with passed away (not funny part) due to cancer. Ryan and I were going to the visitation since we wouldn't be able to attend the funeral. I got home and started getting ready. KG was playing around in our bedroom and bathroom. I was watching her but not like a hawk. She plays in my makeup drawer often, so I wasn't thinking anything about it. I was straighting my hair when I heard Ryan come in. He screams my name, and I ran into the other room. Only to see KG with my "long lasting" lipstick in her hand open. My eyes looked up at her face, and there it was all over her mouth and hands. She smiled really big, as she was proud of herself. I couldn't help but laugh. It was horrible timing, and it wouldn't come off. But I couldn't fuss, I should have been watching closer. So we went to the visitation with lipstick that wouldn't come off. The part on her lips came off the next day, but that on her hands took a day or so before it came off. If you ever need a long lasting lipstick that would be the one to get.

At one of the MSU basketball games, KG got to pet Bully. And all was well till she tried to pick up Bully. What can I say my child LOVES dogs!

 I have a very girlie girl! She loves to have her fingers and toes painted! And we actually got a little braid in her hair a few weeks ago. It didn't stay long, because she likes to twirl her hair. She still twirls mine or any female that holds her, but at least now she has some of her own too.

KG really likes to paint. I'm hoping she's going to be artistic like my mom. I have tried to come up with different ways for her to paint and hand out stuff to family. For Valentines, the four cousins that are still in school, Josh, Sarah, McKenzie, and Mary Kellan, she made cards with painted hearts on them and her signature inside the card. We took a paper towel roll and taped it so the end made a shape of a heart. Then I helped her dip it in the paint then on the paper. It turned out so cute!

Aunt Lauren and her boyfriend, Don came to visit a few weeks ago. It was such a fun time. We went to take flowers to the grave for Mamie Gray, and show Don were we are moving to. It was lots of fun!

I hope that catches me up for now! We sold our house and we will be moving to Mamie Gray's, Ryan's grandmother's, house. We are in the process of renovating the house in Star, but we have to be out of the ours by April 30th. So it is going to be a crazy month!!!!
 

 

Being Creative in the New Year!

 

So I have to start by saying, KG really got involved. She has watched her Gandy and Nonna pull out tape measure from their pockets and use them to measure. She knows what to do with them! So while we worked on making a night stand into a kitchen for her...she measured every one's feet.

So I thought that this night stand was Ryan's in college, but he corrected me. It was just one that he brought from his parents' house when we got married to add to our first little apartment. It has been unused in our back guest room. So it was the perfect choice to be creative. KG got a kitchen that her Pop made for Christmas that is at our house. He did an unbelievable job!!! He is so talented. After KG started back at my mom's after Christmas, we realized she had out grown so many of the toys at mom's house. And we decided that she needed some type of kitchen for her house too. She was staying in mom's cabinets. After lots of different research and reading lots of blogs, I started the project. I could have finished it in one day, but I didn't have the spray paint and then it rained for a week. So total time was around a week, but that was 5 days of no work in between. 

 

From the beginning...an old night stand became a little girl's kitchen. 

The night stand was a drawer front, so I removed the drawer parts and kept the front of the drawer. 

They I had three small hinges. I would have rather used bigger more sturdy, but the door front where you connect it to the night stand was very thin in comparison. So the hinges had to be small for the small screws not to go through the wood. That's the reason I used three.

One of the hardest parts was getting the templates drawn in place so that the cutting could begin. I didn't have a compass, so I used a nail, string, and pencil, first then marker, to mark the places that would need to be cut out. The faucet had a marker template that came with it. That made life easier!

My dad first drilled a hole in the middle then took his saw to cut out the circle for the sink. I had to make the circle a little smaller than the bowl so it would have a lip to stay on top of the counter. 

Between my grandfather and daddy, they supplied me with all the supplies except the blue spray paint. The faucet was one that my grandfather had changed out a few years ago in his house and kept it. It was perfect!!! All the added wood we used, were all scraps that either Gandy or Dad had in their shops. 

After my grandfather cut the board for the back of the kitchen, I sanded it to make sure there was nothing rough to hurt KG. I was taught how to use the brad gun to nail on the two supports for the back splash of the kitchen. I used the clamps to make sure it was in the correct place before nailing. I also sanded the whole piece of furniture so that I wouldn't have to use any kiltz before I spray painted it. 

My dad and I measured and cut a pieces to be the support for the shelf and the shelf. Do to the inside of the cabinet, we had to make notches for the shelf to lay correctly. Dad had a wood glue that we used to put the braces up, and then from the outside used the brad gun again to nail for security. Although please be careful if you are the person holding the brace in place. This was my first experience working with wood (which I totally enjoyed!!), but it wasn't without blood. I got shot with a nail through the side of the cabinet. It bleed but it wasn't that bad. Thankfully it was a very small nail.

Before I arrived the next weekend to finish the work, my dad had made these perfect little shelves for the back splash of the kitchen. 

I bought two cans of paint, but that wasn't enough. So we used some old white spray paint that dad had in his shop for the back of the kitchen. We actually covered the whole back with the white. Then we painted the rest light blue. My mom's living room, where the kitchen is now located, is cream and light blue. 

We used to brad gun again and the wood glue to put the small decorative shelves in place. I also bought a $0.99 stove drain pan from Walmart. I made sure it was magnetic so that she could use if for her letters, and my plan is to insert a picture in the middle.

Now several things happened at this point. My dad wanted to use some type of gorilla glue to fasten the medal bowl in as the sink. He had some caulking so we first tried it. So it didn't work. We ended up doing two small screws on either side of the bowl to keep from KG being able to take the sink out. 

For the stove eyes, we cut a piece of wood in a semi-circle shape to add support. We also used caulking for under the medal tops, they were from old Christmas tins that I sprayed silver. The caulking actually sealed the tops, but we were concerned KG could get them off later. So we went ahead and put a small screw in the middle of them too. They were all flat head so it makes a clean surface.

 

We just used a staple gun to attach the skirt.

And the final product! KG and my dad added the American flag from the side of the kitchen, while I wasn't looking. I guess it's never too early to teach patriotism.