Tractors & Tutus

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

{Somewhat} Wordless Wednesday

I'm just going to go ahead and warn you, baby girl is growing A LOT lately! She looks like she is 12 in most of the pictures I take and her personality is definitely becoming that of a 15 year old! (Lord, help me!) She is picking up on a ton of language, loves to listen and dance to music, and is VERY much into her dolls. Oh, and she's starting to eat us out of our house.

I keep meaning to move the snack drawer; I should probably get on that...

Mellany will read to herself for 20-30 minutes at a time...my favorite is when she reads out loud!

Supervising snow removal!

"Her future's so bright, she's gotta wear shades!"

Dancing with daddy....this she could do all day, every day!

Swaddling her baby! She is going to make a great big sister someday (don't get any thoughts in your head just yet...no news to report on the baby front) :)

She doesn't let an opportunity to eat pass her by...(and daddy doesn't mind!)

Mickey is a favorite!

I don't think I could ever mention enough just how much I am loving my life right now! I mean, how could you not with these two in it?!

Happy Wednesday!

Adding some color!

About this time every year, we get a little stir crazy and decide that something different must be done with the house. Last year it was the front door and porch railing. The year before that it was de-cluttering, painting the front door, adding some landscape and new carpet; and the year before that it was laminate floors. We decided this year we really need some color in our life. So, we are taking the majority of the walls from tan to something different. We started with the kitchen since that is where we spend the majority of our time.

Here is the before of the kitchen. We tested out a few samples on the walls and decided to go with "Cut the Mustard" (the yellow color directly above the door). We (when I say we, I mean Johnny--he is way better at painting than I am!) painted the first coat on Friday night, starting about 6:30 and finishing around 11:30. Once Johnny was done, we sat on the couch to look at his amazing job and decided that the color looked horrible! (This is the story of our life....projects in the Barrett house are ALWAYS longer than anticipated....most likely due to the fact that I set unrealistic expectations on time frames--I'm working on it!) On Saturday morning Johnny went back to Sherwin Williams and picked up a green color called "Oakmoss" (which can barely be seen below and left of the microwave). Upon finishing the paint job Sunday night, we decided that we LOVED it!!

Here are the after shots. I couldn't be more happy with the color choice. It definitely makes the house more "home-y". (We have decided, however, that because we love green so much and the majority of our decorations and such are green, we need to decorate with other colors....which is also being done.)

Next stop: The stairs and basement!

Sidenote: (Selena Bragg this made me think of you guys and your painting stories! haha)

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

{{Somewhat}} Wordless Wednesday!

Here we are at another Wednesday and it has been weeks since I've posted....story of my life lately :)

In the past couple of weeks we have: bought a new truck (WORST experience ever--see below paragraph), I wrote an article for a local website, Johnny finished our basement shelving (my husband is AMAZING!) and I'm now preparing to spend a weekend away from my two loves to celebrate Baby Osborn!!

As for the truck experience...Since we weren't getting any hits on our truck we decided to take the trip to Sid Dillon (the Disney World of car lots) in blair (3 hours away). We successfully left the house around 6:30 and were off without a hitch. Upon arriving at the dealership, the salesman we had been in contact with met us and showed us the first truck we wanted to see. We liked it and were ready to talk truck. Mellany, however, was not. She wanted nothing to do with sitting so we started walking the dealership (did I mention that the dealership is under construction and there was drywall dust everywhere?!). After about a million walks up and down the showroom floor we decided to walk back to Johnny who was not happy. They had offered us a very low, unexpected, offer for our current truck which wasn't putting our payments where we wanted them to be. After looking at a couple of other truck options we decided it was best to eat lunch. (At this point, Mellany is not wanting ANYTHING to do with the dealership--crying, screaming, rolling on the floor....ugh!) Once we finished a really great Mexican lunch (minus Mellany not really wanting to eat and throwing a fit there too) we headed to the Ford dealership and thought we would see what we could work out there.....nothing. (Thankfully Mellany slept!) GM called us while we were at ford so we thought we'd give it another shot. (Johnny gets a GM discount through Cargill and they also offer a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty so in the long run GM would be better for us.) I sat in the car with Mellany and while they didn't end up giving us what we had hoped for....we did drive away with a new truck. We still accomplished our goal of saving some money which is great! We ended up leaving the dealership around 5:30 (after all the financing talk and after market additions were made)....talk about exhausting day! We stopped to eat dinner on the way home and to say it was horrific is an understatement. We walked in, Johnny took Mellany to a table, I got her some food. I sat down, tried feeding her some food, Johnny got some food then sat down and continued with Mellany while he ate. I got my food and sat down with it. Mellany DID NOT want to eat and made sure the entire restaurant knew, so Johnny took her to the car while I finished up and we were back on the road. 15 minutes total, maybe. Not. Kidding. She screamed a good part of the first half of the way home (insert crying mama) before finally falling asleep. It was 9:30...repeat 9:30... before we got home. And needless to say, we didn't make it to our game night.....LESSON. LEARNED. We can kind of laugh about it now, but you will NEVER see us in a car dealership with a child again. {On a positive note, the salesmen were very nice and Mellany was pretty friendly with them whenever she would walk by one. She would so sweetly say "Hi" and then continue walking and eventually get unhappy because mama picked her up.}

Her View From Home: I stepped way out of my comfort zone and wrote an article for a Nebraska-based website called Her View From Home. 3 local women started the site and I happen to know one of them. She briefly mentioned to me one day that since I blog, I should write for HVFH....I didn't really think much of it until she asked on her FB page if any of her mama friends would be interested and I sent a message her way. I knew it would be a challenge for me, but she had faith and was really glad I was up for the challenge. A couple of weeks later, my first post went live! I definitely have a ways to go but am excited for this new venture.

Here is the post.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Mellany LOVES LOVES LOVES to color, write, etc. And she will do this for EVER.

(Finger) Painting at a friend's house.....this did my OCD self some good....though it was definitely hard....Mellany loved it though and that's all that matters. These masterpieces will now be hung in her room.

Tea party with the Rahmann girls

Of course I missed the shot....but she was petting Bo through the gate....it was so sweet!

I'm not sure what her obsession with teeth/mouths is, but as I was making a funny face (assuming she would do the same and that it would be a cute picture to have) she stuck her hand right in....

Poor girl is doing all she can to pet Bo (notice the leg in the left picture).....and of course I missed another great shot...Mellany giving Johnny kisses through the gate....she is such a daddy's girl! (Just look at her face!)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

{Somewhat} Wordless Wednesday!

Well, I knew that I hadn't posted in a while, but didn't realize that it had been THIS long since my last post. The great thing is, though, that there isn't a whole lot to report from the Barrett house. Johnny is staying busy with work and really enjoying the current projects he is working on. I am staying busy with MOPS and going to the gym while Mellany is staying busy getting into everything that she can and growing way too fast for mama and daddy.

We really love the beginning of the year because we don't do a whole lot of traveling. While we do love to travel to see friends and family, we also love sticking around the house and enjoying the relaxation. Recently, we have been able to visit a home & builder's show and put in some shelving (my husband is AMAZING by the way!) in the basement. It has been nice to also just sit around the house and play with our new "toys" from Christmas, as a family.

Mellany is really starting to come into her own and she is just doing it so quickly. We just had her 15 month check-up (can you believe it?!) and she weighs in at a whopping 21 pounds and measures 31 1/4 inches long. (Which is 25% for weight and 78% for length.) She says multiple words (puppy, baby, daddy, mama, hi, bye-bye, nana, happy, daisy, moo....) and is walking so fast that she's darn near running. She has a total of 6 teeth and no longer drinks from the bottle. She does very well drinking from a sippy cup, but she refuses to drink milk from a sippy cup. Mellany has become quite the picky eater (wonder where she gets that?!?!) and won't even eat something if it doesn't look right. This can be quite frustrating at times for me, but hopefully it is temporary. She sleeps really great at night; falling asleep around 7 and sleeping till about 6 am. Her favorite friends are Mickey Mouse and Elmo and she still loves, loves, loves anything musical. She loves to dance, especially with daddy, and she's even started trying to climb. Sometimes, she likes to run around our kitchen island and just scream at the top of her longs and other times she would rather sit quietly and read a book. She loves putting her dirty clothes in the laundry basket and loves her bath time with daddy. She can follow simple commands very well (when she chooses to of course) for things like putting away her toys or coming to sit down or even "Where's Mickey? Let's go find him". It is amazing to watch her make connections with things in life and start putting it all together. I am constantly baffled by what she learns and how quickly she learns it. Often times, I don't give her enough credit. Raising a child and having a family is truly the best thing in life!

In the next couple of weekends we are hoping to get a new truck and finish off the basement shelving. We will be getting together with some of my MOPS mamas and spouses and I cannot WAIT to attend one of my best friend's baby shower.

Hope you are having a great week! :-)

Big girl bath....with bubbles even!