From UGLY to I'm not going to lie STUNNING:

Now that Olivia is getting older and can be easily distracted means I have just a little more time, so I 've begun to make all my ugly things cute.
And I'm not going to lie, I'm quite pleased with how it's going.
(Not saying I am a professional or anything. Cause I definitely have so so much to learn.)
Anyway below are tons of before and after pictures of the things I have redone so far.
There is still SO much. But it's a start.

Project #1:

This ugly as heck black bookshelf needed some serious work as you can tell.
So...

I primed it.
Painted it by hand with white paint.
Which took FOREVER. I'm not even kidding.
Took an electric sander and sanded little parts around the edges
And...

Turned it into this totally shabby chic bookshelf. And I LOVE it!

Oh and let's not forget the decorating part. My stuff looked SO much better on the newly redone shelf than that ugly black one.

Project #2:

When my parents finished the basement they bought these two chairs and a table/counter (I forgot the before picture so you will see the after) from Ikea. I wouldn't necessarily call them ugly but they definitely needed help.
So...


We (meaning my mom and I) primed them.
Hand painted them this adorable blue color.
With a fine piece of sand paper we lightly sanded the corners, a few random places and spots that we thought were the most likely to get knicked anyway.
Then we took a brown antique stain and lightly put in on the chairs. This was a bit more complicated than we thought but thanks to my aunt Annabelle who was sweet enough to come show us how, we were able to make it work. We mostly tried to focus on putting it on the parts we sanded and then of course did it randomly around as well.

Here is the finished table/counter.

Oh my gosh this table and chairs turned out perfectly. The pictures I took really don't do it justice.

Project #3:

This frame was a weird metallic color so we primed it, spray painted it white, and put the antique stain over it.
It looks so much better than before.


The frame in the background we primed, spray painted it white, and then lightly put the antique stain on it. I like it okay but I think it will look so much better if I find a cute paper and do some modge podge. So stay tuned for that goodness.

This frame was a plain black frame. And yes it was hideous. So we primed it, hand painted it with a sponge brush, and then with a fine piece of sand paper randomly sanded places on it.
I love this one so so much. It looks so antique.

This frame was plain black as well. It wasn't too bad but not so much the look I am trying to achieve. So we primed it, spray painted it white, and then sanded around the corners.
This one turned out stunning.

Anyway, get ready for some more projects, I have a lot more things I want to fix up. It will be fun to document my not so cute things becoming exactly what I want.

Grace:

Saturday we took a little drive up to Grace, Idaho to spend the afternoon and evening with Michael's family.
I was really nervous to take this trip because Olivia hates the car and I didn't want to mess up her naptime/bedtime schedule. Especially since it has been so hard to get her on one.
But she was a little angel in the car. I seriously can not believe how good she did. She fussed for about 20 minutes out of the 3 hours on the way up and pretty much slept the whole way home.
I was seriously wondering if it was our Olivia we had back in the carseat.
I still think that was luck but I have a bit more hope now that we may be able to do a few more things.
Anyway, here a some pictures of our day:

Olivia with aunt Rachel. She hadn't seen her since Christmas.

Olivia with aunt Sarah.

We took Olivia around to see all the farm animals. She would just stare and them. I'm sure she had no idea what was going on and why it smelled kind of funny.

Apparently she doesn't like the cow haha. Just kidding. She just wanted her mom to hold her!

This bull was HUGE. Seriously I thought its' head looked like a T-rex's head. It kind of freaked me out especially with the nose loop it had.

So pretty.

These little baby cows were crazy. They would just stick their tongues out and lick the crap out of you. It licked Olivia's leg and I about had a cow. Seriously. I have some OCD issues with germs.

A four generation picture.
Priceless.

Michael took Olivia down this giant slide a few times. I am not sure what she thought about this either. She just had this serious little expression on her face the whole time.

Everytime we put this straw in Olivia's mouth she would just sit and hold in there like she is in the picture.
Silly girl.

Olivia and her grandpa Antone.
This picture is one of my favs.

My boy and I.
Trying to keep covered so we don't get attacked by the millions of mosquitoes.

I can tell I am definitely not a little kid anymore when I get totally freaked out on the teeter totter. I am not even kidding. I pretty much just posed for the picture and then was done.

Playing with aunt Rachel right before the hotdog roast.

One of the highlights of our little day trip was that Olivia got to meet her great grandma Mickelson for the first time. She's one lucky to girl to have 4 great grandmas!

Michael and Rachel.

Me and my baby girl.

I am so glad that we decided to go up there. It was so fun to see a lot of Michael's family and just to get out of the house for the day. And little Olivia's happy attitude made it just that much better.
Yay Olivia for being a good traveler! Keep up the good work because we are getting ready to drive 6 hours up to the cabin!

I can...

Ride a skateboard. Well not quite. But at least I look dang cute sitting on it.

Eat my fruit like a big girl.

Push my walker all by myself. I can even walk from couch to couch to toy as long as I am holding on to something, which, is totally fine because I am still WAY too little to walk by myself.

Golfing with my boy!

My boy and I went golfing together the other day with my brother and his girlfriend.
I'm not going to lie, I pretty much hate golfing.
But, since my boy LOVES it SO much I try to at least tolerate it.
So being the nice wife that I am I went with him.
Not to golf. (I really couldn't swing a club and actually hit the ball to save my life).
I'm not even kidding.
But to drive the cart. Seriously it's a blast.
(Except when there is a steep hill with a lot of those bump things in it. Then it's freaky.)
Oh and to stand behind him when he swings and watch where his ball goes.
It's a hard job.
We had a lot of fun and I even sunk a putt with a left handed club.
(I hope I am using the golf lingo correctly.)
I can putt. I just can't do the really far swings. You know.
Anyway, I do enjoy watching my boy golf.
He looks so stinkin hot doing it.

Here are some pictures of our little outing:

This is exactly what I am talking about when I say he is freaking hot when he golfs.

Oh ya and we shared a romantic kiss on this cute little bridge.
Please don't look to closely at this picture it seriously looks like we are both 15 sharing our very first kiss.
So awkward.
But I promise we don't usually kiss like this.

She's a tiny little thing!

This little girl, well, she is itty bitty.
She had her 9 month appointment the other day.
Here are her stats:
Height: 26.25 inches (9th percentile)
Weight: 15 lbs 7 ounces (3rd percentile)
However even though she is small she has quite the LARGE personality.
No joke.
This little gal knows exactly what she wants, how she wants it, and when she wants it, and of course how to get it.
She's probably the most stubborn little person I have ever met.
It's so cute to see someone as small as her doing all these big girl things like pat a cake and waving goodbye or saying hi.
Oh. We've been working on this other cute action chant called Make a ball for baby. She does a few of those too. I will try and get it on video.
She sure is a cutie little smarty pants and we just love her little squishy 15 lb self more than I can begin to explain.

Painted toe nails and a mini house:

I painted Olivia's toenails for the very first time.

Look at those little toes.

Aren't they just the cutest little things?

The rest of the pictures are of her playing in our mini house. I think it is the perfect size for a little one like her. She absolutely loved it!

I also have a cute little video of her standing up on the ledge and waving bye bye for the first time! I couldn't get it to upload to the blog so if you want to see it go to my facebook!

Pictures of the Oli-de de do!

That's one of the names Michael calls her.
The Oli- de de do or the Oli-re re or the Oli- lee lee.
And so so many more.
They may sound like crazy weird names but when he calls her that it just sounds so adorable.
In fact so adorable that I have joined in on the fun.
We're crazy parents I know!
But we're happy crazy parents because we have the cutest baby girl in the whole world!

Here she is!!
It's snack time.
She is eating a little cheese puffer all by herself.

Usually around 3:00 pm, Olivia wakes up from her afternoon nap. Of course just like the rest of us do after we wake up from a nice sleep she wants to eat. We have all sorts of crackers and then her favorite is of course the juice popsicle that we share. (I have to help otherwise it will melt everywhere.) Well sometimes we have snack time outside, so today we sat on this little table under the porch. She immediately found her little self in the window and could not stop staring. I'm pretty sure she thinks she's pretty cute. I don't blame her. Anyway, she would only look away to have her licks of the popsicle. It was pretty darn cute.

Doing pat a cake like she pretty much does all day long:)

So this little cutie as you know pretty much thinks she is the center of attention. (Which she is.) And that it is all about her. (Which it pretty much is!) Anyway, when I talk on the phone to anyone and start smiling or laughing she immediately starts smiling and laughing too. She thinks I am smiling and laughing at her. Well this picture is one of those smiles. I was on the phone with my mom telling her funny stories about Olivia (cause there's lots) and I of course was laughing so Olivia was laughing too! Silly girl.

I am so pleased to announce that my darling baldy is getting a tad bit more hair on top. Almost enough for a cute little pony! Ahhh I am so so excited. I have clips that have been sitting around for 9 months now. It's almost time to pull them out.
Until then, we will of course continue doing the frequent head massages to help stimulate her hair follicles!

Uncle Emerson made her all pretty with a cute pink baby rose behind her ear.

Me and my baby.
She's my favorite.

That's all the pictures for now but there will be more soon because I seriously am addicted to taking pictures of this baby.