Please don't expect cute 1 year old party pictures.  1 year old parties are for newbie moms.  But it happened and she wouldn't look at me to take a picture.  Don't believe?  Watch the video below for full evidence of her naughtiness!

Leah performed a Christmas concert in the Morrison Center... below, a totally unauthorized snippet, but you can see Leah really well on the front/left side.  



Um, another Christmas concert for Leah?  YES.  We are ALL about singing.

After having a few visitors last week, they mentioned that there were parts of our house that they hadn't seen featured on the blog.  Apparently I overlooked!  My bad.  Cue the cleaning up so I can stage some nice pictures... ;)

Let's start with what you'd see if you walked into our house... no longer a giant awkwardly shaped open room that for many years held only an adjusting table, then eventually also an indoor basketball hoop (super classy.  That's how we like to keep things around here...)  Anyway, I FINALLY did something with our front room!

The light is rough in here.  I have no energy to try to edit it to reflect how it actually looks.  But I had the walls painted a nice clean bright white, instead of the builder's beige that it was.  It brightens up the whole room-not that it NEEDS brightening, because it does have some nice windows in there. 


Both pluffy comfy chairs and an ottoman from CL for $75?  Yep.  Nailed it.  Coffee table... hm.  Why can't I remember what I paid for that?  Well, it was another CL steal.  Lamp-$10.  Side table-$7.  The side table was in ROUGH shape, though.  So I painted it.  I figured I had more to lose in spray paint than from the $7 table!  But I think it worked out ok! 


Add in this cutie gray couch, some pillows and accessories, and I spent about $215 to furnish the whole room.  #mysuperskillz  Oh, I should add, the adjusting table still needs to live here... but it's green vinyl-ness just wasn't working with the room.  SO, Jayna had the brilliant idea to make a cover for it.  So I got my mom on the job (sewing custom adjusting table slip covers=her super skillz) and it looks a million times better! 


I didn't count this hutch in the final price, because I already had it, but don't worry, I still remember what I paid for it.  $75, from Craigslist, it's GORGEOUS and it was made in East Germany, like a long time ago.  I don't know what the story is on it-I now wish I'd asked the guy when I bought it!

BUUUUUT, though I had the hutch, it did not look like this!  I covered the back of it in a Rifle Paper Co. print.  It makes it kinda cute, huh?

(Also, secretly, do you know that this piece functions as Spencer's dresser?  Yep, those drawers hold shirts and pants and church clothes and swimming suits.  Shhh.  Don't tell.  Because from the outside, it wants you to think it's all classy and cute, but on the inside, it's filled with dinosaur unders.  It's probably a lesson for life.)

Let's zero in on a few of the shelves, though I feel bad picking favorites, because they're all pretty cute. 


Hey, you wanna know about that painting on the top?  Oh, don't worry, that's my backyard growing up.  I took a picture of it (from our wedding reception!) and I ran it through one of those watercolor painting generators, and viola!  Look how awesome!  I love those watercolor painting makers.  And I love having a print that has meaning.


Then, if you happened to need to use the loo while you're here, turn down the corner in the hall and you shall find our little powder bathroom!



 My goal with this bathroom was to do kind of an over the top powder bath.  You know how sometimes you go into restaurants and they have a bathroom that is just really bold?  Well that's what I was trying to do with my floor to ceiling landscape paintings.  (If I had really wanted to commit, I probably would have painted this little space, but alas.  I think I just wanted to do SOMETHING, and kind of quick, rather than to do it perfectly.  Eh.  Sometimes that's my real life.  Ok, all the time that's my real life.)



But I like it.  Most of these are thrifted, natch, but two of them were painted by my grandpa!  (Bottom right, and the one just diagonally up from it.)  



And on the other side, just a little shelf with cool stuff.  Feathers that I dipped in gold.  A map of Boise.  Banner that I made, you know, just stuff. 

And then, if you were to flip yourself around in the hallway, you'd find baby's "room."  Her closet under the stairs, of course.  You remember what it looked like when Spencer lived there, right?   Well, it has become adorably girlified.



With ALL the vintage sheets, of course!  My love for these KNOWS NO BOUNDS.  They're just so cheerful and adorable-perfect for the smiley little gal who calls this closet home.





 Is your heart completely stopped??  Resuscitate yourself them come back to me.  So here, the bottom layer of this whipped cake of vintage adorableness is the edge of a sheet.  Like, the original top of a sheet.  If you look closely, you'll be able to see a little bit of eyelet lace that trims the sheet.  The cutest!  THEN, that pink gingham?  Super vintage fabric that I thrifted for 35 cents.  It's the PERFECT color of pink, and since I couldn't thrift very much of it, I went looking in regular fabric stores for something just like it-nope.  Couldn't be had.  This bright cheerful vintage pink, as far as I can tell, cannot be bought anymore.  SO, my wizard sewing mom made the little yardage that I could find WORK.  And it's so perfect.  Then the top layer-just the most adorable bouquets and it matches so well with the others-without actually matching, that is.  It's JUST the most perfect crib skirt EVER!!  Add in the vintage sheet banner?  It's an entirely good reason to have a baby.



I suppose you maybe noticed this little shelf?  Did you notice also that it's the same shelf that lived in here with Spencer, but i painted it the most perfect shade of duck egg blue green to match all the cuteness happening here now.  Add a sweet and simple tin letter and the sleepin' babe?  Pretty.  Stinkin'.  Cute, amiright?


Of course the crib sheet is made out of... a vintage sheet, all soft washed and buttery smooth to sleep on.

And since I had that one on when I took the pictures, I felt a little bad for the other sheet which is EQUALLY CUTE and in fact has wee BIRDS on it.  Birds.  On a vintage sheet.  It was like thrifting a bar of gold, I tell you.










The baby Gigi!  Who has now been enjoying this room for -cough- 10 months!  You know, a stranger in a store the other day said what nice smiling eyes she has.  I think that is an apt description.  She DOES have smiling eyes.  And since I had the camera out and she was in a chipper-and very TALKATIVE mood, I took a little video.  I mean, why settle for a still of a baby in a crib when you could get the little thing in action?





Just a baby in her crib from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

Seriously, she basically never makes any noise, so this was like BIG TIME talking.  And did you catch the snoofing action?  Right around 37 seconds??  I'm trying to get a good picture so you can compare to the other kiddos, but she does it too!

Well anyway.  There you go.  Those are some of the house changes that I have worked on-uh, like, a long time ago, and neglected to blog about.  Sorry to those two of you who might CARE and who haven't seen it in person!  :)
Save

Spen's costume in action from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.





IF YOU DO NOT LOVE THIS PICTURE, YOUR HEART IS COLD AND DEAD.  See a doctor.  OR love this picture.  I can't even beGIN to say how much I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this picture.  Love.  Lots of it.  Inexpressible love.  Agree with me.  Or like I said, get yourself checked.

There's just something magical about 3 year old boys.  They're just so... fun!  I mean, yes, they're a lot of work, and sometimes so naughty, but there's just something SO CUTE about them.  And it's not just my boys-I really kind of have a special feeling for most 3 year old boys that I've met.  But as far as my experience with them goes, I can tell you that Spencer has been one of the best.

3 year old Spencer has been a joy to my heart.  He's so fun, so funny.  He's bright and exuberant and happy and devastated and sad all at once.  He's smart.  He's precise.  He has to understand things just so.  He's loud.  Really loud.  But even that, somehow I find endearing.  Oh he's naughty, too, don't get me wrong, but my overall feeling about 3 year old Spen is utter adoration.  I LOVE the way he is.

 I love the way he's unabashed in public-he sings outloud if he wants.  He wears his Dash costume and his boots and tromps proudly through the store like he is the ACTUAL biggest thing in the world.  He is CONFIDENT about being Spencer.  He LOVES SO DEEPLY the things he loves.  He's so stinkin smart-he memorizes everything, and can tell you WITH PRECISE DETAIL, things that happened months ago.  I love how he laughs-big and all in.  I love holding his little hand when we're in a parking lot or cross a street.  I love how he talks to me incessantly.  About anything.  About everything.  About stories that he's making up right as they're coming out of his face.  I love that he calls himself "Spennah."  I love snuggling up with him and reading books because he is just the right size.  I love that he's my little buddy-o wherever we go. 

 Over the year, I've taken a few little videos of some of the things I love about him at this phase... but most of all, just to capture his little voice-oh!  His little voice is SO cute, and that might be the worst part about him growing up because I know all too well that it is going to turn all manly and deep one day and the very thought of that just makes my heart cry a little.  (You know, NATHAN used to sound a lot like Spen and now, occasionally, I mistake him for his daddy.)  So anyway, these videos-they're nothing SUPER amazing and special, just things that I found cute over the year, but never got around to posting, but that one day, I know I will look back on and smile fondly about and maybe even tear up about because I loved him so much at this stage.




When a friend doesn't want to play with you from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.



Big Helpuh from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.



Woody's Round Up from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.


Singing in the store from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.


A religious original from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

OH MY WORD, doesn't that remind you SO MUCH of Nathan at this age?  I mean, Nathan's song seems to have more of a plot, while Spencer's is some pretty meandering religious word association, but still.  

Playin' with Grace from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

She is filled with crazy love for him.  He is so big and so wild and SO funny.


Trains forever from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

Oh!  I wish!  I wish to ALWAYS be able to look over and have a little 3 year old boy playing trains in the next room.


Somethin's so funny from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.




Today, to celebrate (or mourn) his final day of being 3, I took him to the park and just took pictures of him while he played.  Goodbye, my last little 3 year old boy...





I love you SO much, my Spennah.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  (Also, stay mine forever and don't grow up anymore kaythanksbye.)

I have two stories to tell you today.  They're both about glasses.

First, apparently, I have given birth to Squints... reincarnated about 50 years later...

The first real pictures I had taken of Nathan were when he was somewhere between 6 and 9 months old.  I can't remember exactly, but I just know the clothes he was wearing were 6-9 months.  I decided I liked it because somewhere in that range, they're big enough to sit up, but not so big that they crawl away.  They're big enough that they don't look like a newborn anymore, and they're starting to look like themselves.  SO, I made sure to have some nice pictures taken of each of them when they reached that age.  And since that's Grace's age now, Miss Jayna did one final photo session before she left to Scotland (cry.)  SOOOOOO, here they are-The Babies Von Weed.