My first time using chalk paint.

After about a week and a half of perusing craigslist for a vintage style dresser for our bedroom, I found this beauty. It was in great shape, and at $45.00 it was a STEAL! It is roughly 75 years old, and in GREAT condition. They just don't make furniture like they used to. The guy actually threw in a matching bed! It is a double, and originally didn't think it could use it, but couldn't let it go. The hubs brought them home and I couldn't wait to try doing some chalk paint. Yep, I am getting on the chalk paint band wagon too. Of course, I am too  cheap (let's just call it frugal. It sounds a little less like I am white trash) to buy Annie Sloan chalk paint, so I made my own. After doing a lot of research on the different recipes for it, I final settled on the calcium chloride recipe (buy it on amazon. It is much cheaper. I think I paid a little over six dollars for a pound). I am hooked! It covered like a dream! I only used roughly 1/4th of the quart that I mixed. That was even two coats! These photos don't do it justice . It has some beautiful distressing and detail that you can't see here. You can only expect so much from a phone picture! Bottom line...I see a LOT of chalk painting in my future. Next up is that bed for the look-a-likes. Stay tuned for that!

Finally updating the walls!

I am super excited to finally be updating the family photos on our wall! The last Family pictures we had were when the twins were about two months old! Here are a look at a few of my faves from the shoot. It is really hard to have kids that are this beautiful!

"Our Robin"

Look at "our" super cute Robin. She came to our house and built her nest from start to finish in one day. A few days later, we noticed that she had laid her eggs. Of course, my kiddos couldn't "have" a bird without a name. They decided to name her Angel. It would be a shame for Angel to have babies without names, so they picked out some names for them as well! They decided to plan for two boys and two girls...just to be safe! They settled on Peppermint, Felix, Ruby and Reuben. About two weeks later we noticed that they had hatched. They may be a little homely looking at the moment, but we are confident that as soon as they get all of their feathers, they are going to be adorable!

Let's play pretend.

For a moment, let's just pretend that I haven't let SO MUCH time go by (again) since my last post. I think it would be best if we just imagine that I have been blogging regularly. Okay. Now I don't feel so much pressure, and I can go on like it is business as usual. Whew! Glad we are all on the same page.

Sidenote: If you follow me on instagram, then this post will be pretty boring for you.

So in "recent" events...

We took the kiddos to the Rec center to go  rock climbing. Turns out that they are all super good at it! I am not at all surprised, they climb on everything. All. The. Time! They all loved it and can't wait to go back.

Crazy hair day at school.

The twins continue to get cuter (if you ask me). 

We have graduated to being able to do a SINGLE PONY!!! I swear they grew up before my eyes as soon as I finished doing their hair. As excited as I was, I also died a little inside to know that my babies are growing up.

The typical summer backyard antics have begun at the Martin house!

Kam has entered the "tree climbing" phase of life.

Oh yeah, and I CHOPPED my hair off! It has been several years since I have had hair this short. It has been a fun change.

As usual we have been working on four thousand house projects. This is the latest. I will post more pics of the finished project.

We went to a Rockies game. It was the first professional game that any of my kids have been to. They loved it. Even though Riley isn't in this picture, I assure you she was there and had a great time (she was sitting several seats down by a friend). The twins however did not join us. We decided that we actually wanted to ENJOY the game. Plus it was going to be WAY past their bedtime.

Payton graduated for Kindergarten! She has really grown and changed over this past year. She had a great teacher that had a lot to do with that (I would like to take a little bit of the credit as well).

We are getting Riley ready to be baptized next month. In more ways than one. We are all super excited that she has chosen take such an important step. We are so proud of what a wonderful little lady that she has blossomed into!

I wanted to upload this video, but my computer was rebelling.You can click on the link below and watch it if you want. It is a super cute video of the twins being super adorable. It is kind of long, but if you feel inclined, then go right on ahead (It gets super adorable around the 4 minute mark).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HEM0u4beJo

If you watched the video, pretend that the bed is made, and that there isn't laundry and whatever else in the background. It wasn't one of our cleanest moments! If you didn't watch the video, then you can go right on pretending that my house is super clean and organized, and beautifully decorated at all times!

FIVE whole months later...

You guys! You GUUUYYYS! has it really been five MONTHS since I last posted?! I seriously don't know how that happened. I don't even know where to start. Catching up seems too overwhelming right now. What do you say we just start over. I feel like I can actually breathe when I think about not having to try to catch up. Part of the reason being that our computer crashed in December, and we lost some of our family pictures and videos. I know! I am so sad that we didn't have it all backed up. I do have some of my pictures though, since I use flickr.com to share pics with my some of my family, and for this exact reason. Unfortunately, I had not yet uploaded my November pictures. Sad day. I am still hoping to be able to recover them from our old hard drive through a different guy. Anyhow...here we are. Not dwelling in the past. I will however post a just few pictures from these last months. That way you will feel like you are up to speed, and I can still breathe! Most of them are in order...just backwards. I am not feeling OCD today, so you will just have try not to get confused.

The twins got twins for Christmas. It just didn't feel right to give them just one baby doll each.

Pudding paint .

 

Halloween. It happened. It was fun. We ate too much candy.

 

This Boy!

 Kambell turned Three. He obviously HATES being the center of attention.

 

I love this Angel girl!

 

Kam is his Daddy's best helper!

Oh look! We are finally looking at a few pictures from January!

I did a little quick fix on the brick on the outside of our house. I just dry-brush painted them to add some depth and texture. I am happy with it, even though it is a minor change. It has been bugging me for a long time, so I decided to just go for it!

 Before:

After:

 

 Before:

 After:

 

 The twins have started to help themselves to the cereal cupboard when they feel like a little snack. I think maybe I need to move it to a "safer" AKA higher place.

 

 

Now I just have to keep my blog more current for two reasons. First, the whole breathing thing. Second, it will much more enjoyable to look at my blog when I have more detailed account of how awesome my kids are :)