How to "distress" a bench

I made this deacon's bench in Grade 9. It was in pretty rough shape so I decided to paint it. Because it was already dented and scratched I thought it would work well to "distress" it. I called my sis-in-law Heidi to figure out how to do it. It was quite easy and a lot of fun. I started after I got the kids to bed and cleaned up, so I didn't finish until about 2am, but it's done!
Here's the steps I used to make it:
1. I rubbed liquid sandpaper all over the bench. It cleaned and supposedly roughed it up, but it still seemed pretty smooth so I sandpapered it a little more.
2. I painted it apple red with latex paint and let it dry for about an hourish.
3. I sanded all the edges and sanded a few areas on the wood to make it look more antique-y.
4. I rubbed walnut stain all over with a rag and let it dry for a couple hours.
5. I put just one layer of clear varathane on (it could probably use more)
6. All done!

Here's the finished product! It looks better in real life.

Hadley took these pictures of the couches we got, so I thought I'd put them on. We are getting reimbursed for them. I found them on Kijiji for $850, but we ended up getting the set for $750. They are black leather. I love them!

Hadley turned 3!

We moved to Calgary on Hadley's birthday. John is installing alarms for a security company. His brother Dan is the manager here. We'll be in Calgary until John gets into the RCMP. He takes the first test on Monday. Anyway.

Hadley's birthday was kind of crazy. We packed up on the 6th and drove through the night and got to Stirling at about 11am. We stayed there for a bit then went to Raymond and spent the night at my parents'. We left for Calgary Monday morning after breakfast. Hadley was so excited that it was her birthday, so we felt like we had to throw some kind of party together. We quickly unloaded the trailer and van while the kids were at Dan and Nicole's. Dan helped us unload too. I quickly found our swimsuits and we went swimming with Dan and Nicole and their 4 girls (they have twins to0). It was a lot of fun, but since we haven't been swimming in a year, Hadley was a little nervous. They had fun kid waterslides, but we practically had to force Hadley to go on it. She liked it, but wouldn't go again.
I took Elijah down the waterslide and he was like this for the rest of the time - sad.

We went back to Dan and Nicole's after and had a DQ cake. Hadley wanted a "princess cake", luckily they had some there! The girls were a little excited about the cake. Hence the purple faces BEFORE we even blew out candles.

Hadley loved getting presents too! Here she is with her loot.

Christmas Fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hillyer Look-alike Meter

I found this little fun thing on my cousin-in-law's blog. It seems that the picture you choose has a lot to do with it. The first picture of Hadley was 5% more like me but it wasn't the best picture (obviously).

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology software - Ancestory

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogy software - Family reunion

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

I don't know how the twins look equally like us but look so different....hmmm. Maybe our genes got split up equally and oppositely....I'm not sure how that works exactly.

Silly things people say

So my sister Jodie commented on her blog about comments people make to her while shopping with her 3 kids, so I thought I'd follow suit.

With twins we get a lot of comments, but mostly stares. The other day at Costco we got a lot of funny comments. Well, I just remember 2 actually.

1. A lady (probably in her 50's) said that she had twins too, and we chatted for a bit then when she was leaving said "You're not going to stay that skinny forever!". I thought that was a weird thing to say. Nothing like moral support!

2. The boys were wearing dark green matching outfits. A lady said "Are they both boys?" I thought about saying, "no, I just like them to dress the same", but maybe that's actually what she was thinking.

Ok, so maybe those comments aren't that silly. What I like the most about people commenting on the twins is when they say something like "oh they're so cute!", and Hadley says "look at me! I'm cute too!".

That's all.

Run

I started running today. I've decided I'm going to become a runner. I've run about 5 times since I had the boys. I'm a little out of shape. I was supposed to get a wii fit for my birthday, but we never found one...until about 3 weeks ago. John found one and got it for me. It has a lot of good strength and yoga exercises, but not much cardio. So, I decided I should run. I'm going to run 3 times a week and then do the wii the other 3 days. I'm trying to find a race to run here for extra motivation, but I haven't found any that are soon. Maybe I should get tips from my bro-in-law. De Novo Pittsburgh.

In other news.....we moved to Utah. John's going to BYU and doing really well. He's majoring in Psychology. I keep busy going to the park and taking care of the kidlings. Here's some pics of our park adventures.

Bye John!

John left for the long trek to Alberta on Monday. Here are some pics of saying goodbye and such.






















He made it to Stirling on Thursday night and only almost got in one accident. I'm glad he made it there safely...and that all our stuff is still intact. It's almost been a week since he's been gone, and I miss him so much already. Hadley misses him too. She keeps saying "Where's Dad?", or "I wanna go shopping with Daddy"(said in a whiny voice.) Only 17 more days until he comes back. Just in time for my birthday!

This week I started feeding the boys rice cereal. They seem to like it and I think it has helped them sleep through the night. That, and the Baby Whisperer. I was having to "super bounce" Brian to go to sleep, and frankly was getting sick of it, so I decided that I needed to implement the teachings of the Baby Whisperer. No more bouncing, rocking, etc. And he hardly cries anymore when he goes to sleep. So....I think that's all the excitement pretty much. Here's more pictures.

Homeward Bound

So, John is going back to Alberta in about 10 days. His job here
ended, so instead of him getting a job here for a month, we're packing
up and he'll drive our stuff back and I'll live with my parents with
the kids. We're having a Freeze family reunion in Palmyra area from
June 14-21, so John is flying back for that and then we'll both fly
home on the 23rd. We would have just had him skip out of the reunion,
but I'm not even allowed (nor would I want) to fly home alone with the
kids. I was going to fly with my parents at the beginning of July, but
there was a deal for flights before the 25th of June, so it's actually
cheaper for John to fly here and us to fly home than for just me to
fly home in July with the kids. We're excited to go back to Alberta to
be able to see everyone. FUn, fun. My parents bought a house in
Raymond, so we'll live there for the summer and then off to Utah for
the fall. We just have to find somewhere to live there in Provo!

So now we have the dreaded job of packing/dejunking/cleaning etc. We
only have one week to pack, so I'm feeling a little stressed. I
thought we'd actually have time to take it easy with this move, but I
guess things changed. Oh well, at least there are people that can
help. Well, I should get packing!

Oh yeah, John got a half tuition scholarship. He's so smart! If he
keeps a 3.71 GPA, he'll get that scholarship every year. We're super
excited. I love it when people give us money.

Cute Like Me

I'm going to start selling baby and children's bracelets again. My friend from Lethbridge and I started up Cute Like Me when I lived there. After the twins were born I decided that I wasn't going to do it anymore because I didn't really have time. She started up a facebook group for Cute Like Me, and I guess I got the urge again to start making bracelets. I bought too much stuff when I first started without knowing much about what I'd actually use, and the quality of the beads etc. I want to make bracelets with more of the "good stuff", so I'm just going to be starting up again by selling some of the stuff I have that I don't want to use anymore. It's still nice stuff, but not what I want to use. So if anyone wants some cheap and cute bracelets check out the facebook group. We'll be getting a website up soon too.

Are you smarter?...or more geographically savvy?

42

I think I need to look at that map again. Or just play Risk.

A day in the life....sorta

I thought it might be fun to keep track of what goes on in our house for a day. Here it goes...

6:00am, both babies crying for food, and I have none left because they woke up so much during the night. I give them bottles. They drink a bit and drift off to sleep.

7:15 Hadley wakes up, cries, for some reason is super mad. I put her back in her bed for “time out”. When she's happy she can go downstairs. I get dressed, by now Hadley's calmed down and we go downstairs.

Eat cereal. Hadley gets upset because she doesn't want to me to say a prayer on the food...another time out. I go downstairs to finish cereal before it gets soggy. Hadley comes down shortly and finishes her cereal. Whoops...forgot to say prayer on the food.

Start a load of laundry and tidy up from breakfast.

Take out garbage

2 minute hot spot (helps me keep house organized...from www.flylady.net)

5 minute room rescue, with 2 interruptions for soothers. (from flylady)

8:00 Brian wakes up. Turn on cartoons for Hadley. Feed Brian while looking through Faith in God binder (my calling for church). Give Brian a bath. Get him dressed.

8:45 Take pictures of Brian for my mom's grandkid picture frames. Camera dies. Charge it. Let Brian play on the floor until he cries. Wrap him up and put in bouncy chair.

9:10 Elijah wakes up. Feed him while checking email and facebook and family blog

9:25 Change Hadley's poopy pull-up....remind her that she needs to go poo on the potty!

9:30 Give Elijah a bath

9:45 Discover that Hadley went pee on the potty. Yeah! Clean it out and get Hadley a treat. Lay Elijah on the floor and let him play. Get ready to go to Gramma's house.

So, that's about where the keeping track stopped. The rest of the day was filled with a few more time-outs (Hadley's been cranky lately...I think she's sick), more feeding and changing and putting babies to sleep. I won't bore you with all the boring details.

Some people have asked if I feed the boys at the same time or how I work their schedules. I basically don't have a schedule. I've kind of taken ideas from "The Baby Whisperer". She has a system or routine called EASY. E: eat (feed baby), A: activity time or wakey time for baby, S: sleepy time, and Y: time for you, and you just repeat it all day long. I like it cause then I know that when they wake up they want to eat, and then when they get cranky again, they're tired. Sometimes I have to feed them again before they go to sleep, but I normally stick to the routine. It helps me stay sane. I feed the boys separately, cause they don't always sleep for the same amount of time. Most of the time one of them wakes, so I feed them, and then the next one wakes up. Occasionally when both wake up at the same time, and are crying for food, I'll bring out the twin nursing pillow that my SIL got me (thanks R!), and feed them both at the same time. I would save a lot of time if I fed them at the same time, but I enjoy feeding them separately. It feels more relaxing. While I'm nursing, I can browse the internet, or read, or sleep. I prefer it, even though I'm nursing for longer amounts of time, it doesn't feel like that I guess. I don't know if that makes sense.

Well, I think I've probably bored you enough. If you have any questions or things you want me to write, just let me know and I'll try to satisfy your curiosity.

The Bully

Ever had a cold sore? I have. In fact, I have one right now. And it's not just a little one in the corner of my mouth like I normally get, it's a humoungous nasty looking one right in the middle of my upper lip. I hate it. Nothing like a coldsore to get you when you're down. They call them opportunistic pathogens...I think. When you're sick or stressed, and therefore not too happy, they come along to help you feel even worse. Kick you when you're down. Curse the coldsore bully!

Easter Fun

So, we had a fun Easter this year. John had to work for 24 hours straight from Saturday to Sunday, and then Sunday evening again, so he slept most of the day. We decorated eggs on Friday and my mom hid them for Hadley to find. She had fun with that. The Easter Bunny gave us too much chocolate. I think Hadley's almost done hers though. I figure the more I let her eat it, the quicker it will be gone. I don't know if that's the best way to handle it or not. I haven't eaten much of my treats cause I've been sick. I've got a nasty cold. Not fun. Hopefully the boys sleep better tonight.

We did it!

So, I finally started a blog. I don't know how it will go, considering I'm the mother of a 2 year old girl and twin baby boys...Hopefully it will keep you entertained at least. So here it goes.

Today John has been at work all day and may have to work all night too. I've been attempting to potty-train Hadley...I think she's "made" it once today. She does well with the potty for a few days, and then I seem to get sidetracked and so does she. Using underwear instead of pull-ups is helping though.
It's been surprisingly relaxing today. Maybe it's because yesterday my mom came over and helped clean the house and babysat so that John and I could have a couple hours on our own. It was a nice and much needed break. It's so nice to be close to my parents. I don't know how we'd cope without their help.
Well...it's time to give baby Brian a bath. Ciao.