House tour

If you have already seen our house...
If you have no desire to see our house...
If looking at several photos in a long post bores you...

Bear with me.

Or don't feel obligated to stick around.

I won't be offended :)

Here is our new house! We have almost been in our new home for two months and we love it. We have tons to do...

Paint white walls and eventually the tan walls too...
Replace brass hardware, doorknobs and light fixtures and anything else that happens to be brass
Update oak cabinets... paint, paint and more paint
New carpet in some of the rooms
Knock out the half wall in the kitchen/family room
New tile in back entry/laundry and possibly some to extend our dining room

So here are the "before" pictures before we get started...

Main Floor

Kitchen

Family Room

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Upstairs

Makiah's Room

(I'm liking how Makiah's room is looking. I put up her curtains and I'm leaving the white shelves. Here are some ideas for Makiah's room.)

Daphne's Room

(I'll be painting her room gray, I'll take down the shelf, and I'll paint her changing table white. Here are ideas for Daphne's room)

 Evan's Room
(I will be removing the shelves, curtains and wallpaper. I'll be painting the room light blue or gray. Here are some ideas for Evan's room)

Also, Makiah and I made this movie today :) She rocks. My mom wanted to see a video of the house, so I am sharing it here. Dallas got a kick out of Makiah in this... maybe you will too. Again, don't feel obligated to watch.

Disclaimer: My house is NOT always this clean. If fact it only looks like this maybe for a brief moment each week when I clean... if I clean. And really. It never looks like this all at once. That my friends, is impossible with a family with three kiddos. Maybe just one clean room at a time.


New house tour from Jessica Bateman on Vimeo.

Ok. That's it. I've got to go. Dallas wants to watch Downton Abbey and he is getting impatient.

Yes, my husband likes to watch Downton Abbey. Rock.

6

This was such a good day. I just remember feeling so good and happy that day and so lucky to a mom. This kid is the sweetest little guy and I couldn't ask for a better son. He was so happy and grateful for everything we did that day.

I went to his school that afternoon and got to see him with his friends, in his classroom, and with his teacher. He was SO excited to have me there with him and even held my hand while I walked down the hall with him and his class. Something I will never forget. He gave his class cupcakes and I stuck around to help out.

We didn't have a friend party planned and I was so worried that Evan would be disappointed. We planned a surprise party for him instead. Dallas came home early (Evan didn't know he would be there when he got home from school) and we had the house decorated with balloons everywhere. He knew what his cake was going to look like but he didn't see it till he got home. When he got home we all hid and jumped out and surprised him. He was SO happy that we did a surprise party :) He had been wanting one :) Evan got a desk and chair that I painted for his room, a scooter from my family, some new clothes and a camping chair.

From the time he got home until late that night he kept saying... "This is the best birthday ever!" It wasn't anything big or planned out. Just simple and fun. He loved it and so did I. It was a special day for me too... 6 years of being a mom :)

We went to Applebees for dinner... The kids wore their birthday crowns so everyone was telling him happy birthday. He sure loved the attention :)

1

I feel like I've talked a ton about Daphne's birthday... but now I am finally posting the pictures :) Here she is! My sweet 1 year old!

Daphne did not get the whole unwrapping gifts idea, she preferred the gifts that were not wrapped to begin with. The kids all ended up unwrapping for her :) 

The candle was a little dramatic. After we sang to her I put the candle in the cupcake and put it close to her... hoping she would try to blow it out (I knew she could blow...) Well she did try to blow it out... and then she touched the flame before we could stop her. She wasn't happy! Some mom I turned out to be....

This was take 2 a few days later. the kids looked so cute after church so I plopped them all on my bed and we let Daphne open the gifts that she wouldn't open before. She LOVED opening them this time around...

We tried the candle again too. We were more careful and I actually got some cute blowing pictures this time around. 

4

Because it only seems right to post Makiah's birthday pictures before Daphne's and Evan's.

Because it's about time I got caught up on this blog.

Because it is crazy cold outside and I am missing summer terribly and looking at these pictures kinda sorta (but not really) helps.

Doesn't the green grass and blue skies just make you want to cry? I miss it SO much.

Makiah finally got to spend a birthday with her grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins. She LOVED it. We had a mermaid water party in my parents back yard, complete with water toys, pools, sprinklers and even a mermaid pinata. We played hard and just as we started opening gifts a huge rain storm rolled in (I can't believe it from looking at the pictures above) and we had to take the party inside. But just like any Utah rain storm it was over within 20-30 minutes or so and we were back outside breaking open the pinata :) 

I just have to say that she looks so young in these pictures! She was slightly chubbier in the face or something and it makes her look so little! She has already changed in these short 6 months. 

After the party we went out to Zuppa's with Dallas' family... why oh why doesn't Indiana have Zuppa's? 

My dad's birthday is the day after Makiah's, so they shared a birthday party the Sunday before :)

Aunt Cami loves giving her nieces new dresses. Makiah was THRILLED! She loved all her gifts and was very sweet after opening each one. She made sure to say thank you to everyone. I love that she was so grateful, she is a sweet heart. 

Baby all grown up

Over the past 4 years blogging has been my outlet... and my journal in a lot of ways. But then I just... stopped?

I just don't have the time anymore. I have found that Instagram and Facebook are just quicker and easier ways to stay connected and to keep everyone updated.

But I want to blog. I want to keep this journal of mine going.

So now the question... do I catch up on the past 6-7 months of life (I blogged a little in between...) that I missed? Or do I just move on? I have never liked the idea of catching up, unless I have something I really want to blog about, so I think I'll just take it day to day. You may see something from the past week... or from several months back.

So hear goes nothing... 

I'll start with Daphne. She turned one in November... I only briefly blogged a bit about her that day. We had a small party for her with a couple of friends. Maybe I'll actually post some photos :) Anyway. Starting when I was pregnant with Daphne I started a maternity photo series. Dallas was so happy when we took that 40 week photo and he was officially done playing photographer. Thennnnn... well, I started a new photo series :) This time of Daphne every 3 months, with her momma. Dallas was *thrilled* to be the photog once again. Now he is really happy because that photo series is done too! Here is Daphne, newborn through 12 months :) 

Newborn

3 months

6 months

9 months

12 months!!

I'm so glad I have these photos with my baby :) Even though I might not love the way I look in each photo... that doesn't matter. My baby is perfectly beautiful in every way and that is what matters. I will always love these.

Blogger storage space tips... Updated

I updated this post after finding some new information :) The changes are in bold.

I have seen several Facebook posts lately with people explaining that blogger wants them to start paying for storage space because they have used up all of their free space (you get 1 GB of photo storage when you upload your photos through blogger. Your photos are then saved online on Picasa web albums). So many people are really frustrated with this (and I can't blame them, I didn't know for a long time that there was even a limit), and a lot of people didn't even know they could run out of storage space. I thought I'd post a few tips on how to save storage space and also what to do when you have used up your free space. Some of these tips are my own, some I found on Google and some are tips that I have seen other people suggest on Facebook.

1. Size down your photos before you upload them to blogger. Photos sized 800x800 and smaller will not count toward your 1 GB of free storage.  This is how I blog my photos and I am so glad that I do, it's the reason why I have never had to deal with running out of free storage space.

I typically have my original photos saved on my computer along with a COPY (don't re-size the original!!) that is web sized in a separate file. When you upload a smaller resolution this won't count towards your free space (as I said before) and it will speed up the uploading process as well. I would not suggest this if you want to use blogger as your online photo backup. With the photos sized down they are only good for online sharing... not printing.

In the above link I also learned that if you max out on your free space, and don't pay the fee then anything uploaded later will be automatically resized to 800 pixels by blogger. So if you don't pay the fee and continue to load photos, be aware that they will not be at their full resolution.

2. You could always just pay the cost of the photo storage. It is always nice to have your photos backed up online and this may be a good option for you.

3. Start a new blog with a new account after you max out on storage space that way you can continue to load photos at their full size without having to pay.

4. Open a new Google account and then add it as a second admin to your original blog. Someone posted this idea on Facebook and I thought it was brilliant. This is so much better then having to start a whole new blog.

5. Use a different photo host rather than uploading your photos through blogger (Photobucket or Flickr for example). Upload your photos to their site, then copy and paste the URL and use the photos on your blog. Just be aware that these sites will also have a limit to your free storage. If you aren't worried about backing up the photos that you blog, I would suggest just to size down your photos and continue to upload through blogger for free (#1).

If you have any questions on how to do any of these things I can help you out, just let me know. I am crazy busy this month, but after the holidays I will have more time on my hands. You can also use Google and YouTube to find tutorials on how to do some of these things.

Just a couple more things I want to add in...

Do not delete the photos from Picasa web albums if you still want them on your blog. If you delete them from Picasa web albums, they will also be deleted from your blog. I also wouldn't suggest deleting posts or pictures from your blog just to save money. First try one of the above tips before deleting anything. You may later regret not saving those blog posts and pictures.

I hope that this wasn't a crazy boring post... and that it helps at least one person!

Our first home...

Dallas and I celebrated our 7th year anniversary last week :) Within those 7 years we have lived in 6 different homes and within two weeks from now we'll be in our 7th! 7 different homes in 7 years... craziness. I am sooo excited that this one will ours... our first home :) It's all becoming very real now that we started packing, and now that we finally have a moving date. We cannot wait!

Bitter Sweet

One year ago today I blogged this post. I just had one of the most memorable experiences. A very emotional day that's for sure. I am so lucky to have it all recorded and the photos that Kim took. It certainly is a day I won't ever forget. I think birthdays are just as much (if not more) for mom... a day to look back and remember that day I held my sweet baby in my arms for the first time.

Daphne is now a "big girl" walking, trying to talk, playing with the big kids, carrying around a purse, "talking" on the phone, eating just about anything we give her, communicating her wants, throwing tantrums, giving high fives, playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake, giving hugs and kisses...

I really can't get enough of this girl. She is happy, easy going and she fits right in with our little family. We all love her more than anything. Really, I could just look at that cute face allll day.