Before and After

It's no secret that I didn't exactly love the color scheme the former owners of our house chose for the living spaces.  Not that I don't like bright colors (the kitchen in our Salem house is red...and I chose the color) but the colors made our small house feel really dark and small, and made the house really gloomy in the wintertime.  We'd planned to paint the house before I got pregnant with Olivia and then, suddenly, the focus was putting the nursery together.  Before I knew it, she was born, and I figured we wouldn't tackle this project until she went to college, if ever.  

By some miracle, we finally decided to paint about a month ago.  And yes, it has taken a month to get us from before to after (most of the time one of us had to hang out with her while the other painted, so even though we had two people on the job, it took twice the time).  

Here's a reminder of what it looked like before: RED!! Living room. 

With a PURPLE!! accent wall (to match the kitchen).

PURPLE!! Kitchen.

Also, I forgot to take before pics of the hallway and entry.  This is from when we did our home inspection...so...not our stuff on the walls, but the color was the same.

We correctly guessed we'd need to prime the kitchen and the living room.

And just the primer alone made such a great difference.  I think if the coverage had been better, we might have just kept it white.  As it was, we had a super cool faux finish for when Lauren came to visit (and this is how you know your true friends...you let them see your house mid-home improvement projects).

Note the dish towel IN the dishwasher.  It had just broken when this picture was taken - the whole top ripped off because the plastic handle broke from use over time, and we had to put the towel in there so we wouldn't rip the front off the dishwasher every time we opened it (somehow it magically still worked).  I hated it anyway...love our new dishwasher now!!

So once we had everything white, we had to pick colors.  It was something we'd been thinking about for two years since we moved into the house, so I had no idea how we'd actually make a decision. Thankfully, having a baby in tow at the paint store helps you make quick choices - she was not about to tolerate us pondering paint chips for hours on end.  We decided on a soft green for the accent wall and the kitchen and a light gray for everything else.   

Here's the after pictures! We love how it turned out...so light and bright, but not totally boring either. I also finally hung up all of my plates I've been collecting from various places.  Doesn't the house look awesome now??

I think the bouncy seat in the middle of the living room is a nice feature, too.

Kitchen - complete with new dishwasher... (now covered with dinosaur magnets)

Entry and living room with dog and new accent pillows.

The hall color looks really green in these pictures...definitely more gray in person.

We also took the ugly, non-functioning track lighting out of the hallway - that was a project Andy and my Dad took on right after Olivia was born.  Big improvement there, too!

So that's what we've been up to the past month (aside from raising our tiny human).  I also realized that minus two bedrooms and two bathrooms, we've painted every single wall in this house.  I think the master bedroom and bathroom are next - we like the colors, but they need to be freshened up.  I think, though, that we need a few months to forget what a pain in the butt painting is before we tackle those projects!

Running of the Reindeer

So not only was last weekend the start of the Iditarod, but it was also the end of Fur Rondy.  Andy and I skipped most of the festivities this year because it's hard to have an 8 month old be outside in the cold for several hours, but we wanted to show Lauren some of the fun.  Andy and I had never gone to see the Running of the Reindeer, so we decided we'd go back downtown after the Iditarod on Saturday and check it out.

We got to 4th Avenue just about five minutes before they brought out the reindeer.  They don't look very menacing when you see them up close - they're not much bigger than Ripley! The bulls in Pamplona they are not...

I think in all they had about 8-10 reindeer in the race.

Everyone lined up on the street to watch the race. A local radio DJ provided some pretty funny color commentary, mostly commenting on everyone's costumes (or lack thereof...)

All of a sudden, it was time for the runners to go! They had everyone group up for various heats.  First was the ladies.  You can see the Fur Rondy Court (with the fur coats, crowns and sashes) in the front of the pack.  

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And then they let the reindeer go!! Maybe a little more menacing when you see them run...

The second heat was the men.  I think this guy wins for least amount of clothing.  And no, I don't think any of these people were sober.

I don't want you to think that guy was the only mostly naked one.  We saw a LOT of people in their underwear (unfortunately).

Reindeer!!

After the men ran, it was time for groups.  We didn't stay for that heat because we were all starving for dinner, but it was fun to walk by and check out all the costumes.  In all, it was a REALLY entertaining event! Would recommend! (See...people...you should all come visit us in the wintertime. You can watch crazy drunk Alaskans race outhouses, get pulled by a team of sled dogs through the state's largest city, and run away from reindeer!)

And after three short days, we had to say goodbye to Auntie Lauren.  Thank you for coming to visit us, we love you and miss you already!!

The Iditarod Must Go On...and Lauren Comes to Visit!!

Last weekend Lauren came up for a visit! It was so fun to entertain a visitor in the winter (hint hint, family!)...even though we haven't really had a winter this year! We got really excited right before Lauren came in because they predicted a big snowstorm for the weekend.  Unfortunately, it only hit the mountains, but at least we were able to drive up to Flattop and show Lauren some real winter weather! 

Olive doesn't quite know what to think of the snow...she hasn't seen much in her short life!

Andy and I both took Friday off so we could spend more time with Lauren.  We took her to one of our favorite spots, the Spenard Roadhouse for some yummy food.  Olive had her first restaurant experience in a high chair and she loved it (I didn't get a picture of it! Boo!).

She's learning young...

We also went shopping a little and by the end of the day, little miss was tuckered!

Check out the new pants we bought her.  Aren't they ADORABLE?!

...the best part...

When Lauren first decided to come up, we realized it would be the weekend of Iditarod.  I then spent the next few months telling her how cold and snowy it was going to be since the past few years had been downright frigid (in fact, last year, it was so cold, Andy and I decided to skip the ceremonial start).  Unfortunately, we've had a record low amount of snow in Anchorage - so little snow that they ended up moving the official start of the race up to Fairbanks.  The ceremonial start was pretty sad, weather-wise...

We all bundled up and headed downtown.  

Andy started the day with a 9am reindeer sausage.  Perfect Alaskan breakfast! And of course, we got the dog from MA's, the best cart in town, known locally as the "soup nazi" of reindeer sausage.  Do not even try talking on your phone in line, he will refuse you!

Just look at all the snow on the ground!! uh...

We wandered a bit and saw some of the dogs.  They were all resting up for the race!

We finally found a good spot to watch the start.  The weather was so sad (rainy and in the upper 30s...warm for Alaska in March, but pretty cold for just standing around in) that the crowd was pretty slim.

Our spot was right behind the press.  Not too shabby!

Olive was not impressed...

We had a pretty nice view of all the dogs zipping by.

Check out that track.  I don't even know where they FOUND snow, it was so sloppy and rainy out.  I am also surprised it lasted the day.

After we watched a few of the mushers start, we wandered around to keep our legs from freezing.

Apparently, it's known to be good luck to rub this bear's belly.
I had never seen this statue before and I've walked in front of it hundreds of times in the past three years.

We walked into one of the tourist shops and caught some interesting signage.  The quotation marks seem a little ill-placed...

As we walked around, the dogs kept lining up for their chance to race around town.

Then it was time for us to his up MA's and get sausage of our own.  So delicious!

We had a great time minus the weird weather and total lack of snow.  And to sum all that up, I'll leave you with a message from one of our fellow spectators at the race:

8 Month Old Olive and the Magic Bowls!

Olive is 8 months old! How exciting! 

I haven't posted in awhile because we've been plagued by sickness in the Naylor house over the past month, and here, when Olive doesn't feel good, nobody feels good.  We constantly try to remind ourselves that this means she won't get sick as often once she's in school, but after our third trip to the pediatrician's office in less than a month, it was getting real old.  Luckily, today anyway, she's feeling great!

Olivia is, as usual, just a completely adorable, wonderful baby.  Her little personality is coming through (along with her red hair!) and she's so fun.  Everything is a new adventure for her and she loves seeing what she can get into (and away with...more on that later).

That look of love and adoration...is it for mom or dad?

It was for Ripley, her BFF.

She also loves the cats.  The feeling is less than mutual.

She's making developmental leaps and bounds by the day it seems.  Just a few days ago she was having a really hard time getting food from her high chair tray into her mouth.  Today, she's mastered the pincer grip like a pro!

MMM BROCCOLI!!  She still loves to eat.  Avocados, acorn squash, and pears continue to be her favorite, but she just tried broccoli for the first time today and we may have a new winner.  I love that she doesn't seem to really dislike anything (yet).

And now, about that whole "getting into trouble" thing.  Olivia's been rolling for months now, and generally uses it to get where she needs to go.  For the most part, she gets there, just slowly.  For a while we thought she might skip crawling altogether...until she discovered the magic bowls.

Yes...the magic metal bowls.  They're especially great because, for some reason, mom and dad really don't want her playing with them - even though Ripley gets to play with them ALL THE TIME.

Well, it turns out these magic bowls provided just the incentive she needed to finally work out the mechanics of crawling.  Check out this video!!

Here's her official bunny picture.  We've got the sitting totally down now, to the point that it's her favorite way to hang out.  I think we're done lying next to the bunny and comparing size that way.  

And, to compare...

 What will the next month bring? I've got my money on standing/cruising along furniture...she's already doing it with some assistance, but as her legs strengthen from crawling I think it will be her favorite thing to do! Also, I feel like her first word is right around the corner.  She has loved to babble for months and right now her favorite is DADADADADADADADA.  I told Andy it counts as "Dada" when she stops saying it in response to him, Ripley, the cats, everything she sees out the window in the car, and literally everything else she comes into contact with.