Our Awesome Homemade Filing Cabinet

So when we left most of our wood furniture in pittsburgh the plan was to make their replacements ourselves. We both really like working with wood, after sanding and refinishing over 2400 sq ft of hard wood floors in our houses in pittsburgh ourselves we were introduced into the world of stain and polyeurathane, and fell in love with poly. Its so fun to make something shiny and glossy feeling. We would sit and lay on our newly finished floors and just admire them. So we decided it would be really fun to get into wood working and make our own furniture. When we went to go buy a chest of drawers we were even more convinced...."its SO expensive....we could make it look better than that WAY cheaper".

So our first project was our new Filing Cabinet. ITs SO COOL! This was our old one;

Right before we celebrated throwing it in the dumpster. I must give it some credit, it has done amazingly well for the last 4 years, but when we moved the drawers broke and so it has been sitting just like this in our bedroom with the file drawers on the ground.....much to blobs excitement, and moms dimsay. So we finally got motivated enough when Kyren started figuring out how much fun it was to pull ALL the files out as fast as he could. He is really cute when he does it, he throws them behind his back as fast as he can.

So without further ado, this is our NEW filing cabinet:

These are the cooolest thing ever, we got a new toy called the Kreg Jig (its a tool) and it makes perfectly deep angled holes to which you then put screws in so that you CANT SEE ANY MARKS on the OUTSIDE, isnt that awesome? So no screws or nails show at all.

We bought the brackets from Ikea, since all their stuff comes in parts to assemble you can buy just the hardware if you want. And their really nice they have a magnetic hold and release, so it sucks it in tighter when you close and they roll really nice.

This is the after staining process, we stained it a red mahagony, our fav color, and then applied polly, which before the last coat you have to sand it so it is very smooth with no bumps.

Jordan doing some sanding before the poly

TA DA here is our finished product.

Here is our filing cabinet from the side, all finished



Here is the bottom drawer, it all works great and now we are soooo organized. It has plenty of room for everything, all my scrapbooking/pics and room to spare.

top drawer

This is the amazing trim job that I picked out and created. It is actually two peices of trim put together and then sealed to the drawer front, but you cant tell you would think it came as one peice. AND you should know... that Jordan cut these angles with a hack saw! with out a miter box, they came out perfect!

So there it is in our bedroom next to my side of the bed, it acts as my nightstand for now.

This is Kyren asleep in his crib, we have discovered that he has really taken a liking to his frog pillow, its currently upside down, and its about as big as he is. We came in at 9 in the morning wondering if he was still alive cuz he always wakes up around 7 and he was still dead asleep, so much that he didnt even wake up after I took this picture.

ITS A........BABY........

SO, as most of you know we didnt find out what the sex of our first baby was, Mister Kyren, until he was born. We also went all natural birth and all that jazz. So on this one we decided to do just the opposite and find out what the sex is at the ultrasound. We also plan on inducing and getting an epidural, hey you gotta know which way you like right?

So....we had the ultrasound......and

!!!!!ITS A BOY!!!!!

his name is going to be "Parry Henry Carr" named after my dad and my maiden name, my dads name is Henry Edward Parry

we were actually shocked, very schocked. We were SO sure it was a girl we would have put stakes on it. And for those you got it all wrong, sorry for the confusion, the name Dallas was actually for our little girl, so no we didnt know it was a boy, nor did we think it would be. Why you might ask did we assume it was a girl? WEll because we had just had our first ultrasound at 14 weeks in a very nice lab and the guy had most definately said it was NOT a boy beaucse you could see nothing, but it also wasnt obviously a girl either so he said to wait a little longer. So at 20 weeks we go in there and are almost bored to do it because we were so sure it was a girl. I had already looked at the fabric I was going to make her blanket out of, and I had been eyeing down flowers for head bands at micheals. Now I am glad I waited. So the very first thing we saw was his little pride, SO OBVIOUS, in the middle of the screen....there was no denying the evidence and he was not being shy in the least. We both just stared at it in unbelief, and kept saying...."two boys?????" really TWO boys......14-15 months apart????? OH BOY, OH BOY!!!

And there you have it folks.....its so weird cuz it really changes the demensions of our family, I came from a family that goes girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. And Jordans family goes Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl. And both my parents families go alternate sexes the whole way through....so its totally different to think of having two boys right next to each other. But we are soo excited, they get boy playmates their whole lives. Were gonna put em in wrestling at 4, and they can go together, and practice on each other, and then theres tee ball, and school, and highschool sports and dating and then even 2 missions at the same time.....which is better than two girl weddings at the same time...if you know what I mean. boys get the easy side of weddings.

All we can say is....there goes any hope of saving on the food bill!

Jordan's Medical School Interview

So Jordan was invited for an Interview to the "Pacific North West University Medical School" or also referred to as PNWU. It was SOOOO exciting! The school is in Yakima Washington, which for those who dont know is in the middle of the state of WA, is very agricultural and kinda boonie land. Its about the size of Idaho Falls. So not too small like Rexburg, but by no means a city of any consequence. It is about 3hours from everywhere else, including seattle, portland, spokane, CorDeLAne ID, and an hour from the Tri cities.

His interview was Monday the 12th of April, he flew into portland and took mister Kyren with him. Which means Loni had a great girls only weekend with Katie and Kristen (college roomates)and no babies! It was a lot of fun. Jordan stayed with my parents in Salkum WA which is 2 hours from Yakima. He left Mister Kyren with the ol grandparents while he was in Yakima. THey were so excited to see the blob. He flew out sunday and returned tuesday night.

The school so far is only one building, like a large 2 story stake center. on the one sid of the building on the 1st floor is the classrooms, large with microphones hanging from the ceiling. the professor also wears a mic, and when he talks the other hanging mics turn off and he can be heard by the whole class, when he stops talking the overhead mics turn on and that way the whole class can hear when another student has a question or comment. the class size is 75 students and you take every class together as a big group. in the middle section on the 1st floor is a library and a conference room. the other side is administration offices. on the upstairs one side is the cadaver labs, the middle is hands on labs with tables, this is where you learn and practice the hands on side of Osteopathic medicine. the other side of the 2nd floor is study rooms, on the bookends of the building is a large foyer, and the other side is a simulated doctors office, everything looks legit they even have someone role play the receptionist. they have volunteers from the community come in and role play different illnesses. each room has a hidden camera or two to watch how you handle each pt. afterwards you review the films and see ways to improve.

When I arrived and entered there was a receptionist who gave me a name badge and told me to sit in the foyer and wait. there were 18 of us interviewees. and we all looked the same, black suits and dresses. there was one kid from west point so he had on his officers uniform. ofter only a few minutes a woman asked us to follow her to the conference room. we there had a two hour presentation on the school, including admissions info, history, future plans of the school, introduced a few faculty members, and went over financial aid and curriculum. after that for lunch they brought in whole whear hoagies and chips, we had lunch with some of the students and it was cool to see that they were very happy, honest, friendly, and down to earth. we were then given a tour of the building and the students giving the tour were very informative.

after the tour we were brought back to the foyer to wait for our interviews. They went alphabetically so I was one of the first. the interviewers game and got you from the group in the foyer. i was happy to find that the person who came to get me was the same that had given the presentation that morning, she was very friendly and easy to talk to. during lunch I had got to talk to her for 10 to 15 minutes just talking about the school and her presentation. so I was glad it was her.

The layout of the interview is 21 generic question that everyone gets asked, and you are allowed to answer them in any way that you like. there are two interviewers, one has read your application and essays, the other knows nothing about you. The questions were fair and balanced and asked to know your interest in medicine, the northwest, pnwu, people. there were questions about yourself, the healthcare system, there were scenario questions to see if you are a sympathetic person. i feel that I was able to answer them as i would have hoped, and that I accurately represented myself. Something that made me feel positive about the interview was the other interviewer. as the lady brought me into the room he was already sitting there at the table. he tried to look scary and tough. It was great to see that as the interview progressed he loosened up and by the end he was jovial and laughing with me. So anyways I feel good about it, and feel that it went as well as it could have and I did as well as I could have. Now its just to see if it was good enough.

kyrens determination

Journal entry on the blob. Or Kyren Jordan Carr. He is now 11 months, it is April 18th, so really he is only a couple of weeks from being 1 year old. Which means I need to plan a year old birthday party. That’s crazy I cant believe that we are already at a year point, that means one year ago I also graduated, ITS BEEN A YEAR!!! Wow time really does pass whether you want it too or not, whether your enjoying it or hating it.
So we’ll start with his stats, he finally started slowing down as far as his growth curve, he was in the 90-95th percentile for weight and height, and has always been in the 50th for his head circumference, all the way up to his 10 month check up. Which was supposed to be his 9 month but it took forever to find a pediatrician that we liked and to get the insurance going. Anyway so at his 10 month appointment he is now in the 75th percentile for height, 70th for weight and 50th for head. Its funny cuz we started noticing the “shrinking” or actually just a lack of getting bigger when he went on formula and normal food. He started eating mostly baby food during the day with breastfeeding only around naps during the 7-8th month and then somewhere towards the end of the 9th month he stopped breastfeeding altogether. He just decided that he didn’t want it anymore and has never shown any signs since that he wants too. So I got to go through the lovely process of being engorged for a couple of weeks, lovely. Ya know women really have to sacrifice their bodies for babies. Greedy little things.  So at that point we tried giving him milk formula and he got awful bloody rashes, took us awhile to figure it out, since we were also trying out cheese and some fruits and veggies. But I had a clue since I could never drink milk while he was breastfeeding either, it gave him really bad gas and he would be super cranky. So we tried soy formula and he does great. So now he gets 8oz at 3 and 8oz before he goes to bed. Its really weird to adjust to him having a smaller appetite, the kid used to eat like a monster, he would down 4 packages of gerber baby food at each meal, he went through 9-12 a day for like a month. At 10 months we stopped Gerber food altogether, or I should say pureed food, we tried making our own baby food too and stored them in the Gerber bottles and plastic containers in the freezer or fridge until he ate them. So then he all of a sudden has become the pickiest little thing. It can get very irritating! Its funny tho cuz we noticed when we first introduced baby food he was just fascinated to be trying something new. He had no opinion whatsoever about what we fed him. He would eat every veggie the same as he would the fruits. And he loves baby oatmeal and multi grain cereals. Anyway you could tell that he just loved trying new foods. So now adays he will eat anything you put in front of him….once! He will always try it and wont ever spit it out, making all kinds of faces while he gumbs it death. The only exception is ranch dressing, he doesn’t like that to even touch his lips. But he starts getting all “high and mighty” with his opinions when it comes to the second to third bites. That’s where the battle begins, cuz he is not allowed to spit food out. But we don’t force him to eat the food, for the most part, once we have figured out he doesn’t like it. Although I think it is becoming more of a power trip for him than it is really not liking the food. Cuz he trys to spit out cookies and things that I know he likes. Its so funny to watch them push the few limits they have placed on them. He can practically do anything he wants. Lets see, so….. he is not allowed to touch pretties, like vases and a few glass things, but he really doesn’t try to touch those anyways, their pretty boring. He can’t touch or play with our wireless mouse or keyboard, he cant stand up in the bathtub, or in shopping carts. And he cant spit his food out. That’s it! Is that so much to ask? But he still indefinitely looks at me at least once every bath as hes on his knees and starts to put one foot down like he is going to stand up…just to hear me say…..uh huh blob! And then he sits down. He always reaches for the keyboard…..AS he is looking at you waiting for the flick on his little grimey hand….and pulls it away as soon as I stick my arm out to threaten to flick him. Apparently he actually succeeded in touching the keyboard today and then dodged Jordans attempts at flicking him, moving his hand all over the place. And he opens his mouth and cries allowing his food to “accidentally” fall out of his mouth, knowing that the flick is coming he winces’ but continues to let it fall out. And he loses every time, every time we sit there until he swallows it! Silly boy.
Alright on to other things besides eating. He took his first couple of steps April 8th!! Hurray! We were waiting in a waiting area…how profound…at the ultrasound place, and he walked from Jordan to me! It was really cute, he did it like 4 more times after that, and then was sick of it and didn’t want to walk anymore. He doesn’t really like walking, its funny, I think its because he is such a good crawler and loves to explore with his hands that he doesn’t really see the point in standing up. AFterall you cant touch anything if your are just walking around. But around the 12th he started to walk even farther when Jordans family was having a family reunion in San Diego for Wilmas 80th birthday. He took like 10 steps in a row in her living room and seemed to be very proud of himself. Since then he has started to just wander off objects where he is standing up until he falls, and then he goes back to crawling. So pretty soon he will be a little walker. For now he improvises by doing the monkey crawl, he crawls on his feet and hands. He does it mostly on hard surfaces where it hurts his knees.
He is becoming so obviously a BOY, in every way! He loves to explore and figure out everything. If something is new or out of place in the house he immediately goes over to it and crawls all over it or inspects it. He has no attachments to anything or anyone, he just crawls off at will, if we are at the park he will crawl forever, once in a while he will stop and look back but then keep crawling until he finds something interesting he deems worthy of his attention. At church he just goes up to everyone and demands their attention. He did that as a baby with his smiles he would make noise at a person until they looked at him and then he would smile at them. At church today adults were trying very hard to focus on the teacher and he was out to thwart them. He would crawl past and if they didn’t look at him and smile he would go up to them and tug on their shirt, he did it to one guy from the back, once they look he is done and runs away from them. They always want to hold him but unless you’re a girl and have something shiny and pretty he won’t let you get to him to pick him up. He is obsessed with peoples feet, and California is the perfect place for that. All the women have pretty toes that are painted and sparkly shoes, they all find it very amusing and some are embarrassed and some are really ticklish when he plays with their toes. I used to play like my feet were coming to get him and tug on his cloths and he would just crack up laughing.
That’s the other thing he laughs at the weirdest most random things. My mom was watching him up in WA a week ago and he put something in his mouth and she said “ EEW Yucky” and he thought it was hilarious and started laughing out loud, like a deep belly laugh, so she said it again and he laughed again. He likes to play “boo” or be surprised. Peek a boo doesn’t make him laugh but if you actually startle him he will laugh. Today he has been obsessed with pushing books around on the floor. He has three drawers that are full of misc items in the kitchen, mostly Tupperware lids and baby bottles, that if he ever gets bored he will go over there and empty them. He loves to empty bins or drawers or boxes. He picks something up and just throws it behind him with the really cute straight arm with a bent wrist. Until the drawer is empty and then he is down with it. He has started to hand things to us and sometimes he is just showing you what he has and if you get up to get it from him he dives forward and crawls away as fast as he can and puts it behind his back. He is also obsessed with opening and closing doors. He loves to shut himself in rooms and wait for you to open it at which point he immediately shuts it. He doesn’t even care if it’s a pitch black room and you wait to open the door.
He has a walker that we got for Christmas and he could slowly walk with it when we first got it, he was around 6 months but now he can run with it. Every once in a while we take it to the tennis court and he walks with it all over the tennis court, he does a really good job. And is very proud of himself. He just learned to walk to the opposite side of the walker and push it the opposite direction instead of waiting for us to come and turn it around. He also loves birds, especially at the beach, he crawls after them and watches them in the sky or whenever he can see them. He likes going to the beach and loves climbing at parks. He knows how to go up and down stairs really well. Hes really smart. He figured out stairs in the first 20 minutes…going up and then learning to turn around and go down feet first, and had them mastered by the end of the day. He learned that at Katie and Victors house. He loves them too, he will spend an hour just going up and down. So he is also really good at parks and knows to go down slides feet first but chooses to go down them head first because he likes to see where he is going. He also loves ceiling fans, wherever there is a ceiling fan he is staring at it, he just stares and stares and stares.
He has this royal decree he does with his hands, when he is done with his juice he swipes it away with the back of his hand as if to say “remove that from my sight slave, I am done with it!” And he will push you away if he doesn’t want you all up in his face or space. Its really funny to watch him do it to jordans kisses. He doesn’t cuddle, almost at all. He will for a tiny window before he goes to sleep, usually 10-15 minutes and then you just go put him in his crib and he puts himself to sleep. He is very good at putting himself to sleep and has started to really like his frog pillow. He says mamma and dada very clearly now. He says them to get whatever it is we are forcing him to speak to get. Mamma usually means food but before we pick him up when he is whining or crying he has to say dada or mamma, and he does. Other than those he just does jargoning, or jabbers all day long. Hes actually very communicative, or noisy you could say. He knows how to pass a ball to you and likes to play with his jeep and pass it back and forth. He loves to shake and wiggle everything. He also LOVES being roughed around in the love sac, Jordan throws him all around and he just giggles and looks at him wanting more. He really likes hide and seek too and to be chased. He loves to close books and turn the pages. He will listen to the stories but mostly he wants to turn the pages as fast as he can.
The other day we had a neighbor and her son over on our porch. Kyren hit his head on something and started crying which of course made the other boy cry and as soon as the other boy started crying Kyren started laughing at him. It was quite amusing, the other boy just cried more.
Hes a brute when it comes to playing with other kids, some he is interested in, and most he doesn’t really care abaout. Well I should specify that is only with other babies his age or younger, he LOVES older kids and loves to follow them around on the playground. With babies his own age he usually will go check them out and then just runs off by himself. He loves to take their toys away from them and he really likes to take off anything that might be ontheir face or head, like sun hats on girls he loves to grab it and yank it off their head. He also bats their hands and arms away quite forcefully if he wants what they have or wants on something they are on. Like a piano or his walker toy. We are of course working on that, but he really needs more kids around so we have more situations to teach him from. That’s what Parry’s for, so we will get “GENTLE” engrained into this little stubborn head. He also loves to tear glasses off faces, but we have discovered that its really just with us, he is much more gentle with strangers (adults).
He goes to bed at 8 and usually wakes up at either 7 or 8:30 in the morning. Oh and he is still all gumbs, he has no teeth yet. But we don’t mind. Except it kinda hinders what he can eat.

All in all Kyren is a very smart little boy, when he looks at you, you can tell he is studying you. He always responds to people in a very intelligent way. He is also very social and interactive, he loves to be adored by people and people love to adore him. He has the prettiest blue eyes you have ever seen! Hes a good baby, very easy and learns very quick.

Family Pictures taken over christmas

KUNG FU BLOB

Kyrens silly laugh

Kyrens silly laugh