Mothers Day 2017

Finding pictures of myself that I don't shudder at are few and far between lately. I feel so huge and swollen its not even funny. So crazy how pregnancy's are so different. I am definitely LARGE with this one. I'm glad we got this picture though, because no matter how I feel now, I'll want pictures with the kids to look back on down the road...and i'm mostly hidden behind the kids haha.

Being a mom is the hardest thing I've ever done, yet the most rewarding. The days I don't spend hiding in my closet crying, I am so happy and wondering how I got lucky enough to spend my days with these cute kids. The high's are high and the lows are SO low haha.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about my own mom. How the heck did she deal with me? How did she raise kids without pinterest, or netflix, or baby center?? I'm so grateful for a mom who loved me through it all. I hope I can be as great as she is! 

T-ball Spring 2017

Boston just finished up Spring T-ball on the green team named: "The Dragons." He lucked out getting cool colors so far, first blue, now green. 

He grew up a lot since he played in the fall. He went out on the field completely on his own, all with the help of a coach he didn't know. He chased after the ball and went out to hit on his own! We are so proud of him! Preschool is really helping him come out of his shell. We missed the first game because of hand foot and mouth, so his first game playing, he didn't have his jersey. He wore his darth vader jacket, and everyone called him Vader through the whole game. That made him feel pretty cool. The coaches/parents couldn't remember his name for awhile, because they kept calling him that haha. 

He was sad on days he didn't have games this season, I think he's really starting to enjoy it! I guess we'll see how long he wants to play. 

End of Preschool 2017

Boston had his last day of Preschool last Thursday, May 18th. He was SO excited to get out for the summer, but really sad when he found out his dad doesn't get out for another few weeks. Bummer!!

Boston learned so much in school this year. He learned all about books, and can tell you where the title, spine, front/back covers are. He learned all about shapes, and can tell me what shapes he sees in different objects as we are out and about. He learned how to write his first and last name, and will point out letters that are in his name on billboards, or signs as we're driving in the car. He can count up to 20, and can write most numbers pretty well, and knows how to write all the letters (some of them he needs a little help :)) They talked about jobs, and we found out that Boston no longer wants to be batman, but wants to be a police officer when he grows up. 

We also found out his teacher will stay the same next year, so we are all really excited for that! She is so awesome, and so sweet with Boston. He loves her! No on to enjoy summer break! (Is it possible for mom's to enjoy summer break? I'm not so sure....hahaha I really enjoyed the alone time I got from preschool)

Police Officer Boston

Glitter Dinosaur

They learned how to tie dye, and made shirts to take home

Flower painting 

Boston loved painting me flower pictures. I love it too!

Last Day of School

First Day of School

Basement Project

Hallelujah, our disgusting basement is done! Well, the main portion of the basement. The dungeon room is still a wreck, but hey...we are making progress!
I have a slight Fixer Upper obsession. Grateful for a husband that goes along with all my crazy house projects. We knocked out a 3/4 wall and full closet, did a full faux shiplap wall, got brand new carpet and paint throughout, and made and hung some floating pine shelves. This is my new favorite place to be!

I've been wanting to try a shiplap wall for a LONG time. Waiting and saving money for these projects takes way too long. I looked at this website to help with the shiplap. We used about 3 sheets of underlayment plywood, ripped into 6 inch strips. Home Depot was nice enough to cut the strips for us, although the guy cutting it was not thrilled when I said 6in strips haha. Jeff then cut the strips into 6, 4, and 2 ft lengths to stagger the boards up the wall. We grabbed the nail gun and went to town! I used nickels as spacers above, below and in between the boards. We actually had a lot of fun working on this together, and had it done in one night!

I used this website as a reference for the floating shelves. They have full plans laid out, with everything you need. EASY! The only thing I changed on the shopping list, was instead of the 2x2 boards for the bracket, which cost $19 each, I made Jeff get 3x2 ones that were only about $3 each. It ended up working out, but it was really dificult to attach to the wall, and caused some major stress come time to drill them into the wall. Sorry Jeff! I go a little crazy trying to save money. We used a nail gun for the box part, and stained the shelves using 2 coats of Minwax Special Walnut.

Paint color: Valspar Smoke Oyester
Shelf stain: Minwax Special Walnut (wiped on with a rag, two coats)

Before:

A FULL year ago when we started this project....knocking down the wall 

Supervisor Ellie

Fast forward one year to the Shiplap Wall:

Look at that cute helper!

So close!

Boston hard at work helping with the wall ;)

Ready for paint..

Yay! Not thrilled about the breaker box :(

Floating Shelves:

After!

Goodbye Neon

Dear Neon -

Its been a great *nearly* ten years. We would be celebrating our 10 year anniversary next month. Sadly, you will no longer be with us at that time. Good news is, we sold you to a cute little family that wants to fix you up instead of ripping you apart.  We've had some great memories you and I. My very first car....and while you have already been replaced, I will never forget the good times....

Back in March, Jeff got in a wreck pulling out of a Sonic parking lot. He NEVER eats out, and I always tell him to just go get food if he forgets lunch. No, he always starves himself. On this particular day, he defied the odds and went to get a hamburger. As he was stopped trying to turn left out of the parking lot, the lane closest to him stopped to let him out. (This is also another rule of his, never EVER turn left if one lane stops for you. This is like Jeff 101) Since he was at the bottom of a hill, and could see no cars coming, he decided to go ahead and go, not seeing a white toaster car speeding down the hill, and hitting his driver side back door. I remember not believing him when he called me. He just doesn't cause car accidents....just doesn't happen. Especially to MY car! ;)

So there in the driveway, the good ole neon sits, awaiting its inevitable death. Here's to you neon:

When I first bought you from carmax, I remember peeling off the logo letters and laughing really hard at the idea of leaving the word "arm" on the car. I thought it was so hilarious, although I don't think anyone really noticed or cared. I did. But, the word arm is still there, stuck to your bumper, and that's how I always knew I was getting into the right car.
You drove my friends around from place to place, we blasted music with the windows rolled down, thinking we were SO cool. You drove me to and from work for 6 years. You drove Jeff to and from work for 3! You carried my small babies from place to place safely for over 4, and they always wanted to ride in the "baby car." Boston is sitting here looking at the pictures, and is sad that we are "throwing away" our baby car. I'll go get him a tissue....

I'll never know if your murder was intentional or not (only kidding...but I still wonder ;)) I'll always think fondly of our times together. Thank you for taking one for the team and keeping Jeffrey safe that day.Goodbye Neon!!

Hand Foot and Mouth....and Butt

I swear we can't keep from getting sick no matter what we do. After MONTHS of avoiding the dreaded hand foot and mouth, we caught it. UGH. Honestly, I had never heard of it before this year. The childcare at the gym had a breakout, where I first learned about it, so I had to stop taking the kids to go workout (ruining a pretty good workout streak I might add! Thanks a lot, stupid virus) Then our nursery had some cases, so we took Ellie out of nursery, and with us to our classes for a few weeks (also not pleasant). I normally wouldn't have freaked out about it so much, but its supposed to be slightly dangerous while pregnant.

So now that I know what it is, and what it looks like.....YUCK. It's pretty similar to chicken pox. The kids got high fevers, and then after about 24 hours of that, they developed some nasty blisters. Ellie has a really mild case, just a few small blisters and slight redness on her hands and feet. Boston has blisters EVERYWHERE...face, throat, feet, hands, butt, legs, arms....youch. No fun. He is itchy, sore, and just really uncomfortable. What makes this even better is there is NOTHING you can do for them. Nothing. I've been giving them oatmeal baths (lay out oats, coconut oil, salt, and lavendar oil on a rag, use a rubber band to tie it closed around the bathtub faucet, and let the water run through the rag) and benadryl for the itching (also hemerrhoid cream on Boston's booty...it causes him the most grief!) , and  tylenol/ibuprophen for the pain. 

Besides being stuck in the house in quarantine, there is really nothing we can do for fun. Everything they touch needs to be de-contaminated or thrown away. So..playing with sand and play doh are out. Card games and matching games are out, and i'm scared to let them color with their crayons. We've played a lot of trouble, watched a lot of movies, and spent most of our days playing in the bath. Only a few more days of this *hopefully* and we will be done!

Jeffrey ended up catching it almost a week after the kids got it. His mostly stayed in his throat, but he had a few random spots on his hands and feet. Nothing noticeable. Boy, was he miserable! We're still very grateful that I didn't catch it!

I wasn't able to get pictures of it at its worst, but this was the first day the blisters showed up on Boston's hands. I thought if he wore some fuzzy gloves, it would help not spread the virus, but I guess heat makes the blisters swell, so when I took them off, they were twice the size and super angry looking. Whoops. Future note to self, don't put gloves on them!!