Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Day Savers

what's helping me make it through the day:

thank you for all our early meetings
with a little of this

mmm...think I'll go have a cup



and of course wouldn't be breathing if it weren't for
...okay, maybe I'd just have a difficult time breathing



On these hot and humid days I'm thankful for

AC !!!!!!



and after some of this...

and a little of that


my ultimate day saver is

Nap Time!!!!
(sometimes for the both of us)


Monday, June 21, 2010

Celebrations, Construction and Crafts

This last weekend was a very special one for our family, Jacob and I celebrated our fifth anniversary and we celebrated Jacob as a Daddy for his first Father's Day! Jacob and I were talking about how it doesn't seem like we've been married for 5 years already! And how 5 years sounds like such a long time, yet it really hasn't been...if that makes any sense :) And can I just say, I love my husband and am so in love with him! What a great and wonderful man God has blessed me with. Its also so amazing seeing him as a Daddy and how much he loves and cares for Caleb. This weekend was enjoyable and relaxing {which doesn't happen that often lately...the relaxing part that is}. Since we had some days to celebrate, Jacob took off working on the downstairs so we could all spend time together. Speaking of the downstairs, the latest updates. Starting the end of May Jacob began finishing the downstairs {at least what we're planning on having finished in order to sell it...then the buyers can do the rest}. The biggest project in all that is putting in a bathroom. He's done an amazing job at figuring out what to do and coping with running into problems he hadn't anticipated. The bathroom is almost all plumbed, all the walls are up for the downstairs and most of the dry wall is up. We're aiming to have the downstairs done before we leaving in 2 weeks for our trip to Washington {Yay!!! Can't hardly wait to see family!}, cross our fingers that there's no complications!

The bathroom:

{we're farther than this now, but this was the latest picture}

Now what have I been doing {besides chasing this kid around everywhere, and saying no 100 times a day}, yep you guessed it? Crafts!!! {it was the only choice left from the title} I've fallen in love with Blogs and free tutorials!! Here are some of the projects:

The shirt dress, from MADE:

turn a men's dress shirt into a girl's summer dress

A little make-up bag:

This one is a combination of the 90 minute shirt and freezer paper stenciling:

The shirt is made from one of Jacob's, and the freezer stenciling is AMAZING and fun!!!

More freezer paper stenciling:

Some birthday things:

another 90 minute shirt. I put a 1 appliqué on each item and did the stenciling on the back of the onesie.

A birthday present for Caleb:

I have a few more things that aren't all the way done yet, or are a gift for someone {and they might see it before I give it to them} so I'll post those later. I'm loving making things, and its sooo much cheaper than buying stuff!! Now it's just finding the time to do them, and keeping track of all the neat ideas.

Real quick, an update on Caleb and then I better get going. He is definitely getting a mind of his own! Which is fun and frustrating at the same time. It's neat to watch as he processes through things and has his own little agenda of what he wants to do. BUT its not fun when he doesn't want to do what he needs to, like...get dressed, eat, get his face washed, not play with the electrical outlet. He's also developing an entertaining sense of humor. He walks around most of the time, crawls mostly just to get to something to help him stand up. He now knows 4 signs {milk, drink, dog, and food}, we're having fun working with those :) And he just got two more new teeth, for a total of 6.

I hope to have more to blog about in the upcoming weeks, with house renovations, our trip and a little boy turning One!


Sunday, June 6, 2010

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!

We have tons of Caleb, but very few of us as a family. So when our friends Sean and Nicole offered to spend an afternoon taking some pics of us we said 'yes please'! Nicole was also the one who took Caleb's newborn pictures (which we Love!). It's something she's interested in and I hope something she continues to progress with because she does a good job. We had a fun time, although I was a bit sad because it'd be one of the last times we'd see them before they move. We have enjoyed their friendship greatly while in Columbia, and are so happy and excited for their move, we'll miss them a ton! Anyways, back to the pictures! I said we had a fun time, but this excludes Caleb. He was not happy about the heat. the grass. the squinting. and hearing us say 'Caleb look over here' 20 million times. That explains the lack of smiles on his part.











and here is a group shot :)

wow, I'm surprised it let me upload that many pictures!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

More Home Improvements

Whew! It's been an exhausting last couple of weeks! The latest of the house projects was our bedroom, one I had been dreading since we moved in {and was possibly one of the toughest, although I may say that after each one}. It too had been wallpapered once upon a time {like everywhere else in our home} and someone didn't feel like removing it so...they painted over it, and so did the next, and the next, and the...you get the idea. We decided not to go this same route because, well, it looked terrible. Now let me tell you, although Jacob should really be the person, removing wallpaper that has been painted over is TOUGH! None of the little tricks work that are suppose to with removing wallpaper because the paint has to be chipped away. It took a few days to remove the paint and then the wallpaper glue. It was also really discouraging because you do all this work to make it look better, but it actually looked worse {with discolored walls underneath, and scratches and chips from removing paint}, which was fine because we'd fix all that, but still. Then we had to patch all the spots {and Jacob had to put in a new piece of drywall in a spot that had been ruined} and those who don't know, mudding. takes. days. Because you have to let each layer dry before you can do the next. The last stages went better: painting, putting in a new fan, new shades, moving the furniture back and staging. I had been dreading it because I knew how much work it'd be and that the whole house would be in chaos because the furniture from our room went in the hallway and living room {which makes things quite difficult with a little explorer}. Also on top of everything, my Allergies started up. I know it's a combination of things: moving everything causes dust to stir up, all the construction creates dust and what not, not being able to clean well due to the chaos in the house, and its just that time of year. And not trying to be a cry baby, but when I say allergies I don't mean the little snuffle here and there...I feel like I'm going to die! Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration. But people who do have bad allergies know exactly what I'm talking about, we get the whole works {runny/stuffy nose, itchy watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, sore throat}. BUT, the bedroom looks wonderful!! And now that we're a week past the construction I'm beginning to really enjoy it.

Before:
{yes, we forgot to take a before picture, again...and again the only one I could find was a lovely one of me. And you actually can't see the room very well, but it gives you the idea}

After: {in panoramic view}

Also in the last week, my mom flew up to Washington for a visit {she'll be gone 5 weeks}. Which is exciting to be on our own, but also difficult because she helps A. Lot. And with Caleb going everywhere, it makes it difficult for me to work on things while he's up. More about him: he's becoming such a little boy...which is exciting and fun to watch but at the same time I'm thinking "what happened to my baby". He's learning he can do things to make us laugh, and he's also laughing at himself a lot {when he falls down, when he toots or burps...hehe}. One of the biggest things lately is the walking, he loves to walk. And its not just when we're encouraging it, he'll pull himself up on something/anything and just walk somewhere, doesn't matter. Here's a recent picture of the boy:


I'll post some more pictures later. We got together with some friends {the same ones who took his newborn pictures} and they took some family pictures that I have to put on here :)

Well, I didn't intend on this being so long, but once I got going it just kept going...and there you have it, our latest news.