Back to School...

Seeing back to school signs and the sheets of the school supply lists really should be upsetting, reminding me that summer's coming to an end...BUT something comes with this unkind little reminder that makes up for it all. SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!!! I don't know how to describe the thrill I get walking into a store and seeing the isles of notebooks, pens, containers, notepads, clipboards, organizers....aaaahh! Seriously just the other day I hadn't really thought about the fact that school was right around the corner {since this will be only my second year being completely unaffected by the start of school...although last year doesn't exactly count since I was in the newborn mom stage and didn't even realize there was a world outside my home}, so when I walked into the store to that lovely surprise, I had to restrain myself from jumping around like a kid in a candy store. I did though have to do a quick run through just to look. Here are some of the things I like to browse through:

PENS!!! Ouuuu...love writing in color!

although black is good too...sharpie's fine point is wonderful

I love, love, love this planner...but it's a kinda spendy

^ so this is more my style

not much to say here, I just like the dry erase boards :)

desk organizer....for all those new nifty supplies!

Now the last few items make sense to me, I love organizing and list making {in a way that only true lovers of organization could possibly understand...I could try to explain, but it'd really be pointless and make me sound crazier than I already have}. But I'm still unsure of the reason why I love office supplies...mystery I guess. So...now that I've made myself sound like a complete looney toon, I'll be ending this...now.

Soon to come: Pictures of the finished bathroom!!! And a few creations I've made :)

Dress for Britt

In a previous post, I showed a picture of the Shirt Dress I made using Dana's Tutorial from MADE. I was so nervous to have Brittany (my sister in-law) try it on, because I had gotten the measurements over the phone and hadn't seen her in so long I didn't know how much she had grown. Well, it fit perfectly and looked adorable on her {if I do say so myself}!! This girl loves her clothes and she especially loved it because her sista made it for her. I picked up the shirt at the Thrift store for $3, and saw several others I wanted to get, but decided to try this one first. I'm excited to make more of these dresses because they're simple, turn out cute, and the possibilities are endless!!

We'rrrre Baaaack!!

After a day of packing, rushing, good-byes, glares, trying to entertain a one year old within a 2 foot area, changing multiple diapers within that same area (one of which I didn't change in time and he ended up peeing out of and then I had the wet pants...), trying (unsuccessfully) to get a very tired babe to sleep...you guessed it in the same 2 foot area :), landing at the airport at 1:00 am with still a 2 1/2 hour drive home, we were quite glad to finally be home and go to bed at 4 am Thursday morning. We had a great time visiting with our friends and family on our trip to Washington. It went by fast, but was a great break from all house work. We were gone for 10 days, so to tell all that happened on our trip would take several posts, so I'll just touch on the highlights.

We stayed at Jacob's parent's house and all of Jacob's brothers were able to come visit too (he's one of six, 5 boys and 1 girl...Jacob is the oldest). That was a lot of fun, watching the brothers interact. Now that they're older and have their own identity and aren't ready to kill one another, they seem to really get along and can hang out and do things together. It was also fun to watch them with Caleb. I never would have pictured these guys being so excited about a baby, it just makes me smile seeing them as uncles. Which leads to another thing to talk about...Caleb had an extreme culture shock :) He's been use to our house hold of three people, quiet environment, and isn't really ever around a multitude of people. There were about 11 people staying at Jacob's parents, and there were always more people over during the evening. So...not a real quiet environment and definitely a multitude of people! He was extremely clingy and wouldn't hardly let anyone touch him for the first few days :( it was a bit frustrating. He got better as the week went on, although I don't think he ever really reached his real self. We kept telling everyone, at home he's so funny and smiley. I hope they all got to enjoy some time with him anyways.

While we were there, Caleb turned One! and all I kept thinking was 'we took you home from the hospital just a year ago'...seems to hard to believe that the time has flown by so quickly. What a fun year its been. A baby changed my life in more ways than I could possibly have imagined :) Since we were visiting, we got to celebrate his birthday with all our family! He had a book theme party {he loves his books!}, here's a few pics of the fun event:

Caleb's personal cake to devour

Caleb enjoying his cake :)

Yes, he stuck his face in it...

Present time!

Notice his shirt ;)

There's the babes: Caleb, Olivia and Jaxon

I certainly enjoyed my time there too! I've been in some desperate need of girl time, and I think I got my battery charged enough to last me a little while. I got to catch up and get to know my sister in-law {Adriane} a little bit better, and am so excited for our friendship to grow! My brother in-law's girlfriend {Jenna} was also able to come up and visit and hang out. Thanks to Jacob, the girls were able to go in town a few times to get Starbucks, pedicures, do a little shopping, sunbathe...it was glorious!

{Adriane, Me, Jenna}

Jacob's parents house is a 'hot spot' for socializing (they live 2 seconds away from the church, so after night church/practices/whatever, people go to their house to hang out), so we had several nights of game playing {I love games!!!}, laughing, movies and just overall fun times! Really missing some of those people... Caleb managed to fit in some socializing with his peeps too :) He got to see his cousin Jaxon (who is 2 months younger), Olivia (is 3 months older) a friend from church who is such a cutie, and a few other babes from church. It was so fun watching Olivia and Caleb together, she just wanted to hug him and talk to him...and he just couldn't get away fast enough, so she just ended up chasing him around and around. Hopefully next time they're together he'll be more into playing with other kids and won't be rude to the sweet girl ;)

The trip definitely gave us a big umph to get going on the downstairs. On our second day home mom and I painted the downstairs and the stairway (which was quite a sight...I had a brush taped to a broom stick and was balancing on the stairs, haha). Jacob's almost got the flooring done and has the next two days off to hopefully (by his timeline) finish the bathroom...we shall see. Here are some pictures of the downstairs construction:

view of the bathroom from the outside, it's a pocket door

the shower

the ground where the big hole was last update

the toilet will go where the silver circle is on the ground, it kind of has a privacy wall between it and the door to the bathroom {which is to the left of the picture}

Hopefully there will be more pictures to come {soon!} of the finished bathroom!

Adventures Await

We leave on a plane for Washington in 15 hours and are leaving the house for that plane in 12. Just thinking about that makes me a little ill. The excitement for the trip was taken over a few days ago by the overwhelming list of things to get done before we leave. I know as soon as we hit the road, at ummm....5 am, I'll be feeling much better and the excitement will return. One of the biggest things to work on was the downstairs, which remember our goal...to have it finished before we left. Yea, didn't make it. We did get a lot done, it's just not finished. Jacob just got finished texturing, so all the messy stuff is finished! Yay! Which is why we worked so hard this week so we could take down all the plastic (to keep the dust to a minimal) and clean up, so when we get back it'll be all the fun stuff (flooring, painting, hooking up the toilet/shower/vanity sink). I've been cleaning (like the deep/organizing type cleaning) the upstairs...I love coming home to a clean house. And the last few days trying to pack. Now lets just talk about that for a minute. Since Jacob's been working downstairs every second, I've been left to pack for the three of us (now I understand some of you have more children and may do all the packing for everyone all the time, but I'm use to getting help and not use to packing for a little one...so it's a bit stressful). And its also quite...interesting and challenging trying to pack with a little person who seeming to think he's 'helping' you. And every so often you find things in the other room that you thought you'd already packed...hmmm, how'd this get here? I just have to keep thinking, this time tomorrow we'll be in Washington with our family and beginning our much needed vacation...ahhh, just thinking about it makes me smile!

Pictures of the downstairs will come later. And of course of our trip!