Toy/Coat Closet

We had a fun, busy and full weekend but my husband managed to tackle our February closet project. Let me say this closet hasn't always looked quite this messy, but knowing that the plan was to work on it soon, I kind of just let it go. :0) We don't have a playroom in our house, so our downstairs den doubles as our family room and play room. I love that the kiddos are always around when we are home, but I don't love the mess that sometimes ensues. Well, here was our solution: 

Closet before:

Coat closet after:

The bins need some labels, I still have a little more organizing to do, but other than that... WOW. Miles, you've outdone yourself once again! 

Welcome Home, Dolly-girl!

People have been asking me if I am crazy to bring a puppy into our house at this time of our life. I mean, we already have a dog, we have three kiddos, I haven't had more than a three hour stretch of sleep in eight months, and about a zillion other things going on at one time. So YES, I  must be a little bit crazy. But the reason that I said yes is simple. I love my husband. He works his tail-feathers off for this family, both at work and when he gets home. He is the most amazing dad and husband, he is always there for me on good days and bad, and, well, he asked for a puppy, and I finally said yes. You probably remember our amazing dog Kramer who we lost last February. Well, after he passed away I said I wouldn't ever get another dog because it was too heart breaking to lose him. Miles felt differently and he wanted a new puppy almost immediately. Not to replace Kramer, of course, but because he gets so much joy from our dogs. I do too, I  just wish I didn't have to potty train her AND my two year old! (Although the puppy is proving to be a much easier student!!). Anyway, crazy I may be, but Dolly is here to stay!

When I finally told Miles that I was ok with the idea of getting another puppy, he researched and found Willow Creek Kennels in Minnesota. They are a great place, very reputable, and got great reviews from past puppy-purchasers. Combine that with a two-day trip to visit with his BFF Luke, and Dolly was ours. 

Miles went and picked her up three weeks ago, and she is settling in nicely. She has learned to use the dog door, loves Sawyer to death (Sawyer, on the other hand, could pretty much careless), and is sleeping through the night. Miles and Max are awesome helpers with her. She is absolutely adorable and we love her to pieces! 

And to answer your question, sweet husband of mine, EVERYTHING I buy for her will continue to be pink!!! 

The boys made signs to take to the airport!!

Here they are waiting for Daddy and Dolly!

Teaching Dolly to go 'tee tee!'

First time getting to hold our girl!

She is loved!!! 

First meal at home

Cuddling with Geez

Cuddling with Daddy

Cuddling with Miles!

She is such a pretty girl! 


Welcome home, sweet girl!!!!!

Miles Turns 4!

Its true... our first little 'baby' turned four last month! I absolutely cannot believe it. Everyone tells me constantly how quickly time flies by, and it is so true. It really seems like yesterday that we were bringing Miles home from the hospital and trying to figure life out with a new baby. Fast forward (because thats how quickly it seems like it has been going) and we now have a handsome, caring, loving smart four year old boy. 

Miles is amazing. He is reading short books all by himself (he only gets hung up on words where the 'C' sounds like an 'S' and some of the other silly rules that make English difficult). He loves to 'draw' plans for things, like how to build a barn out of legos for his farm animals, and write directions for making a cake. He loves to make crafts for people; almost daily daddy and I are given beautiful pieces of art work. He is always thinking of others, and he loves to make crafts to give to his grandmas and his papa. Tuesdays and Thursdays are his school days, and Thursdays are his favorite because after school he gets to go to Great-Grandma Jill's house after school until Daddy picks him up. G-Gma Jill loves on him and of course spoils him rotten. I love this little boy so very much, and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for his future. 

The week of his birthday, our friends, Scot and Dana called and asked if they could take Miles out for a special afternoon to celebrate his birthday. They picked him up and took him for pizza and then out to Cold Stone for ice cream. Below are a few pictures that Dana sent me. 

Dana said the lady at Cold Stone was so impressed with how polite Miles was that she gave him his ice cream for free!!! 

Here are Miles and Uncle Scot

We asked Miles what he wanted to do for his birthday, and he said he wanted to have a party with a jumping castle and invite his friends over. The jumping castle unfortunately didn't work out because our backyard just isn't big enough for it. But he had some of his very best buddies over, we made ice cream sundaes and of course had some snacks and birthday cake. The kids played together and had a fabulous time.

Heres the birthday boy waiting for his friends to come over! 

Of course he had to show off his new 'ride'... Here he is driving his friend Samson, Owen, and Max around the neighborhood. 

Here are his friends Samson (left) and Owen (right). Miles and Owen are BFFs from school and Samson is one of his friends he has known the longest. His mommy and I met at storytime when the boys were less than a year old! 

Owen's sweet family is almost parallel to ours. Owen and Miles are  a month apart in age...then Max and their middle son, Caleb are two months apart, and in the picture below you'll see Mason and Micah. Micah is just a week older than Mace. Twins, much?!?!

Cake and presents!! 

Here is birthday brother Max!!!  

Happy 4th birthday to our sweet, wonderful firstborn! 

My Pantry Makeover

So, 2013 is upon us, and I am in the midst of what I like to call 'the year of the closets.' LOL. No seriously though, I am on a mission this year to de-clutter, minimize, and ORGANIZE! Thanks to Pinterest, I have no shortage of ideas. In fact, I wasn't even sure where to start. My sweet husband came out of the blue a few weeks ago and told me he would redesign my pantry for me. As our family grows, and our boys are eating more than peas and carrots, I have had to cram more than ever into our pantry. I do 99% of our grocery shopping at Costco, which is great and economical, but also calls for some creativity storing 4 ketchup bottles, 24 paper towel rolls, 20 cans of tomato paste, 6 packages of spaghetti noodles, you get the picture.  After 5 years in our house, those cheap wire shelves that were built into the pantry just weren't cutting it, especially for cans and snacks, and we were just throwing stuff in and inevitably wasting food because we couldn't find some of it before it went bad! So, my first project of the year was tackling this pantry. Those of you who know Miles know how awesome he is, and he can pretty much build or make anything I ask him. He sat down with me last weekend, we went over what I usually stock the pantry with, measured the height of everything, and drew up a plan for what we wanted. Two sheets of MDF, some paint and a lot of saw dust later, the project is done. He and Miles completed the entire thing last Sunday morning. I mean, literally it went from a sheet of wood to what you see in the picture below in about 5 hours. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Before.... 

 During......(we took the shelves down, repainted in the closet, painted the shelves, and then installed the new ones).

After.... 

The bottom left corner is designed for a full box of paper towels. As you can see, I need to make a Costco run.

Now, if you need me, I will likely be standing in front of the pantry with a big smile on my face. I may or may not be singing the 'Hallelujah Chorus.' :)

The Elmers Visit!

The Friday after Christmas,  Amber, Charlie and James came to visit for the weekend. We had such a fun time together, I just wish there had been more of it! The boys loved having another person around to play with, and we loved spending time together. James is such a sweetie!

Friday afternoon James, Max and Miles went for a Gator ride. I guess I don't have any pics of the actual ride but here are Miles and James in their matching coats.

I think James was a bit overwhelmed

Saturday: 
Saturday Miles cooked us an amazing breakfast (like he usually does on the weekends), and we got ready for Amber's baby shower.

My boys are in a 'dry-erase mustache' mode. I think it is absolutely adorable!  Daddy draws MUCH better mustaches than Mommy does! 

 Kate's Shower:

My sister-in-law is due March 1st with her daughter, (our neice!) Kate, and I was so excited they could make it into town so I could throw her a baby shower. It was so much fun...now all we need is Kate to get here!!! 

"Ready to Pop" favors that I  made. White and Dark Chocolate covered chocolate popcorn. Yum! 

We had a yummy lunch with chicken salad crisonts, fruit, salad and dessert. 

 I really wanted some non-traditional baby shower games. One of them we played was called 'How Sweet It is." The guests had a list of pregnancy or baby related words and had to name candy that would go with it. (i.e. Twins=Twix, Triplets=Three Muskateers, Contractions=Whoppers, College Costs=100 Grand, Mom's Belly After Pregnancy=Jelly Belly). It was hard but I thought it was fun.

Present time! 

Doesn't she look great! 

Sooo much cute stuff! 

Amber with two of her grandmas! 

Look at those shoes!!!!! 

Love this sister!!! 

Grandmas! 

Geez, Amber and I

Sunday: 
Sunday the Elmers had to go home, but not before we had Christmas together. Miles and Janet came down for breakfast and presents. Miles made us Eggs Benedict, Bacon, hashbrowns, and fruit crepes. Oh man it was so delicious!

And present time! 

Here is our cute nephew opening his presents from Gma and Papa! 

 Love the expression on his face! Lol!

Add caption

And with that, our holiday season officially came to a close! Thanks Amber, Charlie and James for coming out!! Hard to believe next time we are all together we will be outnumbered in kids vs adults!!!

Christmas Day, 2012

Behind in blogging as usual! Oh well, I've got a lot to catch up on so here it goes.

Santa was too good to us as usual. Before he left on Christmas Eve he left us the following picture.

We had some super excited boys seeing their 'Gator' waiting for them on Christmas morning. And let me tell you, that thing can FLY! Most afternoons (when the weather is warm enough), Mason and I can usually be found jogging behind the Gator trying to keep up!! It is such a fun toy, and boy do they love it. Now, onto some pictures:

Stocking fun

Pretty excited about his two gallon coffee cup :0) 

Love how this cutie kept on his headlamp

Handsome Daddy! 

We had a fantastic morning. This is one of my favorite pics. :0) 

Here are the kids taking all of the Christmas trash to the can. LOVE this picture! 

 After our family Christmas, we got dressed and packed up and headed up to Papa Geez's house for some more fun (and some SNOW!!)

Santa left the boys a tractor at Gma and Papa's house!! They are some very lucky kiddos! 

Here is my sweet mother-in-law

The boys loved their Mouska Talkies

Daddy and Mace

This humidor is a gift my husband spent MONTHS making for his dad. It is truly an amazing work of art and a treasure for Papa!  

The boys were all smiles after Gma and Papa's house! 

Then, it was on to Gma Jill's for some presents, family and food! I only have two pictures from her house. We were too busy enjoying to bust out the camera....

The boys with their great-grandma Jill. 

And the boys with their Mimi :) 

And finally, onto Christmas #4... we got to spend the afternoon at Great-Gma Jean's house. There were 31 people, lots of kids, fun, presents, and FOOD! Oh yea, and a little football before we froze our toes off!! Again, not many pictures, but here I got a few good ones.

Mason finally found a place for a nap. :) 

Sweet boy enjoying an Oreo ball :) 

And this sweet boy had one too! 

And of course, some fun tackle time with the cousins!!! 

On Dec 26th, we cleaned up and tried to organize all the craziness from the previous day, rode the Gator, and after naps headed over to Mimi's for Christmas and dinner with her!

Sweet Mimi

The boys and Mimi

There was no shortage of presents! 

Did I mention we had a tornado?!? LOL! 

Christmas 2012, you were one of the best!!!! We were sad to see you go!