may babies

May is a fun and busy month in our house!  Big E turned 8, Miss Em turned 3, Mom turns **cough** thirty-something **cough**, and then add on Mothers Day, teacher appreciation week/end of school stuff, and capping it all off with Memorial Day! Whew! 

Here are a few highlights from my growing babies...

BIG E:

• Loves to dress in black, neon, camo, and sometimes all three.
• Loves swords, nerf guns, and spy gear. Requested a double-edged sword for this birthday, but settled on a hatchet.
• Went turkey hunting for the first time (no one was hurt - not even a turkey)
• Best friend is Kale
• Aces most spelling tests
• Super responsible kid and an awesome big brother! He makes me proud every day!

MISS EM:

• Loves to wear her "cow boots"
• Rough & tough girl. Walked in one day to find her sparring with a boy from her class.
• Loves to sing, especially Happy Birthday, ABCs, Old McDonald, and Little Bunny Foo-Foo
• Wanted scissors and candy for her birthday 
• Best friend is Sutton aka "Sutt-Sutt". Other buddies include Sibley "Sibby-rose" and Kate.  
• "Yesterday" means anything from this morning to three years ago (example: "I was at that hospital yesterday when I was a baby."
• Total daddy's girl, but gives mama plenty of hugs and kisses too. Love our baby girl!

This year the kids had a horse party for their birthdays! If you ask Em which was her favorite: the slower smaller horse, or the bigger faster horse, the answer is of course the big fast one (not pictured)!

Merry Christmas 2013!

Feeling so blessed to be surrounded by love and laughter this Christmas! 

Halloween 2006-2013

This is a little story about a lion, a zebra, and a bumblebee...  

family fotos, a pumpkin patch, & other fall goodies

Saturday we had our family photos taken. Big E's first grade teacher is also a photographer on the side, and former students get a discount - score! It was great to see her again and I'm so excited to see all the photos after the sneak peek we got! 

This photo captures my babies perfectly...

 And here's the family shot! This was taken in the pasture just behind our house. I love it back there.

We turned out pretty close to my fashion mockup. :) Turns out yellow is not the most slimming color -who knew? Em wears it well anyway.

Sunday we headed to the little U-pick pumpkin patch near our home. I am so over all the big pumpkin patch productions. It was refreshing to just go wander around a little patch. While it was a little picked over in mid October, the kids did find some fun little green pumpkins to pick. Of course there were also some nice pre-picked ones still for sale so we'll have one to carve this weekend.

Em is sporting big brother's old halloween shirt, and a headband she never wore as a baby, tied with a gift box ribbon.  The result?  The cutest little pumpkin at the patch!

We're loving fall around here!  It's been busy though!

Here are the boys planting the fall fiesta maple (also pictured: sawtooth maple and Big E's nectarine)...

Big E roasting some marshmallows at Aunt Brenda's...

And my handsome man as a ring bearer...

Happy Fall Y'all!

My awesome two year old.

Miss Em at 2 years, 3 months...

She's starting to speak in sentences, and cracks us up with her Italian accent. "I wash-a ma hands!" "I poop-a da potty!" "I drink-a ma juice!"

She loves to dance (a lot!), loves to draw (still calls it "ess" for some reason), loves to play with her baby (whom she has named Baby Julie), and loves to play and wrestle with big brother - always.

She enjoys going to school each morning. Her favorite teacher Miss Jenny just left for school, but she's quickly become attached to Miss Carley and Miss Beth. On the way to school, she'll say "Eric hit me" or "Sut-Sut pull ma hair".  This morning I responded, "he just pulled your hair 'cause you're so cute." To which she said "I'm not cute." When I glanced back she said in her just kidding voice: "I'm cuuute!" (I don't think she's often abused by her classmates - but she's hung up on the couple of times she got picked on by the boys.)

She can say her alphabet, count down backwards from 10 (blastoff!!), and can sing or hum twinkle twinkle little star.  She loves music, but is also very opinionated about it.  I'll often have to flip through several songs ("don't like it") before we land on one she can be-bop to. Her current favorite? Icona Pop - I love it

If I could freeze time right now I would, but unfortunately I don't have the super power yet. However I know that she'll just get funnier and cuter and smarter as time goes by, and I've got a front row seat!

ReStore goodies

Habitat ReStore is one of my favorite places for DIY home stuff.  They recently posted on facebook that they had received a large donation of new carpet. We were able to pick out a couple rolls that looked pretty good together, and voila! The unfinished basement is now a cozy playroom for the kids. We also got some carpet squares for the steps. It's not all the same pattern, but it goes together pretty well.  

I was also finally able to get these guys out of my mom's garage - my blue lobster chairs!

Another Habitat ReStore find, these came out of a Red Lobster of all places.  They had blue, green, and red chairs to choose from and I fell in love with the blue for my coastal theme. They have kind of a blue stain over the wood.  We had to wait 30 days before putting anything on the wood floor, so I was really excited to finally use them for dinner last night. They're super sturdy and comfy. The table is my splurge.  It came from Pier 1. It was too perfect and I was able to get a little bit of a discount, so I went for it. The area rug comes tomorrow and the couch on Thursday. Then I think we'll be ready to commit to hanging some decor on the walls. It's fun to finally be in decorating mode!

fast forward

I got caught up in all the craziness that was our May/June and haven't posted any house or kiddo updates in a while.  But if you fast forward to now, Em is two and can sing the alphabet, Big E is seven and finished his first season of machine pitch baseball, and we're all moved in! Ta-da! We celebrated our 11th anniversary by moving into our new home.

[Actually, we did a little pre-celebration the night before with a box of wine at our new kitchen island (known now as the Buckshot Bend Bar).  Note to self: don't drink half a box the wine the night before you move.]

The past week as been a blur, but we're finally settled in.

Thank goodness for paid help! All our stuff was out of storage and into our house in an hour and a half.

The lovely stair carpet. 

Formal dining still needs some help with decor.

If I could marry a refrigerator, it would be that GE with french doors over there.
However I might cheat on it with that pantry.

Obsessed with my beachy mantle!
Vase, candles and rope knot from target; mini trunk from my garage-saling mom;
and tropical plant from our first house guests!

This past week (other than unpack and clean) we watched fireworks almost every evening from our front porch and back deck. We went swimming three or four times in the community pool (aka grammy's house). And sometimes we just sat and just listened to the frogs, birds, and wind.

So happy we were able to keep focused and make this dream a reality.  It wasn't long ago (Thanksgiving Day) that we were standing in that empty field thinking what it could be. I wouldn't move to the country with just anyone, but with this crew? Heck yeah!