I think I can... I think I can....

Never have i EVER had success making a wreath.

Well, technically, that is a lie. I did make one, once, at Christmas time that only required attaching a ribbon & hot gluing 5 little gingerbread on it. Does that even count?

What i mean is, i have NEVER had success making a pretty wreath where i had to randomly place flowers or picks or anything like that to make it look nice. I have tried... but always threw in the towel. I am a perfectionist, you see. If it doesn't look JUST the way i want, then i toss it!

But, i really wanted a pretty wreath on my pretty little door to my pretty new house. It was motivating enough for me to try it one more time.
I have a friend who has a beautiful wreath on her front door & i asked her if she made it or bought it. She said she made it & quickly showed me how the flower stems were just hot glued onto a grapevine wreath. SIMPLE! "I can do this," i thought! The hardest part was finding stems that i thought would work that i A) liked, and B) could afford. Wow, artifical flowers aren't cheap! But i held out long enough and all the fall stems went on sale for 50% off. I managed to get all the supplies, including the grapevine wreath for a little less than $15. And the entire project only took me 20 minutes to do. Seriously, this was the easiest project ever. I chose fall stems that would match my front door (which is a maroon-ish color) so that i could use the wreath year round if i wanted. This is how it turned out.....
Not bad for my first time, eh? I was so excited to get it on my front door!And i have to post this picture too, because i love how the boys are peeking out the window.... they could hardly stand that i was on the other side of the door & they couldn't come out too!

Transitions, Transitions.

This fall has marked a lot of transitions around our house. The newness of Kindergarten wore off super fast the beginning of September with Jackson and a LOT of crying & resisting began. As a result of watching that every morning at drop off, Eli began to do the same with leaving me for preschool (& for a few days even to be left at Mema's!) He started screaming when going to Bible class too which has always been hard on him, but had gotten much better over the last year. Thankfully with patience, bribery (aka rewards), and Aunt Becca (to help with Eli as well as my sanity!) we have come out on the other end! Needless to say, September was the longest month ever. I have been on an emotional roller coaster to say the least. And i am exhauted. Plum exhausted.

I started walking Jackson into his classroom the first couple of days of school, but the school wants the kids to be independent & get out in the carpool line starting on week 2. I knew day one that the carpool line wasn't going to happen that fast, because Jackson is just slow to warm to new situations. So i gently pulled back & kept trying to back up where i would leave him in the school hall each day. I think this panicked him because the more i tried to do this, the more upset he got each day until one day it hit the fan & the teacher ended up having to block the door to keep him from running out of the classroom he was screaming & crying so hard. I thought someone was ripping my heart right out of my chest! So that was third week of school- on a Tuesday. That afternoon, i told Jackson that if he could go to school with NO CRYING for the rest of the week, then i would take him Friday after school to get ice cream. ( i didn't even mention the carpool line that week! ;) So, the next morning, he did cry, but no more after that. On Friday, we hit ColdStone for ice cream & it was a hit. On Monday, on the way to school, i mentioned ice cream again if we could hit the carpool line by the end of the (short) week. It was a NO-GO. He wasn't having it, so i let the subject drop until after school. I asked him if there was something he wanted that he didn't have right now & he mentioned a baseball bat. (Cha-Ching!) So i said he could have one if he did carpool by the end of the week. I won't even go into the rain that pursued (meaning, we all got drenched walking into the school- unlike carpoolers!) the next couple of days, but the last day of that week.... he did it (reluctantly). But he did it!!! And when he got home that afternoon.... this beautiful PINK bat was awaiting him!

I know, I know. It's pink. But the bat, in and of itself, exudes masculinity & the boy loves pink. I am sure he will out grow it & until then, i don't care- HE GOT OUT OF THE CAR!! It only took 4 whole weeks of emotional mornings for him, me AND eli!!

Speaking of Eli.... He cried, kicked & screamed every day that Jackson did during this transition. But the amazing thing is this.... As soon as Jackson started saying, "I'm not going to cry this morning, Mama." Then Eli would start saying it before preschool too. ("I not cry dis time, mama") It took an extra week for Eli to follow through with that statement, but he is doing MUCH better at preschool drop off & at church thanks to Aunt Becca walking him in & keeping him company for a little while until he can get it together there too! It's the separating that is hard for him, but once he gets settled, he does great. He just has to make sure he says, "I love you a lot, a lot alot." to me before he goes. He really is a sweetheart!

Junk in tha' Trunk.....

I tell ya.... my kids may not have gotten all my genes, but poor Eli got something... and that's his Mama's dairy-aire.....
I couldn't resist this shot one afternoon when he was walking around the house in his undies. He has this thing about going potty, taking the pants off & never putting them back on. And this particular day, the underwear kept creeping..... so i got the camera & told him to turn around (because he always says "Cheese" as soon as i grab the thing) This time it wasn't his face i was capturing! But to make him happy (& kinda a peace offering in my mind since i knew i would post this for his whole family to see) i took this one too.....
Yep, kiddo. I love you & i apologize now for the problems that be-hind is going to give you in bluejeans...... If only you had gotten your daddy's little butt like Jackson did...... Or maybe you will find a woman in like, THIRTY years, who will sing to you.... "I like big butts & i cannot lie..."
Sorry, but Sir Mix A Lot just jumped right into my head there for a moment!

Bloggy Back-up!

Hi everyone... just wanted to say i am SOOOO behind on blogging. I have several posts to do, but haven't found the time to do them yet.... i promise i will get to them by the end of the weekend! (That's for you Daddy!) Things are busy will school in full swing & my whole family (minus me) has been sick for the whole month of September & now part of October between the three of them! {sigh} So hopefully, things will get back to normal ASAP! On top of all that, i have been working, our fall bible study has started, as well as a new Sunday night study on Marriage which has already been GREAT! Plus i am helping to plan our fall "craft away" weekend that is coming up at the end of the month. So, whew- the blog has taken a back burner, but i will get to it soon.... In fact maybe i will see if i can do one tonight!!

Wildlife

When we came home from getting Jackson from school this past Tuesday, we found this in our backyard..... (the only reason i posted this blurry one is so you can judge how close to the house they were.... that wood in the bottom left of the photo is the side of the back deck that i was standing on.....)Now look who's peeping around the right side of that tree.....The boys were thrilled, but their noise from trying to get a good spot to see them sent the two deer running in no time!

Boys Art.....

What's gonna work?? Teamwork! Randy & I worked together to make some canvas' for the boys bedrooms to match their bedding...... Randy agreed to sketch them out from these vehicles on the bedding.... with the plan that i would paint in the lines!
Which ended up looking like this on a blank canvas..... (you'll have to look really close to see the sketch marks in pencil....) So one night i started & got the backgrounds done.....
Then another night i did all the yellow & some black.....By this point, i was sick of painting... i can craft, but i am no novice with a paintbrush... it took me forever! So i bunkered down & finished them in one evening. My back was killing me, but the end result was worth it! I thought they turned out pretty cute & they boys like them in their rooms!

Being married to an artist has perks!

We had a little "situation" with the wet oils.... so there are a few spots to fix (and add a few more flowers back in....) but basically, she's done! Isn't she pretty? Thanks, Randy!!

So fun!

What do you get when to cut out all the 187 index prints that came along with your photo print purchase.... and glue them into a fun collage? Add some ribbon, glitter, & words.... and viola! You get this.....I wish that the camera could get a better shot of this because it turned out soooooo cute (if i do say so!). I tried several times to get a good shot, but they just weren't turning out. This was one of those pages that took a long time, but i felt giddy when i finished it because i liked it so much!! Yay! I now have two whole pages done in my Disney album.... only like 50 more!! Gotta start somewhere!!

Boys Bathroom

The ONLY room that is finished in the house, including wall decor.... is the boys bathroom. Sad, i know! But anyhow... it was easy enough because we just kept the same stuff from the old house! I bought this bathroom set from pottery barn kids when Eli was a baby because it was on clearance. I had no idea how much he would LOVE letters of the alphabet.... so it really suits his personality now! He knew every letter of the alphabet (& it's sound) by the time he was 2 and a half! Anyway.... Here is the bathroom looking in the door....This is the wall next to the door....
Every little kid's bathroom needs a step stool & Nanny bought this one for us about 2 years ago?? It is perfect!
The wall decor consists of the pictures of the boys in washtubs... (Both at 6 months old..... eli is on the left, jackson on the right)......
And little 5 x 7 frames i made years ago of letters.... C is for cars, W is for wagon.....
And finally, i added hooks to the back of the door at their level for their towels.... can you tell who's goes where?? That cricut! I love it!! It makes me fun projects with vinyl..... Maybe i should give her a name..... carly the cricut???

Playroom

Well, i haven't posted many house pictures because, well, no room is completely finished yet. Everything is mostly unpacked, but little decorating has taken place. But the playroom is close, so i took some pictures to post! It still needs wall decor, which will take some time for me to get the projects done. I want to make two boards with clips for the kids to hang their art work on (since it piles up on my counter in the kitchen!) and i am either going to use my cricut to make wall words or cars/trucks or i will hang pictures of the boys in there. The ceiling slants down, and that makes the walls short, so i don't have too much room to work with since the toys are up against the wall too. When we first moved in, and i pulled all the toys out, the room was a disaster because there was no organization to the room.... so i labeled all the containers with a picture of what goes in it along with the name of what goes in.The above picture is looking in the door and the the bottom picture is to the right after walking in.... it is the dress up area & the green tote holds "tools". The toy chest is empty at the moment, but it used to hold the geotrax train set... but i found that it collected EVERYTHING because it was easy to just throw it all in there (for the boys).
This is the reading/quiet area. Don't worry, we own MANY more books than this... but i rotate them out to keep things sane.
The table has a tote on top that has bristle blocks and the basket beside it holds magnadoodles (yes we have many). I think the other tote is explanatory, but to those who have girls.... it holds all the peices to the GeoTrax train set.
This picture needs to be retaken, but i am too lazy! :) I couldn't find the big area rug that is a town for cars to ride along on top of.... so i settled for the tiny little one I had in my work stuff. BUT, i found it in Mema's attic! Yay! So now there is a big area rug in the middle of the room, by these totes..... the blue tote holds "Big vehicles" and the green roller cart has three drawers. The top holds geotrax vehicles and people, remotes, etc. The second holds matchbox cars, and the bottom holds action figures, animals, etc.... The large chest is just storage for extra toys that they have outgrown that i can't part with yet.
We have had this room organized for about a month now, and honestly when it is time to clean up... it goes very smoothly. The kids know where everything is supossed to go! I think the labels have worked & it helps mommy & daddy know where everything goes as well!