An advantage of having a garage....

I have already discovered several advantages to having a garage... but i have to say that by far, my favorite advantage comes not necessarily when it rains, as you would think.... but when Eli falls asleep in the car on those days that he doesn't get a nap before the afternoon carpool line for Jackson....He is such a good napper in general but when he falls asleep in the car, there is no hope- he ALWAYS wakes up when we take him in the house... and then we ALL pay! Not anymore.... because the garage is my friend. I pull in, cut the car off, close the garage door, open Eli's door & then walk my hiney right into the house...... But for those of you wondering.... YES, i do leave my door open to listen out & i check back in periodically!It is so nice & convenient... and i have had to do it farely often.... which works for me! (And for him.... he doesn't mind one bit!!)

A Mitt, too!

Jackson is really getting into baseball these days. He has been playing with his bat & ball outside and is getting really good at hitting the ball. In fact, he about took my head off with a ball one day! This is fun to me because we are a "baseball family". We, meaning, my side of the family. My brother & all my cousins played baseball & i grew up at the ball field. I played softball myself for one year & loved it (but was too chicken to play another year without my sister!) Randy, on the other hand was part of a "basketball family." He grew up living, breathing, & playing basketball & was an excellent player, i might add. So, he says he has a lot to learn if Jackson is going to be a baseball player!

We went to visit Grandaddy & Grandma Tee in Wilmington a couple of weekends ago and the subject of Jackson's growing love of baseball came up. Grandaddy said that Kenneth had outgrown his first baseball mitt that Uncle Jeff had given him. So they went & gave it to Jackson! He was thrilled & Grandaddy showed him a few things about trying to close his hand in the mitt at just the right time when the ball hits the mitt.
They even let Jackson & Kenneth practice in the house. Seriously, this would have never flown when i was a kid. I guess Grandkids really do get away with everything we never did, eh?
And of course, little man wanted a part of the action.... they actually had a bag of mitts from the garage & he picked one out to try out...
So, Grandaddy showed him a thing or two, too!

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!!