Jojablog

Kitchen Renovation (almost) complete!

2011-09-12T22:09:00.000-04:00

We moved into this house with the intention of only being here 5 years. Seven years tops. And here we are 7 1/2 years later with no end in sight. We don't love this house, but we do love our community. In my very biased opinion, we have some of the best neighbors ever. It's because of this that we've decided that moving is just not going to happen any time soon.

Our kitchen has been a thorn in our side since the day we moved in. It's small. It has a crazy configuration. And, the cabinets were laminate that started peeling away. They were lovely (hear the sarcasm). We've talked about renovating the kitchen for years, but the thought of 2 kids, a husband who works from home, and a non-functioning kitchen, was well, my very definition of hell.

But then, one day, Peter went out of town, and I decided that it would be fun to call in a cabinet company (without telling Peter). And they came. And I texted Peter pictures of samples with no explanation. And he chose cabinets and granite without even asking me why I was texting him said pictures. And then we signed on the dotted line.

Not even kidding.

And that's how I got my new kitchen.

So, let's look at some before pictures, shall we? (Excuse the crappy quality . . . they are from my phone).

The refrigerator - the cabinet was only 12" deep. 16" max. Completely useless.

Notice the wonky configuration. We ended up keeping some cabinets to put up in the garage and laundry room, hence the tape.

And the afters . . . again, from my phone:

The refrigerator cabinet? It's a beast! 27" deep, and it rocks. Notice the laundry room? Yep, those are our old kitchen cabinets! Ignore the big ol' bag of trash.

Tada! The new kitchen! The phone doesn't do it justice. I know that keeping the the center light isn't of popular opinion, but it's dark in there. Even more dark with dark cabinets. The light stayed.

They told me they could have it done in 4 days. I didn't believe it. I was wrong.

Four days after they started, I had a working kitchen. They are coming back tomorrow to replace our faucet (ours hadn't been delivered yet, but they were kind enough to give me a temporary one) and do some final touch-ups.

Happy anniversary, Christmas, and birthday to us . . . for the next 10 years!!

On another note, the kids are doing great. Both are loving school. Nobody warned me how different 2nd grade would be from 1st grade. We had our first batch of "bad" grades come in (thankfully not report card grades, just weekly work grades), and I'm not very happy about it. My little social butterfly seems to struggle with time management and rushing through her work . . . and it's showing in her work.

Good times!

Neglected

2011-08-25T20:44:00.000-04:00

I know, I've completely neglected this blog. Life is getting in the way. And a whirlwind of a summer. And Facebook. Unfortunately I post so many pictures on Facebook that I forget to put them on the blog.

So, anyhoo . . .

We had a big weekend a couple of weeks ago! My cousin got married and Maddie had the honor of being one of her flower girls! It's all Maddie has wanted to do . . . be a flower girl. And when Katie asked, Maddie couldn't contain her excitement!

Let me just say, this child is turning into a little lady. Actually saying those words scare me to death. But she is, and it's our reality. She's sassy a lot these. She's overcome by the need to wear the right clothes, participate in the right activities, have a particular folder for school (not even exaggerating here). And she's only 7.

But this weekend, we couldn't have been more proud of her. She was well mannered and polite. She took her job incredibly serious and did it well. She got the crowd going on the dance floor. She literally danced the night away.

As she was getting ready to head home (at midnight mind you), tears came strolling down her face as she said, "I don't want to leave, I'm just tired." And that was the one and only time the entire weekend that she shed a tear. She didn't whine . . . she didn't complain . . . she just hung in there . . . the entire weekend.

So so proud of our little big girl!

Maddie and my cousin, Katie

Photo booth at the wedding. Such a cool idea!

Thank you Bibi for teaching her this trick

Showing those Tech boys how it's done

Peter and I at the rehearsal dinner. I just love this picture.

We've got another crazy fall ahead of us. Peter and I are preparing for our 10 year anniversary trip to San Fran, Monterey, Napa, and Sonoma in September. Oh, but 2 weeks before we leave, we'll be renovating our kitchen. As in, ripping everything out. I'm most nervous about being without a sink for an extended period of time. And it turns out Peter will be out of town. I've totally lost my mind.

Oh my . . .

2011-05-19T08:10:00.000-04:00

Well, apparently I really stink at this blogging stuff.

Or life has gotten too crazy.

Or a little of both.

It's been 5 months since my last update . . . oops!

Here's a little recap of what we've been up to (I'll try to keep it short and sweet):

We started out the year by celebrating my Dad's and Sophia's birthdays at 57th Fighter Squadron. Super cool place, and the kids loved watching the airplanes at PDK airport take off and land while we ate lunch.

Softball started up for Maddie and she did awesome!

Over spring break, and friend and I took the kids to Fernbank Museum.

It was SO crowded, but the kids had a ball.

The weather screen. There was a TV screen in front of him where he could pretend to do a weather forecast. Unfortunately, he wasn't tall enough, and the only thing showing on the screen was the very tips of his fingers. Bless his heart!

Mason and Maddie and their BFF's, Michael and Julia, outside of Fernbank.

Easter. 'Nough said.

Mason stuffing his face at his school's Easter party.

The fam

She's so cool.

I don't know who had more fun, my cousins hiding the eggs or the kids finding them!

The Sanford's remain the Golden Egg champions!

The cousins. Things started to get silly.

My Mom celebrated the big 6-0 this year, so my Dad treated us to a day at the spa.

I think Leah and I scored on this deal!

Post spa-day.

While we enjoyed our spa-day, Peter took the kids up to Athens to the G-Day Game with the Davisons.

Peter and I ran our first 5k. Small potatoes for many, but huge for us . . . neither one of us are runners and I've had reconstructive surgery on both knees. And we ran the whole thing and finished in great time!

On Mother's Day, we met up for lunch and then headed to the park to let the kids play.

My sister and I with our sweet Mom!

And to finish up our 5 months in pictures . . . birthday weekend!

On Friday, Maddie had a few girlfriends over for pizza and partying. It was supposed to be an evening at the park, but the weather wasn't cooperating . . .

Just a little Wii Dance


Present opening. See, even the guy on the TV was celebrating!

Then on Saturday, Peter smoked some BBQ (for 17 hours . . . oh.my.delicious) and we had the family over to celebrate Peter and Maddie's birthdays.


The birthday people


Loved having Nita with us!

So, that's what we've been up to. Lots in between, but that's pretty much the highlights of our last 5 months.

Next up . . . end of school!

Today is Mason's last day of school and his school festival. I can't believe that I'm typing those words already. I had the pleasure of being his room mom this year, and while I loved it, I'm happy to pass the torch next year.

Maddie's last day of school is next Friday.

And then . . . let the summer festivities begin!

snowmageddon 2011

2011-01-18T16:14:00.000-05:00

If you hadn't heard already, we had a little snow come through last week.

A lot of snow, actually.

It was great for the first couple of days, but after that, it was just icy and super cold.

The kids had a full week off from snow and then yesterday was MLK day. They've been to school only 4 days in the last month. Today was a welcomed change!

Harley loved the snow

Warming up after an afternoon of sledding!

Because it was overcast for most of the week, we didn't have many opportunities for picture taking. And the one time we did manage to squeeze in, Maddie was at a friend's house and refused to come home (can't say that I blame her!). So, here are a few pictures of Mason enjoying the snow/ice!

New to the Sanford Home!

2011-01-18T15:41:00.000-05:00

Guess what arrived at our house! . . . .

We are now the proud owners of my old childhood piano.

And to top it off, Peter and I have reclaimed the sitting room and all of the kids toys are now in the basement.

I'm not sure which I'm more excited about . . . the piano or the no toys in the sitting room?!

Either way, the kids are loving it. The piano came with my old piano books in it, which as been great fun to look through. Maddie is actually working her way through my cousins old beginners books. It's pretty cool.

I think there will be piano lessons in our near future!

Birthday Fun

2011-01-18T15:31:00.000-05:00

Man, I'm way behind here . . .

My birthday is really crappy.

It's 3 days after Christmas, and it kind of gets lost in the Christmas and New Years shuffle.

About a year and a half ago, we had new neighbors move in and we quickly became great friends. We then learned that we were the same age and our birthdays were just 1 day a part. Finally, somebody to celebrate with!!

And celebrate we did! :)

Dinner at South City Kitchen, Ice Skating at Park Tavern (who ever thought to put an ice skating rink in a bar), and then Front Page News. Good times!

Birthday girls!!

Photo Ops

2011-01-05T13:44:00.000-05:00

After Christmas, we decided to help out my sister's in-laws by taking Sophia for a few days.

It wasn't until we got home that I realized that we had just gotten rid of all of our baby stuff. So what do we do? We improvise . . .

Poor thing . . . no chair, no bib, nothing!

But we were thrilled to have her and made do with what we had.

This also gave Peter a good excuse to play around with his new flash and take lots of pictures!

Despite the fact that Sophia sleeps a ton, she still seems to be tired all of the time. I think she gets that from her mommy!

And not to leave out my own precious children . . .

And because these make me laugh . . .

We packed this hat away to give to Sophia, but Mason wouldn't give it up.

And then he wore it around all night!

Santa came to town!

2011-01-04T21:17:00.000-05:00

Santa decided to visit our house, and we have two little ones that couldn't have been more thankful.

I'm pretty sure that a certain someone was afraid that she'd end up with coal in her stocking . . .

So she wrote this little note . . .

But, apparently Santa was still tempted . . .

Luckily for them, Santa decided to leave them a little something special instead to coal . . .

However, the highlight of the day was . . .

Gum! Stinkin' Gum!

And for the first time in over 100 years, we had a white Christmas!

It was beautiful!

Despite the fact that Leah was still in the hospital, and we weren't able to celebrate as a family, we managed to make the best of the situation and have a very merry Christmas!

Bieber Fever

2010-12-26T16:17:00.000-05:00

The little girls have Bieber fever. In fact, a lot of older girls do as well.

I am very lucky to have friends that have access to tickets that are very difficult to get your hands on . . . for free!

Maddie's "big" Christmas gift this year was to go see Justin Bieber in concert.
Except, she didn't know she was going until the day of (December 23rd) after she unwrapped the t-shirt and concert ticket!

And since this was my friend, Kristen's idea, she and her almost 4 year daughter got to accompany Maddie and I. Yes, we took a not quite 4 year old to a Justin Bieber concert.

We started off the evening with a quick dinner . . .

We then stopped for the girls to try out the XBox 360 Kinect.

It was pretty awesome.

Then it was time for the big event!

Some girl named Jasmine V. and Sean Kingston were the opening acts. Maddie and Ella Kate didn't quite understand why JB wasn't on stage, nor did they care for the rap!

But the, Justin Bieber himself graced the stage . . . swoon!

The girls had a great time! I must admit, as the big day came closer, I started doubting my sanity and if I could really make it through the evening without a panic attack. Not to mention that my sister was put back in the ICU that morning. I just wasn't sure how the evening was going to pan out. But it was just perfect. And Maddie was beyond thrilled.

And I'm not going to lie, I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. There were quite a few special guests . . . Sean Kingston (I know, he was an opening act, but he came back out later in the show), Bow Wow, Ludacris, Soulja Boy, and Akon.. While the little girls didn't quite understand why these other people were out on the stage, it was right up Kristen and I's alley!

This was just what I needed . . . a night out with some of my favorite girls!

Quick update on my sister, she's still in the hospital, unfortunately. We were hoping that she'd be able to go home tomorrow (Monday), but that's not looking like it's going to be the case. They are still concerned about her heart and will be performing some more tests. Also, her potassium levels are low and they want to see those rise. She still has a tremendous amount of pain in her kidneys from the infection, but overall you can tell that she's feeling better as her fiesty-ness has returned!

I have Christmas pictures to upload, but that may take a day or so . . . and then my birthday! Woohoo!

Sister-ly update

2010-12-21T22:39:00.000-05:00

If you're friends with me on Facebook, then you've probably heard all of this already . . .

But, these last couple of days have been brutal.

My sister has Addison's Disease. When she gets sick, she gets really sick.

On Sunday evening, she was taken to the ER after being unable to control her nausea. By 3am, she had been taken from the ER to ICU.

For the first 24hours, we had very little information.

We knew there was an infection. We knew she may be septic. We knew she was in a tremendous amount of pain.

Yesterday evening we were told that she was, in fact, septic. I immediately panicked because sepsis, as I understood it, meant the infection was in the blood and the worst possible outcome.

This morning the doctors gave us (my mother) more concrete answers. There is a severe infection in her kidneys and bladder, and she is septic; however, the infection is not in her bloodstream (insert sigh of relief). Clearly my googling left me mis-informed. She also picked up e.coli from the ER and was in kidney failure.

Thankfully the doctors were smart enough not to mention kidney failure to my Mom until after they had it under control. That kind of stuff tends to make her panic.

Leah was moved from the ICU to a regular room this afternoon, which is a great sign. She's still very ill, but moving in the right direction.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Giving Thanks .

2010-11-30T21:31:00.000-05:00

For the first time in our 9 years of marriage we hosted Thanksgiving at our house.

Also, for the first time in our 9 years of marriage, we broke out our formal china and crystal.

Admittedly, the only reason we hosted this year was because it was just us and Mom & Dad, but I was delighted they entrusted us with this great responsibility.

And the responsibility of the turkey. We cooked it on the Big Green Egg and, oh my goodness, it was incredible! And that was after we realized that the thermometer was not working properly and the turkey had been cooking at 100 degrees + higher than what it was supposed to cook at. Imagine how delicious it would have been if cooked as planned!

A little crispy on the outside, but juicy on the inside!

Nana and G-Daddy with their best girl!

Dad showing off our our turkey


The Sanford clan. Mason did not get to enjoy the fine china, but he did enjoy our finest plastic!

It was a great afternoon!

We could have fed an army with the amount of food we had, but that's just how my Mom rolls. It wouldn't be the same if we didn't have leftovers for a week +.

Mom and Dad took the kids home so Peter and I could do a little Christmas shopping. Our adventures began at Toys R Us on Thursday night at 10pm. The line just to get into the store was insanely long, and we decided that standing in line for hours just so we could snag some $4 Nerf guns was ridiculous.

We decided to ditch our original plans and head on over to Walmart. Their black Friday sale began at midnight. We figured that we'd go ahead and stake out the place and then wait around for the deals to begin. An hour and a half early.

I thought we were crazy, but in fact, it was the smartest decision we made in our black Friday shopping endeavors. Turns out that all of the deals were in crates wrapped in plastic all around the store. We had specific items in mind, so once we found them, Peter and I grabbed our carts and took our positions. We were ready to go. And go we did.

We pretty much got everything on our list that we wanted to snag. My neighbors, on the other hand, showed up at 11:30 and got nothing.

Smartest decision of the evening, despite the fact that our credit card ended up with a fraud alert on it, and we weren't able to use it for most of the day on Friday.

Oh, the things we do for our children. And for storage solutions*.

*on sale for $2. woot!

It's that time of year

2010-11-17T21:17:00.000-05:00

With Christmas right around the corner, our Christmas cards are top of my to-do list.

Since I've displayed our best family picture to date all over facebook, we had to do a new one. I took the opportunity this past weekend to snap a few new pictures of the four of us . . . plus a monkey hanging in the tree! It was the perfect setting: we were all dressed nicely and my sister's yard was in tip top shape (as opposed to our yard that has been seriously neglected).

Shutterfly is one of my all time favorite printing companies. I love, love, love everything I have ever ordered from them.

Their Christmas card designs this year are incredible! Here are just a few of my favs . . .

I've used Shutterfly in the past for many different items . . .

Thank you cards

Of course, his says Mason Sanford, but we use these as Mason's thank you cards.


For our little princess, we use these as thank you cards		.

Photo Books


We've given these as Grandparent "brag books", used them to document trips,	and even a baby book for Mason!

But, my MOST favorite thing from Shutterfly are their . . .

wall calendars!

Check out their new design . . . love it!

I make these every year. In fact, the only thing my Mom wants for Christmas year after year is a calendar!

I'm not going to lie, I'm writing this post as part of "Bloggers: 50 Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly," but I wouldn't have written it if I didn't seriously love the company. And, what better deal than to share my past experiences in exchange for free Christmas cards!

So go check them out. Now.

Sneak Peak

2010-11-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

I have a few pics to share from this weekend that Peter worked his magic on.

There are family pics, but I'm saving them for Christmas cards.

So, for now, you're stuck with just me and the kids.

There may, or may not, be an extra child in our Christmas cards this year . . . I'm just sayin'.

You'll just have to wait and see!

I'm a big kid now

2010-11-15T20:35:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, we had two big birthdays to celebrate . . . Mason and Luca turned 3!!

And today, Mason proclaimed that he was no longer a baby, but a big kid. Usually he says big boy, but today he referred to himself as a big kid. I'm pretty sure that solidified it.

One of the great things about having cousins the same age born two days a part is that you can combine birthdays. Or in this case, add my kid's birthday to my sister's kid's birthday.

This fall has been out of hand (have I mentioned that yet?). I decided that we wouldn't do anything big for Mason's birthday this year. I was planning on throwing a cake out at Thanksgiving and calling it a day. But, my sister graciously offered up celebrating Mason's birthday with Luca's. How could I pass that up?! A birthday celebration with his very best buddy? Sounds like a plan.

We asked that in lieu of gifts for the boys that everybody bring canned goods/pantry items to donate. The response was tremendous. And, despite our requests, the boys didn't leave the party wanting for a thing. It couldn't have been more wonderful.

I was responsible for the cupcakes and Leah was responsible for the cake balls. I didn't eat any of my cupcakes, but the cake balls were delicious. And, I heard that one of the kids proclaimed that the cupcakes were the best he had ever had. I'd call that a success . . . even if it did take me nearly 7 hours to pipe icing and build roads on more cupcakes than I care to count. There was more food there, but these were the only documented . . . probably due to the fact that they both took up a ridiculous amount of time to create.

Maddie bringing in the "loot" . . . a bag full of food to donate!

Birthday boys!

Mason immediately ate the little truck off the top!

I think Luca liked it too!

Me and my sister

The Grandma's. Apparently they were comparing the size of the babies. While only a month apart in age, Cullen outsizes Sophia by at least 6 months!

My Dad, Sophia, and I. I love these two!

Birthday boys!!

The food collection! We were able to collect 88 cans, 6 full sized boxes of cereal, 9 mini boxes of cereal, 35 boxed pantry items, and 29 "other pantry items" (peanut butter, jelly, rices, etc.)!

A Recent Conversation with the Mas-man

2010-11-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

Mason is talking a lot these days. He's been talking well for a while now, but recently it's like talking to a little man. I documented in the sidebar some of the funny things Maddie said when she was younger, but with Mason, it's just not possible. His funny sayings come from full on conversations . . . like the one we had earlier this week.

Just to set it up, Peter was out of town, and I had run up to take a shower. When I got out of the shower I heard some rumblings going on downstairs.

Me: Hey Mas, what's going on down there?
Mason: I just pooped on the potty. And I wiped my butt.
Me: Oh good. Thanks for wiping your bottom.
Mason (after he comes upstairs without his jeans on and dropping his drawers): Hey Mom, look at my butt.
Me: I don't really want to look at your bottom buddy, but . . . oh wow, did you really wipe?
Mason: Uh, yes.
Me: We've got to get you cleaned up.
Mason: There's poop in my underwear.
Me: I see.
Mason: See that tag? (pointing to the Fruit of the Loom tag on his underwear)
Me: Yes, bud.
Mason: That says, Maddie pooped in my pants and throw them away. The End.

Seriously, I can't even make this stuff up.

And I've learned that when Mason is lying, he ends it with . . . The End.

And for the record, we don't allow the kids to use "butt". However, I found the more I press him on it, the more he says it.

The End.

Overload

2010-11-04T21:39:00.000-04:00

These few weeks have been crazy.
Have I mentioned that before?
Yes?

Well, here's a quick summary of what's been going on.

Last week was spirit week at Maddie's school.
Basically it's a week of planned activities celebrating wise choices (saying no to drugs, eating well balanced meals, etc.) And, since I'm class photographer, I got to attend all of the activities (yay me).

Last Tuesday, Freddie the Falcon and 3 Falcons cheerleaders came to the school for an assembly.
The kids loved it.
The boys loved the cheerleaders the most.

Class pic with one of the cheerleaders

Maddie and one of her friends from her class. They look so old!

On Thursday, Mason has his "Story Book Day" at school. They don't celebrate Halloween, so they let the kids dress up as their favorite book character. The kids were ridiculously cute!


Mason's class with his teachers

Lunchtime prayer


Saying The Pledge of Allegiance. Not sure why he's down on one knee, but he did that every time they started the Pledge!

On Friday, it was finally time for the Cattle Drive.

The Cattle Drive is a huge event at Sixes. It is a long standing tradition that has little learning value to it (in my opinion). But, the kids love it. I gather the teachers don't love it as much as the kids do!

Anyways, they spent nearly the last month preparing for the event. They painted t-shirts, made "Wanted" posters, and made cows. The t-shirts were made as school. The kids made/bought/conned a local chik-fil-a cow. I was suckered into making the "Wanted" posters for the class.

A little tangent on the cow. You'll see Maddie with her cow in the pictures below. It took us nearly a week to make the cow - build a frame, paper mache it, paint it, etc. And when I say we, I mean me. Maddie pooped out on the paper mache process shortly after deciding she didn't like the "goop" on her hands. I've also included pictures of some of the other cows (not necessarily from her class). Some of these cows were insane! All I kept wondering to myself was how long it took their parents to make those suckers!!

Maddie's Wanted poster

Maddie and her cow

One of the other cows

And another one. This one had a real skull on it and the body was huge and made out of masking tape, which was painted. I.N.S.A.N.E.

And another one. This little girl is actually in Maddie's class. The cow was originally made several years ago for her brother's cattle drive and updated to be more girly for her cattle drive.

Peter was out of town most of the week and all of the weekend. The kids spent most of Saturday grounded. With the threat of not being able to trick or treat, they quickly worked through their "issues".

And I'm so glad they did because they were so stinking cute!

Maddie was Jasmine and Mason was Lightning McQueen this year.

They decided on their costumes, and they couldn't be more perfect for them!

Maddie as Jasmine. This kid can totally work the camera.

My Dad was out of town, so Mom came and hung out with us for the evening! These two are crazy!

Peter got back in town just in time for the festivities. Clearly he didn't want to be left out!

Look at them checking out their loot!

Mason and his girlfriends. Seriously, he calls them his girlfriend. Such a little player!

Giving Sophie a little love.

Trying to plant a wet one on Caroline, but she's about a head taller than him!

To top off the evening, we ate smores by a fire pit with some of our awesome neighbors.

So, yes, it's been a little crazy, but tons of fun!

Gators Eat Boogers take 1

2010-10-25T23:31:00.000-04:00

Peter posted a Gators Eats Boogers on facebook earlier today. This is one of the outtakes.

It makes me cry from laughing so hard.

And now you know why Mason finds it ok to poop in our front yard . . .

Fall Family Fun

2010-10-12T21:50:00.000-04:00

This fall has been CRAZY!

And that's my excuse for my lack of posts.

Between Peter's crazy travel schedule, tennis, Maddie's softball, Georgia football . . . well, we've been slammed.

This past weekend was no exception, but we made a whole fall affair of it. The 85+ degree heat was a little distracting, though.

We started our Saturday with an early softball game for Maddie and tennis match for Peter. No pics from either, but both Peter and Maddie rocked it at their respective sports.

We then headed over to the Fall Festival at Maddie's school. This is a HUGE deal for the school. It's their biggest fundraiser of the year, and the kids love it. I worked Maddie's class booth while Peter took the kids around to play games.

See that ship? Mason actually went down it. No fear that kid!

I think he enjoyed the playground the most though

Maddie is a Sixes Star for sure! Notice the pink hair. We still can't get it out!

After the Fall Festival, we met up with our great friends, the Gleasons, and headed over to Cagle's Dairy to enjoy the corn maize. We've talked about going for years, but never make it. This year, I was determined to go. I only wish it was a cooler out!

There were two "maizes" to go through. We went through both (and thankfully made it out of both!). Fun fun!

On a bridge trying to find our way

I'm biased, but I think these may just be two of the cutest boys EVER!

The kids celebrating the completion of the 2nd maize!

They had these really cool inground jumpy things. I'd like one for my backyard, please.

On Sunday, we spent the day at my tennis match. Nothing good to report there.

Seriously.

On Monday, the kids had a furlough day, so we took the opportunity to head into the North Georgia Mountains and visit Burt's Farm. This place gets tons of praises. This is another one of those places that we've wanted to go to for years, but for one reason or another, have never made it. Maybe it was the heat or the crowds and gnats, but my experience didn't live up to all of the hype. I mean, the pumpkins are amazing. Every color, every size . . . they have it. The kids thought it was really cool. I think it would have been better if we were able to enjoy the hayride with hot apple cider while bundled in a blanket, not dehydrated and ready to strip layers of clothing! Maybe we'll try it again another year when it's at least 20 degrees cooler.

Maddie with our tickets to fun, aka the Hayride

They have some seriously huge pumpkins!

It was a great weekend. With Peter gone so much lately, it was just nice to spend time as a family. Can't beat it!

Dish Network . . . You are dead to us

2010-10-03T20:25:00.000-04:00

Or maybe not. Dish should consider themselves lucky that the Dawgs lost, otherwise we would have had some serious issues.

After convincing our friends Andy and Shana to join us at our house to watch the game, we found out that the channel that would be airing the game was blacked out due to a dispute between Dish and Fox. Not all was lost though because the game would be airing on an alternate channel (or so we thought). Game time rolls around, the kids are in bed watching a movie and we are ready to watch the game, except the game isn't actually airing on the alternate channel. To say Peter and Andy were unhappy is an understatement.

The poor AJC salesman that knocked on our door at 7:05pm experienced the wrath of Peter's unhappiness firsthand. And told the neighbors about it. Awesome.

But what are we to do if we can't get the game on tv?

We watch it on Peter's laptop via skype and a webcam thanks to some good friends that took pity on us! We also had the radio going so we could actually hear the calls and the Florida Alabama game on the tv. Redneck or technologically savvy?

Clearly Peter was not happy with the current situation.

At halftime, the kids came down and we convinced them that the computer was magic. Mason thought it was hilarious! The kids would ask the computer questions and the computer would talk back with them (the computer being Dale). Maddie asked the computer for an electric scooter for Christmas. The computer, thankfully, answered no.

And just for fun . . . Shana had the hiccups and we had her drinking water while plugging her ears. I don't remember if it actually worked or not, but the pictures make me laugh!

My Hot Mess

2010-09-20T13:16:00.000-04:00

I'm only putting this out there because I'm using it to enter a contest . . .

and I'm a sucker for contests . . .

and Lindsey has a super cute esty shop!

I try not to go down to the basement often. It can quickly send me into a panic attack.

But today, I just have to laugh at this monstrosity that we call the basement/playroom.

We did have friends over this weekend to watch the Georgia game, but it wasn't the additional kids that made this mess. It was my one little 2 1/2 year old. It kind of looked like this before they came over. And yes, I didn't even bother picking up for them.

Kooch and friends

2010-09-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we headed out to Boulder to attend the wedding of one of Peter's old camp buddies. Camp Kooch-i-ching was well represented, and I can't even begin to explain how fun it was for me to watch them all catch up. Some of these guys see each other often, but Peter hasn't seen most of them in years.

This was, by far, one of the most beautiful and natural weddings I have ever attended.

Congrats to Mike and Kate!

Mrs Walsh with all of the Kooch boys!

The new Mrs Walsh with the Kooch boys!

It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we had a blast! Hopefully we'll make it back sometime, and next time we'll stay a little longer!

2010-08-26T08:42:00.000-04:00

Maddie's big love right now is email (and Justin Bieber).

Here are some of her recent emails to me:

HI I LOVE YOU LOVE MADDIE

THIS IS THE BEST DAY

(this particular one was sent after she got grounded and wasn't allowed to go play with a friend.)

I LOVE YOU LOVE MADDIE

Hi Mom,

I love you.
You are the best. Love Maddie

I love this kid and her emails.

Being a better parent

2010-08-23T15:25:00.000-04:00

I think as a parent, we are always striving to be better and do a better job.

Recently, one of the blogs I follow, has been doing a series of "Be a better Parent." It certainly has had me thinking. A lot.

First let me say that I am a firm believer in that everybody has their own parenting style and not any one style works for all kids. But nothing drives me crazier than the undisciplined child. You know the type . . . the one that runs their own agenda and what they say goes. They run the house instead of their parents. What ever happened to respect?

I, on the other hand, am a discipliner. And I have a (bad) habit of disciplining in the moment. Right there, in the moment. It doesn't matter where we are or who is watching. And if I am stressed out or pushed to my limits, I have a tendency to lose it. It's not the way I want to be. It just happens.

When I am in my element and things are going as planned, it is far less frequent. But lets face it, life doesn't work that way. We are often thrown curve balls. Plans get off course. Life gets stressful.

So, my big challenge to myself as a parent, is to not let my disciplining be effected by my emotions. To be firm, but to do it more quietly and privately.

There's a great family psychologist and author, John Rosemond. He has written many books and writes a weekly column for the AJC. I had the pleasure of going to see him speak about a year ago. He talks about families needing to be more parent-centered where children are raised into responsible adults. That's what I want for my family.

I am resolving to sit down and actually read the book that I bought nearly a year ago: The New Six-Point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children. I mean, who doesn't want happy and healthy children? And it's up to us, as their parents, to make that happen, right?

Once I hit "publish" this is out there.
On the internet.
For everybody to see!
Accountability, folks.

Any tips on actually implementing the newer and calmer me?

Blondies

2010-08-15T19:47:00.000-04:00

We've signed Maddie up for softball this season, and this weekend she had her very first practice.

Let me just start off by saying that I am a little giddy with excitement. I played softball as a kid. Granted, I didn't start this young, and I wasn't nearly as promising as she is, but I loved it. I have so many great memories from my years of playing. So the fact that I got her to even agree to play makes me so happy . . . and proud.

There is definitely one thing that separates her abilities from mine . . . she's naturally athletic. She is able to start a sport and shine. Her biggest hurdle? The heat. This child hates to be sweaty. Luckily her first practice was overcast, so it was a bit cooler out.

So, without further ado, our little softball player . . .

Maddie's the one throwing the ball in the pink shirt and blue shorts

Maddie and her team

Look at that form!

A little batting practice

High Five for a job well done!

Just a few things to note here:

Maddie is playing in a league ranging in age from 4 to 6, which makes her one of the oldest.
She is one of the biggest on her team.
According to Peter, she is also one of the best (I had to miss her practice due to my tennis practice, so I missed out on all of the fun).
All of the girls on her team are little blondies, and Maddie has the darkest hair of them all.
Maddie came up with the team name . . . Blondies.
And, best of all, she seemed to really enjoy it!

She has practice twice a week and one game a week. Throw that in with her gymnastics, girl scouts, and school . . . we'll be a little busy. I can't even imagine what life will be like once Mason starts his sports!

2010-08-10T10:56:00.000-04:00

This weekend we went over to my Mom and Dad's house to celebrate my sister and her husband's birthdays. We got there a little early, and my Mom decided that she wanted to get a family picture of the 4 of us.

We grumbled. She insisted. We gave in.

And I'm so glad we did.

Let's remenisce, shall we?

2010-08-09T21:19:00.001-04:00

The first day of school

Kindergarten First Grade

Wow, this kid has grown up!

I guess I don't notice it so much because, well, I see her every day, but geez, when did she get so old?

One of the things that I do every year is make a calendar. Every month shows pictures from the same month from the previous year. I walked past it today and saw the picture from Maddie's first day of Kindergarten. I was shocked at how much she has grown up! It was a testament as to why I do these calendars. I'm not going to lie . . . they make me a little crazy. They take me FOREVER to plan out and I agonize over which pictures to put in them, but I LOVE looking at my precious children from a year ago and seeing how much they have grown.

Delayed

2010-08-05T09:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we received a letter from Mason's school telling us that the school start date has been pushed back 2 weeks until early September due to construction delays. My immediate reaction was that of disappointment and a bit of panic. With all of his friends in school already and 105 degree heat indexes, what in the world are we going to do?

Don't judge. While I was a working mother, I constantly judged those stay at home mom's that chose to put their kids in preschool. Why bother staying home if you just pack them up and ship them off for the day? Obviously my views have changed now that I am a stay at home mom, but not because I have a few extra free hours a week to myself (although it is definitely a perk). Preschool has been one of the best choices we have made for Mason. He thrives with structure and in social settings. While we have made tremendous strides over the summer with potty training (he's officially not training anymore!), counting, shapes, and colors, all of this began in preschool. I'd like to give myself enough credit to think that I would be just as successful with these things if he was at home with just me, but I don't believe that to be true. There's something to be said for peer pressure. At least at this age.

But most importantly, he loves school. He loves his teachers. All he can talk about right now is Ms. Maria and going to school. So, with all of his buddies already in school, he is just as disappointed as I am , if not more, that he has to wait even longer to go to school.

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy his snuggles, his sweet kisses, his love of books, and all things Legos. Nothing beats him asking to snuggle and then taking my hand and wrapping it around is belly as he settles into my lap.

First of 1st

2010-08-02T20:54:00.000-04:00

Today marks Maddie's first day of 1st grade!

Wahoo!

This summer absolutely flew by, and this school year kind of crept up on me. I was buying school supplies and clothes/shoes at the very last minute . . . totally out of character for me. But we survived and were ready for the 1st grade!

Yes, she's totally bringing the '80s back! I'm pretty sure if she could have rocked a side pony and hot pink earrings, she would have!

The bus stop . . . half of them. We have 27 kids this year!

Maddie with some of her best friends!

Maddie had a great first day. To top it off, we jumped right back into gymnastics. I think getting back to more structured days is going to be good for her.

Mason was a little lost without his sister and all of his friends. We spent A LOT of time playing with legos and coloring today. School starts back for him in two weeks. I think he's excited because he keeps telling everybody that he's going to his school tomorrow! Sorry buddy, but soon . . . very soon!

Introducing . . .

2010-07-27T21:44:00.000-04:00

Gracie!

Gracie is the newest addition to the Sanford household.

She is a 1 1/2 year old guinea pig, and yes, she is HUGE!

How in the world did we come to allow a rodent in our house? Well, it all began on our ferry ride home from Daufuskie Island, where Hanky and Maddie began their conversations on Hamsters. By the end of the ferry ride, Hanky looked at me and said with the most sincere and precious face ever, "Thank you Ms Bekah for giving me a hamster for my birthday."

Um, I don't remember ever hearing your mom agree to this, but when you put it that way . . . you're very welcome.

So at this point Maddie was planning the new addition to our household. However, I wasn't so keen on the idea. She was incredibly persistent and REALLY wanted to buy it with her own money. Well, ok.

We headed over to Petsmart on Monday to check it all out. I never owned hamsters as a kid and knew nothing about them. I quickly realized that hamsters would not work in our house. A) Maddie wants to hold and play with these little creatures, B) there's Mason (enough said), and C) there's Harley (again, enough said). Hamsters just wouldn't work. Gerbils, with their long tails and beady little eyes were not going to work either. And then there were the guinea pigs. They are larger, sweet, and cuddly creatures. Score! These totally met are requirements. The only problem? Maddie couldn't afford the guinea pig, along with the cage and accessories with what she had sitting in her piggy bank. We went home and pondered our situation. We turned to craigslist in hopes of finding a cage and accessories that would fit into her budget. Low and behold, we found a lady selling her guinea pig along with the cage and all accessories, and she lived only about 20 minutes from us! Last night we rolled coins to help her make the rest of her "monetary requirements".

The kids were beside themselves with excitement over the prospect of their new pet. I knew we wouldn't be leaving without this "pig" once the kids met her. I wish I would have filmed their reactions when they met her because it was absolutely precious!

Maddie got to name her, and as many 6 years old little girls would do, she named her after herself (Grace is Maddie's middle name). Much to my surprise, Mason has been incredibly gentle with her and Harley just ignores her. I think this may just work!

My hope is that Maddie will learn to feed and care for Gracie. I'm not holding my breath on this one, but she seems to really want to be Gracie's caregiver. While I'm not too keen on having a rodent in our house, I'm loving the opportunity to turn this into a lesson. I can only hope that Maddie's "getting" it.

Family Vacation 2010

2010-07-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

We spent the last week on Daufuskie Island vacationing with my best friend from high school and her precious family. My in-laws graciously volunteered their home while they are away cruising up the east coast.

Most people have never heard of this place, much less visited it before, but man, what an adventure! Daufuskie is a small island just off of Hilton Head that can only be accessed by boat. Planning for 4 adults and 4 small children was not easy, to say the least. If you forget something, it's not as easy as hopping in a car and running to Wal-Mart. Needless to say, we pretty much packed everything but the kitchen sink!

While there . . .

We played on the playground . . .

From 2010-07-16

Visited the farm on the island where Bibi and Pop have a goat . . .

From 2010-07-16

They loved the turkey, which they named Gigi

From 2010-07-16

We visited the ice cream man daily, and he never once remembered us! I have a hard time believing that he has so many customers that a group of 4 small children wouldn't stick out, but no . . .

From 2010-07-16

Even Harley got a treat at the ice cream man!

From 2010-07-16

We took A LOT of golf cart rides

From 2010-07-16

We spent a lot of time at the beach . . .

From 2010-07-16

We spent most of our time on the Melrose beach. Peter and I had never been to the Melrose beach before. In fact, we didn't even know it existed. But, after getting lost searching for the Bloody Point beach, a security guard took pity on us and let us follow him to the nearest beach, which happened to be Melrose. This particular beach is part of a now bankrupt community. It was eerie entering the community. A once guarded gate, now open to whomever. The golf course is still kept up and beautiful, but you pass over ponds that are green and incredibly stinky. The inn, the restaurant, and everything else community related is closed. There are houses still occupied or rented out. We would pass a golf cart or two on occasion, but it was rare. It felt post Apocalyptic. But the beach was incredible! It was empty of people (for the most part), but had beach chairs for us to lounge on. The kids could run forever, and we didn't have to worry. We loved it.

There are deer everywhere. We could look out the window of the house and see deer crossing the cart paths, which the kids just loved.

From 2010-07-16

We took and afternoon and went to Harbour Town in Hilton Head. We visited with Kristen's Aunt Gretchen, whom I grew up with too and babysat her kids when I was younger. What a treat! The kids LOVED looking at all of the boats.

From 2010-07-16

Our last night we ate at Marshide Mama's. Hank had the biggest pork chop I've ever seen in my life! We also took the opportunity to actually get dressed for the evening!

From 2010-07-16

What a great trip! Thanks to the McCords for sharing it with us!

To see the rest of the album:

2010-07-16

On a side note, this is our last week of summer vacation. Maddie starts 1st grade on Monday. Yikes! Time flies when you're having fun!

Late . . . again

2010-07-12T21:01:00.000-04:00

I just realized that it's July 12th, and I'm just now about to update from the 4th. Whoops!

It's just been SO busy around here!

Plus, all of these pictures have already been posted on Facebook, so I've found I'm a little slower to post on here.

Peter was traveling Friday and Saturday of the 4th of July weekend, so the kids and I headed over to my Mom and Dad's house and spent the day at their pool with my sister and her kids. We had such a great time!

For the 4th, we had a few friends over and grilled out, shot off fireworks, and just enjoyed the day!

Our friends, Andy and Shana, gave Maddie the live butterfly garden for a graduation gift. The larva arrived in the mail. We watched them grow and spin their cocoons, and then hatch into butterflies. It's pretty amazing. On the 4th, they were ready to be released. So, the picture of Maddie below is of her releasing one of her butterflies. Pretty amazing!

Potty training update: Mason is doing fabulous! Somebody tried to tell me yesterday that he was too young, but I quickly stopped her and told her how great he was doing. He has his accidents, but they are getting much fewer and farther between. Hooray for Mason!

Little Dude is growing up

2010-07-02T21:07:00.000-04:00

Potty training is at the top of our to-do list these days, which translates into lots of messes, nakedness (as evidenced above), and patience. Also, due to potty training, we've been stuck in the house more than usual, which has led to a lot of stir crazy.

The neighbors have got to think we're absolutely crazy. For the record, we don't let Mason run around outside naked. The problem lies in that he can get his underwear off to go potty, but can't always get them back on. In the above case, he so kindly took his pants off, used our garage as his personal potty, and came out riding Maddie's scooter . . . all the while, so very proud of himself. At this stage of the game, I'll take what I can get.

Today was the first day that I was brave enough to venture out with Mason in underwear. He does not do good in pull-ups at all. It totally defeats the point for us. So, today was D-Day, and we took our first trip out. I'm proud to report that it went great. We even stopped mid-shopping for him to go potty (yay Mas!). He's done great for the last couple of days, but then this afternoon, he decided that it was fun to pee on his hands. Not even kidding . . . totally disgusting . . .

Boys! Maddie never pulled anything like this.

Patience . . .

And a lot of deep breathing . . .

And a lot of cleaning supplies . . .

Whoa . . . it's been a while

2010-06-28T22:44:00.000-04:00

Our poor blog of all things mundane in the Sanford house . . .

I have been ignoring you! So sorry!

This summer has been busy busy busy!

Much busier than anticipated, and much busier than I like it to be!

Here's the quick and dirty of what we've been up to:

My mom, aunt, and I took my nephew, Luca, and the kids to the Georgia Aquarium. I couldn't have asked for a better day with the kids.

We have been spending time with friends that we don't get to see often enough . . .

Ok, so this pic isn't of any "old friends", but it was taken while hanging with them
and I like it!

We helped host a wedding shower for an old college friend of ours and his fiance . . .

The hosts with the bride and groom to be

We celebrated Father's Day with the Morgan clan . . .

And in the midst of all of this, Maddie lost her first tooth while in Ohio with my Mom and Dad, which I don't have any pictures of. Well, I have a cellphone picture that was sent to me, but I'm way too lazy to figure out how to get it off my phone and on this blog.

We also dealt with some crazy appliance shenanigans (read: Rebekah is completely out of her mind). The short story is our dishwasher has been giving us trouble for a year now and nobody will fix it (don't ever buy LG), and our range was dying a slow and painful death (I had to light the burners with a long nosed lighter and the the oven was 50 degrees low). I found what I wanted and waited for it to go on sale. Memorial day weekend rolled around and my range was 40% off. So we went and purchased 4 new appliances in stainless steel. Then I freaked out on the refrigerator due to it being Kenmore made by LG, so I cancelled the order. I then ordered one from GE through my aunt. It was delivered and I didn't like it. So I returned it. Then I was left with no refrigerator in the house for 24 hours and had to rush out and buy another one. It doesn't match . . . still. GAH! But, I'm stuck with it and have to deal. It still makes my stomach turn.

Anyhoo, I'm getting long winded and Harley is about to have a heart attack from all of the crazy thunder rumbling outside. Peter has been traveling A TON this summer. I'm about to lose my mind with the kids constantly being at my heels, but other than that, things are great around here. It's been a super hot summer, but a great one.

My Baby "Gradulated"!

2010-06-02T21:35:00.003-04:00

Last Friday, my baby girl graduated Kindergarten. I thought I'd cry like a baby, but thankfully I didn't. They did a really great job at celebrating the kids accomplishments and not dwelling on the fact that they are growing up TOO FAST!

They did a little program . . . Maddie is the one holding the lower fish.

From 2010-05-28

And then we went back to her classroom for a little party . . .

From 2010-05-28

They have a really neat tradition at the school. She goes to Sixes Elementary and they are the Sixes Stars. In Kindergarten, they write on a star what they want, hope, etc . . . totally their choice. When they graduate 5th grade, they are presented with their star from Kindergarten. Pretty cool, right? Well, here's Maddie's . . .

From 2010-05-28

Somebody please remind me of this, so we can give Maddie a tennis bag for 5th grade graduation! I'm just glad that she didn't want a baby sister, as one of her classmates put on their star!

What we'll miss most from Kindergarten is her teacher . . .

From 2010-05-28

We were incredibly blessed to have Miss Cruse this year. She was the perfect fit for Maddie, and I truly believe the key to Maddie's success this year.

So let's compare beginning of the year to end of the year pictures, shall we?

From 2010-05-28

Love this kid!

It's beginning to look a lot like summer!

2010-05-27T20:28:00.003-04:00

Summer is nearly here! Well, for Mason, it's already here, but for Maddie, it's just around the corner.

This past weekend, the sun was shining and it was super hot here in Atlanta. Some good friends invited us over spend the day at their pool, and we were thrilled to take them up on their offer . . . A) because we haven't seen them in FOREVER, B) because we love them, and c) because surely their pool wouldn't be as crazy as ours, and if we were lucky, a little warmer than ours too!

Well, the pool was COLD. I didn't even get in beyond hanging my legs over the edge. But, that didn't stop the kids from enjoying the water!

From 2010-05-23

Thank you Davison's for a fabulous impromptu playdate!

Just one last thing before I sign off . . . Maddie graduates (or gradulates, as she calls it) from Kindergarten tomorrow. I'm already dreading it because I know I'm going to cry like a baby . . . how in the world did she grow up so fast? Peter will be taking lots of pictures, so stay tuned.

I'm a sewin' . . . kind of

2010-05-26T21:27:00.001-04:00

Maddie pretending to like the dress. A+ for effort.

Have I mentioned that Peter got me a sewing machine for Mother's Day?

Well, this was my first attempt at sewing with said sewing machine.

I've never been able to sew. In all honesty, I can't even sew on a button. In our house, that's Peter's job! :)

But, I've gotten the bug to learn, so Peter is giving me all of the tools to make it happen. He even set up a little sewing area for me in the basement! Isn't he the sweetest?!

Anyways, the other day Maddie and I bought a pattern and picked out fabric, and I went to work. After I was done, Maddie made it clear that she was not going to wear it. It is too short, but I offered to add some hot pink fabric to the lengthen the dress, but it was still a no go. Oh well, at least I got some practice, and maybe I can find someone to take it and enjoy it. :)

So, if you have any super cute and easy patterns, crafts, etc. . . please pass on. I'm desperate for something to try, but I don't want it to be a throwaway like this dress!

Also, I have a super cute maternity dress that I LOVE that I'd like to repurpose into a skirt. In my head I believe it would require buttons and a zipper, which it out of my league, but I have aspirations!

Year End Shinanigans

2010-05-23T20:33:00.004-04:00

The 2010 school year is coming to a close, which means . . . It is crazy around here!

This past week we had field day for both Maddie and Mason, along with Maddie's year end gymnastics performance.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that summer is already here. I feel like I just put Maddie on the school bus for the first time . . . like I had just dropped Mason off at school for the very first time. Oh, the tears that were shed last August. It feels like it was just yesterday.

Maddie's Field Day
Miss Cruse's cuties

This child LOVED field day!

Year End Gymnastics

Mason's Field Day
Doing what he loves . . . playing in the bounce house!

He wants to go back to the bounce house
Mason is the youngest in his class. Originally, he was enrolled in the young 2's class, but because there weren't enough kids to form the class, they bumped him into the older 2's class. These kids are at least 6 months older than him(not a big deal at 12 years old, but at 2 years old, it's a huge difference) . I never really think much of it until I see a picture like this, and then it's obvious that he is SO much younger than the rest of the kids. Luckily his teacher LOVED him and had a tremendous amount of patience for him and his antics. Every time there was a class party, everybody wanted to meet "Mason's Mom". He makes quit an impression! :)

This next week is going to be another busy one. It's the last week of school for Maddie and Kindergarten graduation. Let the tears begin . . .

Maddie's 6th birthday party

2010-05-16T13:32:00.006-04:00

Maddie's mock sleepover was a huge success! Maddie was beside herself in excitement. I don't think it could have turned out any better. Of course, I couldn't have done it without the help of my right hand ladies, Kristen and Beth!

The goody bags

We decorated picture frames
Everybody crowded around for present time!
Then, we had face painting,
hair, nails, and makeup,

and then we were ready for dress-up!
After everybody got dressed, we headed out for pictures.
The kids all got an individual picture taken with Maddie to put in their picture frame.
We made ice cream sundaes since Maddie doesn't like cake.

The kids then watched a movie, and after it was over, we had
a dance party!
Dance party with lights out and glow sticks . . .
the best way to have a dance party!
And around 10pm, all the kids headed home. It was awesome!

Check out the rest of the pictures :

Maddie's 6th birthday party

Sunday Celebrations

2010-05-11T21:17:00.004-04:00

On Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day AND Peter and Maddie's birthdays.

It was a great day spent with family and yummy food!

Here are a few highlights . . .

What's with the sourpuss face?

That's better!

Maddie showing off her new jewels

Buddies

Yummy Bruster's Ice Cream Pie

She's obsessed.

Mason loved the birthday pie!

On a side note, Peter got a new camera lens for his birthday (you may be able to tell from some of the pics). He's still playing around with it, but so far so good! I think the first picture of Maddie was her telling Peter to please stop taking pictures of her!

It was a great day. In fact, Maddie proclaimed this THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER . . . and it's not even her birthday yet! Lucky girl gets to celebrate her birthday for weeks. I'm pretty sure she thinks the month of May is her birthday, not just the 13th of May!

This Saturday is Maddie's "pretend" sleepover. Basically, we let her have a few girlfriends over and then we send them home at the end of the night. I was thrilled when she said she wanted a sleepover and even more thrilled when she agreed to a pretend sleepover. However, I have spent weeks planning this sucker and have decided I have put more effort into this than any other year. Year after year I say never again . . . next year it's going to be simple . . . right. I've decided that simple just may not be in my vocabulary, no matter how much I try!
Fingers crossed that Saturday goes as planned!

Happy Mother's Day - Take 2

2010-05-09T07:15:00.001-04:00

Apparently Peter had set the video to video accidentally, so let's try this again!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-08T21:57:00.002-04:00

My sweet hubby made this video for me for Mother's Day, and I love it so much I just had to share. I am such a lucky girl!

Happy Birthday Nana!

2010-04-26T20:14:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I took my Mom out to lunch for her birthday! I can't believe I've never eaten at the Cheesecake Factory. Man, have I been missing out!

Anyways, we had a great afternoon! I forgot I had my camera in my purse, so I only got to snap a few at the end of the lunch . . .

Nana and some of her favorite kiddos

Me and my best girl

They came and sang Happy Birthday to mom.
Mason wasn't so sure about all of the "strangers".

Yummy ice cream sundae!

Mason loved it!

Maddie insisted on wearing the bow from Mom's birthday
present. It kind of worked!

Happy Birthday Nana/Mom!!
We love you!

Me and my camera.

2010-04-24T08:57:00.001-04:00

Here are some of my favorite pictures I've taken since I got my new camera

Smile, you could be next!

Over the river and through the woods . . .

2010-04-21T07:25:00.006-04:00

Spring break has long past us, and I still haven't updated here. I'm such a slacker . . . or busy. Probably a little of both.

We took the kids and some friends to the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA. It was kind of like Fernbank, but smaller and cheaper. Right up my ally!

The next day we headed out for Savannah to visit with Grandma and Bob.
We spent a few days touring and exploring the city - Juliette Gordon Low birthplace, museums, parks, River Street. We accomplished a lot in a very small amount of time!

Turns out the pool was too cold!

He's a lover, not a fighter!

This huge ship came through while we were walking down River Street.

Just a little light reading

Look what we found while out on a boat ride!

When we were getting ready to leave,
we noticed that Maddie and I matched the Azaleas!

When finished our trip with a few days visiting with Bibi and Pop's on Daufuskie Island!

We watched the Masters on Pop's iPod

Met Bibi and Pop's new Goat

Played in the ocean

Maddie went on a horseback ride while Mason watched from afar

A very sleepy Mason after all of the fun!

It was a great trip and glad we could visit with all of the grandparents!

Help for Haiti

2010-04-14T08:31:00.003-04:00

Maddie and her Girl Scout troop were mentioned in our local magazine - Sixes Living. She's part of the Daisy troop in the picture on the right. I know it seems like we're always selling something. But see? Your donations really do go to good use!

2010-04-05T21:43:00.007-04:00

I'm not even going to pretend that this is going to be short . . . it's going to be long and picture heavy. Sorry, I just can't help myself!

We had a great Easter surrounded by lots of family and friends. So, without further ado . . . Easter 2010 . . .

Maddie and her Easter basket

Mason and his Easter basket. Breakfast of champions . . .
chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate!

Me and Sophia

Maddie getting her baby love in

Mason wanted this cake SO bad . . . if you look closely,
you can see he's drooling over it!

Like mother, like daughter

We can put on our smiley faces when told to!

Mason hunting his eggs

Maddie found the golden egg!

The kiddos . . . notice Sophia in the basket!

They really do love each other!

Me and my Daddy!

G-Daddy and his favorite girls!

And my favorite serious of photos from the afternoon:

So, that's the Easter in a nutshell.
Now on to spring break 2010!
Wahoo!

Labor of Love

2010-03-31T21:34:00.005-04:00

I have this table that needs a little TLC. A lot of TLC, actually!

My mother so generously put 2 coats of "marble" faux painting on said table many many years ago. I actually remember helping her on the second go round of this lovely marbling when I was a kid. My guess is that the second coat was put on at least 15 years ago, if not more. Regardless, the paint is OLD. Add the original stain, and there are at least 5 coats on this thing. But it is a SOLID piece of furniture that was originally my grandparent's. Peter has tried to give it to Goodwill for years now, but I have fought on its behalf.

A couple weeks ago I pulled it out of the dark, dreary corner of our storage room in the basement. I have applied super strength paint stripper. And sanded. And sanded. And sanded some more.

The table is BEAUTIFUL! The wood is exquisite! But there are these curves and crevices that I just can't get to. I am feverishly working to get this sucker in order to re-stain, but it's been some work. A lot of work actually. I am desperately trying to save this little gem. When I get done, expect to find it in the middle of our den with a spotlight on it . . . it will totally deserve it after all of the work I've put in!

Just another day at the park

2010-03-25T20:54:00.003-04:00

We have had crazy weather lately. One day it will be a sunny 70 degrees and the next day it will be 45 and raining!

On Wednesday we had INCREDIBLE weather. It was definitely over 70 degrees, and I wasn't about to let the day pass by without taking advantage of it.

I decided to join a friend 0n her walk up to the park and let the kids play. Of note, she usually walks up there and I usually hop in the car and meet her there. I realized afterwards why I usually drive. It's far! Two miles there and then the 2 miles home uphill nearly killed me! But the kids had a ball and I enjoyed/needed the exercise!

Here are a few pics from the park:

This is where Mason was "making his music"
(read: running his hands back and forth along the rails)

This kid loves to swing!

Hallie and Mason's girlfriend, Caroline.

"Umm, Mom, why am I not swinging?"

After we left the park, I picked up Maddie and headed to the tennis courts to play a tennis match. And then I blew all of my calories I had just burned up on hamburgers and french fries for dinner! :)

These past several weeks have been crazy, and I have more pictures to post but am waiting on Peter to "work his magic". Peter's been traveling a lot lately. He's been gone for most of the last 7 weeks, and the kids and I have been crazy busy. Turns out that I have super popular kids and it's been birthday galore these last couple of weeks. I guess having a lot to do is better than having nothing to do when you are desperately trying to wear out your children!

Boosterthon Success

2010-03-12T16:50:00.002-05:00

The Runner.

Today was Maddie's school's big fundraising event "The Boosterthon"
Maddie and her classmates did an awesome job. I think every single one of them ran the maximum 35 Laps.
As you can see from the video below it was pretty chaotic. But there were no injuries.

The goal of the fun-run is to raise money for the school. Last year the proceeds from the Boosterthon went to all new playground equipment. This year's funds are going to go to support various in-school programs.

Maddie's shirt showing she completed 35 laps

Super huge thanks to all the Grandparents who supported Maddie. (Her pledges earned her that awesome head band).

Worn out after running.

Bedtime

2010-03-06T21:33:00.002-05:00

Now that Mason has officially given up his naptime, bedtime isn't nearly as difficult these days. However, bedtime typically doesn't begin in his bed . . .

Peering in from the hallway

Bedtime usually begins with Mason falling asleep on floor, in front of his door, after yelling for somebody to come help him . . . over and over again until his little body is too exhausted (thankfully only about 2 minutes at most).

And then we pick him up and put him to bed . . . he's like a little man . . .

Love this kid!

Mason's New Bed

2010-03-04T20:12:00.004-05:00

We put together Mason's "big boy" bed tonight.

I'm not sure how he feels about it . . .

It's awesome!

I have been dragging my feet on putting together Mason's new bed. I've been trying to wait out Pottery Barn Kids because I realized the bedding I picked out is catalog/online only and shipping is going to be ridiculous. BUT IT'S SO CUTE! AND SO PERFECT! I had also decided I wanted jersey sheets and found them on sale today. So, Mason is now in his big boy bed, and as you can see, he loves it! I'm still waiting on Pottery Barn to throw me a bone and stick this stuff on sale. A free shipping code would even do it for me. But, for now, he is in his big boy bed sans comforter. He's 2 . . . he doesn't care! :)

Fancy Nancy has nothin' on Maddie!

2010-03-01T20:30:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I couldn't wait and have already posted this picture all over Facebook, so most of you have already seen it. But, for the few folks that aren't on Facebook, here is the latest and greatest of my sweet baby girl . . .

On Friday, Maddie had to dress up as her favorite book character for school. Of course, Fancy Nancy was her chosen character. Her teacher emailed me this picture today, taken by one of the other parents, and it just melts my heart. Could she get any cuter?

Funny

2010-03-01T20:11:00.003-05:00

I find this video to be ridiculously funny.

Peter agreed.

So, I'm reposting here because, well, it's funny.

Have I mentioned I went to high school with this dude? Actually, we lived down the street from each other.

You should check out his blog.

It's funny too.

http://www.tylerstanton.com/

Enjoy!

So, what else have we been up to?

2010-02-23T21:12:00.006-05:00

Well, a lot of things actually!

Bibi, Pop, and Nana Weaver came for a visit. It was too short, but a great visit nonetheless!

Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures and didn't get any of the kids with Nita :(

I did manage to pull out a stellar meal, if I do say so myself. If you need a killer recipe, check this one out:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chicken-parmesan-recipe/index.html

We've also been in this crazy house fix up phase. I call it a phase because we haven't done much to the interior of the house since we moved in. All of a sudden, we've been working, and working hard on making it "home". I guess the prospect of having to live here for many more years has kicked our butts in gear. Also, 5 1/2 years of us ignoring the "little" things that we hated when we moved in.

So, we've been switching out light fixtures:

Slowly, but surely, getting rid of all of the brass:

I spray painted all of our air vents in oil rubbed bronze. LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

I painted our stark white mantle in a nice warm milk chocolate brownwith a dark chocolate brown glaze. Love it! (The color in the picture is all messed up and I'm too lazy to fix it, but our wall are beige,
not whatever this greeny-yellow-beige color that is showing up)! I walked into home depot knowing what I wanted to achieve, but had no idea how I was going to do it. Can you imagine the looks on their faces as I asked them about color schemes and techniques? Priceless! But, I am very happy with the results even though I was told to "just play around with it, you'll figure it out." Umm, this glaze stuff dries fast! There's no "playing around" with it. I probably should have practiced first, but I am totally not patient enough for that nonsense!

I also switched out all of our door knobs downstairs minus the outside doors,
which is more than this chickie can handle on her own while the husband is traveling! I originally tried spray painting those as well, but the results were not nearly as nice as the vents! So, I had to replace with new ones, which ended up not being all that bad since Home Depot carries an inexpensive line that suited me just fine!

Oh, and then there was this . . .
Yes! Girl Scout cookies have arrived! And lots of them! I have sorted through them all and need to deliver before Mason breaks into all of the boxes. So, if you ordered cookies, you'll be hearing from me soon. Oh, and I believe Maddie was the big seller for her troop - over 150 boxes, so thank you to everybody that ordered! She is SO excited!

Well, I guess that's all for now!

The Aussies are back!

2010-02-23T20:26:00.001-05:00

A little over 2 years ago (the day Mason was born, to be exact), some good friends of ours left the USofA for Down Under.

Lucky for us, they're back!

And on Saturday, we celebrated their return at the Davison hole.

So, here goes it . . . a few pics from the afternoon/evening . . .

Sweet, precious Belle

Sweet, precious Alexa

And crazy Maddie (she's sweet and precious too!)

Lots of fun was had on the Gator. Who knows
how many kids Maddie ran over.

Franco and his stache. I don't even know what to say about that
other than I blame Shana.

The most awesome playset EVER!

Mason enjoyed his time in the toybox.

Nat and I. I usually don't post terrible pictures of myself, but I will since it's
so great of Natalia. Just know, I have rectified the awful hair (way overdue).

Some things never change.

Just a little tending bar!

Zing Zang Zoom

2010-02-23T20:04:00.004-05:00

There's a lot to catch up on, so please bear with me . . .

The kids were out of school last week and we had the pleasure of attending the circus courtesy of a friend of ours. Yay us! I haven't seen the Ringling Brothers in forever, and we were all AMAZED. In fact, Maddie declared this the best circus EVER! I braved the circus sans Peter, but I wasn't brave enough to cart 2 kids and Peter's fancy camera. So, my little sony pics will have to do.

Yes, those big 'ol elephants are standing on stools
and propped on each other's backs.

It's hard to see what's going on here, but these people did an
entire skit hanging upside down from the ceiling. Hello, cool!

Mason couldn't take his eyes off of all of the excitement!

Yes, Tigers. And lots of them.

Maddie and Emma LOVED the show!

So, what did I learn from this experience?
That sitting 15, maybe 20, rows back is AWESOME.
That I missed my calling in life - I should be the lady being shot out of the canon.
And this is something I want to do every year.

I was a bit concerned as to how this would all work out. I had never been to the my friend's box at Philips Arena before, so I had no idea of the setup. I also was not confident that Mason would be able to sit through the entire show. I couldn't have been more pleased. The box was awesome - a place to drop our stuff, change diapers, etc. with incredible seats close to the floor. And Mason was totally glued to the show. It was awesome!

What was not so awesome? The after effects of eating so much junk while at the circus. Yes, my 2010 plans for the house have all had to be reworked . . . new carpet will be required.

Snow Storm 2010!

2010-02-13T20:03:00.007-05:00

We had another snow storm come through yesterday (Friday). I must not be watching the news lately because I was totally taken off guard by this storm. It didn't help that when I actually caught wind that we may get some snow, the weathermen were only calling for a slight "dusting". Instead, we got this:

That's 3" of snow. We actually parked my car at the top of the driveway just in case we needed to get out (because we were totally unprepared).

The kids had a ball. It was almost too much for Mason. Maddie came in our room first thing this morning asking to get dressed to go play in the snow. This being the most snow she's seen in her 5 1/2 years and not knowing when she'll get to experience snow like this again, I agreed and dragged myself outside. It was gorgeous

Here are a few more shots from yesterday and today . . .

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

2010-02-11T21:53:00.001-05:00

Mason's room continued . . . again

2010-02-09T22:19:00.003-05:00

Mason's room is coming along. On Monday, Mason's (new) room and Peter's (new) office were painted. They look SO good! And, my friend Kasey found the pillow sham of the bedding I wanted already monogrammed with Mason's name on Ebay. I bought it, so I'm now committed. Thank you Kasey! How cute is it! Now I just need the actual bedspread/quilt. Oh, and the bed (minor details).

We took the panels that were already on the windows and hemmed them (read: I took iron on hem tape) and they're now hanging on the closet as "doors". They are perfect!

We are taking one set of doors that were on Mason's closet and turning them into a new desk for Peter's office. We've confirmed that this is, in fact, actually possible. I just have to find a bookshelf and have the glass cut. Oh, and paint the doors black. Peter spray painted his file cabinet black this evening and it's just perfect . . . almost. He's not done, but I do believe it will be perfect when he finishes up.

It's all about re-purposing. If that's even a word.

I'll post pictures when it's all done.

The painting of the new rooms left my hallway looking pretty awful. I decided to break out the paint and repaint the walls and trim. The trim being oil based paint. Harley seemed to like it enough to brush by or sit on 4 different places. I now have to sand down and repaint 4 spots of the trim. I hate working with oil based paint . . .

On a side note that very few of you will find interesting, Mason's teacher called me today to tell me he used the potty at school. Actually, he asked to go. Big step in the right direction. We broke out the "potties" a while back when he first showed interest, but haven't really pushed the whole potty training thing. He eventually lost interest. Then, over the weekend, he started asking again. Fingers crossed that this time he'll keep his interest. He gets "it", but I think he doesn't want to stop playing to take the time out to actually go to the bathroom. Tonight he took off his diaper and peed on our floor. Kind of gross, but also progress. Call it the silver lining if you will.

Mason's room continued . . .

2010-02-04T20:53:00.004-05:00

I have dedicated most of my time this week to Mason's impending room change . . . choosing paint colors, filling and obscene amount of hole in the walls, and SEARCHING for the perfect bedding for Mason's big boy room.

Well, my 2nd trip to the outlets was a bust. A bust in that I did not find bedding for Mason. In fact, they had super cute stuff for girls, but nothing for little boys. A little frustrating. But, I did leave with some fabulous finds, which made my trip well worth it. :)

So, today I spent the entire morning while Mason was in school searching for bedding. Guess what? There's nothing out there for little boys except THEMED bedding! I'm all about themes, but I'm of the opinion that if I'm going to spend a bunch of money, it better last. I don't want to fork out the money for a bedspread with trucks and trains (his favorite stuff right now) for him to outgrow in a couple of years.

And then I found this . . .

Swoon . . . Kasey Bedding from Pottery Barn Kids

And, oh my goodness, I love it.

But it's for a 2 year old.

Do I suck it up and buy it?

So, tell me it's worth it . . . that the bedding will be perfect for him and will last forever. PLEASE, help convince me (or tell me I'm being ridiculous, whatever)! It's not on sale and the thought of that is giving me hives. Ok, not really hives, but totally stressing me out.

Movers and Shakers up in here

2010-02-02T21:33:00.002-05:00

We've been talking about switching Mason's bedroom and Peter's office for a while now. The hold up? Painting 2 rooms and decluttering Peter's office. For the last 5 1/2 years, Peter's office has become the drop zone for all things that don't have a home. It has, over time, become a nasty mess. The thought of actually having to go through it all was a bit overwhelming. Add to it that we have to paint too, and it was enough for me to continually put off this HUGE project. But BEHOLD, I found somebody to paint the two rooms, including the trim, for super cheap. I mean, it would cost me more in supplies to do it myself (and quite possibly my marriage). So, all we have to do is work on cleaning out and cleaning up. Peter spent most of a day cleaning out a quarter of his office and dumping 2 60 gallon trash bags of junk. We took off the "wall hangings" (read: moose head (thank you Bill and Carol), the obnoxious fish, and various other crap to find massive amounts of damage to the walls. I spent today puttying the drywall and applying googone to all of the double sided tape. It was a mess! I also officially burned out our paper shredder because I was shredding paychecks dating back to 2001. 2001 people! Why do we hold on to such things?

We determined that Peter's desk just isn't going to make the move. It's in bad shape. We've also determined to take the doors off of Mason's soon to be new closet because the tracks are broken, and Mason re-broke them in the first 30 seconds of entering the room. So, I decided this evening I'm going to take the doors from Mason's closet and turn them into a desk for Peter. Not even kidding. I may be taking this crafty stuff a little far, but I figure it's worth a shot. Have you checked out the cost of office furniture lately?? We'll see how it goes. I've got high hopes for this little project of mine and really hope it turns out as great as I am envisioning it! I'm assuming this will take me several weeks to complete because a) apparently I have to let the paint cure for what seems like forever, and b) I have to figure out where in the world to find custom cut glass to put on top of this sucker!

The painter comes on Monday, so this weekend will be a busy one. In the meantime, I'm headed to Pottery Barn outlet (for the 2nd time in 3 days because they were closed for inventory on Monday!) in hopes of finding bedding for new Mason's new room. I'd like to actually be able to match his walls to something! We are also hoping to transition Mason into a real bed with this move. We totally scored when a neighbor offered to give us rails and a boxspring. All we have to do it get a mattress!

On a side note, while I was writing this post, Maddie walks out . . .

Me: Hey Mad, what are you doing?

Her: I can't fall asleep!

Me: Maddie, you've been asleep for 3 hours.

Her: Oh

And she turns around and walks back into her room.

That kid cracks me up.

That's right, I totally conned the kids into going to bed at 7pm tonight. They didn't even have a clue!

Hey, Peter's out of town. Don't judge! :)

Maddie Happenings

2010-01-28T21:19:00.004-05:00

A lot has been going on in the magical world of Maddie, and I have been slow to update about them (my bad)!

Every Friday, Maddie's teacher picks a "star student". The star student is picked based off of behavior, manners, etc - essentially the student that exemplifies the qualities of a star student the week prior. Since the beginning of school, Maddie has talked about being star student. She had planned out in her head every detail of the star student poster that she would have to make. I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed she was EVERY Friday that she came home without the prestigious title of star student.

And then, 2 weeks ago, Maddie came home with Mr. Bear signifying her entrance into the star student club. She couldn't have been happier. Mr. Bear got to spend the weekend with us . . . accompanying us to a celebratory dinner of sushi, sleeping with her, and doing all of the other insignificant things we do on the weekends. Then she had to do a short write up of everything she did over the weekend with Mr. Bear. And then, her beloved poster was born. All that she had dreamed of came to life. At the end of the weekend, Maddie declared, "This star student stuff sure is hard work!" It was cute. She was cute. Love that kid!

Maddie with her friend, Maddie (not a typo!)

They also recently had the 100th day of school celebration. I don't ever remember celebrating this milestone, but celebrate they did! All of the kids dressed up as if they were 100 years old. Now, dress up has never really been my thing. Maddie is extremely opinionated. Put these two qualities together and it's nearly a recipe for disaster! Maddie insisted on wearing this particular dress . . . a dress that my grandmother made for my sister and my mom smocked the collar eons ago. In Maddie's mind, it probably WAS 100 years old. We added some baby powder to her hair to make it gray, but she's too blonde for it to work. She was cute anyways, with or without the gray hair!

Martha Stewart Watch Out . . .

2010-01-28T20:08:00.003-05:00

'Cause this chickie is getting crafty!

I found this blog that I absolutely love - Thrifty Decor Chick, and she has totally inspired me! I am decor challenged to say the least. We have very few window treatments, no real knick knacks (unless you count the toys that we have picked up from the ground and placed on top of the fireplace) . . . overall, we tend to be a little on the blah side.

When we bought our dining room furniture about 4 years ago, we absolutely loved it, but didn't really care for the fabric on the chairs. We vowed to change it. And here we are 4 years later, and I finally got the incentive I needed to change it . . . a great sale on decorator's fabric! So I went and grabbed tons on samples, hung them all over our walls, and finally settled on "the one". I had been quoted $300 to recover our chairs, but I took one apart and figured I could do it on my own. Here's the result:

Not too shabby! I did all 6 of our chairs in a day. The worst part of it all? The blisters! I could hardly squeeze the staple gun by the time I got to the 6th chair.

When I recovered the chairs, our current window treatments, which came with the house when we bought it and I never liked, didn't work anymore. And so began my mission for new window treatments. Who new a bay window would provide such issues? Outside of old school valances, it seems our choices are limited aside from spending a small fortune on custom ones. Luckily for us, we had a friend do some custom blinds for us a few years ago and they came with some really nice cornice boxes. So for now, I'm leaving them as is. But, in my quest for window treatment ideas, I came across the Thrify Decor Chick blog, and as I mentioned earlier, I am now inspired.

When we redid our bathroom this summer, we never addressed the windows. And they've remained bare ever since. I found some fabric that we loved when I found our dining room fabric. The Thrifty Decor Chick blog had a no sew roman shade explanation, and I thought it would be perfect for me! You know, since I can't even sew a stinkin' button on, my only option these days are "no sew". Check out the results:

I'm pretty impressed if I do say so myself! There's not a single stitch in these. No lie! It actually called for me to sew on some buttons for support, but, as I mentioned earlier, I can't even sew on a button, so I was left to my own devices! And, let me just say this . . . if I would have actually been able to sew on the buttons, I would have been SOL. Getting the folds just right took a lot of adjusting. I couldn't be more pleased with the results!

Next up . . . the big window in our bathroom. This one will be tougher. I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow, but since Mason won't be in school, it may not happen until the weekend. We'll see . . .

Luca comes to visit

2010-01-20T16:12:00.005-05:00

Mason and Luca are big buddies these days, and while Leah was still in the hospital, we kept Luca for an evening. When I offered for Luca to stay with us, I had forgotten that Peter was going to be out of town for the whole week. And because I am a gluton for punishment, I continued on with our overnight playdate. And it was a success!

These boys just love each other.

They played with Mason's train table.

Watched movies with their massive trucks.

Raced their big trucks around the house.

And then Mason dressed up. I don't know why, but Mason's latest obsession is putting on whatever hat he can get his little hands on and grabbing one of Maddie's "bags".

We also went to a bounce house, played at Chick-fil-A, and snuggled.

They were awesome, and Maddie was my big helper. I am just so thankful that these boys love each other so much. How lucky are they to be cousins!

Sophia's arrival . . . edited pictures and whatnot

2010-01-11T20:45:00.003-05:00

Peter has added his magic touch and I've just discovered I can imbed a slideshow into the blog. Score! So, presenting the "best of the best" from Sophia Maria's big day!

Birthday fun

2010-01-11T13:51:00.004-05:00

We weren't going to let my sister having a baby spoil our originally scheduled birthday celebrations! Oh no . . . we went on back to my Mom and Dad's house after visiting with Leah and Paolo and celebrated mine and my Dad's birthdays!

It was a long day and we were tired, but I'm never too tired to enjoy the awesome cooking of my mom or the birthday presents that accompanied the evening!

Mason and Maddie insisted on helping us unwrap our presents,

but I kind of like to open my own!

My mom made a coconut cake for my dad and an apple pie for me!

Something must have been incredibly funny, because I have a slew of pictures with Mason like this . . .

And then this one, which is just too cute not to include!

Sophia Maria has arrived

2010-01-11T13:37:00.006-05:00

My very precious niece arrived yesterday, January 10th, at 11:45am! Although she was born 3 weeks early, Mom and baby are doing fantastic!

We've been eagerly waiting Sophia's arrival. Leah has been in preterm labor since before Thanksgiving, so we knew is was just a matter of time.

We took about 250 pictures yesterday, but I'm just going to highlight the day. :)

Once Peter get's his hands on them and works his magic, we'll get them uploaded into a picasa album. Until then, these will have to do.

Mason was not happy at all about me having another baby in my arms!

But Maddie already loves her new cousin!

Luca kept saying that he loved his new baby. . . so sweet!

I'm pretty sure Luca is planning his escape route here!

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow~

2010-01-08T20:44:00.006-05:00

It has been a crazy couple of days.

A weeks worth of frigid temps coupled with rain led to early release for the kids on Thursday and school being cancelled on Friday.

Thursday was a bit hectic because we woke up to find my car battery was completely dead. Peter had a mid morning meeting to be at and both kids were scheduled for early release at the same time. I was a bit panicked, but Peter ran and bought a new battery for my car and installed it with just minutes to spare before he had to leave for his meetings. And he did it dressed in full business getup. My hero!

The snow began to fall Thursday afternoon and the kids were in heaven.

Tasting the snow

Then in the early evening we did a little sledding.

Headed to the golf course for a little sledding

Ready to go!

Today was bitterly cold. We were only able to spend a few minutes outside, but I think it was enough to satisfy our kiddos.

The "sledding" race

Even Harley loved the snow!

It's a lot easier to take pictures when they're not moving

2010-01-05T21:34:00.001-05:00

Sleeping Angel

2010-01-05T18:09:00.003-05:00

Charging the batteries.

Loving the new camera!

Practice Practice Practice

2010-01-03T10:39:00.003-05:00

Peter has been practicing a lot with his new camera and all of it's options.

I have been encouraging him to update his photo editing software.

And he did, and here are his results

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T09:07:00.007-05:00

Happy New Year!

As we've done for the last several years, we rung in the New Year with our BFFs the McCords. This year we were missing lil' Hank, but Miss Ella Kate had no problems entertaining my two rugrats!

The girls played with their dolls

Kristen's Ipod was on overdrive as we had our usual dance party

We toasted with Sparkling Grape juice around 9:30

And then we broke out the Sparklers

And at the end of the evening . . . the kids were exhausted! A perfect way to end the year!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

We're Back!

2010-01-02T08:20:00.002-05:00

So, our move to Wordpress didn't last too long. We keep our blog pretty heavy with pictures and Wordpress just made it too difficult. I hated it there. I also hated the way it formatted the blog when viewed through a feedreader.

Sooooooo, here we are! We sucked it up and purchased more space. A whopping $5 investment. In our defense, it wasn't $5 when we moved over to wordpress. I'm cheap, but not that cheap! They've just reduced the price. And so we're back.

Ahhhh, home . . . how we've missed you!

Hopefully this move will inspire me to post more often!

New Home

2009-09-24T12:38:00.000-04:00

Please come visit our blog at it's new home . . .

http://jojablog.wordpress.com/

Thanks!

How we framed our mirror

2009-09-02T09:05:00.001-04:00

Because we searched and searched and found very little information on how to frame a mirror, I thought I'd share our experience.

We knew we wanted to stain our mirror frame, which meant we needed to buy wood trim. Now, if we didn't mind painting the frame, we could have used fiberboard or PVC molding. Either of those choices would have saved us a lot of heartache because they don't warp.

We bought our trim, measured and made the necesarry cuts. We then stained both sides and all edges of the boards with several coats. Once completely dry I put about 3 coats of polyurethane on to seal it and give it some shine.

And it looked beautiful! And then we realized there was some warping on the 2 longer boards. And then the panic set in because we had no idea what to do at this point.

After many failed attempts, we finally came up with a solution (with the help from a mirror company). We actually assembled the frame, putting a couple staples in the back on each corner and then adheared it to the mirror with Scotch's Super Heavy Duty indoor/outdoor double sided tape. Reagular heavy duty double sided tape WILL NOT work (we tried it). This stuff is the bomb though. We taped every inch of the perimeter of the frame. I feel confident that if a bomb went off, our frame will still be standing. This stuff holds 5 lbs per inch and is weather resistant. The last thing I did was seal the edges with some silicone. And, whalla!

How Scotch saved my marriage

2009-08-31T20:39:00.002-04:00

Scotch tape that is.

I've mentioned our home improvements before. Maybe once. Okay, twice. Or possibly even three times, but come on, this has totally consumed our lives for the last several months! :)

Anyhoo . . . we're pretty much finished. Except, we had plan to "frame in" our bathroom mirror. The massive mirror that runs wall to wall. So we go and buy the wood. Stain it to match our furniture. While Peter was traveling for work I finished up the final staining and added some polyurethane and it's ready for installation. We hold it up and it's just perfect.

Except . . . how in the world are we going to attach the molding to our mirror?

Liquid Nails? Nope, apparently we didn't notice the label that clearly states . . . not for use on mirrors.

Epoxy? Not that either

Many other adhesives that I don't even remember? Nope, not those either.

So, we call up a glass and mirror company and ask for their recommendation. And you know what they said? . . . wait for it . . . DOUBLE SIDED TAPE!

Not even kidding.

And it worked. Beautifully. So, after many adhesive attempts, which led to some serious bickering within the household, we found our solution. And it looked beautiful.

"looked" being the operative word here. As in past tense.

So today, while sealing the edges with a recommended silicone, it now looks crappy. The clear silicone is no longer clear, but cloudy.

And this, my friends, is why we should hire professionals. Because we have officially spent more on our "do it ourselves" project than if we had just paid somebody to do it for us.

Lovely.

This is a test.

2009-08-19T21:22:00.003-04:00

Out of room

2009-08-19T16:24:00.000-04:00

Apparently I have run out of room for pictures.

Not sure what to do now.

Hmm.

We Have Furniture!

2009-08-12T11:26:00.001-04:00

I just finished putting together our furniture and am so excited!
Looks pretty good, huh!

Renovations comlete . . . almost!

2009-08-10T19:55:00.005-04:00

The renovations are nearly complete, but at the requests of loyal fans (aka: my mom), I am posting pictures of the nearly finished product(s). So, let's check out the before and after pics, shall we?

The bathroom

Before:

Yes, it's a little vague and during demolition, but you can see from this picture how
awful it was!

After:

The Deck

Before:

So, the deck . . . it's rickety (which you can't see in the pic), and has incredibly dangerous and ugly stairs, and not big enough to be truly useful

After:

We couldn't be more pleased with the way it is all turning out. The bathroom is FABULOUS. I just need Peter to frame in the mirror, add quarter round to the baseboards, then touch up trim and walls, and complete!

The deck is just a few days from being complete as well. We just have to put up our storm door (on order) and then do our walk through and we'll be done. And guess what?! It won't be BYOC (bring your own chair) after all! Thankfully Home Depot had furniture we liked on sale and we were able to complete our deck furnishings! Peter is going to build a new stand for the Big Green Egg, but that's about it required from us on our end!

The next big thing.

2009-08-05T22:11:00.002-04:00

Were taking this thing Viral.

Feel free to pass this along in an email (Jackie, it is possible to forward an email that was not forwarded to you).

Blast from the Past

2009-08-05T22:08:00.000-04:00

11/20/2007

Like father like son

2009-08-04T21:40:00.003-04:00

He may get his good looks from his Momma . . . he definitely gets his talent from his Daddy . . .