August 28, 2012

Monster Truckin'

Mine and Ryan's 5 year anniversary was August 11th...which just so happened to coincide with the big Back to School Monster Truck Bash at the Charlotte Speedway.  Our boys really love their monster trucks, and this is a once a year event, so we put the romance aside for awhile and off we went!  And since his grandsons have converted him into a monster truck fan as well, my dad (Papa), came up and went with us too.

We started at the pit party and got pictures with all the trucks and even a few of our favorite drivers.  Austin and Papa rode Sergeant Smash and it was a big hit.  Owen was fascinated, and apparently a little hungry because he kept sneaking up to the people behind us and stealing their food.  Austin's favorite truck, Stone Crusher, won both events and I couldn't wait to see how excited he'd be...until he told me that Stone Crusher was now his old favorite truck and his new favorite trucks were Equalizer and Hooked.  I should have realized that when Stone Crusher did so well that Austin was going to lose interest.  My boy loves an underdog!!

 Austin posing with his "former" favorite truck

Owen watching Sergeant Smash do his thing. 

 A rare photo with me in it!
 Big Tires!
How many children can you fit in a monster truck tire?? 


Austin and Papa after riding in the truck.

Me and Austin with our favorite driver, Jim Koehler.

Austin with Steve Sims, Stone Crusher's driver.

"Hands on your knees, hands on your knees..."

"You see dat??"



August 11, 2012

Project Playroom: Chalkboard Table

One of my "must-haves" while we were house hunting was that it had to have a space that I could use for the boys' playroom.  I was tired of having my living room covered in toys that I had to clean up several times a day and the boys needed a bigger space all their own to play in.  The new house has a formal sitting room downstairs that ended up being perfect for project playroom.

It is still a work in progress, but coming along pretty good so far!  I hope to do a whole blog tour once we're a little more settled, but I do want to share my super easy, super cheap and super fun chalkboard table project since it's one of the first things I accomplished after we moved in.

I am so grateful that we have an IKEA less than 10 minutes from our house and a lot of my projects involve cheap IKEA finds.  This table was less than $20 and was fairly easy to assemble on my own.  Out of the box it is a natural wood color with a white top and seats so there are tons of possibilities.  I chose to add a  couple coats of orange spray paint and with some swipes of chalkboard paint on top...voila!  Easy chalkboard table!!

FYI - I have since added a hook and a small bucket on the outside to hold the chalk and erasers.  Chalk storage is key, as I learned rather quickly.  Otherwise you'll find chalk all over your house, it will get stepped on and end up as multicolored dust all over your new floors!!


August 9, 2012

Pretty Pink Polish

So, one day last week I was in the kitchen putting away some dishes, Owen was napping and Austin was playing with his cars quietly on the stairs.  It was a typical weekday afternoon...except that Austin was quiet, which is most certainly NOT typical.  However, before I put 2 and 2 together and realized that I was doing household chores alone and quietly while my 3 year old was awake...I see him walking towards me with a huge grin on his face.

Uh Oh!

Before I could ask, he says to me, "Hi!  I'm Mommy" and holds out his hands.....


Of course my first reaction was to panic and run around looking for spilled pink polish on our brand new carpet.  Luckily I found the bottle upright, closed up tightly and sitting on the stairs where Austin had been playing.  Then I was finally able to "admire" his work (and make a mental note to hide all my nail polish in the future).  Now, there's nothing really wrong with a 3 year old boy wanting to be like his mom and paint his nails pink, but just for good measure we decided it couldn't hurt to go play a few games of monster truck racing and superheroes....


August 8, 2012

Confessions and Updates!!

Well hey there...remember me?  It's been so long that I barely remember how to work this thing anymore.  I haven't even taken a peek at this blog in months or even considered writing again, but for some reason tonight just seemed like a good night to give it a try and possibly get back in the swing of things.

This blog was a huge part of my life for so long, but honestly, life just got in the way.  I have really missed updating this online scrapbook about my boys' lives and the adventures of our family.  It was not only a place to jot down some awesome memories for my own future reference, but a way of letting friends and family know how we were doing and what we were up to.  My mom especially loved my blogs and it's been difficult to write them knowing she's not able to read them anymore.

It's been a little over 8 months since she's been gone now.  Her sudden passing really sent me into some dark places, a depression if you will, and it's been a daily struggle to deal with so many of those emotions.  I often don't feel like the same person I was just 8 short months ago but I'm fighting now to get that person back.

Back in my busy blogging days I took my camera everywhere just in case a blogworthy moment popped up.  I wrote down the funny things the boys did or said so I wouldn't forget to share it in my next post.  I even made sure we had exciting adventures as often as possible so I could fill the blog with our fun family memories.  I'm hoping that re-starting this blog will bring some of that back.

So, without further adieu, let me catch you up on some things!

-In April we celebrated Easter at Papa's house as well as his 61st birthday.  We spent a lot of time outdoors in the beautiful Spring weather, rode scooters, went strawberry picking, attended a few baseball games, met Braves legend, Dale Murphy, and met up with friends in Columbia for Toy Story on Ice and Tyler's 4th birthday.














-In May we celebrated Owen's 2nd birthday, attended Austin's end of the year preschool party, went to Tiger World, did a lot of swimming and some slip 'n sliding, had Austin's last t-ball game of the season and watched our first major hail storm.










-In June we went to the beach, saw a good friend get married, Austin caught his first crab, Owen had his first glass of sweet tea and stayed awake for about 14 hours straight and after months of looking we bought a new house!!









-In July we packed...and packed...and moved...and moved...and cleaned...and unpacked...and moved some more...and continued unpacking and made several trips to Lowe's and spent way too much money on U-hauls and blinds and paint and furniture, etc., etc.  We also celebrated the 4th of July at our local park, had a huge yard sale, played in the pool, ate popsicles on the porch and Austin started swim lessons.










So there ya have it...4 months in one post!  Whew!  Still with me?  Hope so...and hopefully a lot more where this came from in the near future!!!

May 10, 2012

Owen's 2nd Birthday!

Owen turned 2 years old last Friday.  Has it really been 2 years already?!  He's growing up so fast, and believe it or not, getting cuter and sweeter by the day!  On his actual birthday Owen was treated to some of his favorite foods, more presents than he knew what to do with and about 375 renditions of the Happy Birthday song.  He blew out his birthday candle no less than 10 times but didn't touch his cake.  (He sure didn't get his odd distaste for cake from me!!)  Luckily I had some chocolate chip cookies on hand and those seemed to suffice.  :-)

 Taking a bite of his birthday french toast!
We couldn't wait ALL day for daddy to get home...so we had to open a few presents a little early.  You can see Austin throwing a tantrum in the background because I wouldn't let him open all of Owen's presents.  Hard lesson to learn for a 3 year old....

Yay for finger paints!!  Owen loves to get his hands dirty.

Enjoying a few of his other gifts once AmMa and Daddy got there!

Our big gift to Owen was this little motorized Thomas car since he's too small to drive Austin's Power Wheels.

This is Owen's reaction when he saw Thomas...
Priceless!


Owen enjoyed a birthday dinner of a turkey dog, tater tots and corn.  Just a couple of his faves.

Happy Birthday round 1!


Saturday morning we were up bright and early for Austin's 8am t-ball game and then home to get ready for Owen's big birthday bash!!  We had his party at one of his favorite places, Romp n' Roll, and it was tons of fun.  Afterwards we came home to open even more awesome presents, eat some pizza and enjoy our company.  It was a busy but super fun weekend.

Yummy birthday cupcakes!

Had a blast making these candy trains...thanks Pinterest!!

Party hats and Owen's framed party invite

The favors...candy trains!

Loved how cute this sign turned out!

Owen for 2!!

Trying to get that bouncy castle up as fast as possible!

Having a blast!!

The clean up game had those kiddos working hard!

Singing Itsy Bitsy Spider with friend Eli

Laughing with big brother and Salem

Cake Time!

Blowing out his candle!  Loved all the cute kiddos in their party hats!

Again, no interest in the cake, but boy did he enjoy that juice box!!

This photo op was a fail!!

Popping bubbles!

3 cute 2 year olds bouncing away!


Owen and Salem chatting away about the letters on the window.

Opening more awesome new toys!!

This boy is going to be riding around the neighborhood in style now!!



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