Long time no talk...

So yeah, we're all still alive and kickin'. The kicking part is literal. How many more weeks until school starts?

I'm having some issues with my blog. I am thinking of deleting it. Not sure. What do you all think?

CrAzY!!!!

Got lots to say, but not enough time to say it. Here is a cliff-notes version of what we've been doing:

• Over the weekend, we went yard sale-ing. FUN!! My kids love it as much as I do. Chris was at the temple with the YM, so I took all 3 kids w/ me. We totally scored! Mucho projects coming!!!
• Sunday we went to Stake Conference. There isn't a church in the area that can accommodate our entire stake, so they rented out a ball room in the Embassy Suites. It was still so crowded that Mason and Addi had to sit on the floor. So weird to go to church at a hotel.
• Chris worked. A lot! Like usual. He had a good birthday. I suck at giving presents. He knew all 3 of his gifts before he even opened them. I tried so hard too. I should have him give me lessons on how to be a good gift giver.
• Mason had soccer practice and a game on Saturday, went on a field trip to the zoo on Monday and got an award for being the top reader in his class! Go Mason! (Today I was helping him with his homework and he is starting to add double digits. Seriously, double digits in first grade?!!??)
• Addi did the monkey bars at home and at the park for the millionth time and had a gigantic blister on the palm of her hand to show for it. For getting all her points this week (we use a behavior point system) she and I went on a date. We ate at Subway, then went to Claires, Kohls and Target. She was soooo cute. At Kohls, they were selling Kung Fu Panda stuffed animals. Mason has been talking about that movie for months. So she bought him one of the pandas. Isn't that so sweet!! At Claires, she browsed through everything, finally settling on a princess necklace with 3 different charms and some flower earrings. I had as much fun as she did. I think she is only going to get more fun as she grows up!!
• Kannon is starting to get one of his top, middle teeth. He has been so delightful, even with teething. He is taking really good naps and eating really well too. Sleeping at night, eh, not so much! oh well :)
• I have been trying to keep up with everyone and everything. I did a couple of photo shoots. Both sets of pictures had issues, so I'm getting a new laptop tomorrow. GO me!!

That's pretty much it. School gets out in 3 days...BOOOO HOOOOO!! But we leave for Utah in 22 days! YAY!

no pictures tonight because I'm too lazy.

Chris

Today is my sweetie's birthday! I am so thankful and grateful for him. He is the BEST!!! Here are 35 things about him on his 35th birthday:

• He is the hardest working man alive.


• He is FUNNY!


• He loves Mountain Dew


• He is a fun and very devoted dad.


• He puts up with me!


• He has worked for the same company for 12 years.


• He drives a crappy car so I can drive a nice one.


• He is incredibly generous.


• He is very complimentary to me in everything I do (He loves my cooking, home decorating, scrapbook projects, etc)


• He helps with anything I ask him to do, such as assembling Christmas cards or birthday invitations.


• He joined the church in 2006 and we are a forever family now.


• He loves my mama as much as I do.


• He is easy going.


• He lets me control the checkbook and never gets mad at me about it.


• He deals with my freakiness-handwashing, being a know-it-all, germaphobe, etc.


• He is hands down the best gift giver I have ever seen.


• His favorite color is black.


• He has really long fingers and freakishly long nail beds. (I tell him that all the time)


• He listens to metal music.


• He is super smart and can figure out almost anything.


• He snores like crazy. He says I do too, but I think it's just himself he hears. :)


• He is very handsome!!


• He didn't ever have facial hair until I asked him to grow a goatee to see what it looked like on him. Now he has had one for about 7 years and I love it!


• His favorite holiday is Christmas, just like mine.


• He took the day off from work today so we could just hang out. It was lovely!


• He has a very strong sense of duty.


• He doesn't care how I decorate the house, except his office.


• He takes very good care of his shoes. They are always very shiny.


• He treats me like a princess and spoils me rotten.


• He is going to be really busy this weekend with church stuff and I will miss him.


• He always tells me I'm beautiful even when I have crazy morning hair and breath.


• He has special nick names for each of our kids and it's soooo cute!


• He was in the Army.


• He has one sister who we miss alot. She lives in Oklahoma. (Hi Mel, if you're reading this.)


• He is the best husband and father in the world. We are so lucky to have him in our lives.

Happy Birthday sweetie! I love you!

Motherhood

Aren't there some days when you want to run screaming from your house, pulling your hair out as you go? In my big struggle moments, I often mumble that I need a vacation. When my kids ask me where we're going, I say I'm going anywhere....ALONE!!! No one ever told me how hard this job would be. Although I should have known those times my brother and I hid under the table my mom was decorating wedding cakes on and "accidentally" bumped it, would come back to haunt me.



Today I received an email from a list I am on that linked to a story called Surviving on the Mercies of Motherhood. I just nodded and shook my head as I read it. The following paragraph even brought a little tear to my eye:



"So here’s my theory: Heavenly Father knew how challenging motherhood would be for each of us—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. So He sends us “mother mercies.” You know the moments—the ones that sneak up on you and make you smile or laugh—or teary-eyed. It’s like the time I caught a whiff of my five-year-old and realized he’d put on his daddy’s deodorant that morning. Or when he used to pray nightly, “Please bless that morning will come in five minutes.” It’s the time I found a bar of soap in my bathroom with one (and only one) set of teeth marks in it. Or when my preschooler asked me, “Why did Jesus cover our bones with skin?”



These "motherhood mercies" are what make me sooooooooooooo grateful to be a mother. Getting spit up on, refereeing sibling wars, changing poopy diapers, finding half eaten pizza under the couch and 3-4x nightly wakings are all worth it when Kannon grabs my face and snuggles into me, Addi writes me love notes and tells me I'm beautiful and Mason wants to hold my hand in public. I love being a mommy!



Happy Mothers Day to all of you!

Memory Monday

Since I am lame and can't think of what else to write, I'm going to jump on this band wagon and see if I can keep up with it.

I was just thinking earlier how naive and judgemental I used to be about motherhood. I thought being a stay at home mom was so easy. Oh sure, I knew there were moments that could be difficult, but as a whole...easy peasy. Um yeah-then I became a stay at home mom and now I KNOW that it's dang hard. I also used to have all these grand ideas about what my future kids would and would not do. hahahaha! I said that my kids would never sleep with me, would not have tv's in their rooms, wouldn't ever have snot noses, would be perfectly groomed at all times and that I wouldn't be one of those mom's who screamed at her kids in Walmart.

Ok, reality check.

• Addi slept with me since the day she was born until about a year ago. Now she (sometimes) goes to sleep in her room, but usually comes into my room in the middle of the night. Kannon starts out in his bed, but always ends up in mine.


• Both big kids have tv's and dvd players in their rooms.


• Mason regularly wipes his snotty nose on his arm. As often as I've threatened to Chlorox his arms and hands, you would think he wouldn't, but oh yes, he still does. He freaks out at the sound of someone blowing their nose, so he refuses.


• Both of the big kids hate snaps or buttons on their pants. Also, ALL shirts must be tagless. So my choices are very limited in the cute department for their clothing. They are both mess magnets too and constantly spill ketchup or chocolate milk in themselves. Addi is getting tons better about letting me do her hair though.


• I am always the mom screaming at her kids in Walmart. I don't know what it is about that store, but the second we walk in there, we all lose our minds. The kids misbehave and I turn into momzilla.

We had a pretty good weekend. Saturday we went to our Stake Primary Activity in Mount Juliet. It was pretty fun. Afterwards we had to run a few errands before coming back to Smyrna for Mason's soccer game. (He's back to playing again. I had a talk with him and told him that he needed to stick it out and that he could have a big treat right before his game for energy. He is tearing it up and really enjoying it now.) That night Chris was going to go out with the missionaries, but the family they were going to teach cancelled. Sunday we had church. Then Chris did fast offerings with his deacons. We ate dinner, played games and I worked on my many projects (mothers day, teacher gifts etc) and edited pictures for a client.

I know I'm lame, but I can't think of anything else to write. So I guess I'll just end with pictures of my babes. Addi (she got her face painted from family night a Chick-fil-a) and Kannon taking swing in the back yard. And baby K just being super cute!

Our playroom

Here is my disclaimer: I take pictures of people, not rooms so these pictures aren't the best quality. Please don't judge my photography by these crappy pictures. :)

#1 BEFORE: This is the 2nd before actually. I don't have a photo of what it looked like before I started the first time. We had a set of bookshelves in here for the longest time, with baskets that held toys. My kids aren't in to playing with toys the way they used to be so I reorganized and put the shelves in Addi's room. I added the office area so I could have a place to put my laptop to edit photos for my photography. On the wall, Mason and Addi's pictures were in a row on the green stripe painted across the room. But when we had Kannon I didn't know what to do with his pictures. So I painted the rectangles. But they look so cheesy, so I had to think of something else.




#2 DURING: I painted the 2 of the smaller walls and a large stripe on one of the vaulted walls green. I was afraid that the color was too flourescent (hello 80's punk green) but now that the stuff is back in there on the walls, I like it more.






#3, 4 AFTER I am so happy to be done. Well, pretty much done. There are always odds and ends to finish. Here are some of the things I did:
Picture ledge- I bought a 1 x 4 and a 1x 3 both 9 ft long, screwed them together then spray painted them. Cost of about $15. I painted a bunch of different picture frames I had black to match. The letters (A,M, K) are paper mache from Joann that I painted the colors in the curtains.
Bookshelf- the IKEA expedit. I have had my eye on it forever. I was planning on making a trip to Atlanta to get one, but luckily I found one on Craigs List for $100. The baskets and containers are various ones I've purchased from Target. The colorful ones are shoe boxes that I covered with scrapbook paper, then clear contact paper.

In the large space between the bookshelf and picture ledge I am planning a artwork holder for my kids' masterpieces. I'll post that when I finish it.

#5 Office Area: The magnet board and cork board were in other areas of my house. I just spray painted them to match and hung them here. The fabric for the chair cover and curtains came from Hobby Lobby. I can't follow a pattern, so I just made it up as I went. I ripped up the carpet and laid 12 x 12 floor tiles from Lowe's. They were only $1 a piece. I thought it would be so easy. Yeah, it was A LOT more work than I thought. I wanted to do the entire floor, but the office area was so much work so I only did there. I do love the way it turned out. To the right of the office area is my scrapbook room, aka closet. The tiles go into there.


I didn't post pictures of the other wall. It has the kids' computer and the play kitchen. I have also hung some old windows that are framing pictures of my kids and some reproduction game boards. I like the idea of putting game boards on the wall in the playroom.

I hope this all makes sense. It was lots of work, but I love decorating, so it was lots of fun too. It's a happy, colorful eclectic space that our entire family uses now.

Playing catch up

2 weekends ago was the air show at the Smyrna airport. We live really close so we got to see the airplanes practicing the week leading up to it. Our neighbor is in the Air Force and had tickets so she invited us to go. Chris took the big kids, while I stayed home with the little man. They all had a blast! It was really cold and windy so we didn't plan for the sun and everyone got way sunburned. Oops. Addi got to bounce on one of those bungy jump things and loved it. They also got to sit in an airplane and see the Navy Blue Angel planes up close.



The weather has been really nice. We've been playing outside almost every day. And yes, that's Kannon in his jammies outside in the afternoon. Some days are just like that. Mason has been riding his big boy bike that was too big for him last year. Addi has been riding her scooter and begging Chris to take the training wheels off her big girl bike. We've also been going for walks almost every night.

On Tuesday Kannon and I got to go on Addi's field trip to the Nashville Zoo. It was the perfect day to go. Now I know that Addi isn't the only drama whiney girl. You would have thought those Kindergarteners were being tortured with all the whining that was going on. "I'm tired," "My feet hurt," "I'm thirsty," "I don't see any animals," "I can't walk anymore," etc. I'm just glad I chose to drive and didn't have to ride the bus, with no air conditioning, home.

Let's see, what else have we been doing? Mason started and then quit soccer, Addi is now done with dancing - we wil lbe in Utah for her recital so she doesn't get to perform in it, Kannon is doing patty cake now and it is THE cutest thing ever (the video is posted below), I am almost done with my playroom re do. I just have a few little details left and I will post some pictures. I guess that's about it for now. I have tons more stuff to post about the many projects I have been doing but I'll save it for the next one. Have a great weekend!!!!