Everly's Nursery

So, I am posting quick pics of Everly's nursery so I can finally print my blog book for 2016! :) GG sewed and shopped and I crafted and shopped and we came up with a yellow and teal theme nursery for Everly! I love every bit of it! GG's friend embroidered Everly on the bumper pad too and it is precious! Here's the pictures!

Friday Favorites: Weather, Recipe, Gymnastics, Conversations, and more!

Here are some of my favorite things from this past week:

ONE

After an afternoon of thunderstorms and tornadoes and watching the news constantly on the computer, Atticus and Grace decided to make a shelter for their legos and princesses and ponies. The next day:

Atticus: "Daddy are the storms over yet?"
Vic: "I think so, why?"
Atticus: "I need to know if my legos can go back to legoland or if they need to stay in their shelter."

During the storm, out of the blue, I hear:

Atticus: "Mommy, we have two options: we can take shelter or we can panic. I choose panic!" and then he runs around like a crazy 5 year old.

And a couple other funny, non-weather related statements:

Atticus (talking about Everly): "She's just so cute I can't keep my eye off her." (note that it is a singular eye; not both. Every time, he says it this way.)

Atticus talking to Everly from a few feet away: "Oh Everly; look over here." (as Everly bobbles her head around and doesn't look at him)
Me: "Everly probably can't see you very well. Babies can't see very far away when they are little."
Atticus: "Yeah, but they do have their instincts."
**um...what?"
 

TWO

These kids are really into using their imaginations lately. They will play so well together or apart and I haven't heard too many phrases of "What can I do? I don't know what to do." The funny thing is that sometimes they are SO proud of how well they are using their imaginations and will tell me. And Grace will say "ima-ination". And sometimes when they know is having fun, the other will tell me so sadly that they do not have ANY imaginations and the other one does...as if it's a tangible object.

THREE

This week, we started gymnastics for the kids at Power Sports in College Station. Or as Atticus sometimes calls it "Nim-gastics" and Grace calls it "Nim-Nastics". I get it; it's a tough word. So, we attend at 4:15 for 50 minutes every Wednesday for 6 weeks. They start out stretching together and then they break up each year (2 thru 5) into groups. This week they rotated and did trampolines, balance beams, somersaults, and hopscotch. The kids had a great time! And while Atticus isn't very limber, I was SO proud of him for trying something new, although at the end he told me "Balance beams aren't really my thing." ha! But, he really liked the trampoline. The only bad part...we were soaked through with rain when we arrived. It started POURING a few minutes before we left our house and even after trying to wait it out in the parking lot, the rain didn't stop. And, Grace fell asleep on the way over. So, after I get Atticus out and have him holding an umbrella, I get sleepy Grace out. And keep in mind it is not just raining, but POURING! Then, I tell them to start walking the long sidewalk to the covered area. I grab Everly in her carseat and thankfully have a carseat cover that kept her completely dry. So, I start walking and the kids have barely moved. Grace is getting wet and doesn't want to walk and when I do get them walking, they must think that you have to walk slower under an umbrella. Oh my goodness! I was getting drenched because I didn't have an umbrella and thought "oh I don't mind getting a little wet as long as the kids stay dry". I didn't think we would ever get to that covered area and door. Then, we get inside the door, dry off and I ask where we are supposed to go and they tell me it's the second building for their classes. Oh my. So, back under the umbrella, walking slowly, with carseat in hand, we head to the second building. At this point, I'm nervous Grace is so overwhelmed because she just woke up and is wet and cold and confused, that she may not easily go into the gym class. But, thankfully, she and Atticus were together and Atticus put his little hand on her back and led her in there. By that point, he was excited, so she was fine too. And, then the class was great! The building is two story so you have lots of windows to look through to see them in each area of the class and even on a TV monitor upstairs. So, when Atticus spotted me, he smiled and waved. But, when Grace spotted me, she smiled really big and then put her fingers in her mouth and gave me her "token silly face". It was so funny because the other kids were doing their thing and she is looking like a crazy kid! Hopefully there will be no rain next week because this week was really fun for the kids!

 Here they are stretching in their class.

 Here is Atticus on the trampoline.

 Here is Grace on the balance beam; we could watch her on the TV screen.

FOUR

We started Family Book Club this week. We read the book The Day The Crayons Quit and did a bunch of activities associated with it. I copied this exact idea and every activity from a blog I follow. I plan to do some more this summer and just copy her ideas. I have these grand ideas to get on pinterest and dream these up on my own, but let's be honest here....3 kids. Anyways, I am going to blog about Family Book Club in a separate post. But, it took 3 hours of our day and was a success!

FIVE

One of my favorite things this week involved conversations with Grace. She is hilarious. The other day, while she and Atticus were playing, I heard them calling each other "Sweetie" and "honey". And, yesterday while I went to check on Everly, who was crying and up from her nap, Grace followed me in there and said "Evva-wee, sweetie, what's wrong?"  

Everything she can try lately is said with pride: "I do it myseff!"

She also knows what a selfie is. And yesterday she brought me her toy makeup mirror and said "Mom, wetts take a seffie". 

SIX

The kids have been playing outside a lot lately with neighborhood friends. So, yesterday, I took a photo of Vic in front of our house. Check out the difference in both trees. The tree on the bottom is the same tree as in the top picture on the right. We moved into our house 7 years ago in July and this is how much it has grown. Vic loves his trees and really does a great job trimming them each year and helping them grow!

SEVEN

Meals. We had 13 people bring us food after we had Everly. I was shocked. We got evening meals, breakfast muffins, desserts, and some even brought Atticus and Grace gifts as well. And, it was amazing! Knowing that dinner was coming or having a sweet or treat for the kids was just so fun. If you know someone who is having a baby, do something for them. They will appreciate it so much! Anyways, this recipe is my favorite this week. Someone brought it to us as one of our evening meals and it was so tasty. I even made it for a friend this week who had a baby. It's easy and still filling for an evening meal...especially if you eat as many in one sitting as Vic and I can eat. Plus, the kids liked it! Here it is:

Hawaiian Ham and Swiss Sliders

Ingredients:

1 large packages Hawaiian Sweet Dinner Rolls 

1 package deli sandwich ham (or about 3/4 pound)

12 Swiss cheese slices (we also have used provolone)

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 Tbsp. poppy seeds

1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tsp. brown or dijon mustard

1 tsp. onion powder

Slice tops from rolls and place bottoms in baking pan. Layer ham and cheese on rolls. Replace tops. Combine butter, poppy seeds, Worcestershire, mustard and onion powder and mix well. Drizzle over rolls. Refrigerate until butter is firm or overnight. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook 2 additional minutes. Serve warm or cold. 

EIGHT

And, finally, my last favorite of the week is this little 7 week old girl, who by the way, has slept 12 to 13 hours in a row starting at about midnight to about 1 the next day and only waking for about an hour and a half in the middle to nurse. Amazing! The other two did NOT do this. Fingers crossed that it will last! However, the not so easy side...from about 6 to midnight, she is only happy when held, eating or asleep in your arms and if she's awake, she prefers that you are walking her around. She knows it's the end of the day and we have two other kids, right?

Holding Hands

So, on Wednesday, we stayed at home all day in our comfy clothes and played, made some flubber, made Valentines candy for Atticus' party, didn't take any naps, and went in and out all day tracking sand all over my kitchen. However, it was a fun day! The cutest part involved Atticus and Grace holding hands. Grace has recently been into holding Atticus' hand. Sometimes he is patient and walks slow and takes pride in helping her. Other times, he is a rascal and pulls her too fast or doesn't want to help her. But, on Wednesday, he was into it. He would take her hand to lead her outside and to lead her around the house. She was so proud to hold his hand as well and obeyed perfectly. At one point, he is leading her through the kitchen and looks at me and says so proudly, "Mommy! I think I'm falling in love with Gwacie, Mommy and Daddy!" I love that his thoughts of "falling in love" are with his family! I am looking forward to teaching him more and more how to play with Grace and how to be a big brother to look out for her and be her friend.

Craft Room Renovation

So, this past week, the kids and I loaded up to head to Melbo & GG's house. A month or so before, Molly and I decided that we wanted to help them re-arrange and re-organize rooms so that GG could have her craft room downstairs and the guest bedroom upstairs. Their house is built so that two of the bedrooms are on one end of the house. One of those is GG's bedroom and one is the guest room that is really only used now when Vic and the kids and I come into town. Then upstairs is one giant room that has always been the sewing room or craft storage room, etc. It also leads to the attic. So many clothes have been sewn upstairs and Molly and I have had so many 4H projects, goat showing outfits, goat show banners, prom dresses, etc. sewn for us or by us upstairs with Melbo and GG. We have lots of memories of using the seam ripper too many times, as well as watching countless chick flick movies while doing our projects. It is a great room! But, these days, Melbo and GG tend to do their sewing or scrapbooking or crocheting or anything else downstairs and the upstairs tends to be a catch-all as well as general storage area. So, it was decided that the guest bedroom downstairs be used instead as the craft room. This could house ALL of GG's scrapbooking stuff as well as both of their sewing machines. I was really excited to do this project because 1) I love a good clean-out and re-organization project and 2) It was going to be such a better place for GG to scrapbook and sew. Her room can finally be used as just a bedroom and not so crowded with all of her projects.

Anyways, the kids and I left Vic for a week to come to Aubrey on a Thursday. Molly and I spent the majority of the first two days just hauling things downstairs for Melbo and GG to go through to toss or keep, as well as moving piles around upstairs. By Saturday, we were ready for Charley to help us exchange furniture from upstairs to downstairs and vice versa. Then, by Sunday afternoon, we had all of the crazy clutter we had hauled downstairs either loaded up to take away or put back in it's place. This was very important, as Pa was being driven nuts by seeing all of that stuff everywhere. He can't stand clutter. We took a break Sunday afternoon. This is also when I went to Ana and Charley's house for a "Bachelor Wedding" party with Ana and a couple of her friends. Sean and Catherine, from The Bachelor, were getting married on TV! I couldn't miss it! Then, Monday we did some more cleaning and organizing after I took Grace to the doctor. She had fever for three days, so I assumed ear infection, but apparently it was just the crud. Fortunately, she was fine. Then, Tuesday, we all (with the kids) made a trip to Frisco to The Container Store (one of my most favorite places!) to finish purchasing some organizing items for GG's scrapbooking room. By Tuesday night, we were all sore, exhausted, but so happy with the end results. The upstairs is now a cozy guest bedroom with two beds to house my entire little family of 4 when we travel. And the attic is cleaned up and organized, except for the 1000 baskets that have accumulated that we still need go through a toss/keep process on. The downstairs bedroom is now a fabulous scrapbooking room that GG is still working on getting setup so she can craft away!

Not only was it such a productive week, but it was so fun to do with Molly! Molly and I can be a really good team when we set our minds to a project. I had such a great time!

I don't have any before pictures, although I don't think Molly and I will ever forget how it looked before. But, here are a couple of after panoramic pictures. The first is of the craft room. At this point, GG doesn't have any of her things on the wall for scrapbooking or her new TV, but you can get the idea. And the second one is also a panoramic of the upstairs room. Lots of storage for Melbo's painting and canvases, fabric, and notions, plus a dresser, queen and twin bed, plus a childrens corner and all of GG's books from Kindergarten. I think there have to be at least 300 books there!

Home Ownership

Well, things are supposed to strike in threes, right? Earlier in August, we had a water leak that ended up being leaking condensation from the air conditioner. Plumber called; problem fixed. Then, on Saturday night, our A/C stopped blowing cool air. A/C company called; problem fixed. Then, last night, both a part in our toilet went out, as well as our water pressure dropped really low. So, this morning we called a plumber again; problem now fixed.

Sometimes owning a home has a lot of unexpected expenses; expenses that really cut into my shopping habit! Hopefully our house is problem free for awhile.

Bathtime & Bedtime

When Mary & Taylor were in town, Mary (of Mary Verett Photography) took some pictures of just regular activities in our house. This included bath time. She got the absolute sweetest pictures of my two little ones. And, since I am going to decorate the kids bathroom soon (we've been in this house for four years so I guess it's about time), I plan to display some of these on the wall. I can't wait!! And she got some sweet ones of just getting ready for bedtime. Anyways, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.