I"M BACK :)

Hi Friends J I feel like it has been way too long since I wrote my last post. So sorry for that but I have been in the middle of a crazy move and finally got Internet today. To catch you guys up with what has been going on God has blessed my family in an amazing way. Even though my husband will disagree to this I loved our little house but with another one on the way a two bedroom one bathroom was just wayyyyyy to small for us. My parents decided to give us part of our inheritance early (the one perk of being an only child not having to fight over this type of stuff) and decided to give us their house! What a blessing, it has all the features I had been wanting in a house, three bedrooms, two baths, a playroom, a large back yard, and a garage which I am fighting my husband over for a place to park in there (love you steveo).

So for the past two months I have been packing up my parents house and mine and for those of you who have been pregnant while moving you know this is not fun. I don't know where I would have been in the packing process if it wasn't for my sister-in-law who came and not only packed with me but lifted all the heavy things I couldn't. We had an amazing moving team from our church come and help us get places from point a to point b, and Steve's dad even came all the way from PA to help us out, along with his brother and wife. And apparently I overdid it a bit too much because Monday I was in the hospital being monitored because I had been having a lot of contractions all morning. As soon as I got on the machine they stopped and I haven't really had as many since. Taking it easy is not in my vocab when there is too much stuff to do but I guess when the Dr orders it I have to listen.

I am also apparently nesting right now and not only is my house being organized its being a little too organized along with me freaking out about the cleanliness of it. But at least it is getting done the right way the first time ha! I also do not understand how we have as many clothes that have shown up. I swear it seems like my husbands and my clothes doubled from the last place. There is also a lot of DIY stuff that I want to do and will be having tons of projects I can share with you all soon. I hope everyone is having a great week :)

He Loves ME!!!

As most of you know I am more than madly in love with my husband. I absolutely think he is the hottest man that I know and most days I cannot believe that he picked me.

This weekend I got to randomly meet some of his college friends. After explaining the three weeks (yes not a typo) of dating before getting married they had one big question for me...How did I get him? I just had to laugh out loud. Apparently my husband had a nice little following of ladies in college and didn't date.

It got me thinking...how did I get him? I mean if we are being real I can have a bossy attitude, I tend to speak my mind when I could stand to be quite, I don't nearly have the knowledge that he has about so many things, and I can be a little loud at times along with being super competitive. I would like to think my wit and killer legs (it's my one claim to fame haha) took me a long way with the hubs. I know that I can make him laugh out loud and go to him with any problem and he gives great answers. I also know that he has never once asked me to change anything about myself which has been completely unheard of in my realm. But I honestly don't know what made him choose me. I am so glad that he did though, I cannot imagine my life without him.

Even after almost 5 years of being together he still makes me blush. I crave his smile and to just look into his eyes. And most of all I love that he loves me with everything in him.

Happy monday everybody. Sorry if I don't get to post as much I am in the middle of moving and can't wait to post new pictures of our new house. We have so much work to do on the inside that my mind is stuffed full of ideas. I will be posting about it soon with before and after pictures :)

Grandpa's Present

I know that I am a little behind on posting what our family did for my husbands dad for Father's Day but never late than never huh? This was by far one of my favorite presents to do for someone and a little frustrating as well. We started out with three light plate covers and I had my husband cut out the middle.

   Next was another trip to Hobby Lobby to pick out the scrapbook paper we used to cover the switches and some mod podge. 

 We cut the paper a little bigger than the light switch covers so that way we made sure the edges were covered. It made it look better especially on the inside of the frame where the plastic was a little ridged from being cut. 

  

Our team of mod podgers!

The covered frames.

Even though mod podge is non-toxic we only let the older boys use it and the younger two just used water on scraps of the paper, they had no clue they were doing anything different and had just as much fun.

The picture sizes turned out to be more challenging than I thought they would be. I recommend taking the picture zoomed out as much as you can to give you space on your signs. Since we were running a little behind on the present and half of our subjects were on vacation we couldn't have another photo shoot. After printing more than I wanted too I finally settled on wallet sized pictures and just put cream paper behind them to fill up the space and match the rest of the colors. I also used just some off white ribbon to tie the frames together (turn the switch covers on the sides and use the holes where the screws would be and you have instant holes that all line up).  And here is the final product!!! I can't wait to use this project again with something else.

 I also used some thin cardboard to keep the pictures in place and fatten it up some so they weren't sliding everywhere and finished up the rest of the scrapbook paper for the backing so everything is completely covered. Grandpa was very happy with his present :) Happy Monday!

If I Only Knew...

Yesterday was my birthday and for some reason I spent some of the day thinking about what all I have learned in my life. While I don't consider myself wise in anyway I have definitely learned way more than I thought and I wouldn't want to either go back and change anything or to learn what I have any earlier. But here is the advice I would have given myself back then.

15 years ago (man that seems like such a long time ago!)

• You don't have to be the life of the party all the time, sit back and relax some, people watching is much more fun and trying to be loud and funny all the time just seems very immature.
• The guy you are dating now will not be the man you marry so who cares what he does, let him be and don't try to change him.
• Make more girl friends, you will need them through out your whole life and you have a lot more in common with them now than you think.
• Enjoy your body, don't mistreat it by not eating, it will never look like this again, in fact it might even look better the older you get.
• Quit fighting with your parents so much, they aren't going to change, just try to accept them for the way they are.

10 years ago (I was 21!)

• Don't be scared to try new things, just go for it, you are having the time of your life.
• Seriously, guys suck right now, quit worrying about them.
• It's ok to be sad, no one knows where their life is going, just go with it.
• SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! Quit spending it on all those clothes, you won't own them 2 years from now.

5 years ago

• You are about to be married by the end of the year, enjoy your life, seriously leave the boys alone.
• Read your bible more.
• Quit fighting with your mom.
• Relax.

I always wanted to live my life with no regrets, I'm doing good so far. Knowing how I was back them I never would have listened to this advice anyway but you never know. I also know I have a lot more learning to do, at least I have a great husband to be by my side and help me along the way. And I have great girl friends who give great advice as well. Enjoy!

Father's Day Present #2

So I would like to apologize for the late post. My family is going through a lot right now and dealing with the whole subject was too draining for me (I'm debating if I want to go into to this subject later). So if you could say a quick prayer for us we would gladly appreciate it. Ok on to the happy stuff. I love when I get to make presents for my husband, I love the surprise, trying to be creative, trying to out do myself...its all so much fun for me. I found the idea on Tip Junkie (best website ever for creative ideas). I also love taking pictures of my family and getting fun frames to put them in. On our first trip to Hobby Lobby I found these letters in white and decided to spray paint them (I think the color is avocado). 

Here are my models getting ready for the shoot.

Asher trying to show off the D.

I love this face!!! I used this picture.

Such a sweet face.

Soren not wanting to hold the letter right, but I loved this picture and used it after a little photo shop.

Too high Soren.

Grumpy Soren

Soren walking off set :)

Not what I had in mind when I said put it on your stomach.

Soren not wanting to help hold the A.

Still fighting over it.

They aren't fighting so I used this one.





Lots of Random Space I cant get rid of sorry :)

The photos turned out so cute I thought and I found the frames again at Hobby Lobby, they had the cheapest prices. 

Now on to my husband :) He truely is a great and amazing father. He has the patience which I don't, he is so wise beyond his years, and he absolutely loves having his boys around. And my boys are totally in love with the daddy they have. From the minute he comes home they are all wrestling and giggling and playing in ways they won't play with me. He loves God so much and is teaching our boys to do the same. He treats me with more respect than anyone in my life ever has, he has never tried to change me and does not judge me. He even accepts all of my flaws (which are many believe me), and loves me no matter how bad I look (except when my eyebrows need waxing and then he is honest ha). I love that my boys have the best example to learn from when it comes to how to treat a lady. Never once has he raised his voice at me or even seemed mad at me in front of them. And it doesn't hurt he is so HOT!!!! I love you Steveo, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for being the father of my babies :)

Father's Day Present #1

I made my husband swear he would not look at my blog until after Father’s Day, that way if there were any last minute ideas you guys needed you could check out what we did. And yes there are two different presents for him I didn't think I would remember to do one of these next year so he is getting one from the boys and one from me. The boys made him the cutest (with some help from mommy) frame with their hand prints in it. I got the idea from this blog and decided to make it my way. So off to my new favorite place Hobby Lobby and we got a plain wooden frame which I stained from Steve's leftover stash.

We then found an old handkerchief and some scrap fabric and traced the boys hands and some of their arms. I also left enough room for our other children (maybe two more ha?) to be able to add their hands to it. I used the fabric heat and bond and here it is!



We put it in the frame,

I painted a little saying (I am a horrible painter and there are much better ways to make this look good) that says "Daddy, no matter how big we get we will always reach for you!" 

End product :)

I hope you guys enjoyed this we had lots of fun making it.

The Worst Neighbor Award Goes To.....

ME!!!!!! I swear I somehow know how to attract the worst neighbors. It all started in a small condo in Colorado (she really was the worse but thats another story because most of you wouldn't believe it anyway), and has now followed me to my sweet little home here. At first our next door neighbor was perfect, a little old man who never got out of bed, but then he died and they sold the house. Then the scum of our town landlady bought the house and could care less who lives in it. First set of neighbors were so quite, but they had two pitbulls, one who would always get off of his chain and run around our yard. They swear he was nice but with two kids who yell and scream a lot I was not taking my chances. And she was always coming over asking for a ride because she missed the bus. Not my cup of tea after the 6th ride at 7 am because her grandma was always about to die and she needed to get to her moms. I finally quit answering the door and turned my music up really loud so I couldn't hear her knocking (a perk to not having a door bell). 

The second set of neighbors were the worse. Always having tons of people over at the wrong time, the place looked like a junk yard, and they decided to curse loudly whenever the kids were outside. I could care less what type of language people use, God knows I have used most of it myself, but seriously when kids are around? They also used our driveway all the time which annoyed me considering their driveway went past the back of their house. Their weirdness included finding a dead deer on the side of the road and bringing it home to eat, letting their dogs breed in the front yard everyday, opening all the doors to their minivan and blasting the music so loud while a battery charger stayed hooked up to make it possible, and letting some friends sleep in a tent in their front yard for about 2 weeks. Finally about 3 weeks ago their power got turned off so everyone stopped coming around and this past sunday they moved out!!!! The Heavens were singing when I got home. So our new neighbors (the homeless ones who live in a tent in front of our little creek in front of our house) decided to go through all the trash they left in the ditch to take "home" with them. 

Today when I got back home they were going through all the stuff the previous people had left in the basement and asked if I wanted a cute floating bassinet. So after paying $10 I put it on my porch so I could clean it and left to go to a small group. On my way home I call the hubbs to chat to find out the old neighbors came back to get their stuff to find it had all be taken by the homeless people (which are somehow related to them),  and they wanted their bassinet back. Grrrr, so I am out of $10. 

Hopefully no one else moves into that house until we move out. I just want normal neighbors. At least at the new place our one set of neighbors are super nice and normal, now we just need the other house to be sold to fun people because they are totally becoming my new best friends with that great pool in the back yard. How are your neighbors?