Working hard!

My good friend Vanessa is having a sweet baby boy very soon.  Last fall she asked me if I could help her put together a budget friendly nursery and of course I said yes!  Budget decorating is my fave thing!  She already had an idea for what she wanted .... aqua and gray with a touch of orange a brown.  

So, we found the right fabrics and put everything together.  

I don't have the final pictures yet, but I do have a teaser!

Holiday Season

Just wanted to post a few pics from the holidays.  Over Thanksgiving we had Dave's mom, stepdad, and one of his younger brothers here.  We half smoked/half baked a turkey :) and had dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and rolls.  It was all yummy!  Dessert was crack brownies (brownies with peanut butter cups, marshmallows, and peanuts).  Hayden and Livee ended up having strep by the end of the week, so that put a damper on things.  And by that Sunday, I had come down with it as well.   I had at least gotten the tree up before I got sick, so Christmas prep just needed a bit of finishing.

Christmas was a nightmare to plan this year because of Dave's work schedule (he's still off on Thursdays and Fridays) conflicting with Hayden's school schedule (he didn't get out until the Friday before Christmas).  We had everything planned out with a lot of running around on our parts.  The weekend before Christmas Dave's mom and siblings came over to celebrate.  Christmas day we were going to drive to B'ham for lunch with the Dave's dad's side and come home that evening.  Then we were going to drive to Muscle Shoals on Wednesday evening after he got off of work.  He would come back Friday and the kiddos and I would stay until Monday.

On Christmas Eve morning, Dave went to work.  A little later, I received a call from his father that his beloved Granddaddy had died.  I finally got in touch with Dave and he came home.   The funeral was scheduled for Thursday, so Dave secured his bereavement days and we replanned our holidays.  We still stayed home for Christmas morning and left that day for Birmingham.  We headed to Muscle Shoals on Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday.

We were reminded this holiday season how important it is to tell your loved ones how you feel as often as you can.

Here are some pictures:

Halloween Pics

For Halloween this year we had an astronaut and a mini "Dorothy".  H's astronaut costume was a gift for his birthday and I had to talk him into wearing it.  I guess he thought it wasn't cool enough, but he enjoyed it when everyone told him how cool it was at school.  I made Livee's dress this year and was so proud of how it turned out.  It took me a solid day of sewing, but she has worn it so many times it really has made it worth it.  We trick-or-treated around our circle with a couple of our friends and then Dave came home.  Livee stayed with him to hand out candy and I took Hayden up his friend's street for more trick-or-treating.  We had a blast!

Blast From the Past

10 Pounds Down!

I am down 10 and feeling great!  I haven't exercised in about a month, but I have been continuing limiting sugar (with an occasional splurge).  In addition, I have incorporated trying to eat vegetarian lunches and dinners several times a week.  I honestly think that this has also helped my weight loss.  

Hayden's Birthday!

Hayden turned 7 on August 7th!  Since it was his "magic" birthday, we decided to redecorate his room and to have an ice cream party.  He started school on the 6th, so on his actual birthday we got him his favorite breakfast (bacon mcgriddle), he took his favorite lunch (egg drop soup), I took icing covered cookies to school, and we had Chinese food (his favorite) for dinner!  For his party we invited over a few friends, pre-froze ice cream, picked out toppings, and got out a new sprinkler ball.  The kids had a blast jumping on the trampoline and getting wet on a hot summer's day. I was even able to recycle the red pom poms from Livee's party since Hayden picked out Avengers decorations for everything!  Here are a few pics.  Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph everything before they dug into the ice cream, but you can get the idea.

Toppings included: root beer, whipped topping, red vines, sprinkles, marshmallows, M&M's, chocolate chips, sour gummy worms, homemade chocolate syrup, & homemade strawberry syrup

Check out that messy table!  Those kids really enjoyed their ice cream.

Opening gifts

As I mentioned before, Hayden started 1st grade on August 6th.  We are looking forward to having a great year, and so far he really likes his teacher!  They are the Butterflies.  He was not too thrilled about that one.

Spiderman showed up one day while Grammie and Deeda were here.  Who knew that could happen?