Weekend Recap!

A great weekend indeed.

Lots accomplished.

For instance, my sweet husband installed

the curtains I made for Alisha on Friday.

Here he is with Alisha's equally as sweet hubby:

This window treatment was a bear to install, and I actually ended up taking it

home, tweaking it a bit and returning the next day to install..

 What do you think?

I love the quote on her chalkboard.

 The family room drapes:

I wish I could have taken a pic of the master bedroom curtains.

I love the way they turned out.

Our children ran amok while we installed....and

sipped on adult beverages.

Not a good idea while installing drapery.

Note to self for future reference.

Carter with Alisha's daughter, Gracie.

Precious.

Trysten and Haylee.

Sweet friends since they were babies.

On Sunday, I took on the task of organizing the closet

under the stairs with all the kids

extra school supplies, art supplies, games, puzzles...

and now all of my craft and sewing goodies!

Awww...organization is good.

All my ribbon in one place!

It's the little things.

Hope your weekend

was just as wonderful,

my friends!

I Was Featured!

Yes!

You read correctly!

My Halloween mantle from last year was featured on:

How awesome is that!

If you haven't ever checked out

This Blessed Nest

click and do so now!

Hope you're

having a

fabulous weekend!

The Story of the 3...I Mean 4...Little Pigs

You might remember this short video where the pigs were mentioned:

Upon first moving into the neighborhood,

we noticed a group of 4 little statuary pigs in a neighbor's yard.

We immediately fell in love with them as they were all standing in a circle facing each other

and knew there had to be a story behind the hamilicious crew.

Precious.

It reminded Ryan and I of our 4 boys.

During all of our golf cart rides, we drive by the pigs

and each time, they are in a different

formation and location.

Precious.

Last weekend Ryan and I met the lady who owns the

4 little pigs, and she told us

how she had them in her old neighborhood,

how everyone loved searching for their

newest destination, and how one neighbor even

kidnapped them leaving a ransom note for their return!

How fun is that?

So...the boys have been wanting some pigs of our own,

and I recently came across these little guys at the dollar store:

The boys searched for them in our backyard yesterday afternoon and found them here:

Today they will find them hiding together under a plant when they return from school:

Just something to make their day a little more fun.

Love it.

Happy Thursday, friends!

What a Mess and Other Random Tidbits

This is what our kitchen looks like right now:

Would you like to come over for a bite to eat?

Nice.

It's a freaking disaster, friends.

Our house cleaner usually comes on Mondays,

but we cancelled this week because let's face it...

the real mess is being made as I type.

See this little "S":

JoAnn's has a whole new line of embellishments, like this monogram, which are self-adhesive.

The "S" cost me $7.99.

Love it.

I have to take a moment to brag on this kid right here:

It's no secret the trials and tribulations we've have with

 "The Teenager" over the past year or so, but friends,

life is good...so good...with him right now.

Since starting his new school 4 weeks ago,

his attitude, behavior, grades have been

WONDERFUL!

Ryan and I have discussed it several times lately and are

thrilled with the turnaround.

I cannot even begin to express the happiness

I am feeling regarding this child.

I haven't said this in a long time, but I will shout it from the roof tops

and tell him every day...

WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU, AUSTIN!!

He is proud of himself.

I know that because he told us.

Awesome.

Praying for the continuation of the transformation!

That's it!

Happy Wednesday!!

Weekend Recap!

Such a great weekend.

Lots of alone time with my hubby.

Since he was recovering from a sinus infection and bronchitis,

we decided it best to lay low and relax.

Other than Carter's baseball game, lunch/dinner out

and a few errands, we stayed close to home.

We sat on our patio, made future travel plans, took late night golf cart rides.

It was perfect.

Carter had his first coach pitch game on Saturday and played great.

How cute is this little guy!

Warming up

Waiting for his turn at bat

My handsome man watching the game

It seems Austin's ball and glove are attached to him 24/7 lately.

My boys are all about baseball right now!

I did a little work in my sweatshop over the weekend.

Another sneak peek, Alisha!

Saturday was a special day for my sweet hubby and I...

Goofy...I know.

We still celebrate this day 4 years later.

It was a good day.

It was a great day.

It really was a day that forever changed both of our lives.

Have never been so happy.

Hope your weekend was just as great,

my friends!

Have I Mentioned...

Have I mentioned the hole in my kitchen

ceiling and the mess left in its aftermath?

It's awful.

Our kitchen is a disaster zone.

The gutter people came this morning and roof crew will be here later this afternoon.

Then on to clean up team to take care of the tornado

which took place all over mi cocina.

Speaking of tornadoes...

Have I mentioned how freaking cute and smart Carter is?

He wrote this on the chalkboard yesterday while sirens were going off all over the metroplex.

Have I mentioned that my sweet hubby...who is feeling much better by the way...

randomly brought me home flowers the other day?

Love him.

Have I mentioned/or shown you the family name sign

I ordered forever and a moon ago off etsy?

It's usually over the window in the kitchen when we don't have a hole in the ceiling.

Love it.

Although I wish now that I would have ordered an oval shape.

Have I mentioned I love chalkboard paint?

Yesterday, since I stayed out of the sweatshop...AKA: the master bedroom...so Ryan could rest, I painted a flowerpot that houses a plant we received as a gift the week before we married.

Yes, it says "plant"...just in case you didn't know what it was.

I then discovered what has been chewing the leaves of all of our plants:

That little guy right there has been doing this to the leaves on almost all of our plants:

He's cute and part of nature, but, seriously...go away.

Thanks.

Speaking of chalkboard paint...

Have I mentioned I bought some colored chalk?

So now I can do this:

Fun.

Have I mentioned how I cover up light switch plates randomly placed

in awkward spots on the wall?

I hang a piece of "artwork" from ribbon so that it visually takes up

enough space so as to cover up the ugly, plastic square of electric receptacleness.

I just made that word up.

And finally...have I mentioned that our dog, Shelby,

takes doggie Valium when it rains because she is absolutely terrified of water?

Well, she does.

Notice the droopy, drugged-out eyes.

Poor, Shelby.

She's so happy the sun is out today.

Happy Thursday, my friends!!

When it Rains, It Pours and Other Random Fluff

This is what it looks like outside today.

Can you see the rain?

It.is.pouring.

Nonstop pouring.

As a result of God's natural sprinkler system,

This is what the window over our sink looks like right now.

Everything had to be removed from the surrounding counters.

Because of this:

Which eventually became this:

and this:

and this...

Nice.

Just so happens that Ryan is home with me today

due to a sinus infection and bronchitis...poor hubby...so I was not forced

to conquer this beast on my own.

Awesome.

Soon it will be taken care of, and all my chachkis

can go back to their respective homes in the kitchen.

What a mess.

Moving on to the random fluff...

Our master bedroom, which we have done absolutely nothing to

since moving in almost 4 months ago,

has turned into my sweatshop as seen below:

Lovely.

Eventually there will be a king sized chocolate brown lush, tufted wing back headboard, beautiful bedding, bamboo shades and silk drapes...but for now it's a sweatshop.

But look what happens in the sweatshop:

A sneak peek for you, Alisha!

Lots o' work takes place in that room.

Lots.

I received a few emails asking about the chalkboard on my pantry.

Yes, this one right here:

You like?

You can have one too!

Step 1: Go to Home Depot, and buy chalkboard paint.

Step 2: Tape off  and sand the area you want to paint.

Step 3: Paint it with several thin coats...nope...I didn't even prime the door.

Step 3: Let the painted area dry, pull off the tape, and look at your masterpiece!

Step 4: Enjoy all the "Cool, Mom!" comments you will no doubt receive from your children and the loving smack on your behind accompanied by "Way to go, hot Mama" you will most definitely get from your hubby...at least that's how it went at my house.

I decided to hang the old chalkboard from the kitchen

at eye level for the boys to play with

right outside the door leading under the stairs

where all of the arts and crafts supplies, extra school supplies and games are kept:

The longer we're here in this home, the more we fall in love with it and want to buy it.

The only stipulation is that it has to make sense monetarily to build a pool in the backyard.

Closer to the end of our lease, we'll have some pool builders out to give us estimates, but in the mean time, we are beginning to look at other things we'd like to do assuming we purchase the abode.

One project on my list is the kitchen:

Please excuse the wreck.

This pic was taken today during our minor "ceiling cave-in incident".

I love our kitchen.

It's HUGE.

I love the double ovens, the ginormous island, the Viking cook top, the hood, the built ins.

With that said, I would love to paint/glaze the cabinets since we have

soooo much dark wood going on with the floors and all the built ins in the family room 

however, we would keep the island stained the way it is.

In addition, we would love to have a deep L-shaped bench built under the windows in the breakfast room with generous cushions, lots of pillows and drapes

matching the ones over the sink which I just made recently.

Your thoughts?

Happy hump day, friends!!