This kid.

This kid, he is something else.  How can I love someone so much who drives me sooo crazy!  He is full of energy and tricks!  I think he is super cute, which I believe is his defense mechanism.  He is silly and fun and sooo frustrating!  I sure do love him!

 Lately he has really taken a liking to TRIOS.  It's so nice for him to be calm for a few minutes while he snaps all the blocks together. 

 Once he's done, he's always so proud to show off what he made.

All Grown Up!

We have been doing a few changes around our house and I LOVE IT!!!  I feel like our house is getting a little fancier and that I'm finally all grown up!  There are still more things that I'd like to do (once you get started, you can't stop!), but I'm sooo happy with what it looks like now.  We started off by getting new floors on half of the main level.  We put in new floors from the front door, in through the high traffic areas, and in to the kitchen.  The old nasty carpet and linoleum are gone...yeah!

Where the refrigerator was, but we had to move it to get the new floors.  There has been a huge tear in the linoleum there since we bought the house...now it's gone! 

 The old floors

 We ended up moving the line over from where the kitchen meets the carpet.  We now have about a foot more of kitchen and it is great to fit our new bigger table!

 The old entryway and nasty carpet.  

 The old hardwood

 The nasty carpet going into the living room

 The NEW FLOORS!!!  LOVE THEM!!!

 I had BUNCO at my house last week...just in time to show off my "new" house!

 Wrapping paper placemats and evergreen napkin holders

 Looking into the kitchen

 A new board.  Next I need to get a new kitchen curtain and cabinet knobs.

  Our next big project was the entryway.  I really wanted to do some board and batten, and the entryway seemed like the perfect place for it.  Dan was SOO nice do it all in one Saturday and he did an AWESOME job!!!  I absolutely LOVE how this turned out and I think it really changed the feel of our house.   Thanks Dan...you're the best!!!

 I've had this old window in my garage for a couple years now and it finally has a place inside our home now.  I love the look of an old window on the wall with a wreath.  

 Here's the entryway.  LOVE IT!

 A look from above

 A collection of pictures

 The pretty board and batten

Not that I hated my house before.  But I feel like these changes make it look so much better!  Now on to the next project!!

Telling the kids

When the kids got home from school, I had a scavenger hunt all ready for them to find out what the gender of our baby was.  They read clues that sent them all over the house.

 Reading another clue...Brynlee is getting excited!

 Brynlee found a clue!

 After going around to 8 different places, their clue finally took them to Brynlee's closet.  They walked in and looked around for a minute without even noticing the balloons.  We had to tell them to look up!

 When they saw the PINK balloons they got excited!

 And more excited!

 And even more excited!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Can I just say how excited I am!!!  I'M SOOO EXCITED!!!  I really was hoping for another chance to dress up a little girl and make fun girly things.  And all those cute baby girl clothes at Target...ahh!  I'm especially excited that Brynlee will have a sister and that I got what I've always wanted, two boys and two girls.  I feel like I won the lottery, I am soo blessed!

The Symbol of Our Love

Way back when I was engaged, one of my roommates at the time gave me a tiny little plant, with just a couple little leaves, as a gift for my bridal shower.  At the time I thought it was kind of a weird bridal shower gift..okay, I still think it's a weird bridal shower gift.  Anyways, This plant started to grow...and grow...and grow.  I have never really cared for this plant and always tease about throwing it away.   Dan always defends the plant and says that since it was given to me at my bridal shower it is the "Symbol of Our Love".  Seriously, this is the plants name now!  So, The Symbol of Our Love just keeps growing, and growing, and growing.  I don't think I have EVER watered the thing, so apparently Dan is taking care of The Symbol of Our Love.  He is determined to keep it alive, which doesn't seem all that hard to do.  The other day he wanted to prune it a little and take out the dead leaves.  He took this thing down from on top of our cabinets and it was a big pile of tangled vines and leaves.  We were able to separate one of the vines and spread it out to measure it.  It was FORTY feet long!!!  That's a lot of LOVE!!!  So, no matter how hard I try to get rid of this thing, our love just keeps on growing and growing!  I love you Dan!!!

Halloween!

My kids LOVE Halloween!  Seriously, LOVE IT!  They love all things scary, so this holiday is right up their alley!  This year Brynlee wore her new Cinderella dress she got for her birthday.  Lincoln was suppose to be a garden gnome, but the costume ended up being too small so he was a rocket instead.  And Carson insisted on being a werewolf...a scary one.  Dan and I both warned him that he couldn't wear the mask to the church party and that he probably wouldn't even like wearing it around the neighborhood either.  But, he insisted on the costume with the scary mask.  We didn't even leave our house before he was complaining about the mask!!  A few houses into it, Dan had to take a very upset Carson home to find a new costume.  I'm glad he fixed his attitude eventually so he could still enjoy Halloween.  Overall, we had a great time!  The weather was pleasant too!