4 years ago today

Four years ago we were celebrating the arrival of the littlest of our monster family. Happy Birthday Little Buddy!!

July is the month for birthdays!!

Happy Birthday Miss AlleyCat!!

Dude's Birthday

My dear sweet husband's birthday is today and since I will be heading off to a wedding in a few hours we gave him his presents early. The kids made him breakfast in bed and then we gave him our gifts. We love you dude!!

(sorry that I will be gone most of the day and that I am leaving you with 6 monsters!

My Favorite Nephew

Last year when Jeff, Jaci, and the kids were back Big Handsome wanted nothing to do with me or my camera. He cried when we tried to do family pictures and he ran from me when we tried to get some individuals. This year he is a different child, and actually asked me to take his picture. How could I resist that offer!!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

“Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone" - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Out of the Mouths of Babies

Little Buddy:"Do you want me to draw you a picture?"

Me: "Sure!"

L.B.: "Maybe later! That's what you always say!"

Is that an eye opener or what?! Guess I need to stop saying that so much and pay more attention to him!

Summer Projects

We are really moving along on the projects that we have started. The headboard that I built has been painted and distressed, now I need to do the dressers and sidetables. Bryan is still not loving the idea of having something old next to his head while he sleeps, but I keep telling him to get use to it I'm not getting any younger either!

Miss Brainy's room is almost complete. There a few small details left to be done, installing the closet rod and shelf, mini-blinds and curtains, hanging bullentin boards and posters, but for the most part it looks like a well lived in teenagers room. You can see right behind the desk that the headboard is already painted in these pictures. I went with a very bright turquoise and I love how they turned out. I will have more pictures to share when everything is done.

The dresser and desk were purchased at the Pink Elephant, for only $50 and they delivered. While the headboard and sidetable were purchased at Hustons, which is not my favorite place to shop, but I did get a good deal on the two pieces.

Bryan has finished tiling the fireplace and I did the grout. The mantle and trim still need to be painted which hopefully I can finish this week.

Miss Brainy and two of her friends came over last month, they helped dig the holes and set the fence posts.

I then gave the girls karate lessons! "Paint the fence, Up Right Hand, Down Left Hand, Up Right Hand, Down Left Hand" Next up waxing the van and trimming the hedges to look like bonsai trees.

The New Baby

Our new little niece has arrived safe and sound! Miss A.G. is absolutely adorable!

Little Buddy couldn't wait to get to hold her but once we were there he could have cared less. He did finally settle down enough to hold her for a little while. It is hard to believe that 4 years ago he was that tiny.

When I photographed her big sister AlleyCat 2 years ago she showed her opinion of Aunt Courtney's camera and I think Miss A.G. is doing the same.

She has the sweetest dainty little eyelashes!

And the cutest little wrinkled feet!

Topsy Turvey

Bryan should not be allowed to watch late night t.v., because everytime he does he wants to buy what ever it is that they are trying to sell, and the topsy turvey was no exception. When Walmart got some in he was probably one of the first to buy them. He has had a few set-backs when he first planted it because he would forget to water it, but since then it has really taken off. There are probably 8-10 small tomatoes and 2-3 larger ones, the only question now is when will they get ripe? I'm beginning to wonder if we will be eating fried green tomatoes instead of BLT's. Little Buddy thinks it is really cool to have this plant hanging upside down and he loves to count the fruit on it.

10 on Tuesday 4th of July edition

This will be my last 4th of July post so I figured I'd squeeze in as many shots as possible. I've mentioned before that my father-in-law loves to grill and we love his ribs and bacon-wrapped- shrimp, and chicken breasts, and jalapeno poppers and well you get the idea!

Here's the littlest kids watching the little bit older kids blow up firecrackers and write on the sidewalk with smokebombs. Which they found out was not a great idea (my father-in-law didn't think so either) when The Chatterbox picked up a still hot smokebomb and burnt her finger.

All in all it was mostly a quiet accident free 4th for us. Badger Boy fell of his bike and scraped up his arm and knee and The Chatterbox's had her unfortunate run in with the hot smokebomb, but those didn't compare to last years trip to the emergency room when Miss Brainy re-broke her ankle at her dad's house.

Really remind me again why I love this guy so much!! Everytime I try to get a decent shot of him this is what he does!!

These two are too cute!!This year the firework display was courtesy of the teenagers. It was nice to have about 5-6 kids old enough to light of the big ones. Bertus and Bryan would get them all set up with the artillery shells and they would light (or attempt) to light them at the same time.

The clean-up crew!

Beginning the bedroom makeover

Miss Brainy is away on a mission trip and the other kids (minus Little Buddy) are on vacation with their grandparents so I am taking advantage of the empty bedrooms. I am moving The Boss in with The Chatterbox and Miss Brainy will be getting a room of her own. Bryan and I will be putting in a closet, because of course this 100 year old house only has 1 closet upstairs and with 3 teenage (almost) girls we need all the closet space we can get. I will be painting the walls, the new (to us) headboard, side table and dresser. We will also be putting in trim and installing miniblinds. This will be after I scrub the walls and shampoo the carpet. I am getting tired just typing out this list, I don't know how we will get it all done in 1 week!

My favorite part of this project has so far been the planning stage, I am totally loving being able to search design websites and blogs for inspiration. So far my favorite has to be PBTeen, so many great ideas in one place.

I'm not sure why I enjoy the above image so much, it is not the color scheme we will be doing nor does it have any ideas that I will be implementing. It is a room that The Chatterbox would love though!
I may attempt to build my own shelf (with the polka dot containers), love the bulletin board on the side and the trim detail. I also want to find the desk lamp pictured above.

I am debating hanging a bunch of frames on the wall much like the grouping above, hopefully it will deter Miss Brainy from hanging all of her k-state posters on every available inch of wall space!

This is much like the color scheme we will be using only I will be painting one accent wall chocolate brown. I love how calming it looks

I would love to find a side table and headboard like these, love love love them!!