The Brewmeister

If I don't update the blog often enough, I get a phone call or email from Nick's mom. I feel one of those coming, so I figured I needed to upload some pictures. So, Debbie this is what your son has been up to :)

We have several friends that brew their own beer, and Nick has now joined the club. I got him his first kit for Christmas. He brewed it several weeks ago, and he has a few weeks left until it's finished.

I love his concentration face, and I REALLY love his outfit. Ha! I don't love the mess that he leaves when he's finished.

Preparing for DW

Ok, you know how I said that I am the most excited person in the house for our Disney trip? Well, I have 2 little boys who are ready too!

B has pulled out his toy airplanes and packed a toy suitcase for him and Lawson. They spent an afternoon playing with all of the toys that were packed.

Valentine's Day

I had high hopes for some really cute stuff on Valentine's Day, but I never put them in action. About the closest I got was pinning them on my Love Month pinboard. But... in my defense, we are in high exercise/eat healthy mode around here, and I didn't want too much temptation with all of the sweets I'm trying to avoid. So that means we didn't even have our annual heart shaped cake cookies. Bad mommy, I know.

But in my defense, I did make the day super special for the boys. When I was little, Valentine's Day was my dad's holiday. He was in charge of cards, gifts, and candy. So I'm continuing with the tradition with my boys, and their Valentine's gifts are from me. So they woke up to a bag of goodies.

B got a few new Ninjago men.

Lawson finally got his Jesse and Finn McMissile.

I never liked the pressure of doing some super romantic thing or giving some super romantic gift, so Nick and I don't make the holiday too big either. We go on a date sometime around then, and then Nick gives me Dinstuhl's chocolate covered strawberries. Last year was my first year in 8 years without them. Nick found another place here to try, but they just didn't compare. Sooo....

he had them shipped to me on Valentine's straight from Memphis! I did hint last year that it can be done, and he did complain that shipping cost more than the strawberries, but my oh my are they worth it! If you are in Memphis and haven't had these, you must try them! They are so worth the 3000 or so calories I consumed that day, which made me really glad I avoided all of the other treats I could have made! I finished the night off with a yummy scallop, mussel, asparagus, and roasted potato dinner. It was a good day!

My Birthday Present

We've had this wall in the living room that is huge and bare, and it has intimidated me since we moved. So I haven't even tried to do something with it, and the living room has always looked incomplete. Until now!

Along with a million other people, I waste hours at night on Pinterest and got inspired to redo a piece of furniture. I've been trying to mix some old with new in this house, and I figured this would be a good wall to try out my distressing/refinishing skills.

Sooooo.... while the boys and I were in Memphis last month, I had Nick pick up an old china cabinet at an antique shop near our house.

I forgot to take a true before picture, but there was a door in the middle that we removed. And I had started sanding in this before pic. I had a hard time picking a paint color, and I think we went a little overboard on the distressing, but overall I'm really happy with it. Here are the details:

But I LOVE the way it looks on that wall!

I haven't put much on the shelves. And if you're wondering about the random barnwood on each side, it's another project we have in store. Nick wanted to go ahead and hang it, and I figured I'd decide what to do with them once I saw them on the wall. However, they are kinda growing on me just like this, so who knows when that project will get finished!

Abs

I swear, there's not a day that goes by that these kids of mine don't do something funny. Here's the latest:

Briley is obsessed with my P90X abs workout. He has done it everyday for the past 4 days. He even did it this morning before school and again when he got home! When he's finished, he pulls up his shirt to show me his ribs, and says "Yeah, I'm getting my abs from working so hard. See those lines?"

2 Cuties

The boys and I worked on a little project/surprise for Daddy for Vday. So I couldn't post the pictures until now. These were my favorites.

Here's the final product. It's a little Father's Day-ish. The original plan was to have the boys in Daddy's ties, but I couldn't figure out how to tie a tie, so this was the best we could do.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day came a few days early for me. Nick and I were downstairs, and the boys were upstairs playing. B came down with his Diego Magnadoodle that he hasn't picked up in forever, and said "Look what I did."

I didn't even notice the ABC's written at the top, which for some reason skip H-Q.

All I saw was "I LV YOU"

Oh, be. still. my. heart. The most precious gift ever.

Thank you Tink, I LV YOU too. :)

Cars

Lawson doesn't do much sitting a playing with toys. His form of playing mainly consists of climbing, jumping, throwing pillows, pulling all of the toys out of a box to make a mess... you get the point. So to see him pushing "Wightning" and Mater around is a sweet little moment. Especially since at this very moment, he is running his "Wightning" suitcase around the house in circles and asking if he can go to Disney World yet. I hear this at least 10 x a day. "Mommy, where's Disney World? Can we go there yet? Can I bring Wightning? Can I bring Buzz? Can we shoot Buzz in a spaceship? Mommy, where's Disney World? Can we go there?"

B's Banana Pudding

Briley loves cooking. His cooking mainly consists of mixing several ingredients from the pantry together. But they must taste good because anytime he cooks, he and Lawson eat it all up. This time was no different, and he actually "cooked" a real recipe.

1 container of Jello vanilla pudding
several Vanilla wafers
bananas (cut into "circles" by mommy)

Final product is below - no help from mommy besides cutting the bananas.

My Dad

Last week, my Dad had a mild stroke. He's still in the hospital, but he is doing much better and will get to go home soon, hopefully. We are thankful that the stroke did not affect his movement or feeling. However, it was in the left side of his brain, so he will have to work on his speech a bit. He is also working on his short term memory. I talked to him today and he sounded really good. Luckily, I have a very tough and stubborn Daddy, so I know that he'll get better soon. So if you have a second, please keep him in your prayers. Thank you!

Enjoying this Warm Weather

This week has been amazing! We have spent every afternoon outside, playing in the yard, and visiting with neighbors. It has been SO nice. We come in at dark, just in time for dinner, and the boys crash into bed. It feels like spring, and I can't wait!

The boys are playing so well together outside. Lawson is big enough to try to play soccer with B now, and B is loving it. He told me the other day that Lawson is so good that we need to sign him up for soccer too. Then he proceeded to tell Lawson that he needs to play soccer too so that he can get a "real gold trophy".

Here they are thoroughly enjoying their first popsicles of the year from Mr. Jim, our neighbor. I love the grass stains on their pants from playing so hard. Oh, and look at Lawson's face... there's trouble brewing in that little body I tell you.