recent craftiness

In all my free time (HA) I have been able to release at least a little of my craftiness.

I made these four burp cloths for a friend from Enterprise to give to a friend. I usually only make these to give as gifts. This was the first time I was actually paid to make one and might be the last. TOO STRESSFUL! As always if you need something cutely sewn and have $$ visit Steph's blog.



I also got Micah's new red scrapbook (all his are red) for his 3rd year of life and Connor's first scrapbook (his are lime green) so I'm hoping I can get a few pages done here and there. I'm not too terribly behind which is good because it drives me crazy to be scrapping things I can barely remember!!


I also discovered what could possibly be my dream job. I would totally LOVE to open a boutique full of repurposed furniture. You know find junk and then make it cute!! I was definitely inspired by this little shop and of course received this gene from my mom!! I"m hoping if we ever move I can get a storage building of some kind and start stock piling projects.

a parable

Sometime pre-Connor pregnancy our women's group was going through the book Get Out of That Pit by the beloved Beth Moore. LOVED the book. It helped me get past some shadows I hadn't given completely over to God yet. During this study one lady shared a story about a bird. I don't know if it was her experience or someone else's because I can't remember that far back :) However it STUCK with me and since then I've thought how cool it would be to write a book based on that story. My book would be called The Parable of the Bird and the Broom: and other lessons you learn at Women's Group.

This story popped back in my head after some friends of ours went through a job fire only to get an awesome job hire two days later. Since it is still flying (ha...get it...bird...flying) around inside my head, I wanted to share it with anybody who cares to read. (*I'm adding some extras to make it more story like but I promise it's based on fact!)

The Parable of the Bird and the Broom

One morning a woman walked out onto her screened-in porch to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee and maybe read her new book. As soon as she sat down and started to get comfortable she heard a fluttering above her head. Flying back and forth inside her porch was a small, brown bird. It must have flown in the night before when the door was left open, but the poor thing wasn't sure where it was or how to get somewhere else. Chasing this bird around the porch to try and catch it was not on this particularly ladies to do list this morning so she decided the best thing to do was find a broom and 'guide' it out the door again. With broom in hand, the woman began gently maneuvering the bird towards the narrow door. Believe it or not this bird was not a big fan of a giant broom being waved at it's little body. The bird began to panic and do everything it could to stay away from this stick-like object that was obviously trying to do it harm. The women soon grew frustrated wondering why a bird would want to stay confined in this small porch when just through the door was a big, beautiful sky to fly in.

Many times God will put obstacles in our path, like the broom, to get us to go where He knows we need to be. The problem is we, like the bird, would rather stay where we are than go through a somewhat scary, narrow door to get to a new, and always better destination.

my boys

Looking at these pictures reminds me no matter how tired I get it's ALWAYS worth it!

i'm tired

It's been awhile (approximately the same amount of time I've been a non-teacher) since I thought TGIF! This has been a TIRING week. A couple things started that made my brain short fuse about this time yesterday when I had a complete and utter meltdown. However it's only my 2nd one since Connor was born and with Micah there had about 10x that by now :) Have I mentioned I'm not good with change?!?!?!

* Micah (and Isabella) started preschool this week. Isabella goes TWTH and Micah goes TTH. Micah went to (a different) preschool last year but I was there to so I knew the school, knew the teachers and knew (if I wanted) what he was doing every second of the day. This year I have to drive up to a door they get him out of my car and I have to drive away wondering. Just wondering how he is what's he doing etc. I'm pitiful I know! I have been feeling anxious about that all week thinking does this mean I shouldn't be sending him, but today I read something my friend Rachel wrote and thought, "Man she is such an awesome mom. I want to be like her." So I prayed her prayer she wrote for her daughter (switching it to be for a boy of course) and it gave me a peace. Thanks Rach!! The good news is both days I picked Micah up he was BEYOND excited and told me all about his super fun day.

Hanging up his backpack

Jumping right in

Celebratory first day of school lunch

lovin' on my little man

The short fusing however comes with the whole take four kids in my car twice a day thing. I haven't quite figured out how to easily and efficiently fulfill this task. Atleast without Connor and occassionally William melting during the trip. Practice makes perfect? I hope!


* The other little tidbit is the 3 1/2 month craziness my boys apparently go through with their sleeping. Connor is a GREAT night sleeper. Well WAY better than Micah was. He usually sleeps for a 6-7 stretch at night and then another 4 before he's up for the day. Naps usually went very well. After he was awake for an hour or more he'd get sleep and I'd swaddle him up rock him for about 30 seconds and he'd be out. Naps is what we are struggling with. He has decided that he does not want to be swaddled any longer. Great but how the heck do I get him to go to sleep! Also he doesn't want to sleep as much. Great how the heck do I figure out when he does need to sleep. I know they start extending their wake time in the day. Which is great, but it sure is oh so hard for that few days until you figure out the next good routine. It's even harder for me who LOVES a schedule but hasn't been able to get one going this time. Needless to say yesterday I melted, and I mean MELTED, whilst holding screaming Connor, trying not to let him wake anyone up and thinking a bigger house would solve all my problems. Dramatic much? I'm sure (praying) this time next week I'll have a back to normal baby. In the meantime though. I'M TIRED!

playroom

I am so excited that I actually have something to post for ...




Though my room will not be a fraction as good as most of the gorgeous ones people post up it will still be fun to show everyone the new playroom we have in the house.

Since I was beginning to keep two kids besides my own two and our house STILL hasn't sold, we had to get rid of our guest room :( because we were in need of somewhere to put the toy overflow. I would love to have painted the walls but I am not painting because I will want to paint my new house WHEN we get one (positive thinking) Anyway enough rambling. Here we go!

I did a lot for this conversion because most of it we already had but I'll share prices for both to be fair :)

* valance- four placemats from TJ Maxx that came in a set for $5.00.
* bookshelf- Target (5 years ago) for ~ $30.00
* dog bed/reading pillow- $22.00 from TJ Maxx
* baskets- World Market $24.00 each



* futon- matress king (5 years ago) ~ $200
* green table runner- TJ Maxx $5.00
* polka dot sham- TJ Maxx $7.00
*2 small pillows- TJ Maxx $7.00 each
*picture frames- Hobby Lobby 50% off $32.00 for 4
*artwork- watercolors by Micah plus scrapbook paper ~$1.00 worth of supplies





*bookshelf- made by my awesome husband. supplies ~$50.00
*fabric cubes- Target $6.50 each so $32.00



*artwork- Target dollar+ bin- $10.00
*computer desk- Best Buy $175



Items purchased for makeover- $178
Grand total of room- $631

**I did not include the price of the computer or all the toys :)

Check out more great rooms at nesting place

sweet vanity

Micah's new favorite activity is to watch home movies of himself. Zach says it reminds him of his brother Andrew who is the most sentimental of the siblings and could probably watch home movies all day every day! Micah will come up to one of us and ask to watch Micah on TV and will then tell us which Micah he wants to watch. It's not surprising that he loves to watch himself since as an infant Stephanie used to let him stare at himself in the mirror whenever she was trying to get him to stop crying. I love his sweet vanity :)

Micah watching 'Micah nanumming in doggie jammies'

Everyone says you always have TONS of pictures of your first born and it dwindles after that. While with actual photographs I can already see that, when it comes to videos this might be the opposite in our family. Watching with Micah has made us realize how many things we missed taping. There are lots of things he did and ways he said things that we don't have recorded so I have a feeling Connor is going to be quite the movie star in the future so that we don't miss a thing!!

the mini

For one whole week the May family has been proud owners of a 2008 Dodge Caravan. We are officially old :/ Originally we had thought we could keep the trailblazer as our family car until we had three kids. The first time we put both boys in it however we knew there was NO WAY we could fit them, daisy and all our stuff on our numerous driving trips so we started researching for a minivan. Zach was super excited. Me, not so much!

The first thing I told him was I will not drive a red or hunter green van and I will NOT get a Dodge Caravan. Not that I didn't love family vacations, but I had way too many memories of sitting in a little bench seat with Jennifer's feet all over me while an ice chest, pillows, books, etc sat under my feet on the van floor. We researched mainly toyotas and hondas but they seemed out of our price range. Finally we found a town and country at a dealership in Gainesville, which just happens to be where Zach's parents live, so we drove up for the weekend to visit and van shop.

The second I got into that town and country I knew it was not going to happen. There was wood grain on the dash. WOOD GRAIN! All I needed were my pearls and dooney and burke purse and off I'd go to my Woman's Club meeting. NO THANK YOU! Across from the van we were looking at was this boxy, suvish looking van. It looked kind of cool, for a van anyway :) When I walked over and saw it was a Caravan I told Zach I was about to eat my words. The minute we sat in it I was sold. It had black carpet and a white-gray interior. Can you say Zebra anyone?!? We test drove it and loved it and then planned to drive it to show Zach's dad. On the way there we took a detour to the Honda dealership just to see what they had. Low and behold in their lot was a 2008 Dodge Caravan. The minute we told the dealer we were testing the exact same car from another lot he went straight to mega salesman mode. He offered us everything but the kitchen sink to buy from them. Since Zach and I are HORRIBLE at life sometimes we had no idea what to do so we ended up driving BOTH vans to his parents' house. We lined the side by side and looked at everything. It was a pretty funny sight to see.

In the end we went for the first one and are happy with our decision. At the request of my brother, who apparently won't leave me blog comments unless he wants something, here are some pics of our mini.

disregard

Hi folks. Disregard the Potty Time post. NONE of us woke up mentally ready to tackle this today, but hopefully soon :)

potty time

Well we'll see! Yesterday Micah decided he wanted to sit on the potty. He sat for 45 minutes until he finally did something and he was so proud of himself when he did. I figured if he, on his own, will be that determined maybe this could be the time. Yesterday we went to Target and bought six pairs of 'Cars' underwear and told him he can start wearing them when he can pee pee on the potty. Saturday will be the BIG DAY. We're going to try and do an all day potty day to get lots of practice and see how he handles it. Wish us luck!

3 months

Connor was 3 months old on Saturday!

rollin'

Last Wednesday Connor had his 2 month check up (one month late) and Zach stayed home with Micah and William. When I came home I noticed the trash can in the guest bathroom was overflowing and the once brand new toilet paper roll empty. hmmmm....



Maybe his practicing his rolling skills for the upcoming football season!?!

enjoying two

Before Connor was born I heard a lot of positive comments from people and a few ridiculous ones but above all the most frequent thing shared was 'life with two is hard.' Due to the influence of a couple friends (you know who you are) I have developed a certain attitude towards negative warnings. For example if your pregnant one might tell you you'll never sleep again or when you get married you hear the honeymoon doesn't last forever. I mean seriously lets start thinking half full ok! I have been guilty of this in the past but I have tried tried tried to take a more positive role when advice giving/sharing.

With this said I want to say that 'life with two is NOT hard' but it IS full! Let me back up and tell you that I didn't take advantage of enjoying Micah when he was a newborn-4ish months old. Bottom line, he intimidated the heck out of me. Though I had him at home for the first 7 weeks Stephanie had him until he was almost 4 months old while I finished out the school year and when I got him back full time that summer I near about lost my mind. I didn't know what to do with him. Books told you to talk to your babies and play with your babies and read with your babies but all I could think was how do you play with an infant? They just sit there? I loved him to death but wasn't sure what else to do except meet his basic needs! Of course I got used to it after awhile but definitely was sad that I didn't 'know' him that well early on.

This time has been totally different!! In a GREAT way! I'm not saying I know what I'm doing or that he's an easier baby or anything like that BUT I am enjoying him more. Meaning, I am taking the time to pay attention to his getting bigger and smiley'er' and more aware of his surroundings. I know in a couple months/years I will still think where did all that time go, but at least this time I will know I enjoyed it while it was here. (It also doesn't hurt that he has the cutest big brother ever for us to play with too!)

Me and Connor playing patty cake while Micah sings a song

buzz lightyear

Micah has been watching toy story and toy story 2 lately or as he calls them woody movie and other woody movie. I personally love the toy story movies. They are so fun for kids and adults! Saturday I had bought a big box of diapers and were putting them away when Micah decided he wanted to play in the box and be buzz lightyear. Being the wonderful mom that I am ;) I cut out some arm holes and made him some wings and now he can fly to infinity and beyond around the house. I am hoping to spray paint it white and green to get the full buzz effect!!