Over The Weekend

What a nice LOOOOONG weekend. I am lucky enough to have every Friday off, so when there is a Monday holiday, I get a 4-day weekend!

Luke started Preschool last week and he loved it! I was able to be a part of drop-off and pick-up on Friday and it was so cute. At drop-off, he saw a few kids from him his class while we were waiting and begged to get out of the car to play with them. And at pick-up, he ran out of the class with his very first art project in hand. He was so proud. I was worried about this transition, but the kid has taken to it like a champ. Still working on 'non-parental supervised lunch' as he threw his whole lunch away on Friday for some reason, but we will get there!

Best friends...

We didn't do too much over the weekend. Next weekend starts a 6-week commitment to soccer, so it was nice to just lay low. We watched the playoff games. I went 2-4 on the games, better than last weekend. lol.

Also, Aaron started building a shed for our side yard. My husband is very much a do-it-youselfer, much to my benefit. He customized every closet in our old house- 5 of them- and both of the kids' closets in our new house. ( See here , here  and here ) He put a 20 x 11 foot covered patio in at our old house, attached to our house,  with shingles and all, and the list goes on and on. Well, our new house has a larger side yard on one side so we decided to put in a shed so we can keep the garage as clean as possible. We got all of the materials on Sunday and he began the work yesterday. Unfortunately for us, there is rain in the forecast for about the next week, so it might take a little longer than expected, but it will be so great to have it done.

 Chloe basically thought she was building it and was very helpful and supportive to daddy.

More to come on the shed :)

What did you do during the long holiday weekend?

Last Weekend

I have shared several times about our new house and how much I love it. I have also shared about how handy my husband is and his amazing skills before, too. (Chloe's closet and Luke's closet) Well, last weekend, he added another project to his list of accomplishments. Our house came with a great cut-out for an entertainment center. It also had a great set of built-in lower cabinets in the hallway for storage. The first weekend we moved in, Aaron mentioned something about moving the hallway cabinets into the entertainment center cut-out in the living room. You know, I love, love, LOVE that about him. ALWAYS thinking outside the box. And the man can do ANYTHING. I mean he built an 11' by 20' patio cover (with shingles and everything, permitted too :)! ) with his bare hands. I have always had complete faith in his abilities. So Friday night, we got the project started. Here is the before picture of the entertainment center cut-out.

 

The cabinets were a BEAST to move. It was 2 sets of 3-door cabinets. However, the top piece was glued down to the cabinets instead of nailed, so it had to be moved as one MASSIVE 6 door cabinet. The two of us rolled up our sleeves, turned on Toy Story for the kids so they stayed out of the way while we were moving the piece, and got to lifting. Once we got it free from the wall in the hallway and closer to the living room, Aaron really put his skills to the test. He added more trim to each side and the top because the cabinets were 2 inches smaller then that cut out (go figure), and drilled all of the holes needed to use for wires and cables. 

As you can , we were both hard at work :)

 

He popped off the exisiting baseboard and pulled up the carpet so we could set it squarely on the concrete slab - Aaron is not one for shortcuts :). Finally, we moved it into place veeerrrrryyyy carefully. 

 

 Ta-DAaa! The finished product. It looks like it should have always been there! The cabinets match those in the kitchen and it all just looks so great!

Of course the WHOLE weekend wasn't spent doing work.....Aaron had this whole project done in just a few hours!

 

We had some outdoor fun at a few different parks

Watched some Saturday morning cartoons....

And had some friends over to watch the big game on Sunday. Isn't she just the cutest!

 

This is where the cabinets were initially. Next project is to turn this area into a desk and add more storage back to the hallway.... stay tuned!

There is a monster in my garage

Ok, ok, ok, there are no such things as monsters.

 

However, as I walked into the garage the other day from getting the mail, I found this:

Let's zoom in a little here:

Are you kidding me!

I admit that I am pretty much scared of most bugs and all spiders, except for one time when a small spider started crawling on the playmat while little baby Luke was laying there- I Smashed that sucker with my bare hand. Do not get between this mama-bear and her cubs! :) But there are plenty of times, let's be real basically 99.9% of the time, where I yell for Aaron to come and get rid of a bug or a spider. Ugh, they are just so creepy sometimes!

 

Then I see this.....some monster of a spider took this roach, tortured it, drug it all around the garage, starved it, deprived it of water, broke all but 2 of its legs, then mummified it and spun a web so it could hang from the ceiling as if to say, "Look at me, King Monster-Spider of the Garage. I run this joint." 

 

Ok, that might have been a little exaggerated, but maybe it's 100% true, we don't live in Monster-Spider world. We don't know what it means when a bug hangs another bug in the air like this. And this poor guy has been here for at least a week- mostly because I am scared the Monster-Spider is watching and will take his revenge on me if I remove the bug. 

 

How large of a spider would it take to create this gross and disgusting masterpiece? Do you see the thinkness of the spun web holding this bug in mid-air?

 

For now, we live at the mercy of the Monster-Spider. All Hail the Monster-Spider. (hopefully, I will live to see another day as I walk through the garage terrified by what I might find now, or what might find me....)

Friday Favorites 8/5/16

Happy Friday!! The weather is Finally starting to dip below the 100s, so hoping we get some outside time this weekend!

Here are a few things that I am loving right now:

1. On August 5, 2006, Aaron and I officially started dating. We hadn't known each other for too long, but there was something special. 10 years that we have been together, married for 8.5 years. Two kids, and two houses later, there isn't anyone I would rather navigate this life with. I am sure I will write more about how we met and our early years later, but today is a special day to me. I remember the term 'girlfriend' seemed so scary back then, so committed. I recall actually telling him that I was scared to be his girlfriend, but would marry him in a heartbeat. That isn't normal (am I a crazy-person??)....but he chose me anyway :) Happy 10 years of being together, babe!




2.  This girl will be 2 before the month is over- wow! I know the days of having a crib are numbered, so I am soaking it all in. I love our conversations at night as I lay her down in her crib. She repeats everything I say, "Night, Night"  "ni, ni" "Sleep Good" "seep goo" "See you in the Morning" "see u mornin" "Miss you" "missss you" "Love You" "wuv you" then we blow kiss at each other and my heart is full.

It will be strange to have 2 kids in big kid beds. Our family feels complete with 2 kids, so as Luke was the first with everything, Chloe will be the last. Some things seem exciting to be done with when it happens ***NO MORE DIAPERS*** at some point lol, other things I wouldn't mind taking slow.




3.  Elfster. If you haven't used this site before, you MUST check it out. There are a few different ways to partake. First, you can set up a free account and start adding things to your list. Items you might want for Christmas or your birthday. I know for me, it is soooo helpful to have a few things I know my friends and family may want as an idea of what to get them for a present. My brother-in-law even uses his list for himself, as a way to keep track of things he wants to purchase down the road. You can create and manage lists for kids, too! Very helpful when you have out of town relatives that you don't see that much and you are able to get the kids something they want. Another way we use it is for a gift exchange. One side of our family uses it as a secret santa gift exchange. We start the exchange on Thanksgiving and are able to use each other's wish lists to purchase gifts. You can be as vague as you want (size 3t clothes) or specific by linking the actual item right to your page so the purchase is just a click away. It's so much fun and can make a stressful time must less stressful! Be sure to check out Elfster. 




4. I love shopping, especially for pretty things to fill up my new house. Not much of the decor from our old house goes with our new house so I have loved getting to do some extra shopping for new things to pretty up the house. It is a work in progress, but every weekend it gets a little closer!

Anthropologie is one of coolest stores.  Who doesn't love a pretty apron, a bright and colorful cheese board, or these cute little bowls. Have a friend with a birthday coming up? These trinket dishes are sooo cute! These baskets are in the kids section, but they could add some fun color to any room.



5. It's Opening Ceremonies Day!!! I am soo looking forward to watching tonight, aren't you?! We record everything NBC airs for the Olympics, mostly so I don't have to figure out when the sports I want to watch are on, lol. I am looking forward to Gymnastics (my fave!), Beach Volleyball, Swimming (let's go Phelps!), Soccer, Basketball, Track and Field, Diving and so much more! I love celebrating the athleticism of the folks who make it to the Olympics. They are rockstars, amiright? I have no clue what it takes to an athlete of that caliber, but my hat goes off to those who followed their dreams and made it. Aly Raisman just said that her mom put her in Gymnastics when she was 2 years old, not much older than my little one. Sheesh, Ded-I-Ca-Tion!

Luke's Closet Makeover

 

I have already shared my LOVE for great closets. I don't know where it comes from, but I have always loved a nicely organized closet more than the next guy. Thankfully, my husband has some amazing skills and was able to customize 4 closets in our old house and now Chloe's closet in our new house (see here) .  Luke's closet was a bit of a challenge. The two guest rooms in our new house are quite obviously different sizes with different size closets. Most advice we got was to put Chloe in the larger room with the larger closet because she will 'have more clothes.' That very well may be true, but we couldn't make the decision on what might happen 10 years from now. Growing up, the oldest always got first pick, luckily for me, my sister's choice was always the one I didn't want...win-win! So we went with that mentality and Luke got to choose. Maybe some day they will switch, or the playroom may be more of Chloe's space since Luke has the larger room, who knows. 



Back to the closet....which is the largest sliding-door, non walk-in closet I have ever seen. The space is tricky because we got VERY used to having 5 hall closets/pantries in our old house (can I get an AMEN!!) and this house has very different storage utilizing much more cabinet space and larger rooms with one hall closet and one pantry. So we decided to take a third of Luke's closet for 'family storage'. In a closet that is over 15 feet long, it hardly makes a dent in the space.

I didn't get a before picture, but here it is with the doors closed. It just one pole with a shelf all the way across. Nothing fancy.

Here is the closet, freshly painted and just holding clothes.

 Here is a view of the left side. The five shelves are 16 inches by 4 feet. Lots and Lots of storage!

Here is a view of the right side. Aaron squeezed a few 16 inch shelves back in the right hand corner for Luke's things.

Here are the most recent views, as you can see we still have quite a bit of space to fill up.

Shelves on the right

 Right door

Middle door

I didn't take a picture of the shelves on the left because they are still empty and look the same as the picture above. 

Moving...

We recently moved out of our first home into what we consider our 'forever' home, or our 'at least until the kids are out of the house' home. Which, with a 4- and 1-year-old, might as well be forever. Moving was WAY harder than I had planned. Not only the moving, but the Leaving of our first home. That was hard for me. It was house we secured on the 4 year anniversary of our first date. The house we learned we were expecting in on the anniversary of moving in. The house to which we brought both our babies home. The last our dog of 7 years ever lived. 

But our new house will have so many firsts. The first time ever living in a one-story for Luke, Chloe and myself. The first slumber party. The first bike riding lesson. The first time we have two kids in actual beds. The first game night as a family of four. The first time getting ready for school. The first time we see little itty bitty finger prints on our new stainless steel fridge (and all of the other stainless steel appliances :)). And most importantly, the first time we actually feel like we are HOME.

Along with moving, comes buying new things! Our old coffee table just didn't fit our new house, so off to Goodwill it went. Hello new table from  Wayfair This new coffee table fits our living room to a T.
 

This table can be found on Wayfair.com.

 I can't wait to add a few yellow baskets to the bottom for some pop of color. Maybe a few of these Yellow Baskets from The Land of Nod or these Yellow Bins from Casa.com. 

 

 

 

The reviews expressed are my own and I was not compensated to share my opinions.