If you watch enough HGTV you just might think you can do anything

When I woke up this morning my kitchen looked like this
What I love about the above kitchen: the window. Everything else, not so much! So say goodbye cabinets that I bonk my head on, the fake ceiling that serves no purpose, the dirty tile, the dusty popcorn, everything that is an ivory color...you are out of here!!!

Tonight as I go to bed it now looks like this.Ok, so we are not done or anywhere close for that matter. Can you see where this is going?

And this was not really planned, but my living room that looked like this,
now looks like this. You would not believe how easy it was to rip of that old 80's paneling, which underneath lies a nice piece of sheet rock just ready to be textured and painted:)

A big thanks to my dad and brother for helping us out today, and my mom for watching the boys!

First Day of Preschool

Here are a few pictures of Brayden's first day of preschool with out big brother. I tried to get away with letting him use Mason's old back-pack...that was a no go! We will be making a trip to the store today so this second child can pick out his own back-pack.

First Day of School (Mason Style)

As in the past, Mason wanted to do "first day of school" pictures in his own style. His backpack and lunch box are Mario...(on a side note, until recently I have had a no character clothing rule, but it was a losing battle with Mason and two grandmothers on one side and me on the other!)...anyway, so here are our Mario themed first day of school pictures.

His running pose

Throwing fire

Holding a brick

Mom and Dad with the school boy.

Mason walked into class put up his backpack and went right to his spot. He did not turn around to see where I was and it was hard to get through to his table, to avoid being on of "those" moms I just snapped a quick photo and waved bye. So there we are, a little bit more independent but none the less imaginative!

Did you miss me?

Okay, I realize that long periods of absence tends to be my norm, and here is my excuse this time,in the past few weeks we have packed everything in our house, loaded it up and moved. We are excited to be in our "new" house and there are a lot of things we love and so many projects for us to tackle, but there are oh so many projects for us to tackle!!!! Here are a few last pictures at the old house and our first home improvement projects.Bray wanted to make sure we did not forget his bed.

Come on brother give me a kiss

I have a picture in front of this door with both of the boys when we brought them home from the hospital.


If you know my son you will not be surprised that he wanted to take a picture with both of us making a Mario face. He instructed me on the proper way to make such a face, so please excuse the unflattering picture, but it is so classically Mason.

Now for home improvement. After we got our dryer set up I started our first load of much needed laundry. After the dryer ran I came back to a load of wet clothes and a smell that I can not properly explain. Off to Lowes I went and came back with this neat little tool to clean out the vent, take a look...

Want a closer look? Seriously, this was not all but just the first bit, I probably got this much twice more...can we say yuck! (On a side note do you love the floor?)

Speaking of flooring, look at how wonderfully clean the previous owners kept the floor.

While we are planning on replacing the flooring I could not stand to live with it like this, even if only for a little while! I got out my trusty toothbrush and grout cleaner and here are the results.

Our New Obsession

racing dinosaurs



please excuse the lack of pants, but it is summer and he is a boy, which means keeping him fully clothed is not an easy task.

Lovin Summer

Little Helper

Remember back, less than a month ago, when going out in the morning still required a light jacket?

Need Your Votes

Michael entered into a Memorial Day BBQ contest. For a guy that does very little cooking he did a fantastic job and it was so yummy! Now that I know how good he is you can guarantee he will be doing more of it. Go over and check it out and don't forget to vote by giving this BBQ 5 stars!!!

http://bbqwar.com/battles/memorial-day-battle-2011/smoked-gouda-stuffed-hamburger/

Here he is at work

Preschool Graduation

The day after graduation I told Mason that we did not have to go to school because it was summer, he informed me that "No mommy I now have to go to kindergarten."




This boy loves his Grandmothers.

Way to go Mason! We are excited to watch you as you take this next step!

On another note, I have a video to post but I keep having trouble...any thoughts?

Will Play for Food

T-Ball season is over but Mason keeps asking if he has another game. He then follows up that question with informing us that he does not want to play, he just wants the treats.

Can I Hitch a Ride?

Time to Clear the Camera

I have a back up of pictures, so here is the first of my attempts to actually post a blog and get pictures off my camera at the same time.

Last month Mason had an "UN-Birthday Party" at school and they were supposed to dress unusual. Unusual is not something we struggle with in our house. Here is what Mason came up with for the day.

Almost all the kiddos in his class participated, but I guess not to Mason's unusual standard because when he got in the car that afternoon he informed me "Mom I was the only one who dressed up very unusual."

Motivational Posters

Full disclosure: this is the Dad posting and not the Mom. I did not ask for permission before posting and am just hoping to avoid the "why did you mess up my blog" conversation.

Now the legal items are out of the way...

Making his baseball debut

Flashback

I was going through pictures on my computer and came upon this one. It was taken the summer before Mason turned 4. I had asked him to go to his room and put his shorts on and this is how he came out...with four different pairs of shorts on. Mason's sense of humor is a little quirky but this so perfectly describes it. It makes me smile every time I come across it.

Birthday Snowday

Guess who is 3...my little groundhog baby. He is sporting the same shirt as the past two years, do you think it will see his fourth birthday? His pants don't match, but we are stuck inside and mismatching is what we do...you should see the rest of us!

Three

Two




One