A Celebration Day!

First, so many excuses for my lack of posting.  I will try to do better.  I honestly have barely even pulled my camera out the past few weeks.  This week has been VBS at church so that keeps me busy from 4:30 to 9:00 every night.  I have been with kindergarten... kuddos to elementary teachers.  Man, these kids are... something.  Tonight is the last day and though it has been fun, I am glad that it is over.
In addition to VBS, the boys had a little stomach crud on Tuesday.  Thankfully it was a fast moving bug and I think it is out of the house.

But for what this post if really about...

9 years!  yep, Chad and I have been married for 9 years today!  It really has been a fun almost decade being married to Chad.  Most people see the rough and tough football coach and though that is a good face for his job, that is not why I fell in love with him.  I fell in love with his other side- goofy and a tad weird.  We definitely make a good match.

Here are a couple pictures of our wedding and then one from last month.  Oh, the progression of love...

First dance

Leaving the ceremony

 Present day...

Last month at the beach.  hahaha.  Oh how things change.  ;)

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However, our anniversary is not actually the high point of our day today!  My sister in law, Sandee and her husband welcomed our niece (their second daughter) into the world today around 11 (lunch time).  Miss Samantha (Sami) Rae B made her entrance on her due date weighing in at 7lbs 4 oz, 19 1/2"!

Sami's first picture.  And Sandee looking great after having a baby.

We are so excited for Tommy, Sandee, and Charlee as they are now a family of 4!  I cant wait to get my hands on her.  A slew of pictures to come!

School's Out for the Summer... and a half Birthday!

Finally, June 14th- the last day of school.  Our school district started late due to 4 new high schools being built in our district... this led to the late dismissal date.  The last 2 or 3 weeks of school have been, basically, a joke.  Very little work completed, many movies watched, but I cant blame them... who wants to be in school in the middle of June?!?!

Hunter received the Best Character award in his class.

Yesterday, my Hunter bug turned 6.5!  This also makes 1/3 of my time with him complete (before he graduates from high school)... that just doesnt seem right.  He is seriously an amazing kid.  A bit of whiner but that is probably his biggest fault... not too bad.  He is becoming such a great helper.  He still gives me tons of hugs and kisses and is just a super sweet kid.  This summer, he is going to start taking on a few chores like helping unload the dishwasher and take out trash. 

My newest funny Hunter moment is a phrase that I guess he heard at school, "I'm sexy and I know it".  He has been saying it while playing games on the computer after he has done something good (so I dont think he gets what he is saying.)  Also, when he says it, it sounds like this, "I'm sixy and I know it."  haha, he is sixy so I guess I am just going to let it go for know. 

To celebrate the half birthday, Hunt, Ash, Shep, and I went to see Madagascar 3 at the theater.  It was a cute movie- for me a welcomed reprieve from the Super hero world that has overtaken my house, my thoughts, and my world.  The Afro Circus was a nice break from super heroes!

 

Getting ready for the movie.

Totally captivated

Loving the video games.. turned out to be close to impossible to pull the younger two away from them.

So, a great morning and afternoon.  When Chad got home, we had brownies to celebrate. 

Happy 1/2 Birthday Hunter!  I love you kiddo and I am so proud that you did such an amazing job in kindergarten. 

- I should note that I forgot to post about Shepherd's 1/2 birthday because we were at the beach.  Sorry Shep Shep.... maybe I will give you a post a bit later.  :)

Baby Shower for Sandee

Sandee's church threw her a sweet little shower last Sunday.  Sandee and two other girls from her church are all due this summer.  Here are some pictures from her shower... I didnt take many as I got put to work rather quickly.

Some of the gifts (maybe 1/5)

Charlee helping open gifts with Sandee and Grandma... by the end by these tables were covered in gifts--- I mean COVERED.  I hate I did not get a picture of all the loot!

Though I dont like strawberry, this cake was pretty good.

Charlee and her friend.  I tried to take 5 pictures of these two and Charlee closed her eyes in all the pictures but this one (and even this one her eyes are about to shut).  I guess my flash was just a bit too much.  :)

For some reason, Sandee totally trusts my decorating sense and kept after me about what kind of letters to put above my new niece's crib.  They decided to use the same bedding from Charlee's nursery but wanted a slightly different flare to the room.  I found this link on pinterest.... and thought it would be perfect.  I just had to figure out how to make them.  My niece's name will be Samantha Rae. They will call her Sami. Though I love the double stacked names in the link, we thought Sami Rae was a little to country sounding and decided to just use Sami.

Though the letters above were made with glass glitter, I did not want to spend that kind of money on glitter with glass in it, so I just went with regular glitter.   Here is a quick guide to how I did it.

Thin wood letters.  I broke this one trying to make the holes.  But, if you are going to string the letters with ribbon, make sure you put holes in before the glitter.  Though it can be done after, it is much harder (as I found out).  I just used a thick nail to make the holes.

Bought six small tubes of glitter and mixed the colors together with a lot of the rose, dark gold, and navyish color.

I just used Elmer's glue and smeared it all over the letters and then shook the glitter mix on top.  Here is the M and I after the first treatment.  Though you cant see it, I have toothpicks in the nail holes to keep the glue and glitter from going in the holes.  Just remember to move your toothpicks periodically (again learned my lesson the hard way on that one)

After the glitter dried, I used glitter spray paint to just to adhere the glitter to the letters even better. (honestly, I could have probably skipped this step, though I do like how it made some of the area darker--- added some depth.) The step that you need to do is add Modge Podge on top of the dried glitter/ paint with a foam brush.  This step will keep glitter from falling off.  It also mutes the glitter a bit which worked out well for the bedding Sandee has.

 

Finished product.  *** Just noticed the second clothes pin is not straight.  I also think we may need to slant the "I" a bit more--- Sandee be sure to fix that when you get the vintage clothes pins.  Anyway, we hung the letters with nails and then Sandee bought old fashioned looking clothes pins to replace the normal ones up there.  I think it is a good look!

Here is the other gift I made.  This heart shaped wreath is right above the changing table.  These are also super easy to make.  With a yard of fabric, glue, and foam heart, and a pencil you can make a sweet little wreath.

We are definitely getting excited to meet baby Sami.  Hopefully she will be here by the end of this month or very beginning of July!  Hang in there Sandee--- you are almost done!

Busy Time of Year

I am so thankful that this time of year is busy!  We have been going non-stop this past week.  Hunter and Ashton started swim lessons last Monday.  Hunter is loving putting his face in the water (finally!!!!).  Ashton actually put his mouth, nose, and eyes in the water for a split second too.  We are still working on his whole head.  Overall, I have already seen improvement so hopefully next week will go just as well.

 Thursday was Ashton's last day of "preschool".  He only goes Tuesday and Thursdays from 9-1 but it will be fun to have him home (I dont know if Shep is looking forward to this though). Thursday, Ashton's school had their 4 year old graduation. They make such a big deal of it (remember Hunter's graduation.) Though Ash doesnt graduate until next year, all the kids from 1 up to 5 put on a little program.  They were all so cute singing and reciting Bible verses. 

 

Ashton's whole class--- the 3 year olds.

We got Hunter out of school so we could watch.  They loved it.  Shep was clapping!

The 3 year olds and the 4 year old graduates.

 Friday night was the tball banquet.  It was supposed to be  a pool party but the weather was iffy so it was moved to the church gym.  Here they are getting their trophys.

Hunter and Coach Benji

Ashton and Coach Benji

Our buddy, Karson with the coach

 And Saturday was just beautiful.  We kind of just wanted to hang at home so we bought a little inflatable pool and put it below the slide... this was a hit 2 years ago or was it last year?  Anyway, this provided about 2 hours of fun.

 

He was going so fast it threw him our of the pool

Shep loved this!  He was too small to do it last time.  He went totally under a couple times and after the shock, just laughed it off.

Hunt's up

Hunter demonstrating holding his breath... I am so glad he can finally do this!

Today, I get to go to my sister in laws baby shower... so excited to meet baby Sami in 4 weeks or so.  I made her baby gift and will post it next week! 

Happy Sunday!  :)