Grandma's Birthday

Yesterday was Grandma's birthday which we celebrated a couple weekends ago.  I posted this video for her on facebook but here it is again.  The boys thought they were being quite funny with their angry voices.

Here are also a couple pictures from her birthday "party". 

Singing "Happy Birthday"

 Uncle Tommy has Hunter in a headlock.

 Grandma opening her present with the four (almost 5) grandkids nearby.

 
Patsy, hope you had a great birthday and thank you for having us up to the house to celebrate!

Valentine's Day

I love it that Valentines Day is simple... so easy now.

And I love that I have 4 amazing men (both big and little) to love on.

I was able to go to both Hunter and Ashton's school Valentine's Day party today.

Here is Ashy at his.

 And Hunter

 And here is Sheppy enjoying his morning home with me.  He has been feeling a bit cruddy lately but hopefully is coming out of it. He is coloring in my Bible of all places in this picture.

 

 And here we are as we are rushing to get out the door to church this past Sunday.  I really need to teach Chad how to take a decent picture.

And, I chuckle as I am about to publish this post because I don't have a single recent picture of Chad and me together.  ha ha ha.  Oh well, Chad- you know I love you so much and appreciate all the long hours you put into provide for us!  

I also want to thank my mom and Chad's mom for dropping by this evening and giving the boy's a special Valentine...  Mom, thanks for my "Janet" cake too- yum!  :)  We are so blessed by you guys!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Reading- I Love School

Hunter is reading and it is so sweet.  His reading day at school is on Thursday.  Each Thursday he gets  new book that he practices for a week.  Then he reads his book in front of his class (with a microphone).  Shepherd and I (Ashton was at MMO) went to listen to him (and bring him lunch) today as he read the book, "I Love School."

He did such a good job.  For some reason, blogger would not let me upload the whole 5 minute video.  So, I re-recorded it with the video camera off of the computer screen, so that should explain the graininess and softer sound.  Each video is around 1 minute long.  If anyone knows why I couldn't do the whole video at the same time on blogger, please let me know!

 

Anyway, I am so proud of him.  I would guess that he is right above the average in reading for his class.  The little girl that read after him was amazing!  But another little boy had the same book Hunter had 5 weeks ago when they first started doing the "reading chair." So, I am pleased with where he is! 

Isn't he just too cute?

Biking- The Wows and The Owws! (take 2)

THE WOWS!
This past summer, I tried to get Hunter to take his training wheels off his bike. And though he humored me with attempting to ride without the training wheels, we always put them back on.  Well, with the beautiful weather that has been this winter, he and I both agreed that it was time to take them off for good... and so a couple weeks ago, Hunter finally started to ride on two wheels.  He picked it up easily- reminds me a lot of potty training.  No need to force it to happen, it will happen eventually.

I had a cute video of him riding but I had to wipe hard drive clean again because it went bazirk again.  :(  Lost 4 months worth of pictures that I had not backed up... dont even get me started...

But here is Hunter (in short sleeves in Feb) riding his bike... it is now time to upgrade to something a bit bigger.

 

 

Ashton is a little speed demon on this trike.  I never made him wear a helmet while on this low riding trike until his "Oww" moment (See below)

 

And Shep doesnt really have a bike yet (he and Ash share the trike) but here he is just enjoying the day.

THE OWWs!

Each child has had some type of concrete battle wound over the past few days.

The first wound happened at Queenie's house while walking the dogs.  Shepherd was walking an 80 lb black lab (not such a smart idea) and he fell down.  This looks so painful to me- his thumb and ring finger bore the brunt.

The next injury happened to Ashton while speeding down our hill on his trike.  He was not wearing a helmet and though he should have been the only scratch a helmet would have prevented would have been the forehead scratch.  This picture is 2 days after his fall.

Injury number 3 was just a small one from Hunter.  He fell off bike and scratched his knee.  You would have thought the world was coming to an end though by the way he acted... he is a spasso (sp or is it even a real word?) over blood.  Hunter has had many other almost injuries, he just manages to get to the grass when he feels himself falling.

And to finish up on a happy note....

Here are two pictures that just  made me smile.

#1- Look at his afternoon "winter" sky with the moon showing.  I love it!  The temp was around 65 degrees!

#2- Amazing little boys

A Weekend Away- Kind of

Ok, so the title is a bit misleading.  Chad went to a coaching clinic up in PA this past weekend with some of his coaches.

So the boys and I went to my parents for the weekend.  We had a great time. I am so thankful that we are so close to my parents (and Chads) now.

The highlight of the trip was going to Issaqueena Falls.  It was really the perfect "hike" for the boys and they got to explore a cave.  I am sure mom can give anyone details about the cave since she read each sign thoroughly. 

 The group at the beginning of our trek into the cave.

 At the end.

 Picture with the boys...  one of these days, I am going to get an amazing picture where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling... one of these days

 Ashton said he was scared

 The floor was very lumpy, so Shepherd was anxious to hold a hand or be held

 Once out of the cave, the boys played around on an old train bed thing.

Hunter

 Shep

 Ashton is too active- couldn't get a good one of him

 So close to being an awesome picture.

Good looking boys!

 Good looking boys again... plus one!  Ol' Mantis decided to hop in the picture.  Shep is trying to get out of the group hug

 Queenie and Mantis with the boys

 The last part of the trip was to the Falls.

 

Our attempt at a group shot= Fail (haha, oh well, we tried)

  

 A bit blurry but sweet picture

 This just makes me smile.  I am so thankful for my amazing parents!  Love them!

 So sleepy... Dad and Shep fighting exhaustion on our way to get lunch after our "busy" morning.

 

Thanks again mom and dad for a great weekend and for helping me out while Chad is gone. 

The Art of Stripes

History
I started my stripe streak (pun intended) in 2006.  And I have averaged doing 1 striped room a year since then.

Something about stripes is a bit modern but still fits comfortably in my country chic style.

My first three striped rooms came while we were in NC. I striped my kitchen/ eat in dining room.  My second was doing an outline type stripe in Hunter's bedroom.  The third was doing just a big bold stripe in the middle of Ashton's room.  Since moving to SC, I striped my living room, striped our Sunday School class, and most recently did the boy's room.

Things you need.
- Tape Measure
- Pencil
- Level
- Roller/ Brush
- Paint
- Patience

The Process
Step 1- Measure your room to determine your stripes.  If all stripes are going to be the same size then take that measurement and divide by the width of your desired stripes (my stripes have stayed in the 8" (living room) to 15" (boy's room) range).  Make sure you have an even number of stripes if only doing 2 colors.

       Example- If I am doing horizontal stripes.  I measure the height on my room which is 88".  I want my stripes to be about 15".  Divide 15 into 88 which is 5.8 stripes.  I will round up to 6 and then divide the 6 into 88 which is 14.6".  So, I am going to have 6 stripes that are 14.6" a piece.

Step 2- With your pencil and tape measure, go around the top of the room and make a pencil mark for the stripes as well as labeling what color that stripe is going to be (example, on every other stripe make a "b" for blue or whatever color you want)... make sure that your last stripe is around the same size and that you have two different colors butting up to one another (remember even number)

Step 3- It makes very little difference where you start in your room.  I personally like to end at the most obscure point in the room in case I am a bit off.  This is also a point that if you have a laser level then you are way ahead of the game... I however, dont have one.  So, for the po' folks in the world.  If you are doing 11.75" stripes, then make between 4-6 marks on your wall.  Take your tape and hit each  mark on the edge of the tape.  I have 84 strips in my living room, meaning I made roughly 400 measurements to make sure I had a straight line. 
I also want to add to make sure that you start at the correct point on your mark. If you are taping a section that is going to be painted, then start taping on the outside of the mark.  If you are taping a section that is not going to be painted then start on the inside of the mark.  Remember, when taped, the non-painted sections are going to be smaller because the 1/2" tape (or whatever size you use) takes up part of the measurement.  There have been countless times that I have taped on the wrong side of the mark and had to yank my tape down and re-do it.

Step 4- After each taping, take your level and run it across/ down your tape to make sure you are level.  This also is good to press your tape down.  Kill two birds with one stone.  Your eyes will play tricks on you so I highly recommend doing this especially if you dont tape or paint much.

Step 5- Once your room is taped, you are practically done. The painting is quick and easy.  Slap your paint on the wall.

Step 6- Take your tape off.  I honestly dont know when the right time is to pull the tape. I am normally so anxious that I do it as soon as I am done and I have never had any problems with that method. 

Some other Hints

First, use Frog tape (the green stuff).  It is sooo much better than painter's tape (the blue stuff).  Honestly, masking tape works just as good as the blue painter's tape.  If your colors are similar then you can probably get away with using masking tape as the bleed through the tape will not be very noticeable.  But, if your colors are quite opposite, just invest in the good Frog Tape.

Second, Frog Tape may sometimes still bleed through a bit.  The only way to totally prohibit this is to paint over the edging of the tape with the color that you are NOT striping with.  For example, if you are have tan wall and you are painting a blue stripe, then after you tape the wall, paint the edge of the tape with your tan color.  This seals between the tape and obviously if it bleeds through it doesn't matter because it is the same color.  This is not a necessary step and one that I do normally skip. But, if you are striping a wall that has some texture, you definitely need to do this!

Third- I debated typing this but... stripes are actually pretty forgiving.  If you were to go around and measure my stripes, there are many that are not going to be the exact same size.  As long as you are not way off, it will probably blend in ok.  But do double check your measurements.

If any of you guys stripe anything or heck just paint anything, send me a picture.  I would love to see it! I am always up for new inspiration. 

Happy Painting and Striping!

Boy's Room Curtains

As I mentioned here, I "made" the curtains for the boys room.

Besides our house being a bit on the small side, the other BIG problem is there is only 1 window in each of the bedrooms and they are small.  So, I knew I needed a curtain that would lengthen and widen the lone window.

However, I have no money.... hahah, seriously, I had very little in the money area to work with especially to achieve the look I wanted.

So, through pinterest and blogs, I start to narrow down how I am going to do this and I ran into painted curtains.

I find this pinterest link first.  I, however, dont have an IKEA at my finger tips and I still didn't want to invest a lot in the actual panel.  So, I found another blog (that I did not pin... oops... and I cant find it now).  Anyway, this blogger used a drop cloth. I went to Lowes and got a 6 * 9 drop cloth for like 10 or 11 bucks and a small paint roller.

Once home, I washed and dried the panel... hoping that it would shrink the length of the panel.  Unfortunately, it stayed 9 feet and shrunk the width to 5 feet.

For all my sewing friends (and GrandmaDean), dont even read what I did next.  But for the rest of us who can't sew... I then needed to make a place for my curtain rod to go through.  I got my hot glue gun and made the "sleeve" for the rod.  I also "hemmed" the sides (where I had cut it in half) with my glue gun so it would not fray.  I was a bit worried that the glue would not hold but it has done perfect

I then cut the panel in half.

Half of panel

.

Next, I decided the pattern I wanted (which is similar to the blog that I didn't pin) and then measured and taped off my stripes... you guys know my obsession with stripes.

Then went to the garage and started rolling.

A couple things I learned.  
1- Use a bigger roller.  I used a trim roller which I think is the smallest roller ever made which made this process take much longer than needed.

2- This takes a TON of paint.  I had over 1/3 of a gallon of paint left and basically used it all.  So, be careful buying only a quart because it probably will not be enough.
3- I did put a sheet under my drop cloth/ curtain when painting and there are a couple spots where it bled through onto the garage floor. 

4- I don't know if it is the kind of paint I used but my curtains are not overly flexible (that might have something to do with the stiffness of the drop cloth though).  I read somewhere that some paint is more flexible than others (maybe latex???).  The stiff look works well in the boy's room though.

Finished product

Overall, this is a super easy and inexpensive way to get customized curtains up!  If you are a pinterest person, type in "DIY curtains with drop cloth" to get some other really neat ideas.