Did you miss me??

**Picture Overload Ahead**
(If you make it to the end, you’re my new best friend! ;)

WHOA! It’s been quite the summer! I feel like I haven’t stopped going since school got out! But after some “subtle” hints from my momma (who came to visit us for my “baby’s” 7th birthday), I decided it was time to update this thing. I mean, it’s been 2 months and 11 days. High time!

SO… a couple weeks after Hay got out of school, we loaded up and headed to Washington for 2 whole weeks of vacation with my side of the fam. We had TONS of fun! Every time I head back home, my heart strings are pulled just a little bit harder as we start passing green fields, orchards and vineyards. Unfortunately, the hubs wasn’t able to come with us since he had training for work in Texas. We missed him a TON especially when Maggie was throwing one of her hundreds of tantrums!! We stayed at my dad’s house for a few days, spent a week at my mom’s and then stayed a few more nights at my dad’s again before heading home.

Dad and Mag took us out for a drive on the farm!

Some of my most vivid memories are of my cousins, siblings and I out in the asparagus field behind our house, playing on the wheel lines. We used to have so much fun out there and I couldn’t help but giggle as I watched my kids out in that bean field.

One of the main reasons I went home was for my 10 year class reunion! I had so much fun… well worth the 15 hour drive with my 3 brats angels! ;)
(Me, my friend KayLeigh and my cousin {same cousin I mentioned in above picture} Katie)

The first thing we did when we got to Gramma’s house was jump in the pool! I don’t think the kids got out until the week was up!

Good thing Uncle Cody and Auntie Kelli were there to keep us all entertained!

Cousins Maggie and Emery – only a few months apart.

The beautiful view from my mom and Larry’s house. I love it here!

More pool time!

I think Haylie got about 587 new freckles that week…

Last day at Gramma and Grampa’s :(

But back to Papa’s we go!

4th of July on the Columbia River with good friends!

  

Love this picture of Hay out in the potato field.

And no farm visit would be complete without a 4-wheeler ride with Uncle Corry!

We are so grateful for such amazing family to feed us and house us for 2 weeks. I feel so blessed to be able to go home to such a beautiful place!

She’s 2!

My baby turned 2 on the 12th. This post is a tad late, but I thought I should at least post a million few pictures of the birthday girl. :)

Here she is eating Smart Food (popcorn) while waiting for the party to get started. Isn’t her swimsuit super cute?? Her Auntie Kelli (my sister) sent it to her all the way from Seattle. (Poor girl got cursed blessed with her mother’s thighs. ;)

Our good friends the Smiths and the Hendersons, my SIL and her family and Joe’s mom and dad came to join the party! Here are most of the kids…

This picture cracks me up! I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here…

The birthday girl in all her glory! I’m pretty sure her hair didn’t get combed on her special day (sorry Maggie) and this was post hot dog (in case you missed the crusted on ketchup).

We started getting presents in the mail from my family in Washington about a week before her birthday, and instead of hiding the presents we opted to torture her by putting them all on top of our book shelf where she would be eye level with them while walking down the stairs. We’re cool like that. Needless to say, she was pretty excited to get to finally open all those presents.

I love this picture of my boy Connor watching our friends’ son putting his head through the sprinkler. This must have been after he (Garrett) spun in so many circles on the swing in our front yard that he puked.

My kids LOVE these little animal figurines. You can buy them at Ace Hardware and they have all different types. Maggie’s best buddy, Aunt Rachel bought these for her. There’s a horse, a momma Dalmatian and a Dalmatian pup.

Poor little Evie dove head first into the little pool (on purpose), fully clothed and was having the time of her life! She got cold pretty quickly though and had to leave a little early. When we asked her if she was cold, she smiled and said, “N-n-n-n-n-n-o-o-o-o…”

Someone forgot to buy a number “2” candle… (we’ll blame it on Joe since he’s not here to defend himself) so we had to improvise with a number “5” candle. It sort of looks like a “2”… right?

Thank you so much to all of our friends and family for coming for Maggie’s birthday. Dad, Mom & Larry, Kelli, Nan, Gramma & Grampa E., Grandma & Grandpa Rose and Paul & Molly- we miss you all a ton! Thank you for always thinking of us and sending your love in the mail. We love you so much!
Melanie & Rob, we know you had a busy day that day and we really appreciate you coming by.
Christine & Brock, thanks a ton for the dessert! We had so much fun with you!
Rachel & Steve, you are amazing… I would never get anything done without you. Your fruit and yogurt dessert is what makes my world go round.
Mark & Tami, you are always there when we need you. Thanks so much for all your support!

We have the best friends and family!

Happy Birthday to my sweet (and sour) baby. She keeps us on our toes!

Sweet Yard Sale Find!

I LOVE YARDSALE-ING! It’s SO fun! Unfortunately, in the past, I could never get anyone to go with me. But Joe has caught the bug! Most of the time It’s WAY exciting to go with him, but sometimes I get scared. Sometimes we come home with $10 worth of yard sale “stuff” and I think… ‘Whoa. What just happened.’ And sometimes, $10 can buy a LOT of “stuff!”

A couple of weekends ago, we came to a house just a street over from us and a woman was getting rid of EVERYTHING! Like… everything. Her poor husband had just passed away in a terrible accident and she has no family left here, so she’s moving away. She wanted next to nothing for her stuff- just wanted it all gone.

Fortunately for us, we scored some cool stuff: two huge boxes of vintage trucks tractors, etc. for Connor ($5 but worth probably $100 or more), ; a couple of cute little kids chairs (FREE); a big girl bed for Maggie including a mattress, head and footboard and side rails ($2) and more! But the BEST thing I found was this cool old table for $1!!! Her husband had used it for a work table. There is grease and oil all over the top and it’s a bit stinky, but I power washed it and most of the dirt and grime came off. The water also chipped a bunch of the paint which just added some character.

It probably doesn’t look like much, but I was super excited! I had just asked Joe that morning to build me a little work table for all my paints, brushes, etc. to go on.

SCORE!

Any ideas as to how to get thick grease off? I scrubbed it with dish soap and a scrubbing brush, but it didn’t quite get it all off…

New Hutch… maybe?

You know when you’re looking around online and see a super cool piece of furniture that could potentially be even cooler and you jump right on it and the lady says, “I’m selling this in my yard sale…” so you bed and plead for her to hold it for you until you can pick it up the following week? And then you get there and it’s WAY more “used” than what she made it look like but you feel obligated to buy it anyway because she held it for you. But then you get home and you are so bummed because you really feel like you were taken advantage of…? Me too.

Here’s the hutch. Looks great from a distance, right?

I’m feeling pretty discouraged about this one right now… The hutch is two pieces, which in my opinion is a good thing. I’m considering just throwing away the bottom part and mounting the nice part on my dining wall.

The worst part about it is not the broken middle door. It’s not the fact that the middle door doesn’t even open (who does that?). The doors are PLASTIC. Seriously (who does that)??? I don’t even know where to begin. I can’t really fill in the broken part with wood filler (or can I?)

Should I attempt at keeping the bottom part and fixing it up as best as I can? I really wanted to put it in my house, but I am starting to think this might be making an appearance at my yard sale in a couple of weeks.

Any suggestions would be SOOO appreciated!!!

(And sorry about my little table post… I ran into a few hiccups. I’m hurrying to get it done so I can blog about it!)

Our Babies Are Here!!!

I realize I’ve been a little MIA lately… I have been seriously lacking in the motivation department. I have a garage full of “projects” that have yet to be even STARTED and it has all been making me feel a little overwhelmed (which doesn’t make sense because I love to fix up furniture). Anyway, my hubby finally gave me the little “oomph” that I needed to get the ball rolling. I think it’s the sanding… I have this little table that’s almost finished. The only thing it needed before my “oomph” was distressing and some Minwax. Well… I did the distressing (thank goodness that’s over with) and then one coat of the polyurethane – let it sit to dry – came back to do a 2nd coat and my LAST brush was hard as a rock. So now it’s on hold. Again. Tomorrow I’m going to buy some pretty new brushes and then it will be finished!

SO because I don’t have anything super exciting to post, here are some pictures of our babies. There is a pair of Robins that made their nest at eye level, right outside our front window.

We watched them build the nest! It was actually very fascinating… she would fly away and get pieces of grass or sticks and then come back, drop it in the next, squat down in the nest and stomp on it with her feet. Very cool!

We didn’t see them for a few days, and I thought that maybe we scared them by going in and out the front door so often. But after about three days, I looked out and there she was, just sitting. We knew she’d laid her eggs. When she left the nest one day, I lifted Connor up and we saw 4 eggs. Wish I’d taken a picture…

Today, when I looked out the window, I saw Momma standing on the edge of her nest, holding bits of worm in her mouth, and bending over and dropping them in. When I saw her fly away, I made Joe go out and take some pictures. They are SO tiny! I can’t wait until they’re a tiny bit bigger so the kids can see them awake!

I know I keep saying this, but I really am almost ready to post something new! My goal for tomorrow is to get my brushes and finish my table! Hopefully I’ll be posting about it by Wednesday!

Thanks for not giving up on me!