The End of Summer

Woah!  My last post was in mid-July.  Summer has been so busy and full that I haven't even had a chance to check in with all of you.  We have done most of our summer bucket list.

I don't know if we'll finish it all, Myles starts preschool tomorrow morning.  That's right.  My baby, my youngest, is now heading off to preschool two mornings a week.  I can't believe that.  He was just a "tiny" little newborn weighing 9 pounds!

Don't even get me started on Barrett.  He starts school on Tuesday.  All day kindergarten.  Days full of new adventures and friends.  I pray that he feels my love and Christ's love while he's away.

I'll post some pictures of back to school soon and hopefully I'll check in with you more often.  For now, savor these last days of summer (if you're still on summer break) and have fun with back to school!

Blessings,

Megan

Fire Station Tour

The other day the boys and I got to go to the Minnetonka Fire Station for a tour.  My childhood friend Kevin is a fireman there and we had so much fun exploring the station with him.  Here are a few pictures of our adventure!

Barrett driving the firetruck. 

Kevin making sure my kids don't fall out.

Testing out the headset.

Myles too!

Thanks Kev!  We will have to do that again!  We had so much fun!

Megan

A Digger Birthday

So, I realize that I'm a month late sharing pictures of Myles' birthday.  Sorry, better late than never.  We had  a wonderful afternoon celebrating his 2nd (oh my, my baby is 2!) birthday with family and friends. 

Here's the wreath I made to greet everyone.  All I did was take a wire wreath form and tied caution tape around it and then tied diggers, bulldozers and road graters to it with yarn.  So easy and fun!

Here's the sign at the other door.  I covered a sign I had with caution tape and then printed off and cut out a large 2.  Taped it on and done!

Here's his birthday cake.  I found my inspiration here, but changed it up a little.  

We had so many people celebrating Myles' birthday with us that I had to make cupcakes too. 

Opening presents with Uncle Jared.  Notice the digger on the floor (a new favorite). 

Paul helping open up the "learn to dress monkey."  Which is another favorite.

We were so blessed to have not only one set of Great Grandparents there with us,  

but two sets.  What a blessing to share the special day with them! 

Myles with a nice chocolate mustache :) 

Barrett eating cake with Papa. 

If you wanted to use the bathroom, you had to step into the port-a-potty ;)

I had so much fun decorating for his birthday and an even more fun celebrating my baby turning 2 with many of the people that we love most.  

Til the next birthday... which Barrett tells me with be Batman themed :)

Megan

Brotherly Love

Myles wakes up almost every morning before Barrett.  The other morning was especially sweet.  We were playing in his room and my back was to the door.  He was facing the door and we starts yelling "Bare, Bare, Bare."  (That's what he calls big brother).  I turned around and there's Barrett standing in the hallway with a HUGE smile on his face.  These two really do love each other so much.

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Myles wants to do everything that Barrett does.  If Barrett is going to school, Myles says "me, me me?"  Soon enough little guy, soon enough.  For now, I'll keep you at home with me :)

Hoping today that your house is filled with laughter and love.  

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. (Psalm 127:3 NLT)

Megan

A New Kitchen

For Christmas this year we decided to make the boys a kitchen set.  It seems to be the thing they both love to play with wherever they go, so we went for it.  After scouring the internet for hours trying to find inspiration we came across this amazing kitchen set.  It wasn't girly and we LOVED the details!  So, we found an entertainment center on Craigslist for free, yes FREE, and started making our list of materials that we would need.  We took lots of ideas from our inspiration kitchen set because it was done so well.  But we really tried to put our own twist on it too.  Hope you enjoy the pictures of our journey.  We started this on Saturday, December 17 and "finished" it on Friday, December 23rd.  Just in time for Christmas but not completely finished.  We had plenty of mishaps along the way :)

Here is the very UGLY entertainment center before we did anything to it.

The plan was to do two coats of primer, two coats of paint and one coat of poly.  After researching painting laminate online, we bought some KILZ Complete Oil-Based Primer.  We used some leftover paint from our kitchen.  We thought that was kind of cute that their kitchen would be the same color as ours.

See if definitely needs another coat of primer!

Me staining the wainscot in a beautiful gray

 Here's a picture of it after three (YES THREE) coats of primer!  Only two coats did NOT cut it.  Ugggggghhhhhh!  That was not a fun thing to do three times.  Primer is really stinky.  

Beautiful... you can't see the ugly laminate anywhere!!!

We picked up most of the accessories at IKEA.  This idea came from our inspiration piece.  We got the pan rack, s-hooks, faucet, knobs, burners, felt food, utensils, timer and dishes from there.  I had the canister and the oven rack laying around the house. The boys got some wooden food for Christmas from my parents too!

The "finished" product.

Close up of the sink and stovetop.

The lower half (fridge, shelves and oven).

The side pantry.

We still plan to add an oven door, fridge door and freezer door.  We need to add some shelves in the fridge and more... we just ran out of time.  Like I said we started a week before Christmas (we're nuts!)

Hopefully we've inspired you to do something fun like this too.  We had plenty of mishaps during the week; chipping paint, cracking paint, having to totally change what we were planning to do because our original ideas were NOT so great when put into action.  It was a fun experience for us to do together.  

Have you ever done something like this?

Megan  

Myles

Sweet little baby boy.  What a precious gift from God!

Always such a happy baby and such a blessing that you were added to our family!

Starting to gain your independence and loving to play with some "big kid toys"

That mischievous grin on your face always makes me smile and wonder what you're thinking of doing next. 

You've grown to be such a wonderful toddler.  Always exploring the world around you and loving life to the fullest.

I thank God every single day that you are a part of this family.  I am so glad that I get to be your mama.  Love you so much!  

Happy Birthday Myles!

Mama

Spinning Round and Round

Does anyone like to spin?  I don't.  I did as a kid, but I really don't like feeling dizzy anymore.  Several months ago I picked up a couple of sit and spins from the thrift store.  I haven't regretted it yet.  The boys love to sit (and spin).  I caught some pictures of their most recent spin-a-thon and thought I would share with you.

Here they go, side by side.

I love the look on his face here.  Trying to keep concentration.

The smile is still able to been seen even through the spin.

Just so you could see how fast he goes... he about flies off of there!

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I do.  They have so much fun playing downstairs and it's so nice to have a place indoors to let them burn off some of their energy!

Megan

Double Peppy Pizza with Boz

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My kids have recently found a new love (as far as watching tv goes) in Boz the Green Bear. If you haven't heard of this, you really need to check it out. It is an awesome preschool dvd series that combines faith and education. I even love watching this. If you've been around us during any meal you've heard Barrett say grace. The prayer he prays he learned from Boz the Green Bear. His version goes like this...

"Thank you God for my family and my friends.  Taking time to sit and pray, thank you God for this great day."  

And then he goes on and thanks God for whatever is on his mind that day.  Lately that's been letters since we got a new Boz video (B-O-Zs and 1-2-3s!).   Myles talks along with him and they do a joint "AMEN" with hands in the air (which they learned from Carol- our fantastic Children's Ministry Director at Messiah UMC).  It's adorable... I really should video tape it sometime so everyone can see it.

The first video we got was Bananas, Bubbles and Busy Bodies.  Boz makes "double peppy pizza" with Drew, Grace and Mrs. Baxter.  Barrett has been asking to make this for weeks (maybe months).  So, we finally did.  

They had so much fun adding peppers, onions and tomatoes to their pizza's.

Here's the finished product, pre-baking.

Put them in the oven.  (Ignore the dirty oven)

Final product.  They were delicious and so much healthier than pepperoni (which is usually Barrett's choice).  I'm so glad they made dinner for us and hope they do it again!

Maybe you'll have some double peppy pizza for dinner tonight!

Megan

Sickies and Snuggles

I'm sure that everyone else is dealing with the random illness that is going around.  Right now we've been battling colds in this house for about a month.  As much as I hate it when my kids are sick, there is one thing that I love... the snuggle time.

Snuggling with sweet baby boy.

And with my sweet big boy.

Here's hoping that you and your kids stay well during this season.  

If anyone does get sick... enjoy the snuggles!

Megan