Konner's 2nd Birthday

Konner turned 2 on the 16th of January so to celebrate we had a cowboy birthday!!

The invitations

Food! I had wanted to roast hot dogs and s'mores over a fire, but since it wasn't a "burn day" that idea got dashed.. But.. we grilled the hot dogs and used an indoor s'more maker so it was all good!!

The Birthday Boy with his cake!! He was always playing that he was a cowboy and riding a horse so that is why we decided on the cowboy theme!

Blow!!!

Presents!

The party favors...

And there you have it, our little guy's second birthday party!!

A Long Overdue Update!!

I am long overdue for this update, but as most of you know last year was not a great year and I really did not have the heart or energy to write! One good thing that happened is in early December we finally became homeowners again!! What an awesome feeling, to have a place, albeit small (for now), to call our very own! I will hopefully soon get pictures and blog about that. For now I will just share our Christmas letter for those that didn't get one. Here goes:

2013

The Year of Tears

This has been a sad, sad year

Lots of heartache, lots of tears

For three uncles whom I knew and loved

Spread their wings for heaven above

Leaving wives, children, grandchildren too

To go on without them, so sad, but true

The other side of my family did not escape

For three others have made it to heaven's gate

But life goes on and so we must

Leaning on God and in Him we trust

To get us through each new day

Until with our loved ones again someday

Together forever, for all eternity

And finally His face we will get to see

But until then we plod along

Only with God's help can we be strong

As for me and my family here below

We're still here, don't ya know

Tyrel 16, owns a car and is kind of cool

Works with his dad and does PennFoster for school

Kirsten at 15 is learning to drive

A big help at home with the Lord by her side

Laban is 13, another teen

A great outdoorsman, his eyesight is keen

Shiloh at 12, a big help so true

When it comes to playing with the youngest two

Brandt now 3 and a half still loves to play

His imagination sometimes takes him far away

Konner at 22 months* is still the baby

A cuddly guy, but he can be goofy and crazy

It's been seventeen years for Tim and I

Loving each other while on Christ we rely

Now as this poem comes to a close

I ask that you remember those

Who faced so much loss this dreadful year

And never forget to love on those you hold dear!!

Amanda West

*this was written a couple of months ago, so Konner is now a 2 year old!!

Getting Organized...

...or trying to!! I had found another plan on here that I have been wanting to do.  For Mother's Day I got a gift card that I used to buy the lumber (among other things) and we got it done. Last week I finally finished getting the last little details finished. So here it is!!

Before!!
I had a wicker basket for shoes in the "front room"/entry area. BUT with kids growing, getting bigger shoes, and the basket falling apart we always had a mess of shoes everywhere!! As you can clearly see.
So I decided I wanted to do something about it and the following is what I came up with:

AFTER!!!
I am so pleased with how it turned out, how about you?
The original plan only had three cubbies, but I wanted one for each of the boys. (Kirsten has her own basket in her room) Tim ended up with a cubby and Konner just shares as his shoes are so little! :)

The shoe boxes made with pallet wood. Pretty cheap and easy to build. The handles are made from rope from Lowes..

This sign I made with pallet wood and the knobs I picked up from Hobby Lobby waaaay back in February before life changed... I had this idea in my head since then too..

The pillows are the only thing I/we didn't make. These are from TJMaxx.They add some color and are comfy to sit/lay on while watching a movie or playing video games... I am so happy with how this project turned out!!  And of course I still have more projects/reorganizing I want to do.. Someday!!

Memorial Day Weekend...

Memorial Day weekend we just stayed home instead of going out of town like most people. We ended up having a nice time anyway! :) We worked on some projects that I have been wanting to do (that will be another post), had a bonfire, went fishing, and relaxed. So I would say we did something different!! Some pictures of our fun:

Bonfire, I like how the camera captured the sparks.

Brandt

My Man playing his guitar by the fire..

Little Man fishing..

My little towhead!! Love this boy!!

My favorite picture from the weekend, Laban and Brandt

My oldest and youngest

Momma helping baby fish.. Shiloh in the back

Some of my men!!

Papa and Konner!

Where are the pictures of Kirsten? She doesn't like the camera, can you tell?

Dining Room Set Redo

Being a family of 8 and having a dining room table with only 6 chairs was a bit of a problem.. Unless of course we are like a good many people nowadays and don't eat together.. BUT we aren't, we sit down to supper together every evening. So the seating situation wasn't working well even though Konner sits in a highchair.. We still were missing one seat! After learning about this website I had all kinds of fun finding different plans for things. One being a bench for my dining room table. So while I was in NH for Jimmy's funeral my darling hubby built a bench for us. I hadn't the heart to paint it for awhile, but as I said in my previous post, I have been on a project frenzy. I decided to repaint everything and put new material on the chair cushions.. Well got that done and here you go:

The table and chairs before...

And after!! The two extra chairs fit perfectly at the counter in the background..

New chair covers.. It is actually laminated fabric. How cool is that? Just wipe off the food and spills!

And the bench! Made from five 2x4s. It ended up costing about $20.. The paint I got from Lowes for $5 as it was an "oops" paint. I also used it for my bird picture in my previous post.

Overall I am very happy with how it all turned out. Now on to more projects, this time with old pallets!! :)

Another Project Post

I have been tired of looking at the same things on my walls for awhile now so have been getting ideas from Pinterest of DIY decor... Life kind of stopped for awhile with all that has happened in the family, but lately I have been wanting to redo EVERYTHING!! A few weeks ago Sonja asked me to do a yard sale with her so I did and got rid of some of my decor (some of which was 10 years old).. Then I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some stuff to try my hand at DIY.. Here are the results:

I bought three canvases and painted them gray

On Pinterest it said to buy a vinyl silhouette or stencil.. Well I wanted more than one color and plus it was cheaper. Soooo... I just freehanded it! The finished product!!

Knowing me, I can't do anything exactly how they say to.. For this project you are supposed to make it into a chalkboard, but I liked this idea better. I had bought this frame at a garage sale years ago and never used it. So I thought it would be perfect for this, and it was!! I glued fabric onto the frame back and Kirsten printed out the words. I put that in the frame and we made the fabric flowers. All we have to do now is every week clean off the glass and write a new verse with a dry erase marker!! I love how this turned out!!

And just to show you that I am still taking care of my babies and not neglecting them for my projects, here we are!! :)

Next up: My dining table and bench redo (hopefully anyway!)

Brandt Turns 3!

 Uncle Mike went on to glory on April 8th and his funeral was on the 13th which is Little Man's birthday. I had flown out for the funeral so we postponed the party for a week. Here are a few pictures of his celebration!

Our firetruck theme... We had been planning it forever, but with all that happened didn't end up doing everything. It still turned out cute tho!

Flaming cupcakes!

I tried a new punch recipe, but wasn't too impressed.

The birthday boy with two of his cousins!

Opening gifts, he got his fireman rubber boots. I had been eyeing them for about a year now!!

I didn't feel up to doing favors and found this cute pinata so decided to do that instead! Plus kids love that so it all worked out..

Pinata!!