Photos and Life

It's been a while, as usual.  So much has gone on, yet so little time to actually type things out.  I wish I could find a way to blog from the tablet, it would make blog life much easier.

Expect MAJOR DIY renovation updates within the next few months.  I am converting a garage into a bedroom, painting my kitchen cabinets white, along with a list of other things that I can't wait to reveal. This should be good.  I finally took more photos of my children, so I'll share those.  Danny is now 10 months old, he's still in his DOC BAND, and I am loving the results!

Only two more weeks left and then it's a thing of the past.  He has 3 teeth, crawls and drools on everything. MiMi broke her wrist skating with a friend, and Ethan, well, he's a typical little almost 8 year old boy. He loves gaming and getting dirty.

(12 in March)

 (8 in April)

Baby's First Easter...10 months at time of photo.

Broken Wrist

Danny visited Kure Beach for all of 10 minutes.

I some how still find time to put on makeup when I leave the house.

My little Doc Band baby

Ethan continually gets A honor roll, and acts shy for a photo op

But, he still likes transformers..

 Danny tries to get into everything.

Danny's first snow was at a Cranial Technologies 

appointment - Stephen held him so I could snap a photo.

Stephen and I have yet to kill each other.

The kids stay busy, and I stay sane.  With Stephen's firefight schedule, most nights I am alone while he works.  The truth is, it's a good day if I actually put on my makeup or take my hair out of a bun. I'm sure the days I get done up, Stephen appreciates it, because the rest of the time I'm rocking the "tired mama bags under the eyes".  We went ahead and bought this shed, and we are waiting on the company to contact us to build it on site.

They told us it could take up to 3 weeks. Once that's done, we can move all the garage contents into it and begin on the garage room conversion and I can share with you all a cheap way to do it on a budget. Wish us luck!

Christmas Came and Went

Is it wrong to feel slightly relieved that Christmas is over? Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the season. I love Christmas, I love decorations, I love the joy of my children on Christmas morning, and celebrating Christ, but mostly I am happy it's over with. I don't have to scour the internet for deals anymore, I don't have to attempt to go shopping in overly crowded venues, and/or bake a smorgasbord (if that's even a word, or if I even spelled it correct, I'll never know).  Now my only focus is eventually toting the Christmas tree out to be recycled, paying off my Christmas fund, and restoring all the Christmas decorations until next year.  The kids had a blast! - I have a confession to make.

We celebrated early. The only time we could get my parents and Stephen together with work schedules was the 22nd, and so the 22nd was our Christmas.  My mom works crazy hours at a giant retailer, and Stephen worked a 24 at the fire department Christmas day.

The kids and I of course drove to the fire department for Christmas and spent time with Stephen and his co workers. I even made them lasagna and sides.  I only had to turn around once to go back home because I forgot something.

The kids made out like bandits during their annual spoiling, since during the rest of the year I don't spoil. - Literally, if they want it, they have to earn it.  I may or may not be lying a little on that last statement.

I really enjoyed my parents coming down, but was emo when they left, because I miss them all the time.

It seemed to me that they enjoyed this Christmas more than the ones past. - They stuck around longer. haha!
I took Danny's helmet off for pictures and he seemed to enjoy that more than the presents.  He was far more interested in trying to eat the paper, bows and boxes anyway.

I imagine if I was his age, a lime green box would appeal to me as well.

Danny's progress with the helmet is going great. I'm really pleased with all the results and the staff.  We typically get in and out and that makes me happy, since the drive is long.  This weekend the kids are spending New Years with their father.  I'm sure they'll have fun, but as always, I miss them when they are gone every other weekend.  I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas / Holidays.  I am hoping the New Year brings many blessings to all my readers.

Oh, Christmas Tree

The tree is up. I wish I had something more fancy to say. That's all I've got.  If I manage to leave the house looking half human, with some form of makeup on, that's fancy too. I feel like a Walking Dead cast member most days.  Really, having a baby in my thirties is so much more taxing on me than it was in my twenties.

So, we found a tree lot in Wilmington, and they had two different varieties of Christmas trees. We settled on the typical one (not the long leaf pine).   $65 later, it was on the top of the van. The tree lot had a very sweet Santa, so we visited him too.  He let us take photos, and we left him a donation.

In the past, I would push to get the perfect picture. These days though, I'm like, "okay SMILE" (or don't), and SNAP! First two look wonky? Eh, there's a third. Third one's off? Too bad, it's better than the overpriced mall Santa pictures where they don't put much effort in either. Am I right?

So there's that. Later that night, MiMi and I went out and bought ornaments. I have no clue what became of my old ones.  They were lost in the move. Some how between Point A to B, they jumped ship. Who knows what became of them.

A few days later, we finally decorated Danny's Doc Band. We settled on snoopy vinyl's we bought online. Gives it a better look. We skipped the whole mod podge, since we bought two sets and want to decorate it later with something different.

Parenthood, it's exhausting.