Movie Night

Lane has a pretty cool projector in his room while he's on deployment. We saw it before he left, but thought it wouldn't be worth the money. Well, once he got there and realized how little there was to do in his down time he quickly changed his mind. The guys will get together and play Tiger Woods Golf on the xbox that Lane took, or they'll watch a movie.

I decided that since he's having such a great time with his projector, he might as well get full use out of it. I opted for a movie night box for him. I stocked it with some good movie theater candies and some popcorn. He doesn't have a microwave in his room, but he said he has access to one. The movies that I'm sending him are the cheap, $5 movies from Target. Once I knew I wanted to send the box I just picked up a movie here and there if I saw something that I thought he'd watch.

{The Dances With Wolves movie will probably come home unopened, but it was a must! There's an ultimate embarrassing story that goes along with it, and I might as well let you in on the secret...I mean, I was only 7 or 8 when it happened! I told my friend's mom that when the man and woman are naked together in the movie that it made my butt tickle...are you done laughing yet...?! Ok, ok, like I said...I was too little to have any idea what I was talking about - or that I should keep those feelings to myself at least! So I put a note in the box with the movie that said, "I hope this doesn't make your butt tickle," because I know it'll give Lane a good laugh too. He makes fun of me for this at any chance he's given, so I'm just going to embrace it...I was little! I had no idea!!! And I can't believe I just told that story!!!!!!!}

Motherhood Is...{32}

This week my biggest blessing is my friends.

I know, I know, you're looking at a picture of my feet {in brand new shoes!}, but I'm talking about my friends...Strange. But it isn't! This week I hit a deployment slump. I was in a funk and I wasn't sure why. The kids were behaving, we'd gone days without a timeout, Eden was using her manners, Hunter wasn't screaming - things were good. Which is why it was hard for me to talk to Lane at one point this week. He saw that I wasn't having a good day and I responded with, "today was just hard for me," but there was nothing outwardly hard about it. He didn't get it {he's not anything like me when it comes to this kind of stuff, I didn't expect him to get it}, but he did catch it and notice that something was up, so props!

I was talking to friends about my slump, and they were my "shoulder to cry on" because I didn't want to "cry" to Lane {even though I eventually did anyways!} Angie took my kids one morning and told me to just go out. Go somewhere, do something, and leave the kids at her house! I jumped at the idea. Originally I was going to go for a long run to help me prepare for my half marathon {in just a week!} but I decided not to. I even got dressed for my run and then changed at the last minute.

I went shopping. I didn't want to spend money, I just wanted to go to the mall and walk around. So I did. I got my coffee and I walked through the stores that have glass things, I wandered in and out of the stores that have things for ME, and I didn't buy anything for my kids! I found those shoes for $9 at Target {yes, there's a Target at our mall...and it's 3 stories tall!} There was a cute boutique type store {that my stroller doesn't fit through} that was having a buy one get one half off sale, so I got a dress for Lane's homecoming and for a baby shower I'm going to. Other than that, I just walked. I didn't answer questions about why, how, where, what next, can I have a snack, what's that, or anything else.

It was great to just get away and help pull myself from my slump and I couldn't have done it without the help of friends!

Crazy Hair

Eden didn't have much hair for so long. She didn't get her first hair cut until she was 2 and a half! Hunter needed one well before turning 1, but for tradition's sake, we waited. So all the cute things that you do to your kids' hair in the bath tub - stand it up, make it crazy, make it spike - we couldn't do with Eden for so long! I stood her hair on end the other day when I washed it and she let me take a picture so she could see it {I haven't hung a mirror in their bathroom since all the construction has happened.} When I took the picture and I was looking at it, I was taken back to a time before Hunter was born. I remember drying Eden's hair after a shower, and it was all over the place. I told her that her hair was so crazy and that I wanted to take a picture of it. Just look...

She's the same kid, but how on earth did she grow up so much?! Where did that baby go? How is she older now? But at the same time...how is this little girl still the same person?! My goodness!!!! Once again, time flies and motherhood proves to be bittersweet at every turn!

Bubble Bath

I did something tonight that I haven't been able to do in what seems like AGES! I took a bath in the master bathroom garden tub! This may seem like some small ordinary ordeal, but it is actually huge!!!

You see? This is what our bath tub looked like a year ago - more than a year ago! Last June Lane went to give Eden a bath and when he tried to turn the water off to the tub...nothing happened. We had to turn the water off to the house, have a plumber come out {twice} and tell us that ripping the bath tub apart like that wasn't necessary...ugh. The whole thing was a nightmare. 

Then enter the demo of the bathroom ceiling,

which led to the mirror falling off the wall, 

which led to taking out the whole 9 foot vanity {that we had planned on eventually replacing anyways}, 

which then we realized the tile didn't go under the vanity, 

which led to ripping out the hall bath tile {because it matched the master bathroom tile}, 

buuuuuut we didn't come out with enough full pieces of tile, 

so we had to retile the hallway bathroom,

and then we eventually made it back into the master bath to re-finish our work from last June...

to tile, 

paint, 

put up bead board, 

frame the windows, 

re-put together the ceiling, 

re-light the bathroom, 

frame and put a new face on the bath tub, 

build the vanities, 

and hang things - curtains {that I made} pictures {that I painted} and mirrors.

So, tonight, I took a bath...and stared at my brand new bathroom!

Please ignore the ceiling above the sinks that needs to be trimmed, the fact that one mirror isn't hung {because I almost killed myself and broke the one that is hanging by doing it by myself!}, and the fact that my sinks don't actually work...it's still a work in progress! Maybe next year everything will actually work!

Picture Post

Story time fun! 

Anyone want some plums?! These came from our tree in the back yard and they are d-lish!

Eden wanted to be wrapped like a baby, so I swaddled her. And Hunter put a hat on her!

Hunter sleeping with his new LSU pillow pet from Daddy.

My little dare devil!

There are days that I love my dogs, and there are days that I just want them to stay far, far away from me. This happened to make me feel like the safest place for them was far, far away from me. They left this gem for us in the middle of the living room floor while we were at the mall. It wasn't even a new basket...or new toys...or in a new place. Ugh!

Another goodie from Daddy!

Hunter is getting to be so handsome! There are days that he looks like such a grown up little boy to me.

With just a sweet little innocence of baby left!

This window was letting in so much heat in the mornings, so I had a friend come hang the blinds for me. You can no longer fry an egg on the granite counters early in the morning when the sun is beaming!

The first nap in a week! She's been refusing ALL naps, but every few days she needs those extra z's. 

Home made vegetable soup. Lots and lots of it! I made plenty for the freezer.

The facing on the bath tub. I'm so excited!!!!!

Eden's last goodie from Daddy - a reusable sticker book.

Dance parties are all fun and games...

...until someone accidentally releases the balloon! 

Under the blanket lies Ginger, the dog that we thought we were going to have to give away because she doesn't like children! Boy were we wrong...

Hunter sitting in timeout is becoming quite a regular these days. I think he'll eventually understand that hitting isn't nice. I hope he eventually does, anyways.

Yup, timeout again. This time he wasn't hitting his sister, he was hitting his friend who was hitting him back. 

Movie time!

Playing at Kidventures on the fire truck. Lots of fun!

Motherhood Is...{31}

This week I am blessed that this is what we see when we walk up the stairs.

This is a beautiful picture that was taken by Megan the weekend before Lane left for deployment. Hunter has taken interest in talking about the pictures that are on the wall going up the stairs, so this is a great one for us. Even on days the kids don't get to talk to Lane, this is a great way for them to get to see him and for us to talk about him.

I count my many blessings that my kids have a daddy who loves what he does! We miss him every day, but with every day that passes, we're one day closer to seeing him in the flesh again.

RIP Boris

I know Lane must be having a hard time with the loss of Boris {his mustache} so I created a care package to help him remember. There's rice crispie treats, cookies, cinnamon swirl bread, and all kinds of goodies!

Cookies, vacuum sealed and ready to go.