Pantry Remodel

So a couple months ago I decided that I needed to paint my pantry.  After seeing a bunch of them in blog land.  
Here is the pantry before, it was a mess

 I pulled all the food out and pulled off the white contact paper I had put on the shelves when I moved in. I was too lazy then to paint it so I just covered the worn out shelves up.

I painted the shelves and supports white, and the rest of it was painted it the same color as the kitchen.  When I told Jason what I was going to do he thought it was a dumb idea and didn't like it.  He almost talked me out of doing it, but I painted it anyways, and I love it.  It has made a huge difference.  It looks so fresh and clean, I should of done this forever ago.

I bought a bunch of baskets and some jars and containers to hold our food.  I love how it turned out.  I do still need to put some labels on some of the jars, and baskets. 

So far after living with this for a couple of months, I still love it and it still looks like this at least pretty close to this.

Happy birthday Jason

Wow, this is such a busy time of the year in the span of two weeks we have Ashton's b-day, Noah's b-day, Thanksgiving, and Jason's B-day.  We were suppose to celebrate Jason's b-day this last weekend but then he got sick and wasn't up for the celebration.  So we have had to post pone until next weekend.  I did try to make the day as pleasurable as possible, I ran and got him an iced coffee, made him whatever he wanted to eat and then I made him a cake and some cupcakes.

In Honor of Jason turning 35 here are a few things I love about him:

1. I love his sense of humor
2. I love how he makes up silly song and sings them
3. I love how he is such a great father
4. I love that he works so hard to provide for our family
5. I love how he says I'm beautiful even when I know I am not
6. I love that he is so good with money, he has helped me a ton with this one :)
7. I love how he is such a good problem solver
8. I even love how he has to google everything
9. I love how he was the crazy cat man
10. I love how he can make me laugh so easily
11. I love how we lay in bed at night and talk
12. I love how he always seems to know what I am thinking (even though sometimes it can be annoying)
13. I love how he will watch chick flicks with me
14. I love when I have had a hard day with the boys, I can leave and know that all will be good at home
15. I love how he lets me decorate the house however I want as long as he doesn't have to do any of the work
16. I love how he rolls his eyes whenever I want to take a pic of the family or the two of us, but then he smiles and goes along with it
17. I love to watch him play with the boys
18. I love that he will eat almost anything I put in front of him
19.  I love how when he doesn't like dinner very much he gets up and has a bowl of cereal
20. I love that he knows about my obsession with designer purses and he indulges me

I hope he knows how much I love him and appreciate him for everything he does for me and the boys

Happy Birthday Babe!

Thanksgiving

Mom asked me what we wanted to have for Thanksgiving dinner and I laughed because I always give her the same answer.  It never changes, Thanksgiving would not be the same without: Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, Shirley's Rolls, pickles and olives.  And everything else I just really don't care about.  Of course there has to be homemade cranberries for Jason and some kind of vegetable and a sweet potato, I just don't like those things.  I think that there would be a riot if we didn't have mom's stuffing, Shirley's rolls they are a staple every year.  And I was so bummed when I got home and realized that I had forgotten to bring home rolls with me :(

I was in charge of making dessert, I knew that there needed to be a pumpkin pie and I didn't feel like making one so Costco helped me out there.  I did make Jason an apple pie, I tried a new recipe one I had gotten from Pioneer Women, it turned out delicious I am told (Don't like apple pie, or any pie for that matter). 

After dinner was done and we were all sitting around talking Ashton, Aaron, and Jason were all playing Angry birds.  It is funny watching Ashton play he gets so excited when he gets the pigs.

I love being around family and spending time with the people that mean the most to me for this holiday.  We had a great day just hanging out and eating and I was going through all the sale ads, for Black Friday and plotting my course.  I was contemplating not going, but like Jason said this only comes around once a year and I actually kind of like it.  I do try to stay away from the really crazy places.

This is what I see almost every day from Noah, he is kind of a needy child. 
"Mom stop taking my picture and pick me up"

"seriously are you done yet I want you to hold me and stop taking pictures"
I don't know what it is but I do like taking pics of the boys when they are crying, am I the meanest mommy ever!

Finally a smile from the little stinker, Grandma has this growth chart for the boys and both boys love to look at themselves and see how tall they are getting.

This is what happens when I want to get a family picture.  You would think that I was torturing them, Ashton can't be bothered to hold still and look at the camera and Noah throws a fit and is carrying on.  Oh well at least I tried right!

Boys party

So this year I decided not to do the friend party and we only had a family party.  I was going to only do cake and a couple of treats, but then I was feeling bad and decided I needed to do a little more than that. 
Ashton decided that he wanted a Cars cake again (he had one when he was 2) and I couldn't talk him out of it. So he got a cars cake and Noah got a Thomas cake.

My mom came and got the boys on Thursday night and she kept them till Saturday and brought them home before the party.  That was awesome I was able to get everything done I needed to on Friday so much easier without the boys around.  When she brought them home I found out Noah got sick while she had him and threw up the one day and then had diarrhea the next day.  The poor kid I can't seem to get him better, I don't understand why he is getting so sick all the time.  So Noah was not his usual self he wanted lots of cuddles. 

While we were opening gifts Noah had a little melt down, it was actually quite funny.

 

I tried hard not to go overboard with gifts, we gave them each two small things on their actual birthdays then we saved the big gifts for the party.  With their birthdays being so close to Christmas it is hard to have all these toys and presents show up all at once.  I guess it is a good thing I went through their toys and gave away a huge bag filled with toys that weren't played with anymore.  Noah wasn't totally getting the unwrapping of the presents, it was a good thing Ashton was there to help him out. 

Noah got play dough, Lego's, and a firetruck.  Ashton got Lego's, a dragon boat, a leapster and a game for it. I realize that even though we got the boys different presents, they are going to play with each others things.  It is going to be interesting to see how it all plays out and how they fight over the new toys.  Overall it turned out to be a great day and the boys had fun so that is what matters in the end. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Noah

So today lucky us we get to celebrate Noah's second birthday.  I do have to say that having kids birthdays a day apart is a little bit of a challenge.   Noah your birth story started the exact same way as Ashton's, I woke up and had to pee and after a minute realized no I really didn't have to pee it was that my water had broken.  We didn't rush as quickly as we had the first time.  But oh your delivery was so perfect, the epidural worked the way it was suppose to and I didn't feel a thing.  Now we did have a little incident with me having to get 2 epidurals because the first one didn't work, but once that was straightened out, things were smooth sailing.  I pushed about three times and you were out. 

Now here we are two years later and you are a ball of fire.  You definitely keep me on my toes, when you are good you are the most adorable thing ever, and when you are bad, you are bad.  I am just hoping that those terrible two's aren't any worse than what you have been doing for the last year. 

I do love you baby and I can't wait to hear you talk more and show us more of that spunky little personality that I know you have.

Hope you have a magical day, love you baby!
Mommy


The day you were born.  Man you had a lot of hair it was so beautiful.

1st birthday

2nd birthday,  you are at a stage right now that cooperating for a picture is the last thing on your mind.  I am fortunate that you aren't screaming while I was taking pictures. 

Happy 4th Ashton

I can't believe that 4 years have gone by so quickly.  It seems like just yesterday I was bringing him into this world.  Technically Ashton wasn't born until 7:30pm so right now 4 years ago I was still in labor and the worst part was about to come.  The worst part being, pushing for 4 hours, the epidural wearing off and nothing they did could take the pain away, having a natural child birth, and me being so exhausted and you weren't wanting to come out that the Dr had to use forceps for you to finally arrive. 

It is a good thing that those memories fade and the outcome is one precious child.  I love watching the person that you are growing into.  You have such an awesome personality, and I love you more than I knew was possible. 

Happy Birthday Ashton I love you !!!
Mommy



The day you were born, my life was changed forever

Your 1st  birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

4th birthday

Iphone pictures

Every so often I remember to download the pics I have taken on my phone, and sometimes I come across some good ones.  More often than not I come across the ones that the boys have taken.  In case you are wondering yes both Ashton and Noah know how to use the iPhone, they can play games and take pictures.  Noah has even been know to send text messages and emails to people, so if you have ever gotten a strange message from me, know it was Noah and not me. 

I was finally able to convince Ashton to stand up against the wall to see how big he was.

On our way home from Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The boys love eating apples from their tree.  They will eat 2 and 3 at a time.  I looked behind me at one point and found Noah fast asleep laying on his dog, so cute.

I grabbed Jason's phone the other day and got all the pics off his phone, he always gets really fun pics. 

Noah loves to play croquet, he always needs to have his own mallet and balls to play with.

 

Ashton was complaining about the sun bothering his eyes, so he wanted my sunglasses.  The boys love to read books while we are in the car.

We went a Bee's game with our neighbors, this was the boys first baseball game.  They did pretty good all things considered.

The boys found a new place to sit while playing with their trains in the living room

Ashton wanted to help me make sugar cookies, I was surprised at how good he actually did. 

I actually love to see what kind of pics that the boys take.  I do get lots of ones with their shoes, the floor and occasionally I get one of me.