Waxing Poetic

I love these shots.

Infinite beauty in dying.
Graceful petals swirled like a dancer's beautiful body.
Peacefully reaching for the sun's last rays.

One beautiful spring day, I was pregnant and tired...cleaning the kitchen...slaving over a hot stove...and probably barefoot...while the boys played in the back yard. Those last days before Alaina arrived Josh took every advantage to have some really good play time with Joseph. Washing the dishes this particular day wasn't half bad though, because my huge kitchen window over the sink looks out to the yard and I love watching them run around and rough house. When they disappeared I didn't think anything of it. Then Joseph flies by the window, in the back door and is soooo proud to show me this...

He says his daddy is the coolest because they got to chase down the ice cream truck! I was thinking good thing it was daddy and not mommy cause we wouldn't have made it, brother.

So apparently they heard the tinkling music and decided to see if it was coming down our street. They didn't see it at first but Josh was determined that it was close so they decided to run around the neighborhood looking for it. Luckily the truck turned close enough at one point that the ice cream man either saw them waving or could smell the excitement radiating off my little guy. They even thought to bring mommy back one! Score!


Joshie...I'd watch out if I were you...looks like he may be up to no good.


Agh! No one's popsicle is safe!




Of course, they even came with complimentary blue tongues for added enjoyment! What funny guys!

Somethings Gotta Give...

Who knew four warm bodies would put out so much dirty laundry?

Do I hear you laughing at that statement? A nervous laugh because you know exactly what I'm talking about and can commiserate? Or a "that's funny" laugh because you've paid your dues and the sight of this pile laundry three feet high and three feet wide doesn't scare you to tears?

Well, Alaina doesn't seem to mind but I can't say the same for this laundry basket toting mama. And we have a ridiculous amount of laundry baskets for some reason....four or five....so when they are all full it's either bad because it's dirty and I have a ton of loads to do, or it's bad because I have five baskets of laundry to fold. Either way it's lose lose.

I just don't have time to do all this laundry man. I've got stories to blog and facebook to check. And little munchkins to tend to....don't worry, I didn't forget about them. But if I ever lose Alaina and it's laundry day, I bet I know where I can find her.

I've been dying to sit down and compare pictures of Baby Joseph to Baby Alaina since she was born. I finally peeled her off of my chest one night, handed her off to her daddy, fired up the computer and took a trip down memory lane. It was such a sweet, fun trip...and they definitely look like siblings!

Baby Joseph

Baby Alaina

Baby Joseph

Baby Alaina


Baby Joseph

Baby Alaina

Baby Joseph

Baby Alaina

Baby Joseph

Baby Alaina


Baby Joshua

Baby Heather

I checked in on FaceBook one morning to see a post from a super sweet and cool friend that was offering up her preschooler's baby furniture to make way for all the fixin's of a big girl room. It crossed my mind that I should message her and see if it was still up for grabs, but we had our crib already. Her perfectly girly and cute changing table really caught my eye though.

A few messages later and a car/truck switch off with Josh, the truck was loaded up with our new changing table! She said right off that if I wanted to paint it up that it wouldn't bother her, but I'm not sure if she would have said the same thing had she known "painting" it turned into a total experiment for me.

I cringed as I sanded, painted, blended, sanded more, blended and experimented on her sweet little girls ex-changing table. But lo and behold, the further I got the better it looked. Plus I'm pretty sure I remember her saying it was a four-timer hand-me-down...(Wow! Way to live green and be economical!)...so surely it was ready for a new look.


Here it is ready to go! At this point I had removed the super cute pink glass knobs and sanded it. Almost nine months pregnant it was probably quite a show in the driveway as I painted high, low, sideways and every way in between!


Then at one point, as Joseph is standing next to me quietly eating his cheetos, eyeing the new furniture and contemplating the project at hand, he looks at me and said "So mom, are you sure this is a good idea? It was just fine the was it was you know. I suppose if it looks ugly then you can just repaint it white though. But also...I don't think you ever did anything like this for my room. I'm just sayin'..."

Hush, my son. Have some more cheetos.


I was kinda winging the design. I was thinking about going blue since we had a bunch of left over light blue from painting Joseph's ceiling like a sky. I also had a few inspiration pictures from catalogs too. I decided to crackle the paint and definitely use the same beautiful knobs to go for a vintage/cottage feel. Going "vintage" is always good, because then if I make a mistake no one will notice unless I tell them. Instead I can say "Oh that weird ugly spot right there? I don't know. I mean, yes! I meant to do that. It's part of the character. It's supposed to be vintage after all."


First I perfected my technique on a couple of shelves that would hang above Alaina's crib. Then I got crackin' on the changing table.

I dabbed and sponged and wiped and brushed until I figured I was just going in circles - adding paint, antiquing it too much, blending, adding more paint...etc. It was all quite therapeutic.


And here's my finished product. It looks really "antiqued" in this picture (aka dirty) more than in real life. But I am really happy with the way it turned out!


I hope we can love it and treat it as well as it's previous four owners! She's a great little changing table. (It's definitely a girl!)


After all, she's been around for centuries!

Well, the baby is here...I suppose it's high time to put together that ol crib.

Actually, we were in no hurry since she has a bassinet next to our bed and I didn't expect to be moving her for awhile. We left Joseph in our room until he meet the weight limit of the bassinet, and I still wasn't ready to part with him! They just don't stay small for long and I want to soak every minute of it up.


We polished off our allen wrenches and went to work. Joseph is quite the helper and if you ever doubt that a mama and her three year old can't put together a crib, I've got the pictures to prove they can!


Unfortuntalety, once "the helper" saw we were being photographed, he turned into "the clown". He can't handle being normal when a lens turns his way. It's not humanly possible. It's a good thing I had those three crib sides balanced just right because the project was down to just two hands for a minute.


Clear out everyone! He's coming...


Whoa. I don't know about you...but when I'm the one behind the lens and I see this coming at me, I duck and cover. Or at least grab the water bottle and start squirting.


Ha! That face reminds me of Jim Carey. They're both nuts, that's for sure. Anyway, mama's working hard and so excited about getting the room more put together. It may be several months before it's finished, any maybe several more after that before a sweet little girl calls it her own...but it's on it's way!


Now hand me that allen wrench and hold this steady, son!

The Toot that Keeps on Giving

Toots are good stuff in this household. It's become a bad bad habit, no doubt about it...but boy do we love toots. First everyone laughs, then it has to be pointed out who it was - which usually turns into a guessing game of 'name that toot', followed by lots of laughing.

What can I say? It's funny stuff.

And now we have a whole new tooter to add to the madness. Like I said, it's funny funny stuff, man.


If I'm really lucky, I'll happen to have the camera handy when the magic happens.


Because little itty bitty sweet babies often have the best toots ever.


And sometimes they toot over and over and over, which really pleases certain big brothers.


Actually it pleased us all this particular day!

The Progression of a Smile

Let me please just tell you how smilie this sweet baby girl is! And let me just tell you how much she likes to eat....but that's for another post.


She loves to lay down and kick and squirm. It's one of the times I know I'll get to see that pink gummy smile.


Uh-oh. I feel a little something-something coming on.


Whoa! Look at her go! She's a smiling fool, y'all!


I mean, if you could have sound with this picture, can you imagine the squeal and gurgles?!


One of my favorites is this one of her doing the tongue thing.


...and this one too with that little milk dribbling out.


And this one too. Just because I'm the mama and I can say they're all my favorites if I want to. ;)