This is not a sprint... it's a marathon. Home improvement marathon.

Our home improvements are still coming along. Not as quickly as I would like them to but we are making progress. We are basically finishing our entire basement. It started out with new carpet and then we decided to patch the drywall in a few places so that also means that we will be repainting. Then, on a whim, Thayne decided that we should put new flooring in the bathroom. And, he has been updating all of the electrical too. *SIGH* Someday, all of our projects will be finished and there will be nothing left but to enjoy our house and the upgrades that we have so desperately needed. That's what I tell myself anyway.

Max loves to help with everything.

As if our home improvement projects weren't enough to keep me busy, I've also been busy with my own projects. My MIL, Kim was in town for a couple weeks and while she was here she spent some time teaching me to crochet. I've wanted to learn for as long as I can remember so I've been really excited about this new talent of mine. I'm still just doing basic stuff but I'm catching on quickly and have a lot of project ideas in mind. This is my first official crochet project to be completed. I've been wanting one of these crocheted headbands for a long time but I'm too cheap to spend $15 on one. But since my motto is "I don't buy it if I can make it for less" and now I know how to make them, I made it my first project. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I was a little worried since I was making it up as I went but I couldn't be happier with how well it turned out. Thanks, Kim! You saved me $15 AND made me a very happy person!

Thayne and I also have a new niece... Chloe. She is adorable. Since I don't have a girl of my own to make cute little dresses and things for I had to jump at the opportunity to make Chloe an outfit. It turned out so cute and I am making more for my friends who have girls.

The dress is cute but the booties are my favorite.

She is so tiny and sweet. It really makes me want a little girl pretty bad.

Even though I'm starting to want a little girl pretty badly... I absolutley adore Max. He is the joy of my life and I love everything he does (even if its something he shouldn't do). When he looks at me with his cute little face I just melt. He has me wrapped around his little finger and I'm happy to be there.

Max figured out that he could climb to the top bunk with the ladder. We thought it was cute and let him do it for awhile but we got sick of having to help him get down every 2 minutes so we finally took the ladder away. Do you think that stopped him??? Of course it didn't. He climbed right up the side without any problems at all. The boy has a great future of climbing ahead of him!

We were at Aunt Jamie's house and he loved playing her piano. He sat there pounding on the keys for a good 15 minutes or so.

This boy loves water. It made his life have meaning when he discovered that he could climb into the sink and drink straight from the faucet.

I try not to give him candy too often but he is a candy freak. Sometimes I have to give in... He is just so cute with candy all over his face. This time it was licorice.

crazy busy

So, it has been a couple weeks since I've updated... I've been a slacker. And crazy busy. January is always a crazy month for us. This year more than usual though. So, I'm going to attempt to catch everyone up on the craziness... bear with me, this may be a record breaking long post.

Two saturdays ago was the busiest saturday I remember having in a long time. First and foremost, it was Tristyn's 17th birthday. Gosh, I love that girl. She brings me so much joy. I can't believe that she is 17. It's so strange how quickly they grow up. But I do enjoy it. I love my teenagers. It is so much fun being able to communicate with them on an adult level. We have many meaningful conversations and I'm so grateful for that. I have really lucked out with some amazing step kids. They have made the step-parenting thing very easy and natural for me. Tristyn and I have always had a great bond. Ever since the beginning when Thayne and I started dating. Any time I spend with her is great time. So, for her birthday, I spent the morning with her. She has been trying to grow her hair out for about 4 years. She just can't seem to get it to grow past her shoulders. That's why I thought that hair extensions would be the perfect gift for her. My friend and hair stylist, Jenny, gave us a great deal and did an amazing job. It was so much fun to sit and have girl talk all morning. 3 hours later... Tristyn's hair was down to her waist. It was a bit long so Jenny cut off a few inches so that Tristyn wouldn't accidently be tucking her hair into her pants. It looked amazing and I couldn't have been happier with the results... but most importantly, Tristyn was happy and couldn't stop smiling. It was worth every penny.
Sadly, I must report that there was a problem with the glue and most of the extensions have come out now. :( Tristyn has been really sad about it but thankfully, Jenny is able to get us in on Monday to get it fixed and restore the long luciousness that Tristyn loved so much. I am also going to learn how to do it so that I can fix it if there are any problems and so I can redo it every 3 months or so when it grows out.



During our salon time there was a baby shower going on for my friend Emily. Since I missed it I stopped by her house later to visit with her for a few minutes and give her the baby quilt I made for her. It was the first quilted quilt I'd ever made so it had some "charcter". But, I think that just makes it more fun. Emily loved it and agrees with my opinion on the character (much to my relief). It was so fun getting a chance to visit with her.



I also had another baby shower for my friend Cori. I hadn't seen Cori in such a long time and it was sad because in high school the two of us were attached at the hip. I have so many great memories with Cori and I was so excited to get to see her again. There were also quite a few people that we went to high school with so it was like a mini reuinion. It was a great way to spend my afternoon. I also made her a baby quilt... I call it my first one ever also because I made it at the same time as Emily's. It was made with lots of "character" too. :)




So, while I was out getting hair done and visiting old friends, Thayne was at home with Max helping my brother, Nathan, install new carpet in our basement. The kids all love the new carpet and are excited to repaint. We will be taking the kids to Lowe's on Saturday to pick out their paint colors. It is really exciting.

Max loved playing Twister on the new carpet.

Last, but not least, we went to see Thayne's dad, Craig at the VA Hospital. He had a massive heart attack. It started that Tuesday but he just thought he had the flu or something so he didn't go in until Friday when it became unbearable for him. He'd been having a heart attack for 4 days. It really is amazing that he is still alive. He was joking with us that people in his town call him the Maverick. I am happy to say that he is doing well and is recovering nicely. All of the doctors are amazed at how minimal the damage to heart was and how quickly he seems to be recovering.

70 Years Old

I LOVE my house. It's charming, cozy & original. There aren't any other houses in my neighborhood that look like mine. It's also small - under 2000 sq. feet. I love that too. I don't need a lot of space. I don't want to have to clean a lot of space. We still have 5 bedrooms - plenty for our family of 7 and still room left for a guest bedroom. It's all I could ask for. EXCEPT, it's 70 years old. I know that's where it gets its charm but it's kinda a headache too. It's been well taken care of so when we moved in 4 years ago there really wasn't that much that we had to do. It was livable. Old but livable. We've slowly been working on updating it. The first big project was the upstairs bathroom. It's still not completely done but it is mostly. It has turned out beautiful and it will be awesome when we do get the last of the small details done. We also started painting the outside of our house a couple summers ago. That project got put on hold when Max was born. We have to scrape the old paint off and it's lead based so we can't do it with Max around. One of these days after it warms up maybe I'll send Max to my sister Blythe's for the weekend so we can get it done. I'm getting sick of a half painted house. But again, when it is finally done, it will be awesome. So, this weekend we started a new project. It's a lot easier than the bathroom or painting the entire house. It will be done a lot sooner too. I'm going to make sure of that. Thayne got a really good deal on carpet from a guy that he was doing some electrical work for. The carpet in the basement is HORRIBLE. The kids have been troopers for putting up with it. Today we pulled up the old stuff in the boys' room. What was under it was amazing.

Thayne's a pretty handy guy to have around. I can do whatever he can't so between the 2 of us, we've never had to hire anyone for any of the work we've done on our house.

The blue commercial grade carpet is what we've had. It wasn't even attached to the floor at all. Max loved pulling it back and picking at the pad underneath. We had to put an end to that. Too bad I never knew that underneath that pad Max loved picking at was a Gorgeous green & yellow checker board floor. Ick. Some of the things we've found in this house have really baffled us and this is one of them.

We're also going to paint the kids' rooms and update some of the electrical stuff. My deadline for it is the end of February. I'll let you know how that goes.

I also started a different kind of project today. TONS of my friends are having babies. I have 2 baby showers next saturday. I like to make gifts instead of buying them. I couldn't decide what to give to my friends for their babies. I have a couple of friends that make quilts and I've always loved them. They sell them but they aren't cheap. Plus, my motto is "If I can make it for less $, I won't buy it". So, inspired by my quilting friends, I started my first quilt today. It's probably way more detailed than I should have made it considering that it is my first but I can't go back now. I got quite a bit done and I'm happy with the results so far. I will post pictures after the baby showers so there is no risk of the recipients seeing them before they should.