Happy Birthday Dad, 62!

What do I get the guy who has everything?  Every year I find myself scrambling to come up with something meaningful for my parents for Christmas.  Because they never need anything, I usually end up going the picture route, a calendar of the kids or a framed photo taken up North, etc.  My Dad loves to grill, and specifically takes pride in his Weber charcoal grill.  I thought I'd really surprise him this year with these cool shish-kabob skewers, called Firewires.  You can bend them to fit more stuff on them, and also marinate the whole thing in a ziplock.  Pretty cool idea, huh?  It was cool and creative until he sat next to me Christmas morning with one in hand to show me what Santa brought him in his stocking!  He asked if I'd ever seen one before, of course I answered "no".  I just can't win!  I thought for sure he'd never seen one of these before.  But then again, he does hang out in hardware stores...I should've know better.   So Dad, since I'm still a little chapped about this whole Christmas present experience...you get nothing but a big fat "Happy Birthday" from me today.  In all seriousness, I couldn't ask for a better Dad, and if I really start going into great detail about how blessed I am to have such a great Father, this post will get way too lengthy.  And I'm just not feeling like getting the tissue out.

Kitchen Cabinets

We moved into this house in May.  Since the day I stepped inside, I wanted new kitchen cabinets, on top of several other hundred things.  Do you know how expensive new kitchen cabinets are?  You probably do, I didn't.  After learning how expensive the whole moving process is, we knew very quickly that our check-list of things would all have to be put on hold - new carpet for the downstairs, fireplace make-over, painting (which we did do), bathroom vanity, deck washed/stained, furniture, etc. etc. etc...

After deciding to tackle the kitchen cabinets ourselves, we are quite pleased.  And proud!

Before...

In process...

Sand, prime, sand, prime, sand, paint, paint, paint!

The make-shift stand to spray the nails.   Do not knock this over!

All painted, black.

Spray-painted the hinges also, we couldn't find any new ones that would line up with the existing holes...
so why re-drill?  By the way, this spray handle costs about $3 (or less), and is worth every penny.  

Ta da...

The funny part of this story is that it took us over a month to do the upper cabinets.  We worked on them after the kids were in bed, but often took several days off in between.  Then...once they were up, we pulled off a Christmas miracle and completed the bottom set in 5 days...before we had a houseful of guests for the Holidays.

Next up...maybe a backsplash?   Countertops?  I know...never content.

Christmas 2010

Memories of Christmas this year:

• Hosting The Follett side at our house.  Aunt Kimmy stayed at our house for 2 nights.  Papa and Memaw stayed overnight on Christmas Eve.  Uncle Dave, Aunt Shannon, and the girls came for the day on Christmas Eve.
• Jake waking up to find that Santa ate the cookies he left out.
• Criss Cross Crash
• Caleb visiting the ER on Christmas Day, coming home with an asthma inhaler.
• Kate and I getting each other the same gifts, which were very unique, we thought - custom camera straps.
• Grandpa having to make a special trip to deliver batteries for Criss Cross Crash on Christmas morning.
• Completing our kitchen cabinet project, barely.
• "Lucky", the horse.
• Fires in the fireplace.
• Getting one of the nicest text messages from one of my YFC students, at 1 a.m.!
• Spending time with family!
• Too many presents.  We are abundantly blessed.

Papa and the Grandkids

"Lucky"

Yes, that's a leather jacket

The remains of Santa's cookies

Grandpa's Stormy Kromer

Criss Cross Crash

Helping Caleb

Who's having more fun?

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Annual Gathering

We all have those friends in our life that you just wished lived closer.  I have a couple in my life.  With distance, naturally comes less time together.  But, good friends are the ones that you can see only once a year and when you finally do get together, it's not awkward.  This past week, our friends made the trek down from Fremont for our annual (well, it's our second year in a row) Christmas gathering.    We made a commitment to try and take a picture every year with the kids by the Christmas tree, no matter how good or bad it turns out - screaming and not looking at the camera always earns points.  This year it required adults to get in the picture in order for all kids to be included.  And taking it at the end of the night was an added bonus.  Usually kids love sitting still and smiling when tired.

Last year

This year

Grandma's Birthday

Jake was very excited about "wearing a birthday hat" mandatory.  He also picked out the Birthday Girl pin.  He told me as were walking out of the store that Grandma was going to be "so happy" to get to wear it.

This last picture is probably my favorite.  Jake's face says it all.  I'm not sure WHY he loves birthdays so much!

Happy birthday to the best Grandma and Mother.  She is my hero and I am super blessed to have such a great Mom.  We (me, Jake, Grandma, and Aunt Vicki) celebrated tonight by going to Crazy Horse for dinner.  Grandpa is still up at the cabin and Daddy stayed home with Caleb.  Jake thought he was hot stuff.  I'm not sure who had more fun, Grandma or Jake.  What a great memory!

Poop Talk

Dear Jake,

You are infatuated with looking at your poop while you are going. You will very much dislike that I am blogging about this, someday. But, I have to get on the record all the funny things you say while on the toilet. Usually you just comment on the assorted shapes of your poop(ice cream cones, sharks, etc.). Lately, you've been commenting on how much they splash. Tonight made me laugh a lot though. You asked "Mommy, why are some divers and some floaters?" My response..."I have no idea."

Love you buddy,
Mommy

Labor Day Weekend

Packing up all the STUFF for a one and three year-old and heading up to a small cabin is not something I always look forward to. I know, a lot of people would love this opportunity. So, I try and put my personal selfishness and laziness aside and go for it! And I am almost always glad we did. This weekend was no different. Jake LOVES going up to the cabin. He especially enjoyed taking daily trips out to Grandpa's tree stand on the golf cart, and I bet Grandpa never thought he'd be building sandcastles in the woods with dirt, sticks, and moss next to his tree stand. They (Grandpa and Jake) also decided to make shadow monsters outside on the deck, the one night the sun happened to be shining. We also roasted marshmallows that night. Jake insisted on doing it all by himself.

I can only hope to pass along to our boys the wonderful memories as my parents did for us, and it makes me appreciate them all the more.