Happy 11th Birthday, Noah!

I’m very late in posting pictures from Noah’s 11^th birthday party.  I promised myself that I would have it up before Halloween, so I can at least feel good about that!

As with all my kids, I loved planning his birthday party.  I gave him a budget, so he could choose what kind of activity or entertainment he wanted for his party . . . he very quickly decided on renting a video game truck come to the house.   I’d seen a few before but had never been inside of one.   It was VERY cool, and he and his friends had a blast.  I especially loved it since it was incredibly convenient to have the truck come to the house, so I didn’t have to transport all of the other things for the party to another location.

Since he chose a video game truck as his activity, I decided to make “Video Games” the theme of his party and went to town “pinning” ideas from Pinterest.  (I know . . . shocking!)

Noah made an awesome Mario and Nintendo out of his Legos and brought down his Pinewood Derby car from last year that is a Wii remote.  It was so fun to see how excited he was about the little touches I put into his party.  He said, “Thank you!” so many times, which was really touching.

And as usual, I had a ton of help from my friend Kat in prepping for the party!

Deux Rays is 5!

NOTE to those of you who are wondering about that nickname: Since Amelia was a baby, Mike would hold her and say, “Hi there, Baby Deux”…then it evolved into Deux Ray, since Amelia’s middle name is Ray (her Grandpa Thompson’s first name).

I remember when Mike, Noah and I sat impatiently waiting to go in for the sonogram that would reveal “the baby’s” gender.

All I remember is the technician saying, “I’m usually 95% correct, and my money is on a girl.”  My first stop on the way home was going and buying the girliest newborn shoes I could find (I figured she would love shoes the way I do).  Lucky me, she does…maybe more.

Amelia, since day one, has been an “A+”…only lovable.  She is a dream. I hope one day she reads this and knows how impressed her parents are with her sweet, loving spirit.

 “Amelia,

You have a heart made of gold.  I did not know what that meant until I saw the way you embraced Maxwell.  He is beyond lucky to have you as an older sister.  We are more than proud of who you are and who you will be. You are the most beautiful girl in the world, inside and out.

Love, Daddy”

I knew I wanted to have a big birthday party when she turned five, and I had so much fun planning it.  Yes, I am one of those moms who scopes Pinterest for weeks and goes way overboard.  Being that we share the same birthday, I figured my present to myself would be planning her birthday and having a lot of fun doing it.

Apart from having to reschedule the party multiple times due to the crazy weather we had, it was a lot much fun.  Originally, I planned to have it when both my mom and Mike’s mom were in town so I could have help the day of the party; however, since we had to cancel at the last minute, they weren’t able to come for the rescheduled date.  But, thanks to AMAZING friends, Kat and Rayna Nigro, I was able to get everything ready the morning of the party.  I would have been lost without them!

She is a true animal lover!

Mr. Cotton Candy

Those two are incredibly lucky to have Noah as a big brother.  He is one of a kind. 

Max let us know quite emphatically that he plans to have ponies at his birthday. Sorry Elmo, move over.

Two great Moms, one awesome month!

First of all I am very thankful that both Mike and I still have our moms alive and healthy.  I am also very thankful for the relationships they have with our children.  I know one day Noah, Amelia and Maxwell will look back and realize what a gift it is to have such a close, loving and supportive relationship with your grandparents.

My mom hadn’t been out in a while, so we were all excited when she came out for Easter.  It was especially fun because she hadn’t seen any of the remodeling we had done to the house in the last year.  She heard me complaining, crying and stressed during the weeks that our kitchen was under constructive, so she really understood how excited I was when it was done and it was better than I had imagined.  The days she was here went by too fast; I keep telling her about all these places and restaurants I want to take her to when she visits but it’s proven quite difficult to fit any of it in.

We had our 2^nd annual cul-de-sac Easter egg hunt, we planned to have everyone over for brunch after doing the egg hunt outside.  However, the weather had others plans, we ended up having the egg hunt in our house for the little kids and on our back patio for the older ones.  We’re still finding hidden eggs!  The brunch was really fun, great food and great company.

Two weeks later, Nancy, Mike’s mom came out for a visit.  As always, she is absolutely wonderful!  The weekend before she came we had planned to go to Austin for the weekend to get a weekend away, just the two of us but cancelled last minute because the weather was supposed to be terrible.  Sweet Nancy, watched the kids for us while visiting so Mike and I were able to go.  I am really thankful to have her as a mother-in-law, she is such a caring person and so easy to be around.  She is impossible not to love, I’m pretty sure everyone that knows he would agree.

 

Mike and I had a blast in Austin!  I had never been and he had only been briefly for work so we were both excited to explore the city.  My best description is that it was the closest thing to San Francisco that you will find in Texas, we immediately feel in love with all Austin has to offer.  We had amazing food (best street Tacos of my life), drinks and especially enjoyed all the live music.  We spent Saturday walking the city, we saw the very impressive State Capitol building, the UT Austin Campus, the wall art on 8^th Street and so much beautiful scenery.  We can’t wait to take the kids back and explore more of what the surrounding area has to offer.  There is nothing like a weekend away to relieve stress and feel refreshed.

Here are some fun pictures I had on my phone from the last few weeks that I thought I might share.

Mike's obsession with Gremlins has passed down to Noah.

Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

She is always making homes for her roly poly's and lady bugs

A boy and his dog.

Kitchen Remodel

We knew the first big thing we wanted to remodel was the kitchen when we bought our house almost two years ago.  I took a year and half of getting ideas from Pinterest and Houzz to plan our dream kitchen.  I knew it would be a big project, and I wanted to make sure when it was over there was nothing I wished I would have done differently.  The initial idea generation was a lot of fun, but the anticipation when my designer/good friend, Susan Johnson, and I started to make the final plans was even more fun. 

The beginning of this January was when things really set in motion. I choose the countertops, cabinets, floors, backsplash, appliances, paint color and signed contracts for all the different contractors I would be using.  All of this was very exciting, but I kept hearing from friends who had remodeled their kitchens, and from Susan, how stressful it would be. I also heard that no matter how carefully you planned there would be bumps in the road.  I took this to heart and really tried to get into a “Zen” mindset once it started…

For those of you who know me well, know that I am a NEAT FREAK!!!  So I was quite proud of myself when I had to move all of the stuff that was in my cabinets into my dining room and my family room and I didn’t let the mess get to me knowing it was a means to an end.  The first week went really smoothly, the demo/tile guys were great.  I thought, “wow, what was everyone talking about?”  Other than having a microwave for my only appliance and our favorite pizza delivery on speed dial, it really wasn’t so bad.

Then came week two, the day the cabinets were going to be installed.  I had met with my cabinet maker multiple times in the previous month and had explained exactly what I wanted. He had sent me CAD diagrams that reflected both the design and the measurements of what I had told him.  Long story short, almost none of the measurements of what they started to install were correct.  I caught all of this within the first 30 minutes of the three hours it was supposed to take, I was very nice when I called the cabinet maker to discuss all of the issues.  Our “relationship” ended the next morning after I had to ask him to leave when he started to yell at me in front of Amelia and Max.  Thankfully, the owner of the company was more than accommodating and most everything was fixed. 

From this point on, I was a little more skeptical of the men that would be coming and going out of my house in the weeks to come.  The yelling incident made me especially nervous given that Mike travels during the week and I felt vulnerable knowing that a 6’4” 300lb bearded man was very angry with me and knew that Mike wasn’t home during the week. 

Other than all the painting taking twice as long as I thought and them causing a small kitchen fire (can’t even talk about that…) things were looking good.  I was so happy when the last worker packed up and I had my house back to myself, not to mention having a beautiful working kitchen and not having to use my bathroom faucet as a kitchen sink. 

I did not realize that most people hire a general contractor for a remodel this large, and that I would be assuming this role.  I’m not sure that I would have changed things because I learned so much and now know how to fix/install a lot more than I knew before this project started. However, I’m also not sure I would ever do it again, unless it wasn’t my money and I was being paid J!

And finally the before and after picture, my favorite part.

After...

Last but not least, my first time cooking in my new kitchen!