Projects

I have had some projects that I wanted to get done around the house, and June 15th being my deadline, I have been pretty productive. I could easily come up with more, but I prioritized and got done what I really wanted to get done before the baby arrives. These last two weeks are going to be spent doing fun stuff like swim lessons, movies, and fun stuff with my boys! But here are some projects we've worked on forever and are finally done with:

We built bunk beds for the boys using the Side Street Bunk Beds Plan off Ana White's website. They were so much work, but it was really fun to work with Nate on a project. And don't worry, Isaac is not sleeping on top yet, we will wait another year and a half or so before he moves up to the top! I love the color we picked to paint the bunk beds, but it makes me want to paint their room a light gray - but that is not going to happen soon, so we'll settle for blue. We just picked up some orange pillows from Ikea for the bed too, the bed turned out better than we thought it would considering we've never built anything before!

Of course I could not get him to sit still for one second for a picture. 

I have also wanted to make the boys quiet books for a while, so I finally got to work on them this spring before the baby arrives! These were more work than any other project I've done, but they are done and the boys play with and like them - so that's good! I made two identical books, so this one is Luke's. And there are 8 pages total, but I'm only putting a few on here:

These last few are two of their favorites:

We also needed a dresser for the baby, so we found this one at a garage sale, I don't have a before picture - but it was a terrible paint job, and red! So we painted it white, I bought some hardware at Ikea that we still need to put on, but our baby girl's clothes are finally organized so I was glad to finish this project.

Lastly, Luke's quilt! I bought the pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew, and using a pattern was so nice - and I love this one! It looks so boy to me. 

I cant help but post a few of the boys too:

Camp Out and Catch Up

One of the things on our bucket list before the baby arrives was to go camping. I haven't been camping since before Isaac was born - so I have never been camping with kids, and they. get. dirty! We went for one night and camped next to a river, which was really nice - I cannot camp without either shade or water, one of the two is necessary :) I can't believe how big the boys are getting, I feel like Luke is still my baby, but he tries to keep up with Isaac, and pretty soon he'll be right in the middle :) Anyway Isaac was super awesome at camping, and he was soo excited. He slept well and wanted to try everything, he was very easy. Luke was better than we thought he would be, he was nervous in a new place so he wanted to be held a lot, and he woke up in the best mood ever (serious, not sarcastic) in the middle of the night for an hour and a half. He was also obsessed with throwing rocks in the river, I think he would have done it for hours.

This tree was right on our camp site growing out over the river, and of course Isaac and Nate wanted to climb out on it - it was more scary for me than it was for them I think.

We told Isaac to set up his chair by the fire, and this is where he put it :)

You can see our tiny tent in the background - its time for an upgrade :) It's a 2-3 man tent but it actually wasn't bad, just a bit squishy and I didn't want to move on the air mattress at all because I was afraid of waking up the boys.

My favorite part of the whole trip was watching the boys wake up in the morning (is that weird that we woke up before them?) because as soon as they realized that we were still in the tent they were so excited.

It just started getting a lot warmer around here, so we busted out the slip n slide.

Here is a picture from when I was 30 weeks or so - I am currently almost 34 weeks, and that shirt does not fit me anymore! This pregnancy, I've felt a ton more braxton hicks contractions than I ever did with the other two (and for a while now)- I'm hoping that is a sign she will be here a tiny bit early, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

It was also my birthday this month - And my birthday present was a treadmill! I am so so excited to use it (I haven't been able to yet) but I won't be able to until like August! I don't necessarily love running, but I love how I feel afterwards.

Life Since January

The first weekend in March, we were able to head up to my dad's cabin for a weekend. There was the perfect amount of snow, as in no shoveling snow and it was not too cold to play, no ice, etc. But still enough to build stuff and have snowball fights ;) We don't get any cell phone service up there, so it really is a weekend away from everything. I do start to go stir crazy after two days up there with two kids to entertain, but it is still relaxing. 

Isaac loved playing in the snow again, and Luke did not like playing in the snow again :) 

We went on lots of walks, because it was beautiful outside.

Every spring, so far, Nate has traveled to Phoenix for work for a few weeks, and we usually come with him since our kids are not in school yet, and we get to visit with friends and family. These next few pictures are from a Suns game that we went to with our friends the Wests' - Isaac ate too much cotton candy (So did I) and kept saying "Go Wildcats!" We've got him trained well.

Nate's new ride!! Just kidding. But it was fun to look at. (It was parked outside the Suns game)

The boys were actually sick for a lot of the time in Phoenix, so we spent a lot of time in the hotel room. We didn't get to visit everyone that we wanted to because they kept getting sick! But when Isaac would wake up from his nap and Luke was still sleeping, since the hotel room was one big room, I would turn on a show for Isaac, and I just love this picture of him hanging out watching a show with headphones. 

I love this picture of them at the zoo - it looks like they are up to something. Our zoo pass is about to expire and I don't think we'll be getting another one since we're having a baby in a couple months! Once the baby arrives, I'm not sure if I will be crazy at home and want to get out to the zoo, or just want to stay at home for a while and get a zoo pass later, we'll see. 

And lastly, Happy Easter!! We had fun doing egg hunts and eating way too much candy today. 

Nate's Birthday

Is it weird that I feel old even on Nate's birthday? I guess I am just always blown away at how fast time flies. He loves cookies and anything chocolate, so his "cake" is made up of a huge, thick, round chocolate chip cookie on the bottom, cookie dough ice cream, and crumbled cookies and chocolate on top. It was a little too much 'cookie' for me, but he liked it! 

Isaac's Birthday Party

Isaac had some of his friends over for a train party when he turned 3! He actually had a blast and loved all the attention, and he had been looking forward to it for a while beforehand. We used black tape for a railroad track on the floor, and got all of Isaac's trains out for the kids to play with. The kids also decorated their little cardboard "train" to use on the railroad tracks and to take home. For lunch we had pizza - Isaac's favorite. I sometimes feel bad since his birthday is on Christmas, but when it actually rolls around, he pretty much gets a week long celebration because everyone tries to overcompensate! So the poor kid is not so poor after all :)

Merry Christmas

I don't have a ton of pictures from Christmas.. Somehow I forget to take pictures in

 the midst of all the excitement. Therefore, here are some from around Christmas time.

Family Pictures

I love getting family pictures done! I take that back actually.. I love getting the pictures afterwards, the actual taking of pictures is not super fun. I just love seeing great pictures of our boys that we can keep forever. My awesome friend took these for us, so if you need a photographer, I know a good one :)