I had a very simplified rough idea in my head of what the benches might look like, but anyone that knows my dad knows that you either do it all out, made to last, with attention to detail…or you just don’t do it.  We had a great time looking though some ideas he had printed off on line and modified our favorites into something that would work for our particular vision and space.  On Sunday we went and purchased the wood that we would need.  I spent the next couple days sanding them during small bits of free time when my mom, sister and I were taking breaks from crafting and taking care of the little ones.  Then on Friday my dad took the day off and we worked from 7:30 am – 7:30 pm straight in order to get the done before Michael’s plane arrived.

The saw that I became quite the expert with

My Dad

First we cut the legs for the benches

Our captivated audience

It was way too hot in the garage, so we created a sweet little set up on their porch under the gazebo with a fan blowing right on us. (You can kind of see the gate my dad and I made years ago in the background )

Here I am with the handy Speed Square

We made boxed frames out of the 1" by 4" boards with the rounded edges to go as a casing around the outside of the benches

We did two of each as we went so the benches would be the exact same

Then we made a second smaller box that woulf fit perfectly inside of the frame we built that had a piece of plywood on top and two support beams down the middle.

glued and screwed!

Someone came out to say hi

This was the hardest part we did. Instead of just screwing the legs straight into the sides we notched them and made the flush with the inside box. This helped to create added support for the benches

Getting the legs on

Here it is with the frame put on and screwed in place and legs attached!

Jackson turned out to be quite the engineer with all the little scraps we had lying around

The day before my sister Lori helped me pick out some great fabric at Joann's to make a slip cover to go over the tops of the benches. (we also put a thin cushion on top to make them a little more comfortable)

My mom was amazing and made the slip covers since I wouldn't have a chance to do them before Michael's plane landed! All while watching both my kids and making dinner....wow.

And last, we painted them.

Here they are in the living room.  They could not have come out a better size!  They also work great as a coffee table since I sold ours in a garage sale while Michael was out of town on a previous gig

They fit perfectly into the cut out in front of the windows with plenty of walking space.

Thanks for all your help Dad!  You were wonderful and they came out so perfect.  I couldn’t have done it without you.

Here I caught her doing one of her favorite things.

One year ago I was in the hospital being induced after waiting 16 days past my due date for you to arrive, Baby Girl.  I remember my friend Amanda asking “what do you think this is going to mean about her personality…her making you all wait this long?”  Well I can definitely say your desire to wait and do things your way and in your timing has been quite the trend for this first year.  Here is a picture of you when you were first born and one taken on your birthday.

You have developed quite the personality over the last year.  You are very friendly and love attention.  You like to wave at strangers and babble to people you do not know.  Jackson and you are so so opposite.  It is always evident when we go out to eat or are at the grocery store and strangers come up and talk to the two of you. Jackson will stare them down with a skeptical glare and you will wave, smile, talk, blow kisses, or try and play peek a boo.   Yet at the same time together you two have the most wonderful time together.  Your brother can crack you up like no one else can.  You have started talking a lot.  It is funny because you really didn’t even babble until you were 8 months old.  Occasionally you would say a couple new syllables for 2 days and then nothing but dinosaur cries for a month.  Then around 8 months you started jabbering and never turned back.  You say, “No!” in a high pitched voice that sounds as though you are highly offended.  You point to anything you see and say, “Wha’s That!” Wha’s That!”  Some of your other words include, “this, Mama, Dada”  You are awesome at signing.  You can say, more, all done, thank you, please, help, and one you made up for when you want to be tickled  You like to sleep from about 7-7:30 and take a morning and afternoon nap.  You love food more than any child I have ever met.  Some of your favorites include, chicken, hot dogs, turkey, ham, black beans, corn, avocado, banana, watermelon, apple sauce, pancakes, bread, graham crackers and that is honestly just the tip of the iceberg.

Here is a quick summary of you over the last year

24 hours old

1 Month Old

2 Months Old

3 Months Old

4 Months Old

5 Months Old

6 Months Old

7 Months Old

8 Months Old

9 Months Old

10 Months Old

11 Months Old

1 Year OId!

Also here are a couple of pictures my friend Astrid sent me from her daughter Tilly’s 1st birthday party.  This lady is one CRAFTY mamma!! You have to check out her blog!! Astrid’s Blog!

Over the past few weeks however a new trend has started.  They enjoy playing together!  It is the sweetest thing in the world to me and makes me so happy that we had them close together in age and get to watch them be little buddies.  I was very close with my brother when I was younger (still am) and we were also about 17 months apart.  He still is not a big fan of her wanting the toys he is playing with.  He will say, “Baby Girl, play this (points at a lame baby toy) not this (points at his cool dump truck), or Play Mommy, not this (another cool toy.  I’m not quite sure I like the relationships being linked there , does mommy=the lame toy in this dialogue??  Regardless they are super fun to watch interact.  And we had a major milestone last night.  Michael has been in West Virginia the past few days doing a music gig with Ross. So it has been just Mommy with the kiddos.  Last night after feeding Isabel which Jackson waited patiently through so we could read books, he suddenly had a change of heart.  He no longer wanted to read books.  He wanted to hold her!!  For those of you with two kids and a girl is the eldest of the two you are probably thinking excuse me??  She is how old and he just now wants to hold her?  His little girl friends have asked to hold her many times and many of them have held her.  Jackson however has NEVER had ANY interest in hold her.  We had this one posed moment right after she was born.

Looks adorable, but I'm pretty sure we were just cracking jokes to make him look like he was happy

Then there was the pictures Steph Lee took for us.  We tried to have him hold her…that did not go over well.  So instead we opted to put them in a chair together and let him squirm away while Steph quickly got a pic of us.  I think it turned out so adorable and I love this it captured Isabel interest and Jacksons lack of.

Last night I was going to set her down on the floor to crawl around but he said, “I take her??” with arms outstretched.  I quickly said OK, and let him take her in his arms while I helped to support her.  He was very pleased.  I asked if he wanted to get in the rocking chair and hold her and he said yes.  So he climbed up and I sat him in her lap.  I had to restrain her arms to keep her from clawing his face, pulling out his hair, and traumatizing him to never want to touch her again, but other than that they both loved it!  He has already asked to hold her 3 more times since then. I am so happy to see their relationship developing.  Moments like that make all the hard ones worth it.

Playing on the porch

In their fort

In her room

At the store (first time to share the front baskets!)

Greeting her awake after naps

I love you two so much!  I know you will go through times when you fight and argue and don’t want to be friends, but I hope that you will always be close and have each other to turn to and lean on through good times and bad.

Anywho, I knew I needed to do something to help me make better choices about portions and cutting back desserts so 3 months ago we decided to give it a try.  We are not going to meetings or paying for a membership.  We pretty much just have a point “slider” that tells you how many points different foods are and an app on our phone to let us know how many points we have left throughout the day.  I have never been a fan of diets that make you think about food all day long, count every calorie, avoid all sweets, or all carbs, etc.  I also knew however that I needed some help with portion sizes, cutting back on fatty foods, and desserts.  So we decided to give it a try.  I have to say I am really loving it.  I love that I can still eat dessert if I want to and most nights we do have something before bed like a couple cookies, popcorn, or cereal.  I also love that I am learning to make better choices for myself and the foods I cook for my family.

As of today I have lost 15lbs, and almost 10″ overall on my body!  I am not one to brag about my weight, but we have worked very hard and I am very happy about the results. I am also about to start a month membership doing Zumba.  I will let you all know how that goes.

I didn’t really have a before shot, but I found a picture of me and Jackson at his birthday back in February a couple weeks before I started, and one from Thanksgiving.

Before

Back at Thanksgiving

After

I got Michael to take one for me

And of course I will let you see a couple pictures of the kids.

Real men drink from pink cups.

Playing on the porch

Playing while Isabel naps

Isabel is 9 months old!  I can’t believe it.  It is really flying by even  faster than Jackson’s first year.

Oh and she can read...

Sitting Pretty

Weight: 16lbs 14oz. 25th percentile.  Can you believe that?!?  She used to be so big and now she is so tiny.  It is definitely not due to a lack of love for Cheerios.  She can put those away FAST.  Length: 28 1/2 inches long 90th percentile so still pretty tall for her age.

She loves mirrors

She sleeps from about 6:30-7:30 and takes a morning and afternoon nap that combine to about another 4-5 hours of sleep.  What can I say the girl likes her rest.  She has some major arm muscles and can army crawl around really fast.  She is sitting good really good.  She just started rocking back and forth on her knees and forearms so I think she might be full out crawling soon. I don’t think I am ready though!  We have lots of little steps up and down from room to room in our house and she has figured out how to pull herself up them.  She sleeps with a paci, white noise machine and a soft pink blanket.  She is really good about falling right to sleep as long as she has those things.

We did find out that she is allergic to milk just like Jackson, and possibly something else too…the jury’s still out on that one.  I am still nursing so I am currently attempting a milk free diet to see what effect that has.  If you have a child with allergies, or have advice on it I would love to hear it.  Jackson has a milk allergy too but hers seems a lot worse.  She wants table food so so bad, but I have to be so careful about what I give her especially since she seems to have a second allergy that we are unsure of for now.  Also Isabel also can now say Da Da, wave to you, sign more, all done, and milk!

Having fun with some paints

We went on a fire station tour. He LOVED it

Jackson is so much fun to be around these days.  He is talking so much and learning new things like crazy.  I love the stuff he comes up with when he is telling me stories.  He loves his “Baby Girl” (Isabel) very much and like to make sure she gets food, rest, and diaper changes.  If he thinks she needs one of those things he is sure to let me know.  He usually says something like, “Baby Girl LIKE food!” , “Baby Girl, night night.”  or “Baby Girl need change”  He likes to hide toys around the house in very obvious places and run up to me and ask me where it went.  I humor him by asking if it is places I know it  is not to which he responds, “NOOOO, hehe” Then I finally give up and he will laugh and show me.  So sweet! He is doing pretty well in his big boy underwear and only wears a pull up at night and at naps.  He loves baths so much and him and Isabel got to take a bath at the same time the other night and had a blast!  We tried it earlier on but she has hated baths up until the last month or so.  They had a lot of fun laughing and splashing one another.  Another sweet thing he does is pronounces all K’s with T’s. So instead of things like, milk, take, make, he says milt, tate, and mate. He can make a K noise, but just seems to prefer the T sound in those words  He loves being outside and playing on the porch.  He also loves books so much.  He will bring me books all day to read to him.  He just got a new one from his Nana called “Go,  Dog, Go”  I highly recommend it.  It is really simple and to the point just describing the dogs on each page but he cannot get enough of it.  He wants it every nap and every night.  He is singing songs now and by songs I mean, Twinkle, Twinkle, Jesus Loves me, and Old McDonald Had a Farm.  All that to say he is so great and I can’t get enough of him.

Enjoying one of his favorite foods

Jackson and me!

I am sewing more and more these days and just started sewing some baby clothes for Isabel!  They are turning out so sweet.  I definitely see me doing more of this in the days to come.  I am still doing my etsyand love having a creative outlet to re charge and have a little me time.  Here are a few pics to show that I do make time to sew things for my own children occasionally.

An outfit I made for Isabel

Some serious ruffles!

I love the little bloomers the most

Tool belt I made for Jackson

my tags

I surprised him with it when he woke up from his nap and he loved it. He couldn't wait to fill it with his tools.

A dress and the bloomers (before elastic) I made for Isabel to wear at Kevin's rehearsal dinner.

After I finally got some elastic for the waist and legs.

The closest I got to a picture of it on her.

Pillow cover for Jackson to go with the quilt I am making him.

These are really easy to make and would be great if you have pillow that you want to change up a bit. It just slips right over.

Being a mom of two little ones is a lot of work and keeps me very busy but every day I am seeing more and more “normalcy”  or I guess I am just adjusting more and more to my new normal.  A couple days a week I hang out with some other moms with little ones at our church and love the time that Jackson gets to spend with his little friends.  It is great to see them playing together more and more.

I got a little cut off in this one, but it was too cute of Isabel

Michael probably has the biggest news of all of us…he put in his 2 week notice a little over a week ago!!  Ahh!  :)  He is going full time along with one of our very close friends into their own business of graphic design and web development.

My men looking good!

His website is http://brightagency.net/.  You definitely need to check it out.  A few people have asked me how I feel about him quitting his job and going into business for himself and my honest answer is I am so thrilled, and happy for him and our family.  I believe in him so much and he has a really great talent for this type of thing.  I know it sounds strange but I always felt like I was going to marry someone that didn’t have a normal 8-5 job.  I wasn’t sure what that would look like, but I knew it was going to be something more of an adventure.  We are super excited to see where this goes and have felt God’s blessing on everything so so much through the whole process.  So if you are needing a new logo, some brand work done, or a website…I think I have the guy for you

Daddy and Baby Girl

As you can see we are so so blessed and so so busy!