Potty Training is in FULL SWING!

I am happy to report we are in full potty training mode at our house. Landon has been using the potty like a champ! We noticed last weekend that he was going very regularly and was telling us when he needed to go. So, we jumped on board and we have been making him wear big boy undies for the past few days. He has pooped (sorry guys, it is what it is) in the potty twice so far, but before he did that, earlier this week he pooped in his underwear twice and it didn't even phase him. lol I was glad to see he had a change of heart a day later and decide to do his business in the toilet instead of his Rocketship underwear. I haven't gotten a full report on how he has done today (Thursday), but I know yesterday I put his underwear on as soon as he woke up in the morning, Lynn put a diaper on for nap and then put underwear back on as soon as he woke up, and then the rest of the day/evening he was in underwear the entire time! Even when we went to Church last night, we kept his undies on him and he peed for his teachers during class! I slipped a diaper on before bedtime last night and did the same thing again this morning, immediately put him in underwear. As of lunch time today, he has had zero accidents. Not sure about the rest of the afternoon- haven't talked to Nancy just yet. Nap and nighttime will take a bit longer for him to get, but not having to change his diaper at all during the day so far has been wonderful. We just got our box of diapers in the mail the other day and I'm really hoping that will be the last box we have to order! He now knows how to stand at the toilet and pee, we just have to work on his aim. ;) He also loves to pee outside. Just like a guy, huh?! lol He says he wants to get the rocks or grass wet so I say, have at it!!! He gets a piece of candy every single time he uses the potty. A sticker chart would do nothing for him and when we started potty training Adalyn, we used candy as her reward as well and it worked like a charm. Landon likes candy alot more than Adalyn did/does, so he really really really wants a few M&M's or smarties :). Sometimes I will ask him if he needs to go and he will say "no". I simply say, "Do you want a piece of candy?" He immediately will run straight to the bathroom because he knows when he goes, he will get something. Adam is determined the first week he is home for summer break, that he wil lhave him potty trained. I hope that is the case, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. I am just going to keep doing what we are doing and hope Landon will continue on this track. 

Here are a few random pictures from my phone

Last week we took Adalyn to school for the 3 & 4 year old screening. She was so excited to be in the library and doing "school stuff". We have a smart girl on our hands!

How sweet are they???

Last week we went to the 3rd grade play and the kids loved it!! They had so much fun and we got home really late so they were wiped out. I had to snap this picture because Landon said he wanted to "sit with sissy". 

When they aren't fighting like cats and dogs, they are actually really nice with each other. 

I took this picture before I left for work the other morning. Another (somewhat rare) case of Landon actually wanting to sit with Adalyn and look at a book. Typically, they whine the majority of the time because "he's hitting me" or Landon yelling at Adalyn just for the heck of it. 

*** I started this post last week and I'm just now able to finish it. I am sitting at home this Sunday morning instead of being at Church with my family due to the fact I have strep for the 4th time in 1 year. Adam was gone all day yesterday (he left at 4:45 to head to the farm to process chickens) and didn't get home until 3:00 or so. The kids and I have been battling snotty noses and sneezes this past week and thankfully, I felt pretty good the entire day yesterday that I had the kids to myself. We played for a few hours outside, ate lunch, read books, and I put them both down for a nap at 1:00. I then crawled on the couch and passed out myself. At 3:00, Landon comes out of his room and wakes me up. I instantly felt horrible. I was freezing cold, but my face was burning up. I was so flushed. My head was pounding and my body ached all over. Anytime I feel sick, I always text Carla to see what medicine she suggests. She told me she figured I had strep again. I was afraid she was probably right. As soon as Adam walked in the door, he took the kids to town to get me a sprite. When they got home, we made the decision to go to McMinnville to their walk-in since they didn't close until 6:00 PM. When we walk outside to get in the car, it was 80+ degrees and I had a huge blanket wrapped around me. I'm telling you, I was miserable. They did a strep test on me and of course, like I figured, it was positive. She suggested I need to see my primary doctor so he can send me to an ENT to get my tonsils removed. I am not too thrilled about that idea. The walk-in wasn't able to call in my prescription so we made it to Rite-Aid at 6:20 to find out they close at 6:00 PM on Saturdays. So we went to Wal-Greens and it was the same for them, too. I called Wal-Mart and asked what time their pharmacy closed and they said 7:00. It took about 30 or so minutes to get my antibiotic. My body ached so bad I could barely stand up straight. We finally arrived home after being gone for a few hours. The kids were restless and they were glad to just be out of the car and running around outside. Even though I had a fever, I took a hot bath because I was still freezing and ate some saltine crackers. It was an interesting afternoon/evening and I'm ready for me to kick this strep once again. 

I also want to say that Landon has woken up the past 2 mornings with a dry diaper. All yesterday he peed either in the potty or outside all day long. he did poop in his underwear once (ugh) but other than that, I didn't change one diaper! I put a diaper on for his nap and he woke up dry. Even on our trip to McMinnville then back to Manchester to Wal-Mart, he stayed dry and Adam took him once we got to Wal-Mart and he went there. So anytime we need to put a diaper on him, we have just been reusing the same one. I know he will have occasional accidents but I can now officially say we are in full-time potty training mode. Once he is completely trained, I will jump for joy about not having to purchase another box of Pampers diapers!!! Pampers has gotten a lot of money out of us during Adalyn's diaper days and the 2.5 years for Landon. I see the light! We are almost there!

Our DIY Project: The Kitchen

You guys, I have been eagerly waiting to type this post for everyone to read. I am going to say this all started back before Christmas when I started telling Adam that I had a lot of DIY things planned for us to start on when Spring came around. I had a list in my head of things I knew I wanted to update, and after we completed framing our bathroom mirror, I knew the kitchen was going to be the next project we were going to tackle. I also knew it was going to be a huge undertaking. Thankfully, Adam was fully on board and agreed that it was in desperate need of an update. April marked 3 years we have lived in our home. We have painted, added wainscoting, put in new floors, stained our bathroom vanity, etc to make it what we wanted. I am so in love with our house and our yard so I am pretty proud of all of these projects we are doing ourselves here and there to increase the value of it. I knew up front that staining our kitchen cabinets would be a very, very long process. I also knew my kitchen (in addition to our living room, the most used room in the house) would be a complete disaster for weeks, possibly months. Since I prepared my mind (and heart, lol) that this would be the case, I didn't stress out too much that our kitchen was way out of order for quite some time. And when I say too, I say that lightly. HA. You can ask Adam, I said on multiple occasions, "This is stressing me out. I can't handle this mess!" hahaha. He kept telling me it will all be worth it in the end. 

I knew this was true so I kept calm and stained on.

;)

Since we stained our bathroom vanity, we knew what we were getting ourselves into. We knew it was not a difficult job to actually do, but we knew it was going to be time consuming. 

The type of stain we used was General Finishes Gel Stain.

We decided to go with Georgian Cherry for our kitchen cabinets. Our bathroom was done in "Java", which was extremely dark, but that was the look we were going for in there. When it came to our kitchen, we both agreed we didn't want it as dark as our bathroom due to the fact we had a black refrigerator and white appliances. I knew a black fridge with "black looking" cabinets would not look good together. So this is the reason we chose cherry. But when you look at our "after" photos of our updated kitchen, you will  notice our cabinets look really dark! And they are much darker than we expected them to turn out but I surprisingly (and thankfully) love them! 

Our original cabinets were the builder grade oak cabinets with nasty, ugly brass hardware. Our countertops were even uglier since they were solid white (White! ugh!) laminate countertops. Our house was built in 2001 so I guess the thing to do back then was to install the ugliest cabinets and countertops ever imaginable. Since the counters were white, every spill of juice, food, etc stained. I would spend a lot of my time scrubbing them just so they looked shiney and clean. 

I am going to start off by saying prepping our cabinets for stain really did not require much time. All of my research said not to spend a lot of your time sanding. (because this is a gel stain, it's very thick and reminds you of pudding/jelly. It's not the "wet" stain where you wipe on, wipe off, repeat. That kind of stain requires tons of sanding) So we lightly sanded and then wiped off with a damp rag. 

Also, while I sanded, Adam prepped the floors. I went to Dollar General in the mail section and purchased the brown paper that you can wrap boxes with for shipment purposes. It was $1.00. He went around the bottom of all cabinets and used painters tape to stick it down. This was for the purpose of staining the bottom trim and not worring about it leaking onto the floor. Adam has lots of paitence so this was the perfect job for him. :)

I am almost positive I have an actual "before" picture of the kitchen but I guess it occured to me after we took some of our cabinets doors off to take a picture.

You can see here that we had completed a few coats of stain on certain cabinets and the rest still awaited us to make our way over to that side of the kitchen. 

See what I mean about the brown paper being taped on the floor? I knew I could be somewhat messy when I did the trim knowing it would not go on the floor. You can also see the doors off. Yikes. Before you ask, we took this time to clean out our cabinets. :)

Here is the desk/computer area.

This is a true "before" shot. 

When this picture was taken, only 1 coat of stain had been applied. (we used a sock to apply and then stuck with using foam brushes the rest of the time. I bought them at Dollar General for $1.00 per pack)

Notice all the wood grain you still see? That is why we ended up having to do 3-4 coats.

There may have been 2 or so Saturdays where we sent the kids to their grandparents so we could put in a lot of time on the cabinets and focus on that job the majority of the day. Otherwise, once we put the kids to bed at 8:00 every night, I was in the kitchen staining while Adam was in the garage staining the cabinet doors. Front and back. ughh. So much time! But to be fair, the back of our cabinets are not "perfect" like the fronts are. It's just not. Our little secret! ;)

We didn't stain every single night, just most nights. We did take breaks because their were many nights where we said we were "over this" project and just wanted to watch HGTV. :)

We did a section of cabinets at a time. It made it easier to focus on a certain amount to make sure you covered everything nicely and not got in too much of a hurry to accomplish a larger section just to be done faster. 

You can see we were making some progress! You can also notice some of the staining looks uneven. :( We noticed that, too. So at times, I felt like we were taking two steps backwards instead of making any progress at all. Very discouraging. Here is another reason our cabinets turned out a little darker than we expected. To really cover the oak color plus the wood grain, we had to keep going over it to get it to all look even. 

And notice those bright white appliances?! Originally we decided we would keep them. Even though they were white, they were in perfect working condition. Well, as we got closer to the end of our staining days, all I could see was how BRIGHT those white appliances were against my dark cabinets. They became an eyesore and we both agreed new appliances were now a must. I mean, might as well, right?!

Here's a view of our island.

The island was the last piece we stained.

I'm going to stop here to say we received 3 quotes for our countertops. This was also a lengthy process as well. We decided to go with Premier Stone Surfaces out of Chattanooga. SO glad we did. The people were wonderful and the technology they use is mind blowing. Adam and I made a trip to their warehouse on Friday during our Spring Break. 

This is what we saw:

Plus more slabs that I couldn't fit in the picture.

Adam and I knew exactly what we were looking for. Definitely nothing dark and nothing "busy" in design. I knew I didn't like the look of big stripes throughout the granite, I wanted it more speckled. The whole process of how granite works is amazing to learn.We learned a lot that morning about granite and the "veins" or "tiger stripes" that can be seen in some of the slabs. So it was real easy to walk right past something that looked too "busy" for our taste. Thankfully we fell in love with one and knew it would work perfect for our kitchen and color scheme! Adam thought it would be smart to bring a fully stained cabinet door with us so we could hold it up against the different colored granite and see what looked best with that color of stain. Glad he thought of that because that helped a ton!

We also picked out what kind of sink we wanted as well. I was SO excited about getting a new sink. It's an under mount sink and I love how deep and big it is!

We were told it would take 3 weeks before installation would happen which was fine since we still had more staining to do anyway. They sent a man to the house to measure everything about a week and a half after we visited their shop in Chattanooga. Adam left work for a little bit on that day to meet with him and see how they do it. He said it's all done my laser and was really cool to watch. After that, it was the waiting game. Then I finally got the call as to when they would be coming to install it. I came home on May 7th to beautifully installed countertops! What a relief! We were almost done!

-But-

I had to live without countertops for 2 days--- which meant no sink! Which also meant I washed some of our dishes in our bathtub. I told Adam I didn't think I could live in a house that was getting totally remodeled like you see some families do on TV. Whew, my poor nerves could not handle that. 

Here is what we had to work around! Difficult to say the least.

The island STILL was not completed and what you see is the 3rd coat! It took 4 coats to cover this thing!

This is what my dining room looked like for a couple of days.

Pure madness!

By moving everything off of my countertops, I only realized how much crap we had. 

I want to say thanks to my dad for helping Adam pull up our old countertops and for helping him install our new appliances- he's the best!!!

Our goal was to be completely, 100% finished with staining before our granite was installed. We also decided to buy new appliances and I wanted those installed before hand, too. Adam and I had a Saturday/Saturday night to ourselves the weekend before May 7, so we spent the entire day in Murfreesboro shopping and picking out appliances! It was a lot of fun and we ended up getting the best deal at Electronic Express. Trust me, I did a lot of research on stainless steel appliances to find the best prices between Lowe's, Sears, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc. Electronic Express had them all beat. I have to be honest and say I am not a big fan of stainless steel. That is because I hate to see finger prints and smudges and I know for a fact it would irritate me so bad if I had to see that every single day. I did my research and learned they make a "smudge proof" stainless steel so I was sold! While we were in the different stores browsing, we would put our hands all over it (because duh, we knew our kids would do that same thing if it was in our kitchen) and we instantly (and obviously) knew which brand we did not want. Electronic Express had Frigidaire Gallery on display and that is when we learned that anytime you see the word "Gallery" at the end of Frigidaire, it meant it was smudge proof. Score! I was so relieved. We purchased the stove, microwave and dishwasher and took it home that day. 

The appliances were installed that weekend and our countertops were installed a few days after that on Wednesday, May 7. Since then, we have been enjoying our new kitchen so much! Landon still talks about "the man who put in our counters", as he says. 

Before I show our "after" pictures, let me just say that if you have been contemplating updating your kitchen, go for it! But know in advance that it is time consuming, messy, tiring, and I could go on and on. BUT, if you know that in advance, then you will be just fine. :) 

The gel stain really is very very easy to use. 

My exact steps each time I stained were:

plastic glove (purchased from Dollar General)

men's white sock over glove/or foam brush (your preference)

and that's it! 

Do light strokes and follow the grain. Don't go against it. One dab of stain on your brush will go a long way. Trust me. After your 1st coat, it will look extremely ugly and streaky, but keep the faith! It's suppose to look like that so don't worry. You have to let your 1st coat (and EVERY coat you do) dry for 24 hours!!! Do not try to stain before that time period is up. It's just not worth the possible mess up of your cabinets. 

We went through a lot of stain and every can was purchased from amazon.com. 

I need to add, after all 3-4 coats were applied, and after everything was dry, we did two coats of Polyacrylic. It's a clear liquid that goes ontop of the stain to preserve it and make it shine. It makes the look of your stained cabinets complete! That was also purchased through Amazon. 

We also picked out new hardware for all cabinet doors and drawers as well. Which was a given. That ugly brass HAD to hit the road.

So proud of our work!

I would like to say we are completely done with this space, but we aren't just yet! We will be adding a back splash as well. I am ok without one, but Adam is really adamant about doing it so I definitely will not argue! ;) We would have added one when we were doing everything else but ran out of DIY cash. lol. We did our entire kitchen in cash which I am super proud to say! Most of you know we follow Dave Ramsey and do everything on a cash basis so once you use it up, we are content enough with waiting a little while until we have a few hundred bucks back in our DIY envelope. I'll be sure to post pictures of that process once we do it!

I hope you love the difference as much as we do!! From golden oak to nice dark cherry! What a change!

Last day at First Steps Preschool

Today was Adalyn's last day at First Steps! Before we left for school this morning, I took her outside to take official "last day of school" pictures.

 And I am loving these comparison pictures from her first day of school to her last day of school!

I am so glad I did this! I really hope I will remember to do this every year she and Landon go to school. What an awesome flip book that would make!

Here she is at 3 1/2 years old on her very first day of preschool.

And here she is today, at 4 1/2 years old on her last day of school.

What a difference a few months will make!

My mom was able to take a few hours off from work to come to the program/Pre-K Graduation and Nancy and Landon were there as well. He did so so good. He looked at his book, watched in awe at everything that was happening on the stage, and for the most part sat quietly! 

Adalyn's class

They sang two songs that they had practiced for months :)

They did a great job!

Next, we watched as the PreK class graduated. It's so neat to think that Adalyn will be up on that stage this time next year with her cap and gown on graduating with her little classmates!

After the program, we went downstairs to the gym for pizza and cupcakes. All Adalyn could talk about was eating a cupcake. Do you think she ate it? Nope. Not a bite. (she's like me. Not too big on "cake". Sometimes she eats it, sometimes she doesn't so I wasn't surprised) Landon chowed down on his pizza like I figured he would.

This was such a sweet surprise for me :) I love my flower pot!

Lynn has kept Adalyn since she was 3 months old. She has been apart of our family for 4 1/2 years and we are so so so thankful for her.

 

I am so proud of this little girl!

One more year and this girl is off to Kindergarten!

Weeeeee! We are excited in this house!

Mother's Day 2014

Sunday morning I woke to flowers, cards, and a necklace Adalyn made for me at pre-school last week. Adam and I were still half way asleep when she walked in our bedroom and whispered (loudly) "Daddy!! It's Mother's Day!" She was saying that to Adam so she knew it was ok to get me up to open everything. It was sweet. Last weekend, (weekend before Mother's Day) we bought all new kitchen appliances and we both agreed to having that serve as my Mother's Day gift from Adam. ;) (Speaking of appliances, our kitchen in FINISHED! I cannot WAIT to share the final product with everyone!) 

We lounged around for a bit then got ready for Church. We had beautiful weather to enjoy and after Church, we went straight over to my mom and dad's. Adam picked up all of our beef on Saturday so we brought over our very own Clark Farms hamburger patties and grilled out. Delicious!!! I love a good burger off the grill. We had cole slaw, chips and dessert to go with it. But before we ate, we took a few pictures in the front yard. 

I am so thankful for my momma! Words cannot describe how much I appreciate her. (and my dad!)

This sweet little girl made me a mom for the very first time.

Blessed.

And this little boy made me a mom for the second time.

Blessed (X's 2!)

I am so thankful for these two kids who call me Momma.

I hope they will always know how deep my love runs for them!

This guy right here told me "Happy Mother's Day" about 321,452 times that day. :) 

He expresses his thankfulness to me all the time. I am so blessed to have him as my husband. 

While we were taking pictures, we stumbled across a snapping turtle on the carport. We instantly knew Landon would try to pick it up. He picks up (or attempts to) any type of worm, lizard, lady bug, butterfly, ant, etc that comes across his path. We had to explain to him that this wasn't a normal turtle and that it would bite him. My dad got a stick and put it in front of the turtle and he leaped towards the stick and hung on tight just as we knew he would. It was neat to watch him attack the stick over and over again and it was also a good educational lesson for Landon. 

Here my dad and Landon are taking the turtle to the pond to release it.

After we ate, we put the kids in their bathing suits and they swam in the hot tub and watched as we took the cover off the pool. Which is always so exciting because that means it's swimming season!!! 

Look at that little gut! ;)

Landon spent a looong time squirting the water hose in the pool (and on everybody else!). That is one big difference between a boy and a girl. (Or at least my boy and girl) Adalyn would stand there and do it for a few minutes before she would be over it, but Landon will stand there for 30 minutes or more and hold that water hose and just watch the water pour into the pool. That's a boy for ya! 

Adalyn was wanting to swim sooo bad but we had to keep reminding her that chemicals needed to be put in the pool first. ( it will be ready this weekend! )

I am thrilled to report that I lost count as to how many times Landon used the potty or peed outside on Mother's Day. I know he peed once in the rocks and then again on a bush just while we were outside. :) Adam also told me that on Saturday when they went to Wal-Mart to buy my card and flowers, Landon told Adam he needed to use the potty as soon as he was getting him out of his car seat. Adam said ok and let him pee in the parking lot. HA! They were parked in the back of the parking lot due to our trailer so not a lot of people were around. When you are potty training, you let them go where ever you are!

Adalyn decided to take a break and watch some TV.

 She was adamant about having her chair RIGHT there. 

Whatever floats her boat.

After a while, we packed up our things and headed home. We were grilling steaks for Jerry and Nancy. We all played outside while Adam grilled. We had good ol' Clark Farms ribeyes, baked potatoes, and salad. It was wonderful! 

I can't believe I did not get a picture of Adam with Nancy! I'll have to do that this weekend. 

I did manage to snap these two, though. :)

Mother's Day 2014 could not have been any better. I am so very thankful for my mom and Nancy. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day 2010

Read about it here!

Mother's Day 2011

Read about it here!

(I was pregnant with Landon)

Mother's Day 2012

Read about it here!

Mother's Day 2013

Read about it here!

Mother's Day 2014

Blessed!!