Febuary.... is not spring yet!

What a great surprise!

Every spring or fall it has been so much fun to boost our curb appeal. One afternoon my youngest was taking a nap so it was the 3 of us that got to see what going on! First off my husband is really tricky because he told me that Gottlob Lawn and Landscape was going to be dropping of some bushes that he had purchased. So I was thinking these were going to be some massive bushes!  

No it wasn't the bushes that were massive it was the large load of limestone rock on a pallet transferred by a bobcat that needed to be delivered. MJ really like watching the bobcat work! Actually I think we all did.

Massive Bush (one of two)

Surprise ROCKS!

It is not ever year that it reaches 60 degrees in February for several days, but when it does we decided to take advantage of it. Another thing we did was transplant our two lilac bushes. After doing some research I found out these lilac bushes prefer full sun and they were in almost 80% shade. Hopefully they wont be whining in the Kansas summer heat, because I sure will be! One thing that my husband recommended was the we  surround the two Aspen trees, the lilac bushes, and the evergreen bush in one big oval. He said that we could plant a bunch of flowers in between. This makes for one happy wife... who needs to wait a little bit before spring is truly here.

It is hard to believe that this was only one week ago where the weather was in the 60's and now it in the teens and a small layer of snow on the ground. Brrr! I don't even want to think about the windchill.

Kitchen Remodel

Stage 3: Extending the countertop

For those of you who have not seen the progress on our kitchen posts well let me share the posts so that so see all the stages of it:

Stage 1:Removing the nicknack/ catch all/ phone wall

Stage 2: Making room for a Pantry

Now that we have moved the cabinet from the top and bottom on the one side of the room we took the bottom cabinets and moved them over to the other side. We decided that we should extend the countertop and make an area so that we could have two areas for stools to sit. I had found on Pinterest a DIY butcher block countertop. Our currant countertop had been irritating me for the all of the time that we have been in the  house (5 years).

Originally we were going to add a lazy susan and have an island... but then we decided to the extension and then eventually add to bar stools for homework for the kiddos or just relaxing, reading the paper and having a cup of coffee! That sounds perfect!!!!

So my husband took some wood and extended the counter tops. We eventually took off the existing counter tops off once the put three pieces of wood on. Then we got some wood putty and filled in any holes. After that is was time to for my husband to become Mr. Sandman! He sanded the wood down and made the most perfect edges possible. 

 After that we stained the wood to our color of choice, a red mahogany shade. I still love this color! Other than the stink of stain and the epoxy these were my favorite jobs. This job was very rewarding because once you stroked the stain onto the wood you could see immediate results.  This was by far the most rewarding part of the job.

 After we were done with the epoxy paint it was time to paint the cabinets. With the darker wood on the countertops on top we choose to paint them white and to spray paint the handles black. Wahoo for painting wood white, even with two layer of primer it still sucked it up. It took lots of layers, but we are very satisfied with the results.

Hopefully now I have your creative juices flowing!

Post if you have any late night changes you have done while the kids are sleeping!

Kichen Remodel

Stage 2: Making room for the New Pantry!!!

We have been wanting to do this for a very long time! We had all kinds of ideas of how this kitchen would look but budget always got in the way.  However, final project is better than I could of ever dreamed!

Our previous kitchen didn't have a location for all of our non-perishable foods could be stored and seen and it was driving us all mad! Especially me! After the stroke, even though it has been two years, I still have issues with needing things to be a certain way and putting the food away is one of them, I guess it is because I need to now where the food is so I can make it. It was pretty important for me to have an area where I could see everything in one spot and then step back and be able to find the items that I needed for that meal. Since it was important to me I have a wonderful husband who listens to me and tries to fix the little or BIG things that can make life easier. We have made a trip to Lowe's every time we would be in Wichita for the past year or so and then where trying to decide if we could buy new cabinets or if we should work on painting or staining them and get a new countertop. One day my husband said lets go get a pantry... he didn't have to pull any teeth incase you were curious. I am sure he is wondering what he got himself into with those words.

God is so GOOD!!!!!! We had looked a this one large composite multipurpose cabinet for our pantry. We look and looked and what? On sale??? It was on sale because it was opened and didn't have a box. One thing.... we brought our Camry.... um... yeah thats right we put a pantry sticking out of the trunk of our Camry. 

That night we did the unthinkable. We moved the one cabinet away to the other side of the kitchen, removed the wall mounted cabinets and moved the refrigerator over and then brought in our new pantry all while the kids were asleep!

What did I get myself into.....

Our list of things that we used to help us with the project:
Hammer
Screw driver
Saw
Tape measure
Crow bar
Drill
Muscle
Adrenaline
Laughter

Here is the ALMOST step by step process for the major project that we did.

 Crow bar to rip off the trim

 Saw to cut away from other cabinet

 Crow bar to rip off the backing of the wall mounted cupboards

 Measuring tape and marker for the final sawing and drilling

 Muscle to move the cabinet away from the wall

New place for the cabinet

And the NEW PANTRY!!!!!!!

All of that in one night.  If I am up past a certain time in the evening, I just start to laugh... I know you are all feeling really bad for my husband right now.

Thank you to my husband who is so loving and is always trying to make things just a little bit easier for me! I love you! And of course what a huge blessing to have the item that we were looking for on sale!!!! What a huge God moment. He is always there for us even in the little things on helping our little  family save money here and there.

Kitchen Remodel

Stage 1: Removing the nicknack/ catch all/ phone wall

This wall has bother me for a very long time!!!! So what did I do? Tell my husband and what does he do???? He knocked it down!!!!! I sure do LOVE that man! Not just because he does a project after I ask him to but because he is a wonderful man who serves the one and only God, loves his family, and does a great job serving as a student ministry pastor and of course he also very HANDSOME.

First of all I mentioned that this wall was blocking our house up. It was also because this spot was a catch-all.   I believe its original intent was for a house phone... which we don't have anymore so it just kept acquiring all of the odds and ends from around the house!!!!! Another annoyance was that we had to walk around the wall and that is pretty irritating (didn't realise how much I dislike this wall until it was gone!

Before:

My hubby had to make sure that the removal of the wall wouldn't then distroy our home. From there he was up  in the attic seeing which wires were going where. We had to take out the door bell (haven't decided if we should replace it or not) and replace the flooring once the wall was out! I had fun taking down the wall!!!!! He let me take a few swings at it for sheer pleasure it was good stress reliever!

During:

After: 

 Of course there is probably a few more things to be done here but it is so much better. Thanks to my great husband who listens to every word I say! You are my rock star!!!!

Potty Training

     The thing that every parent dreads.  Everyone figures it out somehow, but the grueling day to day business of it can sure be overwhelming!  Potty Training.

     We have almost done it! Last summer we started to potty train our almost 2 and a quarter year old. He did all right at first.  I think that if we hadn't gotten sick so many times with stomach bugs he would have gotten it early on. Now we have reached the point that he is almost 100% potty trained!!!!

He never wets the bed at night and is always eager to water the grass and iris'. He had been doing fine but we had a bad spouts with the stomach bugs, which was a big hold up for him.  After so many bouts with sickness and losing any progress we had obtained we were getting low on ideas. 

We tried stickers, then temporary tattoos, magic grow capsicles, and watching something on netflix and even a little treat.
Yikes.. can you see how some one would give up hope????
Thankfully I am not on this journey alone!!! I was asking everyone who ever had little boys if they could think of anything I would then ask them to ask God to help me out. I tried to do what people had advised me.
My husband had a great idea!

It has been working for us so far! There is a reward for him using the toilet and a punishment for going in his past and underwear. The movie bolt was around 15 dollars.  First I got an old jar that had been clean and then I put numbers on a piece of paper, in three rows of five. After each row completion I make a huge deal about it!!!!!! After each time he goes we tell him how proud we are of him and then give him the dollar, allow him to circle what ever number he is on and then cross it off by making an"X" through it.
If he goes in his pants and underwear we make him give us a dollar back and then he has to earn it back by going in the toilet again. It has been a long process but not something as stressful as cleaning dirty underwear.
Today victory was achieved!!! He got 14 and 15 in one day and we tonight we celebrated!

 It was so awesome to see Malachi finish this huge task.  He has anticipated this movie for so long.  I also have people praying for me and my son and the rest of the family of 4 as we go through this journey together. Thanks to all who prayed and gave advise!!!! I owe this fabulous and wonderful idea to my extremely handsome and wise HUSBAND!!!!!!!!!

Looking forward to doing this idea with other movies after the joys getting Bolt dies down. 

Josiah help by adding 2 coins since  Malachi had just earned a dollar. 

The last dollar!!!!

Circling the number and crossing out the number 15!

 The movie appeared in our mailbox once Dada got home!

 Not sure which face makes me smile more!

Watching the movie in the Club House.  The anticipation was killing them!

 I am so proud to be these sweet boy's Mama!

 God is good!

Josiah..... You're next! 

But not yet, this Mama's needs a little break!