look what I made

 I saw this ad for a art display board from Kirklands, probably some Facebook ad, and liked it to display the kid's art and I thought I'd try to make my own. 

Supplies: a board from Lowe's, craft paint, had some leftover sawtooth hangers, and magnet clips that Doug pulled the magnet part off for me

Cut the board and stained it with some stain borrowed from my dad

Printed out the letters and cut them out trying to DIY stencil. 

It took 4 layers of coat and came out a little lumpy, but overall I like it. 

Doug nailed on the clips for me and put it up on the wall above their little art table.

And there it is with art!

And only now writing this post am I realizing the example board said "look what I did" not "look what I made", but oh well, I like mine better and didn't like all that splotchy color they had on theirs. 

That's also the wall that got about 6 inches added to it since we've been busy with our half bath addition so I was rearranging pictures and stuff anyway to re-center everything. I like how it turned out. 

life lately

 Last week the dreaded Hand, Foot, Mouth disease got the kiddos. Jeanie had a one day fever then a few spots on her mouth, hands, and privates. Then the next day her fever was gone, but August had one for half a day, and two spots on his throat. Then fevers gone and that was it. We feel pretty lucky as my bf's kids had it and her son's foot skin was pretty much sloughing off and she got it too and her hands were a itchy burning spotty mess.

Elizabeth and I hit up the country bar I used to go to a ton in my college days. Wore my new boots :) It was fun, but we need to go a lot more, didn't know any of the dances!

The leaves are down, Doug has been busy raking and doing his gutter cleaning side business. 

I had a suspicious mole taken off, and it had some 'abnormal cells' so they had to dig it out. Thankfully they got all the bad cells out and I'll have yet another scar. 

Otherwise just living, mostly happy busy lives with these kiddos!

This sweet little mama, here she is with all her 'babies' covered in little burp cloth blankets. 

And she buckled her baby Stella into the car seat by herself too. So sweet.

Speaking of mamas, my mom has continued coming every Wednesday all throughout my maternity leave (she babysits on Wednesdays when I'm at work) and it has been a wonderful help to get stuff done around the house, or do an errand, have an extra set of eyes at the park, and just to spend some extra time with her too. I really appreciate it. Back to work in 2 weeks! 😩

I'll be ready for a couple days a week in the grown-up world, but it's just as busy at work than at home, and having to squeeze in time to pump is always so hard to do. But oh well, thankful to have had this time at home with my babies. 

Anniversary getaway

 7 years of wedded bliss! (and a little real life thrown in there too)

Doug and I were able to go out for dinner on our real anniversary, and a couple weekends later my parents watched the kids for a night so we could go away overnight. We stayed at a little airbnb right on the St. Clair river. We did have to take Lucy as she's a breast-milk baby, but she's still pretty portable. We had a very nice dinner at The Marine City Fish Company. Here I am with my cajun filet medallions. 

Watching the freighters go by from our airbnb, and the next morning during our breakfast at the Rivera restaurant. 

It was cold! And a little drizzly. So we didn't do much outdoors, but they had a cute downtown area and Lucy slept the whole time while we went in stores, shopped, and went to a cafe. Then back to pick up our kiddos and dinner with my parents. It was a good weekend. 

Haha, there's no one else I'd rather have by my side 💓

life lately

 

Time for another catch all post! It's been a busy month.

My baby turned 5! We had a fun family and friends party for him.

Pumpkin carving.

This boy loves his baby sister. We have to remind him he has another little sister that needs love too, lol.

Lucy got to meet her 100-yr-old great Grandpa

Sisters at a cider mill!

It looks like no ones having fun, especially Lucy, but my 3 little lions did indeed have a fun time trick-or-treating this year

Our 7th year anniversary! We went out for dinner, with our little +1. Unfortunately our first choice restaurant was closed since it was Monday. We walked across the street to an Italian restaurant, it was closed. We walked down the street to a steakhouse, but didn't have reservations (it was a Monday mind you), but we could eat at the seafood place in front of the steakhouse. I'm not a seafood fan, but I did get the salmon and it was very yummy. And Lucy enjoyed her milk at the table as well, lol, some anniversaries you just have to go with it I guess. One tradition Doug and I have enjoyed on our anniversaries is to open all our cards at the table together (by ALL our cards, our ones to each other, and our parents usually get us a card too. But when we got married the table numbers were really envelopes with a table # on the back, and an anniversary card inside that those people at the table were supposed to fill out and write to us. So that has been so fun to read those and see ever older messages to us.)

Another thing  we do is fill out our anniversary journal and fill in special events, pictures, etc of the last year of our marriage and an opportunity to dream and look forward to the next year. It has been fun. 

Doug received a haircut that went slightly awry. Although I appreciate his attitude, "it will grow out". His mom said, "are you trying to be like some famous sports player?" 😂

Lots of sleepy baby snuggling. 

Big sister is also so sweet and loving, for the most part.

2 months old, time is flying! 😭

Here she is with the midwife who delivered her. 

And that's about it. Doug's been super busy working on our bathroom and doing his side job of gutter cleaning. I have one more month of maternity leave, so trying to soak it all in. This weekend mom is watching the older 2 so we can have an overnight anniversary getaway, looking forward to it!