Here goes nothing

This past weekend I decided I must no longer put off my DIY project - our dining room table.  We bought the table & 6 chairs when we got married almost 11 years ago.  Being a young newlywed, I didn't realize that a dining room table shouldn't be used as a drying table for clothes as well.  After about 2 -3 years of doing this, tiny pieces of the stain were coming off and I was left with an UGLY top for a table - as well as the tops of the chairs since I used those as well to dry clothes.

Since I don't really like tablecloths and I wasn't ready to go and spend $2K for a new dining room set, I thought I would make the table look new to us - MUCH cheaper!!  I went back and forth on whether to stain or paint.  After reading LOTS of different blogs and talking to my helpful hardware friend Stephanie, I decided the easiest thing would be to strip the current stain and paint.

Saturday after Brody's basketball game, I was off and running my dad's electric sander.  I am happy to say that it really wasn't that bad to sand the table and all 6 chairs.  My dad LOVES to help and offer LOTS of advice and eventually I get tired of hearing what I should be doing that I just let him to do it - ie the boys' bathroom.  My dad was warned multiple times to NOT come over while I was sanding because this was my DIY project.

Jason stayed around a little bit but for some reason Brody woke up that morning and really wanted his daddy to take him to play golf "convenient".  I actually said it was ok because I Trevor would be taking a nap soon and I would be able to get a lot done.  My dad did come over later in the process and assisted with the manual sanding - corners and such.  After about 6 hours of sanding, I was done!!

I can't wait to start on the paint this weekend and have the dining room finished.  Now if I could just decide on the color of the walls for the dining room.

Date Night - the first of many I hope

One of the "resolutions" I wanted to start this year was for Jason and I to have regular date nights.  My goal was to have them every other week.  Well, last Thursday was our first one.  My main plan was to just spend time together - not really caring what we did.  We had one of our great babysitters (our boys are blessed to have several) Taylor come over to keep the kids so we could enjoy a great night out.  The boys were pretty excited to have her keep them - that makes going out easier for us.

Anyway, on our way to the Town Center here was our view

We did some browsing at LifeWay to get Jason a new Bible (his has fallen apart "literally").  He got an Apologetics Student Bible - this will be great since we help out with our seniors at church.  We also each got a new audio devotion taken from the new movie Courageous.  Since I commute 35 min each way, this is a great time for me to listen to some encouraging stuff.

Our choice for dinner was Urban Flats.  I am all about trying new places and usually Jason is up for it too - as long as he isn't too uncomfortable.  This place was really good.  All different types of ways to eat your flat bread.  I chose Hawaiian chicken and Jason chose a white pizza version with Ahi Tuna.

They were both very yummy and we were quite full - but I still had room for their dessert fondue.  We kept saying - oh Brody would love this dessert.  Maybe one day I can take him there for a mommy/son date.

What a great night just to relax and enjoy being with each other - can't wait for the next one - which is Jason's turn to pick :)

A little LOVE around the house

Can you believe Valentine's Day is about 3 weeks away, wow!!  Since it's coming so quickly I thought it was time to put out a little decoration - enter my latest pinterest project.  This wreath was very easy to make.  The hardest part was finding the styrofoam heart wreath - I think everyone had seen the same thing on pinterest and bought all of the heart wreaths.

All it took was a ton of 3 inch circles cut out of red felt, fold them in half twice and pin them to the wreath.  It was a great project to do while watching tv.  We now have some LOVE showing in the house :)

Trevor and his babies

So lately Trevor has been taking different stuffed animals and calling them his babies.  He is so funny with them - it might be his Mickey, or a little bear attached to a blanket.  He will cover them up and sit them in the corner and read to them.  What's strange is that he does NOT want to sleep with them or even want them in the crib with him.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the ways he is treating the babies:

washing the babies hands

letting the baby eat

Reading to the babies

So, there may be times when I might become worried about these actions, but within 1 minute he can hitting his brother for no reason at all.  That's my sweet Trevor who makes us laugh, smile and cry all within 5 minutes. 

He has been talking in complete sentences lately and it cracks us up and some of his sayings are hilarious because he loves to repeat everything his brother says.  The other day when we took Brody to his dr appointment, we are in the waiting room and Trevor wants to play with my phone (which is a lot lately).  I was trying to hold him off so he could just play with it when we got into a room, however, I finally gave in because he was getting quite loud.  When I gave it to him he says "See, told you".

Then while playing on my phone in the dr's office, he sneezed on my phone, so I took it and wiped it off and I soon as I gave it back to him, what does he do?  Wipes his nose and face all on it - I just turned my face to the wall and laughed.  This is our life with Trevor.

A quick & fun day at Disney

The great thing about having season passes is that we don't have to stay all day and feel like we wasted money.  Seeing that Monday was a holiday there was a possibility that the park might be crowded.  We arrived at Magic Kingdom around 9:45 and headed to FantasyLand before it got too crowded.

Then off to Space Mountain.  Ever since our last trip, Brody has been talking big about wanting to sit in the front the next time he rode it - well he chickened out but he did ride it again.  While we rode Space Mountain, Trevor was off to see Buzz.

 We had ride the Buzz Lightyear ride and I thought the picture the ride takes is quite cute - Trevor is really sitting beside me and trying really hard to play the game.

Of course a trip to Tomorrowland isn't complete without a ride on the PeopleMover.

On our way to AdventureLand, a Move It, Shake It party was pulling into the main circle in front of the castle.  The boys had a blast dancing around and seeing all of their favorite characters.

After a ride on Pirates, we called it a day.  The boys were actually very good about leaving and no attitudes - SHEW!

Another stop at IKEA to pick up something I "needed" and we were en route to get home.  The boys were pretty exhausted and passed out pretty quickly and it was a quiet ride home.

SeaWorld

Sunday morning we headed to SeaWorld. They had just come out with a free preschool pass that allows 5 and under to get in free to both SW and Busch Gardens for all of 2012. What a great deal.

The boys were so excited to be at SeaWorld.  We looked at a few animals and watched a couple of shows - Shamu being one of them.

And then it was time for the place Brody had been waiting so impatiently for - Harbor Town for kids.  His first spot was the Shamu roller coaster and then off to the 3 story net area.  This is when I really missed Jason.  I thought I could just let the boys go up by themself and have Brody just keep an eye on Trevor - that worked for about 2 minutes and there I went up to the top to climb through little tunnels chasing a 2 year old.  Trevor was flying through the tunnels and I just couldn't move that fast through them and of course he got way ahead of me and I lost sight of him - nothing like a little panic.  

The last thing we did was ride the big tall tower that overlooked the entire park.  This was the first time we had ridden it and Brody loved it.

We left the park around 4 and headed back to the hotel and let the boys play on the playground and then got ready for TRex Cafe.  

Of course the wait was 45 minutes, so what better way to pass the time than play in LegoWorld.

Nothing like a late night to help give us lots of rest for a day at Disney the next day.

A last minute weekend plan

Last weekend was a long one for us  - Brody and I were both off on Monday, so I decided to take the boys to SeaWorld and Disney World. Unfortunately Jason couldn't get off so mom went with us. What an adventure we were off on. We left Saturday afternoon after Brody's Upwards game and the best part was that the boys had NO idea what was going on until 5 min before we walked out the door. To say they were a little excited is an understatement.

I had timed the departure so the boys would sleep on the way. We arrived in Orlando and made a pit stop at IKEA for a few things. I thought I would be able to drop the boys off at their play land but since Trevor isn't potty trained he couldn't stay and he was very disappointed (but not as much as me since I didn't come prepared with snacks). Mom and I walked around for about an hour looking, dreaming and trying to entertain a 2yr old. When we picked up Brody from the playland - he had so much fun. I can now go to IKEA and the kids won't mind.

Since it was about dinner time we decided to go ahead and eat before we checked on - IHOP was the meal of choice. This was our first time there and it was a great choice. Brody ate everything off of his plat and even some off our plates. Trevor even ate 4 of his 5 pancakes. The best thing was that their meals were free.

We stayed at the Doubletree located on SeaWorld property and it was great - very convenient.  The boys were pretty excited for the next day.

Brody's 5 year appointment

Last Friday Brody had his 5 year check up.  We had been telling him that he would be getting several shots and of course he was not too crazy about it -actually he DID NOT like the idea at all.  When we arrived to see Dr. Hardman he first had his eyes & ears tested.  Of course the vision wasn't 20/20 (he is my child), but she said no need to worry too much now.

He did well with all of the other check up until it came time for the shots.  He completely freaked out.  He had 3 shots, but I think he screamed more about the bandaids he received afterwards because everytime he moved his arm he felt the bandaids.  Thank goodness we didn't go to tennis practice that day because it would not have been fun.

Well, it got even more interesting that night.  Jason had bath duty for Brody that night and of course Brody didn't want the bandaids to get wet.  He literally screamed for about 20 minutes.  Check it out

He didn't want Jason to touch the bandaids, but Jason knew they had to come off.

This video will be saved for awhile and I'm sure will come back to haunt him.  Don't worry Jason didn't hurt him at all even though Brody acts like he is.

That evening we had pizza night.  I actually made our own pizza dough in our bread machine - which is so easy and cheap.  The boys then wanted to help make the pizza - even though Trevor didn't want to eat any of it.

Just a normal day

Yesterday I enjoyed 2 new Christmas presents

My old crock pot seemed to over cook EVERYTHING even though I cooked it for the right time, so it was time for a change.  Tonight I made Santa Fe Chicken and it cooked it just right.  So excited that I will be able to make crock pot meals now and they will be edible.

The other is a herb grinder which I used to cut up the cilantro for the meal tonight.  Last year I planted several herbs and I have issues cutting them up so this grinder is going to be very useful.

I am also enjoying Jason's new Christmas present.  This thing is so cool and is very useful when I am cooking.

While I was preparing dinner this morning here is how I found Trevor enjoying the tv in our bedroom.  He's so stinkin cute.

Today was Brody's dentist appointment so we rushed home after school to eat lunch - the best pb&j ever cut into Darth Vadar's ship - Tie Fighter.  He was pretty excited about his new cookie cutters.

I got a little sad as he went back by himself for his dentist appointment.  This is the 2nd time he's done this, but for some reason this time really got me sad.  He's growing up and after a little hesitation he went right back.  He got a great report and once again I am a big fan of Dr. Weaver over the last dentist we saw.  He's so much better.

I then braved a few stops with both boys - geared up with some Sweet & Sour candy  (great way to celebrate a good dental report).   They had both their bad and good times,

but overall I would say they were pretty good while I did a little shopping - not that I'm ready to take off on that adventure again soon though.