Happy Independence Day!

Wishing you a wonderful time with friends and family! So grateful we are able to enjoy the freedom for which so many have fought and given the ultimate sacrifice. May God bless them!

 

Parker is 3

3 years ago the Lord blessed us with a 7lb sweet, little boy.

 

Here are some things that come to mind about Parker at this time in his life:

*He has a wonderful imagination and loves to pretend

*He finds a toy and will bring it with him everywhere we go (his yellow and blue pens, sunglasses, wallet). If you look at his cute little hands often he will be holding something

*He is a tad dramatic and very sensitive

*He is a little timid and shy especially with new people or an unknown situation

*His favorite hymn is There is a Fountain

*He loves chocolate milk

*He LOVES his Daddy

*His favorite TV show is Curious George, but isn’t really that into watching television

*He has an imaginary friend Marisan that he met at Burger King

*He loves to swim, ride his bike, and kick a soccer ball

*He is very quick to share in others’ joy

*He is always hungry

*He likes to come in our bed in the early morning

*He has a hard time falling asleep for naps and bedtime and takes a while to wake up

*He can be stubborn, but I would not call him strong-willed

*He has dreamy blue eyes and cute blonde hair

*Every owie needs a band-aid

*He loves to change his clothes

*He loves his brother and sister very much

*He easily entertains himself for long periods of time

 

Our prayer for our sweet boy is that he will grow up to be the man that God intends HIM to be. Not living in anyone’s shadows. We pray that he will have moral courage and be able to stand alone for what is right and acceptable in God’s sight.

His babyhood was cut short by the addition of his sister. He also follows a brother with a very strong personality. That I am sure will shape who he is to some extent, but I really do hope that he can be secure in who God made him.

I love his satisfaction with simple things, and hope he is able to keep that with throughout his life. I can learn from him.

Parker Robert, we love you!

New “toy”!

After shopping at few stores and trying a few different brands, I finally bit the bullet and purchased some new shoes for x-bike. We went to Mike’s Bikes downtown. We received great customer service. They even noticed our stroller tire was about to come off the wheel and fixed it for us. We probably could have found a better deal online, but it was nice to support a local store. If you are in the market for a bike or bike accessories or need a repair, head over to Mike’s Bikes.

Here are my new shoes, and I can’t wait to try them out next week.

Recovery Drink

A few weeks ago I did a post about exercise and adding a recovery drink to my diet. After some research, I decided to go with a different drink than I originally posted. My instructor recommended the p90x recovery drink. I took a look at the website, and found it to be very expensive.

A search on Amazon (we are doing a TON of shopping on Amazon lately) led me to Mike’s Mix.

 

I looked at the ingredients and the nutritional content. They are pretty much identical. The only difference was that the P90x drink had some creatine. I really don’t want to ingest creatine, so that is actually a good thing for me. The biggest difference between the 2 drinks is the price. Mike’s Mix is less than half the cost of the other brand. It received great reviews on Amazon about its effectiveness and that it tasted great as well.

We ordered some of the chocolate flavor, and the reviews were correct about the taste. It tastes like a huge glass of chocolate milk (you can mix it with water or milk and I choose fat free milk). I do a half serving after my workouts. My workouts are never longer than an hour, so the half serving is sufficient.

After using it for about 3 weeks, I can actually feel a difference during my workouts and throughout the day. I have noticed that I am able to work harder during my spin classes, and use heavier weights in my strength training. I also notice that I feel like a could workout twice in a day. Whereas before, I felt like I could hardly move after my workouts and felt very fatigued throughout my day.

I am sold! I was a tad skeptical at first, but after reading the science behind it and trying it out for myself I really believe it helps. It looks like it is cheaper to buy it through the actual Mike’s Mix website. Even with shipping you pay about $.86/serving as opposed to $1.20/serving when purchased from Amazon with free shipping.

Give it a whirl and see what you think

DIY Play Kitchen-Finished Project

This post is long over due! My grandpa did an amazing job. The kids love playing with them.

Before:

After:

Sewing is on this week’s agenda

I have to get 3 sewing projects completed in about a week. 2 dresses (for Maggie and Bridget) for the 4th of July and 1 superhero cape for Parker. He requested a cape for his birthday.

Here is the cape tutorial I am going to use.

 

Here is the dress tutorial I am going to use. I am a little nervous about the dress for Bridget. I am going to have make adjustments because she is almost ten and needs a much bigger size. Hope it turns out

I am going to get to use my craft table for the first time. I will actually get to leave the sewing projects out and not have to clean them up every night.

This table is made from the same barn wood. It is super heavy duty. Perfect for my craft projects.

Parker wanted in the picture

Our “new” headboard

A few months back when my Grandpa and I were collecting wood from the collapsed barn we collected enough wood to make quite a few pieces of furniture. I think we made a total of 4 trips, and we came home with AMAZING wood. There are some HUGE beams left that are probably 10x10s or 12x12s. I am keeping my eye on them and trying to determine if we should go get them and just save them.

After the light fixture and coffee table were completed, we moved onto some headboards. One for our room and one for Maggie’s big girl bed that she will use down the road (no where near ready to let her out of a crib).

I found a few examples of barn wood headboards online and on Pinterest. This one was my favorite and it came with some pretty good instructions:

My Grandpa, Dad and I brainstormed. We chose our wood, and pieced it all together. My dad had the idea to use the two posts we had chosen and route out some grooves for the headboard to slip into. It worked out perfectly. My grandpa put it altogether, and then we gave it 3 coats of Minwax Polycrilic (Satin finish).

Here is our finished product. The pictures really don’t do it justice. It is beautiful!

Up close:

Post:

I am looking forward to using Maggie’s twin headboard. It turned out just as beautiful! The wood is simply amazing, and is a piece of art all by itself. We enjoyed changing the bedding and some decorations to compliment the new headboard. It really brightened up our room. A much needed redo of our room!