Happy Halloween!

So I convinced the hubs to take the girls trick or treating while I stayed home and handed out candy.{What a good guy!} Although, now that I'm thinking this through, I should have taken my turn this year.  The weather was amazing, the girls didn't even need jackets. Watch, next year it will be a blizzard!

Here are my little trick-or-treaters!



{Still posing like a girl here, doesn't quite get how to be a pirate.}



While the hubs and the girls were out, I had lots of adorable kiddos come to my door. But this cute as can be little power ranger stole my heart AND my candy. I gave the little guy a piece of candy and asked him how he was?  He said in this little tiny voice "I'm good and how are you? Wait what?! This kid was all of 3 years old and polite as can be. Knocked my socks off.  Then after he wooed me, he grabbed my bowl of candy, bringing it to his level and says, "can I have another one?" {All while helping himself to more}Sure kid, why the heck not, after all you were so polite. Too funny, kids crack me up.

I had several kids start to open our storm door before I could even get there, maybe the bowl of candy sitting on the floor in plain view gave then the assumption to come on in and help themselves. Not sure, but kids get way too excited when it comes to candy. They will do just about anything for it.

And the most interesting treat of the night, the Mom who hands me a small package and says, "And a little treat for mom too!" Meaning me, and I'm thinking aww, how sweet, right!? Well what she handed me was very unexpected. Take a look. . .

In case you can't see. . .this lady was doing a little "adult" advertising. . . .for Slumber Parties.

Haha, not sure if this is appropriate to hand out on Halloween, but it sure gave me a laugh.

Hope you all had a spooky and fun Halloween!

Here I sit. . . .

It's Monday morning and I just returned from taking the girls to school. I'm supposed to be doing the bills and getting as much accomplished as I can before I have to head back out to get Morgan from Kinder, but here I sit with tears in my eyes and a tissue up my nose. {In memory of Nana of course}

I find that I can be strong and "hold it together" much better when I am around others. But when I'm alone, as I am this morning, I let go and tell myself it's okay to grieve. Grieve the most wonderful Grandmother anyone could ever ask for.

What started it for me this morning was getting into my glove box and finding her memorial program that I had placed there after the service. I knew it was there but didn't want to look at it or read it, but this morning I decided I would read each and every entry written. We all had the same memories of her, her love was equal. If you didn't know Nana, you only had to read these special memories to know why we miss her so much.

I know she was ready to go, she told me that several years ago. My response was, "Well Nana, we're not ready for you to go!". . . .I don't think I ever would have been ready. But she was confident about where she was going, and ready to meet Jesus and be reunited with Grandpa.

I miss the comfort she always seemed to give. . . .and I'm thankful I can still hear her loving voice in my head.

 Nana and her #1 Great Grandchild

Fall Colors-Wetmore

On Sunday we decided to forego morning church and instead head to the mountains for a family day. We picked up my Dad to go along for the ride, and to guide us to a good spot to see the aspen's and enjoy the Colorado scenery.

Heading to the mountains for a "Sunday" drive was something we did a lot as kids and my Dad knows all the great places to go. And since he can no longer drive, I figured he would appreciate getting out of the house. How he misses "taking off" for a day of riding. I think riding his motorcycle is probably the thing he misses most about losing his sight, and I can't imagine how difficult that must be.

So we headed out hwy 50 past the Happy Apple Farm, {I wish we could have stopped for apples and pumpkins, but not enough time. boo!}and out just a little past Florence. It's a pretty boring, and not so scenic drive until you actually get to the mountains, but then it's just pure ahhhhhh. Beautiful aspen trees everywhere. 

We made a stop at Bishop's castle, boy that is an interesting site to see. Anti-government signs and all!And in my opinion it's an eye sore AND a liability. I can't believe I let my children go up the steep steps with gaping hand rails into these wrought iron balconies. All while I stood on the ground freaking out. I was dizzy just looking up. I get such bad vertigo that I surely would have fallen off the side and possibly taken one of my children with me. Besides, isn't it the Dad's job to do this kind of thing anyhow?

We also found this beautiful lake surrounded by aspens. . . .the girls were excited to get out of the car and enjoy "nature" as they put it, and I was more than happy to take advantage of the photo opp! Here are a few of the pics, can't beat this scenery.

We finished the day with a drive through Pueblo, can you say U G L Y? {Sorry to my MIL & FIL, but I just can't believe Pueblo is a city in CO, how the heck did that happen?}

To distress, or not to distress. . . .that is the question?

I have a beautiful piece of furniture that I just finished painting for my daughter's room. And I am having a reeeeally hard time deciding if I should distress it. After-all, I worked long and hard on this paint job I don't want to "mess" it up!

Originally this table was in our family home when I was a kid. When my parent's divorced my Dad ended up with this it. He was a pack a day smoker,{He recently quit smoking after 53 years!} and needless to say this table reaked of smoke. I wasn't even sure this beauty had any hope. But I decided it was a good piece to try out my refinishing skilz.   

I have painstakingly cleaned, stripped, sanded, primed and painted this piece. It has taken weeks,{there is never enough time in the day!}and I just don't know if the perfectionist in me will allow me to "mess" it up.

Here it is minus the hardware and the drop side pieces. . .if I decide to distress it, I need to do it before I add the poly coat. Which will be the final step!

McKenna is dying to have this in her room. . . .she wanted it like, yesterday. So What to do?

 

Have you ever distressed a piece, do you like how it turned out? Any tips or suggestions? Is a sanding block the best thing to use?

This was a fun piece, and I'm looove with the color, can't wait to get it completed and finally see it in her room!

                                                                  

Tell me it isn't so. . . .

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my BABY just started Kindergarten. But not only that, my MIDDLE child is a big first grader and my OLDEST is in his 2nd year of COLLEGE! Yikes, how did this happen?

THIS is why I wanted to start a blog. My sweet thangs are growing up way too fast and I want to make it stop.

Things I enjoy about my Son: Jordan Keith age 19. . .very soon to be the big 2 and 0!!!

The way we relate and the adult conversations we share

His handsomeness! He is smashing if I do say so myself

His heart, and how he wants to save the world and cares so much about others

Our Coffee dates

His love for History, writing, conspiracy theories and politics

The phone calls about unimportant things, or just to say hi

How he still cares about what I think

His head over heals love for his sisters

His hugs

His deep intellectual thoughts and conversations, even though it makes my head hurt

His beautiful dark brown eyes

How important family is to him

Things I enjoy about my sweet McKenna Jean: Age 6

The kindness of her heart, and how she worries about others.

Her joyous, full of life laugh.

When she tells me "You're the best Mom I ever had!" and I reply, "I'm the ONLY Mom you've ever had." and the just smiles and laughs because she doesn't "get it".

Her willingness to always help

The fact that she is a rule follower

Her artistic abilities {They did NOT come from her Momma!}

The lisp she now has because of her lack of teeth

How independent she is becoming
That she gets as excited as I do when it comes to DIY and decorating
The love she has for her family
How she always wants to have friends over, or to be going somewhere

  

Things I enjoy about my sweet Morgan Joella: Age 5

Her full of life personality

The fact that she still lets me carry her {After all, she is my baby}

Snuggle time with Mommy

That she is my prayer warrior, always going to prayer first in time of need

The fact that she loves PINK

Her magnetic personality

Our one-on-one time every afternoon while big Sis is in school

The sparkle in her eyes

The cute way that she mispronounces words {I secretly don't correct her because it's just precious}

Her little tiny voice

The fact that she never stops talking

How she falls asleep in 2.2 seconds
That she has her Mom's appreciation for a Sunday afternoon of "house" shopping and love for the parade of homes.

While writing this I noticed a similarity. All three of my children have a heart for others and love their family deeply. Yet at the same time they are so very different from one another. Thank you God for blessing me with each one of them.



Life Undocumented

On a total whim I decided to create this blog. I didn't let the fact that I really hadn't thought this through, or the fact that I have no idea what I'm going to blog about stop me. However, I do know that for a very long time I have had the desire to document our day to day life before it passes me by. I don't want to forget these precious times with my family.{Well, some I would rather never remember, but I won't blog about those!} I feel like I've missed so many blogging opportunities with my children, but the fact that I'm so behind is not a good reason to never begin!

I LOVE taking pictures and capturing my kiddos, it is one of my joys in life. Unfortunately I have thousands of photos that I have done absolutely nothing with, but at least I have them. Scrapbooking is really not my thing. Although I love the idea of it, I've never been really good at executing it. {I've taken that to mean I'm not very crafty, lol.} My digital photos are in a huge unorganized mess on our hard drive and it's too daunting to think about organizing. {If anyone has any ideas or tools for me to try share away!} I will love you forever if you do. . . .seriously.

So starting this blog is my attempt to no longer be "Life undocumented". My hope is that I will have something for myself and my children to look back on and see the fun times, craziness of life, and milestones we have experienced together.

Besides my family and photography, my other love is home decorating and most recently DIY projects around the home. Pinterest is my absolute obsession. I have found so many projects that I want to do, that most of the time I don't even know where to begin. The ideas are just swirling away in my head waiting for the time and money to make them happen. I'm thinking I'll share a few of those projects on here as well, but we will have to see how this blogger thing goes. :o)

Thanks for reading my first blog, kinda intimidating, but fun at the same time.