This Week…

is a little bit different than normal.  This week I get to have my hubby home with me.

 

(another iphone pic. Hipstamatic app.)

He is on - call all week long.  Which means he gets his days off,  but there is a possibility he has to work during the night.  It’s a change in our routine.  Sometimes neither one of us likes a change in our routine, but this week it has been welcoming.  Last week he was out of town all week and I had two sick kids to tend …all.by.my.self.  This week he has been sick and now the other two kids are sick right along with him.  The problem is…we have plans!  We don’t have time for sickness around here.  All of us were looking forward to daddy being home during one of the last weeks of summer to play…not lay! :) 

I really can’t complain too much.  Things are getting better and at least we should be rid of all this sickness before school starts.  

Since I am such a list person, here is what you will find us doing this week:

*Trip to the beach

*Bike rides

*Trip to the pool

*Children’s Museum

*Barnes and Noble

*Alphabet letters X and S (X marks the spot – Treasure Hunt. Sock puppets and Snow Cones)

*Planting in the backyard

*Paint or stain our front door (can’t decide but it needs HELP!)

We have already decided that the front door will probably have to wait, but other than that I think we can fit it all in.  Tomorrow is the beach if everyone wakes up feeling even just 25% better.  We need to get out of this house!!!

A set back and a question…

Have you ever heard of Plantar Fasciitis?  I hadn’t until the end of last week.  I started complaining to anyone with ears about how badly the heal of my foot was hurting.  Every single one of them unanimously said, “I bet you have Plantar Fasciitis.”  Ahhhhhh…Planter what???  I still have to ask Casey, “What’s that foot thing I have,”  when I’m explaining it to someone.  Now that I have typed it up, I don’t think I will forget.  That’s how I learn. 

Anyway, early last week my foot started hurting.  That tired kind of hurt after you’ve walked on hard wood or tile barefoot all day.  I get that a lot, so I didn’t think much about it.  But then it didn’t go away, even after I put socks on or my slippers.  It gradually kept getting worse and worse.  By Thursday evening I could barely walk on it and by Friday morning I was in tears with every little step, hoping for any kind of medicine, thinking that a wheel chair and crutches sounded pretty awesome.  That’s when I heard about Plantar Fasciitis.  (Click and get the details if you want.)  The sad thing is it doesn’t go away quickly.  I could have this for years.  There is no easy treatment.  Darn it!!  Can I cry now?

 So these are my new favorite necessities in life:  

Doesn’t that look depressing?  Can I just say…aging sucks! I’m sure this doesn’t have anything to do with my age, but I feel like it does.  I am on a good rotation with Advil and Tylenol.  Tennis shoes are my shoe of choice these days (yuck, yuck, yuck!!!) I love my shoe insert and rolling my foot on ice is Heavenly.  These things have helped a lot.  I’m not in tears anymore and I have given up on my pity party, although I move like a turtle and that drives me crazy!  Slowness and me are not friends. at.all.

But I have reluctantly learned to be friends with this turtle side of me.  There is a lesson in everything.  Right now my lesson has been to see the blessings from slowing down a little.  I have had to let things in my house go (I swear, that is a never ending lesson for me).  Instead, I have enjoyed sitting on the couch more, as hard as it may be.  That has opened my lap up to my children more with some genuine get to know you talks.  I have been able to see the nurturing side of my children while  I hear my name in their prayers.  I see how much quicker they move to help me around the house.  It has also freed up a little time for me to tackle some reading that I have been wanting to do for awhile.  All in all, I think I can cope.  It could always be worse.        

On a different note, my children had a Primary Activity last Saturday.  They brought me home early Mothers Day gifts.

Aren’t they cute?  I love how the boys made me flowers.  I can just picture my boys doing a flowery craft.  Makes me smile.   Kaylee chose to write about me.  She knows me so well!  I love getting gifts like these from them. 

So here is my question…What do you give the Mothers in  your life for Mothers Day?  Do you have to put something in the mail or do they live by you?  I have to put them in the mail and my creative brain isn’t working right now.  I’m starting to run out of time.  Help!  Do you have an suggestions?

P.S.  Ady pulled herself up today.  She was sitting on the floor in front of the ottoman and all of the sudden I saw her little face pop up over the top.  She was after a piece of paper.  She stood there for a long time.  That girl is growing up way too fast!

I love this…

 

Even though Spring is short lived in Houston, I love it.  Maybe that’s why I love it so much.  We have a couple of months of perfect spring weather.  We enjoy and appreciate every second of it before the hot, humid stickiness of summer arrives.  My absolute favorite thing about spring in Houston is the wildflowers.  They are all over the place.  They are in full bloom for about a month.  It makes our normal every day trip into town a lot more enjoyable.  I had my camera in the car with me one day and decided to snap some pictures on our drive.  

 

Isn’t it beautiful?  I find myself driving home different ways  just to get glimpses of every street during spring.  The wild flowers probably only have a couple more weeks left, if we’re lucky.

Then there are the Blue Bonnets.  You can’t live in Texas and not have a picture with the Blue Bonnets.  Well, we didn’t have one.  We have almost lived here for 3 years and still no blue bonnet picture.  Not that I really cared, but I was feeling ambitous, so we got the kids dressed up on Easter Sunday and headed out.

These pictures look like we were having lots of fun, but it didn’t last very long.  You know how you take a picture and you look at it years later and think “that was a cute picture.” and then you remember the story behind the picture?  That is how it is for me with these Easter Sunday pictures.  I made every mistake in the book. 

1. It was in the middle of the day and the sun was in full force. 

2. EVERYBODY else had the same idea, so it was packed.  (It doesn’t look like it, but it was. I promise.) 

3. It was getting hot.  We were all getting grumpy.

4. Casey was with me and he hates pictures.  We’ll just leave it at that.

5. And the worst mistake of all…I lost Jake’s glasses…in the blue bonnets.

Me.  The mom.  The one that everyone comes to when things get lost.  The one that can ALWAYS find the lost item.  The one who NEVER misplaces anything.  Me. 

It was awful.  We didn’t realize it until we were almost home and Jake asked me for his glasses.  I had him take them off because they were getting a glare.  I must have set them down and forgotten them.  Casey and I looked at each other.  Let’s just say we both were not happy.  We went back to the blue bonnets in hopes of finding them.  I wasn’t hoping.  I KNEW I would find them.  That’s just how it goes.  Oh yeah, except for this time.

Do you need another look at this blue bonnet field?          

It’s huge and we were all over the place!  After searching high and low for 40 minutes I was defeated and close to tears.  I felt bad for Jake and I felt awful for making such a dumb mistake.  How careless and stupid was that?  Seriously.  Casey wasn’t ready to forgive my quite yet.  I really didn’t blame him, but then I reminded him of that time he lost our van in the parking lot at Disney World.  He didn’t have much to say after that!  That wasn’t funny then, but it sure is funny now.  Ha, ha, ha!   

Spring at the Moes Home

It’s feeling like Spring around here.  The weather is beautiful and the grass is green.  A couple of weeks ago the kids planted flower seeds.  

They have been tending to them; making sure they have enough water and watching for them to sprout.

They were excited to see a little bit of green growth.  Once they are big enough starts, we are going to plant these in the kids flower bed, next to the sandbox.  They can continue to take care of them and hopefully have some pretty flowers to cut and bring inside the house.  The boys love to do this.

We spent Saturday outside in the yard, or I should say Casey and the boys did.  I spent Saturday running errands and shopping for flowers.  We planted flowers in the beds and filled 3 pots like this one.

I love this time of year.  The new growth and color make me happy.  We are usually able to have flowers all year long here in Texas, but this Winter was a long hard one (by Texas standards) so it’s nice to have color in my pots again.  Now all I need is a new wreath for my front door and some finishing touches in the backyard and we are set.  I’m working on the wreath.

As for the inside…  I think I have mentioned before that I don’t really love decorating for the holidays.  Well, I LOVE Halloween, Fall and Christmas decor, but I don’t really do too much besides that.  I don’t like having to switch things around all the time and I would rather be spending time and money on things that I am going to enjoy in my house all year long.  BUT, I will admit I have been banner envious for awhile.  I decided that it would be time well spent to have a little something fun and Springy in my family room.  So I made a banner for my mantle and I absolutely LOVE it!

 

It’s scrapbook paper and painted chipboard letters attached to burlap.

     

It was just the look I wanted.  Simple but springy.

Hopefully I can get my wreath made in the next day or two.  I will share it when I do.

Happy Spring!!!

Little Miss Ady – 5 Months

Since my baby is really almost 6 months old, I decided it was time for me to get this journaling done.  I don’t understand how time always sneaks by me.

Casey bought me a plane ticket to Arkansas for part of my birthday present. 

Ady and I spent a long weekend with 2 of our favorite girls. 

I’ll give you one guess??????

                Andrea and Tess

It was a pretty awesome vacation!  Being in a place that feels like home, with people you love, but away from  your own daily routine and responsibilities.  I came back home feeling refreshed and ready to tackle motherhood again.

We kept ourselves plenty busy making a million and one things.  We laughed at the end of the weekend.  We had all of this time together to do pretty much any type of project we wanted and it all had to do with our kids; mainly the babies.  We shopped thrift stores for the kids.  I outfitted them in some really cute spring and summer clothes for super cheap.  I am hooked on thrifting now!  We accessorized onsies, made tons of baby legs (leg warmers) shoes and hair accessories.  Sometimes we get a little carried away.  We can’t help but feed off each other and then one thing leads to the next.  There is no end!  

The girls are so cute together.  

They still have the same little personalities.  Tess is so laid back and easy going.  Calm and content would be good words for her.  Ady is seriously the opposite.  She is so interested in everything around her.  She is already into things and her mind is always twirling with ideas.  You can see it in her eyes.  She has a spirit for life and she thinks she has no time for sleep!  

 

I love her for who she is.

For her zest for life and always being on the go.  For keeping me on top of my game.  I never know what to expect.  She has helped me to enjoy life in a different way and helped me learn to let things go a little more.  She has me wrapped around her finger. 

This was a big month for Ady:

*She went on her second plane ride.

*She started grabbing her feet.

*She learned to roll from back to tummy.

*She sleeps on her stomach now. (I find her like this every time I go check on her.)

*She scoots all over the place.

*She gets up on all 4’s and rocks back and forth and then jumps forward to get what she wants.

*She loves her backrubs.

*She has started sleeping better at night.  We made her cry it out a little.

*She still loves to nurse, but is getting interested in real food.  She watches us like a hawk when we eat.

 

Here is her most recent picture:

 

I know I am a biased mom, but I think she just gets cuter and cuter!

Where have I been?

We’ve been having a party!

Grandma came for a visit.

 

She brought special cargo along with her.  The kids’ cousin, Cameron. 

To say they were excited would be putting it mildly.  Jake, especially was in Heaven.  Cam is his BFF cousin.  These two keep in touch even though they live states away.  They pace through the house and chat it up on the phone when they aren’t together.  Here is the run down of our weekend together:

    We celebrated birthdays.      

                       10 + 32 + 72 = 114

Our Birthdays are just days apart.  We felt privileged to have these two with us to celebrate.

We shopped.

Have I mentioned that I have been wanting to re-do my bedroom?  For Valentines, Casey gave me some money to get started.  Isn’t he the best?  I was lacking  inspiration for our room so I hadn’t done anything with the money yet, until earlier last week.  I was shopping at Target for misc. things when I just happened to walk past the clearance section and found the perfect chair for our room.  Here is the beauty:

It was on clearance for $44.00.  I couldn’t pass it up!  That was a steal since all the other chairs I had been eyeing were at least $150.00.  Now I finally had some inspiration.  Normally I would have started with the bedding and then matched everything else, but I knew I loved this chair right when I saw it.  Now I was on a roll and couldn’t get my bedroom out of my mind, so Carmen and I went shopping for my birthday.  We shopped and shopped and shopped and finally hit Marshall’s Home Goods and found my bedding and a table.  Here’s a little glimpse:

  

I have plans in here!  There is still work to do.  I can’t wait to really tackle it, but I am going to finally listen to my mom and do a little here and a little there.  I am keeping my eye out for new throw pillows and lighting in the corner.  Oh and something on top of the table.  I know the yellow flowers don’t match.  It was driving me crazy that I didn’t have anything on top of the table and we just happened to have some fresh flowers around so that’s where they went.  Thank you for my shopping trip Carmen.  I LOVE it!

Basketball.

We cheered on Jake and Daddy at their last Basketball game.  Now we have a couple of free weeknights and Saturdays before swim season starts.  It was a fun basketball season and a great opportunity for Jake and Casey.

Besides having his dad as a coach, I would say Jake’s favorite part was playing defense and of course making baskets. 

    

All in all it was a super fun and productive weekend.  I was happy to take some time off from our normal routine to enjoy some company!

*More posts to come.  I have lots of catching up to do.

A Little Bit of Ady {4 Months }

This is an update especially for Aunt Beth.  Be ready for picture overload.  I would say sorry for that, but I’m really not! :)

Ady loves to be read to.

(Kaylee reading her homework to Ady)

She is starting to grab things in front of her.  She is more interested in the book itself than actually listening to the story.

Ady…

She isn’t stingy with her smiles.  She is even giggling now.  It is the cutest thing E.V.E.R.  Drew was making funny faces at her in the car today and had her laughing so hard.  Her tickle spot is under her chin.

She loves her birds. 

  

It’s fun to watch her have tummy time in her crib.  She thinks the birds on her sheets are toys.  You can hear her scratching them, trying to pick them up. 

She loves the camera. (Most of the time)

Once she figures out I’m taking pictures of her, she won’t take her eyes off me.  I love that.

 

I could sit and watch her play for hours.  Her hands amaze me.  They are so little and petite.  I can see every single tiny movement and all of the effort and concentration she puts into grabbing a toy and bringing it towards her mouth for inspection.  She’ll sit and stare at the toy for awhile, while I sit and stare at her and watch the  amazement in her face over one single little toy. 

 

I had a different blanket in mind for her favorite one.  She chose this one.  She snuggles up to it all. the. time.  Most of the time it covers her face like this.  I’m glad I got some pictures of her this way because

 Blanket + Ady = LOVE

 

This btw, is a typical day on the changing table.  I can hardly get the blanket out of the way to change her diaper or get her dressed.  She reminds me of Drew that way. 

4 months is my favorite.  I love everything about it.  She is mesmerizing to me.  Even when we are having a bad day.  I honestly love being with her and can’t get enough of her.  I’m trying to figure myself out that way.  I’m sure I felt the same way about my other babies. They were pretty amazing themselves.   But this time I can really feel myself taking the time to relish in everything that comes with a baby.  I think there is something to be said for “enjoying your last baby”.  I think the 4 year spacing helps too.    In fact, sometimes I find myself feeling sad that this is it for me…I will never hold my very own 4 month old again and never watch her rollover again for the first time or figure out how to hold a toy.  Sometimes it makes me want to have another one.  Did I really just say that?  Then I quickly snap back out of my dreamland and into my reality.  The reality that I have 4 beautiful children and I know that is good for me.  So I hold her tighter and appreciate my life just how it is because

I. Am. Smitten.

A little rearranging {Kaylee’s room}

Kaylee was feeling left out and neglected.  She watched her brothers move into the same room and rearrange all of the furniture.  Then she watched us put a nursery together for Ady, all the while saying, “Mom, I really want to put my bed at an angle and can I get a new lamp?” To which my reply was the typical, “Not right now.  Maybe later.” 

Finally, a couple of weekends ago, she got what she wanted.  I had been wanting to move a table out of my room and put it in hers for a long time, but I knew I would be stuck with this big empty hole and I didn’t know how much it would bother me.  I really wanted to start tackling my bedroom, so I took the plunge.  Kaylee was at a friends house one Saturday, so Casey and I decided to surprise her.  She came home to her furniture moved all over the room, just like she wanted.  When she got home she helped us clean out all of her toys and organize drawers and her closet.  Then her and I had a late night shopping.  There was no budget for this, so we had to make do with what we had for the most part.  We bought a new lamp, some picture frames, baskets, a pillow and a vinyl lettering quote.

I wish I had taken some before pictures, but I forgot.  Here is the after:  

Bed at an angle as you walk in the room.  (Kaylee’s idea)

As I was taking these pictures the other day, I was thinking about the furniture in her room.  For the most part there is some sort of meaning or story to them.  I don’t think I have bought any pieces of furniture in her room and that’s how I like it!  For example, her bed frame was my Grandma’s. 

Grandma’s Bed

I inherited it after she passed away.  I love this bed.  Kaylee loves it too and appreciates the special meaning behind it.  She always tells her friends, “That was my mom’s grandma’s bed.”

Bookshelf

Until recently, this was the home for her Barbie’s and accessories.  She has decided that she is too old for them now.  It makes me sad that she thinks she’s too old for toys.  They are in a bin in her closet now, just in case she wants to play with them.  We made this a little more grown up with baskets and picture frames. (Don’t look at all of the empty picture frames.  That’s next on my to - do list.)   Casey made this bookshelf for her several years ago. 

Nightstand

This hasn’t always been Kaylee’s nightstand.  This used to be my mom’s and she gave it to me.  It has been painted many different colors and has been used in many different rooms.

Desk Area  

This is the table and chair I moved from our room into Kaylee’s.  It’s a perfect fit in here.  This was given to me by my Aunt Barbara.  I love the shabby chic look of it.  I’m glad I finally found it a perfect home.  Kaylee absolutely adores it.  I think this is her favorite thing in her room. 

Mirror

 

I love the mirror above the table.  Then it could either be a vanity or a desk.  My Aunt Barbara also gave me this mirror, years and years ago.  Before I was even married!  Casey made the white picture frame.

 

No story here.  This is just me adding my little touch.  I’m all about the glass knobs these days and I love how it looks with the shabby chic.

 

We sort of went with the dream theme.  Kalyee and I found this pillow while we were shopping so we had to get it.  It softens the look of the chair too. 

This is above her bookshelf.  That’s the vinyl quote we got.   I love vinyl quotes!  They are so fun.

 

Dresser

  

This dresser used to be an ugly brown color. I stole it from my brother years ago.  He was living with us and then moved out and I just happened to convince him that he didn’t really need it anymore.  A couple coats of paint, some sanding to distress it and fun hardware makes it all Kaylee’s!  There are a couple of empty drawers  if anyone wants to come visit. ;)

It makes me feel happy and warm when I can step into one of our rooms and feel connected to other people by the stories behind my furniture.  It also makes me happy that Kaylee knows the stories in her room and that she can be overheard telling her friends all about them. 

Just for my remembrance:  Kaylee helped me decorate the ENTIRE room.  If she didn’t like something somewhere then we didn’t put it there.  Luckily, we both have the same taste and can see things the same way.  After we were all done, she could hardly wait to show her friends, so they came over.  I was in the other room and could hear them tell her how creative she was.  Then she modestly said, “I get it from my mom.”  That made me step back about 20 years.  I could hear myself saying those same words to my friends growing up, “I get it from my mom.”  I can’t believe that I am old enough to see the full circle!!