{Recap} April 2016

April we got our first snow storm. Yes. April. In Upstate NY.

It lasted maybe a day, and was melted and gone. 

Now, just because we didn't get the usual amount of snow this winter, doesn't mean it wasn't cold. 

Because it was.

And what do you do when its cold and you can't leave your less than two month old inside when you wait for the bus?

You wear him, under your jacket of course!

Love my mock moby wrap!

Carter always loved getting off the bus and seeing if I had Everett waiting with me!

Once the snow melted, it was time to get started on the garden.

I had little expectations for the garden, knowing it would be 3 kids and an infant this summer. 

So I tried to plant the easiest things I could, when I could.

One of the first things I planted was potatoes.  

This was an "out with the old and in with the new" situation. 

I've had the raspberry canes (in the bucket on the right) for years. And I have never gotten a berry.

So they were taking up space, and not producing. So out they went.

Putting the potatoes in the barrel was something new for me.

And since I am writing this post months later, I can tell you it was perfect! 

The dirt was rock free, and so easy to find the potatoes when it came time to dig!

In years past I've always done a potato tower of sorts, and haven had the greatest results.

So this year I planted, and didn't worry about them and got my best crop!

I probably should have left them alone, but the bunnies (yes bunnies) trampled them and I was scared they would rot if I left in much longer.

Ah, remodeling. 

Remember I told you we were redoing a half bath into a craft/office space.

Well. I swear I had it done by April, but guess not. Or I didn't take pics! Ha!

But I did take this pic.

Did you know Paint Thinner looks like milk? I swore it was clear, and it made me very nervous that it looked like milk. Good thing I only needed to wash my brush when staining my new desk!

Ah. Sweet. Ellie. 

We haven't used this room, in years. We literally stopped using this bathroom when we built the new bathroom, and Ellie's bedroom when I was pregnant for her in 2012. 

Once we cleaned out the half bath for the office project, the kids wanted in. 

Well. Ellie decided permanent marker on the door was appropriate. 

Ellie, You are lucky you are cute.

That's all for April!  

Nothing too exciting, but we needed that after March!

{Recap} March 2016

You would think March would have been calm for us with a newborn. 

But nope. It wasn't! 

Once the new range was in, we had to decide what to do with the cabinets.

Under the old counter top stove, we had our pot and pan cabinet and I did not want to lose that.

And above and below the old oven were cabinets that I didn't want to lose both. 

So it took some brainstorming.... more on that later!

And when ou have a newborn, and need to cook dinner. 

You put them on the amazing island your hubby built. 

The top is about 4 x 6 feet, so there is plenty of room!

For the past couple years these little birds have visited us in the wreath on the front door!

It's amazing how loud their call is, for being so little. 

And that I can lift the kids up to get a good look!

Ah, wishful thinking.

In March I began to try to figure out the garden. 

Like every year, on paper things look great.

But then I get outside, and decide to change things up.

To be honest, this year I threw plans out the window and just wing it. 

Ah, Easter Egg dying. Quite the feat with three sets of hands!

Poor Wyatt looked like the hulk by the end. So much dye on his fingers!

Ugh. The worst part of the month if not year.

Our beloved Golden Retriever, Cooper passed the day before Easter.

He passed in his sleep, and that's how I found him.

We didn't see it coming either. He went out the night before like any other night.

We got Cooper two months after we got our house, he was 9.

Some were surprised he was only 9, but we weren't.

We were told when we first go him, he had a heart condition and should be returned to the breeder.

We felt if we returned him the breeder most likely would put him down.

So we just said if we get 6 months or 6 years we would give him the best, and we did.

Losing a pet is hard, losing a pet with three kids that sort of understand is harder.

Even to today, they will randomly ask questions and it still breaks my husbands and my hearts.

Wait? What is this? A Craft? You say?

Yes. The morning of Easter I realized the toes of Ellie's "Cinderella" shoes needed some love. 

So, I went ahead and painted the toes with black shoe polish! 

Mom Win! If you ask me! The shoes still fit, and they look almost new again!

*And yes, I did do both! ha!*

{Recap} February 2016

February is here!

That means Carter's Birthday and Baby Boy's Birth...and you'll never believe it! 

Read to the end to see what else happened!

My sister did it again! Blew me away with another amazing cake. We've been telling her for years to go into business! But she won't! And you know what...  I'm okay with that! More time for my kids' awesome cakes!!  This is 144 mini cupcakes! Talk about a labor of love for a nephew!

Whipped up these shirts the day before my pre op appointment.

When we had Ellie both boys wore Big Brother shirts, but I thought this lineup fit us perfect!

Baby Brother, Big Sister, Bigger Brother and Biggest Brother!

When I went to my pre op appoint I found out the kids could not come to the hospital to meet baby!

I was devastated! Anyone else ever have this happen?

NYS put an age limit on visitors because the flu was high in the region.

With all my babies that has never happened!

Here he is! Practically perfect in every way! 

Baby boy was nameless until after he was born!

Mommy and Daddy could not agree! 

Mommy and some of the kids wanted Nolan. While Daddy didn't

Once baby was born Daddy came out with Everett. 

I had mentioned once after we found out he was a boy, and Daddy wasn't in love with it.

But clearly he let it sink in, and that was that. Once he saw him, he said He looks like an Everett.

So Everett it is!

Now onto the "fun" of the month.

This is my kitchen. This is my kitchen just days after having baby Everett.

That hole in my cabinets? Used to hold an ancient oven. It finally died.

We guessed it was from 70's but upon taking it out there was a date of 1954 behind the cabinet.

So your guess is as good as mine.  

Either way, because of the age of the oven. New wall ovens are not the same size. 

Our opening for the oven was 28" wide. We were able to find one oven that size, on clearance because it was discontinued. I knew it wasn't going to work. But was hopeful since the price was right, so I came home. Picked out my largest pans (turkey roasting pan and biggest cookie sheet) and went back and sure enough neither fit.  

Back to the drawing board.

With that said, we had to take out the cabinet the oven was in, plus the cabinet under the stove because we now had to look for a one unit stove/oven.  

A little irony for you.When we bout the house in 2007 I though "oh no! This setup is so dated." 

And over time fell in love with it. No bending over to pull turkeys, cookies and casseroles out of the oven. So when we had to get a one unit, my husband and I were a little bummed!  

Now, about that one unit...

Ah. A five burner gas unit.

I am in cooking heaven. 

My husband knows I love to cook, and can.

We went back and forth over electric vs gas quite a bit. But in the end gas won.  

A huge factor was my All American Canner. It is very heavy and it is recommended to not use on an electric glass top stove. Most electric stoves are glass topped now. And if they aren' they are super cheap in price and look/feel.

Now that I have been coking on gas for a couple months, I can say I'm not sure I would go back to electric.  If we bought a house with electric, fine. But eventually I would switch it over to gas. It definitely has its perks!  

So there it is... what a month! 

Don't worry, my kitchen does not look like that anymore! 

Even with a newborn we made progress!  

{Recap} January 2016

Happy New Year! *wink. wink*

It is starting to sink in, that we will be a family of six next month! 

Yes! I can' believe it either. 

January was a pretty low key month because of it too!

Santa brought Carter a Spirograph. I'm not sure who likes it more Carter or Mommy!

We literally spent at least an hour a day playing with it! 

If we weren't using the Spirograph, we were coloring.

Santa left me an adult coloring book, but Ellie thought it was for her!

And if we weren't coloring....

We were drawing, and let me tell you. The force if strong in this house!

Wyatt drew this!  He looked at a picture in a Star Wars book and was able to do it by himself!

Proud Art Teacher Mama moment right there!  

Can I remind you Wyatt is 4?!? Not bad!!

Lastly we decided to tackle a project that has been on the to do list, since we had Ellie!

Remove a half bath and convert it to....

This!  

We were able to remove the bathroom fixtures, update the electric, paint and update the flooring this month alone! Can't wait to show you next months progress, even with a newborn coming we made some headway!

{Recap} December 2015

Ah! December! Tis the season, to not feel like Christmas?

This year, the weather has been so un-winter-like that it never felt like Christmas to me.

Yes, the decorations were hung and Christmas activities where happening, but no snow? Boo.

Friends down south? How do you do it? 

Just like it doesn't feel like Christmas without snow here, I bet you would feel the same if there was snow on Christmas! Right?

 And yes, this is how I felt of most of December and January! 

Pregnant with baby number 4... Is hard!

To help being "busy pregnant" I made baby boy this awesome center out knit blanket. 

It's so squishy I want to make a giant one for me! 

Just a little something I put together for Carter's teacher for Christmas.

Fun glittery pencils, an insulated cup and then filled with gel pens!

Simple yet adorable, and I know she would use it all!

My boys LOVE Lego Star Wars, and my husband remembers seeing the movies when he was a kid and started watching them with them. So when we needed cookies for a school Holiday party, and I saw how easy these were.  Chewbacca cookies it was! 

These are chocolate sugar cookies, not gingerbread men. They were a hit at the party too! 

A simple gingerbread man cookie cutter, and fork make the hair. Chocolate frosting and sprinkles! 

And yes, I was that mother using tweezers to pick out five sprinkles of one color! 

Lastly, the table is almost complete! 

My husband really took his time with the table because the wood was no kiln dried. 

So he wanted to let the wood acclimate a day or two in between steps to try to prevent warping and pulling. Hence, the table upside down in my dining room!

{Recap} November 2015

November for us means Ellie's birthday and hosting Thanksgiving.

This is only my second year hosting, it took a long time to finally be able to host!

This year it worked out perfect, Miss Ellie wanted a Sophia the first birthday and a cousin had one for her daughter over the summer, so I was able to reuse all the decorations she had purchased!

This pregnant mama, loved the hand me down decorations it helped so much!

Ive always made the kids' birthday invites, I used to mail them. 

Nowadays, I create them on the computer and send the file to my guests.My sister makes the kids' cakes for their party, and I make them a cake on their actual birthday.

This was the cake I made Ellie for on her birthday. Didn't it come out pretty? She loved it!

I don't think I have ever mentioned it but in the past year or two my husband has taken up woodworking!  He made Carter a twin bed, then he made us a gorgeous queen size bed and in November he decided to make us a dining room table!  

The wood has an awesome story to it too!

A coworker of my husband had cherry logs that he cut down, but didn't want to use them for firewood. My husband had something he wanted so they bartered.  So that's how we got the logs.

Once we had these giant logs, we needed to have them milled.  In comes another co worker! 

Who uses firewood to heat his home, and we had just taken down a tree in our yard... 

So we know where our dining room table logs grew, and know who milled them and that my husband built it! Talk about a piece of furniture with a story!

Lastly, Thanksgiving!

Like I said, this is only the second time I have hosted and it went really well. 

Carter brought home this little first thanksgiving diorama from school, and Wyatt immediately added some friends to it!   So if you were ever wondering if Super Heroes were at the first thanksgiving, Wyatt would tell you yes!!

{Recap} October 2015

October, where it starts to feel like fall.

Routines fall into place. Or out the window, again.

This was also the month we found out we were welcoming another boy to our family! 

So if you are keeping track that makes three boys and one girl!

Anyone else with me? Once you have a baby of one gender and go to have another of the same gender, doesn't it make it so much harder than picking out a name for the opposite gender?

October was also the month of Applesauce making!

All these years we thought it was a crab apple tree. Sure enough, it wasn't! We think because we moved our apple trees, it helped pollinate it! So we made lots of applesauce!

Ah, I am loving going through my pictures to share.  

I was working with Wyatt on his letters, and e wanted nothing to do with it.

I started to feel like his fine motor skills needed some work, but he didn't want anything to do with pencil and paper.... so out came the chalkboard, chalk and a wet q-tip to erase what I had wrote!

Worked like a charm!

October is the time of picking the last of the garden before frost threats!

Itty bitty squash anyone? 

This year the kids could not decide what they wanted to be for Halloween. 

I could ask daily, and it would be so different than the day before.

So this year, I sucked it up and just bought their costumes.

At first I had mom guilt. But I couldn't have made them for $10 each and thats all they cost!  So no tutorial on what I made them!

But! I did make these for Carter's Halloween Party at School! So fun right?!?!

Some of the kids loved them, others thought they were too gross to eat! Ha!

{Recap} September 2015

Ah September! The month were I swore I would get my act together and come back to blogging! 

Ha. That's funny.  I'm definitely blaming it on being pregnant! 

In September, Canning is in full effect. Even with being pregnant I didn't want to waste a thing!

Luckily my husband stepped up and helped me!

He was an applesauce making machine! I think we canned 50 pints of applesauce last year!

Carter, my oldest is now back to school, and loving it. 

It's amazing how your kids either love or hate school. 

Fortunately, my guy loves it! 

And fortunately for me, I get lots of time waiting for him to get on and off the bus.

So i made myself a pair of warm socks!

There too thick of a shoe so I wear around the house instead of a slipper!

In September, my husband had to do some business in the Maryland so the kids and I tagged along and we made a detour to Washington D.C.!  This kids were excited to see the White House from the truck, and then we hit up the National Air and Space Museum. If your kids have ever seen the "Night at the Museum Movies" you should take them here! My kids recognized so many things. My boys turned a corner and yelled "Hey! That's Amelias red plane!" And sure enough it was!

Lastly, we picked our lone pumpkin. 

I was really hoping for three, but there's always 2016 to try again!

{Recap} July 2015

Ah July. 

The garden is  really starting to produce, the temps are definitely up there.

I cannot wait to be bringing in basketfuls like this again this year! 

We also got this oddity of a tomato!

July was also the month we said goodbye to my beloved Prius, and hello to a mini van!

My husband and I joke, I said I never wanted a mini van and he never wanted a particular brand. And well guess what, we got his brand and a mini van! ha!

As a family of 5, soon to be 6 this feature is extra handy! *wink, wink*

 The center console has an opening (meant to hold coins, and such)

that perfectly holds a gallon of milk! 

Who needs individual drinks when the whole gallon fits!?

We also participated in our local libraries Summer Reading Program! If your library does one, you should definitely check it out! It's a lot of fun! They have incentives for reading books ( my favorite? When you read 10 books, you bring the slip to the bank and they deposit $10!), they do extra activities plus the regular story time!  

Lots of fun, and each year a different theme. One year it was science, last year Super Heroes! 

The super heroes was great, since my boys were really into it. Actually Ellie was too! Each week we would go to the activity and they made a different piece to their super hero costume. One week it was masks, another capes and this specific week was jet packs!