Sam’s teacher asked for a family picture for their classroom. I went on a hunt for a family picture and realized, once again, we hadn’t taken any family pictures in a while. Sunday we were ready for church a little early so we pulled out the tripod and got to work. It’s not perfect…but neither are we!
Here are some other fun pictures we got from the morning.
I am loving Hayes’ “Cheeeee” face.
Hayes was done…
Typical silly picture
June 2009 ~ Sarah, Reese, and Olivia
August 2014 ~ Sarah, Reese, and Olivia
It did my heart so happy to see these sweet girls this past weekend. We used to see them at least once a week before we moved and we haven’t seen them since Christmas. When I was planning dinner with their mom I had this feeling in my stomach that I couldn’t figure out. I eventually realized that it was what it feels like to be homesick and I realized that it was this family that I needed to see so badly. We went through so much with their family two years ago when their dad and one of our favorite friends passed away.
I first met their family when Olivia was in kindergarten (two months before I was pregnant with Reese). I met her as “Lady Bug”. Everyone called her Lady Bug. (When she was born Sarah couldn’t say Olivia and would say “O Lady Bug” and it stuck. There are many variations of her name and my kids have mostly called her Buggy.) I was teaching a kindergarten/first grade class at our church when this precious little girl came in crying. I asked her if she would sit in my lap and she did. And she sat in my lap every single Sunday until my belly was too big for her to sit in it anymore (I imagine this is why Reese has always loved her so much…they had a special bond from the beginning). The next school year we started a life group with six other couples and her parents were in our group. There was an instant connection between their dad and Lance. Our families became very close. A few months later their dad was diagnosed with a very rare disease. He fought it so bravely for three years and the girls were so amazing to watch through it all.
I hate it so much that we don’t see them as often anymore. After spending the evening with them, it is definitely a goal to not go that long between visits again. The kids all picked right up with them and they played the night away. What a sweet, sweet evening.
This sweet little guy started back to school today. All along he has said he was excited about it but I wasn’t so sure how it would go.
We switched schools again this year. I wanted him in a school that had an early fives program but had the option of going four days a week. I also wanted a bit of a smaller school. The preschool Reese went to was a sweet and small school which we loved. Last years school was huge so I felt a little overwhelmed there.
Yesterday morning Sam was able to meet his teachers. They both seem super sweet and very enthusiastic. He loved visiting his classroom. It is super far from the carline drop off but I am sure he didn’t have any trouble finding it this morning.
Last year Sam did not want to go to school and had huge tears when I dropped him off each day of the first week. However, this morning he was super excited and continued that way as he walked in the door. I was so proud of him and how brave he was.
We actually met a little boy at Chick-fil-a who ended up being in his class and the son of a girl I play tennis with is in his class. I am so excited to see how this year goes. I can’t believe it is his last year of preschool!!
At the end of June we had lived in our house for a year. I figured that was long enough to learn about our house. We learned about all the quirks, the loves, and the things we didn’t like so much. Over the year, I hadn’t done too much to change the house and make it our own but I knew it was coming. Before we even moved in we replaced all of the carpet, removed some crazy slate in the family room, replaced the floor in the kids bathrooms, and replaced all the doors knobs and locks that went to the outside of the house. Within the first month we had our movie room done in the basement and ready to enjoy. Around Christmas I painted our dining room to go with the new table and then at the beginning of the summer I painted our guest bathroom (after finding several holes in the walls trying to replace all the hardware). Each month we have also slowly replaced the brass door knobs with bronze ones. This is a very slow process and we usually do $100 worth each month or so (seriously…why are door knobs so expensive?!). It seems like we have done a lot but we really haven’t.
I have unofficially declared this the year of home improvements. And we have started off with a bang. Unfortunately several projects have been out of necessity rather than want. When spring rolled around we realized our grass was not greening up like everyone else’s. We had two River Burch trees in our front yard and knew they were creating too much shade in our front yard. That combined with the super cold winter created a disaster. We had one of the trees removed but that didn’t help the grass either. We decided there was no way the grass was coming back after speaking with some professionals. Before having the grass replaced we had to have the sprinklers fixed. The system we had was 14 years old and just wasn’t in very good shape so we had to have it replaced first (because new sod needs a lot of water). After the sprinklers were working again we had all of the sod in our front yard replaced with a heartier sod that is better in shade that what we had before. Even though that wasn’t on the top of our list (and nothing outside is ever really on my list), I am so glad we did it because it looks so good and Lance is so happy with it (everything outside is always on the top of his list).
Next it was on to a project I had wanted to do. I found this really pretty Board and Batten tutorial on Pinterest that I really wanted to do in a hallway that connects our garage, laundry room, and kitchen. I was so over school things ending up on our floor and this was the perfect solution since I didn’t have room for the lockers I really wanted. We started this project the Saturday before school started and still have one more finishing touch to put on it.
(These pictures below are real life, people!)
We started by putting our ideas on the wall with painters tape to see if the thoughts in our heads would translate well to the wall. We were not doing exactly as some of the tutorials had suggested so better safe than sorry. Once the tape was up we really liked what we saw and were super excited to get going.
BEFORE
One of the scariest parts to me was taking the baseboards off. In this house, you never know what you may find behind there. Lance was in charge of this and it went a lot better than I was expecting.
There was a door stop type thing on the wall that was covering a big hole that we didn’t know about so Reese helped cover it. The kids are always really excited about the thought of helping out. Once we actually put them to work, they are out of the way pretty quickly.
While Lance was out buying the wood and busy cutting it, I painted the top part of the walls. I painted it the same gray I used in the dining room. Unfortunately that one coat didn’t turn out so well because we just couldn’t get it mixed enough. There ended up being some streaks on the wall.
We were ready to put the boards up. This went much smoother than I was imagining. Don’t worry, Ladies, I was able to use the nail gun too!! So fun!
This picture is after we got most of the boards up on the first (and main) wall.
We continued with the boards around the whole hallway. And I got lazy with the camera. After all the boards were on the walls, we puttied all the holes and seams. Then it was time to sand it all down. To keep the rest of the house from turning in to a dust pit, I used a plastic tarp to close off the hallway from the kitchen, laundry room, and coat closet. We kept the garage door open when we could and had a fan and wet/dry vac running trying pull the dust out. It was still a mess and we had to wipe down all the walls and boards before doing the next step.
After all the boards were up, cleaned, and sanded, I primed the boards and walls…twice with a brush.
Next it was time to paint the boards and walls white. Two coats again…this time I used a small roller where I could. I also went back to buy more paint for the top part of the walls. I thought I knew what the name of the color was so I asked for it by name at the counter. He asked, “Is it a dark gray?” and I said that is was. When I brought it home and started painting it was a totally different color but it worked out. I actually love this dark gray so much more.
It is such a great contrast to the white.
One of the last (and most important) parts was hooks. I ended up finding hooks at Target that I loved and were just perfect for what we needed.
This will be my and Lance’s wall. I need to go back and buy two more of the smaller hooks for my wall. Once we started putting the hooks up we went with a different layout than we had planned on so I am two short.
I am so in love with this project. It is exactly what I envisioned in here (it just took a bit longer than I had anticipated). Our last step is to put shoe molding down around the bottom. We would leave it off because I love the clean lines at the bottom but there was shoe molding before and you can see it on the hardwoods.
It was back to school time for Reese today. She started second grade!! Every year I wonder how it is possible that she is getting older and starting a new grade.
A week ago she was not happy about starting school at all. If someone asked her if she was excited, she said no. And that is so unlike her.
There was one teacher that she was so nervous she was going to get. She didn’t want this particular teacher because she had heard she was “mean”. We talked about how there was no reason for Reese to be nervous about this teacher as long as she was behaving and doing what she was supposed to do.
All of a sudden one day she just became excited about school starting. I think she processed all of our conversations and knew she would be fine. All of the worry was for nothing though since she didn’t end up with that teacher anyways.
She had a great day today! She got off of the bus with a huge smile on her face and said she had a fun day. She was so excited to see all of her friends on the playground and made some new friends in class. I think she is going to have a great year.
Hayes was still asleep when Reese left this morning so when he woke up he was asking about her. He wasn’t sure what to think about her being gone all day. She got home during his nap and when he saw her he yelled her name and leaned in for a kiss. It was super sweet.
We still have a few more weeks before Sam starts school. I am hoping that transition goes as well as this morning did for Reese.
I have done such a horrible job of updating this blog so I am going to do a quick recap of things that have happened this summer. In no particular order…
Reese lost her first top tooth
We enjoyed a lot of family dinners outside
We played in rain puddles
We ran across this guy in our neighborhood and everyone was pretty fascinated
We played in the sprinkler with extended family
Hayes loved on puppies
We did some home improvements…slowly but surely
We celebrated the July 4th weekend with these sweet babies
And ate dinner at the airport that same weekend to celebrate Justin’s birthday
Reese was at a birthday party
Reese lost her second top tooth
We have had a busy and fun summer. I can’t believe today was the official last day of summer for us! Back to school on Monday. Reese had meet and greet at school today. Her school had a big and unexpected influx of new students this year so they had to add a new first and second grade teacher. Reese’s teacher is brand new and was actually just hired yesterday. I think she is going to have a great year this year and she is looking forward to the first day of school. She doesn’t have any friends from her first grade class in her second grade class but she does have several friends she met through Target last year. I can’t wait to see how this year goes! We are off to enjoy our last summer weekend!
