i heart summer...

fill the pool, run around in a diaper, eat watermelon, play outside all day...

SUMMER!

It's finally here!

And we have been l.o.v.i.n.g. it...

does a heart LOTS of good.

chaos.

Gotta love it.

And the only post worthy of following my nice tidy kitchen :)

so we moved.

I'm pretty sure you know this.

And I'm pretty sure you know that I stink at keeping this blog up while other BIG things are happening...like moving, unpacking, and getting settled...with two busy little boys in tow.

We've been living here a little over a month now.

We love it...

and yet it still totally overwhelms me.

I used to be a quick settler...get in and get it done.

This time? Not so much.

But for now, let's pretend that we have every box unpacked and everything in its place.

I'll give you a little glimpse of the only room I bothered to clean up kitchen with some "awe" inspiring before and after photos....

drum roll please...

Here is our gorgeous kitchen prior to some updating.

(please note the BABY on the counter! Can't believe how fast Tanner is growing!)

Feast your eyes...

The pictures really don't do it justice. It really was a beauty.

And now for the AFTER photos....





Pretty amazing, huh?

We had a pretty stinkin' awesome cabinet guy come all the way from Kansas to install the custom cabinets...

the custom cabinets that he made.

HE would be Matt Beverlin...and HE is incredible.

Seriously.

I kept introducing him to people as "my best friend's little brother"...

and then it dawned on me...

that kind of makes him sound like he is 12 and making boxes for me in the garage with his dad's nail gun.

In reality, He does have a name... and he is a grown man...with a beautiful wife and two adorable children...

and he is UBBER talented with a business that I KNOW will be incredibly successful.

Matt truly has a gift.

BUT... he is still like a little brother to me and I am just sooooo soooo stinkin proud of him.

So that is the kitchen remodel in a nut shell.

I have so much to update on this blog that I like to avoid it all together.

Slowly but surely I will return and get my act together...

until then, I'm going to go sit and stare at my kitchen...

instead of unpacking and organizing all the other rooms in my house :)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

scarlett

My little niece, Scarlett, has arrived...

and she is a precious little bundle.

Welcome, sweet Scarlett.

We already love you.  

Congrats to Ryan & Kendra...

and big brother, Sawyer.  

Bring on the pink.

Tanner {the first year...in pictures}

Tanner turned ONE today.

How did that happen?

Born April 8th at 8:33am

6 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches

(2 hours old)

(3 days old)

(10 days old)

(1 month)

(2 months)

(3 months)

(4 months)

(5 months)

(6 months)

(7 months)

(8 months)

(9 months)

(10 months)

(11 months)

ONE YEAR PICTURE COMING SOON!

(i left my camera --full of cute 12 mos pics-- at our new house. lame. i know.)

We can't imagine life without you, Tanner.

Happy Birthday little buddy.

We love you so much.

happenings

Admittedly, I've been a little quite in blog land.

So much has happened in the last month.

Here is a quick re-cap...

We took the boys to California....



We went to Disneyland...





We went to the beach...




We had a lot of fun...

Except for the ER trip we took the night before we left.

Michael had a blood clot in his leg.

It was scary.

He is doing better now.


We are moving to this house...



We are knee deep in remodeling said house.


Tanner, Michael, and most recently, Hunter, have all been to the ER in the last month.

Lovely.

We took Hunter in two nights ago because he had been throwing up all day and became very dehydrated.

He was one sick little buddy.

Thankfully, our favorite Doctor (my sister, Kendra) was working at the hospital that night and spent some time with us.



Hunter is still fighting off the icky bug, I'm sick, and Tanner is sick.

Stay away from us.

We are no fun.

Hopefully one day I will blog more regularly...

but until then, hang on....

I know you can hardly control the anticipation.

:)

thankful hearts

We are so thankful for God's protection over Tanner.

On Wednesday, Tanner fell down an entire flight of unfinished stairs to the basement.

15 stairs.

Wood.

At the bottom of those stairs is a slab of concrete.

I still don't have it in me to recount all the details.

I am just now able to talk about it without bursting into tears.

Michael had just stopped by the house (extremely rare during the day) which turned out to be such a blessing. He was a rock. He kept calm while I was a TOTAL basket case.

After Tanner fell, he immediately started crying at the bottom of the stairs (a very good sign).

My dad was literally down the street at a drive-thru when he received my panic call to come stay with Hunter. We were able to leave almost immediately for the ER. He was there within minutes.

Tanner was already showing bruising and had 3 lines in different places on his head from where he hit the stairs.

When we arrived, the staff was sweet and encouraging. The kept us calm and assured us.

The doctor wanted to do a CT scan of his head to make sure that there was nothing going on that we couldn't see.

There were lots of blessings that day but one was that Tanner fell asleep in my arms and I was able to lay him down for the scan without him waking up. If he had been awake, they would have had to strap him down and sedate him. He slept through the scan without a peep.

We waited anxiously for the results while MANY of you prayed.

They came back clear.

It was nothing short of a miracle. Truly.

He has a small concussion and we needed to monitor him over the next 48 hours (which is just about up).

Sweet Tanner has been his normal happy self - full of smiles.

He is crawling fine, eating fine, sleeping fine.

God sent an angel to hold him as he fell down those stairs...I'm just sure of it.

I cannot look at the stairs without wanting to throw up.

We can hardly think about what could have happened and how the outcome could have been so different.

It is simply amazing that no harm was done.

Simply. Amazing.

So, we count our blessings...we thank God for his protection...we thank you for your prayers...and we thank God (again) for answering those prayers.