I heart chalk paint!

So a few weeks ago my husband scored this huge piece of furniture for pretty much nothing!!

Is it not wonderfully huge, and just crying for a make over???

I have read so many blogs on chalk painting, and thought it is time to give this a try!! Since this was my first time, I wasn't brave enough to make my own, so I decided to just purchase some from the old Home Depot.  After giving it a good wipe down, and taking all the handles off, I started painting!  I was so excited at how easy it was to just do my 2 coats and let that baby dry!  As soon as it finished drying I got my sanding block out and distressed it just a bit, and smoothed out the not to awesome spots... When I was all done making it "rough" I used the wax to seal it, and she was all ready to get hardware back on it... I used all the previous hardware and spray painted them oil rubbed bronze and I think it turned out pretty nice! :)  Here is the after!

Such a dreamy gray blue!! :)  

  I need to take a new photo to show the color better! :)  Next time I will have to do a post on my AMAZING desk!! :)

I pray... Prayers for my children!

The past couple of months myself and family have discussed, as morbid as this sounds, death.  I have never mentioned this on here before, but my father-in-law passed away on July 3 from a long battle with renal cell cancer.  He was only 48.  With that being said, I feel like the subject of death has been a dominant subject with family members, and the conclusion I have come to is, I want to leave a mark on my small little section of the world, and make a difference.  I feel like in my corner of Georgia,  as a stay at home mom, I am not capable of many things, but I have these 2 little lives entrusted to me from the Lord, Baylor and Stella, who will be my legacy! These are my hopes and prayers for them....
   I pray they know the joy of the Lord that literally makes me want to giggle and cry when I feel it all over me.. (Open up the Heavens by Meredith Andrews makes me bubble over).  I pray they know that their mama loved her Savior and her babies more than her own life! Oh how I love Jesus, I love my quiet times, and can feel him so near I know if I just open my eyes, I will see Him.  I love that he fills every part of my heart and soul!  He has mended my heart and filled, refilled, and filled it again, with his love and grace every time I have given it away. Oh how He loves me.. He loved me so much that he sent me a man that would understand and get every part of me and love me so!  I pray my children know how much I love their father, I love that man to the moon and back a million, billion times!  We aren't perfect, but we love God together!  When Jesus is the center of it all, it makes the bad times a little bit easier.  I pray for their future spouses, who ever they may be I pray they love God so much that their love for God is reflected in their love my children... I can't even express how much this means to me.  My hope for my children is for them to know who they, are and who they are in Christ. I pray they make good choices for their lives, I pray their mistakes be few, and their experiences be many.  I pray they love and respect us!  I pray they respect themselves and be leaders... I pray that they be blessed beyond measure and have joy unspeakable! I hope they know... I pray for them. My heart could burst with all that love I have for them... The verse that keeps flooding my soul is "The Lord has done great things for us, and filled us with joy! -Psalm 126:3
  This has been a rambling of thoughts and prayers, but I hope Baylor and Stella find this one day and see I prayed for them! :)

Stage, Stage, Stage that house!!

Well here we are just one year into our home and we are ready to move again!!  As much as we like our house, as soon as we found out we were pregnant with Stella we grew out of this house.  So here we are again putting our house on the market and trying to find a new one!  The one thing that is so frustrating looking at houses is the fact no one declutters/updates their home!  It makes me want to scream when I looking at home online... While I totally get not wanting to take down family pictures because I won't do it either, but please if you still have dark burgundy rooms and brass fixtures, UPDATE to a neutral color and brushed nickel to appeal to more people.  If you aren't selling your home do whatever meets your fancy, but sometimes if you want to sell that house you gotta appeal to a broad audience.  My home is not perfect, and if I had endless money supplies I would decorate all day long... So I  just work with what I got :)  Our first home sold one day after being on the market and this home sold after just being on the market 2 days.. I give credit to our awesome relators Chris and Julie Hunt, but I also know we made their job a little easier by making sure our home looked a little appealing to buyers!  So here is our house! Thank God it sold quickly, trying to keep it clean with a 2 year old and 4 month old is HARD!  Also both homes sold FULL asking price!

First things first... Make sure the outside looks nice, no one wants to buy a house that has no curb appeal!  Just adding a little something is better than nothing!

Stella Kate's Nursery!

We had Stella Kate's newborn pictures taken a few weeks ago and our wonderful photographer captured so many AMAZING shots, not only of her but of her room as well! :) Huge shout out to By Design Creations!

                  

                       

      I knew from the beginning I wanted to do navy and pink for her room and I knew we were on a  tight budget (I always try to see how cheap we can do things) for her room.  Since Baylor decided to become a stunt man and climb out of his crib we moved my old bed into his room and repainted his crib an off white color.

  I also found an old dresser on a online yard sale site for $50.00!  We repainted it the same color as the crib and I spray painted some of our old kitchen cabinet knobs gold and we put them on the dresser.  I wish I could find a before picture but for now the after is all I have.

  Her curtains I used Pinterest to find a how to on how to use Walmart sheets and make them look like the cool Anthropologie ruffled ones so I spent like 15.00 on twin flat sheets to make her curtains.

  I sewed the baby bedding and I believe I spent $50.00 for all the fabric. :) The chair we ordered from Wayfair for 150.00 and I redid an old lamp we had and used extra fabric I had to do that. :)  The pictures on the wall were from our sweet friends as a gift, but the frames were only $3.00 each from Walmart.  The wall color is Naval from Sherwin Williams.

I redid a lamp from our old house for her room because I could not find anything that just went with her room.  The before lamp is this.

I absolutely adore her room, I only want to do a few more things and it will feel complete :)

Welcome to the world Stella Kate!

So before I forget I want to write Stella Kate's birth story.. It is always nice to go back and read Baylor's birth story and I want to have the same for Stella!
   At my 38 week appointment my midwife had checked me and had said I was 3cm dilated and 40% effaced... I was excited since a couple weeks ago I had only been a 1 and not effaced at all.  I had been going back in forth in my head about induction or letting things happen naturally...I wanted to let things happen naturally, but we live so far from the hospital I wanted to deliver at I was nervous about making it in time and what to do with Baylor.  So at my appointment we discussed it and she felt that I was favorable for induction and I would go in Wednesday evening and begin induction early Thursday morning May 1st when I was 39 weeks.  Starting that next day I knew from being checked I would be sore and have some contractions... Well I was loosing my mucus plug (I know grossest words in the world) and it just kept like that all weekend.  Sunday during church I started having some contractions that were uncomfortable and I had to get up during church to see if it could help some, thankfully they fizzled out since I was really excited to have my prenatal massage on Monday while Baylor was in pre-school!  We had a good rest of the day just relaxing and I went to the grocery store to grab a couple of meals until we went to the hospital.  Monday I dropped my little man off at school and went and enjoyed the most wonderful hour massage a pregnant girl could ask for!  I was so excited because I felt so relaxed and it was going to help me sleep! I picked Baylor up from school and we came home ate lunch and I put him down for a nap and I slept a few minutes with him.  Well I went to the restroom and I noticed I had my "bloody show" (another awesome pregnancy term) and thought ok, next couple of days we could be having a baby and no induction.  I really wanted to avoid pitocin like the plague!  Well I laid back down in our room and noticed I was having some light contractions around 2.... by 3:30 I was like I am going to start timing these they are getting a little more uncomfortable...They were coming about every 9 minutes apart.  I started thinking well maybe I am in early labor, but this could last days and I don't want to go to the hospital tonight since there are suppose to be some bad storms.  Zach got home and asked how I was feeling and I was telling him what I was feeling and how the contractions were 8 or 9 minutes apart, but I would cook dinner first then call the doctor and get her opinion.  I called and of course she says if you think you need to come in then you should, but generally rule of thumb is 5 minutes apart lasting 1 minute for 1 hour.  Since we live farther I had already planned to come when they were 6 or 7 minutes.  So we finished dinner up and took Baylor outside to play and the contractions were coming every 6 minutes and my mom was like you need to go, so I went inside and took a shower and told Zach to call his mom since she was going to stay with Baylor!  So while we waited for them to get there we popped popcorn for Baylor and I sat with him and cried a little since he wasn't going to be my only baby anymore. While we are getting things together of course the storms had started a little bit and we had a tornado warning for our county!  Of all things to happen a tornado!!  Thankfully we didn't get any of and were able to get out the door by 7:45 to head to the hospital... We make it to the intersection at 34 and Zach realized he forgot his wallet!  I was like if I miss out on an epidural I blame you entirely! lol! We finally get to the hospital and my contractions are about 5 and 1/2 minutes apart so we get into triage at labor and delivery and I get checked and I am 4cm and  80% effaced with my water bulging (I guess it was thinking about breaking).  By now of course my contractions are getting a little farther apart and I am on the borderline of rather to be kept or be sent home so they send me out in a gown and my gold sandals to walk the hospital, my sweet family was there walking the hallways with me and helping me get through some of the more painful contractions.  We walk for an hour and then I get checked again and am still just a 4 so they send me walking again at midnight and my parents and Zach were walking with me and the contractions were just getting so uncomfortable...I get checked one more time and I have made a little more progress so they finally decided to admit at 2am!  I am so sleepy by this point and the lady drawing my blood is like I can't believe you are yawning through your contractions!  It had to be the massage!  ;)  We finally get set up in a room at 3:30 and got my iv put in and they gave me some medicine to put the edge off and sleep.... I was so sleepy, but the contractions would randomly wake me up and I knew the way I was feeling I was working against my body and tensing up!  I tried so hard to relax and just let it happen, but it was awful... When I got checked again at 6 I was only a 5 so they decided to start pitocin to help my contractions get more regular. UGH they got regular and PAINFUL!!!  At 8am my midwife walked in and I was so happy to see her because she always just makes me feel better!  She decided to check me and break my water, well while she was checking me I had the worst contraction and she couldn't fully check me and thought I was only dilated to a 6... This is when I decided lets get things rolling for an epidural!  The fluids began and at 9 something I got the sweet relief of the epidural!  Zach almost passed out since he decided to watch and I was so annoyed because it was the same time I needed him to hold my hand through my contraction with some needles sticking out of my back! loL!  They decided to check me when it was in and I was already an 8.  By the time my family came back in to say hey and see how I was doing I was talking to them and said Oh I am having some pressure in my butt, and my mom was like oh call the nurse! Everyone goes out and the nurse checks me and said well nothing is hanging out so thats good, and then she goes to check me and says well I can see her head!  She went and called the midwife and my mom came back in the room to be there too and they begin to set everything up.  The nurse said lets try a practice push with the next contraction and I guess the contraction started to push her out and she said lets not do that and Stephanie will be here in just a second.  So as soon as she came in she got her stuff on and said ok lets push on the next contraction and I pushed and she was out! Stella was absolutely gorgeous and it was so shocking to see her with SOOOO much hair!!  We were ecstatic!   I was so happy my baby girl was here and healthy and just amazed at what my body can do!  :)  Stella Kate said hello and 10:38am weighing 7 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/2" long with a 13 3/8" head!

It's a...

GIRL!!!!  Obviously if you follow me on Facebook we have known this for quite sometime, but I never post on here so finally announcing it to the blog world lol!  We found out in November and we could not be any happier on welcoming our sweet Stella Kate to the world in just a few short weeks!  I feel like this pregnancy has flown by!  (Probably since I am chasing my almost 2 year old 90% of the day!)  We have been so busy preparing her nursery and trying to finish up miscellaneous projects the last couple weeks I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel! :)  I need to post pictures of the new house and all the changes it has undergone!  This house has definitely been more challenging than the last one and I can already see a move in the next few years since we will now be a family of 4!   I will a picture of her crib bedding since we did get that done ... I still haven't decorated the walls since I am a little lost on exactly what my vision is!

So this is the bedding! We are using navy, pink, and white with gold and grey as some accent colors... The recliner for her room was delivered yesterday, it is gray and I love it!  I just have to figure out everything I am doing, I am so scattered brained this time around! :)  Well hopefully my next post will be the nursery finished before I have a baby in my arms :_

Gender Guessing Fun!

Ok, it has been a minute since I have posted, so for a quick update... We are settling into our home slowly, after being here for a few weeks we found out we are expecting our 2nd baby, and now I am DYING to know what we are having... I really thought I would be wanting a girl super bad this time around, but having a boy has been so much fun I would be over the moon to have another boy!  I would be so excited to have one of each as well, no matter what I am happy as long as he or she is healthy!!  I have been wanting to know super bad, since my sweet friend Jamie just found out she was having a boy, so I am just driving myself nuts wanting to know!  So for fun today I have used ever old wives tale, chinese gender chart, Ramzi method, and a diy home predictor test.. Here are the results so far I would love to know what yall think!

Old wives tales-
Wedding band over belly (if it goes in a circle girl, back and forth boy)-GIRL
How I am carrying- I am not really sure yet I feel low and wide which is a little of BOTH lol!
Baby's heart rate above 140 girl below is a boy- GIRL
Morning Sickness- GIRL
How I look (girls steal beauty, boys give)- GIRL I feel not so good looking with all the break outs
Hair growth (boys grow fast, girls stay the same )-GIRL  (not to TMI but I had a lot of hair with Baylor on my blonde belly hairs)
Cravings (sweet girl, salty boy)-GIRL

Chinese Gender Predictor is tricky the one on Babycenter says BOY and the one on Parents.com says GIRL...The Babycenter one said girl with Baylor and Parents.com said BOY.

The RAMZI method..I can not tell where my placenta is and I have no idea how they ran the ultrasound so INCONCLUSIVE on that one.

The Baking soda test...  You apparently pour some of your pee over a couple tablespoons of baking soda and if it fizzes its a boy, and if nothing happens its a girl... This one did nothing so GIRL

I want to try the red cabbage test because this is just getting humorous!  Like I said no matter what we will love and adore our new bundle, in the mean time this mama is having fun guessing!  :)

Moved and MIA

Well we finally got moved into our new house and I have around 100 projects started!  I am such an ADD project person!! Literally right now I am thinking why do I have one drawer painted on my dresser when I still need to finish painting the bathroom! Ugh I will catch up and post pictures soon of our new sweet house, it is just taking some time to get in and get everything situated this time! I just want to give some praise to my Savior for all the blessings he has poured on my sweet little family and I am just so excited what he has in store for us!!  I will post soon about our new home (with pictures) and the drama of the buying process! Love you my sweet friends!!

I will post one picture of my DIY burlap wreath!!!  *I tore apart my old Walmart Christmas wreath since I did not want to leave my house!  I heart my red door!  I must go buy a new ribbon for this poor wreath to make it more awesome!!

Our Fancy X Farmhouse table DIY!

I am finally getting a chance to write about my amazing outdoor table that I am sooo in love with!!!   I had myself convinced that I could build it, and all I needed my husband to do was go pick up the wood? Hahaha, I know!!   I'm guessing he wasn't a fan of the idea of me using the power tools, since he ended up doing it for me in RECORD time!  Thanks to the wonderful world of Pinterest, I found this amazing fancy farmhouse table picture from the Shanty2Chic blog, and the plans on how to make it from the Ana-White website (if you have never heard of Ana White, CHECK IT OUT NOW)!!  She has a million amazing plans on how to build some awesome pieces!!  The build literally took my husband 3 hours, including an extra Home Depot run since he forgot 1 2x4.  I had to make sure he built it quick since we built it the Thursday before Baylor's birthday party. (I know he  we waited til the last minute!)
  If you read either blog it does say it costs around $65.00 to build, but if you use pressure treated pine (at least here in the Atlanta area) for outdoor purposes,  it cost around $85.00 in lumbar.  We already had the stain and nail/screws, in my opinion though a regular $2,000 table from Pottery Barn built for less than $100 is AMAZING!!  So here is the photo from the Shanty blog that made me immediately HEART it!!  I love her centerpiece with the bottles!

And here is ours from beginning to being used at the party!:

He is pretty sexy using his power tools ;)

A coat of Java stain...

and BAM outdoor amazingness!!

I still need to put the clear coat on it, but we have so much going with trying to find a home it may just have to wait until we get moved! :)  Well hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!!!

Not Ashamed!

     Tonight while I was sewing I was thinking about not being ashamed of what I believe and how I view things.  I was thinking about this because the other night at dinner my husband invited some good friends of our to visit our church.  Not that I wouldn't want them to come to church with us because I LOVE our church, and how every time I am there I encounter God and feel my relationship growing deeper with Him, but because I know from comments my husband has made about how he was raised in church is way different compared to the church we go to.  He didn't say it in a negative way, but I have visited his old church and it is different from where we go now.  Anyway's I was just so in awe of him inviting someone to church, and it really got me thinking about my own testimony/calling etc...  As a Christian it should be my goal to spread the awesome news that Jesus is my Lord and Savior!  I am not going to say I am a perfect person because that is so far from the truth, but I do try to live every day with the goal to live more like Him and worship Him!  I feel so convicted by the fact that I have not been more outgoing with the way I believe with my friends, family, etc and invited them to come to church or even share the gospel with them... I don't know why I have felt this feeling of doubt or fear they will judge me because I believe that all things are possible through Christ!  I do believe I serve a Mighty God who can do miraculous and wonderful things, I have the faith and have witnessed God's awesome power to heal the sick, meet a need that would have never been met, feel his presence overwhelm me to my knees and feel the peace pass over me that could never be explained with mere words.  I feel like while we were trying to find a church I have it in my head that I am not worthy to share the gospel, I shouldn't be involved until we have been there longer, and maybe what I think may have once been a calling is now just a memory... Oh no the Lord says He is with me and has called me to serve Him and hearing Him and being obedient to his Word is what He desires in me.  Christians we need to rise up, rise up and share what He has done for us, Rise up and show the world the light burning inside!!  My desire is to be a woman of the Word, I want to press in and know God and for Him to know every part of me!  I want to be used by God,  I want to hear His voice and when it may seem uncomfortable to me I want to have the confidence to share the Word or whatever it may be with someone!  I want to know that in the end I followed Christ and heard the call!  

   I know this is kinda all over the place, I am so tired, but I couldn't hold this in any longer and wait until morning to write it down!

Love all of you so much!!!

The Back Outdoor area (done as much as its going to be) PAINTED!

  Well as previously said we are moving, we still have not found a house, but we have left it completely in God's hands and we know He has a house that is perfect for us out there! With that said I am so excited we got part of our outdoor area in the back done...  I never had the time to get the benches built for the table or paint the other bench for extra seating, but for the most part its kinda done.... :)  so here are a few photo's.

 I got a little too excited and went ahead and took some pictures with only half the lights up lol! :)

We actually spent a little time out here with some friends a couple weeks ago and it was so nice to have a cute little patio! Hopefully our next home will have a nice little spot too! :)  There were so many more things we had planned for this area, but we are moving on!  Keeping this post short since I have some SEWING to get done!! 

So we are moving?!

Our home sold within 24 hours of putting it on the market!!  Yes, SOLD for full asking price, and with closing costs covered by the buyer!!  We asked and the Lord said you will receive, we are happy that since our home was a foreclosure we are being blessed with making money off of our home!!    We have to be out July 7th, and so far we have yet to see anything we are just in love with so doing some serious prayers that God allows us to find the right home!!  With that said the reason we are having a hard time I think is some people really do not get the concept of making your home in showing condition.  I understand you don't want to pull all personal things out of your home since you still live there, because I said the same thing, but DE-CLUTTER that crazy mess!  Make your home look functional for any home buyer!! I promise my home is not always perfect, but if I know someone is coming to look at my house I am not going to have so many things jammed in a room were another buyer can't visualize what it will look like.  I think I can usually do a pretty good job of seeing past crazy paint colors, wall paper, brown trim, etc... but when you have junk  piled up it gets a little difficult!  Ok, rant over!!!  Oh, one more thing, don't hang a picture of you and your husband naked over the bed kissing... that can make awkward moments for all! Anyways well we are celebrating my moms birthday tomorrow and I need to start my salted carmel pretzel cupcakes!! :) Oh click on the Welcome to Our Home tab to check out some of the pictures of our home before and after!! :)

Baylor's ONE! (and a few other happenings)

   Well,  it finally came Baylor's first birthday and oh how sweet it was!! :)  We had so much fun planning and getting ready for it, and I think he had a pretty amazing time as well!  Let's be honest, the first birthday is pretty much for the mama we made it together a whole year and we are both still alive with no major damage, I think that is totally a reason to celebrate baby and let mama decorate and go a little over the top.  The day was a little crazy and why wouldn't it be, we procrastinated just a little!  Besides the final minutes of not being ready while people were arriving I think it went very well!  Since my child loves to bounce the one thing I went over the top with was getting my one year old a bounce house, but the smile he had on his face while he was in there was worth it!  I mean take a look at that smile!

Ok let me do a photo bomb of party what nots and then I will update a little more.

Husband built this! :)

Mom made this!

I had so much fun setting up everything and still didn't get everything I wanted done :( 

Here are a few shots of Baylor enjoying his day!

 It was a blast!  He did do much better with the cake at his one year photo shoot here is a sneak peak from that!

He is such an awesome kid!!  He is so happy and social and will pretty much laugh at anything!  So proud he is my son and I am so excited to watch him grow into a Godly young man!!
His current stats are 24.2lbs and 31 1/2" tall!!  He is my big boy! :)

Other happenings are.... We are putting our house up for sale since we are just wanting to have a larger yard.  We LOVE our home, I wish I could pick it up and put it somewhere with a big back yard!  So if you are looking for a home in Newnan be on the look out for ours!  It will probably be listed by the end of the week or the beginning of next! :)  Have a great day!

Busy redoing a little bit of everything! ;)

   I know the past couple posts have been about Baylor Birthday party, but I am so excited about it and thankfully it is coming up quick!  I have a little over 2 weeks to finalize everything and get invitations in the mail by Monday! AHHH I still don't have the invites or any idea what they might look like!  I just feel like I have been so busy doing some updates around the house since I know we are going to have a lot of guests in our home soon!  When I say updates I mean I look around my house for things I don't like and figure out how I can redo them ;) Which brings me to my latest redo!

   Oh sweet little 2 drawer chest in our entryway you look like the perfect candidate for an update!

Thanks to Pinterest I have been dying to do some sort of turquoise piece in my house!  So I finally just said I can/am going to do it!  After painting the high chair I decided I can try a small piece and see what happens and let me just tell you, I am more than excited about the finished piece!  Here she is in all her turquoise and glazed glory!

I am pretty smitten with this!  ;)  I used this blog as my over view, but I will go over briefly what I used since I am not good at following directions, and not so patient when I want to just see the end result.  I rolled it with Kilz that we had in the garage, followed by Rustoleum Lagoon, Rustoleum Transformations Java Glaze, and finally a few coats of polycrylic!  I am so happy with the results but now I feel like I need a new lamp and some flowers for the entry way instead of my drab decor now ;)  Super excited my house is coming together slowly but surely thanks to Pinterest and all you other wonderful bloggers out there!  

  In other things we did finally paint our pergola, but I have yet to take a picture!  Gotta get on that! We are getting our son dedicated this Sunday at our new church that we absolutely LOVE!  Its Gracepointe Church in Peachtree City, Ga and it is so fabulous!  I knew it was home for me when we were singing during worship, the first Sunday we visited, and we were singing Agnus Dei, it was just so powerful I couldn't help but let the tears flow as I felt the Lord just envelop my heart! So happy we are there and already excited that this past Sunday I got to serve in the nursery!  Thank you Lord!  Well hate to cute this short, but Baylor has woken up from his nap and my tea stain outdoor curtain probably needs to be taken out! Pictures to come!  Have a great rest of the week and weekend! :)

HIGH CHAIR REVEAL!!

Baylor is turning 1 in about 6 weeks, and being obsessed with Pinterest, I am getting a little too excited about having his birthday party!!  I am trying to keep it within reason, and not go crazy with the overload of ideas, but I am narrowing down all my final details!  One thing I have known I wanted to have at his birthday was a wooden high chair that coordinated with the party colors so it would look good in pictures (I know crazy right ;) ).  After scouring Craigslist for months one came up not far from us for $20.00!  UM SOLD!

After mulling over green or turquoise, for what seemed like forever, since I wanted to start as soon as Zach picked it up, I finally settled on turquoise, Gem Turquoise by Behr to be exact!  When I was finished with the first coat I kept thinking it still looked kinda girly, but then I remembered I had some java glaze left over from a previous project. As soon as I began wiping away the glaze I knew I was looking at what I envisioned in my head! So with that said here it is...

I am so excited to see everything together when his big day comes, but I am very excited that this total "redo" was not expensive at all!  Chair-$20.00, Paint-$3.15 (the sample was the perfect amount and I still have a good bit left), Glaze- Already on hand!  so $23.15 and a few hours of my time and I got a good looking chair!  I still need to pick up clear coat so all in all it will probably be a little over $25.00 with is fine with me! :)  Well hope everyone is having a great week! 

DIY Outdoor Project!

      With my sweet boy's birthday approaching in May, I am having a blast planning his birthday.  More like Pinning any idea that has anything to do with a mustache or little man first birthday party. I am so excited to celebrate his first birthday and hopefully put together a well thought out and sweet first birthday party.  Well, thanks to Pinterest,  I decided I really wanted his party to be inside and outside since our living room isn't huge, and I don't want things to feel cramped.  We were already planning something for our outdoor area,  since it was so drab, so  I enlisted my hubby in building a pergola to make it feel a little more cozy and together. 

      So this is a small before and after of the back area. Clearly we have a lot of work to do!  I forgot to take the picture before he got the first part up! 

                     BEFORE                            AFTER

I have to brag on my husband though he did not use one plan, he visualized it in his head, bought the wood and screws, and VOILA instant PERGOLA! He really shouldn't have shown me how skilled he is, so many plans in my head now!  We still need to paint it, but it has been soo rainy here it has yet to be sunny and nice for 3 days in a row!  I have big plans (on a small budget) for this area, so stay tuned to see, hopefully, a big reveal!  

     I am super excited for this weekend;  our sweet friends are coming down from Michigan to visit, and our boys are only 6 weeks apart, so  I can't wait to see how they play together! Hope everyone is having a great start to their week and hopefully will update more often!! :)