The Finished Project

We have officially completed the most awesome baseball bedroom a little boy could ask for! Well at least we think so :) Here are some pictures of the room. Enjoy!

The picture hanging to the right of the window hung in Josh's room when he was little

This is mainly a picture of Aiden's bedding which is reversible. On the other side it is white with baseball bats and balls. 

It's impossible to fine strictly baseball crib bedding so this is a set I found on Target(online) and it's just very simple stripes and I think it works well with everything. It came with a race car sheet but my mom had bought a plain navy blue sheet that I used instead.  

Most of the design/projects were pinterest inspired. Josh claims he hates pinterest but look how awesome everything turned out! He successfully cut that baseball bat in half and then attached the hooks, his dad hand-painted the baseball wall with the help of a stencil and Josh painted the scoreboard on the wall. 

There is a lot of thought and hard work put into this room and we just hope the boys will love it :)

A weekend at home

This weekend we spent at home getting some things done around the house or as Josh calls it, the honey-do list. He had a couple items on that list for himself though too! The boys' room is all but finished. My goal was to have it completed by the end of March and today is April 1st and I'm waiting on my last shipment and should have everything completed and hung tonight! I will take pictures and hopefully share them in the next couple days. My mom took most of the day off on Friday and helped me get a ton of baby clothes washed and put away as well as sanitize and wash all of the bottles and put those away. These things are much more fun to do with someone else's help! She brought each of the kids a new outfit and outside toy and kites! We went outside to fly the kites but there wasn't much wind so the kids had to run the kites which resulted in what could have one us the big bucks on America's Funniest home videos I'm sure! Aiden was dragging his kite around, minding his own business and Isla was running hers to make it fly just above the ground. Isla ran around Aiden and down the hill and her kite wrapped his head at the perfect height and almost took him down! We laughed so hard! It was hilarious!

Saturday night, after a long day of chores, Josh set up the kid's tent for them to watch a movie and eat some popcorn. They loved it!

I also became a barber over the week/weekend. I cut both Aiden and Josh's hair and it doesn't look bad! I did get a little close to Aiden's head in a couple spots but it will grow out ;) Hopefully before Easter lol!

Before: Look at this wild man!

After: So much better

We actually had some wind on Sunday so the kids really got to fly their kites. It went well for about 5 minutes before Aiden's got stuck in a tree and I believe we have officially lost Isla's but it was fun while it lasted.

Happy April Fool's Day!

Nicolle 

Aiden

The next couple posts will likely be about our big boy! He has a lot of change coming up and I want to make sure we document it :)

This morning, Shannon, our Parents-As-Teachers educator, came to meet with Aiden and see how he is doing and he is doing great! This is a huge relief to me because my main fear when we decided I would stay home was his development. I've never claimed to be a teacher and I still feel lost most of the time when it comes to teaching the kids skills they need to go to preschool/school. It was nice to hear that he is meeting almost all of the developmental milestones for the 14-24 month age group and Shannon even noticed that his behavior was much better! He is talking so much more, coloring for longer periods of time, looking at books, identifying body parts and listening to direction much better. Two months ago, I had a wild man for a son and I can really see some progress and it's nice. We still have some work to do but it's encouraging to know we are doing the right things. Shannon also encouraged me to keep trying story time at the Library to help him learn to sit still and pay attention in an educational setting. Last week I was in tears by the time we got home because both of the kids were not so good and I didn't know what to do. Josh had suggested we set up a "story time" for the kids at home to practice sitting still and listening and Shannon actually suggested the same thing so maybe we can make that a goal for the next couple weeks.

Last night was Aiden's first night in his big-boy bed and he stayed in bed all night. He did manage to wiggle out of the small opening and fall out about an hour after he went to sleep but he made it the rest of the night just fine and was laying in bed when I went in to wake him up this morning. Victory! Although, Josh and I suspect he will start escaping from his bed in approximately 1 week. Which is why we started now, so we can get this new bed thing mastered before the baby comes in 9 weeks. We finished painting the boys room this past weekend with some help from Dennis and I will post pictures soon when we have the finishing touches done :) It definitely looks like the boy room I had always envisioned for him and I'm super excited to be making progress in baby preparations!

This is Aiden coloring....notice he has his head resting on his hand...but his arm isn't touching the table!

And here he is being a boy! He was actually in time out on the steps and managed to fall through the rail and land face first in the mud :) It was hilarious!

Valentine's Day/Week

Well as you already know...our actual Valentine's day consisted of most of us being sick but there were good days leading up to it! Early in the week I made Josh a special treat, German Chocolate Cake, which he loves! I also made him real meatloaf as he calls it. I typically make mini ones that don't take as much time etc. And then I made him a cake to take to work for a desert contest, which is the only reason he went to work on Thursday because he has started to not feel well. The cake itself didn't win us any prizes. Apparently everyone he works with is more into chocolate,caramel type things. I made a note of that for next time :) 

Here is my creation(a Pioneer Woman recipe)

I was also in charge of planning Isla's preschool Valentine's party. I looked all over pinterest and found the perfect craft that I haven't seen done before. Paper plate hats! In the shape of a heart! I cut the paper plates the night before and bought foam stickers and pom pom balls to decorate with. The kids seemed to enjoy it and we even got a picture with all the kids and their beautifully decorated hats!

On Valentine's day I made the kids strawberry heart pancakes with sprinkles! They love strawberries so I thought these would be a hit. Aiden loved them but Isla prefers her strawberries cold, not cooked :) It's the effort that counts right? They also received new teddy bears that said "I love you" and a cookie. They sleep with their bears every night and Isla continues to tell me she does not like cooked strawberries :) She never forgets things like that!

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

The last couple weeks

I apologize for the delay in posts! It's been a little crazy around here. We've been battling the flu and I've been trying to get Isla's old clothes ready to sell at a local consignment sale.

Josh may disagree, but he started the round of sickness a couple days before Valentine's Day. He went to the Minute Clinic and they diagnosed him with the flu...so I sent him downstairs and shut the door for a whole day! I was desperately trying to prevent the sickness from spreading and I'm not sure why because it's really inevitable once it enters the house! That night Aiden got sick in his crib and he and I were up most of the night. It was so hard not to laugh a little when he was getting sick because I had to hold his head in the bowl because he just kept waving his hands saying "No,no,no,no,no!" Poor guy :( Besides being pretty tired the next day, he seemed to be feeling better and Josh was on the mend too but we stayed home and had a low key day.

The next day we ventured out to Nebraska furniture mart to buy the boys' new bedroom furniture! I was very excited to complete this task. It made me feel like we are actually moving forward with some kind of plan. We are planning to paint the room in two weeks and then hopefully set up all the furniture. I'm also planning to make new bedding for the room so I bought some fabric this weekend and I'm hoping to get started this week.

Here is my sick little man :(

Duck, Duck, Goose and Dinner

This winter, no thanks to Duck Dynasty in my opinion, Josh took up a new hobby. You guessed it, duck hunting! And from that right into goose hunting. Naturally, it made more sense to rope someone else in to the fun so Robbie also got hooked and now they consider themselves regular ole waterfowl hunters :) The amount of prep that goes into this is intense. They had to start by learning to use the duck and goose calls to call the birds in. Josh actually practices in the car on the way to work....... which is much better than in the house! Aiden and Isla love to blow on the calls as well. I'm betting that Aiden will be better at calling the birds than Josh or Robbie one day! They have scouted sale ads and craigslist for decoys. They get up at the crack of dawn to go out and set up all the decoys and cover themselves when they lay down on the ground to wait and call the birds in. It's a lot of work! But they're hooked! On Friday, the last day of goose season another of their friends came down to go out with them and see what this is all about. After they hunted we had an impromptu dinner party with everyone. We had lasagna and cupcakes and a good visit with friends! The kids ran and ran and ran and they were exhausted by the time the night was over which means we even got to sleep in a little on Saturday morning! Win!

I didn't get any pictures of the dinner portion but here are some pictures of Josh's hunting adventures over the last couple months

And as Isla says "Daddy FINALLY shot a bird" Her words...not mine :)

Now we have a couple months until Turkey season begins and baby boy is here. His "honey-do" list will be growing! Who am I kidding.... my to-do list is growing too! 

Happy Birthday Isla

My baby girl is 4 years old. Where did 4 years go?! Josh and I were talking just a couple nights ago about time and how you really don't realize how fast it goes until you have kids. It happens so fast and next thing you know we'll be sending her off to college baffled at where the last 18 years went! I have to stop now or I'll start crying uncontrollably. And it's not the pregnancy, that's just a side effect of having kids :) 

On Isla's birthday we decided to take her to a "restaurant" as she says to eat. She loves to eat out but Aiden.....not so much so we rarely go anymore. Remind me to tell you about the last couple of experiences another time and you'll understand why we eat at home 98% of the time! 

Isla's birthday was on a Tuesday so she got to bring Grandma Downing cookies to school as a treat and we had some left over to bring to dance class and share with her friends there! After dance we met Josh at Red Robin and had dinner. She enjoyed dinner, got to play some games, they sang happy birthday and she had some ice cream! 

We always tell Isla not to grow up too fast and she does it anyway! She tells us that she wants to be a big girl and go to big girl school and even ride the bus. Ride the school bus! Look how much she has grown in the last 4 years...

 At the hospital in 2010

 1st birthday party 2011

 2nd birthday party 2012

 3rd birthday party 2013

4th birthday party 2014

Nicolle