So, we had a nice weekend.  Friday night we had some dear friends over for dinner with their two boys and had a great time.  Thanks Pendry's!  Saturday morning, while Austin got his mind right for the coming FL summer by beginning the tasks of yardwork, Westen, Baron, and I met the Kaz's in Deland for the annual Dog Parade!

While Baron slept for most of it, Westen sat in front of Deputy Walker and got lots of candy and beads!

Baron's girlfriend, Kohen, was there, of course.

Westen and Rhett had fun together, like always.  Although, Storm and I are finding that they get more hyped up about seeing each other than they are when they're actually together.  It's kinda funny.  That's toddlers I suppose.

The weather down here has been awesome lately! The kind of weather that's perfect for eating outside (which is just what we've been doing).  I feel like I must take advantage of it because I know I'll be complaining about the heat before too long.  Sooooo, although I don't think my husband felt like it, we headed to the Port Orange Pavillion to eat dinner and walk around outside upon my insistence.  Little did we know, there was a carnival going on - free admission.  We had to let Westen ride a couple rides and play a couple games.

Poor lighting but it was dark out.  Today we headed to church and spent the afternoon home.  Nice!!  Hope you had a nice weekend too!

So, you may have read my post 2 weeks ago about wanting to makeover our closet.  I had to stall a bit with our trip last weekend and, honestly, I was having second thoughts about what I wanted to do.  My plan was to build part of a closet storage system (you know... inspired by none other than California Closets, but not so perfect because it's a DIY).   Spend $100+ on our closet???  Well, certainly cheaper than California Closets, but I  wasn't confident that our closet was the place that I wanted to spend $100 in our house.  Not with so many other things I could do with $100:)  Feeling hesitant, I decided to take a step back and reanalyze.  I was thinking, what do we already have that I could use for this closet makeover?  I have some things in mind, but first things first.  Continue the organization process.

Before, there was a lot of wasted space on Austin's side of the closet (and yes, I realize the top shelf still looks a mess - patience, please:).  I decided to reorganize where our clothes are hanging. I moved his shirts and pants to one side and added my shirts, pants, and skirts to the other.  And it fit!  Who knew??

I moved any long garments (dresses) and infrequently used garments (Austin's suit coats) to the other side together.  Did you catch that glimpse of today's project?

Yep!  Shoe Storage!!  I know I still need to prime and paint that sucker, but I kinda don't even mind the natural pine look.

I bought 2 - 1x12x6s and 1 - 1x6x4 this morning at Lowes.  I had those guys cut the 1x12s so they'd be easier to fit in the car (since I have two massive carseats).  I had them cut 38 inch pieces from both (which left 2 - 34 inch pieces left which I could use to make two smaller shoe storage pieces if I wanted, but I wanted these 38s for a reason).  Then when I got home, I measured the width of the 1x12s (because lumber is never actually what they say it is - these were 11.25inches).  Then, I cut the 1x6 to that length four times.

You see?  The 1x6 pieces are like the feet of this shoe shelf.  The rest honestly took me about 10 minutes per unit.  I just used wood glue and put 3 nails into each end.  That's it!

I know this shoe storage isn't big enough to hold a whole wardrobe's shoes, but we don't have enough room in our closet to display all of our shoes like this.  We'll use this for the shoes we wear most.  Our everyday shoes, if you will.  The rest... well, boots will be put away since I rarely wear them here, flip flops will have their own cubby or basket (because if you live in FL, you always have way too many of these), and although I put my pretty heels on top to take this picture, they'll probably end up on one of the high shelves in the closet because I don't wear those everyday either.  Another look...

I will probably paint these, but I'm going to hold off.  I have some other things in mind for this closet makeover, and I'm still working on some of the details, so color coordinates will come in time.  Having said that, stay tuned and have a good weekend!

Well, I intended to still have a More than Mediocre Monday post yesterday, and then decided - well, no.  I was having too much fun with my family in KY.  So Sorry.  Anyway, there's the bride Saturday, Mrs. Kendra Coppage, with me and another dear friend, Aurella, on the left.  It was probably the most unique wedding reception we've ever been to.

Austin got introduced to tons of people that night.  It was a mini high school reunion for me.  He was a trooper.  Thanks, Babe!

This girl's awesome!  Another dear friend I've known since 1st grade - Lauren Houston.  Lauren was the maid of honor and is a talented singer/song writer. You learn more about her and her music here.  Anyway, she surprised the bride and groom with a song she wrote just for them called Common-Law.  I'm sure you get the idea of the light-hearted song since Kendra and Brandon have been a couple since we all graduated high school almost 11 years ago.  Anyway, her song was my favorite part of the night!

I don't know the blonde, but there's me, Aurella, and then Heidi (another super close friend).  So great to see them all.  Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Coppage!

While we were at the wedding, the boys spent time with their Mamaw, Papaw, Aunt NaNa, Uncle Ryan, and their cousins!  I think Ellie and Westen wore each other out!

Yeah, he fell asleep eating his lunch one day:)  Ha Ha!!

He thought he was so big hanging with his older cousins.  And, of course, Baron got lots and lots of sugars and love.  He also made a liar out of me by behaving so good while Austin and I were gone to Hailey's basketball game Sunday night.  Little Stinker! 

Great weekend!  Can't wait to see you guys again!  Westen said today, "I wanna do Tucky adain Mommy."  Me too:)  Happy Tuesday!

Well, I expected to be continuing my post from last Friday about my closet makeover. You can see that post here.  But.... I was busy this week preparing for our short weekend trip to KY this weekend.  And the only day I had to go get lumber from Lowes, they were out of some of the particle board I needed.  Soooooo, no progress on our closet:(  Too bad.  Instead, I thought I'd share a project Austin and I worked on a couple weeks ago that was pretty simple.

Wall hanging bookshelves - I bought the wood for this project from Lowes.  I brought it home to cut, although Lowes would probably have done it (I just wanted to use my tools:).  Then, Austin helped me assemble these babies which was super simple.

I primed and painted them.  Then we put framing hooks on the back, although they'd look better if you just found a stud and drilled these directly into your wall.  With the framing hooks they lean forward away from the wall a bit, but we learned that the hard way.

They're not perfect.  I don't cut perfect, so you can probably see some gaps between the wood or even some crooked lines. But I like them.  And they were less than $10 each.  We made two for the playroom and they're great space savers.  Now we can use the bins for toys instead of books.  I've thought about making more for Westen and Baron's room.  You can get the plans for this project here at Ana White's website.  Have a great weekend!  While Austin and I will be attending a wedding tomorrow night (Congratulations Kendra and Brandon!), Westen and Baron will be spending some quality time with their peeps from KY.  Good Times!

Just thought I'd share this quick little bit of info.  A couple other bloggers out there are featuring an entire month of sewing and other projects specifically for boys.  The bloggers are Made by Rae and Made.  I know I will be checking it out.  Just wanted to share for those of you who have boys (or maybe nephews!).  I'll keep their button on my side bar (scroll down to see it) for the rest of the month.  But here it is if you want to check it out now.

Happy Tuesday!

Wow, I'm a lucky girl!  The Valentine of 3 handsome boys (well, one man, two boys).  I cherish being the most important woman in my boys' lives right now because I know that someday my two little boys will be men and some other woman will take my place as their Valentine.  (Insert Big Sigh Here).  And while this threatens to bring tears to my eyes - I know this guy will always be my Valentine...

And who wouldn't want him as their Valentine??  Love you, Babe!  Anyway, Westen was all excited today to hand out his Valentines and say "Happy Valentines!"  to his friends at school (for some reason he wouldn't add Day onto the end of that phrase).  Here he is this morning.

A closer look at the shirt and Valentine...

He had his party at school and when I picked him up he had a bag full Valentines from his friends and one for Mommy and Daddy.  Check it out!

The picture was actually in the card which was in the little picture holder.  Look at his face in the picture. This is what he does when you tell him to smile.  Look at his eyes.

And instead of showing something that I know is More than Mediocre today, I'm going to show you something that I hope will be more than mediocre.  Austin and I won't be going out tonight for Valentine's Day and honestly, I didn't plan to make some really special dinner.  Sometimes life with 2 little kids just takes over.  Instead, I made a  special treat -  homemade chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. 

Maybe tonight won't resemble what some would dream about on Valentine's Day, but for me... after putting the kids to sleep, a little quiet time with my husband at my side, a chocolate truffle in one hand, and maybe a glass of wine in the other - well, that might just be perfection!  Happy Valentine's Day!

We met the Kazmierczak's today at the Blue Springs State Park.  It's where the manatees call home during the colder months in FL and we thought Westen would enjoy seeing them with his buddy Rhett.  The picture above has Flat Stanley in it (you're welcome, Jo).  And you can see some manatees in the background, but there were lots! 

Austin took the older boys to the playground while Storm and I fed the babies (Brett was absent this trip).  They had fun swinging and going down the slides.

And here's the future Mr. and Mrs.  Both of them feeling fat and happy during this pic.  I was holding them while Storm was with Rhett for a few minutes and a lady walked by and thought I had twins asking how old they were and then saying, "Well, that's nice - you got a girl and a boy."  Funny!  And I couldn't imagine having twins.  I had it easy because they were both happy the whole time I had them.

A closer look...

After that, we checked out the manatees a second time, then headed to lunch.  Westen and Rhett were having such a good time they were holding hands walking together at one point.  Something Storm and I may think cute, but I'm not sure their daddies would:)  And after lunch, I got to have my favorite thing ever from Deland (besides a good time with the Kaz's, of course)... a frozen hot chocolate from Boston Gourmet Cafe.  Seriously delicious!  It tasted just as good as I remembered!  We had a great time, as always, with our friends.  And Westen's still napping even as I type now.  Must've been a good day!  Have a great rest of your weekend!

What???  You didn't think he could get any cuter??  WRONG!! Okay, well who cares if I'm biased:)  Baron turned 4 months old yesterday.  4 MONTHS OLD!!  That's when some babies start eating baby food.  This is going by too fast.  I need to slow it down, already!

He just ate!  Thus the excitement and joy you see in these pics!  The reality is he's still having moments of angry crying because, heaven forbid, I lay him down for a minute (or 10, or 30, well...in the words of Ryan Day - Sorry Babe).  It often happens as we take our first bite of dinner:)  It is getting better though.

He has been laughing more which I love.  And bath time is still his favorite time, although mornings run a close second.  We had to have a bottle intervention this month because he was refusing it completely, breast milk and formula.  He's taking, rather tolerating, breast milk from a bottle now, but formula's a different story.  Baby steps, right?  And really, he is getting cuter and sweeter everyday!

And Westen wouldn't let me take pictures of just Baron.  So here he is too. The proud Big Brother!  Check out the rest of Baron's updates here.

So, I've got pretty pictures and ugly pictures today:)  The pretty ones first...

Westen's Valentines!  Yeah, I think they're cute.  If you missed Monday's post, I got the idea from Cheri's post here.  Here's a couple more looks...

All his little classmates will get these Monday;)  So that was an easy project this week.  I'm sure I'll post pictures of Westen on Valentine's Day in his cute Valentine shirt (I bought from Target) and his sweet Valentines, so stay tuned.  On to the ugly pics.  I've decided to makeover our closet.  We've been overstuffing it for too long.  I had clothes in there from before I even had Westen that I'm not sure I'll ever (maybe even want to...) wear again.  Plus, I just needed to PURGE.  And one other thing - we have no linen closet for our master bathroom, so our closet is for that too.  Now, in just a tiny bit of defense... I've had intentions to tackle this project at the beginning of this year since well before the holidays, so I have to say, I kinda just let things go this past month, knowing I'd be cleaning up soon.  With no further ado, here's the befores...YIKES!

Could you see our linens and towels on the top shelf of that second pic??  Terrible, I know.  I'll spare you the floor which was a pile of shoes in one corner, luggage in another, dry cleaner bags in another...  Yeah, it's pretty bad.  Does anyone else's closet look like that.  Say yes and make me feel better.  Anyhoo, since this is just part one of this closet redo (I can only do a little at a time, so this may take a couple weeks), here's what I did this week:  I went through my clothes and sorted them into piles.

I had a pile of clothes to give to my niece, Hailey, a pile of clothes to keep, a pile to donate, and a pile to recycle.

Excuse the Cous:)  I think as I go through this process, I will probably get rid of more.  But unfortunately, I can't do this all in one day.  My next step in this process is buying some lumber to build some cubbies to organize.  That's on my to-do for next week.  We'll see how that goes.  Stay tuned and I can't believe I shared our disaster with you.  I'd understand if you refuse to look at any more photos on this site;)

I went for a run last night in the pouring down rain (uuggghh!), and when I got home, no one was crying... Yay!  Baron's a bit of a Momma's Boy, if you know what I mean, so I was pleasantly surprised to find him smiling and maybe even laughing with Daddy!  This is what they were doing...

Seriously... don't you just want to plant kisses all over that face??  The sweetness is too much!  So, once I finished laughing and snapping pictures of the precious father/son bonding, we ate dinner.  Then Papa came over to visit.  Westen was running around like a wild man (like always), and decided to put my wet, sweaty hat on.  Kinda gross - yes, but oh so cute!  I think the hat - and the team (Go Big Blue!) - suits him, don't you??  (Please excuse the drool on his shirt;)

Anyway, just thought I'd share the cute pics!  Hopefully, Austin and Baron get along as well tonight!  I'm going to see No Strings Attached with some girlfriends - Momma's Night Out...Holla!