So, finally, we made our first boat trip of the year yesterday!  The weather has been warming up and we've been itching to get out on the water.  We had to get a new life jacket for our new little addition to our family, which Austin picked up this week, so we were ready to go:)

This is the boys waiting for us to finish up getting ready that morning.  Ummmm... is Westen too cool for school, or what?????

He seriously thinks he owns the boat.  He drives it, lounges in it, walks around in it, whatever he wants.  He thinks he's calling the shots when we're on the boat!

This was Baron's first trip out on the boat.  Although this picture doesn't show it, he did great.  Really only started fussing when he got tired. He fought it for a bit, but eventually fell asleep in my arms.

He was walking around on the beach today and I just thought - man he looks like such a little man.  He was following his daddy around mimicking everything Austin did.  Even peeing outside today (remember??  no more diapers - Yay!).  He was too cute!

Daddy and his boys.

And a picture of Baron with both Mommy and Daddy.  It was his first boat ride so it needed documentation:)  Seriously, isn't this kid adorable!!

After our morning trip on the boat, we headed home for the boys to get a quick nap, then on to a birthday party!  So, Happy Birthday Rhett!!  Westen had a great time at his buddy, Rhett's, party.  He loved the bounce house and especially the lawn mower:)

And I can't end this post without mentioning, yet again - GO BIG BLUE!!! I can't type this loud enough!!  WooooooHoooooo!  Headed to the Final Four, Baby!  Harrelson is rockin' right now!  Unbelievable!  Hopefully I'll be typing a post next week mentioning the tourney champs:)  If you're not on board, you might as well be.  You better get your WILDCAT on!

So, I had bought this plain polo from target awhile back for about $3.  I decided to make Westen a Wildcat shirt (GO UK!!).  I saw a similar shirt on Gap's online store.  It said Pacific and had a different number.  Because I don't have a Silhouette machine (which I'm dying to have), I freezer paper stenciled the words and number on.  Click here for the how-to on that.  I used fabric paint I already had on hand, thus the reason it's not true blue UK colors.

I like how it turned out, but I wanted the letters to pop a little more.  I decided to outline them using a black Tee Juice fabric pen, which I also already had.

Like I said, I think this made the letters and number stand out a little more.

And that's it!  Voila!  I, of course, heat set it before washing it.  Westen wore it to preschool today and is all ready to cheer the wildcats on tonight!  Go Big Blue!!

Have a great weekend!  I'm linking up to Cheri's party, here.

So Austin ended up getting tickets for the 2nd round of games in Tampa for the NCAA tournament!  And guess who was playing... yep - KY (vs. West Virginia) and FL (vs. UCLA).  Can you say SWEEEEEET!

So here we are before the games started.  Sorry I didn't get many good pictures.  We were both so excited to be there!  And in case you failed to watch college sports this weekend - both KY and FL won!  Go Big Blue!!  Here's a couple pictures.

Thank you so much Nana and Aunt La La for watching the boys for the entire day Saturday.  I'm sure you slept well Saturday night:)

And here's a couple more pictures of the boys from the weekend and then some exciting news!  The reason this post it titled Oh Happy Day!!

So, the good news!  Well, it's really just good news for our little family of 4 (although Baron could care less).  Westen went to school today wearing underwear.  Go ahead... laugh:)  But this means he didn't go to school today wearing a diaper!  Holla!!!  Even though we started this potty training journey back in like...August I think - today was a glorious day for me.  I realized to potty train my little guys I have to be committed to staying home and doing it.  I know better for Baron. With Westen, we'd take 2 steps forward and 1 step back.  We were doing great, then he started preschool.  We were doing great, then we had Baron.  We were doing great, then we left for 10 days for the holidays.  You get the picture.  I really think Westen probably could've had this down months ago had Austin and I not gotten a little lazy during those times (although I really couldn't keep up with it when Baron was first born - impossible).  Anyway, I know we may still have some accidents, but no diapers at school is a BIG deal for this guy.  Soooooooo....

Way to go Westen!!  You are sooooo Mommy's Big Boy!

Well, I was planning to post a couple little shirts I made for Westen this week, but I'm not quite finished with them. Sooooo... these are some pillow covers I made this winter.  Here's another look.

We had these blue and brown striped pillows that we bought when we moved in here.  They were... okay, but not great.  Plus, they couldn't be washed really.  Who knows what we'd spilled on them, how many times they'd been dropped on the floor, stepped on, etc.  I decided instead of buying new pillows entirely, I'd just make new covers for the ones I had.  This was obviously going to be less expensive AND I can take the covers off and throw them in the wash!  DOUBLE SWEET!

I first measured my pillows.  I'm not sure how much fabric I needed for just the pillows because I had this fabric left over from my stockings.  It's Osnaburg - like a grain sack.  After getting the actual pillow measurement, I added 2 inches to the length and 2 inches to the width.  Osnaburg doesn't stretch very well so I wanted to make sure I had a little to work with.  I figured I'd probably make mistakes along the way because I've never done this before.  Next, I added the lines (or whatever graphics you want) on the fabric.  I just wanted stripes for most of them.  So, I just used Frog Tape to mark off my straight lines and used Tulip fabric paint to fill it in.  I mixed a little black and white fabric paint to get a charcoal or dark gray color.

You'll notice one pillow isn't just stripes, but has a FL oranges grain sack look to it.  I freezer paper stenciled this on.  Check out this post to get directions on how to do that.  It definitely takes more time than the stripes, but it's Austin's favorite so it was worth it.

Anyway, after painting the stripes on and heat setting the paint, I put right sides together and sewed a straight stitch all the around but for one side (the bottom).  On the short horizontal pillows, I added a zipper.  I didn't know what I was doing and they didn't turn out perfect, but they're on the bottom where no one can see.  I'm not going to share my method for this because I know it's wrong.  Google it if you want to try it.

For the bigger pillows, I sewed a straight stitch around 3 sides too, but this time left a side open (as opposed to the bottom).  I then cut long strips of fabric out.  For one of my big pillows, I wanted 4 ties, so I had to cut 8 strips out (2 for each tie).  Mine were about 4 inches wide and I think 15 inches long.  I did the same with these by putting right sides together and sewing a straight stitch around leaving the bottom open.  Then I turned them right side out.  For the unfinished edge I had on the side of that big pillow, I folded it towards the inside (and ironed it to help keep it there).  Then I pinned my strips accordingly onto that folded edge and sewed a straight line around the entire pillow.  So the folded part was now the edge and I had 2 strips that matched up evenly 4 times around the pillow.  Here's a closer look at those ties.

Here's another final look.  And I got this idea from seeing pillows like this in a Pottery Barn catalog which you can see here and also on Miss Mustard Seed's blog.

Have a great weekend!

Here are just a few pictures I took today while the boys had their St. Patrick's Day green on.  They were just being funny.  

And here's what the reality was while we were trying to get those precious smiles!  Baron mad while Westen picks at him:)

I started Baron on solids this week. First up - baby rice cereal.  We've only tried the past 3 mornings.  We're taking it slow.  Here's our first go-round.

Happy Thursday!

First of all, GO CATS!!  In case you're living under a rock - UK wont the SEC Title yesterday!  WooHoo!!  Baron wore his UK sweatsuit for Saturday's game.  I always put a white onesie underneath it and inevitably he has explosions to ruin them every time!  Go figure!

Since Austin was gone all weekend, I had our sweet babysitter, Miss Becca, come over Saturday night to watch Baron while Westen and I had our very first date night!  I haven't spent much one on one with him since Baron's been here, so I thought this was a good opportunity.

Miss Becca couldn't get to the house 'til 6pm and the movie started at 7pm, so we went through the drive thru and took our dinner to the movie parking lot.  I let Westen sit in front with me while we ate our dinner (I know - a meal of champions).  He thought it was great!

This was Westen's first time to a movie theater.  We went to see Gnomeo and Juliet.  I didn't realize it was 3D, but he didn't mind the glasses.  During the previews, he was totally stoked!  It was, "Look Mommy, See that.  Mommy Look!"  The "BIG MOVIE" seemed to be a hit.  Plus we were the only ones in the entire theater. Nice!!!

Which is why I was able to capture this picture.  He did good through the first half.  Then he got a tad disinterested and decided to sit on my lap.  Then he was into it again.  The next thing I know, within a few minutes two gnomes seemed to get broken (a.k.a. die).  The other gnomes were all crying.  And Westen begins crying.  Then says, "Where'd Daddy Doe (Where'd Daddy go)?"  He knew where Austin was - we'd talked about it all weekend.  I asked him what was wrong and he said, "This movie scare me Mommy. I sad."  Seriously??  Sooooo... I took my sad little guy out of the theater about 15 minutes before the movie was to be over.  I was a little shocked.  I think he totally liked the idea of the movie theater - just not that movie.  He told everyone he had a good time and liked it and never mentioned the sad movie again, but instead said he wants to see the Cars movie at the "Big Movies".  To top the night off, we went home and Westen, for the very first time ever, slept in our big bed - just me and him.  If you know us well, you know because of how we start our children as babies, that they like sleeping in their own beds.  We've been waiting for Westen to want to sleep with us every now and then and I think he may now.  So, that's kinda fun!

Sunday, the boys and I got up and got ready for church.  Nana got them these cute little onesies that have a pretend tie and pretend pocket with pens that are adorable.  And, finally, to everyone's delight - Daddy came home!  Here's a couple pictures I snapped yesterday.

Have a great week!

Isn't that picture cute??  I was having such a hard time getting some good shots today on Baron's 5 month birthday.  I wanted him to smile and couldn't get him to cooperate and the lighting wasn't great.  And, of course, Westen was putting his 2 cents in every 2 seconds.  Then I got this one.  No smile, but just kinda sweet.

And, of course, the picture with the little bear.  You can see how he's grown every month next to this bear here.  I'd say at 5 months, things are still getting a little easier each month.  He's still fussy in the evenings, but it's getting better.  Our biggest challenge right this moment is the way he's treating his Daddy.  He is such a Momma's Boy!  It's ridiculous! (I secretly kinda love it, though.  If only he'd stay that way (insert big sigh):)  Although, if you'd asked me last week what our biggest challenge was, I'd say it was teething or sleep.

We had about 10 days of him not sleeping through the night.  I know many moms might ask why I'm complaining since he started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks.  But you hate to revert back, you know?  The first half of it I'd have sworn it was a growth spurt.  He was getting up early between 3 and 5 every night.  Then the last half of it he was getting up multiple times, each time chewing his fingers vigorously like his gums hurt.  So just when I was sure it was a growth spurt and started offering an extra feeding during the day - he switched it up on me.

Thankfully, things are back to normal - 10+hours of sleep for that little guy.  Besides that, all is well.  At his 4 month check-up he weighed 14 lbs. 4 oz. and was 26 inches long - tall and skinny like Daddy.  His doc suggested holding off on baby food for another month so we're going to start that next week.  And his doc suggested to start giving him a little formula mixed with breast milk one bottle a day to get him used to it.  We did and he's doing well.  He started rolling over from his belly to his back.  He's done back to belly once, but doesn't seem to care for that, I guess, because he hasn't done it since.  He's been laughing more and more, but he certainly makes you earn it.  Oh... and we moved him into the bedroom with Westen.  Yep, they're sleeping in the same room! Woo Hoo!!  Daddy and I have our room back!  It was a bit of an adjustment and we had a few sleepless nights, but I think they may finally have it!  Baron's definitely becoming more and more aware of Westen and Cousey.  I've seen him smile at Westen lately.  Of course, he cries at Westen too, but hey??  What do you expect?  Speaking of...

He insisted getting his picture taken too.  And this was yesterday.

Think somebody's ready for boat season??  He's been asking to just get in it to play this week.  Funny.  Austin and I are looking forward to boating again too.  This year will be a little trickier with another baby.  Hopefully Baron likes it as much as Westen.  Anyway, my little Baron's growing up too fast - 5 months already.  I just adore him.  Can't wait to see what this month brings.

Sorry for the poor lighting, but this is hung in the closet.  It's the best I can do.  So, I started with a piece of pegboard I had left over from this project.

I primed it using spray primer that I had on hand.  Then I painted it red using a paint brush (also red paint I had on hand).

Next, I bought some stretcher bars.  I forgot to take a picture of these before I painted them.  They're original purpose is for art canvases but, it's basically 4 pieces of wood already cut (corners mitered) to make a frame.  You just choose the sizes you want (they come in plenty, so I actually  bought 4 pieces of wood - one for each side - mine were 2 that were 14 inches and 2 that were 24 inches) and they just fit together to make the frame.  I think I spent $6 or $7 total on these.  You can buy them at a craft store (Michael's or Hobby Lobby - my personal fave).

I, obviously, chose to paint these white.  And on both the frame and pegboard, I used a spray sealer after the paint was dried.  Here's a closer look at the corners.

Not perfect, but I'm not into perfection, here.  Next I used Gorilla Glue to assemble everything.  So I first put the frame, front side down, dampened both the back of the frame and the front of the pegboard, then applied the gorilla glue to the back of the frame and centered the pegboard on it.

Next, because I'll be hanging this on the wall, I needed to put spacers on the back of the pegboard so there'd be space between it and the wall.  Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to put the pegboard hooks in.  You'll see what I mean.  So, for this I just used two pieces of scrap wood that were laying around in our garage. I just used the gorilla glue again. I'll let you know how this holds up.

I laid some heavy objects on top of everything for a couple hours while the glue dried.  Then, I hammered these little sawtooth hooks into those small pieces of wood on the back.

Then I just used a pencil, measuring tape, nails, a hammer, and a level to hang this baby up on the wall in my closet right above the chest of drawers I refinished last week.  Here's a look.

See why I bought those red knobs??  And yes, I know it's off center.  I plan to put a little something up on the other side too.  I'm thinking a little oval or round mirror right at my height, so I can use it to see how that jewelry looks!  And also, yes to I know you can see spackle marks on the wall.  Not professional looking, I know. But listen, right now - I guess I just feel like if I'm going to purchase paint for something in our home, it's not going to be for our closet!  The color on our closet walls is the color that covered every wall in our house when we moved in.  And there's no touch up paint that I've found.  Soooo..., I figured if I'm not going to paint the closet walls right now (which I'm not), then spackle marks look better than the giant holes that were left behind from the shelf we took down.  In the words of Ryan Day... Sorry Babe!!

I'm not sure why these pictures didn't turn out a little clearer, but you get the idea, right??  The last thing I did was hang pegboard hooks and then start displaying my jewelry.  I've been wanting to tackle this project for awhile now.  And really...it was so simple.  It took about an hour of time, total (not counting drying times for primer, paint, and sealer).  And I only spent the $6 or $7 on the stretcher bars.  Everything else I had at home.  For that cost - I LOVE IT!!  Cute, huh?  I do have a sweet jewelry box that I've housed my things in before, and I do still have some sentimental pieces of jewelry in there.  But these necklaces definitely didn't all fit.  They were just kinda everywhere.  And honestly, this could be bad because I rarely buy costume jewelry because I've never had a place to put it, so it would just take up wasted space, but now...  Guess we'll see.

Have a great weekend!  Check back tonight or tomorrow for Baron's 5 Month Update.  And I'm also going to try to take a few pics of tomorrow night where Westen and I will be having a date night, so look for that too!  Later:)

So Tuesday, Westen, Baron, and I had the privilege  to have lunch with my friend from college, Brooke, and meet her new addition, little Coy!  Isn't he cute!!

So, I picked Westen up from preschool and here's how lunch went.  (I just think it's comical and so, worth sharing).  For time's sake, I'll divide this up into 3 parts - beginning, middle, and end. The beginning consisted of me juggling Baron from my arms to his carrier to try and calm his fussy  butt down (because he was tired) and Westen hanging on my shoulder in between playing with some toys that I always keep in my purse (entertainment for when trying to have an adult conversation).  The middle of the lunch consisted of a bit more fussing by Baron, then finally falling asleep in his carrier, and Westen eating just a few fries before promptly laying his head in my lap and falling asleep.  The end was me trying to hold/bounce Baron up and down because he awoke yet again, fussy, while my 2 year old lay asleep in my lap.  We moved from that to 2 fussy children, one still tired - Westen (since I had to wake him to leave), and one hungry - Baron (it was that time again).  In the meantime, I tried my best to not inhale my lunch (which is what I've become accustomed to because one of my 2 crazy monsters are always needing me) and appear normal and civil - not like an animal (he,he).  And I also tried to actually catch up and have a conversation with Brooke, whom I hadn't seen in months!  Please tell me this is as funny to you as it is to me (at least you other mothers of small children).  You gotta know what I'm talkin' about.  Adult conversation while dining out... nearly impossible!!

On a side note, I found these guys in our driveway this morning.  Coming from my rural town of KY, I always find it funny to see wildlife in our subdivision.  Ducks and deer are the norm.  Here's a closer look. A gloomy rainy day you can tell.

Westen had already left for school, so he didn't see them in our driveway.  When he got home, I knew they were still close in our area, so we took a walk in search of the "duckies".  We found them in the retention pond taking a bath.  Westen thought it was great!

Well, the boys had a big day Saturday!.  I guess I should really say Westen did.  Baron could really care less.  We hit up two parks that day.  Maybe Heaven for Westen.  First was this GIANT park here in town.  Then the little one in our neighborhood.  Just thought I'd share a few action shots from the day. 

Yeah, Daddy got in on the action too.

I was playing with the self timer on the camera during one of the long swing sessions.  I couldn't get the lighting right because I had to have the camera pointing up.  I'll win next time.  But here, the camera won:(

And one last shot.  Parks are such a great, FREE, source of entertainment for kids.  And who doesn't love to be outside??  We had so much fun (minus Westen's one tiny head bump).  Loving the weather here right now!