School is cool!

Our first 2 days of school were a success!  Jude was apprehensive until the moment we walked into his classroom...saying things like, "I'm too tired for school" and "Oh no, we're almost there"...hard things for mom and dad to hear:).  As soon as we walked into his classroom and saw our neighbor he was like peace out. Savannah was all, "Hey Jude" and he turned and looked at us, waved and said, "See ya!"  It was a proud moment!

 1st Day!

Day 2...still smiling!  

  I cried plenty the night before...reiterating to Dallas how BIG this was and how his life at home with me is o.v.e.r.  It was a tad dramatic, but being a stay-at-home-mom, it's hard to see your kid move to a place where they are not with you all of the time.  I hate the feeling that I should have done more with his time home the last four years.  

He came out of school all smiles and telling me stories about all of the kids, songs and coloring they did. It was great!

I love this sweet boy and am so proud of him!  Jude, you had a wonderful first day of school and I know that you will do great from here on out!  

Humph....

That's how I feel about Jude starting school this Thursday.  I mean, how dare he grow up so fast and stomp on my heart by leaving me for school, right!?  It just seems so unreal that he is ready for pre-k.  He is though, probably even ready for Kindergarten. I'm doing my best to pump him up for an exciting year.  I know he is ready and will love it.  As for now, he is going through a bit of an "I'm not going to school" phase.  He's also got a bit of a tude going on.  Hopefully we can resolve this in the next 4 days:).

When I told my mom that Jude was not exactly psyched for school she just laughed and said, "What goes around comes around."  I was not exactly thrilled about school myself.  We're talking crying, screaming, missing the bus on purpose so my mom would have to drive me and pry my fingers off of the car kind of junk....until like second grade.  My second grade class room aid had to bribe me with chocolate milk to get the crying to stop before it was so out of control that I would throw up.  Yeah, I saw right through your bribe Kathy Maye, I know you think you won that battle, but who was the only kid with a tiny carton of choc. milk waiting for me on my desk when I got to school each day, that's right...sweet victory!

Needless to say, I'm justified in being a little anxious about the hesitation that I'm seeing in my child.

To prepare for school we got some overdue haircuts!

{Before}

Doesn't Jude look thrilled?  I'm pretty good at reading him and would guess there is one of three things going through his mind in this pic...

a. He's not thrilled about the matching shirts...

b. He's peeved that this will take time away from his day at the pool.

c. He knows the haircut is for school, ergo, he's ticked!  

{After}

Ahhhh...fresh cuts on these boys makes me smile!  Much better!

This cute boy got a new cut too...

 We attempted to get a few family pics again this weekend.  We have been on hiatus from our Sunday pics because I've not wanted to photograph the visible stitches in my mouth.  I finally had enough of them and removed them myself last night.  All better.  

Man it's hard to get these boys on the same page and looking the same direction.  

Jude was not being totally cooperative and stripped down totally naked halfway through the shoot, so he's not in many of of this weeks pics.  

Other news...

In addition to my bone surgery failing I'm apparently now allergic to cillins (amoxicillin, penicillin and the like.).  What?!  Since when?!  That is what I would like to know.  After both mouth surgeries I have broken out in an itchy rash on my face, jaw, neck chest and shoulders.  This is days after I am done with the medication, but apparently it will only get worse when I need it next time.  

Dallas and I meet with my Dr. R on Tuesday to get my stitches removed and consult about what my options are from here.  Can he help me, do I go to a different Maxillofacial surgeon (I have consults setup with 2 highly recommended), do I use Dr. R even if he thinks he can help me?  I know that there is a plan for me in all of this and it will be fine.  It may cost a tiny fortune and be super painful, and not on my timeline, but there must be a silver lining.  For now I will just marvel in the fact that I am apparently an anomaly, maybe the only person this has happened to in the nature of which it has happened.  Already I am one of the 1%  of the population with the congenital lateral incisor malformation, I am in the 1% range for bone graft failure, and now most likely less than 1% for the reason it failed.  Exciting stuff, I know.  Maybe I will be in the 1% that Dr. R does pro bono to just to learn more about WHAT.WENT.WRONG!  :).  We would definitely appreciate prayer during this big decision time.  

 I've been decorating a lot lately.  I'm definitely on a budget, so I've been hitting up several thrift stores and antique malls to find great things.  I have been working on collecting items for Rhett's big boy room.  Yea, I know he's not even two, but I like to have things ready to go so I don't have to buy under pressure and spend way more than if I have a little time to "collect" here and there.  

Here's a sneak peek of what's to come...

a bit nautical a bit modern, lots of globes and a giant wall map.  I bought a kajillion white frames pictured at Ikea a few weeks ago and I've been adding things to them as I think of something.  I plan to do a gallery on one of his walls.  Thankfully I've got my mom on the hunt for me too.  She picked up five vintage globes at a flea market last week and I am so excited!  They will add some much needed color!

 I am INLOVE with this guy.  I have seen these on different blogs and think they are both adorable and hilarious.  I was at JBF yesterday with some friends and spotted a lady carrying one of these guys to checkout.  Thankfully after stocking her and eyeballing the one furry wall-mounted creature in the joint, she gave me the brand and website on the back.  Unfortunately they are out of stock everywhere.  I think this would be SO cute in a nursery or toy room.  I think our future son, Bo, needs this guy!  

Where there is a will there is a way....I found an adorable creature locally at Bass Pro last night!  I'm not going to lie, I spent the better part of my night looking for one of these.  He is a moose and I love the moose even more than the deer AND he's half the price!  He's plush and about 20" high.  

Searching for one of these I found that there are people out there protesting them.  Apparently they don't think it appropriate to promote hunting by mounting stuffed animals for children's rooms. I don't know,  I think this is a fun alternative to the real thing and it is pretty stinking cute.  Okay, so maybe the mounted polar bear head I saw was taking it a bit far, they are endangered after all (At least I think they are, but who knows, that was supposedly due to global warming and we all know how that turned out).  I don't think this is sending any bad messages to my children.  Any thoughts on that?  Is this offensive to any of you?

I am also thinking about painting a few rooms in my house.  Aja, will you come one day soon so I can bounce some color ideas off of your creative eye?  I really want to do the kitchen/dining combo and get rid of the tuscan look we've got going on.  

Sorry for the super long post...clearly I've got a lot to say:).  I hope you made it to the end and all had a wonderful weekend!  

Oh Jude!

Jude is my movie quote kid.  If you know his dad and his uncles, you know where he gets it.

Last week we were driving down the road next to a semi truck (tractor and trailer).  From that back seat Jude said, "Clark, we're stuck under a truck!" He just smiled and went on about his business.  We couldn't help but burst into laughter.  Obviously this is from the greatest Christmas movie ever made, Lampoons Christmas Vacation (please don't tell me if you don't care for this movie...it will break my heart and change the way I see you...seriously, I love it THAT much).

That same afternoon we were at lunch and Jude was drinking lemonade at Subway.  After he took a nice long drink he smiled and said, "Take it easy on the Pepsi, Fuller."  Classic Home Alone, of course.

We haven't seen either of these movies since winter/Christmas.

Oh how I love this kid.  He amazes me always!

Jude's Room

Jude, I want you to see and remember where you begrudgingly laid your head each night when you were 4 years old.  Mom was not so sure about any type of themed room, but when I saw this pic in Pottery Barn I knew we could whip something together that would be notsocheesy and something that a big boy like you could grow into for a few years.  Of course our version would be not as enticing as PB's version, but it was at least inspiration for the look.

When I saw this pic I thought of Dallas' room at his parent's house (you know, the one that STILL has everything hanging on the walls from his childhood).  He collected pennants at different ballparks as a kid and I recalled seeing gazillions of trophies in boxes in the garage at my inlaws.  I called my mother-in-law to see what I could get my hands on and she said I could have whatever I wanted.  Jude and I went over there to collect the loot and took only a fraction of what was to be had.

I wanted to use things that we already had and buy as little as possible so all of the bedding, pillows and accessories are recycled items that we've had for years.  I love that we were able to use things from our childhood in this room too.  Mainly from Dallas, but the lion on the bed was mine when I was little.  My grandma made it!

The headboard was a gift from my sister when we bought our first house, the bookshelf a gift from Nana and the nightstand was left behind when uncle Dave moved out after staying with us for a while. 

I bought the rocker and ottoman on Craigslist for $75 when Jude was little. The hooks for the pennants were on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $4 each.  The duvet cover and skirt were wedding gifts from our registry 8 years ago:). The quilt and shams were on clearance at target before Jude was conceived. The 20" PB striped pillows I bought new from a friend a few years ago. The gray linen pillow cover on the chair was from Ikea, $6. 

 Jude and I made this scoreboard in an afternoon.  I got the plywood for free at Lowes from the scrap pile and the wooden numbers from Hobby Lobby for $1 each and hung those from nails with twine.  I stenciled the letters. We were able to mix our own paint from colors I had leftover from other projects. 

 I bought this oversized 'J' at a garage sale for a $1 this spring. 

Dallas' framed ORU jersey was a gift from the school when he finished playing ball there.
It.is.huge.

 I got 4 of these cute little Pottery Barn chairs and a table on Craigslist 2 years ago for $30. I painted all but two of the chairs black.  I pulled this on out of this attic and loved it just as it was for his room in yellow. 

 What boy doesn't need a bin full of baseballs and gloves in his room? I got 3 of these bins for $1 at the 'J' garage sale.  

 He needs new frames, I know, but for now these will have to do. 

These little ball-player figurines are all over the room.  Dallas had a jillion of those too:).  All of the baseballs in the room came from Dallas too.  Most of them are signed by his childhood teams.  

Thank goodness for mother-in-laws who don't throw anything away!  It really worked out for us and Jude loves his new room!  I still have some cute little Jerseys that say batboy on the back of them that I plan to use or hang somehow, but I'm just not sure what to do with them yet.  I also want to hang a quark board to display some of his artwork in the room.    

Summer wrap-up in St. Paul

We spent 4 days in St. Paul Minnesota this past week.  Our friend Kenny was getting married and Dallas was a groomsman (a very handsome one, I might add).

We made it! When we walked into the rest stop we were greeted by people saying, "Welcome to Minesooooota."  Gotta love a good Northern accent!  This makes 11 states my kids have been to just this summer!  

 Mall of America!!!

 Peanuts!  These guys are all over St. Paul.  I guess Charles whatshishead is from there? My kids had no idea who they were, but they were giant and fun to climb on, so what the hay!  

 At Rice Park.  This is where the wedding took place.

Yay, we finally found Charlie Brown!!!  

 The rehearsal dinner was at a German Pub and sausage factory called 'The Glockenspiel'.  It was so quaint and very delish!  We had their handmade bratwurst, hot dogs, kraut and spaetzle.  mmmm.  This German girl thought it was sehr gut!

 St. Paul's Cathedral was breathtaking.  So much European influence in the architecture in St. Paul.

Reception time!  

 Air guitar jam!

Jude found himself a cute little red-head, Naomi.  They had so much fun gettin down on the dance floor! Watch those hands little boy:)!

 biggest.stein.ever

Dollar Dance with the bride

Das Boot- This glass boot is a German wedding/party tradition.  You flick the boot with your finger for good luck and take a drink hoping whatever is inside won't slosh you in the face (the trick is to turn the toe to the side).  If it does, it has to be refilled.  It is passed around until everyone is wished good luck. 

The ORU pitchers {Ramsey (right) was stabbed in the face a few years ago and nearly lost his life. It was so awesome to see him doing so well after praying for him for so long}

This was such a great wedding!  I loved all of the German influence.  Everyone was so nice to our kids and so helpful!  We are super excited for the newlyweds to come tomorrow and stay with us while they house hunt!  They will be moving here in a few short weeks!