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What a day we have had! We were super busy with a play date, drive to College Station (with small ice cream stop), church, and now...a little girls' sleepover :) So, here's my picture of the day with the girls enjoying popcorn with m&m's, watching Tinkerbell!

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We had a wonderful luncheon today at Ms. Janice's beautiful house! The AIM students are here this week and little did they know, they were going to get some quality time with the kiddos!!

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I took Jacob out to play for a few minutes this afternoon and we had some fun playing peek a boo around the trees and throwing some rocks, too! He's such a cutie and I love trying to get those great shots of him!

peek a boo!

LOVE this little tush!

I just love the concentration on his face as he's throwing that rock :)

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Eric joked when I took this picture this morning that I was taking a picture of where I wished I had slept last night. The little boy in our family has a very difficult time sleeping anywhere other than his own comfy bed and the rest of our family paid dearly in lost sleep. Turning in early tonight!

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A little late in posting this due to some "technical" difficulties. It's difficult to get online and blog when there is no internet connection where you are :)

We went out to the "farm" yesterday. Eric's grandparents are so generous to let us go out and play there when we get a chance to get away. There are a couple of houses, several ponds to fish, lots of cows to see, and plenty of trails to ride with the four wheelers. We all had a lot of fun! We even stopped for a few minutes to visit an old barn and corral that used to be used when vaccinating the cattle. I, of course, thought it would be a great place to snap some photos. It would have been to, had I had some more time and more willing subjects :) One day...

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So this is what turning 30 does to you... yes, these are bifocals...at least they're cute :)

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I had a fun time getting some cute shots of the kiddos today. And some inspiration from my friend Jennifer :)

Taylor with her Bunny Bear. She loves this bear and sleeps with it every night!

My Lil' Man

My sweet girl

Inspired by Jennifer's shot :)

I love how he's looking over at his sister swinging :)

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Headboard...check! (with extreme thanks to my hubby!)

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We had a fun day in the park this morning at Creekside! Unfortunately, the park has a new rule about their bluebonnet area...it's completely roped off with signs asking to you keep off. While I understand the desire to keep them looking pretty and to keep them growing year after year, I also understand that families (well...especially for me!) enjoy getting all up in them to take yearly pictures. I can measure my kids' growth by how tall they were compared to a little blue flower :) haha! So, instead of tromping through them, we sat at the edge like civilized people and begged the kids to cooperate. One of mine did for a few minutes. The other did not cooperate all.day.long. I'll let you guess from the pictures who is who :)

And on a side note, I am looking for *untreated* 4x4 posts in 8' lengths. Does anyone in the great state of Texas know where I can find these that won't cost me a meeelllion dollars???? I'm thinking of offering a reward for the first person to find this for me!

my friend Jess snapped this one for me...Thanks Jess!!

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So from chairs to helper towers to ...beds?!? Well, yes. That is what I'm working on today. I can't wait for it to be finished and painted because I think it's going to be super cute :)

Here are the first steps from today. (*Taken with my iphone)

This pile of boards...

...was cut into pieces...

and assembled into a headboard and footboard

Close up

Planked headboard...not finished yet!

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What a fun day! We started the day by getting Jacob his first haircut!! He was sooo good, too. He just sat there very still and smiling the whole time.  I am a little sad that his curls are all gone though...

 

After the haircut, we dropped the kids off with their Mimi and Eric surprised me with a night in the city. We have an awesome suite at Hotel Zaza and went to see the Zac Brown Band in concert at the Houston Rodeo. Very fun! Thanks sweetie!!

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No, this has not turned into a "build it" blog. I just have to get some sawdust out of my system now that the weather is nice enough to open the garage door :) Don't worry, it'll get hot here in Texas soon and I'll start to spend more time either in the air conditioning or in the pool. Hopefully that will mean more interesting pictures for you!

Tonight at church I commented to a friend that I've been taking a lot of pictures of my projects lately and that it didn't necessarily constitute working on my photography skills. She was so kind to remind me that I do have to make the effort to get the camera out, change the settings (I have been trying to only shoot in manual, if possible, to make myself focus on what needs to happen), and set up the composure. I think the composure is the one needing some work most days...but it will get there :) Anyway, thank you friend for your encouragement tonight!! Now you get to see my third build project from www.ana-white.com!

The Little Helper Learning Tower

This cute little tower allows children to climb up into it and be at counter level to help out in the kitchen or work on their own projects at a work bench or other area. It's designed to enclose them so they don't fall out or tip over and the platform rests on the ladder rungs so it's height is adjustable. Best of all...Ana created a design to allow this model to fold with the use of hinges. Now, I can slide this between the wall and fridge when we're not using it! How cool is that?

So, the only thing left is to attach the tip resistors and then paint! What color do you think I should go with? I'm thinking red...any opinions?

These hinges were just about the end of me today!!

This is Ana White's version. Aren't they so pretty painted?? Makes it hard to choose a color!

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I was quite busy during nap time today! After planting two hydrangeas, a lamb's ear, and butterfly weed I decided to head into the garage to tackle another chair :)

I still needed to get Jacob's built and for the second time around I wanted to build it better. I wanted to eliminate all the exposed screw and nail heads. So, I spent some time looking at the first one and figured out where I needed all the pocket holes and how to change the order in which it was assembled to make it work.

And I am very, very happy to say that I did it!! All of the screws and nails are put in from under the seat so you don't see anything! Yay!!

Here's my proof for you...

The side and seat slats. See any metal??

That look! What??

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Inspired by my friend, Jennifer, and the I Heart Faces challenge this week, I decided to work on some sun flare today.