Painting fun!

I offered my nephews and niece a chance to paint on some leftover drywall yesterday. I had no idea it would be such a big hit!  All of them wanted to paint except Owen.....

Here is Wyatt's masterpiece. An acorn!

It was a fun little bit and kept all the kids occupied and allowed them to use their imagination :)

Garage is done!

We've kind of been at a stand still over here regarding projects and updates to the house.....like big projects. Kris told me a while ago that nothing else was being done until his garage was finished. So in an effort to speed things up around here and also because I'm a good wife, I pushed the issue to do the garage sooner than later. And I'm happy to say I am done with it.....there is still a bit of organizing to do on kris' end, but as far as my stuff and the boys are concerned, we are done. 

I love working on projects with kris, I really do.....and I'm already looking forward to our next project, hopefully soon!!!

Here are a few befores 

Owen and Wyatt were great little helpers 

I helped kris with as much as I could and he even let me pick out the paint colors! So exciting! 

A sneak peek. 

And done!

I still feel it looks cluttered but he's promised me he needs all of this stuff so trust him I must. The floor needs to be done yet but that will wait a while as he's not concerned with it as is. 

We have a ton of trash to take out tomorrow and already have our cars in the garage. 

This was a BIG project but we finished in just about twenty days and that's with not working two weekends and during some of the days so I think we really made great time considering the size of the space. 

Lockers are done!

I'm done with the lockers and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out......I was going for the beat up look and I think it worked well.

Here they are with a coat of paint glossy. 

I painted chalk board paint inside for notes and reminders. The boys made their own magnets. 

And after......

They painted their letters 

I really enjoy doing projects like this. Wish I could do it full time! :)

One more....before...

After.....

Stay tuned

I found these bad boys on Craigslist and finally will be putting my stamp on the garage project. Stay tuned!!! I'm so excited!

Wyatt boy

I took the boys out tonight to the store. We happened upon these dry erase boards for their lockers and I told them they could each get one. When I checked on Wyatt tonight this was laying next to him in bed. Adorable!!!!! I'm going to miss both of my boys so much this year!!

A taste of our garden

Kris and the boys planted a garden this past spring and it appears to be in full swing. We sent the boys out to pick some vegetables for our pizza tonight and they came running back with all of this. So fresh and delicious!!

Just the two of us

Kris and I snuck away this past weekend.  It's not often we get away just the two of us, alone. Often times we travel with good friends or family but there is something so necessary about just being alone with your spouse for the whole weekend.

I didn't want to have too much planned but usually when we are in frankenmuth we do the standard. Eat at the brewery and get some fudge. This trip I researched a bit before hand and wanted to make sure we got in as much as we could. Since we were only working with our schedule I figured it would be easy and fun....,,and it was!

Friday we got set up at the campground and headed to Slobones for some BBQ lunch. It was definitely awesome....we will be going back for sure. I even scored one of these when apparently it is hard to keep stocked anywhere. It was delicious!

Kris and I then headed to general rv to check out some new campers. Nothing worked out for us this visit so we will keep ours for a few more years. After that we went and walked around birch run for a few and kris got a new pair of shoes. 

Saturday night we ordered carry out from th frankenmuth brewery and had desert, a cupcake, at sugar high bakery (it is a husband and wife who own it and they won season seven of cupcake wars on the food network. Pretty cool!)

After our dinner and yummy tiramisu cupcake we went to the pool/hot tub for the adult swim hour. We called it a night after that. 

Saturday we went to downtown frankenmuth and had breakfast at the crepe house. I have been wanting to go there for a while but kris has been hesitant, surprisingly enough I think he liked it more than I did! We walked downtown and went into almost every store and just enjoyed our walking and the beautiful day.  We also grabbed a coffee and went to a local art fair. 

Saturday afternoon we met up with erin who was hosting a bachelorette party for her best friend so we helped her set up the hotel room. It was super cute and they had a great time. 

After our shopping we went back to the campground and had a snack of our cheese and crackers and some summer sausage from a few local stores.  We headed out shortly after that and toured the lager mill and learned some history, the frankenmuth brewery was destroyed and rebuilt twice. Once by a fire and secondly by an F3 tornado. Crazy, right???!

Our dinner at the brewery was yummy as usual. 

After dinner we literally ran to get another cupcake, keylime, and picked up a piece of chocolate covered bacon as well......different.  Neither good or bad, just very different. I won't be trying it again. 

We again did the adult only swim and called it a night.  Two busy days!

Sunday we got another crepe and coffee and packed up and headed home. 

Our weather was amazing and we both said that we needed to make this a habit of just getting away with just the two of us.......hopefully soon!!!!

The day we lost a tree.....

Today we lost a big tree in our backyard after what we assume to be caused by heavy winds.  We were driving home from the store and came in the back way through our subdivision, instead of our normal way, and as we were passing by our house we noticed that our tree had fallen down. 

This wasn't necessarily a bad thing as we knew that we had to cut our tree down because it was dead, but have been working on other things so it wasn't really a priority. We felt especially blessed because it could not have fallen any more perfectly than it did. We initially were worried about making sure it fell properly when we talked about cutting it down and now we don't have to worry about that. 

Obviously the boys wanted to climb it.

Here is the view from our deck. I think the only way it could have fallen better would have been on our deck so we could have made an insurance claim and gotten a new one :). I kid! (Kind of)

Our awesome neighbors came over and spent a few hours helping us cut it into small branches and clean up the mess. They were a huge help. 

Owen was an enormous help too!! He helped with the fire and also stacked up all of our new firewood, without being asked. He was overly awesome!

Little boy tried to help too and had an interesting technique using the hammer. 

But he was more occupied doing a lot of this. The boys were both such great helpers and we wanted to reward them, especially Owen, so we took them out for ice cream tonight!

After a lot of hard work. 

And this is where we left off tonight. 

It was definitely a kink in our day and an unexpected, unwelcomed surprise, however at the end of the day it needed to be done anyway, just happened to be not be convenient to our timing. 

We were just thankful no one was hurt and it was easy enough for us to do ourselves so we didn't have to pay someone else big money to do it!

Family date night

,I wanted to do something fun as a family tonight since for the last week or so kris and I have been working on finishing the garage. I wanted to dress up a tad and take the boys on one of our most fun dates.....a progressive dinner in Ann Arbor. 

We started off at the melting pot with some cheese fondue which was amazing as usual! The boys had never been and we thought they would love it. Wyatt did but Owen wasn't crazy about the cheese....his loss!

Next stop was blue tractor for some dinner. Kris and I ordered deep fried pickles for an appetizer and they were delicious.  We were shocked that Wyatt did not like these, but Owen was all about them.  Such different boys. 

And lastly we ended our night at shokolad. Th boys had a great time picking out their chocolates. 

We did a little window shopping downtown Ann Arbor and enjoyed a beautiful night with just the four of us.  The boys had a great time and thanked us over and over for taking them out! We came home and cuddled up and watched some shows. Perfect nights like these make me so thankful for my family and all of my blessings. 

Learning your child has a birth defect.....8 years later!

On July 2, Owen was diagnosed with something called optic nerve coloboma.....in both eyes. This means he has holes in his optic nerves to both eyes. 

He has been complaining for a LONG time about not feeling well, saying his eyes hurt, squinting and gets bad headaches often, which in turn lead to his stomach hurting and the cycle goes round and round.  He is our dramatic child so it's really hard to tell if he "really" feels all of those things or if it's just an easy way to get out of doing something.  I feel like he is behind in reading....but it has never been so far behind where I was overly concerned.....more frustrating because I felt like he should be further ahead than where he was at. 

Finally we decided to take him in to the doctors....after all he was complaining numerous times a day that his eyes were hurting and these headaches were just constant. I explained everything to the doctor and she referred him to an ophthalmologist who was able to see him the same day. She knew we were about to leave for vacation for two weeks, so I appreciated the peace of mind knowing he would get checked out and we would have answers the same day. 

Honestly, when we got there, I felt like it was just a waste of time.....he would be fine, nothing would be found and it was just another hour gone out of my day, which I was trying to pack for vacation and host a Fourth of July BBQ the same night. The doctor did his exam and then asked if I would come in the hallway to talk to him.  I was alone and had Owen and Wyatt with me so it was really a blur when I heard him say that Owen had a birth defect called coloboma. Optic nerve specifically and it affected both eyes. There is no treatment and it can lead to retinal detachment and instant blindness if not caught in enough time.  He gave me his business card and told me to call if Owen was ever having any serious issues and to get him to the emergency room right away. 

We left, me in awe.....not wanting to tell him anything was wrong, but he knew better. I wanted to cry the whole way home and just crawl in bed and be with my boy but I knew I needed to be strong. 

My closest friend lost her five year old to brain cancer and I kept thinking to myself how selfish I was being about this. Owen is still here, living a great life, thankfully, and what I needed to worry about were simply that, worries! Maybe someday something will happen, God willing everything will continue to be fine for him other than a few minor hiccups along the way. 

We've seen his pediatrician since who has referred us to a geneticist and has started him on a medication nightly for his headaches. Knock on wood he hasn't been complaining that much about his eyes hurting or headaches so hopefully the medication is working. 

So now we start the long road of what ifs. What if something happens at school and he gets injured or starts complaining of weird vision loss. I have to notify his teacher and put that in his file so they are aware of the urgency. If he ever has any overnights with friends I have to say something. I don't want to put it in front of everyone's face all the time but it's important people are informed. 

Here is a tidbit of info on what he has. It's a very rare birth defect so there really isn't much information. The eye doctor was surprised he hasn't had any vision issues until now and it took 8 years to detect. 

My boy.....I love him so much. Kris always tells me he is exactly like me. 

Loves keeping active

Now I love that he reads because I realize that he may have never had the opportunity or may not in the future be able to. Even if he's a bit slow....I love it!

He also loves the piano. I took a video and sent it to my sister in law and she responded and said he was like a little prodigy. Who knows what his future will hold.

I love his smile and his adventurous side. 

And he's a giant goofball at times. 

He's a big time mommas boy.....

Who loves sweets, sometimes a little too much!

He still cuddles me and is sad when I get hurt or don't feel well. 

And so stinking good looking!

We have so many good memories together. 

He is a skiing freak. Loves it!

And he loves working out. He can do crossfit just about anywhere. 

So excited about the simple things in life. 

We also got him several pair of sunglasses so that his eyes are always protected while in the sun as he complains that bright lights bother him. 

I'm sure there is still a lot to learn and we are eager to meet with the geneticist to find out if Owen may have any other issues that typically go hand in hand with having a coloboma, or if Wyatt needs to be tested as well. Prayerfully not and we can just keep our eyes on his eyes :)