Drivin

The boys got a new ride from Nana and Papaw. They love riding around the house.

Karson is a careful driver and baby brother loves to ride.

The boys are loving having their daddy home and cherishing times outside doing "boy things"

Like tree climbing...

What a cheesy smile :) Boys just don't like posing for the camera. They have work to do MOM!

Like father.....like sons!

When Kipton drives we have to be careful. There is a creek nearby and we have to make sure he stays on the flat grass. Daddy sometimes has to run! HAHA

They are loving the cooler weather in the evenings. It is almost 70 after about 6:00 and it is WONDERFUL playing weather.

We are not looking forward to the weekend because Kevin is going back to work :(

But we have lots to do to get ready for pre-school coming up in a week! EEEEK

Karson - 3.5 years

Well I thought I would take this time to catch up on what Karson has been up to at 3.5 years old!

He is so fun and full of life!

One of his favorite things to do is "ride". He likes to ride anything from his big boy bike, scooter, tricycle, our 4-wheeler, my parents Ranger (below)

We will take short rides over to mom and dads and we also take them on big rides. We have been on an hour long ride before and never heard a peep from either boy. It is so nice to ride and look around in the country.

We were going to pick blackberries on this day on a trail behind our house.

Karson also enjoys playing board games. I have been picking up some games here and there at Target and Walmart. This game is "HI HO CHERRY O". I knew he would like it and I played this game with my Kindergarten class during "math centers" while student teaching and they really enjoyed it. It is good for color recognition, counting, and using small manipulatives.

I also taught the boys "thumbs up and thumbs down" last week. They are ALL over it and love to give them to each other and to Kevin and I. Karson will even say "Kippy gets a thumbs down for his dinner plate". This is because Kipton is on a food strike and we are begging him to eat. HAHA

Karson still loves BATH time and him and Kip take a bath together every night. They like bubbles and the colors to change the water. They also have lots of toys in there that keep them in the bath for about 20 minutes most nights.

Karson had a blanket from the time he was born until a few months ago. It was a soft blanket that he called his "MIMI". We had to have it whereever we went. I decided to take it away a few months ago because it was so worn out and he was starting to chew on it during the night.

We were at JoAnn's last week with mom and she bought him new material to make a new big boy MIMI. Of course Karson is LOVING it. This picture is before church and he wanted to take it in the car with him until he got there. He knows he must leave it in the car.

Karson is a GREAT big brother. He has never been jealous of Kipton since he was born.

He loves to help me in order to get "stickers" on his sticker chart. That leads to him getting in the treasure box and he loves this reward system.

Of course Karson LOVES his daddy. They are twins in every way.

Karson is a lover of the outdoors and "critters" as he calls them. He loves to find random animals around our house. Turtles, frogs, lizards, and I am waiting for the day when he picks up a snake and says "look Mommy" because he totally would.

Here Karson is holding a baby lizard. There were about 30 lizard eggs in my mulch and a few weeks later they were all over our front porch. Some have went away but about 5 have stayed. It is actually pretty good entertainment for the boys.

Note: After this picture Karson was letting the lizard crawl up his arms and putting him on his back. YUCK!! I was so nervous and scared.

Karson is such a healthy child. He hasn't been sick for over a year. I almost WANT him to get sick here and there to build up his immune system before he goes to school.(knock on wood) Last week he got a fever for 1 day and then it went away. It was super strange to see him just lay on the couch because he is such a busy boy. But I got lots of hugs and snuggles.

Karson LOVES his brother! They have the best time together. Last night during story time he told him that his best friend was Kippy :) I think that was the happiest I've ever felt from them both.

We have been going through our toys to get out the baby toys. Karson was willing and happy to give his old baby toys away to a "new baby" (church)

We are so thankful for a happy energetic loving boy.

He will be starting 3 yr old pre-school in 2 weeks. It was a very hard decision because I said he would not go until he was 4 but it is just 2 days a week for 2 hours so I think it will be good for him to get out and get around other kids other than Kipton. Especially because of where we live in the country now and there are not many kids to play with. I think he will end up loving it but he is not a morning person so we are starting now to get ready!

We love you Karson!!

Porch Swing and Football

Kevin got me a new porch swing! I have been dreaming of this porch swing since we bought the plans to build our new house. This one is white and is vinyl so it won't need re-painted every year and won't get moldy/scratched on the wood. It is almost like plastic. It has cup holders in the arms. Super nice!

It took Kevin 4 times to put it up because he wanted it just right. (which is a great trait to have)

I love it and can't wait to make some pillows and find a blanket to drape over it that all matches.

Nothing new to really blog about other than still working on the house. Of course!

It has been non stop working on some projects that we are wanting to get done before winter comes. (I know we are already saying that word)

We are 22 days away from the Marshall/WVU game. This game is the biggest game all season just because we are a "House Divided".

We have been to the Coal Bowl for the past 3 years together and I twirled at the 2 before that. We decided not to go this year and just stay home and have a party at our house with some friends. It will be great not having my husband YELL in my ear the entire game :) HAHA. Especially when we are rooting against each other.

I would much rather stay home for this game and eat yummy food :)

I CAN"T WAIT for college football, fall, cool days, pumpkins, and fall food :)

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are keeping it pretty low key.

What we've been up to: Projects!

I've been really enjoying Pinterest lately! I just don't have the time to do all of the projects that I would like to, but this weekend we did get around to a few.

I am really loving all things chalkboard right now. Being that I studied teaching for the past 6 years how could you not love some good ole chalk and fancy writing?

This was an old picture that I had up in the attic that I wasn't crazy about putting out in the house. We had some silver paint so we first painted the outside frame.

We then painted the inside with the chalkboard paint from Lowes. It took almost 4 coats to get it good and thick/black. I wanted this one for the boys toy room. I love how it turned out!!

I also did this one and put it in our bedroom. I bought this silver serving tray from Dollar Tree. I painted the middle with the chalkboard paint about 4 coats as well.

While Kevin has been home this weekend we have been finishing up our landscaping. Boy has this been a job!!! I finally pinned it down to a weeping cherry tree. I have been wanting one for years but not really that sure on it, but I really like the look they have. It will only bloom once per year in the Spring and I'm ok with that.

We had a lot of big rocks in the way of where the house was being built so they were moved but we kept them. My dad put them all in a pile with the bulldozer and then we went through them to keep the good ones. This is one that we kept and my mom painted on it. Turned out super cute!!

The heat/drought this summer has totally killed our newly planted grass and hasn't been good for my potted flowers. I water and miracle grow like crazy and still can't keep them healthy looking.

I am secretly wanting mums SOO bad, but I know it's WAY too early!!

This weekend has had it's good points and bad. I was cleaning Kipton's ear with a q-tip on Saturday and he jerked from me. The q-tip went in too far and it started pouring the blood. We rushed to the Family Urgent Care close to our house. They said it looked more like a scratch in there than anything but to wait for a few days and see if any infection or swelling would come up.

It has only bled one other time after we came home from the Urgent Care. But now there is alot of dried up blood in there. It looks awful! We have an appt with the Ear, Nose, Throat doctor on Wednesday to have it checked out better and to just "BE SURE" because I am so paranoid.

I am hoping and praying it is just a scratch and we can get something to clean all of the dried blood out with. The nurse told me on the phone to NEVER clean a child's ears with a q-tip. Then why do they even sell them????

Keep us in your prayers for a great appointment on Wednesday!

Insta Thursday

1. Toy room fun!

2. Mall rides

3. Playplace with friends

4. Growing way to big!

5. Crawled in bed for just "1 more story momma" - How can you say no to that?

6. Train ride

7. Fun night out to eat and ice cream!

8. Working his beans and grass seed (dry beans and rice)

I'm really looking forward to the weekend because Kevin will be home!!!

Have a great one!

Instagram

1. Catching up on Whitetail Magazine. Such is life! :)

2. Fun trip alone with Mom & Dad at Camden Park

3. New favorite magazine. Great ideas.

4. My life

5. Trying out their new tent in the backyard.

6. Karson came into the kitchen after being in the toy room for a long time.

He came out with clothespins on his underwear. True Story :)

7. Date Night!!! :)

8. O you know...just ropin a tree in my undies!

9. 2 year check-up. Sweet Kip

10. Morning cartoons

11. Still figuring out this tent. Love all things outdoors.

Hope you enjoyed!

Show us your Life: Pictures

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today where everyone will be blogging about Showing how you display pictures throughout your home. When we moved into our newly built home in December I really just wanted to hang family pictures throughout the house instead of what I call "fancy" pictures (home interior, etc). I do have a few "fancy" pictures in the bedrooms but overall I do have a lot of pictures of the boys and our family.

Here is a very long hallway that leads to our main living room/kitchen area. I like it because you can add as many/take away pictures as you want. I would like to add more but I haven't had time.

Here is a little table that is on the opposite side of the long hallway. I had American pictures of the boys I took in the frames for the 4th of July with flags in my basket.

In the eating area

(below)

Another addition I added to my kitchen. Using chalkboard paint to paint a board and have different fun sayings on it throughout the year.

Right now I wrote:

"Train your BOYS to go with the LORD"

I had the board that went on top of a Longaberger Basket.

 I bought this Chalkboard paint from Lowe's and painted a square on the top of the board.

I let it dry for 4 hours just to be sure it was good and dry.

Then I put it on an easel that I already had and placed it near the sink in the kitchen.

Hope you've enjoyed how I display pictures throughout the home!