Happy 31st!

Happy 31st Birthday to my wonderful husband.  I love you so much and am so thankful that God made you!!!

November and December

I really cannot believe that 3 months have passed since I jumped on here! They have gone by fast, have been slightly chaotic and challenging, but have also been very good. We did not get Christmas cards out this year...sorry. I'm hoping that next year I'll have my head a little more organized.

Part of the chaos has been from having a puppy to keep up and play with! Libby is our little yellow lab - we really enjoy having her (although there are days that I say "What were we thinking?!").

Aslan and Fig still get lots of love...

and Aslan has a slight obsession with the catnip scratcher :o)

We've enjoyed baking cookies,

reading a lot of books (and discovered that the library has the audiobooks, too, which G has loved reading during quiet times!),

and even going to the beach!

My parents and sister flew down for the week of Christmas - we were thankful to have them visit for so long and to be with us to celebrate the birth of Christ. We also kept our friends' dog Cooper for the week, so we enjoyed a full house!

We attempted a picture of the four of us on Christmas after we came home from church... not exactly successful!

I'm thankful that these two are growing to become better friends to one another and pray that it continues to grow... although they each had to each stand on a piece of wrapping paper for this picture to work :o)

We loved having everyone here!!!

I think the next time we will all be together will be at Mariah's wedding in May - we are excited for that special time!

On Making a Bed...

We had a lot of fun making a bed over the past couple of weekends! "Making" as in building, not just "making the bed pretty" like I tell the kids each morning! We have always had a little platform bed made of plywood which has worked just as it should in holding our mattress up off of the floor, but earlier in the summer a family from church generously gave us a big saw that they weren't using anymore and Nat has been itching to use it for something! As we were trying to think of something we'd like but that might be possible to make cheaper and sturdier than buying in the store, we started thinking about beds. A friend of ours in Charlotte had a home made version of Pottery Barn's Stratton bed that we both loved for the storage space. We were looking to see if there were any plans online and ran across an awesome website for DIY stuff: http://ana-white.com/ There were so many amazing ideas and plans and then Nat found this: http://ana-white.com/2011/07/farmhouse-storage-bed-hinged-footboard We were so excited!! A storage bed, but instead of cubbies at the bottom - a nice farmhouse style headboard and a footboard on a hinge so there is even more storage under the bed! The plan was a little confusing at times because the lady who made it was combining two different plans to make the bed, but with a little extra brain power we were able to do it! I'm thinking about re-writing them out to have it all in one spot, but at this point I'm just happy to have pictures up!

Cutting the wood into strips to make the cubby boxes

Cubbies with trim and lots of measuring! Graham had so much fun being in the garage and making his own little projects!

Trying to weigh down some warped wood - gluing and nailing the wood to make the footboard panel

Lots and lots of sanding (that was my job) - I didn't want any sharp corners or edges and wanted the paint to go on smoothly

Checking the measurements to double check how long we needed the panels to be so that the 4x4s were just slightly exposed on the edge of the bed - we made the same mistake the other lady did and had to make cuts through the panels (otherwise the 4x4 posts would be completely on the outside of the boxes and we wouldn't be able to bolt them to each other).

Sanding the top to make it level!

Headboard before being primed/painted!

Painting!

Another helper!

Putting it all together and checking out the storage space :o)

Ta-da!! It is done. I feel like we're living in a hotel (the good part of living in a hotel). A sweet friend surprised us by fixing up our room for us. I love it! We were excited about just doing a project but I didn't realize how peaceful and inviting it would make our room!

Hooray for even more storage! Graham has already deemed this his hideout :o)

A very talented friend made this and it fits the room perfectly!

Grocery List

Graham wanted his own list before we went shopping today. I did the spelling and he did the writing.

It's little things like this that remind me how big he is getting!

The Haircut

I thought I would try to trim Kate's hair while G was at preschool this morning, so I set up the living room with a folding chair, towels, and a Leapfrog video to keep her attention. My lack of haircutting skills plus a bouncy little girl made the results quite a bit shorter than I intended (continual even-ing-up kept the scissors going!), but it still turned out pretty cute!

G and I have been working on counting and rolling coins this week = explanation for money all over the floor ;o)

Coffee Anyone?

Some dear friends of ours from Maryland are adopting a baby from China and we are so very excited for them to bring her home! One of their fundraisers is through Just Love Coffee - for every bag sold, the Wileys will receive $5 toward their adoption! Once you're on the page you can link to different types of coffee on the lefthand side (most bags are $13-14ish and you can choose whole bean/ground/espresso/french press). So if you love coffee or are wanting to give a gift to someone who you know loves coffee, consider buying through this website to help the Wileys with their adoption :o)

Here is the link!

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/james127

Start of September

The past few weeks we've been settling into more of a routine (yay!) and enjoying some more bearable temperatures. Here's a bit of the start of our month...

Nat and Graham have gone fishing a few times - G loves(!) it! Kate and I came one time but spent much of the time on the playground :o)

A special grandparents' day chapel with preschool. We miss you, grandparents!!! We were very thankful for our friend Mrs. Ellen, though, who was able to come sit in for Graham!

Fun playdoh faces :o)

The majority of the wildfires are on the opposite end of Houston from us (and also many near Austin where we traveled around last month)... Please keep praying for rain in this area - it's so dry and windy! We've gone out in the evening because the smoke has made some amazing looking sunsets (although I suppose I haven't taken pictures of the sunsets, but have taken them of the kids).

Last Friday when Nat came home we decided to go down by Galveston to take the ferry boat to the Bolivar Peninsula. We've never done this before and we're already excited to go again! We went down around dinnertime so we picked up Taco Bell to eat while we waited in line. It's a free ride across (which made it even better!) and we enjoyed being out on the water for a short time.

We were able to see boats and ships (I suppose going toward the ship channel?) and even some dolphins!

When we made it across, Nat thought to stop at a little store to pick up some ice cream then we drove out onto the beach and played until it was dark.

Since this was a last minute adventure (I hadn't really thought about what we'd do once we made it across), we didn't have bathing suits/towels/etc but we had a great time! There was a sandbar that the kids used almost like a diving board - it caught them by surprise at first when they went underwater, but they were hilarious to watch as they thought up new games to play!

On Monday we went to see the Astros play - and they won! We went a little early so we could go down to the field and watch batting practice - it was so much fun!

Nat caught a ball that flew into the stands during batting practice and gave it to G - he was thrilled :o)

I know this is a hodge-podge of pictures - it's been a busy and fun month so far!