Hidden Homes Trail

Our Moms group met up at the Hidden Homes Trail today. It is really a hidden gem here in Fresno. We really should go more often. It has a perfect little 1/2 mile loop with little stops on the way for the kiddos. It was a beautiful day and I am more than ecstatic that I brought the big camera!

We started out the morning with a quick photo session while we should have been getting ready to go!
I love this picture of the boys!

Cutie pies!

My sweet little girl!

Ashton in what I call his "school pic" pose

 And now onto the good stuff...

The first stop along the loop was the telescope!

A cute pic of Ashton

Oops! An out of order cute picture of Timothy this morning! 

Onto the second stop... the mouse house/cave! Not sure what Violet is pointed at but aren't her pigtails cute?!

The next stop... not quite sure but a little tunnel

 There were quite a few more stops but obviously didn't yield quality pictures. But I didn't think the kids had burned off enough energy so we went on another loop without the group.

Telescope - Take 2

Violet's turn!

And now we climb up to the top of the mouse house!

Yup! They climbed up there all by themselves! Violet actually made it up first!

Cutie pie!

Big hugs! Inside the mouse house!

Ashton wanted a picture with the bug

Violet must have found something interesting to look at!

  

More fun climbing! This time it was a simple white fence! Ashton "spider walked" across the entire thing!

Still going...

Violet had some fun climbing too!

Just a pretty picture

Brotherly love

Ashton really is a good big brother

Kisses for the baby!

A cute picture of all 3!

Oops... another out of order but more climbing! Wonder if Tim will be a climber too?

 And to finish off this mega post... some funny pictures!

I love the kids faces in this picture! Tim seems to have caught a weed in his mouth, Violet looks annoyed, and Ashton is like, "what?"

Can you guess what Violet is doing?! Hilarious!

Hello Spring!

It has been spring for quite some time here in Fresno, but over the past couple of weeks our flowers have sprung up! We planted the bulbs last fall and I am so excited that they have grown! Who doesn't love tulips?!

Tim is 8 months old

At 8 months, Tim is on the verge of crawling. He will get up and down on his knees and rock back & forth. Poor guy just wants to hang with the big kids. He can get around quite well with his "modified crawl." I call it that because it doesn't quite resemble Ashton's military crawl but more of a modified crawl on his stomach. He still loves to eat and definitely prefers real food. He follows in his sisters footsteps with great hand-eye coordination. The kid can eat anything he wants! Including a yucky spiderweb while crawling around yesterday. Ick! Today he got a taste of the "big kids" favorite, artichokes! He has started "talking" a little and can say, dadada and to my delight recently started with mamama! He will also babble, bababa even though he rarely has a bottle. Must just be developmental sounds. Let's see... what else?! He still has yet to permanently sleep through the night but this Mama is days away from letting him cry it out at night. He will sleep from 7pm until around 3-4am. And then is usually up bright and early at 6am! I know he can do it because after the time change he slept from 6pm-7am (yes!) one night and 7pm-7am the following night. Other than that, he continues to be an easy going happy boy! He loves to watch everything that is going on and is rarely still for any moment. He is always turning around when you are holding him to make sure he doesn't miss a thing! I can't believe he is almost a year old!

More Cabinet Transformations

My next project (sadly, no! It's not a pinterest idea)... redoing the kitchen cabinets. I got started today on the bottom cabinets. I did most of the cleaning/deglossing stage on the bottom cabinets during nap time. That's the worse part since there is no real instant gratification. Well, I guess if you care about cleanliness. You can imagine how difficult this project is with little kids running around, so I didn't get the painting started until 7pm! With 2 hours of drying between coats and a final protective coat layer, it's quite the process!

Here is my before...

And the progress made...

The pictures were taken with my phone so they are not the best quality but I wanted to make sure I showed the progress. The white filmy coat you might see is the protective coat. My plan is to try to do a couple of doors and drawers a night so it will be a few days or weeks until the whole project is complete. I can't wait to see what the final product looks like! It will be worth the elbow grease and $75!

Tim in the Big Tub

Tim joined the "big kids" in the real bath tub this week! It's a little crazy and a wee bit scary since he's not the steadiest of sitters but he'll quickly learn! He has dunked himself a couple of times and got side swiped by Ashton "swimming" but all in all, he enjoys bath time as much as he always has!

All 3 in a tub... scrub-a-dub!

Violet's big cheese

Tim's unsure face!

On top of joining the bathing ranks, Tim has also started to scoot around on his belly. He has perfected the plank turn-around, and has sure become vocal. He squeals and says, "dadada." Of course, I encourage the Mama! He loves to eat and has advanced to 3rd stage baby foods, puffs, and even some solids. He loves Nutrigrain bars, avocado, bananas, and even mangos! And he is days away from breaking through his bottom two teeth. Another breakthrough! He has slept through the night two nights in a row! I am sure to have jinxed it now but he slept from 6pm to 7am Tuesday night and then 7pm to 7am last night! Hurray hurray hurray for me!

The Great Purge!

I was inspired by my mini closet purge and when I saw this posting on my favorite organizing blog, IHeart Organizing. She did a whole house purge in 30 days. Well, I will be so inspired to purge and hopefully will be able to plan a garage sale soon! Well, soonish! Plus, who couldn't use a few extra bucks?! So, purge area #1, our closet. Then onto the bigger areas - kids area, living areas, garage!! I'm going to have to think about which toys I will purge out since Timothy will be old enough to play with everything! Maybe the toy purge will come in the next couple of years! Okay, kids are up from naps and I'm being climbed on!

Let the Spring Cleaning Begin!

Being pregnant or nursing for the past, well 4 years now, I have an array of clothes ranging from 0-6's. Why may I ask am I holding onto size 0 jeans?! I don't ever plan on fitting into a size 0 again! And if I do... something is seriously wrong with me people! Being that my clothes are at least 4 years old (and older!), the styles have come and gone and I seriously need to get rid of some of these clothes. How many long sleeve t-shirts does one person need?! So, I have purged some "what was I thinking" clothes and will hold onto most of my other smaller clothes. If I don't fit into them by October (3 months after I plan on weaning Timothy), then sayonara!

Thank you to the VA for putting a sign on my door asking for donations for them to pick up tomorrow! And also, thank you for all 3 kids taking a nap at the same time to enable me to organize some more! I heart organizing! Or is it the one thing I can control in my life right now?!

Storage boxes

Another pinterest project folks! Amongst my organization projects, right now I am working on my closet. Another disaster I am too ashamed to take a before picture of.

Project shoe box transformation! Turn those old shoe boxes into cute storage boxes! Since we don't have a dresser, this is important. I just covered a shoe box with scrap paper and voila!

A secret hiding place for under "stuff."

A Fun Fabulous Weekend

The weather was absolutely perfect this weekend so we took advantage. On Saturday, we headed out to the Home & Garden show. More great ideas... if we had about $20,000! Hah! Maybe one day, in our "forever" home! Maybe! Until then, we enjoyed our home as it is. No home improvements this weekend for me. Just one to enjoy!

As we were getting ready for the Home & Garden show, I was able to snap a few pictures of the kids. I wish I could post all the pictures in sequence because it really does tell a story. But I'm not that patient.

The 1st picture of the day, Violet was very into it. And she even left her pretty flower clip in for a few minutes.

Losing interest. Think Tim had any interest at all in picture taking?

This one is funny... same expression? Definitely siblings!

Ashton gets in the action and starts fighting over Tim. Poor guy! Can you tell from his expression?

Just the brothers... Tim are you having fun yet?

Nope! All done!

And we finished off the weekend with a little backyard fun! Ashton pulled out just about every toy he had tucked away in the backyard. It's good because these are toys that get little lovin'! I took these from inside the house, peeking through Violet's window.

Dad helping Ashton play baseball! I love how Violet is more intrigued with the baseball mitts.

Apparently, the weather is supposed to change back to winter. Not today though! It's supposed to be 77 degrees. Then the rain comes tomorrow.

Onto the next project

The Cabinet Transformations had more than enough "bond coat" ie. paint to redo the kid's bathroom cabinets as well. So onto my next project!

Here is before...

Boring old oak cabinets

After...

New and improved

It surprisingly doesn't take much time. Day, I mean night 1, I used a deglosser. Let it dry overnight. Night 2) Bond coat #1. Day 3) Boat coat #2, finished up with the Protective coat at night. Day 4) reinstall cabinet doors. I can't imagine how long it will take to complete the kitchen but I know it will make a huge improvement!