Curb Appeal

Matt and I celebrated 6 years of marriage on May 9th!  It's been the best 6 years ever.  To celebrate, we spent the afternoon working on our house's curb appeal!  (Actually, we went out for a really nice dinner that night, but this happened on our anniversary too.)

I have been wanting to paint our front door since the day we moved in.  Why?  Because it was purple!  It actually had a very fresh coat of paint from the previous owners, so it was in good shape.  But the homeowner had tried to pick a light grey and you know how funny grey can be with all it's undertones, and the end result was a purple door.  A very FLAT purple door - matte paint is something else I'm not a big fan of.

Being that this summer is the first one in this house where I won't have a tiny baby or be pregnant, we declared it the summer we tackle some outside projects.  First on the list - the front door!  While I love the idea of having a fun, bright-colored door, that just wasn't going to go with the style of our house.  After spending lots of time standing in the front yard staring at the house, I decided charcoal grey could be the winner.  I picked up three different samples and slapped them up on the door.  Our door was multi-colored for about a week.  The top color was way too blue; it was easy to eliminate.  Matt liked the bottom one but I thought the middle one picked up the brown tones in our brick better so it ultimately won out.  (You can see a spot from where we changed the hardware that at one point the door was red!)

Since our hardware was fairly new, I had Matt remove it to keep it clean.  Painting the door was a quick, easy process.  Thankfully, the weather was not too hot that day so it wasn't terrible having the door open for an hour or so.  We set a fan up just inside the door to help keep bugs from flying in.  Here is the door with one coat of wet paint on it.

And here it is later that evening with two coats of paint and the hardware back on.  I know the glare from the picture make it look shiny (and dented?) but it really isn't in person.  It's just not super flat anymore (or purple!).  

What was Matt doing while I painted the door?  He was tackling our front columns!  (Our work was almost all done while both kids were napping...hooray for a productive nap time!)

We have six wooden columns across the front of our porch and I noticed over the winter how completely sun bleached they were.  I'm sure when the house was built 19 years ago they had a much darker stain on them!

Just like with the door, we tested out a stain color in an inconspicuous spot.  We went with a semi-transparent stain - something that would add color but still let some of the wood grain show through.

Matt got the short end of the stick because he had a lot more surface area to cover than I did!  He ended up doing two coats of stain to make the color good and rich.  You can see in the photo below the difference in color - the columns on the left have stain and the ones on the right do not.

Ready for the full before and after?  Hopefully you can tell a difference, ha!  Here is the house before we started painting - except that the door has the test swatches on it.

And here it is after our afternoon's worth of work.  A deeper color on the door and rich stain on the columns.  I think it looks better, do you?  It helps that our flower beds had also been mulched that week!

Now, what should we do next out here?  I plan on moving the three adirondack chairs that sit on the right side to a different part of the house this summer (and painting them, which is a job I'm dreading) so I will eventually need new furniture for out here.  What kind would you put on our porch?  I want something that looks nice but isn't incredibly expensive.  We rarely sit on the porch so it doesn't have to be super comfortable.  And I've learned that the squirrels will just pull the stuffing out of my cushions so it doesn't really need to have those.  Thoughts??  I'm at a loss.  What do you think about a porch swing?

April Phone Pics

How about a quick round-up of April's phone pics before the month of May is over?  Geez, why is time going by so quickly these days???  Sloooooooooooow doooooooown.

A lot happened in April and like every other month, I took pictures of it all along the way.  I've already showed you pics from our bike rides, tulips, new swing set, and Easter, so I'll leave those out of this post.  

The month started with the most exciting thing - getting to meet my sweet new niece and grandbaby number NINE for my parents!  Lilli Greer actually arrived on March 31st but I didn't meet her until April 1st.  She is just the most precious little thing ever and has a head full of dark hair!  I think she looks like her mommy, though I occasionally catch glimpses of her daddy too.

We finally started having some warmer weather this month, making playing outside a necessity everyday after "school."  Katie Wynn's love for bubbles is still going strong, but she must do them herself! 

You might be able to tell in the pictures above that one of her buddies at school used her dress as a canvas that day.  She had blue marker all over!  Luckily it all came out.  :)

Speaking of canvases, during the month of April we had our first crayons-on-the-wall experience.  I tell you, Katie Wynn was so excited about her coloring job and so thrilled to show it to me that I couldn't even get on to her.  I think I broke her little heart when I told her that was a no-no and that we absolutely could not color on the walls or stairs.  She helped me clean it up and so far, it has not happened again.  

Several, several years ago, Anna asked for a "giant" teddy bear for Christmas.  My sister-in-law, Beth, came through for her and gave her this enormous brown bear.  Since we moved into our current house, the bear has sat in the corner upstairs in our rarely used play room.  One weekend, Katie Wynn found the teddy bear and lugged it down the stairs.

She insisted on napping with the giant bear and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I jumped when I rounded the corner to check on her during her nap and saw that big brown thing in her crib.  I knew it was in there but had forgotten and it scared me to death!

Thomas has been doing so, SO much better with his naps and sleeping at night.  In fact, I'm almost scared to even write about here in fear that I might jinx it.  I commented to someone the other day that I have so many pictures of Katie-bug asleep in her bed but none of Thomas because it's just not worth the risk of waking him up.  I finally have one, though!  He is doing better about napping in his own room in the afternoons and has been sleeping all through the night in there too.  With the exception of one night this week, he hasn't had to get in our bed during the night in about a month!  (pleasepleasedon'tjinxit)  I'm contributing it to the essential oils I've started using - I'm officially a believer in them!  It has been so nice to get full nights of sleep in our bed with no kiddos wedged in with us.

More afternoon bubble blowing (and look at poor Thomas out by himself on the swingset, ha!).  

We are still loving having our very own set of swings out in the backyard!  

This month, this has been my favorite outfit to put Thomas in and it came from...Walmart!  He's about to outgrow it so I made him wear it every time I had it clean.  I just love those gingham checks.  :)

Every now and then, I actually get a day when both kids are cooperating for pictures.  This was one of those days.  They were both smiley and happy!

Sometimes after "school" we stop by Mimi's to play for a few minutes.  Both kids love to swing, especially if someone will swing with them.  Mimi was the chosen one on this day!

Mom will probably want to kill me for posting this pic, but I think it's hilarious.  She tried to get Katie Wynn to sit in between her and Thomas, but Katie Wynn pitched a fit to swing in the back.  I'm sure it was super comfy for Mom!

We take a lot of pictures in the mornings after getting dressed.  :)

Sometimes it's impossible to get a good clear shot.

Mid-month, we were invited to a tea party at church.  Beth and Bren were there too!  In typical fashion, Katie Wynn was shy and clingy and wouldn't let me put her down.  

Bren wore a boa and participated in the parade and crafts while we played over in the corner by ourselves...

I finally got a boa on her for one decent shot before leaving.

Totally random, but Charlie (my parents' dog) naps like this.  He's not modest at all.

Also totally random, if I ever attempt to do computer work at home while the kids are awake, my view is something like this.  My little people don't like for Mommy to use the computer.

Katie Wynn helped Mimi make brownies.  Mimi gave her the spoon to lick after they poured the batter into the pan.  Then Mimi turned her back to put the bowl in the sink.  What did Katie Wynn do?  She kept going for more batter straight out of the pan!  I really can't say I blame her.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just really need to wear your "gobbles" during dinner?

Bath time tea party with cousin Bren with lots of "cheers!" and splashing!

Matt spent one morning blowing off the patio and spraying down the furniture.  The kids were enamored with it all and stood and watched him for over ten minutes.  I was actually able to get a few quick things done while they stood there and watched!

Here's Thomas rocking the one-shoulder look.  How did he get his arm out of his shirt?  I have no idea.  If I had to guess, though, I'd say his sister was involved.

Matt traveled for the better part of a week in April so we stayed at my parents' house for a few nights.  (It's so much easier to have their help with the kids!)  Here are two pics from our visit - the first is of Katie Wynn using the wall phone that doesn't work.  She had the same conversation over and over.  "Hello, Daddy.  You won't cookie?  You not here.  You still at work."  Hang up and repeat.

The second picture is of her going night-night in a big bed!  She chose to sleep here instead of in the baby bed.  She did roll out one night but we had pillows on the floor to catch her so it wasn't too bad.  We might be moving out of the crib soon!  (I know it's time, I just don't want to.)

We made it to the tail-end of my photos.  Smell ya later!

Easter 2015

I have been trying to sit down and write about our Easter all week long.  Part of me dreads it because I have SO many pictures!  I uploaded the ones from my camera that I took after church and there were 514 of them.  That doesn't even include the ones from that morning and other Easter activities.  Why do I take so many dang pictures!?  

I'm going to try to recap everything Easter related here and that means we'll start with our church Easter egg hunt.  The holiday got started off with a bang for Katie Wynn when the bunny appeared at lunch after the church service.  She was not too excited about meeting him!

She was pretty much ready to go home at that point but we convinced her to stay for the egg hunt that we had been talking about nonstop that morning.  Her age group got to go first and hunted eggs in the church foyer.  She was not too keen on picking up the eggs until I told her that Thomas needed help with his.  Then she was all about filling his basket up!

This was our year to get to have the big kids for the holiday so we had a full house over the Easter weekend.  Saturday, while Matt and Wyatt built the new swingset, Anna and Katie Wynn made Easter bunny cupcakes for Sunday's lunch.  I bought the supplies for these and gave Anna very brief instructions and then she ran with it.  She's getting to be really good in the kitchen!

First, she baked the funfetti cupcakes.  Then, she covered them with a layer of white icing while her little sidekick watched.  

Then Anna added two bunny ears - marshmallows that we'd added colored sugar to during Katie Wynn's nap - and finally, Katie Wynn got to help add the chocolate chip eyes and jelly bean nose.

It's fun to have Katie Wynn helping with these kinds of projects because she celebrates the completion of every single one!

The cupcakes turned out really, really cute and tasted really good too! 

After dinner that night, Katie Wynn got to stay up WAY past her bedtime to dye eggs with the big kids.  This was the first time I'd dyed eggs since I was little so I had no idea how it was going to go.  We had a good time and didn't make too big of a mess!  Both big kids decided to make an egg for Thomas all on their own, so it was nice that they felt the need to include him.  Katie Wynn and I tackled our eggs together and made some cute ones.  The only thing I think I'll do differently next year is start earlier in the day because it took a bit longer than I thought it would!

I loved how all of our eggs turned out.  Even if some of them were cracked.  :)  What do you guys do with the eggs you dye?  Do you hide them?  Eat them?  We did ours the night before Easter and then pretty much just threw them away the next day.  Seemed kinda sad but I didn't know what else to do with them.

The next morning, everyone woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had been to our house!  When we told Katie Wynn, she started crying and said she didn't want to go to the kitchen.  I think she thought he was still there and was having flashbacks to meeting him at church the week before.  We assured her he wasn't in the kitchen and that it was safe to go in there.  I think she ended up being glad that she did.  :)

Matt and I gave up pizza and cheeseburgers during lent and could. not. wait. to eat them again.  Saturday night we had the brilliant idea to order a pizza and put it in the fridge so we could have cold pizza for breakfast.  It does not get any better than that!  The teenagers loved it too.  It's amazing how early they got up for pizza and candy that morning.  :)

Speaking of candy, there is no telling how much of it Katie Wynn consumed that morning.  Or all day, for that matter.  I had to start hiding it from her so she wouldn't steal anymore of it.  

We had two full pews of family members at church which is always a good thing!  Easter is always one of my favorite services because we get to sing all the best hymns.  For the last couple of years, it has also been a stressful service for me and Matt because we've played handbells.  While we enjoy playing bells, it makes logistics a little harder to work out when we've got to arrive at church early to practice and make sure there's someone to watch our kids then and during the actual service while we're performing.  This year, I had the added stress of speaking in front of the full congregation to give an announcement about our new Sunday School class.  Unfortunately, most of the service was a blur for me since I was so nervous but I survived!  

Then, just like every other year, we all gather at Mimi and Poppy's house for lunch and a big ol' egg hunt!  I try my hardest to take pictures of the kids in their Easter best before lunch...it's not always an easy feat!  First, though, I tried to get some good shots of Katie Wynn's dress.  For the third year in a row, Mom made it and this year's had a scalloped hem and hand-embroidered cherries.  I loved it!  Katie Wynn also got her hair chopped off on Good Friday so she was debuting her new bob.

I can't handle how grown-up these two are getting!  (Also, could I have picked a more "blah" background for these pictures??)

Obviously I love the photo below because it has all of our babies in it, but what I love most about it is that Katie Wynn is in Wyatt's lap.  Thomas is the first baby that Wyatt has ever held (and actually loves holding him!) but he sticks to his guns about not holding Katie Wynn.  I think he was always nervous when she was little and then it just kinda became a thing and now she won't be still enough for him to hold her.  But it just ended up that I handed Thomas to Anna and Matt passed KW off to Wyatt and boom - she's in his lap for the pictures.  :)

The little kids may not be smiling but you can see everyone's face so this is what I call a family photo success!  Can someone photoshop some flowers or something into the background?

Matt with his girls and then with his boys.

I think this is the third year that Emily and her family have joined us for the day.  They're pretty much our family too by now!

And below on the left is how we feel about them moving away and not being here for Easter next year!

We took a break from picture-taking to go inside and eat lunch.  In addition to the bunny cupcakes Anna made, there were a couple other bunny-sightings.  Matt made a bunny fruit tray and Beth, my sister-in-law, and my niece and nephew made a bunny-shaped cake!

Stuart wandered off on his own during the meal and then got awfully quiet.  When we went to check on him, we found him entertaining himself inside Charlie's kennel.  It's not child abuse if he goes in willingly, right? :)

I don't know if you realize this or not, but Andrew is quite the ladies' man.  He had all the girls around him for a while.  (Including Katie Wynn - this may have been the closest she's ever been to him!)

After filling our bellies, the three little kids (Katie Wynn and the twins, Anna Charlotte and Stuart) got to go outside for the first egg hunt.  (You can scroll through the gallery of images below.)

Then the bigger kids - Jett, Bren, Parker, Ramer, and Alice - got to line up for their hunt.  Alice and Ramer get to start first, then after a few seconds Bren and Parker get to go, and then finally Jett gets to join them too.  The little kids just keep stuffing candy in their mouths.  

Grandbaby number nine joined the family the week of Easter.  Lilli Greer was just six days old on Easter Sunday.  Here is one of the first pictures of the new family of five!  (My brother, Ben, and his wife Erin, and big brothers Parker and Ramer.)

Speaking of nine grandkids...  Think things are chaotic when we all get together!?

After all the egg hunting and picture taking, it was finally time for my favorite part...confetti eggs!  Thank Heavens for Emily this year...she grabbed a dozen eggs while she was at the store a few weeks before Easter.  I completely dropped the ball and tried to get some the day before Easter and they were all gone!!  I seriously was near tears before I found out she had some.  She even managed to score another dozen from her mother-in-law so they totally saved the day.  I would've been so sad to skip this tradition!

I try to keep the boys from throwing the eggs at each other until after everyone has had a turn.  This year, though, it was Emily that really wanted to peg someone with an egg to see if it would break open on contact.  Andrew was brave enough to bow his head to give her a target.  Y'all, it is unreal how squarely she hit him on the head with that egg.  Makes me think she's had practice throwing things at him! :)  (And yes, it did bust open.)

Like mother, like daughter...Alice needed to bust one on his head too.  Luckily for Andrew, these confetti eggs are supposed to bring good luck.

More confetti fun...

And now, as I'm finally at the end of my pictures and ready to wrap this up, I'm realizing I didn't take any pictures of my parents or aunt and uncle.  Oopsie.  The only one I have of my grandmother is this one of her holding sweet Lilli Greer.  I'll have to do better next year!

We finally called it a day and started packing up our stuff to head home.  I found Thomas with my Dad in my parents' bedroom.  I guess when one of the hosts falls asleep it must mean they're ready for everyone to leave!

I already can't wait for next Easter because Thomas will get to hunt eggs too!  And I'll be buying my confetti eggs as soon as they hit the store!

Eight Month Photos

Thomas is ten and a half months old as I type this, but I just now have his 8 month professional pics ready to share!  I think I've mentioned it before that we purchased a "First Year" package with the ever so talented Lisa Mac when he was born.  The package includes four photo sessions throughout his first year so we can capture him in all his different baby stages.  We hesitated buying the package because it was a little bit pricey, but oh my goodness, Lisa is so dang talented!  It is amazing to me what all she can do!  She is a jack of all trades - an awesome photographer, lead singer in a band, amazing painter, and who knows what else.  I could go on and on about her but instead I'll just say this: if you need pictures made, look her up!

The pictures in this post are from our third session with her.  Click here to check out our newborn session and here to see Thomas's four month photos.  I should note that I majorly resize these photos to upload onto the blog so the quality gets majorly compromised.  I promise they are super clear and crisp in real life.  Don't want anyone to think Lisa Mac isn't a crazy good photographer.  :)

I had high hopes that Katie Wynn would be out of her shy stage for this photo session (I let her come to each one in hopes of getting pictures of them together) but no such luck.  I even talked it  up with her for the week leading up to it, and even though she was excited that morning, she clammed up and didn't cooperate when the camera came out.  That girl!  I had brought some cute toys with us because I thought it would be so cute getting pictures on an all white background of them just playing together.  Katie Wynn wouldn't sit and play but Thomas still looks cute with the toys!  I really wanted one of her pushing him in her stroller, but she just wouldn't do it.

Lisa always sends me the unedited pictures straight from her camera and then I get to choose which ones actually get edited.  Having seen the original shots, I can attest that his eyes were this bright blue all on their own!  It was crazy clicking through the shots and seeing them almost glowing and knowing they hadn't been touched up or anything.  I hope they always stay this bright!

The blocks were another toy that I brought that I just knew they would play with together.  Katie Wynn loves to build towers and knock them down, just not when there's a flashing camera around, I guess.

Lisa set up this shot and took all these photos while I consoled a tearful Katie Wynn.  I couldn't believe that he sat in this top heavy basket and never once toppled over!  He has this crazy eyebrow that shoots up when he really grins big and you can kinda see it in this one.  I love it.  The colors of this one also show off the strawberry color in his blond hair.

JOLLY POP!  Here's a fun fact: the pallet wall behind Thomas has three outlets on it that all made it into the picture.  Lisa waved her magic photoshop wand and made them disappear!

This picture cracks me up.  Lisa wanted so bad to get a sweet picture of him laying on his belly and holding his head up looking at the camera.  All Thomas wanted to do was crawl towards the camera!  He wouldn't even lay still long enough for her to pick up the camera.  But the very best part of the picture is that I also have the version that has not been edited...between the legs.  :)  It is too funny and will absolutely be making an appearance in a wedding slide show when the time comes.  :)

Katie Wynn never really did warm up to the camera, but I absolutely adore this shot that Lisa got of her.  My mom had brought all kinds of prizes for her (that obviously didn't work) but one was this Elmo book.  (The page she's on is actually Cookie Monster.)  I just love it because it so perfectly captures her right now.  She loves to flip through books and look at the pictures and Sesame Street is full of her favorite little monsters!

And then there's this one that just totally melts me.

I have those two above in color as well and keep going back and forth on which way I like them better.  It's going to be hard to decide which ones to print and hang!

The last set up of the day was in front of this brick wall.  I chose these pictures of each of them and didn't even realize until now that they're in similar poses.  Similar, but different.  I think Thomas's captures his sweet little boyness and hers shows her shyness and how hard she was trying to keep from smiling.  

I can't believe we only have one photo session left!  It should be an adventure as I think we'll attempt to get a couple of full family shots.  (Well, maybe not FULL family if the big kids aren't available.)  And we're going to head outside the studio for some outdoor pictures.  I'm eager to see what Lisa will pull off.  In the mean time, I've got to figure out where I'm going to display all these pictures.  I'm going to go broke buying picture frames!

Life Lately

In my head, I've written approximately 12 blog posts in the last week.  There is so much swirling around that I'm excited about and want to share, but I just can't get it all done!  I think today I'll start with just a general life update and then I can get to posts with lots of pictures.  It takes so much time for me to go through them all!  

I debated titling the post "CRAZY HANDS" because that has been my life for the last week!  Remember last week when I wrote this post and said I was stuck at home with strep throat??  Yeah, so I had strep and got medicine and started taking them Monday and then also Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday morning I woke up to the beginning of the CRAZY HANDS saga.   While I was laying in bed I could tell that they itched and by the time I made it to the shower, it was noticeable that they had a rash all over them.  Lovely.  I assumed it was an allergic reaction to the strep medicine I was taking so I stopped taking all of it, popped some benadryl, and headed to work.

My hands itched and were slightly swollen but really were not too too bad.  The kicker, though, was that I was leaving straight from work that afternoon to drive to Atlanta with my  mom for the Everything Applique Conference (more on that in a minute!).  Obviously, since I was going out of town, I didn't want this to escalate into something worse.  I texted pictures of my hands to the nurse practitioner I had seen earlier in the week for the strep to confirm that it was probably from the medicine and should go away if I stop taking the meds.  

Yeah right.  Fast forward to the next morning (Friday) when I woke up in Atlanta to incredibly swollen, red hands that tingled and hurt all over!  

Not exactly ideal when I was about to be sitting in classes and attempting to take notes all day.  I couldn't bend my hands well enough to grip anything!  On the walk from our hotel to the conference, I found a CVS Pharmacy and ran in to get their information.  More pictures were sent to the nurse practitioner and he said he'd call something in for me.  I had to wait until our break at lunch time before I could run (through the pouring rain!!) back to the pharmacy to get them.  After a long wait in line and issues with my insurance cards, I finally was able to pop a steroid and lather them up with hydrocortisone cream.  

I wish that had relieved them instantly, but it did not.  Actually, the rash spread down my wrists and onto the tops of my hands instead.  Thank goodness I was at the conference with my Mama because she took good care of me!  She had to help me open every bottle and dig through my purse and help carry bags and everything else I couldn't do without bending my hands.  

We left the conference early on Saturday to drive home with the intentions of hitting up a Minor Medical when we got back into town.  My mom drove so that I could "exercise" my hands.  She made me continuously open and close them so the swelling would go down and made sure I didn't take long breaks!  I guess moms know best because it did work.  By the time we made it home the swelling was way down - so much so that we didn't go to the doctor.  

I stopped taking pictures of my hands at this point because I wasn't texting them to Matt anymore.  Sunday morning they were still swollen but down enough that I was able to get my rings off.  I thought I would cry doing that; it hurt so bad and felt like scraped off a layer of rashy skin!  Being at home with the kids forced me to use them more though which definitely helped with the swelling.  By Monday they were looking better, but that's when they started itching uncontrollably.  I decided, though, that itching was more tolerable that swollen and painful so I just toughed it out.  Today, exactly one week from the initial breakout, they are almost back to normal!  The swelling is all gone, you can't see the blotchy rash anymore, and they only itch occasionally and even then it's not too bad.  I was able to get my wedding rings back on without too much pushing and shoving this morning.  I have one more steroid pill left and then hopefully the CRAZY HANDS ordeal will be over.

(By the way, I'm still not totally sure the cause of the rash.  I guess the medicines?  But they were out of my system for a long time before the rash left.  And a contact allergy wouldn't have stayed for so long or been so concentrated in one area.  And I was away from any products in my home for two days and went through every item in my bags and couldn't find a culprit.  So weird.)

But remember how I had to stop taking my strep meds after only three days?  Yep.  So that means I didn't really get totally better and I've now diagnosed myself with bronchitis.  UGH.  I have this sweet chest congestion and nasty cough going on that's also driving me nuts.  And now Matt has it too.  And Thomas is taking antibiotics for another ear infection.  Isn't spring grand??  :)

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Moving on to the Everything Applique Conference!  This is the fourth year for this conference that is all about machine embroidery and appliques and everything related to that.  I had heard about it for the last couple of years and this year when I started seeing information about it, it piqued my interest a little more.  Since Mom and I have the fancier machine now and have officially started Mint Tulip,  it seemed like something that would be fun to go to and would be totally justifiable if we learned a lot to help with our business.  I casually mentioned it to my mom one night and after talking about, we really started to get excited and thought, WHY NOT?!  

I know some of my friends that read this also do embroidery here's my take on it - it was a lot of fun!  We really only did a day and half of the full two days but still feel like we got a lot out of it.  There was a trade show going on throughout the whole event where we bought lots of blanks and got good vendor info.  Tons of different classes were offered and you just got to pick and choose which ones you went.  Some were very specific to brands of software - we attended two classes on PE Design but there was also Sew What Pro, Embird, Embrilliance, etc. - and others were more broad, like how to photograph your products or how to open a store front, how to price merchandise, how to create a font book.  My favorite class we attended was on cutwork embroidery which we are eager to start trying.  

I have pretty much zero pictures from the event because, well, swollen hands and what not. To the right is a horrible selfie I took of us late Friday during the ice cream social after we'd sat through class all day and run through the rain to get me medicine!

If you like to embroider and have the opportunity, I'd definitely recommend going at least once!  There were also lots of vinyl/heat transfer classes and vendors so if you're in to that kind of stuff you should go too.  We didn't stick around for the end when all the grand prizes were drawn...winning a new ten-needle machine would've definitely made up for the crazy hands I had while there!

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On Friday night, Mom and I left the conference and went straight to Ikea.  It was the only other thing on our agenda while in Atlanta...can you believe that neither of us had ever been to one?! That's crazy when you think about how much we like to shop! :) 

We were starving when we got there around 6:30 but I knew the store had a restaurant in it.  The plan was to eat dinner there but when we realized they closed at 9:00, we decided to forego any food so we'd have time to make it through the whole store.  It was so overwhelming but so much fun!  We definitely could've stayed for a few more hours if they would've let us.  

We made some practical purchases and some fun purchases and some totally frivolous-not-needed-at-all purchases because it's Ikea and it's cheap so why not?  My favorite silly purchase is this pair of down-filled moon boots, as I like to call them.  Katie Wynn thought they were pretty cool too.  :)

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Another thing we've been thick in the middle of lately is starting a new Sunday School class at our church.  We have been talking for months about getting involved in Sunday School, mostly because I knew I wanted Katie Wynn going to class (like I grew up doing) and it only makes sense that if she's going (and eventually Thomas) that we should be going too.  We have lots of friends at church who felt the same way and we decided there was a need for a new class.  It seems like it has taken forever to finally get the ball rolling but over the last couple of months we have gotten three teachers to commit and secured a classroom and made announcements during the church service and finally, just last night we had a Meet and Greet party to kick it off! 

The party was at our house and was just an informal time for anyone interested to come over and meet the teachers and just kinda sniff us out.  I had no idea what to expect - would there be four people or forty?  It was at 7pm so I didn't make dinner foods.  Instead I had a couple dips, a couple desserts, and a cheese and sausage plate.  I had made up my mind that if 12 people came, I would consider it a success.  Well, we had 15 people come so yay!  And I heard from at least 4 others that want to be included but just couldn't attend last night.  It was a great mix of people spanning from late 20s all the way up to 60-ish in age and the conversation flowed easily.  I was terrified the whole event would be painfully awkward but it wasn't at all!  Such a huge relief to have all this planning done and now I'm excited for our first class this Sunday.  I've volunteered to get there early to start the coffee but, since I'm not a coffee drinker, that's stressing me out.  Surely if I can do that right then all the stress will be done and I can just sit back and enjoy learning with our new class!

Also - super huge shout-out to my parents for keeping both of our kids last night while we hosted guests.  They kept them overnight so it was such a treat for Matt and I to get to sleep all night in our own bed with no interruptions from children.  Who knew actually getting to hear your alarm clock go off in the morning could be something NICE to hear?!!?  It beats being awaken much earlier by a crying child, for sure.  (Thomas is our early bird...)  

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The last topic that is constantly swirling around in my brain these days is that Mom and I are busy planning a big Mint Tulip party!  We are going to have a "Trunk Show" of sorts where we'll invite everyone over to see all kinds of goodies - children's clothing, adult apparel, towels, koozies, bags, blankets, etc. - that can be ordered and personalized any way possible.  The party is going to be on April 29th, so less than two weeks away.  EEK!  We're super excited about it and have been furiously ordering blanks and stitching out designs and brainstorming ideas so that it will hopefully be a success.  We would love for it to be something that we ended up doing at least once a quarter throughout the year.  For all you locals, please let me know if you'd like information on it.  I'd love to send you an invitation as soon as I get them drawn up.  :)

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So that's what I've been up to.  What about you??  Did you know that leaving me a comment on this here blog is pretty much equal to giving me a big fat bear hug and a sloppy kiss on the cheek?  I love to hear from you!  Hope you're all well and rash-free!  :)