Red, White & Blue

Okay I've turned into a real sucker for a fun wreath!! And Jen over at Tatertots and Jello really feeds my addiction! I just LOVE all the fun wreaths she comes up with and man oh man does she have a great one for this 4th of July! When I saw this wreath I just new I had to make it! I mean what could be more perfect??? I even gathered some of my mom friends to participate in a little mommy playdate...we've been tryin to get these together for awhile and finally we got together and made it happen!   Supplies:

• red hots                                                     
• wreath form                                               
• ribbon (festive 4th of July colors)                
• hot glue gun                                                
• Dimensional Magic (Or spray polyurethane)
• coordinating                                               

1. We then began to assemble our wreaths. We started by wrapping our wreaths in red ribbon. (The wider the better, takes less time!)
2. Then we glued our red hots on the wreath form starting with the top and then working our way around the side, middle and back.
3. Next coat the wreath with your Dimensional Magic or polyurethane. If you brush on either, only do it once or the color may come off the red hots (One used a spray, and it worked the best, I highly reccomend this option)As the wreath dries you can get to work on your rocket, or stars. I went with stars only because I need something flat on my door, limited width.
4. Finally, take your two coordinating ribbons and loop them through the middle of the wreath. Hot glue them together in the back. Then stand back and admire your work!

 

And here is the final product, I LOVE how it turned out and am just feeding my wreath fetish. How many is too many wreaths????

Gallery Wall 2

As I am sure that many of you saw in my gallery wall I combined a lot of different ideas and meshed them together. I thought it might be a great idea to share what I did for each of the items on my gallery wall so that you can create one of you own!!

1. An adorable photo of Jake!
2. A wooden quote (bought this when we first moved in.)
3. Wreath, basically I took a small wreath hung it from ribbon and framed it.
4. Date Art which I found on Pinterest from Andrea at a.steed's.life. I just printed mine.
5. Mirror from IKEA, totally free! (Plan to add some rope flowers on it too!)
6. Clock from Target, this was my splurge item.
7. Quote from the girls at Eighteen25, color options available.
8. Family picture
9. A piece of scrapbook paper framed.
10. A beautiful picture of Emmah!
11. Eventually these will be wooden blocks, with either photos or paper....can't decide.

That's what I have so far, but there are a couple more items I may add, but don't worry I'll fill you in when I add them!! I have some curtains to get to!!

  

My Gallery

Forever I have seen Wonderful gallery walls and have always wanted one of my own. Great idea....hard project! I mean you not only have to decide color, but what to include.  I thought about this long and hard and searched for LOTS of inspiration like this from Young House Love, which gave me some great ideas of what to include in my frames, and this one (which has a few ideas that I will be eventually adding to my wall!  Here is my first run at it: 

I left up the paper models for a day or so just to get the feel and make sure that I like the look and feel of the arrangement.

 I will be switching out some of the photos soon, as we just had some new pictures of the kids done.I definitely have some additions and want to add them soon, so I can take a little time to just look at it for awhile. We'll have to wait and see if there is any movement....

A new opening...

I don't know about everyone else but I am sucker for a new fun project and work best under pressure!!I am super excited to finally get some real guests that will be staying at our house this summer, my sister Mary and my neice and nephew Shelby and Ethan!! YEAH!!

Since I will have guests this means that my list of To Do projects not only got longer, but was put into hyperdrive in order to get it complete before their visit!One thing that has been on my list for awhile is painting the front and side door, they are a bright green. I HATE the color, but when they were painted, it wasn't my house so I didn't have a say.

Well the house is mine now, and we went for a new color!! I really wanted to go with a RED but promptly got the NO WAY from the hubby. So I went with black to match the shutters, and am really hoping to convience the hubby that next year we should paint the brink along the front a subtle gray...

 

Here is the new look!! I can't wait to add my new 4th of July wreath!!

Batter Up!

With the summer season here, well technically it is. Softball and Tball are in full swing! With the weather however we haven't had much opportunity to actually play any games. Emmah finally had her first one on Wednesday and she did GREAT!! 

I love that they get to play every position and learn about the game. She is having a great time! Now if Jake would just get to play a game that would be AWESOME!!

Milestone

 Well we've hit another MAJOR milestone at our house....Jake can now tie his own shoes!! We are very proud of him and he is extremely proud of himself!! He is too cute about it too, he'll show anyone his newly learned talent!

A New Journey

Since we have met with the new Dr's this has changed how we will work to manage the issues that we are having with Emmah. We are going to start a new medication, which is different then the other medicines that we have previously tried (completely different end of the spectrum). Both Dr's suspect that we should see almost an immediate difference in her behavior. Once we have the neuological issue under control the ways we have been dealing with the behavioral issues should fall into place.  So this tells us that all along we have been doing right thing, but with the neurological issues they weren't going to work, no matter what we did. Although we were doing some of the right things, they were not going to be effective with her, this has really helped with the "mommy guilt" as the mom you want to make things better, solve the problem, and help her the best you can. Up until now I haven't been able to do that...I feel like now we are going to be able to help her and get her headed on the right path.

Cautiously Optimistic

Today we took our journey to help Emmah on it's longest trip. We headed to Ann Arbor to The Ann Arbor Center for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. With a 2 hour appointment ahead of us we wondered where we would wind up in the end. Would the answers be the same or would he have a new outlook. After discussing, sharing, explaining and listening for awhile there seemed to be an anwer in sight.A logical and understandable answer, one we really thought for some time. Final decisons will be made in some talking with the other Dr in the practice, but there is a clear goal and outlook and one we can make understand and see as a clear explaination for all we have been through. Having been down this road so many times before, we feel we have been here before and each have had the same result. How is this one different? Do we allow ourselves to be hopeful that this is the right place we are suppose to be and that we are on the right path this time? I'm just not sure...a BIG part of me wants to be happy, excited, and relieved, but there is another BIG part of me that is nervous, leary, and pesimistic. Which part do I let take the lead, who do I put in control over the next few weeks and months? I so want to be happy and excited and feel that we have finally made the right choice and have found the path we are supposed to be on. If this Dr is right then HUGE changes are ahead. GREAT strides will be made in our relationships, family unit, and everyday living. We are not alone in this journey, and we wouldn't have learned so much if our journey wouldn't have take so many twists and turns. More will be learned tomorrow and in the coming weeks so for now we will hang tight and pray for the answers are there for us to find.

Summer Bucket List

I have been inspired by many bloggers this year who have created Summer Bucket Lists. We usually have a lot going on in the summer and I like to keep things easy going, but this year I got to thinking with all we have going on with Emmah this might be just the perfect idea to make our summer smooth. There were so many options out there like this great one from the girls at Eighteen25, and this super fun idea from Katie at A List Maker's Life, and this one from Positively Splendid! I decided to make a combo of the last two due to space.Here is how we did it:

1. Brainstormed some ideas of what we wanted to do this summer.
2. Put all the items on small cards, we'll add a favorite memory and date when we complete them.
3. Put all the cards in a large jar I purchased from Hobby Lobby.
4. Put all the cards in our jar and we are ready to start!

**I promise to add some pics, I had some printing issues!! Sorry for the delay!

Sleep Tight

For awhile now I have been on the hunt for a new duvet cover. I have been completely unsuccessful in my search, partly due to color and partly due to design (my hubby is PICKY!!)

 I am also cheap, and really didn't want to spend a ton of money, since really it goes on a bed and we just sleep with it. Finally after some searching I found these awesome sheets! I was then set to work I had to make my own! Here is how I did it: 1. First off I measured my duvet, which is a king. I then decided that the Queen size ones would be perfect. Next I laid out my duvet and placed my sheets over top. I had only a little overlap on the sides, which is perfect for the seams and enough on the bottom to create my overlapping closure.

2. I then pinned it, to make it easier to sew. I then sewed the 3 sides leaving the bottom of the sheets open for my overlapping closure. I found that somehow one sheet was slightly longer then the other and that made it great for the bottom!3. For my overlapping closure I figured out how much I had overlapping and where I wanted to put my snaps (I went with sew on snaps) I sewed a quarter of the length on each side. Then measured the remaining opening. I then divided it up and evenly spaced out my snaps (Okay they aren't perfect, but who looks at the bottom of your duvet anyway!!)

Then VIOLA!! I am so happy with how it turned out and can't wait to get all the rest of the details together like curtians, wall art and switch beds! Don't worry, I'll have more tutorials and pictures!!

Graduation Take 2!

I can hardly believe that it is time already to have another kid graduate from Kindergarten...I mean where does the time go. Today we celebrated Jake's graduation from Kindergarten and what a year it was! He has come so far in his reading and writing and we couldn't be prouder! He can do so much more and has changed so much since last year and is SUPER excited to be going into First grade (Mom is NOT ready for that!) Here is a quick photo review of our morning:

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A tisket, A tasket

Have you been thinking about an end of the year teacher gift?? Well I have and I am always trying to figure out what to do. Well, when Emmah was in Preschool I found this GREAT idea to make an alphabet basket. What you do it you hand out letters to each child in the class and buy a gift to represent each letter! I did it twice in preschool and then again in Kindergarten. Well Jake had a really small preschool class so I didn't  even attempt, so I was super excited to give it a try this year! It is always so much fun to see what people come up with for each letter.  Here is this years basket:

  I am hoping to get a couple more uses out of this, because at any age it is fun to, you can even do it with gift cards alone!! Happy Summer to all you! I know we will be having a great time this summer! 

Answers

I sometimes feel like we are on a roller coaster. Things are nice and smooth, and then suddenly you hit the huge unexpected hill, twist or turn and WHAM!` We have seemingly been moving along pretty nicely, Emmah had been having some great weeks at school. She seemed to pick herself up and even though she may hit a bump here and there she was able to work through it. Well Friday we hit a MAJOR bump, it seems we have come to a point of no return. Answers have to come, we have got to find out what is going on. The answers we have been given make some sense, but don't completly answer the questions we have. We have been second guessed, given looks, and sorta told to medicate her. How do we medicate what we can't fully diagonose?? I can gladly put a bandaid on something, but it won't solve the problem if it isn't in the right place. That is where we are at with ADHD.  Yes it is an issue, but its not the only one and not the one that is causing the majority of the problems. There have been other things mentioned some that scare me, worry me, and some that give me hope, but where is this road leading us. We will again seek some answers from a new facility, but with the guidance of the last one I think we are on the right path or at least I hope so. We have gone to countless places, and will continue until we are given the answers we need to help Emmah.  "For nothing is impossible for God." Luke 1:37