Baby Sprinkle.

This past Sunday my Mom and Sisters put together a baby sprinkle for me.  We held the party at my house and it was a beautiful day spent celebrating the little lady on her way.   We got the majority of our ideas for the sprinkle from Jess at http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/.  She has an amazing blog with tons of free printables and ideas so check it out!   It was so wonderful to get my family and friends together.  We had a "bow making" table where everyone had the chance to make a handmade headband or bow for the baby.  I cannot wait for her to get here so that she can wear all of the gorgeous bows and headbands everyone made! It is still somewhat surreal to me that this is actually happening.  Mikey and I are so grateful and blessed to be having another baby and the fact that everything has been going so well is a huge relief and answered prayer. She is one lucky and very loved little girl already.  We are looking forward to the day of her arrival and now thanks to everyone we are a little more prepared.  I can't believe she will be here in less than 3 weeks!  eeekk! So excited! <3

Me and My sister, Krista, who is expecting a baby boy this November:

deck reno.

When we first bought our new home the house inspector told us that the deck was unsafe and would need to be completely replaced. Fast forward almost one year later and we are finally making the repairs. Our deck is in an okay condition but the floorboards have splinters and cracks, the railing is just plain hideous and the stairs and underneath the deck area are not up to code. Luckily our good friend Mike Callen who is a contractor,building WV was willing to help us out with the repairs. Mike is a wonderful contractor and an even better friend! A huge THANK YOU to Mike and all of our friends who came to help us with this project! 
At first we were thinking of just using a product to "renew" the deck boards but after researching the product we choose to just go ahead and replace the old deck boards with new ones. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because after ripping out the first deck board we realized that the joists that support the deck boards were almost completely rotted through. So back to Lowes Mikey went to buy more lumbar to reinforce the rotting joists. Underneath the deck they solidified the foundation of the deck by adding larger posts and moving them further in. Mikey and I made a couple trips to Lowes to pick out railing and were at a loss. So thank you to Mike Callen for coming with us and dealing with our indecisiveness. We finally chose a white composite railing with white posts and black balusters. I love it and am so excited we chose that combination. Since we went with the pressure -treated lumber for the deck boards we cannot stain the deck until next year, but in a way I am sort of glad as it will give us time to really think about what color we want the deck to be. Mike and Mikey built a much needed new set of stairs for the deck and all thats left to do is put up the stair railing and build the stairs underneath the deck (who knew one could get so excited over stairs and railing).  Now the only thing left to do is decorate! Thank you again to everyone who helped out on our deck renovation! We are in LOVE with our new outdoor living space and can't wait to have everyone over for a huge party! (now that it's safe!)

Before (so awful):

During:

putting down the new deck boards

putting up the new railing system

Finished product (well mostly finished):

I'll post more photos once it's 100% done :)

fourth of july.

Happy Fourth of July!  This year we had a pretty low key holiday weekend with family and friends.  Mikey's brother Beau, his wife Sarah and our adorable Godson William came to stay with us.  Logan enjoyed playing with his baby cousin and we had a wonderful time grilling out on our almost completed new deck and spending time with them.  We watched the fireworks over Cheat Lake at Mike's lake house with friends.  Logan was a little nervous about fireworks or "thunderworks" as his friend Presley calls them, but he got over his fear and I think he really enjoyed them.  Saturday we went over to one of Mikey's co-workers homes for a cook out and we enjoyed meeting and making new friends.  It was a long weekend but a good one.  We are so lucky to live in a country where we are free and independent.  Thank you to all who serve or have served our country to protect our freedom.  God bless America!

father's day.

I am truly blessed to have some wonderful fathers in my life. I am especially blessed to be able to share my life and love with one very special guy in particular. I am not an eloquent enough writer nor do I have sufficient words to explain how great of a daddy Mikey is - all I can say is that he's the best and we're so lucky he's ours! You will always be able to find Mikey wrestling on the floor with the kids, picking them up in giant bear hugs and swinging them around or chasing them from one end to the other pretending to be a "monster." Wherever he is little kids laughter and screams of delight (and sometimes screams of sheer terror) abound. He is loving, kind, firm, steadfast, silly, goofy, funny, caring, sweet and overall just amazing! We love you Daddy! This Fathers Day we celebrated Mikey with the "Father's Day Egg Drop" at Logan's school, a day golfing and breakfast in bed. We joined Mikey's family over at Katie and Erik's house for a Fathers Day "surf and turf" cookout and a friendly daddy sporting competition between all the fathers (Mikey tied for 2nd with Erik). Overall we had a wonderful weekend with an even more wonderful guy. So happy Father's Day to all the amazing Dad's out there but especially to the first boy I ever loved, my Dad, to my Father-in-law, Chuck who's caring nature always surprises me and to my one and only husband, our rock and the glue that keeps our family together. I am so grateful for these incredible men in our lives to help mold and shape Logan into the man he will become xoxo

Super Daddy!  Mikey swinging around 4 kids.

Father's Day Egg Drop:

Finding the best egg.

Daddy & Logan's Masterpiece: It doesn't look like much but that baby kept our egg safe and sound :)

Logan giving Daddy his Fathers Day gift that he made.

touch a truck.

While the boys worked on our deck, Logan and I went to the Morgantown Touch a Truck fundraiser to support the WVU Hospital Cancer Center.  Logan was in heaven!  So many trucks, so little time!  I think it may have been slightly overwhelming for the poor little guy.  He had a blast visiting all of the different vehicles and "driving" them.  This will definitely be on our list of annual things to attend for many years to come!

avery's birthday.

Our oldest niece Avery Joy turned 6 years old on June 1st.  I cannot believe that she is six!  We celebrated with her party at Big Bear Lake on Saturday and then went over to Katie and Erik's house on Sunday for some water play and her birthday dinner.  As expected the kids had a wonderful time up at Big Bear Lake.  They went swimming in Baby Bear Lake, which we as the parents were not entirely prepared for but we went with it, they enjoyed rides on the golf carts and just running around the campsite being kids.  I think Avery had a great time at her 6th birthday party, especially when she opened her presents.  She asked for nail polish and I have never seen anyone more excited!  Happy Birthday Avery Joy, we love you!!

Again poor parent planners of the year here, Logan + water - swimsuit = swimming in his undies...Please don't judge! :)

The Girls.

I LOVE her facial expressions over her new nail polish!

"Cool Dude" playing in the pool.

surprise! it's a girl!

Mikey and I are so excited to announce that we are expecting a BABY GIRL this August! After the complications we had with Devan's pregnancy we are taking all the necessary precautions with this one. I am seeing a high risk OBGYN at the hospital and I really love the practice. That was one of my main concerns moving because my physician's back in Arlington knew my history and story and they had a plan. But right from the start my new OB set my mind at ease and it has been nothing but positive experiences. I had the cerclage placed at 14 weeks and so far everything has been stable with no issues. I am on restricted activity but no bed rest so far and I'd definitely like to keep it that way. We are so unbelievably excited to be having a girl! She is perfect in every way and growing strong and healthy. We are a little nervous, but everything has been going so great that we decided to announce that we are expecting a girl at Logan's 3rd birthday party. I made some homemade "gender reveal" cupcakes with pink frosting in the middle and told everyone when they arrived that there was something "special" about the cupcakes.  It was a fun way to include our family and friends and very memorable.  We are so blessed and thankful to God for a healthy pregnancy so far and continue to pray that everything will stay that way resulting in a healthy full term baby girl. We truly believe in the power of prayer so please keep us in your prayers.  In the meantime I am going a little "girl crazy" planning the nursery, picking out girl clothes and accessories and let's just say my Esty cart is getting slightly out of control with monogrammed and embroidered items! Yay for little girls!