January 27, 2011

~Surgery~

I don't think I ever blogged about the not so great teeth Trevor has. I could tell that they were bad, but I didn't not realize the extent of "bad" until we had to pay over two grand (after insurance) to get his teeth back from horrible to good. His front four top teeth are just getting smaller and smaller, and then he has 4 or 5 other cavities.....Well, now only 3 or 4. This is an entire blog post that I didn't do, but two weeks ago one of those cavities won the battle, and one of his molars became very infected. He was in so much pain and his cheek was so swollen and HUGE! We made an emergency trip up to Onalaska to our amazing dentist, Dr. Flood, to have that tooth pulled out.

Why not just pull them all out, they will fall out anyway? True, but then he would only have half a mouth full of teeth, not to mention the front four teeth would be gone. Without those four front teeth, he would more than likely have speech issues and have to have speech therapy. So, we coughed up the money (and are brushing our teeth like crazy!) and are having them capped. Why does he have to go under? Well, he just turned three and in order to have so many teeth capped or filled it would mean a lot of trips to the dentist (which is over an hour away). More than likely, they would be unpleasant in his mind and he would never want to go to the dentist again. I should point out that on his chart they dentist did right down how well behaved and easy he was, and repeatedly saying he is the best two year old he has had (he was two when he first went and this all started...yes, it has taken 6 months to finally get the appointment set up!).

We will have to leave our house tomorrow morning by 4:30am to get to the hospital on time. I am a ball of nerves (not to mention, I can literally cry at the drop of a hat), but no I have to keep it together for my brave little trooper, Trevs. Man I love that boy, he has been through a lot of "boo boos" his three years. He seems to be the one that if something "bad" is going to happen, it is going to happen to him.

January 25, 2011

~Jumper~

This cute little jumper only took a 1/2 yard of fabric and was so quick and easy to make. In the future I will make sure to use a stretchier fabric, because this one got really tight around the chest. Not even sure what size I would call it. Ethan is a small 20 month old, and yes I did put it on him...so this might work for around 12 month?? I didn't have any matching buttons, but I can always change the buttons later.
Ahhh, I can't believe I took a picture of him in it (wait, I can believe...but I can't believe I am sharing it!)
Besides the fact that Ethan would make a cute little girl, there should be a shirt under the jumper
(like the one not sock he has one!)

January 24, 2011

~For Landon~

I made Landon's wallet today...finally!! His is a bit different than Trevors, because he wanted a zipper pocket. I will let him sew his name on tonight, when he gets home from school.




January 23, 2011

~Remodeling~

Ted and I knew we wanted to live in the country, even when we bought our first house in town. We looked at places outside of town, but in order to find something decent in our price range our first house was had to be in town. That is when the remodeling began. We updated a tiny kitchen, did lots of painting, and turned an awkward bathroom into a nice bathroom/laundry room.

Then, less than two years of living there our current house was about to come on the market and we got word of it. I remember pulling into the driveway and I told Ted I wanted to live here. I was sold before I even saw inside the house. First off we were just outside of town, and on a dead end road! Then the yard, I can't even begin to explain how amazing our yard is so you will just have to take my word for it. Then all of the fruit trees, beautiful apple trees, the best plum trees and even a cherry tree. Did a mention a grapevine and berry bushes. Oh, and a rhubarb patch!

Stepped inside. It was livable and "nice". Translation, it was going to need a facelift and some remodeling. That was okay, because we could see the potential and we knew we wouldn't be able to afford this acreage if the house was any nicer than it was. Not much of the house how we bought it is left, we redid the basement and finished it. Completely remodeled the first floor. Changed two staircases, nocked out walls, moved a sliding door, added windows, took out a window, changed a bathroom to a laundry room, and a laundry room to a bathroom, completely redid the kitchen, new flooring throughout basement and main floor, painted, added a large walk in closet to our bedroom. There is probably more, but I will stop there because I am sure you get the point! Our very last project (at least I hope so!) was to remodel our upstairs bathroom. This is the bathroom I use to use to give the boys baths, and Ted and I would use a teeny tiny shower on the main level. When we did the bathroom on the main level, we added a tub with a shower and that is what our entire family has been using and we haven't used the upstairs bathroom (except the toilet) since the Fall of 2008. I am so happy to say that our upstairs bathroom is almost done with it's remodel and looks great! We tore out the tub, took out some UGLY closets....okay I don't need to list....we gutted that bathroom and now have a walk in shower with two shower heads and it is amazing! Here are some pictures of our remodeling over the years:
Our First House



 Just moved in, "before" kitchen
 Before Cove
 After Kitchen/Cove
 Our apple trees at our new house, what I fell in love with!
 Entry way widened, bedroom turned into living room (in this picture, make shift dining area)
 New location of where the stairs come out at
 Took out window, moved sliding door
 Added new header, nocked out wall to make large entry to kitchen
 Where the stairs use to be coming into the kitchen, see the diagonal line, that was the open staircase but it made the kitchen so small


 How I wash our dishes during this all! ( I can't find our "before" pictures, but picture this vanity as our kitchen...that's right, that bright blue was throughout the house!)
 Added two windows, took out sliding door and moved it to other side of the house









That's Trevor crawling:) and our new bathroom vanity (bye, bye bright blue!)

Onto our final remodel...our upstairs bathroom. See the picture of the bathroom above, that little bathroom has been what our family of five have been using for the past two plus years. It is on our main level, and now that our upstairs bathroom is finished, Ted and I moved all of our stuff out of this bathroom and upstairs. The upstairs bathroom was still functional, but it was just gross and only had a tub (and not one that I would ever choose to soak in!). Here is another slew of pictures to show you how it all transformed from drab to fab!! (It is not completely done, but close...I still need a mirror above the vanity and trim needs to go on)








January 20, 2011

~Something New~

With everything that has been going on with me emotionally/physically the last six months or so, I really needed something to "pick me up". I use to be one of those women that always had a new cut or a new color every six months or so, then I had kids and it didn't seem important to me. My hair has now been pretty much the same (besides a bit lighter 2 years ago) for three plus years. It was time for a change. For some weird reason, changing my hair always makes me feel better. Last year I was at a plateau for weight loss, so I cut some major bangs. Guess what? I then went on to loose almost 15 pounds, and for the most part have kept it off. Out with the old/bad in with the new/good....me! I did a major cut and lost about 12-14 inches of hair and put in lots of blond highlights in my quest to get back to blond (it will take a few more sessions until I really start looking blond again). I did this on Tuesday night, and so far still LOVE it! Tuesday was the first day in quite a while that I did not shed any tears, and I think the new hair had a lot to do with it. I really felt great getting rid of all that hair, and in a way the past misfortunes. It literally felt like a weight being lifted off my shoulders, like hey, I can be happy. I give all the credit to Adriann at the Eclipse Salon and Spa. She spent three hours making it perfect and did a terrific job! AND it looks cute air dried and wavy, too...meaning I can just wash and go and still have a style!

Something else new...a necklace. I got it in the mail the other day and just LOVE it. I picked what I wanted as far as charms and such, and then Ashley over at Bella Vita Fashions designed and made it for me, go check her out and tell her I sent you! So, my necklace is made up of a circle that says imagine on it, then at the top there is a flower charm with a blue crystal (this represents me), and then hanging from the bottom I have three different charms, a heart (that represents my beautiful boys), a dove (that represents my beautiful angels), and the word HOPE (for the future). I cant say enough about how awesome it is in person, pictures just don't do it justice. The quality is excellent. These necklaces run $13 and that includes shipping!! Talk about a steal! She also makes some of the cutest hair bows and earrings. Thank you so much Bella Vita Fashions for my truly amazing necklace!