Bathroom and Brothers

I transformed my walk-in closet (aka junk room) back into a bedroom for Mason. Maddox has been staying up until 10:00 pm so Mason has been fallsing asleep in our bed and we can't move him back into his bed until Maddox is asleep. It has disrupted everything. SO, I decided to make the "closet" back into a bedroom. The picture below is only a 1/3 of the stuff (crap) I pulled out of the "closet". It took 2 whole days to clean everything up and there is still some stuff to be moved around. I almost started crying after I had everything out, but there was no turning back. And I am glad I did it. Here is the new room. It is small, but cozy and I am happy with it. Mason loves it! I'll find him laying on his stomach reading a book on his bed. It warms my heart. He also has a sign on the door "3 Over To Go In. Only on Fridays. Closd on Sundays".

This was at the GrandPrix race. Maddox climbed up behind Mason and snuggled up.

Maddox was basically up until 4:00 am with a fever and was tired this a.m. Mason wanted to read him a story while I got breakfast ready. It was sweet. Maddox climbed up into his lap and settled in for some stories. It's moments like these that help get through the fighting and screaming :) He is getting his fever back right now. Poor guy. It's always so hard to see them sick.

OUR NEW BATHROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE THIS SINK!! I was hoping to have before pictures next to the after, but Maddox is going down hill, so I need to be quick. This is the best sink EVER. It's easy to clean, is GORGEOUS and spacious!!

Look at how it sparkles!


Our shower and window!! Whenever I shower I feel like I am in a ritzy hotel on vacation far away. It's relaxing and calming and CLEAN!! and there are no funky smells!

Our cabinet

We actually have unused space right now. It's amazing! Everything is organized and has a spot instead of being thrown into a broken chest, under a nasty sink or inside of a moldy cabinet above the shower.

A toilet that doesn't wobble or need to have the handle jiggled. And it has FORCE when it flushes. Life is good.

Thank you Dad for the incredible bathroom!!!!!!!!!!

And thank you mom for buying a shower curtain and mat and curtain hooks.

I LOVE OUR BATHROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Hives

This morning we went to a friend's house and there were a lot of children there. We were late and the kids had just finished eating a cookie. No big deal.

Over an hour after we arrived, Maddox broke out with hives all under his chin, neck and on his cheek. He needed hydrocortisone, and we left, because we had to leave anyway.
On the way home his face got worse. Under his chin swelled up a little and the hives spread. He ended up getting Benadryl when we got home.

As we were driving along, Maddox said in this little, quiet voice "I touched a cookie in a bucket mom." Apparently he had found a cookie somewhere and touched it. Thank goodness he didn't eat it!

I am fighting tears as I write this. There are enough scary things in the world to protect my children from, but now I have to add touching a cookie. What if he would have eaten it? I am trying really hard not to go there, because it doesn't do any good and it didn't happen. Thank you God for that!

It's so hard for me to bring Maddox places, because I am always afraid something like this will happen; he'll find a piece of food somewhere and eat it without me knowing. I am really struggling with this right now. There's no-one to blame or be angry at. It's just the way it is, but I am tired of it some days. I haven't even brought him to a resturant because I am afraid there will be residue of something on his booster and he'll break out. I don't know. I wish he didn't have to go through this, and yet I am glad this is all he has to deal with.

Friday

This is homeschooling at it's finest :) He didn't really study anything on the desk outside, but it is tempting. Especially on beautiful days.
These two have really been getting along lately. A few mornings back they played together for a half hour in a fort. And Maddox is beginning to play be himself for about 10 minutes at a time.

I wishe he would have been facing me when I took this, but I'm glad I caught him in the air.

A couple of good spots to take a rest.

A boy is made to have a stick in his hand and to be near water.

There was still snow on the hills of Chester. The boys had fun playing in the snow on such

Low Rise Jeans and Ants

Mason and I were sitting outside a couple days ago doing school. I was wearing low rise jeans and they were riding low. Apparently, they were riding so low an ant crawled into my crack in the back and bit me! Nice. It is still sore. At least it wasn't a woodtick. And it was just me and Mason outside. What if that would have happened at a park?

Maddox just woke up from his nap and his 1st words were:"What we having mom? What are we having?!" He always needs to know what we are going to be eating next. When breakfast is done he wants to know what snack is going to be. When snack is done, he wants to know what lunch is going to be and so on and so on. Maybe he'll work in a resturant someday?

The bathroom is.....wait for it......DONE!!!!!!!!!

It is more beautiful than I thought it was going to be (and I had high expectations). I LOVE it and feel like I am on vacation whenever I use the shower. It is a nice relaxing spot to have. I'll post pictures this weekend. My dad is incredible and his whole company is awesome. They do beautiful work. And how wonderful to have the bathroom designed by my dad? And both my brother and dad helped put it together and worked on it? It's perfect.

I am going to miss seeing my dad and brother every day though. It was sort of sad when my dad finished up a few little things today. The boys will miss him too. Mason really enjoyed eating lunch with his Uncle Dom and Maddox, well, he just adores his Pop. Pop gets more hugs and kisses than I do. I may have to call my dad with minor things to have him here :)

I should get back to life now. My house imploded on itself somehow. We are going to a hobby store to find some electrical kits. I forgot to work on electricity with Mason, and it's a requirement for the standards. He did get some education with the electrician who was kind enough to talk Mason through the basics. The whole month of the remodel was kind of like shop class.

Today has been one of those days when I am just througholy (I know I spelled that wrong) enjoying the boys. Do you ever have those days? Or moments? I think of these days/moments as gifts from God. I think it is how He views us (if only I could really see how much He adores me and view myself through His eyes on a regular basis).

Take care and enjoy the incredible weather! (this must be what a true spring is like!)

Happenings at the Weeds.

This is the old trap from the sewer line that was causing all the problems. gross huh?
There is the cap in the trap. How that cap got into there, nobody knows. But now that it's out we should be good.

He's into the microphone and the Bobby hat.

Working on the pinewood derby car. The race is next week.

Love these 2 guys.

They are blurry because they are so active and my battery was dying.

1st bath in the new tub. I have taken 2 showers in it and I feel like I am on vacation when I do. I can't believe it's our shower in our bathroom! Tomorrow the top goes on the vanity and the sink will be involved! Glory day! I can't wait to see what it will look like.

Look at that grin.

The fuzziness captures how these 2 are always in motion.

HHe loves the puddle boots.

This is a house Maddox built for me.

Look at how proud he is! He is just starting to play with toys on his own and show interest in building things. This was his first "house".

This little face is what keeps him alive many days. :)

He is always doing something goofy and making us laugh hysterically.

Mason's eye.

He is getting more freckles every year. I love that little spattering of freckels across his nose.

Maddox wanted to wear this t-shirt to church, but I nixed it and put on a long sleeve shirt instead. He then put the t-shirt on himself over the long sleeve shirt. i didn't have the heart to take it off, because it was the 1st time he put a shirt on.

Chillin' with some popcorn on the stairs.

Maddox wears this hat and runs around with this "arrow" while yelling "I'm Mister Man" in a deep voice. A few nights back he ran out of the toy room with this get up on yelling the Mister Man thing and then cracked Craig across the leg with the arrow.

He likes to sit here right up to the gate while eating his snack when they are working on the bathroom. I think he is going to miss having everyone around when they are done.

Inspecting mosquito larva.

Mosquito larva. Gross. They snuck in with the pond water. They are dead now.

These are the frog eggs we found. They started hatching that night. They are looking more like tadpoles now. It's pretty fun watching them grow. We can see their eyes now.

Maddox loves playing the drums and singing. We are often treated to a song several times a day.

Salamanders, Ticks, and Showers

We went for a walk tonight in search of salamanders. We didn't find any, but we did find some great trees beavers had chewed on. Of course I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures. We also picked up some woodtics! I found the first one, on my b@@b!

We got home and Craig found 2 on him. Maddox and Mason enjoyed messing around with the the tic before Craig burned it. (another exciting thing for the boys)

We have to go to my parents to take a shower because we are having sewer problems...again. I am hoping it is just a hair clog from the shower in the basement, because the other probability is a broken drain tile in the yard or street. The latter is a pretty expensive problem I think. We are back to using the Porta-potty. I can't do laundry or run the dishwasher. we have a bucket in the sink to catch any water we use in the kitchen so we can dump it outside.

Craig is at my parents showering right now (he won 1st dibs since he found 2 tics on him at home. I wanted him c-l-e-a-n). The boys are still awake and hyper. Mason and I will go to my parents to shower once Craig gets home.

The excitement continues around here. The frog eggs have all hatched and we have little tiny tadpoles. They are pretty fun to watch. I hope at least one is able to turn into a frog. We transferred them to a larger tank today and are running an air pump (Craig's minnow one). It's not a very quiet one and I think the mosquito larvae are multiplying. I don't know if that's possible, but I swear I see more and more of them in the water. I foresee some serious bug problems if I can't figure out what to do with them. Hopefully the tadpoles will grow faster than the mosquitos and they will eat them.

Well, I need to corral these children. Whoever said girls talk more than boys needs to spend a day at my house. These two rarely stop talking (they even talk in their sleep--last night Maddox was yelling at Craig in his sleep about getting dressed).

Bathroom

He loves his Peeps.

The tooth.

finding eggs at Grammy's house

Our bathroom should be done this coming next week. I love, love, love how it is looking and can't for it to be done!

This is going to be the vanity. Just waiting for a granite top :)

Here is the porta-potty. Thank goodness we've had it though. My wonderful Dad would empty it for us at his and my mom's house every 3 days. Now that's love.

You can't tell in the picture, but his face is full of dirt. I love little kids' dirty faces. Every child should be covered in dirt at some point.

Celebrating losing his tooth.

Our sewer is having troubles again tonight. The man hole is full of standing water and the clean-out is also full of standing water. We have no idea why. Ugh. we are really tired of sewer problems. Praying it doesn't overflow tonight.