Projects. Projects. Projects.

I have completed a few more projects over the past few months and forgot to post them. First up was the train table I scored off Craig's List for $35. I had been watching it for a few weeks-I liked how it had been painted meaning I could repaint it and not have to do to much work. I wasn't feeling the $55 price tag so I just watched it to see what happens. After about 3 weeks it dropped to $45. And I ended up bargaining and got it for $35! Not to shabby if I don't say so myself. I wasn't in love with the colors-the original owners painted it to match their living room as the used it as their "coffee table" until their boys outgrew it.

 A little spray paint later and Ben has a new train/car/puzzle/whatever he wants table! I put it downstairs in the basement playroom and he loves it!

Second up was this bookshelf I bought for $15 at the thrift store. I wanted a bookshelf for the basement playroom and I knew with a little love aka paint it would be great! So when I painted the train table I got to work on the bookshelf too.

I used the same blue as I did on the train table and now it looks good as new!

The basement playroom still has some more work to be done to it but it's coming along project by project...

I have been on the hunt for a cool frame to make a chalkboard for the kitchen. I have been looking for what seems like ever and ever. I finally found one at the thrift store for $14. So I taped it off and got to work!
First I painted several coats of the chalkboard paint. I started out with the spray can version but felt it didn't really give me the old school chalk board look/feel. So I has a can of the regular chalkboard paint left over from Ben's easel so I painted a few more coats and then it was perfect! Next I painted the frame white but the rustic character of the wood it didn't look good white. So next it was a rusty red color-it looked good but on the green kitchen wall it looked like Christmas. So after looking around the garage I found this gray matte metal spray paint I had left over from another project and figured what the heck lets see what happens. And surprisingly it came out pretty good! I was going to use it for a weekly menu board but I wasn't in love with it so after a few days I decided to make it our seasonal bucket list!

And finally I had been searching for a small step stool for Ben for the 1/2 bathroom. And again the thrift store payed off this bad boy was pretty loved but on cost me $3.99. What a deal! And the added bonus was that it it also doubles as a super cute chair! It needed a good cleaning and new hardware and of course some paint! Ben loves it! Well worth the $4 and elbow grease!

22 Months

Well I think the "terrible two's" have started a few months early in our house. Ben is very opinionated and very impatient. His time-out chair has been getting some use the past few week. I am so not a fan of this phase at all! But on the other hand I also have a loving, smart, funny and very polite 22 month old! It is just amazing how much he learns daily. I can ask him to go do or get something and he actually understands me and does it! He never stops chatting! And now he is stringing more and more words together. Love you is one of the best things I have heard out of his mouth since he said Mama. He has only said it twice but it was heart melting! He always has a car or truck in his hand. They go everywhere with him-in the car, into stores and in his crib. It is one of the first things we hear in the morning...him "driving" his car along his crib saying "go car go vroom". Ben is still eating like a bird. It is so frustrating! We make him 3 nice meals a day and he hardly eats. But then he will sit down and eat an adult serving size out of the blue. Snacks are even hard to get him to eat. I am hoping he goes back to being a good eater soon. Still no juice or milk just water.

 He hit a big milestone this week...he has over 100 words in his vocabulary!


Mama-Mommy-Da-Hi-Hello-No-B-Lovey-Bubbles-Water-Ice-Outside-GG-BaPa-Doggie-Zz-Abby-Elmo-Night night-Waffle-Cereal-Cookie-Snack-Bye Bye-Car-Vroom-Go-Eat Eat-Car-Truck-School-Up-One-Two-Three-Cow-Moo-Ouch-Light-Yay-Boo Boo-Baby-Eye-Tissue-Cheers-Flowers-Please-Thank You-Bite-Shirt-Nose-Bottle-Carrot-Corn-Apple-Pool-Slide-Eggs-Chair-Light-Wow-Nice-Out-Woof Woof-Chair-Hey-Jayhawk-Tractor-Santa-Ho Ho Ho-Smooth-Bear-Watch-Gentle-Vince-Candy-Cake-Teeth-Mouth-No-Stop-My-House-Love-Blue-On-Remote-Work-Help-Yeah-Cart-Buddy-Oh-Horse-Beer-Cheers-R-Cat-Ball-Trash-Potty-Pee-Poopy-Home-Throw-Help-Mom

A Birthday & Horses

Saturday was our niece Sierra's 8th birthday! She had a great party out at Sunset Stables in Lee's Summit. We were so excited and had Ben saying horse and neigh neigh. and we were so excited for the party! When we got there Ben was so excited to see the all the horses!  The birthday party had close to 30 kids so they divided them all into 3 groups. One group would play games, the next would groom and paint horses and the last would take a horse ride and everyone would rotate until they had done everything. Ben was a bit young for the games and the horse grooming and painting so we mainly explored the grounds and petted horses! When it came to our groups horse ride turn everyone was so excited! Sierra jumped right on and and they took off! Ben on the other hand started crying the minute we put the helmet on him and when we put him on the horse it was full force screaming...Mommy Mooommmmyy. Poor kid was terrified. So I guess we have found something the kid is afraid of! The rest of the party was full of food, cake, presents! Thanks to J, Stef and Sierra for inviting us to such a great birthday party!

1st Day of School (Moms Day Out)

Wednesday was Ben's 1st day back to school! He is at a new school this year-Rolling Hills!  It was a hard hard hard decision to switch schools but in the end we thought that it would be best. We will  miss Ms Karen at Hillcrest for sure-but their program starts at 12 months and Rolling Hills starts at 18 months. We wanted to ensure that Ben was in a class with kids very close to his own age and/or older. We all know there is a huge difference between a 12 month old and a 21 month old. So we left Hillcrest and started Rolling Hills for a few weeks this summer to try it out and have since decided to leave Ben at Rolling Hills. His new teachers Ms Lisa and Ms Amanda are great! And Ben really seems to love it! The first few weeks we had some tears at drop off but yesterday we were tear free-he didn't even need his B or Lovey!

iPhone Photo's

Staycation 2012

I'm about 3 weeks late posting but better late than never! Vince decided to take a few vacation days Mid-August and we decided we would have a little staycation in KC. We used some of Vince's hotel points and booked a room on the Plaza to kick it off right! My mom was gracious enough to offer to come to our house and watch Ben & Miles overnight for us! We checked into the hotel and then headed to grab a drink before dinner. We ended up at Houston's for drinks and dinner! So yummy! It was so nice to eat a whole meal uninterrupted by a toddler!

Then we headed to the movies and saw Ted. Both of us thought it was just ok. They gave away most of the super funny parts in the preview. After the movie we decided that since it was barely 10pm we couldn't be losers and go to the hotel and go to bed....so we went and sat on the roof at O'Dowds and enjoyed a night cap!

The next few days of our staycation wasn't as we had hoped or planned. Ben got sick. Miles got sick. Vince sold his old car. I got sick. Vince bought a new car. Vince got sick.

But on Saturday we did manage to sneak down to Garnett to visit the Katzer family! We had yet to see their new house and Angela said she was in desperate need of some Ben time! We walked in the door and within 3 minutes Angela was listening to Ben's lungs and then calling all three of us in z-packs. Despite being sick we had a great day trip! Kurt even took Ben out to see their cows! He had a BLAST! And it was a nice break for me & Vince since the Lakin, Paige & Reece were stuck to Ben like glue-we didn't have to do any toddler wrangling for a few hours! I think now that Ben is getting older his cousins are enjoying him even more!

We wrapped up the staycation with a McCormack Family Dinner on Sunday! It is always so nice to get everyone together for a few hours and catch up over Mom's good cooking!