naming a kid

growing up i can remember at sleepovers saying:

if i have a girl i'm going to name her this and

if i have a boy i'm going to name him that.

luckily ronnie dug the name brette and i got to acutally

use my favorite girl name.

if we were having a boy we already had his name ready to go.

but never, never did i come up with TWO girl names.

i guess as kids you always assume you'll have one of each.

so now what?!

i have to come up with another name that i love just as much

and its. so. freaking. hard.

we've gone back in forth with a lot of ideas.

originally my fave was everly reid

and ronnie's fave was riley elyse.

i nixed riley because i think its way too popular.

ronnie nixed everly because he said it reminded

him of the everly brothers and sounds like beverly.

whatever.

so then we came up with sawyer.

we both really liked it and i thought,

winner, winner, chicken dinner!

but one night ronnie said her name out loud with

our last name and i died.

sawyer cox.

saw your cocks.

ahhhhh!!!!!

that got the ax.

 

i still really like the names

leighton

reid

presley

lennon

adler

blair

 

ronnie's fave is reid. 

originally my idea for a middle name, but

i think it might get promoted to a first name.

but reid what?

 those pesky middle names are always hard for us.

 

 

so basically we have NOTHING figured out.

and its killing me.

house decorations

ronnie and cale put up a few walls over the weekend

of the wood planking and i think it looks fabulous.

we ended up buying sheets of underlayment and cutting

them piece by piece, but the boys put together a jig

and were able to cut them four sheets at a time.

i am taking total credit for this because i said

all along the cheapest thing to do would be

to buy sheets and cut them ourselves rather

than try to find paneling we liked.

turns out i was right.

ronnie spend $100 and still has enough wood leftover

to get a whole wall done in the family room.

i wish we had done this in our bedroom too.

its WAY cheaper.

 

we have the dining room done and

the living room done because we only did

one wall in each room.

the family room is all we have left,

but it will take longer because we are doing e v e r y  wall.

i'm hoping ronnie decides to just get it over with

and do it soon, but who knows.

 

 

keep in mind that these boards will eventually get painted the same color

as our walls.  we just did this to add some design and to cut down

on the amount of wallpaper we'd have to deal with.

should look something like this...

 

 

 

which gets me in the mood to start

buying things to hang on the walls.

i've lived here long enough without decorations.

it's killing me.

i have a few things picked out.

some stuff ordered.

and a couple things i need to still buy.

 

this will hang over our sectional in the family room:

i'm currently collecting recipe cards from the family

in our grandma's handwriting.

the older and more loved, the better.

i'd like to frame and hang them on the backside

of the kitchen cabinet that faces the family room.

here is an example i found on pinterest:

 

 

 

on the side of that cabinet i'd also like to hang

a framed table runner.

something old school like this:

 

 

once its framed, then we can use it as

message board.

its a fun way to make grocery lists

and add a bit of texture to the idea.

(imagine this with lace instead of green)

 

my last idea is for the long wall in the living room.

i've always wanted to add a big shelving unit because

i miss the ones in my old house that flanked the fireplace.

so far the ones i've found aren't big enough for such a long wall,

but then i thought maybe we could build one.

these popped up on pinterest and ronnie said it wouldn't be hard.

consider it added to his list.

plus i love that it will add a bit of an industrial feel,

which i'm currently obsessed with.

 

 

i think that's it for now.

i just need ronnie to get finished so

i can start actually hanging all these things.

 

 

i just felt like running

so you know on forest gump where he just starts running

and doesn't stop?

brette is a lot like that.

she barely walks anymore because

she's too busy run-nin.

 

and laughing.

there's a lot of laughing too.

 

her dirty old hat is a lot like his too.



 

house projects

things seems to be moving slowly

but i think its because the things ronnie

has left to do are big projects.

1- wood plank the walls.

2- skim coat walls without planking.

3- finish baseboards and quarter round.

4- prime and paint.

seems easy enough but i know its a lot of work.

and i can't fault him for not getting it all

done right away because we are always

working on something.

 

for example...

i talked ronnie into hanging brette's gallery wall.
i missed looking at all her sweet pictures.
and now her room if finally complete.

notice we also removed the changing pad?
this girl is officially potty trained and
it was moved into the nursery.
wahoo!

 

we recently discovered that our dryer vent 

does not have a proper outlet.

we literally found 30 years of stuffed lent

in the soffits out front.

its the weirdest thing.

i don't know how it ever passed inspection

and i don't know who in their right mind

designed it this way to begin with.

its completely unsafe and a huge fire hazard.

so ronnie got out there and fixed it.
of course.

i don't know exactly what he had to do,

but i know we now have a new vent

and all our lent is safely discarded outside.

whatever.  not exciting, but definitely needed. 

then i got tired of looking at our orange fireplace,

so i mixed equal parts of our ceiling paint with water

and went at it.

i think it turned out amazing and it really updates the

look of the fireplace.

i had ronnie take the doors off and spray paint them.

we used oil rubbed bronze, but in the picture they look black.

before: 

 

during. top half done, bottom half to go:

 

 finished:

 

 i would go into detail about how to whitewash brick,
but honestly, just read YHL.
the only difference is i only did one coat and
she does two.
it depends on how much "brick" you want to show through.

we also tore out the old sandbox and
put in one that ronnie's sister gave us.
i really wanted to keep the one that came with the house.
it was a wooden boat and i think with some
tender love and care it could have been super cute,
but when ronnie was cleaning it out we realized that
most of the boards were completely rotten.
we he basically would have had to rebuild the whole thing
and a sandbox is not exactly at the top of our project list,
so this was easiest/fastest solution.
brette is loving her new (clean) place to play,
so i'm not too disappointed.

 

and last,

ronald power-washed the shed and the deck.

he feels much better about it,

but i will feel better about it when it's been repainted,

which probably won't happen until next summer.

i can't WAIT to go gray.

the house is going to look one million times better.

until then...

 

so honestly,
our big projects are still lurking,
but no fear,
we are always working on something around here
and i'll keep you posted along the way.

i can't wait for the day my house feels done.
up next?
the nursery.
its officially been started!



 

in other news

a little recap of all that is going on right now.

 

kassie is feeling better,

but not great.

all in all we raised over $7000!

a complete shock and amazing surprise considering

my original goal was $3000.

thank you to everyone that donated.
 

 

 

ronnie and i got a night out

to celebrate a friend's big 40th birthday.

its a little awkward to be at a bar 6 months pregnant,

but i managed to stay out until 10:00 before calling it a night.

then i was called back out at 1:30 to pick

everyone up from the bar.

if you got to be pregnant,

you might as well be useful, right?

miss shannon had her baby and i called it:

she had a GIRL!

darling, perfect, baby paige.
she's going to be a best friend to my little
one on the way.
i can't wait until they meet.

and she is seriously strong.

she was lifting her head up at the freaking hospital.

obviously, not my child.

brette talks about her all the time

so i'm taking it as a sign that she will like

her baby sister just as much.
 

 
 

speaking of baby,

i am 27 weeks and counting.

this. is. going. too. slow.

and even though i'm getting bigger
by the day, i still help mow the yard.
i've always loved to mow, so really,
i don't mind it one little bit.
unfortunately the other day i dropped the freaking
monitor and it suffered some injuries,
but luckily it still works.

 

and since we had to give back the zero-turn mower that we were

using, we are now in the market to buy one.

have you ever priced those suckers?!

they cost way too much money.

which means, something has got to go.

ronnie decided to sell the jeep.

i'm super sad, but honestly once this baby comes,

we can't spend 4-5 hours on our lawn.

it just won't work.

so if you want a jeep or know someone that does...

hit us up.

 

 

 

okay,
i think that wraps it up, but
stay tuned.

i have some house projects complete

and they're up next.

 

 

easy bake

 

my friend, shannon, sent me a recipe.

she said it was amazing and

the easiest thing she's ever made.

so of course i had to try it out.

easy?

delicious?

i'm in.

 

so here it is.

 

cut up red potatoes.

open a can (or two) of green beans.

and add a row of chicken.

shannon used breasts,

but i prefer thighs.

melt a stick of butter and pour it over everything.

then sprinkle a packet of italian dressing seasoning on top.

cover with foil and bake at 350 for an hour.

 

done.

a one dish wonder.

 

 

 

 

photoshoot with brette

i thought,

you look cute today.

maybe i can snap a sweet picture.

a little 22 month old moment in time.

and then i remembered that 22 month olds

don't take easy pictures.

 

i started trying this morning before i ever even

got pants on you and your hair was fresh...
bow still intact.

but no, you weren't interested.

mickey mouse was on tv

and nothing is better than mickey mouse.

 

later you were interested in my phone
and asked if you could get your picture taken,

but then you ran towards me yelling "cheese!"

and well,

that's not exactly the photo i was going for.

 

 

once you did finally decide to sit down and smile,

your pigtails are lopsided,

you have a pink plastic phone in your hands

and you are trying to figure out your best model face.

 

so there it is peeps,

brette today.

the best i could get.

can't wait for the newborn photoshoot
with this big sis.
should be interesting.