weekend happenings

this past weekend was pretty glorious. for once, we didn't have any "set plans" with anyone or anywhere. don't get me wrong, i love to be in company with great friends, but every once in a while, it's great to be home with the two boys i love the most.

mason got to watch the first snow fall of the winter season. there is something magical about the first snow. aside staying in our pj's ALL day long, it makes me giddy and hope that we are snowed in for the day, sipping on hot cocoa, playing with mason, and watching movies during nap time :)





"da-da" and mason got to snuggle up too.....i might add that i was jealous. i mean come on, that's a mamas job to snuggle her little's :)



we got to meet up with my sister for a little bit and she game me this awesomely cute shirt for my birthday!!! thanks manda!! i just had to wear it for the 28 week snappy to show it off :)


yes, we are having a cowBOY :)


and last but not least, this weekend was chucked full of.......

tractors. mason has a new love of tractors. "ta-tor" as he would say :) do we have a farmer on our hands?????

have a great wednesday, friends!!!

instagram recap

happy friday, y'all!!!

our house is slowly but surely looking more like CHRISTMAS!! first of all, how is it Christmas already?! i was just picking out mason's halloween costume, like, yesterday!

i'll leave you with some christmas diy decorations that my seesters and i made :)




inspiration from here





have a great weekend!!

ps we are supposed to have our first snow of the season today!!! i always have loved getting snow on my birthday :)

xoxo

our little dude

first of all let's all shout together.....thank goodness it's friday!!!! :)
yes. i am thankful for fridays. :)

our little man just turned 15 months this past week. say what? i know. ca-ra-zay!! someone tell me where that time went, puh-lease?!

anyways, here are a couple of pictures i got of our little man this week as a 15-monther :)

fun on the farm :) we call him the cat herder with those two sticks he carries around. grandma literally has about 10 cats on the farm that he chases around and herds with those sticks :) so fun to watch how excited he gets about animals....i think we need some animals at our house now :)



his two favorite things as of now.....balloons and "key ca"


i'm a john deer man! :) thanks pa-pa!!


a new love....the trampoline at me-maw's house!


tomorrow is our first of many family gatherings during this holiday season and i couldn't be happier! can't wait to indulge in some home made goodness tomorrow! also we are going to get some family pictures for our christmas cards! yay! so excited :) gonna show off this 25 week baby bump :) :)

have a happy weekend!!! :)
xoxo

10 summer goals...

as summer is drawing nearer, i thought it would be appropriate to start jotting down some of my summertime goals. one of the perks of being a teacher is that you get about two months "off"...meaning besides working in your room, taking classes, going to workshops, etc., you have two months of having some freedom. this summer is the first summer of not having a job (usually i teach summer school) and the first summer of relaxing with my baby mason!

also, this summer is the first time i will be making some goals and hopefully achieving these goals :)

last night, while sitting around our little campfire in the backyard, i was just actually talking to mr. husband about some goals i had for the summer....then this morning danielle's sometimes sweet blog inspired me to write them down and blog about them! :)
so here we go! :)




1. keep up on my running exercise.
i am running my first 5K this weekend. i have worked very hard to get to this point and i don't want to loose everything i worked so hard for. summer is so flexible that i don't want to forget about running because lemme tell ya, it really wasn't fun trying to get back in shape! :)
maybe i should work toward running a 5K each month so i can't forget about running! :)

2. keep up with my garden.
this will be my second year of having a vegetable garden. last year i was very pregnant with mason and just kind of left the garden and didn't pay much attention to it.
however, this year i would like to earn my green thumb badge :)
i just love the freshness of home grown veggies!
i plan on canning some salsa at the end of summer!

3. have friends out to BBQ each month.
we have a huge yard to BBQ, play yard games, swim in our 1st pool, and to have campfires :)
my plan is to host BBQ's each month to fellowship with friends we love!

4. experiment more with my d-slr.
i have had my camera since january and haven't shot many pictures besides in the portrait setting! i want to experiment in other setting, possibly even the manual and change iso settings, aperture settings, etc. eeeeepp!

5. paint the outside of one of our sheds at our house.
this shed i'm thinking of at our house is a sore sight to see. much paint has chipped and looks a little ragged. i want to take a weekend to scrape and paint a new fresh color.

6. paint mason's toy room.
right now it is a dark burgundy, which was the color when we moved in 1 1/2 years ago. i plan on painting a light, fresh, soothing color. hopefully i will have pictures to show the before and after. :)

7. paint our entryway. the room when you first walk into our house.
right now it is white. i would like to paint the entryway a muted/soft color.
any suggestions on colors? i am open to any suggestions!

8. keep up the maintenance work of our pool.
this summer we are going to put up a pool in our backyard :) i found a website that you can actually make your own chemicals to keep the chlorine level, pH, etc., up with out the cost of buying chemicals from your local pool store.
i can't wait to do this! ahhhh i can just see mase and i chillin' in our pool all summa long!! :)

9. stay more up-to-date with this little blog o' mine.
seems like these past few months, i just haven't had time to really keep up with it!
i plan on blogging hopefully at least every other day.....i hope.

10. complete more diy projects.
i love getting crafty and making my own goodness. i have been slacking lately and that needs to change. good thing summer is coming to have more freedom of having crafternoons :)

whew! looks like i will be pretty busy this summer!!
28 more school days until school is out and summer starts for mason and i!!!
and 10 more days until boston and marthas vineyard!!
{but who's counting anyways :)}

xoxo
melinda

we're still here :)

if any of you are friends of mine via twitter or facebook then you would know we have the sickies at our hizzie. no fun :( just when i think mason is on the mend and getting over his cold......he gets sick again! ugh!
spring.get.here.asap!
please and thank you :)

this weekend was my final straw this this whole sickness thing. mason decided he wasn't going to eat. nothing. nada. zilch. sooo frustrating for a momma, but especially a newbie momma! talk about not know what to do! it's not like i have gone through this before to know what is going on! i thought one of two things:
1)teething
2)ear infection - therefore hurting his jaw, therefore not wanting to suck

so i got on the horn with the doctor's office and talked to our nurse and told her all his symptoms. she proceeded to tell us that she would like us to see the doctor in the morning. luckily husband has a very flexible job and can take mason in because i am out of sick days at work because of my maternity leave.
come to find out, mason has a double ear infection. awwww i could have cried!
i'm glad that i finally called to get in to see the doctor.
i didn't want to be a overly protective mom, but i also knew something was wrong, mason just wasn't the same. the one thing about this parenting gig is that it is such a guessing game! i guess i need to get good at guessing what is wrong :)

thanks for letting me vent........feels good, oh, so good :)

i hope to be back to the blogging world in full swing once i get my little bear all better :)

a thursday night......

march madness basketball...
coming home to a overly excited baby...
my husband to greet me...
{vegetarians don't read this}...
deer steaks on the grill...
comfy clothes...
& this!.....
you may be familiar with it...
but i'm totally new...
and it's my favorite...









obviously i need to wok on some poses :)
this site is good ol' time. i promise.

some best of the weekend...

...better late than never, right?!

loved this weekend. mason and i spent some quality time with auntie kayla, her baby stella(the white puff ball), and grammy :) the less we do over the weekend, it seems like it is longer. which means it feels like i got to spend lots of time with little mason :)


some how mason caught this nasty cold bug. one minute he has a fever and irritable, then the next he is a happy camper. he has quite the cough goin' on and sounds like a piggy when he breathes. basically he has been taking baths in vicks vapor rub :) praying he gets better soooon!!
when baby ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

hoping to finish a couple of crafts i have been working on! can't seem to completely finish them, it's like there's a baby living in the house that needs attention or something :)
will post as soon as i'm finished!

is tomorrow seriously wednesday already! yeow!!

xoxo

family christmas...

we are so blessed.

our christmas table set for christmas eve dinner

this wine cover is actually a ugly sweater sleeve cut and sewn on the bottom so that the wine bottle doesn't fall out! super easy and super cute...especially if you want to give a host a little gift.
sorry too lazy to rotate the picture...use your imagination please! :)

grammy and little keither

most beautiful younger sista eva!!!!

da boys on a hand-me-down horsey

baby mason's first christmas.....he loved it!!

most beautiful oldest sista! and her boys

manda and her bf

chowing down on some cereal...starting to get the hang of it

not sure where he has more....on him or in his belly?!?! hmmm :)

a bumbo baby and an almost crawler!

love this holiday season...so blessed with such a loving family :)
xoxo

4 month old christmas present....

good thing this present isn't edible(4 months old, yuck)....oh wait...maybe it is, i can just eat him daily...

{thanks carly for the idea :)}






xoxo
melinda

what it's like...

to be FOUR months old??

lemme tell ya :)

*when i'm on my back, i can roll allllll the way over to my tummy. once i'm on my tummy i kinda get cranky though.

*i can sit in my bumbo and play with toys when mommy is getting ready for work or church

*i can hold my head up on my own now and turn it from side to side to see all the action goin on :)

*i use my hands to grab toys and shake, shake, shake 'em!!

*when i'm in my bathtub, i wooovvveeee to splash until mommy has to re-fill it because i splashed all the water out{that really does happen}

*i get excited when i hear mommy's voice when she gets home from work.....i misss her soooo much :)

*when mommy and daddy talk to me, i smile, squeal, and coo.....they think it's so cute :)

*i sometimes copy what mommy and daddy are saying, the sounds they make

*i make lots of different sounds.....they say i babble. when i'm happy, i coo, squeal, gurgle, giggle, grin , and at times i have been known to lol

*i love to look at myself in the mirror....i really lol when i see a baby in the mirror

*i get bored when im by myself on the floor.....i love to interact i guess with people :)

*i have started crying when mommy or daddy lay me down on the couch to change my diaper.

*i looove to be sung to....its my fav!! i dont even judge mommy or daddy when they sound not very good...i still lol and giggle :)

*mommy thinks im workin on gettin some teeth pretty soon because i drooooolll all over the place.....o boy :)

*im finally growing some hair, i like to call it peach fuzz. mommy is pretty excited about this, i don't know what the big deal is.

this is what i look like at FOUR months old

oh mason,
we fall in love with you more and more each day.
you still bring tears to your momma's eyes just thinking
how precious you are. i love being your momma, but
you make it pretty easy to love my momma job :)
nigh nigh mase
xoxo
mommy