2013 in Photos

Happy New Year everyone!!! 

2013 was another great year.  I can't wait to see where 2014 takes us.

Gone Missing

I  did not mean to go missing for over 3 months.  Yikes!!!  Life was so busy at the end of the school year.  I was doing good to keep my head above water.  Then summer was here and I lacked motivation to post.  Now school is already back in.  I really can't believe 3 months has passed.  

Let me catch you up on the last 3 months.

At the end of the school year Harper was in the school's performance of Annie. She played a Star-To-Be which was the perfect part for her.  She put in lots of hours of practice, which definitely paid off. We were so proud of her.

Miller was one of two players on his baseball team picked to be on the All-Star team.  Miller played great.  He even hit an over the fence home run, which made his year.  

He decided to try out for the summer travel team.  He made it, so we spent the summer watching baseball.

Although it was tiring, it was a great way to spend the summer.

Harper went to Girl Scout camp for the first time.  She spent two nights away from home. She would have stayed the whole week if I would have let her.  Miller was fine to be home with us.

We celebrated birthdays.  Miller turned 7.

Harper turned 9.  We celebrated by having a girls night out.  We got pedicures and ate at her favorite restaurant.  It was nice to have some girl time.

Mitch and I escaped to Asheville for a couple of days without children.  We ate, drank, and did a little hiking.  But mostly we ate and drank.  It was a nice break after the busy end of the school year and birthday extravaganzas.

Once we had a free weekend, Mitch and I tackled a little bedroom remodel.  We took down the wood on the ceiling, painted the ceiling and walls, and replaced the curtains with shades.  I still have some finishing touches then I will post some after photos. 

Finally it was time for vacation.  We stopped in Atlanta to go to a Braves game on the way to the beach.

We decided to go to Orange Beach this year.  Check out our view.  It was perfect.

We made it back home just in time to start school.  This was their first full week of school.  

The photo above sums things up really well right now.  Miller being mischievous and Harper yelling at him.

It looks like they are ready to take on this school year.  So how was your summer?

Super Easy Gallery Wall Tutorial

We are slowly making our way through the house with new fresh paint.  The latest area we tackled was our hallway.  I thought I would show you how we hung up our photos in a few easy steps. 

The first thing you are going to want to do is grab some ugly wrapping paper that you will probably never use.  Mine happened to be lined, which is even better.



Lay out your frames how you would like for them to be on the wall.  Then flip them over.

Take a photo of the frames just in case you forget the correct order.  Then trace each of the frames.  You will need to measure to see where the nail will need to go for each one.  Make sure to mark where the nail hole will need to go on the wrapping paper.

Once you are finished measure to make sure you know where you want your gallery wall to be.  We measured to make sure it was centered on this wall.  Then tape it to the wall using painter's tape.

Put a nail in each of the spots you marked on the wrapping paper.

Here's a photo of all the nails in the wall.

Tear the wrapping paper off the wall.

Then hang your photos on the wall.  Super easy, right?

Much better.

Catching Up on The Kids

Since all I have time to do these days is chase my kids from one activity to the next, I thought it was only appropriate to do a post on what is going on with the kids these days.

Harper is playing softball for the first time this year and she loves it.  She has tried soccer and basketball in the past, but truthfully I don't think she was quite old enough to appreciate a team sport. She is really enjoying being part of the team this time around. I think she is doing really well for her first time on the field. 

Harper's schedule is so jam packed right now.  I have already told her that next year she can't participate in so many activities.  It's just too much for everyone.  Right now this is what she is doing: taekwondo, softball, Awana, Kids Rock marathon training, practicing for her part in the school's performance of Annie, and Brownies.  Luckily chorus just wrapped up so no more 7:30 am practices on Wednesday morning.  So as you can see I need to be better at saying no because she wants to do everything.  It's just so hard when the things she wants to do are so different and benefit her in different ways. 

 She had her mile run at school yesterday.  She finished in 7:29, so she beat her time in the fall by 7 seconds. She was very proud of herself.

Harper is still doing really well in school.  Every time I see her teacher she compliments Harper. She always tells me she is such a joy to have in class.  She is currently reading the first Harry Potter book.  It is fun to see her so into a book.

Miller is playing baseball again this year.  This is his 5th season.  You can really tell that he understands the game now.  He still needs to practice his fielding and catching, but he has improved so much.  This is his last season in this age group.  Next year he will move up, so it will be interesting to see him play with kids that are older.  I think he will do well with the challenge.

Miller's schedule is not out of control.  Thank goodness.  He is also training to run the Kids Rock marathon.  I was really surprised that we were able to talk him into it, but he is excited to run that last mile with a huge audience.

Miller had his mile run at school yesterday too.  He ran his mile in 8:20.  He said he was the first person to finish in his class.  

Miller is doing well in school too.  Homework is a challenge on most days, but I am amazed at how well he does once he is focused on what he is doing.  He is reading really well too.  Reading at bedtime is no longer a battle, which is nice.  

Is it bad that I am already counting down the days until school is out?  I hope I can make it through the next 2 months without losing my mind.  

Spring Break 2013

Yikes.  I can't believe it has almost been a month since I posted anything here.  Life has been busy and I have not had much motivation to blog.

I took last week off of work to spend time with the kids for Spring Break.  We did some stuff locally and then on Thursday and Friday we headed to Chattanooga.  We packed our two days there with all kinds of fun stuff.  I took tons of photos so I will just show you some of my favorites.

We started with a trip to Rock City.  If you are ever in Chattanooga, you must go there.  I can't believe this was my first time.

The kids loved all of the gnomes everywhere.

I think this is the only photo I am in, so I had to include it.

Miller is obviously scared of goblins.

Harper is my little dare devil.

Can you tell Miller is not my dare devil?  He is holding on for dear life.

The kids loved the Fairyland Caverns.

The next stop was Ruby Falls.  It was crowded so we had to wait in line for awhile.  The tour was long and a little boring, but the Falls were amazing.  

We spent the night at the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  We slept in one of the train cars.  It was pretty cool.

On Friday we ventured to the Aquarium.   

Shark Attack!!!!

The jellyfish are always my favorite.

We ended the trip with a Wild Cave tour at Raccoon Mountain.  We crawled and climbed around the cave for about 1.5 hours.  The kids had a blast.  We were covered in mud when we finished.  

What have you guys been up to?

Harper's Room

We are finally pretty much finished with Harper's room.  Mitch still wants to make some shelves above the desk and we need to put up some more artwork, but for the most part her room is done.

I made the curtains for under her bed this weekend. Mitch hung a PVC pipe under the bed to use as a curtain rod.  He also built a desk for her.  She said all that it was missing was a laptop.  

I thought she would use the space under the loft to hang out, but she decided her American Girl dolls wanted to hang out under there instead.

We did manage to get some artwork up over her dresser.

Now we can move onto the next room.

American Girl Doll Dress

I actually have something crafty to show today.  I made a birthday present for one of Harper's friends a couple of weeks ago.  She requested a dress made with lace.

I thought it was sweet that her friend wanted me to make her doll a dress.  The best part of it though was I did not spend a dime making it.  I used material I had on hand.  Gotta love that.

I used Simplicity 4786 as a starting point.

The back is velcro so it should be easy to get on and off.  I didn't get to see her open it, but Harper said she liked it.