Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Excited Momma!

Last night was the D.K. and M.M.'s school award ceremony. D.K. received an award for his outstanding work in History, and M.M. received the Helping Hands award and the Random Acts of Kindness award. That was wonderful enough but at the very end the principal handed out her awards. She had chosen a boy and a girl from each grade that she felt exemplified what their school was about, so it was not based solely on academic performance. Imagine ours and the boys surprise when not one but both of them had their names called to come up and accept the award! They were so embarrassed it was so cute. D.K. tried to down play it and act all cool but you could tell he was so thrilled. M.M. just ducked his head and kept saying how he thought it was going to be this other kid who had received four other awards. You cannot imagine what a big deal this was to them. It said to them....'you are special, you can and will be recognized for being so even if you struggle'. While there are not huge numbers of kids at their school this is still a huge honor as all the kids that go to their school are pretty well mannered and work hard. I know that the boys do stand out though. I have been pulled to the side by teachers and told how refreshing the boys are not just in their dealings with others but in their relationship with one another. And I have to say through all the changes that my boys have had this past year, they have grown tons! They are both such big helps both with Lil Red and the house. We have our struggles but they are great kids and I love them to eternity ;)
The pics below show some different shots of them. M.M. had a special girl for a couple of weeks, she is from Russia. They are still special friends but they have clearly defined it as just friends. They have made many friends. The one boy in the pic with them is just one of many. The pics of them in the windows for those of you who don't know our house...Well it's on the roof! They were helping with the siding and got to go up there and wanted me to take pics, lol! Then the last two, our them with their awards. BTW this weekend they have their first fencing tournament. I'll try to take pics and post them later. But suffice it to say they have been very busy this year and I think they are growing up to be fine young men!

Pictures of my older boys

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Saturday Activities

Last Saturday found me and my honey working hard to improve the house. I focused on the kitchen and the boys room and he focused on replacing the siding outside. If you click on the link below, you will see pictures of his work. Also there are pictures of all the organizing I did in the kitchen. I'm so proud of my pantry! There are also pictures of the dining room. This room was a turquoise. I really like the warm tones in here now. It's so much more inviting. The stomped ceiling, wall patch ups and paint job were done by ex-husband. He did and awesome job! Again Big Red did an amazing job finding just the right furniture in the clearance section at Star Furniture. Hope you enjoy the slide show below. I didn't put it in the normal way because I wanted you to see the full pictures.

Home Improvements

http://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll184/raydiantlght/home%20improvements/?albumview=slideshow

Lil Red's gotta new bed! And he LOVES it!

Baby Bed

Okay I am so excited! As I sit here typing Lil Red is taking a nap in the nursery in his new bed! And what's more exciting is that I'm not worried about him because I have my handy dandy monitor. I can here his little grunts and heavy breathing with no problem! This means his naps will be a bit longer because he won't be able to hear me banging the dishes or the cat jumping on things and running willy nilly through the house. I am so thankful that Big Red has a knack for shopping. We've been shopping for baby furniture for a while but holding off for a deal. And it paid off! We bought the crib and chifferobe for the price of the crib by itself. Now any of you who have shopped for baby furniture will know that this is amazing since even clearance baby furniture will only go down at the most maybe $50. However, by working the coupon system, finding one on clearance and opening a credit card that we will turn around and pay off.... Well we did it! I also found the nautical bedding that I wanted for a $100 less than it is at Baby's R Us. So the nursery is just a tad bit away from being set up. We need to move out the big desk that has been in there and we are trying to get the matching diaper changer but that may or may not happen. I think I'm going to sand down the boys old toy chest and restain it to match. I took the pictures above of Lil Red in his new bed and bedding but I'll take more when the whole nursery is finished. The title "Having fun with paint features" doesn't make any sense because the silly photobucket cut out my paint features on the pic for the most part. Oh well I'm still learning.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Pictures and Dental Work

If you head over to Timely Beauty's Blog spot, (at the bottom of my blog), you can see some pics of Lil Red from her visit to my house. She's been watching him for me when I've had dentist appointments. Which leads to another two blessings. #1 Getting my teeth fixed. This has been a need for along time. So I'm muy thankful that my husband has insurance and that #2 I have a friend that can care for Lil Red so I can get it done!