Ten on Tuesday.

1.  My mom is coming to visit in about oh...9 weeks. She will be spending Thanksgiving with us this year and that means we get to have this holiday in our own house! Yippee..I am already thinking and planning for the week she is here!

2. Jack has been without a dresser since birth. He really hasn't needed one, but to be honest it has been such a pain always hanging his clothes on hangers. Anyway, we discovered we had a dresser that we were not using so we gave it a little redo and here it is (sorry about the massive amount of chalk fingerprints...oops):

I don't have a before picture, but it was basically a plain honey color dresser. This is special piece of furniture though as it belonged to my Uncle when he was a little boy. I was living in Milwaukee after college and I must have been dresser-less, so my Aunt gave me this dresser to use and I have had it ever since. Well, about six years ago my Uncle Mike passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. It's nice to have a little piece of him in my home and so special that it is now part of Jack's room.

Before I started working on this dresser, I saw this piece that gave me mega inspiration. I thought adding the numbers gave it some major cuteness, however, it has also helped me as a mother and helped Jack to become more independent. I did not expect this at all, but I can say, "Jack, please get yourself a pair of underwear in number 2" or "Jack, please go pick out a pair of jammies in number 4". He knows right where they are...slick! The bookcase we made from plans found at Knock Off Wood, a piece of craftsmanship Pat is very proud of.

3.  I bought a label maker and I am currently on a mission called  "Mission Organization". It feels so good, so very good! 

4. Jack has been in school now for 2 weeks and it is going fantastic. He loves it! His curriculum thus far has been the following:

• fresh water habitats
• forest habitats
• Autumn
• A field trip to the apple farm

His favorite part of school are their daily nature walks. He comes home so excited to tell me about the various things they see during these walks, like last week when he told me, "Momma, we saw two water stridors...two!" If it weren't for these nature walks, this Momma would never know what's going on at school. Jack is basically mum about everything else....is that a boy thing or what?


5. Ummm, how come I've never taken the time to check out Houzz. One word: addicting.


6. We had some family pictures taken recently in honor of O's 18 month-old status. Jessica is a superbly awesome photographer who started her business mostly by teaching herself along the way. Very cool in my book! I love these photos. Note to self though: don't try something new with my hair on a humid, hot day when getting family pictures taken. My hair is a frizzy mess...grrrrr!



7.  We went for a long walk this past weekend in the vineyard.

There are rows and rows of grapes and the smell is just delicious.

We may have tried a bunch a few of the grapes along the way.

8.  When Pat works late (aka Pat won't be home for dinner), I truly do not feel like making dinner for the boys and I. Making dinner takes a lot of work, making dinner takes my attention away from the boys or keeps us inside when we could be outside and making dinner for two little kiddos who maybe don't appreciate as much as Pat and I do is truly tiresome (sorry Mom for my endless complaining about Quiche and bean soup). And the clean-up...I won't even start. So instead, on those infrequent days that Pat won't be with us for dinner, we play outside and then we go out to dinner at this cute little restaurant in our township. We are waited on, cleaned up after and the boys get to end their meals with these giant cookies smothered in 2 inch orange frosting with sprinkles. 

9.

 

 He's staying....forever.

 

 And I'm not sure which of those three boys is the happiest?

10.   Tonight!