Almost springtime!

Eating cake pop! My good friend Hailey had made the cutest little treats for Valentine's day- it's cake on a stick- HOW COOL! Beau went to town on this little goodie!
Thanks Hai!

A bunch of deer off Lower Rock Creek road- it's so fun to have great wildlife surrounding us all the time! The only setback...THE SUCKERS EAT MY TREES! We need to be a little better at protecting our yard from our fellow friends.

This is my friend Hailey and me on our trip to Oakland, CA. I missed Seth and Beau so much! The rumors of Oakland are true...scary place. No wonder the Raiders are such !@#$%^&! This trip was loaded with a bunch of firsts for me! I rode a subway, The BART, we also got turned around on the subway a few times, I rode in a cab (I know...so cultured:) ), we ate Vietnamese food- pretty tasty, and a delicious fancy dinner- beef carpaccio, chili smoked prawns, braised greens, lamb chops...it was amazing! The conference was enlightening- the Western Migrant Stream Forum- all about migrant health. We absorbed some good ideas to bring back to Health West.

It rained almost every day...BUMMER- what happened to SUNNY CALIFORNIA???

The little man is getting so big and fun! His "high fives" are awesome! Here, he's chowing on a cookie- oops, that one might have ruined dinner:)

A little LOVE goes a long way!

I love my little family! Since Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I think it is appropriate to say how much I love my husband and my little boy. Seth is such a hard worker, he has the best laugh and smile ever, he is a SUPER DAD, and he is my best friend. I am so lucky to be married to the love of my life. This year is kind of crazy- it will be our 10th Valentine's Day together! Holy smokes- where does the time go?

Beau is such a happy little boy and he is growing so fast! He learns at an amazing rate and LOVES to be outside. We went for a little run today and he was all smiles when we were done (of course, we played on the tractor when we arrived back to home). Seth and I love being parents and we love Beau.

LIFE IS GOOD.

Have a great day filled with love!

HomeMade: Trash to Treasure

See the pictures of my show and tell, the project has spectacular history! You will see a photo of the church where the project originated, as well as a few of the to-do steps, up to completion. Here is the story:

When the old LDS church in Arbon, ID, was being torn down, my father-in-law, Steve, salvaged the front French doors and transom, knowing that they would be of some use in the future. The church was built in 1928 and torn down sometime in the 2000's. My father-in-law knows my thrifty junk addiction and offered the potential project to me. My vision was to create a head board out of the doors (my husband and I have never had a real bed in the five years we have been married!). Pottery Barn, thank you for the inspiration, but I cannot afford you.

I started by scrubbing off years of dust and spider webs, then connected the doors with a 1x6 on the back to make it sturdy, and had some help framing the doors with rough cut 4x4's. I was glad to have Steve's structure-oriented mind because my thoughts are aimed more toward aesthetics. I found an old waterbed frame on Craigslist for $100 and snagged it for the side drawer storage, it was solidly built and a great price. After new drawer runners, and a little elbow grease, the frame was like new and a perfect addition to my project. I have to thank my handy husband, Seth, for the fab foot board. He built it to match the framed door head board.

After all the pieces were filled, sanded, and ready to rock, they were painted with at least three coats of semi-gloss white paint (I love mis-tint finds, especially when working on a budget). Then came my favorite part- distressing! I took a hammer, screwdriver, and my sander to the neatly coated surfaces and gave the bed some additional character. Then indulged in some glazing (thank you Ralph Lauren), and the finishing coat of semi-gloss clear spray paint.

My final result, in my opinion, was worth every ounce of effort and time, and I'm pretty sure I'll never move on from this piece- it's my favorite re-make yet!


Enjoy!

AWWWWE...SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

These past two weeks seem to have FLOWN by! Beau no longer has a mullet...SAD! I know! We decided that he was starting to look like one of the kids you see in Walmart...time for the first buzz. We are so happy to be together on Super Bowl Sunday (Drew, Jess, baby...we will make it up to you soon! Promise!).

Words by Beau: mama/mom, dad/dada, nana (banana, or anything else that tastes good, SLASH "Grandma"), mos (Moses- aka puppy), tacta (tractor), cacka (cracker), um-pah (grandpa)
6 teeth!

New reading glasses...

This week has been SUPER! Beau was able to chill with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Gene this morning while I was transformed to Strawberry Shortcake (yes, my hair is a little more red than the little color swatch looked:) oops ). He LOVES Grandpa Gene. Here, he is trying to steal Grandpa's reading glasses.

We are ready to hit the slopes tomorrow! I can't wait!!!

almost exactly 6 months since last post...but we are back!

Hello WORLD!!! Beau is now 1 year and a couple weeks- he is such a FIRECRACKER!! He has 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom), is a WALKING fool, and LOVES being outside. We know we have fallen off the face of the earth, but life is kind of busy (surprise?).

Seth has been working his big heart out for our family. This winter, his main projects have been hanging out with Beau, teaching him all the good things Daddies teach their little boys, finishing a bathroom in the basement, goose hunting, and hanging out with our family.

I have been slammed at work, trying to get out as close to 5 p. as possible to beat the clock to Pam's to pick up my little side kick. Work is great! Busy, of course. Four days a week is nice though- Fridays are the "Mommy/Beau" day, slash "clean the house because we haven't had time to do anything during the week" day.

Life is good. Actually, better than good. Jana- thanks for your 1x/wk inspiration. I will try to stick to it!

See yall soon!

Watch out, little boy in blue! He's my little kitchen side kick!

He sure takes after his daddy!

One proud momma-CaroLynne, and her boys, Sethro, and Jared.

Momma "Haley" loves me (it really says whaley- but i improvised, haha!). WE LOVE THIS LITTLE BOY!

Beau (right) and his little buddy Hugo (left), who is 2 weeks older.