Sunday School and Nursery: *UPDATED*

Where to start? We have become very involved in our church. We enjoy going and we have come to love the members. Unfortunately, our church did not have a very nice nursery and it lacked a Sunday School program. We find it very important that William and Harrison receive the benefits of a church family and learn from Sunday School. We also think it is a very important part of the church to be able to grow as a congregation. Our church is over 50 years old and it has been very neglected over the years.

We decided to commit ourselves to remodeling and redecorating a nursery/Sunday School room. The room was used as daycare but really ended up being a storage room for the church. And wouldn't you know it, the storage closet was actually a bathroom! We spent about a month working on this project. Every free moment was spent there. The boys even stayed up there till mid-night several nights while Scott and I worked. I am happy to say it is finished and Sunday School is starting! Here are some before and after pictures.

Bathroom: BeforeBathroom: After (I need to add a picture or something in here). A cute toddler toilet Before: Nursery

Before: NurseryAfter: Nursery

After: Nursery
Before: Sunday School
After: Sunday School portion of the room There's also a cute polka dot bulletin board on the right wall that isn't in the picture.
We will wait a little bit but here is the next project: The backyard of the nursery.

*I apologize for not acknowledging those who helped with the nursery in this post. That was never my intention. Thank you to Steve (Scott's Dad) for all his work cleaning, painting and with the base boards. He spent a LOT of time during his trip out here at the church. Thank you to Nita (Scott's mom), Stephanie and Kelly (Scott's sisters) for helping prep/clean the nursery to get started (and keeping the boys entertained). And Nita for the beautiful window treatments! Thank you to Shelby for all your hard work with shopping, decorating, assembling, etc. And a big thanks to recruiting your brother to help with assembling furniture. I'm so excited for Sunday School to start. And last but not least, thank you to Mario, our plumber, for doing all his work and for FREE! Talk about community service! I am sorry I didn't mention you sooner. I am very thankful for every one's work on the project!*

Weekend fun

Hm, what trouble can we get in? No we actually had so much fun this weekend. We neglected all other needs of the weekend and headed to the beach both Saturday and Sunday. It was so much fun. It had been too cold to go to the beach and overcast but this weekend, it all turned. It is officially beach season so you know where to find us every Saturday.

The boys are pretending to take naps. Belle made new friends. June and Cash were picnicking right next to us so they played all day together on Saturday. Scott and I boogie boarded. It was so fun. Well this isn't a good picture since there are no waves :)

We had fun running and dancing.

Making sand castles. Harrison is still a little leery of the water.

We played soccer. Football.
We were exhausted when we got home. He is really sleeping here :)
But we had to celebrate. Saturday William turned three and a half! Where did the time go? William is such a smart cookie too. I told him earlier in the week that Saturday was his half birthday. When we got home William said, "don't forget my surprise. It's my half birthday." He has quite the memory. But to top it off I feel like such a horrible mom. A few months ago, he saw a large Buzz Lightyear at the store. He really wanted it and I told him no but maybe on his half birthday. This was seriously about 2 months ago. So he got all excited Saturday and said, "oh, don't forget my big Buzz mommy." And of-course I had :( But we did have some cake.

Sunday we stayed at the beach till the sun was going down.

And the weekend was perfect all the way up until the last couple minutes. The entire time we were there, I made sure to take off my sunglasses every time I went out into the water. Right as we were packing up, I took the boogie board out to the water to wash it off and forgot to take them off. So what do you know, a big wave comes up and hits me in the face swallowing my D&G sunglasses. I am still so upset with myself. I have to get over it but it sucks! All in all, it was a fabulous weekend of sunbathing and family bonding.

Busy Week

It has been a busy *short* week. Tuesday night we had our neighbor from Utah over. It was nice to catch up. Wednesday we took the boys to their very first baseball game. It was a Dodger game and we had tickets through Scott's work. I still couldn't get Scott to wear a Dodger shirt. He did wear his St. Louis Cardinals hat-ha. The boys did good up until the 6th inning. Then it was time to make our exit. I was surprised they lasted that long honestly. See the little hat cup we were eating fries out of?

William just could not wait until we were finished to wash it. Well Scott and Will came back from the bathroom and William was sporting a brand new LA Dodgers cap. Scott just said, "don't ask. You didn't see his face when he realized the cup didn't fit his head. He was devastated." Talk about being wrapped around his finger :)

Thursday I took the boys swimming with some friends. The pool was perfect because they had a kiddie pool there. The boys would not get out of the pool for three hours. They had such a blast. Unfortunately by sitting outside in the sun that long I started developing a migraine. As the day went on, it got so much worse.

Thursday night I had plans for a girls night out with my friend, Shelby. We went to PF Changs for dinner and then to the Greek Amphitheatre for the Sugarland concert. I never listened to Sugarland before. It was a great concert and their tunes are pretty catchy. They put on a good show. Will Hoge and Michelle Branch opened for them. I really enjoyed myself.

And check out our seats! We were so close.

We even had better seats than LL Cool J. Ha. He is wearing the gray hat.

By time it was over though, my migraine was absolutely horrible. I had to concentrate the whole way home not to get "sick" in her car. I barely made it home. And I have been sick ever since. I hate migraines and that I get them. It just kills the weekend.

Weekend update with the Archers

It was a nice relaxing weekend at our house. We took the boys back to feed the ducks.

They multiply

And does anyone know what this thing is? It is so weird. It looks like a hybrid between a crow and a duck. He was mean too. He would attack the other ducks for food.

They played at the park.

Hosted fellowship time at church. Yes I dyed the eggs red, white and blue.

We went to the neighborhood festival for fireworks.

Harry was amazed with the fireworks.

William was scared that they were coming for him :)

I love finding moments like this.

Yesterday we had a picnic in the park. We ate dinner, listened to music, played ball and Frisbee.

I don't know what it is but the boys love throwing balls in this tree. One always gets stuck and then it is fun for them to try to knock it out with another ball.

It's been too cold at the beach to spend time there. I think we are going to risk it and just go next weekend. It's July and it's been overcast and in the 60's at the beach.

Expenses Expenses

*UPDATE* It was a Zuzu pet he flushed! Those things are huge!!!

You remember this post where I said we have had no problems with our car? I should never say things like that because you know I am just jinxing myself. Anyway last week, the car broke down and we had to have a tow truck come twice. Luckily it wasn't a huge problem and only cost a few hundred dollars to fix. While it was in the shop we asked them about the CD player Will broke (he jammed his favorite cd in there) but it would cost $600 to fix it. I think we can go without. And we asked about childproof locks. They argued with us over the phone that there is a switch on the door panel. Well when we came in to pick it up, we asked them to show us the switch :) They were surprised and said, "hmmph, haven't seen that before. This car really doesn't have child proof locks." So as bad as it sounds, Scott suggested we just take out the back door handles. It will look bad but is probably the safest option.

Now to the big expense. Harrison is notorious for flushing toys down the toilet. Usually he is mad at Will and takes something from him, runs as fast as he can, throws it in and flush-be gone. Well whatever he flushed Friday morning wouldn't go down or come back up. I tried and tried and tried. I even stuck my arm (to my elbow) down to see if I could pull whatever up it was that he flushed. Instead of calling a plumber then (which I should have) I waited for Scott to come home. He couldn't fix it either. Instead of dealing with the holiday weekend prices a plumber would charge, we shut the door and have been using our other bathroom. Well wouldn't you know that things couldn't be that easy? Yesterday we noticed water leaking from around base of that toilet. So now we know that the pipes are backed up with pressure from whatever Harrison flushed in the front! I called the plumber that recently did a job at our church in hopes of getting someone out here quickly and affordable. They are here now and it looks like they are having trouble with the front. Thanks Harrison! I don't want to know what this is going to cost!!!