A Life Update

I love these posts because they are super quick and easy to write, and they allow me to be very random with my thoughts.  So, here are a few updates about our lives at the moment!

• I just finished reading The Fault in Our Stars the other night, and let me tell ya, it was a doozy!    I knew from the movie previews it was going to be sad, and I actually anticipated the "twist" before it came- I NEVER do that!  I can't wait to see the movie, but I will bring a box of tissues!  If you can handle sad stories that involve children, give it a go- I couldn't put it down!
• We've been on the go since I had my last day of school on Tuesday.  Tuesday afternoon we went to Mountain Maze, Wednesday the Aquarium and it's fountains, and today we hit up the Chickamauga Library for story time, out to lunch with my dad, and ran some errands.  We'll do something tomorrow too, just not 100% sure where to yet. It wears the boys out, and keeps them from driving me crazy while we're at home.
• Tomorrow Andy and I head to Atlanta for our anniversary trip & the much antipicated NeedtoBreathe concert!  I can't wait!  If any of you know of any really good restaurants that are a must in downtown Atlanta, let me know!  We're staying right by the CNN Center, so something in walking distance would be great!
• I had been on the hunt for a good, not too high, pair of brown wedges.  I wanted a casual pair, and one that I didn't feel like I'd break my neck in.  I found a pair today at Payless that are super cute, and I think they won't send me to the ER!
• Southeastern Salvage, yes the building material store on Lee Highway, has some great deals going on clothing!  Never in a million years would I have thought they would sell clothes, but they have a huge stock of Target stuff for next to nothing!  I got 10 items for all 4 of us (dresses for me, shorts and shirt for Andy, and shorts for the boys) for $30!  I don't think I'll need anymore dresses (casual or dressy) for a long time thanks to them.  They also have a ton of really nice bags/totes that they monogram for next to nothing.  I see a lot of great gift giving  in my future from that department!
• The boys have started playing really well together, but have also started fighting really badly together.  Oh well, I guess it's impossible to have one without the other!
• We've still been doing our family walks, and the heat and humidity is making it so much harder!  Andy has been really busy/tired from work in the evenings, so I've been doing a lot of double stroller pushing!
• The French Open has started and my man, Rafa Nadal... be still my heart!, is killing it!  I have a good feeling about the finals!

Summer Fun in Chattanooga

Chattanooga has a ton of great places to visit that are free/cheap, and the boys and I plan on taking full advantage of them this summer!  Here is a link that shows you 10 of them.  I did a little write up last spring about my favorite places to take the boys, many of them overlapping with the list above.  We already hit one up today in the way of the Aquarium fountains, and yesterday when we went to the Mountain Maze Playground on Lookout Mountain (not mentioned in the article), but it's a great playground and it's free.  Anyways, hope this helps some of you mommies who are looking for fun, free things to do this summer to keep your babies busy... I know we're desperate! 

Wilderness of the Smokies

This past weekend we headed up Wilderness of the Smokies Waterpark for a few days with Andy's family.  Andy and I had never been, so I was really looking forward to it.  Luckily, it's only about 2.5 hours from our house, so it was a fairly easy trip with the boys.

When we got up there Saturday we settled into our room (we split a 2 bedroom condo with Andy's brother's family), ate, and got the boys ready to swim.  First we went to the outdoor park that's designed for small kids.  It was only in the 70's or low 80's when we went, so the water was pretty frigid, and the boys hated it.  We panicked, thinking this would be there reaction to everything (Cooper was telling me he wanted to go home he hated it so much), but once we went to the indoor park, where all the pools have a beach entrance, they warmed up to it and loved it!  We had brought our own flotation devices for them, but the hotel provided life jackets, so we just used them.

The water was still a little too cold for my liking inside, but we were able to lounge a bit and still watch the boys.  It was really too cold for the outdoor waterpark with the lazy river, so we only did that once the whole weekend.  The boys were still a little small for a lot of the stuff, so I couldn't imagine staying for more than a long weekend, but I'm sure older kids could really make a trip out of it.  It did wear them out, so they slept like champs the entire weekend.

The property was really nice, and the boys loved being right down the hall from their cousins.  We got roped into a two hour timeshare presentation (of course they wanted us to buy into it, but we just kept saying no), but got a FREE 8 day/7night vacation to any resort they own in the world, so it was worth it!  I'm trying to talk Andy into a big trip out West, but I don't know how feasible that is with the boys at their age (we have to use it within the year).  Anyways, we're really looking forward to it, wherever we go.

We've got a couple days of downtime before Andy and I are on the road again for our anniversary, so we're trying to clean and organize the house some before we leave.  I'm officially on summer break now, so I'm also trying to find fun stuff to fill our days with... Cooper has reached the age of boredom and wants to be on the go constantly!  I didn't take a single picture on our trip due to all the water... mommy failure!

A Clark Update

Since my last post was centered around Cooper, I figured I'd go ahead and share one about the "baby" too.  Let's see... where to begin.  Clark is an absolute mess right now.  He's so stinkin' cute and hilarious, but we're also getting very close to his two year birthday, which you can tell from a mile away.  He's starting to throw a lot more fits, but they make me laugh in comparison to Cooper's (I don't let him see me laugh though).  He's 100% a daddy's boy, and usually screams whenever I walk in the door from work... then he runs to my mom crying when I try to hold him.  Let me tell ya, he sure knows how to make his mommy feel loved.  He usually lets me love on him after a few minutes though... after I've had to do every trick in the book to win his love over. 

On the development front he's doing great.  He's talking up a storm, and the sentences that come out his mouth are hilarious!  He talks all the time, so between him and his brother they wear us out with all the demands and questions.  He's still sleeping good, usually taking one long nap in the afternoons, but sometimes still two naps.  He's going through a non-eating stage, which drives me insane, but if we offer him anything sweet he'll take us up on it in a heartbeat.  His motor skills are great... he runs and climbs like nothing I've ever seen before.  It's kind of scary all of the things he can climb up on... I know it's just a matter of time before he's climbing out of his crib.  Anytime he's gone #2 he comes up and yells "stinky!" as loud as he can... he's a really loud little human!  He seems to be moving right along nicely with all of his milestones, and he's getting a lot harder to keep up with!

Some of his latest obsessions are tractors (he LOVES ridding them with his Papaw), bulldozers, heavy machinery, cars, dump trucks, animals, airplanes, playing outside, and anything I'm eating (he loves to take food from me).  He also loves to play with the "big boys" and acts like he's about 5 years old when he's wrestling with them.  He's a tough little thing, and rarely cries for more than a few seconds whenever he gets hurt.  He's still obsessed with his paci, and usually has one in his mouth the majority of the time.  He loves pushing big dump trucks around the house, and usually makes a bee line for the first pair of feet he can find to run over.

I still treat him like my baby, even though he'll be two in 2 months (my heart breaks every time I think of it).  I still try to cuddle with him all the time, but can usually only get him to comply when he's super sleepy.  Here's some iphone pictures of my little man from last week... enjoy!

The Terrible Threes

"Just wait until he's three... it's so much worse!"  We heard that phrase over and over when Cooper was two, but I was desperately hoping that wouldn't be the case for my sweet boy.  Two was a challenge, and I thought it couldn't get much worse... well, it has.

Don't get me wrong, three has brought on some of the most rewarding parts of Coop's life; superb communication skills, stellar potty-training, a hilarious personality, unconditional love that he shows/tells us multiple times a day, sleeping in a big boy bed, and a lot more independence.  It has also brought on parts of life that just makes me want to curl up in a ball and "cry it out" multiple times a day; kicking/hitting/flailing fits that seem to go on for an eternity (often times in public), the little smart mouth of a teenager, defiance and stubbornness that I've never seen, destruction that rivals that of  a tornado, meanness towards his brother and cousins that breaks their hearts, fitting sleep like an insomniac, and screaming outbursts that make him sound like a dictator.  When this bipolar side of his personality comes out, Andy and I are clueless as to what to do.  We discipline him, trust me on that, but nothing we do seems to work for him.  We've tried just about everything we can think of to discipline him, but when the next fit strikes he could care less of his punishments.  When these little slices of terror happen Andy says it's like he's demon possessed... which seems like a fitting comparison. 

I know we're not the only parents that are going through this, but man alive, it feels like it.  It's so frustrating, because I know he's genuinely a sweet and loving little boy, but I'm terrified people aren't going to want to be around him because of the ways he acts a lot of the time.  When he's in a good mood, he's the sweetest little boy you'll ever meet, but when a fit strikes, watch out!  I'm desperately hoping this is just a phase, and will get better when he gets older.  He just hit the 3.5 mark the other day, so maybe as he gets closer to 4 we'll be on the up swing!

No matter how bad he acts sometimes, you've gotta love the little animal man though (if he doesn't do something with animals when he's older he's totally missed his calling)!

Summer Bucket List - 2014 Edition

It's no surprise that I love to make bucket lists, so with the school year quickly winding down I thought it seemed like the appropriate time to make one for the summer.  Here is our list from last year.  I didn't deviate too much from that list, but I did add some things since the boys are older.  Once again, I found several of my items on Pinterest... can't go wrong there.

• Go to an outdoor movie
• Go to a water park
• Family vacation
• Watch fireworks
• Have a picnic
• Make a summer hand print craft with the boys
• Play putt-putt
• Catch lightning bugs
• Take family beach pictures
• Visit Andy while he's working
• Have a summer bonfire and make s'mores
• Family hike
• Build a sandcastle
• Star gaze
• Go to the local farmer's market
• Have an all outdoor date with Andy
• Find seashells
• Make bible story crafts
• Take a full moon walk
• Go to a "new to us" park
• Try a new restaurant in Chattanooga
• Go to the library's story time
• Have more playdates
• Take the boys to the movie theator
• Buy ice cream from an ice cream truck
• Make more crafts
• Take more pictures

Life Update

The Smithsons are trucking right on through this BUSY month of May, and amazingly, we're almost halfway through it.  It hasn't slowed down any, and there's no sign of stopping until June 2.  We're hanging on as best as we can, but let me tell ya, we're tired!  Not much has changed since my last update, but here's what's been going on the last few weeks;

• I've been doing more "crafts" around our house (if you want to call them that).  I'm ready for a change in the decor, but don't want to spend a fortune, so I've been doing lots of painting and rearranging!
• I'm on the hunt for new running shoes.  Now, don't be mistaken, I don't run, but our family walks are LONG through the concrete hills of Stanford Place.  My left hip has been killing me, and I feel my busted up pair of 4 year old Nike's are to blame.  I tried on a pair of Brooks the other day that made me feel like I was walking on air, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger yet and spend that much money on a pair of shoes.  I'm getting pretty desperate though!
• Both boys have really taken to sprinklers and water hoses so far these past warm weeks, so I'm hoping that's a promising sign for this summer!  Cooper was always weary of a sprinkler, and Clark hated the pool last year, so I'm praying they'll be little fish this year... I love swimming!
• I'm down 21 pounds, but my body seems to still look the same to me... frustrating!  All of my workouts consist of about 99% cardio, so I guess I need to start some other stuff to help out in other areas.
• Andy's birthday is this weekend, and I'm stressed out about it!  I say this with love, but he's always a little difficult on his birthday, so I'm trying to plan everything according to what he wants.
• All of my TV shows are having their finales this week, so I don't know what I'm going to do next week.  We still haven't started Dexter back, we haven't had time to!  The Bachelorette starts on Monday, so that trash will suck me in for the summer.
• Coming to work every day this week has been like stepping into the book Lord of the Flies.  My students are absolutely crazy, and I'm about the same way. 
• I'm looking for some fun, free activities for the boys and me to do this summer.  If you know of any good programs, let me know!
• I'm also looking for good books to read!  I don't expect a lot of time to read this summer with my wild men, but if you know of a few good page turners holler.

DIY Chalkboard Coffee Table

Our coffee table in the middle of our living room is a high traffic area for toys, sippy cups, big cups, plates, food, baby hands and feet (they jump off that table to the couch), computers, phones, ipads, and much more.  To say that it had seen better days would be an understatement.  The coffee table was originally just a wood finish that was in my house growing up, but the Valentine's Day before our wedding I painted it a cream color and distressed it for our new apartment.  I really loved the look of it, and it's pretty sturdy, so it's been with us ever since.  The boys have made it super dirty, and I always wiped it down with a Clorox wipe.  Well, after enough times of doing that it developed a nice sticky residue that WOULD NOT go away.  That, coupled with how nasty it was staying all the time, I knew something had to be done to it.

 

This past Saturday the boys and I (mostly me) were going stir crazy so I loaded them in the car and headed to the Ace Hardware.  I had been throwing around the idea of painting it with chalkboard paint and the hardware had it in stock.  To save a trip around the store with Cooper touching EVERYTHING and me carrying Clark (who was fighting me tooth and nail to get down) I scooped it up and headed to the checkout.  We ran up to my mom and dad's to get primer, paintbrushes, and my dad's electric hand sander (I should've asked for one of those for Mother's Day... I loved that thing!).  Once we got home I got busy out in our garage.  It was a fairly simple task (ok, really simple since I did it by myself).  Here are the pictures of what I did;

 

 Here is the table before I did anything to it - I know you can't tell, but it's really nasty.  I wiped it down before I started sanding.

 Here it is after I went a little crazy with the sander.  I took a lot of the cream layer of paint off and some of the original primer.

 Here it is primed with the thickest/gooiest/stickiest primer I've ever used in my life.  It was like super glue.  I let each layer of primer/paint sit for an hour in between coats (with the garage doors open).

 I probably didn't stir the chalkboard paint up enough, but that stuff ran out like water.  It was a mess!  This is after the first coat - I ended up putting 3 coats on because it was so thin.  Oh, and no, our cars don't have a bad oil leak, the floor was that way when we moved in.  : )

 After the 3rd coat had dried I cured the chalkboard surface with a piece of white chalk (basically I just rubbed the side of the chalk all over the whole table, where I had painted).  Really, I don't know what this does, but everyone and everything I had read told me to do this.  I erased it off and took it in.

 The boys loved it, but after they went to bed that night and I started erasing our artwork the "We love Daddy!" wouldn't come off.  It erased, but you could still read it plan as day (I'm about 100% sure that's why you cure it... I didn't use enough chalk or cover the surface enough).  So, about 10:30 that night I threw another coat of paint on and let it dry over night. 

 

The next morning I covered every single centimeter of the painted part with chalk and then covered it again.  I let it sit while we were at church and then came home and erased it (which made a huge mess on my wood floors).  After that everything erased perfectly.

When I got home from work yesterday the table looked like this!  Cooper told me he drew me some "peacocks, turkeys, and roosters with my sidewalk chalk!"  We use normal chalk though, all he knows is sidewalk chalk.  I absolutely loved it, and I can't wait to see more creations from the boys... that's the reason I painted it this way!

 

Our Annual Mother's Day Photo Shoot

This was our 2nd annual grandchild/Mother's Day photo shoot!  Anyone who has children knows how hard it is to photograph them, especially 7 (over half of which are under the age of 3), so we tried to get it done as quickly as possible!  Here is the shoot from last year.  Mom always wants updated pictures, especially since we don't have many group shots with Miss Sadie, so we wrangled them up and got busy.  I must say, I'm very pleased with the results!  The boys and Sadie were great, and did everything I asked them to!  I didn't try for individual/sibling set pictures of everyone like last year, because some (mainly my two) were too busy to sit down after the group shots.  So, we got some really good ones of all 7, some really good ones of the Brown clan, and some good ones of Sadie.  All in all a success for 45 minutes before bedtime!  Here are some of the highlights... enjoy!

5 Years Later

Today is mine and Andy's 5 year wedding anniversary!  I know I say it every year, but time really does fly!  My mom is out of town today, so I took the day off with the boys (Andy had to work).  Andy's mom is keeping the wild men tonight and we're going out to eat.  Our big anniversary plans are at the end of the month when we're going to Atlanta!  I'm really looking forward to that trip.  A lot has happened in the 5 years we've been married, and I thought it would be fun to take a look back over some of the bigger events!  Here they are in no particular order;

• Had 2 children
• Moved 3 times
• Bought a house
• Bought 3 cars
• 3 job changes (Cassidy)
• Graduated college (Cassidy)
• Added 8 nieces and nephews
• Lost a grandparent
• Ordained a deacon (Andy)

I know I've left some out, and I know some bigger life events are on the horizon, but I can't think of anyone I'd rather experience all of these highs and lows with! 

Weekly Wardrobe Review

Here are my outfits for the past week!  Oh, I've reached my new weight loss goal of 20 pounds!  It took me 3.5 months, but I'm very excited.  Now I'm going to see if I can lose 25!

 Work outfit:  Top - Old Navy, gray knit pants - Walmart, shoes - Target

 Work outfit:  Top- Target, black knit pants - Walmart, shoes - Rugged Warehouse

 Work outfit:  Scarf - Walmart, top - Penny's, pants - Anne Taylor Loft (these were pre-Cooper pants and this is the first time since I had him that I've been able to button and zip them all the way comfortably & have no muffin tops spilling over!  It only took losing 20 pounds to get there!  Shoes - Target

 Work outfit:  Top - Target, jeans - Target

 Playground and out to eat:  Top - Penny's, jeans - Forever 21, shoes - Old Navy

 Church:  Top - Walmart, blue knit pants - Walmart, shoes - Rugged Warehouse

Busy Bees

Last year I wrote this post about how busy my month of May was going to be.  I looked at it yesterday and had to laugh because it doesn't even hold a candle to this May.  I literally have something almost every single day this month, including weekends.  Most of it has to do with school and teaching 8th graders, but we've got our anniversary, Mother's Day, Andy's birthday, graduations, my dad's birthday, and two trips packed into this busy month.  Some people like being this busy, but I for one don't.  It's too much... I feel like my head is swimming every time I look at this calendar.  The sad thing is, I literally add one or two things more each day... it's never ending!  I love teaching 8th graders, and all of the end of the year activities are really fun, but stressful at the same time.  Throw on top of that everything that's going on at home and there's no rest for the weary!  I'm hoping we'll have a slow month in June, and then in July we have two (TWO!!!!) whole weeks of beach vacation!  I've never had two weeks at the beach... I can't wait!  The first week is Dauphin Island and the second week is Daytona.  I'm really looking forward to that!

Here's a basic rundown of the month of May for me;

1st week - TCAP tesing
2nd week - TCAP testing, exams, 5 year anniversary, Mother's Day
3rd week- Spirit week, 8th grade dance, Andy's birthday weekend
4th week- last week of school, 8th grade graduation, Dollywood field trip, inservice, Memorial Day weekend/Wilderness of the Smokies trip
5th week- inservice, Dad's birthday, a graduation, and our anniversary/concert trip to Atlanta