Chocolate Boy..........

This is pretty much just a post of pictures. 

All because my kids are so dang cute, of course...

Parker walked up to me carrying the Nutella and a spoon...

How could I say no (and I wanted to play around with my camera)...

 

So we enjoyed a little bedtime snack together.  Man, I love being a mom!

I love that little man!

A Weekend of Firsts, Friends and Fun!

This past weekend Ben and I were lucky enough to both be a part of our friends' wedding! (Congrats to Nick and Laura, by the way..)  With that came a ton of fun and for me.. A very BIG first.

I left Preston for the first time over night.  Even more than that I didn't see him (awake anyways) from 4:30p on Friday until 12:30p on Sunday.  Mama Bear did not like that very much.  However, sadly, the muchkins didn't seem to mind.  I didn't really think they would.  They are super happy boys that needs no help from me to fall asleep and stay asleep all night.  The boys spent their days being spoiled by Bapa and Nana while playing outside, going to the fair and of course.. Staying up past their bedtimes.  I think that is part of a grandparent's job.  Not the spoiling part, that is a given.. But the staying up late part.  I seriously don't think clocks work correctly when the kids are visiting the grandparents.  Or, maybe it's just that I am so dead tired by the end of the day that I count down the minutes until bedtime.  Whatever it is, I am so happy that the boys had a great time, I had a great time and better yet.. Nana and Bapa had a great time.  They don't get to see the boys often enough (we have a 2 1/2 hour drive to thank for that) and it was so wonderful to see how excited and thankful they were to have been given the time to watch the boys. 

As I said, Ben and I were gone at a wedding.  Seriously.. I have NEVER seen a wedding go so smoothly.  I don't even know where to begin.. Everything ran perfectly on schedule and there was no drama and of course.. the bride was absolutely beautiful... The flower girls even were tear free during the ceremony (I, however, was not).  The only hiccup.. The motorhome (that we were driving from the ceremony to the reception) wouldn't start.. the battery was dead.  Luckily, after only a couple of minutes of jumping it from another car we were on our way to Neil's bar (we of course had to make a pit stop for a couple of drinks)...  The ceremony was amazing.  I don't know if I am a super emotional person or if it is the fact that I actually listened during the mass, but I was crying.  Heck, I was crying the night before while the groom's father was making a speech.  Whatever.. I can cry if I want! Haha.. The reception was equally as beautiful.. And I was very proud of the card box that I made for them...

Ben and I got to dance the night away, even though I was dead tired by 9p!  And better yet.. We got to sleep in together.  What?  I know.. I will say it slowly for all you parents out there who don't know what I am talking about.

 

Sleep. in. together.

No, we didn't both have to get up at 6a with the little rugrats, heck.. One of us didn't even have to get up!  We both got to sleep in until the unheard of time of 10a.  However, I wish we could have been sleeping in our bed.  I have a horrible back and hotel beds and I never mix well.  Oh well.. Better luck next time!

After watching the bride and groom open gifts and saying goodbye to their wonderful families, we rushed back to see the boys.. Part of me wished we never left them in the first place!

Well, all is well that ends well and this past weekend ended very well.  I was exhausted (I still am), but it was worth every waking moment! 

Again, Congrats to Nick and Laura!  I love you both so much and I am so happy for you guys.  Now hurry home so we can have a much needed family dinner!

Look What I Made... Initial T-Shirts

I was creeping around Pinterest the other day (surprise, surprise) and I came across some totally adorable, totally easy t-shirts for the boys.  Behold,

Initial Bleach T-Shirts

To do this project you will need:

A Shirt (I am thinking about doing a library bag out of canvas also)

Bleach (in a spray bottle)

Contact Paper (found at Target by the home cleaning supplies)

Paper Bag or Newspaper

To start you need to cut out your letter or design out of contact paper.  I taped mine down (backwards) to the contact paper to make sure it didn't move around as I was cutting. 

Place the letter directly onto the shirt. 

Place a paper bag between the two layers of the shirt (so the bleach doesn't bleed through) and start spraying. 

It will start to fade almost immediately, but (as usual) I got impatient so I used the blowdryer to speed things up!

Finished product... Like I said, super easy!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I got to celebrate my birthday.. The big 2-4! Whoa! Anyways.. My idea of 'celebrating' has become like night and day comparable to the way I celebrated sans children. 

So, the night before my birthday, as I was tucking Parker in, I was telling him that tomorrow would be my birthday and that he should say 'Happy Birthday' to me because that would make me really happy (he has been upsessed with describing feelings lately). Sidenote, yes.. I told someone to say 'happy birthday' to me and no, I am not the least bit shameful about it! Well, Preston woke up at 6am, the usual, but instead of doing the usual (getting up with him), I decided to give him a bottle and see if he'd just go back to sleep (or atleast I would get a few more minutes of quiet).  I am happy to report that it was a huge success.. I rolled over to look at the alarm clock when I heard him babbling again and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was 7:45.  I grabbed the little bugger and we headed downstairs to start our day.  We were going to be joining some friends at a local petting zoo, so I started getting ready.  I was expecting Parker to come down, but he didn't... I even went up to wake him up and said something along the lines, 'Hey dude.  You ready to get up and go see some friends?'  His reply? 'No. Sleep.' And he rolled over and went back to bed.  Like mother, like son, I guess...  Oh well, I went back downstairs to continue to get everything ready for our day.  A little while later Parker walks down the stairs (wearing the biggest smile on his face and his typical morning 'do) and said, 'Appy Birfday Mommy! You happy now?'  My heart melted.. A few tears were shed (I am tearing up now, again).  And we gave each other a big bear hug.  I don't know how the kid remembers stuff like that, but either way.. I love it.  Anyways, we got dressed and headed out the door...



The weather was perfect, if anything.. A little chilly.  But since I had Littlest Monster on my back, I was so excited that it wasn't 90*, or even 75* for that matter. We hung out there for a few hours; feeding animals, petting animals, getting lost in a maze (Molly, next time I vote we do the kid's one), and having lunch.  The boys were so good, it was insane.  Don't get me wrong, they ususally are super good, and maybe I was just noticing it more because I was in a good mood.  Whatever the reasoning, I loved it.  It was one of the best birthday presents I got!  Parker finished off his visit with a Superman icecream cone and we headed home to catch up with Daddy.

Parker feeding the most adorable miniture donkey!



The Two Peas after the train ride!

Yes, the goat is chewing on his finger.  Two seconds later Preston was face down and three goats were climbing all over him.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, but my motherly insticts kicked in too quickly!

After playing at home for a little bit, we headed to (where else) Crafts Direct.  My heaven on Earth.  Again, the boys were so good.  I don't know what got into them.  They didn't make a peep the whole time we were there!  I could have stayed there for hours (for more reasons than one).  We ran a few more errands and I came back home to a surprise waiting for me...

{Perfection}

Ben told me that he had a lot of work to do, so I expected to make dinner and do all that jazz.  Not the case, Mr. Kelley had some great gifts lined up for me on the table, but one the best gifts.. Telling me to go relax and 'take the night off'.  I quickly ran upstairs to finish his anniversary gift (in silence) while he made dinner.  After a delicious dinner with some amazing conversation and tons of giggles (from all of us), Ben gave the boys their baths.  It is crazy that something so little can mean so much when you're the one who has to do it day after day...

Giggle Monster #2

After putting the kids to bed we cuddled up to watch, again... my favorite, True Blood.  For those of you who aren't hooked, get hooked. And believe me, your husbands will be more than willing to watch it with you.. Haha ; )

I went to bed feeling so thankful for so many things.  These last couple of years have been so great and I cannot wait to see what else God has in store for me.  It was definately a birthday for the record books (spending my birthday in Ireland is a close second)...



Look What I Made.. An Anniversary Gift

Ben and I are about to celebrate our second anniversary.. I know, poor guy, he has my birthday and our anniversary all in the same week.  Luckily he gets to bundle gifts. Anyways.. I recently made him a little somethin' (and yes, I gave it to him before I posted this). 

Happy Anniversary Ben!

It is a 20x24 frame with our wedding cards woven inside it.  It also says 'Kelley est 2009'

You could do this for anything.. I think I am going to do this with the boys' cards for their baptisms and birthdays. Anways...

First you need to start with all of our cards.  Check!

We had a lot of guests at our wedding... Therefore we had a lot of cards!

Then you need to start cutting! 

I was going to do a 1/2 inch or something like that, but I just decided to pick a spot on my paper cutter and just line everything up on that. 

I cut and I cut...

And I cut!

Then I started to weave the strips.  I suggest gluing the corner together first and then working your way across.  Be sure to push every row together tight, or by the end of your project your paper will be very spread apart and crooked!

Just keep weaving.

(Parker even tried to help.. Key word: Tried)

Oh yes.. If I haven't already stated.. I highly suggest a glass of wine while you're doing this project (just add it to the list of supplies).  It gets the creative juices flowing.  However, I do not suggest taking a drink after every piece that is woven.  What the heck.. Do what you want!

Your masterpiece will begin to take shape.  And just when you think you're getting somewhere, you'll measure it and you will realize that you are no where near being done.  Suggestion... Don't measure it!

Break time... Aka.. The boys are up!

And no, that is not still my first glass of 'creative juice!'

This is where I stopped for the night....

Pretty, huh?

After I was done weaving it to the size that I needed, I used a large piece of cardboard (or the back or the frame) and sprayed it with my handy spray adhesive.  Then I stuck the weaved paper on top of that.  I made sure to heavily spray the edges so the paper doesn't unravel if you ever need to change frames.

Framed and ready for the finishing touches... For those I used my beloved:

Cricut!

I went to Crafts Direct today (shocker.. I know) and purchased some white Cricut vinyl (that can be used on glass and walls and.. pretty much anything).

For this project I used the Calligraphy Collection font because they have one on there that looks Celtic and since we got married in Ireland, I thought it would be a perfect fit. 

I cut out: KELLEY sized at 3 1/2 inches 

I cut out: est 2009 at 1 1/2 inches

I used painters tape to make a straight line across the glass and then I stuck the letter directly to the glass.

Last, but not least, I gave it to the hubby and he hung it on the wall. 

I know the white kind of blends into the paper, but I wanted it to draw people closer to have them look at it.  Ok, my exact reasoning to Ben was:

'I want people to be like 'What does that say?  Oh my goodness... She wove all their wedding cards together to make this and then cut out words to go on top of it.  Wow!  She is amazing!''  So.. If you ever come to my house and see it (it is right next to the front door) I expect you to say that. 

Well, I am off to enjoy an episode of True Blood with my handsome fella. 

Hope you all enjoyed my anniversary gift tutorial and I will be back tomorrow to report on my awesome birthday...

I Just Became a Statistic...

I get pregnant when I try. I have easy pregnancies. And I have even easier deliveries.  I thought I was untouchable.  Ben and I tried for two months (which was upsetting for us that we didn't get pregnant on the first try.. pathetic, I know).  Luckily, the second month ended with success!

I took a test a couple of days before I was due to get my period, both came back negative.  I was upset, of course, but I still had a glimmer of hope that I was actually pregnant (my boobs were killing me and eggs sounded good).  Sure enough, I bought a different brand of at home pregnancy tests and took one once I became a few days late.  We were so excited with the results.. I threw the 'Big Brother' shirt on Preston and called our families.  I felt a little strange for a couple of reasons, but from what I knew.. A baby was growing inside me, I was due in early April and I couldn't be more excited.

Saturday I went to Valleyfair for a bachelorette party.  I went on a ride (from what I read, pregnancies that are farther along are threatened because the jerking motions could tear the placenta away from the uterine wall.  However, my placenta was just forming and not even attached yet.).  I didn't feel the greatest, I think I was more nervous than anything, so I skipped the next few.  I noticed spotting that day, which I know is completely normal, but I decided to take it even easier....

We got to the hotel, where we were going to get ready to go out, and I was about to get into the shower when I noticed blood.  Not a ton, but definitely more than spotting.  I immediately hated myself for going on rides and called my doctor.  The nurse told me to try to settle myself down, but she also said that I should get to the nearest emergency room.

I left the party and went on my own.  I didn't want to call anyone (yet) because one, it may be nothing and two, there was nothing other people could do but be worried.  I got to the emergency room and waited. And waited. And waited.  I was in the waiting room for over an hour and a half before I was finally taken back to an exam room.  If I would have known it was going to take that I long I would have just driven home and went to my local hospital, but of course.. I didn't.

I got into an exam room and a doctor came in to ask me some questions.  Why am I here? What happened? Blah, blah, blah....

They drew blood and I was given a pelvic exam.  She was going to order an ultrasound, but instead she just came in and told me the news...

When the tested my blood, my hCG level should have been around 1000.  It was at 7.  She figured that I pretty much conceived and the day I took the test, I was already aborting the baby.  By the way.. I hate using the the word 'abort,' because I think it sounds like I had a choice.. Let me tell you, that is not the choice I would have made.  Anyways..

I wish I would have never taken that other test because I could have just told myself that I was a week late or something. 

I know it is better that it happened now, instead of weeks or months from now.

But it still sucks and I am still upset.

I know everything happens for a reason.

But it still sucks and I am still upset.

I know I have two healthy, beautiful boys already.

But it still sucks and I am still upset.

I am upset for so many different reasons and if any of you have ever have this happen to you, I'm sure you understand.  And if this hasn't ever happened to you.. I hope you never have to try to understand.

I am obviously upset because I 'lost' a child.  I know it was just a ball of cells at this point, but it was still my baby ball of cells.

I am upset that I had to wait so long to find out any sort of answers. 

I feel really upset because I feel like I failed.  I know it was out of my control, but still... Like I said before, I prided myself on my baby making abilities and now... I guess I don't even know what to say.

I am currently at a loss for words, but I am sure I will have much more to report as days go by. I know I am not the only one who has ever gone through this, and I know I am not alone through this whole healing process, but when I never really heard anyone else's story, so I wanted to share this with all of you and hopefully you can really know that you're not alone if this ever happens.