Friends

Although the little boys and I spend a lot of time with each other I mostly find them like this;

Lost in some fantasy world. The most perfect of companions. 

This particular world was being conquered by Sanders' toxic throw-up.

Boys are very different from girls. 

 Tyler Russon came over tonight to help move a lot of the boards from the garage to the backyard. We finally get to construct things tomorrow!

Most of my day was spent with errands. Either on the phone or from one place to the next. Only part of our order, that was supposed to come in last Friday, but ended up being back ordered until this Friday came in. Everything but the Trex post skirts. 

After we felt like this meant we needed to wait a whole other week before we could do any work. You can't work backwards and the skirts are one of the first things to go on. But then after some measuring and discussing we decided that skirts on the support posts would actually hang over the cement post foundations and look a little silly. In the end, it turned out to be a very good thing in a huge, giant disguise. 

We spent the evening moving boards. THANK YOU, TYLER! Removing the stairs, and cleaning up the joists.

As the sun was setting we were all still outside finishing a bunch of last minute item in preparation. All of the sudden, Sanders stood up from the sand box and said, "Mom. I am tired." He asked to be put to bed. 

He's such a sweet kid. 

Thankfully, our hard work paid off and we are all ready for tomorrow.

But don't think for a second that deck is all we have planned. Oh no, my friend, we are going to also squeeze in two soccer games, a soccer practice, a baby shower,  and a piano performance. As well as tearing off brick, installing a new ledger board, installing brackets, new joists, scabbing new boards onto existing joists, install support posts, and building a new header. 

Lots of great memories to be made tomorrow!

Passions

I was lucky enough to go shopping at a local boutique with my mom this morning. We stumbled across the perfect Mother's Day gift for Candace.

Garden Labels

 I had to rush them right over to her house because the boutique is near her home and I was afraid she would find them and buy them for herself if I waited until Mother's Day to give them to her :) She grew up on a Farm in Bear River. Her home is beautifully decorate and elegant, but she is the first one to admit that she's never gotten the farm life out of her. We wouldn't ever want her to! She has a great green thumb and grows a huge garden every year. These will be perfect!

Anybody who has spent any amount of time around Sanders in his natural habitat has met his best friend, Froggy Blanket. This beloved bit of fabric goes everywhere we will let him take it. It's rather endearing.

 

 My mom and Candace were able to help cheer the kids on in soccer today. I can't tell you how much I appreciate these women help me raise my children. Candace cheered Tennyson on which meant I finally got to see Karaia play! She did great!

After wards Kevin was taking Beckham to go meet Beckham's favorite radio personalities at a pizza place. (More on that tomorrow). So I took the other three out to dinner. This was the first sit down restaurant experience that I have ever truly enjoyed with my children. They were wonderful!

I also got strike offs for my next line today! While the colors still need adjusting and that feels like a huge mountain to climb. I'm excited to see what kinds of adventures this line brings.

Drops

I am choosing to focus on the drops of awesome today.

Even though I was late and  un-showered for two days (don't judge),I made it to the school to volunteer in Beckham's class.

Drop. of. awesome.

Had dinner ready for my family and my friend's family.

Drop.

Folded Tennyson's laundry and didn't hate all the seconds I was doing it.

Drop.

Took both little boys to the grocery store and didn't once feel like leaving them there.

Drop.

I actually enjoyed their company at the grocery store.

Two Drops.

Let Beckham face his own consequences and realized they don't necessarily reflect on me without feeling controlling about his choices.

TEN  Drops of awesome!

Arrived at the baseball game late because of said choices, and didn't even feel one bit bad. His choices. His game. He's old enough for me not to be in control of those things.

Drop.

Blogging early.

Drop.

You (All 16 of you---Hi family!) may have noticed I've missed a few posts recently.  I'm trying really hard to let go of the unneeded stress in my life. If writing felt more stressful than necessary I gave myself permission to let it go without guilt.

It's been very freeing.

Deck Demolition

I honestly can't remember what happened on Friday so we are going to skip straight to Saturday :)

Deck demolition! 

This was a very long, very productive day. 

Here are a few before pictures.

That post will hold the new stairs up

First railing off!

It was so nice to have kids who were old enough and wanted to help.

Everyone took a turn.

In the middle of demo our new deck showed up!

It doesn't look like much on the truck, but it's going to be beautiful.

They dropped of three pallets with a fork lift.

After a lot of debate and bids from everywhere, we are really loving working with Lowe's.

The Trex pieces are turned upside down. We are going with the Rope Swing color

It's still early in the day so every one is still all smiles ;)

And has enough energy to be silly.

Best. Sanders. Face. Ever!

Or is it this one? Any one else think that Beckham looks like a picture Grandpa Jim probably has of himself somewhere?

Kevin and I moved every. single. board. from the driveway into our garage. It took us an hour and a half and I will tell you that I used my weight lifting skills for most of that time. That stuff was heavy!

 These pictures really do not do the amount of material justice!

I thought this was very fitting.

Back to work. Although, working with power tools is always fun.

We had to remove all the screws and nails and take the boards of one by one because we are reusing the joists.

We also removed all of the nails from the balisters. Karaia and Beckham were a HUGE help with this! Again, so nice to be able to do this with older children. 

The railings are gone!

One more before picture. 

 It kind of looks like the railings burst away from the deck.

 This is where we stopped at the end of the day.

We will finish the demo this week and then Saturday we get to start building!!! We are not turning any helpers away if you feel the need to build something ;)