Griffin's Newborn Photo Shoot!

I'm super excited to share with all you guys some of Griffin's newborn photos! Our friend Misti did such an amazing job!! We are soo in love with how they turned out. Griffin did an awesome job that too :). He was active and alert for part of the time then wore himself out and we got some great ones of him sleeping too. So precious!!

Misti did a great job of giving us 3 copies of every picture (this only 1/3 of them!). She did every picture in a cool tone, a warm tone, and black and white. Each one is so special and unique. I think that I've watched them all on my laptop as a slide show a million times already this morning :). I am going to have an incredibly hard time picking just a couple of them for his birth announcements.

Ya'll I have soo much more to blog (ahem, Thanksgiving 4 days later...) about but I just had had had to get these posted!!

If you had to pick just one of the pictures above for a birth announcement which one would you pick??

Its Begining To Look A Little Like Christmas!

Pretty soon it will be time to pull out our 4 million tubs of Christmas decorations and I can not wait!! Decorating for Christmas has to be one of my most favorite things to do all year. Putting it all back up is a very dark day for me :(. This year I started early cruising different Etsy websites and Pinterest looking for new ideas to help spruce up our already existing decorations. There is just soo much fun stuff out there! I could spend a million dollars just on decorating for Christmas alone!

The thing that I've been wanting most so far this year is a new wreath for my front door. Is it just me or have ya'll noticed too just how dang expensive they can get!! The cheaper ones that I did find... well, they just looked cheap. I found a beautiful wire mesh wreath on Etsy that I was dying for until I saw the price. $175.00! What!! I started wondering if  I could make one myself. I looked around online for a while until I found a couple of different websites that gave really easy tutorials. I kinda combined all the different techniques into what I thought I could manage and off I went to the store of my dreams... Hobby Lobby!

I bought all that I thought that I would need for soooo much cheaper than what they were priced for online.



Proof that I spent waaaay less than $175.00.

Actually once I got done making my wreath I realized that I had quite a bit left over of what I had bought. I really could have made two wreaths!! That comes out to a little over $20.00 each. How amazing is that!

Here is my progress in making my wreath :



The last picture is the finished product (I think). I keep fluffing and shifting things on it just a little bit. :)

I can't wait to get it hung on our front door!

You Know You're A Boy Mom If...

It doesn't surprise you to pull empty bullet casings out of the dryer...

Another Bathroom Checked Off The "To Do" List!

Does anyone remember this post? Probably not :). I think that when I wrote it I had been blogging for like an entire month. It has been almost a year and we finally finished another bathroom in our home!

Just to quickly recap... our house needs a lot of work. It was built and decorated in the totally tubular 80's :). Bobby and I love the way our home is situated and the space that it provides for our family but it needs some serious updating!! Like most families these days, we are doing it ourselves and working with a budget. Even then, it is still taking us a lot of time.

Last January, I stated to re-do "Caroline's bathroom". It's the spare bathroom that is attached to the bedroom upstairs that will soon be Griffin's. At the time I started I was still knee deep in grief over Caroline's loss and the only way I knew how to cope was to stay as busy as possible.



This is the before picture! Don't you just looove the pink and blue plaid wall paper!! :) I didn't. Also, the shower door drove me nuts as did the pale color of the cabinet.

This bathroom was the 3rd project that I started in our house. The first thing that I changed was to have Bobby remove the shower doors. They were just so....Gold. The next thing that I did was to spray texture onto the wallpaper and then paint over with a nice neutral beige.



Good Bye scary shower doors!!

I forgot to take a picture of the paint on the walls because that night I decided that with all this home remodeling I was doing  and paint fumes I was breathing, I should probably make sure that I wasn't pregnant.

As we all know now, I WAS!!

I promptly stopped all the hard labor and Bobby said that he would finish the bathroom for me. :) My poor hubby has been soo busy that here we are, almost a year later and it is finally done!!

We pretty much did almost everything in the bathroom (with the exception of replacing the floors and the counter top). We replaced all the hardware, replaced the mirror, and painted the walls and cabinets. There are still some minor touch-ups to be done to the paint but overall I am in love with how it all turned out!

I am soo proud that we have checked off another thing on our household "to-do" list. I can't wait to tackle the rest of the house!

Grady's Hair ~ Part 2

Yesterday Bobby took Grady in to get his hair "fixed". I use that term very loosely as even the sweet ladies at the hair cutting place were unable to even it all out. Bobby said that when he walked in they asked if it was Mom or Dad that had messed up his hair. When Bobby told them that Grady had done it himself they almost didn't believe him! :)

Part of the excitement of the day was getting to ride in Daddy's truck all by himself!

They asked how he had cut soo close to his own head because they didn't even have clippers that would cut it as short as he had. :). They ended up having to leave part of it a little longer than the rest. Now my poor baby looks as if he's had surgery. HA!!



Waiting to get his hair cut!



When they got done with his haircut Grady was super excited and told Bobby that he looked just like Cooper! Cooper, who is My SIL's middle son is Grady's hero these days. He talks about him all the time and now Grady is ecstatic because he thinks he looks like him now :).

All done!

I pray that this was just a one time thing. I miss his hair soo much! I'm not sad because I don't feel like this new haircut makes him look any older, but just really different. He hardly looks like the same child to me now and I'm super super sad about it. Thank goodness his hair grows crazy quick!

( A big shout -out goes to my husband for being wonderful enough to take our camera with him to the barbershop! Thanks babe for getting soo many good pictures! xoxo)

What The What???

So this morning I am awoken at 3:50 AM by my little dog growling and barking. Usually its only because he hears one of the boys up and about. Given the time that it was, this was sooo not good. I stumbled into the living room to find Grady up. Grrr.

Let me back up by explaining that Grady played catch-up on sleep yesterday. He has been napping horribly lately since he's out of his crib. He slept so long that he slept all through dinner time and beyond. I finally told Bobby just to take him upstairs and put him right back to bed.

Fast forward many hours later... So I find Grady standing in our living room holding a little baggie of cake balls that had been bought earlier the previous day in one hand and in the other hand was a pair of scissors....



Here he is around lunchtime today proudly showing me a caterpillar he found in his sandbox. How can one resist such a cute smile!


Yup, he cut his ding dang hair!! Bobby is taking him later today to get it all shaved off. I'll post the "after" pictures and post them later.

Double Grr.

All I can say is that at least we got our Christmas pictures done yesterday :).

I hope that everyone had a great weekend!

Griffin Slept Through The Night :)

So, once again, the most boring blog post ever... but this is just something that I had to capture for my own sake!

Griffin Slept Through The Night!

I can not tell you how bad I needed it too. We put him to bed around 10ish and I had to wake him up at 6:30 to eat! The only thing different that I can think of that we did was that Bobby made him a bottle that seemed so thick with rice cereal that it was like a little baby milkshake :). He really didn't even drink that much of it before he drifted off. I totally plan on trying that again tonight!

Blog Hop Friday

Hi!

If you are coming over from Mommy on the Move's blog then Welcome to my blog's humble abode! I'm Hillary, the mom to 3 crazy little boys, Graham - 9 years old, Grady 3-1/2 years old, and our newest addition Griffin - 7 weeks old. We also have 1 heavenly little girl that is our family's guardian angel. Feel free to scroll back through my past blog posts and read up on our exciting hanging on for dear life adventures!

Leave me a comment if you stop by so I can check out your blog too! I love to find new followers and follow others back!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Griffin's Newborn Photo Shoot - A Preview!

Isn't he just nom-able! I squealed with delight and then promptly started crying when I saw my first preview of little Griffin. About a week and a half ago we had his newborn photos done. He really was about 3 weeks older than he should have been to get those really really good sleepy baby ones but now I'm kinda glad that we waited! I like how we were able to catch some of him asleep and some of him really alert like this one!

I am just dying to see more of what my friend Misti was able to get. She is an amazing photographer (and school teacher!) We are so thankful for her and her amazing God-given talent! 

There Will Always Be Reminders

Yesterday I was doing some minor stuff in what will soon become baby Griffin's room.

When we first moved into this house a little over a year ago I knew I was pregnant with Caroline (but didn't yet know that she was a girl). I just started the bad habit of tossing baby/pregnancy things that I would need up into the top of the spare bedroom closet. There is sooo much stuff up there and it stated to make me crazy yesterday. I started pulling things down that I knew that Griffin could already use and found this...

It arrived in the mail with some pajamas that had been ordered for Grady. They are a size 6 months and all of Grady's that had been ordered were a 3T. It was not on the packing slip at all. I have to admit that I am a little superstitious. I was about 20 weeks along by this point and knew that we were expecting a little girl. I couldn't wrap my head around why God or the Universe was sending me something in blue. I was already having very bad feelings and soo many premonitions about the outcome of her pregnancy (just as a refresher for ya'll, we lost her a week later). I thought to myself why was I being sent something that had not been ordered and was the wrong color for us to even use in the future?

I saved it even though it terrified me. I still had a bad feeling that I would be using it in the future but just not for the baby that I was carrying. Little did I know at the time how right I was.

Yesterday I pulled this little fleece outfit down from the top of the closet, pulled it out of the original plastic packaging bag, and hung it on a little hanger in Griffin's closet. I was horribly sad for a while until I came to the realization that I will forever be confronting things that remind me of Caroline and her loss. I made the conscious choice to be grateful for these times. It's in the remembering of her that will keep her alive in my life. It will be in BAD times and GOOD times just like with my other earthly kiddos! I'm so thankful that I found this little outfit yesterday for it brought me closer to my daughter if only for a little while.

El Destrcto Rides Again and a Nursery Preview!

Need I even tell you that Grady is at it again! ;) I know.... it's daily now. I have to post this stuff because I know that one day I'll look back at it and laugh. He is just soo full of it! He is nothing but swirling mayhem and mischief. I fully believe that God has given him the special talents of a quick and inquisitive mind to help him in the future. It's just right now that he's making his Momma bonkers.

I'm almost 100% sure that most of his recent behaviour is because he is having to share his time with Bobby and myself more since Griffin has been born. He doesn't get the attention that he needs plus I can't keep as good of an eye on him as I used to.

Side note : right now he's begging me for a pair of scissors... um, no.

Yesterday he was really really quiet. I should have known instantly. He wandered into the living room covered in brown powder. WTF?? He also smelled suspiciously sweet. I walked with him back into the kitchen and this is what I saw...





It was an almost entire container of Chocolate Ovaltine. He had pulled it out of the pantry and gotten the lid off. Do you love the little foot prints in the dust? Bath #1 for the day.

I have to also say that during this time period of the day Grady kept running into the living room saying that he needed to "poo". His Elmo potty is kept in the living room where we can keep track of what is going on. He never did use the potty though. When I went to take Grady upstairs for his bath following the Ovaltine incident I discovered that Grady had "pooed" on the carpet upstairs.

Out came this...





It apparently works on pet "poo" and kid "poo".

This morning Grady wandered downstairs early. I gave him a good morning hug and noticed that his jammies were wet. I asked him if he had an accident during the night and he quite frankly told me "no, it's water from the toilet". Um, What??? I hauled butt upstairs and discovered this...



toilet water and toilet paper and towels and toys everywhere

Apparently no time of day or night is safe from Grady. This phase has to be over soon right??


And now onto other fun stuff! (Need I say that I have hopefully child proofed the door into the new baby's room.) We are moving right along getting it ready for Griffin to move into! So far we have his crib set up and just need to move the changing table and armoire in.




We ended up using our old sofa table in Griffin's room! I was going to cover it with a pretty table cloth but once Bobby had put it in his room I realized that the woods matched almost perfectly! Yay!!




I can't wait to show everyone the finished product! It may take us a while to get all the rest of the furniture in and all the fun things up on the wall that I have planned but I think that its going to be soo worth it!

Tiny Prints Love

I can not believe that Christmas seems to be right around the corner and we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet! I'm super excited this Christmas to be sending out our Christmas cards. Last year was pretty hard deciding if we even should or not. I was still in the harshest part of grief and just getting out of bed everyday was a struggle. We eventually did but only because we found one of those "sit on Santa's lap" places that would instantly print out the cards for us. If I had had to go to a picture place and then pick out something for the mailing portion I would have not even considered it.

This year is so different!! This year I could not be more excited!! The joy for the upcoming season is back in my heart and I can't wait to share our completed family with all of our family and friends.

I have been endlessly cruising every online card website that I can find to find THE perfect card for our family. So far my favorites are from the Tiny Prints Christmas Card line.

These are the top three choices that I have narrowed the field down to :

Elegant

image found here

Whimsical

image found here

or just plain Funny!

image found here

 Which one would you pick? Do you have any special holiday card traditions?

Crazy Catch Up!

Wow!! I can not believe how crazy stupid long its been since I've been able to blog! I think that this might be the absolute longest that I have been gone and I've really missed it! We have been crazy busy, coupled with the fact that Bobby is gone soo much of the time that I haven't had the time to blog like I used to. Since hunting season started here in South Texas it's been pretty much trench warfare around here. I spend most of my time ducking and covering :). I really have a good sense of what life must be like for single moms and military wives. My heart seriously goes out to them! I spend most of my days now just trying to keep everyone in clean clothes and fed and that's about all I can manage :) . I seriously wouldn't change it for the world though. I love my 3 boys soo much and I'm unbelievably fortunate to be able to stay at home with them like I do.

Anywho, here is a catchup post of whats been going on in our little lives the past week and a half.

• We started the process to look for Grady some furniture for his bedroom. The first store that we went to check out didn't have exactly what we were looking for but we did have some fun family come to visit us there.

Griffin Burkett Mueller was fortunate enough to meet his Great Great Uncle William Burkett Riggs.



Uncle Burkett is Bobby's mom's (pictured above) Dad's brother. The Burkett name is a long one. I need to do a whole other blog post just to cover this very interesting portion of Bobby's family's history.



Bottom center is the father, Nathan Boone Burkett and one of his sons that we are direct descendants to, Samuel Scott Burkett, is on the top row 2nd from the Left.



Briefly (because this portion of family history is thankfully long enough to be book-bound) Nathan Burkett was a Texas Ranger. It is evident by the picture above where one can see the Texas Ranger Star attached to his watch chain. Nathan Boone Burkett was so named after the famed outdoors man Daniel Boone who was a close family friend. One of his sons, Samuel Scott, (pictured on the top row second from the left) was a Sheriff in a nearby county and also a taxidermist. It is because of these two hearty-stock Texans that Bobby and his family are here today!

• Lately, Graham has become more and more of a help to me. I am so thankful that I have him sometimes. (ok, all the time :) Sometimes I forget how old he is getting and that I can now depend on him to help me with the little things. One of the things that he's best at is holding Griffin while I get household things done. Griffin almost never cries while in Graham's arms but when he does Graham knows just what to do to sooth him. Love it!!

 



I caught Graham laying down on the floor next to Griffin earlier this week watching cartoons. It was soo sweet because Graham was absent-mindedly holding in Griffin's paci while they laid there together. It just looked like second nature to Graham and I was soo proud of him. He is going to make an awesome Daddy one day!



• Grady lately is a total stink! He is such a silly, funny, mess that I can't help but laugh at him most of the time. He is all over the place these days. The other day he must have grabbed my camera and just started snapping away. I totally was cracking up at him at I was uploading the newest batch of pictures to our computer.



Exhibit A: The culprit. He was caught red-handed by his own camera taking mistake!



Exhibit B : the current mess that covers my coffee table! :) Are you laughing at the layers of crap that cover it? Just in this picture alone I see legos, books, dirty Griffin pajamas, toys, and I can't for the life of me figure out what that yellow thing is :).



• And of course I can't forget my youngest and what he's been up to lately!

Griffin's hobbies include eating, pooping (a lot), sleeping (some), and keeping his Momma on her toes!

• We were super excited the other day to get a package in the mail from our dear friend Kerry! We are soo blessed to know her and to call her our friend! She sent the greatest care package in the mail that had a little something for everyone in it! It came at just the right time too. The boys were driving me bonkers and all the fun things in the container entertained them for quite a while!







Graham is helping Griffin open his part of the package. You can see on the table some of the other fun stuff that the boys received. Graham got a pen pal letter from Kerry's son Ryan, a pen, a key chain, a Mighty Bean, stickers, and a little stuffed Koala Bear. You can also see some fun chocolate (that is almost all gone already!) a Wiggles book, and 4 other fun Scholastic books (not pictured). Griffin got the most adorable little outfit that I can't wait to put on him!



• The other night Bobby and I were super excited because we got to go on the funnest Haunted walking ghost tour of downtown San Antonio! Our tour guides were two sisters that dressed in period 1800's clothing and told the most interesting stories of Texas History and the ghost stories that surrounds it!






We started off at the Alamo. Isn't it soo pretty at night!



The hotel that we were standing in front of here is called the Menger Hotel. It is supposed to be haunted by 32 ghosts! One of the ghost supposed still here is non other than President Teddy Roosevelt who recruited for The Rough Riders in the bar here. He is still there to this day trying to recruit men... spooky!

• Last weekend I took the boys up to see Bobby at his deer lease. It was Griffin's first time there! I can't wait for the weekends were all 3 boys are able to hunt with Bobby and spend the night. Too fun for them and me! :)

This picture cracks me up! It's all rustic until you get to the part with Griffin in his soft, frilly blanket... :)

Handsome men!



This is Grady's favorite thing to do at the deer lease. He will beg and beg for a "4 Leller (wheeler) ride"



Bobby's dad and the boys. You can't even see poor Griffin in this picture :(.

Thanks for hanging in there with me through this crazy long post. I promise to be more regular in the very near future!