Priorities

Well I'm sure you have guessed it. I fell off the blog wagon again but this time I had a good reason.

Meet Hannah Caroline Matthews. She was born on Wednesday, December 5th at 3:55PM. She was 6 lbs. 13 oz and pretty adorable if I do say so myself. :) We have had time to adjust. Things were not always easy for us first time parents but Tim has been a pretty amazing father.

Anyways I have lots to update on here but I'm not sure how fast I will be working on that. However I wanted to document Hannah coming into our lives. She is pretty adorable and is already growing so fast.

(hopefully) more to come later...

Being Thankful

I really want to take a moment to stop, reflect and be thankful. It would be easy for Tim and I to forget about all the holidays this year when our house is being turned upside down as we get ready for the baby, work on the bump out and refinish our floors.

But I am determined to take a moment to take a deep breath and give thanks to a few deserving people.

1) I am thankful for my husband.

We have been so crazy these last few months that we can't help but get on each other's nerves sometimes. But that doesn't stop Tim from bending over backwards to make sure he can get as much done as he can for us. That includes staying up late and waking up extra early to jam as much work in one day as he can. Not only is he a loving, caring husband and partner in crime but he is already an amazing father to our pup and our growing baby girl. :) I have told him repeatedly that there is no one else I could do this with and I really mean that.

2) Our Family and Friends

We have had to cash in a lot of favors over the last couple of months. Between working on the bump out and moving everything out of our house (and now back in) we have been relying on some awesome friends and family who have really come through. It just goes to show you how important it is to have a support system and to acknowledge their generosity and help. So thank you to all of our friends and family who have been there to throw us an awesome baby shower (more details on that later), work on the bump out, paint parts of the nursery and help us move out of the house for the floors. Words can't express how grateful we are for your support and we hope you all know we would do the same for you in a heartbeat. :)

3) Our pup

Yes- James gets a special shout out as well. It is not easy to have two crazy parents who are working around the clock and changing everything around on them but he has been as cool and understanding as any dog can be. He has really gone with the flow and just been there for us with cuddles and an excited tail wag. He was a little hesitant with us at first for getting rid of the carpet...

... but in the end he got over it and let us do our thing. So thank you James for always being such a great dog for our changing family. We know that you are going to be a great big brother who will love his little sister (especially when she starts dropping food). Our lives wouldn't be the same without you.

4) Our growing family

It wouldn't be right if I left out one of the biggest things I am thankful for...our baby girl.

Tim and I are so excited to meet this growing little girl. She has been very understanding with all the work we have been doing to get ready for her. That includes helping me have a relatively uneventful pregnancy so I can continue to work full time and work on the house at night. And when Tim and I are feeling really stressed and worried that things won't get done, she gives us a little kick to remind us why we are doing all this. So thank you baby girl. Mom and Dad can't wait to meet you soon! #lessthan2weekstogo.

There are so many other things to be thankful for but this post is already making my hormones go crazy. So I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and takes some time to stop and remember what they are thankful for!

Camping themed Bridal Shower

Meet my brother in law Greg and his beautiful fiance, Liz:

In just a few short weeks they will be walking down the aisle and we couldn't be more excited for them. Since all of Liz's family and friends are all over the country, my mother in law and I decided to throw her a little shower before the big day with everyone close to all of us. Even her mom flew in from Texas! We decided on a camping theme since Liz's true test of our family was coming to our annual Canada camping trip (in the pouring rain) and because she is the "S'mores Queen."

I started searching Pinterest for some motivation and inspiration and found this picture:

link

and this:

link

We decided to work from there. We decked out the Matthews country style home with red and white picnic table clothes and various lanterns that Kathy happens to collect.

They were really fun and just added that special something to each table. We also decided to set up a s'mores making station in honor of Liz's love of the delightful treat. We set up a simple fire pit so everyone could have a sweet treat later that night.

To keep the delicious treats going, we also got some yummy cupcakes. Keeping with the camping theme we also asked the baker to focus on fun camp scenes. She came through and gave us some whimsical cupcakes that were fun and delicious.

It was fun to see the baker let her imagination run wild with the camping theme. They were clever and fun. I love that little bunny cookie and magic trees. And if you can't tell, that last cupcake was a camp fire made out of pretzels and even toasted marshmallows to boot!

But what we were really excited about were the favors that we gave the women on their way out. We went with the earlier inspiration and gave everyone their own personal s'mores.

 I loved the saying from the pin so I used the same line. It was too cute to pass up!

Our own favors came with giant marshmallows that I found at Walmart and we even added their own camping skewers to take with them on their next camping trip. Those were a hit for sure!

So those were some of the highlights of this fun camp out shower! Can't wait to show you the other fun projects that are going into their wedding but we have to wait a few more weeks to show you them. Do you love theme parties as much as I do? Making those favors were way more fun than I should admit. :)

Side Project :)

It's time to come clean. I have been keeping this to myself for awhile but now that I have started to withhold information on our latest projects, its time I come clean....Tim and I have been working on a little project of our own that we are really excited about.


(Sorry this picture is dark)

That's right. Tim and I are expecting our first baby this winter! I'm pretty excited and now that the cat is out of the bag to family, friends and work, it was time to spill the beans on here. This is not an excuse but it is a factor as to why I have been a bit quiet on here. Everything we are working on lately has been surrounding our newest addition. I actually wrote a few posts when I found out (it was just me and the pup!), telling Tim, going to my first few appointments, our changing due date and so on so I will share those over the next few days.

As for some details, currently I am 19 weeks and 2 days. I feel great and am finally starting to show. It's pretty surreal but we are pretty excited. I hope to take you guys on our journey as we find out whether its a boy or a girl (next Friday!), replace rugs upstairs, make our office into our nursery, change our guest room into an office/guest room and try to even squeeze in our bump out plans! Whew! Tiring just thinking about it.

Hope your ready for some fun!

Annual Camping Trip

I'm so excited! Our annual camping trip to Canada has arrived. That's right. Every year we pack our cars, take our pups and head to Canada to ring in the 4th of July. This trip is something that Tim's father plans every year. He loves it and 6 years ago Tim and I started tagging along. It's in Plevna, Ontario at a remote camping ground called Tooley's Lodge.

The trip consists of canoeing, camping, making smore's, hiking and lots of fishing. Although you could term this "roughing it" it by no means feel like it is.

In fact, waking up every morning and paddling out to a nearby rock is practically "resort like:

I really enjoy fishing at one lake in particular: Graham Lake. Mostly because I get extremely lucky there every time!

We eat fresh fish multiple nights while we are there. Nothing beats fresh bass cooked over an open fire. My mouth is drooling just thinking about it! Of course the humans aren't the only ones who look forward to this trip. Our puppies (never less than 4) always have a blast running without leashes, getting wet every day and exploring the woods.

James loves this trip. He loves getting wet and dirty and just being able to roam free. Its one of the few vacations he goes on with us so he soaks it in for all its worth.

I'm excited to hit the road tonight and enjoy the trip. This year we are bringing an even larger crowd but that just means it is sure to be a good time. I will be sure to tell you all about it as well as some helpful tips for fishing, packing and large road trips with a large restless puppy! Until then, Happy 4th of July!

Juggling

I don't mean literal juggling. Although that is incredibly impressive. My hand/eye coordination is severely weak to even attempt that. No, I mean juggling life. I have noticed more an more that it seems to be a struggle for many people (including myself). Take this blog for example. I was very good about posting on M,W,F every week but now that it is the summer and we are busy all the time, it seems to fall by the waste side.

It doesn't mean that I have stopped caring or this is a fad that passed. I simply have too many things going on at one time that limits how much I actually accomplish on projects. So, what have I been doing? Well, besides working full time and seeing family and friends, I have also been simply enjoying the summer. I participated in an annual 5K race that a group of us do every year.

My time wasn't great. In fact, it was my worst one to date but I am proud that we all ran in 90+ degree weather and didn't pass out. It was my own fault since I didn't train at all for it either. Still, it was fun and definitely an experience.

I also got to go to a Phillies game. First one of the season. It was a great game. Not only because they won but because there was a fireworks show afterwards that was pretty impressive.

We are also doing some rearranging. We started by moving the office to the first floor. It's still a work in progress but here is a before shot of the guest room.

and what we have going on so far. Like I said, a work in progress.

Finally, I was able to capture this sweet moment of James super excited to see Tim come home from a trip. Tim ran out to get his bags from the car and James stopped what he was doing and waited for him. Seeing how excited he gets always makes me smile.

Anyone else juggling lots of things this summer? It's hard but I'm excited to be getting ready for some awesome trips and parties.

Sprucing up the deck

Every year when the snow melts and it finally warms up, Tim and I brush the cobwebs off the deck and get it ready for BBQing and outdoor parties. This year it needed it.

We made the mistake this year of quickly putting the deck rug and furniture out before sweeping and cleaning everything. Then a lot of rain came and we were left with a moldy rug and deck. So we started by moving everything out of the way so we could sweep and power wash the deck. Needless to say, it got pretty jumbled. We were left with a pretty blank (slightly green) slate. Here are some before shots of the deck.

After some patient power washing done by Tim we were left with a much better deck.

A word of caution with power washing: It is easy to get zoned in on removing a bit of mildew or staining from a spot but be careful because if you cut in too close with the washer, it will splinter and eat away at the wood. In the effort of full disclosure, here is a shot of that happening with our railing.

(The extra light half circle spots on the railing is where we got a little too close with the power washer. This could hurt the integrity of the deck so make sure you aren't spraying too close or too long in one spot.)

Moving on to some better before and afters. Here is a shot of our chairs before (left) and after (right). Ahh- much better!

Finally we started putting back the pieces. Unfortunately the rug could not be saved so we are on the hunt for a new rug. I want something with more color and pattern so hopefully we can find it soon.

This is the only shot with cushions but it is pre- power washing.

Next is finding some more greenery to jazz up our deck so it screams oasis. Are you "decking" out your deck this summer? New pillows or furniture? Or are you simply using nature around you?

Quality vs. Quantity

Over the last couple of weeks I have not posted as often as I usually do. Usually I try to post what I am working on three days a week. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind and to be honest, I have let house projects (not to mention chores) and other activities fall to the side.

I realized I started to feel guilty for not posting as often and tried to come up with something to write. Then I decided over the last week that I would rather write quality posts rather than quantity. For me this blog is not only a way to document our adventures but also a way for others to try something new as well. I don't want to fill it with something I don't care about. And since things have been crazy with Tim and I, I haven't had a chance to upload (and edit) pictures to show you what we have been up to. But that will change as things wind down for us. I just felt like I wanted to address my recent lack of posts.

It is not because I am not enjoying the blog or I am burnt out from coming up with ideas. Its because May is a very very busy time for us and I want to make sure that what I do write about is meaningful to us. So I leave you with that. I am in the process of editing a lot of our pictures and hope to get those up soon but in the meantime I will leave you with a picture of our pup having a play date with his little buddy Twitch this past week. If you can't tell, Twitch is about 1/8 the size of our pup. :)

Our 84 hours with a kitten

So last time we left off I showed you a sneak peak of the surprise we found under our shed.

It all happened Tuesday night. Tim and I were hanging out on the couch with the living room window open since it was so nice out and I heard a squeak. At first I thought it was mice or something so I freaked out but after Tim listened he realized it sounded like a cat. So he headed outside to our side yard with the shed and saw a little kitten between the shed and the house. We then spent the next hour trying to get it to come out/ see if there were any others. No luck on both fronts. Finally we decided we needed to try in the morning when it was light out because it was probably scared to see a bright flashlight holding human coming after it.

Wednesday morning while I went to work, Tim was able to convince the little kitten to come out. He brought it inside and set it up with a towel, some milk and some loving. *update: We did figure out that the kitten was old enough to have wet cat food so we set them up with that and it was a very happy camper. Then he sent me this adorable picture.



James was not really amused.



According to Tim, our pup did not understand why we had to rescue the kitten and why it was in our home. Still he was pretty gentle and pretty much just ignored him/her. Or at least tried too...


I think although James acted tough, the kitten was pretty hard to resist.


Anyways, Tim and I both knew that we wouldn't be keeping the kitten. It is hard to explain but if we were ever going to multiple our pets, it would be in the same pet family. That way out routine would remain relatively the same; only multiplied. Does that make sense? No. Oh well, here's another cute pic of the kitten.

 

We looked up the SPCA in our area to see about dropping the kitten off so it could get adopted. They were closed so we knew we were in for the night. This made up slightly nervous since a young animal tends to whine a lot at night...especially in a new place. We loaded a box up with warm towels and put it next to our bed. Luckily the kitten stayed in there all night and didn't make a peep.

 We decided that morning to try and find a good home for this kitten first. There is nothing wrong with the SPCA but we wanted to offer our friends and family a chance at getting an adorable and loving addition to their home before it went to a shelter. So we did what anyone would do during this century. We posted it on facebook. 

Before we knew it, people were sharing the pictures and blasting it out to their friends and family so this little one could get a good home. It was pretty amazing to have everyone helping. And it paid off in as little as 24 hours. Our friend Tracy's coworker was looking for a new kitten (since she recently lost her last one) and thought it was fate that Tracy showed her our pictures. Before Thursday night was over we had found a home for our little Pipsqueak. 

All in all it was a little adventure that had our attention and our hearts for 84 hours. We are excited for his/her new home and are happy that we will get to have updates every once in awhile from our friends coworker. 

 

Have you ever found a stray pet? Did you keep it? Did you find them a good home?  I told Tim that if this was a puppy we REALLY would have been in trouble. :)