Jonah and Noah' s Birthday Celebration... early

Dad, Jusitn and Nic are leaving for their Elk Hunt so we needed to get these birthdays celebrated before they left.  Carlie made cupcakes and mom decorated the table.  

Always a fun time trying to get this many kiddos to LOOK AT THE CAMERA AT THE SAME TIME!

Cousin Sleepover At Mimi and Papa's

Mom and dad had these five little crazies spend the night Saturday night.  

Seth shot the bow for the first time.  Not bad for his first shot!  He did not want his picture taken.

Jonah kept asking Papa to shoot.  He did great.  He begged to shoot again on Sunday and even came home and googled a Genisis Bow and asked if he could get one.  

Starting The Kitchen

They are finally starting on the outdoor kitchen!  So crazy how they tore the bricks out.  

Big Day For Jonah

Jonah has been practicing blowing bubbles.  He FINALLY got it!

Cutting The Deck

The deck guys came out today and cut the squares in the deck.  We FINALLY got the approval for the kitchen!  HOA is wearing us out.  Why does it matter how tall my fence is?  

First Day Of School

The boys decided to walk to school today instead of taking the bus.  We met the neighborhood gang at the gazebo.  

Luke's teacher sent this picture after school.  

Deck Being Poured

They were here at 6:30 this morning prepping to pour the deck.   The boys were sad to miss it. 

We are not real happy with the color so they are going to come back out and see if we can make it darker.   They will come back in a couple of days to make the squares on the deck.

stamping the texture

equipment pad

Kitchen Electrical Done

The electrical work is in for the kitchen! 

Now, for the HOA to get off our backs and stop being so nosy!  They didn't like the first drawing that was submitted so we are drawing up another.  They even wanted to know if we were going to have a six or eight foot fence and about the setbacks!  Get over yourself people... let us build like EVERY other house in the neighborhood!  

Deck Ready To be Poured

They have the deck laid out and ready to pour!  I know they are SO sick of seeing me.  They had it all ready except for the rebar and I went out and had them make a few changes to make it wider and longer in some spots.  

The below picture is off the back of the driveway.

The Bigs...Meet The Teacher

The boys met their teachers tonight.  Jonah has Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Sauls.  Jonah only has one buddy in class, Artis.

Luke got Ms. Membreno and Mrs. Tucker.  He knows a couple of kids in there. 

We met the neighbors at Palios again this year for dinner. 

Mimi and Papa came and took the littles out to dinner while we met the teachers.  We haven't spent much... or any alone time with the bigs.  We missed them and I kept looking for them but we know the bigs enjoyed their time.

Pool Permits

When I looked out the window I noticed that all the pool permits and inspection pass' were all gone!  The bag was still stuck to the window but there was NO paperwork.  At 8:30 tonight my neighbor sent me a picture of the paper and asked if we needed it.  It was in her flowerbed! I went and got it and told her if she found more to let me know.  I went out the next morning and guess what I found!  ALL the other paper work and permits... floating in the bottom of the pool in this nasty rain water.  

Deck Drains

They laid the deck drains today and fill dirt to lay the deck.

Gas Line In

They did the gas line this morning and cut something in THREE places.  We thought it was the internet but its working and Grande says there is nothing wrong!  Wonder what the heck they cut... only time will tell.  

Love Jones Designs Sweet 16

Miesha called Monday and needed some help with an event she was having on Friday.  She asked if I could get away Thursday to help decorate or Friday to decorate and help run the party.  I told her that I was going to do EVERYTHING in my power to find someone to watch the kids.  

Side note... this is Miesha's first party she has done EVERYTHING on her own.  She had a small budget so could not hire a caterer or someone to make the cake or deliver balloons.  She was even told that the venue had been paid for without her seeing what she had to work with on this tiny budget.  

I was trying to figure out just how that was going to happen.  The party was out in Desoto.  We would leave at 8:00 Friday morning and decorate all day until the party at 8:00 that night and then stay to run the party which was over at midnight.  

I knew that one person could not handle all my crazies ALL day so I started brain storming.   Got it figured out... Justin stayed home until Carlie could get here at 9:00 and then mom came to pick the kids up at 2:00 to take them swimming at her house.  Mom and dad brought them back here after dinner to Justin.  

So, Miesha and Amy picked me up at 8:15 and we headed south.  When we  arrived at the venue (a bowling alley turned party venue we had to get going.  Miesha and Amy had been there the day before getting started.  We worked until about 2:00 and headed out to grab lunch and then go and get all the food, pick up the table cloths and balloons and some snacks for later.  

We got back to the venue and got the rest of the room decorated, the food in the oven and changed into our party attire just in time for the party to start!  The party was a hit and the birthday girl could not have been happier!  WAY TO GO MIESHA!  

So proud of Miesha and all of her creativity.  She had a VERY limited budget and used paper to pretty much decorate everything.  Folks... we did not even have money in the budget for helium for the balloons that the party girls mom wanted TO BE FLOATING!  

Just to sum it up... the venue was a once bowling ally turned venue so it was a  long and skinny room with black carpet and grey walls.  Miesha made it look amazing and we worked our tails off and Miesha even more.  The air conditioner was out in the kitchen and main room we were most of the time and it as 83 degrees in there.  I thought I was GOING TO DIE!  There was NO light by the door and the yard was overgrown and bushes coming over the walkway.  We even had to provide toilet paper and soap for the bathroom.  

The closet where we had all the empty boxes and extra stuff lost the door knob so we could not get in to start packing up after the party.  It was getting comical at this point. I think we were so delirious by this point due to aching backs, feet and heat exhaustion.  As everyone was leaving around midnight we had to start cleaning up.  Thank goodness Freddie showed up to help us with the take down.  I think we would have been there twice as long without his help.  We finally got out of there at 2:00.  We were starving so we stopped to get a drink and a snack at the gas station.  

When we got back in the car we had to have something help us not fall asleep.  Miesha cranked up the radio and WE WERE JAMMIN'.  Our favorite was Love Shack.  We made it home around 3:00 and I was beat.  

Amy and I found Miesha's phone while we were cleaning up so we decided to leave her some pictures to find the next day.  We had many a laughs those 19 hours together!