handyandy had a birthday

january is full to the brim with birthdays on handyandy's side of the family (5 to be exact!) and right in the middle is my favorite guy's. all the cake and celebrations makes this otherwise dreary month quite lovely and fun.

but lets just take a moment to appreciate what a unique guy this handyandy is. all these pics from my phone were taken in the last few weeks and are a nice sampling of his multi-faceted personality. please enjoy. :)

 obviously an adept ballet teacher/student?

our very own in-house cobbler, working on his first pair of hand-sewn leather moccasins.
also quite the {hippy} crafter/artist.
here's he's touching up a few spots on his hand screen-printed giant growth rulers.

awesome fort-builder...super celebrity daddy.


loved to pieces by us all. 

and so very worth celebrating! happy (late) birthday! 

8 YEARS...and counting

wedding day 2004

Well, its that time again, time to bring out the old wedding albums, cringe at what babies we were, how little we really knew each other, how we definitely didn't know what were signing up for and how much uncertainty and even anxiety there were behind those picture-perfect moments on our wedding day.......

Then we happily close up the books, take a deep sigh of relief that, by God's grace, we have MOVED ON! I honestly never expected married life to be this good. I knew Handy Andy was the one for me when i was just barely 19...but honestly, it was a major leap of faith. We had just turned 20 when we were married and didn't know but a bit about who we were as individuals let alone who we were as a couple. But our God is more faithful than i ever really gave him credit for and has created a friendship and a love sweeter than i ever thought was possible (NOT perfect, mind you! but still very sweet). We've now come to happily appreciate that instead of ever having the chance of "falling out" of a young twitter-pated love, we instead got to grow into a true love we never really knew existed.  

So, Happy 8th(right?) Anniversary Cutie Pie ;)

 BABIES!!!! i seriously look 15. See what i mean? Who took us seriously!! :)

1st anniversary 2005...or at least close to it...in reality i was 7 months pregnant on our anniversary and not feeling a bit photogenic.

 2nd Anniversary 2006- went to denver for the weekend with our little baby Will

3rd Anniversary 2007- recreated the picture where Andrew proposed....awwwwwww

 4th Anniversary 2008- just a couple of weeks after our twins were born...feeling the fog of exhaustion but still got a dinner out! yay :)

 one of our favorite pics...taken on our 1st generation flip phone! haha

5th Anniversary 2009 - took a quickie, and i mean a 25 hour quickie trip (that Andrew piloted!) to LA. super, super fun.

6th Anniversary 2010- "the honeymoon we didn't have" in Mexico...turned out a little less than idyllic...think: diarrhea, pregnancy, killer sunburn, smashed toe nail- poor andrew; i was seriously a walking hazard for 5 days. :)

yay. we're finally going home. heehee

7th Anniversary 2011- quick family pic before we took the kids to grandma's house for a get-away

fun fun fun

  2012 - I love you sweetie! Looking forward to another year...and a date night next week when the sickies in our house are well again. ;)

hAndy Birthday part 2

After our Birthday Breakfast Bash, we lovingly deposited our sweet kiddos at their grandparents house and then enjoyed a whole 24 hours of freedom and fun. 

It's amazing how having kids in our lives have helped us to appreciate the little things so much more. In fact, we kind of love not having to do much of anything.  Simply driving in the car without questions and whining in the back, taking a walk around a big lovely park without visiting the playground, getting coffee, browsing around downtown, eating at a grown-up restaurant without having highchairs, kid menus, sippy cups and cheerios everywhere, and eating dessert as slowly as we wanted to were all quite, quite lovely.
(disclaimer: we really do love our children to pieces, even missed them a bit and were more than happy to bring 'em back on board the next day. just in case you were concerned) ;)

We could act like kids (my face actually kinda freaks me out here) and made sure we really lived it up. As we were going upstairs to our bedroom in our empty house that night we forced ourselves to shout and stomp all the way up. it was actually kinda nerve-wracking.

And we even got to act like adults too. We're such dreamers...

Anyway, i'm super, super thankful for my Andrew. He's the best ever, i love him and couldn't imagine anyone more perfect for me. Happy Birthday cutie pie. 

Oh, and in case you're wondering, i happened to have married a boy wonder. He wasn't just plinking away on this piano in downtown ft.collins. No, no, he oozes with talent, puts me (the piano lesson drop-out) utterly to shame, and played all kinds of fancy schmancy piano stuff. Probably some russian sonata? or concerto?... i have no idea what those words mean. But isn't he cute?! 

ANYWAY, all that to say, he's great. I love him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

the end. :)

linking to what i love wednesday at lollipops!

Handy Andy's Birthday!

It was a big holiday in our family this weekend! hANDY had a birthday!! He's pretty much a rockstar around these parts so the day definitely called for a big celebration. :)

28 candles (on our very favorite coffee cake) for a very special "Birthday Breakfast Bash" with the kiddos. 

In fact, the kiddos (namely Will) planned and decorated almost the whole thing. Which included streamers, plastic table cloth, banner, the 28 candles, gift ideas AND a scavenger hunt at the end. It was quite the bash. :)

Birthday card from madeline transcribed by me.

With 4 kiddos we get to see plenty of their selfishness, squabbles and screaming every day (which, i admit i sometimes contribute to!) so, i can't even tell you what a sweet relief and blessing to my heart it is when we also get to see some adorable love and sincerity come through. The 3 older ones were SO excited for this party for their daddy. Will made sure hANDY knew he was more than welcome to sleep in, the girls made sure i knew they would be waking up at 5am to get ready and Will assured me he'd start right in on the decorating as soon as he woke up as well. :) Thankfully no one woke up until 7 :)

In the morning they were all busy, busy, wrapping their presents (the salt was Will's original idea), making more beaded necklaces for him, finishing their cards, setting the table and keeping me on track as to when and how to make the coffee cake, oj and eggs. :)

Here they are going on Will's scavenger hunt. He had me write clues like, "Your next clue will be found on the huge pirate ship...hint: wooden picnic table." ha

Finally they found the treasure: an empty kleenex box filled with a bead necklace, his card and a "28" that he designed from bead and pipe cleaners.

Such a super morning. Documenting the great times helps tremendously in keeping the pull-my-hair-out crazy times in sweet perspective.

why i've been a bit absent..

I"m getting ready for my 2nd ever craft show. So, i've been busily sewing and crafting in every spare moment. Wellllllll,  that's not true...in my spare time i've also been keeping up with all my favorite blogs, pinterest, and tv shows. Don't worry, i know how to keep my priorities straight. :) Anyway, if you're in the Greeley, CO. area, you should stop by! This show/ market is held in a super cute old building turned theater in downtown Greeley and will be lots of fun.

Ok, so here's a little of what i've been working on lately...and don't you think that handy andy hasn't been put to work as well, because he has! And he keeps coming up with such great ideas for my little booth that its almost getting annoying.... i shouldn't even joke, because honestly, some of my ideas are really, seriously brainless. For example, i wanted some pole type things on either side of my table to hang bunting on.

* My brains thinks like this: "I'll find some 5 or 6 ft. long dowels at hobby lobby(?) then i'll get a couple of tin cans, fill them with cement, when it's almost dry i'll shove my ginormously long dowels into the cans and hope they stick up straight. Then i'll put the cans inside a couple pots and kind of push them under the the 2 sides of the table and then string my bunting across the wobbling, possibly snapping dowels. riiiiight."

* Handy Andy's brain thinks like this: "First of all, does my wife's brain reeeally think that illogically??

Either way, I'll get a couple 2 feet dowels, find two substantial aspen logs from our wood pile, drill a hole in the center of both. Fit the dowel into the hole, put the log on top of either side of the table. String bunting. done." SO smart. 

Well, that's all for tonight. I have a bit more sewing and pricing to do and then i'll be sure to share some pics from the actual show next week. Hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

love that handy andy...

I love that handy andy can read my mind.
He didn't get home from his most trip until 11:30pm but he knew that stopping by Safeway and picking up some ice cream would still  be a very good idea.
AND he knew that even though he was kinda leaning toward the raspberry/chocolate,  he had better go with chocolate chip cookie dough instead (my favorite).
And because we are total party animals and he knew that i reallllly wanted to watch parks and recreation (our new favorite show!) he even suggested watching an episode while we ate our ice cream.
Such a great guy.

framed chalkboard!

Hello? Hello! So, my life is kinda going in spurts recently. For a few days i get super motivated, productive and on top of life and then the loooong list of life's to-do's overwhelms me and i kinda run around in circles starting and stopping new tasks and generally just getting more overwhelmed...Last week was like that, hence, my absence. But anyway, this is a new week. My kitchen is clean and i'm ready to start fresh. :)

So, this chalkboard project is not all that original but Handy Andy put a twist on it that is pure genius. (Although, knowing how many crazy talented people are out there in the world wide web, this twist is probably not all that original... But in MY world, he takes the cake.) 

 Materials: * "hard board"- this came in a gigantic sheet at lowes for about $6 bucks. i measured my frame and had them cut it to size....but here's the twist. Don't measure the inside of the frame like you would if you were measuring the glass that fits inside the frame edge. Instead, just roughly measure the outside so it not go past the outer frame edge. THUS, creating a perfect lip for the chalk and eraser! Does that make sense?  (There are a few pictures below that illustrate what i mean)

 * Frame (i spray-painted this one yellow) Oh, and if your frame has the little metal pokey things that keep the glass/backing from falling out, you'll need to take pliers and remove them. You WON'T be putting the chalkboard inside of those!
 * Chalk board spray paint.

1)Spray frame **make sure you paint the inner edge- which is usually covered by the picture/glass!
2)Spray the chalk paint onto the hardboard and allow to dry. btw, this took LOTS of coats to get good coverage!
3) "Season" the board by rubbing chalk all over it and then smearing it with lots of little hands.

4) Place the board on the back of the frame and staple onto the back outer edge of frame. 

Do you see the perfect little lip that was created?!?! cool, eh?

 All done and ready to hang in the school room...actually its already been hung in the school room. But then i had handy andy unhang it. I promised that this time i'm actually going to spend time thinking about where i want it hung before i ask him to pound more holes. :)



 {linking to:  life made lovely and skip to my lou and the lettered cottage!}