{Nutty Putty Cyclers}

Between the ages of about 5 and 10 years old I had a friend that I considered one of my all time best friends. Emily and I were inseparable. I have countless memories of our families getting together for dinner or a movie night, swimming at the Reynolds next door, riding bikes, playing dress-up, playing sardines with her brothers or playing house in her attic. I considered her family. Until one day her Dad got transferred for work. I was devastated. Over the years we lost contact but I never forgot about her. 

Last year I heard about John Jones who died in the nutty putty cave over Thanksgiving. You can read his story here. 

I had never met him before but I felt so connected to his story because his sister Cherie is an old neighbor and friend of mine. I read blogs and looked at pictures of his cute family. I never made the connection until this past Sunday. 

My Mom called me and told me that John's wife was my dear friend Emily from my childhood. My heart just sank! I felt terrible that I didnt realize this earlier. I had seen her picture a million times on blogs and on the news but never put 2 and 2 together. I felt so sorry that I couldnt be there for her through all of this.

Here she is with her two adorable children. She was 2 months pregnant when her Husband passed away. She named her baby John Edward Jones II after her Husband.

I just reconnected with her after about 17 years and found what her amazing little brother is doing to help. Him and 3 friends are cycling from coast to coast to try and raise money for the Liz Logelin Foundation. Its a charity that supplies grants and support to widows and widowers who have recently lost a spouse.  

You can read about them HERE and follow their progress through twitter or facebook.

I plan on donating and want to spread the word about these amazing men. I admire every single one of them.

[..Pumpkin Point Farms..]

Last week some neighbors and I took our kids to Pumpkin Point Farms. It is this little Ma and Pa farm up in the Riverton area and it was the cutest thing ever. All of us have 3 year old little boys and they all were in Heaven. This place had it all and the best part was that everything was free (excluding the pumpkins)! 

They had a small corn maze that the boys had to run through about 10 times...

tractors they could climb on,

old trucks they could play in,

kid size wheelbarrows, 

and a hayride. 

They had rows and rows of pumpkins all with their own name...

 

We all had our cameras out the entire time and I got so many cute pictures. My camera died half way through but I still had way to many pictures to go through. 

For some reason Tatum struggled to smile normal for me, I have so many pictures of him with this new smile of his.

 

or with a weird face like this...

 

finally a cute smile...

Thanks again Natalie and Luci, we had a great time!

..They {LOVE} each other..

As a mother of 2 one of the things that brings me the most joy

is seeing my two boys playing with each other.  

Trey is still a little young to interact much with Tatum, 

but I am starting to see the beginning of a great friendship.

The other day I found Tatum playing doctor with Trey. 

It was so cute to watch...Trey was even lovin it!

On Sunday I attempted to take pictures of the boys in their church attire. 

It was a pretty sorry attempt seeing as this was all I got...

I just love how Trey is smiling away in the background.

On occasion Tatum will read to Trey. 

Not the best pic, but still cute!

..Main floor bathroom..

I love that when we moved into our house it was a COMPLETE BLANK CANVAS. Every wall was white and with a little effort we repainted almost EVERY wall.

We never got to the bathrooms in the house and our main floor half bath was driving me nuts! Its the main bathroom that everyone uses and the white walls had to go!

The other day I decided enough was enough and made a trip down to Lowe's.

I got all of the supplies: paint, wood, caulk etc. and went to work.

 I am pretty proud of myself.

It took me almost a FULL day to finish (minus touch ups) and I just love how it turned out. Eric was pretty impressed himself seeing as I did all of the woodwork myself!

I decided to try my hand at board and batten.

This really was an easy project but by no means is it PERFECT. I went the cheap route and got lattice wood and just nailed them straight to the wall.

Here you will see that I ran out of wood and didn't want to buy another 8 foot section. Its pretty well hidden but still I'm no professional!

This was my inspiration. I got it as a bunco prize and it was the EXACT color I wanted for the bathroom (thanks Marianne!).

 These pictures don't show the color very well but it really is more of a robin egg blue than a green. My computer is getting fixed right now so I don't have photoshop or a before picture!

But in a matter of days I will be running with the latest and greatest version of photoshop...woot woot :)

Now that this project is done its time to move on to the office, family room, loft, master bath...

...and the list goes on and on!!