Early birthday gift

My amazing husband has been working so hard to build me my dream farmhouse table as an early birthday gift. We started by getting the table below off of Cra*gslist for 25 dollars--at first we were just going to sand it down and stain it a darker color, but we decided to use the legs off of this table and build what we really wanted. We got ideas from this and this blog.

We also found these old desks--a local college was selling them for dirt cheap, so we snagged 8 of them and envisioned using them as our dining room chairs.
Robbie got to work, deciding what size to make the table--we decided to make it a foot longer than the original table top, so he had to rebuild part of the apron that supports the top.

...laying it out...lots of thinking and researching and borrowing tools before we even really got started, since neither of us has done any woodworking before.
The legs and apron were ready--we were hoping they'd support the heavy table top!

Now, out to the garage to glue and screw it together. We borrowed these long clamps from a friend, and Robbie got creative on how to clamp the long side.

Once it had been clamped for quite a while and we were sure it'd hold together, Robbie started sanding it down--for many hours! My hubby is a perfectionist about some things...trying to get it perfectly smooth on top--placing plates and cups on top to make sure they wouldn't wobble, ... We brought it back inside for the finish work--way too hot to stain and polyurethane in the garage!


And after probably 5 hours of sanding, I made him take a hatchet to it!! He was very hesitant, but I wanted some light distressing--we used several random things we found around the house, and I love how it turned out!
We gave it a coat of a wood conditioner, since it was raw wood--I guess it's supposed to make the stain go on smoother.Here's the first coat of an American Walnut stain--we did 2 coats of stain and decided that was dark enough.

In the meantime, we removed the desks off of the chairs, cut off the supporting arms, sanded them down, picked out some fun paint colors, and started painting.
...and distressing...
After multiple coats of polyurethane, it's finished! Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!? I love it--can't wait to use it. We're leaving on a week-long mission trip in the morning, so we're going to let it cure while we're away. Thanks, hubby, for my amazing gift and all the hard work you put into it--I'm hoping it stays with our family for many, many years!

Best Friends

SOOO thankful for Sarah's very special friend, Emma, who made this sweet scrapbook page for her today! I'm praying for many years of these 2 girls helping each other grow into all that God made them to be!

Birthday Girl!

Our sweet Sarah turns 7 today! Sarah, who LOVES to celebrate people on their birthdays (breakfast in bed, backrubs, special plates for every meal, letting them make EVERY decision ALL day long, ...) came out of her room this morning with the biggest smile on her face. She even thinks our puppy Jake is giving her special attention today, and we're going right along with her idea! This kid is soo incredibly precious to us, and we're thrilled to have a day set aside to celebrate her. She's so excited to take her bff with us to KC for the day--mixing work with fun, as we need to be there to see a summer team in from overseas, but we're also going to Chuck E Ch*ese for dinner, and getting a little ice cream later. Should be a fun day! You are loved, little girl! We can't imagine life without you!





Aren't they so sweet, sleeping together like this?
TOTALLY staged! They're a bunch of goof-balls!

Mexican Fiesta!

My sweet sister Staci just turned 40, and our family decided that was a great reason to get together and celebrate, so we had a Mexican Fiesta this past weekend. SO MUCH FUN!
Several of the men worked on getting my sister's new garage/rec room shingled, and the ladies cooked up a fiest and got the garage all decorated.
Sarah was a great help!
The kids were pumped about the fancy cups, yummy drinks and umbrellas to put in them.

My mom and sister Jody made these fun flowers for decorations, and for all the girls to wear in their hair.


After the meal we had our own "field day"--we've got enough kids for a real competition! The pinata was a huge hit! Our sweet nephew James kept yelling "Whack it! Whack it!" Then he looked at me and asked, "What's whack it mean?" Cracked me up!



Levi just hangin' out on top of the swing set...the kid is such a monkey!

I pretty much adore my family and seriously wish we all lived in the same town.
Love him!


A bad case of stripes

Sarah's choice of what to wear to her school's carnival. She was so excited to get a rainbow painted on her face and colored hair--pretty cute!

An evening of fishing and skipping rocks

We headed to a nearby lake tonight for some relaxing family time. It took a while to get everyone settled, and there were lots of tangled lines to help with, but we had a blast! I was the stickler and made the kids wear safety goggles after a fishing scare a few weeks ago, but they didn't complain and had so much fun!



Levi looks so tall in this picture! He's starting to remind me of his daddy every day lately, and I love it! He's got this fishing thing down--a great caster, doesn't need much help at all, and could do it for hours without getting tired.

After the fishing, we moved on to skipping rocks. Rob's giving it his all...
...and this is how into it Sarah got! Cracked me up--she'd barely plop the rocks in...she was much more interested in picking flowers and finding treasures!
The boys looking for the perfect rock-skipping rock...
I love this picture! Jason pretty much lives in this sweatshirt, or "hoodshirt", as he calls it, and these cowboy boots are his recent favorites. He told me he loves them because they're "black and brown"...is that special??? They're usually on the wrong feet--he hardly ever wears socks because I'm never caught up on the wash, so his poor feet get blistered, but he doesn't mind! He is just so gung-ho about life! The only thing missing is his favorite lime green t-shirt cape that he wears constantly...pretty much adore this kiddo!
See the 3 splashes from skipping that rock? The highest number for the night was maybe 7 or 8--Robbie was sooo good at it!
Gorgeous, relaxing night!