Catch up...

Things have been pretty busy around here, so my time to reflect on what I want to blog about has been limited.  We do have a few family members struggling to hang on to life right now, so they are in our prayers and on our minds constantly. Life seems to be all about the up and downs and being able to either jump over hurdles or roll with the punches.  Every time something does not go the way we planned we try to use that as a learning experience and remind ourselves that God has a master plan and we have to work with it (no matter how difficult it is to deal with).  We are blessed with two beautiful children, have a comfortable house, and lot of love to give, so we know life is good!

The current home project includes redoing the kitchen table chairs as I wait for our new table to be built.  Our current chairs are a light wood color, and the table I am having made will have a black base and a warm brown stain on top.  The table will have a matching bench, so we needed four chairs to go with it.  I could not part with the chairs we currently use, for they were given to me by a very dear friend and have traveled with us to all of our homes.  I decided to paint the chairs black and then sand them a bit to give them more of a rustic look.  Thanks to Pinterest I got lots of helpful tips about primers, sanding, brushes (Purdy brushes are the best!), and paint.  I feel I was prepared, but I forgot to check the weather.  The past few weeks we had very mild weather and great temperatures for the season.  When I started the project the temperature was about 53 degrees.  By the next day they were down to the thirties.  Smart Dumb move on my part, since the paint takes forever to dry in cooler temperatures, but I think they will look nice.  This is what our chairs looked like before and how they look with one coat of paint.  I am thinking they will need three coats to get the look I want.

Also, coming up on Sunday is Matthew's fourth birthday.  Where has the time gone?  I still remember spending the first couple days in the hospital with him and then bringing him home to our apartment.  Time has flown by, but I cherish every moment with him.  He is our first born and was the first to steal our hearts.  I love the big boy he has grown to be and am looking forward to celebrating his day as a family.  These are the years that he will remember, so I want to make them the best they can be.

Finally, some SNOW!

Back in December, I bought Matthew snow pants and boots in hopes that we would get some snow soon.  As luck would have it, we got snow a few days later.  Unfortunately, we all were in the house until dark with a full house of kiddos (and Natalie was not feeling the best).  Matthew I missed the first day of snow to play in, and was bummed.

Fast forward to the beginning of February... Mr. Sharktank and I lost all hope for a decent fall of snow.  We for sure thought that Matthew would outgrow the boots and not be able to use them this year.  The both of us watch the news daily, and there was no report about a major snow fall in the near future.  To our surprise, we woke up on Superbowl Sunday to enough snow to go sledding!  When I went to go and wake up Matthew to tell him the good news he was sitting on his bed, looking out his window, and had his camouflage boots next to his bed all ready to go.

Mr. Sharktank had to go to work to study for class and his very important test that is coming up this Summer, so I joined the neighbors for the morning of fun.  The "Bushwacks" and "The A Team" families joined The Shark Tank family on the Shark Bush hill (in between our houses).  The kids had a blast and I am pretty sure the parents did too.

The past few years Matthew was a bit apprehensive about the snow.  This year he was diving, shoveling, and sledding in it with no problems.  I was so proud of my little boy and how adventurous he was being.  Even though, the snow was up his sleeves, in his gloves, and inside his boots he kept playing and loved every minute.

Natalie, on the other hand, was not a fan.  She sat in the wagon most of the time watching, and the one time I took her sledding down the hill she said, "All done done done," as soon as we stopped moving.  She was a trooper though.  She was well behaved and let her big brother have some fun before we went inside.  I am looking forward to next year in hopes that Natalie will enjoy it as much as everyone else did.





Here is Matthew ready to go!

Mr. and Mrs. Bushwack making their way down the Shark Bush hill!

All smiles!