The Open Concept House

Since moving to Texas we have cable in our corporate apartment.  I've rediscovered my love for HGTV and have watched a little too much Love it or List it & Property Brothers.  I say "too much" because last night while I was making dinner I saw Lilyanah start taking apart the couch and gathering all the blankets and pillows from the house.  Then she started moving the chair, coffee table and anything else she could find.  It was fort time.  
 Now, I consider myself a fairly creative person but this girl, she trumps me over and over!!!  I knew it a couple of years ago when she wanted to do a tea party and ;made 3
dimensional dishes out of paper.  But last night it was all I could do not to laugh at the conversation happening while she was building the fort.  "Ethne, I'm going to give you an open concept bedroom. . . ." was my favorite comment I heard.  My favorite design element was when she turned the chairs upside down on the table to use them as windows.  LOVE IT!
 Second favorite was when she turned the fabric chair on its back and got cushions and pillows to make stairs up to the coffee table which was the patio.  Adorable.

Here are some pictures from the pool the on Friday after the kids got home from school.  It's a fantastic little pool for the kids to splash around in.  It's been in the 80's and 90's so there's been plenty of opportunity to go there and play.  Also, I promised a picture of little Ethne's toothless smile.  She's about to lose her other tooth so pretty soon that gap is going to double!

The last pictures are from our weekend.  We made our first trip up to Oklahoma since moving to spend some time with family and friends.  We spent a good part of Saturday morning/afternoon trying to help Memaw get all the pines cleared out of their yard.  I don't know if you can see the line of where we cleared.  But that little area filled up 60 garbage bags and we barely made a dent!  The kids spent time picking up sticks, they didn't love that job but at 200 sticks they got to put their feet in a little plastic pool we got at Walmart on our way up.

  It was a little taste of Will's life since moving into this house when he was a teenager.  YIKES!!!  It wasn't fun but it was rewarding.  I have to say though, after one afternoon I was ready to get a chainsaw and cut those pine trees down myself!  I don't know how Memaw has done it more than 15 years!!!!! I'm a little concerned for her since she can only put 2 of these bags out with the trash a week!
  : )  There's got to be a graveyard for 5" pine needles somewhere!

My Sidekick

I am very sadly aware that my time alone with our little guy is coming to a quick end.  So here are some pics of my little guy and just a few of the things we do together during the day.

 I had to put this pic in because I can't believe how big he's getting and just love this picture, thank you grandma for the Easter outfit!

 We have to drop dry cleaning off for daddy about once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, but I love the look of our dry cleaners building.  The wood with the stone, love it, which is why I asked Westyn to pose in front of it about a month ago.  : )  They're from California which explains the look & palm trees.  : )

 Now this happens very rarely.  Sometimes if he goes in time out and I forget about him he'll fall asleep.  (Yep, mother of the year here).  But in this instance he actually just crawled up in bed and fell asleep he was so tired!  That was a first so I had to get proof!

 We recently got these blocks and this was the beginning of the first building he decided to make.  He's a little engineer and is very resourceful with his creations.  Of course he's usually building with legos so the blocks are a nice change.

 Yesterday we had to do some shopping at Walmart so we stopped for lunch at the Subway in the back of the store, we split a sandwich and winked at each other across the table.I knew better than to interrupt his eating to ask for a smile.

And this was taken this morning after we got back home from dropping the girls off at school.  We take the dogs with us in the morning and then walk them when we get home before heading back up to the apartment.  Westyn discovered my neck pillow a couple of days ago and has been grabbing it when we go to the car for whatever reason to wear.  Yesterday he made the comment that it keeps his neck warm.  This morning it was in the 40's which explains the coat and 'neck warmer'.  When I asked him what he thought it was for he did say for sleeping so perhaps he's afraid he's narcoleptic and wants to be prepared.  I have to go get ready now to meet Will for lunch.  Love you!