How about a bench for that deck?

My husband is SO smart!

Yesterday he built three six foot benches for our new deck, and today he built a kid-sized bench for the boys. Right now, Kyle is hanging the chair-hammock that we bought in Cozumel. It will be in that covered space right outside our bedroom door.

Linsey was here last night and she said, "you realize that you are turning your place into a party house, right?"

Yep, we do!

Kids are expensive!

Aren't they? Sheesh!

I took Braden to my dentist about a month ago because I was concerned about some spots on his front teeth. Those turned out to be just plaque, and the hygienist scraped them away, but the dentist discovered two cavities on his molars. My dentist didn't want to try to fill them because of Braden's age, and referred us to a pediatric dentist.

On Friday, I took Braden to Dr. Badger. He took x-rays, examined his teeth, and discovered three cavities. He also suggested Braden's molars be filled with sealant to help alleviate future problems. Before I knew it, they were asking me to sign an estimate of $511 (but I got a 5% discount for paying in full...whoopee) for that day's treatment (half of his mouth). We'll have to go back in a few weeks to do the other half (the estimate is over $300).

Braden was awesome throughout the entire visit, other than the fact that he refused to answer any questions from the dentist or the hygienist. He pretty much just ignored them, but he did open his mouth when they asked. He had nitrous oxide during the cavity filling, and watched one of his favorite Nickelodeon shows on a TV mounted in the ceiling.

Afterwards, we went to Burger King and he had a chocolate shake. He kept rubbing his gums on the side of his mouth that was numb, as if he couldn't quite figure out what was wrong.

Dr. Badger gave him a stuffed badger and a balloon and he was very proud to take them to daycare to show off to his friends. They were a little over-excited about the balloon, though, so Braden asked me to take it with me back to the car.

In sum, I'm a bad mom because I let Braden have milk in a bottle at night until he was two, and now I'm paying almost a thousand dollars in dental bills to fix his teeth! Good thing I took Garrett off the bottle before he was one! And, we are going to be vigilant about brushing teeth from now on!

And NOW we're done!

Well, we're done with major projects for THIS year, anyway.

Or maybe just this month.

Tom and Kyle built our back deck this weekend! We're not quite done--the deck needs staining, some benches, landscaping, and maybe some furniture, but the structure is all there. Between it and the patio, we have quite the backyard for entertaining!

Happy Easter Day!

"Easter Day!" That is what Braden called it when he was looking at the pictures just now. As in, "Hey! That's Easter Day!" Makes sense...Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, so why not Easter Day?



Here are some pics!

Weekend of food!

Wow, did I ever have a great (and filling!) weekend. Since Mom was here, she kept an eye on the boys and I was able to do lots of cooking and baking. Here's some of what I made (pictures are quite obviously from the publication. My food, while yummy, is not so photogenic):

This is a "Layered Mocha Cheesecake" and is the cover recipe of the current Taste of Home magazine. YUM!! http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Layered-Mocha-Cheesecake

This is a mushroom asparagus quiche from the same issue of Taste of Home. I've never made a quiche before and was surprised at how easy it was! http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mushroom-asparagus-quiche.aspx

Braden helped me make this Peeps sunflower cake. So cute! And so easy that a three-year-old can make it!http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Peeps-Sunflower-Cake

This corn recipe is my new all-time favorite. It is called "Peppered Corn on the Cob" and is from the Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook. Yes, that is BACON wrapped around garlic-butter rubbed fresh corn with chopped jalapenos sprinkled over the top. I was short on time, so I baked it in the oven and it was AMAZING! I can't find the recipe on the Internet, so if you're interested, email me (or you can buy the cookbook from Tiffany!)

Braden can write his name!

Braden's been working very hard to learn to write his name. He was practicing outside on the driveway a few days ago, and he'd get a few letters into it, get frustrated, and scratch it all out. Then finally....success!

I didn't have the heart to tell him he wrote the entire thing backwards, mirror image fashion. Here's the image flipped around. Weird, huh?

He's written his name several times since then (including in Grandma Scheele's birthday card), and it's been correct, so I guess he's getting the left to right thing figured out.

Garrett's first Aggie game!

Over spring break, we went to Garrett's first Aggie game, and it was a GREAT baseball game between A&M and Texas Tech (the final score was 12-1!!) on a beautiful spring afternoon.

Three Stutts boys watching the game:

Houston Livestock Show

We spent a couple of days over spring break at the Houston Livestock Show. On Sunday we watched Papa show his two of his red brangus heifers and a bull. Shawna, Franklin, and Taylor were there, too. Taylor is getting so big! She's watching Garrett and me in this picture:

Kyle was helping his dad right before they entered the show ring. Here's Braden talking to him through the fence:

We stuck around to help Geary and Sherri load up after the show. Braden and Garrett are sitting on the show box in this picture. Don't they look like such great buds? (notice that Garrett's obsession with his sunglasses continues!)

The big reveal...our new patio!

Here is our major spring break project! It is a brick patio with a fire pit in the center. Our property slopes quite a bit to a stream in the back (the stream feeds into Forest Lake), so we had to contend with a very uneven, sloping spot for the patio. We (thanks to lots of help from Tom) formed the circumference of the patio with landscape timbers and rebar. At the backside, the timbers are stacked 3 high. Close to the house, they are buried into the ground.


We filled the patio area with 1 1/2 cubic yards of yellow sand. Over a couple of weeks, the sand compacted itself. We bought the brick from a CSISD employee who just happened to have two pallets of brick in her backyard that she didn't want and who just happened to see my posting on the CSISD "swap shop" looking for free or cheap brick. We paid $50 for the brick! Two trucks were needed to get it all to our house (thanks Britina for letting us borrow your truck! Thanks Tiffany for helping to unload!).

Kyle created an ingenious leveling device using a couple of pieces of scrap wood, we leveled off the sand, and began laying the brick.

Braden was a big helper--really! He used his wagon to load bricks, then delivered them to us on the patio a few feet away. We used a level and a mallet to attempt to keep the patio level. We placed the bricks in a "running bond" pattern, and used a brick cutter to cut the smaller pieces. After we finished, we swept additional sand into the cracks, went over the entire thing with a plate compactor, added the fire ring in the middle, filled that with gravel, bought two benches from Academy, picked up a couple of wine barrel planters from Amanda, planted them with bottle brush plants, and then we were done! Braden really wants a kid-sized bench to complete the picture--he keeps dragging his kid-sized chairs out there.

Our first family fire was great fun. Garrett kept trying to blow the fire out and the boys were SO excited! Last night we had our first fire for company (Mom, Tom, Tiffany, and Scott). We made smores and admired a full moon and lots of stars! This thing is going to be a blast!

Another backyard project is currently underway...I can hear lots of sawing and hammering as I type this! Curious? You'll just have to wait!

I've got a fever, too!

A landscaping fever!


I've spent almost every moment of the past two weeks dreaming about our landscaping (well, the moments when I'm not caring for children, teaching, grading papers, cleaning the house, etc.).

We've had several challenges with our front landscaping, the biggest one being drainage! The low spot in our front beds were to the left of the sidewalk, and water just sat there. Kyle installed gutters last fall, but that didn't solve the problem (although it did help some). I researched and researched, and we decided that french drains were the solution. We dug a trench all along the front of the house (including driving a 3 inch pipe underneath a five foot section of sidewalk), filled with gravel and perforated pipe, topped with more gravel, and voila! Now we can spray water at the driveway, and it comes all the way out on the other side of the house. Here's the water coming out of the end of the drain. Hooray!


Soooo...we were ready for plants! Almost. First, we built up the level of our beds a little bit. Braden had a great time helping with every dump truck and tractor he owns:


I'd researched the plants for our area and our planting conditions (lots of shade--the house faces North) Braden went with me to Lowe's to pick out plants. We bought:

• 2 3-gallon waxleaf ligustrums


• 6 1-gallon Japanese boxwoods


• 6 1-gallon "Clara" Indian hawthornes


• 4 3-gallon "Blueberry Muffin" Indian hawthornes


• 6 variated liriopes


• 3 cast iron plants


• 3 autumn ferns
  

Braden picked out a 6-pack of lavender impatiens. I'm not ready to plant summer annuals yet, but he really wanted something with flowers.

We planted last night. Today after church, Kyle bought a square yard of "black velvet" mulch, and here are the beautiful results:

I have more plants planned...a Knockout Rose, a few crape myrtles, a couple of bottlebrush plants, and a loropetalum, but for now, I'm happy and content.

I also have a pretty major landscaping feature underway in the backyard, but I'll reveal it on here once we're totally finished!

Being sick means LOTS of Dora and Diego!

It has been two weeks since I last posted...I don't know why because it only takes minutes to create a post and add an image. I guess I just haven't had much to blog about because we have had two SICK boys!

Last Monday, Garrett had a fever of 102 when I picked him up from daycare, so he couldn't go back the next day. That night Braden woke up in the middle of the night coughing (he sounded like a barking seal, which reminded me of my friend Kelly's post on her blog about her daughter when she had croup). He was crying because he couldn't stop coughing. Cough medicine helped. By Tuesday evening, Garrett was fever free, but Braden was running a fever. In fact, he went to bed (on his own!) at about 6pm and slept until 8 the next morning.

At one point during the day on Wednesday, Braden's fever spiked up to 103.5! It scared me because my kids have rarely had a fever and never that high! I called the doctor, made an appointment for 8:20 the next morning, and continued treating the fever with Tylenol.

Thursday morning, Braden woke up with 102, but, when we got to the doctor's office, he was fever free! Argh! Like taking your car to the mechanic and all the sudden it runs just fine! We left the doctor (thinking the worst was over), went for doughnuts and to Target (cute shirts for the boys on sale!) and, by the time we got home, Braden was back to 102.

Saturday was the first day he was feeling better. He said, "Mommy, after all of that coughing, I finally feel better!" Poor little dude.

They passed their days watching episode after episode of Dora the Explorer and Go Diego! Go! (Thank you, God, for DVR!)

This picture was taken this morning. They are feeling much better.

Oh! Notice Garrett's sunglasses on his head? Those have been his constant fashion accessory for the last week or so.