"When tough little boys grow up to be dads They turn into big babies again."

Love this song! "Tough little boys" by Gary Allan

 Gabriella hit the jackpot when she got Tyler as her Daddy. I don't know if I've ever seen a Dad more in love with his little girl.

I was making sure Ty was getting out of the shower and I went back in our bathroom to make sure Gabriella's teeth were brushed..etc. As soon as I walked into our room, I heard the blow dryer. I walk into the bathroom and see my manly man macho husband blow drying his little girls hair. I asked him why he was doing that and he explained that it's too cold to have her go to bed with wet hair. 

I. LOVE. THIS. MAN

He drives me crazy and sometimes his logic is nuts. But, I seriously could not imagine this life without him. 

Trunk or Treat

Our church does a Halloween party called the "Trunk Or Treat" every year and the kids love it! We have dinner, games and the kids are able to go "trick or treating" by collecting candies from the back of cars in a parking lot. This year, I was in charge of one game (Mystery Boxes) and had to make cupcakes for a cake walk. Once again, it was totally fun! 

 There were Tarantulas (Fake ones from dollar store), Brains (Jello mixed with pasta), Eyeballs (Peeled grapes), Ears (Fake ones from dollar store) and Teeth (Corn nuts). It was A HIT!

 Candy Corn Cupcakes from Our Best Bites

 Boo and Sulley

 Padme and the cutest Clone Trooper

 Pumpkin bowling! Gabriella loved it!

 She knocked one down!

 Getting her little prize

Darth Mama and my Clone Trooper! 

Gabriella's Nursery

** To read up on all the steps we took prior to the finished project start here **

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Painting
We have been looking for a rug for such a long time! I was fortunate to find this one at Target and luckily we had gift cards :)

PAINT COLORS:
Aqua Spray by Behr
Hidden Meadow by Behr
Her closet!!! I wanted to paint the inside of the closet a different color but we had already put the shelving in before I decided that. Maybe when she's older. I love how organized and huge it is! The top left is for shirts, bottom left is bottoms, top right is skirts and dresses and bottom right are clothes she doesn't fit in yet.

Here is her BRAND new FREE crib :) and the bedding. We were going to use Ty's old crib but it was recalled so we got a $280 giftcard to Target and bought this one! We opted to not buy the complete bedding set because I didn't need a diaper stacker, bumpers or comforter and didn't need all the extra fluff. Saved a ton of money that way!

Those heart shaped wreaths were made by my mother in law. She made one of them for my shower and I loved it so much we wanted to use it in the nursery! Her name or a saying will go in the middle of the wreaths right above the crib

I am in love with the shadow boxes. We got all of them for 11 bucks at Ross. The larger one will be for all of her hospital stuff. Then we have an ultrasound picture. Eventually I'll add a picture of Ty and Ella together and a picture of both of their handprints.

BEFOREWe got this lovely gem for free :)

AFTER

This project was super fun and CHEAP! I made those boxes out of cardboard boxes and fabric. The sides are sprayed with white spray paint. We were trying to find a specific size for the opening and we couldn't find anything! Or ones we did find were like $15 a basket. Ummm, sorry... we were not about to spend $45 bucks on three baskets. We got the dresser for free and sanded, primed and painted it white. We got the beautiful matching knobs as a gift.

This was a mirror my mom gave to Tyler and I after we got married to decorate our first apartment. I wanted to add that to the room so we spray painted it white and added the cute butterflies to it!

Got the shelf from Target. The "cupcakes" were made from receiving blankets and onesies. They were baby shower decorations from my talented sister in law, Kristi and I just loved them so we added them to her nursery. My mom bought this book and had everyone who came to my shower sign it and leave messages for Ella. It was a wonderful idea and something Ella will be able to treasure forever!

It is finally done!!!! We were very fortunate to reuse a bunch of things we already had which cut the costs down a lot! We also received a TON of handmade items from our wonderful family. It was nice to use gifts that our family members made especially for her. We also received a ton as gifts or through giftcards! Well, we are technically missing the decal but besides that everything else is done! All we need is our little Ella :)

98.5% done with the closet!!

So we started with this vision here. We tweaked a couple things like four rods instead of six and changing out the bottom part of the middle section. Tyler was completely opposed to having six rods because he didn't want her clothes to drag. :) What a cute dad!

Now, we are finally finished! It isn't exactly like the picture but the total cost for everything which included dowels, closet rod supports, primer and paint was about $25. We are so pleased with the results and so happy we did it as a family!!

Way before... like before we moved in

After we added rods on one side and put the middle part in.




Sanded, primed and painted.

Now, we just need to add baskets and hang up her clothes! E eekkk :)

Reupholstering the nursery glider + bedding colors

The original

All done :)

We got this for free when I was pregnant with Tyler and I had plans to re do it but working two jobs did not make it possible. It was such a fun project because everyone in our family helped out! Ty helped prime it and then Daddy spray painted it. We opted to spray paint because it would of taken too long to paint it with a brush and we wanted something fast and simple!

I was in charge of redoing the cushions. I wish I took a picture of them before! They were in good condition just pretty dirty. Yes, we did choose a pinkish color, which matches her bedding.

This is what we choose:


It doesn't have a lot of pink but I really wanted the chair to pop and we were fortunate to find the exact color at Joanns.

I used this tutorial to help me and it was such a breeze! If you follow this correctly, it makes it so easy.

We have a few more projects and we still need to paint the nursery but everything is coming together in good time!

"I freaking love you Daddy and I freaking love this juice"

About 80% of the time, Tyler is wonderful about knowing when I am stressed and need a break. Monday was one of those days for sure. So being the wonderful guy he is, he took Ty to get a Jamba Juice. Apparently, that will be their new daddy-son bonding place because Ty is now IN LOVE with them.

Tyler said that Ty told him, " I freakin love you, Daddy and I freakin love my juice" over and over again.

Father's Day!

Father's Day this year was soo fun! Ty was SO into it!!!!! He woke up with me extra early to prepare Dad's yummy breakfast. Ty was a little upset because he thought he wouldn't be getting breakfast because he wasn't a daddy. I assured him, we would still feed him. We had such a fun day pampering daddy which included napping, not dealing with whining or cleaning. I even put the garbage out for him so he could relax. It was such a fun day and I am so glad I have such an amazing husband and father for our son!

Salad, rice, potato salad & steak (which I got 50% off)
Pizza and Orange soda for lunch

Daddy and Ty on our way to church! Check out Daddy's tie ;-) pics of ty!

Ty got Daddy a book which DADDY loved! Daddy puts Ty to sleep every night so I got him a book that they can share together :)

Breakfast! Bacon, fruit, lime ade and raspberry, blueberry and blackberry waffles with whipped cream and strawberries! He loved it!! He went to church VERY happy!

Love my personal handyman :)

I got pretty dang lucky with my husband. When or If we ever have daughters, one quality I hope their husbands have is definitely the skill to fix things. Tyler has no formal training in anything besides his job but I swear this man can fix anything. This is especially useful when you own your own house. He can change out, fix, replace, put together EVERYTHING. It saves us so much time and money by fixing it then instead of waiting. When we were renting our old house anything that broke he would fix. I can't imagine calling our landlord and having them fix it when you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself. When we first bought our house it seemed like everything broke at the same time and by learning and doing it ourselves we have saved a ton of money.

Exhibit A

Now removing a faucet doesn't seem like a hard task but the faucet was so rusted over and "ghetto rigged" as my husband calls it he had to do a bunch of things to remove it and put in our new and beautiful faucet.

Exhibit B

I love love love love it. And I must give a shout out to my wonderful second mama. That woman doesn't take no for an answer. I think it was feeling sorry for us and rather embarrassed we had a misting faucet ;-) I love you Maria :)

My Handy Husband