House Hardegree

Hi Everyone!

It's once again been a month (or so) since I posted anything, so of course I have stuff to share with you. I'll bring my list down to two things: Levi turning 3 (!!!), and some Etsy updates.

So. First, and most fun is that Levi turned 3!! Hey-O! We didn't really have a party this year. I figured next year he can have some of his little friends over, but right now, friends are not high on his priority list (and I haven't done a good job of keeping him in contact with a consistent friend group in any case), so no harm no foul. Grandma and Papa came down and we built our own pizzas (because Levi LOVES to cook) and had chocolate chip cookies, per the little man's request. It was fun and laid back...just his style. This year, instead of getting him a few smaller things, Justin and I got Levi his own little kitchen and both boys have gotten some serious use out of it. Levi makes me a meal at least once a day, and it usually involves eggs, bacon, potatoes, and cars. Yum!

Now that he's 3, I've started Levi on his first Chore Chart, which he actually really likes (I'm sure that will change as he gets older and realizes that the word "chore" does not have a positive connotation). It's mostly stuff he's been doing for a while now, like brushing his teeth and clearing his dishes off the table after meals, but I'm also slowly introducing him to other chores, like his new favorite - wiping the doorknobs. In all honesty, this is not a chore that I normally do, but it's an easy one and it's probably not a bad idea, right? It's super cute listening to him scurry around the house to each doorknob. Haha! His favorite part is moving his chore from the To Do side of his chore chart, to the Done side.

Another thing we started now that he's 3 is a more well-though-out schedule on weekdays. We put him in preschool, but the timing was really messing up nap time for both boys, so I pulled him out and decided instead to commit to doing some homeschool preschool activities each day, and to take the boys out for social interactions every morning (I realize calling it "social interactions" makes me sound like a robot, but whatcha gonna do?). So instead of preschool, we put him in gymnastics once a week (probably the cutest thing on the planet), and that, along with our other activities makes for a pretty packed week.

Can I just say that, because I've committed to these homeschool-esque activities, I've had bookoos of fun making little lesson plans and such. Haha!

We may have pulled him out after a week, but look at what a cute little first-day-of-school picture he took! I have to mention, however, that this picture gives a mighty false impression of how that morning went. Let's just say it was the eye of the storm.

As I mentioned earlier, the other big thing that's been going on in our house (or at least in my world within the house), are some changes to our Etsy store. I think I mentioned previously that we were painting our old dining table in order to sell it, and that Justin was making us a new table. Well folks, here's our new table, and I have to say, it's pretty snazzy. It has a hard maple top with steel legs and it fits right into my mid-century modern/industrial style. I LOVE IT! We're hoping to offer these in our store in the future.

Having this new table means that we now have a table for sale in our Etsy shop. And speaking of our Etsy shop (like that segue?), I've rebranded it, complete with new name and feel. Our shop is now called The House of Ells and will now also be featuring digital prints. Check us out, tell your friends, blah blah blah. But seriously, if you know someone that wants a white shabby chic dining table, please point them in our direction. I'd love to get it out of our garage. :-D

Alright. I've tried to keep things brief, at least relative to past posts. I'll end this one with a photo montage. Love and miss you all!

Little climber. He did this without me knowing, and of course I had to let him stay in this precarious position long enough for me to get a picture. And a couple videos.

Caught red-handed. But really...

Fresh hair cut!

Hanging out downtown. We thought we'd go feed the ducks, but when we got to the river, there was a free event going on, so we went to that instead.

We're actually planning on hanging the finished version of this in our front room. This was such a fun day!

Levi's proud because he made this D all by himself.

This is the special smile Lincoln reserves for his brother.

Levi's starting to look older...

Pretty much every time I post anymore it's a frenzied highlight reel of everything that's happened in our family for the past month because I keep taking long breaks between posts. My bad. I'm going to try and, as briefly as possible, catch y'all up on as many things as I can without completely exhausting you. :-D Here we go!

My gardens are doing really well! Here are some pictures over the last month of some of my pretty flowers as previously promised:

Julia Child Floribunda Rose

Livin' Easy (lamest name ever...) Floribunda Rose

Thanks to the crazy week of rains and mild temperatures, all of my rose bushes have new growth on them right now, so hopefully I'll finally be able to post a picture of my Lady Bird Johnson rose soon. It's seriously gorgeous.

I've also added some babies to my veggie patch in the backyard, and have therefore expanded it to three, count 'em, three veggie patches! I've got the original big box with my pepper plants that are starting to bud (yay!), my basil plants that I've already harvested several times much to my taste buds' delight, and some marigolds for pest control. I recently added three broccoli sprouts and a row of carrot seeds to my big box! Behind the big box is a skinny box with two roma tomato plants (babies y'all), and two rows of green bean seeds. I'm planning on adding another row of carrots here in a couple of weeks to draw out my carrot harvest. (We eat bookoos of carrots...usually roasted with chicken or cooked in a stew.) Finally, I added a little patch on the side of the house up against our chain link fence that has three mounds of cucumber seeds (they like to climb on the fence) for future pickling, and, you guessed it, another row of carrot seeds. It basically just looks like dirt right now, so I'll post pictures of that once there's something to look at. But so exciting!! Yay for backyard homesteading! And many thanks to my wonderful hubs for building my smaller box! Such a handyman!

Those big plants are, starting from the far right, peppers, two basil stalks, and then two more peppers. The milk jugs are protecting the broccoli and tomato sprouts from wind and predators.

Pepper blossom buds!

Moving on...

Our front room, which was originally a sitting room/music room/library until we converted it to a tinker lab/music room/library for the boys, has been taking shape for months and months, and is, of course, still not finished. BUT, I had Justin build the boys this rolling peg board to take the room one step closer to being finished. As you can see below there are many uses for a rolling peg board, but I designed it to be a mobile discovery station with baskets of tools, carpet squares for sensory activities, and art supplies. The boys love it and use it all the time! And, bonus, there's plenty of space still waiting to be filled on both sides as the boys grow and become interested in different things.

Peg board holes are the perfect size for dinosaur tails.

(There's stuff on the other side too...flashlight, giant magnet, plastic scissors, etc.)

I think that picture of Levi is a good segue into announcing that he is officially potty trained!!! WOOHOO! As of today, it's been probably two weeks since we've had an accident, and his accident phase was awful...poop...all over his room...But anyway, I think we've crossed to the other side and are now officially in big boy territory. Yay!

So Justin and my anniversary (probably wrong grammar...sorry sticklers!) is July 19th...8 years y'all!...and we have always given each other gifts that go along with the tradition for that year. You know, paper for your first, cotton for your second, etc. Well, the longer you're married, the more, to put it nicely, fancy the gifts get (useless would be my not-so-nice way to say it), so we broke from our tradition this year and got wedding ring tattoos instead. Haha! Justin got a solid band and I got a diamond. I'll post of picture of his once I have one, but he's at work right now so...

And in case you're wondering, cause I feel like some of you might be, this is number 4 for me. TATTOOS!

Also, despite how much we liked Hope Fellowship (see previous posts), we decided to go elsewhere after they took a weird stance on gay marriage. It was sort of an agree to disagree situation, which we're not really ok with. I don't want to have to explain to my kid that yes, there is a lesbian couple in our church community, and no, we don't believe that is biblically right, but no, we can't say anything. It was sad, but it just wasn't for us after all I guess. So...we've been going to Antioch Community Church for several weeks now and actually really love it! We've visited there several times in the past but have never stayed because they're a little weird (crazy is the word some people use) and they have an interesting reputation for being too outspoken. Ha! Should that be a negative thing in the Christian faith? I don't think so. Anyway, they're crazy about Jesus and we love it! We're going to be attending the membership course in September and have signed up to join a life group so hopefully we'll be starting that process soon. Yay!!

I feel like I'm downplaying this transition because I'm trying to be brief, but let me be clear, we are super stoked about this. I really feel like God has been leading us to this church for a while, but we resisted because it made us feel uncomfortable for different reasons (full band worship with lots of buy-in from the membership so picture people with their hands up, others jumping or dancing, everyone feelin' it; also lots of talk about healing, prophesy, etc.). Maybe I'll post more later on, but just know this is awesome!!

Anywho...I'm about to launch into picture city, but before I do, you may notice that some of the pictures below show us using a card table instead of a dining table in our kitchen. That's because we've sanded down, painted, and oiled our old table (it's currently curing in our garage) and will be selling it on my Etsy story (hey-o!), and Justin will be building us a new one with a mid-century modern/industrial feel. It's gonna be awesome! So be on the lookout for a pretty white table in my shop and a sick new table in our kitchen in a future post.

So...we've done some random fun things over the last month. Here's a quick highlight reel. Don't worry...it's 90% pictures!

Splash pad play in the backyard. I combined the splash pad that Aunt Emily and Uncle Peter got Lincoln for his birthday, with our kiddie pool, and later our slide, for the full water park experience.

We made a ramp out of toilet paper rolls and launched cars, trucks, and balls across the front room. Levi later made it into a bridge between the couch and the coffee table.

Levi got to have a car wash complete with bubbly soap (dish soap and water), powder soap (baking soda), and colorful rinse (dyed vinegar). It made for some fun, bubbly play! And yes, despite his stoic expression, he is having fun. RBF is real y'all...and its genetic.

Lincoln's still learning to walk at this point, so we practice creeping around the coffee table at least once a day. I'll set a toy that he likes on the table and encourage him to come get it, but he spends most of the time griping at me without crying in an effort to get me to hand it to him. Oh boy...

See what I mean?

Believe it or not, it's possible to say no to that face. Although, it usually involves me trying not to laugh at him...

Final fun thing...we went (all 4 of us!!) to the Waco Mammoth National Monument. It's a sheltered active dig site where they found 19 Columbian Woolly Mammoths here in Waco. It's pretty neat and we had a good time together! Fun fact that we learned...there used to be GIANT sloths. When they were on all 4s they were 5ft tall, and when they stood up on their hind legs to get food, they were 20ft tall!!!! CRAZY!!!!