Look Out Drivers

Remember my post about Mariah driving...

Well, our baby is legal behind the wheel!  She is a good driver.  A responsible driver.  But hasn't learned the art of defensive driving yet.  Unfortunately, that part takes time and is learned through experiences. 

On Good Friday Mariah passed her driving test!  It's official.  She's grown up.  I'm still in denial.  We haven't allowed her to take out the vehicle on her own, but it will happen soon.  We can't keep her boxed in for much longer. 

I think Paster Sue said it best in one of her recent newsletters. 

 "May you never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." 

Wall Project: Sneak Peak

Before:

After:

All we have to do is put up the trim.  Can you see why I have been so excited (and busy) lately! 

Ethan: Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Recently, I got to spend TWO FULL DAYS with this handsome little man!  These two days were amazing.  I was off of work, the other kids were at daycare and school, Cory was working, and Ethan and I got some direct one on one time.  I wish I was able to do stuff like this more often.  It's days like these that make for some amazing moments to remember. 

On the first day, Ethan and I got ready and took him to school!  He had Kindergarten screening.  Ethan went in to one room to work with the teachers and I went to the other room to fill out paperwork with the other parents.  When the teachers brought Ethan back to me they said he did amazing and charmed them all.  Uh-oh... should we be proud or worried that our oldest son is a charmer?  Just like his father. 

After screening we did some shopping.  See all the new cars that Ethan picked out?!  Then we went to his favorite spot, Georgie Porgies, for lunch. 

After lunch we made a visit to the eye doctor.  Ethan was an amazing patient during his first eye exam. 

He loved wearing the goofy 3D glasses. 

20/20 vision! 

Bringing Down the Wall!

The forever hated WALL is coming down!!  I have waited for this for many years and it's finally happening!  Cory and I have been talking about it the past couple of weeks.  I thought maybe we would start tearing in to the project, literally, in March, but on Saturday morning Cory looked over at me, told me he loves me very much, then told me that I drive him nuts, then he looked at the wall.  Suddenly I knew that the time had come.  The wall was coming down.  Neither of us said anything more.  We grabbed some tools and started demolition. 

All of these pictures were taken with my phone.  We seriously dove right in to this project.  There was no time for fancy camera pictures. 

Here is the view from my dining room before demo.

 This is the family room before demo.  See that big giant blank wall that is two colors?  The bottom of the wall doesn't line up with the top of the wall.  It's about 1/4 - 1/2 inch off depending where we measure.  This will get blended by the end of this project.

My dad came over on Saturday to give us a hand.  There were surprise support posts in places we didn't expect them.  There were also 7 lines of electric running through the wall.  Cory and my dad drilled holes in the floor.  Disconnected the electric.  Then hooked everything up under the floor in the basement ceiling.  I was never a fan of the drop ceiling in the basement, but Cory told me that we would be happy to have the access to everything between the floor and the basement ceiling.  I guess he was right... yup, you were right honey.  Good call.  ;-) 

Ethan was an awesome helper.  He used the heavy drill to get the screws out of the studs.  He took out about 20 screws all on his own!   

This picture is seriously blurry, but it's the only one that I have of all four guys working together. 

What a crew! 

Here is a peak at our new opening.  Isn't it lovely?! 

We can see in to the dining room and kitchen now from the family room and front entry.

 The boys love the opening and ran lots of circle around it on Sunday. 

Hey look, I helped too.  Actually I was the tool runner, kid watcher, and mess cleaner the entire weekend.  Demo makes a huge mess... Ethan is awesome by the way.  This little man did everything he could to help. 

Here is a peak from the kitchen.  My dining room is no longer a dead end space with no natural light.  It's actually a room that we will enjoy using.  There is still a large wall dividing the two spaces.  We have plans to open up more of this, but haven't figured out how we will do that yet.  We might make the opening to the right about 3 feet wider.  Or we might cut two look through openings in the remaining wall.  We would love to remove the entire wall, but there are two major load bearing supports running through the wall that we don't want to mess with.  We plan to work around them and open up as much as we can. 

Another look from the family room in to the dining room and kitchen area.  Fabulous!  I am so excited about this.  I have been waiting years for this to happen.  Thank you hubby! 

The best surprise of all is that I can see out the front window in our entry nook from the kitchen. 

Love. Love. Love.

I owe this project to the most amazing husband ever.  Cory, I know I have been making your crazy for years over this wall.  I am sorry about that, but you love me and you show me that every day.  Opening up our floor plan means so much to me.  It's not just about the layout and extra light.  It's also about keeping our family together while we are home.  It's about helping the kids with school work at the kitchen table while we clean, cook, and play with the kids in the family room.  It's about being connected under one open space.  Being together in our home.  Thank you for loving me so much.  You are my hero. 

Just One of Those Days...

It's Monday.  Back to work.  Back to school.  Back to daycare. 

How was our weekend?  Well, it was nice.  Cory had a meeting at church on Saturday morning, so the boys and I drove up to Watertown to watch Mariah compete with the UGHS varsity dance team in regionals.  I juggled the little monsters, fed them lots of not-so-healthy-food, and we cheered on Mariah.  The girls took 4th place so we will head up to State next!  Very proud of Mariah!  She is amazing! 

On Saturday night our friends came over to tell us all about two little babies that they hope to adopt soon.  They are moving forward with the process and hope to have these two little ones living with them within the next couple of weeks!  We are so happy for them.  They are wonderful people and these babies will be truly blessed with the love they will receive for the rest of their lives. 

While our friends were over we went through some baby stuff that I had in storage.  We sent them home with clothes, blankets, an infant carseat, and a couple bases.  After they left, Cory and I were talking and I mentioned how that carseat had been used by many babies and if we ever have another baby we would have to buy a new carseat... (they expire).  That is when Cory looked at me and said, "You need to realize, there will be no more babies."   He's told me over and over again that he doesn't want any more children.  That three is where we need to stop.  Daily/weekly/monthly... I have heard this over and over, but this weekend is when it really hit me. 

There will be no more babies... You need to realize... wow how those words hit me like a sharp knife through my chest.  This is it.  It's over.  I am a mother of three.  I am very grateful for the three children that we have and I love them more than I could ever put in to words.  They are my world.  They are my everything.  I've always wanted a big family.  I've always wanted five kids.  I started having kids when I was 18 years old.  Mariah was my first little princess.  The little lady that taught me what loving a child was all about.  She made me a mom. 

I'm 34 years old now.  I still want two more kids.  I still want... I still want... those are words that Cory likes to remind me of.  I am never happy, always wanting more, can't just enjoy what I have.  Oh how that is so wrong though.  I enjoy what I have.  I love and enjoy and feel no grater happiness than what I feel from my children.  I am a mom and I am proud.  I would give every minute of every day to be with those kids, but in reality that is not possible.  They need to go to school and daycare, I need to work, they need friends, I need friends, but in a perfect world, if I could, I would do everything with them.  Being a mom...that is my passion. 

You need to realize... these words just keep playing in my mind over and over.  I need to realize.  This is not my choice.  This is not my decision.  I am married.  I took vows.  We have to work together as a team.  Cory wasn't sure he wanted any kids when we first met.  Then he learned to love being a dad to Mariah and we decided to start a family together.  We had Ethan, then three years later had Carter.  It was a struggle.  I wasn't sure he was ever going to give in to a third child (Carter), but he did and I am truly blessed because of that.  I have three kids.  They are amazing.  They play, they fight, they love, they teach, they learn.  They are amazing. 

There will be no more babies... how do I come to terms with this?  I remind myself every day of how lucky I am to have the three kids that I have. I try to mute the longing for more kids.  I try to mute my desire to have a family with five kids that I have always dreamed of.  Maybe God has other plans for me?  Maybe I can only handle three?  I try to come up with reasons every day as to why I long for two more when I know that it is not possible.  My husband is done.  He doesn't want any more kids.  This is it. 

I will continue to be thankful every day for the moments that I get with my children.
I will continue to be grateful for how blessed I am to have three beautiful healthy children. 
I will continue to pray to God asking him to help me find peace, happiness, and a feeling of content. 

I always wanted to be a stay at home mom.  The old fashion family with five kids.  You know, where the husband works, the mom cooks and cleans and takes care of the kids, and everyone gathers together at the end of the day and spends quality time together. 
That didn't happen though.  We built a house.  I spend too much money.  We spend too much money.  I am so unhappy with many things about our house.  I am always trying to buy things to make myself like our house more.  It works for a short while, but deep inside I hate our house.  I hate it because it is expensive and not ideal.  I hate it because in order to live in our house we both need to work full time to pay for our house.  Not only do I work full time, but I also work part time as an independent sales consultant.  I do this for extra money to pay for things, to buy more stuff for our house, to buy things for the kids...

Life is stressful, life is busy, it's hard to get what we really want out of life.  Every decision made plays a huge part in the rest of our lives.  How do we find happiness in what we have?  How do I learn to be content? 

Mariah is SIXTEEN

Mariah turned SIXTEEN on December 2nd, 2012!  Can you believe it?!  I can't.  My baby girl is becoming an adult! She has her temps, she doing really well with learning to drive, maybe soon we will let her get her license... just not quit ready to take that step yet... gulp! 

We had a nice birthday party for her.  She had a bunch of friends spend the night on Saturday and on Sunday our friends and family came over.  Complete weekend of celebrating. 

Do I look old enough to be her mom?!  Be nice!  ;-)

  

My mom let us borrow her chocolate fountain for the "sweet" sixteen birthday party.  It was a hit!  Kids and adults couldn't get enough of it! 

Really, I have a sixteen year old daughter?!?!

We love you Mariah!  May life bring you everything you dream of and more!

Finished Fireplace

We did it!  We finished the fireplace and it is beautiful!  The fireplace adds so much.  Absolutely in love with it! 

One of Ethan's favorite places to be.  On the floor, snuggled in the blanket, feeling the heat from the fireplace.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this! 

2013

Welcome to 2013!

I was going to add about 40 pictures to play catch-up, but for some reason blogger has gone all fancy and I can't upload pictures from my computer?!  But I could upload them from picasa, webcam, directly from my phone... urg. 

I'll be looking in to other options and maybe switching blog hosts.  I'll keep you posted! 

Happy New Year! 

The Bartlett Family

Family Day in Chicago

We love living so close to a big city. Actually, two big cities, but we tend to favor Chicago. On Saturday we surprised the kids with a trip down to Chicago. We took the train out of Waukegan. It was the first train ride to Chicago for all three of our kids. They seemed to enjoy it on the way there, but on the way back we were all exhausted and just ready to be at home.

Chicago was a lot of fun.  The weather was perfect.  The city was packed!  But everyone was in great holiday spirits.  Ethan wasn't so sure of the big crowds at first.  He became pretty upset and made it very well known that he wanted to go home.  Thankfully, some delicious food from Rock Bottom Brewery seemed to calm him down and prepare him to head back out on to the congested streets. 

We did some touring around, took lots of pictures, and watched the parade.  Radio Disney was at the parade so we heard some live performances and got to see a couple Disney celebrities.  The kids thought that was pretty cool! 

After the parade there was an amazing display of fireworks. They were LOUD. The noise bounced from building to building. Ethan and Carter watched with pure amazement.  Ethan didn't even care that his hat was falling off of his head...

On the way back to the train station, Mariah and I ran in to one of the many Starbucks and grabbed some warm drinks and a couple snacks for Cory and the boys. I love Starbucks.... What a great way to end a perfect family day.

Ethan slept on the train ride home.  We were hoping that Carter would do the same, but he decided to sing loudly in a horrible crying type of way... I bounced him, rocked him, and did everything I could to keep him quiet so the other passengers wouldn't get upset.  I even resorted to feeding him cookies at 10:30 at night... I was going for anything that would work. 

We got home a little before midnight and put the kids to bed.  We thought for sure they would sleep in, but by 7am the next morning they were all wide awake.  So much for catching up on sleep, but it was worth it! 

I love family adventures! 

Sneak Peak: Stone!

We committed!  We picked out a stone and we love it!  It's fireplace completion time!  7 years in the making... happy dance!  :-)  woot woot! 

It's a natural limestone.  Isn't it pretty?! 

Here is what we have been looking at since we built our home 7 years ago. 

Step 1: remove the existing drywall.  This was the fun part.  I love construction demo! 

Step 2: Barricade the kids creating a safe playing area away from flying drywall.  :-)  The kids thought this was fun at first... then quickly learned how to escape. 

Escaping the kid barricade led to little helping hands.  Ethan thought that using the shop vac was the best job ever. 

Isn't he a handsome little helper :-)

Since we had the wall opened up I talked Cory in to Step 3: installing eyeball lights! 

They work!  I love them!

Step 4: Get rid of old hearth, install the solid hardwood mahogany mantel, and hang up cement board. 

These are just phone pictures.  I'll have better pictures and more details in our final post.