Growing things...

As long as we've lived in our home (7 years), I've wanted a vegetable garden. We have a large dog & she would rip it to shreds in a day. Well, a close friend of ours posted a photo & I saw this awesome stand up planter in the background. I fell in love & turns out her uncle made it, and 3 days later he had made ME one! Today we took the kids down and bought a bunch of vegetables and herbs to put in the planter. We haven't planted them yet but here's a photo of the planter. It's super nice & I'm really happy with it. If you are in the Houston area check it out at www.Facebook.com/KustomKoolers . I hope our new plants grow & we can start eating our veggies. We are also cleaning up our back yard & getting it all summer ready. Im ashamed to say it is in sad overgrown shape right now. The dog has dug holes all over & it's out of control! We bought the baby a little seat swing for the swing set & are getting ready to set up our patio set & mini pool. Since I'll be home much more this summer we will have way more time to spend back there!

Part Time, Full Time

So this was my first week working part time. It went really well. Our whole family has been really sick. It started with poor Tuck, he was back & forth to the hospital with 104+ fever. Then it spread to everyone else over the next week and a half. As soon as everyone returned to school & work, Everly got a stomach virus. Then over 2 days everyone caught it. It was brutal. A week later were all still trying to recover fully. This is the first time we've ever had a wave of sickness come through the family and it was really tough on our work schedules. I've been making a concentrated effort to make sure I'm keeping a good work / home balance when I'm working from home. I'm the type of person where it's very easy for me to work on weekends or in the evenings. For now I've set aside Saturdays & Sundays for not working except to answer emails & messages, NO sewing! I also want to say I wrote this from the Blogger App on my iPhone. I didn't realize they had an app until today, and the reason I don't blog more often is because I live on my phone, not my computer. Hopefully now I can blog a little more often & easily. I did venture to the Disney outlet today & it went fine. Minus the fact that shortly after we got there it started to rain & all of Houston flooded, of course while I'm 40 miles from home. We made it home with no issue though, thank goodness! In other exciting news the girls's new birth certificates came in today. Some of you may be curious how they look! Basically they wipe the original record & put me & my husband on the new birth certificate. Neither our son's or the girl's came with their weights etc which is kinda sad. But, this is really the point where you realize it's all over & we're their "real" parents!

Summer is coming!

   This week I started working part time, and coming home to sew the other half. It has been really nice! Though, I am now wishing I hadn't agreed to stay working through June. I am still selling dresses as fast as I can get them made. The way I've been doing it is sewing a sample, and posting it while I finish up the others of the same dress. I've had every dress sell out within hours. I'm feeling very blessed by this new opportunity & I've been working like crazy on building my customer base & clientele. I'm heading out this weekend to the Disney Outlet (alone with 3 kids) to get some shirts for the next couple of weeks worth of dresses. We have some BIG, BIG changes coming up also. This could change our whole lives, and our little one's lives in ways we can't imagine. We aren't ready to share just yet. We're stewing on our newest decisions and wanting to let it get a little closer before we spread the good news! The kids are all doing well. Tuck is ready for the summer, which is just 6 weeks away. Everly is as sassy as ever. I'll be happy when I'm home with her all the time. The daycare at my work hasn't been good for her. She manipulates the workers & its showing in her behavior there. I've tried to tell them, but they just won't listen. So, I guess I should just let them deal with the tantrums she throws since they give in to it. Lyla is growing so fast & becoming such a little lady! She isn't my baby anymore. I'm sad to see her grow so fast. In just 3 short months she will celebrate her 2nd birthday. The photo above is from her first birthday party.

So Many Changes...

Things have changed so much since my last post. I know we had a great plan for me to quit my job, but we have tossed out that plan and decided to have faith that was the path for us. My business has really taken off. I was selling dresses so quickly I couldn't keep up & had to stop taking orders because I was nearly 2 weeks out. I was making more in a day a half of sewing on the weekends than I was bringing home after taxes and daycare at my full time job.  I had a list of customers on a wait list, and it was growing! My husband and I had a serious conversation about my job & we decided at this point there was NO reason for me to continue to work. Today I went in & put in my 2 weeks notice. It was a tough decision and it was very hard for me. I love the kids I work with every day. In a normal week I spend more time with them than I do my OWN kids, and I would miss them like crazy. When I went in prepared to quit, my school and I were able to work out a deal. Starting April 22nd & until the end of June, I will go down to working part time. I will work from 8am-noon everyday and I will leave permanently in June. This ended up working out to be really great because I would be home to get my son off of the school bus so we don't have to pay his daycare anymore, plus the girls daycare would be WAY less since they would drop down to half time instead of full time. I would also leave work with the girls at noon and take them home to eat lunch, they nap right after lunch, so I can sew in the afternoons for a couple of hours. My son will get off the bus right by our house & he can play until the girls get up from their nap while I work. It will save a ton of time in the morning when I normally pack my lunch & the girl's lunches as well as their nap mats and all that stuff. It will also give me time to transition the students I am working with to a new teacher, as well as transition my girls to being home more often. Over all it is really the best of all 3 worlds,being a Mommy, a business owner & a very rewarding job. If you go like my page (there is a widget in the top right corner) & see something you like, Please PM me & let me know you came from the blog!

Easter..

Today was Easter! Easter was the first holiday we spent with the girls last year & it was a really nice holiday. We spent the weekend at my parent's house & the kids really loved it. As you can see from the photo above Delilah was in LOVE with the candy, she couldn't be stopped. No, really, we couldn't stop her! Before the kids hunted for eggs we went down to the water to snap a few photos.

In other news, a saving update, we DID have savings to report this month, then the transmission went out in my husbands car. Once we sold that car & bought another we were right back where we started at. So there is no change there for now. Hopefully I can have a little progress this upcoming month. Also my husband had a little accident. A couple of weeks ago we were at my nephews birthday party at a bowling alley & he went to pull up the bumpers (yes, we now realize this is a big no,no!). Well when he pulled it up the hinge snapped the tip of his right pinky slicing it nearly to the bone. It took a few stitches to put it back together again, but he is on his way to healing! I also told you I would be sharing a little about some work I've been doing. I recently launched an online store on etsy. I am selling custom girls dresses & little things. You can find it at www.etsy.com/shop/EverCustomCouture. I also launched a facebook page for the store at www.facebook.com/EverCustomCouture . I've sold a few dresses & it is going well. Its a little hard to find time to sew with 3 kids, school and a full time job. The kids are all doing well and there really isn't too much to report!

Stay-cation 2013!

So this Spring Break things were so crazy! I was off for the week because school was out & so Chris took a week of vacation also. We were originally planning on going out of town but before we knew it we were 3 weeks away & everything was booked solid! So we decided to use the week to do a "staycation" or basically stay in town & do tons of "touristy" things we're ashamed to admit we haven't taken our kids to do yet. We basically hit up every area attraction the kids always BEG us to go to but we just don't have time! The first day we hit up Build a Bear. The kids already all had bears, so we decided not to buy new bears, but rather just buy them all new clothes. Everly picked out a new gymnastics outfit for hers. Delilah "picked" a cute pajama set. I say "picked" because lets face it, she's 20 months old. I picked 2 soft outfits ideal for snuggling & held them up & she yanked the pajamas one out of my hand. Tuck's "bear" is a monkey he named Train 3 years ago and he picked out an army uniform for him.While at the mall I ran Tuck into Abercombie Kids to pick out a shirt. Its a treat for him so I took the opportunity while we were there. After we fluffed them & changed them we headed outside to eat frozen yogurt in the gorgeous outdoor waterway.

  That evening we took them out to a local park to play and feed the ducks. The ducks weren't hungry, they were fat. But there was this nice nutria rat that WAS hungry, and friendly. The kids sat patiently as he made his way up & Daddy fed it from his hand. Chris took  Lyla to swing. If I have never told you, she adores the swings. The higher the better. She will giggle until she can't breathe and she will do it for however long you leave her on the swing!

The next day we took the kids to one of those indoor bouncy house places, you know the kind that make you realize you're older than dirt & have NO business jumping. Period. Ever. We ate pizza & soda (my kids never get soda). They had a TON of fun even the baby really enjoyed herself.

When we first decided to do the "staycation" we asked the kids what they wanted & Tucker immediately chimed in he wanted to do Halloween, which I was a little impressed with I must admit. But when I asked out of EVERY holiday they would pick Halloween they promptly changed their mind to Christmas! So the next morning we set up a borrowed Christmas tree & wrapped up a bunch of presents (courtesy of the jumbo $.99 store). The kids really liked that one!

 

(On a side note, I enjoy the photo above, because Everly was NOT about to give Delilah attention for her negative behavior).


We also took another trip out to the zoo. Let me just say, we were NOT the only ones who though it was a great idea to go to the zoo, during spring break, when the weather was FABULOUS! But again, the kids had lot of fun!

 The next day we took the kids to a local "farm" petting zoo place. They fed all the animals & the girls rode the pony. For some reason Tuck was too afraid to ride the pony but he was the only one the baby deer would come up to! After feeding the animals we all rode the train around the park. Then the kids wanted to play & come down the giant slide. For some reason Everly decided to come down it FACE first. By the time I realized she came down head first it was too late to put down the camera & stop her. She ended up with rug burn on her face! There is a little fabric liner & over it is usually mulch I assume, but that day there was no mulch between her poor little face & the liner. She cried, I giggled. I only giggled because that is SOOO like her. She has no fear & always seems to get hurt in the most random ways, like using her face as a stopper when she comes flying out of a 15 foot slide. The photo below was about 1/2 second before previously described face to ground impact! 

 The last day we took care of some business in the morning & in the evening the kids played the XBox 360 Kinect & watch a movie. We made pizza and the kids ate huge homemade sundaes. Overall we had a great vacation, I just wish it wasn't over SO soon. I also spent a little time getting a few small things together for my new "business". I will share some more on that in a little bit, but I sold my first couple of items & it was really nice. I know it is going to take awhile to get my clientele up and I just have to be patient! Other than the chaos of this past week things have been going really well! We're excited about our new savings plan (we didn't really HELP that cause with the all the splurges this week), but we're committed to making it work!

Recent Happenings

Things have been really busy lately! We went today to take new family photos. Our friends at www.tracephotography.net always does them, so if you're in the Houston area, check them out. The photo above is a little sneak peak, I'll post more a little later. I''ve recently been brushing up on my sewing skills. I bought a nice little computerized Brother, and I'm really liking it. We also recently finished converting our 1 1/2 car garage into an office/ craft room / guest room. We have really been in desperate need of a little extra space & it has been SOO nice being able to go in there & sew. The kids are doing really well. The girls have been coming with me to work since we have a daycare on site. Everly is doing really well, she spends part of the day with our non-typical students & I think it is really good for her. She had a few bumps with her new teacher. I think her teacher was a little too lenient & Everly was taking advantage & testing her with fits & being defiant. I had to tell her teacher not to worry about being too stern with her & now she is doing much better. Delilah is as good as always, though I think she's taking advantage by conning her teacher into holding or rocking her. Its really nice to just bring them with me, but I'm still having to go get Tuck after because he goes to a daycare by his school.  Other than that everything is pretty much the same. The kids are really growing fast so we're just trying to enjoy it as much as possible.