UT wreath tutorial

We are gearing up to cheer on the Big Orange at the Isham house! I was thrilled to be able to find orange burlap at Hobby Lobby and it inspired this DIY UT wreath.

First of all, I learned from Pinterest to use a pool noodle as a wreath mold. That’s $1 at the dollar store vs. about $12 at a craft store. Heck yes! Just put the ends together and tape it so that it makes a perfect circle.

Next, I modified this tutorial for the burlap. You will need about a yard. I cut the pieces into 1.5 inch wide and about 12 inches long. First you wrap the entire noodle so that you can no longer see it (mine was lime green… doesn't really go with orange ha!) Then you basically take each strip and loop it 3 times and then pin the ends together. Sorry I didn’t take pictures, but the tutorial above shows you.

Last, but not least, I picked up a wooden T at hobby lobby for $2,  painted it white and hot glued it on. I had the football ribbon on hand and decided to add a little in for some extra.

Walla! $7 DIY Go Big Orange wreath!

Happy 70th Birthday, Potts!

Wishing my sweet Pottsy a very happy 70th birthday today! I am so so so blessed to have such a special relationship with him. I don’t take for granted being able to have him in my life for almost 30 years now! AND it is even more special to now see him with my own kids. We love you so much Potts! Thank you for being such an amazing husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather to our family! You’ve given us an incredible legacy!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Gearing up for football season!

These boys LOVE some football!

Smokies game!

The boys and I were invited to a Smokies game with our friends the Brillantes for Channa’s birthday. JR was out of town on a staff retreat so it was fun to have something to do to keep us busy!

The big downfall of being a single mom at a baseball game though is that you don’t want much baseball ha. The boys enjoyed being able to roam in the suite seats we had and really only cared about the snacks.

Luckily we werent the only ones with kids and so all of the boys had fun together. Here is their oldest son Tyler, Mr. Cutie Patootie!

Carter did get into the game every now and then and would yell over the rail, “Go, go, go!”

The Bowens also tagged along since they were without their Daddy too. Like I said, 6 boys 3 and under meant a lot of craziness. As we told another friend who was there, “A baseball game is totally different with toddlers!” Still making memories though and enjoying watching the boys experience new things!

Thank you Brillantes for inviting us!

Saying goodbye to the summer

We spent some time in Kingston this weekend to soak in one of the last weekends of the summer. Staying the night at Susu’s always means a yummy breakfast. The boys love “helping.”

We had beautiful weather and loved just relaxing on the porch with the family. This is Carter’s favorite spot. He can swing AND watch for boats. He is too funny on the lake because he thinks he needs to wave to every boat that goes by :)

Griffin enjoyed some fishing with Diddy… this is his #1 request when he knows we are spending time at their house. I love seeing these boys make memories on the lake and already love it as much as their parents do!

Double Date!

We enjoyed an adult night on Saturday and it was so nice to be able to go downtown and have some time to ourselves.

This date was extra special though because it was a DOUBLE date with the Bowens!

 

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Kydon and JR work together and have become pretty good buds.

 

It works well for me because Sheena and I LOVE each other. She is my Rockstar friend and I am so thankful for her friendship! It is very important to have friends who are at the same stage and that I can live day to day life as a wife and mom.

Very thankful for our neighbor Natalie who watched all FOUR boys so that we could go together! We had a blast!

Never a dull moment!

Never a dull moment…not with these two

Growing Boys

Just a little update on our two growing boys. First, this little boy is growing in A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E! Boy, oh boy… does he ever have the tude! This particular morning I he HAD to have his shoes on as soon as he woke up and was screaming until I somehow figured that out. Then he wanted to just have a diaper day, while carrying around his blanket and Mickey. Notice the face he gave me when I said, “Smile Carter!”

It’s the craziest thing though because he goes from one extreme to the other. One second he is rocking the attitude and then the next second he cant stop being silly and giggling. Here is Carter-man play peek-a-boo!

Big brother is becoming Mr. Independent. He loves learning new things and being able to do them all by himself. Newest things these days are making his bed (with a little help from Mom in the picture above), brushing his teeth including putting his own toothpaste on the toothbrush, throwing things in the trash and cleaning up his mess. Oh and of course, how could I forget? He only says this one EVERY time we get in the car because that’s where the gum is. “Mommy, I know how to chew gum!”

He is still obsessed with Batman and swears he needs to wear something with Batman on it everyday. The newest addition to his obsession is stuffed animal Batman, thanks to the Landers! He hasn’t put him down since he got him

Though life these days is just slap crazy sometimes, there are sweet snapshots that God provides along the way, such as this one where Big Brother was teaching Little Brother how to shoot the ball up in the air.

I am crazy about these two… they make me crazy 99% of the time…. and yet somehow I wouldn’t change a thing! Blessed by these boys!

Picky Chick Consignment Sale!

I am consigning with the Picky Chicks this week. If you are Knoxville Mom you should come and check them out too!

Visit to Chatt-town

One of my bridesmaids and dearest friends from college is getting married… FINALLY ha! Just kidding Crystal, I know you always said you’d be 30 before you did get married and I think Nik was definitely worth the wait! I am so pumped to be able to have a girls’ weekend coming up in October to attend her wedding in Texas. This weekend she had a shower in her hometown, Chattanooga, and I was thankful I lived so close to I could attend!

My gift to her…. at the bottom it says “These are the dates that changed our lives forever.”

Chattanooga is also where my bestest friend lives and so the boys and I had a slumber party with her and her little man, Ike! Needless to say it was very different than all of our previous slumber parties, but a first of many memories with our boys together!

Griffin and Ike were precious together. He will be 1 on Sunday and he just loved following Griffin around. Griff was also super sweet to him!

We all had a pool day at Crystal’s parents house on Monday.

I LOVED getting to see these two girls, and especially seeing my boys spend time with them. It definitely was more chaotic with our kiddos, but that is just life these days

Love you Katie and Crystal! So thankful for our friendship over 11+ years and all the stages along the way!

High school football

We are thrilled to be close to family now and even have the huge perk of being able to cheer for someone we know during high school football. My Uncle Scott is the head coach for Knoxville Catholic and we joined Mimi and Potts (or Coach Dad and Coach Mom) for his first home game.

The Brillantes are alumni there as well so they joined us for the game. These “best buddies” got a special treat at the concession stand.

And it helped keep this little booger up WAY past his bedtime!

Catholic won 35-0 and it was such a fun night! High school football is a favorite Friday night for JR and I. We both have loved it since way back when and we are so thankful to now have a local team to cheer for even after high school. The even better thing is that our boys both LOVED it too. Football runs deep in this family

Little Gymnists

We were invited to join some friends at Tatarus for open gym last week. This was our first experience doing anything gymnastics, including Mommy who cant even do a cartwheel. Hey don’t judge

Griffin’s favorite part was the foam pit

The boys doing what little boys do best… RUNNING!

The adorable Tyler who followed Griffin the whole time saying, “Best buddies!”

Trying out the bar

And the little brothers getting in on the bar too. They were actually really good as both Carter and Eli held themselves all by themselves for several seconds!

Cici came along to give Momma some extra hands and we were so glad she did!

Carter attempting a flip… or standing on his head. Who knows!

Momma Channa and Eli

Silly little stinker that loved the slide!