Extreme Hutch Makeover

I am SO excited for my hutch transformation! A few months ago my sister in law got a steal of a deal on a black hutch from an overstock furniture store. Of course they were gone by the time I went to check and see if there were any more left. So I decided to create my own. I bought an oak hutch on craigslist that I got down to 150 dollars. I removed the doors, primed it, took out the two center supports and painted it dark kettle black, the same color we painted our built-in entertainment unit. I even kept the original hardware - I primed it and then sprayed it with appliance epoxy spray paint in stainless steel. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it turned out, and I'm so excited to show you all! It took hours, but it was so worth it!

Carter's Annual Cub Scout Blue and Gold Dinner

Keeping the tissue paper sucked onto the straw relay game


Derek and Tyler joined in as well

This photo says so many things to me. Carter looks sharp as ever, and I am so proud to be his mom. He's growing up, old enough to be in Cub Scouts, understand respect for the flag, etc. I love you Carter and you make us so proud!

Carter and the Cub Scouts all lined up

Nascar Weekend at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA

Our favorite Driver (Brian, Melanie, Carter#99 Carl Edwards!)
Derek still favors Tony Stewart who now races for Office Depot, and Tyler is yet to be determined.


WE LOVE NASCAR!



Racing under the lights




Last weekend was great - it was our annual trip to Auto Club Speedway! On Friday we watched the qualifying, Friday night we stayed at a hotel nearby in Ontario, and Saturday we went to the double header race - the truck series and then the nationwide series. We look forward to this every year, it become an annual tradition for us!

Its Nascar Time, Baby!!

Could those big brown eyes get any bigger? I can always count on Derek for his multi-faceted facial expressions!


Tyler enjoying himself



Melanie studiously watching the race and keeping tabs on #99 - Carl Edwards!




Brian and Tyler enjoying the race

Bad, Bad KITTY!!!!!!

Yes, some of you who have Facebook know of what happened yesterday, but for those in the blogging world, I'll reshare my story. And yes, I actually said the word pissed.

Here was my status update yesterday: Melanie is pissed.... literally. The cat of all places decided to pee (why??!!) on my white linen upholstered chair from Pottery Barn...... bad bad kitty!!!!!!!!

Yesterday morning I was taking some clothes off of my WHITE linen upholstered chair from POTTERY BARN that is in our master bedroom when all of the sudden I noticed a big yellow spot on the seat of the chair. I leaned down and smelled it, and let me tell you, it wasn't human pee. I had Brian verify my suspicions, and lo and behold, it was CAT PEE.... nasty x 100!!!! Our cat Bart must of done it when we didn't realize he was roaming in the house or one of the kids let him in without us knowing.....

So yes, I'm pissed. The "S" word... SHELTER came into my mind as well as Brian's instantly. But you know what? I actually don't want to take him there! I love him and he is a part of our family... although he is definitely BANISHED to the outside world unless he's sleeping at night in the garage (which has had no accidents since there's a litterbox in there)

Hold the phone.... Melanie is turning compassionate towards her pets???!!!

So now the clothes are on the "sanitize" cycle and the cushion is going to get the washing of all washings.... we'll see how this all turns out. I'll keep you posted. (By the way, I thought this picture that I found on google would be an appropriate photo for this post as it looks just like him)

Now I'm going to take a deep breath and go see how the clothes turned out.....

Yes, we raise Monkeys....

More proof that we have BOYS.................

Time with the Nieces!

Emily being a ham for me


My new niece Mallory (Cheryl's daughter)



Me & Mallory Kate Robbins




Me & Emily - she said cheese!

I took a well needed break from the kiddos and drove down to San Diego to spend a day by myself to see my new niece Mallory and help watch Emily while Heidi and Jason moved. I enjoyed spending some quality time with both! I was so happy to get a photo with Emily smiling with me! Mallory is just adorable, I love that little girl so much already! I could of held her all day and stared at her the whole time. Cheryl is recovering quite well and Brady loves to hold his new "little shissher".

We're Back Online

A lot has happened in the 2 months that we couldn't find our battery charger for our camera! Life kept us really busy through Christmas with Tyler in his spica cast, which was removed on January 19th. On January 15th Brian lost his dad, and January 16th was the passing of his Grandma Peters. We got to spend a lot of time with our extended families, and it made for some sweet memories. Tyler also started walking 6 days after his cast was off, which was miraculous.

Out of Order

Sorry everyone, we lost our camera battery charger and have been unable to take photos to upload to our blog.... Brian just FOUND it today in his laptop bag so we'll be up and running again shortly... stay tuned!