Before and After: Walkway and Driveway

In the 2.5 years that we've lived in our house, I am so proud of all the big things we have done. Jason deserves about 95% of the credit, having been the builder of our living room bench and bookshelves, fireplace, master closet, and back deck, not to mention our kitchen updates, half bath and dining room (whoops, still no post on that) and all the other little projects here and there. I typed "before and after" in the search bar on the right and there are a LOT of posts!

Anyway, those linked above are biggies, as is when we had our entire house painted last year. But the exterior project, along with our recent new driveway and walkway, are in a slightly different category because we had to hire someone to do it. We had a bumpy ride with our painter, let me tell you. And as it turned out, a bumpy ride with our paver too. But finally last week, our walkway and driveway were finished. We lost a little bit of grass but Jason was out there with some seed in no time. What is it with guys and their lawns.

Anyway.

Side by side before and afters on the walkway:

And then other direction, from the top of the porch.

Panorama attempt.

And now, the driveway. Ahhhh, the driveway. I swear with every season the grass crept further into the old asphalt, the frost heaves got worse, and by this spring the whole thing was basically crumbling. Ashton just looooooved to grab his shovel and get in there. So did his friends.

I joked that we should get some money credited to us for having our own demo crew. Alas. 

There is a slight pitch downhill and the water drainage was awful, which meant we had a perpetual mud puddle at the bottom. 

The boys loved that too. 

So time for the big reveal (oooo!). What I am going to post first is the TRUE before, when we had just bought the house and had not even moved in yet. Those pictures compared to the ones today are pretty crazy!

Looking down:

Looking up:

And then with another newer "before" picture.

I can't believe how much fresher the new driveway makes our house look. This:

vs. THIS.

Sooo happy! The only remaining real money project is a new fence and we are still on the fence (ha!) about whether we will invest in that at all.

I called the town not long ago to ask the rules about putting a curb in to frame the strip of grass out front. They told us we could, but the entire street is scheduled for new asphalt, sidewalks and granite curbs by the end of 2016 (thank god, because our little avenue is a mess of patchwork and holes). That will be the last piece in getting our exterior all cleaned up! 

It's pretty weird, the fact that we have checked off so many boxes on our "to-do" list from when we moved in. Jason was pacing around the other day going, "NOW what am I going to do? I need projects!" I am sure I can think of something...

Father's Day 2015

Happy Father's Day to all the daaaaaaaaaads out there! The Nills had a great day, Jason was off and overall we had a good amount of family time this weekend which was such a nice treat!

On Saturday we watched Ashton get his very first "trophy" for successful completion of the 6 week season of Little Kickers. Notice the difference between his reaction to the medal:

And the snack afterwards.

We don't usually buy Pirate's Booty for whatever reason (actually it's a specific reason and that is that it's MESSY) and Ashton was like, on overload. So was Alex. He whined and whined so we gave him a bag too and he made himself right at home with some other kids on the team.

Highlight of Little Kickers 2015: the snack. Go figure.

Anyway, we snapped our token pictures and called it a season! A season that ended with Ashton scoring a goal but only because he picked up the ball with his hands, dropped it near the net and then kicked it in. Who says you can't teach soccer to preschoolers! We were so proud.

So then Sunday, Father's Day, it was pouring rain from the minute we woke up. Joyyyyy. Ashton opened all of Jason's presents (herb scissors, Natives, and a cute three-way picture of the boys that I totally staged last week).

That took all of sixteen seconds. Alex napped and then we decided to head down to the Museum of Science just like every other family with young children in the greater Boston area. We had never been and really had a fun time! My favorite highlights:

There was a ton to do there. We were all over the place and then it was time for lunch (pause for second family picture in this post):

I had packed it all up while Alex napped and it was definitely the right decision vs. buying it at the cafeteria. So there I am at the table and I look down and...

Share a Diet Coke with DAD! I said "Babe! Look at my can! I totally didn't even plan that!" And obviously had to Instagram that right away as my "Happy Father's Day" photo.  Then I looked at Jason's can and THAT one said Share a Diet Coke with a SUPERSTAR, which (duh!) meant me. Boy, our Diet Cokes were right on point yesterday I can say that!

After naps, the rain cleared up, Berg and Karen came over for a little walk and a barbecue and then we watched the rest of the U.S. Open (and poor Dustin Johnson's three-putt). I hope Jason's Father's Day was all he could have wanted. Jason, if you're reading (haha), I love you I love you I love you a million times! You are everything. The boys could not have a better dad and you could not have two sweeter little shadows :) 

So beyond lucky to be your wife. Life is golden, thank you for all of it, every single last piece.

xoxox 

Alex is 15 months!

Another tick on the age scale...Alex is 15 months old! His molars are coming in, he had his third haircut, and he is *always* on the move! Our own little mini-tornado. Let's check out his stats:

Height: 32 inches (80th percentile)
Weight: 26.31 pounds (91st percentile)

Head: 18.5 inches (56th percentile)

Shots: Dtap-IPV-HiB (Pentacel)

Teeth: A full set of four on the top and four on the bottom, and then all four molars have broken through or are definitely on their way.
Hair color: White, basically. [Towhead: a blond person whose very pale, almost white hair resembles tow, "tow" being flax or help fibers. Alex's hair is definitely flax-ey.]

Eyes: blue

Diapers: Size 5

Shoes: Size 6

Clothes: 18-24 months, or 24 months. We have not broken into the 2Ts just yet.

Sleep: 2 Naps a day, usually 9:30 -10:45 am and 2-3:30 pm. Bedtime at 7:30 pm and he sleeps through (has for awhile). Wakeup is around 7:15 am. 

Food: Like all of us, he has days he eats a ton and others not so much. He doesn't have a consistent favorite food! It's really annoying actually because a lot of the time I don't have a guaranteed thing he will eat no matter what. I have started giving him some of Ashton's sneaky kale smoothies and he loves those - he mastered the straw a couple months ago and that was pretty life-changing. Fortunately, he has no allergies, at least that we know of. He's had peanut butter and eggs with no issues - because Ashton is so allergic to sesame we don't keep much of anything in the house that has that in it, so that's another big one we need to somehow try with Alex.
Biggest vice: bottles. He still gets three 6-ouncers a day of whole milk, at each wakeup (before breakfast, and after each nap). He's never taken a paci and it's a comfort thing I think. He walks around with it and is quiet while he has his milk and it's just a nice time haha. But a lot of people would tsk tsk this so I'm going to start thinking about phasing it out. 

Words: Well, none. So guess what - his Early Intervention evaluation is next week. If you've been reading this since the beginning, you'll know that Ashton went down this road and it was nothing but a great experience for us. So I'll post again about that after I know whether Alex qualified. He makes all kinds of sounds (and has said "mama" but not directed at me, just the sounds in general). 

Usually found: playing with toys and books. Very appropriate. But he does move, let me tell you. He just spins around the house and on the back deck and generally loves to check things out. 

Loves to: Give hugs, try and keep up with Ashton, get into the kitchen cabinets, bring you a book and whine until you open it to read it, so you read one page and then he shuts it and wants to get down. Also loves to ride around the neighborhood in his blue car, go down the slide all by himself, and LOVES the water. Whenever we are in the backyard he goes over to the water table and hits the cover and looks at me expectantly. I took him to Beaver Brook for the first time the other day and he outlasted all the bigger kids he was with, including his brother! And finally, Alex also shares Ashton's love of mud puddles.

In general: I find Alex to be a lot more...advanced? Than Ashton was at this age. I'm confident it's largely because he has Ashton as a role model and watches and learns so much from him. Alex seems to understand a ton and sometimes his behavior is very interesting. A little while ago he was playing in the dining room and found the yellow top to the shape sorter. He picked it up, walked through the living room over to the toy box, found the bottom and placed the yellow piece right on top before going back to his under-the-dining-room-table lair. He picks up cars and trains and runs them along the floor or wall and makes whooshing noises. 

Last word: Our little guy is just a happy-go-lucky explorer who is generally very busy but will stop everything for a popsicle. Here are some photos of things that have made him who he is today :) xoxo Alex!

Shoe Storage

Listen everyone. I'm in a crisis here. The number of shoes strewn around the house is taking.me.over. Big shoes! Small shoes! Crocs! Rain boots! Flats! Jason's monster sneakers! Four people's worth of footwear and it's been slowly making me crazy. We don't have a mudroom and honestly, if I could choose between that or a luxurious master bathroom, I'd pick mudroom every time.

So in the last couple of weeks, I was just bopping around on the interwebs and this flashed before me:

51 Game-Changing Storage Solutions That Will Expand Your Horizons

I like to think that my horizons are already pretty broad when it comes to storage but I mean, I still clicked. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. A lot of the ideas I had seen here or there but I scrolled through the list and WHAP! #9 hit me.

A coat rack hung low on the wall makes a space-saving shoe rack.

Really! Because that "before" pile looks an awful lot like what I've got in my house. I thought to myself, "Self, you could make that!" and trotted off to tell Jason to make that. 

Which is just what he did. He got a piece of wood and some knobs, let me mark where I wanted them placed, and one day while I was at work, he sent me this picture:

I said AHHH! Looks great! Can you do 2 rows?

Indeed, I had not. But where Alex just looooves to come and knock the shoes off, Ashton is actually very into putting them all back. Anyway it's not a perfect solution and most of the time, the nook still looks like this.

But at least now I have the OPTION of someplace to hang up (a small fraction of) the zillions of pairs of shoes floating around. 

That picture is captioned: "The best this area will ever look."

As I suspect is true for most of those "game-changing storage solutions", it's better in theory than in practice. Now I just have to figure out where to put all the coats...

Preschool Graduation

Well. Yesterday Ashton graduated from his Pre-k 3 class! Honestly I'm speechless. Where did the last 9 months go? More importantly, what am I going to DO with him all summer? Luckily Belmont Nursery School runs several weeks of camp that starts on Monday. Alex still naps in the morning so having Ashton out of the house until 12 every day has been a perfect schedule that will absolutely continue.

Anyway, the big graduation was yesterday and included a breakfast and a recital. Ashton wore a green and white striped polo and sang his little heart out at the concert. I'd post a video but I think perhaps it's something only his parents really appreciate ;)

Certificate time!

All in all it was a perfect little program yesterday and we were so happy with Ashton's teacher this year, Miss Campbell. She was ALWAYS smiling and really got to know Ashton. There is no doubt in our minds that he learned a ton and will be ready for next year!

For whatever reason, the graduation was yesterday but today was his actual last day. Of course we had to do a before and after!

Ashton has definitely grown taller and thinner since last September. I wish I could say the same about me. 

Anyway, one year of school under our belts! Congrats to our preschool graduate Ashton Christopher, age 3.10!

Where have I been??

Truth be told, I have had a bit of the blahs lately with this blog. I just have had no motivation to post despite that we did have an awesome Memorial Day weekend a few weeks ago. Uncle Erik flew out from California last minute to surprise everyone, which meant guess who was going in the water with the boys at Lake Iroquois ;)

We also got to spend a few days with my little niece Callie, which obviously I loved!

Overall, it was a great weekend - we hit the farmer's market, Al's creemees, the beach, took some walks, played in the backyard...we missed Jason but being up in Vermont is always such a nice break! I always forget how beautiful it is. So that was Memorial Day - the 3.5 hour drive went fine as long as the boys had snacks. I kept their little mouths stuffed full the whole way ;)

Sorry this is a short post, just wanted to check in and address this little hiatus I've been on. I should have some good stuff coming up (preschool graduation! new driveway! Alex turns 15 months!) so I promise to be back soon!