Last Wednesday we traveled to the county courthouse along with our entire families to witness Sadler officially become a Lubbers!

He’s felt like our son since the moment we first held him but now he’s officially a part of our family!

Such a special day!

Grayden is happier than he looks to welcome Sadler into our family! A local newspaper published the cutest picture of Grayden holding Sadler’s hand during the hearing. If our scanner was hooked up i’d post the piucture, maybe someday!

The same judge finalized Grayden’s adoption almost 2 years ago!

After court we all went to celebrate at our house and Sadler changed into his party attire!

Sadler we can’t imagine life without you, you are such a precious addition to our family and we thank God for choosing US to be your parents and choosing YOU to be our son.

We love you Sadler!

Sarah Smith and gzahn57; CONGRATS!!

send me and email in the next couple of days to claim you’re prize! katielubbers@hotmail.com

 
its been a BIG month for you buddy! You reached so many milestones!
Here’s what you’ve been up to in the last month:

You started eating baby food, you' haven’t been a big fan of homemade green beans but so far you’ve liked everything else you’ve tried!

You LOVE your big brother! He provides endless entertainment for you and you watch him all day!
 

 
You started army crawling about 3 weeks ago and within the past couple of days you’ve been crawling on your hands and knees! Getting so big!

You are pulling yourself up to stand! 

You are poppin’ tooth #3 through, top right.
You weigh around 17lbs
 
You wear size 2 diapers and 6-9 month clothes
You have 5 bottles a day, working your way down to 4 as you start to eat more baby food.
You are sleeping much better most days/nights!
You learned how to put yourself in the seated position from laying.
You’re personality develops more everyday, you have a naughty side and a sweet side!

You’ve become quite  a flirt, you give all the ladies a shy smile and you’re usually scared of the guys!

We love everything about you Sadler!!

monday~ we got the occupancy permit for our new house,

we started moving in that evening! it was an exhausting day, sadly I have no pictures of the craziness!

tuesday~ we were completely moved out of our old house so the new owners could move it.

our first home:

kitchen

entry way/laundry room

living room

dining room

main bath

salon

lower bath, loved that tiled shower/tub

lower level vanity

our room, so tiny!

our closet

hallway

sadler’s nursery

upstairs grayden’s room/playroom

pergola deck area

another deck shot

I didn’t cry when we left our first home behind and said goodbye, i totally could of….so many memories there, but we have lots to look forward to in our new home too!

the rest of the week~ we spent (almost) every waking moment unpacking box after box after box and finally today we are box free on the main floor; thanks to the help of many loved ones! We’ll tackle the lower level next week!

*We are loving it here and I know we’ll love it even more when we can finally relax and enjoy it once everything is in its spot!

Pictures to come!

Wahoo! Last one!
Our first meal at the new house; subs from Subway in the downstairs kitchenette !

Taken November 10, last week Thursday, after the glass backsplash was installed :)

I’m thinking about Brenham in an extra special way today, Prematurity Awareness Day. He weighed less than a pound but changed our lives in a very BIG way!

Awhile ago I was at a friend’s jewelry party when i got a text from Robb that said “how do i get eyeliner off grayden’s face?”, I had a good laugh and read the text out loud to the girls and when I got home this is what I saw:

Someone’s been spending a little too much time in the bathroom *this was while we were potty training"* and watching a little too closely when I get ready in the mornings, sadly his technique is all wrong, otherwise I coulda put him to good work!

Beth guessed correctly, this is a wall of patterned wallpaper in my new home salon!

I WILL be wrapping this thing up this week! 2 more posts to go! Hallelujah!

Here’s a close up picture, the far-away picture is coming soon!

100 points to the first person to guess what it is!

Hint: it has something to do with our new house!

early on in our building process I knew I wanted something fun and unique for the lower level bathroom vanity. I put together some fun ideas and the custom cabinet showroom and when the quote came back I nearly dropped to the floor after realizing that ‘certain look’ I was hoping for cost nearly triple what our builders had budgeted for us! (The first of many, many over budget surprises!) That was just not going to happen on a vanity so instead I took a little direction from one of my favorite blogs, Natty by Design and gave furniture up-cycling a shot!

I found the perfect dresser at a local antique shop and took it home with me!

Of course I was way too excited to complete the transformation that I completely neglected to take pics along the way but here's a run down of what I did!

First, I removed the hardware and put it away for safe keeping, I definitely wanted to use the original hardware as it was one the things I loved so much about the dresser. Then, I sanded it and gave it a few coats of black glossy paint. I spray painted the hardware a brighter metallic color and added some decorative furniture feet to raise the height up a bit.

It was a LOT of work, glossy, oil based paint is ‘pain in the you know what’ to work with, and its far from perfect but I LOVE the way it turned out and this bathroom is one of my favorite rooms in the house, can’t wait to get it decorated, plus I saved a TON of money!

About a year ago I joined the Moms In Tow group and absolutely love it! In case you haven’t heard of Moms in tow, here’s a quick description from their website about what its all about!
”ABOUT MOMS IN TOW
Moms in Tow LLC provides moms, expecting moms and women anticipating pregnancy a way to find great discounts, meet others for social events and attend healthy and educational activities. We are a great resource for moms in West Michigan to find activities like hiking and running groups, play groups and also a resource for acquiring the tools and gear for child rearing. Our goal is to make it easier for moms to be moms.
HOW IT WORKS
By paying an annual fee, Moms in Tow members receive a login id for the website and a membership card. Members use their login id to access and post activities and events going on in West Michigan. When members present their membership card at local partnering businesses they will receive exclusive discounts. For example, one of our business partners is Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant....by presenting the membership card, Moms in Tow members will receive 15% off the price of the entire bill! (excluding alcohol, specials and catering) All business partners are listed at www.momsintow.com”

Now I LOVE the discounts I’ve gotten from being a Moms in Tow member but my favorite thing of all is their ‘stroller fitness class’. Over the summer they held it every other week at Kollen’s Park and we would walk the boardwalk and do some cardio/strength exercises along the way! LOVE it!!

Now that the weather has cooled off they host it weekly at the Holland Aquatic Center! I go as much as a can, and really enjoy a great workout with my kids!!

Jenny, the owner and founder of Moms In Tow, is giving away a year long memberships to Moms in Tow to 2 lucky winners so you can take advantage of all the great discounts and activities as well!!

Here’s how you enter:

I’m making it really easy, just go to the Moms in Tow website, check out all the discount opportunities, and leave a comment here telling me what discount you would be most excited about!

I’ll pick a winner on November 20!

Good Luck!

Our little farmer and chicken (or is it a rooster?)

and with cousin, Makenna, the cow!

We don’t go crazy on Halloween by any means, we just took the boys to the great grandparent and grandparents and call it a night! In fact, the grand total spent on their costumes was a whoppin’ $5, we already had everything for Grayden’s costume and Sadler’s costume I bought a few weeks ago on an online yard sale for $5! Score!

So fun to dress them in their cute costumes!

yes, that’s wallpaper…going up! i know, its a lost art, but its coming back people! this isn’t you’re grandma’s wallpaper! :)

i have lots of things to blog about but not the time to do it! life is crazy busy right now!

coming up when i find the time:

~Halloween ( think I'm the only blogger in cyber space who has not posted about this yet, am i right?)

~thoughts on orphan Sunday

~a super cool giveaway for all my local west Michigander readers

~new house stuff!

Stay tuned!