Husbands & Hefty Cups

Sometimes I allow all the distractions of life take over my mind and heart and I focus on all the things that "matter so much but mean so little. I have decided that my biggest fault is thinking that I have a right to vent my feelings to those closest to me. Rather than clear my mind and heart of the frustration that I am feeling it feeds my emotions and keeps my focus on things un true and pure. So instead of sharing the little things in life that aren't going "my way" today I thought I'd share some of the amazing things that are happening in my life. I have an amazing God of grace and love who has showered me with so many blessings I don't deserve. Let me share just a few...



This man is by far the most amazing part of my life <3 He makes me laugh daily and fills my heart with so much joy. He understands me and the ways that I need him, and gives so freely of himself to see me happy. He is my best friend and the greatest man I know. He makes me proud to be his wife and puts his whole heart into everything. I couldn't ask for a more devoted and considerate man to give my life to.



How can something so close to me still feel so far away? She is teaching me new things all the time about life and God and she hasn't even made an appearance yet! I am so excited to have this new unexpected cutie in our lives. I know she has so much more to teach me through both the joyful and the trying times of being a parent. I never expected to enjoy being pregnant half as much as I have. Ever day I feel a new kind of joy and thankfulness for this amazing opportunity. Im so glad that God knows what we need and when we need it because I never would have taken this on of my own accord and yet I wouldn't give it up for anything :-) What an unexpected blessing.





I know dogs really??? These boys bring me so much laughter and joy on a daily basis. They also love to cuddle and love on me which is amazingly priceless when your an emotional pregnant woman who's husband occasionally works 130 hour work weeks! If everyone could love as unconditionally as dogs the world would be a much better place. Even when my pregnant brain forgets to feed them (woops!) they still climb into my lap, lay their heads on my belly and shake their heads confused when baby girl gives them a decent kick :-) They are always happy to see me and have so much fun personality. I love my boys <3



Chocolate Milk! Hahaha such a great one :-) I haven't had any weird cravings, just consistent ones. I cant ever get enough milk, but since I don't like milk the chocolate saves me ;-P I am grateful that we not only have everything we need but also enough for silly things like chocolate milk cravings. I'm thankful for a tasy beverage that makes me feel better every time I dink a giant glass <3



Spring time... I have never thought of spring as my favorite season, but this year its such a welcome blessing. We have had a mellow winter around these parts and I wasn't even feeling done with it. However, these sunny days and warm weather have been like healing for my heart that I have allowed to get so heavy with the little things that don't matter. Im enjoying the promise of a new day that spring seems to whisper to us. There is something so great just around the corner and it isn't just summer :-)



Yellow Hefty Cups teehee. This goes back to the amazing man in my life and spring time I think. I love that I have a husband who knows that picking the yellow over the red will bring me extra joy because I love everything seasonal and am enjoying spring more than normal and all the brightness and yep you guessed it... JOY that it seems to bring. These yellow hefty cups are even making my milk cravings more enjoyable ;-P And no this isn't a stretch for something else to be thankful for. these darn cups really do make me happy every time I reach for one in the cabinet.

Lastly I am so thankful and excited to be looking forward to three days of with Cody <3 Although he has some tests to study for its going to be so nice to be abl to enjoy being together, and celebrating his wonderful life since its his birthday this week! Im so grateful for another amazing year with this amazing man.

Life is good <3

The Bathroom...

Well its official, the nesting is here to stay! Since cleaning the garage a couple weeks back I have been rolling forward full steam on getting the rest of our house in order. Since we only lived in our home for a month before getting pregnant with sweetness the first couple months didn't see much in the way of progress around here seeing as I was much more content to sit on the couch than clean or unpack. So for starters heres our bathroom...

I have better before pictures some place but cant find them so here are a few I snapped when the project was just getting started.

Note the lovely paint all over the cabinets and yep that was our light fixture leaning against the counter, the light bulbs used to just hang out of it because the insides was broke :-) Classy!


See its just eww and blah! Their was paint all over the shower tiles, the cocking around the tub was, well not nice and when patching holes in the walls they had actually created mountains with putty. It took talent to do this kind of work!

Naturally we started by sanding, re texturing the crazy walls...

Ok well maybe husband did all that :-) I took a razor blade to the tiles, the mirror, the window and even the cabinets to get the remaining pink and teal paint off of everything! Than it was on to the painting! I had the hardest time deciding on a color for some reason, and in the end its even more blue than I expected


See our new light fixture! The cabinets are not staying either we just haven't found the right ones at the right price yet and for now these do the job. The mirror as you can see is fine except for along the edges so we decided to just frame it ourselves... but before we could get to that project the darn thing decided to fall off the wall when Edward was taking a shower and shatter into a million pieces! We wont be reframing it any more :-/


New cabinet :-) The new vanity will be black as well and Cody has been working on taking some beautiful nature photos that we are going to print in black and whites to hang on the walls <3


And organization!!!! This makes me almost as excited as the new paint, clean tiles and evenly textured walls :-) I love that I know right where everything in my house is, its pure bliss!

Anyways.... thats the bathroom for now but stay tuned for the new vanity and mirror (you should see the lovely one from our bedroom thats leaning on the counter right now)

The Garage - Phase 1

Well as promised here are some pictures of our garage project!
We woke up later than I had planned on, took longer to get ready and to get started than I would have liked. However, we still managed to finish phase 1 :-) This first part of the project consisted of cleaning, organizing and trashing a ton of stuff that has been thrown in there since we moved here in September. But before I go into the details here are some rather scary pictures of the before...
Deep breaths everyone....




So yeah it was pretty bad. We started by pulling everything out into our yard and organizing it into categories, hunting, fishing, tools, camping, seasonal decoration, ect. Going through all the random boxes and trashing a ton of stuff that should have never moved with is in the first place. Heres another picture of our progress at this point.




At this point it started to snow on us! We were freezing but determined not to give up, so the work went on :-) as everything got organized outside, we started moving it back inside. All the seasonal stuff went up above on some shelfs that have been empty until now. Tools and the like to the right, hunting to the left and all codys garage door junk on the back wall. here are some after pictures...



Ok so it doesn't look that clean but it's only phase 1 remember? The boxes on the right up to the fridge are Erins and Dustins and will be moving with them on Tuesday. The stuff on the left from the ladder back is all codes hunting and fishing stuff, we have the shelfs to hang on the wall to get everything up off the floor and more organized but they go up in phase 2! The back wall is all stuff thats ebing taken away (except the tool box for his truck, we still have to find the right spot for that) Oh and those very ugly yellow crooked cabinets are empty and just need to be trashed as well. We waited to pull them down until we are taking a trip to the dump. But really all in all its sooooo much better don't you think!?!? We have three days off and phase 2 will at least be started along with some more interesting projects ;-) Since I know how much you all loved seeing our garage get clean!

Nesting...

It's not just hitting at 20 weeks, but it sure is getting more intense! I lay awake in bed thinking about all the things I could do to the nursery, my bedroom, the bathroom, the front yard, the laundry room and yes even the garage! Im inspired by the simplest things and just bursting with ideas... and I love it <3

Tomorrow me and Cody get another day off together, (I know I'm spoiled rotten!) our plans are to organize and clean our garage -gasp- are we crazy??? Probably its rather beastly out there right now. But he is itching for a clean man space, and I have my own selfish motives of wanting a nice work space for all the DIY projects I have up my sleeves for the next couple months. So we are jumping in and getting that place cleaned up! I'll post before and afters for ya so you can be proud of us ;-P

I'm also putting together an idea board for the baby room and need to pick up some paint samples for the bathroom, man does that room need some personality! So other than my grown belly I don't have anything to exciting to post for you....
BUT I promise there is some fun stuff coming :-)

Baby Mooney is a GIRL!!!

So we are just 3 days from being half way through our pregnancy! I cant believe we are already this far along. We went this morning to our ultrasound appointment and got to find out what sweet little thing we have been growing and its... a girl! I know your shocked seeing as I already blurted it in the title to this post ;-P I just couldnt contain my excitment I suppose.

Well we decided a couple weeks back to dish out the extra to see the paronatologist who could tell us everything she was seeing as she was seeing it. Not just the gender... I went back and forth on if it was worth it or not but after today I have no doubts it was the best choice :-) Our Dr was such a fun lady who talked us through every little thing she was looking for and at, explaining every measurement and picture she took. She was also extra persistent to get a 3d picture of babies face when she wouldn't stop holding her hands in her face! She sent us home with about 20 pictures and such a joy and peace about how wonderful our baby girl is doing! The whole experience was such a blessing to us!

Just had to share the news!

Fresh Start...

Alright.... I am back for reals this time!!!!

I know we posted about our new home but I thought I would share just a little bit more with you ;-) Here is our ranch style home in the fall when we moved in! Now it may not look like much to you now, but to me it looks like a ton of potential... You should see the before pictures of the trees, no joke you couldn't even see our house hiding behind it until Cody and Hunter went to work around MIDNIGHT with spotlights and all :-)



It feels huge to us with its five bedrooms, two baths and two livingrooms! But the space has already been put to good use as stated in my earlier post, both my sister and her family and my brother have been living with us. The projects that have been done are already a long list and I will be posting more with before and after pictures of what we have done as the weeks go on. We are so excited about all the projects that will happen in this house over the years making it ours. It's so much house for us but we know the space will always be put to good use.



We are already getting ready to move the guest bedroom to the basement to make room upstairs for this little thing! Yep yet another change in our lives, this year has been full of BIG ones!!! For being something so un planned and un expected we couldn't be more thrilled about this new turn in our lives. After we freaked out a little bit of course :-) I actually blurted the news to Cody when he was lying in the ER! very smooth on my part... Now we are four months into a great pregnancy with healthy baby and just praying for more of the same <3>

So for the year 2010 we picked up and moved to another state all by ourselves and LOVE it. Had family move in with us. Bought our first home, and started our family! Through it all we have been so blessed to have a God who knows better than us, and has more than once shut a door we were more than ready to leap through so that he could carry us through an even better one.
One of the many blessings was our amazing families and all there wonderful love and support through this year. If there is anything I miss about life before Colorado its being closer to family and old friends <3>



Lastly I am actually back to blogging because over the past few months I have been gifted all the amazing tools needed to do so! #1 - mom and dad mooney bought us a macbook pro as a congrats on the baby! #2 - Christmas money and birthday money from both sets of parents and grandparents bought us a Canon Rebel T1I! #3 - I have a new house filled with projects to blog about #4 - I'm growing a baby thats going to be too cute for words so I'll have to post lots of pictures! #5 - Because I'm inspired and want to share!

It's the little big things...

Well nothing and everything has changed in my life since I last posted. My husband is still the greatest joy and blessing in my life. The Lilleys are in the midst of more changes, and life never seems to slow down long enough to be boring!

We are just wrapping up our first month in our very own home! I know I know where are the pictures right? Here's my plan, if I dont post them maybe it will make you come visit me sooner so you can see it in person! We have a guest room waiting... ;-) It's more house and more wonderful than I could ever have imagined, or any of the others we looked at (and trust me we looked at a lot!) We now live in the lovely town of loveland and while it's a little farther away from the friends we have made in Longmont, I really love this town!
Currently all the beautiful aspen trees are changing to gorgeous fall colors and every day seems to be just a little bit cooler and crisper than the last. Summer has come to an end but our lives haven't slown down with it. It's either projects on the house, visitors, trips or just relaxing days like today spent exlporing rocky mountain national park, life is full :-)
And surprisingly enough our house is almost just as full! In July my sister Erin and her husband Dustin moved in with us along with the ever cute Mr. Talon. They live in the basement along with my brother Edward who just moved out this week! There is never a dull moment in our house with everyone hustling and bustling about their lives and I love it! I know I like to talk about how wonderful my husband is but let me just say it again. How many men let their wives families move in with them and like it? Mine does!!!! He has been so sweet to let us share our wonderful blessings with others, you would think I'd be used to how great he is by now :-P
Other than thats it's just a lot of work and life happening around here. Things flip upside down, and than back around but God never fails to provide and give us exactly what we need (another big surprise right?) our next exciting thing is having my parents come and visit! We will be able to celebrate Edward, Talon, and moms birthday while they are here and they will finally get to see where we live :-) After that it's into the holidays, my very favorite time of year <3 So until next time... miss us and know that life is busy here but never to busy for you if you care to come for a visit in our beautiful state, we would LOVE to have you!