A party for a 30 yr old

The past couple of weeks I have been trying to plan a surprise 30th birthday party for my husband. I wanted to do all of his favorite things in one night. Obviously I couldn't do everything but I managed to get a location where Ish does videography on the weekends. Ishmael loves to dance and so I really wanted to get a DJ for his birthday, and we made it happen! The hard part of the planning was trying to keep it a secret and figuring out how I was going to get him there. The owner of the wedding venue (party location) had to help me on this. The plan was  to text him the evening of the party and tell him that there was a bride there that wanted to meet with him before she signed a contract to use him as a videographer. It sounded good so we went with it. Since my parents were coming, we also made the plan that we needed to get a babysitter so that my parents could take us out for a nice dinner without the hassle of the kids. He didn't argue with me on that! So when the babysitter arrived, he got the text about the bride but seemed a little annoyed. He told me he wasn't going b/c he didn't feel like dealing with an annoying bride (lol) I had to do some convincing without seeming to anxious. My stomach was in knots at this point! After a little convincing he finally agreed to just go for a few minutes. I was watching the clock like a hawk and texting my friends to find out if everyone was there at the party. There were a few that were running behind so we had to stop at sheetz to kill some time-still he had no clue :) Once we pulled up to Glencliffe he went inside and met with the director about the bride.Once he went inside, me and my parents ran to the tent where everyone was hiding. Within a few minutes he was walking out to the tent to "meet the bride" and that's when we turned the lights on and yelled Surprise! It was great! We had bbq for dinner, played some embarrassing games, and got to do some dancing. It was a great night. Unfortunatley, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. And there were a few things that I would have liked to done differently but overall it was a great party and very successful! Happy 30th birthday Ishmael!

Project 1 is complete!

Ok I have FINALLY finished my first real pinterest project! It definitely took me long enough lol. I tell you it's so hard to find motivation some times to do crafty things after such a busy day with 3 boys! All I do is just plop my butt on the sofa and turn on the TV. That's relaxation to me. Anyway, I finally finished it and it took me about 3 days to do 1 step at a time. Of course if I had no interuptions it would've been done in 2 days but that's wishful thinking. So here's some pic's! And by the way, I've already marked their heights :)

Staining the board

Stain completed

Marking the measurements

 Ruler complete!

The boys were excited to see how tall the were!

Now all I have to do is hang it up in the house somewhere!

Oh pinterest, what have you done?

I don't know about you all but this fad of pinterest has got me wanting to do all kinds crafty projects around the house! Since we've moved I have decided to start completely over with my decorating. This may sound exciting...and it did when I first moved in, but because redecorating is a little on the pricey side, it's got me in the waiting period right now. My walls are completely bare, my windows are naked, and most of the rooms are just half done. It is literally starting to drive me crazy.
As I search on pinterest today, I pinned all kinds of good DIY projects to get started on. I find myself just pinning away and then I decided to actually make a plan to start and finish one of these projects. Why not? They're so cool! The only problem is, most of these projects will take me more than 2 hours during the kids nap time. I have yet to finish the boys pictures I painted for their rooms. Apparantley I am horrible at finishing things. I don't think I used to be this way but since having 3 little boys, I'll get like 15 min of good work time in and then I have to stop and tend to the kids. Then, by the time I do get a couple hours to do something I'm so exhausted from playing and taking care of them that all I want to do is catch some zz's.
So anyway, back to the excitement of all these projects I want to do. I have written out my shopping of list of materials that I will need to get started on all these ideas. I just really have to discipline myself to just focus on one thing at a time. Sometimes I can get a little too excited and jump all over the place. So let the redecorating begin!...on a budget of course!
Also if you haven't jumped on the pinterest bandwagon, I suggest you do because you are definitley missing out on some great ideas. Everything about it is amazing..just saying.

The LaBiosa's are back!

Since it's been forever, I just thought I should try and start this blogging thing back up. Things are starting to settle down to where I might be able to squeeze in some blogging time. Just a quick update on what's been going on the past few months.
We sold our house within a month and moved out in 30 days. However, our loan couldn't be processed until we actually closed on our house and the buyer's bank kept messing up so it made things slower. We had moved our things into the new house basement..thanks to the owners, and me and the boys stayed in Raleigh with my parents. Ishmael had to continue to work and bunked up with a buddy. He got to experience the bachelor life again..let's just say, he missed me haha. So after about a month and half, we finally were able to close on our house and move into our new one. What an exciting time!
And for the past month we've just been trying to get settled into our new home and have been enjoying every bit of it. The boys are loving the woodsy back yard, enjoying their new neighbors and they love riding their toys down the long driveway. It's been such a blessing to be able to sell our house so quickly and to find a great home in the county of Appomattox. I do however miss having the convenience of shopping in Lynchburg because I'm so used to being 10 min from everything. It's good for me though...at least my husband thinks so :) We are definitely enjoying the quiet neighborhood and all the space that we have gained. I'll have to post some pics if I can ever find our camera battery charger. For some reason that's the one thing I have misplaced when we moved and it's pretty important too!

We did it!

Well it's official. Our house is on the market! I'm so excited that we finally took the plunge and can't wait for it to sell. Honestly if we hadn't gotten a realtor it probably would have taken us forever to put it up for sale. I've been praying for a long time now that God will just prepare our buyer, whoever it is, that they will come along at the right time and buy our house. The most exciting thing for me is looking for a new house for us to live in. I know it can get aggravating at times b/c you have to be patient. We made a rushed decision the 1st time we bought our house and so we ended up settling on certain things. This time, we know what we want and we are prepared to keep looking until we find that perfect place for us.
So the past 2 weeks have just been crazy for me around the house. I've been trying to declutter and streamline everything. I've cleaned out closets, rearranged bedroom furniture, gave them a makeover (with a very cheap budget) and have put away lots of decorative items. I'm probably much harder on myself than I need to be, but with a decorating background I can't help but just try and make everything perfect. I want everythng to be hidden. Especially toys! I have packed up so much and rearranged lots of their things. The funny thing is, they haven't really noticed that certain toys are missing. That's when you know that they don't need anything else! It's not easy to do all this stuff while taking care of 3 boys but somehow I've managed to get everything almost done. This weekend my parents are taking Ethan and Jayden to NC so that Ish and I can do some final touches to the house without having to be interrupted. And while they are gone, we're planning to have our 1st open house since our house is going to be spotless. We better sell it that day b/c it's not going to be that clean again lol. That's going to be the hardest thing in this process..trying to keep my house clean and orderly while it's on the market. It's hard enough to keep it clean just for myself! So pray for us as we go through this process.

A quick update

Just so you know, I have not given up on blogging. My life is just super busy these days and when I do have time to sit down, I only want to watch TV or catch up on facebook. I actually don't have a lot of time right now to blog but just thought I'd brief you quickly on some new things going on with the LaBiosa's!
Ishmael started a new a job about 3 weeks ago with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of VA working with the Media/production stuff. He works out of our home now so that's a major adjustment and something that we are really enjoying. Because Ish is working from home now, we are in desperate need of some office space for him to actually get some peace and quiet. That is something we lack in our house right now. So with that being said, we are currently trying to get our house ready to sale. It's crazy to me that we are having to sale our house and we've only lived here in 2 1/2 years but I'm ready for a change. So if you could lift our family up in prayers that we will be able to sell our house quickly and find a replacement soon, it would be appreciated!
Well that's all I have time for now and I'll try to keep you all updated on what it's like to have 3 boys under 3!

Sneaky ham & cheese soup

Tonight I decided to use a recipe I had for Ham and cheese soup, but as I was making it I decided to do a little tweaking by sneaking in a little extra veggies to it. It turned out really good and both the boys ate it and was able to get 3 veggies in them without them even knowing :) So here's the recipe if you are interested in doing a little sneaking yourself!

2 Russet Potatoes cut up
1 grated carrot
1 grated zucinni
1/2 cup of fresh spinach chopped in blender
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Boil everything together in 2 cups of water. Melt 1/4 cup of margarine in separate pan. Combine 1/4 cup of flour, 2 cup milk, and 2 cup of shredded cheese and 1 cup of cubed ham until well blended. Comgine other ingredients and boil all together for 10 min and serve!

I had decided to grate the vegetables b/c when I cut up carrots the boys tend to skip over them. Once the soup was done, you couldn't even see the vegetables so my plan worked..even on my husband :)