Ode to Dad! And Other Stuff

I need to give a shout out to Jon Mark.  He works so hard for us.  He has pulled a couple of all-nighters recently and almost always stays up until midnight studying.  As hard as he works, he still finds time to spend with the kids and spends time alone with me also.  What he never finds time for is himself.  I don't know how he does it.  I'm quite lucky to be married to such a great husband and father.  The kids love looking forward to daddy time and Mercedes is becoming quite a daddy's girl.  She loves to cuddle and give him butterfly kisses.  She doesn't like it when he leaves for the day, and often times I find her upstairs with her daddy when she was supposed to stay downstairs so he could study (she's becoming efficient at opening doors).  Joshua loves to play "monster" with Jon Mark.  Here is a picture of Jon Mark teaching Joshua a wrestling move.  The picture was specifically taken for Uncle Nick, so Dad McAvoy, make sure he sees it.

Mercedes loves getting rides from Jon Mark.  She also likes to be tickled.  I love her smile in the picture below.  Jon Mark was tickling her.

They both love being read to.  (Joshua has taken to always wanting to have his shirt off.  I guess that's an innate desire in boys.  I don't get it.)

I love you, Jon Mark!

Aside from that... Here is a nightstand that I have had since we got married.  I inherited it from my parents.  I believe it was my dad's when he was younger.  It was missing a handle, and one of the handles had been glued on so tight that I couldn't get it off.  I guess it adds to the charm of something old.  Anyway, I got it in my head to transform it, and so I did.  I spent three dollars on white paint, 2 dollars on new knobs, and about four hours priming and painting and sanding the thing.  Here is the before:

And, here is the after.  I decided to distress it mildly since it is old to begin with.  I like it better distressed anyway, that way when it does get nicked, it won't matter so much.  You can't really see the distressing detail in these pictures, but I sanded the edges, corners, and top a little so that the original wood would show through. 

I added a momogram M on the top to give it some character. 

 Here's my goofy son with his old easter basket on his head.  Mercedes likes to pretend that it's a hat, and it rubbed off a little on Joshua.  I swear he owns shirts.  He's really good at dressing and undressing himself now and I have a hard time keeping his clothes on him.

 Mercedes wanted her picture taken too.  By the way, the nightstand is back upstairs where it belongs, but it did live in my kitchen for a few days.

 Mercedes loves hiding behind the curtains.  There she is with her beloved blanky that she pronounces "CECE".  It took me a while to understand what Cece meant, and I am SOOO glad I finally figured it out.  We have way fewer tantrums now.

 I'm not sure what Joshua is doing in this picture.  He was showing off his beloved Baby Monkey and I guess I caught him in the middle of saying something to me.

 Here he is flexing his Superman Muscles.  Notice the concentration in his expression. 

Those are my cute kids.  They bring me so much joy (and teach me a lot about patience along the way).  I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!