Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Visiting Great Gram & More Summer Fun!

In early June, Lorelei, my mom, and I made a visit to Great Gram's house and got to spend the day with Auntie and Laura too! 

Snuggin' with Great Auntie.


Who knew paper-plate holders could be so cool? 

Can you tell who the star of the show is at Gram's house? 

Such a ham!

Love the way they're holding onto each other! 




Taking all  of her babies for a bike ride, just like Lorelei rides on Mommy's bike!



They both spent way more time playing with this when it was empty than when it was filled. Kids are so funny!


We had to have the door open and the AC off the day we painted the front door, and it was blistering out. Poor Lorelei was over it! Making a stink-face with daddy. 

More empty-pool fun with Luke.






Sunday, June 23, 2013

House Update

After a lot of time and sweat, our home's exterior makeover is complete! Over the last 2 years, we have been busy!

Last year:
- Overgrown bushes and weeds removed from front beds and replaced with new landscaping
- Paver patio installed
- I sewed new patio cushions to replace the very dated fabric
- Garden plot tilled
- Grass treated for weeds, re-seeded, and nurtured on a near daily basis by our live-in lawn guru (I don't think Todd enjoys this title, but he's done a great job!)

This year:
- New landscaping in backyard to hide electrical boxes (now we just need those plants to grow!!!)
- New planters and hanging planters added to patio
- All landscaping mulched (We grossly underestimated how much mulch we needed, this was a rough job!)
- Shutters painted (Never again!)
- Front door painted

Next year:
- We hope to replace the decorative Asian maple tree in the front with a Blue Spruce. Just didn't have the time to get it in this Spring.

In the last year, we've also stained a vanity, installed a new light fixture, and painted one of our bathrooms. We built a shelf behind our sectional, (which looks great and is super functional) and spray painted all 6 of our flush-mount lights. We still want to try spraying our chandelier, but after the last 3 weeks of intense home projects, I think that one will need to take a seat for a while. I'm vowing to only look at workouts, recipes, sewing ideas, and teaching resources on Pinterest, at least for a little while. :)

Before: 
(Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of how out of control these bushes/weeds were when we moved in... they were nearly to the top of our first story windows. Nightmare!)

The poor lawn.


Even worse!


Our "blank canvas"




After: 
Finally got a red door! :)
Backyard Water Day! Who wants to come play?














Saturday, June 8, 2013

Grandma & Grandpa Time



Grandma and Grandpa stopped by for an afternoon visit.

Showing Grandma her favorite book.

The dogs crack me up... it's like they never get any love around here!


The dogs loving some attention from Grandpa!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Our Summer Adventures

Rather than forcing all of our pictures on everyone through Facebook, and now that I have time to take them again, (and even update this blog!!) I'll try to post the extended version of our summer for interested family and friends here.

Visit to Cosley Zoo

Feeding the ducklings.



She loved the bunny!



He was pretty adorable!



First Finger Painting


She signs her work with her lips!

Masterpiece complete!


 My latest sewing project: Easy-Peasy Sundress

Checking out the garden.

She's so sweet I can't even take it!


Making playdough:


I made her a bunny, which was pretty great until...

 He crumbled.

The bunny parts were all over! She was disturbed.

"Squish it!"

Making a hand print with daddy.

"Your turn!"

One of our home projects:
Enough GOLD! Until I can find an acceptable replacement for all of our "boob" lights, we're doing away with the flashy gold finish and going for Rustoleum's "oil rubbed". Much better than the gold, but I will continue my search for the perfect flush mount... 

Before.

After.