A Busy, Busy Weekend

Friday afternoon the kids were playing outside and I noticed that it had gotten really quiet so I went to see what they were up to.  I found them picking their own afternoon snack.  Our black raspberries are ripe and they are so good.  I have been sending one of the kids out every day to pick some.  It takes about 5 cups to make one pie and that is ALOT of berries!

















Our garden is looking pretty good these days.  The plants have really taken off and are doing well.  I can't wait for all those yummy fruits and veggies!



On Saturday morning Matt, Jadon, and I took off to check out a few garage sales.  This weekend I hit the jackpot!  I found several shirts for Jacob.  I don't find clothes for teen boys that are in good shape on a garage sale very often so that was pretty exciting.   All season I have been looking for a Little Tikes car for Jadon.  My mom found one at a garage sale last year and Jadon just loves to play in it when we go to her house.  I finally found one this weekend!  As you can see Jadon is pretty happy! 



Now that the basement is almost ready for move in we have been thinking about how are we going to furnish the room.  We knew we needed to find something for the tv to sit on down in the kids hang out room.  Well, at the very first garage sale Matt pointed out this buffet type piece of furniture to me.  He thought it might be great for the tv to sit on and all the video games, game controllers, and movies could go in the drawers and cabinets.  It was marked $50 but the lady said everything was half price so we got it for $25!!  It is a sturdy piece of furniture and we are currently in the process of stripping the paint off.  Hoping we find that the wood underneath is in good condition so we can stain it.  Otherwise we will paint it again.  Hoping this also takes out the faint odor of smoke that it has. 




Today we dropped Shelby off at 4H camp until Thursday afternoon.  She had a blast last year.  Hoping she does this year too!  She ended up in the same cabin as last year which we thought was pretty funny!  Can't wait to hear all her stories!







We ended the weekend with chicken on the grill!  Yum!  Tomorrow the carpet goes in then Jadon is ready to move in!!  I can't wait!!

A Mommy's Daybook

I saw this post idea on another blog (Don't Blink) and I loved it.  So I think I will try to do this once a week.

A Mommy's Day Book:

outside my window......

I see clouds again.  I have loved the temps this week but could use some time in the sun.  Not to mention a certain little boy wants to get out and play!

i am thinking......

About our trip to Tennessee we are planning.  Excited to explore somewhere we have never been.  Excited to spend a good amount of time with my family of five that does not involve any doctors or hospitals.  Can't help thinking my daughter is going to college in two years and I want to show/discover so many more things with her.

i am learning.....

How to use my Silhouette cutting machine FINALLY!!  Had it for a month and just used it for the first time yesterday.  I think I am good to go now.  Just had to get over the intimidation factor.  

i am wearing.....

Jeans!!  In June!  Almost never happens here.  I kinda like it!  

i am creating.....

a saying in my Silhouette software to cut in outdoor vinyl and put on the back of my newly painted glider on my front porch.  Matt and I finally decided on the saying "Together Is The Best Place To Be".  

i am reading....

This has been a problem area for me lately.  I have been participating in a couple of monthly book clubs but have not gotten into the selections.  My bookmark is currently in pg. 10 of The Glass Castle-A Memoir by Jeannette Walls.  I think I am going to hunt down some Nora Roberts. Craving a good romance.  These books clubs choose all these serious books and I think I am wanting fun books for summer!

i am hoping.....

to get both boys moved into their rooms before Shelby's birthday on the 4th.  The carpet will be installed on Monday.  

around the house.....

we still need to finish touching up the areas of tan paint in the basement.  We are going to try and get all the closet shelf system materials picked up this weekend so we can get that done in Jake's basement room and the closet at the bottom of the stairs.  So looking forward to this project being done!

one of my favorite things....

is my husbands new grill!!  I missed grilled food.  I did not realize how much until the new grill got fired up!  The burgers we had the other night were sooooo good!  So much better than burgers done on the Forman inside grill.  I also had him grill some chicken breast to use for multiple things the next few days.  I made a chicken salad sandwich mix with them last night.  I plan on making some wraps for lunch tomorrow. Mmmm....

a few plans for this weekend.....

The plan for this weekend is to complete some little projects in the basement and move all the stuff (paint, brushes, drills, ladders) out so the space is clear for the carpet guys on Monday morning.


a picture.....

Jadon "helping" Daddy with the dishes last weekend.  Matt and Jadon were hanging out together while Shelby, Jake, and I painted in the basement.  Matt decided to teach Jadon how to do dishes.

First Day Of Summer!!

Yesterday was officially the first day of summer!  Woohoo!  Jadon felt the best way to celebrate was to bust out the cowboy boots.  Oh how I missed this look.  Jadon wearing cowboy boots with shorts just makes me smile.  The boots came out a lot last fall but were just sitting in the basket until yesterday.  The only thing I could figure is that he want to kick up his heals a little on the first day of summer!

Happy Summer!

The Things We Find In Our Backyard

We have a pretty good weekend. We had our nephews from Friday night until Saturday afternoon. Owen and Jadon are double trouble together! One does something and the other follows. It never fails. Luckily the rain held off on Saturday and they were able to play and run as much as they wanted to outside. Phew!

I just wanted to share a few things that we have found in our yard lately.

Not the first time we have found something like the following thing in our yard.  Our dogs love digging up bones in the woods and dragging them home.  So gross!

Matt actually got his Father's Day gift about two weeks ago.  It is also a late b-day gift from the kids and I.  I saw it on sale and I ordered it.  I knew once it got here the box would be too large to hide so we told him about it.  It also ended up being way too heavy for me to move!  He put it together the night he got it and we tested it out a the following weekend.

Matt used to grill all the time but his old grill was starting to see better days.  He was tired of messing with it so he pretty much stopped grilling altogether.  He has been drooling over these Weber Performer Series grills for awhile so I thought it was about time he got one!  I don't like to heat up the oven in the summer so I really missed him grilling!  This grill makes all the pain of grilling with charcoal and makes it easier.  It has a propane charcoal starter that gets the charcoal ready for you right in the grill.  Just sit the charcoal in the special pan and turn it on and walk away!  Nice!  This grill also comes set in this great work area which was another frustration of Matt's.  He loves it!  We enjoyed steaks he grilled on Sunday!

Jadon and Jacob delivered Daddy's charcoal for his grill to the back porch using the mower.  

On Sunday morning we all worked in the basement doing some touch up painting and cleaning.  Jadon played with his tractors while we worked.  We are getting ready to order carpet so we needed to get these things wrapped up.  We are almost done with this project!  I can't wait!

We finished up with that project mid afternoon.  Shelby and Jake went fishing for the afternoon over at our neighbors pond.  They did pretty well!  Shelby caught the huge bass even though Jake is holding it.  She refused to hold it so I could get a picture.  Jake says she flipped out when she caught it and almost lost it twice before they got it in the bucket.  LOL! 














For dinner last night the grill master made steaks for dinner.  I made crock pot scalloped potatoes and a salad.  At dinner Matt announced that he wanted to go get ice cream for dessert.  It was Father's Day so who are the rest of us to argue? 

What We Are Up To Wednesday

In case you are wondering just what we have been up to lately.....you can find us here a couple of night a week. 






Jacob has baseball games a couple of night a week right now.  Always enjoy going to watch the games.  However, Jadon likes to make that a little complicated.  I find myself missing major plays because I was keeping track of a certain toddler.





Of course we always come stocked up with treats to lure him to sit on our laps for a little while.  But most of the time his is exploring the world around him.  He really enjoyed walking around that tree over and over again.  He also loves to make us nervous by playing on the bleachers.

At last nights game it actually got a little chilly!  It was nice!  I am so not complaining!

Mommy is a little sleepy today.  We had storms roll through our area last night and it got pretty loud.  Jadon woke up around 2 and was scared.  We could not get him back to sleep so we put him in bed with us.  After about 45 minutes of him tossing, turning, and kicking us I put him back in his crib.  It was still storming so he was having none of that.  I got him back up and we tried rocking for awhile.  Of course the storms chose that moment to get REALLY close.  The thunder was shaking the house.  Jadon just kept snuggling closer and closer.  We eventually returned to Mommy and Daddy's bed where finally somewhere around 5 this morning he fell asleep.  It was no big deal to Jadon.  He got to sleep in, while Mommy and Daddy had to get up.

Summer is Here!

After several busy, busy months full of surgeries, lots of therapy, follow up trips out east, a wedding, and lots of birthdays we are enjoying some down time here at our house (if there is such a thing).  While we are still keeping busy with baseball games, 4H, Boy Scouts I feel like we have more time at home to do things.

Our garden is in full swing now.  We finally got it planted the first weekend of June.  So late!  We had planned on planting on Memorial Day weekend (had the plants all bought) but rain foiled our plans.  We are growing several variates of tomatoes.  We had to purchase the cherry tomatoes in a six pack so we are going to be swamped with those at the end of summer.  We also planted zuchinni, eggplant, pickling cucumbers, acorn squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, watermelon, and cateloupe.  Woohoo!  Can't wait until Fall!!  It is lots of work taking care of all that.  The weeds and grass are just starting to pop up again so very quickly weeding will have to be added to the list of daily tasks.  Watering is the big thing right now.  Need to give the plants a good start!  The older kids have been helping with that.




Since our garden is out in the front portion of our property away from any source of water it is a little bit of work to haul water out there.   Shelby backs the truck up close to the hose.  Jake puts empty 5 gallon buckets on the tailgate then they fill them up there so they don't have to lift them.  Then Shelby slowly drives them out to the garden where they both use coffee containers to water each plant.  Shelby likes to help just because she gets to drive so that is nice.  Nice not to hear complaining.  I promised my husband that we would all help with the garden this year.  That was the only way it was getting planted this year.  He went on strike after he came home from Brazil last year to find the garden full of weeds and some of the plants dead.  Can't say I blame him.  We are going to do better this year!  It is going to be team effort since we all enjoy the end results!


It was super hot here last week but the kids did not seem to mind!  Jadon is loving the arrival of summer!  He just wants to be outside no matter how hot it is.  He seems to find ways to stay cool as you can see.....







He loves his water table!  We got the sprinkler out but he is not too sure of that yet.  Hoping he gets used to it by the end of summer.  I made a mental note after last week to just send him out in his swimsuit when it is over 90 degrees so he can get as wet as he wants!


I have several new water activities to introduce but we have had a break in the extreme heat this week and along with the cooler temperatures rain has returned so the other activities will have to wait.  I found several tutorials on how to make sprinklers out of pvc pipe.  One is like a car wash.  So cute!  And I also saw a way to make water bombs out of sponges!  An easy alternative to filling water balloons.  Can't wait to try these out!!