Random Bits #2

This is Courtney's best friend, Cora.  They were glued at the hip all summer long until she and her family moved to Arizona.  The girls wanted  a sleepover before she left... though...there wasn't much sleeping.  Lots of giggling though!

 

She was so funny.  I swear she could be the very princess from The Princess and the Pea.  There are like 15 blankets and comforters making up her bed.  We had to keep adding until they were 'just right'.  Ah Cora, how we miss you!!

This table is no longer diagnal in the corner for this very reason.  Doesn't he look so devious? He would quietly sneak under the table and then pop up and start squawking to scare me.  Plus he'd pull everything off the table as well.  He's standing on the printer box.  Had to move that, too!

This was just hilarious.  The faces this little boy pulls just crack me up.

 

Funny



Cute

 



Cheeser

 



RARRR!!!

 



 

Hehe, did you hear the sound I just made?! 

 

 



I'm HILARIOUS!!

 



I can't breathe, I can't breathe!!

 



 

And Courtney.  My cute sweet Courtney who never ceases to make me laugh.  She did this all on her own.  Complete with tattoos on her face.

 

And Alex snuggling Belle.  This poor kitty sure takes a lot from him.  I'm surprised she doesn't run when she sees him coming.

Alex toddled on over to the pantry, grabbed himself a box of nutra grain bars and took it back to the kids corner.  Where he proceeded to sit on it.  And squish it flat.

 



 

Hanging out on the bean bag, watching cartoons and eating a cookie.  Ah, the good life where you don't have to clean up your crumbs.

September rolled around and I decided to try and be crafty.  I made the wreath on the door and the fall decor on the stands. 

 



And since the camera was out, of course Miss Photogenic had to get in a pose!

 

And here's Bubba snuggling Belle again.  I kid you not, this kid spends a good chunk of his day in search of her and she ends each day with a little bit less fur.

 



 I love that my kids are such snugglers.  Makes my heart warm to see them hugging and smiling! (as opposed to the 'other' kind of snuggling where they're both screaming and pawing at each other).

This little monkey is all for anything he can climb on, in, under, or around.  He was standing there with his eyes peering out of the center rectangle just giggling like crazy!  I really wanted to get a picture of that but by the time I got my camera out... well, you know little boys and how fast they move!

 



 

And...ta da!  12 months after having Alex, I have officially lost all 80 lbs I gained with him.  Yep, 80.  Let's thank my mom's thyroid genes and my doctor's inability to figure out the correct thyroid dosage until month 9 of gaining it all!

 



And hooray for jawbones!  You know you've made progress when you can finally see the bones in your face again!  A little bit of a less hooray for silly hair which looks oddly strange from certain angles, and never to be repeated again!  Perhaps that was a no mirror day.

 



And speaking of faces.  Poor Bubba's. This would be the result of falling off the couch and into a tv stand.  This is right after it happened, in the next few days it swelled clear across his entire eyelid and turned black, purple and green.

 



Afternoon of Shooting

 Jeremy has always been big into guns.  In fact, our first 'lets go do something'  together was going shooting.  So of course he was pretty excited to finally get Courtney out and get her going on a gun.

She wasn't having any of it. 



 

That is, until he bribed her with treats if she would smile for camera.  Courtney, treats. Yes. That's always our go-to when we need her to cooperate!

 

Alex was all for it.  Though he's always all for anything that involves outdoors.  I could plop him next to the dumpsters and he'd be in heaven sheerly for the fact he was outdoors. See him trying to escape so he can go play?  He'll make Jeremy a good hunting buddy someday.

This gun is ridiculous.  I shot it once and went home with a sore shoulder.  It's a pretty serious gun, so I'd much rather just hold it in a picture and pretend like I'm Bad-A than actually use the thing.

And one last picture where not a single person is looking at the camera.  Pretty typical for this little family of mine!

A Post for Patty: Part 1 (revised with better yard pics so you can actually see whats there!)

At every family event on Jeremy's side, his sweet sweet Aunt Patty always says to me, "Get your butt in gear and update your blog!"  Although she says it much much nicer, but that's the message!  So, Patty, this update is just for you!!  I'm officially unloading my camera and throwing the last 3 months into one big update.  Here you go!!

This summer we've actually kept quite busy doing this and that and all sorts of stuff.  These are a few pictures from our trip to the museum to see the King Tut display.

*Warning:  The lighting was HORRIFIC for pictures, so most of them didn't turn out too great.

"I'm sexy and I know it..."

It was a somewhat disappointing trip... everything was a poorly made replica...I would've enjoyed it much more had it been free, but knowing we spent many bucks to see it....meh.

But the kids enjoyed playing in their Kids Discovery Room afterwards:

So it took me 4 1/2 years, but I FINALLY took the time to sit down and learn how to french braid.  Hallelujah! Something different than our everyday pony tail!

Waiting for the 4th of July parade to begin.  And boy did we score...tons and TONS of stuff! children's books, jimmy johns sandwiches, treats, candy, toys, frozen yogurt. Nice!


A lot of our summer has been spent prettying up the yard.  Since Jeremy is going back to school we opted to buy a double wide with a nice big yard of our own for the kids to play in, rather than a stuffy 2 bedroom apartment with people on both sides, above, and below us. (And then we'll build our dream home after he's out of school and rent this one out). We gutted the entire thing and remodeled every single square inch to make it ours.  And now it's time to pretty up the outside as well!

Starting with a new shed.  We've had our lawn mower, snow blower, tiller, shovels, rakes, bikes, you name it we had it, everything and all...stacked up against the house.  It made for a not-so-pretty site to see. So we FINALLY got a shed. I say Finally because I have been waiting for this moment FOREVER!  Jeremy's sweet Dad came up and helped him put it together.

Courtney and I sitting up in the loft.  And I know NOBODY would have noticed had I not pointed it out, but check out my foot!  Now, I swear I do NOT have Fred Flintstone feet, but man, look at that!  I don't know if it's the angle, a trick of the camera..a shift in the atmosphere... not sure... but it sure looks like I have some extra footing on that foot!

The shed isn't done yet.  There's some trim pieces still needing to be put up, and then painted to our liking.  But all in all, I'm pretty darn excited to have it!

Next is the flower beds and gardens:  This entire yard was one large weed patch when we started remodeling.  So Jeremy started up the tiller and went to town.  Flower beds everywhere.  Flower beds, strawberry patches, vegetable gardens, bird houses... I love that man :)

Our vegetable garden. Yumma!

This is the plant stand Jeremy saved from being tossed out because it had a bent leg.  We'll love it up a little, give it a paint job, and it'll be good as new!

Pardon my sprinkler hose.  I wanted to hurry and take some better pics before the sun was too glarey and didn't want to have to turn off the water, move the hose, take a picture, move the hose back, turn the water back on!

The bricks I found under the deck, which are debuting as our make-shift edger until we get some real ones!  Maybe I should go out there and actually line them up straight...

These are some flowers that will be planted infront of the shed.

Okay, this is actually pretty cool, but right now looks like total crap!  The back edged in area is Courtney's digging patch.  She and her friends would dig in the dirt, make their mud pies, build their castles, etc back in this patch.  But then the weeds grew in and it hasn't been weeded since.  Once it's weeded, it'll be awesome again!

Courtney's and Alex's playground. Sure beats being in a crammed apartment with no yard at all! I love what we've made/are making of it. A place of our own while Jeremy is in school. And then off to bigger and better things!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our summer catch up!