Heatin' Things Up

We're about a month into Summer and it's been great so far! I finally got the WHOLE fence stained and it looks super nice: We've also been somewhat busy. Josh is going to ask his Aunt Resa to come help paint the living room (hopefully she'll be able to do it while we're gone to the Ozarks next week), so I'm excited to get some things and re-decorate the living room. I've got my eye on a few new curtains, blinds, and knick-knack stuff to put on the walls. I'll keep you updated of course with before/after pictures. I am VERY excited about it! This last weekend Andy and Kayden came down for the day and Kayden, Jane and I went to the Blank Park Zoo! It was a lot of fun...it's always hard to compare when you've been to the Omaha Zoo because that zoo ROCKS! But, it was pretty fun to say the least. Here are some of the pictures from the trip: This crazy monkey was RIGHT up next to us! It was fun and Kayden was good! She got a little tired towards the end, but she ran like crazy the whole time so she was probably pretty pooped. It was fun though! Elliott is getting bigger and bigger! I went down to watch Ellie while Kayden went to tumbling class with Laura, and it's just so crazy how big she is. My arm was PRETTY sore from carrying her after being there haha. She had her professional pictures taken the other day and I think they turned out GREAT! Elliott wouldn't sleep though at all, and normally you have sleeping newborn pictures done. But they did some with her eyes open and they actually turned out really nicely. She hasn't been cross-eyed at all since Laura had her and she just seems so much more developed than Kayden was (but, Kayden was about 3 weeks early and Elliott was almost 2 weeks late.) She keeps getting cuter! Here are some of my favorite pictures that they took: That kind of catches everyone up with what we've been doing. We leave for the Ozarks next Thursday and we cannot WAIT! It is always our favorite vacation and I just love the people we go with. It's just so relaxing and carefree. I bought a pool yesterday (a small inflatable one) for the dogs and I since it's going to be 90 degrees the next two days and keep getting hotter. Can't wait! So we'll be lounging in the backyard all week long. Stay cool!

Summer break

So far I've been on summer break for about a week and it's already been busy! We went to Coralville Lake to boat for Memorial Day. Andy came down and it was fun to say the least! We all had a good time and that's all that matters. Andy tried the Bobber challenge - a 3lb cheeseburger and 1lb of fries! He almost accomplished it. It was a nice getaway for the night.  Then I took on a summer project. Of course these summer projects always start off with good intentions and then either turn out very time consuming.  This was no difference, plus slightly expensive. I've been staining our back fence - it has been a large project! It takes me roughly one hour to do one panel! But here's the front finished project; I still have the back to do! But it's worth it...it looks so nice! The top of the picture is before and bottom is after. Enjoy! I'll post more summer projects as we progress! :)