Memorial Day Weekend

We had an amazing weekend!  The temps were above normal and it even got rather humid by Monday.  It was a fun and productive three days!

I primed our breezeway!  It is really coming together and looks much less like a construction zone.  I expect to have the paint finish this coming weekend.

 Some of our very best friends welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world, so we visited on Sunday.  Liam is such a cutie!

 Parker was oblivious to Liam, but did have fun tearing the hospital apart!  He thought the curtain was the best part and also enjoyed blowing raspberries on the vinyl chairs.

 We spent Sunday at Grandpa and Nana's house.  Parker did much better with the 4-wheeler this time.  He was still very cautious, staying mostly on the blanket near me, but there were no tears!  That is major progress!

Monday we went for a bike ride to the park.  Parker did much better with both this year.

 He wasn't afraid to climb the play structures and went down the slides on his own.

Still too little for the tire swing, but he tried!

 Lastly, we did some gardening.  On Monday, we planted ferns that are originally from my great-grandpa Emory.  Parker "helped" by eating dirt!

I had dug up a 2' x 8' plot for a small garden on Monday and planted some tomatoes and cucumbers I got free on Craigslist (thanks dad!)  I also put up come chicken wire to (hopefully) keep out the rabbits.

I will add a few more things to the garden, onions and maybe jalapenos.  I figure it is best to start small, less lawn to seed if I decide it isn't my thing.

Glad we had time for work and play, but my back is certainly feeling the pain today!  The heat is going to stick around so we may have get Parker's pool set up soon.  

Hope your summer had a great start too!

Messy May

May has been sort of jumbled...I haven't posted a lot of the random stuff on here so I thought I would do a May photo dump!

Our first date night of the month was at Red Robin (YUM!)  Jimmy had been craving burgers for a while.  We intended to go there several months ago, but got snowed out!

 We had some fun playing in Grandpa and Nana's hot tub.  Parker can almost stand-up from the bottom which will make it much easier and safer to play in!

 For our second date night, Jimmy and I took in a Twins game.  It is really easy to get cheap tickets on StubHub these days because they have been pretty terrible the last couple years!  It was a chilly night in the 40's so I was glad we brought a blanket.

Dugout dogs are my favorite food at Target field, they are a natural casing dog sold only in the stands.  There aren't a ton of sellers in the park so it is kind of like playing "Where's Waldo."  They also wear red and white strips, which is also like Waldo!

 Ribs on the campfire!

 Bubble beard, so adorable!

 We visited friends and their new babies this week.  It was fun to watch Isaac and Parker play together, they also have a blast.  Isaac was showing Parker his new "boat" and counting to 10 for him!

 Family ride in the country.  Parker is starting to get used to the motorized vehicles at Grandpa and Nana's so we went for a ride.

 Trying out the scooter with dad.

A bit random, but some fun things happened.  Can't believe it is Memorial Day Weekend already, but I am so ready for summer to finally arrive!  Have a safe and happy holiday!

A Perfect Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pretty low-key this year.  There were flowers, candy, a card and fun gift waiting for me when we got home from Nebraska, it was a perfect gesture.

 Sunday was spent mostly snuggling with Parker since Jimmy was working.  I could not have asked for more.  I love this little guy so much and am so grateful to be his mom!

I hope you had a great day celebrating the moms in your life or being celebrated as a mom!

Express Nebraska Trip

My mom and I made a last-minute decision to go to Nebraska for my cousin's baby shower.  We were down and back in all of 30 hours, half of that in the car.  Parker did well overall.  We left about 4 on Friday night and stopped a couple hours in for dinner at a rest area.  

I realize now that I didn't get any pictures of the mom-to-be!  I am pretty bummer because she looked radiant!

 It is probably because I got caught up in one of the activities.  I am a sucker for craft things and was the last to finish mine! (It's the striped "H" near the upper right.)

We also made plans to meet up with my Grandma in a nearby town for lunch since we were in the area.  We ordered pizza for carryout and headed to the park.  I did a double-take at the Pizza Hut sign! (The filter is unintended, I didn't realize it was on.)

 We hadn't seen each other since Christmas so she was excited to see how much Parker had grown.  It was a beautiful day to be at the park.

 I LOVE this picture!  It is such a blessing to get a picture of Parker actually looking!

We headed back home around 2 PM.  It was well beyond nap time at that point which was much needed.  He woke from his snooze a little crabby so we stopped for a quick break.  Once on the road again he stayed well-entertained by the iPad!  He played the piano for a good 45 minutes!

 We stopped at the same rest stop as the previous night, but it was raining this time!  Luckily, they have a covered eating area so we were able to stay dry.

 The rain gave us a gorgeous rainbow just north of our dinner stop.  I love when you can see both ends so I had to stop for a picture!

The nice thing about speedy trips is that you still have a whole day at home before the madness begins!  I had an awesome Mother's Day, but I will save that for next time.

Spring Projects!

Sorry I have been away so long, it's been a busy couple of weeks.  A big part of the craziness is a couple home projects we have been working on.  We have been spending more time outside now that the weather is warming up.  The road we live on is kind of busy so we really needed to secure our backyard.  The main priority was to get gates along the sides of our house.  I put in the post a couple weeks ago.

 Post cement makes them easy to secure.  No mixing!  Just pour in water and powder!

We started mudding and taping the sheetrock in our breezeway as well!  It is starting to come together and will be ready for paint soon!

This last weekend, my parents came over again to help finish our gates.  I was planning to start on my own, but it was SO much faster with help.  We used these gate kits which also made the process pretty easy.

 My dad is a great supervisor!

Job well done!  We will still need to add a fence to the back, but Parker's interest at this point is going to the front yard.  At least this will keep him out of the street!

Here is the gate on the other side.

It's going to be an awesome (and safe) summer!