Livin' La Vida Dells....

and lovin' it!!

Silly.

Two From The Museum.

The boys and I took a field-trip to the Children's Museum. I may have been just a wee bit nervous to take on this challenge by all by myself after you know when, but I went for it with confidence that it would be great and we would have a blast. Well gosh darn it, that is just what we had, a blast! The boys and I were among only a few other families and there were no groups that particular day...hallelujah! 

Well, it's late and I just want to document two things about this experience. 

1. While in the little town room, Jack hopped into the doghouse to check out the big, fluffy dog. This two second moment brought me back to when he was just 18 months old and doing the same exact thing.

 Sniffle :(

2. The boys painted (drew on their faces with crayons) their faces as the very last thing we did before we hit up McD's for some lunch. Jack was very serious about what he was creating. He looked very intently into the mirror and did not talk until his masterpiece was complete.

Later on that night, the boys got their hair cut. Jack was very concerned that when the hair stylist washed his hair that his facial masterpiece would be gone (he really wanted to show his Daddy), so he requested a towel.

High maintenance....no just cautious.

HeHe!

Show me your muscles!?

And that is just what Jackers did....

 while on a "beach break" to play and swim in the water of the St. Croix River. We went for a boat ride yesterday and it was super fun!! I can see us wanting to have many more boat rides/boating days this summer!

Two cool dudes waiting to get on the boat! They don't even know how much fun they are going to have! As we were eating dinner that night, both boys told us the boat ride was by far their favorite part of the day.

We even checked a "to-do" off our list!

idea found here

The water was a smidge cold for all of us except Jackers. He is my brave (brave!) little fish!

Owen kept himself busy exploring the river and shoreline for rocks to skip (& so did his Daddy) while I dipped my toes in the water (I'm such a wimp) and took a lot of pictures.

O also played with "Gama"!

Driving the boat and driving it fast was exactly what the boys loved!

And maybe a little snuggling too...

 Mom..thank you for a great afternoon!!

Jack, show Mommy your muscles!?

 Man, he cracks me up!! That middle picture has me rolling in laughter! It's definitely going to be a staple in Jack's future...I can just see it at his high school graduation! Ha!

Simply put...

You're the best Dad I have ever known.

Happy Father's Day Babe.

We Love You!

perspective

Gazing at these sweet faces...

photos by jmphotography

and reading this,

via Etsy  

WhisperedReflections

sure puts everything into perspective.

Owen.

Jack.

Tired Tuesday 6

1. We have been in our house now for just over one month without an air conditioning unit. Something about the ground needed to be ready for the yard to be graded and once the yard was graded then the air conditioner could be placed...blah, blah, blah! No big deal as we had not needed it. That all changed in the last three days because (and I seriously am not complaining about the weather..really, I'm not) man has it been hot..as in 105 degrees hot! I don't think any of us slept much at all last night, which is the reason for the feeling of pure exhaustion. Long story short we finally had our a/c put in today just to have it do something funky and nerve-racking tonight in which we had to turn it off and call the emergency technician number. I don't even know what to say about this other than I just want to sleep and sleep comfortably.

2. My inspiration photograph for Jack's new room.

 via

 I love everything about this space...the colors, the trim work, the lights, the bedding and the curtains.

I have a few things done so far, however, I don't have pics yet, maybe soon.

3. I found these tonight during a brief time suck on Pinterest (where else of course!?!). All I am going to say is that they are called Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar.

via

4. I have been in the middle of a book crisis for the past 6 months. I have so many books on my nightstand that I have read the first few chapters of and then got sidetracked/off my routine/too tired to continue. Well friends, with the summer here I have made a pledge to myself to not let this crisis continue. I miss reading and I love reading. I must say buh-bye to my reading slump and with that comes my book new selection, Two Kisses For Maddy.

5. We went on a rescheduled field trip last week with Jack's preschool class to the Hugo Animal Farm. 

The piglets were my absolute favorite.

This puppy was Pat's favorite. 

I think he was contemplating sneaking him away under his jacket.

Just what we need.

Jack was thrilled to see/touch/hold/pet all the animals and he loved hay jumping!

This sheep had just recently been penned away from her babies so she was crying for them during out visit.

This made O-bubs "neuvous and scauued".

6. Now I am so tired, I can't think anymore so I must go to bed in order to read my new book.

Doesn't everybody...

wear swimming goggles in the shower?

Bookshelves...check!

My O is getting to be a big boy (I know, I know I say this all the time), but he is and it's hard to believe sometimes. As we get ourselves settled into our house, one of my "to-do's" has been to make O's room into a big boy room. We chose not set-up his crib (b/c he crawls out anyway), but rather have him sleep in the pack n' play, get his new bed all ready for him and have this transition from crib to bed to a slow one. It actually has been working out great until Jack taught him how to crawl out of the pack n' play two days ago. In the meantime, we have been doing little projects in his room to cozy and cute it up big boy style.

.

One of these projects was to redo the storage of books as his library is increasing by the day (we love to read in this house..love it). In the move-in process, this bookshelf was put into his room and stacked with books.  This is a special bookshelf as Pat made it last summer, however it was taking up too much space (valuable real-estate) in his room.

There are a ton of cute ideas out there on fun, diy ideas for creating book storage instead of the plain ole' bookshelf.

via

via

via

 and one more..

via

Here's the catch, I didn't use any of those, but only in an effort to save time (I hope to make something like the aboves for J's room when we are a little more settled). I had these Ikea Ribba shelves in my stash as I was going to use them for a gallery wall somewhere in my house. Well, I changed my my mind and I thought they would be perfect for creating a bookshelf wall for Owen.

And this is just what we did...

When I look at this bookshelf wall it makes me happy, it make me smile and it looks like artwork on the wall. I love!

Also, with O's little chair and a lamp it can be his reading corner, which is nicely modeled here by Max.

It feels so great to have a "to-do" checked off our list and our O is one step closer to have a completed big boy room!