Train them up well...

Hot summer days

have definitely led to a lot more time spent indoors. I'm not complaining all that much as I am not the most outdoorsy person in the world.

I can hear some people stifling laughs over that statement.

Regardless it would be nice to get out more than we have... just to a park or even Greenbrier but it's just been too hot.

So we entertain ourselves in other ways.

One day we spent an entire morning doing several different kinds of painting.

First...

Color Wonder Fingerpaints. Huge hit with Chase and I liked it a lot too. The finger paint is clear until it hits the special paper... which is nice for his little fingers and my everything else.

Oh and vinyl tablecloth... best $8 I've spent in a while. Set up and clean up are SO much easier!

Then...

we moved onto Do a Dot Art which was equally as enjoyable. I may have liked this one a tad more but Chase definitely got into creating.

Then...

onto some good ole fashioned paint brush and paint. Probably by far Chase's favorite.... and most messy... I think there is a connection.

We love driving through the...

It's a one lane underpass where you must honk as you go through in order to let drivers on the other side know that they need to wait. It's quite the Hagerstown treasure... as you can see ;~)

So long craft room...

Hello play room!

A few weeks ago I casually mentioned to Adam that I thought it might be in our best interest to convert the craft room into a play room... you know, think it through, plan it out, schedule a time and execute said idea.

In less than 24 hours it was converted.



So far it's been awesome. We spend WAY more time back there now. When it was my craft room I rarely (and by rarely I mean never) went back there. If I ever did crafts, I brought everything out to the living room and crafted on my coffee table. Now that it's Chase's play room, we go back there on a regular basis. I can even leave the door open and he comes and goes as he pleases. Another big bonus... I don't feel as if I am living in Romper Room anymore! We still have a few toys out here but it's not nearly as overwhelming... and it's much easier to clean up at the end of the night. Oh and another bonus... I moved all my craft supplies out to the dining room area (cleverly hidden) and now I am doing WAY more crafts than before.

Score one for the nesting instinct!

Once the play room was complete we realized the walls were kind of bare... and holely... it was a quite an eyesore. I started thinking about a project that I had intended for Chase's room.... the alphabet on his walls... and figured that it would be much better in the playroom. So I used some fun paper and a solid background and ended up with a really awesome set of letters...

Ones that I didn't just want to tape to a wall only to be ruined when they had to come down (welcome to the life of renters). So I looked into having them laminated... and quickly figured out that it was too much $$. So my beautiful letters just sat... unused and unhung.

Until Adam unleashed some horrible Catholic school memories. He was cruelly forced to cover all his paperback books with contact paper... very similar to the overpriced laminate I had used in previous projects. He kept having flashbacks of having an entire roll... not just the piddly one yard in each package that I normally bought. He was very traumatized by being forced to do this but many years later it comes in handy because it would be perfect for this project. I was skeptical but we went looking... and found it! A ginormous roll of acid free contact paper for $8.... score!

Very soon I had this hanging in Chase's new playroom...

I was thrilled with the outcome and quickly realized I needed the numbers for the other wall...

A few days later I had this up in his playroom. Now the walls are colorful, educational and hiding all the horrid nail holes! YAY!

This project has started me on a love affair with contact paper. I keep thinking of the next project where I can use this blessed material. I have a picture cha-choo idea formulating for just over Chase's bed. Stay tuned for that one.

By the way... I think my pregnancy nesting instinct has converted from cleaning and rearranging to crafting and creating. I am juggling so many projects and ideas I had to start a separate to do list just to keep them all straight!

Pool Time

I am still without a computer.  My world is turned upside down.  I hijacked hubby's... alright, he gave it up willingly but he also thinks I am doing Roof Shampoo work here... shhhhhhhhh.

I am more than a little frustrated.  We got a diagnosis from MacMedics that the hard drive was bad in my computer... which sent red flags up all over the place.  Adam had taken out the original hard drive, commonly referred to as "all my information", and attempted to install a new hard drive (fresh out of the box)... with zero success.  Then, not being a dummy at computers, he tested the new hard drive 7 ways from Sunday... seriously... ya'll thought he was geeky before.  It was a whole new level.  That new hard drive worked in every. single. place except my computer.  

So you can imagine when they told Adam failed hard drive, he asked for more diagnostic testing.  Put a hard drive that you know is good into my computer and see if you can get it to work.  They say they did but when we finally bring our computer home and put yet another new hard drive in, stalled and failed to boot.  Computer still broken... in precisely the way they said it was fixed.  An entire week wasted for something Adam knew and tried to explain... not to mention $49 for a crap diagnostic.  

End result... I am still without a computer and I am sad. 

So I thought I would post something happy to lift my spirits.

Last Monday Chase and I took a road trip to Glen Burnie to visit Christine, Andrew and Gabriel.  Her mom's condo has a community pool... which was surprisingly empty from 10 - 12.  More fun for us!


Chase is always practicing to be a big brother... he loves making babies smile!


One 'trick' he learned was holding onto the edge... which he wanted to do 'all by myself'.






Aunt Christine and Andrew (Gabriel stayed home with Pop-Pop ;~)

Another 'trick' Chase learned was actually propelling himself in the water.  Christine had a couple noodles for the boys to play with and Chase immediately fell in love.  He held on for dear life and kicked like he never kicked before... and he actually 'swam' about 2 feet!  At the next pool opportunity I made sure we had our very own noodle and Chase was in heaven.  He swam back and forth and even got the hang of turning himself around... and of course, he didn't want me to hold on at all.  Best $5 spent water wise!

As per usual when we road trip, this was the site in the back of the car on the way home... I will never tire of how cute it is!

Miss me?

I've definitely been MIA for a few weeks. There is a good reason for it... my macbook hard drive failed and consequently borked my computer. Before someone feels the need to tease me because I am so pro mac and everything is sunshine and roses with macs... I still completely believe it. I am the one that screwed the hard drive and caused it to fail... totally and completely my fault. Let's just say that my temper + lack of sleep does not equal happiness for my mac.

Adam worked on it for a solid week (totally geeking out) and still couldn't come up with a solution. So off to Mac Medics we went... supposedly they have an answer but I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes. Monday we'll get the computer back and hopefully by Monday night Adam can fix it once and for all.

I feel totally crippled without my computer... I never realized how heavily I relied on it. I am thankful I have the ipad to fill the gap (and the keyboard attachment thanks to my MIL!!!!) but it's really not the same. Oh well... there are worse problems. Thankfully we had just started to run a decent and complete backup on my computer so I have the bulk of data stored on an alternative hard drive... unfortunately the end of May was the last time I backed up so there were casualties... again, there are worse problems to have.

In the meantime the G's have been super busy and I hope to play catch up wtih some of the events! My dad and Stacie were in DC and we got to spend some time with them.... July 4th was a blast out on Uncle Jimmy's boat.... Chase and I made a road trip to see Christine, Andrew and Gabriel and had a great time swimming in a neighborhood pool.... Chase had his first dentist visit (and did phenomenal might I add!)... not to mention the soccer star I am growing in my belly! Seriously... this kid rivals anything Beckham can do. Morning, noon or night... lil bean is flipping, turning, punching, heabutting and just generally kicking me... and I love every minute of it. This is one of my favorite parts of pregnancy.

On a completely different topic, many of you are aware that my MIL and I have regular movie nights together. That's what happens when you have 2 men who could careless about chick flicks and 2 women who love them. Well my MIL went and got us hooked on a TV miniseries... North and South... anyone remember that? with Patrick Swazye (so gorgeous!) 15 episodes at 90 minutes a pop. There is a good chance I will be pregnant with number 3 and still watching this if we don't pick up the pace!

I seem to remember this show being a particular hit with my mom... I wish she were still alive so I could ask her but right now I am relying on my extremely poor memory. Regardless... I am almost positive that she was one of the millions hooked on the miniseries when it debuted in 1985 *collective gasp at how old we all are*. I can only imagine how happy she would be to see me completely hooked after only one episode.

That's life in a nutshell right now. I'm going to attempt to post again with pictures over the weekend but that requires the husband sharing his computer. It's not that he won't... I just wouldn't call it willingly.

Lovin' Summer

Summer is here and we are loving it!

We've been...

keeping the garden watered...

enjoying Greenbrier State Park...

keeping cool at the pool...

real cool...

eating ice cream and then catching fireflies...

and exploring new areas (Shepherdstown)!

It just depends on the day... some days we are out soaking up the sun and quiet time doesn't start until 3... other days we stay home and just play farm puzzle and watch DVD's. No matter what I am really enjoying this summer so far!

Annual Visit!

This past Wednesday Jaime, Craig and Jackson were on their way to Camp Hope and just like last year, if they didn't stop and let me feed them... well I would have cried for 2 weeks. Maybe 3.

Poor Craig hadn't been able to watch a single game of the World Cup... something unavoidable was always going on when the games were on. I would have happily let him watch the game on the TV but alas, we have no cable! Luckily he is very resourceful (and handy with a mac) and was able to hear a radio broadcast as well as find a site that showed the replays that were worth highlighting. Not perfect but he was happy... especially after USA finally scored and advanced themselves!

Such cute smiles!!

Craig helped the boys put together a very elaborate drum set... I think they are ready to go on the road.

The gorgeous family... oh yeah, did I forget to mention they are expecting baby boy #2!!! Jaime is due in Sept!

Belly shot with our second round of boys!

Thanks for stopping in guys! Have a great 2 weeks at Camp Hope!

Summer Fun

We are trying to enjoy the beautiful weather lately... although difficult when you are as tired as I am all the time.

Still... hanging out in the driveway with some chalk... that I can handle.

Our message to Daddy!

Favorite glasses bit the dust... who knew they couldn't support my weight...

Our family portrait... complete with lil bean ;~)

Coloring in his shapes.

Our neighbor was out and told us about a bunny nest he found the other day... so of course we came over to see!

It's hard to see but take my word for it... so stinkin precious! There were at least 3 that we could see but our neighbor thinks he saw a 4th one. They were all cuddled around each other sleeping blissfully!

And because it's been a while... a video!

In that last clip Adam handed him a 'flower' and Chase immediately turned around and brought it to me... I love this kid.

Happy Father's Day!

This is one lucky kid to have you as a father.

We love you 'dis much'!

Weekend Con't

Saturday we headed out on Uncle Jimmy's boat.

Adam and Chase started out like this...

Then switched to this for a better view.

Bamma came over to say hi and was greeted with this beautiful face...

Chase fast asleep. Apparently those life vests double as pillows!

He was so out that I was able to scoop him up and move back to a more comfortable position with him.

I never get tired of holding a sleeping baby.

Unfortunately Chase missed this action...

A few jet skiers spent about 20 minutes playing in our wake... entertainment all around!

The men of the boat... Uncle Jimmy, Chase and Adam ;~)

And the ladies of the boat... Aunt Vicky, me and Sandy ;~)

Family of 3 for just a bit longer ;~)

Once we were back home Adam and Chase headed for the 'pool' again.

Unfortunately they got pushed out by a thunderstorm rolling in. We had a good time watching and listening to it though.

Chase sat remarkably still and quiet for about 20 minutes... a real feat for him!

Just before bed we visited 'the pretty cars' in Uncle Jimmy's garage.

I was a nervous wreck with Chase playing on them but Jimmy is SO laid back... he was just delighting in how much fun Chase was having.

Chase driving Daddy around.

Sunday Adam, Chase and I got up early to head to Bay Area Community Church... a real treat in and of itself! I can't even begin to describe how great it felt to be back there. Pastor Greg saw us right before church started and was just overjoyed... it feels good to know that someone misses you that much.

The worship was nothing short of awesome. Adam and I have discovered that we really need a good worship service... it helps set the mood and really prepare your heart for the message. Precisely what I have been missing lately.

Then just listening to Greg was pure heaven. He is such a great speaker and he has this way of zoning in on the essential and applying it to everyday life. I can't possibly do him justice.

We were extremely lucky as this is his last service for 3 months (every seven years the pastor gets a 3 month sabbatical and next week starts his!)

We ran into many friends of ours including Pat and Kristen, who started the whole baby boom from our old bible study. They are now expecting baby #3... actually their baby #3 will be born before our baby #2!

I know I am gushing but it really was a treat to go to BACC... I only hope it happens again!

After church we headed to Uncle Jimmy's farm where Chase had a little fun on the fork lift...

Shortly after that we started the journey home. We were a little unnerved because we discovered our fan in the Jeep stopped blowing on Sat... which meant no cold air being pushed out on a 90°+ day for an hour and 45 minute ride home.

It wasn't looking pleasant at all. Luckily Greg spoke about contentment and not letting situations define your happiness... and here we had a good test!

Adam and I kept our calm and just decided to grin through it... which served us well. We didn't worry or fret about it and come to find out, if you are going 75mph, the air conditioning is somewhat forced through the vent. So as long as we were booking it on the way home (and Adam made sure we were), we felt cool!

And as always, this little guy fell out somewhere between here and there...

clutching Mommy's iPhone of course ;~)

Awesome Weekend

We got the opportunity for a mini-vacation this past weekend and it was amazing.

Adam's uncle invited us to his gorgeous home for a weekend with the promise of taking us out on his boat... to which Sandy, Adam, Chase and I quickly said yes!

They (Adam's Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Vicki) live in Annapolis which meant 1. I was able to slip away and have coffee with my best friend sans the kids! 2. we were in extremely familiar and loved territory, 3. we were able to attend BACC... something we have been missing greatly lately.

We left Hagerstown in the afternoon on Friday... right in time for 'quiet time' for Chase...

I will never tire of these pictures... he's so stinkin cute when he sleeps!

Once we were at the house Adam and Chase wasted no time exploring their property...

Chase quickly discovered the creek that runs through their backyard and jumped right in...

He had so much fun throwing sticks and rocks and running (at least trying to) through the water.

Quintessential boy.

Chase got a huge kick out of running through this shallow area... back and forth... splashing as high as he possibly could. It looked like such fun I even joined in! I know, me and nature spending time together... I never thought it would happen either. Better get used to it with 2 boys!

Although Chase has recently developed a horrid fear of 'buggies'. If anything... gnat, fly, ant... gets within eye-shot, he totally flips out and demands my 'up'. I have no idea where he got it from *whistling* {eyes shifting to avoid contact} *whistling*.

I am not too worried about it... in 6 months he will be over it and probably trying to catch them. So for now I just remind him that they aren't all bad and relish the fact that he still runs to me for comfort.

After the creek (which took some MAJOR convincing to leave) Adam and Chase went for a dip in the 'pool'.

And by pool I mean hot tub which was set at a reasonable 93°.

This is about all the further Chase got in. At one point he was standing (he could easily stand on the bottom and have his head above water) but he lost his footing and went under... to which Adam quickly scooped him back up (picture one fluid motion) but that was all it took for Chase. He immediately wanted out and from then on out approached with extreme caution and hesitation.

Regardless, he still had a blast playing with Daddy in the 'pool'. At one point Adam scrubbed the sides down with a brillo type brush, just to keep the iron in the water from collecting on the sides and creating a ring. When Chase heard this conversation he interpreted it as 'ironing the water'... and that became his job. He ironed the water on every open surface of the hot tub.

To say that he is entertaining is the understatement of the year.

During pool time I was able to slip out for an hour or so and meet up with Christine. Luckily she was able to slip away and leave her 2 boys with her hubby... which meant an hour of uninterrupted conversation between adults! That so rarely happens anymore! It was heavenly. I am pretty sure we got more out of this conversation than the past month of talking over the phone while trying to juggle the kids/pets.

After dinner it was finally time to turn in... which meant Chase finally got to use this...

his beloved travel bed!

We blew it up the day we bought it... just to test it out and show Chase what he would be sleeping on when we went to Uncle Jimmy's and Myrtle Beach. That was at least 2 weeks ago and I think we have heard about the travel bed daily since then.

Conversation at the kennel. Kennel lady: "Are you going to have fun at your uncle's house?" Chase: *he eagerly leans forward* "Chasey has a travel bed!!!"

He ran around all Friday night asking anyone who would listen "Do you want to see my travel bed?" Several of us obliged and took him upstairs to marvel at it's greatness.

I mock but truly, it was pretty cool. There was no way I felt comfortable enough to put him in a regular size (re: height) bed and he has since outgrown a pack and play. This was a great solution... if he rolls off, no biggie!

Lucky for us he understood that the same rules apply to the travel bed as the home bed... 1. no standing, 2. no jumping, 3. no getting out. Plus he was beat tired... it didn't take him long to fall out either night!

I will have to continue later... I am still tired from our mini-vacation and need sleep!