corn on the cob

I am very happy that for the most part, my little guy is a great eater. One of his summer favs has been corn on the cob. Here's a pretty boring video of him eating some. The video also highlights his cute "what" hand gesture. Whenever you ask him a question, he'll hold up his hands like asking "what?" I think he was doing it in the video to ask what the noise was that he heard, which was my phone. Enjoy grandparents (and Avery).

our week these days

We are finally settling into our new schedule! We had to do some tweaking to our childcare schedule because it was WAY too much to have kiddos everyday. I felt like I really wasn't being the momma I wanted to be to Owen, so we had to sadly say goodbye to one of the families I was watching. But it worked out great for everyone in the end.  So now, we only have Miss S on Mondays and Wednesdays all day. She is such a sweetie. She's just a couple months older than Owen, and they're getting along great. It's adorable to watch them climb the stairs together to get ready for nap time (and she goes right to sleep. how do I get one of those?).  Owen points to her room when he gets up as if to ask when she'll be up to play.  On Tuesdays, we get to play with Miss E and Miss L for a few hours as well which is really fun!  That leaves us Thursdays and Friday for just us, heading to the library, and time to actually get some grocery shopping done. :)  It's been fun seeing O have a play made and it's nice to also feel like I'm contributing (a little bit) to our mini-van savings plan!

making sure all her special things are safe from Owen :)

more cows

Yesterday, I was super busy trying to get a meal ready for a friend who just had a baby. Jenna was over the afternoon borrowing our internet and washing machine. So when Owen got up from his nap, William and Jenna gave me a little break and took him to the south farms. On South Lincoln, there are TONS of cows. We comment every time we drive by that we need to take him there. So they finally did. I would say Owen thoroughly enjoyed seeing some more cows up close and personal. Please ignore the fact that he is in mismatching pj's. I promise he didn't wear those to church earlier in the day. :)

dad, look, cows!

that baby looks cute enough to eat

it's sunny out here

beef.  it's what's for dinner.

what are you lookin at?

we love Avery

Today, Avery and Lori came over for a little playdate. This girl is a riot. And I love that she loves to read this blog and watch Owen's videos. I promise to get more of those posted for you girly. They had fun playing and goofing off in the water table and playing with pretty much every other toy in the house. Avery's getting pretty excited about becoming a big sister in the next 3 weeks or so.  Lori had asked me to make her a big sister shirt and coordinating onesie for Baby Ryder.  I had such a good time making them!

she really wanted to get her hair wet

these were extra shirts i made

big sis and lil bro - the flower is a hair clip, not part of the shirt

close up of the hand stitching

visiting Peoria

This past Tuesday was my mom's birthday. To celebrate, some ladies drove to Peoria to have dinner with her on Thursday evening. Owen and I drove over a bit early to get him settled with Grandpa. We had a fun ladies night out and he loved hanging out with Grandpa. Owen, Jenna, and I spent the night and Dad fixed us a great breakfast before we started packing up our stuff. We were a bit bummed though. See, there's this group of cows that hangs out in my parents backyard. Ok, not really their backward, but directly on the other side of the fence. My child, for some reason or other, LOVES cows. He says moo all the time, currently adores reading books that have cows in them, and will sit and watch the entire Baby McDonald farm video without getting bored. So, anyways, I had been telling him over and over that we were going to see the cows and Grandpa and Grandmas.  But they didn't come out all night or morning as per their normal routine.  My dad was pretty sure they had been sent to the butcher. :( But low and behold, as we were packing up the car, they finally came out.  Owen had a fabulous time mooing and even getting to feed them pears from the neighbor.  It was definitely a great end to a short little visit to Peoria!

randoms

Thanks to my friend Anne, we scored a little kitchen playset on Craigslist for a great deal! I have plans to remove the one yucky sticker and dress it up with my Silhouette and some vinyl. I brought it up from the basement for some of the kiddos I'm watching. I have tons of play food from my teaching kindergarten days, so we got them out of the basement and gave them a good bleach bath. Now, Owen's been having a blast playing with it, just shoving food in and opening and closing the doors. I know this picture doesn't show it, but really, he's having fun.

And in other news, he has tooth #8 as of today!

neighborhood park

So, I'm loving our neighborhood! Really loving it. I've made a little diagram of our surrounding houses and am filling in names and info as I get to know the people around us. Right across the street from us, M and C just brought home their preemie who was born before Owen's birthday. I'm excited to take them a meal this week and begin the process of getting to know them more!

Another reason we love this place, the park that's just a few little blocks away! It will be so much fun when Owen is running around. Right next to the park they are building the new elementary school. Yesterday, Owen and I headed over to take a look at all the excitement. He amazed me with how long he sat and looked at all the tractors. A couple drove be real close to us and even waved. We finished it off with a little swinging time and I think I had one happy little man.

hanging out in the stroller taking it all in

a view from his seat

we watched this one for a long time as he was scooping rock

this kid loves to swing

Prairie Farm: take 2

Whew, a little behind on my blogging these days. So where were we? This past weekend was the last weekend our beloved little Prairie Farm was open.  So on Friday, I called Holly up to see if her and her sweet munchkins wanted to meet us there for a last round of farm animal lovin.  We were so glad they could meet us there.  I took my camera, but my trusty memory card was in my computer at home, so these pictures are shamelessly stolen from Holly.  Owen was quite excited to see the cows this time around!  Thanks Holly and kiddos for a fun late afternoon date!

first project

So all the boxes are unpacked (well, the ones in basement don't count) and I'm starting to get the decorating itch. I cannot commit to any paint colors yet, so I thought I'd do a small project to keep myself busy for a few days. I've been trying really hard to get better at meal planning so I knew I wanted a menu board somewhere in the kitchen. If it's fun and crafty, maybe I'll be better at doing it weekly, right?  I got my inspiration from Whipper Berry.  So here's my final product.  It's kinda hidden in the back corner by the laundry room off the kitchen.  But I figured it would be a good place to start a project just in case something went wrong.

Step 1: gather your supplies of an old frame, spray paint, chalkboard paint, vinyl decals (optional as you could just write the letters with chalk), 2 nails, and chalk 

Step 2: take said old frame and dismantle all the pieces.  Lightly sand the frame to prep for paint.

Step 3: on a not too hot or windy day, spray paint your frame.  Because my frame had a silver crackle thing going on, it took my 4 good coats to get it pretty evened out.

Step 4: figure out where you want your menu board. I traced a light line around the inside of the frame right onto the wall.  These were my guide lines for where to tape off my rectangle.  I just taped an inch wider than the inside of the frame.  That way, I knew there'd be no wall color showing does that make sense?  Here, I did a little mock up for you below.

Step 5: paint the taped off area with your chalkboard paint.  I just used a paintbrush because I was too lazy to dig through our painting supply box in the garage to find a paint tray, roller, etc.  I did 3 coats to be sure everything was good and covered.  I tried to wait 24 hours between each coat.  Then peel off your painters tape!

Step 6: Apply your vinyl.  I used my Silhouette machine to make the "Menu" and the letters of the week.  But you could paint these with a stencil.  Or not do them at all and just use chalk to write it.

 

Step 7: On many sites with chalkboard ideas, it's recommended to "season" your chalkboard.  To do that, you just take a piece of chalk, lay it on the side, and color the entire surface of the board.  Then I just wiped it clean with a damp cloth.

Step 8: I hung the frame using two small nails as close to the corners as I could get. And then wrote my first week's menu!

little boys

These little men are keeping me super busy. Whew. But what's cuter than 3 little boys in their diapers?  They had a blast playing with the water table on yet another warm day!

A. found Owen's tie and wanted to wear it

alyssa+nate

This past Saturday, we had the pleasure of celebrating another cousin wedding! Alyssa and Nate wowed us with a super sweet ceremony and fabulous reception. The theme of the wedding was Old Hollywood. And it was so great to see all the little details that made this theme come to life. I just love details. I did a terrible job taking pictures of the actual wedding. I'll send you to Holly's page to view some. The ladies looks great with their vintage hair do's, they drove off in a great classic car, the table "numbers" were names of classic movies.  Just a beautiful night!  Now they're off to Fiji.  I'm not jealous.

he's standing!  now just for those steps.

Owen came to the ceremony with us due to babysitter issues.  Love his tie in the wedding colors.

not a bad family pic!  well, Owen looks like he's picking his nose.

Mommy and son

Grammy (and Grandpa) stayed with us for the weekend

praying as everything kicks off

the gals at our table - minus Mimi

what a great date night!

they had a photobooth!  so fun!

me, william, jenna, julie, and part of mikes head