Noah's Got Some Basketball Skills

What a nice weekend of we had.  Saturday we stopped by my moms house to visit and show her Noah's new talking skills.  He's doing so much better and every day he says new words.   He's also starting to put words together into sentences which is so fun to watch.  My favorite from this weekend was toothbrush, "tooshtush".  He got into my spare toothbrush I keep in the lower bathroom for when I get ready in the mornings and said, "mama, tooshtush. You Doc (as in Doc McStuffins) Tooshtush"  He calls himself you because when we point at him he's "you" and doesn't understand when he's talking about himself he should use "me".  But good enough. 

On Sunday we stopped by Lowes one again to pick up more supplies for the never ending needs of our new house.  Who knew owning a new house still came with so many projects?  Noah helped Jeff pick out a new lawnmower.  He may as well since in a couple years he will be helping out with the lawn too!

The rest of the weekend we spent making lots of new recipes.  Strawberry butter, lemon poppy-seed cake, and oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes.  We spent some time out on the beach cooling of from this crazy heat wave and hung out around the house keeping Noah entertained in between meals. 



Noah's basketball skills are improving as we keep moving the basketball hoop up higher and higher.  Plus check out Noah back muscles, the kid is solid.

 

The Dr. might think the kid is overweight but I think he's just a big fit guy who may or may not end up being a linebacker.  I refuse to change his eating and playing habits because I think he's doing just fine.

Overall a very successful family weekend.  Next week though we're back to scheduled activities.  We'll have our last triathlon of the season and we're looking forward to having family stay at the house.

DIY: How To String Globe Lights on Your Patio

This is seriously, the easiest and most awesome project we have done to the house yet.  I also think we're finally completely done with the deck, so another room we can check of our list.  The cost for putting up the globe lights is minimal so everyone could do this even to a smaller porch or deck.  The lights light up the deck just enough for some mood lighting but aren't as bright as the patio lights which makes it super nice to relax and sip some moscato before bed. Here is what we did, and the sources at the end.

We bought three 2x1x8 and attached them to the deck rail with two screws where the post meets the top of the deck and at the bottom where the post meets the floor.  That seemed sturdy enough to hold the lights and stand up to storms and such.  We measured ahead of time by laying out the lights hooked together to make sure we would had enough lights to make it the whole length.  I'm glad Jeff had us do this because we would not of had enough length for my original "x" plan.  Instead we did more of a triangle and that worked great.

We placed one hook about two inches down from the top of each post.  A small screw in hook.  They came in a pack of three so it was perfect.  Now all you have to do is string your lights and plug them in.  It was that easy.  Total price was around $10 for the lumber and hooks but we bought five posts and six hooks so really it costs a little less.  We got the string lights as a gift so we didn't have to spend money on them but they are pretty cheap anyway so they wouldn't add too much for the budget. 

Overall a pretty simple project and it took us half of a nap time to complete so really super fast.  (like a half hour)  The sunsets are awesome overlooking our deck and now their even better.  Really makes you slow down and enjoy the summer nights. 

Lights:
String Lights 25Ft x2
Three 2x1x8
Three small screw in hooks
Deck Sources:
Sectional (Seafoam)
Metal Table
Chairs (Seafoam)
Wooden Lattice Tray/ Target - sold out/Similar
Pitcher
Plastic Stemless Wine Glasses

Soaking Up some Summer

I can't believe how fast summer is going and I'm really trying not to think about how busy fall always is and how we never have days of together to relax and do fun activities, but this weekend we soaked every minute of summer up.  We spent lots of time on the beach and the pool and even got a little house project done over the weekend.  It was so crazy hot this weekend and even with the heat we had a ton of rain but luckily it worked out that when we neened to be outside, the rain stopped so it was perfect. My newly seeded lawn I'm sure thought it was perfect too. 

Jeffs cousin has been in town on vacation for a couple of weeks and she stopped over on Sunday with her kids to play with Noah.  They all had such a great time, it was really sad they had to leave.  It sure would be fun if they lived closer.  I'm convinced after seeing Noah with other kids that he needs a little play buddy.  So much laughing, singing and yelling this weekend!

Wedding Weekend Recap

Yes, I know, it's Wednesday, and it's taken me this long to post pictures of the wedding.  But seriously, I'm still recovering.  The wedding was great and much less stressful that I thought it was going to be.  We kept Noah with us at the reception and he lasted 'till about 1030 before I took him back to the hotel.

For the most part he slept pretty good but half of both the nights he was in bed with us. I love that he sleeps so soundly next to us and really I just love sleeping with him but I really could use less kicking and using me as a pillow.   I don't get how you can put a child on one side of a king bed and they make it perpendicular all the way to the other. The best part though is when he got up both mornings and sits up and looks right in your face like, "hey mom! You're here! I love it!" and then repeatedly says, "Hi! Hi! Hi!" Ya, I get it, you're awake.  I would like to sleep 'till nine please.

Noah and I really enjoyed playing with the cousins.  It was nice to have kids around for Noah to play with.  He's still calling for "dru" throughout the day.  I'm sure he's going to miss him a lot.

We have a couple more weeks 'till our next wedding in Nebraska.  Talk about a long ride with a two year old!  Neither of us are getting married though so at least we'll be able to take care of Noah instead of pawning him of to family.  Noah will get to see his cousins again so I'm sure we wont stop talking about "Dru" 'till after!