{35 days}

It may or may not have been that many days since I last posted on here.  I thought summertime wasn't going to get "busy" until H was at least school age and we would be trying to cram in as much fun as possible in 3 months.  I might be a little scared of what that will be like if this summer has already been chock full.  But I wouldn't complain, we've been having some serious fun which means lots of updates!  Time to jump right in, buckle your seatbelts.
1.  A little room re-do
Well, less of a "re" and more of a just "do", finally.  I mentioned in the last post that during the crazy week of Miss H's birthday I thought it would be a good time to also spend quite a bit of time on our upstairs room.  Our house is basically a ranch, but has one single room upstairs which was quickly deemed the "man-cave".  Great, fantastic, go for it - love it.  Theres a wet bar along one whole end of the room complete with a beer fridge,/liquor fridge,/fridge fridge {yeah, Tommy, anything you want to keep cold}.  It is all pre-wired for 2,000.1 surround sound or whatever it is and ready for a big t.v. someday.  Anyway my lovely friend Christine "interior decorator extrodinaire" helped by laying out all the goodies for the wall and layout of the room.  She also had the genius idea to create a custom coffee table using the windshield from an AH-64 {Apache Helicopter}.  Not just any helicopter, and not only any windshield.  The windshield that took fire and protected my dear spouse during his last deployment.  The window didnt fair all that well but its in one piece {kinda} and now its on display.  More on that in the pictures.  My in-laws were here for the week we were working on the room and THANK GOODNESS.  My father-in-law got right to work creating the table and hanging all the 3,000 frames on the wall.  It came out great and the husband was thrilled with the surprise when we revealed it to him.  Did I leave that out?  Oh yeah, it also all had to be done in secret and only when he was at work because it was a surprise.  Again, not stressfull at all when I was trying to get H's 1st birthday party ready.





2.  Beach Vacation!
VCRJ do Port Aransas 2.0!  That'd be Van Cleave, Rostorfer, Jennings.  Family really.  While the Jennings portion of this group isn't blood related - they are most definitly family.  {back story...Sarah, the momma, and I are best friends from college.  Harley, the papa, was a friend of my hubby from college.  Match maker, match maker, make me a match...they were married and have a beautiful little girl that keeps us all laughing}.  And so it was, our clan, my seester and her family and my college bestest and her family.  We went to Port Aransas on the gulf coast of Texas last year for the July 4th weekend and had a blast.  {H was only 4 weeks old, what was I thinking, but it was then and there we realized we had coconut baby on our hands.}  She loves the beach.  The warm air, the sand, the surf, all of it.  This year we went a little earlier because our dear friends were moving {sniff.tear} back to VA right after the 4th.  We had a great beach house complete with roof-top deck and had a great time kicking back for the long weekend. 



Our blue beach house for the wknd.  (obviously I didn't take this picture)



or this one either

3.  Ohio Trip/4th of July
We escaped the 100+ degree temps in Texas.  {fun fact - as of this morning we have had 28 days over 100*.  awesome. And if it hasn't been 100, its only because its been 99*. Its only July.  August is even hotter if thats possible.}  We were really excited to go north for the holiday.  We knew it would be cooler to us, and lush and green.  Plus, there is a quaint small town feel around Dublin during the 4th complete with a parade and everyone gathering at our old high school for an all day concert and an awesome fireworks display.  All American, Ralph Lauren ad, hot dogs and lemonade kind of fun.  We played with cousins, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, visited the zoo, had a cookout, watched a parade and had a great week.




playing with cousins



fun at the zoo

4.  Pudding painting!
I {we} might be a little crazy.  But yes, Christine {I.D.E.}, and I thought that H and her bff Lo would get a kick out of "finger painting" with pudding. Who wouldn't?!  Being the wonderful mothers we are we did seek out healthy pudding.  i.e. real pudding from whole foods made with things you can name easily and have in your fridge right now.  Chocolate and Vanilla it was, time to get messy.  The girls LOVED it.  We contained the mess as much as possible.  Caged them in and sat them on a plastic mat {which you can't really see in the pictures but believe me its there and my tile says thank you}.  Obviously it quickly turned from finger painting to full body painting and finally straight consumption of the pudding leaving all attempts at "art" in the dust and trying to get as much in their mouths as possible.  It entertained them for quite a while and they would have still been in there I'm sure if we didn't wisk them out of there and dump them in the tub to begin the de-lousing process.  Enjoy...


off to a good start

getting the hang of it

oh wow

fantastically messy!

And now I need a nap...