Summer is our favorite time of year around here. We love warmer weather and the chance to be outside as much as possible.
We actually like it hot, but these last few days have been really pretty.
I took off three days last week. We did something that we never do...we let Miles skip school. Our intention was to plant the garden, but it turned out to be bad timing with the weather so we worked on other things. After the disappointment of not being able to plant the garden wore off, Miles helped me clean the porch. We had to sweep and wipe off all the shutters and furniture.
We also trimmed all the bushes and planted a few new things where we had some gaps. I added these azaleas. They provide so much color from the road. They bloom in spring, summer, and fall, and the leaves stay green during the winter. I have high hopes for them! We also put down a truckload of mulch.
Darrin said Miles gets to learn to mow some this year on the flat areas. He already knows how to park the mower in the garage which is very good considering it's a zero turn mower.
Carson likes to "help" too.
When he's not helping, he just loves to be outside while we work. I moved his sand box to the back patio so he could play while I cooked dinner. Tonight, I raised the window so I could hear him and he entertained himself for a little while. It was so nice.
He got some chalk paint for Easter and played with those on Saturday. I think Miles and I liked it more than he did.
We also cleaned out our shop and garage. It seems like everything piles up during the winter and gets very dusty. Something about a clean shop and garage makes me very happy.
Darrin and Miles have done a great job on the garden. Last year was our first year to have a garden and we all loved it. Darrin enjoyed researching, planning, and seeing it grow. Miles loved picking the vegetables everyday. I loved being able to cook fresh vegetables.
We expanded it to almost twice the size this year. We added several new things such as corn, peppers, green beans, strawberries, and green onions. Darrin and Miles got very fancy and buried the hose that leads to the sprinkler system. It's quite impressive. Miles spent time this afternoon adding some pavers for a walkway.
It's been a productive week. We have never accomplished this much by this time in the spring. I'm so excited that all the really hard work is finished. Now, we can just maintain and enjoy everything all summer long.
Happy Easter from our family to yours! Picture overload coming your way. We gave the boys their Easter baskets yesterday since Sunday morning is always hectic. I think that will be a new tradition. They were able to play with their stuff all day and didn't have to rush.
A new Beyblade was the highlight of Miles' basket.
Carson was very excited about a truck for his cars and some Paw Patrol paint. Miles has always been reserved with his enthusiasm. We have had to learn not to expect a reaction from him and just know that he loves whatever we give him regardless of how it appears. Carson, on the other hand, said "thank you momma" at least 10 times without being prompted.
The boys snuggled in our bed for a half of second this morning before Carson felt smothered and had to be free.
After getting ready for church, we tried some family pics outside.
Carson decided to dance and run around instead. It's a shame he doesn't enjoy life more.
We, and by we I mean Darrin, instantly waved the white flag and we headed to church. We decided to go to church with Darrin's parents. We never have the opportunity and I am so glad we did. It was very nice to be with them this morning.
We always spend Easter afternoon at Crystal and Steve's house. It was a beautiful day to hang out with family and hunt for Easter eggs. Miles was very serious about collecting as many as possible.
Carson picked up the first egg and then twirled his basket around his arm and the egg when flying out. Then he kept trying to stomp on the eggs to open them and find out what was inside. He finally got the hang of it and filled his bucket to the top.
Carson loves his Aunt Kiss-tal...written as he says it.
Carson told Uncle Steve that he wanted to ride on the golf cart, so Steve told him to go outside and wait for him. Carson walked outside, climbed up on the golf cart, and waited patiently for Uncle Steve to come drive him around. It's amazing how compliant this child is for everyone but us.
I'm a fan of this guy.
We had such a great day minus the car ride there and back. M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. He screamed, cried, and kicked the back of my seat from church all the way to Crystal's house, which was just under an hour.
This pic of Miles sums up our sentiments. It was rough.
On the way home, we may or may not have given him some melatonin, and Darrin moved his car seat to the third row so he couldn't kick my seat. Him kicking my seat on the way there just about did me in and I think Darrin went with the 'happy wife, happy life' philosophy.
I wrote my first blog post 10 years ago today! I read a few blogs back then and thought it would be a fun way to update my family and friends on my pregnancy and upcoming baby. I was pregnant with Miles at the time. We didn't know if he was a boy or girl.
Over the last 10 years, I've written 1,345 posts. Sometimes I love it and sometimes it's more of a chore. I try to stick with it during those times, b/c I want to document what's going on with us. I love going back and reading all the things I've forgotten, like the time Miles was completely put out by pie in the face at VBS or how I used to have to sing the ABCs to Carson the entire way home from daycare to keep him from screaming.
I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the posts from the last 10 years. The most popular posts are my labor stories from the boys. Since we didn't find out what we were having with Miles, it was so fun to announce "It's A Boy!" And then, when Carson came six weeks early, his birth story was overwhelming to write about...Carson is Here. Another popular post was the story about how and why we got pregnant with Carson after 15 years of marriage.
Really good blogs tend to have a theme or purpose, like cooking, raising kids, working out, etc. While I wish my blog was really good, we'll just have to settle for a hodge podge and random pics. Besides the boys and our day to day lives around here, probably my favorite thing to write about is home improvement stuff, like our Kitchen, Before, During, & After. I like to include recipes in random posts like this one just b/c I love to cook. I'm definitely not a parenting expert, but I enjoy writing tips and tricks about the kids when I come across something that works. Babywise is by far the parenting hack that I am most passionate about.
Writing about Lyme disease and specifically my post on December 29, 2010 will always be dear to me. That was the day that I finally had a diagnosis for the excruciating headaches and other symptoms that I had endured for the last year and a half. I haven't written about Lyme in a while b/c it's very much under control. I used to get several emails from random people that found my blog by searching about Lyme disease or my doctor, Dr. Michael Bernui.
I think the theme of the weekend was stressful, which is unfortunate b/c I was so looking forward to a weekend away with all four of us. Darrin was able to go to Miles' baseball tournament in Oxford, MS which doesn't usually happen during recruiting season. We didn't leave until Saturday morning. Miles had to finish a school project on Friday night that was due on Monday just in case his team did well and we ended up being there for a while on Sunday.
After scouring Auto Trader for a vehicle in our budget with a built in DVD player, I decided that was not in our future, so we bought a new contraption to hold the iPad so Carson could watch his shows in the car. His current shows are Paw Patrol, Frozen, AFV, and occasionally Tangled. Mostly just Paw Patrol though. This picture is highly deceiving. He looks so focused which lasted some of the trip and then was over. He kept intentionally kicking it off with his feet. I really, really want a car with a built in DVD player.
After our three hour drive to Oxford, we wondered how in the world we were going to make it 8 hours to the beach this summer. I think we decided our options are to stop halfway and spend the night, or drive through the night.
It turned out to be a pretty day for baseball on Saturday. It was actually hot, which I welcome. It's a very congested, busy ballpark, so it was a little challenging with Carson. He seemed to have fun, it just wasn't fun for me while I chased him around and tried to watch Miles at the same time.
Miles' team won one and lost one on Saturday. He played third most of the day except for the two innings he pitched. The first inning he pitched, he threw three pitches and got three outs! They all hit the first pitch and grounded out. Way to trust your defense!
During the second inning that he pitched, I looked up just in time to see him take a line drive to the head. Darrin ran out there with the coaches to check on him. It was a scary few minutes.
Thankfully, it looked much worse than it ended up being. He turned just right and the ball caught the bill of his hat, took his hat off, and grazed the top of his head. His coach said he started crying only when he told him that he had to come out.
We watched him between games and decided that he was fine to play the next game. It was good to see him smiling and feeling fine. Very thankful for the Lord's protection.
The second game was played at a reject field off by itself. The field was less than ideal for the boys, but perfect for Carson. He played in the rocks and had more freedom to roam b/c there were so many less people around.
Darrin chased him around for a while and then he was content for me to sit on the ground beside him while he played.
Our original hotel was in a city that was under a boil alert b/c their water was contaminated with e coli. The hotel provided bottle water for brushing your teeth and said you could bathe in the water, but not ingest it. Everyone decided to stay, except us. We are the only ones with a 2 year old that doesn't understand he can't drink the bath water, shower water, or pool water. Plus, we had an extra baseball boy with us and we felt responsible for him. So, after a long day already, we packed up and drove another hour to a hotel with clean water.
We picked up pizza and ate in the hotel lobby before going up to our room. Miles accidentally spilled my Mt. Dew all over the floor while we were eating which was par for the course at this point. At this point, it was around 7:30, but felt like midnight. We had promised Carson that he could swim and he was not forgetting that. It was totally worth it to see this smile. He LOVED swimming in chlorine with a little bit of water :)
Miles and his friend, Nate, were happy to be swimming too. I thought they would be really sad to not being staying with their team, but they were perfectly fine with just each other.
Happy boys!
Sunday we woke up to a baseball delay b/c of the rain. We knew there was a good chance that we wouldn't play on Sunday. That's the trouble with outdoor sports. Miles and Nate passed time on their tablets.
Carson watched TV and looked out the window. They ended up cancelling the tournament pretty quickly b/c there was no end in sight to the rain.
We loaded the car in record time and headed home. We pulled into the driveway around 1pm which gave us time to get some much needed stuff done around the house. For some reason, Carson didn't sleep well last night. He ended up on our bed and tossed & turned all night. I think his teeth are bothering him and maybe his allergies too. Both boys went to bed with Benadryl and Carson also had Motrin. Here's hoping that everyone sleeps until morning without a peep, including me!
