Lately

Lately, the weather has been gorgeous. Warm, breezy, and perfect for keeping a 3 yr old plenty busy. It was even warm enough to start playing in the water again.
Noah doesn't really like the feel of swim diapers. In fact, I think he hates them. He never wants to play in the water when he has them on. So finally last week, I decided to let him do what every toddler loves to do when it's warm... play with no pants.

 

 

Lately, I'm thankful for Spring (kind of related to the above, but just go with it). I've decided that it's impossible for me to have a favorite season. They're all my favorite. But if I had to choose, I'd say Spring... simply for the colors and general happy moods of everyone around.

The only ones who aren't as happy are the carpenter bees buzzing our heads. Thankfully, they never really seem too bothered by us. However, they were not pleased I was closing in on their flowers. Apparently, those are off limits. I'm sure my neighbors got a good laugh at seeing me try to grab some pretty flower shots while dodging dive-bombing bees.

 



Lately, I'm thankful for friends, bonfires, and smores. Some friends of ours have the best back yard for get-togethers, so I always get excited to get one of their invites. The whole thing is usually super relaxed... we all bring a snack, sit by the fire, check on the babies. With Noah, parties are a hit or miss thing. Sometimes he gets overwhelmed and hides in the corner.
But I discovered what makes the difference for him last weekend. If we're the first ones to arrive, he has time to adjust to the surroundings and the extra people trickling in, instead of walking in to lots of commotion. When he needs a break, he finds himself a spot to be alone (this time it was a spot of dirt next to the bunny run). In any case, it was so nice for me to just relax and watch him have so much fun.

 

This is what is known as a "Kemper face". They all have it. It's this natural look they get that says, "Dude, what the heck is wrong with you?" when they think someone is being stupid. They can't help it.

 

 

Lately, I'm thankful for family. I know a lot of people dread family reunions, but I love mine. My (great) aunts are hysterical, along with my grandmother. They crack me up. I'm also a little partial to this particular one, because it's called the "Hailey Reunion". :) And this time, my brother's little boy, Bentley, got to come. He loves Noah so much and follows him everywhere.

 

I love this one. Noah's all, "Dude, calm down..."

 



(my MamMaw is the one on the far left... and yes, that's my sister photo bombing it)

 

Happy Monday!!

Signs of Spring

Spring is so pretty.
It's my favorite season for many obvious reasons.

The flowers are gorgeous.

My boy gets to be outside more.

But Spring has its less-than-lovely side too.
Like the pups looking for shade from the heat.

Or this adorable bumblebee that stalks me out front.

 (can't tell you how many times its "buzzed" me)

Or how sweaty Noah gets.

Forget sweat. The boy just gets plain dirty.

things going through my head

After last week's unintentional blog break, I realized how much random junk I think about when I don't have an outlet.

Random #1: My husband still naturally checks me out when he doesn't realize it's me. We got separated in Target the other day while grocery shopping. I was getting some granola bars when he walked by the aisle. A few seconds later, he came walking down and said, "I totally just checked you out when I walked by and didn't even realize it was you." I have to say, it kinda made my week.

Random #2: Noah is doing this thing now when I pick him up (out of his crib, to wash his hands, etc) and he doesn't want me to. He sticks out his legs and pushes against me with his feet. Driving. Me. Crazy. I guess he'll eventually stop when he pushes so hard, I drop him. Seriously. He's weighing in at 35 pounds now. And he's strong. Not cool.

Random #3: My grandma had hip replacement surgery last week. She's doing pretty well, but she has to go to a nursing home after this for therapy. I'm not gonna lie, this last part makes me nervous. I've seen this scenario play out before. Where an older person has a simple procedure done, then they go to a nursing home "just for rehab", and never leave. My grandma has always been extremely active. At 80, she was walking two miles every night with her sister. She would still go out dancing and visit her sisters at the beach. So this rehab better work. Or I'll be super upset.

Random #4: I did the P90x yoga a couple days ago, and oh my goodness gracious, I haven't been that sore in awhile. Everything hurt. I think I'll do it again.

Random #5: Lately, it has struck me as really comical at how passionately people (particularly women/moms) feel about their favorite stores. You're either a Walmart person or a Target person. We're obviously Target people (um, hello, they pay our bills). But even if they weren't our source of survival, I'm pretty positive I'd rather shop there than Wally World. However, if you prefer Walmart over Target? That's totally cool with me. We go there sometimes too, in a pinch. It's a preference. No need to get all hot and bothered over it.

Random #6: I have a summer dilemma. I need ideas on activities to occupy my toddler (um... and me). We're trying to save on gas, so going lots of places multiple times a week (keeping in mind that most fun places are at least 20 minutes from us) is out. We're also trying not to spend much money. So it has to be cheap. And just because that wasn't enough, it's also too hot to stay outside for more than 10 minutes at a time. Noah doesn't really know what to do with the plastic kiddie pool we have, and the sprinkler entertains him for all of 20-30 minutes. He's not interested in playdoh, chalk, coloring, etc. He thinks bubbles are fun for like 5 minutes. So yeah. I refuse to have my kid sit around in the house and watch tv/be bored all summer. So. Any ideas? I thought about getting a water table, but I hate to buy something and him just ignore it. Waste of money, y'know?

Random #7: The garden is making me all excited. I'm actually growing stuff that's going to be edible. We've had gardens in the past, but never this many plants. Also, our plants were never this tall and happy. I guess that's why you're supposed to fertilize them, huh? :)

Peppers...

Tomatoes...

(aren't the cherry tomatoes cute? And we have a TON of beefsteak tomatoes coming in, which I'm really excited about)

This year, I decided to try growing canteloupe. We eat so much of it every summer, I figured I'd give it a go. Someone must've thought it'd be funny to play a trick on the newbie garden growers and stick a "canteloupe" tag in a cucumber pot. NOT cool, people. I'm kinda bummed about it. I'm glad I like cucumbers... just not as much as canteloupe. I thought the leaves looked awfully similar, but I figured maybe they were from the same family. Oh well.

Oh, and someone (I don't remember who) asked me how we keep the pups out of the garden. Well, they're really not that interested, actually. But we have an invisible fence wire that runs all along the perimeter of our yard. If they get too close, they get a warning beep. We placed the beds right where they'd hear the warning beep. But they haven't really tried messing with it.

The one I really have to keep my eye on is the non-furry boy. He sees a big box full of untouched dirt, and he's all over it.

Sunday Snapshot

April showers have definitely arrived. After Brad built the garden beds, it proceeded to rain almost every day for the next week. You have no idea how badly I've wanted to plant all of our veggies (that are currently growing indoors). Yesterday, we finally got a break from the rain and were able to fill up our garden beds.

Guess who wanted to help?

Er... make a mess...

We're pretty sure that the only way our plants are going to survive the summer, is if we go get a sandbox and fill it up with topsoil. I know. We're geniuses. Or just really desperate... ;)

Happy Sunday!