Trying to maintain household peace...

Thank you masking tape, thank you.

Sometimes it's True

When I realized that my last two children would be only 15 months apart, everyone told me that they would be the closest of friends.  It's moments like this when I realize it's true....

Carson woke up super crabby from a late afternoon nap and it didn't help that the inside of his upper thighs were irritated from running around in wet shorts earlier in the day.  He was super upset as I put some medicine on his legs and Sophie was right there the whole time comforting him.  Whenever he's hurt she brings him things to distract him, tells him to take a deep breath, and speak reassuringly while hugging or patting him.  Today she got him a blanket and offered to watch Barney with him.  As I got them both all tucked in, he turned to me and said, "Not you!  I only want BoBo."  (Not sure how that nickname has stuck for her but he rarely calls her Sophie.)  When I came back into the room a few minutes later, I found that she had moved them to the other end of the couch and they were snuggled together watching their show.  

Does it get any cuter than this?

Bringing in June

June has got to be one of the best months ever.  School gets out, the evenings get warmer and we head for the ocean.

The beach, the bay, the food, the sand, the water and the kids (though there are times we definitely wish we had forgotten them at home).  Aaaahhhh....I can't wait.

However, the last few days before we go are always super stressful to me.  I worry about the weather while we're there, the packing, the traveling, and the spending.  So, after being bombarded every where I look with people posting goals (seriously, every time I log on to FB or skim blogs, someone, somewhere, is starting a goal), I've decided to set one of my own in order to help relieve a little stress.  Besides, Rachael's even got a new one right now and I can't seem to let her succeed at a 14 day goal without trying it myself.  So here's mine...don't laugh...

See how I've even made myself a little check off area?  I've got to have some accountability somewhere!  And when I say no eating out, that doesn't include eating at my parent's, sorry mom and dad.  Sometimes I get a little sick to my stomach when I realize that unnecessary spending includes things like Netflix rentals, digital books, and fountain soda's.  Does it count though if you can pay for something with the change you've collected from under the couch cushions?

Because She Told Me To

Yesterday I got a call from Rachael and she simply stated, "You've only blogged once in May and that was on the 9th."  So, I resolved to post at least once more in May but yesterday ran out so here I am, on the first of June.

So, we were busy in the little month of May.  We worked on our backyard a lot and still have a lot we'd like to do.  Unfortunately money runs out but here's what we've got to show for it so far...

Here's a corner of the railing we added around the patio...

And the rest of it.  We'll be building benches along these two sides eventually...

 Two new chairs...

 And a newly painted old swing from my Grandma Goude's. 

And a fire pit area.  We'll plant grass along the back side of it and next year hope to fancy up the fire pit thingy somehow.  For now, we're just waiting for a Saturday night that doesn't get stormy so we can try it out!  Stupidly, I never took any before and after pictures, this was the only 'during' picture I took.

We also managed to purchase our first two wheelbarrows in the month of May.  You can see the first one here, hard at work.  Just your regular old standard red wheelbarrow there on the left side...

 And here's our second...

In order to pacify my concern that the small pick-up we just bought didn't have a working parking brake, Jason informed me that the first truck you ever buy is just a glorified wheelbarrow.  I'm not sure if that made me feel better or not.

The other photographically documented event in May occurred just last Friday night.  Somehow, unbeknownst to me, it was decided that I would be renting Justin Beiber's movie for Spencer and Colton and Graycie.  Being the cool Aunt that I am, I just went along with it.  After all, it was the first time in months that Colton showed any interest in coming to my house and I wasn't about to pass that up.  We picked up a pizza at Yoke's, they played outside for awhile and then came in for the big event.  During this whole time, I noticed a rather foul smell in the house and realized it was coming from Colton's feet.  He willingly went and washed his feet but a quick dip in water just wasn't enough.  Half way through the movie, as he kept creeping closer and closer to the side of the room I was on, I declared am intermission and sent all of them to wash their feet.  What the H was I thinking?  I had imagined three kids with their pants nicely rolled up sitting on the edge of the bathtub washing their feet.  This is not what I had imagined...

But it's what I got.  Three fully dressed children who "accidentally" fell into a bath full of bubbles.  They could not stop laughing.  Between the bath incident and the two times they played in the mud, I did a total of 4 loads of laundry in the 24 hours they were here.

Good times in May, good times.