Little Boo is 2!

To commemorate Jackson's second trip around the sun, we pretty much had a weeklong celebration. Starting on Thursday evening (after I got home from my last day of work forever), we had a bounce house assembled and spent several hours bouncing that night



Friday morning, we hosted a playgroup birthday party for our Friday friends that we play with every week. The kiddos had fun and fortunately the weather was overcast and cooler than it had been.

Birthday Cupcake #1 of 4

These kids love to snack!

This was prior to Jackson dumping water on 2 of his friends...

Saturday morning was our family/neighbors/friends bday party so we had a fun filled (& hot!) morning! Uncle Mikey & Aunt Jenn made it down for the party & Poppy & Nanny came down that afternoon.

Family of 3 -- soon to be Family of 4!

Aunt Jenn.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics of Uncle Mikey!!

All the babies & their Daddies + Uncle Mikey

Babies & their Mommies + Aunt Jenn

Nanny & Poppy made it despite Nanny's "boo-boo" on her foot (surgery)

Ben's brother Jon got a last minute cross country to Columbia & called us Saturday evening saying he was on his way over! What an awesome last minute surprise! J was a bit confused by the flight suit.

"Uncle Jon is SO cool!"

"And he's got fun dress up clothes!"

Sweet Talbert brothers + the baby

June 22 marked Jackson's "real" birthday, which just so happened to be the day our a/c decide to go out. Bebe & PopPaw came down to visit & we spent the day waiting on the repair man & playing at the pool. Capped off with a new "bike". It's so hard to believe our little man is 2!

Last year, I decided to decorate J's door on his birthday
so he gets to wake up to a fun little surprise to start his day.

At the pool with Bebe & PopPaw

The new bike.

Pray for Kate

Over the past 6 months or so, I have been following a Caring Bridge blog that I stumbled across.  The family is from Arizona and their little girl was diagnosed with a brain tumor 2 years ago.  I do not know this family personally and doubt I will ever meet them this side of Heaven.  I cannot do it justice to explain how inspirational this mother has been as she chronicalizes the every day struggles her 6 year old daughter and their family are facing, and how the Lord is truly the only one that gives them strength to fight this battle. 
More often then not, I end up sobbing...mainly for the pain they are going through, but also for shame in my ignorance at how blessed I am to have a healthy child. 

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate

To hail with the list

Nothing motivates you to finish projects around the house & yard like an upcoming party. Jackson's birthday party was last weekend so of course we had a long "must do" list of things to be completed before we hosted a houseful of guests. None of which are easy.

For starters, Poppy & Nanny gave Jackson a playset for his birthday. It is sitting in our driveway, closely resembling a pile of scrap lumber. Being pre-owned, it was infested with bees & ants (by infested, I mean Ben killed upwards of 100 bees) and Ben not only had to use massive amount of bug killer but also had to fill in over 100 half-inch holes left in the wood thanks to the carpenter bees. We had long since given up our grand ideas to sand, stain & assemble the playset prior to the weekend, but as of 4 days prior to the party, it resembled a pile of over-sized lincoln logs that are scattered all over the driveway.

Earlier this summer, we decided to transplant the azaleas that were growing poorly against the back of the house, leaving a muddy 3 foot trench between the house & deck. In 1 week's time, Ben's graded, papered & filled in this space with 3" river rock. Hauling a ton of stone is no easy task but nothing gets that wheel barrow rolling like impending deadlines (and nagging wife).

 

And on my list, I've been wanting to sew a shade canopy to cover the pergola for several years now. It gets SO hot during the summer time and the lattice does not provide hardly any shade. Ben got some great performance fabric from work last year but I've been putting it off. The hotter it gets & the bigger I get, I've prioritize this little project.  I had hoped to have all 3 panels finished & installed by the party but considering the temps were in the mid-90s, 2 out of the 3 was better than nothing!

And none of these projects factored the multiple hail storms & damaging winds into the equation.  Check out this mess!  All in all, everything that was absolutely necessary got finished by the big weekend, and the other things are still on the never-ending to-do list.

Heavy drinking

Lately J has been way into wanting to "have a sip" of whatever we may be drinking...which is not a problem since Ben doesn't drink anymore & alcohol is currently not part of my diet =). J doesn't limit it to beverages either...the hose is permissible too!

Having a "sip of Dada's beer" (Odouls)

Wonder where he learns it from?

And this is what happens when I catch him drinking pool water...Timeout!

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Turtles and bunnies and mice, oh my!

So we have been very popular with wildlife over the past several days. First, the random turtle in our driveway earlier this week.

Then, on Friday afternoon, I hear Bella squeaking on something -- or should I say "causing something to squeak" beside the deck. Either way, I got there in time to make her drop what I thought was a baby chipmunk from her mouth (unharmed). Once Ben got home, we coherced the little rascal into a lushly decorated diaper box and hoped he would eat some of the sunflower seeds we'd given him. We freed him to "go find his Mommy" before bedtime that night then googled baby chipmunks only to discover that it had been a baby rabbit rather than a chipmunk.

Then, to cap off our wildlife spree, we found a mouse (NOT rat) in the garage. Ben had been suspecting we had a little friend in there earlier this week and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that he had walked up the wagon handle and dropped into an empty bucket at some point over the weekend. What are the chances??

Who needs summer camp when we have such random visitors right in our own backyard?

7am guests are best

As he was leaving for work this morning, Ben called to tell me that there was a turtle hanging out at the end of our driveway.  Of course we couldn't miss the opportunity to cash in on some wildlife from the comfort of our jammies.

A little bit of craftiness

Earlier this year, I made some fun shower gifts for our friends Austin & Melissa, who had their daughter Ella in February.  Maybe I'll inspire someone!