Landscaping, Before and After

A big project that we recently tackled was our front landscaping. We pulled some things out, rearranged shrubs and planted begonias, liriope, blue something or other, and hostas. It took a lot of work (mainly done by my hubby) and four trips to the nursery (you never know how much to get).

Thanks hon! It looks great. See the difference for yourselves. Here are a couple of "before" pictures from last fall. Not much but boxwood and nandina planted a little haphazardly.

Here is the "after" picture - much more color and empty spaces filled up. I'm afraid last week's heat wave hasn't been good to our new plants. We will see how July temperatures treat them.

I also had to show you my front door. I love this door bucket from Southern Living at Home. I made the floral arrangement myself. I guess I've gleaned some of my Mother-in-Law's talents over the years.

Happy 3rd Birthday JJ!

This is the first of several "catch up" posts.

JJ's birthday was Friday, May 23rd, a day that began with a funeral and ended with a visit to Grandma & Grandpa's for the holiday weekend. Since we had already had a birthday celebration for his special day, we didn't plan much for the "official" day. Grandma did, however, make him a cake. The one request that JJ had was that it have a rocket candle. Well, Grandma and I found out that they don't make rocket candles. But boy did Grandma come through! I wish I had taken a picture of the "rocket candle" that she created out of a party horn. Only someone with her creativity could have done it. JJ was not disappointed! Thanks Grandma!

We had a "family party" back in April to celebrate both our boys' birthdays together. Of course we picked a Mickey Mouse theme for the event since we were headed to Disney just a few days later. Here are some pictures from the party.

They were both excited to get bean bags from Mom & Dad.

The cake - That's what it's all about!

Blowing out the candle. He was so proud!

My little JJ is now 3 years old! He's such a spunky little guy. You never know what he's going to do next. JJ is very much an independent thinker. My easy going baby has turned into a strong-willed little boy. And he is so onery (as you can tell from these pictures). Boy is he onery!

Here he is at 12 months getting into a box of Kleenex.

Great fun!

He found another box here at 20 months.

I knew something was up when I heard that giggle from the other room!

He has a great sense of humor:

His favorite thing to say is "That's so funny!"

Happy Birthday, Little Man! We Love You!

What Have We Been Up To?

Has it really been a month since I've posted on my blog? Shame, shame! Well, what have we been up to? Let's see.

We celebrated JJ's 3rd birthday, we've attended two other birthday celebrations & a baby shower, we had two family illnesses, AJ took swimming lessons, the boys attended music camp & VBS, I went on a date with my husband, I got a pedicure with my MIL, we traveled, we hosted family at our house, we celebrated with family, we mourned with family, and I helped plan a BIG event that was a BIG success.

Whew! Are you as tired after reading that as I have been this last month? I promise not to neglect my blog now that I have my energy back and lots of fun things to share. Check back soon for more updates.

No Comprendo!

AJ says to me this morning "Burp language is my favorite language. It's so fun to speak Burp!"

(Insert rude noises)

"But my second favorite language is whale. I just love to talk whale! AH OOOH"

It's Potty Time!

JJ went pee pee in the potty for the first time today! Yeah!! I'm thrilled and he is so proud of himself. He was so cute calling Daddy at work to tell him the news. We opened up the Lightning McQueen Pull Ups that I've been saving for quite some time. This is the beginning of a new adventure for us. Hopefully it will be a smooth ride.

I know this picture is probably in bad taste, but I couldn't help myself! That's his pee in the potty! Way to go, JJ!

Disney Trip 2009

It's good to be home after spending two fantastic weeks in SUNNY Florida. I capitalize the word "sunny" because it literally didn't rain a drop the entire time we were on vacation - awesome for us, not so good for Florida's drought. Back home the weather wasn't so nice. It was (and continues to be) cloudy, rainy and down right gloomy here.

We had so much fun and got to do so much. Our vacation began with a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. The boys loved the Mickey ears waffles and meeting all the characters. I wasn't sure how JJ would react to seeing them in person. It took about 5 seconds for him to warm up to them.

After breakfast we hopped on the monorail for a spin around Disney World. JJ thought it was loud and covered his ears the entire time! AJ was so excited - he had really been looking forward to riding it.

A few more character pictures. Each of the Disney parks has places to meet them and get autographs. These are the best pictures.

Chip and Dale were so fun. They were fresh off their break and ready to play. One of them pointed to the fanny pack AJ was wearing, asking what was inside. He pulled out his Buzz Lightyear play phone and let them make a call. Pretty cute.

JJ wasn't too interested in meeting Chip and Dale. They came over anyway to say hello and give a handshake. Riding Dumbo the Flying Elephant was on the top of our list for our first day at the Magic Kingdom.
Driving the cars at the Tomorrowland Speedway was JJ's favorite ride. He loved that he could "drive" by himself. A pretty jerky ride, but so much fun to experience it with my little guy.

The Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin ride was AJ's favorite. Of course this Buzz fan wouldn't miss it! He did pretty well shooting the targets and ended up with a score around 1200. Not bad!

This picture was taken soon after Jimmie and I got soaked on Splash Mountain! We sat in the very front row. Warning - the front row gets the biggest splash. You can't really tell how wet I got except for the flat hair.

Quite a few of the rides are dark and a little bit scary. This is how JJ took those in.
Each day I would ask the boys what their favorite thing was. Funny enough that JJ said he liked the parking lot trams the best. Second only to the Speedway, the trams were his favorite thing at Disney World! Don't you love the perspective of a child??


Meeting "the real" Buzz and Woody was a big hit with both boys. AJ actually waited in line both days we were at Hollywood Studios just to see them again.

My Buzz fans also still love Lightning McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars.

I had read that Disney has these pressed penny machines all over the parks (you have to pay 50 cents for each penny). I knew that AJ would beg to do this. So I had brought a roll of quarters and pennies for him to use. It was a hit!

Our first week in Orlando we were joined by my sister & her family as well as my dad (Papa T) and Mary (Nana). Getting to enjoy Disney with them was a special treat and something we will always remember. This is the only picture we have of our group after dinner, minus Jimmie the photographer and JJ the wanderer, at Cici's Pizza (my niece's favorite).

We went to Clearwater Beach (on the gulf side) and spent a few hours at the beach. It was a blast! AJ loved playing in the sand. JJ had so much fun running into the water, waiting for a wave, then running back onto the beach giggling all the way!

Dad & Mary came along for the ride this day. They enjoyed watching the boys play in the ocean as much as we did.

Taking a break from the sun to have a snack, my dad thought it would be fun to feed some cheetos to the seagulls. Soon we had a group of about fifteen seagulls swarming our cabana! It was great fun for about 10 seconds - then they wouldn't leave us alone! Great idea, DAD!

One last photo of us before leaving the beach. We asked around and were directed to the best Mexican restaurant in town. A hole in the wall for sure, but boy it was goooood! We played putt putt at our resort which actually hosts professional putt putt competitions. We played the championship course rather well. Here is AJ after making a hole in one.

This was our home for two weeks. A beautiful two bedroom condo at Orange Lake Resort & Country Club. We had a fantastic view from our patio of one of the golf greens.

This visitor would show up every so often to check us out. It is a sandhill crane - a very pretty bird. We didn't get too close!

My sister and her family were in the condo next door to ours. The cousins enjoyed the pool and playing in this sandlot.

I enjoyed watching them from the hammock and this view when I looked up.

It was awesome to be able to spend two weeks in paradise visiting Disney, Sea World, the beach, spending time with family, and relaxing. I took a hot jacuzzi bath almost every single night. But there is no place like home. We missed sleeping on our own pillows the most. I missed having Sonic right around the corner. AJ missed his friends. We loved Florida, but we're glad to be back home.