more Grace photography...

Lu was rocking the close-up shots at the shower last weekend...

Sam (her cousin, not her brother :) )

Aunt Sherri

Mommy

That girl loves to be behind the camera.

Baby Beck!

In June, we received an exciting phone call: Kris' cousin, Sara, announcing her pregnancy. The twist, though, was when the baby was expected to arrive: the end of August! The whole family was pretty surprised that we didn't have to wait a full 9 months for the next addition to brood... including Sara and Ken! Somehow that lucky girl made it roughly 25 weeks without knowing about the little munchkin growing inside. Imagine their surprise when they had an ultrasound a few weeks later, thinking they were 8-10 weeks along, and found out they were actually 29 weeks along!

So, fast pregnancy = fast shower planning! The shower was held last weekend and Grace and I roadtripped up to MI to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Beck. Sara was then 35 weeks along, so they are pretty much down to any day, now, at this point, being only 1 week away from "full-term"!

Grace has a personal requirement that she holds herself to for all baby showers: she must buy the baby a teddy bear. Not a bad requirement, Gracie... For Baby Beck, she even decorated her own gift bag to hold the teddy bear. Look closely and you'll see the baby holding an umbrella with a shower overhead (and I swear she came up with that all on her own...no prompting from me...I was so surprised when she said that's what she would draw!):

Grace and Mama Sara

This trip was a much welcome bonus visit with some of Kris' side of the family for the year. Grace had fun cuddling with Grandma Donna and playing with Samantha, Meaghan and Uncle Bruce during the shower.

And Sherri (soon-to-be Grandma!) rocked the shower hostess role with her fun games and by passing out our favor and reading it to us. For all you parents out there, check out this book...will definitely come in handy in a few years in this house!

It's available here. And after Sherri was finished reading the story to us, she passed out a pop quiz for us to complete in one minute just to make sure we absorbed all points of the story. Thanks to her, we were all able to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Beck, and were educated on how he/she came to be at the same time! :)

Can't wait for the big news on the teeniest family member...due to make his/her debut within the next month!

31

Grace documented my big day for me last week...

I highly recommend everyone having a near-breakdown for their 30th birthday. Apparently it makes turning 31 a breeze :)

rainy day

Just a few pics from a finger painting session last week. I usually prefer to do this OUTside, but due to rain, we set up studio in the kitchen. A good time was had by all :)

new dishes

When I met Mom and Dad to get the kids back, we also transferred some new dish ware from car to car. Mom found some new pieces for my antique China collection recently that she quickly purchased for my birthday. The platter and bowls are in the best shape of any piece I have in my collection. Also along for the ride was a miniature tea set that my sister still had stored at my parents' house. Since she has two boys, she decided to not let it sit in a box any longer and pass it along to her god-daughter, Grace. I was able to get some good pics of my new pieces and Grace playing with her new pieces. Love these...

Thank you, Mom & Dad and Claire!

brown and white with a pink collar...and a little bit crazy

That was Sam's description of the family dog when we were picking her up from the boarder's after our trip to MI in June.

One year ago, we brought home a 12-lb new addition: Molly. She cuddled, played, loved her daddy and kids, stuck close to her mama and slept great. Sure she piddled on the carpet and was so sick with kennel cough that she was sneezing orange snot all over everything that was within 5 feet of her, but her cuteness outweighed all that.

then

We took care of the pesky kennel cough and Kris decided that maybe she wasn't all she was cracked up to be. She became a normal puppy. She started digging, barking and chewing. But, in an effort to make up for it, she potty-trained quickly.

As the months progressed, she held her own as third "child" while continually growing. (We don't count Gordon as a child...he was more "roommate" before we had kids and now he's probably third "parent".) She loved the kids, forming separate bonds with each.

She and her boy roll around and wrestle together, then she cuddles up next to him for movie time. She only half-heartedly gives a warning growl or nip after the hundredth time in 10 minutes that he has tried to sit on her back with she's chewing a bone. At one point this year, she even let him give her a snazzy new haircut with the safety craft scissors. Mama was none too thrilled and slightly embarrassed about walking a diseased-looking dog covered in bald spots around the neighborhood.

Her bossy girl might be the best one in the house to tame her when she's being a wild child. While pulling the problem child act and running around like an idiot refusing to come in from the yard for me or Kris, Grace will march right out to her, grab her collar and lead her in the house and straight into her kennel.

She is becoming increasingly more trustworthy these days, even at her current size of 60 lb. I am actually thinking of sanding down the wood on the front of the couch that she chewed several months ago, since I'm pretty confident that she won't do it again. I'm also thinking of buying her a new bed, trusting that she won't eat a third one. I can trust her in the backyard with almost full confidence that she won't come back to the door covered from head to toe in mud. We're still working on her not bolting as soon as the front door opens and trusting her outside of her kennel while we are away, but eventually, we'll get there, too. And she helps keep me from gaining massive amounts of weight from my snack addictions as she walks me around the neighborhood. And, even though Kris will tell you that he doesn't like her very much, I've seen him play with her with her beloved chicken which tells me that he's still tolerating her being around.

now

Happy doggy anniversary, Molly. Goal for year #2: getting Gordon to accept that you are here to stay.

cupcakes!

Okay, have to post this so Erin will quit bugging me to vote...kidding! Our neighbor, Erin, makes yummy treats for us all the time. She entered one of her recipes in an online contest. Please click here to check out her recipe and vote for her delectable PB & J cupcakes. You don't have to register or anything...just click on "Vote Now". Then go try out her recipe because it is damn good. :)

Linking to:

Sister Sister Sunday

another new addition

Kris found this teeny tiny praying mantis in the garden last week! I'm really hoping it stays put inside the netting to avoid gettting trampled or eaten!

before & after

This was my fun little project while the kids were away this week. I bought this antique telephone bench off Craigslist last fall for $30. The sweet lady I bought it from was so happy to tell me about how she painstakingly stripped, refinished and reupholstered it. She mentioned that it was painted white when she got it and when I pulled her layer of upholstery off on Monday, I found the cute fabric that was on it when she bought it. It really must have been darling before she went to the trouble of refinishing it. I thought about keeping the fabric I found under the top layer, but it had a funky seam running across the seat, so I stuck to my original plan.

Here's the before shot:

I'd been dying to get paint back on it. I'm nondiscriminatory when it comes to painted furniture. I'll paint wood if I think it will enhance the piece and, even though my after shot isn't the best, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. I used some leftover red paint from Sam's bookshelf and one of Kris' old work shirts for the seat so this redo technically cost me $0!

Here's the after shot:
I'm loving walking in the front door to see this. It makes me happy :)

Linking to:

Sister Sister Sunday

Toledo Zoo and almost a week apart

Last Friday, I planned a rendezvous with my parents to drop the kids off with them. Sam and Grace were pretty pumped to spend six days by themselves with Grandma and Papa. On the heels of the fun and crazy family weekend with all of their cousins and aunts and uncles, they were ready for some undivided attention.

Since I knew I'd probably be missing them like crazy, I decided to have a special zoo day before sending them packing. We put our drive in first and spent the afternoon at the Toledo Zoo before meeting up with my parents. We had a great time. The zoo was really nice and we even got a little rain to cool us off while we were there.

Grace was all about the photo ops throughout the zoo:

Sam was all about his blue slushie:

And we all enjoyed watching the mother and baby polar bears play:

It was a fun day with my kiddies before the big send off!
They had tons of fun this week with Grandma and Papa, checking out the festival and fireworks in town, swimming at the neighbors, playing at the park, getting ice cream, making s'mores, etc, etc, etc!

Kris and I had a great week, too, taking full advantage of spending time together exploring Lexington without having to pay a babysitter :) And I even tackled a fun project I've been hoping to get done for awhile. I'll post on that next.

So excited to see my kids tomorrow for the pick-up!

4th of July fun!

Since we road tripped to MI the weekend before the 4th this year, we were at our own house for the first time in years for Independence Day. It gave us a chance to check out how Lexington celebrates our nation's birthday.

I'll give them an A+ for the parade and street fair. Lots to see and do downtown during the day. Although, there were some pretty scary horror-film type characters in the parade that freaked the kids out a little, but, then again, Sam also hides behind us when Big Boy parades by, too, so I'm not sure I have the best grasp on what they think is scary or not... :)

We had met up with friends on Saturday for the parade then wandered around downtown for a little while before heading back to their house for an impromptu backyard party complete with cornhole, wine and pizza. Later in the evening, we caravanned back downtown for the fireworks.

Unfortunately, Lexington does not receive a high mark for their fireworks, though. I think if we had stayed downtown for the big free concert that was going on and gotten a good spot to sit early in the day, we would have had a better experience. But, arriving in the evening was pretty awful in terms of parking and crowds (we just dodged being caught in the middle of a gang fight!). It really wasn't worth the hassle. See how thrilled everyone looks?

We actually watched the fireworks with a catwalk blocking half of our view because our kids both had meltdowns from the chaos and the noise of the fireworks.

So, we decided to do a fireworks do-over on Sunday night and it totally made up for the bust the night before. We drove down to Richmond, where we work, and went to the house of a friend from work who lives in the neighborhood right before the lake where the city of Richmond was shooting it's fireworks show.

It was a great do-over...we were able to see the fireworks from their backyard and the kids were much more at ease being settled in and having fun with a small group long before the start of the fireworks.

And while we did miss our traditional 4th of July events like the parades in MI (Onaway/Port Hope/Port Austin) and the flea marketing and fireworks with family, we did enjoy not packing and traveling for the holiday and just spending time together.

Happy Birthday to our great nation and thank you to all those who have been part of keeping it the land of the free and the home of brave!

and the HB family weekend wrap up...

A few of the random favorite pics from the relaxing weekend with the family...

Duck, Duck, Goose in our family consists of running your butt all over the freakin' yard, not just around the circle!

Claire & Mom

Papa getting a lecture on smoking from Grace :)

S'mores!

Graham (pre-roadrash from a pretty nasty spill in the driveway)

Mom

Grandpa & Sarah

Caleb (my other Godson)

at the ice cream shop after moving back inside to get out of the rain

my silly kids entertaining the crowd

my cousin Garrett (or "Sam's buddy Garrett" as Grace refers to him)

Hell's Angels

Claire & Graham (post-roadrash from a pretty nasty spill in the driveway...poor baby)

A good time was had by all...can't wait to do it again next year!