Well, so much for my weekly post idea...maybe biweekly? :) This parenting thing makes it a bit harder to block out the chunk of time it takes to do the writing. At least every other day I think, "Ooo, I have this I can write about, and that would be a good post idea, and I have pictures from this or that that I can put into a post"...all these backed up ideas and pics just waiting, cuz it's the writing/compilation that takes the most time.  Or when I get the time during one of Gray's naps, there are other more important things that take precedence and need to get done and my blog is pushed to the backburner...c'est la vie! Onward with this post :)

So waaaaaaay back in September (I can't believe it's Thanksgiving next week!) our new fam went pumpkin picking! It was the first time ever for Grayson, AND the first time for us as a family- Mike and I had never gone together before (but I'd gone pumpkin picking every fall as a child). It was a lot of fun! Of course Grayson won't remember a lick of it, haha, but he's got the photos to look back on when he's older :)

When we got out of the car, Mike suited up with Grayson in the carrier, and I said wait, I wanna grab a quick pic of you two. It was only after I got home and uploaded this photo that I noticed the brilliant color in the tree he's standing in front of. I. LOVE. FALL.

I made Mike croutch down (it was probably a great quad workout hun!) so Grayson could be a pumpkin face in this cute photo op:

Our plan was to get a family of pumpkins: a Daddy pumpkin, Mama pumpkin, and baby pumpkin :)We found Grayson's pumpkin almost right away, at the very beginning of the patch. It was perfectly-sized for him :)

As we walked further into the patch, which was down on the left, we saw that we were also walking by what we think were blueberry plants (which were past their prime picking season) on our right.

Found Mommy's pumpkin!

All that was left to find was a Daddy-sized pumpkin:

When we picked all three, Mike had me pose with them nestled in our little red wagon the farm gave us:

After we paid for our family of pumpkins we asked a fellow farm-goer to take a family photo of us! :)

Grayson looks like he's eyeing our pumpkin picks in the photo above, haha.

Then, since Gray seemed to be in a good mood, we thought we'd take a spin on the free wagon rides the farm was offering. This is the last pic we took before major meltdown town! As soon as the tractor pulled away from the loading sight Grayson screemed the whole time - it was the longest 5 minutes of our lives, haha!

Thankfully the wagon was full of other families with small children and they all understood, haha.

It was a great time and I can't wait to make this a yearly tradition for our family like it was in mine growing up! How bout ya'll? Do you go pumpkin picking every year in the fall? Or do you wait until Christmas and do the tree-cutting thing? We've never ever done that but I think it'd be a ball.

She's Baaaaaack!

Ho-ly SMOKES! It's been a minute since I last posted...May 3rd, to be exact. Nearly 6 months ago - that's half a year folks! But you see, there's a perfectly good explanation for my hiatus...that reason would be this guy:

 

Our beautiful, precious and perfect son, Grayson.

Get ready for a plethora of Baby Gray photos. You've been warned :) ....

 

 

Of course, since it has been 5 months since this little guy finally arrived in June (10 days past his due date!), he looks a little more like this now:

But it feels like this was just yesterday:

 

Since then, there's been a lot of this:

 

...and this:

 

 

...and this:

 

...and staring at these:

...and of course practicing rolling over and tummy time!

 

Grayson, we love you more than words can say and you've made our lives the most joyful they've ever been...and it's only the beginning! :)

 

 

Now that my haven't-blogged-in-6-months streak has been broken, I plan on posting more here and there. It won't be a daily thing, but I will try to make it a weekly hobby - I've missed it and am now ready to get back to writing about fun stuff concerning house and home...and the people in it! :)

 

100 Posts! and A Surprise Shower

So I didn't realize it until now, but my last post about painting our patio was my 100th blog post! COOL! I feel like I should throw a party or something, but instead I think I'll just do a little dance...feel free to join me!

(insert Steve Carell 'Evan Almighty' dance here)

Haha, k! My dance is done and I'm moving on with my 101st post :) Here we go!

I mentioned our friend Kelcey in a previous post about maternity pics she took for Mike and me. Well, this time I snapped some pics of Kelcey when a bunch of us girls got together to give her a surprise bridal shower - she gets married a week before my due date - what a great month this'll be! :)

Here she is, just arriving and TOTALLY surprised :)

I didn't have the right setting on my camera so some of these are blurry...but still fun! :)

Kelcey's sister Aubrey hosted the shower at her house and had THE cutest homemade decorations...that girl is inspirationaly crafty...now I know how Kelcey's so good at craft stuff - it runs in the family. Look at the cute pennant and ribbon banners in the background:

And in the dining room she hung the same banners but with paper doilies - so cute and cheerful!

And see those tissue paper poms hanging over the couch?

Yeah, I totally tried to copy them after I saw hers and failed. I followed the Martha Stewart tutorial buuuuut it didn't work for me. I'll have to try again some other time,  haha.

Those are Kelcey's sisters in the pic above (l to r, Logan and Aubrey). They did such a lovely job planning the surprise and hosting the shindig. Only 2 more weeks til you get to say "I do!" Kelcey!! :)

And speaking of showers, April was full of them! And not just rain showers :) Three (yes THREE!) baby showers were thrown in honor of the baby boy in my belly: My church choir, mom and sister, and mother-in-law and sister-in-law each threw baby showers and they were all so much fun. I plan to post some pics from those in an upcoming post but for now I'll just tell you they were 'WILD' and show you one sneak peak pic! ;)

Patio Paintjob

Check out what our concrete patio looked like since moving in 2 and 1/2 years ago:

 You need a close-up of all that chipped-up finish? No prob!

Ugh. It had been driving me BONKERS! Mike and I agreed it was high time we did something about it - we needed beautify that baby.

We love the idea of covering up the concrete patio with cobblestone-like pavers (Lowe's has a great tutorial for it on their Creative Ideas site), but we couldn't go with that option right now for 2 reasons: A- I can't do all that heavy lifting in my pregnant state, and B- even if we DIY'd the labor, the supply costs are out of our budget right now.

Oh but how pretty would this be....sigh



Eventually, I still think that's in our long-term plans for this space, but for now the cheapest (and quickest!) option was simply painting the existing concrete.

We researched what Lowe's had to offer in their outdoor paint options and liked these two products from Valspar:



We first considered the Skid-not version (which has a textured finish) as opposed to the smooth finish of the satin Porch & Floor paint. BUT we soon changed our minds and decided on the smoother Porch & Floor paint when we recalled what a dirt debacle the fireplace tiles were afer painting that a textured finish.

So we bought a gallon of that in a color called Elkhorn Cactus (crazy name, but nice earthtone color), moved our furniture off the patio, and started cutting in around the perimeter.

Oh, and I should mention that prior to all this we prepped the surface by power washing the patio, which removed all the old chipping and flaking paint.

After the cutting in came the fun part. This is Mike's favorite way to paint - easy rolling:

The first coat went on great.

And it was already looking soooooo much better.

Here it is after the second coat was drying:

GLOOOORIOUS!

We still need to paint the vertical side of the step up there, but grass on either side of it should hide the exposed concrete (we're trying to get some to grow there now).

Here are two more finished shots from different angles (I tied up the burlap curtains so they wouldn't be in the way):

 

And compare that porch photo above with this one from 2 summers ago (before we took down the walls):

Yay for open porches! :)

So once more, here's a side-by-side before and after the painting:

After letting the paint dry and cure for just over 24 hours we moved our DIY patio table and other furniture back onto the porch. We're spending more time sitting on it now (watching Winston run around like a crazy dog) and enjoying it very much!  :)