Celebrations, Excitement, and Anticipation

As Independence Day weekend fast approaches, my family is getting ready to celebrate in more ways than one. Not only is it our great nation's birthday, but if all goes as planned, it will be the birthday of my new nephew. Now granted, I am hoping and thinking he may make an early appearance, but regardless, I will be a proud auntie to my twin sister's third child! That is soooo hard to believe! What's even more amazing, is that this will be her third home birth! Yep, she's amazing! I've already tried really hard to get her to spill the beans on his name, but she's got a tight lid on it. This, unlike me. I couldn't keep Brody's name a secret to save my soul:)

Speaking of Brody, he turned 1 this month! Aaaaaaannnnnd, he officially has 2 bottom teeth! Too bad the teething had to be on his birthday week. His pearly whites sprouted the day after. Sooo, we opted against a big birthday blowout, and settled for a quiet but sweet birthday with just Mommy, Daddy and  doggie, Semper. Having a cranky birthday boy with friends to witness it, just didn't seem like fun for anyone! Regardless of how big or small it was, his birthday was HUGE for Bryan and I as his parents--especially me. I am not sure why, but the eve of his birthday I was having such a hard time with the mile marker. I think I was just sad to let go of my baby boy and the fond memories I have of his infancy. But I quickly got over it, and that next morning greeted my birthday boy with a sea of balloons, a pool, floaties, and the works:) This all thanks to Daddy helping me blow up the pool and beach ball AND the millions of large balloons:) I could try and explain the day to you, but the following photos tell the story a whole lot better.  I will get some of his birthday videos uploaded onto YouTube this weekend.

Other exciting things for our family this month? We just found out that Bryan's brother and sister in-law are going to be stationed in Guam!!!!!! Gosh, we were shocked! Don't get me wrong, we are very excited for the both of them going on such a great adventure for a few years, but we will selfishly miss them being half way around the world. Bryan's brother is in the Air Force (Chair Force as Bryan so puts it.), and has been stationed up in Washington state, so we were hoping he may be getting orders a little closer to our neck of the woods. Thank God for Skype. Too bad the time difference will be ridiculous.

I almost forgot, along with all the celebrating this month, we also got some projects knocked out. I finally finished painting Brody's room (It is Kermit the Frog green:)), started putting the clear coat sealant on our fence, and started plans for our deck! If I haven't posted pics of the fence prior to this, here it is.

Last but not least, the following photo is for all my former co-workers and friends back in Des Moines. Brody loves playing in the kitchen. I think we may have a future food stylist on our hands following in Mommy's footsteps! So, if you need an assistant for the time being, I can send him your way:) (Debbie, I'm sure you wouldn't mind a little helper:))

Up to Speed

Okay, believe me when I say I have been trying to write up a new post for about a month now! Sadly, every time I get close to doing it, another task has taken my attention. Sooo here is my sad attempt at bringing y'all up to speed!

As I countdown to Brody's first birthday, I can't help but sniffle and reminisce on the past year. Life has changed soooooooooooo much for all of us! Call me selfish, but I want to bottle him up and keep him small. I love his little mannerisms. I love his little baby feet, hands, and tushy:) I love that he loves to cuddle with me, and I love his innocence. As I talk on one side of my mouth, I will also talk on the other and say that I can't wait to see the "little man" he is growing into. He's already so full of curiosity. When he sees something that interests him, he goes straight for it, pushing danger aside. I guess that is a good and bad thing for me and poor Semper. I think Semper is starting to resent that curiosity. I say this partially because that curiosity revolves around him! Brody loves to speed crawl or walk over to Semper when he is napping or lounging in the chair to bop him in the snout or to pull on his fur. He especially loves the tail! Uggggghhhhh. At least Semper knows better than to take revenge on Brody. He just sits and takes it. When it gets to be too much, he just gives Bryan and me a glare and moves to a new spot for comfort. All the while, Brody sits and giggles.

As I started to mention, Brody turns a year old in a month (a little less), and I am trying to start brainstorming on a birthday plan. Ooooohhhhh the pressure I am putting on myself! Just when I start to let it get out of control I try to remind myself, that Brody doesn't care a bit what we do. He just wants to have fun and have a little adventure. Sooooo I will keep it simple. I know there are parents out there that rent out moonwalks and bring the whole circus to celebrate this mile marker, but I realize I don't have to go to extremes to make my first born happy. All that to say, I still want it to be perfect. I will give y'all detail on the events after the festivities are over:) I'm sure it will be a quaint little gathering with the new neighbors and their kids to get to know one another, and enjoy summertime fun and cake!

Speaking of summertime, on the coast summer has been here for a little while! In fact, we officially let Brody experience the beach for the first time on Easter. I guess that is our new family tradition. (Quite a nice one if I do say so myself!). Brody loved the wet sand as we put is feet down, but the minute the waves washed up he got a little timid and wanted to crawl back up into Mommy's arms. I'm sure this timid nature towards the ocean will change soon! As we walked along the beach, my mind shot into metaphoric mode, and I got to thinking about Brody following our footprints as we guide his way through this life! What an awesome gift of responsibility! It is almost scary when you really sit down and think about someone else's life being put in your hands. Yet, I can rest in peace, knowing God is right there holding me up all the way, just as the famous poem "Footprints" says.
Without further ado, here are a few pics to mark the milestone (One of many more milestones to come!).

Turning Over a New Leaf

The art of gardening and the classic green thumb have been handed down for generations in my family. Both my grandmother and mother (not to mention all of my aunts) have both acquired it, spending countless hours in the spring, summer, and fall pruning their beautiful gardens. So with that said, you would think that art would have been passed on down to me, right? Sadly mistaken. From the time I entered college, my luck with plants has been nonexistent. Maybe it is my lack of really trying or the fact I forget they are even there, but every single time a live plant enters my home, it ends up dead.

Now that Bryan and I have purchased our new home, I seem to have taken on this "Suzie Homemaker" mentality that has sprouted a new desire to try my hand at gardening again! I have already planted my herb garden, and I'm in the midst of landscaping our front yard! Crape Myrtle (Be proud of me people. Knowing the name of a plant is a huge step for me!) and several other bushes and plants are in place, now we just have to wait for the river rock of my choice to arrive next week! Thanks to my handy hubby, the landscaping project came together quite quickly. Poor guy was so full of dirt and soil from pulling up sod along our driveway, that I literally made him shower outside with a sprinkler and hose (shorts on of course:)).

Along with all of our outside projects going on (Did I mention we are building a fence too?), we have gotten several inside projects done since we moved in. Painting Brody's room and the hallway is my next project. You would love our living room. It is my favorite room of the house. Take a peek.

Living Room (All the windows have bamboo shades.)

Isn't it wonderful?! I love the green I selected! Seriously made this open floor plan pop! To add to the look, I placed paint sample cards inside the spaces up on the clock with shades of color to coincide with the green hue on the wall. Quite clever, if I do say so myself. The rest of the house is a work in progress as far as painting goes, but this is some of our home so far.

The Dining Room

The Master Bedroom

The Foyer (I need to paint and add bamboo to the pot.)

The Kitchen (We want to add tile to the wall.)

I now realize what people mean when they say owning a home is a never-ending project! Oh the plans we have! Now if we just had the time and a little extra cash :) I think my creativity is wayyyy bigger than the budget. Oh well, in time it will come along!

Brody

Before Brody was born, Bryan and I opted not to post images of our son on Facebook (And after reading some frightening new info about child predators and that sort of thing, I'm glad we haven't!). So if you haven't seen pictures of him via email, or if you haven't had the joy of meeting him in person, he now has his own YouTube channel for friends and family to view (click view to jump to the page).

I don't even know where to begin describing and talking about Brody! He makes me smile just thinking about his precious face and mannerisms. You will be able to see just a few of those if you scroll down a little. It's funny how I could have never imagined what it would be like having a child of my own and being a mother, and now I can't imagine being anything but a mom. I love watching him as he discovers what grass in the lawn feels like and the facial expressions he has as he accomplishes walking from one end of the furniture to the other. Like I said, I could go on and on about him, but you will hear more than an ear full as this blog gets rolling. So I will leave it at that for now. Like I said, check out the video clips and photos of my little monkey. At 10 months, he has changed a lot since he was first born.

The Color in My World

Consider this my official warm welcome for you all! While I LOVE to write, I've always been a little bit hesitant about starting a blog. For the most part, it has been a privacy issue. I just think in today's world of technology that term has completely flown out the window. So with the few things that are left in life to be private, I wanted to keep them that way. If I wanted close friends and family to know something, I would tell them face to face or voice to voice. Well, you can see where I am going with this, can't you?

Since I graduated college, I've moved from one end of the country to the other and back again, bouncing from my home state of Minnesota, to Wisconsin, to Alabama, to Iowa, and NOW over to North Carolina! And after marrying my wonderful husband, stepping into the Marine Corps world, I know that this is only the beginning of my crazy lifestyle. Considering we will be stationed somewhere new every 3 years until he retires, the joy of speaking to and keeping up with everyone of my dear friends that I have made in each location on a REGULAR basis is becoming almost impossible. Between running after and caring for Brody (my adorable little boy that puts the color in my world:)) and working on projects, I was spending more time making lists of the string of people I had to remember to get a hold of or email, than actually speaking with them!

That's when I realized I had to put a stop to this madness and start a blog. Genius, right? I mean, now I can actually get my thoughts out to everyone, and still keep the conversational, casual tone I would have if y'all were sitting down in front of me sipping a cup of coffee like the good ole days!

So on that note, consider this our first of many little coffee visits (as I like to put it:)), where you can see what sorts of new shades and colors of paint God is putting on my life's canvas. Trust me, it will be just as exciting for me as it will be for you to see what sort of colorful artwork He is painting!