Red, White and Blue

I just love the forth of July.

I love patriotism, fireworks, family and Lee Greenwood. :)

I've celebrated a lot of holidays with my guy. 

My sweet, sweet children who absolutely adore one another. 

My favorite boys!

A little bounce house fun.

Lovin' on all the puppies around. 

Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!

And...

We plan to begin moving in this week, Hooray!

A work in progress

We closed on our old house the beginning of June and moved in with my in-laws to begin working on our new house.  Projects always take longer than planned, but we are hoping to start moving into our house this weekend.  We still have work to do, but I am getting anxious to see my furniture and dishes again.  

Thus far we have: 

taken up flooring

scraped ceilings

removed wallpaper

put up bead board

textured

painted

taken out a wall and added doors

replaced doors

painted a bit more

tiled

replaced appliances

had countertops installed

We still have to:

paint the utility room, master bedroom and master bathroom

have flooring installed and carpet laid... in progress

replace light fixtures

install canned lighting

paint the outside

trim trees and bushes

replace windows

We are on the homestretch.  

The home is slowly beginning to have appeal and we are really excited to move in and make it our own.  It's been a fun, busy, encouraging, discouraging, crazy project.  

...summing up the summer of 09'.

Can you believe...

this is the last full week of June? Where is the summer going? Please slow down and stay awhile, Mr. Warm Weather. 

Noah started his first Vacation Bible School this week.  It is only three days, but he has had a great time.  When I took him into the room with all of the big kids, he was so nervous.  I was fighting the lump in my throat the entire time.  I looked at all of the other moms chatting and appearing to be so light hearted about the entire thing and forced myself not to cry until I got to my car.  Noah was so brave and it made me realize how much he reminds me of myself in new settings.  He would never let me know how hard it was for him, but his face told it all.  He tries so hard to protect me by being brave and happy.  

Brad has been off all week and this is how he and Kayt have spent their mornings.  She is such a daddy's girl! He has also been really busy working on our house.  As I type, he is there tiling one of the bathrooms.  He has been so helpful and I've loved not having to meet all of the random people at the house throughout the day.  I am hoping we can spend a day or two enjoying his week off, free of work.  But we are also getting really anxious to get settled in our new home, so we are working hard.  We are staying with my wonderful in-laws right now. They have been so great to let us bombard their schedules and space.  

And here is the baby bump at 15 weeks.  It's a funny angle, but I promise it is there.  I am beginning to feel better and have a bit more energy.  It came at a great time since we spent all of last weekend painting our house. If I could only make it to the gym, I would be a happy camper.  

Because June is halfway over...

I want to blog. 

I really do.

But each time I sit down, my brain says, "uhhhhhhhhhh." 

And that's all I get. 

Nothing else. 

Right now I'm thinking, "It's Wednesday." 

And that's all I got. 

I would show pictures, but I can't seem to remember to buy a new battery so my camera is dead. 

Therefore, I have no new pictures. 

Not a cute picture.

Not a creative thought. 

Not an interesting thought. 

Not even a complete thought. 

And before I know it, I forget why I'm sitting down and I fall asleep.

That's what you have been missing out on in my life. 

Thank you and goodnight. 

The 4-1-1

on the baby news.

I am twelve weeks along (and some change) and due mid-ish December.  Our very own early Christmas gift!

I'm not feeling too hot. I mean, some days are better than others. Heck, some hours are better than others, but I'm sure that having two little ones, packing, moving, re-doing a house and preparing to be at high school camp next week may also have something to do with the sleepy, nauseated feeling that keeps coming over me.  I've found a new friend in Zophran.   

We were not planning this pregnancy. In fact, we were planning to not have a pregnancy for at least another year, but here we are.  God knows us and we are really excited to expand our family tree again.  It's amazing how a little life begins to stir so much excitement inside of you so quickly.  

Due to early 'issues' (we will call them) that God healed, I have had several sonograms and there is ONE baby. Yes, one.  And not that I am biased, but it's a cute little freak (please hear my sincere love and affection when I say 'freak'). It flails his/her arms and waves like mad each time I look at the screen. I love that little nugget. 

Every time we have bought a new house I have been pregnant. I DO know that there are better ways of getting out of painting, but why change what's worked, ya know? Kidding.  

This will more than likely be our last baby. Not 100% guaranteed since we've yet to control that aspect of our life, but again... more than likely.  With that said, you may get more baby pictures/tracking/progress than you would like.  Just roll your eyes, click the red X on the top left corner of your screen and carry on with your day.  Kidding again.  Just humor me for six more months.

Now....

I need your help.

I have to come up with a good color for our den by THIS weekend. I need help finding a good, neutral color. It doesn't have to be beige, I'm open to other colors, but it needs to be fairly light. The room has no natural lighting (yuck) and I want to keep it as open and fresh as possible.  

So lemme have em'. Please give me the color name and brand. 

My brain is working a bit slower than normal and I just cannot seem to find anything that catches my attention.  Hence, I need YOU!

From the mouths of my babes...

Few and far between

are my blog posts. 

But in my defense, it's been a busy, busy month and I have a lot of good excuses. 

We are going to the mountains this weekend with friends. Does anyone else have fun Memorial weekend plans? 

I'll be back soon to fill you in...  

Peace, love and sunshine!

Follow this...

We had a great anniversary! Brad took the afternoon off and we had lunch on the patio at one of our favorite restaurants.  It was a perfect spring day and reminded us a lot of our wedding day. We had a fun, laid back afternoon and then headed downtown for the evening.  I loved everything about it. 

I believe that Amy and Zach win for the shortest dating period. They married only eight short months after they began dating and Jenifer and Jeremy win for the longest.  They put our six years of dating to shame with a whopping seven and a half years. You know you like someone when your dating years out last many marriages!

I got an iPhone for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to me! I was surprised because I was set on not getting a new phone until mine went to the grave, but I love it.  I'm determined not to be a junkie like someone I know... not to mention any names... but I fear

 that I am following in his footsteps.

Before Brad even gave me my phone, he signed me up for Twitter. It wasn't an option for me. Follow me @Ingramgang.  It will prove to be as boring as this blog. You in? :)

We have a contract on our house!!! We have to be out in a few weeks and have a lot of work ahead of us.  It makes me tired just thinking of it, but I'm really excited and feel super blessed to have our house sell so quickly. 

I had lunch Saturday with two of my very best friends. Happy late birthday, Sarah!!!  You are one hot twenty seven year old!

My mom kept had Noah and Kayt this weekend, so Brad and I enjoyed our quiet Saturday. Thanks mom, you're the best!!!

Hope you had a great weekend also!

Blah-g Week

Lame. I know. 

I have been busy cleaning the house to be shown. I remember from our last house how much work it is having a house on the market, but having two children whose biggest talent is making messes makes this even harder.  I've started telling Noah that people are coming to look to see how clean our house is and that they are going to be looking at his room as well. I'm not sure how much it's helped, but... hey. 

Today we were at Target and Noah made a scene. When we walked by the bras he yelled, HEY MOM,  THOSE ARE DA FANGS THAT WE PUT OUR BOOBS IN! And then he whipped his shirt off and started demonstrating how to use a bra. I couldn't stop him fast enough, he had a crowd of people laughing. Boys (sigh).

Jennifer emailed me and let me in on a huge story that I somehow missed. All this time, I was thinking that I was no mother of the year, yet I was so wrong. Ha! Check this out. It's pretty funny. 

Tomorrow is our anniversary! From what I've been told, we have a fun afternoon planned. I'm excited!!! Brad and I have been married for four years. We dated for six years before we got married and so I feel like we have been together for so long. We have. I can hardly remember life without him. awwww.

Has anyone date longer than six years? It's not for everyone, but it worked well for us. How long did you and your husband date before marrying? Let's see who the earns the shortest and longest dating award...

A Secret Hiding Spot

Kayt gets into everything. Everything, I tell ya. It is just now beginning to bother her brother because (that's a tongue twister) she seems to go for exactly what he is playing with and he can no longer distract her by giving her another toy. She wants what he has and the girl is nothing if not determined. 

This problem hits an all time high when Noah has to take one of his many bathroom breaks during the day. The boy is nothing if not regular. He is out of commission for a good amount of time and his sister has free reign to ANYTHING. 

In the past few weeks, he has realized that the only place she cannot maneuver her way into is the refrigerator. Thus, his new hiding place. 

The problem is that he usually forgets to reclaim his hidden treasure so guess who finds it? Last week I opened the refrigerator and ten baseball sized balls came rolling out on my head. I've found his baseball bat in there. It's a common place for finding his glove and you can't forget his green Crocs that Kayt loves to wear.  There was a Matchbox ice cream truck in the drawer with the cheese and the new pillows that I bought for his bed were on the top shelf. The list continues with everything from football player figurines to his Harlem Globetrotter brochure.  

All is fair in love and siblinghood. 

But I think I will put a sign on our refrigerator door that says, Open at Your Own Risk! because I cannot be held liable for any injuries that may happen to our friends due to the creativity of my boy.