Sew much fun.

We played outside today. No surprise there. What was fun was giving G the water hose. He isn't the biggest fan of the sprinkler most of the time so we never thought he'd like the hose. Boy were we wrong.

And we've had the pool for the whole summer and it's like he didn't notice it until today.

We have more video of fun in the pool. But there's nudity. So I give you the pictures.

Then this afternoon my mom came over to play with me. I saw this "tie" onsie idea on Etsy and have wanted to make some for Graham, Jackson, Thomson and Caleb. They are so stinking cute! We can't wait to take pictures of all four of them together.

I also wanted to make G and J matching shirts. Cheesy? Probably. Totally cute? For sure.

I also sewed some burp cloths. Isn't the fabric so fun?

It's fun feeling craftsy!

Nursery for Two

Raise your hand if you get a little overwhelmed thinking about us having TWO children. Oh the responsibility.

I'm 38 weeks today. Can't come soon enough in my opinion!

A while back we rearranged several rooms in our house to make room for the new baber. It's taken me ohhh, like 5 years to get my act together and take some pictures. We moved the boys (plural....crazy!) into what used to be our bedroom in the back of the house. It has been wonderful for playing and will be a great room for two babies to share.

This is Jackson's name over the crib.

And to the left of the crib we have the changing table.

We have some blue picture frames that we'll put baby pictures of little J once he's born.

Directly across from the crib we have G's toy area.

The road rug has been great. Highly recommend.

And we have G's future bed. No rush buddy.

This is your view when you first walk into the room.

We moved our room into that awkward walk-through room.

This is the view from the door. Any suggestions for what to hang between the lights?

Bueller?

That is the nursery through that doorway on the left.

And the other wall. J's little co-sleeper will live under that window.

Anyway, I know you've all been holding your breath waiting for these pictures. Kidding.

Matt was working in his study (G's old room) at the time of these pictures and I couldn't get pictures...maybe soon.

one of "those" days

It's that day. That day.

Where I feel completely and utterly overwhelmed and on the verge of tears.

And it was only 7:45 when I shed the first tear this morning.

It's potentially going to be a long day.

See, I stayed up way too late blogging last night.

Then I slept horribly like I do every night.

Matt's alarm started waking me up at 5:30. Every snooze reminded me how horribly I was sleeping.

I couldn't move my right leg or hip when my alarm went off at 6:30.

G woke up screaming at 6:45. Waaayyyy earlier than usual.

He then followed Matt and me around crying while we got our day started. You know, because he woke up too early.

Then he bit me when I picked him up to get him dressed to leave. That's when I cried. I mean...I was only dressing him for his fun day at my mom's and then my friend's after lunch. Why must he scream and thrash around and then bite my shoulder? And why was my reaction to yell out an "ouch" and scare him? Tears tears tears.

It's probably good for both of us that we're not stuck at home this morning.

I failed this morning. Failed to seek grace. Failed to give grace. Failed at patience.

It's mornings like this that I am reminded how much I need the grace of God to be a good mom. And in a few short weeks...I'm going to need extra measures for sure.

You can find me repenting and praying today. As I should do every day.

Forth of July

We had a low-key holiday. I like keeping things low-key. We went to the pool on Saturday and then spent Sunday afternoon at home. It was nice. G has been really into his boots these days. He has these red cowboy boots as well as some green rain boots. He puts them on all by himself and asks to wear them everywhere. He wore the rain boots to the pool. Ironic.

Anyway, I made some oatmeal cookies for our forth celebration and here is G "testing" out a cookie before we left.

With uncle B. He follows him everywhere when we're at the Steel's.

I tried to get one with all 3 babers looking. Yeah...I think those days are gone for a while. This was all I could manage. I'm pretty sure that G is only looking because he's trying to tattle on someone for splashing his face.

You have to know these 2 to completely appreciate this picture. See, G is 2 weeks older than Will and much much smaller than him. And their personalities couldn't be more different. But they've been playing together so often that they truly love each other and G can really hold his own (despite his size disadvantage, ha!) They both wanted the soccer ball and instead of helping then work it out, Jess and I just cheered them on with our cameras in hand to document their wrestling.

G won it for the moment.

Enjoying the fireworks from B's lap.

He sat there mesmerized through the whole show. I was shocked.

Hope your Forth was full of celebrating!

The healthy popsicle

I only feel a little bad about how healthy this popsicle is. And about how deprived he is going to feel later in life when he sees these pictures. But hey, once he starts eating vegetables, then I'll quit finding ways to sneak them into things he will eat. Until then....expect the unexpected.

I know, he looks like he hated it. He finished every last drop that wasn't smeared all over him.

We call these lovely things banana-strawberry-vanilla yogurt-frozen spinach popsicles.

You know you want one.

Just the 3 of us

Someone is in looove with Buzz and Woody.

They do everything together.

Chicago

A few weekends ago, we took a little family trip to Chicago. We only live like 5 hours from this amazing city and had yet to go. So, with Jackson's pending arrival, we wanted to get in this little time with Graham and take him to the Aquarium (among other things..)


Like I said, it's only 5 hours. Right. Remind me next time we decide to go to drive in the night. The traffic was terrible! It was all the construction's fault...but seriously....it added 2 1/2 hours to our drive. And someone that I will not name doesn't do well in traffic. And he was driving. So guess away. We ended up even letting G out of his seat to crawl the walls because we were at a dead stop. It's all good though, we made it to Ikea before the rain started. Matt was like "why are we stopping at Ikea again? We're going to eat dinner at like 8:30 if we stop." Sweet sweet husband...I told him it was my life long dream. So we practically ran through both levels tossing random things into our cart. I mean, I know we were in a hurry...but it's Ikea. There are so many fun things to look at!


That little stop at Ikea was actually a blessing. Apparently that storm that hit while we were in there was quite a storm. Several buildings in downtown Chicago actually lost windows. As we were pulling into downtown, it's like the clouds parted and a beautiful evening opened up. We found our hotel, checked in, and headed back out to dinner. Yes, we sat down to eat at 8:30. And major major props to Graham for being a travel rock star despite only having a 30 minute nap. Darn construction with the stop and go. Anyway, dinner was delightful and having the toddler that was jumping in the booth entertaining all around was just an added bonus.


Back at the hotel just in time for some more rain. Oh, can't forget to mention that when we first walked into our room and started setting our stuff down, G freaked out. I think he thought we were leaving him there or something. Once he realized we were all staying, he loved looking out the window (we were on the 23rd floor) and getting excited about all of the cars below. The picture below is how we barricaded G in the corner so that we could watch TV.




The next day we set out to visit Navy Pier. When we got there, Matt was like "wait, I thought you said this was a pier...all the piers I know of are just a walkway out into the water." I just laughed. The name is deceiving. Navy Pier has more in common with a mall than a pier. There is a Ferris wheel, a children's museum, many restaurants and shops as well as countless bike and boat tours going on. But my favorite part is the view from the end. You can see the whole shoreline and skyline of Chicago and on a day like that one, there would have been tons of sailboats out on the lake. But this pier is like a mile long. And it was getting warm. And G was crawling out of his skin in the stroller...so we didn't make it to the end. We turned around and headed back out to the fountains in front. I can't lie...the pictures and the fountain fun made missing the view at the end of the pier worth it.

Other kids had on swim suits...we weren't prepared. This is his "come over here" motion.

This was super cute.

When it was time to go I called G over to the shady spot to re-dress him. He just took off running in the other direction. We thought he'd stop and turn to see our reaction but he just kept running....so Matt took off after him.

We headed to find some lunch. Dude. The Corner Bakery. It was awesome.

That afternoon G and I headed out for what I thought was a short walk to The Land of Nod. Boy was I wrong. Dead wrong. 2 miles doesn't look so daunting on paper or when I set out in my walking shoes...but through the city streets and in flip flops...I called Matt when we got there and begged him to come rescue us from the walk back. The walk was worth it though because that store is so cute!


The next morning we headed to the Aquarium. I went with my family a few years ago and loved it. There is just something beautiful about life under water. Don't get me wrong though, I'm terrified of under water. Not in a pool, but in a lake or ocean. It's so sad because Matt would love for me to learn to surf and I'd love to get into snorkeling and/or scuba diving. Oh well.


Back to the aquarium. Graham loves animals, especially Nemo fish. And he loved loved loved looking at all of the fish exhibits. They have this one Caribbean Reef that you can walk all the way around and see everything from sting rays to a massive sea turtle. And then there is the huuuge coral reef display. It is like 14 feet tall and 30 feet wide of absolutely breath taking coral reef. So very beautiful. Oh, and the huge shark tank. Sort of creepy, sort of awesome. I could go on...you should just go.

These were so cool! I can't remember the name but they bury themselves halfway to blend in with the grasses and then feed on things that float by.

G spots Nemo.

Oh hello "Memo."

Watching the dolphins from under water. They are so cool.

We had such a wonderful trip. It was so fun and special to do something with just the 3 of us. No, it wasn't super relaxing with all the walking and toddler-ing going on. But that's just the stage in life we are in. So we might as well make the most of it right?! Good thing we love each other! Just the first of many family trips that involve the whims of our children.