A Perfect Summer Break Day!

Waking up this morning at 3:30, 3:45, 4:10, 4:50 & 5:55 with a sad little boy made me thankful for such a good day yesterday! I'm learning this is parenthood - a constant roller coaster ride.

Yesterday was just one of those days where everything went right. Tim was at the station, so it was just the kids and me. Everyone slept well the previous night, including Owen who slept from 7:30-5:30am! He woke to eat and went back down until 7:30am! I had a chance to take a shower and pick up the house, which is always a great way to start my day. Sydney slept in and woke up in a great mood - a definite treat for me! We cozied up on the couch to watch TV until Owen went back down for a nap at 9am (and slept until 10:45am.) While he was napping Sydney and I made yummy, yummy pancakes with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips & bananas. We brought Slappy Cakes to our house :)

Sydney had a little play time with Maddy until we left to meet Auntie Stacey, Max, Mya & Nana for lunch at Subway. *Guess who picked that location?!* After lunch we took Owen to Nana's house for his 1pm nap. While he was sleeping Sydney and I went to our favorite nail salon and had our nails done. Sydney was SO excited to get flowers painted on her fingers & toes!

We got back to Nana's at 3pm and the boy was still asleep! This should have been my first clue that he wasn't feeling well, but I just thought it was just a blessing that he was sleeping so well all day! Once he finally woke up we went to the Library to sign up for the Summer Reading Program. Sydney & Owen both get to participate this summer and earn books, free passes to kids activites, and a t-shirt/onesie at the end of the summer. As an added bonus, Sydney gets a free dress pass at school if she completes the program. Now that's some serious motivation!

We finally made it back to the house just before dinner time. Owen ate a little pear/peach/oatmeal mixture and took at 5pm nap (Yes. Another nap.) before waking up for an hour to take a bath and going right back to sleep at 7:30pm. Sydney had dinner with Maddy and went to Mason's baseball game, not arriving home until 8:30. By 9:15pm the lights were out and all was quiet in the Charlot house....until 3:30am.

I love summer days like this!

Father's Day

The joy of working on A-Shift means that Tim works almost every holiday this year. Boo!

While Tim was at the station the kids and I spent the afternoon at Stacey & Alex's house celebrating Papa's Birthday & Father's Day. We were lucky to have nice enough weather to BBQ and hang outside the whole afternoon! 

Papa & his girls

Owen & Papa relaxing

Happy Father's Day, Dad/Papa! We love you!

We went straight to the fire station after leaving Stacey & Alex's, to BBQ with all the Station 8 families. The kids had so much fun playing. I couldn't even keep track of all their activities: Hide & Seek in the bay, Foosball, office chair racing, chase, playing on the truck & engine, and watching the guys leave in the truck for a call. I think they were all worn out by the end of the night! Owen managed to sleep for no more than 1 hour throughout the whole day. This boy LOVES to sleep in his crib and no where else. He'll nap well in his car seat while we're driving, but as soon as you take him out of the car he's alert. Amazingly so, he was a good boy the whole day. But you can see in all the pictures just how tired he was...

Happy Father's Day, Tim! You're the best dad the kids could ask for! We are so lucky to have you!

Owen - 7 Months

You just started enjoying solid foods. You cleared out a jar of pears in two and a half days. Instead of pursing your lips and not letting the spoon come anywhere near the inside of your mouth, you now open up and smile when you're done! We tried sweet potatoes again this morning and you weren't nearly as happy. It could have been because it was close to nap time, or maybe you just don't like them.

Speaking of sleeping...Your sleeping has improved tremendously! At night time you get cozy and nurse around 7pm and then sleep until 3-4am, when you wake to nurse again. After that we can typically get you to sleep until 6:30am. What a huge improvement! During the day you nap around 9:30am & 1:30pm for anywhere between and hour or two.

Update: Last night you slept from 7:45pm-6:45am without waking up once! Think it will happen again tonight? Probably not :)

You're getting closer to sitting up on your own. We can get you balanced and you'll sit for about 30 seconds before you topple over.

You love to snuggle when you're sleepy or when mommy or daddy come home from work. You lay your head on our chests and give a big smile. Awww, so cute!

Summer has begun!

Sydney is done with 2nd grade and excited for summer break!

Sydney's last day of school was Friday. She had a noon dismissal and Tim was on his Kelley Day so we picked her up together and let her choose anywhere she wanted to go for lunch to celebrate the end of the school year. Where did she choose? Subway, of course. She LOVES Subway above all other restaurants. (If you can call it a restaurant!) After we arrived home, and each day since then, she's been outside playing with the neighbors. She's a happy camper!

This weekend was a great start to summer. We joined the Olsen's for a bonfire & watched the kids swim in the pool.

The next day we went bowling & walked around the farmer's market eating moo-shakes! Yum!

 It's starting to really feel like summer!

Owen is so happy to have Sissy home to play with all the time now!

Our Home - Decorating Update

Our house is really starting to come together. Our once blank walls finally have a little decoration; and the backyard is now useable! I'm really happy with the way it's turning out, even though I know we have a ways to go.

Entry way from the stairs

Moved our Charlot sign to this wall and will update the pictures in the frame below.

The Charlot sign was where the round mirror is. I really like the roundness of the mirror since we have so many straight lines in the entry.

Hallway off entry. I'm still looking for something to hang on the right side of the wall. I bought an awesome mirror to go there, but decided against it once we hung the round one above the entry bench.



Remainder of hallway. I'm looking for a big piece of art to hang above the secretary.



Downstairs bathroom has a Portland Scrapbook page that I love and candles on the wall.



The living room from the upstairs. Not a lot has changed in here. Tim will be building built-ins on each side of the fireplace. We're also going to have drapery made for the two windows. It will start up on the second story window and drop all the way downstairs to the first story window.



Tim had the great idea of putting some of the pottery we don't use on top of the cabinets, and I think it looks awesome!



Upstairs hallway. Framed "Fruit of the Spirit" for the kids to see as they're going into their rooms & the game cabinet with a mirror above.



I tried my hand at vinyl lettering. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, but it wasn't easy! As Stacey put it, it's a great reminder as we're leaving our room to start the day, or deal with a little one waking up during the night.

And finally, THE BACKYARD! This has been the biggest project! It started out as a mud & rock pit. Tim has spent so many hours working on our yard. Over 20 yards of dirt had to be brought in to make the yard plantable. Tim had to rake TONS of rocks out, help form & pour the patio, plant grass, and I'm sure more that I'm leaving out. He has worked very, very hard!



Our shade garden on the right, just after we planted it. Across the back of the fence is the start of our fruit & vegetable garden. We're going to be planting 3 fruit trees in those open spots you can sort of see in this picture and the next.



The rest of our garden & the shed. We're still contemplating what to do with this part of the yard. Our latest plan is to pour pea gravel from the patio to the shed and lay flag stone across the top, and then along the fence line between the 2 fence posts where the wheelbarrow is, Tim will build a wood planter box for berries - Yum!

Tim also hung a cafe curtain in the laundrry room, which I couldn't get a good picture of. I'm on the hunt for valances to hang above the kitchen sink & the bathtub in our room. Easy ways to bring a little color into the house!

Girl Scouts Try-It

I joined the planning committee for Sydney's Brownies Troop this year, which lead to me running a Try-It for the girls. I brought in a bag full of scrapbooking supplies and helped the girls create Father's Day Cards, scrapbooking pages & magnets. I think it was a success! Sydney was so happy to have me there and the girls all stayed involved & told me how much fun they had.