Girls Week

Well my best friend Susan left yesterday. We had a great time! She brought her 2 daughters with her and just had a girls week (except when Ryan was home). We shopped till we dropped, literally! The words that came out of our mouth by the third day of shopping was "I'm tired of shopping". I never thought we would utter such words. Susan bought a lot of things to decorate her house with, and I think its going to turn out so cute! I'm actually going up to her house tomorrow to help her decorate with all her new things. I love to decorate and am anxious to help her out.
Adriana is still crazy as ever. She is jabbering all the time, and its only a matter of time before "real" words come out of her mouth. She has loved all the company we have had over the past couple of weeks, it has been fun for her to have someone other than mom to play with.
Well, I guess that's all the latest for now. I'll try to post some new pictures soon.

Pictures

Alright, I'm finally getting pictures up. Here are some pics of us on the 4th of July.

Grandpa and Adriana

Our family in front of the state capitol

Our family in our cheesy matching shirts

Say "CHEESE!"

I love how the blue baloon brings out her blue eyes.

Stop to smell the flowers

Grandma and Adriana

Here are shots of our patio. Sorry the view isn't the best, its shot from our deck. It still needs

some work. I want to put plants and funiture out there. (Note: I didn't take a picture of the after from the BBQ grill, it looks the same as the other patio just smaller.)

Before

.

After

Supplies

Playing Catch up

Alright, I'm sorry that it has been so long since I have written. I have been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to hardly breathe. I want so badly to post pictures right now, but my camera died on me when I went to download the pics so I have to wait for them to charge up. I will try to post pictures sometime today still.

4th Of July
We went to my parents for the fourth this year. We had a great time. We went down on Thursday and stayed till Sunday. Luckily, Adriana did a lot better sleeping there than she has in the past. She didn't take but a 20 minute nap all day on Thursday so as much as she wanted to fight sleep that night, she just couldn't. The first night is always the worst and I dread it every time. Anyway, on Friday the 4th we went down town with my parents and walked around and looked at all the activities and booths they had set up. Adriana LOVED looking at all the commotion and had fun walking around. I took some pretty good shots of her down at the governors garden (I'll post later). Later that night my parents took Adriana home and we went with my friend Susan to dinner at Pizza Hut and then over to her sister Amy's house, where we shot off fireworks. I had a great time, I don't get to see them very often and it was good just hanging out and talking. On Saturday we just had a lazy day. I did some shopping, helped my friend, Tennille, with some wedding plans and just hung out at my parents house that evening. My brother Chris, came by that evening for supper and to go swimming at my parents new pool. The weather had been so mild that the pool was freezing that evening. On Sunday after church we had a nice lunch and my brother came out again to give the pool another try. We had so much fun. Adriana LOVED the pool and loved splashing around. We had me and Ryan, Adriana, Chris and both my parents in the pool, it was a great time with the whole family.

Chores around the house
My mom came back with us on Sunday to help us with a patio that we are trying to get laid down. Me and Ryan have been working on this patio for close to a month already. We decided to lay 12"x12" pavers down for my BBQ grill to set on and another one on the other side of the deck just for extra sitting area and a place for Adriana's pool. We laid the one for the BBQ grill with no problems. We had started laying the other one and realized that we didn't level the ground that well. So with half the patio laid we decided to tare it up and try again. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!! It wouldn't be so bad if the ground wasn't so rocky to dig in. We have pulled up I don't know how many pieces of asphalt, barbed wire, wood, and about a ton of rocks! Anyway, my mom knew we were trying to get this thing finished so she volunteered to come help us this last week with that. My mom is a work horse! She would be out there at 7am working away in all the heat and humidity. We worked on it for about 6 hours or so on Monday but the heat just got to us and then on Tuesday we were back at it. We actually got it done on Tuesday around 12:15pm. I thought maybe angels would start singing or something, but I never heard them. I'm so glad to have gotten that finished. It still needs some work around the patio with rocks and plants, etc. but I'm glad those pavers are done! While my mom was here we also painted our furniture in the master bedroom, it was quite old and out dated and so we painted it black and replaced the handles on them. It looks so good and so much more modern. While we had the furniture out of the room, we decided to paint our bedroom also. We were very ambitious and worked very hard, but we got it all done in 4 days. Also while doing all of this, I was trying very hard to finish a scrapbook for my friends who are going to have a baby and her baby shower on Saturday. So during the day I would work with mom on our projects and at night I would scrapbook. Needless to say, I am wiped out STILL!
I still have to clean my house today. My best friend is coming for a couple of days with her 2 daughters and I'm looking forward to hanging out, but I need to do a lot between now and when they get here. I will do my best to post pictures today, but if I don't get to it, I will soon.

Taking a Break

Alright, I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but man, have I been busy this past week. We went to my parents house this last weekend for the 4th (will post pics later) and my mom came home with us to help me around the house with projects. Man alive, have we've been working! We keep tackling projects that I've needed to get done for some time now, we are making good head waves. Right now, we are painting our bedroom, and actually need to run to Lowes to get more paint, so I will have to be going, but I wanted to write something in my blog. I will try to post pics by this weekend. Hope everyone is doing good!

Peek-A-Boo

Here's a video that we took last night. I originally got the camera out to shoot Adriana, because she loves walking around with a blanket on her head and playing peek-a-boo, and last night she had a blanket on her head and picked up my phone to talk on the phone while still being covered up. Of course, by the time I got the camera out, she didn't do it anymore, but this I did still get a picture of her doing it (I wanted video though).




Anyway, she was in a real good mood last night and actually smiled for some pics, so here are those.

And last but not least, here is a video of her playing peek-a-boo with daddy.

I love how she shakes her head while daddy is hiding.

Warning: This is Boring

Well, I don't have anything in particular to write about today. I have found that people stop looking at your blog if you don't update often, so I figure I'll write something to keep people coming back for more. Not much is new around our household. Adriana is changing more and more all the time. She just started doing animal sounds. Its so cute when she does them and she gets so proud of herself. Right now, Adriana is watching her favorite video, which is a Sesame Street video and there is a song on there that The Count sings and for some reason, it scares her, and she always frantically looks for the remote so I will turn it. I don't get it, she isn't scared of the Count any other time. Anyway, like I said there's nothing going on with us as you can tell by this boring blog entry.
In the news: Did you hear about the boy on Saturday that got decapitated at Six Flags in Georgia? He jumped a couple of fences to get his hat that he lost on the Batman roller coaster and ended up in a restricted area and while he was there he got struck by someone on the ride. He was from a youth group that was there for a day. It is so sad. I'm leery about rides and things that can go wrong and stories like that just confirm my fears. Now granted he was doing something he shouldn't have, but its still scary.
Also, have you seen the new milk jugs? I just saw them in passing on the news this morning and they look like gas cans or something. I don't know why they are changing them, hopefully it will bring the price of milk down. Look for them in a store near you.
Well, I'll stop boring the socks off you, and wrap this up. I hope you are having a good week thus far. Its a short week and a long weekend ahead, so that will give you something to look forward to. Have a great day!

Sweet Summertime

There are so many tastes and smells and memories that come to mind when I think of summertime. I would say the first thought is of the hot, sticky, muggy weather. In my opinion, that is about the worst thing about summer. I remember as a kid my grandpa taking me and my brother to the pool, movie matinee in a cold theater and going to play arcade games in the mall. I also remember riding around on my bike in the neighborhood and waiting for the front porch light to come on, letting us know it was time to go in. As a teenager I remember hanging out at Sonic, with some of my best friends and talking about the future. Wanting to be roommates together and where we were going to go to college. We would also go to the park at dusk and play on the swings or go out to the country and stare up at the stars. As an adult and a parent, my summertime is spent very differently. I avoid being outside too long because of bug bites and sunburns. Its about playing in the water with Adriana or blowing bubbles in the front yard and dancing around, not caring that the cars passing by might think I'm crazy. Summertime is juicy watermelon, sweet strawberries, fresh blackberries pies, and yummy BBQ. I love the smells of summer, the fresh cut grass, the smell of the pool and sunscreen, the smell of blooming flowers and the smell of rain on a summer night. There are so many things I love about summer. I also love the town we live in, Ozark. Its just a small town between Branson and Springfield. I went to a Farmers Market (also something I remember doing as a kid with my grandpa) on the town square yesterday and got some fresh produce there. They had a couple of people playing fiddles and guitars, fresh baked goods, homemade candles and bird feeders, canned veggies and jams and jellies. I just love the feel of a small town and buying things from local people to help them out and give back to the community. While I was shopping there I remembered why I love the summer and all the good things that come with it.