End of Summer Vacation Jubilation!!

 Haha, I'm laughing to myself thinking that my post's title may have given any readers the idea that we had this amazing, spectacular, unforgettable ending to our summer vacay......   Sorry folks!  It was just a regular ending- which was just how we liked it. We spent a lot of time together doing things we love to do- and that's what made it spectacular.  We.....

...went for a walk...

...went for a swing...

 

....shared some snuggles...

...discovered new things...

 

...watched rain bring the earth back to life...

...ate good food...while practicing a new skill...

...canned homemsde spaghetti sauce...

...became book worms...

...played games...

...spent time with friends...

...made seemingly elaborate breakfasts...

...and laughed and loved every minute of it.

We are already excited for another summer together next year, but are ready to cherish and experience all that life has to offer us until then.

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Summer is over..back to the grind

Monday marked our first day back to school, it's usually a bittersweet kind of thing.  Bitter because it means early mornings, missing Cailyn all day, and coming home only to find that it seems like bedtime and the next day come too fast.  But it's sweet in that we get back into a routine, football is around the corner, and our weekends suddenly have so much value again.

I'm just going to update with some photos from the last couple weeks of summer.  We did a lot in the first two weeks of August, but today will just be some pics of our Jolley softball weekend. 

Every year since we've been together Jerod has been acquired to help round out a team for a softball tourney in Jolley, IA.  If you don't know where it is, it's a town about 30 minutes West of Fort Dodge and it's super tiny, the town can't stretch  more than 4-5 blocks in any direction.  Anyway, in the past years they have dominated at the tournament for the most part and always won the championship, so we always come back.

We meet up with my parents the night before in Fort Dodge to hang out and so they can see Cailyn and stuff. 

Hanging out in Grandma and Grandpa's room after swimming in the pool- she LOVED it!

Gnawing on a rib bone at the steak house, this kept her happy for a good ten minutes

Shoulder rides are the best in this gal's opinion

She could not get enough of the long hallways, she ran down them at warp speed- and her feet were so dirty from it, ewww.....

So spoiled- eating M&M pieces

The tournament did not turn out like it has in years past.  The guys barely won their first game, lost their second game, and lost the game they played the next day- which kind of worked out in our favor because Cailyn slept through it and all the way back home, and we were able to get her back on her schedule.  I asked Jerod if Jolley days are over- he said we'll see if they want to play again next year, but if they don't, we'll be entering Melbourne Mousehole Days' co-ed tournament......not sure how I feel about that since I haven't really played since high school.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.  I'll leave you with this final picture.  Even though they didn't win the tourney this year, Jerod still got to shine a little with an out of the park homerun!

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Kitchen Cabinets Refinished: Part Uno

So, a while back I posted about how we had decided we were beginning to refinish our kitchen cabinets....that was in March.  Well, we finally got around to moving forward with the rest of the process on the other cabinets.  And when I say process, I mean PROCESS- there was much sanding and/or applying of liquid sand, several coats of paint and lots of use of our dehumidifier because all that paint made it super hot upstairs!  I choose to do this reveal in a couple of posts because I hate bombarding one post with a bajillion pictures.  So tonight, just the upper cabinets. 

 Our laminate countertops are this gray/black speckled granite-looking beauties, and I knew I didn't want white on the bottom cabinets because of dirty little hands (I won't name names.....Cailyn), but I did love the idea of contrasting colors on the top and bottom cabinets.  So white went on top.  We bought this liquid sand stuff that was supposed to take the sheen off the varnished wood of the cabinets- I won't say it didn't work, but I won't say that it did for sure.  I think the best way would have been to sand with sandpaper, but I wasn't up for the mess, so I guess we'll have to see how they hold up as time goes by. 

 Those cabinets in the corner and on the left were the worst because the shelving is built in, which meant nooks and crannies galore!

When all was said and done, we were ECSTATIC with the results of the uppers, it brightened the whole room instantly and just looked so clean.  We'll explore the bottom cabinet refinishing in the next post- but let's just say they were a little trickier even though there was less area to be painted.  Ugh!

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One Year Photoshoot

 So I got this UBER cute tank top from Duck Worth Wearing- a consignment store for kids and maternity stuff, and I knew I wanted to photograph her in it, she looks great it whites and greens.  So anyway, we had an impromptu photo shoot while Jerod was gone for an away game.  I love that we have these huge windows in our living room that let in so much natural light, it is the perfect place to shoot.  I just push the chaise lounge back, hang a fuzzy blanket over it and the carpet and try to keep her corralled there and laughing for as long as I can!

We got this one pretty quick at the beginning, I think I was demeaning myself to crazy faces and pretending like every time she touched me it shocked me- whatever works, right?

Lola!  Get out of the picture and off of my carpet!

Candid.  Love.

A few days later we took a few more photos in a different outfit and using a different background- although I think she tends to look better with more natural colors, you could make the argument that she just always looks cute :)

My absolute favorite photo from all of them- her eyes look so blue and the lighting is perfect, all I had to do was crop out the diaper parts poking out of the top of her bubble shorts.

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Early Harvest

We have begun to harvest some more veggies from our garden- the first garden I've had since we moved here!  I planted broccoli, romaine lettuce, onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapenos, and carrots.  I think next year we will skip out on the broccoli as it swallows space in the garden.  Also, if you don't know, you get one big head of broccoli from each plant and then each one religiously produces small shoots for a long time, you get a lot of produce from it considering 9 plants only cost about two bucks, but you really have to keep up with harvesting it.  We used green onions in several dishes in late spring/early summer, and then let the rest grow to become white onions.  I love fresh produce and my goal is to be able to have enough to provide some freezer food for over the fall or winter- we'll see about that in the future!

I like to pick some of the tomatoes a little early so that they ripen inside, I find if I pick them too late they are a little too soft for using on sandwiches or for sauteing in recipes.

Notice the carrots on the very top, I dug them up that way all twisted up and hugging each other- so cute!

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Our first First Birthday!

This weekend we celebrated Cailyn's first birthday with our families!  It was fantastic, even though it was sweltering!  We decided since she's so little it was probably okay to just have close family members for this birthday, we didn't want to scare her by having too many people around that she didn't really know.  Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even some great aunts and a second cousin, were in attendance to help us wish our baby girl a wonderful birthday and a happy second year of life.  I became semi-obsessed with making photo pages because I didn't want to have to upload a bajillion photos to the blog for this post, plus I have been creating a mixbook for her first year and love all the photo layouts they have :)

We had a relaxed BBQ before opening gifts, singing "Happy Birthday", and eating cake and ice cream.  We also took our fourth family photo- which reminded me we've never had a nice one taken, you know, the kind you put in a frame over your couch or something, I think this is necessary now.

 

I was up until 1:00am making that cake- it was an adventure for sure- I'm glad "pastry chef" isn't my title.  We decorated with penant swag cut from scrapbooking paper, and I saw online an idea for hanging photos from each month of her first year- loved it!  I also added a canvas she painted for Daddy to hang in his office at school up on the shelf in the background.

Family photo number 4

She received so many cute dresses and outfits, I think about 5 or 6 books, this fun Dora lawn chair, and that great singing coupe car (thanks Grandma Jacque and Grandpa Mark- just kidding, she loves it and that's all that matters I guess)

 

She also was given her own baby doll with a car seat from Grandma and Papa Brown, and Aunt Mandy gave her a personalized photo story and a crib/high chair set to go along with her new baby.  She is so cute with it, giving the baby kisses and pretending to feed her.  Good practice for if there's every a new Baby Brown in the future!  (By the way, the baby doll package was the first time we've had to untwist ties or cut straps that hold dolls in- a milestone for us as parents of a girl)

 

First bite of birthday cake....and last shot before getting cleaned up, I'd say she finished almost half of her jumbo cupcake, the floor got the rest.

Down for the count- partying is hard work!

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Playing catch up

Wow, the summer is just getting away from me!  I meant to be so much better at blogging, but it seems when I'm out of routine I don't remember to do all my usual stuff.  So I guess I"ll just share a couple photos from what we've been up to, which is baseball and nothin', and leave it at that.

 When she's not trying to escape onto the field during the game, she loves to shake the fence and "cheer" for the boys.  Go Trojans!

 Cailyn with Twin 1: Blake (she hasn't gotten her hands on him yet, she's usually a little too generous with her affections- she comes on a little strong)

 And Twin 2: Bowen, she loves to be around these guys, I'm sure they'll have more fun playing together as they get older

While my parents and siblings were on vacation to D.C. we dog-sat for them.  This is Lola, and Cailyn was always afraid of her, but after having her around for over a week, she became quite comfortable with her and this past week, since Lola and the kids are with us, she was even giving her hugs :)

This is a sneak peek of her one year photos, I took them a couple weeks early so that I would have time to get prints made for family members coming for her birthday party this weekend.  She make it so easy because she's incredibly photogenic, thank goodness she got her Daddy's dimples, too.  They make you melt every time!

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