Other projects of the summer...

Before all the flooring, my other goals of the summer/spring were to make our spare room into an actual guest room with bed and all. :) This way I had a better place for grandparents to stay when they came to visit, and it was used every month this summer, each time with the bed in a different spot, or set up, but I'm so glad to have a place to easily customize to whoever is here. :) I also recently decided that I wanted somewhere to keep my sewing machine set up, so I reworked the room yet again. And am very happy with the result.

And, our Memorial Day project was to pull out a portion of the deck and patio out back and put in grass. I don't think I took any before pictures of the deck, but I do have a couple after ones here. We don't have a huge yard, but felt like by having more grass, especially next year when Jonathan is running and playing around, it will be more condusive to a toddler. :) And, yet again, my brothers got roped into our long weekend priject, they were such a great help to Jeremy and I, and we really appreciate their willingness to help out!

Pictures of the Cutie

And just yesterday he FINALLY started saying MAMAMAMAMA, however, it is not nearly as prevelant in his vocabulary as DADADA, but it's at least a start! :)



He wanted to play on the other side of the gate with Miles :)



My re-purposing of shelves in my house, he was able to pull the shelves off of the bookcase I had in there, so I had this shelf elsewhere, and swapped them. He likes how easily he can pull his toys off.



I thought it was naptime for him, he didn't so in his protest, he put himself in this position!

The Big Unveiling...

Well, here are the long awaited pictures from our Labor Day weekend project!! I took the true meaning of the word, and anyone that was willing I had laboring! ha, nothing like laboring a baby, so there should be no complaints!

We so appreciated all of the help from my parents and brothers, it was a blessing to have them all here working so hard and helping up to get this done by the end of the weekend, there were still a few small things to be done through the week but our house is now back in liveable condition!!

WE decided to go with the hardwood after we already bought new carpet, because with some of the signs of allergies that Jonathan has been showing, we thought this to be the best solution, and with no worries of it having to be replaced down the road. We are so happy with the outcome, and I love how it has totally changed the look of our house! Even my hand me down kitchen table looks better on the hardwood, and I think I can get a few more years out of it! :) It was amazing to me even when we put the kitchen appliances back in place, and how they just looked so different that they previously did on the off-white lino of before. OUr other new addition was a microwave. This was a great find, our old one went out the week before we did the floors, and I found this virtually new one off of Craigslist! woohoo! and it looks so nice in the kitchen as well!

And JOnathan is also loving it, he has learned that he can crawl even faster across the flooring, and has onld had a couple of bumbs and bruises. :)

Before...

During....

After...

More pictures, I hope...

Hanging out eating



Daddy's Study Buddy :)



Hanging out in the stroller during our walk at the dog park.



This is at the dog park, but I love this picture, we took Clair, my parent's dog and Miles there. And both had a blast running around, and Clair loved the water, Miles not so much. :)



A gorgeous sunset over Turnagain Arm one night last week when I was leaving the church after an event. so glad I had my camera with me.



Hanging out with Grandpa on the new floors - more to come of the flooring pics :)



Watching our first cross country meet.



Jonathan got to hang out in his pack n play alot during the flooring installation, and did a great job!

pictures, maybe??

Game day!!! Go Nebraska!!!

Some of my naptime creations! I needed some bibs for him that weren't velcro, because he has figured how to pull those off! So, I hit my stash is fabrics and this is what I came up with! And funny, after unsuccessfully pulling these off, he doesn't try to pull off his other ones anymore either! :)


Opening the cupboards in our kitchen.

We went swimming with Grandma and Uncle Ben - Jonathan didn't hate it, but didn't seem to quite love it, but was really relaxed and chill, we stayed in the water for about 45 min!!

AGHHH!!!

I always have so many issues posting pictures! I'll keep trying, cause I know anyone reading this really would prefer pictures! :)

Mmmm....

I love fresh chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven, and I'm enjoying a couple right now as I sit down to write this. I mostly just have some pictures to add here, with some updating.

It is definately feeling like fall here, and I love it! It has been gorgeous and sunny the last few days but with that crispness in the air.

Jonathan continues to amaze me daily at things he is trying to tackle and the new things he is learning. The other day I looked over and he was trying to climb up the stairs - Jeremy was watching him, and he made it up about 7 steps. Yikes! I guess we need to at some point teach him the stairs so that he doesn't just go for it and fall but how to do this? Guess I will be learning that soon! He is also become quite adept at opening cupboards and drawers and spots our open bedroom door and crawls there as quickly as possible as he is learning that it is off limits. It's amazing how quickly babies really do understand right from wrong and will try to get away with what they know is not right. Making it even more clear to me how we are each born with a sinful nature.

Another big step for us this last week is that Jonathan is starting to go to bed at night without having to be asleep in my arms/after nursing. We still nurse before bed, but a few nights now he has been awake and I've laid him down and he falls asleep after just a little fussing. This is huge for us!! Used to be if he was laid down awake it would mean hours of crying (yes, unfortunately I've tried him and he will cry for hours!) Maybe it's because we've been staying at my parent house watching my brothers this last week and he is sleeping in his pack n play in my parents closet, so it is dark, but whatever it is, I hope it continues! :)

After waiting until 8 months hold to cut a tooth, he now has 4 teeth! He's been cutting about 1/wk it seems. And overall it is going smoothly, we seem to have one sleepless night, but are good after that. He now has his two bottom teeth and top two teeth on either side of where his middle teeth will go. A little odd, but whatever!

AND - can't remember what I said last post, but he is now eating just about anything we feed to him! We are just feeding him mostly whatever we are eating for dinner, within reason, and he seems to love anything with seasoning and flavor to it. And forget anything with a pureed texture, that is coming right back out. And he much prefers it from a fork rather than a spoon. And sometimes I will let him feed himself with the fork and he does a great job!

He is all boy it seems and bumps and bruises don't bother him, unless we fuss over something then he might get upset.

Haha, for not having much to say, I always seem to be able to fill up some space! :)