I.heart.summer.

I LOVE summer. I love everything about summer...vacations, the heat, swimming, watermelon, BBQs, lazy days, sun tanned little bodies - really, pretty much everything. Now, per my blog regulators (my sisters), this post is extremely delayed. I don't disagree one bit.

Once again, my family moved. Yes, for those keeping track, that is move number 2 for my group, and I am pretty stinking glad to be settled. During our last move into our rental house, we were in essence "camping out" and only got out bare essentials to survive. (Toys, minimal clothing, sheets, plastic plates, and our TVs.) After all, why box it up twice, you know? There were many luxuries that were missed and I have been relishing in getting to know them once again. (Ahhhh, to have more than 2 dishtowels in the kitchen!)

The boys have settled into our new "digs" nicely. They were initially obsessed with our stairs. For those of you who have always or never had them - you might not get this...but, going from a house without stairs to a house with stairs was monumental. The boys have been sliding down the stairs, jumping off the stairs, playing on the stairs, throwing things from the top of the stairs and just enjoying every last step. I would say I didn't get it, but once upon a time in my childhood, I did get it. We loved playing on my grandparents stairs....I remember, so I am trying to be patient about the whole thing.

I do feel as though 1/3 of our summer has been robbed from me. I am just now getting "back to normal" and it is stinking JULY for Pete's sake! So, now it is time to get my "summer" on. We will be having much fun and many adventures from this point forward...I have already told the boys to get their game faces on. As the stay at home COO of our household (or cruise director) this is really MY time to have the boys full time and enjoy every minute.

I did decide to finally take the plunge and put Bear in underwear full time. (Just ask him, he is happy to show just about anyone.) I was really hesitant to do so prior to the move, expecting him to regress fully and hop right back into diapers after we finally settled. I waited until after the move then realized I was being lazy and didn't want to deal...so here we are...wearing underwear full time and doing pretty well. He has conquered his fear of "big potties" and is standing up and handling up on his business. Which is really SCARY because now I have two boys 5 and under who are standing and peeing in my bathrooms. Yuck-o! Any of you moms who have this situation happening at your houses know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Any of you who will one day have this happening under your roof, may the force be with you. It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

I have included a slide show of all of the stuff we did to the house. We purchased a foreclosed house and decided to put some money into it to make it what we wanted. We painted the whole thing, replaced all of the floors, remodeled the kitchen, master bath, and media room...among many other things. Bless my hubs for being the General Contractor of our remodel project. He did a fantastic job and I must say we are thrilled with the outcome. Please remember we still have lots of things that we still need to do to the house - it is still a work in progress. I have included before and after pics for your enjoyment. Just copy and paste the below address into your browser...and play the slide show -

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BZtWbJy1bMj-

I am also going to close by asking you to pray for my Nana. She passed away earlier this month and we are all sad, but also thankful to have her in a better place. I am sure she was very happy to see my Dad's side of the family together again at the funeral - it had been a while and was wonderful to see the group. Thank you Donna and Grandpa for hosting the weekend.