Nursery, Mural Part 1 and Mutant Garden

It's been a busy couple of days. We finally started on getting the nursery painted and organized for Liam. I ended up painting one coat/one wall an evening after the boys went to sleep. While I painted, Mike worked on drywall issues on the nursery walls and a ceiling area in our bedroom and moved wires around.

The nursery color (Filoli Honey) was chosen from the mis-tinted paint section at Lowe's. I did something very stupid and only got one gallon even though there were two gallons available at the time. Since I painted one wall/one coat at a time, I, of course, ran out of paint and had to head back to Lowe's for more paint. Since we had to get more paint, we decided to do an accent wall and being me, I used the name of the paint to make the final decision on the paint (as well as trying to match with the curtain I had made for the room). The color chosen-Lost Atlantis.

We were so excited with how it turned out that we had to go ahead and move the shelf in . . . it didn't quite work in its current color. I took some of our extra trim paint and painted it white. Now time to move onto the murals.

Going with something of a fairytale theme (in a manly way :-), I am doing a dragon on one side of the window and a castle on the other. Tonight I finished the dragon side and got a good start on the castle. Yeah!!!

In other adventures, we have been harvesting some interesting things from our garden. Two things today have made me think we should call it a mutant garden. First, we have had a crossbreed of our cucumbers and cantaloupes and have created a "cucaloupe". It is small and looks like a cantaloupe in color on the inside but with the seed pattern of a cucumber. Tasted pretty good, not quite as sweet and flavorful as a normal cantaloupe but similar.

Next, I picked the last of our carrots. In this batch there were two carrots entwined around one another (maybe we'll have baby carrots next year :-). There was also the carrot with two legs. Luckily, I was too fast and it didn't get away, I can't wait to see what we find next!

2 months and weekend adventures

Wow, time has flown! Liam is now 2 months old. We had his check-up this morning and he's grown over 3 inches and now weighs 11 lbs. He also had his first shots today and did not like them, poor little guy. It made mommy very sad, but he was a great trooper and soon fell asleep and is recovering well (he's forgotten, mommy hasn't).

Happier adventures took place this weekend. On Saturday, we got to see our good friends Dave and Anna get married in a beautiful "Bogus" wedding. (And with a last name like Bogus, there is a lifetime of Bogus jokes ahead :-) Anna was beautiful, Dave temporarily misplaced the ring, Mike was dashing and tall, Graeme slept at home watched by Grandma Hale, Liam slept in his pouch through the reception and we simply had a grand time. The only sad part is that now being a mom of two and the crazy t-storms that were hitting when we left for the wedding, I have no pictures to post.

On Sunday, Graeme again got up insanely early (been doing this on and off for a couple of weeks now and a large part of why I've been too tired to post much lately). Mike and I took turns with the kids and sleeping that morning. In the afternoon, we decided to trek out to the movies and see Despicable Me.

We were hopeful of our movie experience as we took the kids to see Toy Story 3 in 3-D a few weeks ago and Graeme did amazingly well. He sat through the whole thing in Mike's lap and even wore the glasses the whole time. Yesterday was a little different. Graeme kept trying to look over the seats in front of us, played hop-scotch between his seat and Mike's. Mike finally took him down to the aisle on the edge of the theater and they went up and down the aisle. Needless to say Mike missed a few things. As with Toy Story, Liam had a bottle and slept through it mostly.

I'm also very excited to say that another recent adventure has been that I have finally started painting the walls in Liam's room. I hope to get it completed (at least the painting) in the next week and then get the mural painted.

Now, I'm off to chase Graeme while Liam sleeps (he's been trying to close my laptop so I know he needs some mommy play time :-)

To the Coast

Wow! June went so fast and so did the first week of July. Graeme is still loving anything with wheels, whether it is a wooden train or a four-wheeler. Liam is raising his head up and getting stronger and longer. We went to the coast for the Fourth of July weekend. We hadn't been since Liam was born, so we were excited to introduce him to friends and family.

We went to the beach on the way down, but with two kids (one of them being a 21-month old who does not stay still) we didn't get any pictures there.

Being a younger sister, I have always been the recipient of hand me downs. Having kids after my sister, times haven't changed. As her kids are outgrowing toys and dress up clothes, she is very kindly passing them down to us.

We did get to play in Bogue Sound and out and around Papa Witt's house. We had a great time! While Graeme had a blast "swimming" and horsing around with his cousins, Liam chilled out in the pouch while mommy took pictures and then in the hammock while mommy took his picture.

Isn't this the good life?

Of course I tried to get some kind of picture on the fourth of both boys together (and how awesome to throw a yummy watermelon in that shot). Still being a toddler and an infant, this was how it turned out. It does bring a smile to my face.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe July 4th!