Fourth of the What?

So over the course of an epic Fourth of July weekend I took three bad photos. Enjoy.




Aunt Liesel and her family adopt us for the weekend and it was so fun! Ed won the Uncle Al golf tournament and got to ride in the fourth of July parade in Seeley. They shut down the highgway for hours so that kids can duke it out for candy from floats. Makes you well with patriotism or crazy with desire to push down kids to get more candy. Jr. was supposed to be in the parade with his dad, but it was nearing 100 degrees and his dad thought it was better to ride inside the cab of the truck and not bake in the back of the truck.

Please, Aunt Liesel, send me some of the photos from the weekend. . . Please. Here are some I stole from Liesel's sister-in-law Abby. Evan is about Graham's age and they were pretty darn cute together all weekend.




We got home about 9 PM on the night of the 4th. Jr. and Ed crashed the neighbors' blow up some shit fest and Jr. stayed up until almost 11 PM. YIKES. He was so incredibly stoked, I couldn't barely pull him away. A-holes in the county decided it was cool to blow up shit until after 2AM on a Sunday night. Note to self, take the 5th of July off. Going to work that Tuesday was rough.


Then last weekend we went to Adrienne's third birthday party. There was a blow up bouncy house. I repeat, blow up bouncy house. Did I have my camera? No. What is my problem? Plus I got Adrienne the cutest green poka dot jumper and pink sparkly mary janes for her birthday. Ug.

So in order to make up for my lax camera duties, I shot some videos. Sadly there is lots of me talking in them, but I think you will find them a little fantastic.


Graham is pulling himself up on EVERYTHING including poor baby girl Selma.

I like to call these the bathtub interviews.




Yeah - he likes to gives the thumbs up to ho's.

High Quality Recreational Experience

We are now OFFICIALLY more RV'ers than campers. Behold The Coleman Megaload.

It holds two adults, a preschooler, a sweet baby, a stinky lab and all kinds of gear like a champ. Honestly it doesn't feel like camping anymore, it feels like, um, RV-ing.

I fully expected us to roll into the Holland Lake campground and be surrounded by old people and their small dogs in their motor homes. Not even. It was all thirty somethings and their bratty loud kids. We were in good company.

Apparently it is the new thing, get married, have kids, buy a camper and spend weekends by the lake.

Ed is totally stoked. Ever since Ed Jr. was born he has been striving to re-achieve Outdoor Recreation King status. He is getting there.

Oh and Hi - I am 11 months.

This is the face you get when you try to tell me "No."

Jr. sharing his popsicle with his baby brother.

Dads

Happy fathers' day out there Grandpa John! My dad never reads this blog (I know - what IS wrong with him?) so we had to wish him a happy fathers day in person.

Ed had a great fathers' day if you take away the hangover. Oopsie.

No, it was a great day, we chilled - boy howdy did we need it. He did mow the lawn, and between you and me, I think he loves mowing the lawn. His new riding lawnmower is a dream.


Ed is an awesome dad and really proved his daddy chops this last week being the primary caregiver for both boys for an entire week. He even had to take Monday off because daycare was closed. I came home late that night and found both of my kids alive and happy and the house was clean. Yes clean. He even made the bed. Oh and dinner was in the oven. For reals. The whole week was long and pretty awful, but one thing remained the same, I could count on coming home to some happy fellas.

My week was rediculous. I was in guard school - or wild fire firefighter training for a week. Yeah, me a firefighter. I laughed too. I wish I would have done it about 15 years ago. I got my ass kicked. And with that, I am done. It was like ripping the bandaid off, had to do it, it was awful and now I can heal. Let's hope my feet recover eventually.

Ed and I are not important compared to the two most handsome Colemans.

Baby Graham. Crawler, smiler, puller upper, dancer and scowler. He has these beautiful blue expressive eyes. You can tell he is smiling even with a binky in his mouth. You can also tell when he is mad at you for telling him "NO! No electricity!" That stinker loves cords and plug ins. Oh and the biggest Baby Graham news - he sleep trained himself. I think Ed and I were actually holding him back. He likes to get up in the middle of the night to nurse and then it is right back in his crib until like 7AM. We can put him to bed awake and he barely cries if at all and then sunggles up with his blankets and falls asleep. There was no plan, no nights of screaming, he just did it himself. Swoon.

Happy 11 months old Baby Graham. Only 1 month and you will be a year old. CRAZY!


Click on me - I am a video.




Ed Jr. He is so funny, the things he says. Tonight on the swings he told me that he likes to swing catawampus. Yeah, he said catawampus. He is also putting together really complex ideas - things he has learned at different times from different sources. It is very cool.


He informed his Aunt Liesel and I that he was going to marry Seri under the Marrying Tree (a white crab apple in our front yard). He then went in to explaining to us that he and Seri were going to have a baby, the baby was in Seri's belly. It was going to be a girl and he was going to name it Frances. When we asked him if he was going to get a job to support his family, he didn't think too much of that, but he told us that he needed to buy his baby medicine. The purple medicine, not the red medicine. That medicine is icky. He is so full of imagination. Today he told the girl at Capital Sports that he could handle shooting the deer. He told me he was going to shoot a bear and I told him that I didn't think he could handle a bear. He then went through the rest of the taxidermy telling me that he could handle the mountain lion, he could handle the moose, he could handle the deer, he could handle the elk. . .



We also talk a lot about shooting and guns. Ug. If I have learned anything from Jr. whatever he is into now will only last a short time. We will move on to something else soon. Lets hope it is peaceful.

All of the photos are from our first camping trip of the year and Aunt Liesel's visit. Both were awesome and we are THRILLED it is finally summer.

Its a framer!





Grace and Sarah on our camping trip to Black Sandy. Cuties.

Adventure Boy

It took Jr. weeks of practice to get brave enough to go out the front door. Enjoy the videos.

Happy Easter (Day Late)

I hope everyone had as great of an easter as we had. We got up early, went over to grandma and grandpa's house and hunted for easter eggs with Faith.






















Jr. found one egg and then he was done. He wanted to dump Faith's eggs on the ground and bang them together. He got $4 out of easter eggs, thanks to Uncle Ian. Obviously the eggs are a way bigger hit than the money was.



After the morning nap, it was outside all day long to work in the yard with his parents. He spent most of the day strapped to my back while I cleaned out those poor sad excuses of flower gardens. This year I think I am officially going to throw in the towel on that south side mess of a flower garden, rip out the lilly's because I love them and plant grass or put down pavers and get a cute little bench. The side flower garden only looks good because it is over run with iris. The flowers are basically weeds, and look good for about a week, but leave behind nice greenery all season that allows me to pretend that I know what I am doing.



Uncle Mikey came over and finished our new doors. We splurged and bought two new doors for the side and back of the house. They are SO LOVELY. Now all I need to do is paint them. Paint them, the shed, our bedroom, the kitchen. . . This is why I don't start painting projects, because the list of things I have left undone is unrelenting.

Okay, back to easter. The day was so fabulously warm and sunny we put sunscreen on the baby and his sun hat. He also got a new swing. It is pretty much the best swing ever. Sorry no photos. During Jr.'s unprecedented 2 hour late afternoon nap, I raked the front lawn. It was so warm and nice out, I was able to do it barefoot. I felt energized and tired all at the same time. Today my back and arms hurt, but it is a great hurt. Winter is so long around here, spring is love.



Then back to grandma and grandpa's house to play in the backyard in the walker. Their concrete patio and nice flat grassy yard makes the perfect place for Jr. to run amok in his walker, Rocky barking and chasing him. It is little boy heaven.





















Oh and on Saturday we went to GF to Ian and Brandi's baby shower. We will be getting a new cousin, William in just over a month or so. We are so very excited to have a new baby to love on.

Bonus

Last weekend Jr. got his first haircut. He no longer has a mullet, or as his uncle Ian called it, the Tennessee Waterfall. Uncle Ian captured this vid on his camera.



We saved some hair in a baggie for his baby book.


















He has returned to the evilness that is night waking. I am frazzled beyond belief, I used to think that he wasn't a very good sleeper, but I crave those days now. This 4 AM party time is for the birds.

It feels so spring like around here and Jr. and I have been trying to make the most of it by going outside to play on the lawn. It is still crusty and brown, but there is some green poking through. The other night we went down the street to watch the neighbor girls play. Jr. loved every second of it. He tore plants out of their flower garden, tried to eat sticks, soil and bark and tried so so so hard to crawl into the street. He loves being outside so much it is a crime to keep him locked up any longer.

We have some big plans to turn our gravely mess of a backyard into grass for him to be able to play play play to his heart's content. I am honestly looking forward to the hard hard hard work of digging up gravel, resurfacing the yard and placing down topsoil and sod. Then comes the swingset, sandbox, kiddie pool and sprinkler. Oh how I long for the days. . . I have this vision of us taking Jr. over to the Moogs after work and let the kids play in the yard while the parents kick back, drink some Natty Light and enjoy the Helena summer.


















Many of you know that Ed and I have been looking at houses. The one we live in is great for so many reasons, but is limiting in so many other. So far we have only found crap on crap. I don't know why the selection is so awful, but it is. We are looking for at least 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and it must must must have a decent sized garage. While the thought of moving into something new is so exciting, the thought of leaving our cute tiny little house is hard to grapple with. I love the location, I love the yard, and I love all of the work we have put in it. It is were we lived when we got married and had our #1 baby, but damn I hate that kitchen. I wish we could just pick up this house and move it and replace it with something nicer and a little bigger. I guess stay tuned. . .

Video Day

Happy Thursday, it is video day.

Stand Tall Baby

Suddenly, like he has always been doing it, Jr. stood up this weekend. Aided by the coffee table he just stood. Now anything taller than him is a potential standing aide. It makes him seem less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy.

It is the step before taking steps. Today I was thinking about the time before he was born and I would dream about the day when Ed and I would watch our little bundle of joy take his first steps, we would clap for him, smooch and be all blissed out by the wonder of life in the background music would play and angels would sing. . . False. Ed and I are shaking in our boots, Jr. is busy busy busy and walking is going to make it harder for us to keep up with him and keep him out of trouble. On the other hand, when he walks, we can start to take him outside to play.

I am going to walk that kid around the block until he is totally pooped.

We are all looking forward to spring. The winter was long and we got some spring tease with some warm weather, even walks without coats on, now winter is back. We really really need to get outside. I mean I knew how small our house was, but it is getting smaller and smaller as winter drags out longer and longer.

Enjoy some cute photos of some really handsome men.