My 3 Year Old Boy

 Two blogs in one day?? Yes, I must squeeze in my little man's 3 year stats before time gets away from me. His party was Saturday, his birthday was Tuesday, but we didn't do pics until today because we just got home this afternoon. Don't judge me for retrodating it!

Weight: 30 lbs

Height: 37 "

We had just come in from swimming so he just kept his trunks on for the pic! He was more cooperative for my posing than before--I think we are making progress! Now for his stats:

At 3 years old you:

• have been potty-trained since April!! #1 AND 2! We are so proud of you.
• still wear a diaper for naps and bed, but they are usually dry
• love watching  Cat in The Hat, Thomas the Train, or Blue's Clues in the morning
• have a big sweet tooth
• wear a size 7 shoe
• still fit some 18mo-2T clothes! Especially now that your diaper butt is gone
• sleep from around 8:30pm-10am
• nap from around 3pm-5:30pm
• can follow complex commands
• can identify tons of sounds and objects
• know your ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and count up to 10
• don't usually like to eat rice, potatoes, or pasta but you will if encouraged/bribed
• are still healthy as a horse!
• talk up a storm, usually 50% jibberish
• love to swim, and just started using arm floaties
• love to play with trucks, cars, and toy helicopters
• love books and frequently look at them by yourself

That's about all I can think of right now! Since his 2 1/2 year post, he has grown 1 1/2" and gained 4lbs! He still seems tiny compared to some kids his age, but I know they all grow at their own pace! I'm proud to say that we have maintained our stand of minimal junk food for him. He never gets pop or koolaid, he only gets dessert/sweets if he eats all of his dinner, if he doesn't like his food he doesn't eat, and he has to try at least one bite of a new food. He is still picky and will love a food one minute then refuse it the next, but I'm sure that is just part of a phase and as he gets older he will develop true likes and dislikes of foods. I think right now if he doesn't recognize what a food is then he won't eat it, even if it something he likes.

He still plays well with other children, and doesn't get upset at all when we leave him in the care of someone else. I am going to look into starting him up with Mother's Day Out at a local church this fall to help transition him into preschool. I can't believe my little boy is growing up so quickly!!

Trip to Grand Lake

We are happy to be home! We all had a good time at the lake this week. Originally we were booked to split a cabin with my dad and his girlfriend, but at the last minute things did not work out for them....long story short--we took Nick's sister Sarah and her daughter Zoe with us!

It was an interesting drive with two 3-year olds but we made it to our cabin at Grand Lake!

The kiddoes were happy to be out of the car!

It was around 100 degrees the whole trip so the first thing we did was unpack the car then go down to the "shore" to check out the water. It was pretty warm!

The water there was some of the clearest I have seen at a lake! We had our own swimming dock but didn't use it because Nick saw water moccasins by it.

I took some pics of the inside of the cabin--it was very nice! Here

is the master bedroom (downstairs) and the view from the bed to the deck and lake:

The large master bathroom: (the kid's room is behind this)

....and our walk-in closet!

 Here is the living room upstairs:

...and here is the view from the living room thru the patio doors to the deck and lake:

On the downstairs deck was an 8-person hot tub that we used every night! We turn the temp down on it and it was like a bubbling heated pool for us. The kids loved it!

I brought along my 2 homegrown eggplants to make eggplant parmesan for dinner one night there!

I cooked all the meals for us and we enjoyed just hanging out around the cabin and beating the heat. We did find a nice swimming beach down the road so we went there each day and swam for awhile. The water was very warm! The kids had a fun time playing with each other.

Brad was a little out of his element because he had to sleep in a regular bed instead of a crib....so he had some nighttime issues that he usually doesn't. We got thru it though and hopefully that helped him with the transition to a big-boy bed at home!

Tuesday was Brad's actual birthday so to celebrate I baked a cherry jello cake and we had ice cream. It was a fun getaway, but we will be glad to all sleep in our own beds tonight!

Bradley's 3rd Birthday Party!

 As promised, here are the pictures from the big birthday bash today! We had a great time and almost everyone I invited was able to come! There were 5 kiddos and several other family/friends there to celebrate with us and Brad had a great time.

In case you can't tell, the theme was Cat in the Hat...

I am very thankful for all of the guests who joined us!

Here is the nail design I did last night for the party!

I wanted to match the birthday theme, but also be patriotic for the upcoming 4th of July. Mission accomplished!

In other news, we keep going back and forth on if we should move to Washington or New York. We love both for different reasons but I think in the end we are leaning towards western NY. Mostly because we know we would be able to find a historic Victorian house to grow old in. So I just booked our second trip there for the end of next month. We are going to focus our "research" more on the town of Lockport (which was our favorite) and maybe talk to some realtors about details. Hopefully we can squeeze in a few touristy things, and another trip to Canada!

Deck Restoration Continued

 Do you remember from my last post the area that we tore out?

 

 Yesterday and today we got the deck built! Yesterday we had just done a couple of things when it started raining. Obviously you can not use power tools in the rain. My mom, brother and SIL were over so they helped us pack up and we hung out for awhile on the porch watching the rain. I figured I should be at least a little productive so Brad and I went to the grocery store to get supplies for his party. When we got home I put him down for a nap then the rain cleared up and the sun came out!

We quickly got our tools back out and hit the deck hard to get as much done as we could. We basically had to build the frame from scratch and reinforce the existing frame on the old deck. Nick also jacked up a corner support for the balcony that had settled into the ground almost 6 inches. We put in a new support beam for the balcony and managed to get most of the joists in before calling it a day.

Today we woke up to cloudy skies but no rain! My brother and SIL came over again to help. We quickly knocked out the last of the joists while Nick screwed down the few pieces of wood we replaced on the old deck. After that we just had to screw down all of the new decking, but with only one drill that took a while!

By that time the sun was out in full force and we got tired quickly so we worked in shifts, alternating between rest, drilling, and assisting. We made a great team! My mom even came back over to keep us company. We also replaced half of the boards on the third lower part of the deck. I am so proud!

It may not look like a very big area in the picture here, but to show how big the area really is, look at Brad in the corner compared to the rest of the deck!

It doesn't move at all when you walk on it, and the top balcony is also much more secure and sturdy than it used to be. We ended up having the perfect amount of wood, and we will be replacing some of the stairs (not pictured) up to the balcony with the left over wood.

There used to be benches in the far corner of the deck that we replaced, but I don't think I'm going to replace those. I think we will just leave that area open for grilling or chairs. I am however going to build some benches for the other part of the deck that is covered b/c we mostly sit there where it is shady.

I think we did a pretty darn good job for building our first deck! Our only teacher was YouTube. Another major project done, another ton of money saved! All we have left for it to be finished is to clean the old deck the restain the whole thing. We probably won't be getting to that until later next week because of our busy schedule.

On a different note, my little boy's birthday party is tomorrow and I am so excited for him! I know of a couple friends and some family that are coming but I really haven't gotten any RSVPs so I am hoping for the best. Either way he will have a blast! I wrapped all of his presents last night and I didn't realize I had gotten him so many! I always do my Christmas/birthday shopping throughout the year, just buying stuff on sale that I see here and there while I am out. Well he has a bunch for tomorrow! I will probably blog about his party tomorrow, then Sunday we are heading out to a cabin at Grand Lake!

Deck Restoration

 Before I get into the deck fun, I want to say thank you to my friends and family for the wonderful birthday presents! Some of the things I got include a full set of nail polish, kitchen gadgets, snacks, gift cards, bath soaps, scrapbook paper, and my favorite of all--a custom homemade Italian feast! My mom had the family over for dinner and she cooked lasagna rollups, fettuccine alfredo, salad, and garlic toast. Delish!

I got some extra days off this week so Nick and I decided to begin our deck restoration projects. It is one of the last big things we want to have done before we list the house for sale next year. Basically half of the deck is very weathered and the joists are rotted. We are replacing that half with new wood, then cleaning the rest of the deck, then restaining the whole thing. I'm *hoping* it looks fabulous afterwards and is worth all of the hard work. 

I had an estimate done earlier this year and the labor alone was over $1,000! No thank you, I will do it myself.

Here is the empty spot where the old deck was:

We also removed a few boards from the rest of the deck that were rotted in spots.

It may not look like much but here is all of the old wood in my brother's trailer to be hauled off!

....and here is $500 worth of new wood....

Tearing up the deck and hauling all of the wood was VERY hard work yesterday in the heat. We were all worn out at the end of the day.

Today me and Brad went to the store and got sealer for the joists and some deck cleaner. Really all we did today was seal all of the joists that will be under the decking.

 I work the next two days so we won't get back to it until Thursday. I am hoping to have it all installed by this weekend because we leave for the lake on Sunday!

While I was outside taking pictures I snapped some of my lovely plants! Here is my amazing eggplant with 3 huge fruits on it:

And here is my sweet potato vine that is going nuts:

 To end with, here is the latest nail design I did using the polish my hubby got me for my birthday! I can't wait to play with it some more and come up with new designs. I have already decided on my July 4th design...