what I did during naptime yesterday

Before . . . 

After!

then Annie woke up and luckily Brant came home to help me do the second coat . . . 

Here's how it looks this morning--all finished!

And, for your viewing pleasure, here's a video of loud music and a hyper toddler :)

if ya' need to cool off

Just think about this . . . .

were we seriously doing this a few months ago?

and this?

there ya' go! feel cooler?

it's summertime and the livin' is HOT

Hey, everybody! We're sweltering out here! It's been over 100 degrees every day this week; yesterday it was over 102. And today is supposed to be even hotter!

This little girl doesn't seem to mind, though . . .

We haven't had rain in almost a month, and the grass is all brown and crunchy. The flowers are doing fine, though! Can you just tell how HOT it is in these pictures?

In other news, our friends found Annie this awesome big wheels for free! Yay! 

We also finally started our food storage for real. The other day I bought some buckets of pre-packaged wheat, beans, and oats. Annie likes to climb on them and chew on the lids, for some reason. Here she is going in for a big bite o' bucket.

And we also finished taking the carpet off the landing and stairs. Now our stairwell and upstairs truly looks like we just bought a dilapidated, foreclosed house. Success! :) Oh, but it's so fun to work on!!

America the Beautiful

On Saturday we drove down to Maryland to have a big ol fiesta with my dad's family. Annie got to see her two second cousins, Julia and Kylee, who are both a few months older than her. Grandma took the girls on walks . . . 

And then commenced the kubb play!! Here, my brother, Thomas, is warming up and Brant is juggling the kubb sticks. :) I didn't know I was married to such a good juggler!

We taught my aunt Janet and marveled at her amazing form!

Annie and Julia decided to switch shoes!

And all the girls gathered around my aunt Mary (Grandma to the other two) to play with this super-cool light-up toy! 

It's so fun to drive down to Havre de Grace because there really isn't a good expressway to take home. Back roads pretty much all the way!! Driving through Maryland farmland, I got to enjoy the beautiful scenery of this country I love. :)

As we neared home, we were driving along the Susquehanna River and saw a bunch of fireworks shows! One was so spectacular that we stopped on the side of the road and watched it until it ended! The picture, of course, doesn't do it justice--these were seriously great fireworks! We may never know where they were coming from, but next year we'll do our darndest to be at the same place at the same time!

We turned around to see if Annie was enjoying it--she was mesmerized!

Then, on Sunday after church we left for another fireworks show in Hershey. But not before taking some 4th of July pictures!

This cat is Simba, who belongs to our neighbors and camps out on our front porch a lot. He is so old and so sweet, and Annie is his biggest fan.

We met up with the Joneses on the top floor of the Penn State Hershey parking garage to watch the fireworks from Hershey Park!

The show started a few minutes late, so Brant and Annie decided to chase each other around the empty garage . . . 

And then we parked ourselves along the wall to see the sights . . . Annie was enamored with a bird feather on the ledge.

Happy Independence Day!!!

a post for the first of july

Well, here's our latest project . . . 

stripping off the wallpaper in the stairwell and landing!

(Doesn't he look happy, for a guy whose wife decided to go running and left him in the steamy stairwell to peel wallpaper all by himself??)

Brant is AMAZING at this task. He says it's not that hard, but I know it's just cause he's the master at all this. It's coming along very nicely, as you can tell, and we've already been to Lowe's to get all the paint color cards we could possibly imagine. We're also looking at paint colors for this room . . .

The bedroom, with its newly shag-carpet-less floors!

 . . . and this room . . .

the library, which also just got its carpet removed and needs a lot of work, not to mention a lot more shelves (trip to IKEA)

Do you see that yellowish-brown border that's been painted around the room on the floor? Yeah, really weird. It's in all the upstairs rooms. So we'll certainly have to sand and stain and varnish these floors. They won't be done for a while! :)

And, since today in Pennsylvania we are enjoying what could be the most beautiful day EVER, I thought I'd post some pictures of my thriving-out-of-control vegetable garden.

my first-picked summer squash!

So, I sneak into Annie's bedroom at least once a night to watch her sleep. She's just so adorable, and plus, when she's awake, she doesn't hold still long enough for me to look at her all day long. Last night I took some pictures, so you all can gaze lovingly at her sweaty little toddler head too. ;-)

Sweet Dreams!