Mowing the Lawn

As with almost everything in our new house, having our own lawn to mow is a first for us. Hudson is pretty much obsessed with anything that has wheels and makes a loud noise (trucks, tractors, motorcycles, lawn mowers, etc.) so he was VERY excited when John came home from Lowe's with his very own "mawn mowe" as he calls it. Mowing the grass is definitely a family event around here.

Household Projects

Since moving in, we have completed a few projects around the house. Our first major project was painting the garage. I was actually really excited for this project since it was going to be my first time painting anything on a large scale. I thought it would be fun! And it was for the first hour, but the fun gradually wore off, and for hours 2 - 15ish it seemed a lot more like work than fun. I think that the only person who enjoyed painting the whole time was Makenna! She would paint for awhile, and then go play and ride her bike around the garage, and then paint a little more. Since we were just painting the garage, we weren't too worried about perfection, so it was great to just let her paint to her little heart's content.
John took care of all the stuff up high. We spread the project over 2 very long, HOT days, and although it was a lot more work than I thought it would be, we are very happy with the end result.

Our 2nd big project was landscaping the patch of dirt in the front of our house.
Instead of going to a store to pick out some flowers to plant, I went to my mom and dad's house. Their landscaping, and flowers are amazing, and free! My dad dug up some flowers for me, and I brought them home to plant.
I thought that maybe I could get all the flowers planted before John got home from work, but I was very wrong! It took almost 3 hours just to get all the weeds out, and get the dirt ready. The kids were eager to help, and loved playing in the dirt.

When John got home from work he helped me get all of the flowers planted. We just made up a landscape design as we went. Perfect? No, but much better than the dirt and weeds we started with.

Our New Home

I've had a few requests to post some pictures of our new house, so here they are. After renting for almost 7 years, we are so excited to finally own our first home. It is double the size of anything we have lived in before, and we love all of the things that come with a house that we've never had before (i.e. our own yard, unfinished basement for storage and kids play area, and a 3-car garage). We are pretty much settled (only 1 box left to unpack...I think) but have done almost zero decorating. We finally just hung a few things on the walls last weekend, but have a long way to go. I've decided that I'm not very good at decorating, so if anyone is interested in volunteering to help me, I'm taking names!

The outside
Front entry way/stairs
Front 'flex' room

We have plans to make this room a home office, but for now it is mostly empty.

Family room

Eating area/Kitchen

Laundry room/mud room

Kids' bath upstairs

Master bedroom

4th of July Traditions

Spending the 4th of July at my parent's house on the lake is becoming a tradition for us, and one that I am happy we will be able to continue every year now that we live in Omaha. Usually my parents throw a big party with all of the extended family, but having just flown back into Omaha on Sunday night from my cousin's wedding in CA, they decided to have a smaller party, which meant only 26 more immediate family members, instead of the usual 70+ extended family members and friends.

The weather was beautiful, and we spent much of the afternoon and evening just playing in the water. Makenna went on her first water tube ride (unfortunately no pictures) and loved it! She was a little nervous to try it, but John and I went with her, and she thought it so much fun. Both of the kids love playing in the water with their cousins. They also love jumping off the dock into the water which they did over and over again.

Eventually we were able to drag them all out of the water, and after being in the sun and water for so long, they were all pretty hungry.

The night ended with some fireworks, which we did as the sun was still setting. We weren't patient enough to wait until it was really dark. Nor did we want the kids staying up 3 or 4 hours past bedtime.

And of course the kids got to do some sparklers. Hudson's first.

And what did we all think about our 4th of July celebrations? Hudson's face pretty much sums it up!

Wedding

After our pit stop at Niagara Falls, we drove down to Rochester, NY on Thursday afternoon for Joey and Marie's wedding. The wedding activities started on Thursday night, with a family/friends BBQ at a park. The kids ran around like crazy, which was just what they needed.

The wedding was on Friday in the Palmyra Temple. Makenna was lucky enough to be a flower girl, and was SO excited about her fancy orange dress. My cousin Lisa, who also happens to live in Rochester, made an adorable little matching bow tie for Hudson.

Marie with her bridesmaids and flower girls

The entire wedding party

Our attempt at a family photo. I guess Makenna decided she was done smiling nicely.

Hudson LOVES anything that makes loud noise and has wheels, tractors included.

After all of Makenna's 'official' wedding party photos were over, she decided that she wanted to take some more pictures. She went around asking me to take pictures of her with all of the other family members. Here are just a few.


Uncle Dan

Grandma CeCe

Grand-Da

After leaving the temple, we headed straight to the reception, which was a lot of fun. I was able to see and visit with my cousin Lisa and her husband Chris, and also spend some more time with John's brothers and their wives who we don't see very often. Hudson kept trying to escape outside during dinner, but as soon as the dancing started, both kids were well entertained. Makenna loved dancing with Marie, and we all had a great time.

We are so glad that we were able to make the trip out to NY; (even if it was 2300 miles and 4 days in the car!) it was well worth it to be there, and be a part of Joey and Marie's wedding.

Niagara Falls

Last week we had the chance to travel to Rochester, NY for uncle Joey's wedding (John's brother). Since we were driving...yes, driving...all the way to NY, we thought that we would take the opportunity to go and see Niagara Falls since it is only an hour away from Rochester. John had visited once as a kid, but I had never been before, and was very excited to see this amazing landmark. We arrived at our hotel on Wednesday evening, and after spending 2 days in the car, we happily walked down to the Niagara Falls Park.

I was so impressed with the falls and thought they were amazing, but the kids were more interested in playing with the dirt right in front of the guard rails!

On Thursday morning, we decided to take the kids on the Maid of the Mist boat ride that goes right up to the falls. We thought it was a good idea...

The before

The during

The after

The poor kids were terrified when they started getting sprayed with water. They both cried the whole time we were getting wet. I did feel bad for them, but John and I also thought it was pretty funny. They recovered quickly, so I don't think they were too traumatized. Afterwards, we took a few more pictures before jumping in the car and driving to Rochester.

Update

Wow, a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks. Here is a quick recap.

First, I celebrated my 27th birthday. We were in the midst of packing for our move to Omaha, so my birthday was pretty low key, but John and the kids helped to make it special.

Next was our move to Omaha, which happened on the 25th of May. We rented a big truck, loaded up all of our stuff (with the help of some awesome, really strong guys!), and after saying some tearful good-byes to all of our wonderful friends in Bloomington, we were on our way to Omaha. Since I had the kids in the car by myself, while John drove the truck, we broke the drive up into two days.

We arrived in Omaha on Thursday the 26th, and the next morning, we closed on our very FIRST house! We are so excited to finally be home owners.