Pinterest Challenge

One of my favorite blogs is Young House Love, I follow it religiously, and yesterday they posted a Pinterest Challenge since it has become the new Internet sensation these days.  Katie from Bower Power, Emily from Style by Emily Henderson and Lana from Making a House A Home are also in on the fun and they've invited anyone with a Pinterest obsession to join in too. 

The idea is to challenge yourself to complete one DIY project that you've pinned on Pinterest and have it done by next Tuesday.  Since I love a challenge and could use some type of creative outlet, I've picked out a few small projects to try my hand at this weekend.  I figured if I start small then there's no where to go but up!  So here are the projects I'll be tackling this weekend and sharing with you on Tuesday.

1. A fun toy for Hudson to play with in the pool.  I think these are so adorable!

 2. A little inspiration for me.

 3. I've been wanting to make some of these to use as the mobile in Harper's nursery above her changing table.

These are all very simple projects, so hopefully I can get them all completed and start enjoying some of my pins instead of just staring at them!

Practice Makes Perfect

I've been taking my new camera everywhere with me with the hopes that I can sneak in some practice at a moments notice.  I'm learning all the settings and what I like best.  It's so much fun!  Soon I would like to start shooting some of my friend's kids to get the feel for that a little more.

Harper's 1st Zoo Trip

Hudson on his new bike

Hudson and me taking a dip in my parents hottub.

 Jeremy and Hudson doing some rock climbing at Falls Park in Sioux Falls.

He just woke up from a nap and actually let me get some shots of his little ouchie on his nose.

My beautiful baby girl.

Just look at those eyelashes would ya?!

So Yummy!

We crossed another Summer Family Fun activity off our list; Rootbeer Float Night.  We actually did this awhile ago, but with a new baby thrown in the mix, I haven't been able to keep up with all the pictures!

This was by far the yummiest activity on our list so far and lots of fun introducing Hudson to the creamy goodness!

Rootbeer from a local microbrewery

He loved every last drop of it!

We might have to repeat this activity a few times this summer...just looking at the pictures is making my mouth water!

Uggghhh...

So we've had these chairs on our deck for 3 years, sure they're really faded from the sun, but they're still comfortable and still do their job. 

However, this year the squirrels finally discovered our padded chairs and decided to take the filling that they needed to build their nests!  This happened to my sister's patio chairs a couple years ago and I was surprised that our lasted this long without being destroyed. 

Not only did they trash one chair...

 But they thought it was necessary to destroy a second one just for good measure.

We don't have the money to buy new chairs or new covers this summer, so I guess we'll have to suffer through the rest of the season staring at these poor things.  If I were a professional seamstress I would try to make some new covers, but alas I'm am not.  Bummer!

If anyone has any secrets to keeping squirrels away from padded lawn furniture, I would LOVE to hear them!.

Flowers

Since we were about to have a new baby, I didn't want to get a bunch of flowers that I might not be able to take the best care of this summer, so instead I decided on some low maintenance flowers (and not very many) and called it good for this year.  They're not very fancy, but they look good and add some much needed pops of color to our otherwise colorless yard.

This is the pot on our front porch.

 Please ignore the filthy dirty table.  We've had a lot of rain lately.

Next summer I'd like to do a lot more.  I love how cheerful flowers are and how even just a few pots can transform a entry or patio.

Check ...

Remember the Summer Family Fun List I made last month?  Well, we've already been crossing things off and having so much fun doing it!  Since I actually made a list this summer of all the things I always want to do in the summer months, I was sure to include activities that I've had good intentions of doing in the past, but never seemed to get around to doing them until it's too late.  One of those activities is picking strawberries at a strawberry farm in town, but this time we finally did it! I've always missed my chance because the season only lasts around 3 weeks. But now I'm so glad I wanted until I had Hudson before going anyway.  He loved it and took it very seriously.  He did such a good job at only picking the red ones.  We were very proud of him!  I even enjoyed myself despite the heat and being 9 months pregnant!

 The strawberries were delicious and so fresh!  They have raspberry picking in July and we've already made plans to go back for that.

One of the other activities we crossed off the list (although that doesn't mean that we won't do it again and again this summer!) was going on a picnic.  I actually received all of the picnicking essentials for my bridal shower four years ago and have never used them.  I know, that pretty pathetic!  I've never been on a true picnic, so it was very exciting and to be able to take Hudson on his very first picnic was pretty special.  Especially because we were trying to get in a ton of special family fun time with the little guy before this sister arrived.  It was the perfect day for a picnic in the park complete with my favorite sandwich and salad from Paradise Bakery and then some time spend at the playground!

We've also been doing some swimming and sidewalk chalk drawing.

This weekend we're planning a rootbeer float party!  We're even picking up a growler of delicious rootbeer from a microbrewery in town.  I'll be sure to take some pictures to share. (I'm constantly practicing now with my new camera you know!)

I'm loving this whole summer list thing!  It's really gotten us in gear for having all kinds of fun.  Big fun and little family fun!

Our New Bundle of Joy!

Harper Grace



We are so in love with her!  We're so blessed to have such a beautiful baby girl! 

Her brother is still adjusting, but he's starting to figure it out...slowly.  He definitely likes her and is interested, but sometimes his jealousy gets the best of him.

Harper is such a good little baby that hopefully I'll be able to finally finish her nursery and work on some of the other projects I have in mind!

Camera Practice

My little niece was born last week, so we've been busy with that and preparing for our own baby to arrive.  I took a chance and traveled the 1 1/2 to my hometown to see my sister's family and their new addition and to check out all of the flooding, which incidentally has gotten much worse since we were there last Saturday.  Both of these gave me the opportunity to practice with my new camera!  I was so excited to take pictures of baby Emersyn!

 She is wearing one of the onesie stickers that I got for her.  It's so cute!

Here are a few of the flooding.

This is a picture of a restaurant and hotel located right along the river.  It now has water all around it.

 Here is a huge group of people volunteering filling sandbags to build a wall around the YWCA which is also located along the river.

 A shot of the bridge joining Nebraska and Iowa.  The river is usually much, much lower.

 Here is another hotel and restaurant located on the Nebraska side of the Missouri.  It has a huge wall built around it to help keep water out.

I took this picture of the Nebraska side while driving back to Omaha on I-29.

We couldn't even get to the really flooded areas because they are closed to passersby, but if you'd like to see more, there are tons of photos posted online by all the local media.

I'm loving my new camera so much and am taking tons of pictures everyday, but we've been so busy preparing for the baby that I haven't had a chance to get them on the computer yet.  And we are finally making some really design plans for the nursery...I know, I know...we're really behind, but since she'll be sleeping in our room for the first few months I'm okay with that.

Dangerous Flooding

I am from a small town on the Missouri River in northeast Nebraska called South Sioux City, which is currently under a major flood warning.  The city is already flooding, but within the next week or so, the entire town could possibly be under water.  That also includes the surrounding cities; Sioux City, IA and Dakota Dunes, SD.  I have both family and friends living in the area who are under evacuation and dealing with moving entirely or at least removing their belongings from their basements and lower levels.  It's totally insane!!  Nothing like this has happened in my lifetime! 

This is just one photo of how it looks now...but in a few days it will look much worse.

You can see on the left the line of trees which is usually where the water stops.  It's estimated to rise 10 more feet before is all said and done and will be that way for most of the summer.

My grandpa lives in Dakota Dunes, SD where they are building a levee to keep the town from being destroyed, but there is no way of knowing if the levee will hold, so he will probably have to evacuate.

In the meantime, I'm 2 weeks from my due date and can't travel to help with anything.  And I've caught my eighth cold of this pregnancy!  Things are totally crazy around here to say the least!  That's why I haven't been blogging this week, but hopefully I'll be back at it next week.  At least with a few posts anyway.

Any prayers you could send this way would be much appreciated!

*image can be found here*