Columbus Zoo trip

Back in April (wow, is it already June?) Jeremy and I had some vacation time. Rather than going away, this time we had a stay-cation. It really was the best! We mostly just relaxed and tinkered around the house. I can't believe all that I was able to get done in the house and around the yard! As for outings, among other things, we took a trip to the Columbus Zoo:


My, were the gorillas active that day! In particular, these two juvenile gorillas were SO funny. They were wrestling like crazy - bodyslams, putting each other into headlocks...

This gorilla was making faces and sticking his tongue out. The boys were not so sure what to think of him. :-)

The boy with the cutest smile on the planet:

Wish it would last forever...

Today (Saturday), Jeremy took Matthew to the grocery store with him for about 15 minutes. On the way home Matthew asked, "Now I get to see my brother?"

Jordan was waiting at the window for them to get home. When he saw the car pull in the drive, Jordan ran out into the driveway. Jeremy opened Matthew's door and the first thing Matt said was, "Jordan, I missed you. So. Bad!"
Then they immediately embraced each other as if they hadn't seen one another for days.
Matthew asked Jordan, "Did you miss me so bad too?"
Jordan answered, nodding, "M-hm, I was waiting for you."

How sweet are these boys?? They have their moments when they seem to be enemies, but they are best buds, and I hope they stay that way forever...

#58...Check!

#58 Make a photobook of my blog - completed 06/04/10

Look at what the FedEx Man dropped off at my door yesterday. :-) Isn't it beautiful?!




I'm so excited to have turned my 2009 blog into a beautiful hard-bound book. It was even easier than I thought it would be too! I used a free application from Blurb to create it. First, the application "slurps" your blog into the editor and then you customize it to your liking. Once you have your pages set up the way you like them, you order your book online through Blurb and FedEx ships it a week later. In all, I think I probably spent 10 - 12 hours putting everything together. It's 96 pages long, and if I consider how much time and money I would have spent scrapbooking 96 pages of pictures, the cost of this blog book was SO worth it! I'll definitely still scrapbook many of my 2009 pictures, but the journaling included in my blog book is priceless.

My 101 in 1001

In case you're wondering...

Jeremy has only 2 more weeks left of residency!! YAY!!!!

Me and My Boys

Mother's Day 2010

I'm so blessed to be Matthew and Jordan's mommy! They are the cutest, most fun, sweetest, silliest little boys. They're so kind, obedient (for the most part ;-)) and they love to make their mommy happy. Because of them, I have fresh wildflowers (or dandelions) to wear in my hair every day, and a smile on my face as I lie down to bed at night. I love you, Matt-matt and Jordi! You make me a happy momma. :-)

(Isn't this picture SO cute?! Ha!)

We were also lucky enough to visit my mom on Mother's Day. I feel blessed to have such an amazing woman as a mother. My mom has taught me what true motherly love is all about. There aren't words to describe how grateful I am for the constant care, love and selfless service she has to our family for the past 29 years. And let me tell you, there aren't two luckier little boys in the world because my mom is the greatest grandma. She lives for those boys and gives them so much love. I couldn't ask for more.

Mother's Day Garden Party

To celebrate Mother's Day, I wanted to do something special for some of the ladies here in Dayton who have touched my life in the past four years. So, I hosted a Mother's Day Garden Party. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of all of us girls that were there, but oh well. I did capture some of the details...

The Invitations - so simple, but so cute. Made with scrapbook
paper, silk flowers and a packet of flower seeds.

The table settings/decorations - The color scheme was light pink,
dark pink and yellow. The bouquets turned out so cute, and adding
lemons to the vases was the perfect touch to bring in some of the
yellow. I incorporated the garden theme into the place settings by
adding silk flowers to the napkin rings and using silk flowers as
holders for the place cards. I also had some big tissue paper
pom-pom flowers (I found the idea on Martha Stewart)
hanging from the ceiling and they seriously looked so pretty
(unfortunately I don't have a pic of those).

The food - Jeremy was sweet enough to do the cooking (since it
was Mother's Day after all :-)). My sister helped me out with the
desserts. Everything turned out amazing! My favorite were the
adorable flower marshmallow pops - so cute! The cake was also
awesome. We used yellow Peeps to create an adorable sunflower cake.

It was such a fun time just relaxing and enjoying some girl talk. All of these girls are such an example to me and I look up to each of them in different ways. Happy Mother's Day!

In Bloom

I'm back. :-) I have no excuses for not visiting for more than a month - I just haven't really felt like blogging lately. Anyway, it's been a beautiful, exciting spring so far and I have much to catch up on...

By early summer my yard is a mess and I hate it (it's just too much to take care of), but it's an amazing place in the spring. :) All of my trees (except for one) bloom in the spring, and then I have an exquisite garden of daffodils. Some pics of my yard in full bloom:

I'm actually not sure what kind of tree this is, but it's probably my favorite in bloom. This tree has tons and tons of little pink buds and then they bloom into tiny white flowers. It's an explosion of pink and white gorgeousness. :-)

Ah, my lilac tree. Smells so sweet...

To think we almost cut this tree down during our first summer here... When we first moved in, it was more of a huge bush in the middle of the yard rather than a tree. I'm so glad we decided to trim it up rather than chop it down, because we realized the following spring that it was beautiful Red Bud tree - not a big ugly bush. Isn't it amazing?!

I'm sad that the blooms only last a few weeks! Now green leaves have replaced the flowers and we've already had a couple weeks of 80-degree weather. Summer, here we come!