On the Hottest Day in June...

On one of the hottest days in June, we decided to landscape our poor un-landscaped house.  Luckily, we had my Dad's help.  I'll admit the boys did most of the work and I was more of a foreman doing other little spray paint projects while they worked.  Imagine me and spray paint...I've been becoming a little obsessed with it.  But back to the bushes...The boys went all out to do it correctly and not skimp on any corners.

Landscape paper and pins and all.

3 loads of mulch.

The brick walk way has been begun...

We have a friend who owns a landscape business and he recommended this concrete glue.  We got ours at Lowe's for like $3.96 a tube.

Using a guide line the edging went in perfectly.

The outside of the house is finally done!  Well mostly minus the sidewalk but I call that done compared with where we started.

Painting is Not for the Weary

Brandon and I with the help of my family thought it would be a good idea to tackle the biggest project we've ever attempted by painting the exterior of our house.  Yes the e-n-t-i-r-e outside of our home...with paintbrushes.  You heard me.  No spray gun (couldn't figure out how to work it).  No rollers (didn't work well with the textured siding).  3" Paint brushes.  Sure we live in a small place but it was a crazy undertaking folks.  Luckily I have the best parents in the world who happily joined us on several occasions to help.  

Sorry to be graphic once again but as a reminder...
The Before:

Side bar:  Please note the beautiful gingerbread decorative molding on the porch.  I say with deepest regret that it is no longer with us.  It lived a good life but did not withstand the pressures of being transformed with the house.  I hope to one day pay homage to it by returning new decorative molding to the porch but alas now I can only mourn its loss.

Choosing the color:

Our house was painted in these stripes for at least a week.  You would think it would be embarrassing for the neighborhood.  Let's just say on hand it was and on one hand we fit right in.

Painting is messy.  But lucky for us, everyone embraced it.  When you decide to paint an entire house with paintbrushes, its all hands on deck.

Sure... when you get my family together for any project, monograms start flying everywhere.  So I should of known when Cara decided it was important for the mailbox to get a make over as well, she would assign Camille the task of monogramming it.

She free-handed it.  Pretty talented sis I've got, huh?!

The finished exterior paint:

Minus the porch.

Next....for the landscaping.  You thought the difference between 

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these two are huge.  You just wait for the landscaping.

The BIG Reveal!

So I know at least one of you out there in the blogosphere has been waiting on this moment.  This is for you Caity Shinnick!  

We finally "finished" the outside transformation on the house.  "Finished" because we still have a brick sidewalk to build and some finishing touches on a few flowers, but FINISHED nonetheless!  After almost 2 months of work, the GINORMOUS feat of painting an entire house and redoing all the landscaping is finally done.

Now the photo you are about to see is graphic.  Please prepare yourself.

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The Before:

Yes it does look like it might fall down.  Just for clarity, it had already been super pressure washed and the paint had been stripped off the porch to prepare for painting which surprisingly makes it look much worse until you get the paint on.  Store that up in your book of knowledge so you aren't surprised when you come home like I was with all the paint stripped.


The Finished Product:

To see how the transformation took place, check here and here.

Life at the Beach is Good. Part 2.

Okay so you know I took like a million photos of my adorable nephews cheesing it up over our week at the beach and I just can't stop with one post.  So for your viewing pleasure, part 2 of our family vaca!

One night we went to Pier Park to the "fun playground" as Copelan called it.

Caden won an eye patch as you can see.  He wore it for the 24 hours straight, including to the pool where it sadly broke.  Caden loved the ferris wheel with his Dad.

 Copelan was very excited about his golden ticket.

Copelan rode the Cubbie Caboose and loved it.  Can you tell?  Look at that cheesy grin.

The boys asked every day when we were going to Sharky's so when Wednesday finally rolled around and we went, they were ecstatic.

 Caden got the crab legs he'd been dying for all week.

 

B and Cope loved the shark!

Family Pictures on the Beach

 

Aren't they the sweetest?!

The boys make pictures so cute and so hard.  Boys do not stand still.
Here are some of the cuter less posed pictures...

 

The 4rd picture was in response to me saying "Caden strike your best pose."  Love it.

Sorry for the 1000 pictures.  They are just all so cute.  I couldn't resist.