How to entertain a 2 year old for more than 2 minutes

Miles has recently gotten into house cleaning :) He loves to "do the dishes" or run the swivel sweeper  (which is my new favorite thing for my floors) while I am getting dinner ready....

I'm just now realizing he has no pants on in ANY of those pictures, guess I didn't realize my child rarely wears pants :) and man check our that wild hair! 

pure joy

squinting buddies

Lovely sister Jess and nephew Gray

laugh'in it up

happy boy

My beautiful mother

The way home....sipping on some smoothie's :) 

The new joint....

It's been so great getting settled in our new home. We ADORE our neighborhood in one of the historical districts of Fort Wayne. Although our house isn't that old, we still get to enjoy the perks of living in an older area: what my brother calls "The 05" (the last two digits of our zip). For example, when we moved in, a woman across the street who owns her own yarn shop down the road (like out of a book, right?) brought us a delicious cherry pie....seriously who does that?! So great!

But most of all, I am so excited to have a place; a space for us to offer up to God. I'm excited to see how He will use this home to make Himself known, praying that if these walls could talk they would speak of a family who made much of Jesus Christ.

Well, I thought I would share some pictures of our house as we get settled, so here is a picture of my first project for the house. Refinishing and recovering a dining room set.  The coolest part about this project is that this set was once my great grandma's, so it made it even better knowing my great grandma once served her family on this very table, when my grandma was a little girl. And now I get to use it for my family. So neat...

Father's Day 2011

I left for a Young Life camp in Jasper, Georgia on Father's Day, but we were able to celebrate with Adam the day before. I am extremely thankful to call Adam the father of my son! He an amazing servant; always putting us before himself. He is all the things good dads are made of and much more! We love you Adam/Dada!

Miles had a great time celebrating his dad, but my favorite thing was when I allowed him to pick from a group of pictures a photo to print off and frame, he picked the photo of him and his dad playing the guitar together. Then, when we went to the store, he picked out a gift for his dad, he chose an inflatable guitar! I just love it, apparently he sees his dad as the rock star he is!

lil update

****This update is SOO old but I wanted to post it anyways cause Im way behind!

Written 5/31

It's been a fun and crazy past couple of weeks getting ready to move! Yes we are moving....we bought a house, and we take possession today in about 2 hours. We are super excited and really thankful to have a place of our own. Being at my mom and dad's for the past 2 years has been SO great, really we have been so thankful that they have been supportive of us and really wonderful roommates. It's amazing how well it has worked out. We are in many ways sad to move out, Miles is going to miss having his PaPa and JuJu around all the time.

Anyways, more on our new house and moving after today when we are the actual homeowners....you never know, something weird could happen, right?  **(it didn't, we got the house- which explains my blogging world absence- not as if anyone noticed but my mom :)

The past few weekends have been really busy and so much fun. My sisters and mom and I planned a trip back in January when my older sister Jess turned 30. We decided that when each of us turns the big 3-0 we would plan a weekend getaway to celebrate together (instead of grieve:). So we planned it for May to Ann Arbor. We went two weekends ago and had an absolute blast! No kids....which was hard for all the moms, but also so great to have all that time together. I absolutely LOVE my sisters and my Mom (and when I say sisters, I am 100% including my sister-in-law(s) in the title) I adore them, I value their opinions, I love their humor! We just drank up every second with each other laughing and talking for three days straight!

Then this past Memorial day weekend we spent 2 days at the lake. Ahhhhh to the start of lake season! Miles' had a blast playing outside and riding in the boat. I loved when he feel asleep in the boat in my arms. It made me nostalgic thinking of all the times I drifted off as a little girl in someone's arms with the warm sun beating down, the boat rocking back and forth from the waves, and the hum of the engine. My mom says the lake soothes her soul and I say amen to that.....

Sewing project take II, III & IV.

After my first attempt at making Miles a shirt turned out to be easy (but kinda small, he was only able to wear it like 5 times) I decided it was a cinch so I started in on shirt number two but wanted to make it bigger but without a pattern. Ok, harder than I thought.... fail. No good. Thats ok, you learn from your mistakes, right?

So I went on to attempt it again. I was sure I knew what my mistakes were and set out to fix them. Well, I swallowed my pride when it turned out looking pretty silly again. But I decided I was dead-set on fixing it so I asked for some advice from the aunt hill. I have some ridiculously talented and crafty aunts in my life who gave me some advice and I was able to end up with this...

Still not amazing, a little too short and neck a little too wide but gosh darn it, he's wearing it! I think I'll be going to JoAnn's for a pattern next time.

My model who was having too much fun playing to stop and pose for me:) 

Congratulations Mr. Clark

This past weekend Adam graduated with his Masters in public relations! Finished! Woohoo! So proud of all his hard work, but mostly proud of all the ways he has fought to love others and love our family well along the way. And yes I made him pose on the front step in his cap and gown. You only graduate once right....or maybe twice?