Our Summer ( 1 post, 3 months!)

Happy end of Labor Day weekend everyone! Hope you weren't laboring too hard. I worked this weekend myself but thankfully had today off and so did John! So it was all weekend crammed into a day...but more on that later. I shouldn't get ahead of myself considering this post is a quick catch up of the past 3 months of summer and a admission that most likely from now on, this will be how I run the ye ole blog. Let's face it, even though I plan to work part time for a year or so, we will adding a new family member shortly and I won't pretend like dropping one shift a week will open many doors of blogging possibility! This blog is meant to be a place of keeping up, sharing some thoughts and ideas to family, friends etc. No pressure ; )

Ok so I'll get on with it. This summer...hmmm let's see.

We left off in May after we returned from Alabama. We came back thoroughly anticipating seeing our baby on ultrasound and hearing about their health and of course the gender.

JUNE

And we know...GIRL!! I knew when I saw the ultrasound. Some silent tears of joy and excitement came from me while John stared at the wall. JK. I told him its just because he is a good girl dad which he definitely is. So there you go. See you in November little baby!

Before that, we immediately jumped into redoing Ellie's nursery to a "big girl room" the weekend we got back. It was a success! We painted, put together furniture, and I decorated until it was right. Ellie loves it and her bunk beds. I'll share completed pictures when I FINALLY post a home tour of our new house.

We took Ellie to Blowing Rock, NC to see Thomas the Train at Tweetsie Railroad amusement park. It was so fun and the weather was perfect and Ellie was so excited. She loves some Thomas so we had to go while he was there.

JULY

July 4th weekend my parents came to visit and we had a little home incident from an air conditioning unit that was placed and not connected correctly.

The ceiling partly fell their first night here but we didn't let it damper the whole weekend. We were definitely extremely aggravated and all the what-ifs circled my mind from paying to repairing but I can say now it all worked out. While my parents were here we celebrated their birthdays and grilled out. On July 3rd we went to Table Rock State Park to swim and picnic. On the 4th my parents had to leave and I worked that night some so that was our holiday weekend. A fine time had by all.

Next we celebrated the upcoming 

wedding of John's sister Holly and her fiancé Jonathan. We had a big cookout dinner at our home with appetizers, a meal and a dessert bar! It was a wonderful night and we were so happy to host our family finally! Oh... and John and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary that day. Cheers!

The next day we got to see my cousins Ashley and Drew and their daughter Joelle as well as my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim. It was wonderful to catch up and have a quick brunch at our house. It was as entertaining as ever to see our daughters together. They are about 6 months apart, just like Ashley and I!

Drinking buddies 😉

The next weekend we left for summer vacation to Edisto Island, SC. We spent a week with John's family relaxing, beaching, eating, napping and having quiet morning drinking coffee on the porch with a book (me). Ellie loved the water (we got a pool membership that week at a nearby resort) and we had a good time. By the time we got home it was already...

AUGUST

We got our ceiling fixed from last month and a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling! It took 2 days, a bad attitude from yours truly, lots of cleaning afterwards but a beautiful finished product as a result. Ellie and I went to the Children's Museum and Library to try and help stay out of the way during construction...

We went to a Greenville Drive baseball game courtesy of John's company! I had been wanting to go, you know stadium food, and he finally scored some tickets. We thought it was going to get rained out but alas it only started about 30 minutes late for the delay. We made it through 3 or 4 innings which was enough. It was late and I felt like I was just getting hotter the longer we were there lol.

We spent the next day starting on the nursery. We painted, put together the crib and arranged the furniture. I also ended up washing some clothes, blankets, etc and started to organize the closet.
This had been a goal of mine to set-up/redo the kid rooms this summer so it was nice to just about be there. Besides, once I'm heading towards the end of a pregnancy, I don't really want to be worried about finishing xyz if possible. I just want it all done and sit back to enjoy the time before there are big changes and new baby is here!

Ellie and I went to our 1st tea party...

At the end of this month, we went to NC to visit my family. We hadn't been since February when we celebrated Ellie's birthday so we were overdue for a trip. We had a nice weekend with family and got to meet the newest member of our family: Baby Solomon! 

By the time we got back, it was practically September. The summer went by pretty quickly and was a good one but a HOT one. Not that I need to tell anyone that but for real. HOT. We spent some days inside, some days in the little pool and sometimes just staying out for entertainment. Oh! We also *pretty much* potty trained Ellie in August after vacation and while its not perfect, it is much better than what I kinda expected. I'd say most days she is 95% there. But we still have our regression days that just about drive me crazy. 

She is changing so much now it seems. This is just one more step to make a her "big girl". She is pretty incredible that little Ellie. She is going to be such a good big sister. I don't know about the transition at first but after we all adjust, she will be so good. Anyway! Signing off for now and expecting to write a September post before a home tour but it's coming in October! I should think...

Hope you all had a beautiful summer and great farewell weekend to the unofficial end of it!