Lessons from July

July is winding down, and it has been a busy whirlwind of a month. It's been a month of some important lessons, and I will share a few with you.

1. An almost 2 year old is not a reliable sommelier.
2. Skidaway Island has a gang of rogue deer.
3. Gammie and Grandad need to live closer.
4. No matter how hard you try, time just doesn't slow down...

I shall explain.

First off, Jason worked a ton of back-to-back shifts near the beginning of the month. For those of you who don't know, what that means is that this Mama is one tired woman at the end of that stretch. I attempted (to no avail) to find a babysitter one of the first nights he was off. All of our options didn't pan out, and it turned out to be a good thing because we had a fabulous date night right here at Samuel Lyon Way. After being a little discouraged about the babysitter fail, I sent Jason and Jake to the store for steaks, fries, and anything else they could find for dinner. We left our gas grill at the rental because that thing was probably not safe to cook on anymore, and we want to do a backyard project here that includes a nice bricked in grill. However, we aren't there yet in the planning, so I went to Lowe's and purchased a little fold up charcoal grill. It's a real beaut - you'll see pics in a moment. I digress... Anyhoo, so apparently Jason decided it might be a good idea to buy a bottle of wine then thought  it would be even better to buy two bottles. However, he let Jake pick out the second bottle. Yep, you read that correctly. Jake naturally picked a bottle with a truck on it. Well, let me tell you that Red Truck wine was about the most disgusting wine I have ever tried. The Jakeman is on wine picking restriction. However, the other bottle and I quickly became acquainted. We had dinner, put the kiddos to bed, and went back outside where we sat listening to music and enjoying some beer and wine until about 11 pm. It was a wonderful evening, and I was really glad that no babysitter was available.

NOT the Red Truck selection

Daddy + trampoline + football = fun

Jason says with this purchase all ideas of future renovations just need to stop- we are done - haha

So first lesson learned. Notes taken, moving on...

And on to the second point.  We I fell in love with the house from the get go, but the yard needed some work. For those that are wondering, the hubs did not have any sort of emotional connection to any house, but he's loving the house now. There was no way that we were going to get all this done, so we hired people to do this. I have never in my life seen people work so stinking hard to get a job done. From the sprinkler system, to the sod, to the plant placement, it was a major undertaking. Here are a few BEFORE pics:

Here are a few of the AFTER shots:

If you will notice in the first "after" photo, there are lovely Indian Hawthornes in the front yard.  Alas, they are currently naked. You see, Skidaway Island is a nature preserve. Because of that, the island has a rogue deer population. They are completely unafraid of people. We spent money of this deer repellent only to find out that earlier in the evening, 5 deer had been munching on the plants. When we got home and our lights hit the deer, I think one of them gave us the finger before he went back to eating. Ugh... Still, it looks better than before, and hopefully we will find plants that they don't like to eat on the first day.

Jason's parents were here for a visit, and the boys had a grand ole time. Jake loves him some GamGam and Grandad, so he was in Heaven. I think Jake informed him that crying babies are carried around babies, so Connor quickly figured out how to get picked up when he got tired of sitting in one spot. Haha. Gammie and Grandad also stepped in to save the day when Jason and I got a 24 bug. Thank Heaven for the grand parentals! We did spend a day at Tybee, and here are a few pics from that trip.

C chillin'

Daddy, Jake, and Gammie playin in the waves

Dude, it's like a giant sound machine!! Totally relaxin...

We saw about 10 dolphins

Jake and Grandad

Tybee Lighthouse

Connor is 5 months old today. It seems like yesterday that we brought him home. I keep a journal for the boys - one for each- that I started during my pregnancies. I don't know when I will give it to them, but I try to include things about what's happening in our lives as well as my feelings about them. Hopefully, it will be something that they look back on and enjoy one day. Jason and I were smiling at Jake yesterday as he put on his Daddy's baseball hat and tennis shoes and began to walk out of the room in a shuffle. Jason made the comment that one day his feet would be that big and he would probably be taller than Jason. It made me tear up to even think about. As overwhelming as the days are many days, I remind myself that my boys won't always need me to kiss a boo-boo or even want to kiss me at all! So for now I will stop writing on here to go log a few entries in the journals, but I will post a few pics I snapped of Connor this morning for his "I am 5 months old" pics.