7 Months

We are SEVEN months old.  Life is pretty good, we are teething, rolling, grunting, screaming, snuggling and doing a little bit of crawling!  We're sleeping 12-14 hours a night, take one to two naps per day, love mixed veggies and all sorts of fruits!

Willie here, I have a top tooth coming in, am drooling a lot, but I don't really like teething rings....my fingers taste pretty good, so who needs them!

I'm sitting up with assistance, but prefer to get my roll on if I need to go somewhere!

Sammy here, although this picture looks like I have no hair, and am rocking the horseshoe style, probably why I'm "old man Sam"....my hair is coming in pretty good now, maybe someday I might catch up to my bro.  I still only have my one eye tooth coming in, but love chewing on anything and everything.

Mom and dad's friends got us these pretty rockin' hats, Will didn't like his as much as I did.

The weather here in Wisconsin is pretty crazy, we had some super warm days a few weeks ago, so mom and dad took us out for a walk, it was pretty exhausting and we forgot our sun glasses so every time mom would turn a corner the sun would blind us.  Lesson learned and glasses bought.

Jenga

This project turned out great, is a total hit but was the most tedious project we have ever done.  The actual cutting of the jenga pieces was not the difficult part, but it was the sanding of each piece and sealing them each with three....THREE coats of polyurethane.

There are 54 pieces, 10 1/2 inches each.  Obviously you will want to find the straightest boards you can find.

We have a bunch of stain from different projects, so in an attempt to use them up we used the five different stains.  I eyeballed how many boards were used for each stain.

Then came polyurethane coat number one.  Once dried, followed with sanding:

Then polyurethane coat number two, followed by more sanding:

Then once that was dried, coat number three went on.

The ends that were face down on the cardboard go their own treatment on our work bench since the cardboard would have stuck to the bottom.

Once that was all dry and smooth we were ready to rock!



Then came the fun.  Warm summer nights, cocktails, cookouts and jenga on the patio.

Oh how this makes me dream for summer.  If you do not have your own Jenga set, this would be a great project to work on so you have it ready to go when the weather warms up!

Cornhole

I love that my hubby is handy, and that I am crafty.  Not knocking people who would purchase this from the store, but we were able to build "bags" for a fraction of the retail price and love the durability!

We got the measurements from here, but added our own touch with the stenciling and stain.

Materials:

• 1/2 inch plywood, 24" x 48" pieces (2)
• 2 x 4 x 11-1/2" (4)
• 1-5/8" screws
• 4" x 1/2" Carriage Bolts (4)
• Wing Nuts
• Washers
• Wood Stain (Minwax Golden Oak)
• Polyurethane
• Paint (I used whatever I had leftover from old projects)
• Stencil(s) (purchased from Michaels Craft Store)
• Application sponge
• Paint brush

The hubby worked his magic and constructed them.  The above site we used for the materials, also has step by step directions on putting them together.  Then I worked my magic with paint, stencils and stain.

I had no rhyme or reason to where I placed the stencil, I just kept at it until I felt it was done.

Then once the paint was dry (which was dry by the time I was done stenciling the second board), I applied the stain.  This step is best done with a paint brush, I found that a clothe and sponge did not apply the stain all that well.

I was worried when I was stenciling the yellow flowers, I thought the color was too light, but it turned out awesome!

I opted to NOT fill the screw holes...this is an outdoor game, and frankly I liked the look of it, plus it saved me a boat load of time filling and sanding them.

While I was applying the stain I would work on a section, then wipe off any extra with a towel.  Worked perfect!  I applied two coats of stain on the boards.  I noticed with two coats, it gave the stencil a more distressed look.    I am obsessed with it though and love how it turned out!

I love how they turned out.  Once I was done staining, (we did the front and back of the boards), we polyurethaned them with a floor polyurethane that we had from this project.

I could have saved some more money by making the bags myself....Sewing is not my forte, so I opted to buy them from Sports Authority.

Funny thing we worked our butts off to finish this before the hubby's 30th birthday....got it done, and we didn't end up using them.  Go figure, but at least we have them for other parties!

Outside Updates

In the midst of our patio being done...

















and our yard looking like a bomb exploded on it...





















We decided that we needed to add a little more cohesiveness, so we ordered mulch.

I measured, and figured out we needed about eight yards.

The hubby thought, the more the merrier, and added another EIGHT yards....making 16 yards TOTAL! (please excuse my oh so stylish outfit, I obviously didn't care and was covered in sweat and mulch)

Needless to say we were swimming in it, but on a positive note we won't have to mulch for the next couple years.

My dad had a field stone wall that he had replaced last year and gave Chad and I all of it to use for our landscaping.  I was not sure where we were going to use it, but knew that we would somehow.

We finally figured it out, bumped out all of the edging around the house and beefed things up with larger field stone we had stored behind our shed.

We also planted a ton of perennials mostly, and opted to keep the bushes that were already established in the front. 

Giles van Heese (Spike Speedwell)

One trip left me with eight spireas that we planted on the edge of our property between our house and our neighbor to the west.  It's nothing against him, he's actually a pretty awesome neighbor, but we want our yard to feel a little more closed in. 

Now we just need a lot of water and a little patience...

Rooftop Garden Mix Stonecrop Sedum

Fox Red Curly Sedge

Weeping Cranberry Cotoneaster  (we have named him "Berry")

Baby Tut

and pots...who doesn't love to add a little color with annuals...

Cerveza n' Lime (smells amazing)