Little Buzz! Little Buzz! Where are you!?

Today we had an incident - Ethan dropped little buzz light year down our vent. He wasn't happy! Dada came to the rescue and about 5 ideas later we were able to rescue Buzz. Of course I was laughing the whole time and Ethan was trying to "help Dada." It was a cute moment.

Before...and After

So, I wish I could say the before and after pictures were of me...but they're not! Darn! I had big plans for getting into shape this summer, but I am going to blame my weight not budging on my thyroid...which is still sluggish. Maybe one day I will have before and after pics of myself! he he he

Anyways, this summer was marked by lots of remodeling. This was not by choice - but we are now thankful to have it all done. On the very first day of summer we started the journey through some bad water damage. I will make the story short and spare you all of the boring/stressful details, but we had leaking water coming from our master bathroom. It was coming down the walls into our living/dining room. We also had another incident in our guest bathroom with leaking water. So, we ended up filing two insurance claims this summer and pretty much had guys in my house everyday. Now we are pleased to have all new tiles in our master bath, all new painting in our bathroom, hallway, living room and dining room, and (the best part), new carpet!

Dining room before (James added the square molding on the bottom)

Dining room after (it looks similar, but we actually changed the shades of the teal and brown - I like it much better)...and notice new carpet? 

Upstairs Hallway Before...boring!

Upstairs Hallway After - James also added the chair molding and squares

I am bummed that I don't have before pictures of our master bathroom....but the tile was really light and not so pretty. The walls were an ugly green and the sink area was dark purple. We hated it! So, we are thankful to have it more neutral and also have a nice, new working toilet....(yes, we have had a non-working toilet in our master bath since we moved in). We also like the stones on the bottom of our shower stall! Check it out...

I have also been working on hanging up some collages of pictures. I had a project of hanging all of our nieces and nephews (along with three black and whites of Ethan) on our wall going up the stairs. This is not easy to do! I still keep looking at it wondering if it looks right. I might still have some adjusting to do.

Fun at Island Lake!

We have had a lot of fun at Island Lake this summer! In the beginning of the summer Ethan wasn't so sure about the water or sand - but now he is a pro at making a total mess of himself in the sand and splashing in the water. We have been there with both family and friends...and plan to make a few more trips before summer is over!

Ethan with cousins, Rece and Brody (Rece is very cold)!

Ethan with his good friend, Max.

GW - Ethan's first ride on a real horse!

Ethan has been into horses lately. He is always pointing them out when he sees them and talks about "horsies running away" a lot.

He loves to ride, "Sandy," the horse, at Meijer. In the checkout line he always asks me for some "moneys" he holds his penny ever so tight as he waits for his turn to ride the horse. I always ask him if he wants to ride a REAL HORSE one day and he enthusiastically says YES!

So, we decided to take a family trip to Mayberry State Park and let Ethan have his first, 5 minute ride, on a REAL HORSIE! Ethan's horses name was GW and he was a little bit stubborn - but Ethan loves every second of it (even if he doesn't look like it in the pictures - he was being very serious).

When his ride as done he quickly starting asking, "another one? another one?" :)