Just Tuesday

We had a visitor on Tuesday.
Stephanie Yando (who has so many similarities to me - other than her name - it is crazy) brought over HER boarder collie, Carlie.

 

Naturally there was much herding going on.

 Then mommy worked on her spoons garden project - which turned out less than professional looking. Oh well.

After a nap we went to the pool.

Then we played with mommy's garden spoons till dinner time.

Playing in the dirt - even if it is in a pot - is still fun for a little bug.

buddies

I think they became play buddies this week.
Every night for the last week, when mom and dad are too tired to keep running around, Brad and Portland figured out that there is someone else who still has energy.
Here's the run down of our nights this week. First, Portland brings out her multi-squeaky lion and plops it in the middle of the room. Then she starts to de-fluff it, and slowly pulls out little tiny pieces of fluff till either I or Brad notices. Either way, she wins because someone notices her.
Then Brad usually goes and sits on top of the lion, which causes a small ruckus and the games begin.
Pretty soon they are playing tug of war and Portland is dragging Bradley in circles around the house. Entertainment till bedtime.

Who wouldn't love their puppy for that.

Pjs, puppies, and play.

Let's go play mom.

I'll take the frisbee, see ya later.

 mmm, new nail polish that matches my flip flops makes me happy.

 I threw the frisbee in the bush mom!!

 HA got it mom!! Now quick throw the frisbee!!!

 Ha got it mom!! Let's go check out theeeese bushes.

 Did you hear that airplane!?!

 Bushes are so cool.

 HA! this is what you get when you come sit by mom!

 Come take a walk with me mom. I can't go down the driveway with out holding your hand. Please!  

 oookay. We'll go on a little walk around the culdesac.

 Now what.

 Time to go inside.

 Just joking, let's go look at the bushes one more time.

 Oh I thought I saw another airplane.

 Go inside? no way!

 I'm not going inside!

 hehehehe.

 hahahaha I made mommy chase me all across the yard!

 ooook. Time to go inside.

Big Swimer

We went swimming three times this week!!! Brad thinks he is ready to swim on his own. We went swimming with some friends and as soon as Brad saw the other kids swimming on their own he was pretty sure he could too. 

Last year we made it to the pool a handful of times, and Brad was only semi interested. He sat on his pool floaty duck and splashed a little.

This is Brad one year-ish ago! Cute suit, little swimmer.

Look at my big boy swimmer!! Can you believe he still fits in that same suit! I know it was huge on him last year, but this year it fits perfectly! Now I need to find one of those kid life vests and some water wings and this kid really will be able to swim on his own!!

Red Top Mountain

So around this time, one year ago we took a little hike. 

I am proud to say that this year's "first hike of the season" was much more successful!

 

We went 15 minutes up to Red Top Mountain and hiked their Homestead Trail. Beautiful!! It is a 5.5 mile trail, and 1/3 of it follows along some of Lake Allitoona. 

Bradley rode in the kid backpack again, and he really liked it. Brian complained more than Bradley did this time. 

We hiked for 2.5 miles or so and decided to sit down and have our lunch- we packed sandwiches from Panera, how rugged of us. After a half an hour of Dad saying, "We are almost there Brad, we just need to find a place." We sat our selves down on the ground - which was rugged! After our sandwiches we walked around the bend to find a lovely bench which we could have eaten at. Predictable, oh well.

After lunch, Bradley wanted to keep walking. So we donned a Bradley pace for a while before we couldn't take it any longer and plopped him back in the backpack again. Which he didn't mind.

 
Don't they look SO cute in their nearly matching shirts!
Portland equally loved the hike, and proved it so by smelling every little thing the entire 5.5 miles. Brian told me I don't write enough about her in our blog and to include how happy she was on our hike.

Everyone had so much fun, it didn't rain, it didn't thunderstorm, we had a map, and we correctly followed the map. I think we will definitely go back and hike this trail because it is so close and so pretty!

Water Torture

Last night Brian was making us wonderful crab cakes, Bradley was helping of course, and Brian had a slightly clumsy moment and dropped the open vegetable oil. I should say he has been having a slightly clumsy weekend, because this was now the second time this weekend I got to clean the kitchen floors. Anyways, I offered to clean up while Brian finished making the remoulade sauce for the crab cakes. A few seconds later Bradley shrieks and Brian and I both look up to see him rubbing an eye. Then Brian yells, "Bradley, did you get Tabasco in your eye!!!"

Not pausing to ask how on earth this would happen, I grab the baby and soak a paper towel in water and begin flushing his eye out- which of course Bradley does not enjoy. After a minute or two I pause to see if I'm actually helping the situation and as soon as I let go of Bradley he calms down and appears as though nothing is wrong. I begin examining his eyes and find they look the same. Surely if you got Tabasco in your eye it would be bright red. I look at Brian and ask how Brad got Tabasco in his eye to which Brian says, "I don't know, maybe it dripped in just the right way?"
I examined the rest of Bradley and didn't find anything wrong. At this point I realized I may have given my son a little water torture for no reason. Oops.

New Carpet

In the midst of the craziness of april, we got new carpet. We had a slight toilet issue last month-  nothing big, just gushing sewage onto some of our carpet. But I forgot to post some pics of our fresh new carpet!

Old carpet, empty room.

Okay, so maybe I'll elaborate on the story. Toilet practically explodes one Friday night, we spend the night in a hotel. The next day the plumber fixes it, but the carpet is still really gross, so we rip up the soaked parts. New carpet is needed. After a week of shopping, we order carpet. A few weeks later inlaws get into town. The second day of their visit I get a call that says we can either have the new carpet installed in the next hour, or we can wait 10 days for another appointment.

Cut to 30 mintuets later and we have the above and below pics.

My inlaws are so cool and literally jumped into action and helped me move all the furniture into the other room within minutes. Which was good, because the carpet guys called a few minutes later.

This is our new carpet!!

We went with Home Depot, Platinum Plus Collection, Sandy-Beach. I think it does look like a sandy beach. How soothing. It is so soft and plush to lay on, and it doesn't show dirty puppy feet!

I think it looks pretty good all put together again.