Updates and Confessions

We are having a great time on vacation! There are few things in life that I enjoy more than a nice relaxing week at the beach. Our weather has been perfect up until right now, but thunderstorms at the beach (especially in the evening) don't bother me one bit. Plus, this gives me a chance to share some quick updates.

First of all, thanks to Lauren from Little Guess Family, I have a super cute new button for our blog!  Thank you, Lauren!

Secondly, I am following Kari+Nathan, a new-to-me blog that is everything a good blog should be: honest, funny, sweet, sincere... and best of all, the author doesn't take herself too seriously. Check it out!

Lastly, I'm a few months in to this whole blogging world, and have learned some things about myself. One, I get a little too excited about new comments, and two, I may or may not do a little jig when I gain new followers. Yep. So there it is. I'm going to justify (a.k.a. make myself feel better) both of these truths with the fact that one of my love languages is words of affirmation. :)

SO, if you are a regular reader and would like to make yourself un-anonymous, click "follow" on the right hand side. I promise I'll do a jig when I see your little face show up on the screen. :)

OR, if you're not all about that, but still want to know when the blog is updated, you can add your email to the "Follow by email" section. I don't have a way of seeing who does this, so you're still anonymous :), but you'll receive an email whenever there's a new post.

Have a great rest of the week!!

DIY-paint

Any time we go out of town or on vacation, I feel this overwhelming urge to get the house really clean. Which, is not unlike most other days, except that it gets a little extreme if I know we're going to be gone for more than a few days. For example, as I was vacuuming today, I found myself using the hose of the vacuum to clean the dust off of the vacuum. WOW. In the words of Kate Winslet from The Holiday, "Low moment. LOW moment."

So after a good vacuuming, mopping, dusting, and wiping, I moved to the front of the house to paint the steps. Why? Because we started this project on one of our first yard days and "trimmed" the steps, if you will, but never actually finished the top. And all along I've felt like they look dirty. So what better time to "clean" them than the day before we leave for a week's vacation?!

Before

After

Much better, don't you think?! ...and look how full my Clemson plant is!

And then, since the paint can was opened and the brush already dirty, I moved to the back of the house to a view that has been bugging me since we moved in. It just needed a fresh look. Sooo, I got to work.

Before

Ewww...

After

 Yay! So much better!

Next up, repainting the door and trim. I'll have to tackle that after we get back. I'm thinking black door and white trim, but I'm open to suggestions.

Tomorrow we leave for Charleston with Matt's parents! His sister and brother-in-law are going to join us later in the week. 

I'll leave you with a picture from 2003 when we went on our very first trip to Charleston with Matt's parents during high school spring break.

 I'm wearing his basketball sweatshirt because it was oddly cold all week, and probably because I thought it was cool- such fun memories. :)

Noah's 6th Birthday

Noah turned 6 on Monday. I can hardly believe it. He is so big! We celebrated with a family dinner at my sister's house that night. 

 My dad sent him this backpack super soaker. It was a big hit!

If you can't hear the end, Maddox is trying to pull down his pants and tells Noah to shoot his "piney". :)

Maddox giving Noah his gift 

Sweet brothers :)

Matt's here!

Maddox loves his snuggle time with Uncle Matt

...Climbing is always fun too :)

Us with the birthday boy!

Sweet family pic

One of the books we got him

Noah reading about his gift from Nonna and Papa- a White Water Season Pass!

He was very excited about it- so sweet :)

Happy birthday sweet boy!

Introducing Emerson Grae

Emerson Grae Hostetler was born on Saturday, June 18th. She is the most beautiful, precious little baby! Here she makes her debut. You can bet that this will be the first of many posts about her. :)

The night before her big debut!

Her birthday morning :)

Here she is!

6lbs, 11oz, 19.5in long

Little snuggly peanut :)

Her first outfit!

Charleston

This past weekend, I got to go up to Charleston with my fam for a fun-filled weekend that was split between time on the sailboat, time in the hospital with Meagan, Chris, and their new little angel, Emerson (those pictures to come!), and time at my step-brother's new house that he and his wife just completely renovated. It was the best kind of busy I could ask for. :)

Nonna, Papa, Jeremy, and the boys

Me and Maddox :)

 Look at his wide-open mouth- so cute! Maddox called these "spelecopes". :)

A few minutes after we got on the boat, Maddox noticed the boat was floating and thought that he had made it float by pressing some buttons by the steering wheel. This video is so stinking cute. :) He's talking to Nonna (my mom), and at the end he points to a buoy to ask what is- I cut off the video right before he asked, "Dis boat have a booty?"

My step-brother, Brian

Me and Noah helping out with one of the jobs

Noah hoping to lose his first wiggly tooth on the boat!

Me and my sis :)

Papa let Noah steer for a lot of the day- he loved it!

Eating at Hyman's downtown

Happy Father's Day!

This is Brian and Jennifer's new house that they completely renovated. It is SO cute! They have a great blog with details of the whole renovation. Check it out!