Our Beautiful Backyard

Well as many of you know the big joke at our house has been our backyard for a long time. We moved into this house December of 2003 and we are just now getting to the backyard. It has been a long time coming and well worth the wait!

I am so proud of Jake (and the help of others too (Zach))for the wonderful job he has done on the yard. He has hired some of it out but has done so much on his own too. He has had a very tight schedule and planned everything out very carefully to make sure it is exactly as he had pictured it to be.

We showed pictures a few weeks ago when they were installing the sprinklers and our shop has been built for over a year (although Jake still has a list to complete on that as well) But within the last week has been the most progress....and even since there has been some more. This week on Wednesday we had curbing installed in the back and we replaced a lot of it out front too.

Jake even put our names in the curbing out back. It reads "2010 Jake Colette & Waylon Toni" We have one in the front when we added the concrete out there that just has Jake and I name and date...it is cool to see how we have grown to a full family now!

Then later in the week on Friday there was a crane here to move our spa out to the concrete pad out in the yard. I missed those pictures because I had work that morning! But many of the neighbors have commented on the flying spa that day. Then later that morning manure was delivered to put on the ground before we laid the sod. About 1 PM Rock was delivered too. Then finally about 10:15 that night the sod came in and was delivered. (I did not know but sod is delivered only at night, because it dries out so fast if delivered in the day)

The next day was busy....Rock and sod were all placed and Jake cleaned up just in time to enjoy it for a while before we had a family BBQ that night. I know how crazy are we...but we have hings to celebrate, it was my brother in laws birthday.

Here are some of the final shots.

We have a little more work done even since these picture but I will wait until we get even more done to post again. Jake's goal is to have most done by July 4th. I think it looks amazing now! I can not wait until Waylon can play on the grass and play out in next week. There will definitely be more pictures about that. No playing in a water cooler this year Waylon.... he he :-)

I am so proud of you Honey, it looks beautiful!

Waylon is Potty Trained!

How cute is this picture! At the beginning of the month we actively started to potty train. I have been ready for a while, but was just waiting for those signs from Waylon. All I have to really say about this whole potty training experience is it is completely true (and so much easier) when THEY are ready to do it!

We stayed home one day and just hung out in our big boy underwear, and had an easy reward system. I had first started with the sticker chart and praise stuff, but my child was not really into that. Then one day a kiddo at school gave me a container with M & M's and Hershey kisses in it for Teacher Appreciation Week, and an IDEA came to mind. Waylon fell for it hard and we have done wonderful ever since.

I had told him that every time he went potty in the big boy potty he got 2 M&M's and then when he went Poopies he got a Hershey kiss. That day he did both! He was so excited and so proud of himself that there really has been no turning back since then.

It has only been about 2 1/2 weeks and I am comfortable in saying he is potty trained! He still wears a Pull Up at night, but that is my own selfishness. I do not want to get up in the middle of the night to change sheets yet. We will try that when I am already getting up in a few more weeks with Baby Toni. I am not worried though, he makes it dry almost every morning and makes it through naps dry too.

Waylon even got his special ice cream from Gammie, a matchbox Truck from Grandma, and more ice cream from Papa and Grandma. I mean with Yummy Rewards like that who wouldn't be potty trained right?

I am so proud of my little guy. Going out has not been a problem either. He goes just fine in a public place and it makes it so much easier because he stands too. Thanks to watching his cousin a few weeks ago he instantly wanted to go like Gavin! So that was another real easy transition.

Mommy is so proud of her little man! Way to go Baby!

Another thing he did earlier this month was his first haircut all by himself! He is just becoming such a big kid!

Toni's Room

Toni, is on her way....Still have about 6 weeks to go, but I am feeling great knowing that her room is ready for her. This week, with school wrapping up I have been able to focus on completing her room. The pictures really do not do the room justice but it looks amazing! Toni's theme is flip flops...as is the blog for now. Why? Jake was the one who chose Waylon's theme of planes and so I was able to choose Toni's..With her being born in the summer and our love for the islands and tropical things...I figured how great it would be to just do a tropical themed nursery. It worked out well too...because all the sales went on and we were able to get some cute things cheap which I was very excited about...some items are not all up yet, because we will use them for the shower in a few weeks too.

I have many parts of her room that are my favorite..but the most special is her bed. Grandma D (Jake's grandmother) helped me pick some fabric and made her bumper and skirt from Waylon's old ones. They turned out awesome and I am so thrilled with how it turned out. Bright and colorful...with not too much of that girl Pink everywhere...just enough!!! Plus I found the rug at Kohls on clearance for $5 super cute!

Below is a lamp that I put together for her. I used Wood cut outs and some fringe type stuff I had to make it. I just bought the lamp at Target...What great mood lighting it has a night..very calming.. (I hope!) Then above her window this is an item I got on sale at a party store. I took off the lettering and replaced it with some flip flop cut outs (thank you Brandy) to add the finishing touches on it. So cute! Waylon and I also made the little picture to the right, with more flip flops, a poster and some more wood cut outs glued to a canvas.The last part I adore in her room is the wall with her Name on it...I just love the way it came out. I took more of the wood flowers and stuck them on the wall to help pop her name out. The letters I got from JoAnn's and are just the right size and a great font.

Can you tell I love her room! We are so excited to show her and Waylon was just such a great big brother last week Helping Mommy work on it and put everything up and together. As soon as Daddy came home he told him that we had worked on Toni's room today. I know this room will only be half as special as she is, and I can not wait for everyone to see it...Because like I said, the pictures do not give it the full effect.

Summer is Almost here!

Well there is less than a week left of school and can I just say.....

"I CAN'T WAIT!!!" I am so excited to spend all this time with Waylon, Jake and soon Toni. My life will soon be heaven and I can not wait.

I thought I was pretty behind on blogging, but the truth is I have a lot of events that have started that are not yet complete yet, so it is not fair to completely blog about them yet.

Here are some events to look for soon....

1) The backyard is still a work in progress and with in the next two weeks another blog will be posted on its progress and near completion.

2) Toni's room, is oh so close to being done. I have just a couple more touches to do and then will post about it.

3) Waylon turning 3!!! That is almost 2 weeks away too.

One event I can blog about though is our Last Baby Moon~aka small trip of just US.
Jake and I

A few weeks ago Jake and I took a short but wonderful night away at the Hilton in Sedona. We went out for a really nice dinner together, slept in until 11AM and then I got my toes done with a 90 minute pedicure. AWESOME! I even got a cute toe ring with this pedicure...My poor toes and feet are starting to swell more...the joys of knowing that we are almost done with this pregnancy is great.It is so nice to spend time with Jake, it just makes me realize how much I do miss him. He has been very busy lately, working out of town and finishing up his out of town rotation and then coming home and working for our buisness. (which has picked up a bit with tax return checks coming in) Oh then there are the projects around the house too, like the backyard, he has been working on for several weeks. The man never stops and works so hard for us. He will be in town soon and is taking some time off once Toni gets here, which I am SO excited for...

Well more blogs are in the works and I promise I will not be as far behind...well until Ms. Toni gets here...then the world is hers for a little while...