Water Fun

Summer is finally here so we have spent lots of time playing in the back yard. I even planted some vegetables although something has already eaten all of my strawberry plants (any hints on growing veggies and keeping critters away are welcome)

Here are some pics of Dad and Aiden having some water fun.

New York Trip

As many of you know Team Shelle took on The Big Apple last week. We had a great trip, saw tons of cool stuff, caught up with some old friends, and came home exhausted :) The most amazing part of the trip ... A 12 hour car ride each way with only about 30 minutes of crying total!!! What an AWESOME kiddo !!

Our hotel was 2 blocks from Times Square.

Day 1 we went to the Bronx zoo. It was really cool but SO big that we couldn't see all of it. Aiden is very into animals right now so he had a really good time.

"I totally LOVE fish right now, so even though this was the Tiger exhibit I liked the fish best"

Right before we got yelled at for walking on the grass :0

Aiden spent a lot of time putting wood chips into this puddle - maybe next time we will skip the zoo and just find a puddle and some wood chips.

End of Day 1 (you will notice a trend here)

Day 2 we went to the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and then met up with some friends for dessert and coffee. Here are Aiden and Papa riding the ferry to Liberty Island

Mom trying to pose for a pic but Aiden would not be contained.

Dad giving the pretty lady a kiss

End of day 2 - hmmmm looks a lot like the end of day 1

Day 3 Pam, Aiden, and I got up early and went to see the Today show. It was pretty cool to see how the filming went and if you watched very carefully you can see us on TV :)

" I didn't really understand why mom wanted to stand around and watch people talking to a camera so I just pushed my stroller around the back of the set"

After the Today Show Aaron and John met up with us and we went to the top of the Rockefeller Center - amazing views!!

End of day 3 ... looks familiar



Day 4 - we went to the New York Aquarium. It was not as cool as I had hoped but Aiden seemed to like it. Somehow I didn't take any pictures of day 4 but don't worry , the end of the day looked just about like all the others :)

AIDEN'S HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP
We were walking back to our hotel one day and who should be standing on the street but a giant Elmo (Aiden's most favorite). When Aaron put Aiden in Elmo's arms I thought that he would start crying but he just looked up at him and said "Melmo" with look of total love in his eyes.

And the next Shelle is .....

A BOY!!!

Ultrasound and belly pictures to follow...

1st Tailgate

Last weekend was the Green and White game for the MSU football team. We decided that it would be fun to tailgate with Aunt Jen & Uncle Tom. Tailgating was fun but unfortunately we got hit by a HUGE rain storm before the game so we didn't get to see any football.

Aiden's favorite activity - pushing the grill around the parking lot (don't worry it was before we put any charcoal in it.)

Summer Fun

Mmmm sidewalk chalk
"I thought that it was way more fun to color on my legs then on the ground !!"

"Hello Mr Ant - you don't mind if I try to pick you up do you??"

Yikes - look at that beer belly

Ready for the golf course

Spring Days

It was finally nice enough to get out of the house and go up to the park. The swings are still probably Aiden's favorite but he has also discovered the fun of the slide.

Enjoying my lollypop from the Easter egg hunt at the capital.

"I actually didn't get any eggs on my own because there we sooooo many people and I didn't move quick enough but a nice little girl gave me one of her eggs when she saw I didn't get any."

Rockin' my shades

Kitchen Remodel

After 6 years of living with gold fleck counter tops Aaron and I finally decided it was time to replace them. Luckily our friend Jeff does counter tops and said that he would cut us a deal on some new ones. New counters would have been enough for me but thanks to the creative thinking of my husband/in-laws/friends we are pretty much doing a complete kitchen over hall. It is still a work in progress but I am SO HAPPY with it already!!!

Here are a few pics of the work so far - I will keep posting as the progress continues :)

The biggest improvement on this side of the kitchen is that we installed our dishwasher (it was a portable that lived in the dining room). We took out the cupboard next to the sink to put the dishwasher in. We also removed the gold fleck back splash and when the new counters come it will be redone. We are also going to hang a nice pendant light above the sink but still need to run the electrical for that.

This is the other side of the kitchen where we moved the cupboard that we took out for the dishwasher. We took out another cupboard on the other side of the fridge to make room for this one. It is awesome because it really increases the counter space. We are going to hang another cupboard in the empty space but it needs to be altered a bit first.

You can also see my new stove in this pic. It is so nice to finally have a working oven - it has been about 1 1/2 years since I have had a working oven and I forgot how much I really do use the oven!!

The other main thing that we did in the kitchen is remove the old drop ceiling. You can see from the paint how much taller the ceiling is now. We still have to make some repairs to the ceiling and then repaint everything but the extra height makes the room seem so much bigger.

We still have a lot of work to do but thanks to my AWESOME work crew (you gotta love workers who work for beer and wings) we got TONS done yesterday and the kitchen is back to a functional state for the week ahead :)