in the garden lately...

Food, flowers, and really cute kiddos -we're growing good things over here!

sisters

My sweet girls. I love watching them together, listening to their make believe games, sneaking up to their bedroom door at night to hear whispered conversations and giggles...best friends and two peas in a pod, yet different as night and day.

I hope they don't have to live thousands of miles apart when they are grown and raising their own children, because that's just no fun at all. We should be making a birthday cake mess in Christie's kitchen today while cousins run wild in the same backyard.

Someday?

{Happy birthday, Christie and Thaddeus!}

cool points

This guy has really been racking them up lately. Mind if I point out just a few of the ways?

1. He obliged the middle child and took off her training wheels and had her riding like a pro within minutes -no bumps or bruises here.

2. He plays with them at the beach.

3. He planned a whole father-son camping weekend in the Georgia mountains, and when the weather threatened to ruin it, he flexed and turned it into a canoeing weekend on a Florida river.

4. He built us a beautiful new bed (while Kate cheered him on) and

5. This awesome storage shelf for the girls (because girls collect a lot of little things, don't they?)

6. He does a lot of the cooking lately since it's too hot for this prego to turn on the oven or stand over the grill. (And when this prego can't even get as far as thawing meat or chopping veggies he's been known to leave her on the couch with a book and take the kids out for frozen yogurt! ha!)

7. His kids get to say "my dad's a pilot!" And they think that's really cool (because it is.)

So I know Father's Day was last week and this would have been an appropriate post in all that blank space of early June but whatever (I'm a very pregnant blogger.) It's true today too. It's true all the time that he's a super dad and a really good husband. It's also true that I don't tell him so enough.

Not. One. Bit.

So- Shawn, you're amazing. I mean it. I thank God for you and every single one of our thirteen years together, good days and bad. Thank you for being you and thank you for putting up with me.

We love you everyday.

ahh summer.

snapshot

"That's a cute picture." I think to myself.
"Hey kids, look here and smile!" I say.

"No, look HERE!"

"Seriously, just smile for me real quick please!"

"TRISTAN. SMILE. KATE. OVER HERE."

"OHMYWORDAREYOUKIDDINGME?!?!
JUST SMILE LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!!"

"Forget it."

Two minutes later...
"Mama, take my picture!" she says.