Summer Is Here!

Summer has finally arrived and is in full swing at our house! We are enjoying many a summer activity and are looking forward to many more fun filled weeks ahead of us!

What's summer without weekly BBQs?! Lola tried her first corn-on-the-cob the other day. And very much enjoyed it!

After that she ate (devoured) her first s'more! S'mores always make me think of the classic summer movie The Sandlot :)

Playing at the park

Being outdoors everyday means a few extra owies are sure to happen... Lola likes to be extra prepared and have band-aids already on (therefore protecting) all the places where she normally gets her owies. Knees... Check. Toes... Check :)

Sporting her super-stylish pink shades. I love her new smile she does for the camera. If you know Lola then you know that she has never been one to smile on demand. Ive spent the last year and half pleading with her to smile with her teethies and looking the fool trying to 'show' her how. And even though the really great smiles are still few in between, I'm more than thrilled that she'll even sometimes do it for me and will happily take what I can get!

There's been a few times during these last few weeks where Ive gone to see what Lola was up to and found her happily reading books to herself. She's quite the adorable little reader when she's sitting there relaxed with a pillow (or on the potty) and jabbering away to herself :)

Yesterday was hot so we turned on the sprinklers. I thought for sure Lola wouldn't be much interested in them but to my surprise, she loved them and ran through them for a good 30 minutes with the other kids!

Lola watching Brooklyn fill up her water gun. I love the hands on the knees. Too cute!

More swinging. This girl LOVES swings. Its the first thing she asks to do when she wakes up and every other minute in between (when she's not on one :)

"Look Momma! No hands!"

Hope you're all having terrific summers so far! More summer posts (than you probably care to view) to come!

Face Painting Fun

We ventured over to a family fun day at a local park last week. The girls were excited to find that they had bounce houses, games, crafts, wagon rides, balloons and face painting. And I was excited to find it was all free :) The girls had a great time and even though I had left my camera at home I was able to get these few cute pics of their faces done up with my phone.

Brooklyn chose to have her face painted as a cat. She is such an animal lover. And a very cute girl :)

Lola got a butterfly. I was very surprised that she let the woman paint her face. She didn't even protest or flinch during! It might have helped that she watched Sissy get it done first with no problem :)

Look who finally learned to smile when I say 'cheese' with the camera?! Even though its very select on her part its still a huge Hooray for me!

Daddy's Day

Luke had a great Fathers Day. We took him to his favorite restaurant for brunch, hung out at home and played with the girls (it was cold and rainy outside), the girls gave him their presents and then we finished the evening with one of his favorite dinners and desserts- Feijoada (a Brazilian dish) and Key Lime pie. I love how easy to please Luke is- as long as we're all together (and make sure to spoil him just a little) he thinks its the greatest day ever :)

Daddy and Brooklyn at brunch

Poor Lola woke up with a bad cold and tried so hard to be a good sport and enjoy the day with her Daddy. By presents time she was completely wiped out and then took a 3 1/2 hour nap- which meant we all got to take a nap- and who doesn't love Sunday afternoon naps?!

Happy Fathers Day Daddy! We hope your day was all that you wanted and more! We love you and are so lucky to have you for our Daddy! Thank you for being so loving, kind, and patient and for all the many things you do to keep us girls happy :)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

My Mother's Day gift from Luke is almost finished. We've talked about planting a little garden one day and while I was out in Denver helping my mom, Luke was home (secretly) building me a raised fruit and vegetable garden. Isn't he a dear? But it really was sweet of him to remember that I had wanted/talked about doing one and then taking the initiative and time to build me one. So far we've planted tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, carrots, squash, green onions and some herbs- rosemary, basil and oregano. I'm so excited for them to harvest and to make yummy things with my garden's produce. Thank you Babe, its awesome and I love it!

RaNdOmS

Lola's getting so big! It makes me sad and excited at the same time... Where have these last 2 years gone?!

Lola thought it was pretty cool that I let her drive around the parking lot while Dad was in the store. Brooklyn helped by manning the pedals :)

This is Lola's using-all-her-strength face (trying to get her baby's leg unstuck from the handles). You should definitely blow it up for a closer look. It will make you smile :)

Our little Popsicle addict. She loves to sneak into the freezer, climb the icy shelves, grab 2-5 and then make a run for it either to my closet where she hides or she slides down the stairs and hides by the side of the couch. We had a child lock on the freezer door for a while but she broke it off during one of her heists to get more Popsicles!

Everybody Wants To Be A Cat

(According to the movie Aristocats)

But seriously, cats have it pretty awesome- sleep all day, play all night, lounge here, eat there, wander some, eat some more and then spend the evening cuddling :) We have loved having Betty Winter in our family. She is the best little kitty. She is so easy going and puts up with A LOT from all the kids (ours plus the neighbor's plus random neighborhood kids that stop by asking to play with the kitty). She always wants to be around people and follows us around the house like a little puppy dog. And she's a great cuddler- she'll sit on our laps anytime we'll let her and just hang out and/or nap. She's very sweet. We just started letting her outside and she loves it- she never goes far and then comes and sits by the door when she's ready to come back in. We thought we'd make her an outdoor cat when we first bought her but we love having her around the house so now I'm not so sure. I need to decide soon though as she needs to be declawed if we're going to keep her indoors- our leather couch is not claw-friendly :( We do love her though and are still very glad we brought her home.

A few pics of our new kitty over the last 2 months (as you can see, I must think she's looking her cutest when she's sleeping):

Snoozing in the laundry baskets is (was) one of her favs. I've since had to put them in another room- it just doesn't seem right to let her lounge on our laundry, even if it is already dirty and about to be washed, you never know how much your washer really washes cat hair off. But still its a cute pic :)

Hanging out in Lola's big girl potty. Again, another thing I have to keep her away from as I don't want poor Lolie sitting on any cat hair in the event she decides to use said potty someday :)
Betty's newest favorite spot- Lola's old baby bumbo seat. She loves to curl up inside of it and take her little cat-naps in it.

4 Year Anniversary

June 01, 2007

Fast forward 4 years (and a few pounds, jobs, houses, trips, tears, pets, holidays, laughs, fights, 2 beautiful children, and half a million great memories later)- June 01, 2011

We had a great 4 year anniversary! Lucas gave me beautiful roses and (we gave each other) tickets to see Journey in concert this summer! I can't tell you how excited I am- I have been a fan of Journey (and many other great classic rock bands- The Cars, Queen, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, REO... to name a few) for as long as I can remember- thanks to growing up with parents who grew up during that era :) So yeah, its going to be awesome to go see them and I cant wait! For dinner, Luke took me to a new restaurant, F'uz, which was very yummy and then we took our desserts home to share while we vegged on the couch in our sweats :) Thank you Luke for an awesome day and evening out and for still loving me after knowing, living with (and dealing with) me these last 4 (actually 5 1/2) years. You're the best and I love you more today than ever!!